October 11, 1939
4th Military District, Dresden – 8th Army Garrison under Army Group South The Army Group Commander and elder of the Wehrmacht who had been blocking Army Group South's offensive, Gerd von Rundstedt, was arrested on suspicion of collusion under the pretext that there were records of a phone call with Ludwig Beck.
After that, Hitler sent an ultimatum through the High Command of the Ard Forces, stating that if they did not attack the New Governnt Army imdiately, it would be considered cooperation with the rebel army.
As a heavy atmosphere hung over the gathering of the 8th Army's main corps and division commanders, 8th Army Commander, General of the Infantry Johannes Blaskowitz, opened his mouth.
“It seems we all have to make a decision.”
Army Group South is composed of the 8th, 10th, and 14th Armies.
Among them, the 10th Army, under the command of the Nazi-to-the-core Walther von Reichenau, was already in a stand-off with the main force of the New Governnt Army.
As the 14th Army Commander, Colonel General Wilhelm List, had supported the Nazis even during the Blomberg–Fritsch Affair, he announced that he would attack Nuremberg after the Army Group Commander was arrested and a direct order ca from the High Command.
However, General of the Infantry Johannes Blaskowitz was a figure who had long disliked the Nazis' interference in religion and the military, and was even displeased by the atrocities the Nazis committed against the Jewish people.
How much more so now that the regi had started a war, attacked its own people, and began to butcher the army for not following orders.
“I can no longer just stand by and watch.
To follow Hitler even at this point is sothing a proud soldier of the Fatherland should not do. What are your thoughts?”
At General Blaskowitz's words, the generals gathered there swallowed hard.
They all understood that the choice they made here and now would decide their life and death, and furthermore, the fate of Germany.
“I will join you in your will, Commander.”
After a long silence, the first to step forward was the Commander of the 24th Infantry Division, Lieutenant General Friedrich Olbricht.
He, who had directly participated in Stauffenberg's great undertaking in the original history, stepped forward first, even as he broke into a cold sweat from tension and adjusted his glasses.
It was only difficult to get the first person's agreent; because all the generals present had learned of the Nazi atrocities through the New Governnt's radio broadcasts and newspapers, the decision was quick.
“I will follow as well.”
“I agree, too. The Crown Prince, no, the Kaiser is with the New Governnt, we cannot point our guns at him.”
When General of the Artillery Wilhelm Ulex and General of the Cavalry Maximilian von Weichs, the two corps commanders, both expressed their agreent, the remaining division commanders also nodded with a tense look.
“Hoo, thank you.
Then, to the New Governnt-”
Just as General Blaskowitz was about to speak, the door suddenly burst open and a man stord in.
“The Führer has ordered a general offensive, so what is the 8th Army doing right now?”
The man who stord in was the Army Group South Chief of Staff, Erich von Manstein.
After Rundstedt was taken away, he had handed down the Führer's written orders, which flew directly from the High Command of the Ard Forces, to each army, and had co in person when the 8th Army stalled for ti without any response.
General of the Infantry Johannes Blaskowitz recalled Manstein praising Hitler as a great leader on the Führer's birthday and his face hardened.
“Manstein. We can no longer follow the Führer.”
“What did you say?”
As Manstein was flustered, General Friedrich Olbricht was secretly reaching for his pistol.
“If the leader of the regi puts Germany in danger and does not reward the loyalty the Wehrmacht has offered, we would rather stand with the people and the Kaiser and fight with the New Governnt.”
All the generals swallowed dryly with tension, watching Manstein's reaction and preparing to subdue him depending on the situation.
However, Manstein, with a smile covering his face, shouted, almost filled with ecstasy.
“Let's go together, Commander!”
“You are, what?”
While Blaskowitz and the generals, who were filled with tension, were all bewildered, Manstein shouted again.
“I only issued the written orders because that madman Führer arrested the innocent General Rundstedt and threatened to arrest
too if I didn't hand down the order!”
“I-Is that so?”
While all the generals who were preparing to subdue him if necessary felt embarrassed, Manstein grabbed Blaskowitz's hand and chattered away enthusiastically.
“I knew from the very beginning that the New Governnt was Germany's hope. In fact, I was secretly helping them! I ca here believing that you all, as true patriots, would understand their will.
Let's go together! If you go with , they will gladly accept you all.”
“Ah, I see.
Th-Thank you. I didn't realize you were like that, indeed.”
General Blaskowitz was quite flustered, but the generals, who had no particular connections with the New Governnt, inwardly sighed in relief anyway.
But the most relieved among them was Manstein.
He was terrified and flustered, knowing that Rundstedt was captured for having call records with Beck, and that Erich Hoepner, who had been introduced as a secret contact for the New Governnt within the Poland invasion force, had been arrested.
He had imdiately handed down Hitler's written orders to avoid suspicion for now, and had co here to rush them to avoid suspicion as well, but who knew things would turn out like this!
After General Lutz's armored breakthrough was blocked and the New Governnt, which he thought would soon collapse, found stability through a dia war, a coup d'état by the Military Governnt occurred just as Manstein was about to switch sides.
Because of that, he had missed his timing and couldn't defect, and while Rundstedt and Hoepner were arrested, he was worried about being discovered himself, but now he was suddenly about to get credit for making the 8th Army surrender.
“If we delay any longer, the Führer will beco suspicious, so we should move quickly.
We happen to be right near Frankfurt, so we must let them know that the 14th Army is going to attack Nuremberg!”
“Ahem, my apologies. Manstein, I didn't know you well and suspected you of being a follower of the Nazis.”
“Isn't that a complint on how well I disguised myself to avoid their suspicion, haha!”
Having completely regained his composure, Manstein gave a triumphant smile.
