Iron Sonata of World War II

In short, Henkel's He-118 bomber is like the kind of college entrance examination composition with gorgeous rhetoric, novel ideas, and rich connotations. Unfortunately, because of a slight deviation from the topic, it is not as good as those written by the marking teacher. Although the writing skills are slightly inferior, but the writing style Articles that are robust and have a particularly tight topic get a high score.After all, the German Air Force's bidding project this time is a dive bomber. Excellent bomb load and good vertical dive capability are the real housekeeping skills. Other attributes are bonuses after meeting the core requirements.

In the last plane, because he did not want to give up this potential project, Ernst Udet, who was the director of the Technical Office of the German Ministry of Aviation at the time, even disregarded the strong opposition of Dr. Heinkel and personally flew the He-118 bomber. The prototype of the plane tried to break through the limit of the dive angle. As a result, the propeller was suddenly feathered due to the severe overspeed of the plane, which caused the engine reduction gear to break, and the plane disintegrated directly in the air. Udet's personal test flight not only failed to save the He-118 project, but led to the sudden death of the development of the model on the spot.

"Then, Miss Helena, what is the good news you are going to bring to me?" Dr. Henkel was silent for a long time before he regained his energy and asked.It was hard for him to recover from the blow just now, and even his voice was obviously a little weak at this time, although he was not the kind of person who couldn't stand failure.

"The good news is that the Air Force appreciates your company's design concept embodied in the He-118 bomber very much, so it has decided to add a special bidding project for your concept. This new project will be called 'Fighter Bomber', mainly It is used to penetrate the enemy's forward air defense zone and carry out fast and flexible air interception strikes on targets in the enemy's deep area when the requirements for fighter jet cover are low." Helena, who played the face-changing trick again, looked afraid The confident Dr. Heinkel added with a smile on his face: "By the way, Uncle Heinkel, General Goering of the Naval Air Force also likes your design concept very much, so your colleagues who are perfecting the liquid-cooled model need to develop it in parallel. An air-cooled model based on a BMW engine."

It may be that the happiness came too fast. Dr. Henkel, who suddenly turned from extreme disappointment to ecstasy, swayed, and was so excited that he almost couldn't stand still. Fearing that something would happen to him, Helena stepped forward quickly and supported Dr. Henkel. That fat body.While supporting her, she thought: I, Helena, was really confused today. I almost forgot that Uncle Henkel's heart is not good, so I actually made such a sad and happy joke with him.Now Uncle Heinkel has not had time to design the first jet plane He-178 in human history. If a heart attack fails to send to the hospital in time, leading to the collapse of the business, then I, Helena, will be guilty It's too big.

Fortunately, Dr. Heinkel was not overwhelmed by the joy in front of him. When Helena told him that the military was not completely satisfied with the He-118 prototype design, and that it might need improvement in the future.Dr. Henkel immediately stated that he would call all the designers of the company to develop an improvement plan tonight, and then hurriedly said goodbye to Helena and went straight to the company. It seems that this uncle is very worried about Henkel's work on this project. Lose the first mover advantage.

Chapter 265 Speed ​​Voyage

Dr. Heinkel certainly needs to race against time in the fighter-bomber project. Other aviation manufacturers will also join the competition after receiving information about this tender. Heinkel's biggest advantage now is the performance of their He-118 bomber It is relatively close to the requirements of the tender, so they only need to improve the original plan.Although according to Helena's new series of requirements, this improvement will not be too small, but it is also much more convenient than other companies developing from scratch.

That is to say, Henkel has more time than other companies to carve out its own products on this project, but whether Henkel can turn this advantage into a real victory, before the military finally decides to drop the hammer It's all unknown, so Dr. Henkel didn't dare to be careless this time. That night, he and the company's design team plunged into the drawing board.In the past few years, Heinkel's efforts to develop the military product market have suffered frequent setbacks, and they no longer want to taste the taste of failure again.

In Helena's plan for the future German Air Force and Navy equipment system, the single-engine fighter-bomber project has always occupied a very important position.For example, in the equipment sequence of the Luftwaffe, fighter-bombers need to cooperate with future twin-engine fast bombers to jointly complete the flexible strike mission on the enemy's deep targets; while in the equipment sequence of the German Navy, the functional scope of fighter-bombers is More broadly, it not only needs to undertake the dual missions of dive bombing and torpedo attack in the carrier-based and shore-based aviation forces, but also needs to play the role of a long-range two-seater fighter.However, the combat targets of this long-range fighter are not those capable enemy fighters, but those anti-submarine patrol aircraft that are clumsy and slow but pose a great threat to submarines.

To design an aircraft capable of the above combat missions, when designers make trade-offs in various performances, their tendency will inevitably be very different from the dive bombers that were previously tendered.In the previous bidding for dive bombers, the performance indicators that Helena valued the most were simply the aircraft's bomb load and vertical dive capability. For this reason, she could even accept the slower flying speed and With a short flight range, the dive bombers mainly attack the enemy's frontier and shallow and deep targets. The survivability of the fighter can be guaranteed by fighter jets provided by one's own side at any time. Armor protection and self-defense firepower for a last-ditch effort.

However, among the performance requirements for fighter-bombers, the two indicators that Helena valued the most turned into flight speed with bombs and fuel range.Because if there is not enough flight speed with bombs, it is impossible to increase the probability of penetration by compressing the reaction time of the enemy's interceptor fighter plane; In a naval battle, it cannot be used as a long-range fighter to hunt down the opponent's anti-submarine patrol aircraft.However, even on a fighter jet, it is not easy to achieve high speed and long range at the same time, and it will be even more difficult to achieve it on a single-engine bomber.

