Chapter 87:

February 18, 1940

Berlin, Northern Germany, Government Building The scientist I had brought with me, Wernher von Braun, was in the middle of a passionate speech in front of my father.

“So, Your Excellency! This rocket technology can provide mankind with the opportunity to reach space! Just think of it! Mankind, which has always only gazed at the cosmos from afar, can now reach out and touch it!”

But my father, Hjalmar Schacht, just looked at him with a ‘so what?’ expression.

It made me feel awkward as well.

“You may not feel it now, but this is truly a great advancement in science and a dream and hope for all mankind! We have already seen the possibility-”

Finally, my father raised his hand, silencing Braun.

“So, what is the reason our government, which is in the middle of a war and short on budget, should invest funds into a field that sounds like science fiction?”

The merciless evaluation of ‘science fiction’ made Braun’s shoulders slump, and I had to flinch under my father's icy glare.

“Your Excellency, the Chancellor, I am Walter Dornberger, an Army Artillery Colonel. The project underway at the Peenemünde Base has the ultimate goal of a space agency, but apart from that, the rocket technology we have researched so far can be readily put to practical use for military purposes.

Here is the report.”

While my father took the report from Dornberger and read it, I chimed in.

“This is a project that was also highly praised by Air Force Chief of the General Staff, General Richthofen. It wasn't fully in operation because Hitler showed no interest, but it is my judgment that it is more than worthy of investment.”

The rocket they would create would be the first ballistic missile, and they and the scientists at Peenemünde would later form the main pillar of the NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) that America would build.

Fortunately for Braun and Dornberger, they had no significant collusion with the Nazis so far.

I knew that Heinrich Himmler would later manage the project, but it seemed that hadn't happened yet, and we were about to absorb it as it was, stalled after being neglected by Hitler.

My father seemed to be just skimming as he flipped through the report, then glanced at me before looking back at Braun and Dornberger.

“Hmm. Then I will discuss the budget allocation for this project with the Cabinet.”

“Thank you, Your Excellency, the Chancellor! We’ll be counting on you!”

A bitter smile appeared on my face as I saw hope blossom on Wernher von Braun’s and Walter Dornberger’s faces.

They were undoubtedly geniuses, but in the original history, countless prisoners of war and Jewish people captured by the Nazis were sacrificed for their project.

It hadn't happened yet, and it was something we could manage well in the future.

After the two men left, my father clicked his tongue and spoke.

“Are you going to keep bringing me strange things when the budget is already tight?”

“Wouldn't you have cut them off in an instant if they were truly strange?”

My father answered my words with a scoff.

Besides them, I had also contacted Werner Heisenberg, the head of Germany's nuclear development, but that was just too absurd.

I knew from the start that nuclear development wasn't something that could be achieved with just a few good ideas, but after a serious talk with Heisenberg, it was a project that required an excessive budget with no end date in sight.

Since it wasn't just about producing weapons but also nuclear power generation, the importance of nuclear technology for the future was a given.

From my perspective, knowing the insane side effects of the atomic bomb, I wanted to avoid using it until the very end, but the strategic suppressive force it exerted just by possessing it was too great.

But we weren't Hitler; we couldn't pour our already scarce budget into a ‘big, beautiful, and cool new weapon that will turn the tide of war in one blow, though we don’t know when it will be ready,’ could we?

Fortunately, as the Fourth Reich gained the momentum of victory in the war and liberated Czechoslovakia, some of the people who had left Germany to escape the Nazis were applying to return.

Among them was Einstein, which made me truly happy. Frankly, I didn't trust Heisenberg much, since in the original history he just ate up the budget and had no output.

It could be that he had no results because he was uncooperative with the Nazi regime, so if Einstein also came and talked with Heisenberg, we could probably determine the feasibility of Germany's own nuclear development.

-

February 20, 1940

Karelia, Southern Finland, Finland-Soviet Front Line Along with cannon fire that shook the ground, a fierce artillery bombardment began to fly in, as if to scorch the Finnish army's positions.

An immense number of Soviet soldiers stood in their positions, their nervousness palpable, and in front of them, a political officer was delivering a passionate speech.

