When Hitler stood on the balcony of the old Austrian palace and announced the annexation of his native Austria to Germany, in front of the cheers of the Austrians under the balcony, Hitler, who was only one or two years younger than Yan Guang, was full of spirit...

After only five years as prime minister, Hitler succeeded in expanding his territory without firing a single shot.

When the news reached Berlin, I read the news reports repeatedly, the formation of the Greater German Empire, the return of Austria to the German Empire, a gentleman close to me said to me.

"Child, you can be proud that we live in a great time."

I also deeply feel that we rejoice in the growth of Germany's national power, because we live in a great era, and Hitler was the creator and protector of this era.

―――――――――― the fourth episode of the NHK TV documentary "The Century of Reflection" "Hitler's Ambitions"

(The one above is the original)

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In 1938, Hitler took advantage of the "appeasement policy" pursued by Britain and France to present an ultimatum to Austria, and on March 12 of the same year, he drove straight into Austria and announced the merger of Germany and Austria. A referendum was held on 10 April in German-occupied Austria, where 99.7 per cent of the population voted in favour of integration because of the decadence of Austria after its defeat in World War I.

The German-Austrian annexation was the first step in Hitler's expansion of Germany, and the German-Austrian annexation took place after the return of the Saarland to Germany, and on January 13, 1935, under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, a referendum was held on the return of the region to Germany after fifteen years of League of Nations control.

Before the incident, Germany first put pressure on Austria to recognize the legitimacy of the Austrian Nazi Party, and even to allow the party to participate in the affairs of the Austrian government. In 1938, Austrian Prime Minister Kurt ? In order to preserve Austria's independence, Schuschnigg announced a referendum to decide whether Austria should merge with Germany. However, the German government pressured him to hand over power to the Nazi Party in Austria. The Austrian Nazi Party, which overthrew the Austrian republican government in a coup d'état on March 11, not only did the Wehrmacht enter Austria without any confrontation but was welcomed by many Austrian residents.

Other countries reacted mildly, with Britain, France, and other Entente countries protesting diplomatically, but taking no real action to prevent the union, even though they had a duty to uphold the Treaty of Versailles, especially the clause prohibiting the union of Germany and Austria.

After the fall of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, there was much debate about the idea of a unified Germany. Before 1866, it was generally believed that the unification of Germany could only be dominated by the Austrian Empire, which was called "Greater Germany". However, Austria's defeat in the Austro-Prussian War led Bismarck to establish the "German Empire" dominated by Prussia and exclude Austria from the territory of New Germany, known as "Little Germany". In 1918, the Austro-Hungarian Empire was divided, so the German-speaking regions of Austria wanted to unite with Germany. However, at the Paris Peace Conference, Britain and France feared that Germany would quickly gain power, so the Treaties of Versailles and Saint-Germain forbade the union of Germany and Austria.

In the early 1930s, there was strong support for a German-Austrian union, and in 1931 the Austrian government proposed a customs union with Germany. However, the rise of Hitler and Nazism in Germany had dampened the enthusiasm of the Austrian government. Born in Austria, Hitler had already proposed the creation of a unified state for all Germanic peoples when he led the Nazi Party in his early days. In 1924, when he wrote about Mein Kampf, he even declared that he would try to reunify, even by force.

Until 1929, Austria faced economic downturn, high unemployment, and a sluggish industrial and commercial slump, just like its northern and southern neighbors, which made the nascent democracy very unstable. In the late 1920s, the Christian Socialist Party was in charge of the government of the First Austrian Republic. In 1933, the republic gradually collapsed due to the dissolution of parliament. After the Austrian Civil War of 1934, the republic fell and was replaced by an authoritarian fascist government. The Christian Socialist dictatorship's government and heimwehr rule the country, suppressing other political parties and banning freedom of expression. The Prime Minister had great power, and the Christian Socialist Party had a lot of influence, giving the government the character of a religious dictatorship, as opposed to Nazism in Germany. ..., initially, Chancellor Engelbert? Engelbert Dollfuss and his heir Kurt? Hüschnigg turned to Italy for help. In fact, Austrian fascism is more similar to, and more so, Nazism than Italian fascism. Mussolini, based on national security, supported Austria's independence and guarded against German expansion. But then, because he wanted to conquer Ethiopia with the help of Germany, he allied with Hitler and isolated Austria.

