Chapter 132 Will Italy Have an Aircraft Carrier?
On June 1, 1928, Hersmann flew to Rome, the capital of Italy, in a Junkers J.28 passenger plane with a slender body and four 750-horsepower radial air-cooled engines. He was accompanied by Mussolini's old friend Val T. Rathenau, Karl Haushofer of the Industrial Promotion Committee, and several entourage.
"Ludwig, this plane is really great. I wish our Fiat company could build such a big one."
The new Italian Minister of Aviation, Itano Balbo, who greeted him at the airport, has been in charge of "German-Italian cooperation" in the past few years and is familiar with Hersmann. As soon as they met, he unabashedly envied the plane that sent Hersmann to Rome.
Although Germany lags behind Italy in liquid-cooled aircraft engines and "light high-speed aircraft" (referring to fast aircraft used for racing). However, its advantages in air-cooled engines and large transport aircraft (passenger aircraft) are very obvious. Let alone Italy, even the combined market share of companies producing air-cooled engines and large aircraft in Britain, the United States and France is not even half of that of large German companies such as Fokker, Junkers, Dornier (a seaplane company founded in 1922), Focke-Wulf, Albatross, Siemens (Siemens has now also entered the air-cooled aircraft engine market) and BMW.
The reason for this situation is that Hessman has made every effort to promote Soviet-German cooperation - because most of the products of Fokker, Junkers, Dornier, Focke-Wulf, Albatross, Siemens and BMW were developed in cooperation with the Soviet Union, and the Soviet Union borne more than half of the development costs. Moreover, each type of engine and aircraft can get a large number of orders from the Soviet Union and the German government (compensation products). While aircraft manufacturers in Britain, France and Italy are fighting for one or two orders, Fokker and Junkers can easily get hundreds of orders.
For example, the Junkers J.28 passenger plane that Hersman took this time has not yet been finalized, but it has already received 128 orders, of which 75 are "modified aircraft" ordered by the Soviet Red Air Force. In fact, the bomber-type J.28 was exported as a passenger plane and assembled into a TB-2 heavy bomber in the Soviet Union.
And the assembly of parts is just the beginning of the Soviet Union's localization of the J.28. After completing the assembly of all 75 parts, Soviet engineers have basically mastered the J.28, and then they will produce it themselves with the help of German engineers-the engine will need to continue to be imported for a while before it can be imitated, and the airborne electronics and navigation equipment will only be exported without technology transfer.
Through this kind of cooperation, not only can Germany maintain a considerable lead in the field of air-cooled engines and large aircraft. Even the Soviet Union's level in these two aspects is second only to Germany, and is ahead of the United Kingdom, the United States, France, Italy and other countries, not to mention the Japanese Empire in the Far East.
"Itano, we can cooperate, didn't Mr. Junkers come to Italy in April?" Hersman and Balbo hugged each other very warmly, and mentioned the aviation cooperation with a smile.
"I know that during the negotiation, Fiat was unwilling to transfer the technology of liquid-cooled engines. We are the world leader in that area!" Itano Balbo said proudly.
It is true that Italy has a leading edge in the field of liquid-cooled aircraft engines, but the Italian market is too small to support a large and comprehensive aviation industry. Therefore, Italy's leading edge did not last long. When the Second World War broke out, it had already fallen behind Britain, the United States and Germany.
In Hirschmann's view, the sustainable development model of Italy's aviation industry should be to specialize in one route - either develop the liquid-cooled route or specialize in the air-cooled route. It would be best if it could cooperate with Germany, Italy's future close ally.
Considering that Germany has taken the lead in the field of air-cooled engines, the Italians can completely hand over the development route of air-cooled engines to Germany, and then cooperate with Germany on liquid cooling.
However, such an ideal thing will probably not be realized, because the Italian leader does not know his tragic end after his defeat.
Balbo used several Fiat luxury cars to send Hirschmann, Rathenau and Haushofer to Rathenau's luxurious residence on the banks of the Tiber River, facing the Castel Sant'Angelo (the Pope's castle).
This is a Renaissance-style house with a large garden and swimming pool. It belonged to the Bonaparte family before Rathenau took over. Maybe he had no confidence in the domestic security in Germany. Rathenau now lives in this house most of the time - in Italy, a billionaire like him who is also a good friend of the leader is absolutely safe. In fact, Italy's public security is the best in the world now, and the mafia members are all staying in prison honestly. Murder, robbery, kidnapping and other evil deeds rarely happen a few times a year in the country. In Rome, anyone can walk around with a large bundle of cash in his hand.
