4. First Successes, First Setbacks
Österreich, Spain and the Second Sino-Japanese War
1937
At the start of January 1937, the Soviet Union announced that the NKVD had received information (developed in part thanks to Abwehr assistance) of several counterrevolutionary plots against the
Rodina. In response, Stalin ordered the NKVD to purge the RKKA of all traitors, a mission that they took to with a vengeance. Though Hitler and his political advisors were overjoyed to see the Soviets turning on each other, one Heer general officer warned that “Flowers, in a bed that has been weeded, often grow stronger.”
The first major foreign policy objective for the Reich—that of violating the Treaty of Saint Germain and bringing Österreich and the Deutsches Reich together—was successfully accomplished on 24 January 1936. After the June 1934
putsch, the Geheimdienst had operated with near-impunity in Austria, mostly due to public distrust in the Austrofascist government of Kurt Schuschnigg, who had risen to the Chancellorship after the assassination of Dr. Dollfuss. His rule was so unpopular, however, that Hitler demanded that Schuschnigg resign in favor of Arthur Seyss-Inquart, that all imprisoned Austrian NSDAP party members be released from prison and that several prominent cabinet positions be given to NSDAP persons. By the end of 1936, a political crisis was brewing, and a plebiscite was scheduled, but never carried out. On orders of Frick, members of the Abwehr began ascertaining who amongst the Austrian army was most loyal to the Reich; the Geheimdienst performed several targeted operations to destabilize the Austrian regime. After such actions, the Austrian people demanded the union of Germany and Austria to bring peace and stability to the nation. In early January, Germany received notice that the Austrian government had collapsed. Hitler, expecting this, immediately sent troops into Austria. The German troops, though small in number, were rapidly joined by the Austrian army and Geheimdienst operatives were withdrawn. Peace—or at least the appearance of such—had been restored in Austria. In response, Hitler declared a week-long holiday and celebration of the Anschluss.
Hitler and Seyss-Inquart during the "festivities" of the Anschluss, 1937.
International response was muted. In the United Kingdom’s House of Commons, Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin said that nothing could have prevented the union between Germany and Austria. He did go on to say that a defense review would be initiated, but failed to respond in any other manner. The United States’ State Department issued a statement to the effect of stating that they were glad that the unrest in Europe had been minimized, but expressed concern over the lack of self-determination from the change. Baldwin’s apparent failure as a national leader led to his resignation in mid-February 1937.
German Border Guards assist in dismantling an Austrian border crossing, 1937.
The rapid success of the Anschluss was much appreciated in the Reichstag.
Buoyed by this success, the Foreign Ministry sought out additional sources of crucial materials that were required to feed the German industrial complex. Two separate negotiating teams, one in Greece and one in Norway, both sought to purchase needed metals from their respective governments. The day after the announcement of the Anschluss, the Foreign ministry reported that they had reached an agreement with both Greece and Norway to supply Germany a total of 74 tons of iron ore a month in exchange for a mere ℛℳ24000 (US$5700). However, Norway’s Parliament failed to ratify the trade agreement, causing their portion to fall through a few days later. The failure of the Norwegian Parliament to agree to a mutually beneficial treaty left Germany importing 56 tons of ore a month from Greece alone, in exchange for a mere ℛℳ17640 (US$4200).
Nationalist Spain Propaganda Poster, 1937. Franco's utter military failures were
universally reviled by the Wehrmacht.
On 20 April 1937, political and government tensions came to a head in Spain. With the recent memory of rigged local elections only four months prior, as well as disgruntled army officers who wanted a stronger nation, Spain began to rip herself apart. On one hand was the Army and the Church, the other was the socialists and communists; a civil war was inevitable. Almost immediately after hearing of the outbreak of war on the continent, most governments around Europe either pledged their support or desires for non-intervention in the situation. Hitler, seeing a way to get at least some experience for his troops in a real shooting war before the main event, ordered Foreign Minister von Neurath to publicly commit to a policy of non-intervention patrols with the Kriegsmarine. Privately, those vessels brought nearly nine thousand Germans from the Geheimdienst (GD), Kommando Spetzialkrafte (KSK), and the Deutsch Fremdenlegion (DFL) into Spain to assist in the training and leadership of Nationalist Spain’s troops. Other nations, particularly Italy (also supporting the Nationalists) and the Soviet Union (supporting the Republicans) contributed some troops and equipment. France almost immediately offered the Republican Spanish government permission for it’s forces to cross the French border, an agreement which had been in negotiations since it had become apparent that there might be an outbreak of war on the peninsula. When the Abwehr heard of this agreement—it had been kept very close to the chest by both parties—they immediately leaked it to French media outlets. In reaction, the French public immediately went on strike and conducted a massive peace demonstration. The Republicans also received military access from the United Kingdom, allowing them to base their submarines well away from military installations that could be targeted by the Luftwaffe-backed Nationalist air force.
DFL trooper supervises Nationalist forces, late 1937. The lack of success was grating
on the German troops assigned to assist Franco's forces.
Throughout the rest of 1937, the war would largely turn against the Nationalists. On 21 May 1937, Republican Spain received a massive donation of desperately needed rare materials for their war effort, though a week later it turned out the minister in charge of their industrial sectors had secretly been sabotaging orders and production because he was a Nationalist sympathizer. There were not only bad things happening to the Republicans: Geheimdienst observers discovered a leak within the Nationalist government on 3 June, leading to increased efforts to track the source. These efforts proved futile, though they were more than offset by the defection of several groups of Republican troops to the Nationalist cause.
