by Scott Palter
8 September 1940
HQ Sicherheitsdienst in Prinz-Albrecht-Straße, Berlin
Heisenberg again …
Heydrich noted his next appointment was with Speer, his old friend Dr. Heisenberg of the Uranium Project, and Sturmbannführer Walther Schieber. The latter had been a member of the SS since 1933, and had been involved with various industrial items, mostly in chemistry. With the change in management and Heydrich’s growing role in the management of Germany, Schieber had been tapped to Heydrich’s staff as an industrial expert.
Heisenberg had been selected by his nominal superior as being the most well-known of Germany’s physicists, and thus best able to see about getting more resources for the Uranium Project. Heisenberg gave a presentation on the state of the project and what they hoped to achieve. When done, Heydrich just raised an eyebrow for a moment. “Well, if Porsche’s tanks didn’t prove that Germans are the supreme toymakers of the world, then your project does. You have perhaps 70 scientists and engineers working in a vague direction on what might, could perhaps one day, produce a weapon of vast destructive power – but you don’t know when you will be done or how much more resources will be needed. Beyond ‘more’, that is. Have I left anything out?”
While Heydrich had a smile, it was anything but friendly. The temperature in the room seemed suddenly to drop to an Arctic chill. Heisenberg wondered suddenly if his boss Diebner had sent him here on the off chance that Heydrich would have someone from the project shot, and didn’t want himself to be the messenger with bad news. Heisenberg decided that now wouldn’t be a good time to mention that his early critical-mass calculations suggested a rather large device was needed to produce an explosion. At the same time, he was the winner of the Nobel Prize in 1932.
Still, he had to move with great delicacy here. This might be their first face-to-face meeting, but Nobel Laureate and Reichsführer knew each other quite well. Those ‘Deutsche Physik’ idiots in the Reichserziehungsministerium – the REM – and their toadies in the universities had tried to bring Heisenberg to heel with accusations that he was a traitor to the Aryan Race, a ‘white Jew’ who backed Jew physics instead of proper Aryan science. Heydrich’s own office within the SS had investigated him, but he had triumphed – after three years they had not only cleared him, but all three academic investigators had switched to support him scientifically and personally.
Himmler – by weird coincidence the SS-head’s father had been a rector-colleague of Heisenberg’s grandfather – had made the final decision that his brilliance was too valuable to the Reich, for him to be driven into exile by a cabal of third-rate failed academics. “No, Reichsführer-SS, you have summed things up very well. All I will say is that research goes at its own pace. It’s not like building a rifle. We are discovering as we go. If you want useful results, my team must be left to do our work in a proper scientific manner.”
“In peacetime I could accept that from a Nobel Laureate. But not now. This is a war for national survival, Herr Doktor. My only thought is, what best serves the Reich? My predecessor may have been in grievous error on a number of issues, but he was correct that we need your mind. With or without his direction, that would have been my finding also. So this decision will not be made from animus over you or your academic infighting four years ago.
“The Reich’s resources are not limitless, and there are many projects demanding resources. Speer brought this project to my attention because of the massive long-term electrical power crises the Reich faces. I ask you: can this project be a solution to that particular problem? I don’t care about possible utopian wonder-weapons. We can destroy cities easily enough. Just ask the Poles and Hungarians. I do care about power plants to run the factories. We can deal with fanciful H. G. Wells super weapons or pure science when peace comes, and we need government projects to prevent a return to mass unemployment. Your pure research cannot be more useless than the endless municipal building projects the Gauleiters so love.”
Not waiting a second, “Yes Reichsführer-SS, this project can one day provide an alternate power source.”
“ ‘One day’ does no good. What day? Justify the existence of your project. How long till you have a prototype?”
Heisenberg thought fast. He was sure he could make something that produced fission, and thus heat and thus some electricity, within a year. So he said eighteen months because reward went to those who succeeded early rather than late.
