Berlin, Bendlerblock 31.05.1944, 15:00
Ursula von der Leyen was an ambitious woman. She wanted to become the next chancellor after Merkel. Thomas de Maizière would be her only rival within the CDU, as his ministry had a very important role in maintaining internal stability and security. He had problems due to affairs in regards to the NSU-terrorists and the Euro-Hawk-Affair, where millions were spent for a drone not allowed to fly, unless 600 further millions had to be spent, too much for that program. That could soon change, given the situation Germany found itself in.
The Federal Ministry of Defence was never a ministry without scandal and controversy and now, she had to lead her country into war. If all went well and Germany remained safe in the end it could greatly increase her chances of becoming Chancellor. A crisis manager in Germany was always seen in a positive light. But now she had to deal with some generals. She smiled when she entered the room thinking about the joke that her hair resembled a steel helmet.
Ursula von der Leyen (UL): "Good afternoon, gentlemen. Please remain seated, we have little time." she said while walking towards her seat. "General, erm, Feldmarschall Wieker, what is the situation?"
The rank of Generalfeldmarschall was reintroduced mere hours ago. The Inspector General of the Bundeswehr was the first to be promoted to this rank. All military personnel of the Bundeswehr and Wehrmacht would have to accept his seniority. For the time being he had to wear the insignia of a general though.
GFM Volker Wieker (VW): "We are currently fighting on several fronts. In the West the Allies will land soon in Normandy. GFM Rommel was contacted and is working on a plan how to defend the coast. We have sent him data and special supplies. More materiel will follow soon."
UL: "But will the enemy attack there? In our world the Allies landed in Normandy but our presence in this world must have caused a change in their plans. They might attack Pas-de-Calais perhaps?
VW: "Good points. We don't know exactly where the Allies will invade. However, if they are going to invade they must do so soon. They can either skip Normandy and try to find a new location to attack, which will cost them months, or they will execute it like it was planned originally, if they don't want to lose more time. We will see. June 6th will still be a good date because of the weather."
UL: "I see."
VW: "Another possibility would be destroying Allied bases in Southern England."
UL: "Well, if they want to invade, we should attack them on the English side of the Channel. That should catch them off guard as they will not be expecting an attack especially so soon after the failure of Operation Steinbock. Until then we won't carry out offensive actions, as talks are still going on. What's the situation in Italy?"
She did not talk about the political turmoil that Germany would go into a BoB 2.0. She knew it had to be done and would give the orders to prepare for that. After this meeting.
VW: "General Kasdorf will replace GFM Kesselring there. Rome is an open city and preparations for fortifications behind the Gothic Line are being carried out. We are considering this front the least important and only useful to prevent Allied incursions into Northern Italy and Southern Germany.
UL: "I agree. What's the situation in the East? Stalin will launch Operation Bagration soon. We need to stop him."
VW: "The situation on the East Front is difficult. GFM v. Manstein has taken command and can explain our defence strategy. Herr Feldmarschall?"
Von der Leyen at first had scruples when she accepted former generals of the Wehrmacht, but Germany needed them, so she acted accordingly. It was Merkel's decision in the end...but she was curious, how an officer of the Wehrmacht would react to orders given by a woman. But v. Manstein was too much of a professional soldier to show, is what she thought.
Erich von Manstein (EM): "Madam Minister, I received notice of my appointment just this morning so I don't have any detailed plans. However, Feldmarschall Busch's plan to retreat is the best solution we have at the moment. We will perform a tactical withdrawal while causing maximum damage to the enemy as we retreat. This will have the effect of shortening the front and stopping the Soviet advance but without assistance from the Bundeswehr we can't do more than that. How many men and equipment can you send to assist us and when?
UL: "A good question." she looked at GFM Wieker.
VW: "We currently have 289 Leopard 2 MBTs active. A further 379 are in reserve. Additionally we have 147 Leopard 1 MBTs stored. First reports indicate that they are fully operational despite being remaining inactive for a long period of time.
EM: "I have also reports of a very low rate of broken down or damaged vehicles. This is very mysterious..."
VW: "Also it seems we got about 600 tanks of the types Panzer IV, Panther and Tiger I, which seemed to appear from nowhere."
Von der Leyen looked at her officers. She was astonished. But before she could speak, Wieker continued.