“Go forth and fight bravely for our great mother Fatherland! The General Secretary Comrade will grant you-”

However, he couldn't finish his words and collapsed, spraying blood.

“Gasp!”

“I-It’s, it’s, it's the White Death-!”

The soldier who had unknowingly stood up and screamed became the next sniper's scapegoat and fell immediately.

Even amidst the noise of the cannon fire erupting from the immense number of Soviet artillery pieces, the words ‘White Death’ instantly captured the Soviet soldiers' ears.

The terror-stricken Soviet soldiers all hit the dirt or started trembling behind cover.

“You insects, can’t you get up and maintain a perimeter watch?! Do you think one damn sniper can shoot all of you down!”

An officer shouted while brandishing his pistol, but since the officer himself didn't dare stick his head, let alone his hand, out of the trench, it was meaningless.

But when the artillery bombardment finally ceased, the brief grace period was over.

“Go! Go now! Charge, you cowards!”

When no one moved despite his shouting, the officer blew off the head of the unlucky soldier closest to him with his pistol.

“Gasp!”

“Go! Go and fight! For the mother Fatherland! Ura!”

If they stayed put, they would be killed by the officer. If they charged forward, some would be shot by the Finnish army, but some might live.

The Soviet soldiers had no other choice.

“U-Ura-!”

“Ura-!”

The first poor soldier to stand up had to fall to the cold earth, blood spraying from his head, but as the rest of the soldiers rose at once and started to charge, the sniper could do no more.

Simo Häyhä, the Finnish army sniper known by the terrifying nickname ‘White Death’ to the Soviets, clicked his tongue, rose from his camouflaged position in the snow, skillfully attached his skis, and began to withdraw.

Until February, if a few men fell, the Soviet army would panic and be unable to do anything, suffering in Finland’s murderous cold before freezing to death.

But spring was approaching. It was time for General Winter, who had protected Finland, to retreat soon, but the Soviet army, far from shrinking, had only grown larger and was pushing with overwhelming numbers in a fierce offensive.

“Aaargh! Again!”

In another place, by a lakeside, an unlucky Soviet tank that was leading a breakthrough of the enemy lines fell into a trap where the Finnish army had broken the ice and camouflaged it with snow, and began to sink into the water.

The terrified Soviets belatedly tried to form up, but Finnish soldiers rose from all sides and began a one-sided slaughter of the Soviet troops.

“Here’s a cocktail as a gift for Mr. Molotov!”

The Finnish soldier lit a firebomb called a ‘Molotov Cocktail’ and threw it into the tank's hatch, and soon, a horrible scream and the smell of burning flesh wafted from inside the tank.

Over the months-long Winter War, tactics like setting traps and ambushing to annihilate the Soviet forces had become as natural as breathing for Mannerheim's Finnish army.

However, the Finnish army's joy did not last long.

A Finnish soldier, rejoicing in the success of the ambush, suddenly collapsed, spewing blood at the sound of a gunshot.

“Jukka!”

No sooner had they annihilated a single Soviet platoon in an ambush, the Finns saw a scene of more Soviet troops swarming in from behind than they had just dealt with.

They gritted their teeth and had to immediately flee on their skis.

The same situation was repeating itself across the entire vast front between Finland and the Soviet Union.

The Finnish army had undoubtedly fought bravely with its elusive tactics even with inadequate equipment, but now, in the face of the Soviet army's overwhelming military force and combined arms cooperation, they were suffering losses distinctly different from before.

-

February 22, 1940

Helsinki, the Capital of Southern Finland As the now-familiar air raid siren blared, Finns began to hastily run down to their basements.

“Kids, hurry, come on!”

A mother, holding a newborn, urged them on as she ran down the stairs, and children who should have been at school evacuated to the basement with practiced steps. This scene was a part of daily routine in Finland.

“That damn it Molotov is bringing us bread baskets again!”

When the international community condemned the war of aggression waged by the Soviet Union and the indiscriminate bombing of Finland's capital, Helsinki, the Soviets shamelessly issued a nonsensical statement through Foreign Minister Molotov, claiming they were ‘only sending bread to the impoverished Finns.’

That was why the Finns sarcastically called the bombs dropped by Soviet bombers 'Molotov's bread baskets.

