Chapter 98 Why 1939?
In the General Staff Headquarters on König Square, although it was working hours, there were not many officers coming in and out. Under the high arched dome, the footsteps of two people on the granite floor sounded like a row of soldiers marching in unison. "Kurt, it's a little quiet here now," Hersman said, "but there is still hope. At least we have a very good start."
The person with Hersman was Kurt Student. They returned from Russia together and stopped in Riga for a few days to inspect the factories there. When they left Riga, the news that the Soviet Union and Poland would hold peace talks in Riga and the news that the Soviet Union and the Baltic States would establish diplomatic relations came from Moscow at the same time.
They walked through a fairly large conference room and then through a long corridor into an office full of various aircraft photos - just by looking at these photos, you can guess that this is the General Staff Flight Office.
"Oh, we were really successful in Russia," Student said, gesturing to a slightly worn armchair. "But you also gave Junkers and Fokker a big problem... I think Lenin must be grateful to you, right?"
"I didn't make things difficult for Junkers and Fokker just for Russia."
"Not for Russia?" Student opened a cabinet, took out a thick stack of folders, and put them on the desk and started flipping through them.
"Not only that," Hessman emphasized, "we need to walk on two legs, so we need to double our investment. Cooperation with the Soviet Union will share the "investment of one leg", and we will do the other one ourselves."
"Okay, I found it." Student took out a folder with the words "rotary cylinder engine" written on the surface from a pile of folders. "The French's wonderful engine, the Land God series... 14 cylinders that rotate together can output 160 horsepower, and the power/weight ratio reaches 0.667."
This is the originator of the star-shaped air-cooled engine that was on par with the inline liquid-cooled engine in World War II. The rotary cylinder engine invented by the French has a very strange way of cooling the engine, which is to rotate the cylinder. Therefore, it will produce huge inertia, making the aircraft difficult to operate.
"Let BMW improve it and find a way to stop the cylinder from rotating." Hersman took the folder, opened it and started to look through it. The information inside was very complete, not only with detailed drawings, but also various test data. The Germans had seized many rotary engines during the war, and they had also imitated them themselves.
Student said: "First let them imitate the Land God 9N, and on this basis, come up with a 9-cylinder air-cooled engine with more than 400 horsepower and non-rotating in 1923... BMW should have such ability."
Historically, the American Pratt & Whitney Company came up with a similar product, the R-1340 Wasp engine, in 1925. At that time, Pratt & Whitney had just been established and had only 20 employees, which was not comparable to BMW at all.
Hersman hoped that BMW could come up with a product before Pratt & Whitney, so that it could obtain the patent for the radial engine.
"That's it," Hersman put the folder Student gave him into a handbag. "Is it okay for me to take it away?"
"It doesn't matter, I still have it here." Student said. "And the one I gave you is just an introduction. There are still many detailed information and samples."
Hersmann said: "Send those to BMW."
"So should we bid for an inline engine with the same horsepower?" Student asked.
"Not for the time being," Hersmann shook his head, "The funds are limited, we have to save money. When our cooperation with the Russians starts to generate a lot of cash flow, it won't be too late to develop an inline engine."
Compared with radial engines, inline engines are more widely used and can be used in automobiles. So Hersmann does not plan to fund the development of inline engines for the time being, but wants German automobile companies and machinery companies to do it themselves.
After all, cooperation with the Soviet Union requires a lot of investment. Because the goods that the Russians can exchange with Germany are mainly oil. The Russians can take out crude oil instead of refined oil, which requires Germany to establish a corresponding oil processing and sales industry.
And to achieve this, the Industrial Promotion Committee will inevitably provide a large amount of loans to BASF and Bayer.
In addition, the construction of strategic oil reserve facilities should also begin now.
According to Hessmann's plan, future wars will be extremely dependent on oil, so Germany must reserve at least 20 million tons of crude oil before the outbreak of the war - enough to sustain the consumption of at least 2 years of war.
Such a large scale of strategic oil reserves not only requires a large number of reserve facilities, but also cannot be completed in the few years before the outbreak of the war - when the head of state comes to power, Britain, the United States, France and the Soviet Union will be on high alert and will certainly not sell oil to Germany openly! Therefore, oil reserves can only start from the 1920s, and they must be long-term, with one or two million tons of reserves each year, and they will be almost ready before the outbreak of World War II.
In addition to oil reserves, research and investment in coal-to-oil have also been secretly proposed. Hessmann hopes that Germany will be able to form an annual production capacity of 5 million tons of synthetic fuel by 1939. This of course also involves huge investments - not only investing in synthetic fuel plants, but also investing in coal mines. When necessary, even investing in coal mines in Austria and the Czech Republic.
In addition, the reserve of non-ferrous metals should also start from the 1920s. Like oil, non-ferrous metal resources are also a shortcoming of Germany in World War II. Germany lacks almost all non-ferrous metals, and without these non-ferrous metals, Germany's military industry will encounter big troubles during the war.
And the reserve of non-ferrous metals is not only a matter of spending money to buy, but sometimes it is necessary to go abroad to find mines. In Hersman's memory, Austria has the largest tungsten mine in Europe, and the Czech Republic has relatively rich manganese, graphite and uranium mines-the uranium mines in the Czech Republic have been discovered and mined a long time ago, but they are not used to make nuclear weapons, but as a colorant for porcelain. Hersman is going to find an opportunity to acquire the uranium mines there, and then reserve all the uranium ore produced every year. In addition, the Belgian Congo also has rich uranium resources. As far as Hersman knows, the pitchblende there has been mined and used since 1921. The uranium mines in the Belgian Congo must also be obtained in a way...
When Otto Hahn and Lise Meitner discover the phenomenon of nuclear fission, these things will be of great use.
So, in the next few years. The Industrial Promotion Committee needs to invest a lot of money, and it is definitely not well-off, so it can only invest limited funds in the departments that need it most.
"1939? Why?" In the office of the director of the Political Department of the General Staff, Colonel Kurt von Schleicher was looking through the oil and non-ferrous metal reserve plan that Hersman had just drawn up - this plan will be passed at the 1921 Industrial Promotion Committee working meeting. Colonel Schleicher is a popular and powerful figure in the current General Staff. He has a copy of the Industrial Promotion Committee, the Officers' Union, the Aviation Committee, etc. Hersman's plan must be approved with his support.
"What's special about this year?" Schleicher looked up at Hersman, "The reserves of oil, aluminum, manganese, ferrochrome, zinc, lead, copper, etc., as well as the reserves of uranium, and the artificial gasoline factory are all required to be completed before August 31, 1939. Can you tell me what day September 1, 1939 is?"
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