Intermission: the Stony Road to War
With the signing of the Molotov-Crispien Treaty, Germany managed to dispel any uncertainty regarding its relationship with the Soviet Union, but at the same time provoked an unavoidable split with the Western Allies. According to reports from the Abwehr, both France and the UK were preparing to declare war on Germany in 1942, and had even contacted the United States, Belgium and the Netherlands to join their alliance. Although the German Army had a good number of modern divisions trained to fight at the highest level, the diversity of Great Britain´s allies entailed the need to fight in three different fronts: Poland, Czechoslovakia and France. According to the OKH, the Polish campaign could be resolved with relative ease, but the 45 divisions established in Prague and the more than expected French offensive across the Rhine could embarrass the Wehrmacht, at least until the campaign in the East ended and the divisions deployed there could be sent westwards.
The French had deployed the bulk of their Army in the Maginot Line
It was necessary, therefore, that the German people enlisted en masse, in order to increase the Army to more acceptable levels, thus being able to provide greater security to the Western Front. While the recent recruitment campaigns had worked well, the High Command considered necessary to mobilize the rest of the country, but without a clear threat seemed almost impossible ... unless such a threat was created artificially. According to Arthur Crispien, this goal could only be achieved by creating an enemy, someone that should be stopped before it was too late..and such enemy existed on the other end of the world. After an emergency meeting, the cabinet grew increasingly favorable to the option of creating a "Nebelkrieg" which will mobilize the rest of the country but at the same time would not involve any real threat to Germany. After a virulent press campaign in which the Foreign Minister proposed the need to halt Japanese expansionism, in June 18th, 1941, Germany officially declared war on Japan. With such an action, the Reichstag could have the tools to govern the country as in wartime, whereas it was considered absolutely impossible that any actual combat between Japanese and German forces could occur.
The war declaration against Japan
Once the President signed the declaration of war, the Government quickly reacted to achieve the desired goal, and a few days later the Parliament approved the "Decree for the Protection of German People and Reform of the Army," which granted the possibility to call in arms to every male between 21 and 45 years. Finally, High Command would have the so desired expansion and the Wehrmacht could reinforce the existing divisions currently low in actual effectives. The decree, that received the affirmative vote of most forces in the Reichstag, also provided for the possibility of censoring content "that could damage the German war effort." It was estimated that one in ten Germans was radically against this decree, but this problem was easily solved by an statal program of discounts in consumer goods for all those families who had a male recruitable according to the decree.
In order to prepare war, the Government was forced to approve censorhip
Similarly, the Government established an state propaganda campaign designed to raise the spirits of the German populace, overlooking the upcoming war that the allies would inevitably wage against the restoration of Germany. Finally, the law also allowed for the first time the presence of foreign volunteers within the ranks of the Wehrmacht. Thousands of Italians fleeing the dictatorship of Mussolini would join, and also other volunteers from Hungary, Bulgaria, Finland, Ireland and the Baltic States.
War propaganda campaing and some Estonian volunteers that recently joined the Wehrmacht
However, this war would not only be won with infantry, and for this reason an special department was created and put under the responsability of Albert Einstein; under the name of Uranverein, the new project would further investigate the possible military applications of atomic energy. At the same time, OKH ordered to start the installation of the enormous Flakturme installations, impenetrable towers equipped with air defenses to protect German civilians against any allied bombing.
As Germany prepared for the final showdown, the Spanish "Bando Nacional" managed to penetrate the last line of Republican defense and took Seville, last bastion of the government led by Azaña, who was forced to flee to Mexico to avoid being captured. After declaring the Republican Army "captured and disarmed", Franco proclaimed victory and was named Head of State and "Caudillo por la Gracia de Dios". For its part, Japan, in another attempt to appear as a liberator of Asia, integrated his new Chinese puppet in the "Co-Prosperity Sphere" under the name of Menjiang. The citizens of Chad, tired of the French oppression, declared themselves an independent nation and were forced to fight for their freedom. Again, France evidenced his more than doubtful conception of democracy.
ABC newspaper relating Franco´s victory and the new states of menjiang and Chad
Back in Germany, the Reichstag decided not to suspend the elections for President scheduled for late 1941, and after a short campaign, Arthur Crispien won the right-winged candidate, Oskar von Hindenburg, but only by a short margin of votes. According to analysts, the fact that he was one of the makers of the agreement with the USSR that ensured peace in the east helped a lot in his narrow victory. Crispien promised a reform of the Weimar Constitution, and although it would not be applied until the end of martial law, the reform granted greater civil liberties and recognized the concept of Human Rights as something to be defended by the state, and also limited the President's powers to leave it as a merely representative figure. Without much opposition, the reform was passed by the Reichstag in late 1941.
Once he won the elections for President, Crispien and Vogel drafted a Constitutional Reform that was approved by the Reichstag
And one tragic November morning, the world suddenly exploded. Without warning, the Japanese launched an infamous surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, damaging many American vessels and causing hundreds of deaths. Such action would not go unpunished as President Roosevelt, a strong supporter of a more interventionist politic in the Pacific, received the unanimous support of the Congress to declared war. Perhaps without knowing it, Japan had awakened a giant. While these seemed news that did not affect Germany, all this would change the announcement that the United States joined the alliance with France and England, thus darkening the future of the Axis.
"A date which will live in infamy"
Throughout 1942 OKH continued its relentless efforts to increase the military, work that was only disturbed by the death of Carl Heinrich von Siemens, who would be replaced by the veteran aviator Harry von Bülow-Bothkamp. Von Siemens had achieved an incredible modernization of the Luftwaffe, but in the future it would be necessary to have the experience of a combat pilot commanding the Luftwaffe.
Finally, in September 1942, members of the Czech Army trespassed into German territory and assassinated several German radio operators. It was clearly a provocation orchestrated by the British Government to force a war that they had been desiring for so long, but Germany would not sit idly against such a terrorist act. After sending a ultimatum to Czechoslovakia and receiving its refusal, the Reichstag unanimously declared war on Czechoslovakia, after which the British Government announced that " both the European and American allies were at war with Germany." The real war had begun.