"God, is this true? It took less than 48 hours for an armored division, a motorized infantry division, to defeat six infantry divisions, which really turned my understanding of war upside down......"

In Riga Castle, Wilhelm II, who spent more than ten years cutting trees and hunting in the Duolun Manor, suddenly found that his understanding of military affairs had dropped to the level of a schoolboy...... If the "Iron Fist-1935" military exercises were not a farce of deception, he would have completely ignorant of war!

"Your Majesty, the reality is that the progress of internal combustion engine technology has brought about a revolution in military affairs."

At the conclusion of the exercise, Hersmann said to the future nominal commander of the German army: "The traditional infantry divisions are completely vulnerable to the mechanized armored and motorized infantry divisions!" This is not only because the firepower and defense of mechanized units have progressed geometrically compared to traditional ones. And also because they have a strong ability to maneuver and fight.

In the 'Highway 8 Encounter', the Panzer Group went on attack with a powerful assault force before the traditional infantry had finished deploying. The opposing infantry did not have time to build positions, artillery did not have time to set up, and even the concentration of troops did not have time to complete. On a long stretch of road, on the march, it encountered a coordinated attack from armored units and ground attack aircraft......"

The "Route 8 Encounter" was not really a war, but an "encounter" in an exercise. Two infantry divisions of the "Red Army", which had just begun to enter a state of rapid march, ran head-on into the armored cluster of the "Blue Army".

More than 30,000 people, more than 300 artillery pieces of various kinds (not including mortars), and thousands of horse-drawn wagons loaded with baggage drove more than 15 kilometers on the road...... In the war of 1914-1918, if these two armies had encountered, it would have taken a whole day just to complete the deployment. It is likely that it will take several days to dig trenches and repair fortifications, and after a week it will not be slow to launch a fierce attack and defense.

But in the Second World War. A European "power" like Yugoslavia, with its 1.2 million troops, barely resisted for eight days under the German blitzkrieg offensive. Poland and France fared a little better, and they didn't stand still for a month.

And in World War I, even a weak chicken like Romania resisted for months under the siege of Germany, Austria-Hungary and Bulgaria.

This is the consequence of the military revolution brought about by the great progress of the technology of the internal combustion engine!

The "Iron Fist-1935" military exercise proved the correctness of the theory of mechanized warfare put forward by Fuller, de Gaulle, and others by simulating mechanized warfare. At the same time, it also pointed out a direction for the development of the German army's war preparations.

"The next war will definitely not be a rehearsal of 1914-1918!" Hersmann's gaze swept over the German Kaiser, Hitler, Golz, Raeder, Guderian, and Falkenhausen, and finally stopped at the only person in the room who was not wearing a military uniform, Adolf. on Hitler.

The main purpose of Hirschmann's push for this large-scale military exercise. In addition to proving theories that have long been proven by history, it is necessary to compete with Hitler for the de facto command of the army in the future!

And to successfully obtain the future command, it was necessary to convince not only the aging emperor, but also Hitler himself. Hitler must be convinced that only Hersmann could lead the German army to the conquest of Europe.

"Ladies and gentlemen, this military exercise has clearly told us that the next war will be waged in a completely new mode, and it will be a high-tech war that subverts previous cognitions, and the leader of this war must be a very professional general staff!"

The system of the General Staff leading the war was established in the First World War. Hersman now needs to restore the system.

"But," Adolf. Hitler glanced at the slightly frowning emperor, who obviously also had doubts about future wars, "Admiral, if the new war you are talking about is true, then this war will consume a lot of oil." Because whether it is tanks, cars, airplanes, or warships of all kinds, they need oil to drive them. But do we have so much oil to consume in Germany? ”

It seems that Hitler still had doubts about a new world war.

"Yes!" Hersman nodded. said, "The Army Strategic Reserve Agency has been stockpiling oil and various non-ferrous metals since the early 20s." After the Keynes Plan was introduced in 1924, the reserves were gradually increased.

A considerable part of the oil and non-ferrous metals we obtained through barter with the Soviet Union were stored in war-ready warehouses in Travemünde, Königsberg and Riga. The oil reserves alone are as high as 12 million tons, and we plan to increase the strategic oil reserves to 15 million tons by 1939. ”

If you let another time and space manage the German military production of German armaments Minister Albert . When Speer saw the current inventory list of the Strategic Reserve Bureau, he would probably drool over it.

12 million tonnes of oil is just one of those assets. In addition, the Strategic Reserve Bureau also has 103,000 tons of electrolytic manganese metal, 125,000 tons of refined copper, 108,000 tons of electrolytic aluminum, 92,000 tons of lead, 92,000 tons of zinc, 28,000 tons of nickel, 12,000 tons of tin, and 9,000 tons of tungsten metal.

