Chapter 24 The Command
"My great head of state. What countermeasures should we take for Italy's declaration of war? I personally think this is a very difficult problem. As allies, their declaration of war is understandable, but don't you think they still have a speculative mentality. How do you want to respond to the Italian leader's sudden action without warning?" Keitel looked at the gloomy little man sitting at the end of the map table, the current German ducái.
For some reason, since he stood on the side of Deputy Head of State Reinhardt, he found that he hated this little Austrian man more and more. He really didn't know why he respected and obedient to him in the past. Now he was so stupid at that time. This Austrian is indeed very good at doing the job of buying people's hearts. His false care and kind attitude in his daily work made everyone who had come into contact with him feel how approachable and kind he was, and often made the generals and officials he received were grateful.
Only those who have been following him can see the true face of this person, but it is unimaginable that I turned a blind eye to those things before. Now I finally woke up. It is not too late. At least Germany has not been brought into an uncontrollable situation by this head of state with crazy thoughts.
Only by allowing this little man to disappear from the German stage forever can Germany truly achieve revival. This is a sentence from his old friend General Baker in his secret letter to himself yesterday. Hitler's performance at today's meeting confirmed that Baker's words were undoubtedly correct.
He went back and forth at today's military meeting just to talk about one thing, that is, the assassination of the deputy head of state. He had no concern about the current situation on the front line. Several types of supplies had already dropped to the dangerous bottom line in the military warehouses on the front line. Now all the forces must be mobilized to transport these materials from Germany as soon as possible. However, this report has been handed over to Hitler for three days, but he has not given himself a positive answer. The materials are still piled in vain in the warehouses of various German railway stations. This man only cares about his ambitions and power, and does not care about the life and death of the soldiers on the front line. Keitel is completely disappointed with Hitler.
The actions of the German closest ally Italy made all the generals in the command very angry. The boasting leader obviously wanted to bite the fruit of Germany's victory. But Hitler's attitude now became very agile. He seemed to be indifferent to the leader's offense to Germany. It seemed that this would be another weak compromise. As a noble German official, he would never tolerate this. Compromising with the insatiable leader of Italy was simply turning into a betrayal of Germany's national interests.
Keitel now feels that the decision of himself and Marshal Von Brauchch is correct. They decided to do all the strength of the commander and use all methods to delay the military operations on the French front, and must not allow this ducái to win the honor of defeating France. They decided to present France's victory as a gift from the commander to Marshal Reinhardt, the leader they thought Germany's most suitable. Not only them, but almost half of the senior generals on the French front now have respect and love for the Deputy Head of State. They all know the subtlety of the current situation.
, so they privately agreed with the arrangements of the commander. On all fronts of the Western Front, the troops of Germany and France are now in an interesting state. The French have no strength to attack, and the Germans have no interest in attacking. The two sides confront each other through the fragile line of defense. However, Keitel believes that this confrontation will not last long. When Reinhardt takes power, it is the day when the French defense line collapses. Before that, he can only continue to endure and continue to confuse and perfunctory the Austrian, and contribute the strength he can to the deputy head of state's plan.
"Marty Marshal Keitel, don't you think your question is too presumptuous? We can only welcome the behavior of our close allies. Any other speculation is rude and inappropriate. The Italian leader once invited me to have an important meeting with him, but because of the problems in Poland, I did not agree to his invitation. It seems that he wanted to discuss their declaration of war with me that time.
Now he also sent me a letter with earnest words to explain to me the reason why he declared war on France without notifying us. In any way, he has this power. He did not hesitate to send countless brave young Italian soldiers to the battlefield for the revival of our great Germany. It is even more certain that he is a firm and loyal ally of our Germany. How can you say that he has ulterior motives? You simply don’t understand the value of an ally. This is why you can only be a staff officer but not a commander of a unit. Think about it yourself.
Another point, when it comes to the French front, I want to ask you why the war will stop now, what happened on the front line? Where has the courage of the National Defense Force gone? Where has the German teams who are not afraid and bravely moving forward a week ago went? Have you all followed your deputy head of state to Poland? Do you want to betray me?" Hitler said to Keitel with a sneer, and his cold eyes were also scanning the other generals and marshals present.
