In this case?
Considering he's being called a traitor by UASR media? And as they don't want him back in the US?
He probably won't make it to trial, depending on when he's captured.
The Great Crusade (Reds! Part 3)
- Thread starter Aelita
- Start date
In this case?
Considering he's being called a traitor by UASR media? And as they don't want him back in the US?
He probably won't make it to trial, depending on when he's captured.
Plus it wouldn't surprise me if the Speer defence doesn't work ITTL - he is probably going to hang and most of the other senior Nazis are going to jail basically forever. Schacht, Papen and a few others might get lighter sentences but I suspect they won't be welcome in Germany again after this...
teg
He fled to a Fascist country, and has expressed a desire to see the Worker's government overthrown, and a return to the Bourgeoisie government of old.
How is that not traitorous?
Henry Ford the Arch-Traitor Part 2 by Red Star Rising
Henry Ford the Arch-Traitor
Editorial from The Guardian, 2014
Henry Ford was in particular; rather vocal in his opinion of the design of vehicles, applying his and his design team's experiences in civilian manufacture to military affairs. Going from his experience that buyers would rather have *a* car rather than no car at all; he pushed for any weapons design offered to be capable of easy manufacture and to be easily maintainable. He and Speer would repeatedly veto suggestions from the OKW that were deemed to be overly extravagant and would later be fierce proponents of the E-series tanks that would come to be well known past the first stage of the war as the early vehicles such as the Tiger were phased out. After all; the "arsenal of capitalism" would also need to help provide for less industrially developed countries such as Hungary and Romania.
While they were not always able to ensure that cooler heads prevailed in terms of design and were sometimes prone to their own extravagances (such as the E-100 "Smilodon"), they were able to get what they wanted more than enough to have a positive effect on Axis war production. Ford in particular emphasized the importance of engines and suspension. Taking Heinz Guderian's teaching of "the engine of a panzer is as much of a weapon as the main gun" to heart, he pushed for a quota of power to weight ratio for each class of tank and requested that engines have a minimum standard of reliability to meet before being accepted for powering a tank. Suspension was also to be examined closely, as "A tank that can't move is a pillbox with less armor" as Erwin Rommel would state during his time in the eastern front. Particularly, suspensions were to be easily accessed for repair crews; any vehicle that had the suspension in a difficult to reach place would receive Ford's stamp of disapproval, which would be corroborated by Speer. Similarly, engines were to be easily accessed and removed, and Ford would frequently consult with technicians for them to give him their opinion of how easily a design could be repaired; seeking to hold them to the same standards as his cars.
He also proved to be an enthusiast of the Volkswagen project (not the least because it gave him the opportunity to be a very wealthy man) as well as the Autobahn. While his support for the project may seem innocuous at first, the factories set up to produce a car for every family in the Reich and to those markets deemed worthy of being graced by German exports could easily be turned around to produce any manner of military vehicle. The roads and highways through which the Herrenvolk would enjoy weekend drives through to see the wonders of Teutonia were tremendously useful for military movement. All of these civilian projects in essence; proved to be a great help for his position as deputy minister of armaments in addition to lining his own pockets.
These actions, in addition to a valiant attempt at trying to standardize the equipment of Germany and Italy's partners (though Italy was much too prideful to simply produce German designs on license) was part of an effort to make the so called arsenal capable of matching the enormous production powers of the communist bloc. While on paper, Germany exceeded the GDP of the Soviet Union; particularly once Czech, Polish and Austrian industries were co-opted into the Greater German Reich and was somewhat more than a third of the way to matching the UASR's, Germany before these reforms was primarily an artisan industry. The earlier reputation of German products as "Ersatz" junk had faded and had been replaced out of Germany's need to compete on quality due to being unable to compete in price with the likes of America.
Needless to say, such a state of affairs was hardly ideal for waging the sort of total war that Hitler wanted to wage. Logistics were what won wars; and the logistics of the National Socialist party's plan to colonize eastern Europe and invade America would require everything to run smoothly in the theater of supply. The Heer needed its Panzers and STuGs to be available in a timely manner, the Luftwaffe required planes that could be counted on to be in the air rather than hogging hanger space, the Kriegsmarine needed Submarines and surface raiders that could operate far into the Atlantic and arctic and do so in force. All of these were daunting tasks that would have frightened the Kaiserreich, but the new Germany and its allies would not be daunted; the Fuhrer demanded results and such would be what Ford and his cronies would seek to accomplish.
While Ford was not completely able to eliminate the Axis' dependence on draft animals due to the Axis' very real fuel constraints limiting the number of half-tracks and jeeps that could be practically issued among numerous other factors; the Axis was prepared to rapidly embark on numerous wars of conquest; campaigning against Poland and the Balkans and crushing the last hopes of the Czechoslovakian communists who attempted to fight where their government would not. Indeed, it thanks to the help of many very rich and well resourced expatriates just like Henry Ford and the complicit aid of states such as the BeNeLux countries, Sweden, France, and Britain that these initial wars went by so smoothly. With the commencement of the Axis' assault on Yugoslavia when Comintern backed uprisings deposed the stooge Mussolini and Hitler had helped put in place in particular; Ford wrote in his journal "Even as we speak, proper order is being restored to the Yugoslavs, I hear that the self propelled guns I helped design are quite popular with the troops; though rather less so with Tito's mangy hordes.", referring to a successful model of artillery piece manufactured out of one of his factories built in Germany.
