After the Kaiser Wilhelm Restoration, the German national economy gradually shifted to paramilitarization. The production of armaments began to become the center of the entire national economy, and with it was followed by the reorganization of the entire state management system.

The first is the establishment of the Armaments Bureau of the Ministry of National Defense and the Armaments Bureau of the Army, Navy, and Air Force, which is responsible for overseeing the procurement, stockpiling, and trade of armaments by the military. The Armaments Bureaus of the Army, Navy, and Air Force are in charge of each other. Because the Army did not have its own General Headquarters, the Army Armaments Bureau was under the management of the General Staff, and one of Hersman's confidants, Major General Paulus, who had served as his adjutant, became the first Chief of the Army Armaments.

In addition, in addition to an armaments bureau under the General Staff, there is a resource reserve bureau dedicated to the reserve of various important strategic resources. The Russian-German Economic Promotion Company, founded by Hersmann, is now also managed by this resource reserve bureau. The director of the Bureau of Resources Reserve was Oscar, a friend of Hersman in his early years. Feng. Ettel.

The second is the integration between the armaments department of the military and the economic sector of the government. Unlike the Soviet model, Germany's armaments industry is mainly private, and there are very few armaments production enterprises controlled by the Ministry of Defense, except for a few state-built shipyards, which are the former Czechoslovak arsenals and aircraft factories. Therefore, the complete integration of Germany's vast military production capacity was a very complex task that had to be coordinated between the Reich Ministry of Economy, the Reich General Economic Committee and the Armaments Directorate of the Ministry of Defence.

The army, navy, and air force within the national defense system also need to bargain over the issue of arms production. After all, Germany's industrial strength and resources are limited, and the army's need for advanced weapons seems to be never satisfied.

As a result, the Reich Armaments Conference, a joint conference chaired by the Ministry of Defense, attended by the Ministry of Economy, the General Economic Council, the Armaments Bureau of the Ministry of Defense, the Armaments Bureau of the Army, the Navy, and the Air Force under its control, as well as the major armaments production enterprises, has now become an important decision-making meeting on German armaments production.

The decision of the Imperial Armaments Council is only to be passed by the leader and prime minister Adolf. Hitler's approval would have been included in the annual economic plan.

When Hersmann and Falk and Hans. When the three of them walked into a spacious and luxurious conference room. Most of the officials or business owners who attended the meeting had already arrived. But the meeting hadn't even begun, and people were talking to each other, some of them discussing something quickly and urgently.

"General, you're here." The commander of naval aviation, Vice Admiral Graeme, was talking to Air Force Chief General Michelle, the head of the Air Armaments, when he saw Hersman approaching. Immediately went up to greet him.

"How?" Hersman shook his hand, "Talked to Witzel?" ”

Cal. Vice Admiral Witzel was the head of the Naval Armaments Bureau, a representative of the "decisive faction" of the German Navy, who believed that only large battleships could lead to a decisive battle with the British Navy and gain sea supremacy. And his opinion was given by the commander of the Baltic Fleet, Otto. Vice Admiral Schnewend and Chief of Naval Operations Kurt Brown. Support of Major General Flick.

In addition, Hitler, the leader and chancellor of the Reich, was himself a supporter of the "decisive faction" of the navy.

Corresponding to the "decisive battle faction" of the navy is the "breaking of diplomatic relations", including the chief of staff of the navy, Gunter. Vice Admiral Guzawa and Rear Admiral Dönitz, commander of the submarine forces, were both supporters of the "breaking faction." Their idea was to blockade Britain with submarines and shipwrecks, as they had done in the First World War.

And in addition to these two factions, there is a very strange naval "aviation faction". Since the German Navy had not had aircraft carriers for a long time, naval aviation had not been taken seriously - even in the German Navy's Lion-Wide Plan Z. There was also not much share of aircraft carriers, and aircraft carriers were not in the plans of the Navy and were not the main striking force, but the escort of battleship forces.

Therefore, Hersman had no choice but to use the power of the General Staff to directly assign part of the Air Force to the Naval Aviation. Formed with the Air Forces Lieutenant General Robert Brown. Ritter. Feng. The command of naval aviation of which Graham was the commander.

And those officers of the German Navy, who changed from the army to the air force and from the air force to naval aviation, became the more unique figures in the German navy. They are not "aircraft carriers", but advocate the development of shore-based aviation as a method of attacking the surface fleet of the British Navy.

According to the Naval Aviation Command, the Navy needed a twin-engine bomber (shore-based) capable of dive bombing, capable of carrying torpedoes after a simple modification, and with a large range and high speed, and a single-engine escort fighter with a long range (the Fokker Zero was what they wanted).

