Iron Fist or Velvet Glove?
Prague
Somewhere in the City
August 7 1939
German Foreign Minister Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck was currently sitting in a limo together with the Hungarian Ambassador to Germany. The Hungarians had created a royal cluster with their refusal to withdraw their troops from Transylvania and from positions around Belgrade to where the Berlin Agreement stated the new Hungarian border would be. Which was just south of Újvidék as the Hungarians called it, however it was better known as Novi Sad. Yesterday Paul had spent the better part of speaking with this man who was now sitting next to him and he detested him. Yet Paul had a job to do and he didn’t want to have another nation trying the might of the German Empire and this needed to end now.
After his failure in the Netherlands, even through he hadn’t caused that war, Paul still took it as his failure Paul was pushing to end this before the lead flew. Paul was still recovering from the failed assassination attempt on his life but he wasn’t about to allow this become a shooting war. With yesterday being nothing but a total failure as the Hungarians were refusing to move on their position that they hadn’t willing agreed to the Berlin Agreement and had been forced into it Paul thought it was time for a little show and tell. It was why they were in the limo together going through German control Prague for the first part of this show and tell.
Paul was listening to the damn asshole ramble on about the natural borders of Hungary, however his mind was wondering why the Berlin Agreement hadn’t been enough for the Hungarians. The Hungarians had been awarded Hungary proper, alone with Banat, Slovakia, and some small parts of Croatia-Slavonia, namely around the town of Novi Sad. However they had when on and on about all the Lands of the Crown of Saint Stephen being rightful Hungarian territory only bullying by Germany, Italy, and France had been able to get the Hungarians to agree to the terms of the Berlin Agreement. Paul didn’t believe that for one second. Hell he honestly gave some thought about forming an independent Slovakia, but so many Slovakians had left their home lands that it would be just about impossible.
Granted it wasn’t on the same level as what happened with the Serbians, but still it was questionable if they could make a working state out of Slovakia like they were with Galicia or the Italians were doing with the Croatians and Bosnians. However, Serbia[1] was clearly too far gone for it to ever become a working state again. It was the whole reason they awarded what use to be the Serbian nation to Bulgaria. His ministry had already done the math and reforming Serbia as a nation would cost hundreds of million of marks, possibly billions of marks to do it. It was why he had rejected the idea of rebuilding Serbia, it simply cost too much money and it was still questionable if they could ever get a population base back to support a nation again within the next 20 years.
The limo however came to a stop. They were at the airfield which was the first part of the tour Paul was giving the Hungarian Ambassador to his nation. The two men got out of the limo, Paul needed some help giving his injuries, but the two started walking to the massive aircraft that were lined up a couple meters away from them. The Hungarian Ambassador finally asked a question, “I’m never see planes like this before.”
Paul gave a grin that should had scared the man. “It’s not surprising. These are our newest heavy bomber, the K XII[2]. It can carry a 3,000 kilogram bomb load from here to Moscow and still come back. This is our first operational wing of them.” Germany had been working on a Ural Bomber for years now, the K XII was the first one that could do it. “On short distance fights, it can carry double that.”
Watching closely Paul saw the Hungarian twitch. ‘Good.’ Paul though. The Hungarian Ambassador was at a lost for words, “Why are we here again?” You could hear how nervous the man was. This was what Paul wanted.
“Because I want you do understand if you don’t follow the Berlin Agreement to the letter what will happen.” Paul said with a face that would make most people run to the hills. “But we aren’t done, there is another place I want to show you.” Paul didn’t say it but made it clear if they didn’t live up to the Berlin Agreement these planes would be visiting Budapest.
At that the Hungarian Ambassador was white as a ghost at this point. However as the two men walked back to the limo neither spoke. They didn’t need to. The drive to the second location was filled only with the sounds of silence between the two men in the back of the limo and the sounds of the limo engine making their way to the second place on this trip.
It took about 45 minutes to reach the second location. It didn’t look like much but the construction site was busy as people in uniform putting up simple huts. The huts however were on clearly being built above ground where anyone could look under then for signs of digging. Together with what were clearly guard post being build every couple hundred of meters made it clear this was a POW camp. Paul spoke, “This is one of the new POW camps we are building to house the Dutch Army since they surrendered to us. However, they can be put to other uses as well if needed.”
The Hungarian Ambassador’s eyes became wide as silver dollars. He knew full well what that meant. During the Polish Ethnic Cleansing of the 1920s, Germany used camps like this one to keep Polish people together till they figured out what they could do with them. Some camps that housed the Poles, were, unspeakable, on how they treated their civilians. “What do you want?”
“I want your government to stick with the Berlin Agreement! Withdraw to your new borders or send those units to the Soviet front. Those troops who treated Romanian or Bulgarian troops roughly will find honor at the front if you catch my drift. Further when I meet with you in Budapest and your government in a few days time I want to find your government already moving to this, or maybe there will not be a Hungary after the war.”
[1] Serbia is still fairly unpopulated area at the moment. The Austrians and Hungarians could never agree how to repopulate the area after kicking the Serbs out. Before the war there were just over 800,000 people in the area and the infrastructure has fallen behind. Of note of that 800,000 or so in Serbia, just about 80,000 were Serbs.