There was so regret, thinking he should have treated Dietrich Schacht, that re Captain riff-raff, a bit better if he had known he would beco the real power behind the New Governnt after being its spokesperson.
Although his defection was a bit late, getting the 8th Army to surrender should be enough to secure the promised position of Chief of the General Staff.
As expected, good luck was on his side.
He was better than Halder, that thief. Yes.
-
October 12, 1939
Western Germany, 11th Military District Hanover, SS Training Center Wewelsburg Castle
“Kuh!”
SS-Gruppenführer Paul Hausser almost fell out of his chair before barely waking up. As light flashed before his eyes, he struggled for a long ti to regain his hazy consciousness before finally coming to his senses.
“Hoo…”
The light from the lamp stabbed at his stiff eyes like a knife, and he laboriously moved his body, worn down by hunger and fatigue, to cover his eyes with his hand.
The point where it was approaching six weeks since the coup d'état.
The training center's food had long since run out, and the air supply that G??ring had boasted would be no problem never rose above the precarious level where the troopers were on the verge of starvation.
Even that had now reached its limit.
Unable to bear eating his fill alone, he had started skipping als with his troopers, but his old and tired body did not even help with that.
Furthermore, the Air Force promised that they could no longer conduct air supply due to a shortage of parts and munitions, but that they would comnce a counterattack soon and rescue them instead.
That was already three days ago.
Hausser raised his body, which felt like it would collapse from dizziness, and staggered out of his office.
His adjutant, who had been rather plump but was now unrecognizably gaunt, was asleep at the desk in front of his office with a face worn out by fatigue.
Instead of waking him, Hausser moved his creaking body and went outside.
The troopers who used to look at him with eyes full of respect and always proudly shouted “Heil Hitler” only glanced at him feebly; only a handful saluted.
There were also those who were too exhausted to even have the strength for that.
It was a rude act not to even salute a general, but Hausser pretended not to see and just walked past.
As he walked around the garrison for a mont, a young SS Second Lieutenant approached and saluted him.
“Heil Hitler!”
“Heil Hitler.”
The SS Second Lieutenant (Untersturmführer) who had saluted, Heinrich Springer, began to explain the desperate situation.
“General, there were more who surrendered last night.”
Hausser squeezed his eyes shut.
“I’m sorry, but we can’t hold on any longer. General, we are at our limit.”
To Hausser, Springer’s words sounded like a death sentence.
In the Weimar Republic, which was born in chaos after the desperate collapse of the German Empire, he had believed that Hitler and the Nazis were the ones who would make Germany great again.
That was why he had moved to the Nazi SS, discarding his entire career built up as a General Staff officer in the Wehrmacht, and had helped in every step of their SS becoming a proper ard group.
“It’s my fault.”
He knew what the SS, cultivated by the Nazi Party, was doing. He always acted as if he didn't know, but at his rank, he ca to know even if he didn't want to.
He didn't particularly hate Jewish people, but he knew that the SS he had raised was brutally persecuting them.
While believing that he himself pursued the honor of a soldier, he turned a blind eye to the cris his Nazi followers were committing in their own country.
He regarded everything as a necessary evil for the regi that would make Germany great. He had bet on them, and since he had sworn loyalty, he believed he had to follow whatever they did.
“Innocent young friends are bearing my sin in my stead.”
“General…”
And these n, trained by him and educated with his beliefs, thus beca henchn who followed the Nazis’ orders without hesitation.
He had changed these fresh-faced young n, who ca because they were captivated by the cool uniforms, or because they wanted to fight for their Fatherland and advance their careers, into this.
He had turned them into blind n who thought they naturally had to do whatever the Führer and the Party ordered, even if it was sothing that endangered Germany, even if it was sothing a human being should not do.
These are pitiful human beings. While he could feel sha listening to the New Governnt's radio broadcasts, so of them felt nothing at all, expressing only anger and hatred towards the traitors who opposed the Führer and the Party.
Could that fanaticism truly be called proper loyalty? Even if so, what reward was there for that loyalty and dedication?
Six weeks, a full six weeks had passed since they were isolated here. Enduring that ti in a training center, which was not a city or anything else, was not the subli and heroic resistance that the Nazis propagandized.
It was rely a miserable and desperate struggle, reliant on stubbornness.
Their splendid uniforms and combat outfits had beco filthy, streaked with gri.
Their ssy, tangled hair, looking like it hadn't been washed in ages, and the stench were reminiscent of refugees.
What effort had the Führer and the Nazis made to save their subordinates who were withering away from not being able to eat properly? Were they even trying?
“What in the world have I been doing.”
Hausser covered his face with his hands. He had once felt proud knowing that the troopers called him ‘Papa’ among themselves.
But the man they trusted and followed was a cowardly man unworthy of being called that. He had considered the atrocities committed by the Nazis to be necessary for Germany, sothing that had nothing to do with him.
Even knowing what atrocities the troopers he trained were committing, he was too busy defending them to think of correcting them.
This is the result.
At the end of teaching them to obey the regi without judgnt, the anger of the German people, who learned the truth of that regi, is now burning him and his subordinates.
He was pushed this far because he feared questioning the value of his own loyalty more than the suffering of those oppressed by the regi and his subordinates.
Unable to admit until the very end that the loyalty he and his subordinates had dedicated to the Führer and the Nazis was worthless, he was waiting only for the hopeless salvation of the Nazis.
But that too is now over.
Only after coming this far did he realize that he was holding on not because of the loyalty a soldier should naturally uphold, but because he did not want to admit his own fault.
“Springer.”
Although he flinched at the dry, cracked voice of the Lieutenant General he had respected as the father of the SS, Heinrich Springer corrected his posture and answered him.
“Yes, General.”
“Go and tell them. If they guarantee the safety of the troopers, I will surrender.”
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