Siegerkranz - Germany's Place in the Sun

As of 1951, the German policy is basically "watch and wait," though there is an espionage war going on between Germany and the United States; you've already met the foremost American spy in France, though I was hopefully vague enough that no one can put a name to him, and Oster's musing earlier was the seed of the future People's Republic of New England. By the beginning of the MacArthur administration (Douglas MacArthur, R, 1953-1961), the United States is ears-deep in dissent, and its military mostly deployed overseas in what feels like an endless war in Southeast Asia. There will be spectacular battles, wherein France is this timeline's East Germany and Spanish North Africa is this timeline's Vietnamistan, but little of that has been plotted.

I'm putting in a couple of butterflies here; first, Werner von Blomberg survives to late 1946 because he was not broken in 1938, but there's only so much that can be done about cancer with '40s and '50s medical technology. Second, Wolfram von Richthofen survives to the same time (even less likely, brain cancer being even more difficult to treat); when one dies, the other follows closely enough that they are laid out in state together. Third, I admit as pure, unashamed symbolism on my part, August von Mackensen survives to see the Coronation of 1952. He is 102.

I'm having trouble bringing the update together, though combining the deaths of Richthofen and Blomberg may make that easier on me.

122. Realignment

Garnisonkirche
Potsdam, German Empire
26 September 1946

If there were a spiritual heart to Junkerdom, it would be the Potsdam garrison church. Potsdam was perhaps not the heart of the Empire, nor its brain, but it was the heart of the Army, and nowhere more symbolized the role of the Army in the Prussian state than this church. Peter Volkmann mused about this from the back of the church. The only reason he was actually inside was because of the Crown Prince - it seemed half the Luftwaffe and the Army filled the church, and the front three-quarters were either cabinet ministers, hereditary lords, or general officers. Only a scant line of aides and drivers crowded the very back. They would file past the bier at the front and pay their respects to two of their own, and with any luck, the crowd outside would be able to do the same before sunset.

On the bier rested two coffins, open-faced despite the ravages of disease on their occupants. One of them was emaciated and completely bald, his coffin draped in the flag of the Kingdom of Prussia rather than the Imperial colors. The other, even in death, looked deathly tired, the flag draping his coffin Luftwaffe blue. Each of the flags, in addition to showing their loyalties, bore a pair of crossed batons. These were the Reich's marshals, Wernher von Blomberg, who had commanded in East Prussia for the old Kaiser as King Wilhelm, and Wolfram von Richthofen, who had been instrumental in the resurrection of the air force. Coincidence had taken both of them in the span of a month, cancer killing both of them in Berlin. Blomberg had suffered long enough that he had not participated in the Russian war; Richthofen's cancer had only been noticed after a seizure had left him collapsed across his desk outside of Kiev after Valkyrie.

The Kaiser was first in line to pay his respects, followed by the princes, his brothers and sons filing past in slow silence. Behind them came the Cabinet, Papen in the lead with a Pickelhaube tucked under his left arm, then the other marshals and the grand admirals, filing past in service blocks led by the ancient August von Mackensen. The old man, most senior marshal in German service, was technically retired, but he was more spry than many of the men following him. His back was only slightly stooped, the massive Hussar shako tucked under his arm and his black-and-silver pelisse still jaunty. Mackensen took longer than any of the royals. He peered into the wreckage of Blomberg's face, then muttered "Comes for all of us, I suppose, silly to fear it." It was likely meant to be quiet, but in the garrison church, it carried far enough that even Peter heard it at the back. Bock, beside him, gave a quick grunt and nod; Brauchitsch, beyond him, looked gray and uncomfortable, leaning on his walking-out baton. Mackensen took a look down the long line of marshals and admirals - more men carried Wilhelm III's baton than all of the other Kaisers combined - and frowned with a hard shake of his head.

The mourners paid different levels of respect to the two marshals. The Luftwaffe men tended to linger at Richthofen. Hard-faced Sperrle stood frowning at the corpse, Student smiled sadly at him, and Kesselring's reserve broke entirely, reaching out to brush his fingertips across the dead man's cheek. The first generation of Luftwaffe generals - Udet, Wever, Milch, Grauert, and Goering, forcibly stuffed into his old uniform - stayed in a tight knot, marveling that it was Richthofen and not them. Lesser generals from each service looked at the long line ahead of them and considered - neither Blomberg nor Richthofen had been terribly old, and there was Mackensen, who would likely still be in uniform but for the Great War. How could a man be promoted with so many in front of him?

As they wound out of the church, Bock waited at the door with Brauchitsch. When the man they wanted came by, in the white coat, scarlet vest, and shining black breastplate of a Garde du Corps officer, Bock spoke, quiet but commanding. "Manstein. Come." The three of them walked away from the entrance, circling the church and walking away from the long line of mourners. They proceeded in silence for several minutes before Brauchitsch spoke.

"I am retiring, Manstein. The General Staff needs a new chief, someone who can hold the thing together. We have," and here he gestured with his baton at Bock, who nodded, unsmiling, "have recommended you to His Imperial Majesty." Before Manstein could speak, Bock waved a hand. "I spoke to him about this already, Manstein. He has agreed. The matter of Prince Wilhelm is done. Even were it not, I am the War Minister. He would accept what I believe best for the army."

Manstein swallowed, throat dry. This was a career opportunity that simply could not be ignored. "I accept." Bock's head swiveled. "It was not an offer, Manstein. This is also not an easy time. Brauchitsch here got to build the army. It is your task to preserve it without bankrupting Germany. The army is going to shrink, Manstein. Your role is to guide that transition."

"I shall... I shall begin putting together my recommendations, Herr Generalfeldmarschall."

"Good. You shall take office effective the new year."

---

Maybach-1
Zossen, German Empire
1 January 1947

The grand auditorium was rarely used; award ceremonies, promotions, and the like were generally held at formal parade. That Manstein had chosen to make his first appearance here was therefore rather unusual. He appeared, as always, in Garde du Corps white, bootheels clicking across the oak parquet. His aide, Oberstleutnant Stahlberg, clicked his heels and came to rigid attention before bawling out, "Attention! The Chief of the Imperial German General Staff!" The room lurched as the assembled crowd of field-gray came to its feet. In the front row were the other marshals - Guderian, Hausser, and Rommel all looking rather discomfited, Manstein thought with an inner smirk.

"Take seats, please." He rested his hands on the podium, leaning forward to peer out at them. "Gentlemen. I am pleased to speak to you as the sixteenth chief of the General Staff. This is a time of transition. We are responsible for the preservation of the Army against forces beyond our control that we cannot meet on the battlefield, but in the political arena. The sacred separation of the Army from politics is being affected by political considerations. Short of decisive intervention by the Army, which I say categorically and without reservation goes against the wishes of the All-Highest, we must cooperate with and learn to understand these conditions." Bock's mouth became a hard, thin line. Manstein both spoke of putsch and inferred the Kaiser's wishes in his first public statements - hardly a gracious start.

"Thus, I anticipate a revision of our force structure. Our fundamental doctrine of decisive action, mobility, and concentration of force remains sound; we may refine it, but we will never reject it. To this end, I shall recommend certain personnel changes to the War Ministry." Manstein looked along the first rank of seats, nodding at Bock. "First, there is the Inspector of Armored Troops. I nominate Graf Guderian to this post. I have a number of suggestions for him, and expect to work closely on the future force structure. Second is the Inspector of Artillery - Baron Heinrici. Your duties are more technical than Heinz's, but... gentlemen, may I speak frankly, we shall have fewer divisions in tomorrow's Army. We must therefore focus as much force in each division as we can. The artillery force is the means for doing so. Third, the Inspector of Mobile Troops. Graf Hausser. The era of the horse and the train has passed, and there is no one better suited to birthing the hussars and dragoons of the future. Finally... Graf Rommel, I know that you are not one of our little club -" a dutiful laugh ran through the red-stripers, and Rommel nodded and smiled - "but I wish to appoint you as chief of a special commission. Your task is to develop the force of tomorrow - the weapons, the doctrines, the force structure."