But whereas the campaigns in the west and southern slavic states would be named "Prüfung Krieg" due to their nature as essentially test runs for what was to be the main event of Hitler's drama in Europe; Ford as deputy Armaments minister was well aware that the Soviet bear was always the ultimate target of Hitler's ambitions in Europe. "The ultimate aim of this holy war against Judeo-Bolshevism is to first evict it from the continent that birthed proper civilization by putting paid to the Stalinist bear; so that the riches so mismanaged by its mongrel leaders can be turned to returning true freedom to Fosterist America and establish a new order from this powerful old blood of Germania." Henry Ford said in private correspondence to one of his aides not long before Operation Teutonic was launched. And for this war of annihilation that would so drastically eclipse even the slaughter of the first world war's eastern front; America's most infamous traitor had spent years of his life and a great deal of capital and effort into helping build a three million man invasion force out of the militaries of more than a half dozen nations including various volunteer forces that would march to history's bloodiest conflict with the grimmest of enthusiasms. And if they drove or flew? They were likely driving or flying something that had Ford's help in its manufacture.
(Part 2)
Noted and edited.
Given that the UASR has its own advocates of American exceptionalism I'd say it's pretty clear that patriotism and nationalism aren't dead in America. It just painted itself red, black and gold instead of red, white and blue and took on some different rhetoric. There's definitely more George Carlins and Albert Einsteins out there questioning the whole cult of the nation in Foster's America (ignore the anachronism regarding Carlin) than there would be in Roosevelt's America, but I can't see the powers that be not taking the opportunity to tar people who take their assets to Italy and Germany in particular with a very ugly brush.
Editorial from The Guardian, 2014
Henry Ford was in particular; rather vocal in his opinion of the design of vehicles, applying his and his design team's experiences in civilian manufacture to military affairs. Going from his experience that buyers would rather have *a* car rather than no car at all; he pushed for any weapons design offered to be capable of easy manufacture and to be easily maintainable. He and Speer would repeatedly veto suggestions from the OKW that were deemed to be overly extravagant and would later be fierce proponents of the E-series tanks that would come to be well known past the first stage of the war as the early vehicles such as the Tiger were phased out. After all; the "arsenal of capitalism" would also need to help provide for less industrially developed countries such as Hungary and Romania.
While they were not always able to ensure that cooler heads prevailed in terms of design and were sometimes prone to their own extravagances (such as the E-100 "Smilodon"), they were able to get what they wanted more than enough to have a positive effect on Axis war production. Ford in particular emphasized the importance of engines and suspension. Taking Heinz Guderian's teaching of "the engine of a panzer is as much of a weapon as the main gun" to heart, he pushed for a quota of power to weight ratio for each class of tank and requested that engines have a minimum standard of reliability to meet before being accepted for powering a tank. Suspension was also to be examined closely, as "A tank that can't move is a pillbox with less armor" as Erwin Rommel would state during his time in the eastern front. Particularly, suspensions were to be easily accessed for repair crews; any vehicle that had the suspension in a difficult to reach place would receive Ford's stamp of disapproval, which would be corroborated by Speer. Similarly, engines were to be easily accessed and removed, and Ford would frequently consult with technicians for them to give him their opinion of how easily a design could be repaired; seeking to hold them to the same standards as his cars.
He also proved to be an enthusiast of the Volkswagen project (not the least because it gave him the opportunity to be a very wealthy man) as well as the Autobahn. While his support for the project may seem innocuous at first, the factories set up to produce a car for every family in the Reich and to those markets deemed worthy of being graced by German exports could easily be turned around to produce any manner of military vehicle. The roads and highways through which the Herrenvolk would enjoy weekend drives through to see the wonders of Teutonia were tremendously useful for military movement. All of these civilian projects in essence; proved to be a great help for his position as deputy minister of armaments in addition to lining his own pockets.
These actions, in addition to a valiant attempt at trying to standardize the equipment of Germany and Italy's partners (though Italy was much too prideful to simply produce German designs on license) was part of an effort to make the so called arsenal capable of matching the enormous production powers of the communist bloc. While on paper, Germany exceeded the GDP of the Soviet Union; particularly once Czech, Polish and Austrian industries were co-opted into the Greater German Reich and was somewhat more than a third of the way to matching the UASR's, Germany before these reforms was primarily an artisan industry. The earlier reputation of German products as "Ersatz" junk had faded and had been replaced out of Germany's need to compete on quality due to being unable to compete in price with the likes of America.
