Iron Cross

It turned out that the container was not military supplies at all. It was all women's nylon stockings and linen pajamas. The quantity was as much as 6 tons. After asking the captured American quartermaster, I found out that these were supplies that the United States was preparing to exchange with the local residents. They were all from It is purchased from various manufacturers and large shopping malls on the eastern coast with the purpose of attracting the Arab indigenous people.

Kondo Nobutake immediately said in a sarcastic tone: "Oh, Americans are so thoughtful... They are all thinking about this, can the war still be fought?"

"Isn't there intelligence that American soldiers can spend a night with British women on the British Isles with just a pair of socks? The British have actually fallen to this..." After hearing what Lieutenant General Qing Shuiguangmei said, the group of people all laughed and said, "You Got it” smile.

Speaking of which, the Japanese navy learned from the British. Twenty years ago, the British navy was a teacher that Japan looked up to from afar and was unattainable. Unexpectedly, it was now pushed to the ground and beaten by the combined fleet. Naturally, everyone felt particularly proud.

Horikichi shook his head slightly. The Americans' exchange of supplies was much more sophisticated than the Japanese's direct plundering, but everyone was in high spirits. He really couldn't bear to ruin the atmosphere, so he looked over it with as much interest as everyone else. The top brass of the Navy have all seen the world. If nothing else, they are fluent in English. When talking to American quartermasters, they don’t need an interpreter at all. They quickly know the actual value of these things. Considering the figure and tradition of Japanese women, It was really of no use. Except for some officers who took some as commemorative gifts for returning home, they decided to give all the goods to the Germans as a reward for the head of state's generous gift of aircraft.

The German side was also stunned. They didn't know that there would be such a harvest. They wanted to laugh but failed in the end. After receiving this batch of supplies, they hurriedly sent instructions to the country to ask how to deal with it.

At the high-level meeting, Speer shouted that department stores should be sold to recycle national debt. Himmler and Bormann also agreed with this, but Dr. Goebbels had another strange approach: "Don't sell it, just distribute it! Distribute it to military families, First count the quantity, and then issue them according to the standard of the medal level, such as 2 pairs of socks for the Iron Cross Level 2, 4 pairs of socks for the Iron Cross Level 1, Knight's Cross plus linen pajamas. If there are any left, they will be issued according to the military rank level starting from Major General. Distributing it to the lower ranks, major generals and above, they don’t like these, and give some to the Italians, from leaders to officers, they will definitely like this stuff.”

When talking about the virtues of Italians, everyone smiles knowingly.

"Good!" Hoffman exclaimed, "Doctor, this is a great idea! Trophies should be enjoyed by soldiers and their families. This is an affirmation of honor and sacrifice, and cannot be bought casually with money."

"Also give out some of the seized canned Spam meat, rum, coffee, candies, and biscuits?"

"All materials with relatively rich products will be distributed! If there are not enough, we can exchange them with the Japanese for equipment. They should have a lot of them. The party branches in various places must organize this activity well and prevent corruption. Comrade Bowman, this work is handed over to Here you go. "Hoffman knew that after the execution of the General Massacre, the working hours of the German working class were extended, and the pay and treatment were substantially reduced. Although the German army was encouraged by its victorious performance on the battlefield. People's morale is high, but there is also an urgent need for substantial benefits to improve reputation and prestige. This material distribution is a beneficial and cost-effective move.

Another thing that makes Hoffman extremely happy is that the first cargo of Iraqi crude oil in the Middle East was finally shipped out this morning. It took a lot of brainpower to transport this cargo of crude oil. The crude oil was first loaded from Mosul and then transported by rail to Alexandria. The overall route is 1,600 kilometers long. One train can only transport 1,500 tons at a time, and in It took 2 days on the road (4 days round trip), and it took 7 trains to get the first tanker. The oil tankers seized at the remaining two ports are all on their way back to China and will arrive in China before the end of the month.

Speer quickly mobilized domestic train transportation management experts to go to the Middle East to calculate. After on-site inspection, if economic factors were not taken into account, the maximum oil transportation capacity in a day could only reach 10,000 tons. If troop transportation and normal transportation were also taken into account, this number would only be half. Or even less.

Therefore, he frowned and reported: "The most economical way is to build an oil pipeline from Mosul directly to Beirut, Lebanon, and then transport the ship from Beirut to Croatia and then send it back to the country. The cost of this method is only 15% of the railway transportation." One-tenth, even including the construction cost, it is less than one-tenth. The only problem is that it requires a lot of steel pipes, labor and time; another way is to use large oil tankers to load the ships from Basra or Abadan, and then go to Persia The cost of this method is about one-eighth of that of railway transportation, and there is no need to wait for construction time. The problem is that it is not safe enough. For example, the British send planes to bomb Basra or Abadan, or bomb The ships in the Persian Gulf will cause us great losses. In addition, Malta in the Mediterranean is very dangerous. The British have little strength now, and it will be difficult to say once they regain their breath."

