September 2, 1939
Wewelsburg Castle, SS Training Facility, Hanover, 11th Military District, Western Germany Wewelsburg, a Renaissance-style castle purchased by Himmler and used as an SS training facility.
Generaloberst Wilhelm Ritter von Leeb, leading the attack on the SS-only location, was issuing kill orders without hesitation.
"Kill the traitorous SS bastards!"
"The rebel bastards are slandering us! The Führer will never forgive this!"
To the New Governnt, especially the conservative generals with monarchist leanings, the SS were no longer Germans, but simply the enemy.
"Hitler is dead!"
"Nonsense! The Führer is alive!"
Taking cover behind obstacles, the New Governnt forces and the SS continued to trade fire, cursing each other fervently.
The sounds of gunfire and cannons never ceased on the battlefield surrounding Wewelsburg Castle. The castle, which had once boasted an antiquated charm, had been transford into a grotesque ruin by the shelling.
"Get down!"
"H-Hiik, ugh!"
Watching a soldier get blown to pieces by a shell that landed clearly visible from the command post, SS-Gruppenführer Paul Hausser spoke irritably into the receiver.
"We can't hold on like this.
This is a training facility, not a military stronghold. We're critically short on equipnt, and our green trainees are being slaughtered!"
[Army reinforcents are impossible as enemy units are currently advancing on Berlin! However, Field Marshal G??ring has promised to provide aerial resupply, so hold on a little longer.
]
"He's going to resupply us by air?"
Paul Hausser asked back with a deeply skeptical expression, but Army Chief of the General Staff Halder's reply was firm.
[That's right.
Field Marshal G??ring said there would be no problems whatsoever, so you are not to worry and are to hold your position.]
Although Paul Hausser had been a rising star in the army and was respected like a father figure in the SS, the Wehrmacht did not look kindly upon a general who had retired only to join the SS.
"Understood."
Paul Hausser put down the receiver and sighed, looking at the young SS mbers who were staring only at him.
"Hold on a little longer. They say we'll be resupplied by air."
A glimr of hope appeared on the mbers' faces, but Paul Hausser couldn't smooth his furrowed brow as he looked up at the sky.
He didn't know much about the air force, but was it even possible to accurately airdrop supplies to them, who were surrounded by the enemy, holding a defensive line in and around a cramped castle and training facility with no airfield?
Paul Hausser could only hope it was possible, since the Field Marshal of the Luftwaffe had boasted so confidently.
His heart had sunk at the radio broadcast announcing that the SS had tried to start a war, but not everyone who joined the SS was a fanatic crazed for the Nazis and Hitler, who hated Jews and 'inferior races' and desired war.
While it was part of the Nazi's intent, a not-insignificant number of n had joined thoughtlessly simply because the uniforms looked cool, or because it seed manly.
"I have to at least save the n I trained.
What other choice do I have?"
The reality that these young n, who had joined thoughtlessly, captivated by Hitler's charisma or the cool uniforms, were now dying while taking the bla for the leadership's sins, was a bitter pill for Paul Hausser to swallow.
-
September 2, 1939
Army Group South Headquarters, Breslau, 8th Military District, Eastern Germany
[Commander, the SS Adolf Hitler Panzer Regint of the XIII Army Corps has deserted its post! It is heading for Berlin!]
"Does General von Weichs not have control over the regints under his command?!"
The commander of Army Group South, Gerd von Rundstedt, clutched his head.
He had intended to ignore the order from Berlin to suppress the rebels, dismissing it as an SS matter.
However, Walther von Reichenau, a pro-Nazi figure from the start, had taken his 10th Army and rushed to Berlin as soon as he received the order, and the SS regints assigned to other armies began to desert their posts at will, causing widespread unrest.
In Blaskowitz's 8th Army, the SS Adolf Hitler Panzer Regint deserted, and in List's 14th Army, the SS Germania Motorized Infantry Regint did the sa, throwing the units into turmoil.
"General, what do you say we move west for now?"
"Are you suggesting we fight them?"
Hearing the suggestion from his chief of staff, Manstein, Rundstedt's expression beca one of clear reluctance.
Even without Beck bringing up the Blomberg-Fritsch Affair, he felt a burden of guilt towards Beck and the other generals who had been forced into retirent, and had no desire to shed blood fighting n who were once part of the Wehrmacht.
