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[MM]

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Feb 8, 2005
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tomorrowtheworld.jpg

Starting Year: 1936
Country: Germany
Difficulty: Normal
Version: For The Motherland v3.05
Mod: own (based on DiDay's I.C.E.)


Description
This AAR will be in the form of a diary from the perspective of the German head of state. The ultimate goal of this game will be to conquer the entire world, but I will try to play as realistic as possible. For this purpose I've created several plausible events that will lead to a game where I will have to take on the entire world alone. I've converted a lot of assets from my favorite mod "DiDay's I.C.E." for FTM (like units, leaders and artwork) but I will also be using some modifications of my own (but nothing I would consider cheating) to make the game more interesting.


Prelude


Fall Grün (the invasion of Czechoslovakia)


Fall Weiß (the invasion of Poland)


Unternehmen Weserübung (the invasion of Denmark and Norway)


Fall Gelb (the Battle of France)


Unternehmen Barbarossa (the invasion of the Soviet Union)


Unternehmen Polarlicht (breakthrough in Finland)


Unternehmen Taifun (the Battle of Moscow)


Unternehmen Hannibal (the Battle of Northern Italy)


Unternehmen Nero (the Conquest of Rome)


Unternehmen Frühlingserwachen (the destruction of the Kalinin Front)


Unternehmen Karthago (the Invasion of Northern Africa)


Fall Blau (the Attack on Stalingrad)


Unternehmen Kreuzzug (the Conquest of the Middle East)


Unternehmen Zitadelle (the destruction of the Red Army)


Unternehmen Seelöwe (the Invasion of Britain)


Unternehmen Wiking (the Battle of the Atlantic)


Unternehmen Siegfried (the Invasion of the United States)


Unternehmen Eisenhammer (the Battle of Washington)


Unternehmen Doppelschlag (the destruction of the US Army)


Unternehmen Kolumbus (the conquest of the Caribbean)


Unternehmen Schwarzwald (the conquest of Africa)


Unternehmen Wintergewitter (the destruction of the Arsenal of Democracy)


Unternehmen Weitsprung (the Invasion of South America)


Unternehmen Dixieland (the Rush for Mexico)


Unternehmen Goldküste (the invasion of the West Coast)


Unternehmen Walhalla (the invasion of South-Eastern Asia)


Unternehmen Bismarck (the invasion of Australia)


Unternehmen Ikarus (the invasion of the Philippines)


Unternehmen Walküre (the invasion of Japan)
 
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1936-01-02

meeting1.png

Meeting in the Reichskanzlei​

At about 9 o'clock this morning we had our first cabinet meeting of the new year in the Reichskanzlei. First Göring got us all up to speed on the progress of the Four Year Plan that will end this September: With projects like the Autobahn and the Herman Göring Werke in Salzgitter we had been able to put most of our population back to work. Our total industrial strength is measured with about 216 IC, putting all of our neighbors to shame. In addition to our solid industrial foundation Göring was able to identify three key industrial areas in the Reich:

industryu.jpg
  • The ball bearing plants in Schweinfurt, which allow us to produce top quality engine parts much quicker than our competitors.
  • The IG Farben chemical plants in Frankfurt am Main, which produce many medicinal compounds like the world famous Aspirin.
  • The Krupp Steel Works in Essen, which produces huge amounts of steel high quality steel plates.

If we want to become a major player again on the world stage I'm convinced that we have to further increase our industrial output which is why I ordered Göring to draw up a second Four Year Plan beginning with the construction of new factories in 22 cities, new airports in rural areas and anti aircraft defenses for our most valuable industrial centers and ports.
Göring also noted that we still had problems with procuring enough resources like iron ore or aluminum for our growing demand which lead me our next order of business.