Other than that. The Strategic Reserve also stocks large quantities of unprocessed manganese, copper, lead-zinc, tungsten, chromite, bauxite and uranium ores, as well as large quantities of soybeans, silk, cotton, opium, cocoa beans, coffee beans, tobacco and other agricultural products.

However, the amount of these good things in reserve is the highest military secret, and Hersmann will not tell Hitler.

Hersman went on to say, "In addition, from 1926 onwards, we were promoting the synthetic fuel program. Farben planned to build 15 hydrogenation plants by 1939. It has formed a production capacity of 10,000 tons of synthetic fuels per day. ”

Adolph. Hitler asked: "15 million tons of oil reserves, more than 3.5 million tons of synthetic fuel production per year...... Is that enough? ”

"And imports," Hersman said, "can be imported from Romania and the Soviet Union!" ”

"Imported from the USSR?" Wilhelm II seemed somewhat surprised by this proposal.

"Yes," Hersman looked at William, "Your Majesty, we are friends with the Soviet Union...... Lenin also led the revolution with your help and became the leader of the Soviet Union. ”

"Are we really going to fight with the USSR?" Kaiser Wilhelm II still had some doubts. "They're all Bolsheviks!"

"Your Majesty, uniting the Soviet Union will make us invincible." Hersmann said with great certainty, "Germany is currently the second largest industrial country in the world, and the Soviet Union will be the third largest industrial country in the world after the completion of the second five-year plan." As long as we form an alliance with the USSR, we will be invincible in the next world war! ”

In fact, the United Soviet Union is the biggest trump card for Hersman in the struggle for the actual command!

Because the whole world knew that Hersmann was an old friend of Lenin and the Soviet people, and that he also had a very good relationship with Stalin. In Moscow, Leningrad and Stalingrad, a very wide and beautiful street is named Hersmann Prospect.

Therefore, as long as Germany determines the national policy of "uniting with the Soviet Union", Hersmann will definitely rise to the top.

And the trump card of "uniting the Soviet Union", in the current view (whether the alliance can be maintained is another matter), can indeed make Germany undefeated. At least on the European continent, there was no such thing as a force that could defeat both the Soviet Union and Germany at the same time.

"And what about Britain?" Kaiser Wilhelm asked, "If the Soviet Union is united, there should be no country on the European continent that can threaten Germany." But at sea, both we and the USSR were very weak and were no match for Britain. ”

The sea is deliberately profitable...... Hersman had already planned that the English Channel would not be considered for the time being, and that after dealing with France, he would turn south and fight the Mediterranean and the Middle East with Mussolini.

However, the matter of uniting Italy is still not known, Mussolini is now a pro-British, and although the relationship with Germany is good, it is not close.

"We can defeat the British Navy from the air!" Hersman gave another answer, "Your Majesty, testing large-scale naval and air combat is also one of the purposes of this 'Iron Fist-1935' military exercise. ”

In fact, the "Iron Fist-1935" military exercise was divided into three purposes: the first purpose was the long-distance transportation of army units; The second purpose is to test the theory of mechanized warfare; The third purpose was to perform a naval and air confrontation -- the German naval aviation (now that Goering was still Minister of Economy, the German Navy naturally had aviation) would use 100 twin-engine medium bombers/torpedo attack planes/reconnaissance planes to carry out long-distance raid operations, taking off from bases in East Prussia to bomb four target ships anchored in the Gulf of Riga.

Hundreds of planes are concentrated at a time, hundreds of kilometers are traveled, and targets are searched for in the vast sea. This is completely the skill of the Japanese Navy, but the Japanese Navy mainly uses carrier-based aircraft to play this game. The German Navy now did not have aircraft carriers, so it used a derivative of the J.30 medium bomber, hung torpedoes and bombshells to deal with the enemy fleet at sea.

Air-ship confrontation drills have been held many times since Germany resumed compulsory military service, and the results have been quite good on the whole. So this time the plane bombing the ship was completely a show, and there was no possibility of failure at all.

"Oh, bombing with planes?" Kaiser Wilhelm nodded, "The times are changing so fast, not only is the army completely different from more than ten years ago, but even the battle at sea depends on the aircraft to decide the victory." So, when will the naval and air combat exercises start, and can we observe them? ”

Admiral Raeder, commander-in-chief of the German Navy, took up the question and replied: "The exercise will take place the day after tomorrow in the waters near the Sama Islands, and His Majesty and His Excellency the Chancellor can go and watch it." (To be continued.) )