VW: "We have further vehicles, as listed here. It seems all of the stored vehicles are operational. We also found supplies, which should be sufficient for battle operations till the end of this year. Furthermore we have the equipment of our Allies, who vanished nearly completely. And yes, we control the depot at Büchel air base."
UL: "How fast we can start using them?"
VW "Well, we never expected to be attacked so quickly..."
UL: "How long?"
VW: "Three months."
Manstein did not look well when he heard that.
VW: "We can still use the Luftwaffe. Our aircraft should be able to hurt the Soviets severely. It should give us at least some time."
UL: "General Müllner, what's the status of the Luftwaffe?"
Karl Müllner (KM): "We have currently 1,650 Bf 109 and FW 190 fighters ready. 850 of them are fighting over Germany, 135 in France and 520 in Russia. We have 89 Tornado bombers and 109 Eurofighters ready. Furthermore we have 48 F-4F, 48 Tornados, 48 F-16C and 24 A-10 Warthog stored or taken over and under our control. Furthermore I got notice of 24 MiG-29 fighters and 1,250 aircraft being "found" in storage and downtime factories. With these aircraft we can do considerable damage, for at least seven months. Most of the aircraft can be activated within a few weeks. Also it seems to be that the aircraft do not require maintenance and are fully operational. Furthermore we have 53 C-160 Transall transports; 18 C-130 Hercules, 3 C-17 Globemaster and 4 An-124 were taken over together with some other aircraft of foreign civilian origin.
UL: "What about Operation Demonstration?"
KM: "The preparations for Operation Demonstration are nearly complete and it will start in less than an hour."
UL: "Excellent. What's the situation of the navy?"
Generaladmiral, soon Großadmiral Otto Schniewind (OS): The fleet is ready. All ships are repaired and fully operational, at least as of this morning. This includes the battleship Gneisenau as well as torpedo boats with even UT museum ships in seemingly new build condition. We also had a number of ships in the process of being built, which are now fully complete. Apparently this happened to ships that were to be launched within one year. This includes both UT and DT ships in addition to ships in foreign yards.
UL: That means...?
OS: This means we have in Norway the Tirpitz and seven destroyers. In Germany we have the whole, erm, modern fleet, the battleship Gneisenau, five heavy cruisers, including the Seydlitz, which was finished as such, four light cruisers, ten destroyers and eleven fleet torpedo boats. In the Baltic we have five destroyers and five torpedo boats. In Rotterdam there is a light cruiser and three destroyers, in France there are six destroyers and six torpedo boats. In the Med. we have eight destroyers operational, resp. torpedo boats in the Aegean sea, 11 in the Adriatic in addition to 5 corvettes. In the Tyrrhenian Sea we have 21 corvettes, the battleships Provence, Cavour and Impero, the battlecruiser Strasbourg, the heavy cruisers Bolzano and Gorizia and six light cruisers. He paused And we have two aircraft carriers.
UL: From what I remember of history it should be the Graf Zeppelin and the Aquila.
OS: Erm no. These ships have vanished. They were replaced by ships identified as Midway class carriers. They are fully equipped. We also found crates with reserve planes, a modified FW 190 it seems.
UL shook her head. That couldn't be possible. A carrier force would play a major role in tying up enemy fleets, if they were fully manned.
OS continued: The modern fleet consists of 16 frigates, including the finished Baden-Württemberg, 5 corvettes, one Type 205, four Type 206 Uboats, 6 Type 212 Uboats and 10 Gepard class FAC. As far as museums vessels are concerned we can add a destroyer, the Mölders, the former Soviet submarines U-434 and U-461, the English HMS Otus and the East German corvette Hans Beimler. Additionally we have two Israeli submarines and two Algerian frigates ready. Also there are rumours about a battleship in Brest, but I am awaiting confirmation about that.
UL: And what about Großadmiral Dönitz?
OS: He gave the Uboats the order to return home. More importantly as Engima has been broken....
UL: ...we have to react. Also we have about 120 new Type XXI and XXIII Uboats ready.
OS: Still, the enemy will need fewer resources to secure the sea lanes...
UL: Only for some time. I will not send out men into death traps, if not needed anyway.
She made a small pause.
UL: Okay, and now we come to the production of weapon systems. I have a list of the production models...
