Iron Cross

As night fell, while Wendell and Schultz were drinking and chatting in the club, a group of senior Air Force generals were anxiously waiting in the Air Force Operations Room for the announcement of personnel appointments.

After Göring was liquidated and Milch stepped aside, facing the hot seat of Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force, several generals who thought they were qualified set off a wave of competition. They may try their best to find out the president's preferences. Or they ask powerful people to help them in a roundabout way, or even become a little absent-minded in their daily work. This made Hoffman very dissatisfied but had nothing to do. The only good thing was that at this delicate moment, no one dared to strongly object to Speer's supervision of the manufacturing and adjustment of air force equipment - otherwise the head of state would definitely regard him as indifferent. overall situation and eliminate the ranks of competitors.

"The personnel adjustment is now announced. In view of the special status and current situation of the Air Force, the head of state will temporarily serve as Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force, and Field Marshal Albert Kesselring will serve as the First Deputy Commander and be in charge of southern operations; Hugo Speller Marshal served as deputy commander, in charge of the Western Front Air Force operations; Robert Rittel von Greim was promoted to General and served as deputy commander, in charge of the Eastern Front Air Force operations; General Wolfram von Richthofen Transferred to the Navy as Commander of Naval Aviation; General Hans Jeshunek continues to serve as Chief of Staff of the Air Force."

After Keitel announced his appointment, there were many expressions on everyone's faces, including sadness, surprise, astonishment, and joy. Hoffman was observing their expressions and guessing their inner world. The concurrent appointment as commander of the Air Force was the result of his careful consideration. As an independent force, the Third Reich Air Force made too many mistakes under the leadership of Göring, which must be comprehensively corrected to have any hope.

He reprimanded in a rare, almost growling tone: "Under the leadership of Goering, the pig, the Air Force has made too many mistakes. If only some reasons can be found at the operational level, there are many problems in the organization. It is even more outrageous that the command organization, staff organization, production and equipment organization, personnel and administrative organization, training and communication organization - as long as the departments with a little power are trying to do their own thing independently, the functions of the Air Force and the Ministry of Aviation are interfering with each other. , Milch and Goering argued with each other, and Milch and Udet argued with each other. The High Command told me that the Air Force has a strength of nearly 2 million, but now there are no more than 8,000 combat aircraft even including backward equipment-the same size. The British use less than 800,000 aircraft, and the Americans only need 1 million. The Russians' management is chaotic enough, but if they also have the same aircraft, they need up to 1.2 million people. What does this mean about our manpower? Resources have been wasted like never before. I asked you to support the Army, but this bastard actually took out the Air Force Field Division - the Army told me that the Air Force Field Division must not be placed on the front line, because not only will it not serve as reinforcement, but it will also require the Army to draw additional troops. Protect them."

"So." He knocked on the table hard, "I gave an order to the Supreme Command. The four field divisions that have been formed and the six field divisions that are about to be completed will all be transferred to the Army as supplementary troops. The formation of the four field divisions that are not progressing quickly is The Shelf Division was converted into a guard camp, and Milch was commanded to be responsible for the management of the prisoner of war camp. In addition, the 'Hermann Goering' paratrooper armored brigade could no longer use the name of this traitor. I suggested changing its name to 'Flying Fortress' as a base camp. The direct force will be expanded into an armored division at the end of this year."

Seeing that the Führer had quietly removed 200,000 people from the Air Force, Speller became anxious and wanted to stand up to express his objections, but Kesselring stopped him with a look. Although he didn't understand why Kesselring wouldn't let him speak, no one who could be a marshal was an idiot, so he suppressed his anger and sat down again.

Hoffman saw their little actions and said in an unquestionable tone: "Maybe you are not satisfied with these orders, but now is not the time for us to care about personal gains and losses, but we need to work together to tide over the difficulties. The Imperial Aviation Department will provide support. The personnel who were downsized were partially transferred to other agencies, and some were transferred to combat agencies. The commander-in-chief and three deputy commanders were responsible for the third-line operations. The chief of general staff of the Air Force was fully responsible for other daily affairs and reported directly to the commander-in-chief. Some people continue to follow Göring's way, I don't mind continuing to adjust." After hearing the tone of the head of state, everyone was shocked and immediately put aside their little thoughts - since the head of state can deal with the imperial marshal and exile the air force. The number two figure can also masturbate easily. From the conclusion of "suicide by taking poison", we can see that the head of state will never show mercy when he makes up his mind.

General Jeshunek is the youngest and happiest among these people: under the Führer's thunderous methods, he not only got rid of his two difficult mothers-in-law, but also actually obtained the daily management rights of the Air Force, not to mention the fact that he could also report to the Führer Reported directly, he was overjoyed. He stood up and expressed his position: "I firmly support the head of state's transformation and adjustment of the air force. I am always loyal to the head of state's leadership and am willing to contribute all my strength to the empire!" The rest of the people also stood up and expressed their opinions one by one. determination. Keitel was overjoyed. The High Command finally reached out to the Air Force. In the future, there would no longer be a monolithic independent kingdom. For this reason, the move to purge the Imperial Marshal must be praised.