Graphic showing weekly progression of the front line, April - September 1937
By September, however, the tide had irrevocably turned against the Nationalists. Despite all manners of German assistance from special operations and clandestine activity (to include Nationalists’ twice refusing Portuguese offers of permission to pass military forces through Portuguese territory before finally accepting at the end of September), the back of Nationalist resistance was broken.
Graphic showing weekly progression of front lines, September - December 1937
The civil war in Spain was not the only conflict that erupted in 1937. On 1 July, after several close calls and an agreement between Japanese army units and Kuomingtang (KMT) forces in the vicinity of Beijing over night live-fire maneuvers being conducted by the Japanese. A KMT force, believing itself under attack, responded to the sound of the Japanese exercise with a fusillade of their own. After nearly a day and a half of heavy infantry combat—including hand-to-hand engagements on the bridge itself, and subversion of the diplomatic cables between the Japanese and Nationalist Chinese—the Japanese forces carried the day, but it was a Pyrrhic victory. KMT forces in the area, loyal to the Shanxi warlords, withdrew to more defensible positions further south. Japan declared war against the Chinese officially, and the KMT received support from the Shanxi, Xibei San Ma clique and Communist Chinese forces. In response to Germany’s support of Japan, Nationalist China embargoed German goods arriving in China on 24 August 1937.
Hitler and the Japanese ambassador listen intently to Ribbentrop's assessment of
the situation in the Far East, 1937.
FM von Neurath’s roving ambassador, Joachim von Ribbentrop, had been in Tokyo conducting negotiations encouraging the Japanese into signing the Anti-Comintern Pact; they accepted the invitation on 2 July, though it took a few weeks before the treaty was officially signed by both parties. Divisions within the German government regarding the invitation of the Japanese, however, came to a head and became public on 21 July 1937, causing a slight disruption to the officer education programs as the various offices quarreled amongst themselves. By 10 August, cooler heads had prevailed and the interruptions were rectified. By the end of November, Japan had negotiated for the purchase of nearly 87 tons of coal a month in exchange for ℛℳ13,860 (US$3,300). Not only did the Japanese help the Germans by purchasing their excess resources, but they also assisted in influencing nations in which both countries had a strategic interest: Iran.
KMT troops dug in on the Marco Polo Bridge. Exacting a large toll of Japanese troops,
the KMT forces were still quickly routed.
Progress in China for the Japanese was swift: the Shanxi warlords surrendered to Japan on 20 September. By October, Japan was in the process of setting up the puppet state of Mengkukuo. Though Communist China was granted a small donation of metal from the Soviet Union, they could not adequately turn the resources into battlefield necessities and Mao Zedong surrendered himself to Japanese forces 16 December 1937; much of the land was relatively worthless and so was transferred to Mengkukuo officially on 20 December.
Weekly progression of the front line in China, 1937
1937 continued to be politically unstable in many nations. Most of Europe experienced at least one large national strike and protest movement. Furthermore, there were five major assassination attempts on various ministers across Europe. Germany seemed to be largely immune, mostly due to the economic prosperity that had returned after so many years away. Due in large part to the rearmament programs and the completion of Phase I of the
Autobahn Volks-Projeckt—which covered expanding the autobahns into north- and southeastern Germany and Prussia—most Germans were more than happy to continue on the path set by Hitler and the NSDAP. In fact, the economic benefits not only affected Germany, but even Europe as a whole: France, bitter rival to Germany, experienced a brief economic boost due to German productivity on 11 September 1937.
Political instability led directly to the support in the United States of the German-American
Bund.
The German rearmament program was well underway, and rapidly becoming legendary. From the humble beginnings of seven infantry, three cavalry divisions, no aircraft and few enough fleet units, Germany had, by the end of 1937, over 173 brigades in the Heer, accounting for 39 infantry, 1 garrison and 4 armored divisions. The Kriegsmarine had gone from an obsolete coastal force to a nearly-blue water navy with 26 surface combatants, 18 u-boats and 30 auxiliaries. The Luftwaffe was the most pronounced expansion: when 1937 drew to a close, the Luftwaffe could call on 1200 fighters, 400 dedicated close-support aircraft, and 800 tactical bombers, all of advanced types.
Ju-87 'Stukas' recently delivered to SKG 3. The Luftwaffe's expansion, nearly
doubling in size two years in a row was nothing short of an industrial miracle.
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Author's notes:
@anweRU: Yes, it's a bit advanced... the issue is trying to find actual Kriegsmarine transport vessel images. So, I appropriated some... at least I'm using the right nation's ships, though...
@Matnjord: Yes, I've actually built an LW/KM chain of command... at least down to an "army group" level. We'll see how well that works, but if my experience so far is any indication, I've been keeping my IC-supply demand down to a constant 22IC, unlike last time, where by the start of the war I think I was having to devote ~40IC to it.
Also, I'm really sorry about the gifs. They didn't come out as nicely as I had hoped, and I put the dates in bad spots on the images. Were I able, I would have replaced them with my own maps, but that was seemingly a whole lot of work.