The reason why Helena paid special attention to Heinkel's He-118 bomber was largely because the He-118 bomber did not meet the performance requirements of a professional dive bomber, but the He-118's faster speed and The good maneuverability allowed Helena to see the possibility of taking it a step further and evolving it into a real fighter-bomber.

This knowledge made Helena very excited. In the last plane, Germany produced more than 15000 Junkers Ju-88 twin-engine fast bombers during World War II, because they were successfully used as horizontal bombers, dive bombers, torpedo attack aircraft, and reconnaissance planes. Helena also saw the potential to transform into "Dr. "Dr. Universal" will be single-shot.

After turning all the huge competitive pressure into the driving force for struggle, the designers of Henkel, who were fighting to the death, worked with amazing efficiency. Improved program.The new plan canceled the inverted gull-shaped wing used on the prototype, and changed it to a conventional wing with a slight dihedral angle and a laminar fluidization design. At the same time, the wingspan was greatly shortened from the rather exaggerated 118 meters of the prototype to a relatively A more reasonable 15.1 meters, and a bomb bay with a length of 11.8 meters is set up on the belly of the aircraft, which can contain a 4.25 kg aerial bomb or a torpedo of similar size.

From Helena's point of view, the above improvement ideas are somewhat similar to the Japanese "Comet" carrier-based dive bomber in the previous plane.But this is not surprising, after all, the "comet" of the previous plane was originally improved on the basis of the He-118 bomber technology introduced by Japan from Henkel.According to the estimates of Heinkel's designers, after such improvements, the new He-118 should be able to reach nearly 1650 kilometers at a height of about 213 meters when using the Jumo-5500A engine with a maximum power of 600 horsepower. speed.

In fact, Helena believes that among the two rigid requirements of speed and range, high speed is the one that is easier to achieve. As Dr. Heinkel's painstaking work, the aerodynamic shape of the He-118 bomber is already quite suitable for high-speed flight. Japan The "Comet" designed on the basis of it can fly at a top speed of nearly 601 kilometers per hour with the "Atsuta" 1400 engine with a maximum power of only 32 horsepower, which is also an imitation of DB580. With a more powerful engine, it is not difficult to reach the fastest speed of more than 600 kilometers per hour.On the contrary, Helena's requirement that the internal fuel range of the fighter must reach more than 2000 kilometers made all the designers of Henkel feel very difficult.

"If it is not allowed to compress the volume of the bomb bay, the only way to achieve such a large range is to cancel the self-sealing of the fuel tank. Canceling the self-sealing of the fuel tank can increase the internal fuel carrying capacity by about 20%, and it can also reduce the empty weight of some aircraft." Heng Dr. Kerr said to Helena with a sad face that the recent long hours of staying up late drawing had added thick dark circles to him, making the image of Dr. Henkel, who had a rather round head, more and more like a mysterious oriental creature.Of course, Dr. Henkel is just talking here for fun. If the fuel tank is really canceled, the plane is likely to be turned into a flying torch by an incendiary armor-piercing projectile.

"Abolishing the self-sealing of the fuel tank is indeed a good way to increase the voyage. Uncle Heinkel, you and Helena have the same opinion." Helena replied, as if she didn't realize that Dr. Heinkel was just joking: "Actually To tell you the truth, I started planning to eliminate the old self-sealing fuel tanks on some combat aircraft a few years ago."

As soon as Helena's words came out, Dr. Heinkel was startled and stood on the spot. He clutched his chest, thinking that he might have another heart attack. "We can't do that, Miss Helena." Dr. Heinkel said, "If I don't design a self-sealing fuel tank for the plane, are you sure that the pilots of the navy and air force won't come to the door with guns in the future?"

"Uncle Henkel, where are you thinking? I'm not a fool who treats skilled pilots as one-time consumables." Helena covered her mouth and said with a smile: "The reason why I dare to suggest that Uncle Henkel cancel the old-fashioned self-proclaimed air on the plane The fuel tank design, of course, is an alternative that is both light and safe, and can load more fuel in the same volume.”

Chapter 266 Reticulated Foam

The traditional bulletproof self-sealing fuel tank adopts a cross-sectional structure similar to a sandwich biscuit. Usually, two layers of natural rubber interlayers with good swelling properties are wrapped in the tank wall composed of three layers of vulcanized rubber-coated fabric.When the fuel tank wall is penetrated by bullets or shell fragments, the natural rubber interlayer inside will expand when it encounters fuel, and automatically close the bullet holes to prevent the fuel from continuing to leak, which greatly reduces the chance of fuel being ignited by enemy ammunition risk.

This kind of self-styled fuel tank achieves a good bulletproof effect with a relatively simple structure, so it was widely used on fighter planes from various countries in World War II on the last plane.In countless times of war practice, the self-proclaimed fuel tank has indeed proved its great value, saving the lives of many pilots on both sides of the war. In the case of injury, the serious secondary injury caused by the continuous fire made the fighter plane irreparable.

However, although the application of self-styled fuel tanks can greatly improve the survivability of fighter jets, its various negative effects on aircraft performance are also problems that all designers cannot ignore.According to different bulletproof levels, the thickness of the self-sealing fuel tank is generally between 3.5 mm and 6 mm, which will take up a considerable part of the oil storage space in the aircraft, especially in the wing fuel tank, which is already relatively flat in shape. The thick wall of the self-sealing fuel tank will take up a considerable part of the vertical height inside the wing, and the space left for fuel is naturally extremely stretched.According to the experience of World War II on the last plane, when the same aircraft uses self-sealing fuel tanks, it usually carries 20% or even 30% less fuel than when it does not use self-sealing fuel tanks.

