18 18

ke cha chacha (2)

August 2, 1934

Paul von Hindenburg, hero of the Battle of Tannenberg and German president, has died.

The day before he received his heavenly call, I headed to Hindenburg's house with my entourage.

One theory is that Hindenburg, who was lying in a sick bed, saw Hitler and mistook him for Wilhelm II and called him 'Your Majesty,' but that did not happen.

"I'm here, Mr. President."

"You're here."

Hindenburg seemed to be struggling even to speak now. He wanted to talk to me a lot, but his body wouldn't let him.

"As you can see, I'm not feeling very well. "I guess it's time to go."

"Please don't say things like that. "Your Excellency will definitely shake it off and get back on his feet."

"no. I know my body better. This is the last time. I've lived enough to live anyway, so I'm not afraid of death.

However... it just leaves me with a lot of regret. "I wanted to go and see Germany reigning over the world again..."

Our conversation ended there. Hindenburg collapsed, and his doctor rushed over to check on the president's condition.

I had no choice but to say goodbye and leave.

The next day, Hindenburg died.

Field Marshal Roh's last will was 'My Majesty the Emperor, my Germany.'

Before he died, he left me a letter, praising me for working faithfully under him and leaving behind many achievements, as well as a request to reinstate the former Kaiser Wilhelm II, who was in exile in the Netherlands.

Needless to say, it was nagging and I had no intention of doing so.

Not at all.

Even in the previous regression, I died because of those damn Junkers, so who cares?

Above all, the Kaiser is no longer of any use to Germany. If it were the 21st century, it would be of some help in attracting tourists and selling souvenirs, but in Germany in 1934, it would be okay.

Why should I reinstate a man whose only accomplishment was to trash his country and run away to a neutral country? What did the Kaiser do for me while I was in this position?

There will never be a Kaiser in power again in this country.

What Germany needs now is me, not the Kaiser. It's me, Adolf Hitler.

Hindenburg's funeral was held with a state funeral. After the funeral, I decided to serve as both Prime Minister and President.

That's how I became president.

***

When I became President, I first abolished the Treaty of Versailles and reinstated the conscription system.

Restrictions on the military and possession of new weapons, which had been prohibited by the Treaty of Versailles, became possible, and all able-bodied German men were required to undergo a conscription examination and enlist.

Germany's declaration of rearmament caused great controversy not only domestically but also around the world.

In addition to the statement of condemnation, the leaders of Britain, France, and Italy gathered in Stresa, Italy and agreed to build a common front against Germany, creating the so-called 'Stresa system', thereby revealing the check on Germany.

But I wasn't worried.

They were only talking loudly, but they had no intention of going to war.

The incident that proved this was the Anglo-German naval treaty signed with Britain in January 1935.

Although it established the Stresa system, Britain, which wanted to avoid armed conflict with Germany as much as possible, attempted to make individual contacts with Germany and began a full-fledged effort to appease Germany.

The result was the Anglo-German Naval Treaty, which limited the displacement of capital ships to a maximum of 35,000 tons, but allowed the German Navy to build warships up to 35% of the total tonnage of the Royal Navy's capital ships.

As a result, Germany was able to break away from previous restrictions and legally accelerate the rebuilding of its surface fleet.

When I came back with the gift of the Anglo-German Naval Treaty, Leather, who had been stubborn about my opinions until now, became a little more compliant.

His love for battleships was still the same.

Still, my true intention was that I wanted to be with Leather for as long as possible.

Ability is an ability, but during the last return, even though he was a royalist, he rescued me from being imprisoned in the Afveer basement and tried to take me away on a U-boat.

However, his attempt failed because the Junkers noticed first, and he was executed for 'treason'.

Like Leder, Doenitz, who was a royalist but loyal to me, also met the same end.

Even animals know grace, but if people forget, they use it.

"How do you like it?"

"This is by far the best drink I've had in a while."

I invited him to dinner for an honest conversation.

The wine that Leder just drank was the highest quality Chateau Lafite Rothschild specially imported from France.

Since I don't know much about wine, I told him to bring the expensive one, but the more expensive one had a different scent.

It's not the highest quality for nothing.

As I was cutting a well-cooked medium-grilled veal steak - a dish highly recommended by Göring - I was in awe.

"As the Admiral knows, we in Germany are short on money right now. "There are a lot of things that need to be made, but the budget is limited."

"Of course."

Economy Minister Hjalmar Schacht is working hard to revive the economy, but the country still lacks money.

Since we are short on money, we have no choice but to use it as frugally as possible, but we cannot build battleships that require an astronomical amount of money.

In fact, it is not impossible to create the large fleet that Leder wants. To do that, you have to give up the Army and Air Force.

"We have to build not only battleships, but also U-boats, destroyers, and put sausages on the soldiers' plates. There are a lot of places to put money. Why would I hate battleships? "I would like to have all the battleships in the world if I could."

"Hehehe..."

Even though it's a calf, it doesn't change the fact that it's a cow, so I wondered if it would taste different, but it really did. It was much softer and sweeter than regular beef. Just kill me.

"Let's do it this way."

When I judged that the atmosphere was sufficiently ripe, I explained the plan to increase naval power, commonly known as 'Plan Z'.