"Now, with these initial submissions complete, I wish to speak to you on the current force and the demobilization from Russia..."

Pinkus - Perhaps, but there are a large number of technical challenges (power to weight and durability come to mind) before helicopters are a viable option. I'd be lying if I said the Rommel Commission isn't this timeline's Howze Board though.

---

There is a giant pitfall in writing AARs, and my writing recently feels like it has fallen into it. It is simpler to write the hero, whether person or country, as an all-knowing, all-victorious force. This is especially easy with Hearts of Iron with a little experience, because the computer is especially prone to raveling failures, where something goes wrong at one point on the line, then everything else collapses in order, making grand designs seem like they work all the time (exceptions like the Reims meatgrinder actually prove this - I unintentionally used Reims as a tarpit, and flanked through Normandy, which the AI would not recognize because it would mean giving up on Reims).

I want to put down, both for you and for me, that Germany at the end of the Second Great War is not all-knowing or all-victorious. Germany has imposed its order from Gibraltar to Vladivostok, but there are cracks built into this system. Here is what I see already:

1. Franz von Papen. Papen suspended the last round of Reichstag elections, and is approaching Hitler in his self-confidence. His relationship with the Crown Prince is strained past breaking, and is only restrained by the Kaiser, who views Papen as his Bismarck. There are also some gigantic scandals brewing for the Papen administration - multiple administration-breaking scandals are buried in his rise to power.

2. Competition for resources. The three basic arms of the military are competing for resources at the same time that Germany is bankrolling reconstruction in Britain and Russia, and investing heavily in North Africa and the Mideast. The military cannot sustain its current size, and even demobilizing reserves will leave them with around ten percent of the German total population in uniform. There must be large-scale drawdowns, especially in the army, which leads me to...

3. Competing philosophies. Manstein's ideal involves firepower concentration and a "heavier" armored force with complete motorization and majority mechanization of the infantry arm outside of special formations like mountain units. I am modeling him as Fire Support. In contrast, the men whom he has appointed as chiefs of the inspectorates are almost uniformly Maneuver proponents, and Guderian specifically is on record as favoring a lighter, faster armored force. Manstein's own preferences also mean that Garde units are either untouched or expanded by the reorganizations, drawing the ire of the "regulars." Beyond that, the Luftwaffe can argue persuasively that the nuclear option has made ground forces obsolete, as soon as atomic production can be ramped up to full strength, and all that is really needed are rapid-deployment forces to clean up the mess left by the Bomb, and the Kaiserliche Marine is set up for a titanic struggle for its future between the old-guard surface, carrier, and submarine admirals. Unlike the OTL US Navy, no one, or even two, of these components can claim supremacy, because the battleships had the Battle of the Three Navies.

4. A colonial empire. Germany has never had a colonial empire on the scale on which it does now. Lettow-Vorbeck's philosophy in administering Africa has been that the majority of troops he uses are locals, and he is doing his best to bind Africa to Germany by extending as many of the benefits of German rule to them while shielding them from the worst colonial excesses. He is, in short, the ideal White Man's Burden administrator; his military chief, Theodor Eicke, is not. The Baltic states and Bohemia are being Germanized, and, again, there are two schools of thought on the subject. The Papen School, currently dominating German policy, is heavy-handed and mostly Germanizes the Baltic by granting noble estates like William the Conqueror, then settling soldier colonies with the caveat that the land thus gained can only be sold to German citizens. The Ludwig Ferdinand School, in contrast, recalls the Prussian school system prior to 1848 regarding the Poles: multilingualism (and by extension multiculturalism) is a strength.

5. Germany's allies. Even more than Germany itself, Germany's allies are built on a house of cards. The German-imposed administration in the Low Countries is not popular, and the Kingdom of Hungary is a mess, including as it does Romania and the Balkans. The German alliance is not popular in Italy, and is held together by the thinnest of tissues, and the Ottoman Empire is openly held up by German arms, even with the complete victory of the shaky coalition of the Pan-Turkists and Pan-Islamists. The Ottoman possessions in Europe are more likely to rebel and attempt to reconstitute the Megali Idea with Bulgaria, Macedonia, Greece, and Albania in a Balkan empire than they are to remain happy under the Sublime Porte, and attempting to knit together everything from Iran east into one coherent state is outright doomed to failure. The current Turkish policy of treating the Kurds as a favored minority is pretty much doomed to encourage other large minorities to revolt, which means that within 20 years the Mideast will resemble the Mideast of today, only messier. All of this is complicated by the fact that Ludwig Ferdinand is openly Orthodox in his sympathies - he understands Russian affairs better than most of the German leadership, trained as an economist in the West, and views the deposition of the Romanian government just to give Admiral Horthy a port for his navies as one of the more shameful acts of the reborn Reich. However, see "Franz von Papen" above.

In summary, at the dawn of 1947 Germany looks and feels invincible. It isn't, and I don't intend to keep it that way.

More than a hundred thousand views? My God, I can't have contributed more than ten percent of those myself!

Thanks to all of you who have stuck around this long.

123. Reassignment

Heerespersonalamt
Berlin, German Empire
27 January 1947

Johann Volkmann was turned out in the full splendor of a colonel of the Leib-Panzerregiment Nr. 1, Totenkopf shako at its correct angle and boots shined to a mirror gloss. Down the seams of his trousers ran the red stripes of a General Staffer, and he restrained the urge to fuss with the saber hanging at his left side. At least it was winter - the pelisse went over both shoulders, rather than just one. It was a damned idiotic garment invented by someone too poor to buy a properly-fitted jacket and too proud to tell his tailor he had botched the job, he grumbled to himself. Best not let that kind of thing get too out of hand, though, on a day like today.

Generalleutnant Alfred Jodl was a man left adrift by professional currents; he had remained in the Personalamt even as his cohorts had moved on. He suspected perhaps that he had been forgotten by the system; even that bootlick Keitel was doing well over at Zossen! And with the flush of batons and shoulderboards that three different major campaigns had created, it seemed likely he would be stuck here forever. Still, someone had to be the Kaiser's file clerk, and it might as well be Jodl. He sighed and looked up as someone knocked at the door.

"Herr Generalleutnant, Oberst Volkmann reporting for assignment!" The man in front of him was a comic-opera character, though he had enough medals on him, and enough campaign ribbons to justify them, that he doubtless came by it all honorably. Better than Goering, Jodl thought sourly. "Yes, yes, Volkmann, please. Come in." Jodl returned the salute and gestured at the chair across the desk from him. "Please. Sit. I have your personnel file here, if you will pardon me for a moment." His fingers flipped open a folder and he licked a fingertip. Johann Volkmann sat upright, watching Jodl's face and its frown of concentration. "Mm. Spain... Poland, Netherlands and France... England... Russia. I see you have been very busy in the last ten years, Oberst Volkmann." Jodl smiled and closed the folder, steepling his fingers and leaning forward. "Unfortunately, so have been many other officers, and I'm afraid that quite a few of them are also Garde officers." Jodl's shoulders rose and fell. "If you wished to return to the Totenkopf, or indeed anything in the Garde... I am afraid that is quite impossible."

"Sir, no, I... I am getting married in the spring, and my intended, she, I mean we, we were hoping that I could be posted to Berlin." Jodl gave a thin smile in reply to this. "Yes, well, Volkmann, so does every other new-returned hero from the East, hoping to stay here in Berlin rather than freezing to death or accepting colonial service. May I be blunt?" Without waiting for a reply, Jodl continued, picking up a cigarette, tapping and lighting without disrupting his speech. "Those are the choices available to every officer who comes here hoping for an assignment. You can train the Russians, Turks, Ukrainians, whatever you wish. You can try your hand as an under-attache in Washington or Tokyo. Or you can go to Africa." Jodl inhaled deeply from the cigarette, peering through the smoke at Johann. "If I may be so bold, Oberst, there are too many heroes for heroism to claim any reward."

