On August 20, 1938, German Foreign Minister Ribbentrop signed the Socialist Axis Pact in Moscow with Soviet People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs Molotov, marking the formal alliance between the Soviet Union and Germany, which caused an uproar in Europe.

Not only did Britain, France, and Poland go toe-to-toe, providing each other with security guarantees, promising to fight in the event of an attack on the other two. Even Italy, which was still fighting with Spain and Germany, issued a declaration opposing the Soviet-German alliance. It was very much necessary to join the "Anglo-French-Polish Alliance" to oppose Germany.

In the face of the Soviet and German threats, the Polish army frequently held reviews and exercises, showing a dazzling and sophisticated weapon in front of the eyes of the world.

Among them are Poland's own 7TP tanks, Wz29 armored vehicles, TKS ultralight tanks, as well as R-35 tanks purchased from France, M39 armored vehicles purchased from the Netherlands, and Vickers tanks purchased from the United Kingdom. Hundreds, forming phalanxes, passed before the eyes of the Polish leaders and guests from all over the world!

There were also pleasant surprises in the sky, not only the old PWS-10 fighters, P.7 fighters, and P.11 fighters, but also the PZL.23B light bombers, PZL.37 bombers, and PZL.43 light bombers. The strength of the Polish Air Force does not seem to be much worse than that of the Germans and the Soviets.

And while demonstrating the strength of his army and air force, the Polish military inspector, Field Marshal Rez-Himigvi, did not forget the Polish navy. In December 1938, the construction of the battle cruiser "Vistula" was carried out on a high note - as part of an ambitious plan for the expansion of the Polish Navy!

During Pilsudski's lifetime, Poland, which felt that its national strength was abundant, began to formulate its own "big navy" plan, preparing to invest in the construction of four battle cruisers, two light aircraft carriers, several reconnaissance cruisers, and more than 20 destroyers. Thus raising the Polish Navy to the point where it could compete with the German Navy. And the "Vistula" class with a standard displacement of 16,985 tons, a full load displacement of 18,081 tons, and six 305mm caliber main guns came into being.

And the Poles made a high-profile expansion of the navy. The act of starting the construction of the "Vistula"-class battle cruisers in the free city of Danzig, which does not belong to Poland, actually announced that Germany's efforts to peacefully recover Danzig were about to be shattered -- since Poland wanted to become a maritime power, it was natural that it would not return to Germany Danzig, a treasure land with a well-developed shipbuilding industry and an excellent deep-water port.

However, German Chancellor Adolf. Hitler did not seem to be bent on the "peaceful reconquest", and from October 1938 onwards he made frequent visits to Italy and England to seek a peaceful solution to the "Danzig crisis". There was even a proposal to convene a "Geneva Peace Conference", with the League of Nations presiding over a referendum. Decide on the ownership of the free city of Danzeg.

Of course, Germany's preparations for war did not slow down as a result, but were accelerating.

Not only are domestic arsenals working overtime to produce aircraft and artillery, but they have also taken out valuable gold and foreign exchange to purchase oil, non-ferrous metals, grain, and other war materials from the world.

"Mr. Prime Minister, this is the latest report from the Royal Navy," said British Prime Minister Neville. Chamberlain picked up a document from his desk and handed it to French Prime Minister Daladier, who had just arrived. "Another shipload of tungsten ore and another shipload of manganese ore has been shipped from China. At the same time, two tankers departed from the Dutch East Indies. I am coming to Europe here. In addition, Argentina and Brazil have purchased large quantities of foodstuffs, as well as large quantities of uranium ore from the Belgian Congo......"

"Uranium mines?" The stocky Daladier was stunned for a moment, "What kind of weapon is this used to make?" ”

"I don't know," Chamberlain shook his head, "probably for the production of alloys, the Germans have been importing uranium ore from the Belgian Congo since the 20s." But our technicians never figured out what they were going to do with uranium...... But roughly as you can guess, it should be needed for the production of a certain special alloy. ”

Daladier took the paper and looked at it for a moment. "Uranium is not a big deal, but Germany's frenzied stockpiles of oil, tungsten ore and manganese ore are worrying. Other than that. We also got information that the Germans were recruiting scientists all over Europe with high salaries, and that they were recruiting experts in chemistry, physics, and electronics. It is estimated that it is related to the development of secret weapons! ”

"Physics?" Chamberlain was a little confused.

Chemists can help make chemical weapons, synthetic fuels or rubber, and they can also play a role in metallurgy and alloys, as well as in the pharmaceutical field. Electronics experts are also useful. They are used for radar and all kinds of communication equipment. But the role of physicists doesn't seem to be particularly great. And the German scientific community is home to many outstanding physicists.

