In today's German leadership, there are two views: "pro-Soviet" and "pro-British". Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

The "pro-Soviets" were Field Marshal Hersmann, Field Marshal Schleicher, and a big man on Hitler's side, Hermann. Göring as a representative. Their view was to maintain friendly relations with the Soviet Union as much as possible and to concentrate on defeating Britain and the United States. As long as Britain and the United States collapsed, the Soviet Union would not be able to rectify it as much as it wanted?

The "pro-British" faction was named after Hitler and Rudolf. Hess is the leader. They felt that Germany and Britain were "relatives", and that the people of the two countries were relatively close in blood and language, and that they should not fight to the death. Moreover, both Hitler and Hess felt that the land in the south of the Soviet Union, that is, Ukraine, the lower reaches of the Don River, and the Caucasus Mountains, was very good, and it would be ideal if it could be taken down as Germany itself. Therefore, they felt that as long as Britain was willing to admit defeat, they would let it go, and not dismantle the British Empire. And after negotiating peace with Britain, Germany will be able to turn its guns against the Soviet Union.

However, these two factions are not life and death, and they both know each other's views. And it is not entirely unacceptable to disagree - in fact, the difference between the two views is not very significant.

If Britain is really willing to surrender and lose half, Hersman is also happy to see it, after all, as soon as Britain is soft, Germany will be able to station troops in Canada and the Caribbean, and the Great American Empire will be completely out of play.

Hitler, on the other hand, had great hopes for the atomic bomb because of the advocacy of Hersmann and Goering -- it would certainly be more economical to get the Soviet Union down if he could drop a few super bombs.

Therefore, Hess's secret contacts with the British side were known to Hersman and the General Staff, and even participated in secret contacts...... Although Hersman did not believe that Britain would consider capitulation until the Royal Navy had been completely defeated, it was necessary to maintain contact.

At least in the view of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, commander of the Japanese Navy's Combined Fleet who visited Europe, the secret talks between Japan and the United States are the ones that can really change the course of history.

"Oshima-kun, Kuroshima-kun, I must return to Japan immediately, and the next negotiations with Germany will be left to the two of you."

In the Japanese embassy in Rome, the commander of the Japanese Naval Observation Mission and the commander of the Combined Fleet, Isoroku Yamamoto, had already packed his bags and said goodbye to Vice Admiral Hiroshi Oshima, the Japanese ambassador to Germany, and the chief staff officer of the Combined Fleet, Kuroshima Kameto, with a gloomy face.

"Your Excellency, Commander, is there something going on in the country?" The Black Island Turtle Man was stunned for a moment. Because according to the previous schedule, Yamamoto 56 also had to discuss the issue of German-Japanese military-technical cooperation with Hersmann.

After more than 20 days of observation and investigation, Yamamoto 56 had discovered that the two major killer weapons of the Japanese naval aviation, the Type Zero carrier-based fighter and the Type 99 carrier-based dive bomber, were not as sharp as they had imagined.

The high-altitude performance and dive performance of the Zero carrier-based fighter are not ideal, and they are not strong enough, and once they are hit, the pilot has to quickly parachute to escape.

And when confronting the British "Spitfire" series fighters, the Zero fighter only has a big advantage in low- and medium-altitude combat. However, the British pilots had already had a way to deal with it, and they would avoid fighting the Zero as much as possible, and instead resort to a one-hit-and-go tactic.

If it is bitten by the Zero at medium and low altitudes, it will adopt the tactics of diving at a large angle to disengage from the fight, and then quickly pull the aircraft up to an altitude of more than 5,000 meters.

As a result, the Germans have introduced their own upgraded version, the Fokker Zero C-3, equipped with a high-performance supercharger and injection combustion system, as well as a better self-sealing tank.

At the same time, the Germans also developed a fighter FW-190 with a larger range, and superior mid-altitude and dive performance, which was superior in medium and high altitude performance, and coordinated with the Fokker Zero.

The Germans' optimization and improvement of the Zero, as well as the FW-190 used to match the Zero, all used advanced technology that Japan did not have. Yamamoto hopes to import technology from Germany and purchase several FW-190s for a new generation of Japanese carrier-based fighters under development.

In addition, the performance of the Fokker 99 carrier-based dive bomber, which was introduced to Germany by Fokker Company, can only be described as bad on the battlefield. Although the bomb delivery accuracy of this aircraft is relatively high, the bomb load is too small, and it can only hang one 250-kilogram bomb, which is not enough for battleships with solid armor.

As a result, in the entire Mediterranean campaign, only the German JU88 and the Italian S.M.79 were seen to shine, and the Fokker 99 was difficult to find.

In fact, the Japanese Navy itself has long been aware of the shortcomings of the Type 99 carrier-based dive bomber, and as early as 1937, it put forward the requirement of developing a carrier-based dive bomber with both high speed and large bomb load. And in 1940, a dive bomber named "Comet" was actually developed. On paper, the performance is very good, but this carrier-based dive bomber, which the Japanese Navy has high hopes for, suffers from a "heart attack".