"Sir, I have two tours with the WaPrü, I'm a Lichterfelde man, is there no chance of a teaching position here or anywhere?"

"None, I am afraid." Jodl's tone was cool, dismissive. "It is the choices I have shown, or the reserve list."

"I see. Thank you, sir. May I take some time to review my choices?"

"By all means, though until new orders are cut, you'll be on half-pay on the reserve list. Good afternoon, Volkmann, and do stop by again when you've made up your mind."

---

Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche
Berlin-Charlottenburg, German Empire
13 March 1947

Johann Volkmann was beyond unhappy. Ilse was usually relentlessly practical, but in this, there was no persuading her: she would be married her way, or not at all. She had set her mind on being married in the Memorial Church - "I grew up here, I fell in love with it, and no, don't even try to persuade me otherwise!" - and he had discreetly inquired who was to pay for the ceremony. Here, her practicality reared its ugly head: "Why, we shall pay for it ourselves, why do you ask?" After all, he had years upon years of pay saved; an officer's pay was more than adequate, and with six years of war behind them, there had been precious few chances to spend any of it.

He could not bring himself to tell her that those savings were better put into the future; he was a half-pay colonel now. Even if he wanted to, he could not yet retire, and her teaching salary was hardly impressive. There were a myriad of ceremonial details; he had already contacted Ewald von Kleist the younger about arranging a saber arch. The mischievous Totenkopf commander had slapped him on the back and laughed from head to toe. "Delighted, Hans. Absolutely delighted. Anyone I choose?" Peter had agreed to be best man, and he waited with some trepidation for her family to arrive. It was easy to tell how she had turned out the way she had: her father was a chemical engineer, her mother a member of some minor industrial clan from the Saar. She drove, almost as wildly as Johann himself, cheerfully telling off passing traffic. Their house was an appropriate mass of jarring contrasts: respectable Wilhelmine exterior, all steel, chrome, and Mies van der Rohe inside. He had been there several times in the last few months and had yet to find a comfortable chair in the house.

Right now, she was arguing with Reverend Eckert over timing of the ceremony. He, meanwhile, stared up at the ceiling, lost in his thoughts. The rector had already begun cleaning for the day, and coughed to get him to move aside. He all but hopped, slipping on the floor. He grabbed a pew to steady himself, and heard a low chuckle behind him. "Not your most graceful moment, Volkmann."

He turned and stiffened automatically, hand leaping upward before he remembered he was in a church. Erwin Graf Rommel von Tiflis wore plain field-gray with a marshal's rank and the Pour le Merite and its oak leaves. His thin smile evaporated into a broad grin, clapping Johann on the shoulder. "Hello, Hans. They told me you'd be here when I asked at your house. It was close enough that I thought I would save myself a calling card. Can we walk?"

His head bobbed beyond his control, throat dry. "Yes, sir, please." He barely cast a glance at Ilse before they slipped out the door.

"Well. I'm sure you heard about Manstein's speech at Zossen?" Rommel asked, cap dropping into place on his head. Johann nodded without speaking. "Then you know about the 'special task' he's given me." Rommel snorted. "Some task. Bricks without straw, Hans. Bricks without straw."

"Sir, that doesn't seem like much of a reason to look for me."

Rommel's smile turned thin and mirthless. "No. It isn't. I have precisely no one on my staff right now. I went to Jodl to beg, borrow, or steal some qualified officers. He stalled, until he remembered an officer who came in his office, boasting about being a WaPrü man once upon a time, talking about his awards and nonsense."

"Sir?" Johann was lost. He felt like he sometimes did in the moments just before sunrise. There was a hint of something on the horizon, but nothing that he could see for certain yet. The last few months had been hard on him, and he barely dared to hope for a new assignment any more.

"You, Hans. I need someone who knows his way around a battlefield, and knows enough about the machines to argue with the engineers." Rommel turned to face him fully, frowning now. "I need someone with red stripes and a blue ribbon and all of that other nonsense, so they'll listen to me on the Bendlerblock. I'm offering you a wedding present, Hans. It's yours to screw up if you want it."

He felt a bubble rising in his chest. It burst forth before he was able to stop it, and he laughed, a deep, joyous laugh that eventually left him an undignified heap, sitting on the plaza outside the church. Rommel had crossed his arms and was tapping his foot, still frowning, now in disapproval. "Thank you, sir," Johann said as he wiped away the tears and climbed back to his feet. "Yes. Thank you."

PrawnStar said:

I know what you mean about viewcounts, I always find myself thinking it can't just be me clicking refresh

Don't worry we're still reading, wanting to see how it all turns out.

Click to expand...

I'm glad to have you aboard - specifically, and assuming you speak for whatever mad horde of lurkers keeps clicking on this thing.

Kurt_Steiner said:

And thus Hansi was quite close to be kicked in the ass by Erwin Rommel...

Click to expand...

Oh, there's still plenty of time for that to happen. Being de facto chief of staff to someone who hates staff work and is half convinced his job is a throw-away is not the world's greatest task.

J.J.Jameson said:

Wonderful. I fully expect to see Rommel leading a charge of Air Cavalry to Ride Of The Valkyries sometime soon.

Click to expand...

Don't hold your breath. There are a lot of institutional and technical challenges in front of that. Surprisingly, the Drache's power density, rate of climb, and speed are in line with the UH-1's, but it's nowhere near as reliable. There was the landing at Dover, where Brandenburgers inserted by helicopter, but Brandenburger operations are generally classified. Rommel is, however, a sensible choice for the job he's performing now, since he was a light-fighter in the first war, spent the '30s molding young officers, and then the Restoration's wars as a highly mobile armored officer. He's got an exceptionally wide range of experience, and when he eventually gets around to noticing helicopters, he will probably jump on board with both feet. That is, however, literally years away from coming to fruition (and I should point out that 1st Cavalry didn't deploy to Vietnam until three years after the Howze Board's recommendations OTL).

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

Relocated for space reasons.

Individuals in italics are deceased.

Individuals marked with (fic.) are completely the author's creations.

Germany

The Leaders

Paul Ludwig Hans Anton von Benckendorff und von Hindenburg (d. 1934) - President of Germany, re-elected in 1932. In failing health, Hindenburg is a staunch monarchist. At the dawn of 1933, his greatest immediate regret is his failure to support his friend, Franz von Papen, as Chancellor throughout 1932.

Friedrich Wilhelm Victor August Kronprinz von Preußen - Elected through a bit of parliamentary chicanery to the Presidency of Germany after Hindenburg's death, Crown Prince Wilhelm is a genuinely kind man who was one of the few leading Germans to speak out against the Great War - in English, no less. He genuinely believes in doing the best that he can for Germany, and has sufficient experience to condemn the "stab in the back" myth, but lacks real leadership experience.

Wilhelm II von Hohenzollern (d. 1941) - Once German Emperor, Wilhelm II was returned to grace by the disavowal of the Versailles Treaty and instated to a position of power as his son's viceroy for East Prussia. Wilhelm's return paves the way for a general reinstatement of the former German monarchs.

Otto I von Habsburg - The first King of Austria, a constitutional portmanteau that had not previously existed, Otto von Habsburg is a genuinely decent man who harbors mixed feelings about the way he received his throne. Otto is a genuine Austrian patriot, and while he feels that Austria is strengthened by this union with Germany, he wishes that Austria had remained free and independent.

Wilhelm Friedrich Franz Josef Christian Olaf Prinz von Preußen (d. 1941) - The eldest son of Wilhelm III, Prince Wilhelm was widely viewed as the best hopes of the Monarchists until he gave up his succession rights to marry the commoner Dorothea von Salviati. He died in France in August of 1941 while visiting the Garde du Corps under Erich von Manstein. His marriage to Dorothea von Salviati became dynastic in July of 1942, a gesture on Wilhelm III's part to his daughter-in-law.

Ludwig Ferdinand Victor Albert Michael Hubertus Kronprinz von Preußen - Son of Wilhelm III, Ludwig Ferdinand is a businessman first, a royal second, due to spending most of his upbringing in exile. He is the first Hohenzollern prince to have no military affiliation whatsoever by adulthood. He marries the Grand Duchess Kira Kirillovna of Russia in 1938.

