BXBX NOVEL Chapter 43: Butterfly Effect (3)
Now only our Union and Germany are left in Europe.
Who would Hitler target next?
The answer was obvious.
The Union.
It\'s not that Stalin didn\'t know about Hitler\'s ambitions.
As a leader of Germany, it was natural to observe his thoughts as if looking through a microscope.
And Hitler was a good subject to observe from the outside.
Just by looking at his book \'Mein Kampf\', one could understand what Hitler was thinking.Lebensraum.1
Hitler was clearly coveting this land, the land of the Soviet Union.
Of course, there was a non-aggression pact, but he never expected Hitler to keep his word from the beginning.
If only Britain were still standing against Hitler, it would be reassuring, but they were also expected to make peace soon.
If there were no enemies in the rear, it would have only been a matter of time before Hitler invaded.
Then preparations were needed.
First, he had to take all the spheres of influence of the Soviet Union promised by Hitler, to secure as much buffer zone as possible.
The targets were the Bessarabia2 and Bukovina3 regions of Romania, which were currently preparing for an invasion, and the Baltic states.4
While having these territories is a good thing, I wish I could get assistance from other Nations.
A diplomatic variable was needed to break through this situation.
Two countries caught his eye as he stared intently at the world map.
The Korean Empire and the United States.
The United States, for now, could not be of much help in curbing Hitler\'s ambitions, as isolationists were gaining power.
Still, it would be better to do something than not to.
As for the Korean Empire,
It was a country with an authoritarian regime and a belligerent tendency.
If they wanted to move, it was possible to act immediately.
They also had the will for an alliance.
The problem was that Lee Sung Joon wasn’t interested in an immediate alliance.
So, there was only one conclusion.
For now, the Union had to manage on its own.
I\'ll have to give up on advancing the defense line.
Stalin was pushing ahead with plans to move the defense line and troops to the occupied Polish territory.
It was to put pressure on Germany and to use it as a forward base to advance into German territory in case of an emergency.
However, now that things had come to this, he had no choice but to consider deploying troops with a 1:1 confrontation with Germany in mind.
If the opponent was a \'superpower\' capable of bringing down France in 6 weeks and negotiating with Britain, it was right for the Soviet Union to take a defensive stance as well.
Just as Stalin was about to issue new instructions to the military, Molotov came in with a letter.
"Comrade Secretary. Lee Sung Joon has sent a letter."
"Lee Sung Joon?"
Come to think of it, Lee Sung Joon had no reason to be surprised by Germany\'s victory.
Even if Germany defeated the Soviet Union, they couldn\'t exert power across Siberia.
Why did he react now?
Stalin tore open the seal of the letter.
"Dear Secretary Stalin. I felt the need for the Korean Empire and the Soviet Union to cooperate closely in response to changes in the European situation. Accordingly, the Korean Empire is willing to produce and supply the military needs of the Soviet side. What do you think?"
He then suggested tanks, field guns, trucks, etc. as items that could be produced.
Of course, there was naturally a mention of receiving resources as payment.
Tanks.
The Union was already severely lacking in new tanks to deploy.
But were the tanks of those Korean Empire bastards any good?
The Secretary called Voroshilov and asked about the state of the Korean Empire\'s tanks.
Then even Voroshilov gave a hollow laugh.
"The main battle tank of the Korean Empire Army? They are not even worthy of being called a tank."
Then, do they not have the technical skills to make proper tanks?
And they say they will mass-produce tanks for us?
Ah. This is a proposal.
To share the tank technology of the Union and their industrial production capacity.
Stalin understood it now.
Then he showed Sung Joon\'s letter to Voroshilov.
"The proposal to produce tanks for us is quite tempting, but I\'m a bit concerned about our technology being transferred."
"What if we also receive some technology in return?"
For example, Korean Empire-made optical equipment or naval guns.
"Well, if the balance is right, there\'s nothing we can\'t trade."
After confirming Voroshilov\'s reaction, Stalin was inclined to accept Sung Joon\'s proposal.
Yet, despite having made up his mind, Stalin was an extremely cautious person.
He couldn\'t make such a decision based solely on the words of Voroshilov alone.
He still had to listen to the technicians\' opinions.
Still, it wouldn\'t be too bad.
If this cooperation becomes the cornerstone of an alliance, it will be a valuable deal for the Union as well.
That\'s how Stalin calculated.
*
"Sieg Heil! Sieg Heil!"
“Heil Hitler-!”
The reaction of the German people welcoming Hitler, who had toured Paris on June 23, 1940, was sheer enthusiasm.
The feat of bringing down France, which the crippled German Empire had failed to defeat in 4 years of fighting, in just 6 weeks was no less than the second coming of Napoleon.
Even the Nobles, who had been stubbornly holding out within the Empire, had no choice but to bow their heads to the Führer\'s \'genius\' at this moment.
"I can\'t believe Hitler has succeeded in getting revenge like this."
"We won\'t be able to bare our teeth at the Führer for the time being."
It was a situation where even the Social Democrats were shouting \'Long live the Führer’.
Hitler\'s approval rating surpassed 90%.
At this moment, Hitler was the god of Germany.
As soon as he returned to Berlin, the Führer quietly gathered his close associates.
At that time, when everyone was intoxicated with the joy of an amazing victory, Hitler said,
"When Britain surrenders, the time will come to face our true enemy."
