Cabinet Meeting April 1945
0000 April 1st 1945
Reichstag Building, Berlin, Germany
"Welcome again, gentlemen. Julius is not here as he's busy commanding his troops against the Soviets in Oulu, Finland. But as we need an Army report, Heinz is first today."
"Good day to you all. What we have this month is a delicate month, full of new aspects."
"This is how Europe stands as of April 1st. It doesn't look like much of a change from the last three months, except for Sweden, which is now in our hands, and some parts of Finland. We'll have to look closer at it however."
"Snow has started to thaw out in southern Finland, allowing the Soviets to attack the much weaker Heeresgruppe Finland, protecting what's left of our Ally. This has forced us to anticipate our Summer plans: Ringel needs to link up with Hausser's Heeresgruppe Finland by attacking those Soviet forces which are now attacking Hausser. This is why we decided to attack Oulu even before Spring sets, because if we waited there would've been chance that Finland would've disappeared under the belt of Soviet forces. In hindsight, the choice of invading Sweden has been an excellent one, as it allowed us to carry more than forty divisions right at the doorstep of Soviet-occupied Finland."
"Here we have a few good news. Just yesterday snow thawed out in Oulu too; this means our attack will proceed a lot faster than it did up to now. Should we succeed in capturing Oulu, we'll have linked our forces with Hausser, and we'll be able to push through all of Finland at once.
Since the start of this hurried operation - that is, a few days after the capitulation of Sweden - we have taken only very light casualties, while we have been able to destroy around seven Soviet divisions, and more are perishing under the bombs of the Luftwaffe. May I say however, and this is something Speer will have a word about, that it is imperative, now more than ever, that we protect our aerial assets and that we acquire as much Oil as possible. As our stockpiles are now, we can let all our planes drop off for just seven days."
"I have concluded a report about our ground Armed Forces status, and that of our allies. At the dawn of this greatly anticipated offensive against the Soviets, we have three hundred divisions, many being lent by our allies. Japan still has a fairly good Army, with shortly less than 150 divisions, but most of it is in China and it won't do nothing if they haven't got anything left to defend their Japanese mainland with.
As things stand now, I think that even if Japan is to fall this month, we're more than well prepared to face the Soviet Union again. We did not expect to start attacking them so fast, but their attack against Heeresgruppe Finland more or less forced us to. My main advice is to let our other Heeresgruppen stay on defense and let the hard blow fall on Finland up to Leningrad. And acquire as much Oil as possible. Without it, we're sitting ducks. That's all from me."
"Thank you Heinz. That's good news to hear about Finland. Let's hope that now that snow is thawing out we can come to a fast conclusion of the battle of Oulu. Ernst, intelligence."
"Thanks Martin. I have some news to bring to you, mainly because we've been able over the last month to increase our espionage budget a bit."
"Last month we had 4 spies in the USA, now we have 5, which provide for a slightly more correct report. Their ever-growing industry has reached a new high, mainly because of the conquest of Japan. Last report showed numbers such as 88 infantry divisions, while today we have 113, while the number of armored divisions is almost the same. Airforce numbers also stay the same, that is, incorrect the same way.
Our spies tell they have 13 Battleships, which may be true, while their Carriers number dropped from 16 to 9, which might be a more reliable number."
Ground and Air forces for Great Britain are almost the same even if we have two more spies among their ranks. Only the numbers about their Navy are a bit different: eight Battleships instead of last month's fourteen, seven carriers instead of four. Their Industrial Capacity is almost the same. I hope our V2 production is going to alter this a bit, even if not forever."
"We have four spies in the Soviet Union, whereas in the last month we just had two. Numbers about their Ground Forces should be more correct now, even if not perfect. Their infantry divisions show a reasonable number of 368, compared to last month's 217. They also seem to have sixty-one armored divisions, but I think that's a bit too high of a number. If these estimates prove to be correct, we are facing an enemy that outnumbers us only slightly in the battlefield. Their Industrial Capacity is almost the same as last month."
"Our research is progressing fairly well, with an Advanced Electronic Computer device coming up from Konrad Zuse; a new Tank design should also come up before Summer hopefully. Next goes an Improved Hospital System being devised by von Manstein, then Heisenberg's Nuclear Fuel Analysis, and finally I.G. Farben's work on Synthetic Oil Plant, which should lead to an improvement to our Industry Efficiency - and only marginally to our Oil problem. I'm finished."
"Albert."
"Quite a few news to announce here. Our Industrial Capacity has seen a minor setback due to recent Allied bombings, but there's little we can do about them as they're just too many for us to counter them in a harmless way for our Fighters. So we'll let it go until we have subdued the Soviet Union, I think. Anyways, our production is going nicely, with the first three V2s completed and ready to select their target in Cherbourg. Stockpiles are fairly good except for Oil as usual, which at the current rate we're using it we have enough for only nine days. Manpower should not be an issue, with more than a thousand men being raised daily and nearly three hundred thousand currently not being used.
There is some news about our current Production however. Me and Martin have talked about this for a long time, and now we have come to a conclusion."
"We have decided to start work on a Nuclear Reactor. If we can allocate all our spare capacity without interferences, work on our first, small Nuclear Reactor will be completed August 26th. Reasons behind this decisions are many: first, the need to bridge the gap between us and the Allies; second, we believe that this field of research may yield great and many innovations, as our Nuclear physicists tell us; third, we may always put this work to a halt shall the need of diverting production to other sectors arise."
"I do believe indeed this field of research will lead to something never seen before. As we've been the first to learn the secrets of Rocketry, and it has greatly enhanced our Airforce, we'll want to learn about the secrets held by a Nuclear reactor. Ernst, you are last. I assume you don't bring good news."
"I don't, Martin. April will probably be the last month in which we can talk about Japan.."
"Naval losses have been somewhat light, with all the IJN already decimated. They could do worse however, and they did, by losing the IJN Shinano, yet another Carrier, and the glorious battleship IJN Yamato. That's a shameful end for the IJN, the Yamato being the last of the great Japanese ships being sunk. Was it just for the Naval issue, however, we'd be talking about good news. But it's not."
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Originally Posted by DvD-IT
