Chapter 694: Population

The third salvo also failed to hit the distant American warship. After all, at this range, the accuracy of naval guns was a matter of faith. If you didn’t believe in a solid god, it would be extremely difficult to hit the enemy’s ship directly. The 280mm cannon was not designed to deal with enemy destroyers, but rather to intimidate cruisers that came looking for trouble.

After all, the Americans’ luck had not yet run out to the point of being like the German Navy’s armored cruiser Admiral Graf Spee, which had been sunk by the Royal Navy with just a few shots in poor visibility at night. Such situations were a minority within a minority in naval warfare. Most naval battles consisted of both sides firing at each other for half an hour without a clear winner.

The Germans had wanted to sink that destroyer, but unfortunately, their firepower density did not meet the standard for a saturation attack, and their rate of fire was not much superior. After three salvos, the Germans did not waste any more ammunition. They regretfully turned their turrets back to their normal positions, lowered the battle flag, and canceled the level one combat alert.

“Sorry, we failed to sink that American destroyer.” Not long after, a telegram came from the armored cruiser Lützow, reporting the results of the recent shelling. Although they had not achieved any real combat results, they had thoroughly shocked a whole ship full of German-American citizens. Now, in the eyes of these people, their own country was a true great power. After all, to have a powerful motherland was an incredibly proud and attractive thing for the common people.

“Captain, sir, may I be so bold as to ask, is our motherland still as weak and dilapidated as it was at the end of the last war?” Kohler was a businessman, after all. He would have to find a decent job as soon as possible after returning to his homeland. If Germany was still struggling economically, that would definitely not be a good sign for a businessman.

The captain of the transport ship No. 317 smiled, then leaned against the railing in the sea breeze, holding his hat, and said, “Under the leadership of our great Führer, Germany has become the most powerful country in the world. The entire country’s industry and agriculture are thriving. The unemployment rate has been less than one percent for three consecutive years.”

What this captain didn’t know was that, thanks to the efforts of the powerful SS “recruitment” offices, basically all suitable candidates had been recommended for various positions. In addition, because Germany’s occupied territories were so vast, many positions were held by Germans with multiple concurrent jobs. Germany was now definitely short of manpower, with a large number of positions waiting for people to fill them.

Of course, there was another, unknown side to it. The German SS had rounded up some social riffraff and unambitious people and sent them to concentration camps. Although these people were used to being lazy, when faced with the prospect of going from being a camp administrator to a camp worker if they didn’t work, their enthusiasm for work soared, especially after a batch of stubborn ones were actually shot…

“Is the economy really that good?” Kohler was taken aback. After Roosevelt launched his entire economic stimulus plan, it had taken the Americans ten years to emerge from the financial crisis of 1922. But Germany, in an almost insane operation, had accumulated a large amount of initial capital and had managed to “stay out of trouble” when the financial crisis hit.

Kohler had, of course, heard of this German economic miracle. But to use such a not-so-large sum of money to create a snowball effect within Germany, to stimulate domestic demand and economic growth, and to mobilize the Wehrmacht to engage in subsidiary activities such as farming—this was inside information that outsiders could not know. And the MEFO bills were something that did not exist in the eyes of the German high command. This thing existed independently, relying on the war cycle, and invisibly pushed Germany’s war and economy to roll forward.

“You’ll know when you get there. The reason we went to all this trouble to bring you here is because we don’t have enough manpower now,” the captain said, taking a pipe from his pocket and putting it in his mouth. “You have no idea how many methods we’ve thought of to make up for the labor shortage.”

…

At the same time, at an important port in the Mediterranean, the logistics and supply center for the German-Italian joint forces in North Africa, Port Brega. A cargo ship was slowly approaching a huge pier. The long, drawn-out sound of its steam whistle carried far and wide. Everything seemed to be far from the war. Even the Italian soldiers patrolling with rifles on their backs appeared lax and leisurely.

However, as the ship docked at the pier, the Italian soldiers, under the watchful eyes of the German officers, opened the warehouse. A group of scantily clad refugees appeared before everyone’s eyes. To their surprise, these were all black people from Africa, and judging by their physique, they had been selected according to certain conditions.

