While the staring contest over the Rhineland drew international attention onto the recovering German nation, it was quickly overshadowed by another event. The 1936 Summer Olympics, an event that had been planned before the recent events on the French border, were a chance for the German people to show how they were recovering from the 'shame' of the Great War. The Weimar government, its recovering economy providing more than adequate funds, was going all out for these games.
The Olympic stadium in Berlin was extravagant, designed in part to awe the foreign fans of the games. In that regard, it more than did its job. Of course, the stadium was just one part of a much larger event. Berlin was covered in the Weimar tricolor, German citizens showing that they were proud of their nation. Any foreign visitors, especially those from the 'western' democracies, would see a German state that was proud to be a Republic. The truth was more mixed, as the largest party outside the Coalition remained the monarchistic DNVP.
Germany's internal issues were covered over in the festivities of the Olympics though, so that only the glory of the Republic showed. It helped that the Reich was the greatest scorer at the Olympics, followed most closely by the Americans, namely the impressive Jesse Owens.
Unfortunately, one friend of Germany attended the Olympics in a greatly reduced state. Edward VIII, perhaps the most friendly leader to the German Reich, had been forced to abdicate his throne. His infatuation with an American divorcee was too scandalous for the British nobility, and the King had been under immense pressure to either abdicate or end the relationship. It was quite the scandal, for those who paid attention to such events.
Most nobles and monarchies the world over frowned heavily on the relationship, and were those pressuring Edward to end it. The King seemed to, genuinely, love Wallis however. Because of this, he chose abdication instead of ending his relationship. While the German ambassador delivered a letter of support form the Chancellor for the new Duke of Windsor, it was still a harsh blow to Anglo-German relations.
George VI, the new British King, was not anti-German. He, however, was not as friendly as Edward had been. Ties with France were reinforced, while ties with Germany began to atrophy. Relations remained friendly, due in large part to the Coalition being very much
not extremist, it was still a blow.
Between the Olympics and the abdication of Edward, few were paying much attention to the German military. A force that was continuing its efforts to modernize, wherever it could with its budget somewhat limited by the SPD-heavy governments focus on civil works. Limited or not, the
Reichswehr was making noticeable progress, compared to its state during Hindenburg's Presidency and before. This was, perhaps, most noticeable in the skies above Germany.
For the longest time, the German sky contained only civil air traffic. Airliners and Zeppelins, neither remotely military in nature. However, now a new sight crisscrossed the skies over newly constructed airfields. Smaller, more agile aircraft with crosses on their tails. This was the new
Luftwaffe, a very direct violation of the Treaty of Versailles, but one that was important for German security.
At the time of the Summer Olympics, the Luftwaffe was a force still in its infancy. Several groups of aircraft,
Luftflottes were spread over Germany, training and developing new tactics.
Luftflotte II, based in Berlin, was just one of these. Made up of Arado Ar 68 fighters and Junkers Ju 86 bombers, it was already outdated however. The biplane fighter would be more than useless against the rumored Hurricane of Britain, or the Curtis planes being imported by France.
Because of this, both Messerschmidt and Focke-Wulf were being approached to develop new fighters, while Junkers, Dornier, and Heinkel competed with their respective bomber designs--the Ju 88, Do 17, and He 111 respectively.
The
Reichsmarine was easier to work with. While its newly reformed submarine arm was every bit as much a violation of Versailles as the
Luftwaffe, it was minor enough that this hardly mattered. Only Admiral Karl Donitz heavily supported the submarines, and the Weimar leadership were lukewarm at best when it came to the vessels. It was very well remembered that unrestricted submarine warfare, of the type Donitz advocated, that had been the pretext America used to enter the Great War. Germany had no desire to fight the American giant again, and as such the submarines received little funding or development compared to other arms of the Navy.
What was receiving funding was the surface fleet. Divided into two main forces, the
Raumflotte and
Atlantikflotte, the surface fleet was being steadily reinforced as more ships came off the slips. The former received the newer vessels since, as its name suggested, it was the main striking force of the
Reichsmarine. Two of these ships were the largest Germany had built since the High Seas Fleet...
Scharnhorst and
Gneisenau. Considered battlecruisers by most, the command of the Navy considered them battleships.
Two larger vessels, battleships by any nations definition, were taking shape in Kiel too, with a tentative completion date of mid-1938. Other than these vessels, no more were currently planned...due to budget disputes, and debates over where the
Reichsmarine should go. Three major schools of thought were divided on that issue.
Admiral Raeder, commander of the
Raumflotte was very much in favor of building more of the
Bismarck class battleships, and had the ear of Conrad Patzig, SPD Chief of the Navy. Donitz has already been mentioned, in his support of the U-Boot arm. Admiral Canaris
1, a member of the intelligence community as much as an Admiral, supported Aircraft Carriers, the likes of which were being built in Britain, America, Japan and even Italy.
As the refusal to support the U-Boots has already been discussed, this left Raeder and Canaris as the major focus. In an effort to support both sides, the dockyards of Wilhelmshaven were commissioned to develop an experimental Aircraft Carrier, tentatively named the
Graf Zeppelin. Kiel would continue construction of SMS
Bismarck and
Tirpitz, with contracts existing for more ships of their class.
Finally, there was the
Reichsheer. This arm of the military was perhaps the most unified, under the careful training of Heinz Guderian. The Army was reorganized completely from its small size under Versailles, expanded to nearly two-hundred brigades by the time of the Summer Olympics. These brigades were organized into two different types of divisions, designed for vastly different purposes.
The first, were the more traditional Infantry Divisions. The vast majority of the
Reichsheer was made up of these divisions, four brigades strong. Three of infantry being rearmed with the short Karbiner variant of the Mauser '98 rifle that had served the Imperial Army in the Great War. The fourth was a brigade of modern artillery, to provide the divisions with greater hitting power than their counterparts in other nations. There were studies underway to mechanize the infantry and modernize the artillery further into a self-propelled design, but both were still in the planning stages.
The other division, was the Panzer Division. Comprised of two brigades of light tanks and one of infantry, the Panzers were Guderian's 'baby' so to speak. Hard hitting and fast, they would be the spearhead in the event of a war, with the infantry exploiting any breakthroughs made by the Panzers. At the moment, their ability to make these breakthroughs was up for debate, however. The Panzer I and Panzer II tanks were arguably obsolete as they were produced, barely sufficient for training purposes.
Much like the
Luftwaffe, more effective designs would be needed soon. A Panzer III anti-tank design, and a Panzer IV infantry support design were both under development, but there was some discussion of approaching the Skoda works in Czechoslovakia over purchasing some of their LT 34 tanks as a stop-gap measure. Which came first, would largely depend on how long it took Porsche or Henschel to develop their own designs.
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1 This is a shoutout to the excellent
Siegerkranz over in HoI2.
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Also: It lives! Hopefully we shouldn't have a delay like this again.