While I am convinced that von Blomberg has done everything he could as armament minister I decided that he would server us better as chief of staff. His replacement will be Hjalmar Schacht who has closer ties to the industry and will hopefully be able not to increase our productivity. As first assignment I told him that he should try to sign treaties with Sweden, Italy, Britain and the Soviet Union to trade our excess production of coal for all the resources we are lacking.
Additionally I assigned Goebbels as new minister of the interior, replacing Wilhelm Frick.

cabinetn.jpg

As next order of business I discussed with my ministers the plan to systematically disassemble the Treaty of Versailles by reinstating a three year draft and reoccupying the Rhineland. At the end of our meeting we had decided that our troops should start marching the very next day, hoping that the British and French will still be busy celebrating the new year.

1936-01-07

rhineland.jpg

The past few days our troops had been marching through the towns of the Rhineland where they had been greeted by our grateful population. Today they reached their positions at the French border and all we got from Paris and London was a letter or formal protest.

occupationo.jpg

Encouraged by this recent success I've decided that the time has come to openly begin the rearmament of Germany. For this purpose I've signed orders for von Blomberg to expand the Heer. All of our 36 Infantry Divisions should be equipped with an artillery brigade at the end of the year. New divisions will also be created as soon as capacities are available.
 
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1936-01-27
Today I had a meeting with Göring about expanding the Luftwaffe. At the moment we have eight bomber wings but only three fighter Jastas. He agreed with me that this was totally insufficient for a country with the area like Germany. I gave him permission to expand the fighter forces of the Luftwaffe to four squadrons with four wings each over the next four years, which should be enough to cover our entire airspace.

1936-02-13
After starting expansion programs for the army and the air force I decided it was time to rebuild our navy. Today I asked the high command of the Kriegsmarine to draft up plans for their rearmament.

1936-03-24
I had a meeting with the admirals of our navy today where they presented me two different plans for our future navy:
Admiral Dönitz, head of our submarine forces, argued that our navy could not be expanded in a reasonable time frame to rival the navies of our hypothetical enemies France and Britain. For that reason we should concentrate on building stealthy submarines which could be used to sink enemy convoys and cripple their war industry instead of sinking their fleet.
Grand Admiral Raeder on the other hand proposed a plan to build a grand surface navy that could rival that of Britain over the course of the next ten years, which he called "Plan Z".
I'm convinced that we will not enter a new war with Britain and France until at least 1946 and while a navy using submarines can only sink convoys and not the enemies battleships a strong surface navy can do both, which is why I decided to go with Plan Z which includes the following:

  • 10 Battleships
  • 12 Battle Cuisers
  • 8 Aircraft Carriers
  • 6 Heavy Cruisers
  • 24 Light Cruisers
  • 70 Destroyers

A plan like this this would surely cause trouble with the British, however at the time we don't have the industrial capacity nor the technological know how to build a fleet like that. The past years after the great war we haven't build any new ships and aircraft carriers are completely new to us, which is why I tasked the engineers of to our shipyards to create new designs that will be able to take on any enemy ship currently in existence.
At the end of the day the only order we placed with the "Germaniawerft" in Kiel was for six new transport ships which should allow us to ship troops to East Prussia more easily.

1936-04-03
Since I took over the party in 1923 my personal bodyguard, the "Leibstandarte SS A.H." or LSSAH has steadily grown from only two men who shared a gun to the strength of currently 5000 men. While they might look impressive their equipment certainly does not which is why I've decided that they should be equipped with the best weapons an material the Reichswehr has to offer.

1936-08-02
The head of our tank formations, General Guderian, came to see me today. He told me about his new theories of rapid moving forces which could break through enemy lines and quickly spread out into the undefended hinterland. The corner stone of such attacks would be tank formations which would quickly sweep aside any conventional defense. I was quite interested in this new concept but he complained that our current tanks were too few in numbers and laked the required firepower to implement his ideas. We agreed to let Krupp develop two new tank models, a medium tank to break up resistance and a light tank to exploit breaches in the enemy lines. The plan is to expand our tank forces until the end of 1939 with enough tanks to fill ten light tank divisions and one medium division.