The negative impact of the self-styled fuel tank is not only to compress the fuel carrying capacity of the aircraft. The thick fuel tank wall combined with the larger fuel tank surface area will significantly increase the empty weight of the aircraft and drag down the flight performance.Although the mass per square meter of the self-sealing fuel tank wall is usually only between 3 kg and 6 kg, if multiplied by the surface area of ​​the fuel tank of tens of square meters, the increased weight may reach hundreds of kg.This is unacceptable for some highly demanding fighters with lightweight design.

For example, the empty weight of the Japanese Zero Type 21 in the last plane was only 1680 kg. If you suddenly need to add hundreds of kg of extra empty weight to install a self-sealing fuel tank, it is enough to make Japan want to save weight from the teeth. The designers collapsed on the spot.In addition, those old army sticks in Japan who only sit in the office and make decisions, always do not consider the level of technological development of the country and the physical endurance of individual pilots, and put forward overly abnormal expectations for the maximum range and maneuverability indicators of fighter jets. Require.Things like self-sealing fuel tanks, which can reduce the amount of fuel carried and increase the weight of the aircraft, will naturally become the first objects of sacrifice.

Of course, the German fighter-bombers in this plane also need to pursue lighter weight and longer range, but Helena will not choose to be reckless in order to achieve certain performance indicators like the Japanese in the previous plane.The pilot fatigue problem caused by the long voyage can be solved by two crew members taking turns driving and inertial navigator.As for how to ensure the safety of aircraft fuel tanks on the premise of achieving large capacity and light weight, the Japanese in the previous plane chose to rely on faith, while Helena in this plane chose to rely on technology.

……

"Helena has something nice to show you here." Helena suddenly took out a light yellow cube-shaped object from her back as if by magic, and then presented it to Dr. Heinkel with a smile: "Please guess What is this? Uncle Heinkel.".Dr. Henkel didn't understand what medicine Helena was selling in the gourd for a while, so he took the yellow object from Helena's hand suspiciously.Dr. Henkel's first feeling after taking the thing in his hands was that the density of the thing was very small and very soft, even lighter than a natural sponge.After taking it closer to his eyes, Dr. Henkel discovered that the object was microscopically a porous foam structure composed of three-dimensional network fibers.

"The thing you are holding in your hand is not an ordinary natural sponge, but the latest research results of Dr. Otto Bayer from Farben in recent years." Helena proudly introduced to Dr. Heinkel: "Its name It's called polyurethane foam, and it weighs less than 200 grams per cubic meter. It's not only much less dense than natural sponges, but also has a very high porosity. Uncle Heinkel thinks that if we use it to fill our warplanes How's the fuel tank?"

In the era of organic chemistry in the 20s, two shining stars were rising in the field of polymer chemistry, namely polyamide and polyurethane.The former is mainly used to make polyurethane fibers, but its more common name in later generations is nylon or nylon; the latter is mainly used to make polyurethane foam (artificial sponge) and polyurethane fiber (spandex).These materials were already common and cheap polymer materials in the 30st century before Helena crossed over, but they were still extremely rare new things in the 21s.

Such a new thing that will have a bright future in the military in the future, naturally cannot escape the palm of Helena, who doesn't grow any grass wherever she goes.She not only recruited Dr. Wallace Carothers, the inventor of polyamide in the previous plane, before Bayer in 1928, but also constantly urged Dr. Otto Bayer of Farben to speed up the synthesis of polyurethane. Research.Sometimes, because she disliked the slow progress of the research of the two great gods, Helena deliberately gave some useful suggestions inadvertently when they encountered difficulties in their research. Many times, it really made the great gods who had walked into a dead end see the bright future. .Under the operation of Helena's seedling encouragement, both polyamide and polyurethane finally came out ahead of schedule, which is why Helena showed the samples to Dr. Henkel this time.

However, what Helena showed Dr. Heinkel was not ordinary polyurethane foam, but the product after the open-cell flexible polyurethane foam with the required porosity was manufactured and then hydrolyzed into a three-dimensional network structure with lye, so it cost some research time.Cut this product into foam blocks of the required shape and fill the structural fuel tank of the aircraft to become an integral fuel tank with strong fireproof and explosion-proof capabilities.

Compared with traditional bulletproof fuel tanks, this kind of fuel tank is not only light in weight and high in space utilization, but also perfectly solves the impact of oil sloshing on the center of gravity of the aircraft during maneuvering, so it is also widely used by military aircraft in later generations.However, as a price, this kind of fuel tank cannot be supplied with fuel through an ordinary gravity valve, and the fuel needs to be pumped out or pressed out through a small electric pump or a pressure cylinder.However, the redundant design of multiple electric pumps also greatly improves the flexibility of fuel supply.Even if a part of the fuel tank bursts and leaks, the electric pump can pump the remaining fuel into other intact fuel tanks.

The polyurethane foam invented by Dr. Otto Bayer solved the problem of the range of fighter-bombers that was a headache for Dr. Heinkel. However, after all, the level of the chemical industry in the 30s could not be compared with that of later generations. Good polyether urethane copolymer foam, not the regular urethane that Helena gave Dr. Heinkel.Dr. Bayer told Helena very honestly that if their products are used as fuel tank fillers, they will slowly hydrolyze due to low temperature, high temperature and humidity, and the life expectancy will not exceed five years. If the environment is particularly harsh, this number will be further shortened .

