I Don’t Need Nazis I Chapter 54:

October 6, 1939

Central Germany, 9th Military District, Kassel, Frankfurt New Governnt Building After the talks ended, French Pri Minister ??douard Daladier resigned, taking responsibility for the complete diplomatic failure despite his personal involvent, and Paul Reynaud succeeded him.

La Rocque's French Social Party vehently denounced the Radical Party's failure, gaining montum and further fueling the chaos of the French Third Republic.

It was unfortunate for them, but the German people felt a sense of satisfaction watching the chaos in France, seeing it as revenge for Versailles and the Ruhr, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs personnel and I were warmly welcod upon our return from the diplomatic war in Britain.

We had succeeded in satisfying the people, who wanted neither to go to war with Britain-France nor to surrender again.

The New governnt, which had been staggering from the Royalist faction's coup, was able to quickly overco the crisis.

"You've worked hard. You handled it quite well."

My father, Hjalmar Schacht, praised , a corner of his mouth twitching up on his characteristically stern face.

Honestly, I thought I did a pretty good job this ti, but is that all the praise I get?

As if his business with

was done, Hjalmar imdiately moved on to praise Weizs??cker and Kordt.

It's my own fault for having expectations of that father of mine…

"Still, we can breathe a sigh of relief on the diplomatic front.

How are things with Italy?"

"Well, about that…"

At my question, Ludwig Beck, who was no longer Regent but Minister of Defense, trailed off with a strange expression.

"Don't tell

they broke through?"

No, surely not.

The sa Italy that screwed

over at Guadalajara couldn't be the kind of army that's useless as an ally but becos strong as an enemy, could they?

"They were attacked and routed by the Austrian Army and are now engaged in combat at the border."

"Pardon?"

Why are the Austrian and Italian armies fighting? Besides, weren't most of the Austrian Army incorporated into the Wehrmacht and mobilized for the Poland invasion force?

"Apparently, the Italian Army declared they would annex Tyrol. The enraged Austrian Border Guard attacked and routed the Italian Army, and the Italian Army has since attacked again, and they are now engaged in combat."

They're a great power, yet they were routed by the border guard? What is this now? And before that, annexing Tyrol?

"Didn't Mussolini enter the war as an ally of the Nazis?"

"He did."

Ah, I'm at a loss for words.

To think that all my worrying on the plane about what to do if Bavaria was being invaded was all for nothing?

"Haha…"

How absurd. I'm seriously curious what kind of expression Hitler is making right now.

Still, I can't let this golden opportunity slip away.

Now that the internal and external crises have passed, it's ti to finally bring this to a conclusion.

---

October 7, 1939

Northern Germany, Berlin, New Reich Chancellery

[The Führer, who claid to be for the German people and nation, is selling off his own hotown to a foreign power and denouncing us as a rebel army! Germany, awaken! What in the world is the Germany that Goebbels and the others cried out for to awaken!]

"Schacht, Schacht! That traitor! Turn it off! Turn it off now!"

Hitler, who had been listening to the radio, shouted in a fit.

[Open your eyes now! Do not close your eyes and listen to their propaganda, but see the truth with your own eyes! The Germany they speak of is not our Fatherland but one subjugated to them-]

Wilhelm Keitel, sweating profusely, turned off the radio, and Hitler flailed, grabbing the back of his neck.

"Give, give

that! Quickly!"

Erwin Roml sighed softly as he watched Hitler.

After saving Hitler during the Führer's Residence Raid Incident, Roml had beco the Führer's most favored Wehrmacht general and was promoted to Lieutenant General, but lately, his sighs had only been increasing.

"Here you are, The Führer."

Hitler tossed the dicine Morell handed him into his mouth and gulped down water.

Even to Roml, who knew little of dicine, the drugs his personal physician, Theodor Morell, prescribed for Hitler were progressively worsening the Führer's condition.

However, Hitler, who suffered terribly from the aftereffects of his injuries, believed only Morell's words and demanded dicine from him whenever the pain struck.

"Hmph, hmph. Mussolini, what the hell is that damn bastard doing!"

The supposed ally was making crazy talk about handing over Austria, and when the Military Governnt's coup happened, he reached out to Britain-France.

It was only after being rejected by them that he offered to help, demanding Southern Austria in return, and Hitler felt his blood boil.

Because Mussolini was being stubborn, insisting he couldn't help without a cession of territory, Hitler had hastily agreed to hand over Tyrol, planning to fix Mussolini's habits after suppressing the rebel army…

But even Hitler himself could not have imagined that those madn would declare the annexation of Tyrol in the middle of a civil war.