1936-09-18
Today I visited the newly reequipped LSSAH in their training camp near Potsdam. Now they look more like an elite army brigade than a personal bodyguard...

lssahfirstbrigade.jpg

1936-09-23
After he saw the success we had with transforming the LSSAH into a real fighting force the head of the SS, Himmler, came by my office today. He wanted permission to create his own elite SS Divisions that would basically form a forth branch of our armed forces. While I was open for the idea of creating specially trained divisions of elite soldiers I was reminded of the debacle with the SA in 1934. My former friend Ernst Röhm had tried to create his own army as well which almost
resulted in an uprising from the regular army. Himmler was disappointed but I promised him that he could create one SS infantry corps. While he would have control over recruiting and training the army high command would be in control afterwards.

1937-01-01
Late last night, just as I wanted to leave the new year's party I got some interesting news from Moscow: Stalin had signed a decree ordering the death of almost all of his senior military officers. An unthinkable act of barbarism for sure that could only occur in the Soviet Union but maybe it will be to our advantage in the future...
 
A navy like that would give the USA and Britain's combined fleets trouble.
 
1937-02-13
Over the past six months the Spanish government had been running from one crisis to another. Failed social reforms and separatist movements from nationalistic Basques and Catalonians left their administration paralyzed. Today the situation reached its tipping point when general Franco declared the republic for dissolved. The current government however declared Franco a traitor and called all true Spaniards to defend their republic. This just might be the beginning of a civil war in Spain.

1937-02-15
Open hostilities have begun in Spain. Republic forces are in control of Madrid but general Franco's men are in control of huge areas in the north and south as well as the colonies in Africa. Most of the Spanish army has sided with Franco but he is lacking planes which almost completely fell into the hands of the Republic. General Franco has asked us for help and I feel this might be our chance to not only test our weapons in a real fight but also to make a new friend and potential ally in the Mediterranean. I've ordered Göring to create an expedition force of volunteer pilots and ground personal, the "Legion Condor". They will be transfered to Spain as soon as possible.
However we are not the only ones who are making preparations to intervene in Spain: Mussolini is sending ground troops and Stalin has announced that he will support the Republics war effort with weapons.

startofspanishcivilwar.jpg

1937-03-12
Our expeditionary forces have arrived in Spain and have already reported that they have encountered soviet build tanks and planes. This will be a invaluable chance to test the effectiveness of our forces as well as to strengthen our ties with the Italians who are our allies in this fight.

1937-06-08
Today I had a meeting with a young Doctor von Braun who is a member of the Berlin rocket enthusiast club. He explained to me his vision for some new kind of rocket based long range artillery. Although such a weapon might require many more years of development I was intrigued. We will need all advantages we can get if we want to make Germany a great power again. After our meeting I introduced von Braun to senior officers from our army and air force staff. Together we decided that we should create a new rocket research complex on the coast of the Baltic Sea. Our existing air force and army research center in Peenemünde on the island of Usedom, north of Berlin near the city of Wolgast, would be perfect.

constructioninpenemuend.jpg

Von Braun with Walter Dornberger (head of our army research center) in Peenemünde​

1937-06-17
I had a meeting with Himmler this afternoon. After I gave General Guderian the permission to expand our tank forces he wouldn't shut up about creating his own SS Panzer Divisions which he would like to call "Das Reich". We don't even know if Guderian's new tank based tactics will even work and I'm not willing to waste precious recourses just to humor Himmler. But at the end of the day I agreed that we could spare enough outdated tanks to create one Division, just so that he would leave me alone.

