The German Peace

by Derek Pennington

  Albert Speer delivered a glowing update on Germany’s armaments industry, which was now the biggest in the world. The need for selling munitions on credit had also diminished considerably. This appeared to be due to no small extent, to the activities of an American bank in which Deutsche bank had an interest.

  The Mercantile Bank of California had created a market in securities issued by smaller countries to raise cash specifically to purchase German armaments. Speer mentioned that the idea for this had apparently originated from the brother of Baron von Altendorf’s son in law. A man who had already rendered great service to Germany through his innovative financing of a great number of German built aircraft.

  He ended his report by saying that in the event of future arms limitations in Europe, this particular industry should be unaffected to a significant degree due to the great demand in South America, Asia, and soon, he believed, Africa.

  “There will always be countries that want strong armed forces. As soon as they take steps towards this, their neighbours, feeling threatened, have no choice but to follow the same course of action.”

  Speer also reported that the Anglo-German Atomic Energy Corporation expected its experimental nuclear reactor to produce the world’s first electricity from this source within the next twelve months. He stressed that this was only experimental, with probably only enough power produced to run a light bulb! The first commercial generation of electricity was planned for 1953 at the earliest.

  BREMEN - JULY

  The gleaming white Komet was standing on the airstrip being circled by the one hundred and fifty or so visitors, fascinated by the world’s first jet airliner. Standing proud on the aircraft’s tail fin were the painted crossed flags of Britain and Germany. Among the visitors were James Blackstone, Jamie MacLellan and Frank O’Donnell. The Rolls Royce engineers looked a little strained. They had been doing last minute checks into the early hours of the morning.

  The Foreign Affairs, Aviation, Defence, Economics and Interior Ministers were there, as well as the British Minister of Aviation and the British Ambassador. Even old Hjalmar Schacht had shown up to witness his country’s latest achievement.

  There was an air of expectancy. History was being made today. The first flight of the world’s first jet airliner. The beginning of a new era in public transportation.

  At the appointed time the visitors were gently herded away from the aircraft. The test flight crew climbed aboard, conscious of the stares they attracted. The boarding steps were wheeled away, and everything was ready.

  The Rolls Royce turbines started to turn. Slowly at first, but they were soon spinning with a powerful roar. The aircraft moved forward. It took several minutes for it to position itself facing the length of the runway. It was cleared for take-off by Focke-Wulf’s own control tower.

  The roar of its four jets increased and aircraft was straining to leap forward. The pilot released the brakes. This was what the Komet was waiting for. It moved purposefully forward, all the while accelerating. Three quarters along the runway, exactly opposite where the visitors were positioned, it was airborne.

  Most of the guests clapped, some gazed in wonder. The technicians, particularly the Rolls Royce engineers, looked on with relief. The Focke-Wulf executives saw the dollar signs.

  Up in the sky the pilot took Komet 1 through a pre-determined unexciting set of manoeuvres. These lasted for only fifteen minutes before he gently brought her back down to land. The first flight of the world’s first jet powered airliner had gone without a hitch!

  The Aviation Minister, Kesselring, had spotted James’ and Jamie’s names on the guest list. He sought them out after the demonstration flight was over. He was well aware of the contribution James had made to the success of the Strarflight, and before that, to the Junkers JU52 civil programme. He expected the same effort would be put into the Komet.

  Jamie he knew from various diplomatic parties they’d both attended while Jamie had been the US military attaché.

  James introduced Kesselring to O’Donnell. They had been speaking for ten minutes when Professor Tank joined them. This was more to O’Donnell’s taste. No need to be diplomatic. He quizzed the Professor on the future for the Komet.

  Here it was! Straight from the horse’s mouth. Tank spent ten minutes telling O’Donnell about the development possibilities. He had always had his eye on the future when designing the Komet. He believed the aircraft and its variants could be produced for at least the next fifteen years. During that time it could be stretched and widened to accommodate more passengers or freight as the market demanded. And its performance upgraded. He saw the final passenger version carrying perhaps as many as two hundred and twenty people.

  Tank and Kesselring left a very thoughtful three visitors as they went to mingle further.

  That night, in the bar of their hotel, James and the two Americans threw all sorts of ideas at each other. One thing they all agreed on. Provided no technical problems were discovered, the Komet was going to be an enormous commercial success. They were going to exploit this!

  PARIS - AUGUST

  Admiral Darlan had received the news from de Gaulle that the Vietnamese communist rebels under Ho Chi Min had finally been eliminated. They had been trapped and shot to pieces by combined units of the French and Vietnamese armies, at some obscure place called Dien Bien Phu. Ho Chi Minh himself had chosen an ignominious death to ignominious capture. ‘His choice’, de Gaulle thought in dismissal. The country was now safe from communism. If not from itself!