Kurt von Schleicher (d. 1936) - Chancellor of Germany, appointed in November of 1932. Von Schleicher is a career officer, but is distrusted within the Army as too "political," especially after his role in the downfall of General Wilhelm Groener and Chancellor Heinrich Bruening in May of 1932. Schleicher is widely regarded with suspicion, and at the dawn of 1933, his Cabinet is generally viewed as on the edge of disaster.

Franz Joseph Hermann Michael Maria von Papen zu Koeningen - A dilettante and cavalry officer, von Papen headed the so-called "Barons' Cabinet" of 1932, a compromise cabinet which von Schleicher had first suggested, then assiduously undermined. He is close to both the Hohenzollern royal family and the Hindenburg family; he is also widely disliked by the American government for his role in a series of espionage fiascos during the Great War. He burns with a desire to avenge himself on Schleicher and to return to Hindenburg's good graces.

The "Small Cabinet"

Oskar von Beneckendorff und von Hindenburg - Son of deceased President Paul von Hindenburg, Oskar von Hindenburg is the Kaiser's spymaster, the chief of the Abwehr and the man responsible for keeping the Kaiser informed of his enemies' interests abroad. Hindenburg is a more than competent officer, but prefers to be close to the centers of power and therefore is unlikely to be seen as a combat commander.

Konstantin Freiherr von Neurath - The Kaiser's Foreign Minister, Neurath is a very cultured, civilized man, best described as an old-fashioned European diplomat. He served honorably in the Great War, but spent most of his time in the Foreign Service. He has been ambassador to Denmark, Italy, and Great Britain, and is a respected man in most European diplomatic circles.

Friedrich Werner Graf von der Schulenburg - The Kaiser's ambassador in Moscow, Graf Schulenburg is the most likely candidate to replace Neurath when the old man of Wilhelmine diplomacy finally retires. Schulenburg is architect of the plan to disassemble Russia into constituent states; while he disagrees with Papen and Neurath's program of Balkan diplomacy, he recognizes that their house-of-cards structure is temporary at best.

Hermann Wilhelm Göring - A Great War ace and sometime Nazi, the Kaiser's Air Minister stays in power mostly by shrewd appointment of subordinates, outright extortion of business interests, and a diverting personal style in dealing with the Kaiser himself rather than any natural talent at the ministerial level. While undoubtedly personally brave, he has a number of worrisome personal habits.

The Industrialists

Gustav Baron Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach - The master of the Krupp economic empire, Gustav Krupp became both the first Baron Krupp, and the Minister of Economics following the Kaiser's loss of confidence in Hjalmar Schacht. Krupp was once a notable diplomat, and married into the family following the death of Fritz Krupp before the Great War. However, his health is slowly deteriorating.

Albert Speer - The court architect, Speer rose to influence under the eye of Kaiserin Cecilie. In 1941, upon the elder Krupp's stroke, the younger Krupp refuses the Ministry of Economics. Speer, a favorite of the Kaiser's and the builder of the new Chancellory, the Reichstag, and the Olympic Stadium in Berlin, accepts the post in his place.

Alfried Felix Alwyn von Bohlen und Halbach - The heir to the Krupp name and company, Alfried is a contrast, an enthusiastic sportsman addicted to fast cars and loose women, and a serious, studious engineer who fully realizes the weight that his heritage places on his shoulders. Alfried restricts his outlandish behavior to outside of work, while he is nothing short of a machine in the office or corporate meetings. He flirted with the Nazis while still a student, but at his father's orders was one of the very first to renounce his Party affiliation.

Karl von Terzaghi, Dr. Ing. - A professor at Technische Hochschule Wien, Terzaghi is a prickly genius who has taught at universities on three continents. He has been uncomfortable with the political situation in Austria for some time, leery of the trend toward extremism. As a result, when the opportunity to work on the proposed Bosphorus rail bridge arises, he leaps at it.

Wernher Freiherr von Braun, PhD - Wernher von Braun earned his doctorate in 1934, though only part of it was released for public consumption. He is a passionate believer in the importance of rocketry, though he is also an accomplished jazz pianist and a certified glider pilot. After his doctorate, he was co-opted by the German military as an Army civilian employee, and is employed at the Peenemunde test site.

Konrad Zuse, Dipl. Ing. - Another graduate of Technische Hochschule Berlin, Zuse has been obsessed for years with the idea of machines performing calculations rather than repetetive hand calculation. He was briefly employed by the Henschel firm before being brought on board the German rocketry program to create a mechanical computer to perform ballistic calculations. His value there brought him to the attention of General Becker.

The Aviators

Wolfram Freiherr von Richthofen, Dr. Ing. (d. 1946) - A cousin of the legendary Great War ace, Wolfram von Richthofen was one of the members of the Flying Circus on the day Manfred was shot down in early 1918. Between March and November of 1918, he scored eight air-to-air kills, and on discharge trained as an aeronautical engineer. He spent the 1920s as unofficial air attache in Italy, returning to official service in 1933 as part of the expansion of the official German military during the Rising. He was instrumental in the development of Germany's bomber force during the early years of the Luftwaffe, and was rewarded with high commands in Spain and the East, culminating in promotion to Generalfeldmarschall in 1945. He died in 1946 of brain cancer.

Kurt Arthur Benno Student - A colonel in the Reichswehr whose responsibilities include planning for the next air war, Student is one of the few officers who regularly commutes to and from Russia. He scored six aerial victories in the Great War, but was denied "Experte" status by a wound in autumn of 1917. At present, Student is one of a number of aides to Major-General Ernst Udet, who leads the Deutsche Luftsportverband aeronautics organization, and maintains his license to operate gliders, though Germany is forbidden fixed-wing powered aircraft by Versailles.

Wilhelm Bittrich - A Luftwaffe officer who briefly flirted with the Nazi Party prewar, Wilhelm Bittrich has a reputation for being an able, if sarcastic, officer, whose career advanced slowly because of his Nazi links until he volunteered to lead Hermann Göring's vanity division, Germany's only parachute-qualified armored division. He has an exceptionally dim view of his superiors, but is well-liked by the rest of Germany's armored forces for his willingness to be blunt in his criticisms.

Adolf Joseph Ferdinand Galland - At twenty-two, Galland is an atypical example of the postwar generation. He developed an early interest in aviation, and even before graduation from the gymnasium in 1932, had built and flown his first glider. This allowed him to be one of twenty pilot trainees accepted by Lufthansa's in-house flight school that year; he became a member of the covert air force the following year, but was badly injured in a crash during flight training.

Hanna Reitsch - The daughter of a missionary and a doctor, Hanna Reitsch grew up wanting to be a missionary doctor, but discovered a love of sailplane flight in the early 1920s. She came to the attention of Ernst Udet in 1933, and found herself drawn into a surprisingly stable romance with Peter Volkmann starting just after the coronation.

Joachim Fitzgerald (fic.) - The son of Irish immigrants following the Rising of 1916, James Fitzgerald is a massive, barrel-chested paratrooper who is a curious mix of peacetime discipline problems and wartime heroism. He showed up for duty following St. Patrick's Day too drunk to jump, but without Fitzgerald, Wilhelm Volkmann would likely be dead in Poland.

Jan Vogt (fic.) - Vogt is a Sudeten German, a radio operator by civilian trade, who has accidentally found himself hitched to Peter Volkmann's star. He began as a Luftwaffe radioman, then, thanks to chicanery and arm-twisting on Peter's part, became a licensed pilot. He is laconic to the point of frustration for anyone attempting to deal with him, but is a keen observer when he cares to share his observations.

Otto Skorzeny, Dipl. Ing. (d. 1947) - Otto Skorzeny is a holdover from the Austrian air force's parachute test company, their former commander and a licensed engineer. He joined the Luftstreitkräfte in 1936 after a year's probation for his Nazi Party membership. After serving for a year as an airfield construction engineer, he chafed at his duties and volunteered to join the nascent parachutist program. A giant with a dueling scar running down one cheek, Skorzeny takes a very liberal view of leadership, a from-the-ranks philosophy which makes him stand out among the German officers of Student's corps after Anschluss.