1937-07-01
Since I took over our great nation China had been part of our grand plan to restore Germany as a great nation. With their huge population and vast amounts of resources they would be valuable friends and allies against the communist thread. For a long time we have had military advisors in China to help modernize their army and lucrative economic treaties are fueling our industry. We have also had a friendly relationship with the other great nation of that part of the world, Japan, who don't have the population or resources of China but who are more closely aligned towards our political goals.
This is why I was troubled today when I heard the news that Japan had declared war on China. My foreign minister von Neurath advised me to ignore the Japanese demands to recall our advisors and to support China. I'm not so sure but I've decided to play for time and wait how the situation develops.

startofwarinchina.jpg
 
1937-08-04
Germany is surrounded by enemies behind strong fortifications. In the east we have the Czechoslovakians and their fortifications in the Sudetenland and in the west there are the French behind their impervious Maginot Line. If we ever find ourself in a war against one of these countries we would need extremely powerful artillery to break through these bunkers. This is why I ordered the Krupp company today to develop a super heavy railway artillery that would be able to crack the heaviest fortifications in existence. They assured me that the first prototype will be ready by 1941.

1937-10-23
Franco's forces have taken Madrid today. The war in Spain is going well. Although the reports that the Soviet Union has increased its help for the Spanish Republic is concerning. Stalin has announced that he might also send expeditionary forces in addition to their weapons.

1937-11-02
Madrid has been retaken by the Republic. I seems the war is still undecided and apparently the communists are gaining the upper hand in the Republic's government. This is a development that does not only cause concern for us. The Portuguese Dictator António de Oliveira Salazar has also begun to officially back General Franco in his struggle.
It might still be a long road towards victory but we have already learned some important lessons from our Legion Condor:

  • Our biplane fighters are too slow to keep up with modern bombers.
  • Delivering precise air strikes can be best achieved by dive bombing.
  • Large bomber formations are an easy target for modern fighters which is why they would need escort aircrafts.

I've called for bids from our aircraft manufacturing companies to develop better fighter planes, specialized dive bombers and escort planes that can match the range and speed or our bombers.

1938-01-15
The Japanese forces are advancing in China, they have gained a solid foothold in the north and today they announced that they successfully landed amphibious troops in Shanghai who sacked the city. Clearly the Japanese army is more competent than the Chinese army that hasn't won a single battle in this conflict. I've decided that there is no sense in betting on a loosing horse and have recalled all our advisors from China. This will sure make our new friends in Tokyo very happy.
Not so happy however is my foreign minister von Neurath. He still insists that the Chinese are the better choice but I'm also concerned with the way the Chinese have handled the thread of communist rebels in their own country: Apparently they have joint forces with the rebels lead by Mao Zedong to beat the Japanese.
Unable to convince von Neurath I've decided to replace him with Joachim von Ribbentrop who will from now on handle all foreign affairs.

ribbentrop.jpg

Von Ribbentrop in his new office​

1938-01-24
The construction plans for our new naval vessels have finally been completed. Only the plans for our aircraft carriers still need more time. The construction capacity of our shipyards is limited and I don't want to alarm the British which is why we have started construction of a reduced amount of ships:

  • 2 Battleships (Bismarck and Tirpitz)
  • 2 Battle Cruisers (Scharnhorst and Gneisenau)
  • 4 Heavy Cruisers
  • 4 Light Cruisers

Grand Admiral Raeder also wanted to order ten Destroyers but I was not satisfied with the current plans and ordered a bigger version with greater range. As soon as the plans for our carriers are done we shall also begin the construction two carriers. The remainder of ships from Plan Z will follow as soon as we have enough free production capacities.

1938-02-09
The Japanese are making progress in China, they have conquered enough territory in the north to create a new puppet state, Mengkukuo. They have also expanded their beachhead around Shanghai considerably which gave me the idea that we should develop amphibious troops as well. All in all I think we have made the right choice to bet on Japan. The war in Spain on the other hand is still undecided.

japaneseprogressinchina.jpg
 
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How historic will you be with the airforce? Using strategic bombers might be ahistoric, but fun as well. And useful against forts, airbases...
 
Good choice on the ships being built. They should be able to give the Brits quite a headache in the north sea if used properly.
 
Nice AAR, I will follow this with the most fun :)
 
nice work mate! i like it a lot - i have a couple questions though... what are you using from ICE and what have you modded in? I mean you don't have to tell me if you don't want to, or feel free to PM me as I am working on new gfx models for BlackICE as well as some new scripts... Good job though buddy! I look forward to read some more!

