Read Online Kirov Saga: Altered States (Kirov Series) by John Schettler - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: John Schettler
Ads: Link
effortlessly, his deportment and carriage the perfect image of the command officer. He had labored for years to restore the tarnished honor of the Reichsmarine , slowly rebuilding the fleet within the confining restraints of the Treaty of Versailles, but Hitler wanted more. He repudiated that treaty with an incisive and even belligerent speech.
This conference today was the end result of that repudiation, and the humiliation Germany had been forced to endure at the end of the Great War. The German Navy was to undergo a new rebirth, becoming a force capable of regaining the honor at sea that had been lost in the clash of arms in Europe. It was the Army that had lost the war, or so Raeder believed. It was lost amid the gas ridden trenches and barbed wire of France, under the thunder of artillery, not on the high seas. The result had been depression, hyperinflation and crushing unemployment.
Raeder had little doubt that Hitler would soon be putting all those millions of unemployed to some nefarious use. But how could he impose economic reason on this man? How could he tell him that Germany was still struggling to rebuild herself as a nation, and that all dreams must have limits, see careful and well timed planning, build slowly and surely over the years, and be backed by well governed policy and sustainable economics? Germany needed steel. She needed oil. She had only a few working shipyards worth the name, all land locked in the Baltic Sea or accessed via the narrow and shallow Kiel Canal. Yet the Fuhrer seemed to envision the Reichsmarine as a vast global force, plying seas the world over, insurmountable. He wanted nothing less than absolute supremacy.
Raeder cleared his throat, quietly opening the folio he had carried to this meeting, and seeing Hitler’s eyes immediately gleam with renewed interest.
“Your battleships, my Fuhrer,” the Admiral said in a low, measured voice. “You are already familiar with our Scharnhorst Class battlecruisers.” He gestured at the line drawings briefly, and flipped the page. “Here we have the next evolution of that design, and both ships will soon be ready for commissioning, the Bismarck and Tirpitz .”
The sleek lines of the ship diagrams had just the effect Raeder had hoped for, quieting Hitler for a moment as he stared at the documents. Yet a moment later the Fuehrer spoke again, with that same restless urgency in his voice.
“The guns?” Hitler pointed at the turrets in the carefully drawn schematics.
“Eight 38 centimeter guns, fifteen inches in diameter, arranged two each on the four heavy turrets. These ships will displace over 50,000 tons, nearly 20,000 tons beyond what we have now in Scharnhorst and Gneisenau , and they will be almost as fast at 30 knots, with a range of over 10,000 miles. These are true battleships, fast, well armored, and very powerful. They will stand with anything the Royal Navy has. In fact, they will make the entire British fleet obsolete the very day they sail.”
As if he had heard nothing that was said, the Fuhrer looked blankly at Raeder and said: “Only two?”
“We have plans to improve upon this class with further designs,” said Raeder quickly. “This next design will interest you even more… Schlachtschiff H. ”
He turned another page, rotating the folio so Hitler could take in the full sweep of the diagrams before him. In design and form it was much like the Bismarck , only bigger, with a second smokestack and more powerfully drawn turrets.
“These ships will displace 55,500 long tons or more, and we have improved the main batteries to 40.6 centimeters--a full sixteen inches.”
“The British have such guns. Why not twenty inches?”
“Twenty inches? My Fuehrer, the extra weight would require a ship of some 90,000 tons minimum, and we have no harbor that could accommodate a vessel of that size, nor could they transit the Kiel Canal. The draft would exceed the maximum depth there. If ever built, they would have to be
This conference today was the end result of that repudiation, and the humiliation Germany had been forced to endure at the end of the Great War. The German Navy was to undergo a new rebirth, becoming a force capable of regaining the honor at sea that had been lost in the clash of arms in Europe. It was the Army that had lost the war, or so Raeder believed. It was lost amid the gas ridden trenches and barbed wire of France, under the thunder of artillery, not on the high seas. The result had been depression, hyperinflation and crushing unemployment.
Raeder had little doubt that Hitler would soon be putting all those millions of unemployed to some nefarious use. But how could he impose economic reason on this man? How could he tell him that Germany was still struggling to rebuild herself as a nation, and that all dreams must have limits, see careful and well timed planning, build slowly and surely over the years, and be backed by well governed policy and sustainable economics? Germany needed steel. She needed oil. She had only a few working shipyards worth the name, all land locked in the Baltic Sea or accessed via the narrow and shallow Kiel Canal. Yet the Fuhrer seemed to envision the Reichsmarine as a vast global force, plying seas the world over, insurmountable. He wanted nothing less than absolute supremacy.
Raeder cleared his throat, quietly opening the folio he had carried to this meeting, and seeing Hitler’s eyes immediately gleam with renewed interest.
“Your battleships, my Fuhrer,” the Admiral said in a low, measured voice. “You are already familiar with our Scharnhorst Class battlecruisers.” He gestured at the line drawings briefly, and flipped the page. “Here we have the next evolution of that design, and both ships will soon be ready for commissioning, the Bismarck and Tirpitz .”
The sleek lines of the ship diagrams had just the effect Raeder had hoped for, quieting Hitler for a moment as he stared at the documents. Yet a moment later the Fuehrer spoke again, with that same restless urgency in his voice.
“The guns?” Hitler pointed at the turrets in the carefully drawn schematics.
“Eight 38 centimeter guns, fifteen inches in diameter, arranged two each on the four heavy turrets. These ships will displace over 50,000 tons, nearly 20,000 tons beyond what we have now in Scharnhorst and Gneisenau , and they will be almost as fast at 30 knots, with a range of over 10,000 miles. These are true battleships, fast, well armored, and very powerful. They will stand with anything the Royal Navy has. In fact, they will make the entire British fleet obsolete the very day they sail.”
As if he had heard nothing that was said, the Fuhrer looked blankly at Raeder and said: “Only two?”
“We have plans to improve upon this class with further designs,” said Raeder quickly. “This next design will interest you even more… Schlachtschiff H. ”
He turned another page, rotating the folio so Hitler could take in the full sweep of the diagrams before him. In design and form it was much like the Bismarck , only bigger, with a second smokestack and more powerfully drawn turrets.
“These ships will displace 55,500 long tons or more, and we have improved the main batteries to 40.6 centimeters--a full sixteen inches.”
“The British have such guns. Why not twenty inches?”
“Twenty inches? My Fuehrer, the extra weight would require a ship of some 90,000 tons minimum, and we have no harbor that could accommodate a vessel of that size, nor could they transit the Kiel Canal. The draft would exceed the maximum depth there. If ever built, they would have to be
Similar Books