Carl Francke, Dipl. Ing. - Francke is an aeronautical engineer by trade, enrolled in the 1930s in the resurgent Luftwaffe and closely tied to the strategic bomber program. He has flown every iteration of the Heinkel 177 series, and was the obvious choice to head the Silberplatte group when the time came to deploy the first nuclear weapons.

The Sailors

Erich Johann Albert Raeder - The commander-in-chief of the German Navy, Raeder has been a sailor since 1895, and a flag officer of the Reichsmarine since 1922. He established a reputation early as one of the prime thinkers of the German navy, and continues to espouse a doctrine of surface warfare, mediating the ongoing dispute between the two schools of carriers and submarines spearheaded by Wilhelm Canaris and Karl Dönitz.

Wilhelm Franz Canaris - Another Great War veteran, widely considered to be too clever for his own good, Canaris served as a communications officer, spy, and U-boat captain during the Great War, surviving a British assassination attempt in Spain. After the war, he served as a battleship captain, schoolmaster, and signals intelligence chief, showing his exceptional versatility; by 1935, he had become Germany's prime proponent of naval aviation, and commanded the converted aviation cruiser Hindenburg in Spain.

Karl Dönitz - A U-boat commander at the end of the Great War, Dönitz is a fanatical believer in the primacy of the submarine. He served as head of the torpedo school for a period in the early 1930s before he began to publish extensively within the Reichsmarine on submarine warfare. Dönitz is proponent of a radical new way of using submarines, the "wolfpack" doctrine, which uses groups rather than individual raiders.

Prinz Wilhelm Viktor Karl August Heinrich Sigismund von Preussen - Prince Sigismund is the second, and more competent, son of Prince Heinrich, brother to Kaiser Wilhelm II and a founding figure in the German Navy. Upon the completion of the Polish campaign, he returned to Germany to claim some of his naval birthright. Many in the fleet see him as a sort of good-luck charm, though he has not been commanded at sea except in a yacht since 1918.

Hans Wilhelm Langsdorff - Hans Langsdorff is a career officer who served on surface vessels from 1914 to his conversion to the effectiveness of naval aviation off the Spanish coast in 1936. Langsdorff was promoted over the head of Peter Volkmann to command the Kaiser's first carrier division, a position he held during the critical battle of Scapa Flow. His connections to the old guard of the Kaiserliche Marine have helped grant the carrier branch considerable respectability.

Günther Prien - A quiet but competent U-boat commander, Prien is chosen by the Seekriegsleitung to head the last-minute submerged reconnaissance around Scapa Flow. His submarine is therefore one of the first on hand at the declaration of war in 1941.

The Soldiers

Moritz Albrecht Franz Friedrich Fedor von Bock - Created as the new Kaiserreich's first field marshal, Fedor von Bock was once the younger Wilhelm's military aide during the Great War, and advocated a march on Kiel by the royal family to subdue the mutiny in 1918. He is not a particularly imaginative soldier, but has cast-iron nerves and an excellent instinct for operations.

Werner Eduard Fritz von Blomberg (d. 1946) - Werner von Blomberg was viewed by many as a potential for the highest commands in the German Army; however, his dalliance with the Nazis in the early 1930s made Chancellor von Schleicher suspicious of him and led to his marginalization in the early 1930s. When the elder Wilhelm, as King in Prussia and the Kaiser's viceroy in East Prussia, offered him command of the German army in East Prussia, he leaped at the chance, and was made Generalfeldmarschall in 1936. He returned to the margins of the Imperial Army after the Polish campaign, and passed into medical semi-retirement in the early 1940s. He died of a protracted battle with cancer in 1946.

Werner von Fritsch - Werner von Fritsch was, with Gerd von Rundstedt, one of Schleicher's chief instruments in maintaining order during the Rising; after the Rising he found himself assigned to the comparative backwater of Commandant at Lichterfelde when it re-opened. He served with sufficient distinction in the Low Countries, France, and Britain to be Germany's governor at Scapa Flow at the end of the war in the west.

Paul Emil von Lettow-Vorbeck - General von Lettow-Vorbeck was the only undefeated German commander of the Great War, who marched his troops into voluntary internment rather than surrendering them at war's end. As a result, he was the only German general to receive a postwar victory parade. He spent the interwar years in retirement, returning to service with the new Kaiser and accepting the post of interim military governor of Britain before the Treaty of Wilhelmshaven. Postwar, he returned to Africa as Germany's colonial governor.

Paul Hausser - Commandant of the Berlin office of the Stahlhelm veterans' organization, Hausser is a retired lieutenant-general and is, like most officers of his time, a dyed-in-the-wool monarchist. He is, like most professional officers, suspicious of Chancellor von Schleicher; however, because he is the Stahlhelm leader for Berlin, he sits on a vast untapped manpower resource which Schleicher will need if he is to retain control of Germany.

Heinrich Alfried Hermann Walther von Brauchitsch (Ret. 1946) - Chief of the General Staff, Walther von Brauchitsch has been one of the most influential figures of Germany's rearmament. He first rose to prominence as commander of a cavalry corps suppressing the Rising in 1933, and has remained one of the General Staff's foremost members since. However, by the mid-1940s, his health is failing and he seeks a replacement to carry on his work. He retires at the end of 1946, to be succeeded by Erich von Manstein as Chief of the General Staff.

Walther von Reichenau - Walther von Reichenau was another of the German officers who flirted with the Nazis prior to the Rising; this affected his promotion chances considerably and impacted his health. He suffered a severe stroke in 1942 that left the right side of his face paralyzed, a fact which he has carefully concealed from his subordinates.

Georg Thomas - Chief of the Economic Planning Office of the General Staff, Thomas is a technocrat on the Speer model, who cares more about the restoration of Germany than the masters he serves. He is a board member of the Hermann Goering Steel Works, with the goal of keeping production diverted to the German military.

Karl Emil Heinrich Becker, Dr.Ing. - Major-General and Professor of Military Engineering and Physics, Technische Hochschule Berlin. Becker is one of the few German officers who can legitimately be considered an intellectual, a polymath in the Seeckt mold and the impetus behind Germany's new rocket program. At the same time, he is a lecturing professor at several Berlin institutions, and acts sometimes as a talent scout for the Reichswehr.

Walter Dornberger, Dr.Ing. h.c. - Dornberger is the immediate chief of Germany's military rocketry program, answering to Becker and in command of the Peenemunde installation. He is a pragmatist and views Germany's rocketry program as an extension of normal artillery, unlike von Braun, who even at this early date thinks of rocketry in terms of space travel.

Paul Ludwig Ewald von Kleist (the elder) - Ewald von Kleist was a staunch monarchist in the 1930s, and welcomed the restoration of the Hohenzollerns and reform of the German military. He was one of the founding fathers of the armored force, but because of personality conflicts was in direct competition with Guderian. His contributions were at least partially overshadowed by his former subordinate as a result, but he was one of the primary planners of the invasion of England.

Johannes Jürgen Christoph Ewald von Kleist (the younger) - The younger Ewald von Kleist had perhaps the most prestigious command in the Panzertruppen upon the invasion of England: he commanded the second battalion of 3. Leib-Panzerregiment, once Generalfeldmarschall von Mackensen's "Totenkopf" regiment. A combination of family connections and innate ability brought him thus far. He was at the time widely regarded as an enthusiastic amateur, but his handling of the battalion in the landing gained him significant attention and confirmed him as one of the rising stars of the Garde-Panzertruppen.

Erwin Johannes Eugen Rommel - A decorated hero of the Great War, Rommel has maintained his association with the Reichswehr despite the lean times; though his advancement between the wars was slow because of his preference for field over staff service, he has found himself an instructor at Lichterfelde after the publication of his manual for small infantry units in 1935.

