Lin Wei returned to the SS headquarters building. When he returned to his office, Gestapo leader Reinhard Heydrich, deputy leader Louis von Ho, and General Paul Hauser were already waiting. In the office now.
"General Paul Hausser, how is the training of the SS?"
"Leader, these soldiers are now fully ready to go to the battlefield."
"General, how many people have been trained now?"
"About 150,000 people"
"150,000 people is enough," Lin Wei thought to himself, "Louis, you can draw the best from the 150,000 people and form four divisions. This is your plan."
1st Waffen-SS Panzer Division (Gendarme)
Jurisdiction: 1st and 2nd Panzergrenadier Regiments, 1st Armored Corps, 1st Armored Artillery Regiment, 1st Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, 1st Air Defense Battalion, 1st Assault Artillery Battalion, 1st Armored Light Infantry Battalion, 1st Rocket Artillery Battalion , 1st Engineer Battalion, 1st Logistics Battalion
2nd SS Panzer Division (Reich)
Jurisdiction: 3rd and 4th Panzergrenadier Regiments, 4th Armored Regiment, 2nd Armored Corps, 2nd Armored Artillery Regiment, 2nd Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, 2nd Air Defense Battalion, 2nd Rocket Artillery Battalion, 2nd Armored Light Infantry Battalion, 2nd Engineer Battalion, 2nd Logistics Battalion
3rd SS Panzer Division (Totenkopf)
Jurisdiction: 5th and 6th Panzergrenadier Regiments, 3rd Armored Corps, 3rd Armored Artillery Regiment, 3rd Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, 3rd Air Defense Battalion, 3rd Assault Artillery Battalion, 3rd Rocket Artillery Battalion, 3rd Armored Light Infantry Battalion , 3rd Engineer Battalion, 3rd Logistics Battalion
4th Waffen SS Panzer Division (Police)
Jurisdiction: 7th and 8th Police Panzergrenadier Regiments, 4th Armored Battalion, 4th Armored Artillery Regiment, 4th Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, 4th Air Defense Battalion, 4th Armored Light Infantry Battalion, 4th Engineer Battalion, 4th Logistics Battalion
The standard establishment of each division is 16,800 people.
Louis responded with the plan, "I understand, leader."
After giving the plan to Louis, Linwei asked, "Reinhard, how many people do we have in Austria?"
Heydrich immediately replied, "There are now 85,000 members of the National Socialist Party in Austria, and our SS has more than 3,000 people there." He then asked, "Lampard, why are you asking this? Didn't Austria surrender? I It seems like you are not feeling well today."
"There is no free lunch in the world. I am just doing this to prevent problems before they happen." Lin Wei answered Heydrich's question while covering his forehead, and then said sleepily, "If there is no problem, just go and do your own work. I want to sleep." Sleep".
After saying this, Lin Wei had already begun to snore. Seeing this, Heydrich and Louis quietly walked out.
The Gestapo's intelligence agency in Austria was not idle either, paying close attention to the developments here: "The Austrian Chancellor is under strong pressure from both Jews and Catholics. Especially the Jews, who mainly launch attacks through the stock exchange. , putting pressure on the currency. Since the government announced the treaty with the Empire, there has been a massive outflow of capital, causing Austrian stocks in Switzerland and London and other countries to plummet. A large amount of Austrian currency was illegally smuggled out of the country, and the stock exchange had The market hasn’t opened since I woke up late…”
Heydrich immediately informed Lin Wei of the news. Lin Wei's immediate reaction after receiving the news was that "the Jews are seeking death." Although Germany at this time was not as anti-Semitic as it had been in history, Hitler still had a deep feeling for the Jews in his heart. of hatred. Furthermore, although Lin Wei's father, Gustav and the others have contacted many Junker nobles and big capitalists and swallowed up many Jewish properties, the strength of the Jews in the financial field is still there. It still firmly dominates Germany's fourth-tier economic lifeline.
The talent of the Jews in the financial field really gave Gustav and his friends a headache. Although the Junkers had the home advantage, they could not be completely driven out of Germany. Now Lin Wei understood Hitler. Historically, Hitler used the state machinery to completely eliminate them. I believe that after what happened in Austria, Hitler will start taking action against the Jewish forces in the country again.
In Austria, ordinary Austrian people seem indifferent to this kind of thing. It seems to them that as long as they live a good life, they don't care who rules them. The entire city of Vienna is lifeless, and occasionally there are dozens of serious people in the streets. Listening to the German radio broadcast, they immediately shouted after the broadcast: "Long live Germany! Hail for victory! Long live Hitler! Hello! Hitler!" It turned out that they were members of the National Socialist Party.
On April 24, Austrian Chancellor Schuschnigg gave a positive answer to Hitler's speech. This answer was made in the opening speech of the Austrian Federal Parliament. The speech will also be broadcast live via radio to the world. It is nothing more than an attempt to gain sympathy from the outside world, but now Britain and France are busy with their own affairs and have no time to care about other countries, and other countries cannot afford to offend Germany. Therefore, although his speech received widespread sympathy, this alone cannot stop Hitler. ambition.
Although Schuschnigg walked towards the podium with his head held high, his depressed expression made everyone feel that something was wrong. Since word had spread in advance that his speech would be full of gunpowder, people shouted "Schuschnigg! Schuschnigg!" as soon as he appeared.