However, Helena said that she didn't care about this, because she felt that although refilling the fuel tank with foam is a troublesome job that must be returned to the factory, if an aircraft produced in 1940 can fight until 1945 without being attacked by the enemy There is no need to return to the factory for overhaul if Fang is shot down, so Helena must copy down its appearance number, because the probability of winning a lottery with this number must be very high.

Chapter 267 Chemical Fibers

Under Helena's influence, two heavyweight chemical products, polyamide and polyurethane, were successfully developed on this plane three to five years earlier than they were developed on the previous plane.However, when the overjoyed Farben decided to move these two new products from the laboratory to the production line, it was seriously troubled by the insufficient supply of intermediate raw materials.Adipic acid and hexamethylenediamine are used to make polyamides, and isocyanates and polyglycol ethers are used to make polyurethanes.These raw materials are all common chemical industry products in later generations, and they are also substances that can be synthesized long ago in this era, so Helena didn't take the supply of these intermediate raw materials to heart at the beginning.

It wasn't until Dr. Wallace Carothers and Dr. Otto Bayer happily told Helena that their research work had made decisive progress and that they could establish an experimental production line to explore mass production. I discovered with my head that many intermediate raw materials, including adipic acid and hexamethylenediamine, which are very common in later generations, can be synthesized in this era, but due to the lack of large-scale applications such as synthetic polyamides, they are usually only a small amount Prepared for chemical testing, no one has explored how to produce it on a large scale.

In order to solve the supply problem of these intermediate raw materials, it is necessary to first solve the problem of industrial production of these intermediate raw materials and establish a corresponding production line, so Farben's engineers are in a hurry.Although there were some twists and turns in the middle, Farben finally overcame many difficulties and initially realized the mass production of polyamide and polyurethane.Moreover, nylon (nylon) was developed on the basis of polyamide, and polyurethane foam and spandex were developed on the basis of polyurethane. These are, in Helena's view, achievements in the chemical industry that are enough to be recorded in history.

The cost of supporting the two heavyweight research projects of polyamide and polyurethane at the same time is undoubtedly extremely huge. Even if there is a doll plug-in like Helena at the side to help at any time, it greatly reduces the detours engineers take in the research and development process. Huge The initial research and development investment and production equipment purchase investment still make the world's chemical industry giants at the level of Farben feel quite heartbroken.Fortunately, all the persistence was worthwhile. After the polyamide and polyurethane were put into production, the surging profits made Farben’s major shareholders squint their eyes with smiles every time they saw Helena. Curved slits.

What made Helena feel ridiculous was that her original intention to develop polyamide and polyurethane technology in advance was to light up the front-end technology for the weapons and equipment in her conception. However, the polyamide and polyurethane produced by Farben brought the most lucrative The market turned out to be to make stockings and bras for women friends, although these two kinds of clothing were not only available in the 30s.However, the silk stockings sold in the market before are all made of silk, which is not only expensive but also wear-resistant, and the old-style bras have no suitable padding, which greatly limits their popularity among female consumers. popularity in .

The new stockings launched by Farben this time are made of a blend of 85% nylon and 15% spandex. The former is responsible for providing sufficient strength and wear resistance for the stockings, while the latter is based on the former. It also adds quite good elasticity and extensibility to the stockings.As for the new bras, because of the addition of polyurethane foam pads, they have good comfort and a certain degree of protection and plasticity, which is generally difficult to achieve both in the old bras.

When Helena first proposed to IG Farben's executives to develop the stockings and bra market, she actually just hoped to rely on the civilian market to help share part of the initial research and development and investment costs.After all, the successful research and development of polyamide and polyurethane is only the beginning, and there is still a long way to go before the stable production of military products that meet Helena's requirements, such as the explosion-proof fuel tank that Helena showed Dr. The advanced foam plastic is the progress made by Farben after making a breakthrough in the synthesis technology of polyamide and polyurethane.

However, when Farben began to release new-style stockings and new-style bras to the European and North American markets, the enthusiasm of the majority of female consumers for these new gadgets still exceeded Helena's most optimistic imagination.As Farben's production capacity of polyamide and polyurethane needs time to ramp up, the supply of new-style stockings and bras is seriously in short supply in the international market, but countless female consumers are still eager for these trendy gadgets.

For quite a long time, there was a long waiting line in front of the store supplying very new stockings and bras from early in the morning. Although many hours of waiting were often long, the clerk only got an apologetic explanation: "I'm very sorry, ma'am. Our store has sold out all the goods that just arrived today. Could you come back tomorrow?", but none of these can stop people's enthusiasm for consumption.

Relying on such seemingly inconspicuous gadgets as stockings and bras, the German chemical industry not only quickly recovered its initial investment in polyamide and polyurethane projects, but also obtained two hens that could continue to lay golden eggs. Chicken, which greatly consolidated Germany's traditional advantages in chemical fiber.After all, before and after World War II on the previous plane, chemical fiber was one of the few major industrial products in Germany that could stabilize the output of the United States. Helena decided to maintain this advantage in this plane.

However, as the saying goes, some people are happy and some are worried. The rapid rise of the German chemical fiber industry has caused considerable competitive pressure on natural fabric exporters such as the United Kingdom and Japan, because there are more and more types of chemical fibers with better performance. Many fields began to replace natural biological fibers such as silk and wool, which objectively squeezed the markets of British wool and Japanese silk.