On July 25, 1934, the outlawed Austrian Nazi Party assassinated Taulfis in an unsuccessful attempt to stage a coup d'état. After many Austrian Nazis fled to Germany, and then plotted terrorist attacks against the Austrian government with their comrades still in Austria, resulting in the deaths of more than 800 people, Hüschnitge followed Taulfis's policy and insisted on suppressing the Nazi Party.

In the end, due to the appeasement policies of Britain, France and other countries, Hitler succeeded in annexing Austria, and his long-cherished wish of the "Greater German Empire" was initially successful.

After a bloodless German-Austrian merger, Hitler began to pay attention to Czechoslovakia, the next target of aggression.

Czechoslovakia is located in the center of Europe, not only has a developed military industry, rich mineral resources, and a very important strategic position, after the Germans occupy the Czech Republic, they can use it as a springboard to attack the Soviet Union in the east, and attack Britain and France in the west, so Hitler has long coveted it.

Since there were more than 3 million Germans in the Sudetenland region of the Czech Republic near the border between the two countries, on the one hand, Hitler instructed the Nazis and some people to demand "national autonomy" and "secession from the Czech Republic." On the other hand, Hitler claimed that he could not tolerate the "bullying" of the Germanic people outside Germany, that he wanted to "do justice" for them, and that he was ready to use "military action to sweep the Czech Republic" and create public opinion conditions for his military borders. On September 12, Hitler threatened Germany to take action if the Czechoslovak government did not give "fair treatment" to the Germans of the Sudetenland. Naturally, the Czech government did not want to be slaughtered, and began to mobilize partially, strengthening the combat forces on the border.

Since after the First World War, the Czech Republic was restored under the protection of Britain and France, and there was a treaty of mutual assistance with France, so if Germany and the Czech Republic were at war, Britain and France would inevitably be involved in the war according to the treaty. On 13 September, the French Cabinet met for a full day to find a response. That night, Prime Minister Daladier decided to ask British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain to intervene.

That evening, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain sent a telegram to Hitler, saying that he wanted to meet with Hitler and hoped for a "peaceful solution" to the problem.

After the meeting with Hitler on the 15th, Chamberlain flew back to London overnight and together with the French pressed the Czech government to solve the Sudetenland question on the basis of the principle of national self-determination.

However, on the 22nd, Hitler again put forward a new demand, that is, "the areas of Czechoslovakia with Germanic people must be occupied immediately by the German army, and the Czechoslovak army must withdraw from the Sudetenland on September 28." ”

To this, the Czechoslovak government not only refused, but also announced a national mobilization.

On the 27th, Hitler ordered seven German divisions to enter the forward positions on the German-Czech border. Since September 28 was the deadline for Hitler to ask the Czech government for a reply, Czechoslovakia had no intention of accepting his request, and in order to prevent contingencies, it ordered the immediate conscription of 1 million soldiers, and war was on the verge of breaking out.

On the 29th, Chamberlain flew to Germany for the second time. On the same day, a four-nation summit meeting of Germany, Italy, Britain, and France, attended by Hitler, Mussolini, Chamberlain, and Daladier, was held in Munich, stipulating that the Sudetenland should be "transferred" to Germany. Czechoslovakia, which ceded its territory, did not have the right to attend the meeting. This is known as the Munich Agreement. On 30 September, the Czechoslovak government rejected the agreement, but Britain and France said that if the Czechoslovak government did not agree, then Britain and France were not obliged to assist in the defense of the Czechs. Eventually, the Czechoslovak government compromised and agreed to cede the territory.

At this meeting, Hitler claimed that the Sodetai zone was his last territorial claim to the West. Chamberlain had no doubt about this, and when he returned to London to disembark, he gleefully claimed that he had brought back "a generation of peace".

At this point, Britain and France completed an excellent sale of their teammates, and sold Czechoslovakia completely.

However, Hitler was not ambiguous, and in March 1939, less than a year later, he carried out one of the most successful face-slapping operations in history―――――― completely annexing Czechoslovakia.

