Two Hundred and Twenty-Five Hours

Even in the eyes of the far-sighted Augustus, "Project Cerberus" is still too radical. [Starting] Augustus believed that even after the German Army had achieved a fluke victory over France, it was simply unable to continue the ocean landing operation against the United Kingdom. What's more, there is no certainty that Germany's weak navy can keep a check in the face of the British Royal Navy.

This conservative estimate made Arcardo extremely depressed, because no one was optimistic that the German navy with the aircraft carrier as the core could win the naval battle, and even Raedl had no confidence in defeating the United Kingdom. Brauchitch also expressed doubts about the Navy's ability to protect the landing site, making Project Cerberus a joke.

Augustus hoped that Arcador would exercise restraint and drag the war to 1939 or even 1940. He believed that at that time Germany had already entered a state of war, and the navy had accumulated enough to challenge British sea power. is a wise choice. But August himself admitted that Britain and France did not seem to give Germany so much time.

Yes, time, what Arcador lacks is time, a lot of time. If he has time, he can reserve more strategic resources, build more armored units, and produce more aircraft and artillery. If he has time, he can train his army of millions and expand the German army to 5 million or even 5.5 million. if there is time……

Unfortunately, he doesn't have time now. Britain has been on his guard, and France has even begun to mobilize troops to meet him. If we wait any longer, it will only make Germany's strategic situation worse. The national conditions that can't wait, and the army that is not fully prepared, presumably Hitler's Germany is also constantly choosing between these two depressing intervals, right?

In fact, the current situation of Germany is much better than that of Germany in another time and space, because Arkado's wisdom and experience have helped Germany save a lot of resources that can change the result.

For example, the German Army did not re-produce hundreds of P-1 tanks, nor did they produce P-2s in large numbers. Those tight steel and raw materials were used to produce the more advanced new Panther tank, which proved to be more than capable of all tasks at present.

In the same way, Germany did not waste steel on super weapons that looked powerful but actually had no meaning. Projects such as train guns and tiger tanks have been stopped, and the steel and production capacity saved by these projects are all It has been used in the production of Panther tanks.

The Air Force has also passed through the exploration stage under Arkado's plan. Now the fighter jets used by the Air Force are sufficient for any needs in the early stage of the war, and the follow-up models are also being developed frantically. As a major user of raw materials, it did not produce aircraft such as -17 and he-111, which also saved a lot of materials for the Air Force.

Of course, there are also the navy, famous warships such as Basemarck and Tirpitz, which have now become aircraft carriers. In fact, in terms of the use of steel,

The steel used by the German Navy's 10 aircraft carriers to launch is not as much as that of the battleships and heavy cruisers, which also ensures that in future wars, Germany can have the resources to continue to produce their naval weapons.

But even if there is no detour, resources are still tight, because the navy, army and air force are big users of resources, and they compete for any useful metal: they compete with each other for every ton of steel, every technical engineer, and even Compete for every briquettes in every boiler.

The army needed more tanks. In 1937, various German weapons factories equipped the troops with 1,300 new Panther tanks, and also provided repair parts for 400 tanks, not counting the 1,100 cars and 1000 armored reconnaissance vehicles. But the army still feels that its armored fighting vehicles are pitiful.

This is indeed the case: Germany has expanded 7 Panzer Corps, these units include 14 tank armored divisions, and 7 armored infantry divisions. Each armored army should be equipped with nearly 800 tanks, so theoretically the German army should be equipped with at least 5,600 tanks at this time - the actual situation is that the total number of tanks the German army has now is only 3,900, and most of the armored divisions are dissatisfied, at least The number of tanks is not full.

Take the 1st Armored Army as an example. As one of the best main forces in the whole army, in fact, at the beginning of the Polish campaign, this army only had 479 tanks that could be activated, which was about a little more than half of its full staff. Combining this number was the result of a lot of hard work in the entire army.

In order to meet the needs of the main force, the 5th and 6th light armored divisions only had a poor Panther tank destroyer battalion, and the remaining tank troops were filled with No. 2 tanks and Czech 38t tanks. Even so, the two armored armies are not satisfied with the formation, and each army only has 510 tanks.

Under the golden halo of advancing 50 kilometers a day in the Polish campaign, two-thirds of the German artillery was dragged by horses. Nearly half of the infantry were little changed from World War I - the other third were slightly better, but only with a better rifle.

