Chapter 495: The Container
Akado looked at the intelligence report in his hand, then glanced at the extremely anxious General Gascoigne. He handed the paper to Anna, who was standing to the side. “Top secret document. Burn it. Leave no trace.”
“Yes, my Führer!” Anna said, snapping to attention. She took the report and, without a glance, walked to a corner and began to pour a little gasoline into a brazier. The gasoline was in a glass bottle, kept in the corner for destroying important documents and messages.
After handing the report to Anna, Akado turned his gaze back to General Gascoigne. “Gascoigne, the subversive activities of British spies in our country have always existed. Your men have cracked eighty, if not a hundred, such cases. So this matter is no different. Just handle it according to procedure.”
“My Führer, this spy case is the first malignant incident involving the active participation of a high-ranking German official since the Junker assassination attempt. That is why this subordinate has come to ask for the Führer’s instructions on how to handle it,” Gascoigne said, finally voicing the worries in his heart as he bowed his head to Akado.
Akado narrowed his eyes, looking somewhat helpless. “What are you worried about? Einstein is just one of the heads of the Imperial Academy of Sciences. He can’t be considered a truly high-ranking official. Are you afraid of some trouble?”
“My Führer, Einstein… has always had a good relationship with you…” Gascoigne had no choice but to speak the truth. “This subordinate is afraid that a rash move will put you in a difficult position.”
“Difficult? Why would I be in a difficult position? I have many friends. Krupp, Bosch, August… including you, you are all my friends. Are you saying that for the sake of one Einstein, I would betray so many of you? He has betrayed Germany, which means he has betrayed the friendship between us! Do what you have to do!” Akado said sternly.
“Yes, my Führer!” Having received Akado’s order, Gascoigne immediately stood at attention and saluted. The Führer’s words, “including you, you are all my friends,” warmed his heart. It seemed the Einstein case was no longer such a difficult problem.
Akado nodded, then, as if remembering something, added, “Use a long line to catch a big fish. Lure out all these British spies and try to catch all these dangerous elements lurking within the Reich in one net! Monitor everyone Einstein comes into contact with, and identify all the key targets. I want to see what the British are planning!”
“Understood! Long live the Führer, Akado Rudolph!” Gascoigne replied, standing at attention.
The next morning, Akado and his entourage left Berlin by train to inspect the naval port of Wilhelmshaven. There, he would review his Imperial Navy’s High Seas Fleet, personally board the newest, fifth aircraft carrier, the Prinz Eugen, and meet with the two commanders in charge of the surface and submarine fleets, his trusted favorites Lütjens and Dönitz.
The train sped towards Wilhelmshaven, and Akado took advantage of this rare moment of leisure to catch up on sleep. Last night, he had stayed up late organizing the industrial integration plan for the Paris area and had approved Speer’s plan to accelerate the development of new materials and to complete the development of a practical jet engine ahead of schedule. In his approval, he had stated that they should do their best to conduct solid experiments to avoid affecting the engine’s service life and reliability.
Immediately after, in the early morning, he had reviewed the final report submitted by Rommel on the key points of desert warfare. The commander-in-chief of the German and Italian forces in Africa had launched a limited counter-attack but had not found the main force of the American and British armies. So he had cautiously halted his advance and, instead of acting rashly, was waiting for all his troops to arrive in Africa.
On the afternoon of April 29th, 1938, the Führer of the Holy Greater German Third Reich, Akado Rudolph, arrived at the naval port of Wilhelmshaven and began his inspection. But the moment he arrived, he was stunned by the scene before him.
Countless supplies were piled up chaotically on the docks. Cranes were loading these messy supplies onto ships bound for Britain. Longshoremen and trucks waiting for supplies were everywhere. Shouts, steam whistles, and car horns mingled together. The whole scene was not much different from a wet market in Akado’s mind.
Perhaps this was a performance specially prepared for Akado by the port authorities, to prove that they were transporting the German army’s strategic materials at top speed. But it was clear that the Führer did not like this performance. He frowned, his face a mask of frost. Even Anna, who was accompanying him, felt the chill.
“My Führer, it is too noisy here. If you don’t mind, we can proceed immediately to the naval base to review your fleet,” Grand Admiral Raeder, who was standing on Akado’s other side, said. He was clearly better at reading the mood and immediately made a suggestion to the displeased Akado.