This was the biggest difference between the Black Orchestra's attempted assassination of Hitler in the original history and the New Governnt's coup that was happening now.
Stauffenberg and his co-conspirators had attempted to assassinate Hitler in the middle of a war, plunging Germany into chaos, and the Wehrmacht had viewed the coup, which occurred while they were bleeding on the front lines, as nothing more than a selfish act of treason.
But the coup happening now was being carried out under the pretext of preventing that very German army from shedding blood, and a considerable portion of the Wehrmacht was not actively trying to oppose the New Governnt.
"Of course not, General. But we could be branded as traitors for ignoring a direct order from High Command, so let's just move slowly for now. If we simply wait, our control over the troops could weaken even further."
"Hmm, I see.
Very well. Then move the 8th Army to Dresden and the 14th Army to Bohemia-Moravia."
"A wise decision, General."
Manstein replied as such to Rundstedt, but his mind was a tangle of complex thoughts.
As long as he remained the chief of staff for Army Group South, he wouldn't be imdiately accused of treason.
But there was no telling how long the New Governnt's leaders would remain silent about him, so the mont of decision was crucial.
Moving Army Group South to the west looked like a move to check the New Governnt's forces, but at the sa ti, it would also make it easier to join them if the New Governnt appeared to have the upper hand.
The fact that he still had one foot in the Nazi camp was a derit, but if he succeeded in having Army Group South join the New Governnt at the right ti, the credit would be enormous, so there was no need to worry.
The New Governnt currently enjoyed the advantage of surprise, just as his operational plan had intended, but if they seed to have no chance, he could earn credit by suppressing them, which would be enough to dispel any suspicious accusations.
Of course, even as he thought this, Manstein hoped for the New Governnt's success, if only for the sake of his own Chief of the General Staff position.
-
September 3, 1939
Berlin, Northern Germany Two days after the terrorist attack on the Führer's residence. The German capital, Berlin, was still in turmoil.
The citizens of Berlin already knew the pretext under which the New Governnt, which the Nazis were denouncing as rebels, had staged its coup.
Although the police were busy patrolling the streets to maintain public order, the vast number of Frankfurter Zeitung newspapers scattered on the streets during the chaos following the attack on Hitler had already been read by many citizens.
What Captain Dietrich Schacht and the journalists of the Frankfurter Zeitung had prepared was simple, yet powerful.
The initial wave of exposés was one thing, but freely distributing newspapers in Nazi-controlled territory after the civil war erupted would be difficult.
So, the scattered newspapers had the resistance radio frequency printed on them in huge letters.
The Nazis, of course, banned that frequency, but it wasn't as if they could barge into every single one of Germany's countless hos and smash all the radios.
Above all, the radio was sothing the Nazis and Goebbels had unshakeably believed to be their weapon. It was impossible for them to have conceived of and prepared for the idea that rebels, in Germany of all places, would wage a propaganda war using the radio.
The New Governnt had ticulously prepared and was now more effectively using the sa thods that resistance fighters in the original history had struggled to employ in Nazi-occupied territories.
"Hey, you there! What are you doing!"
"Tch!"
anwhile, there were those who secretly snuck around, distributing newspapers.
Normally, doing this in Berlin during a state of ergency, with so many police, would have been suicide.
But with most of the military forces deployed to the Polish border, and with Himmler, who was in charge of the police, having dispatched a significant number of his personnel to the west to block the approaching enemy, there were many gaps in Berlin's security.
There were far too few troops to completely surround and lock down the enormous city amidst the chaos.
A policeman chasing soone who was frantically fleeing through a Berlin alley after distributing newspapers finally lost them, and, panting heavily, picked up the paper the damned rebel had dropped.
"Gasp!"
And upon seeing it, he could only gasp in astonishnt.
The Nazi Minister of Public Enlightennt and Propaganda, Doctor Paul Joseph Goebbels, was waiting at the broadcast station to deliver a radio address to the nation at noon.
The hands of those damn traitors had reached for Hitler, the savior sent by heaven for the fatherland, but his ssiah had narrowly overco the crisis and was now stable.
He had not yet regained consciousness, but he would make those rebel bastards who tried to harm Germany's ssiah pay a heavy price.
Goebbels vowed as much, reviewing the speech he had prepared while waiting for noon.
The exposure of the SS conspiracy was certainly a setback, but he was confident he could turn public opinion against the traitors who dared to try and assassinate the Führer.