Chapter 268 Four-year plan

Helena's breakthrough in promoting German gasoline in the field of polymer synthetic materials quickly attracted the attention of some high-level Nazi government officials, including Hitler.Because new polymer materials represented by chemical fibers can replace traditional biological materials such as cotton, linen and wool in some occasions, which is conducive to reducing the dependence of the German textile industry on imported raw materials and helping to improve Germany's international balance of payments .Therefore, for Hitler, who hoped that Germany could be self-sufficient in solving the supply of industrial raw materials, the successful synthesis of polyamide and polyurethane.There is no doubt that it is a major good news that fell from the sky.

Although Hitler established a good personal relationship with Halmar Schacht, the head of his Ministry of Economics, and gave great trust to this economic wizard in the first few years of his administration, Schacht was able to let go Carry out his economic policies.But on the issue of how to deal with international trade, Hitler and Schacht have always had irreconcilable differences of opinion.Among them, Schacht advocated that the development of Germany's economy should be based on the world market, while Hitler believed that Germany's demand for raw materials should be based on the domestic market, and all those that can be synthesized by themselves should be synthesized by themselves, so that they can get rid of their dependence on the world market as much as possible. .

As Hitler's trusted think tank, Helena was also asked this question by Hitler.Her answer to Hitler at the time was: "Minister Schacht believes that the development of the German economy must be based on the world market. There is actually no problem with this judgment itself. If you are isolated from the world market for a long time, even a country as large as the United States or the Soviet Union Vast and populous countries will gradually lose their economic competitiveness, and it is even more impossible for Germany to develop its economy behind closed doors for a long time. However, when choosing a national economic policy, a wise policymaker not only needs to follow long-term economic policies The law also needs to consider the current objective environment, and the latter will not always perfectly match the former.”

Helena’s words actually pointed out the core dilemma facing the German economy: According to the long-term law of economic development, Germany must be deeply integrated into the international market. However, the current objective environment facing the world economy has caused Germany to Passively separated from the international market.Although this kind of separation is not the kind of absolute isolation, the shrinking world market caused by the economic crisis and trade barriers alone has caused the recovering German economy to suffer from chronic suffocation.

Although Helena and Schacht have adopted more maneuvering measures, the balance of payments situation of Germany on this plane is much better than that of the previous plane at the same time, but these measures are all technical means and cannot change the world economy. big environment.This is like when the smog is severe, residents wearing masks when going out can reduce the inhalation of harmful substances, but it has no effect on improving the air quality of the entire city.Moreover, the various maneuvering measures of Helena and Schacht are not unlimited. Helena exports poor people from Eastern Europe to the Middle East, and Schacht signed barter agreements with many countries. These temporary measures are all useful Yes, but you can't expect Germany, the world's second largest industrial country, to live on these in the future.

When the timeline advanced to the second half of 1935, the German foreign trade situation, which Helena had managed to reverse, began to show bad signs again.Due to the strong domestic economic recovery in Germany and the many trade barriers overseas, coupled with the low price of international industrial products, companies are more willing to sell their products in Germany rather than export them. Shah, head of the Ministry of Economic Affairs Teh also tried to use tax means to stimulate exports, but the actual effect was limited.

As a result, the growth momentum of German exports began to stagnate in the past few years. As a result, in order to maintain the balance of payments, the originally scheduled imports had to shrink accordingly.And precisely at this juncture, international raw material prices, which have been in the doldrums for several years, have begun to rise again. The direct consequence is that many raw materials needed by Germany cannot be imported in time, and the import volume of some consumer goods has been ruthlessly compressed. It made Helena very depressed.

However, poorer Schacht was more depressed than Helena, because his "quasi-liberal" line proved to be neither able to provide enough raw materials for rearmament, nor to provide a satisfactory standard of living for the people, but also exacerbated the This has severely affected Hitler's previous unconditional trust in him.

Facing the shortage of imported raw materials, Hitler began to seriously consider using planning to manage raw materials. In May 1935, he declared in the Reichstag: "Without planning, we will not be able to revive." He also demanded that national production use synthetic materials as much as possible.And in September of the same year, Hitler again called for the domestic production of special raw materials at a Nazi party rally: whether it was fuel oil, rubber or man-made fibers.

Most of these propositions run counter to Schacht's idea of ​​obtaining raw materials based on the international market, but Helena expressed support for these propositions of Hitler, because after eliminating all the wrong answers, if they want to get rid of the current predicament, they will proceed according to a unified plan Self-sufficiency in some raw materials is the only viable option, even if it is costly.

Although this choice cannot fundamentally solve the problems facing Germany, Germany still needs a few years to re-accumulate its strength, and it has not been able to directly break the ultimate shackles that caused Germany's predicament-the world colonial order dominated by Britain and France.Moreover, moderate self-sufficiency in raw materials is also conducive to improving Germany's long-lasting combat capability in future wars.So with the joint efforts of many professionals, including Helena, a "Four-Year Plan" that was discussed and approved by Hitler, aimed at improving Germany's independent supply of raw materials and industrial capabilities, is ready to come out.

Chapter 269 Two Problems

In the history of the last plane, in order to alleviate the plight of industrial raw materials that rely heavily on imports and to meet the needs of large-scale reconstruction of armed forces for weapons and equipment, Nazi Germany also implemented the so-called "four annual plan".The purpose is to achieve self-sufficiency in most industrial raw materials while rebuilding a strong military industry.Although judging from the final effect of the implementation of the "Four-Year Plan" of Nazi Germany in history, although the German economy grew rapidly from 1936 to 10, self-sufficiency in raw materials is almost an impossible goal.

