Chapter 656: German-Soviet War (13)

"It's hard to handle!"

Timoshenko sighed deeply. Comrade Stalin's order was to rescue hundreds of thousands of troops trapped in the German encirclement. But it is obvious that this is not an easy task, and it can even be said to be an almost impossible task.

Continue to attack?

The German army completely occupied the air superiority, and the ground troops' attack could not be scaled up and could only be used as a fueling tactic.

"Have you contacted the troops in the encirclement?"

The officer from the communications department of the headquarters shook his head cautiously. "Comrade Commander, the radio has been unable to be contacted. We suspect that it is radio interference carried out by the German army. In this case, unless the German army closes the jamming facilities, communication cannot be restored."

Timoshenko did not know much about this technical aspect and did not delve into it. Although the specific situation in the encirclement was not known, the food carried by the troops was only enough to last for two days. No matter how much they saved, it would not last four or five days, and there was not much ammunition. If the Germans launched an attack, those troops would easily fall into a desperate situation of running out of ammunition and food. Even if the German army failed to attack, the troops would not be able to hold out for a week. There were only two options for them, either to fight to death before starving to death, or to surrender.

If you want to airdrop supplies to them, let alone whether you can avoid the German air interception. Even if you are lucky enough to escape, how many airdrops can you drop to hundreds of thousands of troops to make them hold on?

Just as Timoshenko was racking his brains to find a way, Yannick came to the German Space Launch Base.

The later European Space Launch Center was located in French Guyana on the Atlantic coast of northern South America. This location is close to the equator and has great benefits for rocket launches: the low latitude means that the journey from the launch point to the orbit entry point is greatly shortened. The stage does not need to be started twice; the orbital inclination angle with the same launch azimuth angle is small, and the energy required for apogee orbit change is small, which increases the payload of the synchronous orbit; there is a wide launch arc on the sea to the north and east; population, Traffic and weather conditions are ideal, etc.

However, it is currently impossible to go to South America to build a launch base. We can only build a space base somewhere in the Algerian Sahara Desert.

The special plane landed smoothly on the runway of the space base. Through the plane window, he saw the tall launch tower in the distance and the milky white rocket surrounded by the tower. Yannick couldn't help but feel emotional.

In 1957, in the original time and space, the Soviet Union launched the first artificial satellite in human history, triggering a space race between the United States and the Soviet Union. However, few people know that as early as the 1930s, the Germans formulated a detailed space colonization plan in an attempt to achieve Aryan domination of the world and the universe.

In March 1939, Mustache met von Braun and other scientists for the first time, and he admired this scientist with a broad vision. Especially when they talked about ideas such as "space colonization", the two hit it off.

As a result, a detailed space plan was officially launched: on the basis of developing rockets to carry bombs, military spy satellites were developed. This was followed by the launch of a manned spacecraft, with the ultimate goal of establishing a permanent base on the moon to solve problems such as resources, energy and living space for the Germanic nation. Mustache also hopes to use the moon as a transit station to send Germans to Mars and even farther into space.

Mustache declared that this would be a "leap of faith" for the Germanic nation. In order to support this plan, he awarded von Braun the title of "Honorary Professor" and personally ordered the establishment of the Penamünde base for space research. The base had state-of-the-art laboratories at the time. Germany's best scientists in physics, chemistry, aeronautics and other fields also gather here. In just one year, the Germans conducted 25 launches of launch vehicles, tested three guidance systems, and made significant progress, which provided an important basis for the design of the A-4 rocket.

In October 1942, the Germans launched an A4 rocket into space 100 kilometers away from the earth's surface. Of course, its flight cannot be called entering space, but it is a decisive step for humans to enter space and proves the fundamental possibility of reaching outer space.

But everything that followed completely shattered this dream of a great power. As the German army was retreating steadily, Mustache had to stop his space dream. After Germany's defeat, these scientists who studied the space program were divided between the United States and the Soviet Union. Among them, von Braun went to the United States to continue his space dream. In 1969, he developed the Saturn giant rocket and Apollo 11. Sent to the moon.

Now, Yannick is walking faster than anyone and hopefully further.

Seeing His Royal Highness the Crown Prince walking out of the cabin door, the crowd on the ground burst into enthusiastic cheers, and many people even burst into tears with excitement. Yannick couldn't help but think of the crowd's reaction when a certain fat man appeared on stage in later generations.

Walking down the gangway, he extended his hand to Dr. Obert, who was standing at the front. "Dr. Obert, thank you and all of you for your contributions to humanity."

Dr. Obert's eyes were a little red with excitement. "Your Highness, you have spoken harshly, and I really cannot live up to it. Compared with your contribution, Your Highness, what we have done is really insignificant."

Yannick shook hands with the scientists and engineers present.

After everyone returned to their respective posts, only Dr. Obert and a few other persons in charge were left with Yannick. Yannick noticed that young von Braun seemed hesitant to speak. "Dr. Braun, if you have any problems, it's okay to speak up. There's no need to hide it. Are there any technical problems that can't be solved?"

"It's not a technical problem." Von Braun shook his head. "Your Highness, why must this launch be kept absolutely secret? Shouldn't such an exciting moment be celebrated by the whole country?"

Yannick couldn't help but smile. "Dr. Braun, as scientists, you only need to be responsible for scientific research projects, while I, the crown prince, need to be responsible for the entire empire. Do you know what will happen after the war? Of course, it is based on the premise that we win the final victory."

Several scientists looked at each other. "Celebrate together?" They couldn't think of any other adjectives.

Yannick shook his head. "That was just the first few days and weeks. After the war, there will be a kind of 'post-war syndrome' in society, such as inflation, rising prices, unemployment, etc. Even if we are the victorious country, we can't avoid this problem. The first two are inevitable problems caused by the adjustment of the wartime economy to the peacetime economy, and the latter is caused by the return of a large number of veterans to society and the reduction of employees in military-industrial enterprises. In addition, there are the troubles and impacts caused by the concentrated outbreak of various social problems. Tsk, just thinking about it makes me feel headache."

Take the United States in World War II as an example. In the third year after the end of World War II, the United States experienced the first economic crisis after the war. This crisis was a sudden outbreak after the United States experienced a short period of prosperity after the war. The fundamental reason for the crisis was that civilian production was greatly compressed during the war, and all production lines served the production of war materials. Residents had accumulated a large amount of deposits, and the supply capacity of social products was not enough to maintain the daily market balance. After the war, the huge deposits in the hands of residents and the products produced by the large number of production lines sold cheaply to capitalists by the US government all poured into the consumer market, which to a certain extent also caused inflation.

At the same time, the deficit policy implemented during the New Deal of Roosevelt to save the US economy, and the subsequent series of US expenditures in World War II, the US national debt increased more than 40 times in a few years. When the war ended, national bonds flowed into the financial market and required cash, which objectively increased the amount of money issued. Moreover, with the cessation of price controls on some commodities and the inability to guarantee supply in the short term, US prices were out of control in the short term.

However, the US-Soviet Cold War had already begun at that time, and the first large-scale hot war since the Cold War broke out in East Asia. US military spending rose sharply, and many military factories resumed production. The huge economic driving capacity enabled the United States to quickly get rid of the crisis and usher in economic prosperity.

"So this exciting event should be announced at that time, which can ease many problems."

"Your Highness is really far-sighted." Everyone showed an expression of sudden enlightenment, with sincere admiration in their eyes.