I Became Stalin?!

Chapter 18:

“I believe in only one thing, the power of human will.”

― Joseph Stalin

Chapter 18

Hitler leaned back on his chair and began to think.

If he could dominate the Mediterranean, he could force Turkey, which was isolated in the sea, to join the war. 

They could then stab the soft underbelly of the Soviet Union, the Caucasus.

He would also open a way from the Atlantic to the Black Sea, and his fleet could attack Odessa, where the headquarters of the Southern Group of Forces was located, and Sevastopol, the base of the Black Sea Fleet.

He could secure the oil fields in Libya safely, put Suez under the control of the Axis powers, and drag India into the war. 

Controlling the Mediterranean was essential for dominating Europe, Asia, and Africa.

If he could decisively defeat Britain in one battle, he would gain control of the North Sea and the Atlantic.

He could also persuade Finland, which was intimidated by the Soviet threat, to join the war.

He might even be able to force Sweden, which claimed neutrality while secretly cooperating with them, to join the war. 

If the Scandinavian countries joined the war, he could aim for Leningrad, which the Northern Group of Forces had not yet reached.

Rommel’s tank divisions that conquered Africa, Britain, and now Leningrad! 

How would ‘Stalin’ react if his rear areas were devastated by them?

He felt good. 

A smile that he couldn’t contain spread on his lips.

Soon Rasputitsa would come, and winter would come.

Rasputitsa might be a time for the Germans to stop their advance and for the Soviets to reorganize, but in fact, it was also a time when the Soviets could not inflict much damage on the Germans. 

In other words, it meant that no matter what chaos the Germans caused on the other side of the front line, the Soviets had no cards to use on the front line.

They couldn’t equip millions of German soldiers with winter equipment that they started producing too late. 

If it was inevitable that they would suffer heavy losses in front of the Soviet winter offensive, they had to prepare some measures that could shake up the Soviet Union in the meantime.

The Soviets were overwhelmingly superior in operational scale. 

In Operation Barbarossa, their… future man, who might not be Stalin but anyway was assumed to be Stalin, was surprised by the strategic aspect.

But he quickly reorganized and succeeded in stopping the German army at an operational scale. 

It was not good to push his army into the defensive line that he had built.

The best thing is to win without fighting.

Why send our soldiers to their strongest defensive line? 

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To give them more fertilizer for their land? 

The Caucasus and Leningrad were one of the most important places for the Soviet war effort.

But if they had to bury millions of troops to take them, it was not worth it. 

In real history, Hitler did so and fell. 

He had no intention of repeating his mistake.

“History… must not repeat itself.”

His homeland, his soul’s homeland Japan had to kneel before two atomic bombs from America.

They made many strategic-tactical mistakes and failed to develop atomic bombs early enough. 

Their pride, Yamato, the world’s best battleship, sank without being used properly by cowardly Anglo-American planes.

But now he had a chance. 

A chance to prevent his country’s misfortune.

He would punish Britain, subdue the Soviet Union, support Japan who would fight against America, and take control of this divided world…!

Did Oda Nobunaga feel this way when he unified Japan in the Warring States period?

He liked Oda Nobunaga very much. 

Just as he longed and wished for the glory of Japan. 

A powerful leader who would end this chaotic era…! 

Imitating Oda was also part of that. 

And it seemed to work well.

They were originally fanatical admirers of Hitler, but they feared him more when he became cold and rational. 

Haldar and other weaklings couldn’t stand up straight in front of him. 

More daring ones like Canaris were calm but couldn’t hide their tremors. Fear became awe, and awe became respect.

The current Führer was a respected leader.

“Admiral Wilhelm Canaris has arrived, my Führer.”

“Let him in.”

Canaris was not as timid as Haldar. 

He was always confident and never flattered Hitler. 

The Führer loved his loyal Canaris.

In real history, he plotted a rebellion against him, but that was only because he tried to stop Hitler who was running wild like a madman. 

How beautiful is a man who is loyal not to a person but to a nation and a people? 

Not those who are obsessed with their own interests and power.

There was no one like him among Nazi officials. 

Most of them either tried to please him or trembled before his authority. 

Or both.

Some, like Göring, were brazen enough to claim their share without any tact, but that was just a drunken rant. 

There were very few who had the guts and conviction like Canaris.

“I have received your order, my Führer.”

“Sit down.”

He had manners. 

Even though he was a soldier who rose to the rank of admiral, he saluted firmly and sat down with a thud. 

The Führer looked at him with satisfaction.

“Is the counterintelligence operation going smoothly?”

“Yes, my Führer. We proceeded as you ordered. MI-6 is convinced that the corpse we leaked is real. A U-boat on reconnaissance reported that they are pulling back their home fleet that they turned around to sink Bismarck.”

“How many ships can you have ready in Cadiz by next week?”