Cheers!
GFM
 
Hello Generalfeldmarschall, sorry for the late reply, I've been busy playing SWTOR...

I've taken all the new leaders and leader traits from I.C.E. as well as the additional German units (SS, quad transport planes, amphibious tanks, etc). I didn't copy any techs though, I've created my own techs to activate the new units. And I didn't take any events or decisions, I wrote my own to force the game in the direction I want (we will see how it goes). As for the artwork, I wrote myself a little script which converted all of the province pictures that were in I.C.E SF to the new map of FTM. And for the unit pictures I used images from various sources (following the credo that the next model should look "cooler" than the last) and I tweaked the models a little bit so that for example I only get a jet fighter picture for my interceptors if I already have jet engines in that model. And finally I've created a new occupation policy which is basically like "collaboration government" but with significantly lower manpower gain and almost no partisans. The idea is that I would use the manpower I would get from that policy to police the occupied country.
 
1938-02-15
Today I had a cabinet meeting with my ministers and the leadership of our armed forces to discus my longterm plans for our country. I explained to them my desire to transform Germany into a true world power that will stand the test of time. We have already introduced policies that encourage our women to bear more children and we expect to hit the 500 million mark by the year 2000. But because our available farm land and natural resources are already quite low, especially after we had to cede large parts of eastern Prussia to the newly formed Poland, we would have to acquire new territories for our growing population. The obvious choice in the last century would have been to establish some remote colony in Africa or Asia but I don't want some islands or a strip of dessert on the far side of the world, I want the new territories to be linked with the existing German land. As we can learn from the British and Russian Empires this is the only way to guarantee that our new Colony will become part of our great nation and not break away as separate state.
And only one look at the world map shows where our destiny lies: Eastwards. I intend to extend our borders all the way up to the Urals by the year 1944. A goal that should be easily achievable because the area is currently occupied by the Soviet Union, an inefficient and unpopular communist regime, nobody in the world will lift a finger if we start to crusade against Bolshevism. Our only problem will be the tiny state of Poland that lies between our nation and the soviet border. We will have to deal with them as well but I don't think that anyone will miss a nation that has only existed in its current form for merely 20 years. After all they had been under Russian and German rule before.
In the short term we will have to concentrate on uniting all of the German speaking peoples on Austria, Switzerland, Bohemia and eastern Poland by political means, if possible.

meeting2.png

Cabinet meeting in the Reichskanzlei​

The reactions of my ministers was largely positive, only our armament minister Hjalmar Schacht was opposed to the idea to start a war of conquest against our neighboring nations. I made a note to replace him as soon as possible.
The reactions of Reichswehr leaders was mixed at best. Grand Admiral Raeder only wanted to know if our plan still stood to avoid any conflict with Britain before the completion of Plan Z in 1946, which I confirmed. Göring of course was on board but our Chief of Staff von Blomberg and Chief of the Army von Fritsch were not in an agreeable mood. They were not completely opposed to the idea of attacking Poland and Russia but they were very critical of the timetable. They argued that our armed would need at least until 1946 to prepare for such an undertaking. They also raised concerns about the amount of raw materials and supplies we would have to accumulate before attacking one of our major trading partners in Europe.
Of course I could understand their concerns but what they didn't know was that in order to finance our massive rearmament programs we have been cooking the books since I've taken over as Chancellor and President of Germany. My finance minister Graf Schwerin von Krosigk recently told me that we will be bankrupt by 1941 if we kept spending like we did over the last years. We will have to take our first victim by then to get a new infusion of fresh money, which means Poland of course. A small country like Poland would only provide a small breathing pause which is why we would have to take on the Soviets by 1942. Anyway, we won't be able to move the timetable.