However, Helena believes that in terms of the current domestic and international environment that Germany is currently facing, a mechanism that can take care of the overall situation should be established. While responsible for managing the production and import of scarce raw materials, there are plans to transform and upgrade Germany's industrial system to make it more adaptable to the future. The need for war is still very necessary, as it can greatly increase the resilience of the German economy in the face of an opponent's naval blockade.Therefore, Helena immediately expressed support for Hitler's idea of ​​bringing some scarce resources into the planning track, which greatly enhanced Hitler's confidence in implementing this policy, so the starting time of the German "Four-Year Plan" in this plane It is also a few months earlier than the last plane.

Of course, the "Four-Year Plan" of Germany on this plane cannot be a replica of the previous plane. After all, in Helena's eyes, although the "Four-Year Plan" implemented by Nazi Germany on the previous plane was called "Plan", it was actually It lacks the orderliness and integrity that a rigorous plan should have. Regardless of the unrealistic plan indicators mixed with various departmental interests and regional interests, even the content of the plan itself is seriously lacking in scientific guidance, leading to this so-called The "plan" is more like a collection of temporary administrative orders, and some of these administrative orders overlap with each other, and some cancel each other out.

This chaotic situation not only resulted in a great waste of funds and resources, but also opened the door for rent-seeking of power by corrupt elements in the top ranks of the Nazis, such as the Nazi Germany during the "Four Year Plan" under Hermann Göring The state-owned enterprise established under his auspices and named after him made this big fat man who was both a player and a referee rich.In order to avoid all kinds of chaos that occurred in the "Four-Year Plan" of Nazi Germany in the previous plane, Helena had no choice but to do her old job as a papermaker again this time.

After many discussions with Helena and others, Hitler finally decided to set up a "Central Planning Bureau" directly responsible to himself under the framework of the "Four-Year Plan" to be responsible for the management and coordination of the entire national economy. The "Central Planning Bureau" has the power to decide whether to implement a new plan or terminate the existing plan, whether to establish a new raw material processing plant or shut down an existing raw material processing plant, and also has the right to allocate scarce resources to needed departments or production plants . The daily affairs of the "Central Planning Bureau" were arranged by Hitler to Albert Speer, who was appreciated by Hitler earlier than in history because of his outstanding organizational skills in the construction of the very long wave radio station.

Helena is very satisfied with Hitler's arrangement, because she knows that Speer was actually the head of the "Central Planning Bureau" in the last plane, but the time has come when Nazi Germany is showing signs of decline on all fronts. It's April 1942.But even in this extremely unfavorable situation, Speer also played a terrible reversal with a bad hand: when the average working hours of workers did not extend, and the production of consumer goods did not shrink sharply, starting from the second half of 4, The number of weapons produced in Germany was growing exponentially, and reached its peak in late 1942 to early 1944 when the German army on all fronts was already showing signs of collapse.

As soon as Speer started to preside over the work of the "Central Planning Bureau", he put forward three requirements: the first is to require the cadres of the "Central Planning Bureau" to be as young as possible. According to his own words, "in my department, there should be no People who are older than me”; the second is to ask the “Central Planning Bureau” to absorb specialized technical talents as much as possible, especially engineers and mathematicians; the third is to ask the “Central Planning Bureau” to make the internal management as flat as possible To avoid the establishment of a huge central administrative management agency, on the contrary, it is necessary to expand the power of local agencies, so that local governments can deal with problems more flexibly, and the central agency is only responsible for the deployment of production from a macro perspective.

In Helena's view, the three fires that Speer's new official took office are very forward-looking. Although in the current big plate of the German economy, the market is still the basic means of resource allocation. Allocating resources is only used in some resources and some enterprises, but Speer still realizes with his almost instinctive sensitivity that there are three possible disadvantages in managing the economy through planning means: The first is the old-fashioned political problem , The second is the bureaucratic problem of laymen guiding experts, and the third is the problem of information congestion caused by poor communication between superiors and subordinates.Not enough If you only rely on these specific operational methods to formulate a reasonable economic plan, in Helena's opinion, it is far from enough, because when you use planning methods to allocate resources, you will inevitably encounter two problems.

The first problem is that all production departments in the national economy are interdependent, and this interdependence is so intricate that it affects the whole body.Then when the output of one of the production departments changes, how should other departments adjust their output to re-balance.For example, we know that the production of steel requires electricity, so if the steel plants across the country want to increase steel production by 100 million tons, how much more electricity does the power plant need to generate to meet the demand?

This problem seems to be very simple. Just calculate the average electricity consumption per ton of steel in the national iron and steel plants. However, the actual situation is not so simple, because not only the iron and steel plants need electricity, but also the coke production upstream of the iron and steel plants needs electricity. , The upstream coal production of coke needs electricity, and the production equipment purchased for expanding production capacity also needs electricity.To use this upward method to calculate this problem clearly, the computing power required is almost endless.However, if we don’t know how much power generation needs to be increased to match the increase of 100 million tons of steel production, we will not be able to make accurate decisions when making plans. Excess power generation ends up being wasted on wires.

The second problem is: under the given constraints, how to consume the minimum resources to obtain the maximum output.For example, there are four factories A, B, C, and D that can use steel plates to produce parts A and B. The production capacities of these four factories are different, and some are more suitable for producing part A, while others are more suitable for producing part B.But part A and part B must be produced at a fixed ratio of one to two, so how to plan production so that the maximum number of parts can be produced with the least number of steel plates when the production capacity of the four factories is not idle?

