Chapter 61: Iron and Blood, Golden Freedom (1)
Translated by Vine | Proofread by Lust
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< German Civil War – Iron and Blood, Golden Freedom (1) >
November 15, 1939
Central Germany, 9th Military District, Kassel, Frankfurt
The day of the New Government’s Reichswehr deployment ceremony dawned with picture-perfect weather.
Under a clear sky, with warm sunlight filtering through the clouds, a massive crowd filled the streets of Frankfurt.
Former Free Corps members, now about to deploy to the front lines as proper soldiers after basic training, along with their families and curious citizens, thronged the city.
The sight of countless people, filled with anticipation and anxiety, forming a sea of black, red, and gold flags, was both inspiring and deeply moving.
I glanced down at my Reichswehr uniform, replacing the Nazi Wehrmacht uniform. This moment felt like a symbol of the history we had changed with our efforts.
“Am I trembling?”
I had done countless radio broadcasts, but speaking before this massive crowd in Frankfurt was undeniably nerve-wracking.
“Hee hee, a little?”
Claudia chuckled and straightened my shoulders from behind, adding, “It’s alright. You’ve done this before, haven’t you?”
“Haha…”
While I had done many radio broadcasts, this was different.
Claudia and I had spent days agonizing over this speech, revising and refining it. I couldn’t afford to make a mistake.
As I scanned the manuscript, a wave of applause erupted from the square, and my father descended from the podium.
My father, Hjalmar Schacht, remained impassive, his expression unchanged after addressing such a large crowd.
“Uh, well done, Chancellor.”
My father looked at me with an indifferent gaze and clicked his tongue.
“What’s with that face? Are you going to give a speech looking like that? Don’t embarrass the government.”
Wow, that was a bit harsh, wasn’t it?
I felt a surge of irritation.
“Next, we will hear a speech from State Secretary of the Ministry of State, Dietrich Schacht.”
The voice of Theodor Heuss, former editor-in-chief, now Minister of Propaganda, echoed through the square. I had been trembling with nerves, but now I was trembling with anger.
My father watched me with a puzzled expression, and Claudia, standing beside him, was chuckling as if she found the situation amusing.
Damn it, I would give a perfect speech, if only to spite my father.
I smiled at Claudia, who mouthed, “Good luck,” and ascended the podium.
–
“Where is he? Where is he coming from, Manstein…”
At the Army High Command in Berlin, Colonel General Franz Halder, Chief of the General Staff, muttered to himself, his eyes fixed on the operational map.
Manstein, who had resented him for supposedly stealing his position after Halder’s demotion, had betrayed him with this parting gift.
Halder was desperate to return Manstein’s “gift” and was even skeptical of the intelligence the SD had proudly presented.
A grand ceremony on the 15th, followed by an offensive towards Berlin on the 18th? Would Manstein really launch such a basic and predictable offensive? It seemed more likely to be misinformation.
Regardless of what Hitler and Himmler thought, Halder was preparing for every contingency.
General Alfred Jodl, Chief of the Operations Staff of the Armed Forces High Command, observing Halder’s near obsession with Manstein, turned his attention to the radio.
While Hjalmar Schacht, the Chancellor of the New Government, had given a rather bland motivational speech, they were still listening to the New Government’s radio broadcast, hoping for any scraps of information, especially with the grand ceremony taking place.
[My fellow Germans, this is Dietrich Schacht, State Secretary of the Ministry of State. First and foremost, I must express my profound sense of responsibility for the current situation, where Germany is divided and turning its guns on itself.]
At the same time, the same broadcast was being played through loudspeakers set up by the New Government forces along the front lines.
“Damn it, he’s already a State Secretary, while I’m still a company commander.”
“I should have thought more carefully about my answer when they tried to recruit me.”
“That bastard. He should have made it clearer. He knew I wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed…”
Clemens Pfleck and Captain Roger Michael stood in a daze, listening to the voice of their former friend and comrade coming from the enemy lines.
[At the same time, I express my sincere gratitude to those who have volunteered for the Reichswehr, for the sake of Germany’s freedom and a better future in these turbulent times. I offer my utmost respect for your courage and resolve.]
“It seems the SD has been thoroughly deceived. They’re certainly not as competent as they were before Heydrich’s removal.”
At the Abwehr’s temporary headquarters in Frankfurt, Admiral Wilhelm Canaris nodded at Lieutenant Colonel Hans Oster’s report and looked out the window at the crowds filling the city streets.
The people were cheering and listening to the speech, not for the empire he and the monarchists had envisioned, but for a democratic Germany.
“Well, it’s not as bad as I thought.”
[Even now, in Austria, the fight continues against the Italian invaders brought in by the Nazis. Soon, the battle will begin on the front lines against the Nazis as well. I don’t want to romanticize this. What awaits you is the battlefield. A brutal place where people die.]
“Even sugarcoating it wouldn’t do much for the soldiers’ morale, and he’s saying this?”
Colonel Tresckow, sitting next to Defense Minister Ludwig Beck, who frowned slightly at the speech, chuckled and puffed out a cloud of smoke.
“He’s not very tactful, is he?”