Canaris took out a bunch of reports from his pocket and put them on the table. 

The reports from Kriegsmarine detailed the movements and deception tactics of the fleet.

Bismarck and its escort fleet – both surface and underwater – would maneuver towards Scapa Flow in the north of Britain and lure the British home fleet. Meanwhile, most of the Axis surface fleet would gather in Gibraltar.

Franco, who expressed his willingness to join the Axis secretly, agreed to hide the Axis fleet in Cadiz, a Spanish port near Gibraltar. 

He would be ready to rush to Gibraltar and destroy the British naval base.

At this point, Afwehr planned and executed two deception tactics.

First, they threw Bismarck as a bait to attract the attention of the British navy, who would chase it and try to sink it. With the old code that was already leaking to them, they told them everything about where Bismarck was heading and how many escort ships it had.

Of course, there were many more U-boats as escorts.

And they leaked information about a landing on Britain through another route. 

The confirmed spies of MI-6, Britain’s foreign intelligence agency, received information from confirmed sources that Germany had started stockpiling materials for a large-scale landing operation.

Some said bridges, some said tracks for amphibious tanks, and some said parachutes for airborne troops. 

These fragmentary pieces of information led MI-6 to conclude that Germany was preparing for a landing operation of at least hundreds of thousands of troops somewhere.

At the same time, Afwehr prepared a corpse. 

The corpse named ‘Ignatz Dollmann’, a U-boat officer from Bavaria, drifted ashore in Britain with Germany’s ‘secret’ operation plan.

The secret operation plan contained details of a massive airborne operation against important cities in Britain such as Portsmouth, Dover, and Bexhill, and a landing operation involving almost all of Kriegsmarine’s surface ships except Bismarck.

Two field armies from Calais, Le Havre, and Cherbourg in northern France would land on the southern coast of Britain, surround London and march through Oxford to Norwich. 

The German armored divisions ‘that’ were already trained and waiting for this.

The British staff obtained this corpse and plan and hastily mobilized the Home Guard reserves and started training them on heavy weapons, anti-aircraft guns, etc.

At the same time, hedgehogs and mines began to fill up the coasts that were revealed as landing points. 

The British defense plan was excellent. 

Except that this plan was also part of a deception tactic.

Germany threw Bismarck as a bait to pretend to land on the southern coast while actually aiming for Gibraltar and Malta.

Even if they doubted that Bismarck was a bait, the huge bait of a landing operation made everyone in the British staff panic and unable to pay attention elsewhere.

While all this information was leaking to Britain through the old Enigma code, the real attack direction of Gibraltar operation was carried out secretly through the latest 8-stage Enigma – codenamed Triton – that they had never heard or seen before.

“Make sure you have enough landing materials and manage them well. We will need a landing operation at least once if we want to punish Britain.”

“Yes, my Führer! I will pay attention to that as well.”

After he brought down the British forces in the Mediterranean, he had a real landing operation waiting for him.

Even if their code system was broken again and information about the landing operation leaked out, there was no way that Britain’s reaction would be as thorough as it was now after being deceived once.

Also, an uprising by Chandra Bose that would shake up British India was waiting for the British who lost the Mediterranean.

“Chandra Bose…”

The Indian independence activist and advocate of armed resistance against Britain had already embarked on his journey to India. 

He would cross the Balkans and ‘neutral’ countries Turkey and Iran to India and start an armed struggle to liberate India from Britain – and join the Axis powers.

He led the Provisional Government of Free India under which dozens of German military advisers accompanied him. 

Since Germany could not supply them with materials yet, the best they could do was train an army with the level of armament of a militia.

But in the east, Japan was advancing, and in the west, Germany was advancing. 

All that was left were the British who were trapped in between by internal rebellion and external enemies.

His ultimate goal was to join India to the Axis powers and create a huge Eurasian sphere of influence. 

The two pillars and leaders of the Eurasian sphere of influence… the Japanese Empire and the German Empire. 

He began to laugh hysterically under the influence of Pervitin.

“Am I not… a better strategist than Oda?”

“What? My Führer?”

His secretary asked, but the Führer just waved his hand. 

The secretary just left him alone with a faint smile as he muttered incomprehensibly, scribbled strange doodles on paper, and laughed and cried by himself.

The number of drugs prescribed by his physician Dr. Morell was increasing. 

And the time he spent on Pervitin was getting longer. 

He spoke words that no one could understand, wrote illegible scribbles on paper, and got angry or cried or laughed by himself.

The secretary could not understand his behavior at all… but Dr. Goebbels and his chief secretary Bormann said that he was the leader and ‘prophet’ of the German people. 

Don’t try to understand everything he does. 

Keep silent about what you see and hear.

The Führer burst into a mad laughter.

“Heil Hitler!”

The secretary saluted and left.