"It is true. My head of state. The attitude of the army now makes people wonder. The three armies are actually staying on their positions and basking in the sun. They all stopped their attacks for various reasons. Even the troops that have surrounded the enemy have begun to organize defenses outside the encirclement. These are the reasons. I dare not randomly guess the plans of the army, but your current behavior is no different from cooperating with the enemy. Moreover, my intelligence shows that someone is currently operating on the front line.
Behind the scenes, this is something that will never be allowed to happen in our Third Reich. No one can play with this clumsy conspiracy in front of the great head of state. This is a blatant rebellion! I ask my great head of state to give me the power to investigate this matter thoroughly. I will pull out the conspirators hiding in the center of our German team one by one and hang them before all the great and upright German citizens." A young man with a shrewd face said viciously to Hitler.
The iconic hooked nose on the young man's face and the major general logo on the dark SS uniform proved his identity. The director of the Third Reich Security Bureau, the most inhuman and cruel beast among all Nazi butchers in Germany, Reinhart Heidrich. Now this bloodthirsty beast has completely defeated his superior, Heinrich Himmler, and has completely replaced his boss's position with the head of state. He is now the person he trusts the most, and he has also become the think tank the head of state relies on the most. He is more arrogant than before and arrogant. Now no one dares to express his objection to his orders, and he has become even more crazy and cruel.
He had been jealous of the apostle of God from the bottom of his heart, younger than him, more powerful than him, more popular with everyone, and more popular with everyone. The kind of prestige in the army was even more difficult for him to obtain in his whole life. All this made this dangerous guy so jealous that he was about to go crazy. He once wanted to rely on the apostle's command, but he was rejected mercilessly by the other party. This made this narrow-minded person hold a grudge until now. This finally had a chance to overthrow the boy who had been trampling on him. How could he not try his best to seize it? Now in his mind, he was planning a plan to attack the army again. He wanted to take this opportunity to clean up the officers who had worshipped the apostle as God, and then he wanted to find a way to climb to the throne that the apostle had once sat on.
"No, my dear Heidrich, now there is no need to do this. Those people must have been fooled and misled by some conspirators and will be willing to be followers of that person. As long as they recognize the true face of the hypocritical conspirator, they will know how serious their mistakes are. At that time, these people will definitely repent and return to the noble cause of our great German National Socialist Workers' Party. By then, they will definitely understand that only me, Adolf Hitler is the only leader of the German revival, and only I am the one sent by God to save Germany." Hitler smiled and rejected Heidrich's request. Although he had a smile on his face, there was a cold light flashing in his eyes. He was observing the reactions of the generals and marshals to his words.
The result disappointed him. All the officers looked at the documents in front of them with a cold face and expressionless expression. They were neither angry with Hedrich's words nor grateful for what they said. The situation is like he and Hedrich are singing a one-man show, and the audience below seemed to be completely uninterested in the play. What happened to these generals and marshals? How could they suddenly have such great courage and dare to turn a blind eye to themselves? Hitler felt a strong sense of shame. He felt that he was insulted by these people, who completely regarded himself as a clown. This was simply unforgivable, absolutely unforgivable.
Hitler said with a gloomy face, "However, the performance of the German Army on the French front now really makes me feel very dissatisfied. I still have to hold some people accountable for this issue. Marshal Von Brauchic, as the commander-in-chief of the German Army, do you have any opinions on this matter?"
"No objection, my head of state. I think we all have more or less responsibility for this matter. However, there are indeed many difficulties on the front line of France, such as supply fatigue damage and other reasons, but Germany has not solved these problems for a long time. I think the head of state is also very clear about this." Marshal Feng Brauchic replied slowly: "Now our army has indeed gained the upper hand of the French team in all aspects, but in fact, we are already at the end of our strength. The soldiers on the front line need to be completely rested and the tank troops need to be truly inspected. General Guderian does not
Obeying orders, he not only got beaten back by the French, but also suffered serious losses. This was something that happened two days ago. I think everyone would not remember it. Great tank experts like General Guderian would be defeated by the French, the third-rate low-level troops, which proves that our theory is correct. What we need now is to rest and accumulate strength, and then launch a fatal attack on the French. For the French, their vitality has been severely injured by Marshal Reinhardt at Dunker, and it is not enough to recover without half a year. So the stagnation of the battle now has no effect on us defeating France."
