The Rise of the Third Reich

"Members of the Bolshevik Party, members of the Youth League, citizens, the Soviet motherland is being invaded by French imperialism, and the motherland needs each and every one of you..."

The voice of Comrade Serov, First Secretary of the Party Committee of the Autonomous Republic, came from the loudspeakers on the streets of Batumi. He called on every Soviet to take action to defend the motherland and defend Batumi.

This corrupt man who had been preparing to go to the Gulag labor camp to spend the rest of his life at 6 o'clock in the morning now showed his true colors as an old Bolshevik. In just a few hours, Batumi was completely mobilized. One after another, "worker battalions", "firefighting battalions" and "labor camps" were quickly formed, and all young and middle-aged men and women were organized and devoted to the struggle to defend the Soviet motherland.

This is not 1940, not 1990. Although it has just experienced a great purge, the efficient organizational capabilities of the Soviet Bolshevik Party are still there! So when the confused French (the French who were responsible for dropping the bombs did not know that the British had released their pigeons) were preparing for the third major bombing, the city of Batumi had transformed from a peaceful industrial city into a fighting fortress .

Tens of thousands of citizens devoted themselves to putting out chemical plant fires, using all the tools they could get their hands on and rushing into the flames risklessly. Thanks to the hard work of these brave Soviets, the fire in Batumi Oil City was finally under control the next morning and was completely extinguished three days later.

In addition, an equal number of young men and women put on military uniforms within 12 hours after Baku was bombed. They were trained by retired officers from various factories and agencies. The weapons to be issued to them were also obtained from the border guards. He was taken out of the arms warehouse.

As for the older citizens, they were organized to dig trenches in the highlands outside Batumi.

If the Turkish imperialist army really wants to attack Batum, then there will definitely be a bloody battle waiting for them!

At the same time, 150 TB-3 bombers of a heavy bombing aviation brigade stationed on the Crimean Peninsula have taken off, preparing to fly through Turkish airspace to drop bombs on Beirut and Damascus. Since these two places are more than 1,100 kilometers away from the Crimean Peninsula, those TB-3 bombers cannot carry many bombs at all. But in order to show the Soviet Union's anger, these TB-3 bombers had to fly over even if they only dropped a grenade.

At the same time as these TB-3s, Molotov, Chairman of the People's Commissar of the Soviet Union and People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs, and Litvinov, the former People's Commissar of Foreign Affairs - he had just been appointed as the Soviet Ambassador to the United States of America. He will Heading to the United States across the ocean via England.

"Prime Minister, Litvinov is coming to London again," Viscount Halifax walked into the conference room at No. 10 Downing Street and immediately told Chamberlain and other cabinet members who were already present the good news. "I'm nominally going to be the ambassador to the United States."

"This is good news!" Churchill, the Lord Admiralty, immediately said, "Viscount, has Russia proposed to arrange a meeting between you and Litvinov?"

Viscount Halifax nodded and said, "Yes, they proposed it."

"It seems that Russia's losses in Batumi are really great!" Churchill took a puff of his cigar and asked Aviation Minister Howard Kingsley, "Have you received the French notification?"

"Yes," Howard Kingsley said, "They have completed two air strikes, and the oil city of Batumi was shrouded in fire. Admiral Ted has seen the photos, and the bombing effect is very ideal.

The French themselves lost three aircraft, one of which was hit by ground fire and two of which were shot down by Soviet fighter jets. "

The two LeO-451 bombers were shot down by several Lago-3 fighter jets that had just transferred from the airport in Leningrad to Georgia. In addition, some I-16s barely managed to fly to an altitude of more than 6,500 meters (because the first wave of bombing ignited the oil refinery, so the French Air Force's second wave of bombings adopted high-altitude penetration to avoid ground firepower), but because of the I-16's The high-altitude performance was too poor and no results were achieved.

"Are they still preparing for a third wave of bombings?" Churchill asked again.

"Yes," Howard Kingsley smiled, "The evil ones can only do it to the end."

Viscount Halifax added: "The French are quite angry!"

The British let go and left the French to bear the wrath of the Red Empire alone. This is naturally outrageous. However, the French have no choice but to bite the bullet and continue bombing, hoping to completely destroy Batumi's oil refining facilities.

"But we are already in sight of victory," Churchill was very optimistic. "Without the Batumi refinery, Stalin has no other choice but to cut off Germany's oil supply!"

Fatty Qiu, like most politicians and military strategists of this era, seriously overestimated the power of bombing.