[2] Based off the Ju 290
Somewhere in the City
August 7 1939
German Foreign Minister Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck was currently sitting in a limo together with the Hungarian Ambassador to Germany. The Hungarians had created a royal cluster with their refusal to withdraw their troops from Transylvania and from positions around Belgrade to where the Berlin Agreement stated the new Hungarian border would be. Which was just south of Újvidék as the Hungarians called it, however it was better known as Novi Sad. Yesterday Paul had spent the better part of speaking with this man who was now sitting next to him and he detested him. Yet Paul had a job to do and he didn’t want to have another nation trying the might of the German Empire and this needed to end now.
After his failure in the Netherlands, even through he hadn’t caused that war, Paul still took it as his failure Paul was pushing to end this before the lead flew. Paul was still recovering from the failed assassination attempt on his life but he wasn’t about to allow this become a shooting war. With yesterday being nothing but a total failure as the Hungarians were refusing to move on their position that they hadn’t willing agreed to the Berlin Agreement and had been forced into it Paul thought it was time for a little show and tell. It was why they were in the limo together going through German control Prague for the first part of this show and tell.
Paul was listening to the damn asshole ramble on about the natural borders of Hungary, however his mind was wondering why the Berlin Agreement hadn’t been enough for the Hungarians. The Hungarians had been awarded Hungary proper, alone with Banat, Slovakia, and some small parts of Croatia-Slavonia, namely around the town of Novi Sad. However they had when on and on about all the Lands of the Crown of Saint Stephen being rightful Hungarian territory only bullying by Germany, Italy, and France had been able to get the Hungarians to agree to the terms of the Berlin Agreement. Paul didn’t believe that for one second. Hell he honestly gave some thought about forming an independent Slovakia, but so many Slovakians had left their home lands that it would be just about impossible.
Granted it wasn’t on the same level as what happened with the Serbians, but still it was questionable if they could make a working state out of Slovakia like they were with Galicia or the Italians were doing with the Croatians and Bosnians. However, Serbia[1] was clearly too far gone for it to ever become a working state again. It was the whole reason they awarded what use to be the Serbian nation to Bulgaria. His ministry had already done the math and reforming Serbia as a nation would cost hundreds of million of marks, possibly billions of marks to do it. It was why he had rejected the idea of rebuilding Serbia, it simply cost too much money and it was still questionable if they could ever get a population base back to support a nation again within the next 20 years.
The limo however came to a stop. They were at the airfield which was the first part of the tour Paul was giving the Hungarian Ambassador to his nation. The two men got out of the limo, Paul needed some help giving his injuries, but the two started walking to the massive aircraft that were lined up a couple meters away from them. The Hungarian Ambassador finally asked a question, “I’m never see planes like this before.”
Paul gave a grin that should had scared the man. “It’s not surprising. These are our newest heavy bomber, the K XII[2]. It can carry a 3,000 kilogram bomb load from here to Moscow and still come back. This is our first operational wing of them.” Germany had been working on a Ural Bomber for years now, the K XII was the first one that could do it. “On short distance fights, it can carry double that.”
Watching closely Paul saw the Hungarian twitch. ‘Good.’ Paul though. The Hungarian Ambassador was at a lost for words, “Why are we here again?” You could hear how nervous the man was. This was what Paul wanted.
“Because I want you do understand if you don’t follow the Berlin Agreement to the letter what will happen.” Paul said with a face that would make most people run to the hills. “But we aren’t done, there is another place I want to show you.” Paul didn’t say it but made it clear if they didn’t live up to the Berlin Agreement these planes would be visiting Budapest.
At that the Hungarian Ambassador was white as a ghost at this point. However as the two men walked back to the limo neither spoke. They didn’t need to. The drive to the second location was filled only with the sounds of silence between the two men in the back of the limo and the sounds of the limo engine making their way to the second place on this trip.
It took about 45 minutes to reach the second location. It didn’t look like much but the construction site was busy as people in uniform putting up simple huts. The huts however were on clearly being built above ground where anyone could look under then for signs of digging. Together with what were clearly guard post being build every couple hundred of meters made it clear this was a POW camp. Paul spoke, “This is one of the new POW camps we are building to house the Dutch Army since they surrendered to us. However, they can be put to other uses as well if needed.”
The Hungarian Ambassador’s eyes became wide as silver dollars. He knew full well what that meant. During the Polish Ethnic Cleansing of the 1920s, Germany used camps like this one to keep Polish people together till they figured out what they could do with them. Some camps that housed the Poles, were, unspeakable, on how they treated their civilians. “What do you want?”
“I want your government to stick with the Berlin Agreement! Withdraw to your new borders or send those units to the Soviet front. Those troops who treated Romanian or Bulgarian troops roughly will find honor at the front if you catch my drift. Further when I meet with you in Budapest and your government in a few days time I want to find your government already moving to this, or maybe there will not be a Hungary after the war.”
[1] Serbia is still fairly unpopulated area at the moment. The Austrians and Hungarians could never agree how to repopulate the area after kicking the Serbs out. Before the war there were just over 800,000 people in the area and the infrastructure has fallen behind. Of note of that 800,000 or so in Serbia, just about 80,000 were Serbs.
[2] Based off the Ju 290