In their opinion. As long as it can build an air force with a 1,000-kilometer combat radius - the Air Command calls the 1,000-kilometer combat radius "Scapa Bay distance" and has 1,000 aircraft. will be able to blow up the British Navy...... The command of naval aviation even came up with an adventurous plan for a "thousand sneak attacks on Scarpa Bay without declaring war"!

However, their views were opposed by the "battleship faction" and the "submarine faction" of the navy.

In the opinion of the bigwigs of the German Navy, the only one that can destroy one fleet in battle is the other! The plan to use 1,000 planes to attack the Royal Navy anchorage was both risky and unrealistic.

Because there is no such thing as an air superiority fighter with a combat radius of 1,000 kilometers in the world today - because a large range often means a large aircraft, clumsy and inflexible. It is difficult to defeat a fighter with a small range.

……

"Admiral Witzel thinks that the sneak attack plan is unlikely to succeed," Vice Admiral Graham shook his head, "and he thinks that a long-range escort aircraft cannot defeat the latest British Hurricane fighters, and these two aircraft are very good enough to compete with our Bf-109." ”

The British Hurricane and Spitfire were successfully flown in November 1935 and March 1936 respectively. Now the massive equipping of the British Air Force has begun. The German side attached great importance to these two aircraft, tried every possible way to find out their approximate performance, and came to the conclusion that they were "on par with the Bf-109".

To this end, in June 1937, the Luftwaffe Armaments Agency urgently drew up a statement of technical requirements for the development of new fighters and issued them to aircraft manufacturers.

At the same time, considering that Germany does not have an overwhelming advantage in the field of in-line liquid-cooled engines, the Air Force Armaments Agency also gave BMW and Siemens a task book to develop high-power air-cooled engines with a "small windward area".

"Anthony," Hersman looked back at his fat brother-in-law, "what do you think?" ”

"It's hard to say right now," Falk shook his head, "and wait for the plane to be built and simulated with the Bf-109." If we can take on the Bf-109, then we are in luck, after all, this is a long-range aircraft. ”

"Okay." Hersman nodded, the plan of a thousand planes to attack Scapa Bay was indeed very attractive, as if it was a reappearance of the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. But the Zero fighters did not come out, and it was simply impossible to really make plans.

"However, I will still support the Naval Air Force's 'Thousand Aircraft Program'." Hersman said, "By the end of March 1940, I will try to equip you with 1,000 of the latest medium-range bombers and single-engine long-range fighters." But you also need to be ready to support ground operations at all times. ”

"Okay, General!" Lieutenant General Graham smiled and nodded. As a matter of fact, the "1,000-plane sneak attack on Scapa Gulf" was just a brain-opening plan put forward by some aviation staff officers who had stayed in Japan. Even Grime felt that he was taking a risk, so he took it out for the "Thousand Machines Project". As long as the naval air force can be expanded, he will be satisfied.

"General, what do you think of our Plan Z?"

Hersman had just parted ways with Graeme, and before he could get to his seat, Admiral Raeder came over.

"Marshal!" Hersman saluted Raeder, then pulled out two more chairs and invited Raeder to sit on one of them while he sat on the other.

"I support your Plan Z." Hirschman's answer surprised even Raeder himself, who was waiting for Hirschman to cut half of it—the latest revised version of Plan Z was ready to cost 33 billion Reichsmarks and build more than 700 ships of all types. Even in Raeder's view, it is already well beyond Germany's current shipbuilding capacity.

"However, the part of Plan Z about aircraft carriers is too conservative, and 8 aircraft carriers will not be able to complete the task anyway." "We also need to add some carriers...... Including fleet carriers, cruisers, and light escort aircraft carriers. ”

"Admiral," Raeder's brow furrowed again, "Of course I have no objection to adding aircraft carriers, but can we Germany complete the construction of so many ships?" ”

Hersman smiled and patted Raeder's arm, "Marshal, the Navy will get all the ships it wants, I promise." But we can't just rely on the power of Germany, we have to use the power of the European continent to build these ships...... What we are going to build in the future is the combined European fleet, not the German high seas fleet. But before that happens, Germany must first become a European leader. ”

He looked at Raeder, whose expression had become a little disappointed, and said, "Marshal, I need a navy that will be fully operational around 1940, and I still have more than a year to prepare. There are as many ships as there are battles...... And the number of aircraft will be sufficient, and by the end of March 1940 you will have a powerful naval aviation. Plus, by June 1939 you will have a powerful underwater fleet. Rely on these powers to defeat the British! (To be continued.) )