Cabinet Meeting January 1945
0000 January 1st 1945
Reichstag Building, Berlin, Germany
"Welcome back all. This has been a fruitful year and I wish we can continue this trend for many more years to come. Albert, please inform us about how 1945 will be in terms of production of the Third Reich."
"Thanks Martin. With recent conquests in Italy in late 1944 we have brought our industry to a renewed level. This is the first time we have an industrial capacity higher than that of June 20th when we had three hundred industries."
"Our stockpiles are in a fairly good shape; I'm starting to be quite worried by our Rare Materials current stockpiles, as at this rate is expected to deplete in less than three months if no action is taken to alter the course; but that is something Guderian might have thought about as he will later explain. Oil is still our main concern; Supplies are not shrinking as the paper incorrectly shows, while manpower is fairly good and growing and our divisions are almost all over 90% strenght.
Reinforcements for the Army are almost all done except for Ringel's army who is being redeployed. One third of our industrial capacity is currently allocated to Army upgrades; this is mostly the case of the Luftwaffe: many interceptor wings are being upgraded to the new Turbojet design and we will greatly benefit from a renewed Luftwaffe able to keep the edge over our enemies and the skies clear, to which purpose also a nice portion of our industry has also been allocated to production."
"British agents have sabotaged the production of one Air Wing, that of Jagdgeschwader 70, by 20 days; they will however strenghten our Fighter numbers from three to six and the Luftwaffe will greatly benefit from new Turbojet squadrons, especially now that we need to keep France and Italy safe from Allied bombers and even more later once we need to face the Soviets in Summer.
A last thing to notice is our Transport Capacity; forty divisions are under redeployment, but in normal conditions we can almost handle our logistics system entirely, given that we'll be able to protect our newly acquired industrial assets. That's all from me."
"That's a refreshing report you have. Ernst, let's hope you have some interesting news aswell."
"Thank you Martin. Research is progressing fairly well."
"Guderian and his staff are about to devise a new Logistic Organization, which will greatly help our troops' efficiency in the East. I.G. Farben is also progressing well in looking into new means of boosting our manpower, and Porsche has recently started work on a new Tank design. It is unlikely that we'll see them in this year, so we'll have to fight in Russia with what we have at the moment.
"Attempts at infiltrating new agents in our enemies' countries have been tried but have all been thwarted by prompt counter-intelligence. Therefore our estimates are still inaccurate. We have only two spies in the Soviet Union and they report the presence of 218 infantry division, an impossible number as two months ago, just after the surrender of one hundred Soviet divisions in Cracow, they had 339. The number of armored divisions is almost the same and reported to be quite accurate. Airforce numbers, on the contrary, are totally inaccurate as they are much larger in reality.
The Soviet Union possesses a number of 389 base factories, 9 more than two months ago. While we're not terribly behind in terms of raw numbers, their industrial output is enormously superior to ours."
"We'll fix that this Summer. Advise your agents that they'll have to travel deeper into Russia to provide those numbers." Guderian intervened with an optimistic grin on his face.
"I hope so Heinz. Next come the USA."
"Four spies provide a little more accurate report, but that's still far from reality. They tell they have 71 infantry divisions, while two months ago they had 61; 14 armored divisions, compared to the previous 25. They have a very large airforce and a terrific navy. I'm quite worried they are reseaching Turbojet Interceptors and Fighters.
Their base factories number is 533, while two months ago it was 503. They possess the largest industrial output in the world, along with huge stockpiles and manpower reserves. Good for us that we have been able to clear Europe from their presence, but let's not make this happen again. Next is their British allies."
"Despite losses in Italy, their industrial base is almost the same as that of two months ago, that is 274. They are somehow suffering from a lack of some material, as they are not using their industrial capacity at full extent. Numbers about the Army show two more infantry divisions and six less armored divisions; this is despite our victory in Italy and the capture of an estimate of thirty divisions - given that those divisions have never been rescued by an Allied navy in Rome. I have only two agents in Great Britain, however, so my numbers really count little. That's all."
"Thanks Ernst. Heinz, our Ringel is here and has been silent for all this time. Given the excellent job he's done in Italy, he deserves the right to know what we have prepared for him."
