Chapter 277: Removing Obstacles

His research interests are:

On the basis of the existing one, the Leopard tank was replaced with an 88-mm 71-fold gun, and the front armor of the Tiger tank was tilted, and the Tiger tank was replaced with a 1080-horsepower diesel engine, and the Tiger was equipped with a 105-mm 71-fold gun.

The diesel engine was invented by the Germans, and Germany at this time also had high-horsepower diesel engines, such as the historical rat tank, which was equipped with a 1080-horsepower diesel engine.

The 105 mm tank gun is even simpler, Germany now has two large-caliber anti-aircraft guns, 105 mm and 128 mm, and the anti-aircraft guns can be turned into tank guns with appropriate improvements, which is a complete piece of cake for German engineers.

……

After the port of Rommel had finished processing the report materials on the development of weapons, Field Marshal Keitel of the High Command called, and Keitel conveyed Hitler's order to Rommel, and Hitler asked Rommel to return to Africa immediately, and to deal with the British troops in Africa as soon as possible, and then return to China to take up the post of acting Führer.

Originally, Rommel was like an arrow, at this time the German undercurrent was turbulent, Hitler was paralyzed in bed, and he appointed Rommel as his successor.

So Rommel, after receiving Keitel's call, left Anna in Berlin to take full charge of the matter, while he immediately flew to Africa.

And the struggle for power in Germany has officially begun, and the traditional German forces hold the vast majority of power in Germany, which is absolutely intolerable for the dying Hitler.

Hitler knew that when he was there, he could still suppress the traditional forces in Germany, and if he was gone, it would be difficult for the new Führer Rommel to suppress the traditional forces in Germany, so Hitler planned to help Rommel remove some obstacles before he died.

To tell the truth, Hitler was really good to Rommel, in terms of military promotion, Hitler never treated Rommel badly, Hitler also designated Rommel as his successor after he was attacked, and when he was about to die, he also cleared the way for Rommel to reach the top.

Hitler's kindness to Rommel can be described in one sentence -- the kindness is as deep as the sea.

The biggest obstacle to Rommel's ascension to the top was Field Marshal Brünberg, the leader of Germany's traditional forces, all of which were headed by Marshal Blunburg, and Marshal Blunberg was also in control of the Ministry of Defense.

All the armed forces in Germany except the SS were under the leadership of the German Ministry of Defense, and with the death of Hitler, the number of troops that Blunberg could mobilize and command reached 5 million.

If Hitler did not eliminate Marshal Blunburg, even if Rommel became the Führer, he would still be a puppet with little power, and maybe Rommel would be overthrown by a coup d'état, so Hitler targeted the German Defense Minister Marshal Blenburg.

Hitler had a natural acumen in political struggles, and was definitely not a foolish mediocrity, otherwise he would not have become the Führer of Germany from a corporal.

In fact, the contradiction between Hitler and Blunburg existed a long time ago, but the traditional German forces behind Brenburg were too huge, and Hitler never dared to move Marshal Blenburg easily.

This began in 1936, when the expansion of the armed forces began to transform the high-level chain of command of the armed forces.

Gone are the days when modern warfare guided an all-round way of thinking, and that the past days when war on land alone decided the outcome of the war were gone.

The National Defense Forces need to have a leadership system that integrates the three services, which in fact means to establish a general headquarters of the three services in the true sense of the word, instead of the current three services acting independently and only cooperating on the surface.

But such a reform would inevitably touch the interests of Nazi upstarts like Air Force Commander-in-Chief Goering. In Goering's view, the Air Force was an important bargaining chip in his political struggle, and it was intolerable for him to weaken the authority of the Commander-in-Chief of the services and thus strengthen the centralization of the Wehrmacht's upper echelons.

There is also strong resistance to such a reform at the top level of the army, and most of the old-fashioned generals of the General Army and the General Staff are staunch supporters of the "theory of winning a land war."

They said that if war broke out, only the army would be needed to solve the problem, and that the reforms of Blunburg seemed to them to be completely superfluous.

Although the reforms were not implemented due to many obstacles, on April 20, 1936, on Hitler's birthday, the 58-year-old Brünberg was promoted to field marshal, becoming the first person in the Wehrmacht after World War I to be awarded the rank of field marshal, reaching the pinnacle of his military career.

At the same time that Blenburg was at the height of his power, his modesty and enormous power in military matters began to arouse Hitler's displeasure.

As early as March 1936, when Hitler ordered the Wehrmacht to march into the Rhineland Demilitarized Zone, he warned of such an adventurous move.

On August 5, 1937, Hitler summoned War Minister Blenburg, Army Commander-in-Chief Friech, Navy Commander-in-Chief Raeder, Air Force Commander-in-Chief Goering, and Foreign Minister Newright to a meeting at the Chancellery.

West Hitler announced to them his plans for a long-term war and his attempts to take aggressive action against Austria and Czechoslovakia in the near future.

At the conference, Blenburg, with the support of Frisch, warned that the war would be intervened by the combined forces of the Western powers, so both he and Frisch had reservations or opposition to Hitler's attempts at a war of aggression.

This infuriated Hitler, who realized that Blenberg and Frisch must be removed from power as soon as possible and replaced with obedient heads of the army. Otherwise, sooner or later, the two of them will become stumbling blocks for him to start a war.

Hitler had been waiting for an opportunity, but this opportunity came only when Hitler was dying, and the marriage scandal in Blunburg gave Hitler this opportunity to die.

He had been living a widower's life since the death of his wife Hermich in Bremborg in 1936, but 5 years later he soon fell in love with his secretary, Miss Gruen, and was ready to get married.

However, Blenburg also knew that his marriage to Gruen, who was a commoner, would certainly be opposed by the conservative officer corps. To this end, he tried to keep Hitler on his hospital bed as his witness, so as to silence the officer corps.

On March 1, 1941, he married Eva. Gruen held a civilian wedding in Hitler's hospital room, and then Blenburg took his new wife to Italy for his honeymoon.

Hitler, the witness to the wedding, may not have imagined that this happy event in Brünberg gave them a godsend to get rid of Brünburg.

While on his honeymoon in Blunburg, Berlin Police Chief Herdorf found a document that read about the marshal's new wife, Eva. Gruen used to be a prostitute's file, which he immediately handed over to the chief of staff of the High Command.

After obtaining this file, Keitel gave it to SS leader Himmler for fear of blaming Hitler and the SS for shielding Blenburg and thus affecting his future. (To be continued.) )