  The instant the communist threat had disappeared, De Gaulle had ordered all French military advisors in the country to return home. The Indochina countries must look after themselves. He was anxious to avoid a request from the country’s ruler for military support of their inefficient government. No way!

  After his sound handling of the dismantling of the colonial empire, Admiral Darlan had publicly commended de Gaulle for his skill in that difficult and complicated matter. De Gaulle had hoped that Darlan, who was now sixty six years old, would take this opportunity to nominate him as his successor, or at least make him Deputy President. This had not happened and de Gaulle was seething. He was no less ambitious than he always had been.

  A week after he heard of the communist defeat in Viet Nam, Darlan had been informed by the Germans that their intelligence operatives had learned that the French Minister of Colonies, de Gaulle, was plotting. Many of his accomplices had also been named by them. De Gaulle was going to lead a coup to ‘re-establish democracy in France’.

  With himself as President, of course!

  “Damn all politicians and ambitious Generals,” Darlan said to himself in the privacy of his office. He could perhaps understand de Gaulle to some extent, if France was floundering in a sea of anarchy and social unrest. But the country had never been so peaceful or prosperous. Neither did it have any possible external threats.

  The angry Admiral applied his mind to how to deal with this problem.

  In the end it was astonishingly simple. Perhaps his years as a politician made him sometimes overlook the obvious.

  He simply had de Gaulle arrested for treason! The man was the most unpopular politician in France following his dismantling of the French Empire. And firm proof of his intended coup was in Darlan’s possession, thanks to German intelligence. Let the law take its course!

  In the meantime he would abolish the post of Minister for Colonies. France no longer had any.

  BERLIN - SEPTEMBER

  Today was the first full meeting of the Governing Council since the summer recess, although there had been continuous mini-meetings throughout the summer.

  The first to speak, as always, was the Foreign Minister.

  “I wish to report on the arms limitation issue. Following a few initial misunderstandings and communication difficulties with the Soviets, armament production inspections have settled down into a set pattern. The Soviet inspectors were granted access to all production facilities throughout the European Alli
ance. In the beginning they attempted to extend this to include research and military training bases. It was relatively easy to prove that these were not manufacturing points, after which, the Soviets desisted from requesting access. They have officially pronounced themselves satisfied that we are meeting our undertakings.

  Alliance inspectors in the Soviet Union in the beginning met with considerable obstructionism and reluctant co-operation. I think it was just ingrained Soviet thinking, and years of conditioning by Stalin’s secret police. Anyway, eventually everything worked out.

  The size of both the Soviet and the Alliance inspectorate teams have now been substantially reduced. Each country, through a small team of permanent inspectors, will continue monitoring, and at all times will be able to request inspection of any new site where they believe weapons are being produced.

  All parties accept that at certain periods some factories may need to increase production for arms exports. A suitable mechanism for this has been agreed upon.

  All members of the Alliance, and the Soviet Union, have now confirmed that we have a workable arms limitation strategy. Accordingly, I now propose that we ratify the agreement.”

  This important development between ‘the west’ and the Soviet Union would have been unthinkable while Stalin was alive. Von Altendorf earnestly hoped that the east-west thaw would continue.

  The Germans and Soviets had been unable to draw the Chinese and Japanese into the arms limitation treaty. The two Far East powers still remained too suspicious of each other, as well as having little trust in the Soviet Union. It was hoped that time would change this attitude.

  The United States, perhaps with a President still smarting from the rebuff of the UN organisation by Europe, had also declined to enter into any kind of arms limitation agreement. They had, however, indicated that they would watch developments and be guided by them in the future. ‘A message somewhat similar to that which the Germany gave the US about the United Nations.’ von Altendorf thought with a rueful smile.

  Von Altendorf had another interesting announcement. “There was a surprise development at the Politburo meeting in Moscow last week. In an open meeting, Khrushchev criticised Stalin for his terror purges! Would you believe it? Are we seeing the beginning of enlightened rule in Russia? I sincerely hope so.

  Another item of interest is the impending trial of Charles de Gaulle for treason, in France. It seems that there is little sympathy for him from any quarter. His insufferability has caught up with him. Apparently the state will not seek the death penalty, or even a long prison term. But banishment to one of their overseas island territories will almost certainly be part of his sentence.”

  The Aviation Minister waxed eloquently in his praise of the Kaiseradler, or Canberra, as the British called it. The test pilots reported it as a vice free, sweet aircraft to fly. It had already flown faster and higher than any other aircraft. Even the Americans, needing to replace their existing obsolete light bombers, realised that no future home produced aircraft designs could get close to what the Anglo-German aircraft could already offer. They wanted four hundred of them, but wished to build them in America under licence.