A black man in a German military uniform proudly pointed at the group of slightly malnourished men and introduced them in fluent German, “According to the agreement between our two sides, 1,000 strong men. Almost all of them have killed before and are very good warriors. So, where is the stuff I want?”

The German officer, with his hands behind his back, smiled and pointed with his chin at the boxes of supplies being unloaded. He replied, “The stuff you want is over there. Enough for you to establish your own country in the required territory, provided you have people to use it.”

“You don’t have to worry about that. The rest of the payment is here. Count it!” The black man, who was wearing an SS uniform without any rank insignia, threw a simple, patched bag to the German officer. The material was similar to sackcloth but rougher. It might have been a local specialty fabric, or it might just have been sackcloth that had been used for too long.

Opening the cloth bag, the German officer saw that it was filled with a dense mass of gems and diamonds of all colors, glittering so brightly in the sunlight that it was hard to keep one’s eyes open. He closed the bag, smiled, and put it in his briefcase. He extended his hand and shook the black man’s. “The Third Reich supports the cause of freedom for the African people. We hope to become good friends with the ancient and long-standing Africa. For good friends, we are very generous…”

“In fact, we are not very satisfied with the T-26 tank. If possible, we are willing to buy 50 Panther tanks. Name a price, and I will not bargain,” the African proxy supported by Germany, a black leader known as General Fkuman, said. He had studied in Germany for a period, so he knew more about German weapons and equipment.

“General Fkuman, we don’t even have enough of those tanks to equip our own troops. It’s really not for sale, is it? This batch of T-26 tanks was only sent as an exception because the Führer hoped that the cooperation between us could begin as soon as possible,” the German officer said with an apologetic smile, rejecting the black general’s request.

Even he himself felt that this was going a bit too far. He had managed to sell 50 T-26 tanks, 400 old P-38 submachine guns, and 10,000 Mauser 98k rifles for a sky-high price, in exchange for 1,000 black slaves and enough diamonds to pay off many debts. The only decent thing was that Germany had promised to build a 30-kilometer-long railway for Africa, with the location to be chosen by this General Fkuman.

When Germany began to experience a population shortage, Akado and August had turned their attention to the black people of Africa for labor. German influence had penetrated into the interior of Africa and had incited wars between the black peoples. The benefit was that it had created a new sales channel for outdated military hardware, and from time to time, they could get a batch of decent black prisoners of war. These people might have some problems with precision engineering, but they were a good choice for laborers in the ports.

And so, more than 1,900 black prisoners of war had already been sent to Europe to serve as laborers in the inefficient small ports along the Italian coast. Although these people were lazy and lacked discipline, they got along quite well with the similarly dispositioned Italians. Within the army, some black people had even been added on a trial basis to do some logistical transport and manual labor. The number was not large, only about 120.

This was a bold experiment by the German authorities. On the other hand, the Germans were also trying their best to supplement the pure German population. For families with three children, the government would provide a free Porsche Kübelwagen. For families with four children, the mother could receive two salaries as a government childcare subsidy. The government required every family to have at least two children and provided free nine-year compulsory education for all children.

So it is not difficult to understand what kind of treatment these German-Italian citizens who had returned to Germany from the United States would receive. When they disembarked, the docks were already filled with representatives from companies recruiting employees. From skilled workers to professional managers, all conceivable positions required a large number of people, and the government even provided them with free housing with a two-year rent exemption. Here, they instantly found the feeling of home.

However, in secret, the work of screening for American spies was also proceeding in an orderly manner. Many people were repeatedly investigated several times, and those who were likely to have been planted as spies were isolated and assigned to jobs that did not involve contact with industrial secrets, without making a fuss. As for why the SS and Wehrmacht intelligence departments were so cautious, it was because they had also planted a large number of spies among the German-Americans who had fled to the United States. The saying “the one who knows you best is often your opponent” could not be more apt here.

In the midst of the lively declaration of war between Germany and the United States, November quietly passed. The cold month of December finally arrived, and at this time, approaching Christmas, the German and Soviet forces on the Eastern Front were brewing a world-shaking battle.

Published: 2025-09-19T06:58:45.000+00:00
Last Edited: 2026-02-26T18:22:07.000+00:00
URL: https://www.patreon.com/caleredhair/posts/mtr-c694-139241926

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