Chapter 142 I'm Going to Sue You!

"Kurt, Ludwig, you don't have to tell me the benefits of expanding the army. I am not so stupid that I don't know the current situation. But I still want to ask, if France and Belgium are really ready to use force. How should we deal with it?"

In a spacious and imposing office once used by German Emperor Wilhelm II, the aging President Hindenburg sat on a sofa chair and looked at Schleicher and Hersman with turbid eyes.

'He has lost his previous decisiveness and judgment, and he is sometimes clear and sometimes confused. He may have Alzheimer's disease. ' Hersman sighed in his heart.

In fact, Hindenburg did not just know the plan of Hersman and Schleicher today - this plan was formulated by the Ministry of Defense and the General Staff. It took nearly half a year to repeatedly deduce and take into account all possible emergencies.

Before the plan was formulated, Hindenburg and Ludendorff knew it. And after the plan was formulated, it was submitted to the two of them for review. Finally, Hindenburg nodded, and it was pushed forward to the current stage.

"Mr. President," Hessman could not get angry with a president who was probably suffering from Alzheimer's disease, so he could only patiently explain, "If the enemy wants to fight, then we will fight to the end!"

The plan for the fight had been set long ago!

There was a plan to fight France alone; there was also a plan to join the Soviet Union to fight against France and Poland - although the Soviet Union's first five-year plan had not been completed, Poland had taken over the right-bank Ukraine in this time and space, and "pissed off" Lenin. Even Soviet children knew that "White Poland must be eliminated." So once Poland declared war on Germany, Stalin had no choice but to join.

In fact, Stalin had already carried out some mobilizations in January 1931 according to the request of the German side, forming the Ukrainian Front and the Belarusian Front. He also continuously sent SB-1 twin-engine medium bombers (a fast bomber with night flight capability developed by the Soviet Union and Germany) to violate Polish airspace and create tension on the Soviet-Polish border - of course it was a bluff. Stalin did not want to fight Poland now, but he did not want Poland to kill Germany.

"Can we defeat France?" President Hindenburg seemed to have forgotten about Poland and only asked about France.

"We can resist. If the French show signs of attacking," Hessmann said, "the army will send 10 divisions to seize the advantageous terrain in the Rhine region and establish defensive positions. They will hold on there until the expansion is completed..."

"Is it possible?"

"It can be done because our air force will provide support for the ground forces." Hessmann told Hindenburg, "We have stored 150 J.28H heavy bombers (TB-2, but not the original model), 300 Junkers J.30 medium bombers (SB-1, 150 of which are torpedo bombers), 350 Hs-120 dive bombers (Henschel, which produces locomotives, also entered the aviation industry in the late 1920s and jointly developed this dive bomber with Fokker) and 450 Fokker D.20 fighters in the Baltic. The performance of these aircraft is very superior, far ahead of similar French aircraft. And the pilots who fly those aircraft are also very good!"

Because of the support of Soviet and civil aviation orders, Germany's large-scale air cooling was still leading in 1931. Although the Great Depression slowed down the pace of improvement, the 14-cylinder 1200 horsepower air-cooled engine is now very mature. The 14-cylinder 1400 horsepower air-cooled engine has also begun small-scale trial production.

With these superior air-cooled engines, German aircraft manufacturing companies not only still control more than 70% of the global civil aircraft market share, but also have produced several military aircraft with excellent performance.

"Sir, if we go to war with France," said Hersmann, "we will rely on air superiority based on General Douhet's theory to force the other side to make peace."

"Duhet what?" Hindenburg asked with narrowed eyes.

"Giulio Douhet is an Italian general." Ludendorff is younger than his "big brother" Hindenburg and has a clear mind. "He proposed that the army would be useless in future wars and could only stay in trenches, and victory or defeat would be determined by bombing by planes."

"Is that so..." Hindenburg nodded, "Can our planes bomb Paris?"

"We have 450 bombers that can reach Paris!" Schleicher said very proudly, "and the French fighters fly too slowly to catch up with our bombers."

He was actually lying to Hindenburg. The J.28H model loaded with bombs was not very fast and would definitely be caught up by French fighters. However, the J.30 model was indeed very fast, even with bombs loaded, it was faster than the French fighters in service! In addition, both the J.28H and J.30 had the ability to fly at night. Night fighters equipped with radar had not yet been invented - there was no such advanced radar at all. Therefore, the way for fighters to intercept bombers at night was to install a searchlight on the fuselage, but it was basically useless...

So Germany now had 450 planes that could drop bombs on Paris in the dark!