"Once I suppress those rebel army bastards, I'll deal with Mussolini, uh, ugh!"

Hitler grabbed the back of his neck again.

Thanks to having brought all the Nazi Party mbers and pro-Nazi Austrian generals to the Polish Front with the intention of letting them earn rits, Major General Eglseer, who was in charge of the Austrian Border Guard, was far from being a Nazi.

As soon as he heard the Italian Army's declaration of Tyrol's annexation, he rallied the residents and the border guard and began to fiercely attack the Italian forces.

Hitler hastily sent an order to the Office of the Austrian State Commissar to cease engagent with the Italian Army, but the Austrian Nazi Party had already lost control of the situation.

The New governnt did not miss this incident, launching a dia war by widely denouncing the Nazis for selling out their compatriots, and the Wehrmacht and public opinion, which had seed to be calming down after the military governnt's coup, boiled over again.

That damn Schacht, he's the problem.

Schacht, Schacht. Both the father and the son are the most vicious of traitors.

The father opposed him at every turn, and he should have realized that son had the makings of a traitor from the mont he didn't pledge loyalty to him directly but spoke in circles.

"The Führer, with all due respect, the Wehrmacht High Command is being flooded with calls from generals asking to confirm if it's true that Austrian territory was to be handed over to Italy."

Wilhelm Keitel spoke, though he was dripping with cold sweat, but Hitler just yelled.

"How many tis do I have to say it! Nothing of the sort happened! The Austrian Army are traitors who have joined the New Governnt, so the Italian Army is just in the process of suppressing them! Tell the Wehrmacht to just start an offensive against those traitors already!"

In the end, what Hitler and the Nazi Party chose was to give up Austria. The Nazis announced that General Eglseer and a part of the Austrian Army had joined the rebellion, and the Italian Army was unavoidably in the process of suppressing them.

Since the Nazis had banned the New Governnt's radio and newspapers, and even telephone connections to the New Governnt's Sphere of Influence, it would be sowhat effective for now, but it wouldn't be possible to conceal it for long, as residents, and even so Wehrmacht soldiers, were listening to the New Governnt's radio on the frequency they saw in the newspapers distributed on the first day of the coup.

There was nothing for the Nazis to gain by dragging this situation out, and they were pestering the Wehrmacht to wipe out the rebel army by any ans necessary.

"I am sorry, but… The Führer, we keep giving the orders, but the only response we get is that they cannot begin an offensive without supplies."

Right now, the Nazi Wehrmacht was all facade.

As the main force prepared for the invasion of Poland, its military force and equipnt were stronger than the New Governnt Army's.

However, since the Ruhr industrial area, which produces key equipnt, and even the ball bearing factory in Schweinfurt (north of Bavaria) had fallen to the enemy, they couldn't properly manufacture a single piece of heavy equipnt or parts.

What's the point of having an armored unit? If a tank broke down while driving, they couldn't even get engine parts.

"Damn it! Those are just excuses! Who do they think they're fooling, sizing up the situation between the rebel army and us!"

Hitler blad the Wehrmacht, and he was half right, but the equipnt situation of the Nazi Wehrmacht was truly on a downward spiral.

The only armored equipnt Nazi Germany was currently producing were the Czech-made tanks from the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia.

Even those were deed unnecessary to produce further, and they were in the process of switching the lines to Panzer III and IV tanks.

It was only after the civil war broke out and they lost the ball bearing factory that they had to switch back to the Czech-made tank line, which could be self-produced without German-made parts.

Furthermore, the local Czech workers were also very uncooperative.

Thus, productivity was naturally hitting rock bottom, and what little was produced wasn't going to the Wehrmacht but was being assigned to the Waffen-SS.

"The Führer, please send

to the front instead. I will stand at the vanguard and give my loyalty."

Roml, who could no longer just watch, stepped forward, but Hitler imdiately went up to him and shook his head.

"Oh, no. General Roml. You must stay by my side."

Wilhelm Keitel was looking at Roml, whom Hitler was almost clinging to, with displeasure, but Roml, too, was just feeling frustrated.

He had strong ambition, but his relationship with the General Staff, the real power of the German military, was not good, so he saw no path for career advancent, which was why he had tried hard to get on Hitler's good side.

As a result, he was promoted to Major General, and as Chief of the Führer's Security, he saved Hitler's life, earning him another promotion and the rank insignia of a Lieutenant General.