Neville. Chamberlain shook his head, pulling his mind back to the politics and diplomacy he was familiar with.

"The Germans' buying frenzy shows that they are not ready for war," Chamberlain said, "and the recent intensive foreign visits of Hitler seem to illustrate this." He should be a guest in Rome at this point. Trying to win over the Italian leader. ”

"Mussolini will not support Germany," Daladier was confident about, "and we have already made concessions to Italy on the Spanish question." Moreover, Italy's war preparations were very bad, and the Abynesian and Spanish wars had already hollowed out Italy's home. According to what we know, Italy's steel reserves are only enough for two weeks, coal reserves are enough for two months, iron ore is slightly better, enough for three months, and oil reserves are only more than one million tons, while Italy consumes 4 million tons of oil a year in peacetime. So the Italian leader will either keep his country neutral, or he will have to take our side. ”

"We must block German imports," Chamberlain thought for a moment, "we must not let them open up and hoard strategic materials anymore, but persuade our allies all over the world to close the door to Germany, and if necessary, use money to snap up with the Germans!" ”

Britain has a clear advantage over Germany in terms of using funds to grab shopping capital. Because the pound is still half the world's currency, Germany needs to use its gold reserves to buy supplies, while Britain only needs to print some paper money to buy it.

……

"Your Excellency, your call!"

Hans. Lieutenant Colonel Spayal walked into the No. 1 War Room of the General Staff, where the flag deduction was being carried out to verify the "White Plan" - the "White Plan" was the real battle plan used to solve the problem of Poland.

As in history, the program is ready for massive use of armored forces, which will crush Polish resistance in the shortest possible time with a "blitzkrieg".

A huge map table was placed in the center of War Room 1, on which was a huge map of Eastern Europe, showing not only eastern Germany and the entire Polish Confederation, but also Eastern Belarus and left-bank Ukraine in the Soviet Union, as well as the Slovak Republic under German control.

On the map, there were all kinds of wooden signs with the number of the troops written on them, and several elderly generals and generals stood on the far left of the map platform, exchanging opinions in a low voice. They were all high-ranking generals who were to serve as commanders of the army group in the offensive against Poland. There was Feng Murray, who was preparing to serve as the commander of Army Group North. Infantry General Bock, Infantry General Rundstede, who was preparing to be the commander of Army Group South, General Blomburg, who was preparing to be the commander of Army Group Baltic, Küchler, Kruger, Liszt, Reichenau, Blaskovitz, von Cherel, Kruger, Liszt, Reichenau, Blaskovitz, von Cherry, who were preparing to serve as commander of Army Group in Poland. Fritsch and Falkenhausen et al.

In a wargame exercise, they will command their army group to attack the Polish army on the map. General Hersmann, who was to serve as commander-in-chief of the Eastern Front in the Polish campaign, played the role of commander of the Polish army with his headquarters staff. Chief of the General Staff von Von. Senior General Khamestein and another group of senior staff officers played the role of the Soviets.

The three are likely to be the world's most brilliant land warfare experts "playing" at the right time. Lieutenant Colonel Speidar just walked in, walked up to Hersman, and whispered, "Miss Doctor's call, she said: 'Transuranic Project Group 1' has just made a major breakthrough!" ”

"Miss Doctor" Schragmüller is now an aunt and no longer serves as the principal of Stasie College after the reshuffle. Instead, he served as the head of the Scientific Investigation Division under the Central Security Bureau of the Reich. The focus of the department is on the covert monitoring of important scientists and scientific research projects in Germany and Europe.

And the "transuranic element project" is the focus of the scientific investigation department's close attention and sponsorship!

The first group of this project was the director of the Institute of Chemistry of the Kaiser Wilhelhelm Institute. Hahn, as well as two of Hahn's collaborators, physicist Fritz. Straman and Lizze. Meitner.

Among them Lize. Meitner was of Jewish descent, but she was also honored Aryan because she worked as a nurse in the X-ray department of the Austrian army's front-line hospital during World War I.

In addition to Group 1, there was also Group 2, led by the Italian scientist Fermi, a scientific research project of the University of Munich in Germany and the University of Rome in Italy - the project was of course secretly financed by the Reich Central Security Service, and several young scientists who had joined the Security Service as "co-informers" acted as Fermi's assistants.

"Okay!" Hersman nodded, and said to everyone in the war room in an unconcealed excitement, "It's a secret weapon project that has made a major breakthrough!" Our empire will thus remain invincible. He turned to the Chief of the General Staff, Senior General Hamstein, and said, "Your Excellency, now I am going to meet with the scientists in charge of the project, and this is all for today's war games for the time being, okay?" (To be continued.) )