January 30, 1933 is a day in German history. On this day, Reinhardt, the head of the Socialist Workers' Party, became the German chancellor.

The youngest German general, who is about to turn 30, has the title of youngest chancellor in an instant.

For this, the leaders of many countries sent their congratulations. Stalin, the supreme leader of the Soviet Union, even sent a congratulatory letter written in his own handwriting.

You know, when Gustav was inaugurated as president of Germany, Stalin only said a polite congratulations. Now, he is showing excessive enthusiasm for the inauguration of a tiny German chancellor.

Of course, Stalin's actions made sense both in public and private.

Yu Gong said that Stalin, who had secretly cooperated with Germany for many years, clearly felt that Reinhardt's power and influence in Germany were by no means just like that of an ordinary chancellor. To some extent, Reinhardt's attitude is representative of the attitude of the entire German leadership.

Speaking privately, when Tukhachevsky returned all the responsibility for the defeat of the Soviet-Polish war to him, it was Reinhardt who asked him by name to cooperate with him, so as to maintain his position at that time.

Then, Reinhardt ordered the German cadets of the Tucker Hill School in Germany, under Stalin's arrangement, to bypass the Soviet personnel and secretly kill Stalin's rivals Zinoviev, Kamenev, Bukharin, and Pidakov. This move directly helped Stalin ascend to the throne of the supreme leader of the Soviet Union.

Although Stalin was increasingly wary of Reinhardt, on the surface, the Soviet supreme leader and Reinhardt were almost like the closest comrades-in-arms in the world.

In April 1933, the German Navy launched its 12th new destroyer, which further accelerated the reconstruction of the German Navy and erected the skeleton of the future German Navy.

12 new destroyers, all produced under the supervision of Reinhardt. This new destroyer, which has weakened its artillery combat capability, has greatly strengthened its air defense capability, and is also equipped with a new type of anti-submarine equipment called "sonar".

With the intervention of Reinhardt, a "naval-born", German shipyards adopted a new assembly line manufacturing method and produced 12 identical new destroyers. This manufacturing method has been proven to greatly improve the efficiency of shipbuilding.

Moreover, the trained destroyer sailors can work skillfully on any new destroyer in the future. Once they have accumulated enough experience, they can be transferred to a new destroyer and lead the inexperienced recruits to master how to use it.

In other words, every time Germany launches a new destroyer in the future, it will be able to quickly equip it with a core crew that can be skillfully maneuvered.

Unlike in history, the new destroyer this time slightly improved the 88mm anti-aircraft gun and used it as a flat-height dual-purpose gun for the destroyer, and was additionally equipped with a large number of 37mm anti-aircraft guns.

In addition, Reinhardt, with its anti-submarine awareness, equipped each destroyer of the "Z" class with a large number of depth charges, equipped with anti-submarine torpedo tubes.

The fly in the ointment is that the main guns of the "Z" class destroyers have been changed from the planned 150mm guns to the 88mm flat-height dual-purpose guns proposed by Reinhardt, resulting in a reduction in their anti-ship capabilities. In firepower encounters with the British Royal Navy, and even the French Navy, the destroyers of the "Z" class did not have a superiority in firepower.

However, given that the German Navy's current strategic goal was to break the engagement rather than a decisive battle at sea, there was not much opposition to Reinhardt's reduction in the caliber of the destroyer's main guns.

In fact, the "Z" class destroyer has a speed of up to 38 knots at its limit, which makes it extremely survivable in an engagement. As long as it is properly commanded, it will be difficult for even the British naval fleet to intercept it.

Therefore, the German Navy selectively ignored the poor anti-ship firepower of the "Z" class destroyers.

Of course, Reinhardt's request for these new warships was not made for a naval engagement, as the German navy's top brass thought.

In Reinhardt's vision, these new warships, with intensive anti-aircraft firepower and the strongest anti-submarine capabilities of our time, will become the escort fleet of German Zeppelin-class aircraft carriers in the future.

Reinhardt's plan for a future naval battle was not for the German battleships to take the lead and the British Royal Navy in a duel of cannons. Rather, as far as possible, through the carrier-based aircraft of aircraft carriers, attacked the British fleet.

After all, the steel consumed by carrier-based aircraft is not even a fraction of that of a battleship. Exchanging fighter planes for sinking the opponent's warship was the most asymmetrical deal Reinhardt found from later summaries.

It is a pity that the British Royal Navy, which received information on the caliber of the guns of the German "Z" class destroyers, was unusually easy. Showing no fear of these new battleships of Germany's naval warfare capability "garbage" further relaxed the vigilance against Germany.

According to the assessment report of the British Royal Navy, the danger index of the German Navy is less than half that of the French Navy next door.

After all, the French "Jaguar"-class destroyers have 5 130mm guns, which is much higher than the 88mm guns of the German "Z"-class destroyers.

Of course, Reinhardt, who pursued aircraft carrier tactics, did not completely abandon the construction work on the battleship.

Under the terms of the secret cooperation with the Soviet Union, Chancellor Reinhardt ordered the construction of three battleships in arrears for the Soviet Union at the same time.

These three battleships were the original historical Bismarck, Gneisenau, and Scharnhorst. However, they are now called Peter the Great, Lenin's Mentor, and Stalin's Leader.

Among them, the Stalin Leader, with a displacement of more than 50,000 tons, was one of the most combat-ready battleships.

Putting Stalin on the same level as Peter the Great and Lenin, Reinhardt's intentions were already obvious.

Battleship, he will definitely rely on it in the end. Reinhardt even thought about the captain of the future battleship Stalin's Leader, so he asked his former superior, Admiral Ludwig von Reutt, who had planned Operation Rainbow together, to serve as him.

Ludwig, like Reinhardt, was regarded by the German people as a hero who preserved the honor of the German navy. Moreover, Ludwig also commanded the battleship Emperor in the Battle of Hagulan Bay in World War I, and has a lot of experience.

Let Ludwig be the captain of the strongest battleship in the German Navy, not only because Reinhardt is very confident in his ability, but also because Reinhardt subconsciously expresses an attitude, an attitude of employing people!

In the end, although not prepared to let the Soviets get their hands on the battleships, Reinhardt insisted that Stalin should be addicted to naming.

Therefore, the German side asked the Soviet government very seriously and responsibly whether it was feasible to call the three battleships Peter the Great, Lenin's Mentor, and Stalin's Leader for the time being.

Of course, this German naming proposal was gladly accepted by Stalin, who was far away in Moscow.