Iron Cross

"You said it, I'm listening." Hoffman promptly dispelled Speer's concerns.

"This project is located in Calais, France. It is said to be a secret project led by the Army. However, after checking it, General Leaf of the Army Weapons Bureau said that he did not know about this project at all. Later I learned that it was ordered by the head of state personally. Recently, a large number of proposals have been made for this project. The resource requirements... The main purpose of this project is to build a super cannon to fire artillery shells to London, and there are similar projects in the Peenemünde base. Can their priority be lowered? "According to Speer's original intention, he wanted to cancel it? One, but he was not sure about Hoffman's attitude, so in order to avoid causing unnecessary trouble, he decided to hand over the conflict first.

When reminded by the other party, Hoffman finally understood what this inexplicable project was - it was a high-pressure, multi-section, long-range artillery that Hitler had devoted a lot of effort to, code-named V3 artillery (ie, Vengeance Weapon No. 3). This was The high-pressure gun that has high hopes is simply a whimsical project that is technically difficult to realize, and no major country has successfully researched it in history. He waved his hand and said bluntly: "I was deceived by those scientists. This is simply an out-of-reach project. There is no need to adjust the priorities. All of them are suspended. All personnel and resources serving it are used in other aspects. The priorities of existing projects in Peenemünde remain unchanged.”

"As you wish." Speer made a cross on the dossier. He was disgusted from the bottom of his heart with these projects that were independent and not under the control of the Ministry of Armament. If the other party hadn't kept saying "the will of the Führer", he would have cut them off long ago. , now that the head of state has stopped it himself, it saves a lot of trouble.

Another highly fantasy project popped up in Hoffman's memory, that is, "Operation Ulanus": the Air Force established a secret agency called "Demoman Laboratory-13" to research and create secrets Aircraft, the main direction of attack is flying saucers.

"Go to the Air Force Technical Bureau to find out the situation. If this project really exists, it can be stopped. In the future, unrealistic fantasy works such as flying saucers, flying wings, asymmetrical, forward-swept wings, catamarans, etc. will not be allowed to be developed. Instead of spending the energy and resources, it would be better to develop the jet aircraft I gave them last time. What I need is new weapons that can ensure victory in the war, not science fiction." Hoffman reiterated the principle.

"The Wartime Institutional Committee should investigate all projects that require government allocation of resources. Any projects that have not been registered will not be approved regardless of whether they have my consent or not. There are only two people with the highest approval authority for projects." Hoffman He pointed at Speer and then at himself, "You and me."

Speer nodded gratefully: "Thank you, the Head of State, for your trust."

"Second question." Although he was in the bulletproof Mercedes-Benz 770K car of the head of state, Speer still looked cautious. He turned around and looked around to make sure that the soundproofing facilities were functioning properly and even the driver could not hear the sound, then he lowered his voice and said, " Regarding the super bomb project you told me, I had an in-depth communication with Professor Heisenberg not long ago. He said that in order to have a chain reaction, there must be at least a minimum amount of radioactive material. He called this..."

"Uranium 235!" Now Hoffman understood why Speer was so cautious.

"Yes, that's the term." Speer continued, "The professor believes that at least a few tons are needed to build a super bomb, but it is difficult to produce it in a short time due to technical reasons, so he thinks it is impossible to complete the project during the war. It's possible, and he insists that the empire's research level is still at the leading level in the world. If we can't build it, the Americans can't build it either. The professor is very sure about this. He only applied for a budget of 350,000 Reichsmarks for theory. Research."

"I have accurate information and know that the Americans are also working on super bombs. They call it the 'Manhattan Project.' The chief scientists are Einstein and Fermi." Hoffman thought about the atomic bomb and slowly Said, "The U.S. government has allocated a huge sum of more than 3 billion U.S. dollars for project research and the refining of uranium 235 elements, with more than 20,000 engineering service personnel. Because American research shows that uranium 235 is used to make super bombs The demand is not a few tons, but only a few tens of kilograms. In addition, the moderator they selected is not heavy water but graphite. Please ask Professor Heisenberg to recalculate and demonstrate it with the highest degree of scientific rigor. Be sure to tell him clearly. , If we cannot build this super bomb, the Americans will drop bombs on our heads in the future, and our people and future generations will live in this terror for generations to come.”