“Find the person in charge of the Wilhelmshaven naval port and the businessman who has the contract for military transport! I have important matters to arrange!” Akado said, frowning as he looked at the sacks, which were piled up like small mountains and labeled with things like “flour” or “potatoes.” He felt that there were too many details that he needed to personally attend to and improve.
Akado was not the protagonist of a novel who had carefully prepared for his transmigration. The moment before he was electrocuted, he was still flirting with a beautiful student in his class. So he was not the kind of super-strong person who could arrange everything from the beginning and be one step ahead of the world. More often than not, he would forget many minor details and would only remember them later, suddenly realizing that there were still many things he had not handled well.
He was not the kind of tech guru who could think of steelmaking and then deduce the techniques of coal-based steelmaking and blast furnace production. Nor was he the kind of scientific madman who could think of fighter jets and then, with a slap of his thigh, tell others how to produce them. He too wanted the German army to use J-7s and J-8s to dominate the world, but let alone jet engines, he wasn’t even very clear on how to produce a screw.
Sometimes, the great minds of this era would come and think of these details for him. For example, the chemical tycoon Bosch had already begun to prepare biological oil refining technology long before Akado had requested it and had begun to popularize these chemical plants on a large scale. For example, August would handle the relationships between the various groups in the country for him, so Akado didn’t have to get too entangled in the endless internal strife.
But sometimes, there was no one to help him fill in these details, like the situation now. The shipping container, which was ubiquitous in Akado’s previous life, to the point that some artists and poor people used them as houses, had not yet been invented in this time. America, Germany, Britain, Japan—everyone was using sacks to pack their scattered supplies and haphazardly piling them into the holds of their ships.
While waiting for the men to be summoned, Akado sketched the appearance of the container from his previous life on a piece of paper with a pencil. He had already marked down some of the key data, such as standardizing the dimensions of the container according to the width and length of trucks and railway cars, and using the same kind of corrugated iron as the fuselage of a Ju-52 to strengthen the container. And how to classify and use different colored containers, and so on.
“My Führer, you are truly a genius,” Raeder, who was accompanying Akado on his inspection of the port, said, having immediately seen the broad prospects of this device after looking at Akado’s design.
With this means of transport, the chaotic port would immediately become more efficient. The speed of moving supplies would be multiplied, and the transport capacity of the navy would be raised to a new level. Such a small improvement would increase Germany’s transport efficiency by about a fifth without adding a single ship.
As expected, when the shipping magnates saw Akado’s design, they couldn’t take their eyes off it. They had finally witnessed what a true genius was. With this thing, as long as they designed a special transport ship, these shipping magnates were certain that they could transport the cargo of two ships for the cost of one.
Profit, profit! What improvement was more alluring than one that could increase profits? This design was clearly not for free. The other party was not some poor, down-on-his-luck patent holder who could be dismissed with a little bit of money. The other party was the Führer of the Reich. So anyone who wanted to use this technology had to consider whether their own head was hard enough.
“This is provided to you for free,” Akado said. He had no time to haggle with these businessmen now. If he wanted to get rich, he had countless resources that could be sold for even more exaggerated prices. What he was doing now was to tap Germany’s war potential, so he had to seize every second. “But you will have to pay for the modification of the existing ships and the construction of the subsequent ones yourselves. You will discuss the standards with the highway and railway departments. In three days, I want to hear the results from Krupp and Bosch. Understood?”
The Führer was truly the Führer! To just give away such a good thing for everyone to use! The several shipping tycoons immediately beamed with joy, bowing and scraping as they began to sing the praises of the Führer’s wisdom and greatness. Akado said a few words of encouragement to each of them, then hurried to the naval base to inspect his High Seas Fleet.
And from this moment on, the docks in Germany began to be refitted with more powerful giant cranes and to gradually switch to containers. Red for urgent military supplies, blue for regular military supplies, and unpainted for ordinary and civilian supplies. A very simple classification method, coupled with a manifest and the markings on the containers, made transport and distribution clear at a glance.
Published: 2025-08-30T04:15:39.000+00:00
Last Edited: 2025-11-30T16:05:12.000+00:00
URL: https://www.patreon.com/caleredhair/posts/mtr-c495-137683435
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