2 Chapter Seventy Input-Output

According to Helena's character of planning everything in advance, it was impossible to discover the existence of these two problems until after Hitler proposed the "Four-Year Plan". The importance of planning, and also started to build tools to solve two problems very early. This tool is actually the solution of linear programming. This is the earliest development time in the later generations of operations research framework, and it is also the most widely used branch. Subject.

The first thing Helena took care of was how to adjust the output of other sectors to re-balance when the output of a certain sector in the national economy changed.Helena knew that in order to solve this problem, the first thing that needs to be done is to establish a set of models for the national economy that can quantitatively describe the direct and indirect links between various departments and industries.

On this issue, Helena directly plagiarized the research results of Dr. Wassily Leontiev, a famous Russian economist of later generations in the United States, in the 40s, and brought the new "input-output method" to this era in advance. econometric method.In the last plane, Wassily Leontief won the Fifth Nobel Prize in Economics in 1973 for his significant contribution in the field of input-output analysis.

Numerous practical experiences before Helena's crossing have shown that: Dr. Leontief's input-output analysis method is not only powerful in making economic forecasts and making various short-term or long-term plans, but also his input-output method is also It has strong universal adaptability, whether it is in the planned economic model of later generations of the Soviet Union or the European and American market economic model, the figure of this great god Leontief is indispensable.

It is particularly worth mentioning that Wassily Leontief of this plane still failed to escape the claws of Helena, who has the eccentricity of a great collector. In fact, as early as 1928, Helena had her eye on Degree of Leontief.Helena not only sold the theoretical idea of ​​establishing the "input-output method" to this future great economics god, but also used the version that was perfected by countless economists in the previous plane. Tiff was taken aback for a moment, making him almost wonder if his years of studying in Petersburg and Berlin were all for nothing.

Although the poor Leontief couldn't understand why Helena would choose him, this little cutie, but out of strong interest in the beautiful application picture of the "input-output method" that Helena described to him, he finally decided to stay Berlin University, in order to further study the topic Helena explained, and Helena readily expressed that she could help him provide more detailed German economic data.

Therefore, in the previous plane, Leontief should have published the famous paper "The Quantitative Relationship of Input and Output in the American Economic System" in 1936. The title of this plane became "Input-Output in the German Economic System". The Quantitative Relationship of the Paper", and the time of publishing the paper was brought forward to 1934.However, when signing the paper, Leontief insisted on putting Helena's name in front of his own, because he really felt that he had only made some trivial tinkering work on the basis of the theory proposed by Helena.Dr. Leontief's honesty made Helena, who plagiarized his future research results, very ashamed.

So when Hitler decided to appoint Speer to preside over the implementation of the "Four-Year Plan", Helena strongly recommended this young talent to Speer.And Leontief did not live up to Helena's expectations, quickly showed his extraordinary talent, and soon became one of Speer's most capable assistants. His main job was to help Speer complete the compilation of the German national economic balance sheet Work.In the last plane, Leontief was supposed to go to the United States, and under the employment of the US Department of Labor, presided over the compilation of the post-war input-output table, and used it as a tool to predict economic development trends.

Using the input-output method to analyze the relationship between various sectors of the national economy usually adopts two basic forms, one is the input-output table, and the other is the input-output model.Among them, the input-output table is to make the input sources and destinations of various products into a checkerboard form, and the input-output model is to further write the content reflected in the input-output table into a form of linear algebraic equations , thus turning the intricate links between national economic sectors into quantifiable analytical data.

In the input-output table, all data should follow two obvious balance relationships. The first one is that the intermediate product plus the final product must be equal to the total product. This one reflects the balance relationship at the physical level; the second one is the material Consumption plus net output value must be equal to the total output value, which reflects the balance relationship at the value level.The input-output model based on the input-output table is essentially a linear algebraic equation system based on these two basic balance relationships.

The application of the input-output method can greatly simplify the equilibrium model of the national economy. It not only combines thousands of products and a larger number of production units into a limited number of industries and product sectors, but also can The equation is a simple and beautiful mathematical form to reflect the technical connection between various industries and production departments.It enables the framers of the "Four-Year Plan" to quantitatively analyze the interdependence among the various components of the national economy, so that even if the output of some sectors changes, other sectors can clearly know how to adjust themselves.

Helena came up with economic analysis methods that transcended the times, Leontief helped compile the economic balance sheet, and engineering experts like Speer were in charge of command and coordination, so that the "Four-Year Plan" formulated by Germany on this plane started from the beginning From that moment on, he was placed under the guidance of scientific theories. Compared with the previous plane, Hermann Göring, an economics layman with a self-awareness, presided over it, both in terms of rationality and scientificity. more than one level.

After solving the problem of how to quantitatively analyze the connection between various sectors of the national economy, the remaining problem is how to obtain the optimal allocation of resources through scientific calculations under given constraints, that is, how to make the investment The smallest yields the largest.In fact, this problem also belongs to the problem of linear programming. Here, Helena had to refer to the research results of several other Nobel Prize winners in economics.

Chapter 271 Simplex Method

Students who have played real-time strategy games must have experienced this experience: Compared with the grand game goals you hope to achieve, your various resources will never be enough.If you invest too much money in the construction of wonder buildings, it will be difficult to ensure that there is enough money to build economic drag reduction and infrastructure; if you spend too much manpower on recruiting craftsmen and farmers, Then it is also difficult to ensure that there is enough manpower for the recruitment of army soldiers.Unless you have opened a plug-in with unlimited resources, you must plan carefully before deciding on the allocation of resources in order to maximize your game goals.The limitations of these resources and game rules are the constraints we must follow when making game decisions.