Replacing our Chief of Staff and Chief of the Army won't be as easy as replacing a minister in the cabinet. The army is still not fully committed to our cause and I fear they will be reluctant to follow me or even rebel if I simply replace their most trusted leaders. After the meeting I asked Göring, who is also head of the police in Prussia, to dig up dirt on von Blomberg and von Fritsch. Maybe we can blackmail them to step down.

1938-02-16
Today I appointed Fritz Todt as our new armament minister. I also transfered the control of the Reichsarbeitsdienst (which is basically made up of all our unemployed workforce) from Göring's four year plan comity to Todt. It will be renamed Organisation Todt and instead of constructing factories and highways they will start building military installations.

1938-02-20
I had a meeting with Göring about our Problem with von Blomberg and von Fritsch. He had found out that von Blomberg's new wife had been an prostitute but the only thing about von Fritsch he could dig up were some rumors that he is a homosexual. The later allegations were very weak but I gave him the order to go ahead with the blackmail anyway, maybe we will get lucky and he von Fritsch steps down just to protect the sanctity of his office.
At the end of our meeting Göring also brought up the question if we should order some four engine heavy bombers for our air force. But I don't think that we need four engine planes, the role of our air force should be to provide support for our ground troops which means that they will always be stationed near the front lines. And I also would rather build twice as many two engine planes that a few four engine planes.
 
Interesting AAR. I will be following.
 
1938-03-05
Our blackmail campaign against the Leadership of the Reichswehr was successful. Von Blomberg resigned yesterday and today von Fritsch announced that he will be stepping down as well. General von Rundstedt, the next senior General, will be taking over as Chief of the Army. I have decided to promote him to the rank of Feldmarschall next week to cement his new position as the head of the army. As for the Chief of Staff I decided that it was time to streamline the organization of our armed forces. All three branches of our armed forces will be subject to the General Staff lead by the loyal General Wilhelm Keitel as the new Chief of Staff. With this reorganization I have decided that our armed forces shall be known as the Wehrmacht from now on, the title Reichswehr reminds me too much of the old Republic. The General Staff will be known as the Oberkommando der Wehrmach (Wehrmacht High Command) or OKW. They will plan all of our future military campaigns and coordinate the cooperation of the other branches: The army will be lead by the Oberkommando des Heeres (OKH), the navy will be lead by the Oberkommando der Marine (OKM) and the air force will be lead by the Oberkommando der Luftwaffe (OKL). Additionally we have created a forth, separate commando structure, the Ersatzheer (reserve army) lead by the Oberkommand des Ersatzheeres (OKE). Garrisons and training units as well as soldiers on leave will be placed under the command of the OKE.

wehrmachtstructure.png

Our new HQs in Berlin

cabinet1938.jpg

The cabinet on the 5th of march 1938​

1938-03-15
The situation in Spain is getting desperate, the forces of the Republic have encircled large portions of Franco's troops and the nationalists are being pushed back everywhere. Today I have been informed by Mussolini that he is planing to recall his expedition forces. I have decided as well to end our involvement in the Spanish Civil war and have recalled our Legion Condor before it is too late.

spainworsening.jpg

1938-05-09
The situation for the nationalists in Span is getting worse every day. Today however a glimpse of hope appeared as the Portuguese Dictator António de Oliveira Salazar formally pledged his allegiance to General Franco. Both men formed an alliance against the Republic whose political goals have slowly changed from implementing small social reforms to establishing communism in Spain, no doubt because of the influence the Soviets had on them over the past two years. I hope it is not too late to turn around this war, if only I hadn't recalled our Legion Condor...

spainprotugalwar.jpg

1938-05-23
Today was a sad day for fascists all over the world: National Spain has surrendered to the republic forces after their last stronghold in La Coruña fell to the enemy. So far I have not heard any news about what happened to Franco. The Portuguese have requested a ceasefire but the Republic seems to be determined to make them pay for their betrayal.
Today I've also sent an invitation to Mussolini in Rome to discuss these developments and what we can to in the future to avoid the further spread of Bolshevism. Maybe we can arrange a meeting in a few months.