Needless to say, such a state of affairs was hardly ideal for waging the sort of total war that Hitler wanted to wage. Logistics were what won wars; and the logistics of the National Socialist party's plan to colonize eastern Europe and invade America would require everything to run smoothly in the theater of supply. The Heer needed its Panzers and STuGs to be available in a timely manner, the Luftwaffe required planes that could be counted on to be in the air rather than hogging hanger space, the Kriegsmarine needed Submarines and surface raiders that could operate far into the Atlantic and arctic and do so in force. All of these were daunting tasks that would have frightened the Kaiserreich, but the new Germany and its allies would not be daunted; the Fuhrer demanded results and such would be what Ford and his cronies would seek to accomplish.
While Ford was not completely able to eliminate the Axis' dependence on draft animals due to the Axis' very real fuel constraints limiting the number of half-tracks and jeeps that could be practically issued among numerous other factors; the Axis was prepared to rapidly embark on numerous wars of conquest; campaigning against Poland and the Balkans and crushing the last hopes of the Czechoslovakian communists who attempted to fight where their government would not. Indeed, it thanks to the help of many very rich and well resourced expatriates just like Henry Ford and the complicit aid of states such as the BeNeLux countries, Sweden, France, and Britain that these initial wars went by so smoothly. With the commencement of the Axis' assault on Yugoslavia when Comintern backed uprisings deposed the stooge Mussolini and Hitler had helped put in place in particular; Ford wrote in his journal "Even as we speak, proper order is being restored to the Yugoslavs, I hear that the self propelled guns I helped design are quite popular with the troops; though rather less so with Tito's mangy hordes.", referring to a successful model of artillery piece manufactured out of one of his factories built in Germany.
But whereas the campaigns in the west and southern slavic states would be named "Prüfung Krieg" due to their nature as essentially test runs for what was to be the main event of Hitler's drama in Europe; Ford as deputy Armaments minister was well aware that the Soviet bear was always the ultimate target of Hitler's ambitions in Europe. "The ultimate aim of this holy war against Judeo-Bolshevism is to first evict it from the continent that birthed proper civilization by putting paid to the Stalinist bear; so that the riches so mismanaged by its mongrel leaders can be turned to returning true freedom to Fosterist America and establish a new order from this powerful old blood of Germania." Henry Ford said in private correspondence to one of his aides not long before Operation Teutonic was launched. And for this war of annihilation that would so drastically eclipse even the slaughter of the first world war's eastern front; America's most infamous traitor had spent years of his life and a great deal of capital and effort into helping build a three million man invasion force out of the militaries of more than a half dozen nations including various volunteer forces that would march to history's bloodiest conflict with the grimmest of enthusiasms. And if they drove or flew? They were likely driving or flying something that had Ford's help in its manufacture.
(Part 2)
Noted and edited.
Given that the UASR has its own advocates of American exceptionalism I'd say it's pretty clear that patriotism and nationalism aren't dead in America. It just painted itself red, black and gold instead of red, white and blue and took on some different rhetoric. There's definitely more George Carlins and Albert Einsteins out there questioning the whole cult of the nation in Foster's America (ignore the anachronism regarding Carlin) than there would be in Roosevelt's America, but I can't see the powers that be not taking the opportunity to tar people who take their assets to Italy and Germany in particular with a very ugly brush.
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He's not particularly likely to be picked up for the western european nation's operation paperclip equivalent; no. His capital can be seized by the victorious nations of Britain and its allies and his industry is going to be in their hands anyway when they seize the Ruhr region and other valuable German industrial heartlands. (Italy's industry remains a mystery so I won't leave too much comment on it). And he'd be rather too politically toxic (the UASR is going to want him dead), and too high profile to be worth trying to sanitize and integrate.
And he doesn't even have Argentina to flee to under a new name. Of course; Brazil or Venezuela could always offer the same role of "Ex-Nazis-R-Us" (though OTLwise, Brazil did host quite a lot of Nazis; just not to the same degree or with Nazis quite as high profile as Argentina) for the Adolf Eichmanns of the world seeking to flee justice.
The UASR isn't going to expell nationhood entirely. Especially not in the first decade. The Bourgoise who defect to foreign governments will likely be regarded as traitors. It's also pretty easy to justify given how the revolution was instigated by a betrayal of democratic principle.
They also won't be able to expel the desire merely to crush someone who defied them and helped an enemy because they're human beings. It doesn't matter what the politics of the people who hang him for war crimes are, Ford is deader than mutton. He just don't know it yet.
Even if he manages to get a prison sentence or flee to South America, he died in OTL in 1947 so he wouldn't really have much time left to live anyway. But his chances of survival in the trials are rather remote all told. The Comintern unanimously wants him six feet under and the polities that will form the alliance of free states are likely to consider him with all the respect and dignity offered to a particularly foul looking rat.