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Although Germany had not yet annexed the entire territory of Czechoslovakia at this time, the affairs concerning the Sudetenland were still very lively, and in the end, in the absence of the representatives of Czechoslovakia at the Munich Conference, Britain, France, Germany, and Italy had already made a decision for the Czechs to "transfer" the Sudetenland to Germany at ―――――― Munich Conference.

Under these circumstances, the Czechs did not have the right to attend the meeting.

When Yan Guang learned the news, a sense of immediacy suddenly flashed in front of him.

"I remember the Versailles Peace Conference, it seems that we did the same to Germany..."

Turning his head, Yan Guang looked at Cai Yi and the others.

It is true that at the time of the "Versailles Peace Conference", although the victorious powers formulated a series of humiliating treaties for Germany, Germany, the most concerned country, did not have the right to attend the peace conference. No way, who called Germany a defeated country at that time.

And now Czechoslovakia is so similar to Germany at that time...

In addition, Czechoslovakia at that time was the seventh most powerful country in the capitalist world, and at the same time had a good industrial base, so it could never be called a fish belly country, if it was not sold by Britain and France, and the opponent was still Germany...

However, if it really wants to do it, Germany may not be able to take Czechoslovakia easily.

Because Sudtai was a mountainous area, Czechoslovakia built a large number of fortifications on the border of the Sudetai Mountains before Czechoslovakia ceded the Sudetai region, and these Maginot lines, which were then known as the Czechs, were not easily captured by the German army.

Moreover, before the annexation of Czechoslovakia, Germany's military strength had not grown enough to allow Hitler to have no scruples.

It's a pity that the British and French betrayed their teammates and messed up everything...

But then again, just like Austria, Czechoslovakia was split from Austria-Hungary, so things are still interesting.

Originally, Yan Guang also wanted to get involved in this matter, after all, the world has been too calm recently, and it has been calm to the point of being relatively boring. However, it is a pity that although Yan Guang is a character who can shake the whole of Asia by stomping his feet, he can't manage to go to Europe, so he can only watch the excitement in Beijing.

Fortunately, there were other things that attracted Yan Guang's attention, so after a little regret, Yan Guang didn't care much about European affairs.

"President, please look..."

In a fully enclosed room, a well-mannered young man led Yan Guang to a stand.

"This is the metal model of the Limbo-class aircraft carrier after it was built..."

As he spoke, the young man lifted the veil with his hand.

When the young man lifted the veil, what appeared in front of Yan Guang was a metal model of an aircraft carrier more than three meters long, although the entire aircraft carrier was only more than three meters long, but it could be seen from the densely placed carrier-based aircraft on the model deck how big this aircraft carrier was...

"According to your opinion, President, we have designed this Limbo-class large fleet aircraft carrier...", the young man continued after pointing to the metal model with his hand. This class of aircraft carriers belongs to a fully enclosed fleet aircraft carrier, standard displacement: 62,000 tons, full load displacement: 83,000 tons, the total length of the aircraft carrier is 331 meters, the deck width is 86 meters, the waterline width is 40 meters, the draft is 12 meters, and the maximum speed is 31 knots..."..., walking to the metal model, the young man continued to give a detailed explanation for Yan Guang.

"The double-decker hangar can accommodate more carrier-based aircraft, and this type of aircraft carrier also adopts a unique oblique flight deck, which can effectively improve the take-off and landing efficiency of carrier-based aircraft, so that the aircraft carrier can take off and land at the same time, and make the aircraft that fails to land can accelerate the take-off without affecting the stopped or taking off aircraft."

"In addition, we have also designed a new island-style superstructure, which effectively combines the control tower, flight control room, navigation room, etc., and at the same time, the newly developed shipborne radar developed by the National Defense University is also installed on the top of the building, which can detect aircraft at a distance of 137 kilometers and surface ships at a detection distance of more than 20 kilometers, which can effectively help the entire fleet detect the enemy as soon as possible..."

"In addition, a variable number of anti-aircraft machine guns, anti-aircraft guns, and 6-barreled Gatling guns were deployed around the aircraft carrier..."

Yan Guang, who had been silent all along, finally nodded with satisfaction after hearing this.

Seeing Yan Guang's satisfied appearance, the young man seemed to be encouraged, so he hurriedly introduced a lot of details, but the key points were never mentioned in these details, so Yan Guang had to interrupt him.

"What about carrier-based aircraft..."