In fact, although this major bombing ignited a lot of stored fuel, the damage to the production capacity of Batumi Oil City was not fatal - because the oil warehouse is far away from the core production facilities of the refinery, but it looks terrible in the photo. .

According to later intelligence, two weeks after the "End of the Batumi Bombing", the refinery's daily output returned to 50% of its original level, one month later 70% of its production capacity was restored, and three months later it was fully operational. back to normal.

However, Stalin deliberately exaggerated the losses...

"Marshal, the Soviet Embassy sent photos about the Batumi incident." On the afternoon of April 5, 1940 (the day after the Batumi bombing), the General Staff Intelligence Office had just attended the meeting between Hitler and Molotov. Colonel Galen brought Hersman a stack of aerial photos of the Batumi refinery area shrouded in fire and smoke.

"Albert, come and take a look." Hersman handed the photo to Air Force Commander Kesselin, who was with Hersman in the First Operations Command Center of the General Staff.

"You can't see anything, it's all obscured by smoke." Air Force General Kesselin carefully looked at the photos one by one. "What did the Russians say? What are their losses?"

Colonel Galen replied: "The losses were very heavy... The French bombs hit several newly built large oil storage tanks, igniting millions of gallons of gasoline, and these large oil tanks were very close to the refinery. After the oil tank ruptured, a large amount of gasoline flowed into the plant, causing a terrible fire. The fire is still burning. According to Russian estimates, it will take 12 months to repair the refinery. In at least 6 months, the Soviet Union will lose 70. % of the oil processing capacity. Therefore, Molotov proposed that we take on part of the Soviet crude oil processing business within 12 months and process 250,000 tons of crude oil for the Soviet Union every month.”

"250,000 tons per month for 12 months is 3 million tons," Kesselring said with a frown. "This accounts for more than half of our oil processing capacity."

Germany's current annual oil processing capacity is only 5.5 million tons (actual output is about 5 million tons), and it also has about 4.5 million tons of synthetic fuel (mainly used by the air force) production capacity, and less than 180,000 tons of shale oil production. (The Estonian province in the Baltic state has a large oil shale mine, which began mining in 1918. The first retort plant was built in 1924. The main product at present is phenolic chemicals).

The sum of the three can fully meet Germany's wartime needs for fuel and petrochemical products. However, if 3 million tons of crude oil processing capacity is allocated to the Soviet Union, Germany's own fuel and chemical supplies may be insufficient.

"This is not a problem," Hersman smiled and nodded. "We can agree that we still have a lot of refined oil and chemicals in stock. Even if all refineries produce for the Soviet Union, we can still support it for three months. And France It will collapse within two months!" He asked thoughtfully, "What else did Molotov discuss with the leader? Did he mention the conditions for the Soviet Union to join the war?"

"The Soviet Union demanded access to Finland, Russian Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Turkey, French Syria, Iraq and Iran. In addition, the Soviet Union was responsible for the liberation of India."

"Hmph!" Kesselin snorted coldly, "Stalin really dares to think!"

Hessman smiled and said: "Stalin did not want to participate in the war, so he made such an impossible request. I think... he wanted to wait until we and Britain and France were exhausted before joining!"

Kesselring said: "He can't wait for that day!" Then he asked Galen, "What else does Molotov ask for?"

"He said that the Soviet Union's aviation technology was relatively backward and unable to fight against French bombers. If we could not immediately improve the technology of the BF-109 and Fokker Zero, then the Soviet Union would most likely be unable to protect the oil-producing areas of Baku, Batumi and Grozny. "

Hessmann and Kesselring looked at each other and frowned. This Stalin is really difficult to deal with. He will use everything to benefit the Soviet Union!

At this time, Lieutenant General Paulus, director of the Meteorological Bureau of the General Staff, walked in quickly holding a folder.

"Marshal, the weather forecast for April 10th to 20th is out." Lieutenant General Paulus reported, "Our experts predict that the weather will be very good from the 10th to the 20th."

"Albert," Hessmann took the weather forecast with a smile, and then said to Kesselring, "April 10th is the time when Operation Sickle will begin, and before that... our aircraft cannot If we continue to actively violate French airspace, I will also notify the Navy to take the same action, except for the activities of submarines, all surface ship and long-range combat aircraft activities will be temporarily suspended."

This was a temporary method that Hessman came up with to paralyze the enemy. The navy and air force stayed still to pretend they were short of fuel. At the same time, he also planned to put pressure on Romania and Hungary at the high command meeting in the evening - this was to force Romania to immediately provide a large amount of crude oil to make up for the gap caused by the reduction in Soviet crude oil exports.