Speer smiled bitterly and said: "You know these scholars are stubborn people, and Professor Heisenberg is even more authoritative. What should I do if they can't listen?"

"They will listen." Hoffman said seriously. "For the great cause of the German nation, they must listen. Of course, you should change your working methods and let other scholars do it when asking Professor Heisenberg to recalculate. Repeat this process alone - it is impossible for everyone to make the same mistake. They are just blindly superstitious. They allocate 500 million marks to this project, list it as the highest confidentiality and highest priority, and let them build the uranium 235 refining plant first. , don’t care if it’s a few tons or tens of kilograms, we must have it first.”

"Okay, I will."

"I hope the professors can correct their mistakes in time. After some time, after the latest information from the United States comes, I can communicate with them again." Of course, Hoffman didn't know how to build an atomic bomb, but at least he learned it in a middle school physics textbook. I decided to recall the principles and diagrams described in the textbook and take advantage of the time traveler.

Speer's eyes sparkled: "That would be great, but we cannot fall behind the Americans anyway."

Hoffman originally thought he had finished speaking and was about to close his eyes and rest for a while. Unexpectedly, the other party raised another big problem.

Speer's face was a little solemn and a little apologetic. After carefully considering his words, he said: "There is one last thing that I need to trouble the head of state. After emergency resource statistics, the resources needed for other wars currently have reliable sources or Sufficient reserves, only the reserves and subsequent supply of tungsten ore have encountered great challenges. The tungsten ore obtained from China in the past few years has been almost exhausted, but the supply of tungsten ore recently purchased from Spain and Portugal is very low. Stable, not only has the price skyrocketed, to more than 10 times that of last year, but the quantity has also decreased - Americans are snapping up a large number of purchases. Can the head of state be asked to personally communicate with Spanish Marshal Franco and ask him to guarantee that he will be responsible for our tungsten mines? Supply. Because not only arms manufacturing, but also our high-quality machine tool steel requires a large amount of tungsten, and as the head of state plans to vigorously develop the electronic industry (electronic tubes require tungsten), the gap will become more and more serious.”

The shortage of tungsten ore has been going on for several months, otherwise Hitler would not have personally ordered a ban on the use of cone-bore guns when the new tank was designed - because it would consume more tungsten ore. The current problem is how to negotiate with Spain. The person who has the closest relationship and best personal relationship with Franco is Canaris. It was under his friend-like dissuasion that Franco rejected Hitler's request to capture Gibraltar and committed suicide. Pell knew this too. Although the news of Canaris's arrest is still sealed, it is estimated that Franco, who has great powers, already knows the situation. At this sensitive moment, he is unwilling to get into trouble. After much deliberation, the only way is to ask the head of state to come forward in person.

"What do you say about Franco?" Hoffman looked very unhappy, complaining about the Spanish dictator, and scolded him, "It's a bit too selfish. We provided him with so much during the civil war. Help, whether it is arms, supplies or troops, is almost always available. His position was won by me and the Italian leader. Now he actually turns around and asks for a price. He thinks that a mere blue division can repay our kindness to him. Helped? What a bastard! How could he be neutral among these big countries without us standing on the opposite side? He doesn’t care what kind of clown he is.”

While accompanying Hoffmann in scolding Franco, Speer carefully beat the drum around the tungsten mine. In any case, he still hoped that the Führer could lower his body and communicate with the dictator. He was familiar with the Führer's temper: At this time, only You can only vent your anger by scolding the other party. After scolding, if you can't solve the problem, you will still bow to the Spaniards. When annexing Austria, Italian leader Mussolini also made unrealistic demands, which made the head of state furious. Later, he paid the price of compromise and refused. The coordination was still successful.

He waited quietly, waiting for the head of state to get tired of scolding him and then provide him with steps that would allow him to step down gracefully.

Unexpectedly, Hoffman cursed a few times and then stopped, his eyes flashed, and he waved nonchalantly: "I will negotiate with the Spanish head of state, but the solution to the tungsten mine problem cannot rely on the Spaniards to do whatever they want, otherwise they will There will always be a noose around our heads and we have to find another solution."

Speer was stunned by what Hoffman said.