"Huh?" The young man who was in high spirits was stunned.

However, Yan Guang did not blame him, but continued to ask.

"What is the number of aircraft carriers on the aircraft carrier?"

Although Yan Guang is very satisfied with the performance of this aircraft carrier, the number of carrier aircraft is the most important, after all, even if the performance of the aircraft carrier itself is good, if there is no carrier-based aircraft, it is not as good as a light cruiser in terms of combat effectiveness, so Yan Guang values the performance and number of carrier aircraft of the aircraft carrier, of course, as well as operational efficiency and radar...

At this time, the young man also reacted, so he quickly replied.

"Because the current naval equipment of fighters, torpedo planes and dive bombers can greatly fold the wings, effectively reducing the space occupied by the carrier aircraft in the deck and hangar, and the Lingbo-class aircraft carrier uses a double-layer fully enclosed hangar, so the hangar capacity of this class of aircraft carriers is 130, if you count the deck mooring, it can be increased to 180, and if you squeeze it, it can reach the level of close to 200 aircraft..."

"Squeeze?"

Yan Guang was stunned for a moment, and then suddenly there was a light cough, and the young man seemed to feel that his tone just now was a little too casual, so he quickly changed his words.

"I mean, the hangar and deck of the aircraft carrier of this class has a capacity of 180 aircraft, and the maximum aircraft capacity is close to 200 aircraft ..."

"So..."

Yan Guang nodded, indicating that he accepted the young man's words, and then turned to continue looking at the all-metal model.

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As early as the First World War, the National Defense Navy began to study aircraft carriers, and built a light aircraft carrier with a displacement of more than 20,000 tons and a carrying capacity of more than 50 aircraft.

Initially, the carrier was mainly used to train carrier-based pilots and introduce the Navy to new methods of warfare.

Due to Yan Guang's awakening on many occasions, the Navy has a very deep understanding of the importance of aircraft carriers, because this relationship has been built by the Navy after the war. It is only because of the Washington Naval Treaty that none of these aircraft carriers can have a standard displacement of more than 30,000 tons.

When the "Washington Naval Treaty" ended and the new "London Naval Treaty" was signed, because the signatory countries did not relax restrictions in this regard, the countries could only continue to explore the use of aircraft carriers under the existing conditions.

However, although they are all light aircraft carriers, after years of careful consideration, the generals of the Navy still have a deeper understanding of the use of aircraft carriers.

When the London Naval Treaty expired in 1936 and the Second London Naval Disarmament Conference was held on March 25, 1936, due to the successive withdrawals of China and Japan and the failure of Italy to sign the treaty, the Second London Naval Treaty came to an end――――――. ..., and after determining that the national government would not sign any meaningless naval treaties, the Navy officially put forward its own requirements―――――― to retrofit the existing ten capital ships, so that these capital ships can reach a maximum speed of at least 31 knots, become high-speed battleships and accompany aircraft carriers to fight, and build a number of large aircraft carriers at the same time ...

Due to Yan Guang's awakening, the generals of the Navy are well aware that the main mode of naval warfare in the future is aircraft carriers, and without aircraft carriers of sufficient quantity and quality, China will not be able to overwhelm the United States in the Pacific Ocean.

Although there was no danger of war at this time―――――― at least in the eyes of Xu Shichang and others.

But Yan Guang was very interested in the navy's plan, so not long after the navy's plan was handed in, Yan Guang personally gave instructions.

However, on the aircraft carrier, Yan Guang has a different point of view.

According to the requirements of the Navy, they need a certain number of light aircraft carriers of 30,000 tons and capable of carrying 90 carrier-based aircraft (the number of carrier aircraft here refers to hangars + deck mooring), if you want to say it, it is probably about the same as the Essex-class aircraft carriers in history.

Although Yan Guang does not know much about the historical Pacific theater, he also knows very well that the Essex-class is the largest number of large aircraft carriers built in the history of the United States, and if the design of the Essex-class is not good enough, I am afraid that the Americans will not build more than 20 ships (the plan is to build more, but the war is over before it is built).

And everyone else doesn't care, Yan Guang knows very well that not long after the end of World War II is the era of jets, at that time aircraft carriers of the Essex level are not very useful, after all, the take-off weight and speed of jets are relatively large, and the take-off and landing distances have also increased, so that after the end of World War II, smaller aircraft carriers and escort aircraft carriers can no longer be used.