Heinz Wilhelm Guderian - A staff officer between the wars, Guderian was one of the main proponents of the integrated approach to warfare that marked German operations in Poland and beyond. He spent much of the prewar period as the head of the armored training command, and led the dramatic Central Asian operations of the Russian war.

Fritz Erich Georg Eduard von Manstein - Erich von Manstein is an aristocratic officer fond of power and comfort; as a cadet, he served as a Foot Guards page, and collects en-suite Garde-regiment appointments. Despite all this, he is widely regarded as a brilliant innovator and staff planner. He commands the 1. Garde-panzerkorps in France, where he is present and partially responsible for the death of Prinz Wilhelm von Preussen, which sets his career back, almost catastrophically. Only after his exceptional frontline service in England, careful management of Poland, and foresight in the invasion of the Soviet Union was he forgiven. He succeeds Brauchitsch as Chief of the General Staff at the beginning of 1947.

Adrian von Fölkersam - An East Prussian aristocrat with ties to the Baltic states, Adrian von Fölkersam is a creature out of a British romance, a noble who can vanish into the population of one of the border states, combining the best features of soldier and spy. He is one of the senior officers of the Brandenburg Division and has operated most of his wartime career deep behind Soviet lines.

Fritz Bayerlein - Fritz Bayerlein is the First General Staff Officer to Erwin Rommel, the staff officer who largely masks his superior's impatience with staff work. He is a Generalmajor in 1941, and Johann Volkmann finds himself assigned as one of Bayerlein's roving staff officers, tasked with making sure Rommel's occasionally impetuous style of command is translated into a reasonable, cohesive operational plan.

Joseph Dietrich - Joseph "Sepp" Dietrich served during the Great War as an artilleryman and later a tanker; he fell in with Hitler and the Nazis in 1928 after long association with them in Munich. By 1930, he was a NSDAP Reichstag delegate. When Schleicher banned the Nazis in mid-1933, he reported as a police informer; as a high-ranking Nazi, however, he was placed in protective custody. Schleicher approached him about leading a group of former Nazis for use as his own personal enforcement squad, hiding them at the Krupp testing ground at Meppen.

Theodor Eicke - Theodor Eicke is an Alsatian, with the personality of a bulldog. He served as an enlisted man during the Great War, and as Dietrich's first sergeant during the Rising in 1933. Since then he has slowly but steadily rising in rank, first under Schleicher's aegis, then on his own rights for actions in Spain.

The Volkmanns (fic.)

Ernst Volkmann - A forty-five-year old engineer and veteran of the Great War, Volkmann is a member of the paramilitary Stahlhelm. He has four children, aged from thirteen to twenty - in order, Annelise, Wilhelm, Johann, and Peter. During the Stahlhelm call-up as reserve police of February 1933, Volkmann plays an instrumental part in the Reichstag Fire investigation.

Peter Volkmann - Ernst's son, a third-year student in civil engineering at Technische Hochschule Berlin. Peter enrolled in Becker's artillery and ballistics class largely out of curiosity and attracted the general's attention. On impulse, Peter agreed to become involved with Colonel Student.

Johann Volkmann - Ernst's second son, a much more impetuous and hotheaded boy whose continuous reckless behavior leads Ernst to accept Alfried von Bohlen's offer to influence the admission panel at the reopened Main Cadet Academy at Lichterfelde. Johann has a young man's sense of invulnerability, leading to a natural affinity for any vehicle he can get his hands on. Thus far he has avoided killing himself.

Wilhelm Volkmann - Ernst's youngest son has a talent for languages which his father has been able to indulge on their extensive travels; however, his formal education is spotty because of those same travels. During his time in the Balkans, Wilhelm has developed a taste for adventure that rivals Johann's, though he is nowhere near as flamboyant.

Rita Volkmann (nee Zollinger) - Wilhelm Volkmann's wife, Rita Volkmann is a frustrated feminist - frustrated because the Reich is increasingly patriarchal, and a feminist because of her upbringing, which saw extensive travel. She is a sometime columnist for the Münchner Post, writing now mostly on military affairs from a spectator's view.

Annelise de Lassan (nee Volkmann) - Ernst and Lise Volkmann's youngest, their daughter Annelise, married a French armored officer named de Lassan in the spring of 1941. Her parents were furious about this, both because she did not inform them of her intent to marry, and because she married a Frenchman on the obvious eve of war. Her fate remains undetermined as of the fall of Paris.

Britain

The Leaders

EDWARD (VIII) Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick David, King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain (past), Duke of Windsor - Edward VIII is a vain, capricious man raised to royal privilege. Upon elevation to the throne, his behavior and involvement with an American divorcee leads to his eventual abdication from the throne, which precipitates a constitutional crisis. He spends much of his remaining life in a frantic effort to capitalize on his onetime importance and, occasionally, tries to intrigue with foreign powers to regain the throne.

Albert Frederick Arthur GEORGE (VI) Windsor, King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain - A shy, unassuming naval officer with a speech impediment and no political ambitions whatsoever, King George VI is elevated to the throne upon the abdication of his brother, Edward VIII, and his reign is in essence one uninterrupted period of crisis for Britain, coming as it does at the conclusion of the Depression and including the German Wars. His stoicism, and his insistence that he share the plight of the common Briton, makes him one of the most beloved English royals in modern history.

Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill (d. 1942) - Winston Churchill is one of the most quixotic, prolific, and enigmatic figures in British politics - he began his career as a war hero and journalist in the Boer War, served as First Lord of the Admiralty, parliamentarian, and in a succession of ministerial positions before being elevated to the Prime Minister's seat in the political aftermath of the German invasion of Poland. His inter-war years, especially after Poland, are marked by a strident call for military readiness that goes largely ignored on Downing Street.

Clement Richard Attlee - Clement Attlee is the leader of the Liberal opposition to the Conservatives under Baldwin, Chamberlain, and Churchill. As part of Churchill's war government, he is the second-most-important man in Britain, and with the death of the old lion in 1942, he becomes Prime Minister, the man who is responsible for negotiation with Germany to conclude the war. For such a deeply patriotic man as "Captain Attlee," this is a hard blow indeed.

Robert Anthony Eden MC - A prewar Rifle officer and decorated hero of the Great War, Anthony Eden is a tall, lean man with a difficult temper. He serves as Churchill's Foreign Secretary, but departs the government for military service upon the Invasion. The Attlee Government returns him to service, but he is clearly a member of the Conservative Opposition, and one of the most staunchly anti-German members of the Government.

The Aviators

The Sailors

Andrew Browne Cunningham - "ABC" Cunningham is a phlegmatic, even-tempered officer of the old school, who has served in every appointment imaginable in the Royal Navy, culminating in command of the Mediterranean Station. During his first flag appointment in the Mediterranean, he assisted in coordinating the "neutrality blockade" with Wilhelm Canaris, of the Kaiserliche Marine. Cunningham is responsible for holding together the Mediterranean Fleet in the face of near-certain encirclement.

Bruce Austin Fraser - Admiral Bruce Fraser had the unfortunate distinction of being the commander of the Home Fleet after the assault on Scapa Flow, and led it through the most difficult period of the war. At war's end, the fleet was headquartered in Belfast, and Fraser faced difficult inquiries as to why he had failed to sortie and prevent the German invasion. Following the battles of Scapa Flow and the Three Navies, he was widely considered a scapegoat for the failure to defend the Home Islands. He was spared by the Attlee government in its desire to begin the process of reconstruction rather than recrimination.

Louis Francis Albert Victor Nicholas George Mountbatten, Lord Mountbatten - An enthusiastic officer who could be described as the world's foremost enthusiastic amateur, Louis Mountbatten is the second son of Britain's Great War First Lord of the Admiralty, Ludwig, Prince of Battenberg. He served with moderate distinction in the Great War, becoming involved with the Fleet Air Arm in the 1930s, and served in an intelligence capacity in the late-interbellum years, including an appointment as Admiral Cunningham's signals officer.