Even such a Wehrmacht unit, which was not fully motorized, drank one-fifth of Germany's oil reserves in one go in the Battle of Poland. Even in such a Wehrmacht where half of the people are still using the Mauser 98k rifle, the use of steel shells to fight has consumed the total amount of steel that made Arkado depressed for a while.

The cruel reality did not affect the army's beautiful vision of the future. In the white paper on the construction of the Wehrmacht in 1937, Marshal Brauchitch hoped to have 5 million Wehrmacht soldiers before 1940. These soldiers will be equipped with 11,200 tanks and 5,600 infantry. Assault guns, about 50,000 cars, and 33,000 large and small caliber guns - this is probably asking for a three-fold expansion of the current arms production line.

Of course, compared with Marshal Brauchitch, Air Force Commander Catherine is much more rational. He "only" asked to "double" the existing 2,700 fighter jets. Of course, his deputy, Dick, was a bit radical, because he was in charge of the development of a large-scale bomber project with 4 rounds. He believed that Germany should be equipped with at least 1,500 new 4-round long-range strategic bombers in 1941.

5,500 fighter jets, together with 2,000 Stuka dive bombers, 1,500 -217 medium bombers, and 1,500 large long-range bombers about to be put into production, this number is enough to make German aviation companies work overtime to produce for a long time. Of course, if a war begins, in order to maintain the size of the Air Force, the speed of producing aircraft can only be faster.

This does not include the helicopter project that Germany is developing. The Air Force, Navy and Army are very optimistic about this project. It is initially expected to be put into use in 1939. As for the number of helicopters produced, the Air Force wants about 750 helicopters, the Army wants to equip 2,500, and the Navy is the most conservative, and plans to equip 100 "early adopters" first.

Therefore, Germany's existing 30,000 pilot reserve cannot meet the needs of the Air Force at all, and Arcardo also agreed that the pilot reserve should be expanded to more than 50,000. These all require investment, a new flight school, a new trainer, a new fighter production line, and countless metal resources.

The navy is even more bloody. Inspired by being blocked back to Wilhelmshaven by the British Royal Navy, Raedl submitted a plan for the future of the Navy that made Arcador laugh and cry. The plan required Germany to build almost every type of ship it could find: he asked Build two 40,000-ton class battleships, 4 20,000-ton class heavy cruisers, and then build 4 aircraft carriers, 25 cruisers, 40 destroyers, 20 minelayers, and 30 torpedo boats.

He even put forward a point of view in the plan that made Marshal Brauchitch scolded: "Since the army has won the battle, it means that the current number of weapons is almost enough, and the production resources provided to the army should be stopped and all assigned to the navy. to produce more warships."

Of course, Dönitz's requirements are not so fancy. He only asked to double the number of submarines built in 1937 in 1938 to ensure that when he launched the wolf riding tactic in 1938, about 200 ocean-going submarines could be used. That's it. Of course, Akado's reply to him was also very simple: "I can't do it!"

If there is time, Accardo can calmly import qualified natural rubber from Myanmar and the Philippines; if there is time, Accardo can transport tens of thousands of tons of high-quality crude oil from the Middle East; if there is time, Allowing Arcardo to import steel and rare metals that Germany desperately needs from all over the world. Of course, Akado is willing to wait a few more years to make his war resource reserves more abundant, but... time does not allow him to do so.

Britain's vigilance made Germany's maritime trade difficult. The German High Seas Fleet has vaguely become a thorn in the side of the Royal Navy. The painstaking deception has long ceased to work, and the naval fleet with an aircraft carrier can no longer pretend to be weak to win the sympathy of the British.

In addition, after a long two-month wait, France and the United Kingdom found that the German army still did not launch the promised war on the Soviet Union, but instead shipped a large number of troops to the Western Front. A large number of British and French troops also began to be transported to the front. This news has been confirmed by German intelligence personnel, and intelligence shows that these British and French troops are equipped with a large number of heavy weapons.

It's time to call it quits, because all intelligence fraud and diplomacy have lost their effectiveness. So in order to ensure victory, Arcador felt that it was time to have a decisive battle with the British and French coalition forces on land and the Royal Navy at sea. Because while Germany is not ready for war now, England and France are not. At least in the degree of preparation for war, Germany still has the advantage. And this advantage is quite obvious.

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