Pleased at a straightforward answer, Heydrich nodded towards Schieber. “I want an updated feasibility study, Sturmbannführer, for this Uranium Project. Consolidate the other similar projects into this one.” Then Heydrich waved them out, seemingly ending the meeting. Just as the minute-taker was about to clean up, Heisenberg spoke his mind. If Heydrich’s only goal truly was the triumph of the Reich, then perhaps it would be possible to undo some of the damage caused by the criminal REM and that buffoon Deutsche Physik movement – declaring certain modern theoretical physics to be mostly ‘Jew science’, driving too many of the brightest minds in the physics community out of Germany. That, and the REM stymied selection and education of new students. Nothing could be done about those who had already fled to the United Kingdom and United States, but something could be done about the future. “There is one more thing that is needed. We need people; and not just numbers, but the correct types of people. Too many men who should be working as interns and the like, so that one day they will be the next generation of physicists, are instead toting rifles or driving trucks.”
“I will see what can be done, but you aren’t going to get a limitless supply of deferments for the universities. Show me verifiable progress in six months, and I’ll get you some. Finish in a year instead of eighteen months, and we can talk more.” Heydrich knew the game. The man was reputed to have a huge ego; but if he promised 18 months, he could be pushed for 12 months, and would perhaps produce in 15 months with a few excuses and the offering up of a few rivals as scapegoats.
Deciding it was now or never to double down, Heisenberg drew himself up to his full height. “And I want those fools in the REM to have no involvement in the selection of students or educators involved in this project.”
Heydrich was openly surprised at the pushback from Heisenberg. He well remembered the hell the man had gone through in the late 30’s over ‘Jew Science’. He would have expected him to keep a low profile out of self-preservation, but instead this Nobel winner had the ego to take on the whole Ministry. Perhaps he could deliver results as well as international prizes. Heydrich took his time, fixing the scientist in a withering glare. Clearly Heisenberg wanted to expand on his victory from back then, and push his tormentors back even more. Ego was a tool Heydrich knew how to manipulate. “I will do this for you, Herr Doktor. I will give you the freedom you ask for, and if you succeed we will have a talk on the structure of the REM – but if you fail … ”
Heydrich left the possibilities hanging, unspoken.
If nothing else, Heisenberg was supremely confident of his own abilities and that of other German physicists: “We will deliver atomic power for the Reich.”
Heydrich held up his hand to signal the good doctor was not to leave yet. He finished his notes and spoke. “You can recruit 50 now. I get a working demonstration plant in fifteen months.” It was a flat statement, not a subject to debate. Heisenberg bowed his head and left. Fifty good assistants, for 3 months off the project. He’d bring it in ahead of schedule and ask for 500 more.
2000 hours local, 8 September 1940
0300 hours CET, 9 September 1940
El Zocolo, Federal District, Mexico
The first battalion of US Internationals had led the parade. They were a mix of veterans of the anti-fascist struggle in Spain and eager young volunteers. They were followed by battalions from Cuba and Guatemala, and Spanish Republican refugees. There were platoons and companies from everywhere in the Americas, and a full regiment of eager Mexican Marxists. What they lacked in parade-ground polish, they more than made up for in revol
utionary zeal.
Mexican President Cardenas had proudly stood on the podium beside the famous leader of the Cuban Revolutionary Communist Union, Blas Roca Calderio, and the Soviet ambassador. The speeches were brief if fiery. The high point was the famous American singer Paul Robeson leading the crowd in singing the Internationale in Spanish, followed by a medley of various war songs of the Spanish struggle against fascism. The plaza and parade route were festooned with Soviet banners and flags of the Spanish Republic. The entire Aztec Force was a Comintern project, with Moscow directing every party in the Western Hemisphere on participation.
The Aztec Force would leave by rail the next morning for Vera Cruz, where Mexican and Soviet ships waited to carry them to Riga, to the start of their journey to join the war of liberation in Manchuria and China. Safe passage through the war zone had been arranged. The British sensibly chose not to add the Soviet Union to their formal enemies just yet. London accepted Moscow as a de facto almost-belligerent on the Nazi side, as the US was doing the same on the British side. Germany allowed passage of Soviet ships into and out of the Baltic as and when the Soviets wished. That was just how the de facto alliance played out. The German war machine ran on Soviet petroleum from Baku. Their factories needed minerals from Stalin as well. This had been true since the original pact the prior year.