The DB601 liquid-cooled engine of the German Mercedes-Benz Company, which was copied by the Japanese Aichi Company, was produced very low because of its complex structure and high technical difficulty, which also affected the mass production of the "Comet" carrier-based dive bomber.

In order to allow the "Comet" carrier-based dive bomber to fully replace the Type 99 carrier-based dive bomber in 1942 as planned, Yamamoto hoped to obtain the technology to produce DB601 engines from Germany before the war between Japan and the United States, and at the same time purchase another 2,000 German-owned DB601 engines.

In addition, Yamamoto Isoroku and Kuroshima Kameto were also interested in German radar technology. It was hoped that the technology would be imported from Germany before the war began, and that all Japanese battleships and cruisers would be equipped with air-to-sea search radars.

Since the technology that Yamamoto wants to acquire from Germany is very high-end, I am afraid that without the strong support of high-level people in Germany, it may be difficult to make progress in a short period of time. Therefore, Yamamoto's original plan was to negotiate with Hersman in person in order to reach an agreement.

But today, Yamamoto suddenly decided to leave Europe and return to Japan.

Yamamoto Fifty-six answered Kuroshima Kameto's question with a frown, "The Americans announced a trade embargo against us and also froze our assets in the United States. ”

"What?" The Black Island Turtle Man was taken aback when he heard this, "How can they do this?" Isn't General Nomura negotiating with the United States? ”

Now the Japanese ambassador to the United States is retired Navy Admiral Kichizaburo Nomura. Since the end of last year, Ambassador Kichizaburo Nomura has been in charge of holding secret talks with the US Government on US-Japan relations and the direction of Japan's expansion.

During the negotiations, the Americans demanded that Japan withdraw from Southeast Asia and not threaten the colonies of Westerners in Southeast Asia. At the same time, the United States also expressed its willingness to see the situation on the East Asian continent return to "normal" and hoped that Japan would play a leading role on the East Asian continent.

In fact, the United States wanted to lead Japan to the East Asian continent in order to reduce the pressure in the Pacific direction so that it could concentrate its efforts on dealing with Germany.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumima Konoe did not want to be enemies of Britain and the United States, so while allowing the military to actively prepare for war with the United States, he was also studying the issue of attacking the East Asian continent. However, the government of the East Asian continent has the big brother of the Soviet Union behind it, and Japan suffered in 1939 and is now a little timid, so Konoe Fumima put forward a request for the conclusion of an alliance between the United States and Japan. However, the United States repeatedly refused, and at the end of February 1941, the United States government announced a comprehensive trade embargo and economic sanctions against Japan without warning.

"Not only the United States," Lieutenant General Hiroshi Oshima added in a huff, "but the British and Dutch East India authorities were also involved in the embargo!" Britain, like the United States, forbade the import of all strategic materials such as oil, steel, non-ferrous metals, and rubber into Japan, and did not allow the Dutch East Indies to sell the same materials to us. ”

"What? The Dutch East Indies also participated in the sanctions? The Black Island Turtle Man's face suddenly changed greatly.

At present, Japan's oil is mainly imported from the Dutch East Indies, the United States, and British Malaya. If it is only a British and American sanctions embargo, Japan can also make up for it by increasing imports from the Dutch East Indies. However, if the Dutch East Indies also joined the sanctions, then Japan would face the crisis of cutting off oil.

Of course, it wasn't all cut off, Japan was able to import some oil from Sakhalin Island in the Soviet Union, there was a small amount of oil production in Taiwan, there was also oil shale extracted in northeast China for oil refining, and there were coal-to-liquid factories in Japan. However, the total amount of oil or other oil obtained through these channels was very small, and it was impossible to meet Japan's needs during the war.

The Black Island Turtle Man thought for a moment and felt that it was wrong, and then asked: "The Netherlands is not a friend of Germany, why did the Dutch East Indies also embargo the Empire?" ”

"Instead of an embargo, the Dutch East Indies sold all the oil and rubber to Britain and the United States." Hiroshi Oshima sneered and said, "And now the survival of the Dutch East Indies depends on Britain and the United States, and the Netherlands itself can't help the Dutch East Indies at all." In addition, how could those Dutch people not know about the Empire's demands on the Dutch East Indies? ”

"So is the United States trying to force us westward?" The Black Island Turtle Man thought about it and asked.

"It doesn't seem to be," said Yamamoto Isoroku, scratching his bare head and frowning, "the Americans have withdrawn their support for our westward advance, and they don't want us to invade anywhere." U.S. Secretary of State Hull recently said: We must respect the territorial integrity and sovereignty of all countries; uphold the principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of States; upholding the principle of parity, including equal opportunities for trade; The status quo in the Pacific must not be undermined except by peaceful means...... This is not to let the empire expand in any direction! (To be continued.) )