Extinguishing the sun

Berlin, Germany, the Supreme Command of the Three Armies of the Reich.

Japan, Australia and New Zealand have declared war on each other, and what Germany wants to play is obviously a role that seems to stay out of the way and secretly make some small moves, whether it is a general or a politician, everyone hopes that Japan and Australia will fight as long as possible, so that Germany can not only buy a lot of arms, but also let its biggest potential competitor spend more energy in Oceania.

To this end, the Supreme High Command has set up a new observation room for the situation in Oceania, which is nothing more than gathering some senior staff officers and intelligence officers, and then marking the battle situation there in the form of a sand table, and updating the latest developments in real time, so as to provide reference for decision-makers. Although the popularity here is very strong, it is far less than the observation room of the situation in Eastern Europe next door, called the observation room, but at this time everyone knows that Germany is about to make a big move to the east, and this large room will also become the decision-making place of "Barbarossa".

When little Andres went to the Royal Army Academy and little Sasha began to travel around Europe, the palace obviously didn't have much attraction for Chentian, so just after breakfast that day, he came to the high command on the banks of the River Spree in Berlin. In normal times, the ministers of the army, navy, and air force usually come here once every two or three days, and the chiefs of the general staff basically come here every day; in recent times, this law seems to have lost its effectiveness, and the commanders and commanders of the army, navy, and air force, as long as they do not go out to inspect the troops and guide the exercises, will stay here for a period of time every day.

At present, the leadership of the German Navy is still headed by the "Four Generalissimos", and the Navy has continued to develop and improve over time, but the meritorious ones are aging day by day. Feng. Pol, 64-year-old Reinhardt. Scher, 64-year-old Hipper, and 65-year-old Prince of Prussia and Admiral Albert. William. Heinrich, the Kaiser's father.

These people are basically approaching the age of retirement, and similarly, a period of rising and miraculous naval age is coming to an end, and a new era of vitality will be expected.

As for the War Department. After the end of the war in North America, a major personnel reshuffle was carried out, and generals born before 1850 voluntarily applied to step down, including former Secretary of War Carl Von. Bülow, former Chief of Army Staff Paul, von Bill. Hindenburg, former commander of the Polish Cluster and Governor of Poland August von Hindenburg. Mackensen, Field Marshal Alexander. Heinrich. Rudolph. Kluke, the Kaiser's direct general, led his army to a series of brilliant victories in the United States and Canada. Admiral Kahn was the new Minister of War, and the Chief of the General Staff was Erich Ludendorff, who was born in 1865. Hoffmann became First Quartermaster General, and Marshal François, who was nearing retirement age, became Commander-in-Chief of the French garrison and Governor-General of France. And in the lower combat units, outstanding officers born after 1870 and even after 1880 began to take on major responsibilities. Guderian, who distinguished himself in the war, was promoted to commander of the German Panzer Group, Rommel succeeded him as the Panzer Corps of the Royal Combat Army, Manstein, who had distinguished himself in the Canadian theater, became the technical director of the German Panzer Corps. Ron Steide went to the 3rd Army as commander, and the focus was also on 46-year-old Army Colonel von Anderson. Kleist, von. Loeb and a group of capable middle-level commanders.

In terms of the Air Force, after the German-American War and the battlefield tempering in Canada, there have been a number of outstanding wing commanders in their early 40s like Catherine and Speerer in the command level. Imelman, von. Richthofen, Oswald, Ernst. Super ace pilots such as Udet and a large number of ace pilots, the 61-year-old Zeckert still holds the post of Minister of the Air Force, and the Chief of the Air Staff is his deputy, Brigadier General Walter Weaver. Organizational talent for Erhard. Colonel Milch served as First Quartermaster of the Air Department.

Sunny weather in spring always gives a good mood. As soon as Chen Tian got out of the car, he saw the marshals of the navy talking enthusiastically at the entrance of the command department, and there were several commanders and chiefs of staff of the detachment standing behind them. Look at this posture the Admiralty seems to have some important memories today. Chen Tian recalled in his mind, but he couldn't remember what big moves the Admiralty had reported in the past few days, and with this big question, Chen Tian walked up and shook hands with the marshals one by one.