Stalin’s Red Army was on the march to liberate the East, and all true revolutionaries must rally to the Red Banner. Nominally these were humanitarian volunteers for the new Manchurian People’s State. As the speeches made clear, they were successors of the legendary International Brigades, the shock troops of the Iberian war.
………..
The fourteen-year-old Alexander Ruz was in ecstasy. He had run off to enlist, following his more-accomplished older brother Ramon. He’d used his mother’s name on the enlistment form to buy him time against his father tracking him down, dragging him ‘home’. How could he stay behind as a mere schoolboy while Ramon went off to do great deeds? Ramon had made him a runner, had arranged for him to carry the company’s banner in the great parade. A few more days and he’d be safely at sea, beyond the reach of his father’s influence.
……….
Trotsky smiled to himself. He had stayed away from the ceremonies. That was a Stalinist enterprise, and he would not have been welcome. Trotsky was sure this would fail. Stalin had bungled China before. Trotsky felt he would do so again. Stalin had always been a second-rater, to Trotsky. The man was only fit for clerical activities like Party Secretary. Trotsky grudgingly conceded to himself that Stalin had proven a formidable factional plotter, but his collectivization had been a disaster; and his alliance with the Nazis could only end badly.
Mexico was a safe refuge. Trotsky’s former refuges were mostly under German occupation. Even Turkey seemed to be in the process of acquiring Soviet bases at the Straits, and an Axis ‘military mission’. The British were respecting the tattered remains of Turkish neutrality … for now. Trotsky needed the new developments to finish manifesting themselves. He still saw himself as a world revolutionary figure. He just needed to choose the proper moment.
For now, those preparations consisted of sending a party of ‘emissaries’ to young Chiang. The man had been friendly to Trotsky’s point of view while still in the Soviet Union. He had been forced to recant, to swear allegiance to the Georgian monster. Trotsky was not asking that this change, at least not yet. For now he was sending two dozen people to assist Chiang’s Blue forces, the National Army of the KMT. A mix of medical people and more practical technicians. Trotsky didn’t have money to send, or masses of arms. For now all he could do was send a message of greetings. One to be delivered privately. No papers that could fall into unfriendly hands. Just two dozen useful people, with the implied promise of more. For now Blue and Red were united. They had been before, and fallen out before. Trotsky was placing a small bet that this might happen again. There was a small trade from Mexico to Hong Kong. Small ships no one paid any attention to carried this trade. One had a first officer who had sympathies Trotsky would exploit. Step by step …
0900 hours CET
9 September 1940
War Ministry, Berlin
War Minister Generaloberst Beck and OKH head Generaloberst Halder had just finished a formal OKW briefing on the new offensive in Egypt. Beck had been sarcastic and hostile to the briefer. Halder felt somewhat ashamed at this behavior. The Oberst doing the presentation was a competent general staff officer, and was doing a standard by-the-book recital. He refused to defend himself against the War Minister. Every swipe was answered with proper deference of junior to senior.
Further, there was nothing especially wrong with the plan. It was a textbook solution to the problem of attacking a fortified camp, given the force ratios and geography. Allowance was made for the inferior equipment of the Italians. Halder would have preferred a German army commander, but, given the disparity of forces, it was reasonable for an Italian to have the assignment. His attaches in Rome spoke well of this Italian general.
What was really troubling was that a major theater of war was now the bureaucratic property of Heydrich and the SS. The Heer had allowed this. Each decision leading here had seemed sensible. Every decision the army had made 1932-1935 had also seemed logical at that time. The end result, had been Hitler as their master instead of their political figurehead. Halder was worried he saw the same pattern developing. He was even more disturbed that neither Göring nor Beck seemed to care. Each was preoccupied with their own petty, narrow games. Halder supposed he could strengthen the Army’s position by forming his own links directly with Heydrich. He caught himself and laughed bitterly. Heydrich was Stalin. The three who should ally against him simply weren’t motivated enough to keep a united front. Yet if he, Halder, broke with Beck … would this not shatter the Army’s unity?