Firearms teaser
Excerpts from "Modern Weapons Development Of The World - My Personal Journey by General Mavae Garand, USARMC; c1977, 12th edition(2010)
Handguns
The Colt Model 1911A1 was the premier pistol used in the WWI and the inter-wars years prior 1937, but the gun's heavy recoil was a determent to accurate long and short combat shooting and required training aids that in the long term, very expensive and only can work in a professional volunteering military environment and not in a drafted recruiting version ... 1934, reexamining of alternate pistol caliber was need ... re-examining the Thompson-LaGarde Cadaver Tests of 1904 was considered bias for types of experimental targets and lack of proper human substitutes ... The real test of the 10.4 mm automatic pistol round ... another 10.4 mm cartridge design used the .45 ACP or 11.48 mm brass necked down to the 10.4 mm ... The Ruger-Remington Model 1936 was accepted by the USAR military.
Shotguns
In 1933, the pump-action shotguns was standard issue with the Model 1935 Winchester Military pump shotgun that was designed for hard military usage in mind. ... By the 1938, a pump-action shotgun with box magazine tested ... In 1940, the SOW - Special Operations Weapon - fully automatic 12 gauge shotgun using a gravity-fed box magazine and with modular belt-fed mechanism came into service.
Machine Guns
The Model 1918 BAR weapon was remodeled to the Model 1918A2 product improved BAR with a changeable barrel threading system and linkless saddle drum magazine of 200 rounds added to the regular 20 rounds box magazine ... The Model 1919 machine gun was adequate as a garrison weapon but too heavy for long-range infantry patrols ... The new general-purpose machine gun adopted in 1941 use the 1918 BAR gas-operated system for its design.
Assault Rifles
My Great-Grandfather John C. Garand created the first practical automatic rifle and later, reclassified as an assault rifle, the M1 C Garand rifle ... 50.8 cm barrel ... 25 rounds box magazine ... Tests for the replacement of M1 C conducted in 1947 with my great-grandfather's Model 45A and the later version, T 31 and James Sieg's automatic bull-pup rifle design
More to come and what my oc, Mavae as a female person.
Excerpts from "Modern Weapons Development Of The World - My Personal Journey by General Mavae Garand, USARMC; c1977, 12th edition(2010)
Handguns
The Colt Model 1911A1 was the premier pistol used in the WWI and the inter-wars years prior 1937, but the gun's heavy recoil was a determent to accurate long and short combat shooting and required training aids that in the long term, very expensive and only can work in a professional volunteering military environment and not in a drafted recruiting version ... 1934, reexamining of alternate pistol caliber was need ... re-examining the Thompson-LaGarde Cadaver Tests of 1904 was considered bias for types of experimental targets and lack of proper human substitutes ... The real test of the 10.4 mm automatic pistol round ... another 10.4 mm cartridge design used the .45 ACP or 11.48 mm brass necked down to the 10.4 mm ... The Ruger-Remington Model 1936 was accepted by the USAR military.
Shotguns
In 1933, the pump-action shotguns was standard issue with the Model 1935 Winchester Military pump shotgun that was designed for hard military usage in mind. ... By the 1938, a pump-action shotgun with box magazine tested ... In 1940, the SOW - Special Operations Weapon - fully automatic 12 gauge shotgun using a gravity-fed box magazine and with modular belt-fed mechanism came into service.
Machine Guns
The Model 1918 BAR weapon was remodeled to the Model 1918A2 product improved BAR with a changeable barrel threading system and linkless saddle drum magazine of 200 rounds added to the regular 20 rounds box magazine ... The Model 1919 machine gun was adequate as a garrison weapon but too heavy for long-range infantry patrols ... The new general-purpose machine gun adopted in 1941 use the 1918 BAR gas-operated system for its design.
Assault Rifles
My Great-Grandfather John C. Garand created the first practical automatic rifle and later, reclassified as an assault rifle, the M1 C Garand rifle ... 50.8 cm barrel ... 25 rounds box magazine ... Tests for the replacement of M1 C conducted in 1947 with my great-grandfather's Model 45A and the later version, T 31 and James Sieg's automatic bull-pup rifle design
More to come and what my oc, Mavae as a female person.
I like it, but a few things -
-I don't think that a fully-automatic shotgun would be accepted in the 40's. A ruggedized combat shotgun I could see, but I think that it would end up being a pump design due to reliability.
-A 200 round saddle drum of 30.06 is way too big for a LMG. A 75-100 round capacity would be far more realistic, being lighter while still being capable of providing suppressive fire.
-NOT GLORIOUS .45 STRONK FOR 100 YEARS
Henry Ford the Arch-Traitor Part 3 by Red Star Rising
Henry Ford the Arch-Traitor
Editorial from The Guardian, 2014
The Soviet Union would not fall over as hurriedly as the Balkan states or Poland had even if it was caught with its pants down and even if the Axis war machine was being supported by the great wealth of western Europe and her empires. The USSR was a colossus and would almost certainly be able to expect the backing of red America and the Latin Communists. While assurances to Hitler from Brazil from Salgado came in that promised that as much of America's Latin allies as possible would be tied down in the bloody South American theater, the simultaneous threats of the Soviets and Americans was something to be taken deeply seriously.