"Doctor, five minutes to air."
Goebbels sat in front of the microphone.
"How dare they try to wage a propaganda war against us. They don't know their place."
However, he would never get to start the broadcast.
"Doctor!"
Goebbels scowled at the SS mber who had rudely rushed in just before the live broadcast, but after taking the newspaper he carried and flipping through a few pages, he shot up from his seat, his face pale.
Goebbels's scheduled national radio address was postponed.
All across Germany, newspapers were being wildly distributed, filled with articles and photos of pits piled high with hundreds of corpses, concentration camp prisoners barely clinging to life in grueso conditions, and even a Nazi camp commandant who decorated his interior with props made from prisoners' skin and skulls.
-
September 3, 1939
Frankfurt Radio Station, Kassel, 9th Military District, Central Germany I slowly opened my eyes.
I'm exhausted from staying up all night yesterday. It's a good thing the sofa was decent enough.
No, wait.
"Are you awake?"
Just as I thought the feeling under my head wasn't a sofa, I saw Claudia looking down at , smiling.
"Huh?"
"Good morning, Dietrich."
"Good morning, Claudia."
As I reflexively replied, Claudia burst into laughter.
The Abwehr had initially suggested assassinating Ribbentrop and smuggling her out of the country, but I opposed it.
My desire not to send her abroad alone was a big part of it, but more importantly, I knew very well that a significant number of anti-Nazi activists were captured not within the country, but during their attempts to leave it.
So I used all the salary I had received as a soldier, got so support from my father, and bought a mansion in Frankfurt to hide her in.
The idea that a wanted person in Germany would be staying in a grand mansion in a major city is hard to co by.
And it seems that choice was the right one. She was safe, and we can still be together now that things have started.
When I smiled naturally, Claudia giggled and helped
up.
"Co on, get up now. People are watching, and actually, it's not morning, it's past noon."
Laughter erupted from those around us at her words.
Ugh! I was sleeping on her lap in front of everyone?!
My ears must have been burning red. It was hard to lift my head.
"Ugh, my apologies. I must have dozed off from exhaustion."
Editor-in-Chief Theodor Heuss, who had moved to Frankfurt, was looking at
as if I were a thief.
I think I know why, but I didn't instigate this, Editor-in-Chief. It's a misunderstanding.
He looked at my apologetic face, sighed, and opened his mouth.
"You've been busy, so it's understandable, Captain Schacht. Goebbels's speech was canceled, and we are ready on our end."
I felt a great sense of relief at Editor-in-Chief Heuss's words.
Most of the staff from the Frankfurter Zeitung's Berlin branch had joined us in Frankfurt, but a few zealous employees had remained in Nazi territory.
They were continuously circulating the newspapers we secretly supplied, and their perilous efforts were undoubtedly paying off.
"Excellent work. It's clear the Nazis are in disarray thanks to Count Blunthal's actions, so we must press our advantage in the anti."
Count Blunthal's raid team, busy escaping after the terror attack, had reported their success in assassinating Hitler, but the Nazi broadcast, perhaps to prevent further chaos, was advertising that Hitler was unhard.
The high command, however, judged that Hitler was either dead or, at the very least, in critical condition, based on the fact that he hadn't appeared on any broadcasts.
The high command, which had worried that the raid on the residence had a low chance of success, couldn't hide their joy, even though the Count's own fate was unknown.
Furthermore, General Oswald Lutz was rapidly advancing toward Berlin, crushing what little resistance there was, while Generals Witzleben and Hamrstein were taking over the Bavarian region without much opposition.
Thanks to this, my attempt to persuade the New Governnt's leadership to compromise went down the drain amidst an elated atmosphere, as if they could win the civil war at any mont.
"Live broadcast in one hour."
At the radio station employee's words, I looked back at the prisoners we brought from Buchenwald, the ones who were in relatively better condition and had volunteered.
"Hoo, alright. Let's begin."
It's hard to expect the hard-headed, far-right monarchist conservatives, especially the democracy-hating Doctor Goerdeler, to readily agree, so I'll have to stick to the original, by-the-book plan.
To make them seriously consider our story, we have to show them our value.
Turning public opinion is ultimately not the role of the military or the Kaiser, but ours.
"Let's show those Nazi bastards. They're not the only ones who can play the dia.
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