"Your Excellency, what do you mean by that?"
"Now that Europe has surrendered to us, we must crush the Soviet Union, the den of the last remaining enemies, the Judeo-Bolsheviks. Only then can we distribute vast lands to the great Germanic people, don\'t you think?"
From the beginning, the Führer had no intention of keeping the non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union.
He was determined to wage an anti-communist crusade in the East as soon as the problem in the West was resolved.
"Your Excellency. The Soviet Union is not an easy opponent. They are a giant with the largest army in the world."
Foreign Minister Ribbentrop5expressed his opposition in a reluctant voice.
In the first place, as the head of diplomacy, Ribbentrop had no choice but to oppose disrupting a national relationship that was functioning well.
"Nonsense!"
Hitler reacted sharply.
"Are you saying that after seeing the despicable battles the Bolsheviks fought against Finland last year and earlier this year? Those bastards are just big in size, they are nothing. If our invincible Wehrmacht stands in front of the door called the Soviet Union and kicks it hard with their military boots, that rotten door will fall down in an instant."
Ribbentrop shut his mouth.
Reading this atmosphere, the close associates quickly catered to Hitler\'s whims.
"Your Excellency! If our Luftwaffe6, which led this war to victory, takes the lead, the conquest of the Soviet Union will be very easy."
"The SS is also ready, Your Excellency. We will go on a campaign anywhere as soon as Your Excellency gives the order."
Although he had no right to represent the Army, Keitel7 also chimed in.
"Your Excellency. The OKW8 will faithfully prepare for the operation as soon as Your Excellency gives the order."
Hitler felt satisfied with the competitive words of his close associates.
Of course, that didn\'t mean that an invasion operation plan was decided or drawn up at this meeting.
Such matters had to involve the OKH9, the Army\'s highest command.
Hitler found that fact quite unpleasant.
What did the Nobles, who failed to recognize Manstein\'s genius, know of how to properly plan and conduct a military operation?
It was the same with Dunkirk.
If the Führer himself had not made a \'decision\', they would have made him a leader who only achieved a crippled victory like Lee Sung Joon.
Hitler felt displeasure, but he did not ignore reality.
Soon, an order was issued to the Army High Command to prepare a plan for the invasion of the Soviet Union.
The Army welcomed this order with pleasure.
"If we got rid of France in 6 weeks, 10 weeks should be enough for the Reds."
"Those Red bastards are just the ones who changed the signboard from Tsarist Russia, what\'s so scary about that?"
If Germany won a war even while fighting on two fronts, there’s no way he couldn’t win wen concentrating against a single enemy.
That was the general consensus.
The German Army High Command expected that the anti-Soviet operation could be finished in 3 months at the longest.
Of course, that didn\'t mean they drew up a plan to invade without rhyme or reason.
Although the French campaign had ended, most of the Army needed rest and reorganization.
Ammunition also needed to be replenished.
By the time they roughly reorganized their ranks and moved their units, it would be September.
That was not a good time to invade the Soviet Union.
"If it\'s September, with the Rasputitsa10 and winter just around the corner, next year would be a good time for the invasion."
The German Army roughly calculated that the period between May and June 1941 would be suitable for the invasion.
The detailed plans and troop size would have to be slowly refined over the next few months, but the rough outline had emerged.
The size of the invasion force was about 160 divisions.
It was larger than the force that invaded France.
The seeds of Operation Barbarossa, the largest invasion operation in human history, germinated a few months early.
- 1. Lebensraum (German pronunciation: [ˈleːbənsˌʁaʊm], living space) is a German concept of expansionism and Völkisch nationalism, the philosophy and policies of which were common to German politics from the 1890s to the 1940s.2. Bessarabia is a historical region in Eastern Europe, bounded by the Dniester river on the east and the Prut river on the west.3. Bukovina is a historical region in Eastern Europe. The region is located on the northern slopes of the central Eastern Carpathians and the adjoining plains, today divided between Romania and Ukraine.4. The Baltic states or the Baltic countries is a geopolitical term encompassing Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. All three countries are members of NATO, the European Union, the Eurozone, Council of Europe, and the OECD.5. Ulrich Friedrich-Wilhelm Joachim von Ribbentrop was a German politician and diplomat who served as Minister of Foreign Affairs of Nazi Germany from 1938 to 1945. 6. The Luftwaffe was the aerial-warfare branch of the Wehrmacht before and during World War II.7. Wilhelm Bodewin Johann Gustav Keitel was a German field marshal who held office as chief of the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht, the high command of Nazi Germany\'s armed forces, during World War II. He signed a number of criminal orders and directives that led to numerous war crimes.8. The Oberkommando der Wehrmacht was the supreme military command and control office of Nazi Germany during World War II. Created in 1938, the OKW replaced the Reich Ministry of War and had oversight over the individual high commands of the country\'s armed forces: the army, navy, and air force.9. The Oberkommando des Heeres was the high command of the Army of Nazi Germany. It was founded in 1935 as part of Adolf Hitler\'s rearmament of Germany. OKH was de facto the most important unit within the German war planning until the defeat at Moscow in December 1941.10. Rasputitsa, also called bezdorizhzhia, is the mud season that occurs in various rural areas of Eastern Europe, when the rapid snowmelt or thawing of frozen ground combined with wet weather in spring, or heavy rains in autumn, lead to muddy conditions that make travel on unpaved roads problematic and even treacherous.