spainnationalistssurren.jpg
 
1938-06-21
The Portuguese army has been fighting hard these past few weeks but ultimately they succumbed to the power of the Spanish forces. Now their only remaining stronghold on the Iberian Peninsula is the city of Lisboa.

siegeoflisboa.jpg

1938-06-23
After heavy fighting in the streets of Lisboa these past few days the Portuguese surrendered to the Spanish Republic today. The newly formed Politburo of Spain issued a statement that they intend to transform the former Portuguese state into a part of the Socialist Spanish Republic, modeled after the republics of the Soviet Union.

portugalsurrenders.jpg

1938-07-04
Today I moved my office from the old Reichskanzlei, which had been the office of German leaders since the great Bismarck, to the new Reichskanzlei. Planing for this building had begun in 1934 after I took office because I felt that I would need a more representative office to govern our beloved nation properly. This magnificent building had been designed and constructed by the young architect Albert Speer, I will keep an eye on this talented man, maybe we can find him a place in our government in the future.

neuereichskanzlei.jpg

The "Neue Reichskanzlei" in the Voßstraße in Berlin​

To celebrate the opening of this new office building we also had a small parade by the LSSAH this afternoon. It was only as I saw all of them marching by that I realized that their increase in numbers had gotten a little bit out of hand lately. With 5000 active and another 10000 personal in reserve they have grown too big for the role of a bodyguard unit. I've decided to transfer them to the the regular army as an elite unit. The reserves will receive new equipment to form an entire motorized infantry division. The task of protecting me and my office will from now on fall to the "Wachbataillon Berlin" who are already in charge of protecting the various headquarters of our armed forces.
 
1938-07-10
Stalin held a big parade in Moscow today to welcome home his victorious forces from the Spanish civil war. Since Stalin took office in 1922 he had abandoned Lenin's plans to spread communism around the globe and had focused on fortifying his power at home and the industrialization of Russia. But at the festivities he proclaimed to the people of Russia that they had achieved their goal of establishing Socialism at home an that the time had come to restart the World Revolution. Spain, he said, was merely the first new addition to the Comintern.

sovietparade1938.jpg

Parade of the Soviet Expeditionary Forces​

Spain did not officially join the Comintern yet but I fear that it is only a matter of time. We will have to watch these developments closely. I've scheduled a meeting with Mussolini for the 28th of august to discus the consequences of our defeat in Spain and what we could do to keep a more aggressive Soviet Union in check.

1938-07-21
Today I went to a demonstration of our new aircrafts that had been developed for our air force over the past months. Our fighter force will be equipped with the Messerschmitt 109D, manufactured by the Bayerischen Flugzeugwerke. Willy Messerschmitt, who personally had designed this plane, assured me that this elegant monoplane was the fines fighter available on the market. Our bomber forces will use another variant of this plane as escort, the Me 109F. This version has an upgraded range and additional armament to engage ground targets.
Our bomber squadrons will be equipped with the new Dornier 17 medium bomber and the Junkers 87 "Stuka" as close air support bomber. Our troops in Spain had great success with div bombing tactics which lead to the development of the Ju 87, maybe this way at least something good can come from the civil war.

newplanes1938.jpg

1938-07-28
Over the past weeks the Japanese forces have been driven back by the Chinese. They were unable to exploit their early successes and are now almost back where they started. Their beachhead in the south has been reduced to the city of Shanghai. I had a conversation with the Japanese ambassador today and he assured me that these developments were merely a temporary setback for the Japanese army. I hope this is true but I fear that Stalin might have something to do with this. Ever since the Japanese took over Manchuria they have been involved in a series of border skirmishes with the Soviets and it is no secret that Stalin has an eye on the Japanese colonies in Asia.

japanchinaworsening.jpg

1938-08-15
Our plans to unite all German speaking people under one nation is moving forward. After many indirect threads the chancellor of Austria, Kurt Schuschnigg, has resigned from office today. He had been the strongest advocate for Austrian independence. The new chancellor is Arthur Seyss-Inquart, a member of the local National Socialist Party. If we play this right we will be able to bring Austria home to Germany before the month is over.
 
