by Hall, Gerald
“That has also caused more than a bruised egos among our allies because we have demanded that we, alone, produce the key electronics for these missiles, guidance systems and other key components. We was to limit the ability of others to reverse-engineer our technology. This is the closest thing to ‘black box’ technology that we have allowed to be in the hands of outsiders.”
“It will still take anyone else, even the Germans and Americans, years to figure out the electronic technology in the missiles and their guidance system. By the time that they are able to reverse-engineer it, we will have the next generation of technology already in production. Some of that next-generation is already in space aboard our satellites anyway.”
“That’s true. There is one other issue that we have to ensure is addressed. We have to ensure that our equipment works. Everything in Father’s database showed that whenever a new piece of technology was introduced, there were always problems with unanticipated technical issues and production quality control. If we do this right, we not only maintain a commanding position in the marketplace but also we save ourselves a considerable amount of money in the long run. If we bollocks this up, we will not only sully our own reputation but also could cost the lives of our own servicemen and those of our customers.” Judith told her siblings.
“Sarah and I have worked very hard to carefully pick out designs that are viable with the technology that we are ready to release to the world. We may have nudged a few shoulders to provide hints on how to produce a superior design. But our engineers are bloody brilliant blokes who have been taking our suggestions and building some excellent machines in all of our company’s divisions. We have great confidence in everything that comes out of our production facilities.
We are not going to see the problems that the other nations faced in the early years of the missile age for our father’s timeline, I promise.” Beatrice confidently replied.
“I certainly hope so. I know that I haven’t had the chance to be as ‘hands on’ with the technical aspects of our products as I would have liked because of the need to handle the business and management sides of Father’s business. So I have had to rely on the rest of you to work with those details.” Judith explained.
“I promise that we won’t let you down, Judith. We know that Father would have felt the same way about all of the things that he built for the Allies during the war.
Chapter Forty-Five:
Cavill’s Data Storage Center
Derby, Western Australia
February 14, 1958
“Come here, Judith. I think that you are going to want to take a look at this.” Sarah said. The younger woman had a series of photographs spread out in front of her on a table. One of the photos sat on a glass plate under an illuminated magnification device.
“What do you have here?” Judith asked.
“There has been a lot of activity at the Blohm und Voss yards at Hamburg during the past few years. You can see new aircraft carriers being fitted out up over here in the northeast corner of the photo. They had been constructed in the big Elbe 17 drydock.
But the Germans had built a couple of covered assembly yards down here three years ago. We had not been able to see what was being built inside of them as a result. Security at the Hamburg yards has been significantly improved as part of the overall reconstruction effort after the war. So no one from any of the British or other allied intelligence services could learn anything more either.
But we just processed this image from the cameras onboard the space station. The film canisters arrived in the space plane that landed last night. Take a look at the ship tied up at the pier just south of the covered yards.” Sarah said.
Judith bent down over the table and looked closely through the magnifier at the ship in the photo.
“That’s a bloody big ship, Sarah. She’s not as large as the carriers, but she’s at least as big as a Hipper.”
“I figured that she was a cruiser too. It also appears that her main armament is also complete as well. You can see evidence fore and aft of the main superstructure indicating the presence of twin-rail antiaircraft missile launchers. She’s also clearly fitted with a helicopter landing pad on her stern and a gun turret on her forecastle.”
“I see. It’s got to be either a single barrel fifteen centimeter naval rifle or a dual-barrel five-inch mount, possibly one of their SK C/41 mounts. I just can’t see enough detail to make out the length of the barrel or barrels.”
“I thought so too. But we just don’t have enough information to be sure. What do you think that those things are mounted along the sides of the main superstructure?”
“I think that they are anti-ship missile launchers. If so, they have at least eight missiles ready to fire. I think that we might have seen these before though.”
“What do you mean?” Sarah asked.
“When Australia’s fighters sank that old Japanese heavy cruiser a few months ago that was apparently acting as a pirate on behalf of the Cantonese, one of the fighters took a few pictures of that cruiser before it sank. I believe that it had the same kind of canister-launchers on it. Of course, the detail of these photos from orbit still leave a lot to be desired, especially considering the technology that we are limited to using. But if I am right, that means that the Germans are selling some very advanced weapons to the Cantonese and who knows what other forces.”
“Bloody hell! That would be a very bad thing. Should we tell our friends in the Australian military?”
“Not yet. First, we can’t be sure of this. Secondly, no one on earth knows that we have this capability. If we are going to be able to continue to observe the Germans or anyone else without them taking countermeasures to keep us in the blind, we can’t tell anyone about what exactly we can see. This is a lot more detail than we have revealed to the government in the past.”
