Time Slip Reiwa Japan

061 - Their Sea/Our Sea - 1

Germany, which is active in Southeast Asia, South America, and Africa, finds its main partner outside its own territory in China. In particular, securing resources and rare materials in exchange for selling combat aircraft, tanks, and other military equipment has become a vital issue for the German economy. As a result, private enterprises were more proactive in engaging in exchanges and trade with China than the government. They traded weapons and ammunition for medical supplies, food, clothing, and various other goods.

Although not in a full-blown war state, the China-America/Frontier Republic confrontation triggered by the Manchurian Incident led China to adopt a de facto wartime posture and increasingly purchase supplies. It was only natural that German companies were thriving as a result.

Furthermore, the Soviet Union, eyeing the Siberian Republic, also made purchases of military supplies from Germany, and even more importantly, it procured the resources necessary for the development of heavy industries. Moreover, Germany was able to receive a stable supply of oil, the lifeblood of its economy, from Venezuela.

Through revitalized diplomacy and the efforts of the Ministry of Propaganda, the atmosphere within Germany became highly enthusiastic, giving rise to an unprecedented sense of economic prosperity.

. . .

Germany

Germany had a contract to sell a large quantity of military supplies, led by the Panzer IVs, to China. However, the transportation of these supplies did not go smoothly. The first problem was the shipping capacity of the German maritime industry—specifically, the quantity and scale of cargo ships.

It's not that Germany didn't have cargo ships of its own. However, most of them were already being used for private trade, and there were very few large ships available for the German government to charter that could reach China without making any stopovers. While requisitioning was not impossible, Hitler had pledged not to burden the private sector, making it politically difficult. The reason for requiring no stopovers during the voyage was that Germany was in a state of conflict with the international community, with G4 being the main opposition. If they were to make a port call at the colonies held by Britain and France worldwide, they had no idea what kind of harassment they might face.

Germany had made that judgment. They feared being denied resupply or denied landing and worried that their supplies might be seized under false pretenses.

Moreover, there was the presence of the United States.

The United States loudly condemned the sale of military supplies to China and declared that they would take countermeasures.

At this point, the Security Council of the League of Nations had passed a resolution *1 urging member countries of the League of Nations to exercise restraint in selling military supplies to China in order to deter the recurrence and escalation of military conflicts occurring in China's territory. Germany was afraid that the United States would interpret this resolution broadly and dispatch warships to seize German cargo ships on the high seas. Therefore, Germany extracted two ships, the battleship Scharnhorst and the armored ship Admiral Graf Spee, from its active-duty large ships, incorporated disguised cruisers and supply ships, and formed a convoy escort unit known as the Monsun Gruppe. *2

Regarding the route, Germany successfully obtained the cooperation of Portugal, which had a pro-fascist stance in diplomacy, and was able to use Portuguese Mozambique as a stopover point along the way. There, they could replenish fresh water, food, and fuel. However, supplying the large ships, including battleships, required an enormous amount of resources, and it was quite challenging to meet those needs in the remote Portuguese Mozambique. Therefore, Germany provided Portugal with funds in addition to the compensation for the supplied materials and requested prior accumulation of the supplies.