  The British wanted one hundred and thirty aircraft, and the Australians forty nine.

  Argentina, Bangladesh, Chile, Ecuador, France, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, Peru, South Africa, Sweden and Venezuela had confirmed they wanted the aircraft.

  “Germany has a world beating aircraft industry, gentlemen. We must ensure that we never lose this pre-eminent position.”

  The Economics Minister told the Council about a number of the smaller, poorer countries that constituted most of the membership of the United Nations were demanding - not asking, but demanding - that the rich countries of the world spend a fixed portion of their yearly budget on aid to the poor countries.

  “It seems that such a notion may have been put in their collective heads by liberal American politicians and churchmen, who are preaching that it is the quickest and surest way to reduce poverty and uplift poor nations, so eliminating the cause of wars.” Erhard looked to the sceptical Council for comment.

  It was von Altendorf that spoke. “An American president once said ‘the trouble with our liberal friends is not that they are ignorant. It’s just that they know so much that isn’t so.’

  I personally regard such envisaged transfers of wealth as a quick and sure way to personally enrich the ruling elites of the poor countries.”

  It was the Defence Minister who asked if Erhard knew what portion of budgets these people had in mind?

  “I believe they see one percent yearly as the minimum acceptable.”

  “ONE PERCENT. ARE THEY CRAZY? Our country’s defence budget is only three percent, and that is set to reduce next year.” He looked away, disgusted.

  Von Brauchitsch had the last word. “By agreeing to such a nonsensical idea, the richer countries would chain themselves to ever increasing demands for aid, which will drain resources from them and gradually affect their strength over a period of time. And I think, there would be little impact on the countries receiving such aid.

  You do not make the weak strong by making the strong weak.

  I also agree that much of this aid will be stolen or misspent by corrupt or inept politicians in these third world countries. I have no personal objection to the principle of aiding deserving nations. But it should be in a way that is accountable.

  I recommend that the Foreign Minister lets the appropriate people at the UN, and our friends in the Alliance, firmly know that Germany will not be party to such a scheme”.

  This received the unanimous support of the council.

  The Defence Minister had little to report; Professor von Braun expected to test fire his latest rocket in November. This particular missile, the A5, was much bigger than the A4, and was designed to have an estimated range of one thousand kilometres. The distance between Alliance territory and Moscow in Russia.

  Progress with the stand-off bombs and air-to-air missiles was continuing but slow.

  The keels for the new carriers had been laid. They were expected to be operational in 1952. They would be the most up to date and powerful carriers in the world.

  LONDON - 23 OCTOBER

  The investiture of the German Chancellor was without doubt the most popular public event held in Britain that year. The British populace were generally well informed, and there had been innumerable publications and radio talks on the events in Europe and China in the years since mid-1940. There was a widespread understanding that the German soldier had been the leader in Germany from the instant of Hitler’s death.

  He was also, in the minds of many conspiracy theorists, the mastermind behind the fall of Hitler and the Nazis, and the acknowledged architect of the peace in Europe and the Far East. The man who had successfully negotiated arms limitations with the feared Soviet Union. His prestige was sky-high in Britain.

  The honour bestowed on him by the King was justly deserved. Many public figures in Britain had called for him to be given a British peerage. At least an Earldom. Such was the high regard for the German Chancellor that prevailed across Great Britain.

  The King had held a Royal banquet in honour of his German guest. The German Foreign Affairs Minister had accompanied von Brauchitsch on his state visit.

  The ties between the two countries were unbreakable.

  BERLIN - 25 DECEMBER

  Jeremy Blackstone and his wife Erica were spending Christmas with Katherine and Jamie. It was the first time they had all been together since the MacLellan’s had relocated to the United States.

  Jeremy had resigned his commission in the British Army. After an unprecedented seven years as British Military Attaché in Berlin, the army had denied his requests for any further extensions of his stay. Jeremy had no wish whatsoever to leave the city which he had made his home. He left the army and was now a civilian.

  As soon as he got back home to Berlin from this holiday in the US, he had an appointment with General Si
eckenius. The General wanted the Englishman as part of his team! Jeremy didn’t let it show, but he was very, very excited about this!

  His brother-in-law Jamie had also offered him a job in San Francisco, but Jeremy and Erica did not want to leave Europe. Besides which, Jeremy was looking forward to being in the arms and army training business with the Germans! It was more to his liking.

  Jeremy and Jamie talked about the fact that James was now the second most powerful member of the board of directors of Bradlington Thornberry Bank. He was also now a director of the Mercantile Bank of California. He had made a startling success of his new career since losing his seat as a Member of Parliament.