Though Hitler and Mussolini at first resisted the urges from Speer, Henry Ford and their Italian counterparts to switch over to total war out of a belief that disrupting the peacetime economy would hurt their approval, when six months had passed and operation teutonic had failed to storm the gates of Moscow; they saw the wisdom of turning their countries over for preparations for a long war. The two brutes of the fascist bloc and their puppets would now turn their economies, their industries, and their nations wholly over to the cause of the destruction of socialism in Europe and the repulse of America's influence over the continent. Ford would praise the move as "a necessary step to the restoration of proper authority to the civilized world under the guidance of National Socialism and Fascism" in response to the "Totaler Krieg" speech made at Berlin pronouncing that now the great storm of German power would be let loose upon the communist states of the world.
As Henry Ford spent more and more time surrounded by the stooges of Hitler and Mussolini, his own rhetoric and beliefs altered themselves further and further. The kernel of virulent racism already present flourished into a horrid flower of malice as he wholly embraced the ideals of his newfound benefactors, a trend seen in many American business men who fled to Germany, Italy, Brazil, or other places. "With each passing day, I have grown more convinced that Mr.Hitler is indeed the man who will save the world from the scourge of international communism and Jewry, and by god I'm going to do everything in my power to ensure that this war is won by the side of justice. The temporary rallying of the bestial Slavic and central asiatic hordes and their brainwashed American allies will not long be able to stop the righteous return of capital and authority to lands lost to the red shadow." He would confide to Erich Koch, whom he personally befriended at a party in December of 1940.
"I am glad that you have seen the truth. The arsenal you have created will be the sword with which we slay this red dragon once and for all, it is invaluable in subjugating the mongrels who throw themselves at us to refute their plain and simple destiny." Koch was recorded as saying in return.
With Generalplan ost in full effect and Germany and Italy proving tremendously resistant to the idea of allowing women to either serve in the armed forces or take factory jobs and victory fever running high in the Axis powers prompting countless young men to serve the fascist cause; there was a shortage of labour in the factories of the Axis war machines. The SS proposed a simple solution; to make use of the racial inferors and subjugated people of the expanding empires of the Axis as slave labour. A plan that to the contrary of Ford's apologists, he was fully aware of and endorsed as a solution to the need to allow more men to serve in the armed forces. Even suggesting measures honed from his anti-unionist days to attempt to prevent sabotage by the slaves brought in from all over the expanding Axis Empires. In what is perhaps Fords' cruellest legacy, whole villages at a time were uprooted and brought in as indentured servants to work in abysmal conditions to build the weapons of war and the instruments of civilian life needed to make sure everything ran smoothly in Fascist Europe.
Working conditions were appaling and the compensation was similarly abysmal even before the final solution was enacted and it is estimated that millions died from industrial related deaths throughout the war slaving away to produce Hitler's arsenal. In everything from Synthetic Oil plants to Tank factories and Airplane manufacturing centers, the facilities Ford either built or oversaw became places haunted by death and malnutrition that would only worsen as the German Reich and its allies grew increasingly more desperate and increasingly more oblivion obsessed in its maniacal hatred of the "Untermensch". And to keep on meeting the Wehrmacht's quotas, Ford even sent missives to the Einsatzgruppen to "Rather than wastefully eradicate useful assets, transfer them back to industrial centers to further our war effort".
As the war progressed, he became involved in several other projects such as Von Braun's Vengeance weapon project and the Entwicklung tank series as well as the German Jet program. The Entwicklung series in particular is widely considered to be *the* German set of weapons that had most to do with Ford personally; who believed that these could be the Axis' ace in the hole. "These standardized tanks I believe will be seen as both the future of warfare and the vehicles that stormed the gates of Moscow; and perhaps their descendants will see America's shores once again." He said to German press at the unveiling of the E-75 Lowe heavy tank. He would have particularly fierce disagreements with Speer over the E-100 Smilodon tank, but managed to acquire the OKW and Hitler's approval for mass production of the colossal 130 ton tanks thanks to the backing of other German industrialists who stood to benefit from the production of the vehicle, overruling Speer's concerns about its practicality.
[Picture shows Ford smiling at the Camera as he stands atop an E-100 fresh from the factory]
He would even make sure any parts made by Ford Motors would have his name stamped on them so as to make sure that the world would know just who was producing the Axis' awe inspiring war machines, and personally oversaw the testing of any vehicles he had a hand in the design process of.
