Derek Pennington: The German Peace

Von Brauchitsch’s successor as Chancellor had been a very reluctant General von Mannstein. The election of von Mannstein displayed how well the Governing Council worked. All of the Ministers, after being given several days to think about it, had unanimously elected the General as being the most suitable to lead Germany. He was not chosen for his politics, or because he had a personal power base. It was simply because he was the best man for the job. The others had put their country before any personal ambition they may have had.

Von Altendorf had ruled himself out for the leadership, as he intended to retire by no later than 1950. In the meantime he had remained as a sure guiding hand within the Council over the past twenty months since the election of the new Chancellor.

He cast his mind back over the past ten years.

The biggest single change, he supposed, was the absolute peace and security in Europe. A peace guaranteed by good governance, prosperity and strong military forces. It was not the illusional peace of countries with their heads buried the sand, such as existed in the mid-thirties during the time of appeasement and misguided pacifism among the political elites.

Evil takes place when good men and women do nothing!

Neither was the current world peace guaranteed by ineffectual talk shops like the United Nations. Von Altendorf believed that the Americans now earnestly wished they had avoided this entanglement. Most of its members seemed to be using it as a forum to berate richer countries and at the same time, ask for money!

Germany and Europe had stood firm and politely ignored them. It is your mess, America. You fix it.

Since the end of the European War, the ideology of communism had been exposed for what it was, and discredited around the world. It was virtually now non-existent outside of the Soviet Union. And even in that totalitarian country, things were changing, albeit at a slow pace. Nikita Khrushchev had actually advised the Soviet Politburo of the need for ‘de-Stalinisation’ in their country. The Soviet Union was no longer automatically seen as anti-western. Khrushchev had even visited the United States earlier this year.

Remarkable!

The arms limitation agreements in Europe were working. Armed forces, including Russia’s, had generally shrunk by at least thirty percent in the last couple of years. The United States was also abiding by the same principles of arms limitations, even though she had never been a signatory to the agreement.

China and Japan were co-operating more with each other, and the danger of war in the Far East had accordingly receded. They were both still viewed the Soviet Union — and each other — with some suspicion, but the outright hostility of earlier years had diminished.

It was developments like this that amply demonstrated that competitors or hostile neighbours can, over an extended period of time, learn to co-operate with each other and make war or conflict less likely.

France, Italy and Holland had shed the bulk of their empires. Britain had granted independence to India, and was also now about to embark on getting rid of other millstones around their neck in Africa.

In von Altendorf’s view the undoubted greatest success of all in the less decade was that the five most brutal dictators or near dictators in the world, had met the just desserts; Hitler, Mussolini, Tojo, Zedong, and Stalin. ‘And I can personally vouch that your countries and people are much happier and safer now, you evil bastards,’ he whispered to them.

The inept and corrupt politicians and governments, so evident before the European War, now found little tolerance among the populations of Europe. Perhaps people have matured since the near cataclysm!

Not only was Europe and the world a safer place, it was also more prosperous. World trade had more than doubled in the last decade, and there was no end in sight of its continued expansion.

All of these things, Germany, and its Governing Council under Walther von Brauchitsch, had featured in. A fact, of which, von Altendorf was extraordinarily proud.

Men make history, not the other way around. In periods when there is no leadership, society stagnates. Progress occurs when courageous and skilful leaders seize the opportunity to change things for the better.

If there was anything that concerned him about the future it was ‘religious bigotry’. After studying the India situation in recent times, and world history for more years than he cared to remember, he had glimpsed the intolerant nature of many Muslim clerics. This may well develop out of control in future years unless the problem is confronted sooner rather than later!

Germany itself was now the strongest military power in the world. It also had the world’s largest economy. Its aircraft industry, partnered by Great Britain, was producing half of the world’s aircraft.

The two renowned German military aircraft, the ME262 fighter, and the Junkers Kaiseradler or Canberra medium bomber, were unsurpassed by any other country. The military version of the Starflight airliner was the workhorse of more than twenty air forces.

The new jet airliner, the Komet, was an unpatrolled success. It had entered service at the beginning of 1950 and was being purchased by the world’s airlines as fast as the factory could turn them out. The jet age had been ushered in by German ingenuity.

The German national airline, Lufthansa, was considerably larger than the next largest airline in the world. Part of this success was due their unquestioning faith in, first the Starflight, then the Komet.

If copying is a form of flattery, then the American aircraft manufacturer, Boeing, had flattered the Germans by designing an almost exact copy of the Komet. They were calling it the Boeing 707. It would be ready to enter service in another two years.

While still on the subject of weapons, after many years of trial and error, the Luftwaffe’s stand-off bomb guidance system had finally been perfected. It was classified as top secret, so von Altendorf knew almost nothing about the technical details. He knew only that it was a reported as a devastatingly effective weapon.

There were hints of a truly terrible future weapon. A super-bomb being developed in conjunction with the atomic energy project that Albert Speer believed had such great potential. Von Altendorf thought that he would rather not know about it. Let me die with a clear conscience.

Von Braun had greatly improved his ballistic missiles. The older, intermediate range A4, had a range of up to three hundred and twenty kilometres, accuracy to within one hundred metres, and delivered a one thousand kilogramme explosive warhead. The newer, longer range A5, had a range of up to one thousand kilometres, far enough to reach Moscow, Leningrad and Stalingrad from Alliance territory. It was accurate to within two and fifty hundred metres and delivered a one thousand five hundred kilogramme warhead.

Von Braun had said he could design and build bigger missiles with greatly increased range if called upon to do so.

There was no defence against these weapons. Maybe the Soviets had got wind of them, and it was this that had persuaded them to be co-operative with the west!

The successful multiple firing of A4 rockets from an experimental U-boat last year, added a new and sinister dimension to sea warfare. Apparently no other nation had, as yet, even contemplated such a thing.

Perhaps even more spectacular was von Braun’s newest toy, called Bluerock . This was basically a more sophisticated version of the A5 missile, and was designed to lift a small payload into orbit around the earth. Mankind’s first step into space!