The Rise of the Third Reich

"Ula! Ula! Ula..."

The terrifying shouts were heard again along with the clicking sound of tracks crushing the ground. Carol Rommel leaned against the fortifications and tried hard to breathe in the air mixed with the choking smell of gunpowder smoke.

Although the smell of this air is not good, it is precious free air! In the past few decades, Major General Carol Rommel had never realized that free air was so precious, because he would soon lose his freedom and perhaps his life.

The bloody battle at Trespol Fortress has lasted for almost 72 hours. The Soviet Red Army's fierce offensive, powerful firepower, bravery of the soldiers, and superb tactics were all beyond Carol Rommel's expectations!

In fact, even Guderian and the German General Staff did not expect that the Soviet Red Army would make such huge progress in just two years after the Soviet-Finnish War.

And this progress is first reflected in the strengthening of the ability to tackle difficult problems. The Soviet Red Army, which suffered losses twice in the Brest Fortress and the Karelian Defense Line, now has very effective tactics and equipment for attacking enemy solid positions.

The equipment used to attack the enemy is of course the B-4 howitzer, which has an exaggerated appearance and firepower, but the real power of this B-4 howitzer is the "B-4 Howitzer Assault Group" that appeared in the Soviet-Finnish War.

Charge with a 203mm caliber howitzer!

This is a really crazy way to play, but it is very effective. The "B-4 Howitzer Assault Battle Group" of the Soviet Red Army is composed of: 1 B-4 artillery battery plus 1 infantry battalion, 1 76.2mm artillery battalion, 1 combat engineer company, plus 5 T -34 tank or KV-1 tank.

In the battle against Trespol Fortress, this "B-4 Howitzer Assault Group" played a great role. The so-called "battalion-level ring defenses" carefully designed by Guderian are very effective for anti-tank and anti-infantry, but they are not effective against the close-range direct fire of the B-4 howitzer.

In fact, except for armored turrets, there is no artillery or machine gun bunker in the world that can block the close-range direct fire of the 203mm howitzer. Of course, expensive things like armored turrets cannot be installed in a "cannon fodder fortress" like Trespol Fortress.

The tactics of the Soviet "B-4 Howitzer Assault Group" left Carol Rommel and his Polish soldiers at their wits' end. B-4s organized into a group of 4 (a company of B-4s are 4) will often rush to less than 400 meters in front of the Polish army's ring defenses under the cover of tanks, infantry and 76.2mm guns. Where to shoot directly!

Although many B-4s were destroyed by Polish 50mm anti-tank guns, 75mm infantry guns or mortars. But the Soviets have a lot of B-4 howitzers, and as long as these B-4s are allowed to fire at close range, the Polish position will soon be bombarded into a ball of mud, and the officers and soldiers guarding it will most likely be dead. corpse.

In addition, the psychological pressure caused by firing a 203mm howitzer like the B-4 at close range is too great. In the battles on June 2 and 3, many company-level strongholds were not destroyed, but surrendered after B-4 howitzers approached and fired.

Those company commanders and platoon commanders who were awarded the title of Polish Knight, as well as the officers and non-commissioned officers who joined the Solidarity Party, would rather go to Siberia for labor reform than be bombarded into a ball of flesh by such a terrible cannon!

Therefore, in less than 72 hours, all four battalion-level circular positions guarding the core area of ​​Tresbol Fortress were lost. The Trespol Brigade, which has 6 infantry battalions, 1 artillery battalion, 1 anti-tank battalion, 1 engineer battalion and 1 anti-aircraft battalion, with a total strength of more than 7,000, has less than 2,000 people left, huddled in the fortress. The strongest core position for the final resistance.

However, such resistance obviously could not last long. The morale of the officers and soldiers was close to collapse. More and more people were trying to surrender. Carol Rommel had to patrol the position and shot several deserters in succession. However, he could temporarily prevent his men from surrendering, but he could not stop the approaching B-4 howitzer.

These terrifying howitzers are now following behind the attacking T-34s and infantry, being dragged forward and backward by tank recovery vehicles, advancing slowly. When the attacking T-34s and infantry are repelled, the B-4 howitzer assault group will appear less than 400 meters away from the Polish position.

Looking at the Soviet tanks and infantry approaching step by step, Carol Rommel sighed softly and said to the Chief of Staff beside him: "Go and call Warsaw and tell them what date Trespol Fortress will be located." Fall within hours, all officers and soldiers of the Tresbol Brigade will fight until the last man fires a bullet..."

Hit the last person with one bullet!

"Major General, are we all going to die here?" the chief of staff asked.

Carol Rommel smiled bitterly and shook his head: "We will die in the Soviet concentration camps... because we are Catholics and cannot commit suicide."

…

"Marshal of the Empire, Marshal Kesselring just called, Tresbol has fallen!"