"I wonder what a good day it is, and my marshals have gathered here in high spirits early in the morning?"

"Oh, Your Majesty, we guessed you would be here today! No, we're all here waiting for you! Marshal Boll said with a pleasant face, "You see, it has been almost 100 years since Prussia established its navy. We're ready for a big centennial celebration! ”

"Oh, I see!" Chen Tian suddenly realized that the Kingdom of Prussia did not have a navy at the beginning, and it was not until the beginning of the 19th century that it began to plan to establish a navy and establish a military port in the North Sea in 1833.

"Although the real centenary celebration should have been held in 1933, we thought we could have a big celebratory exercise in advance. And justifiably redeploy the main forces of the navy, so as to prepare for the next operation! What does Your Majesty think? ”

"Well, let's go in and talk about it in detail!"

Before walking into the headquarters, Chen Tian's eyes searched the crowd, and sure enough, he saw Vice Admiral Raeder and Vice Admiral Dönitz, one of them is now the deputy chief of staff of the German Navy Staff, and the other is the supreme commander of the German submarine forces, just seeing Raeder's white hair, Chen Tian has a feeling that the years are not forgiving, the 36-year-old Dönitz can still be called young, but Raeder, who was born in 1876, just celebrated his 50th birthday last year!

In another world, although the two were the main commanders of the German Navy, they did not play a significant role in the Barbarossa Plan, or the strength of the German Navy at that time limited them to make a difference in the Baltic Sea and the Gulf of Finland. This time, the times are different, the strength is different, the German Navy will make the Baltic Sea its own pure inland sea, in addition to the Baltic Sea, the German Navy is also capable of fighting in the Black Sea, the Barents Sea, the Pacific Ocean and the Bering Sea, in order to achieve the goal of a complete blockade of Russia from the sea.

For this reason, this time even the Admiral Maximilian, who is stationed in the Far East. Feng. Admiral Spee and the Pacific Fleet elsewhere will also be recalled to the Far East when they return to the Far East. The fleet will be refreshed from head to toe, and most of the new warships ready to replace the old ones are now in the final stages of assembly and sea trials.

"Your Majesty, marshals and generals, I think it is best to hold the exercise in September or October, so that the fleets will have enough time to prepare and return to their homeland, and they will be able to return to their respective stations by next spring!"

The first to speak was still the Minister of the Navy, Von F. Marshal Pol, who is ready to retire after the end of Barbarossa this time, so this will be the last performance of his military career. After this. The position of Admiral Chancellor will be given to the young generals, and the decision to retire after Barbarossa will be made by Field Marshal Schell and Prince Heinrich, who have been in poor health recently.

Chen Tian thought for a few seconds, "The time for the capital ships of each fleet to be overhauled and refitted is not quite the same, this is something to be taken into account!" ”

"What Your Majesty said is very true!" Pol nodded, "Judging from the current situation, the main ships of the Pacific Fleet commanded by Admiral Spee are the oldest, and according to the current standards of the Navy, half of them need to be replaced with new ships, and the other half need to undergo technical overhauls!" It is estimated to take 4 to 6 months, and they are the furthest they can travel! ”

"You can get them back home early. From July or August, new ships and major refits. So that by March next year, a brand new fleet will be ready to leave for the Far East! Prince Heinrich spoke slowly, 65 years old is not too old for an admiral. The 78-year-old Tirpitz still visits regularly, but the Prussian prince's health seems to be in trouble, he has been coughing badly since the end of the German-American naval war, and is now preparing to hand over command of the combined aircraft carrier group to Raeder, the deputy chief of staff of the Navy.

"His Royal Highness is right, the Mediterranean Fleet and the Atlantic Fleet can return home a little later, after all, they are all new ships! However, I am quite worried about one point, that is, after our Pacific Fleet is replaced with new ships and refits, its combat effectiveness is bound to be greatly enhanced, and I am afraid that this will arouse Japan's vigilance and hostility. "It was Reinhardt who spoke. Field Marshal Scheer. The current commander-in-chief of the naval fleets, one of the regulars on the sickbed, is likely to retire early.