Chapter Forty-Six:
Reichstag Government Office
Berlin, Germany
February 21, 1958
“The Bundestag continues to support our initiatives, both militarily and economically. The reconstruction of our cities and industries are also ahead of schedule. But there continue to be issues. The greatest of these issues is the shortage of available workers.” Colonel Alois von Staffenburger explained.
“We were very fortunate to have repatriated so many of our soldiers and others in uniform. There had been many tens of thousands of soldiers that had been captured during the Russian campaign that we were able to get back to the Fatherland. Still, we had lost so many men during the war that virtually an entire generation of German men was decimated once again as was the case during the First World War.” Armin Klein, deputy economic and industrial policy advisor for German President Frederick Schäfer replied.
“This is unfortunately, true. We have been using tax incentives and other elements of public policy to encourage marriage among our veterans. We have also been encouraging procreation within those families to rebuild the population after the losses of the war. As a result, many of hospitals have very full maternity wards from all of the new Deutsche Kinder. The schools are also full of young men and women. But they will not be available to fill the factories and farms for another ten years still.”
“I am looking forward to this next generation of Germans. But you are right. We are going to continue facing a shortage of workers for close to another decade, at least. Have you considered encouraging immigration of foreign workers to help increase the number of available workers for our factories? We lost nearly four million members of our military during the war in addition to close to a quarter-million civilians from the Allies’ aerial bombing campaign. There was also several hundred thousand Jews and other undesirables that we ‘encouraged’ to leave Germany and Austria prior to the Armistice.”
“I have considered it. There are a number of problems that we have to address first. We have to ask ourselves what sort of people that we want to allow to move into the Fatherland. The Poles certainly are not intere
sted in coming here, neither are the French, much less anyone from the Low Countries or the Nordic states, at least not in any significant numbers. That leaves the Balkans and Turkey. Both of those areas have large percentages of Moslems in them.”
We have dealt with Moslems before, as I recall. The Grand Mufti from Jerusalem, Amin al-Husseini fled here from the Englanders after the beginning of the war. He even recruited an entire division of troops for the Waffen-SS from the Moslems living in Bosnia.”
“This is all true, Herr Colonel. I believe that the Grand Mufti hated the Juden even worse that Hitler did. But the Moslems have no real love for us either, regardless of our religious beliefs. If Moslems are brought here to work, it will be difficult to get them to leave when their usefulness is over with. History tells us that they will not assimilate into our society or culture if allowed to stay. Remember that our ancestors also had to fight Muslim invaders who attempted to conquer all of Europe. You know what sort of problems that will cause if imported workers remain here and form their own communities that have no real German identity at all, don’t you?
As bad as many of us considered the Juden to be, the Moslems will be far worse if allowed to establish a foothold here in the Fatherland.”
“What will the solution be then, Herr Klein?”
“Then we must utilize resources outside of Germany until our own factories are completely restored and our population at a level capable of fully manning them. If we must employ foreigners, then they should remain in their own countries rather than risk them polluting ours with their incompatible cultures. I’m sure that our industrialists are more than willing to exploit foreign resources in the short term if they are still able to profit from them. The vast continent of Africa offers us many possibilities, I believe.
I think that several of our major industrial organizations have already seized upon this idea. They are actually utilizing the existing connections that Germany had formed decades ago when we had colonies in several areas in Africa. For example, Daimler has made significant investments in the Katanga region of the Congo. That alone will provide us with access to that nation’s rich mineral resources in gold, copper, cobalt, zinc, tin, tungsten, coltan and even diamonds. Labor there is also very inexpensive compared to what it would cost here.
Porsche, Volkswagen, Opel, Krupp and Siemens are quickly following suit. They are investing in the local infrastructure of any foreign endeavors. I have learned from the leaders of these corporations that they will primarily invest in mining and processing in country. In several cases, there will be local production of certain items as well, though complex manufacturing will all be done in Germany, by Germans using the already refined minerals. We learned a hard lesson during the war about using workers whose loyalty was questionable, especially the prison labor. Many German soldiers and airmen lost their lives because of poor workmanship and even outright sabotage by these unreliable workers. We will not have that happen again.”
“We will have to put considerable effort in ensuring that adequate quality control measures are implemented at these foreign manufacturing sites. What other countries are we planning to expand our production into for the short run, Herr Klein?
“We have or will very soon have operations working in Tanzania, Cameroon, Nigeria, Gabon, Madagascar and Namibia. These will provide us with most of the critical minerals that we need to rebuild our industries and produce equipment of sufficient quality that the entire world will be at our doorstep, eager to purchase good German cars, trucks, aircraft and ships, not to mention guns, tanks, artillery and jet fighters. Notably, many of these places had previously been German colonies prior to the end of the First World War. We were forced to give up control of these lands as a result of the humiliating treaties that our leaders signed after the First Armistice.