All of this would in time, come to haunt him as his meticulous record keeping would serve to prove a boon for prosecutors as the war drew to a close. As Germany's fortunes dwindled to the point of some allies such as Italy and Sweden outright abandoning it to join the Allies and the world it had waged war against closed around it from all sides, Ford became increasingly delusional. He was convinced of a grand conspiracy that had cheated the new order he sold his soul to its rightful victory, finding it difficult to rationalize how the liberal powers of Europe could ally with the Comintern against Fascism. When the situation had essentially completely collapsed for Germany, he had even sought to reason with the western European allies who had victoriously swept through Iberia and France, sending a cable to French General and future President Phillipe LeClerc begging to "Be allowed to work for you, to help arm your industry against the perfidious red menace encoraching upon us from the east. You must work with us and the Wehrmacht against these savages despoiling Europe! Please, I beg you to see reason" among other words in a long telegram that veered wildly between trying to save his own skin by selling his skills and trying to convince the French general to use his clout to convince the capitalist allies to preserve the Nazi regime.
This was quite simply and bluntly met with "France has no need for rodents" in a now widely quoted remark from LeClerc. As Germany fell surrounded by enemies from all sides; with enemies pressing from the North down from Denmark, from the east via the huge outpouring of American and Soviet troops, from the west via France, and from the south from Italy, Ford sought to make contact with the remnants of the Ustase to try and flee to Brazil, making a secret contact with contacts from the Croatian puppet state even as Comintern forces were rapidly crushing the last remnants of Croatia. However, Marshal Tito's intelligence forces managed to intercept Ford's communications and set up a sting operation, where Ford arrived in Croatia only to find that the "Ustase operatives" who would get him to safety were Yugoslav forces in disguise.
Ford was quickly captured by the Yugoslavs and brought to Tito who noted that "I have half a mind to kill you where you stand, but unlike you, I am civilized" before turning him over to stand trial at Nuremberg. Ford found it impossible to argue ignorance of his deeds as prosecutors found a great deal of evidence connecting him to the deaths caused by the regime, and his defense grew increasingly desperate as his trial went on. Following other suicide attempts by Axis war criminals, Henry Ford found himself unable to take even the coward's way out due to 24/7 guard and all sitting judges would unanimously agree on a guilty verdict, where he is known to have broke down into hysterics as he became cognizant that this was the end of the line. His sentencing followed soon after, and he was to be subjected to death by hanging "like a common man" as the American judge put it. He made one last attempt to try and escape by running as he was brought to hang, but his guards forced him back into line, where he tried to get out some last words in favor of the old American regime before his life was cut short.
The reaction at the time in most news media was celebratory in all but the most repugnantly Nazi sympathizing circles. Papers from Pravda, La Croix, to the Labour Review, to the Mirror reported his verdict, sentence, and execution enthusiastically with only a handful of grumbling from papers such as the Daily Mail and le Figaro that tried to say that his sentencing was too harsh for "a simple industrialist." However, to most at the time, the mood could be summed up in Jack Reed's immortal words "No tears need to be shed for the disposal of garbage". Today, while often lionized by the far right; particularly in West Germany, Ford remains a man considered to embody the worst of the human spirit along with many others who served the Axis powers in high places in the world wars.
(Part 3)
Editorial from The Guardian, 2014
The Soviet Union would not fall over as hurriedly as the Balkan states or Poland had even if it was caught with its pants down and even if the Axis war machine was being supported by the great wealth of western Europe and her empires. The USSR was a colossus and would almost certainly be able to expect the backing of red America and the Latin Communists. While assurances to Hitler from Brazil from Salgado came in that promised that as much of America's Latin allies as possible would be tied down in the bloody South American theater, the simultaneous threats of the Soviets and Americans was something to be taken deeply seriously.
Though Hitler and Mussolini at first resisted the urges from Speer, Henry Ford and their Italian counterparts to switch over to total war out of a belief that disrupting the peacetime economy would hurt their approval, when six months had passed and operation teutonic had failed to storm the gates of Moscow; they saw the wisdom of turning their countries over for preparations for a long war. The two brutes of the fascist bloc and their puppets would now turn their economies, their industries, and their nations wholly over to the cause of the destruction of socialism in Europe and the repulse of America's influence over the continent. Ford would praise the move as "a necessary step to the restoration of proper authority to the civilized world under the guidance of National Socialism and Fascism" in response to the "Totaler Krieg" speech made at Berlin pronouncing that now the great storm of German power would be let loose upon the communist states of the world.
As Henry Ford spent more and more time surrounded by the stooges of Hitler and Mussolini, his own rhetoric and beliefs altered themselves further and further. The kernel of virulent racism already present flourished into a horrid flower of malice as he wholly embraced the ideals of his newfound benefactors, a trend seen in many American business men who fled to Germany, Italy, Brazil, or other places. "With each passing day, I have grown more convinced that Mr.Hitler is indeed the man who will save the world from the scourge of international communism and Jewry, and by god I'm going to do everything in my power to ensure that this war is won by the side of justice. The temporary rallying of the bestial Slavic and central asiatic hordes and their brainwashed American allies will not long be able to stop the righteous return of capital and authority to lands lost to the red shadow." He would confide to Erich Koch, whom he personally befriended at a party in December of 1940.