"You are lying! My Commander-in-Chief of the Army, the situation on the front is not as difficult as you said. General Guderian's failure was entirely caused by your failure to reinforce him. The real culprit is you." Hedrich stood up and pointed at Feng Braushichi when he heard this.
"Who told you this ridiculous story? This is a shameless lie that even a three-year-old child would not believe. How could we ignore the most elite tank unit of our German Army? This is the most precious wealth of our German Army. How could we deliberately put it into danger? It is illogical. Is this what General Guderian said to you in person?" Feng Blauchic still answered slowly.
But Yodel, who was sitting next to the marshal, couldn't stand Heidrich's arrogance anymore. He stood up suddenly, and pointed his finger at Heidrich's nose and said angrily: "Heidrich, you have to pay attention to your words. You have to know who you are talking to! This is the commander-in-chief of our German Army, a noble marshal. What kind of thing is you? You are just a little SS Major General, who gives you this power to speak to a marshal with this attitude."
"You!" Heidrich has been going well these days, and no one has spoken to him with this attitude. Now that he was pointed at the nose and scolded by Yodel, he almost made his nose irritated. But Yodel's words were indeed reasonable, and his previous behavior was indeed a bit too arrogant. As a result, he had to sit in his seat, staring at Yodel with hateful eyes but couldn't find a word to refute him.
"General Yodel, sit down. Heidrich is indeed a little too presumptuous, but he questioned the commander-in-chief of the Army for the benefit of Germany. And you scolded him so loudly in front of me. I don't think about this matter." Hitler said coldly: "Now whether it is due to real difficulties or the conspiracy behind the scenes, it is impossible to investigate this before completely defeating the French. However, for those officers who have now investigated and have confirmed the crimes.
Punishment must be imposed. Regarding this failure of Guderian on the French front, I have sent a special person to investigate this, and I found that it was caused by the malfeasance of the commander of the army. So I decided to arrest Ronderstedt and his entire command staff, who will be taken to the Berlin Military Prison in two days, where their crimes will be interrogated and then tried by the military court. I think they will definitely receive the punishment they deserve. Marshal Von Brauchic, what do you think?"
Hitler's words caused a stir among all the officers in the command center. Von Brauchch looked at the neatly rested and neatly bearded, and he sneered in his heart. Does this little man want to use this to make the army surrender? This move might have worked a month ago, but it may not be useful now. It seems that Hitler really thought that Marshal Reinhardt was seriously injured and could not fight him for the time being, so he began to eliminate his followers. It seems that the apostle's plan has become more successful. Since this way, he can let the corporal know the spirit of the German marshal and let him know the courage of the officers of the German army. Don't let those people look down on them, the officers of the command center have dignity.
"First of the Year!" Feng Braushichi stood up suddenly. He bowed slightly to Hitler, then raised his chest full of medals and said, "As for the French Front, I have not fulfilled my duties well, and I am extremely ashamed of this. In order to assume the responsibilities I should bear, I decided to resign from my position as Commander-in-Chief of the German Army. Now I will leave the commander-in-chief of the French Front. I will go to the French Front to fight with my soldiers. Even if you don't agree, I will no longer fulfill the responsibilities of Commander-in-Chief of the Army. I am very sorry." Feng Braushichi picked up his marshal's scepter and military cap from the table and saluted Hitler a standard military salute.
Hitler was stunned by the sudden incident in front of him. He didn't know how to deal with this situation now, but before he could think of a countermeasure, the entire platoon of commanders stood up with their commander-in-chief.
"You, what do you want to do!" Hitler called out in panic.
"We all resigned to you for not fulfilling our respective duties, my head of state. We will go to the front line to wash away our shame, just like the former Commander-in-Chief of the Army, to fight with the German soldiers, until we leave the last drop of blood for our great motherland. I hope you can find a more capable assistant than us." Keitel said to Hitler with a heavy expression. Then all the officers saluted Hitt respectfully, and then they picked up the military caps in front of them and left their seats and followed Von Blauchic toward the gate of the conference room.
Hitler sat in his seat, staring blankly at the first time in German history that all the heads of the Supreme Command resigned and fled in front of him. He now opened his mouth and couldn't speak a word.
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Chapter completed!