Ian Lancaster Fleming - A reservist and onetime stockbroker, Ian Fleming is one of those rare characters who prosper only in wartime. He has spent much of the war in the Far East, organizing commando operations against Japan. This is in inverse proportion to his prewar success; left to the peculiar conditions of wartime, he has thrived on uncertainty and deceit where in peacetime he was merely bored.

The Soldiers

France

The Leaders

HENRI (VI) Robert Ferdinand Marie Louis Philippe d'Orleans, King of France and Count of Paris - Henri d'Orleans was raised to the throne by the German terms of the Treaty of Wilhelmshaven, an unpopular monarch tasked with implementing an impossible treaty. He is devoted to France, and insofar as he can, spares the country what he may. Unfortunately, because of the conflict between the Petain and Giraud wings of the French goernment, this is next to nothing.

Henri Philippe Benoni Omer Joseph Petain - Marshal of France and hero of the Great War, Philippe Petain was one of the two men who stepped into the void caused by the collapse of the Republic an the conquest of France. He is generally the more practical of the two French party leaders; however, like the king he serves, he is crippled by the appearance of his collaboration with Germany. Petain is by now deeply senile, and the majority of "Petainist" decisions are actually taken by his former right-hand man, Admiral Darlan.

Henri Honore Giraud - The other current living Marshal of France, Henri Giraud was included in the government as a concession to the pride of France, as he continued resistance even after the collapse of France. His "resistance" was limited to broadcasts from London until it, too, was overrun, and like most of the German-imposed government, the Giraudists are deeply unpopular.

Jean Louis Xavier Francois Darlan - The officially nonpolitical head of the Marine Royale, Darlan is an ardent French nationalist, a scheming personal opportunist, and the actual head of the Petainist party. He actively colludes with foreign officials to do anything that may strengthen France, the Navy, and himself. His one great redeeming grace is that the order is roughly that.

The Soldiers

The Lassans (fic.)

124. The Battle of Berlin, Part 1

Reichstag
Berlin, German Empire
18 May 1947

The Reichstag building resembled an opera performance today, Peter Volkmann mused. It might almost have been more appropriate to hold these proceedings at the Kroll, instead. The press galleries were packed, aides scurried along the aisles, and the the seating block reserved for the Reichsrat was, for once, full. The reason was simple: the President of the Reichstag, Heinrich Brüning, had decided to force a showdown with the Chancellor. Brüning had refused to allow a vote or even a debate on any proposed defense spending without full and open hearings.

Peter was here today not as the Crown Prince's naval aide, but as a witness for the defense, in a manner of speaking. It was unlikely that they would begin with the naval hearings; the army hearings were likely to be much more painful, and Brüning was determined to get his pound of flesh. Still, the hearings at least promised to entertain, and he had already been served his summons to appear, so he stayed in Berlin to watch.

When the gavel came down, Brüning began the morning's sessions. "Gentlemen of the Reichstag and Reichsrat, I call this session to order. The only order of business today is an inquiry into the proposed budget of His Imperial Majesty's army. Let Generalfeldmarschall von Manstein present himself."

Manstein turned out in full uniform, scarlet waistcoat and blackened cuirass, unlike many others in simple field-gray without regimental markings. When he took the rostrum, his heels clicked, and Peter saw the staffers behind him laboring under the strain of an impressive array of charts, graphs, and briefing books. Manstein was a staff officer by trade, and had come prepared for battle. Peter chuckled to himself; Brüning was in for a long day. Apparently he recognized this. He lingered over swearing Manstein in. It was likely to be the least contentious part of the day.

"Herr Generalfeldmarschall, am I to understand that you have completed studies on the proposed structure of the army since beginning your tenure as chief of the General Staff?"

"That is correct."

"How extensive are these studies?"

"We have completed structural studies down to the organization of the division, Herr Präsident. We anticipate having these studies completed down to company level by the end of the year. I should emphasize that many of these studies were begun under Generalfeldmarschall von Brauchitsch, and some in fact date to the 1930s. I have merely updated them."

"Thank you." Brüning was nowhere near as combative as he was in dealing with the Chancellor; Manstein's confidence on the subject gave him an ease in dealing with Brüning that the Westphalian returned. That Manstein had not begun with a bombardment of facts and figures likely lulled him into relaxing slightly. "And what major conclusions have you reached?"

"As stated by the War Minister, Herr Präsident, the wartime force is unmanageably large in peacetime. The official establishment strength of the Reichsheer in 1940 was just over seven hundred and fifty thousand, roughly the same as in 1918. With the new territories and expanded responsibilities, we believe that a million-man army is a reasonable force." Manstein gestured, and the first of many charts appeared. An aide thrust a slide into a projector, and an organizational chart appeared on the wall behind him.

"This is the current Reichsheer structure. There are two major commands in the west, one in the north, one in the south, no fewer than four in the east, three interior commands in Germany proper, and four major overseas missions of similar stature. A 'major command,' in this case, means a force of no fewer than eight divisions. The smallest of these is the British mission, Generaloberst von Fritsch, eight divisions; the largest is Army Group Center in the east, Generalfeldmarschall von Rundstedt, fifty-four divisions. The overall strength of the Reichsheer is approximately twelve million men in uniform, two million civilian employees, and a highly variable number of foreign laborers in frontal commands." The chart lingered for a moment; Manstein had detailed it only down to corps level, and it was still headache-inducing.

"This is the proposed structure. You can see it has been tremendously simplified..." Peter began tuning Manstein's voice out when an aide unobtrusively handed him a briefing binder, and he flipped to the organizational chart in question. He could read army organizations no better than he expected Manstein could explain naval naming conventions, but it never hurt to be well-informed. From the noodle bowl of the current organization to the proposed future organization was a night-and-day simplification. As Peter understood it, the goal was something like a transformation back to the prewar military districts, with the addition of "frontal" commands based on the borders. Overseas troops were, for the most part, coming home, with the exception of a massively expanded role in Africa.

Manstein droned on. Peter did not understand the difference between a "square" division and a "triangular" division, even with the addition of more charts. The main point which he grabbed was that a division, which Manstein assumed to be the basic fighting unit of the army, more than doubled in size as a result of this. How was this possible? There it was - a "square" unit had four subunits, a "triangular" unit three, and Manstein's assumption was that a square unit had a roughly one-third increase in strength over an equivalent triangle. Brüning apparently caught this trick too.

"Excuse me, Herr Generalfeldmarschall, perhaps I am being dense, but how do you reconcile more than doubling the strength of a unit with a 'reduction' in strength?" Brüning adjusted his glasses, frowning down at the rostrum.

Manstein gave a thin smile. "I intend to reduce the number of divisions and concentrate more force in each division. This is, I understand, unpopular with some of my general officers." This got a chuckle from the Reichstag. "There are of course some gains compensated from these efficiencies. The Kaiser's Garde-divisionen, for instance..."

"Yes, Herr Generalfeldmarschall. I meant to ask about that. You have here a command equivalent to the border OB for the Garde. Is the Kaiser in such danger that he needs... let me see... three divisions in the Garde du Corps alone? It is called the Garde du Corps; this does not mean it is a corps itself!"

Manstein smoothed his sleeve before replying. "After extensive consideration, we chose to expand the Garde as Germany's first-response force. Because it is not affected by the mobilization programs that may interfere with other commands and is to remain one of the few forces in Germany on 'war footing,' so to speak, it must be ready to deal with any threats potentially for an extended period before any additional forces are made available."

"Am I correct in understanding that you wish to maintain a battle-ready private army belonging to the Kaiser without any outside interference?"

"That is fundamentally correct." Manstein's voice firmed; this was a point on which he would brook no parliamentary interference. Brüning was determined to press the point. "What enemy is this force intended to fight?"

"I do not know. That is the point of a contingency force, Herr Präsident." Manstein sounded bored and patient, as if lecturing a particularly slow cadet. "A reserve is only maintained against the unknown; the known we meet with the tools in hand."

"This is not a reserve. This is a full tenth of the active-duty strength of the Reichsheer, according to this!" Brüning's hand came down sharply beside the gavel, and he straightened, clearing his throat. "It seems excessive for what was never meant to be more than a bodyguard."