"I am glad that you have seen the truth. The arsenal you have created will be the sword with which we slay this red dragon once and for all, it is invaluable in subjugating the mongrels who throw themselves at us to refute their plain and simple destiny." Koch was recorded as saying in return.
With Generalplan ost in full effect and Germany and Italy proving tremendously resistant to the idea of allowing women to either serve in the armed forces or take factory jobs and victory fever running high in the Axis powers prompting countless young men to serve the fascist cause; there was a shortage of labour in the factories of the Axis war machines. The SS proposed a simple solution; to make use of the racial inferors and subjugated people of the expanding empires of the Axis as slave labour. A plan that to the contrary of Ford's apologists, he was fully aware of and endorsed as a solution to the need to allow more men to serve in the armed forces. Even suggesting measures honed from his anti-unionist days to attempt to prevent sabotage by the slaves brought in from all over the expanding Axis Empires. In what is perhaps Fords' cruellest legacy, whole villages at a time were uprooted and brought in as indentured servants to work in abysmal conditions to build the weapons of war and the instruments of civilian life needed to make sure everything ran smoothly in Fascist Europe.
Working conditions were appaling and the compensation was similarly abysmal even before the final solution was enacted and it is estimated that millions died from industrial related deaths throughout the war slaving away to produce Hitler's arsenal. In everything from Synthetic Oil plants to Tank factories and Airplane manufacturing centers, the facilities Ford either built or oversaw became places haunted by death and malnutrition that would only worsen as the German Reich and its allies grew increasingly more desperate and increasingly more oblivion obsessed in its maniacal hatred of the "Untermensch". And to keep on meeting the Wehrmacht's quotas, Ford even sent missives to the Einsatzgruppen to "Rather than wastefully eradicate useful assets, transfer them back to industrial centers to further our war effort".
As the war progressed, he became involved in several other projects such as Von Braun's Vengeance weapon project and the Entwicklung tank series as well as the German Jet program. The Entwicklung series in particular is widely considered to be *the* German set of weapons that had most to do with Ford personally; who believed that these could be the Axis' ace in the hole. "These standardized tanks I believe will be seen as both the future of warfare and the vehicles that stormed the gates of Moscow; and perhaps their descendants will see America's shores once again." He said to German press at the unveiling of the E-75 Lowe heavy tank. He would have particularly fierce disagreements with Speer over the E-100 Smilodon tank, but managed to acquire the OKW and Hitler's approval for mass production of the colossal 130 ton tanks thanks to the backing of other German industrialists who stood to benefit from the production of the vehicle, overruling Speer's concerns about its practicality.
[Picture shows Ford smiling at the Camera as he stands atop an E-100 fresh from the factory]
He would even make sure any parts made by Ford Motors would have his name stamped on them so as to make sure that the world would know just who was producing the Axis' awe inspiring war machines, and personally oversaw the testing of any vehicles he had a hand in the design process of.
All of this would in time, come to haunt him as his meticulous record keeping would serve to prove a boon for prosecutors as the war drew to a close. As Germany's fortunes dwindled to the point of some allies such as Italy and Sweden outright abandoning it to join the Allies and the world it had waged war against closed around it from all sides, Ford became increasingly delusional. He was convinced of a grand conspiracy that had cheated the new order he sold his soul to its rightful victory, finding it difficult to rationalize how the liberal powers of Europe could ally with the Comintern against Fascism. When the situation had essentially completely collapsed for Germany, he had even sought to reason with the western European allies who had victoriously swept through Iberia and France, sending a cable to French General and future President Phillipe LeClerc begging to "Be allowed to work for you, to help arm your industry against the perfidious red menace encoraching upon us from the east. You must work with us and the Wehrmacht against these savages despoiling Europe! Please, I beg you to see reason" among other words in a long telegram that veered wildly between trying to save his own skin by selling his skills and trying to convince the French general to use his clout to convince the capitalist allies to preserve the Nazi regime.
This was quite simply and bluntly met with "France has no need for rodents" in a now widely quoted remark from LeClerc. As Germany fell surrounded by enemies from all sides; with enemies pressing from the North down from Denmark, from the east via the huge outpouring of American and Soviet troops, from the west via France, and from the south from Italy, Ford sought to make contact with the remnants of the Ustase to try and flee to Brazil, making a secret contact with contacts from the Croatian puppet state even as Comintern forces were rapidly crushing the last remnants of Croatia. However, Marshal Tito's intelligence forces managed to intercept Ford's communications and set up a sting operation, where Ford arrived in Croatia only to find that the "Ustase operatives" who would get him to safety were Yugoslav forces in disguise.