Moreover, Italy's economy has also grown steadily under the management of the fascists. To some extent, the Fascist Party is very enthusiastic about developing industrial production like the Bolsheviks. They also like to use the power of the state to support industries, although they also like large and comprehensive industrial structures like the Bolsheviks, and often develop some "large and weak" industries.
But in general, fascism is still a more reliable choice for late-developing economies - many successful late-developing economies in history have been called "fascists" and white terror for a period of time.
“But the situation is different now.” The Italian Minister of Aviation took a glass of soda from the servant of the Rathenau family, took a sip, and smiled, “I was not the Minister of Aviation in April, but now I am.”
Haushofer smiled and said, “That’s great, Mr. Junkers will be very happy. Because his competitor Fokker has acquired BMW’s liquid-cooled engine business and is cooperating with Mercedes-Benz to make a big splash in the field of liquid-cooled engines.”
Hersmann planned to have two air-cooled engine (aviation) manufacturers and two liquid-cooled engine (aviation) manufacturers in Germany at the same time, so as to form a certain degree of competition.
Now there are two giants, Siemens and BMW, on the air-cooled line, and Fokker-Benz and Junker-Jumo on the liquid-cooled line. Considering Germany’s temporary backwardness in the field of liquid cooling, it is more advantageous to let these two liquid-cooled engine companies cooperate with their counterparts in Britain and Italy respectively - it is also easier for Hersmann’s spies to steal technology.
"But I have a condition." Balbo grinned, "I know you provided the Soviet Union with the technology to build aircraft carriers and gave them carrier-based aircraft."
"Yes," Hessman did not deny, "The Karl Marx class was designed by us, and there is a full set of drawings in the headquarters of the Kaiserliche Shipyard in Riga. The carrier-based aircraft on this aircraft carrier were designed by German aircraft manufacturers such as Fokker, Junkers, Focke-Wulf and Dornier, and manufactured by FK-BF. Among them, Fokker made carrier-based fighters, Junkers made bombers, Focke-Wulf made torpedo attack aircraft, and the reconnaissance aircraft was designed by Dornier. We can sell the design drawings of these aircraft to you, but if Italy wants to design and manufacture aircraft carriers, engineers from the Kaiserliche Shipyard must participate in the whole process."
All carrier-based aircraft are air-cooled, and the fighters designed for the Soviet Union by German companies such as Fokker, Junkers Focke-Wulf and Dornier also follow the air-cooled route. Therefore, German companies have quite advanced technology in this regard and do not need to cooperate with Italian companies at all.
However, the design and construction level of aircraft carriers must be improved through cooperation with foreign countries. Through previous cooperation with the Soviet Union, Germany has mastered the construction technology of medium-sized aircraft carriers used in the Pacific, Mediterranean and Indian Oceans. But there is no aircraft carrier used in the Atlantic Ocean yet.
Balbo did not seem to expect the Germans to put forward such conditions. He was stunned for a moment, and then asked back: "Ludwig, what do you Germans want to do? You are a defeated country... The Treaty of Versailles has not been abolished yet, right? I think you should know that Italy is not the Soviet Union after all!"
The Soviet Union is an iron curtain country. Although Britain and France can guess that there are a lot of actions that violate the Treaty of Versailles in the cooperation between Germany and the Soviet Union, they can never get evidence. But Italy is not so airtight. Even if Mussolini agrees to keep it secret, it is hard to say how the people below will implement it.
"It doesn't matter. We don't have high requirements for confidentiality." Hersman shrugged his shoulders and glanced at Rathenau. The Jewish billionaire laughed and said, "Mr. Minister, a new era, an era of European unity may soon come... The difficulties faced by Britain and the problems faced by Europe can only be solved through unity and cooperation. I think the chain of the Treaty of Versailles will soon be removed from Germany. So Britain will not only not oppose our cooperation with Italy, but may also directly participate in it."
"What? Britain will cooperate with you to develop aircraft carriers?"
"We hope so," Val T. Rathenau nodded affirmatively, "This is the purpose of my coming to Rome. We want to ask the leader to hold a meeting to discuss European economic issues. You know, the European economy is facing a huge disaster."
"What suggestions do you want to make at the meeting?" Balbo asked immediately. He knew that the Italian leader would definitely agree to hold such a meeting because it would enhance Italy's international status, and the leader liked to talk in front of a bunch of foreign leaders.
"A European Monetary Union!" Val T. Rathenau said, "We want to establish such an alliance so that all European countries use a currency that transcends sovereignty. This currency will be issued by a European Central Bank. It will never depreciate and is a completely reliable hard currency... This was not proposed by us, but by the British. We decided to fully support it, but it is not convenient to hold the meeting on German soil. So we would like to ask the Italian leader to come forward."
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