"This kind of vigilance and hostility has been going on for a long time, just as they attacked Australia and we secretly funded and armed the Australians, and they will certainly cause us a little bit of trouble when we attack Russia. As long as the war in Oceania can be maintained until the end of the year, they will certainly not have time to take care of our operation! ”

At this point, Pol saw it very clearly.

"That's a good point, I only have one thing to add!" Chen Tian said seriously, "It was my 45th birthday after the drill!" ”

Everyone was stunned at first. Then they all had fun.

After the meeting, Chen Tian left Lieutenant General Dönitz alone.

"This time the Barbarossa Navy is mainly a surface operation, and you will send the best combat submarine groups in the submarine force, about 300 groups, to Königsberg, Glasgo, Tunisia, Pula and Mexico in the autumn to receive new submarines. In addition, when the Speese fleet returns to the Far East next year, half of these 300 groups will go with them and set up a new submarine base in Jiaozhou Bay, understand? ”

Dönitz pondered for a moment, "Your Majesty means to deploy our submarine forces in the Far East and the Pacific region?" ”

"That's right! An island nation with few resources is most afraid of being isolated, after your submarine force arrives there, try to familiarize yourself with the environment of the entire area with the cooperation of the aviation unit, once the situation changes, you will be a sharp dagger to cut the enemy's arteries! ”

Both Chentian and Dönitz knew that even with the support of Germany, it would be difficult for Australia to resist Japan's attack for a long time, and when the Japanese cleaned up their doorstep, the ambition to dominate the world would soon be put into action, and the confrontation between Japan and Germany or even war was only a matter of time, and whether it was a confrontation period or a war period, the German submarines deployed in the Far East would be the force that the Japanese were afraid of in their hearts.

"With the mine-laying submarine force, the naval base in Jiaozhou Bay will accommodate more than 200 submarines at most, and to be honest, I am a little worried that the Japanese will besiege and destroy our base from the air, land, and sea at all costs!" Dönitz bluntly expressed his concerns, after all, Japan is currently the world's leading military power, and the ratio of total naval tonnage to the German navy is 3 to 4, and geographical factors will basically offset this small gap.

"I also took this into account, but after the Aleutian Islands, the Philippine Islands, and the Hawaiian Islands were forcibly occupied by the Japanese army, except for Qingdao, we had to get forward bases from the Russians as much as possible! That's one of the main reasons why we started Operation Barbarossa first! Chen Tian said seriously, "Our Barbarossa! ”

While the Navy was in full swing of preparations, the German Army and Air Force were also actively perfecting their own preparations. From May 1927, 105 African colonial divisions began to be reorganized in Germany, of which 8 divisions will become the first batch of armored divisions equipped with standard equipment in the German colonial army, 17 divisions will be transferred from combat infantry to specialized engineering units responsible for building bridges and roads, 30 divisions will be specially trained on how to defend logistics and transportation lines, and in winter, these more than 1 million African soldiers will also undergo special cold training in the Alps.

In terms of the air force, the Dornier II long-range bomber that played a major role in the German-American war has been recognized, the Dornier III, which has a longer range and a larger bomb load, has been successfully developed and began to equip the first-line bomber unit, plus the second-line bomber force composed of paid reservists, Germany will have 3,500 Dornier II, 1,500 Dornier III and a large number of reserve pilots by 1930.

In addition, the 1st Airborne Corps and the 2nd Airborne Corps, which were subordinate to the Air Force, were established in the summer and autumn of 1927, respectively, and successively conducted several large-scale exercises in France and western Germany.

Germany's series of military preparations soon unnerved the Russians, who sent envoys plenipotentiary to Japan to try to conclude an offensive and defensive alliance, while still trying to reconcile with Germany. When the German Centennial Naval Celebration opened, Empress Diana I personally went to Germany to participate in the celebration.