Hoffman knew that this route, which was tens of thousands of kilometers long, was the main transportation route for Europe to obtain crude oil supply after the war. The problem was that after the war, oil tankers were getting bigger and bigger, and ships of more than 100,000 tons abounded. Now oil tankers are still At the level of tens of thousands of tons, a 30,000-ton oil tanker is considered large. It is quite troublesome to ship, and there is no time to build large oil tankers at all.

He finally made the decision: "Two-pronged approach! Let the French, Dutch, and Belgians produce the oil pipeline, and let the coolies - Jews and Polish prisoners of war do the work. Then hire some local workers through the Iraqi government. We can exchange weapons with the Iraqis." "As for the second one, until the pipeline is built, it will be transported by tanker for the time being. Don't worry about Malta, that will be our next step. What I'm concerned about is whether the crude oil supply problem has been solved now."

“It can only be said that it has been basically solved,” Speer said. “After evaluation, experts believe that the current annual oil production of Iraq, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia can be stabilized at around 6 million tons. As the repair project progresses, it can rise to 200,000 tons next year. More than 8 million tons. I originally expected that there would be a shortfall of 5 million tons starting in July, but now this gap can be filled. Oil exploration in Libya has also made significant progress, and we have discovered several high-yield oil wells - we need one. The construction period of one and a half years, that is, it can provide 2 to 3 million tons of crude oil starting from July 1944 at the earliest, which will help fill the gap that may occur in 1944. "

Hoffman looked disappointed: "I thought the crude oil was enough, and I was considering stopping the coal liquefaction."

"Why...why?"

"First of all, the quality of the liquefied oil is very poor and the cost is too high; secondly, I am considering other uses for this coal - intending to use it to generate electricity."

When he heard Hoffman talk about power generation, Speer immediately reacted - this was prepared for the super bomb project. Although the equations recalculated by other experts could not fully deduce the results shown by the "intelligence", they were at least consistent with the naval power. Heisenberg's conclusions were inconsistent, which showed that there was a problem with the original calculation. Experts including Heisenberg recognized this and agreed to continue in-depth theoretical research. Although the use of uranium-235 or plutonium as the super bomb charge is still controversial, given that the funds have been allocated and Hoffmann's insistence, the project expert team is ready to try to enrich uranium and refine plutonium at the same time, both of which require a large amount of electricity. In addition to this, rising aircraft manufacturing requires large quantities of aluminum alloys, which are also obtained through electrolysis. Therefore, electricity supply has quickly become the second largest energy gap after crude oil.

"Then we can only hope to win over the Persian oil fields." Speer calculated, "If we can get another 6 million tons of crude oil in Persia, regardless of transportation restrictions, it can basically replace the liquefied part. The only pity is What’s more, the Abadan Refinery was bombed by the British. Engineers said that after emergency repairs, it can only provide 1 million tons of refining capacity, and it may take one to one and a half years to restore it to 3 million tons.”

"It doesn't matter if there are 1 million tons, at least the oil used by the troops in the Middle East does not need to be transported thousands of miles from the mainland. As for the additional 6 million tons..." Hoffman gritted his teeth and said, "Well, then we can only If we continue to fight, it seems that I will have to invest another 100,000 to 150,000 people in the Middle East. Kesselin and Guderian are also planning to fight in Kenya and Madagascar.”

Kenya was within everyone's expectations, but Madagascar was really far away. It took me a long time to look at the map to find this island, which was tens of thousands of kilometers away from the German mainland. The location was very important, and the distance was really far enough.

"I don't doubt that we can defeat it, but it is easy to occupy but difficult to hold on." Speer, who is not a soldier, feels the risks involved. "This is all maintained by the navy. The Japanese fleet cannot be stationed in the Indian Ocean permanently, but we have The navy is so weak."

"There will be a naval armament meeting in five days. You should communicate with Marshal Redel first."

The last thing Speer reported was the issue of equipment export to Japan: According to the original agreement, the core part was to provide Japan with 1,000 tanks and 1,000 aircraft. Although the latest models were required, this was a vague concept. Germany's latest tank is the Tiger. Not to mention giving 1,000 to Japan, Germany has not built 1,000 of its own until now. The same goes for aircraft.

After mediation and communication by the three Japanese people living in Germany and with the consent of Tokyo, the two sides agreed that the tank model should be No. 4. Unfortunately, Germany itself is not in sufficient supply of No. 4, whether it is the expansion of the 1943 armored division or the existing establishment of some armored divisions. The gap was filled and everyone was eagerly looking forward to the new tank coming off the production line. In 1943, the entire production task was fully booked, so a compromise plan was finally proposed, using the No. 4 26-ton weight as a unit to provide it to Japan.