The original Z plan was to build 10 battleships, 3 battlecruisers, 4 aircraft carriers, 12 pocket battleships, 5 heavy cruisers, 35 light cruisers, 68 destroyers, 249 U-boats, and 90 torpedo boats, but of course this was unreasonable. all.

I worked hard to revise this crazy plan, and as a result, Plan Z was drastically reduced from its historical counterpart.

"There are 4 battleships, 8 heavy cruisers, 16 light cruisers, aircraft carriers and torpedo boats remain the same, 40 destroyers, and 300 U-boats. "What do you think?"

"······It seems there are more U-boats than I expected."

"Admiral, you don't know very well how active U-boats were in the last war. Originally, the plan was to build 500 ships, but even this was modified. "If you feel the same way-"

"Okay, I understand."

Leather didn't seem to like it very much, but eventually accepted my plan. At least he was a person who did not ignore reality.

"Actually, I doubt whether even this will be able to dry in time. "It's been a long time since our engineers built a battleship, and the Army and Air Force are also complaining that too much budget is being allocated to the Navy."

"I know. Still, I am grateful that His Excellency the President thinks so much about the Navy."

"I'm glad you understand."

***

This is a little later, but let's talk about tank development in advance. Tank No. 2, which was finally decided to be developed despite strong opposition from the Army, was successfully produced as a prototype.

The test results of the prototype were successful, and mass production was naturally decided.

After convincing the military for a long time, we agreed to mass produce only 500 units and to stop mass production of Tank No. 1 from December 1935, when mass production of Tank No. 2 began.

Tank No. 3, for which the Army had the highest expectations, met a different fate than Tank No. 2.

A prototype was released in December 1935, but the coil spring suspension applied to Panzer 3 had problems, making driving virtually impossible.

The Ordnance Bureau, taken aback, replaced the coil spring suspension with a leaf spring suspension and changed the official name from Tank 3 Type A to Type B to create a second prototype, but this one also went viral soon after it started running.

"Fail again?"

"I'm sorry, Mr. President."

"Now that we have figured out most of the problems, it will be fine next time. "Please wait a moment."

Engineers created Type C, which corrected various problems in Type B, but even this Type C had many problems. Not only was there frequent minor breakdowns, but when the output was increased, a fire broke out in the engine.

It's brand new and fresh from the factory.

"Were you planning on sending soldiers to the front lines in this trash?"

"Well, Mr. President. "That's not it..."

"There must be some mistake. So, if you give us a little more time and budget-"

"Do you know that this is already the third time I've said that? How many chances should I give you? What will you do next time if you get the same result? Are you going to spit out all the budget you wasted?"

I did not miss the opportunity to push the Ordnance Bureau, and eventually got them to surrender.

Development of Panzer 3 was discontinued. As a result, Tank No. 3 and Assault Gun No. 3 would no longer appear in the world.

Since issue 3 was sold out, there was only issue 4 left. Tank No. 4 was planned to be heavily armored under my direction from the beginning, taking into account the strengthening of the armament of later generations.

"The front armor of the hull should be 80 mm, the front armor of the turret should be 50 mm, the sides and rear of the hull and turret should be 30 mm, the maximum speed should be 40 km/h, and the overall weight should not exceed 26 tons. "Is that possible?"

"It is possible, but in this case, it will be different from the original plan and will take more time to develop. Do you mind?"

"It's okay. It would be nice if the results came out quickly, but I know that it would be difficult in reality. It may take some time, but create the perfect item. Do you understand?"

"All right."

At this time, I was planning not only the Panzer 4, but also a derivative version using the chassis of the Panzer 4.

First of all, there are only five: self-propelled guns, rescue tanks, bridge tanks, assault tanks, and anti-aircraft tanks.

There were countless variants of the 4th Panzer, but their roles and performances often overlapped with each other. No. 4 assault gun, No. 4 tank destroyer, etc.

It is not a buffet, and it is never a good thing to have many weapon systems with similar performance on display.

It was necessary to block this in advance because it not only made the military logistics system unnecessarily complicated, but also had a negative impact on productivity.

If Germany's original history was small-scale production of many varieties, I plan to change it to mass-production of small varieties.

Since I had received negative orders regarding the development of the 3rd Panzer, the Ordnance Department engineers did their best to work on it this time.

In addition, all the capital and manpower that would have originally been invested in the development of Tank 3 were invested in the development of Tank 4, so the development speed was surprisingly fast.

The first Panzer IV prototype appeared in May 1937. After seeing the prototype, I couldn't help but express my satisfaction.

"Yes, this is it! "I wanted this!"

The Type 4 F1 tank, which would appear only in 1941, was before my eyes.

The generals and technicians of the Ordnance Department, who were looking at me with anxious faces, let out the breath they had been holding and were relieved to see me cheering.

Anyone who sees me will think I came back from the dead. Don't kill them, you guys.

"Thank you for your hard work. It looks like you didn't sleep well. "You really did a great job."

"Thank you, Mr. President."

With a smile on my face, I approached the technicians who were sweating and taking out handkerchiefs.

"Now, it would be perfect if we just change the main gun to a bigger and stronger one."

"Now, didn't you hear well...?"

The technicians' faces turned pale, as if they had seen ghosts.

Why are you so surprised? I was just stating the obvious.

Gongdori tastes best when it is rolled.