Notably, all of these countries are not very strong economically. The money that we will bring in will certainly be welcome by their citizens, especially the wages that we pay for local labor. The local labor will be paid in accordance with the quality of their work and the complexity of the tasks assigned. Naturally, the wages that we pay will be far lower than those that we would be paying to German workers at home. But that money will give the local workers considerable buying power compared to what they had previously.
Africa will not be the only place where we will have to diversify our resources to regain our status as the true first among equals in Europe. Some minerals will come from neighbors like Sweden and Austria. But others will come from Chile, Chile and Peru in South America. There are many other places that we are also looking into including China. Of course, the ongoing civil war there does make establishing a secure and reliable center in China somewhat more challenging.”
“Civil wars can be very messy. But they offer many opportunities because some of the local leaders can be very accommodating when law and order are a rare commodity.”
“What if the local leaders do not wish to initially cooperate with our efforts in these other countries, Herr Colonel?”
“I’m sure that our corporate leaders will first attempt to use financial ‘incentives’ to convince local leaders to allow our people to bypass certain rules or legalities that might inhibit our ability to utilize the resources there.”
“You mean bribes, don’t you, Herr Colonel?”
“If you wish to be overly blunt, yes. Some of these incentives would be considered bribes. But you must understand that in many of these backward nations, corruption is a way of life for government officials. So spending a relatively small amount of money to pave the way for a permit or access to reserved assets is only a small price to pay in comparison to the profits that our people would gain in the long run.”
“But what if someone still doesn’t want to cooperate, Herr Colonel?”
Colonel von Staffenburger smiled cruelly before responding.
“I understand that there is also a small organization already in Africa doing contract work in support of our business initiatives there. These men all have experience with either the SS or the Gestapo and not afraid of getting their hands dirty when necessary to convince a difficult local official to be more cooperative. They have never failed. Either the official reconsiders his objections or his replacement will.”
“His replacement, Herr Colonel?”
“Yes, there would have to be a replacement after the unfortunate death of the previous official, don’t you agree?”
“Don’t you worry that the local media or even reporters from overseas will try to expose any of our activities in Africa that they do not approve of?”
“Meddlesome journalists can be dealt with in the same manner as difficult local officials. If a reporter is found dead from an apparent robbery, who will know the difference anyway? But other reporters may be somewhat reluctant to pursue the same story afterwards, I suspect. Don’t you agree?”
“Jawohl, Herr Colonel.”
“The rest of the critical minerals that we need, we will simply have to purchase from the open international market. You would be quite surprised how much we purchase from the Australians. But because of the new sources of these metals, we can now build jet engines that can run far longer and are more powerful than the primitive motors that we were forced to build during the war, just as one example.”
“We will need to ensure that we maintain a stockpile of these strategic minerals in the event that our access to our overseas suppliers is cut off.”
“How do you propose doing this?” The advisor to the German President asked.
“We purchase or obtain those materials by any means necessary until we are absolutely certain that we have enough to supply our needs for an extended crisis or conflict, Herr Klein.”
“I agree to the extent that we can afford to have the minerals simply sitting around and not being promptly incorporated into new production. Our exports are growing and earning das Vaterland badly needed foreign capital, but we still far from having fully recovered from the war, Herr
Colonel.”
“First, we must not let ourselves become directly involved in another war any time in the foreseeable future. We don’t have the personnel to put into uniform for a war mobilization without utterly gutting our skilled and unskilled industrial labor force. The German people need time to rebuild our families and to raise its sons and daughters to maturity before it can, once again, assume its rightful place among the nations of the world, much less of the nations in Europe.
Secondly, we have to become the industrial powerhouse for all of Europe. When we use our superior technology, workmanship and efficiency to dominate the European export market, we will be able to accumulate enough capital to influence the policies of our neighbors. We can purchase sufficient reserves of strategic minerals to insulate us from any actions taken by an adversary to hurt our economy.
Finally, with a booming industrial and financial economy, we will also be able to afford to finance a quiet expansion of our military. Of course, we will still need to keep the majority of our expansion hidden from view. The world will still see that we are producing new panzers, warplanes and warships. We need to see that if we are going to sell our new weapons to export customers. But our potential adversaries will have no idea of just how many weapons we are building for our own military.”
“All that you have explained makes perfect sense, Herr Klein. I fear that it will take a full generation at least to achieve all of the goals that you have outlined. I am in no hurry to experience another wasteful war to be honest.”
“I lived through enough Allied bombing raids to not deserve to experience another war either. One piece of good news though is that we will have our first nuclear fission power station operational within the next six months. It will be a considerably different design than the molten salt reactors that the Australians are building. We did not wish to purchasing licensing rights for the Australian technology. Also, our solid fuel reactors will be able to produce other useful byproducts for later use, our physicists have told me.” Armin reported. He did not mention that some of those ‘byproducts’ were being prepared for a highly classified weapons program that had been underway since before the Armistice was signed.