'

The stadium and athletes' village that Finland had painstakingly built to host the 1940 Olympics had long since been destroyed by the fierce bombing of the Soviet army.

In the Winter War (Talvisota), which began late last year, Finland had put up a good fight against the Soviet Union with its overwhelmingly greater national power, but that heroic resistance was gradually being strained by the limits of its weight class.

President Kyösti Kallio, Prime Minister Risto Ryti, and Foreign Minister Väinö Tanner were talking with grave faces in an air-raid shelter.

“I don't want to admit it, but our military will not last long, Your Excellency, the President.”

Despite being at a severe inferiority, the Finnish army had put up a good fight against the Soviet army until January, achieving tremendous military gains, and in fact, they still held an overwhelming superiority in exchange ratio.

But since February, when the Soviets replaced commander Voroshilov with Timoshenko, Finland's iron wall of a defense line had been gradually shaking.

On top of that, 900,000 reinforcements arrived from the Soviet home country.

Even if Finland scraped together every boy and old man, and included volunteer soldiers from other countries, their military force was less than 300,000.

Considering that the Soviets mobilized 540,000 troops when they first started their offensive, 900,000 reinforcements were a disaster in itself.

“Field Marshal Mannerheim has done his best, and indeed our army's performance is excellent, but the disparity in military force and equipment is too severe.”

If not for the equipment support Germany sent first, the Finnish army would have suffered a severe blow from the initial battle and would have already started to collapse by now.

But thanks to Germany breaking the ice, unlike in the original history, support from neighboring countries like Britain and Sweden arrived sooner and in greater quantities, greatly improving the Finnish army's situation.

Meanwhile, America had gratefully sent valuable support, including about 40 of their latest fighter aircraft, which were scheduled to arrive soon, but Finland was not even sure if it could hold out until then.

“Are they still refusing peace negotiations?”

“Yes, Your Excellency.

They have stated that a peace treaty without the cession of the territory they targeted is absolutely out of the question.”

Hearing Foreign Minister Tanner's words, President Kallio let out a deep sigh.

Stalin had seriously lost face due to the shameful performance of the Soviet army in the Winter War, a side effect of the Great Purge of the officer corps, and when Finland requested an armistice, he rejected it flatly and, in a fit of pique, dispatched an additional 900,000 troops.

“Now we have nowhere else to ask for help.”

Sweden, which usually treated Finland as a semi-vassal state, had put its foot down, saying it would not enter the war, and the countries of the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe had already provided considerable support.

France, perhaps displeased with Finland for asking Germany for help, provided only enough support to keep up appearances, and the British Cabinet also expressed reluctance to provide additional aid.

The equipment sent by America, which had provided the most help, had not even arrived yet.

“Germany is still an option, but…”

At Prime Minister Ryti's words, President Kallio squeezed his eyes shut.

The new German government, which had been the first to help Finland despite being in the midst of a civil war, had now completely seized control of Germany and declared the Fourth Reich, but they were at war with Poland and Italy.

Finland, too, had a sense of shame and had been putting off reaching out to them in such a situation until the very end, but now that they were cornered, there was no other way.

“Germany has already officially acknowledged its support for us, and with Poland, their enemy, signing a non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union, they can be seen as a definite enemy nation of the Soviets. It might be worth a shot…”

“It's a matter of the nation's fate, so we have no choice, but it is shameful.”

President Kallio sighed and looked at Foreign Minister Väinö Tanner.

As a bigwig in the Finnish Social Democratic Party and the man who had personally secured the support of the new German government as finance minister, he was the only one they could trust.

“I am sorry, Foreign Minister. I know it's shameless, but you must trouble yourself once more.”

“I understand, Your Excellency, the President.”

President Kallio let out a heavy sigh as he watched Tanner nod grimly.

The situation of being unable to escape the limits of a weak nation, despite having done his best for the country, weighed heavily on him.

Just then, there was a sudden knock, and an aide entered with a telegram.

“Your Excellency, the President! A report from Field Marshal Mannerheim! The Soviet offensive has stopped! Some of their forces are withdrawing!”

It was a moment when a ray of hope dawned on Finland in its desperate situation, and dark clouds of despair loomed over Poland.