"Indeed you are correct Martin. Let me commence with an overall look over Europe."
"1945 seems to look much better than the previous year, and that can be seen on this map too. France and Italy are under Axis dominion, with the exception of French Corsica and the Italian isles - and that Grenoble in the southern part of France. The Eastern front I guess will see much change in a few months, but before that something else will happen.
As Martin has already hinted, we are indeed about to declare war to an European nation that has not sided with neither faction. Neutrality is not a thing we like as in times like these everyone is concerned. And Sweden is one of such unaligned countries."
"Excuse me Heinz, but Sweden looks to me to be a much less valuable target than, say, Spain or Turkey. We could gain control over the Mediterranean and open a new flank against the Soviets if we invaded those two Countries." Ringel was quite stunned about the decision of attacking Sweden.
"We know it perfectly, Julius. Spain, however, has an absurd number of beaches to guard and we cannot afford it at the moment; Turkey I've been informed by Joachim we have a non-aggression pact with them, and we will respect it. Also it is not wise to open a new front with the Russian there, as it would expose us also to the British. We do not have the strenght to do that while also keeping Spain.
Sweden, on the other side, is valuable for a number of reasons. First, with Denmark in our possession, we have to guard very few beaches; second, it is a resource-rich Country and our stockpiles only demand for more. Third, it opens a new window over the upcoming Summer's strategy in the East as I will shortly explain."
"To add even more credibility to Sweden's cause, Spain has a mediocre Army and some decent mountains in the Pyrenées, and while it would be still feasible to defeat them, it would require a number of months and lives. We cannot afford that at present as we would gain more hostile beaches and the capture of Gibraltar, a thing that we could not exploit at the moment. This means we would attack a Country with a high cost that yield little strategical value, and whose possible strategical value determined by the presence of The Rock is nullified by the fact that we cannot exploit it properly at the moment.
The map shows, on the other side, that the Swedes seem to be utterly confident of being invulnerable. Stockholm is left undefended, the North is almost devoid of divisions and their southern part also contains very few divisions. Either they have a huge stack of divisions roaming somewhere in the forests in the middle of their Country which we could not detect, which is unlikely, or their Army cannot properly defend a nation of that size."
"See Julius, your divisions are being redeployed in Copenhagen and will be part of a greater operation that aim to seize vital provinces of the Swedish country in order to knock them out of the war before they realize what is going on and counter-attack, which is unlikely, given the state of their Armed Forces. The red lines shows the hypotetical advance that your divisions should make, Julius, from Copenhagen. Three divisions will be transported by the Kriegsmarine and will land in Stockholm, as shown by the yellow lines. Once we have forced the Swedish nation to capitulate, we'll have all the time to reorganize our forces in a new line that will see its expansion in Summer against Soviet Union.
We are devising a 1945 Summer offensive against the Soviet Union. We have to keep in mind, however, that despite their huge losses at Cracow and in Romania, they are not defeated yet. We all remember how many casualties we inflicted them in three years of war and how they were able nonetheless to force us to retreat. We will not repeat the mistake to overestimate our forces once again; therefore we will focus on one theater at a time, that is North, Center or South. Capture of Sweden is part of such plans, as we plan on focusing on possible operations from Heeresgruppe Nord.
Your troops, Julius, will link with those of newly formed Heeresgruppe Finland led by Hausser. Our aim is to encircle and capture all the Soviet divisions present in the peninsula, which is a feasible project, as we now have forty more divisions that can do the job. Once we clear Finland of Soviet divisions, Ringel's troops will be considered part of Heeresgruppe Finland and will finally operate in a much shorter frontline, that is that of Leningrad.
To sum it up: first, conquest of Sweden, to be completed by mid or late-February; second, redeployment of Ringel's troops to northern Sweden and Finland; third, launch a new Summer offensive with highest priority given to Heeresgruppe Nord, aimed to cut and encircle Soviet troops in Finland; fourth, merge Ringel's troops with those of Hausser and create a new, shorter frontline that will directly face Leningrad and a weakened Soviet Army."
"Ringel's divisions are being redeployed in Copenhagen and many of them will reach destination and reassemblement by mid-January. I think that by January 20th we can open the hostilities against Sweden."