[And the enemy you will face are your own people, your countrymen, your neighbors. People you should have no reason to fight. What I ask of you is simple. Don’t kill simply because you’re ordered to. Don’t glorify sacrificing your life for the nation.]
“If he were Chancellor, I wouldn’t have lived long enough due to apoplexy.”
Crown Prince Louis Ferdinand chuckled at Emperor Wilhelm III’s remark.
“He’s a bit too progressive for Your Majesty to understand. Haha.”
[Instead, ask yourselves why you’re risking your lives, shedding blood on the battlefield. If you cannot find a reason, disobey. That is not a dereliction of your duty as a soldier. If the government leading you is wrong, if it only demands blind obedience to unreasonable orders,]
Adolf Galland, Luftwaffe ace, listened intently to the radio broadcast, puffs of smoke rising from his cigar.
His friend, Werner Mölders, watched him quietly, then glanced out the window at the airfield where their fighters were housed.
[Then blind obedience is not loyalty to your country. It is complicity with a criminal regime. All of us, including myself, bear responsibility. It was the German people who turned a blind eye to the suffering of those persecuted by the Nazi regime, who embraced their illusions and handed them power.]
Wolfram von Richthofen sat alone in his room, quietly sipping his drink and listening to the radio.
He had told Dietrich Schacht repeatedly that soldiers shouldn’t overthink, but Schacht was urging them to do just that.
“Damn it, that bastard is doing this on purpose, isn’t he?”
The drink he usually enjoyed tasted bitter today.
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[But it is not too late. We have risen to correct this. Even if the Nazi regime brands us as traitors, we cannot deny the truth! Frankfurt, Kassel, Dresden, Stuttgart, Münster, Munich, Hanover, Wiesbaden, Nuremberg, Tyrol! Look at all those who stand with us, all these German people! Who, in their arrogance, dares to say they are not Germany!]
“Schacht, that bastard… Argh!”
Hitler, in his office, clutched the back of his neck and screamed, slamming his fist on the desk.
“Doctor! The, the medicine!”
“Here it is, mein Führer.”
Dr. Goebbels watched anxiously as Theodor Morell administered the medication to Hitler. Erwin Rommel listened to the continuing broadcast with a grim expression.
[What the German people wave here today is not the Nazi swastika stained with iron and blood! Look at the golden banners of freedom filling the streets! The era of hate-mongering, war against perceived enemies, and blind obedience must end! It must end not by the hand of some Aryan hero or a powerful nation, but by your own hands!]
Lutz Havenstein, Berlin bureau chief of the Frankfurter Zeitung, looked at his nephew, who couldn’t tear his eyes away from Dietrich Schacht, who was delivering his speech passionately on the podium, and said, “Meeting that young man was a stroke of luck.”
His nephew, Julius Havenstein, who had become a journalist after recovering from his trauma in the Condor Legion, smiled faintly.
[If someone asks me in the future what I fought for, I will proudly answer: Not for the nation’s glory, not because I was ordered to, but for our freedom! My fellow Germans! Soldiers of the Reichswehr! What will you answer? If you cannot answer what you fought for, with what resolve and for what purpose are you pointing your guns at your countrymen!]
Walther Model, drawing a line on the operational map to close the gap between Berlin and Dresden, stopped at the sound of his subordinate’s outburst.
What had he been fighting for? Could he answer that question? Why was he drawing up operational plans against his fellow Germans?
[Are you more afraid of breaking an oath of loyalty than betraying yourselves and your countrymen? Don’t hate the enemy as they command you to; hate yourselves for abandoning your ability to think! Hate yourselves for choosing obedience out of fear of making a decision! I pray that you make choices you won’t regret when all this is over. May God bless us all, may God bless our homeland, Germany.]
Walther Model, staring at the operational map with trembling hands, tore it to shreds.
–
November 15, 1939
Northern Germany, 11th Military District, Hanover, New Government Reichswehr Northern Army Headquarters
In a smoke-filled command room, the sound of clapping echoed.
“Not bad. Impressive, for a youngster. If I had known he was this good, I would have been nicer to him.”
Erich von Manstein, after Dietrich Schacht’s speech ended, took a puff of his cigar and added another ash to the growing pile in the ashtray.
“Report from General Witzleben. The enemy shows no unusual activity, seemingly preoccupied with the broadcast.”
Manstein grinned with satisfaction at the report.
“Hahaha, yes. This is it. This is what I wanted.”
Moving his chess pieces, the troops under his command, across the chessboard of the battlefield, to achieve victory.
The dream he had held while diligently serving under Ludwig Beck, the dream that had seemed lost after his demotion.
“Report from General Hammerstein-Equord! Successful bypass of enemy defenses! Advancing from Hamburg towards Stettin!”
Manstein, feeling a shiver run down his spine, lit another cigar.
The command room was so thick with smoke that it stung his eyes, but he didn’t care.
His debut as Chief of the General Staff, against his nemesis, Franz Halder. Could there be a more perfect stage?
“Haha, hahaha. Let’s see how far Halder can hold them back. Let the games begin.”
< German Civil War – Iron and Blood, Golden Freedom (1) > End
ⓒ Carcassonne
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