Hoffman nodded and continued: "The situation facing the Air Force is very serious. There are two priorities in future operations: First, local air defense, which must intercept British bombings. After transitioning to a wartime system, I can no longer tolerate bombing targets. The massacre of the people, the destruction of production, and the blow to morale; the second is to ensure air superiority on the southern front. The southern front will be our focus in the next six months to one year. If we cannot suppress the British and American offensives on the southern front, the entire The flanks of the empire will be exposed. For this reason, I appointed Lieutenant General Joseph Kamhuber as the director of air defense to coordinate and command the air defense forces including fighter jets, anti-aircraft guns, searchlights, radars and other units to fight against air attacks all day long. Responsible for night air defense; Major General Adolf Garland will continue to serve as fighter director, but the focus of work will gradually shift to the southern front - we will form a new fighter wing in Italy and seize air supremacy, and you will be responsible for troop formation and reserve force training. "

"Yes!" The two responded loudly.

"Kesselring, you can arrange the adjustments and combat tasks of the Air Force." After hearing this, Speller understood why Kesselring had stopped him from speaking just now. The head of state must have communicated with Kesselring in advance. Any objections would be in vain.

"Based on the above goals, the principle guidelines are adjusted as follows: First, increase the production and equipment of fighter jets, especially the Fw-190 model. We must use a sea of ​​fighter jets to drown the enemy's bombers; second, except for special missions, gradually reduce the number of attacks on the British General bombing of the mainland, focusing on fighting for air supremacy on the southern line and suppressing the British maritime power; third, strengthening technological research, especially high-priority technical weapons such as radar, rockets, remote-controlled bombs, and solidification weapons; fourth, reorganizing forces …”

According to Kesselin's deployment, the Air Force was divided into three theaters (Eastern Front, Western Front, and Southern Front). As a second-level independent defense area, the mainland was under the unified management of the Western Front Theater. The organization of the original six air forces was adjusted and expanded to 10 Air Forces: The 1st Air Force is responsible for the northern section of the Eastern Front (supports Army Group North), the 6th Air Force is responsible for the middle section of the Eastern Front (supports Army Group Center), and the 4th Air Force is responsible for the southern section of the Eastern Front (supports Army Group South). ); the 3rd Air Force is responsible for the southern section of the Western Front (France, the Netherlands, Belgium), the 5th Air Force is responsible for the northern section of the Western Front (Norway, the North Sea, Denmark); the 2nd Air Force is responsible for the left wing of the Southern Front (Italy),

The 7th Air Force is responsible for the right wing of the southern front (Balkans), the 8th Air Force is responsible for the North Africa region; the Imperial Air Force is responsible for the home defense area; the Reserve Air Force is responsible for training and reserve tasks, and is the only air force directly under the charge of the Chief of the Air Force General Staff .

The Air Force is equivalent to the organizational structure of the Army Group. Due to the increase in the number of the Air Force and the reduction of the coverage area, it is also necessary to equip the Air Force with sufficient staff, command and logistics organs to enable it to uniformly dispatch aircraft, ground support, air defense, and radar. and early warning force. In line with the requirements of streamlining the organization and improving command efficiency, Kesselring decided to abolish the establishment of the aviation force and aviation division, and reorganized it by adopting the method of directly managing 8-10 aviation wings of the aviation force. This adjustment plan shows Kesselring's skill. He did not reduce a single aircraft, but he was able to streamline nearly 100,000 air force personnel. Those idle personnel in the huge and bloated organization and the security forces established to protect them were immediately streamlined. Some of the streamlined personnel were transferred to the naval aviation, some were enriched in the aviation command organization, some entered the army, and the last part was arranged to work under Milch.

After two rounds of downsizing, the Air Force has reduced its number to less than 1.7 million. Hoffman is still not satisfied with this. He told General Jeshunek: "I hope that by the end of this year, on the premise of completing all combat tasks, , the Air Force General Staff can control the total number of personnel within 1.5 million, and at the same time have the combat capability of more than 10,000 aircraft.”

Jeshunek hesitated: "Führer, I am responsible for the task of streamlining and reorganizing the personnel, but in 4 months, besides the loss and replenishment, an additional 2,000 aircraft will be added. This?"

Hoffman waved his hand disapprovingly: "As long as the battle damage rate remains basically balanced, Speer will give you enough aircraft. All you have to do is train enough pilots."

"Now, I declare that the southern front combat mission - the 'Rolling Stone' plan has officially begun." After the deployment of the general mission, all other irrelevant personnel left the scene, and Major Lyman, Hoffman's Air Force adjutant, opened the combat conference room Behind the curtain of a large sand table, the complete military situation and troop deployment of the southern front theater were presented to everyone.

"Our focus is here!" Looking at the place where Kesselring's pointer was pointing, everyone except the head of state himself was dumbfounded...