Constraints exist not only in real-time strategy games, but also in various social production activities. However, compared with the decisions that can be made by players' experience and intuition alone in games, the constraints that need to be faced in social production activities are more serious. The consequences of wrong decision-making are often more serious, so more scientific methods must be used to guide it.Therefore, for hundreds of years, economists and mathematicians have been exploring how to use the most convenient method to find the optimal solution in linear programming problems.

As early as the first half of the 19th century, the famous French mathematician Fourier proposed the subject of algorithmic solution to linear algorithm constraints, and made a lot of pioneering contributions on this subject.It was Leonid Kontorovich, a famous Soviet economist, who first developed linear programming into an independent subject branch and used the method of linear programming to guide actual production.In 1939, he published a special article "Mathematical Methods for Organizing and Planning Production" and invented a tool called "solution multiplier method" to solve linear programming problems. Because of his outstanding contributions in the field of linear programming, Kang Torovich shared the 1975 Nobel Prize in Economics with Koopman, an American economist who also studied linear programming.

Although in the last plane, Kantorovich's "solution multiplier method" opened the door to the solution of optimization planning problems, but this time Helena brought out the research results of another great god of later generations, which is another Nobel laureate in economics - American economist and mathematician, known as the "father of linear programming" GB Danzik published the "simplex method" in 1947 on the last plane, which is also It is the most effective and widely used universal algorithm for solving linear programming problems in later generations.

The basic idea of ​​the "simplex method" is actually very simple. All solutions that satisfy the constraints are called feasible solutions. The area formed by the set of all feasible solutions drawn in the coordinate system is the feasible region, and the feasible region can be Think of it as a convex polygon bounded by a series of vertices.Due to the essence of the linear programming problem, it is to find the optimal solution that can maximize (or minimize) the objective function in the feasible solutions, and if this optimal solution exists, it must be located at a certain vertex of the feasible region or two adjacent on the connection of vertices.Therefore, the linear programming problem is transformed into the problem of finding the point that can optimize the objective function among the vertices of the feasible region.

So we can start from a certain vertex of the feasible region to judge whether the vertex can make the objective function optimal.If not, we are looking for another vertex that can make the goal better, until we find the vertex that is the optimal solution. This process of finding the optimal solution is called iteration.Although the actual operation process of the "simplex method" cannot be explained clearly in a few words, one of the biggest advantages of this algorithm is that it transforms relatively complex algebraic problems into simple and intuitive geometric problems. The method is undoubtedly very ingenious.

There is another very interesting anecdote about Danzik who invented the "simplex method" in the previous plane.Danzik was late for class one time. He looked up and saw some questions left by the teacher on the blackboard. He thought it was homework assigned by the teacher after class, so Danzik copied the questions, and then went home and buried himself in it. work hard.But Danzik soon discovered that the problem in front of him was not generally difficult, but the stubborn Danzik was unwilling to give up, but continued to study the solution method.

After a few weeks like this, Danzik, who finally found a solution to the problem, went to the teacher exhaustedly. He said to the teacher very ashamedly: "Teacher, I am very sorry. I didn't hand in my homework until now, but the teacher you assigned The homework may be too difficult." The teacher took the manuscript paper handed in by Danzik in a daze, but was surprised after seeing Danzik's solution method, because what he copied on the blackboard was not a family at all. Homework, but to tell students that this is an unsolved problem in this field, and the problem-solving method Danzik used was the "simplex method" that later won him the Nobel Prize in Economists!

Regarding this, Helena can only sincerely say one thing to the Great God Danzik in the previous plane: the Great God is truly worthy of being a Great God. Helena admires him for being able to produce a Nobel Prize-level research result even when doing homework.But the so-called rescue of the rivers and lakes, I want to borrow and use the research results of your previous plane, the great master, and I will use them in this plane. You must not mind, the great master, right?

With the "input-output method" used to quantitatively analyze the relationship between various sectors of the national economy, and the "simplex method" to analyze the optimal allocation of resources under constraints, Germany's "Four-Year Plan" is like After finding a qualified measuring ruler and compasses, the formal drawing work can begin.

Because the application of the "input-output method" shows that the economic balance that can be realized theoretically in the market economy can also be realized in theory in the planned economy; Excellent, planned economy can also be realized theoretically.The reason why Helena has to repeatedly emphasize "in theory" is because in practice, whether it is a market economy or a planned economy, it is difficult to achieve complete balance and optimal allocation.But this discrepancy between theory and reality is precisely what makes economics fascinating and annoying.In any case, Helena used the linear programming tool beyond the times to make the economic plan come true for the first time on the basis of science, instead of formulating policies completely according to her own preferences like Goering in the previous plane.

And in the process of formulating the "Four-Year Plan", Speer's architectural talent also came in handy.In order to straighten out arms production, he showed Helena an organizational chart he had drawn in perspective, in which columns represented tanks, planes, warships, and other weapons and equipment surrounded by various A variety of rings, each ring representing the various components needed to produce the gear.Such a three-dimensional perspective organizational chart obviously requires the drawer to have a strong three-dimensional thinking ability, and Helena also took a lot of effort to keep up with Speer's thinking, but this kind of three-dimensional thinking is obviously what Speer is best at , which made Helena look forward to the implementation effect of the "Four-Year Plan" on this plane.

Chapter 272 Functional Finance