"The only thing on the agenda of the meeting," Schuschnigg said slowly and in a tired tone, "is Austria."
As soon as he said these words, Schuschnigg received applause from the whole room. This moved the Austrian Prime Minister deeply, so he talked about the people who fought for Austria's independence, from Queen Marie Theresa to Dolphin. His speech was so emotional that it brought people to tears.
He emphasized that Austria had reached the point where "we must stop and no longer retreat." He ended his speech with an exciting call: "Red-white-red (the colors of the Austrian flag), swear allegiance to the death!"
At this decisive moment, Schuschnigg decided to take one final desperate action. He announced that a referendum would be held on May 13. He wanted to ask the Austrian people whether they favored a "free, independent, united Austria - yes or no?"
News that Austria was going to hold a national referendum soon reached Germany, which was undoubtedly a slap in the face to Hitler. In front of Blomberg and others, Hitler had already boasted a lot, and Hitler knew that if this matter was not resolved satisfactorily, he would never hope to gain the respect of the generals of the Wehrmacht in the future.
Therefore, Hitler immediately ordered Deputy Head of State Hess to convey to the National Socialist Party in Austria, ordering them to hold a party conference in Vienna immediately. The head of state issued an order directly, and the efficiency was naturally astonishing. Soon the National Socialist Party in Austria finalized a plan to hold a conference in Vienna on the day of the referendum on May 13, and the news was conveyed to the Austrian government.
Lin Wei asked Louis to mobilize 4 divisions, about 65,000 people. After getting Hitler's approval, they had secretly entered the German-Austrian border. Now as long as Lin Wei gives an order, these people will immediately cross the border and march toward Austria. attack. .
Now that Hitler has decided to militaryly occupy Austria, he naturally wants to send smoke bombs to surrounding countries to let them know that this matter is just a domestic matter within Germany. It does no harm to them, and they should not be afraid of it.
At the same time, Hitler sent Prince Philip of Hesse as his special envoy to Rome to meet with Mussolini and obtain a "friendly promise" from the Italian fascist leader on the occupation of Austria. In this way, a stone in Hitler's heart fell to the ground, and he was overjoyed. After receiving a call from the Prince of Hesse, Hitler said, "I will never forget him!" "As soon as the Austrian incident is resolved, I am willing to share hardships and fate with him - no matter what happens!"
The only problem now is the attitude of Czechoslovakia. You must know that before World War II, Czechoslovakia was also a powerful country in Central Europe. It had an army that cannot be underestimated, the domestic industrial system was complete, and the mining industry was relatively rich. If Czechoslovakia wanted to unite with Austria at this time Opposing Germany together is indeed a headache for Germany.
However, the tireless Goering quickly solved the problem on the night of May 11. That night Goering met with Dr. Mastny, the Czech minister in Berlin. He used his honor to assure the ambassador that Czechoslovakia had nothing to fear from Germany and that the entry of German troops into Austria was "just a family matter." Hitler hoped to improve relations with Prague.
In turn, he demanded assurances from the Czech Republic that they would not mobilize. Dr. Mastny immediately spoke by phone to the Foreign Minister in Prague and then reported back to Göring that his country was not mobilizing and that Czechoslovakia had no intention of intervening in Austrian events. Reassured, Göring reiterated his pledges and said he was authorized to affirm them, and that Hitler had sworn to uphold them.
On May 12, all four divisions of the SS arrived at the German-Austrian border. Later that night, the troops of the 11th Division of the Wehrmacht had also been assembled. Now Germany has assembled a strong force of 220,000 troops on the German-Austrian border.
Facing the grim situation, Schuschnigg once again remembered that during the last Austrian crisis, Italian Prime Minister Mussolini sent troops to protect Austria. However, time has changed and now Italy and Germany are fighting fiercely and can no longer care about it. Original promise. Although Schuschnigg was angry, he did not change his decision. It was decided to rely on a referendum.
On May 13, Schuschnigg came to Bruck, where he gave a speech to the crowd who supported him, imploring them to use their own actions to save Austria. After the Austrian National Socialist Party learned the news, they also decided to hold the party conference in Bruck. Although the National Socialist Party in Austria has less than 100,000 members, for a party that is good at building momentum, these people have already enough.
People from the National Socialist Party came continuously from all over Austria, giving people the illusion that Austria was already dominated by the National Socialist Party. In the city of Bruck, unprepared people were definitely no match for the National Socialist Party, which was good at inspiring the atmosphere. The party members raised their hands and walked in goose. Everything seemed very fresh, especially attracting young people. The swastika flags were waving back and forth, and people selected from the party gave speeches. It was obvious that they were not like Schuschnigg. It can be compared to people who are more scholars than politicians.
People from the National Socialist Party often use the changes taking place in Germany to stimulate the nerves of the Austrians.
"Look, what was Germany like a few years ago? They were not as good as us then."
"The current Germany forces Britain and France to make concessions"
"We are all descendants of the Holy Roman Empire"
"The Führer is not a foreigner, he is an Austrian"
The National Socialist Party's words were like a sledgehammer, hitting people's hearts hard. After all, Germany's development in recent years has been obvious to all, while Austria's weakness is in contrast. At this time, the National Socialist Party members shouted "Long live victory! Long live Hitler! Hang Schuschnigg!..."