Even in the United States, after the end of the war, only the Essex and Midway levels were still available.

That's why Yan Guang proposed a new design of a fleet aircraft carrier as large as the [Lingbo] class when the Navy applied for the construction of a large aircraft carrier. In terms of carrier aircraft, the Limbo class can not only be used in the first two, but also the huge size can continue to be used even after the war, and it is estimated that it can be used until the eighties and nineties...

The most important thing is that a large aircraft carrier like the Limbo class is more in line with Yan Guang's aesthetics.

In fact, only Japan's "Shinano" aircraft carrier can be relatively close to such a large aircraft carrier as the Limbo class in history, at least in terms of displacement. Japan's "Shinano" is a large fleet aircraft carrier with a standard displacement of 62,000 tons and a full load displacement of 71,000 tons, but the "Shinano" was very unlucky, it was sunk not long after it was launched, so it was not really put into the battlefield, and it is also the shortest-lived aircraft carrier that has been built, and it is still the largest displacement warship sunk by submarines.

But in fact, it doesn't matter if you don't get into the water or not, because at that time the "Shinano" could no longer change the fate of Japan, not to mention that the "Shinano" was still the third ship of the Yamato-class battleship to start construction, but it was converted into an aircraft carrier in the future, so the "Shinano" has a very small number of aircraft, so although the displacement is not small, it cannot be compared at all...

Of course, Yan Guang will not only let the Navy develop such a large aircraft carrier as the "Ayana" class, after all, a fully enclosed aircraft carrier like the Lingbo class is too large and too long in terms of cost and construction period, so it still needs an ordinary fleet aircraft carrier like the Essex class and an ordinary escort aircraft carrier.

After all, war is not only about quality, but also about quantity.

It's just that compared with the Lingbo class, these two types of aircraft carriers are too inconspicuous, so there are naturally fewer people paying attention. …,――――――――――

Those who have learned about World War II aircraft carriers should know that the number of aircraft carried by US aircraft carriers is higher than that of Britain, Japan, and other countries. There are three main reasons for this, first, some carrier-based aircraft wings can be effectively folded, each aircraft occupies a smaller area, and there are naturally more carrier aircraft, second, the hangar hangars suspend carrier-based aircraft, a one-story hangar, instantly divided into a two-story hangar, third, deck tethered aircraft, instantly the deck becomes a hangar.

Of course, the second item is not very meaningful, after all, one hangar can be changed into two floors, but there is no need to do this in the case of two hangars, the key is still the first and third items.

In addition, although parking the aircraft on the deck will cause greater loss of the aircraft in the wind and sun, especially on the sea, but it doesn't matter if the Americans have a big business...

And now China is similar to the United States in history, so it doesn't matter if the deck is full of planes like an upstart.

In addition, the carrier-based aircraft of World War II, mainly fighters, bombers and torpedo planes, were relatively small in size, and they did not have early warning planes to grab places like later generations, so they naturally appeared to be relatively large in terms of carrying aircraft.

"So..."

Although he was very satisfied with the model in his heart, Yan Guang still said lightly.

"How much time will it take you to build an aircraft carrier..."

"This—" said the young man confidently after thinking about it carefully. Three years, no, two years is enough. ”

There is no steam catapult, and there is no need to think about too many troubles, and three or two years is really about the same...

"Three years..."

Yan Guang thought for a moment and nodded.

"It's a little slower, but it's still okay..."

Saying that, Yan Guang glanced at the young man.

"Now that the preparations have been completed, let's go ahead and build the aircraft carrier, and build the aircraft carrier as early as possible, and if you need anything, you can just tell the navy directly."

Knowing that this was an affirmation of his work, the young man hurriedly saluted Yan Guang with his legs.

"Understood!"

After everyone else had exited the room, Yan Guang's eyes showed a satisfied look once again when he looked at the metal model placed in the center.

"With an aircraft carrier of this level, one of three or five can already launch a large-scale battle..."

When he said this, Yan Guang touched the deck of the aircraft carrier with his fingers, and soon Yan Guang felt a cold feeling of sea water, as if he was sinking to the bottom of the sea...