"Herr Präsident," Manstein said with a thin, stretched smile, "had you examined that force closely, you would see that much of its budget and manpower comes from the Imperial office, including the men who guard this building, the Reichsrat, embassies around the world. It includes regional divisions for Saxony, Bavaria, Württemberg, Austria. Those forces are paid for largely by the constituent states, not by the Reich. In short, I am not asking the gentlemen of the Reichstag to pay for all of the Garde."

The bickering continued; Peter ignored them to concentrate on the briefing book. Manstein had hidden some true gems in there; yes, there were fewer men, but per capita, they were perhaps the most expensive army in the world. The "square" structure neglected any additional forces that any given division might have assigned, and Manstein apparently intended a radical overhaul of equipment, with the complete elimination of all but ceremonial horse detachments and towed artillery. It seemed like he was single-handedly a spokesman for the truck and tractor industry in Germany, Peter thought in amusement.

Brüning fought Manstein over what Peter considered relatively minor things; that each "division" was now equivalent in firepower to two that had come before it, was completely lost. Instead, he fought over the inclusion of the Grossdeutschland division in the Garde. Peter could not possibly care less about a thing like that. What interested Peter was Manstein's perspective on the army's future. That came late in the day. "We are living in an age where fewer men may accomplish more, and the danger is to expect that some day, no soldiers will be required, because of the advent of new weapons which require no man on the battlefield. This is a false hope, Herr Präsident. We agree that the army must and should shrink. I believe that it should be maintained in strength enough to face any enemy; I fear that some in this chamber wish to resurrect the Landwehr myth, or create a modern myth of the Luftwaffe riding down like furies. Neither of these myths is a sound foundation for national defense policy."

---

The Reichsheer hearings lasted for six long, contentious weeks; in the end, Manstein got his way by pointing out that even with increased costs, the "new" army cost twice as much per soldier as the old... or roughly one-tenth of its wartime full strength. The Garde was maintained with nothing more than bruised feelings, and Manstein even succeeded in preserving three-year conscription, supporting it by pointing out that, for the foreseeable future, reconstruction in Russia was the army's responsibility. The debate on conscription was therefore tabled until after the 1949 Reichstag elections. Thus, Manstein won at least two years for the army to realign itself from war to peace.

Not so much a defeat as a delaying action, and near as I can tell from brief reading, the German imperial constitution (which carries more weight right now than the Weimar constitution) gives the upper house a lot more traction on budget issues. Manstein still agreed to a 95% force reduction from wartime to peacetime strength. It's just that wartime strength was ridiculous.

Next up: the Luftwaffe, the resignation of Ulrich Grauert, and the argument over Divising Goering.

125. The Battle of Berlin, Part 2

The Manstein Hearings lasted six weeks; the Grauert Hearings lasted eight, and in a very real sense redefined the Luftwaffe. The last vestiges of Goering's influence on the force were swept away when the current Undersecretary for Scandinavia appeared mid-hearing to berate Grauert for arguing that the air force's main role was deciding the battle in the air; Generalfeldmarschall Udet resigned in protest the same day. The end result of the sudden battle between Grauert and the "dive-bomber men" was that Stukageschwader after Stukageshchwader - and Germany had twenty-four of them at this point - quietly cased their colors. The lucky ones, eight of the twenty-four, were reflagged as Jagdgeschwader. This was not so great a burden as they might have thought; the Stukageschwader had long ago ceased to focus on dive-bombing, and were now flying the same fighters, equipped for ground support rather than air superiority. The remaining pilots found themselves thrown on the mercy of Lufthansa, foreign service, and a series of crackpot schemes that Grauert put forward as force multipliers.

One of these, which absorbed many of the ground-attack pilots, was the creation of units specifically dedicated to the destruction of enemy ground-to-air defenses, especially radar stations. That Grauert intended the "new" Luftwaffe to be offensive was obvious; no aerial defense would include the destruction of the enemy's radar network. Electronic warfare was a key component in this strategy, and Grauert's second initiative involved the equipping of converted long-range bombers with aerial radar systems. These aircraft at least drew funding from both the Reich weather service and the Luftwaffe, because there was some potential for meteorological use for these planes. The third of Grauert's proposals was required by the distances over which the Luftwaffe now operated, ranging all the way south of the Equator, and that was a program for refueling aircraft in flight. More of the obsolete medium and heavy bombers and cargo planes were absorbed into this program.

However, these absorbed only a quarter of the suddenly disposable pilots created by the shuttering of the ground-attack force. There was widespread rumbling within the Luftwaffe: if Grauert could do that, what else might he do? The Luftwaffe controlled large ground forces, a dozen airborne divisions and Goering's pet armored corps giving them a force about the size of the Garde. The onetime air minister had bankrolled the formation of not one but two divisions. Scandinavia had been very good for him, and he had reinvested most of this in Fallschirm-Panzerkorps Hermann Goering as a way of staying involved in the Luftwaffe. They were superbly equipped and absurdly trained, with rigorous entry requirements including completion of the parachute school, most of which they never used. Goering felt them threatened by Grauert's sharp-edged reforms.

These fears led Student and Bittrich to make a Faustian deal with Manstein and Ehrhardt of the Marine inspectorate. In the space of two months, the parachutists and Panzerkorps Goering agitated for full-blown separation, and in the midst of Reichstag hearings, Grauert was caught unaware. When Brüning called up Student to testify, Grauert was surprised. When Student outlined the clear separation of interests between the air side and the parachutists in public, after years of private debate, Grauert was floored. When Manstein testified not only in favor of separating the airborne forces from the Luftwaffe, but of expanding the Garde - by adding the Garde-Fallschirmdivision - the Luftwaffe chief saw the writing on the wall. On 1 August 1947, the Luftwaffe lost control of the Fallschirmtruppen, who were instead more or less recast as one of the inspectorates of the General Staff, without being subordinated directly to the army. Years of agitation for separation bore full fruit.

It was Grauert's turn to admit defeat. He had pushed through his institutional reforms, and the Luftwaffe received its share of the budget, more or less unscathed. The technical side of the Luftwaffe was set on its future course. Ulrich Grauert had simply had enough, and at the end of August, he turned in his letter of resignation to the Kaiser. He had been chief of the Luftwaffe since 1940, longer than Goering and in fact longer than Goering and Ernst von Hoeppner's combined tenures as air chief. Grauert's legacy was an air force focused on offensive warfare and technical and tactical superiority.

It was a measure of Grauert's influence on his service that the Luftwaffe retired with him. The Luftwaffe flag was hauled down and presented to Grauert in October. In its place, the service was re-christened the Luftstreitkräfte in a ceremony attended by Ernst von Hoeppner's son Busso and Grauert's successor as Air Minister, Albert Kesselring. Kesselring was a deeply unpopular choice, seen by the fighter clique around Galland and Mölders as a step backward, viewed as a traitor by many in the service, and not considered a "real pilot" by most of the service. He met with the powers of the reborn Luftstreitkräfte and laid down his vision. He was Grauert's caretaker. There would be no sudden changes in any of the radical programs Grauert had laid out unless the fruit they bore embarrassed the service somehow. The hands-off approach to the "fighter school" would continue. In exchange, he cautioned the air generals:

Results will demonstrate an officer's fitness to be a field marshal, and no one will then ask about his origins, whether he came from the army or the air force. But one piece of advice I will give to all air field marshals: do not become a one-sided technician, but learn to think and lead in terms of all three services.

etranger01 said:

I accidentally the whole AAR. Amazing writing, fascinating story. I also love having the Volkmanns as our viewpoint characters, because each of them is a fully-realized and very interesting character in their own right. Looking forward to more at some point in the not-too-distant future.

Click to expand...

Thank you. This was actually the post that led me to scrap trying to do a detailed narrative of the Luftwaffe hearings. It wasn't terribly interesting to read, so I condensed it to move along with the story.

Next up - the Raeder Hearings.