Malta had given Heydrich prestige among the field-grade officers. A victory in Egypt would do so to an even greater extent. So should the Army wish for a defeat? The best hope was a quick peace with the British.
0930 hours CET
9 September 1940
Heydrich’s Office, SS Headquarters, Prinz-Albrecht-Straße, Berlin
Schellenberg had been notified that a special representative of the NKVD chief Beria was arriving by air from Moscow. The notice came from air traffic control. The Soviet Embassy in Berlin had said nothing. Perhaps they didn’t know. The SS could make no sense of the internal politics of the Soviet regime. An honor guard of the Begleit Battalion Reichsführer-SS, reconstituted since the coup with Heydrich loyalists instead of Himmler’s, was awaiting this minion at the airport, along with Schellenberg himself. The representative, a senior commissar named Ivan Serov, was traveling with only a small entourage. These were packed into a convoy of Mercedes limousines shepherded by a large motorcycle escort. Traffic police sealed intersections to allow rapid passage. This arrival was given all the pomp and circumstance of a full state visit. Heydrich had felt it was better to err on this side of too much protocol rather than too little. The time to settle accounts with the Bolsheviks remained in the future.
Heydrich found the man an otherwise unremarkable Slav. However, the commissar carried documents claiming to speak with his master’s voice. The truly funny part was that it took over thirty minutes to get this special envoy to spit out what he wanted. Apparently, the regime he represented had doctrinal problems with the request. Interesting. “We wish to have sent to us the Spanish Republican forces. Many are in camps in Unoccupied France, and the rest are in Spain. We expect you to arrange this.”
Typical of the Soviets. A demand instead of a request. Still, every bargaining session begins somewhere. “Possible in theory. They are useless to our new Europa. However, there are practical details. Our rail system is overstressed. So is our food supply. We will need some material aid to make this happen.” Serov nodded. “There is also the issue of dependents. You wish the working-age men and women. We’ll send you all of these. We will also send the
useless mouths – the crippled, the children, et cetera. And so the accounts balance, we wish the Volksdeutsche you promised us. I doubt you have enough Germans to balance what we are sending, so even the accounts with Poles, Ukrainians, or kulaks. Roughly similar numbers of healthy adults and dependents as we are sending you.”
Serov was not exactly prepared for this, but gave a provisional ‘yes’ subject to Moscow’s approval. He then got to the second demand – large numbers of Communist cadres from Germany, from France, from Europa in general. Moscow wished those as well.
Heydrich found the idea of ridding his camps of incorrigible prisoners amusing, but knew better than to show it. He instead made a long debate over the value of skilled industrial workers, compared to the unlettered peasants he would take in exchange. Serov was curious why Germany wanted more Poles. The Poles hated both Communists and Nazis. Heydrich replied that they were fond of the French, and Vichy would need settlers in Africa.
The meeting then devolved into the perpetual squabbles over late deliveries by Germany of arms and machine tools, versus delays by the Soviets on shipments of minerals and food. The endless impasse would be kicked back to lesser people on both sides, who would continue the bureaucratic trench warfare. This took up the time till lunch. The Russian didn’t seem to care about the food, but found the French brandy congenial. As soon as the meal was concluded, he demanded to be taken back to his airport to start the return. Heydrich was able to offer a farewell present. Nearly a thousand German Communists out of the Berlin-area prisons. They would be shipped at once as a gesture of good faith.
He had a feeling this had more to do with losses in Manchuria than to an in-gathering of the Marxist flock to its New Rome. He’d ordered up a staff appreciation from OKW when Stalin had begun this campaign. Until 1938 there had been German cadres training Chiang’s Chinese. They had had extensive experience fighting the Japanese. Their verdict was unanimous. These Asiatics were not especially good as offensive troops. Sloppy staff work, not enough heavy weapons, an almost complete absence of initiative at the lower command levels. However, they were demons on the defensive. They dug in fast, and would die in their tracks if ordered to. Some sort of religious cult centered on their Emperor.