When Stauffenberg hurried into Hessmann's office and reported the bad news, Hessmann was talking to Albert Speer, the new director of the General Administration of Arms.

Speer now replaced Goering as head of German armaments production. Fatty Göring served as chairman of the recently established Economic Commission of the European Community.

Since the European Combined Fleet now controls the sea power in the Atlantic, Germany has more resources to promote European integration. Therefore, the European Community now not only has a common navy, but also has a common economic and financial policy. In the near future, there may be a European federal government.

Whether this unified European federation can emerge depends on whether the European Community army led by Germany can occupy the British mainland and repel the Soviet Red Army's attack on Poland.

"Trespol has fallen?" Hessman raised his wrist to look at his watch and frowned slightly. "It's less than 80 hours... It seems that I underestimated the Soviets a little bit."

He has seen the Terespol Fortress with his own eyes. Although it is a big gap compared to the Brest Fortress on the other side of the river, it is still a bit unexpected that it fell in just 80 hours. Originally, Hessman estimated that the fortress could hold out for 7-15 days, but now it was knocked down by the Red Army in just over 3 days. This shows that the Red Army's ability to attack is much stronger than imagined!

The fall of Terespol, a cannon fodder fortress used to consume the Soviet army's strength, is nothing. For a deep defense, of course, one must be prepared to lose some territory and troops. However, the two strong cities of Warsaw and Lviv cannot be lost, otherwise the situation on the entire Polish-Western Ukrainian battlefield will be greatly deteriorated.

"Albert, the armament production is now in your hands." Hersmann stopped talking with Speer, stood up and shook hands with him, and then explained: "The current opponent is the Soviet Union. In order to deal with the Soviet Union, armament production must be quantitative, so armament production must shift from focusing on quality to focusing on quantity advantage. The entire European Community should be mobilized soon, and this will be a total war in Europe. Germany's military industry must cooperate with the military industries of France, Belgium, Denmark and other countries.

In addition, you will be the director of the Uranium Engineering Committee. The production reactor and the power reactor can be promoted at the same time. Gather the scientists who are willing to produce the No. 94 bomb for the empire to carry out the No. 94 project, and let others continue to study the power reactor. Both parties can get the same priority supply level. However, the No. 94 project must be a confidential project in the Uranium Engineering Committee, and only the scientists involved can know its existence."

The uranium project is currently progressing smoothly, which is different from the historical disputes between the "bomb faction" and the "energy faction" in the German atomic bomb test. In this time and space, because of Hirschman's support, the work of the Uranium Engineering Committee started to develop along the energy line, so it did not invest too much resources in the isotope separation project (which is very power-consuming), but developed along the reactor line. In this process, two routes, heavy water reactor and graphite reactor, emerged, but both were successful.

However, the law of scientific development cannot be changed by Hirschman, who hopes to use atomic energy peacefully. During the reactor test conducted by scientists of the Uranium Engineering Committee, element 94 plutonium (named by Hirschman) was discovered as a product of nuclear fission reaction!

Soon, the study of plutonium showed that this is an element more suitable for atomic bomb charge than uranium. Because plutonium 239 can also undergo nuclear fission reaction, and the production of plutonium 239 does not require high-cost isotope separation, it only needs to use heavy water reactors and graphite reactors for low fuel consumption operation (that is, insufficient reaction) to produce uranium rods containing plutonium 239, and then chemical separation can be carried out to obtain plutonium 239!

The power reactor used for power generation is operated at deep burnup (full reaction), which will produce a large amount of plutonium 240 and plutonium 241. If the plutonium element in the atomic bomb charge contains more plutonium 240 and plutonium 241, the atomic bomb will not reach the designed equivalent, thus becoming a dirty bomb. In history, Hitler's atomic bomb may have encountered the problem of excessive plutonium 240 and plutonium 241, resulting in insufficient explosion power and becoming a dirty bomb.

The research of the Uranium Engineering Committee has now advanced to the design and construction of "power reactors" and "production reactors". At this time, the scientists of the Uranium Engineering Committee had different opinions. Some people thought that a plutonium bomb should be built quickly to blow up New York and Moscow! While others thought that atomic energy should be used in a more peaceful way, such as building several 100,000-ton aircraft carriers or battleships driven by nuclear reactors to destroy the US Navy.

Hersman's solution was to advance the two projects together. A top-secret Project 94 was set up within the Uranium Engineering Committee, with the task of producing the 94th bomb (plutonium is the 94th element).

However, the 94th bomb could not be made immediately. Because the production process of plutonium is relatively slow, there is a combustion reaction period and a decay period of up to 4 months, and then a highly difficult chemical separation process is required to separate a very small amount of plutonium-239 from metallic uranium, so the atomic bomb will not fall on Mr. Roosevelt and Comrade Stalin for the time being.