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1938-08-25
Over the past few days we have been working tirelessly with the new Austrian government to prepare their people for the annexation of their country into the German Empire. The idea of joining the Empire became very popular ever since their old leader, Kurt Schuschnigg, stepped down. After they had lost their own empire, as a direct result of loosing the great war, most Austrians are yearning for a chance to belong to a great nation once again.
Almost 70 years ago the political situation of that time had prevented the creation of a Greater German Empire including Austria. Today we are about to correct this gave historical misfortune: Earlier this morning units of our armed forces and loyal party members have crossed the Austrian border and are being greeted by the happy Austrian population.

1938-08-26
Today I went to Vienna to great my new citizen and to make the annexation official. Finally what belongs together comes together.

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The proclamation of the Greater German Empire on the Heldenplatz in Vienna.​

Not only did we gain another 6.6 million citizens today, we also took over the Austrian army with 9 divisions, including well trained mountain troops that will surely come in handy in the future.

1938-08-28
Benito Mussolini arrived in Berlin today for our scheduled meeting. He was very happy that our two nations were now neighbors but he was also concerned what my plans for South Tyrol would be. South Tyrol, with its German speaking population, had been part of Austria-Hungary before the great war. But I assured him that I had no desire to annex that province. Maybe we could work out some resettlement program for the German population in the future.
After a long talk we signed a trade agreement and formed a formal military alliance to defend Fascism in the world against the thread of Bolshevism. The agreement also had a few secret paragraphs detailing that in case we should go to war with other European nations any territorial gains in the Mediterranean should go to Italy while Germany would take all the spoils north of the Alps and south of the Sahara.
When the time came to announce the name of our new alliance I suggested the "Pact of Blood" but Mussolini objected because he felt that it would remind his people of the costly experiment in Spain earlier this year. In the end we settled for "Pact of Steel". My propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels however announced the new pact as "The Axis Berlin-Rome".

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Mussolini on his visit in Berlin.​

1938-09-10
After the annexation of Austria our next target should be to acquire the remaining territories from our neighbors with German population. These are in detail:
  • Northern Switzerland: While they are indisputably Germans they are reluctant to entertain any idea of joining our nation, just recently the Swiss National Socialist Party has been baned.
  • Alsace-Lorraine: These provinces at the border between Germany and France have a mixed German and French population but it is unlikely that the French will ever give up this strip of land after they had taken it from us at the end of the great war.
  • Luxembourg: After we took over Austria the people of Luxembourg got scared and asked France to guarantee their independence. Convincing them to join us will be difficult.
  • Nordschleswig: The Treaty of Versailles had forced us in 1920 to let the population of this strip of land vote if they wanted to remain with Germany or if they wanted to join Denmark. They chose Denmark. Convincing them otherwise will be hard.
  • West Prussia, Posen and Danzig: The Treaty of Versailles forced us to give these territories to the newly formed Polish state, cutting of Eastern Prussia from the rest of Germany. Because our longterm plan is to expand our nation eastwards we should acquire these lands by military means together with the rest of Poland at a later point in time.
  • Memel Territory: And another strip of land lost because of the Treaty of Versailles. This territory east of the Memel river was given to the newly created state of Lithuania. Because the Lithuanians are under heavy pressure by their former Russian overlords in the Soviet Union we might be able to regain this land if we promise them to protect them from the Soviets.
  • Sudetenland: The borderlands between Germany and Czechoslovakia are populated with Germans. Before the great war they had been citizens of the mostly German speaking Austrian-Hungarian Empire but now they are trapped against their will in the foreign land of Czechoslovakia. I think we should be able to use this situation to justify a military intervention in the near future to "protect" out citizens in the Sudetenland. Maybe we can even acquire the provinces of Bohemia and Moravia. They are strictly speaking not populated by Germans but they had been part of the German Empire of German Nations which should be good enough.
 
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