Ford was quickly captured by the Yugoslavs and brought to Tito who noted that "I have half a mind to kill you where you stand, but unlike you, I am civilized" before turning him over to stand trial at Nuremberg. Ford found it impossible to argue ignorance of his deeds as prosecutors found a great deal of evidence connecting him to the deaths caused by the regime, and his defense grew increasingly desperate as his trial went on. Following other suicide attempts by Axis war criminals, Henry Ford found himself unable to take even the coward's way out due to 24/7 guard and all sitting judges would unanimously agree on a guilty verdict, where he is known to have broke down into hysterics as he became cognizant that this was the end of the line. His sentencing followed soon after, and he was to be subjected to death by hanging "like a common man" as the American judge put it. He made one last attempt to try and escape by running as he was brought to hang, but his guards forced him back into line, where he tried to get out some last words in favor of the old American regime before his life was cut short.
The reaction at the time in most news media was celebratory in all but the most repugnantly Nazi sympathizing circles. Papers from Pravda, La Croix, to the Labour Review, to the Mirror reported his verdict, sentence, and execution enthusiastically with only a handful of grumbling from papers such as the Daily Mail and le Figaro that tried to say that his sentencing was too harsh for "a simple industrialist." However, to most at the time, the mood could be summed up in Jack Reed's immortal words "No tears need to be shed for the disposal of garbage". Today, while often lionized by the far right; particularly in West Germany, Ford remains a man considered to embody the worst of the human spirit along with many others who served the Axis powers in high places in the world wars.
(Part 3)
Comintern Small Arms Master Post (Eventually)
They're decent ideas but I already had something ideas in mind.I like it, but a few things -
-I don't think that a fully-automatic shotgun would be accepted in the 40's. A ruggedized combat shotgun I could see, but I think that it would end up being a pump design due to reliability.
-A 200 round saddle drum of 30.06 is way too big for a LMG. A 75-100 round capacity would be far more realistic, being lighter while still being capable of providing suppressive fire.
-NOT GLORIOUS .45 STRONK FOR 100 YEARS
For example, I have decent history worked up for a general purpose machine gun, loosely inspired by the German MG-34. I might as well post it now.
Machine gun, 7 x 51 mm, MG-5
Type: General purpose machine gun
Place of origin: UASR
In service: 1936-55
Designer: Springfield Armory
Designed: 1934-5
Produced: 1935-1946
Number built: 3 million
Weight: 11.1 kg (16.5 kg with tripod)
Length: 1,220 mm
Barrel length: 610 mm
Cartridge: 7 x 51mm
Action: Open bolt, recoil operated, rotating bolt
Rate of fire: 1100 rounds/min
Muzzle velocity: 880 m/s
Effective range: 1200 m
Feed system: 50 round belt
Sights: Iron sights
Major fighting in the Civil War drew to a close in December 1933. The Revolutionary Army turned its efforts to supporting revolution elsewhere in the New World and aiding the civilian security forces in counter-insurgency. While General of the Army John Pershing accepted the position of Chief of Army Staff, it was a patriotic gesture with little real power. In the formative years following the revolution, the real power was held by General Patton in his capacity as Deputy Chief of Army Staff and a member of the Politburo of the Workers’ Party.
Patton wasted no time in applying the lessons learned by the experience of the Civil War. The interwar Army’s doctrinal emphasis on infantry rifleman had been outmoded. While regular army units maintained relatively few machine guns in a support role, irregular forces were greatly handicapped. In the chaos of the civil war, Spartacus League units had to make do with whatever machine guns could be hastily assembled by converted war industries, submachine guns, and whatever they could capture.
The WWI legacy machine guns were heavy, and had low rates of fire. They were ill-suited to mobile warfare, especially on the offense. The Garand rifle, chambered in an intermediate cartridge, had performed admirably. On 12 February 1934, the Ordnance Committee issued specifications for a new general-purpose machine gun to complement the Garand. The Prospective Frontline Machine Gun would be chambered in the 7 x 51mm Garand cartridge, have a sustained rate of fire not less than 900 rounds per minutes, offer a mechanism for quick barrel change to improve sustained operation, and be light enough to be carried and operated by a single soldier.
The Springfield Armory began work immediately. Assisted by specimens of the German MG 34 and the British Vickers-Berthier provided by foreign intelligence, as well as examples of the Soviet ShKAS provided by technical exchange, the PFMG would be the first of many ground-breaking designs produced after the revolution.
The prototypes, completed in early 1935, made notable improvements on the earlier examples. While its action was heavily inspired by the German MG 34, the PFMG made a number of notable improvements. Its stamped metal construction was simpler and more robust, enabling more efficient mass production. After successive improvements to improve reliability and reduce excess weight, the PFMG was standardized in mid-1936 as the MG-5.
It would be immediately pressed into service in the Spanish Civil War, serving with American and Soviet International Brigades. It quickly gained a reputation with friend and foe alike as a fearsome weapon with a prodigious appetite for ammunition. Later variants would be adapted for fixed emplacement use on vehicles, and a Soviet produced copy was developed for use by the RKKA.
Sorry, but whenever I hear that term, I think of this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MoATWN68IZA
I do wonder what exact "conspiracy" Ford was thinking of? Perhaps a conspiracy to use their resources more efficiently, and ally against a larger enemy.