"Sir, war is a low-probability event," Hersman added, "We built these planes only to train pilots and intimidate the French... If they don't take any drastic measures, these planes will continue to be hidden. If they shout for war and killing, then use these planes for a military parade. Let the planes circle around Berlin, so that 1,250 planes can fly the effect of 2,500."

These 1,250 planes are all the assets of the secret German Air Force (most of the pilots are not active military personnel), the public Baltic Air Force and the Baltic Naval Aviation, and are also the only thing that can be shown in the German military. The effect of using it to scare people may be good, but it is definitely not enough for a real fight.

"And we have prepared pacifists," Schleicher said, "The General Cabinet is just a transition and will not exist for more than two months. When the compulsory military service system is implemented, the General Cabinet will transfer power to the elected pacifist politicians."

"Who is the elected pacifist politician?"

"Mr. Adolf Hitler, the leader of the National Socialist German Workers' Party!"

"Oh, a socialist?" Hindenburg breathed a sigh of relief, "Then I am relieved, everyone knows that socialism loves peace. We are the bad guys, and then let him appease the French, which is a way...Okay, I approve that General Seeckt (retired) will serve as the prime minister of the caretaker government until the parliamentary elections are over and the new government is formed."

...

The day after Hersmann met with President Hindenburg, who was a little demented, the major European newspapers published the latest list of the German caretaker cabinet in the most prominent position on the front page - this is a cabinet formed according to President Hindenburg's presidential decree (the power granted to the president by Article 48 of the Weimar Constitution).

"General's cabinet... and a Marshal President! What do these Germans want to do? Do they want to go to war with us?"

In the Prime Minister's Office in Paris, France, Prime Minister Pierre Laval was anxiously turning around in his office. On a chair near his desk, Foreign Minister Aristide Briand, who was nearly 70 years old, squinted his eyes, as if he was drowsy.

"Mr. Briand, what do you think we should do?" Prime Minister Laval turned around a few times and finally returned to Briand - although he was the Prime Minister of the Left-Pai coalition government, Laval still had to listen to Briand on the diplomatic line.

"This is just a caretaker government," Briand glanced at Laval, who was like an ant on the hot pot, "They will have nothing to do in two months."

Will it be a caretaker government? Laval was skeptical.

"I know the Germans. They are different from the Russians," Briand smiled. "Military dictatorship will not appear in Germany. If that happens, their people will probably..."

Before he finished speaking, the phone on the Prime Minister's desk rang rapidly and loudly. Laval and Briand looked at each other. Laval picked up the receiver and listened to a few words. His face suddenly changed.

"Pierre, what's wrong?" Briand asked.

"Something big has happened!" The French Prime Minister's voice was trembling. "The Germans, the Germans are going to tear up the Treaty of Versailles!"

"What? What?" The old man Briand couldn't hold his breath anymore and stood up from his chair. "What happened?"

"They, they announced the restoration of the compulsory military service system. They want to reorganize the German Defense Force into the National Defense Force within 2 months, and expand the army to 800,000! Mr. Briand, what should we do now?"

Aristide Briand's body shook and he almost fell in the office. Expanding the army is obviously the first step for Germany to tear up the Treaty of Versailles! If sanctions are not imposed immediately, the consequences may be disastrous.

But how many sanctions does France have?

"Mr. Briand, should we send troops to the Ruhr area now?" Laval asked in a low voice.

Occupy the Ruhr area again? Briand shook his head and said heavily: "We can't act rashly. It's not 1922 now... Germany is not without resistance. If we want to use force, we must be prepared to pay huge casualties! Moreover, without Poland's help, we are likely to suffer failure."

Poland... will not help! Because the Polish ambassador has been asking for help from the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs every day these days-the Soviet Red Army has been gathering in Ukraine and Belarus, and fast bombers (reconnaissance type) have violated Polish airspace for several days!

In this case, how could Poland go to war with Germany again?

"Mr. Briand, are we just going to let Germany go?" Laval wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, and his tone of voice has been much more relaxed.

"No, we can't let them go like this." Briand was silent for a moment, "We must sanction Germany! We must sue Germany to the League of Nations and demand collective sanctions against Germany!"

————

Although the time for Germany to resume compulsory military service was brought forward, the French Prime Minister did not change. Laval in the book was still in power for the first time. Historically, the left-wing governments in France were like this, not willing to fight hard - they were elected by people who were not willing to fight hard! In fact, it is unfair to accuse the right-wing of appeasement. These things were done by the left-wing saints, the origin of the European saints.