At first, Roml felt it was a proud thing as a soldier to have saved the life of the Leader of the Nation from terrorism.

But that joy was fleeting.

Staying by Hitler's side, he listened to the New Governnt radio along with him and heard the orders Hitler gave to the key Nazi figures, and he was increasingly feeling skepticism.

It was utterly agonizing to deal with the worsening situation, the aftereffects of his injuries, and a Führer being ruined by drugs, all while losing respect for him, unable to even go to the front.

"The only one I can trust in the Wehrmacht is General Roml. The rest are all traitors, swindlers, and vile opportunists."

To the Führer, who had beco pathologically dependent on him after being saved from the raid, Roml could only reply with a bitter smile.

"There must be n in the Wehrmacht who are completely loyal, The Führer."

"There must be, of course, there must be.

Yes. The problem is the opportunistic traitors…"

Roml had just offered lip service, but Hitler spoke as if he had suddenly gotten an inspiration, making him flinch.

But Hitler soon fell into his own world, muttering to himself, and then, his eyes, which had beco those of a madman, glazed over from pain and drugs, lit up as he quietly muttered.

"If it cos to this, there's no choice but to show them a clear example."

---

October 9, 1939

Northern Germany, the city of Potsdam southwest of Berlin, 10th Army Garrison The garrison of the 10th Army, which had been the first to pledge loyalty and rush to Berlin after the New Governnt's coup, was in an uproar.

"What, what is it! What's going on?!"

The Gestapo, who had barged into the 11th Army Corps HQ without warning, made a bold declaration in front of the flustered generals of the corps.

"General of the Artillery Emil Leeb! You are under arrest on the Führer's orders on the accusation of colluding with Wilhelm Ritter von Lepp of the rebel army."

"What? You're going to arrest the Corps Commander while we're in a stand-off with the enemy?!"

Major General Friedrich Karl Cranz, the 18th Infantry Division Commander, protested as if it were absurd, but the Gestapo didn't even pretend to listen.

"Interfering with the execution of official duties will be taken as an admission of collusion with the rebel army."

"This is insane…"

While the staff officers lanted, the 11th Army Corps Commander, General of the Artillery Emil Leeb, let out a deep sigh.

"Yes, my brother did join the rebel army. But I am a general of the Wehrmacht who has sworn an oath of loyalty. It seems that oath was worthless to the Führer."

Emil Leeb gestured to his subordinate generals not to intervene, then rose from his seat and followed the Gestapo out.

"No, what on earth is this…"

Only the staff officers and subordinate division commanders were left behind where the corps commander had been taken, muttering in a state of shock.

At almost the sa ti, similar incidents were happening in other corps.

"General of the Cavalry Erich Hoepner! Call records with the rebel ringleader Ludwig Beck have been confird! You are under arrest for collusion!"

"That damn Bohemian Corporal…"

"He confesses to being a traitor!"

The Wehrmacht, which had been sitting idly in its garrisons without proper equipnt or supplies, was thrown into an uproar, but the Gestapo, as if prepared in advance, swiftly raided each unit and were taking the generals on the arrest list into custody.

"Commander-in-Chief! What in the world is going on! Arresting the frontline commanders of units in a stand-off with the enemy so indiscriminately!"

The 4th Army Corps Chief of Staff, Walther Model, was on the phone with the Army High Command, furious.

[Calm down, Model. Those arrested are all suspected of colluding with the rebel army, and it was an order from the Führer himself.

]

Brauchitsch spoke calmly, but Walther Model did not back down.

"We were the first to rush to defend Berlin out of loyalty to the nation and the regi! The army has fulfilled its duty to the regi, but the regi has failed the army-"

[Model, you were on the arrest list too.

]

Walther Model's words were cut off by Brauchitsch.

After a brief silence, Model opened his mouth.

"Is it because I recomnded my friend, Schacht?"

[Yes. Of course, I know well that you are innocent.

But you should also know that I had a hard ti getting you removed from the list. It will be a difficulty for

if you act like this.

]

Walther Model sank powerlessly into his chair.

[Cool your head and just follow orders.

You've been doing well so far, haven't you? I'm busy too, so I'll hang up now. Take care.

]

The call ended just like that, and Walther Model stared blankly at the light fixture on the ceiling.

"A soldier does not judge, he only obeys."

He recited the teaching of Seeckt that he had followed his entire life, but he could see no answer.

For what, exactly, does one pledge loyalty?