Here is a little teaser for what I plan to be my most ambitious chapter yet:
The Iron Eagle - The History of the Cold War
- Thread starter Kaiser of Brazil
- Start date
If I get this correctly, a french uprising with the SS crushing it with full force ends up in Rommel being killed. After all is said and done, Hess is the new Fuhrer.
This is not necessarily in the right order of events, things will be a bit more chaotic.
I don't really see how the images necessarily suggest Rommel in particular dies, though. The coffin could contain anyone, perhaps even Hitler himself.
Hitler?Some of this comments make me think we shall have nazi version of Diadochi
Who is the one always accompanying Hess and Hitler? Who’s Hess’ technical underling who actually has far more power and ambition than him?
The Brown Eminence himself, Hess is an useful puppet to rule from the shadows, but the question is if the most hated man in the Inner circle will outsmart his rivals to stay in power.
XX - DIE MACHTKAMPF
THE IRON EAGLE
DIE MACHTKAMPF
The end of an era came in 1951, for on the 30th of January of said year, came forward a class of Hitler Youth students, making the annual parade to celebrate the power seizure in 1933. But this was a different class, for the first time, every German reaching adulthood, every student going out of the indoctrination assembly lines, belonged to a generation which has never lived anywhere other than under the rule of Adolf Hitler and the Nationalsozialisten Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (NSDAP). Parents, who lived in the age of the Weimar Republic, who had seen the liberal era in Germany, old supporters of parties such as the Zentrum and the SPD, saw as their children came back home as fierce loyalists of this new ideology. Now they saw as this new class, this new generation of Germans, the first pure result of National Socialist domination of all life aspects, left home to join the workforce. New Wehrmacht conscripts becoming more devoted to Hitler at each year, the numbers of the SS swelling with new recruits, government bureaucrats, professors, laborers, and all kinds of new employees now belonged to a generation who has never seen the past of Germany in their own eyes. All of them raised from the start in this new ideology which shocked households, grandparents who were outraged their children no longer hailed the Kaiser, now saw their grandchildren praising the Bohemian Corporal. Prussianism was in decline, Prussia itself being dissolved with several new Gau, after the death of Hermann Göring, an act which outraged many generals, however having their voices drowned by the endless masses praising all of Hitler's atitudes. In a refferendum, there was no need to suppress votes as in the past, Hitler being appointed supreme judge and sidelining more and more the German judiciary system and constitutional law. As said by Hans Frank in 1934, there was no longer a need for a written law or constitution, the power came from the Führer, and the Führerprinzip was above all laws, as he was the ultimate representation of the German People's Community, the Volksgemeinschaft. The Enabling Act and the Reichstag Fire Decree continued as a facade of a legal basis, with the ever rarer Reichstag meetings happening just to formally renew the acts by unanimity. DIE MACHTKAMPF
This was the world of Germania in 1951, the Welthauptstadt, the World Capital, built over the corpses of thousands of slave laborers and the plundered resources of the greatest conflict Eastern Europe had ever seen. The Volkshalle, even in a reduced version, stood proudly as the ultimate symbol of Power in the European Continent, a magnificent building by all accounts, built by the architect Albert Speer. It was an accurate symbol of Germany as, in order to remain standing over the swamp terrain of Germania, an advanced drainage system had to be installed to keep it afloat, with energy generated in distant factories and power plants, built and sometimes even operated, by essentially slaves from the Reich's conquests. The year of 1951 was the year where it would be all put to test, the structure of the Reich being stuck at it's core, for all of the nation served the whims of one man, the Führerprinzip centering all authority and obedience on that man, and that man, approaching his 62nd birthday, was sick, far more than anyone knew publicly. However, in private, in the halls of Germania, the power players, some of the most powerful and influential men in the world, silently knew what was to come, and all began to make preparations for when their Master was no longer with them. Some were devout, such as Goebbels and Hess, true believers in every sense since their younger years, and had to look in despair to a life without the great figure they all worshipped and craved attention and approval from. Others were more pragmatic, Himmler and Bormann looking at the tomorrow with grand plans to take power to themselves as their rivalry naturally grew in time. Others like Speer and Eva had to prepare to see the loss of a close companion and secure their own futures in the incoming power game. Finally, those who still had power to oppose the rule of National Socialism prepared for the death of it's godly figure, preparing to strike once the entire rotten structure of the NSDAP turned against itself.
But for now, the Führer was alive, making one of his last public appearances on that 30th of January, in the Volkshalle to address a crowd carefully selected by Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels who stood behind Hitler during his annual speech. And while the people cheered, celebrated, and went into a collective hysteria of devotion and fanaticism as usual, a more careful watcher such as the men standing behind the Leader, could notice his weaker voice, his hands trembling, his more distant eyes, and even a difficulty to stay on his feet as the speech ended. Said speech, written by the Führer himself as usual, also showed his deteriorating mind, where he sometimes mistook different countries, like a moment he claimed New York was near Jerusalem, which was officially interpreted as being a link of Zionist conspirators. By the end of the speech, Hitler was hurriedly taken out of Germania while avoiding his usual public appearances, his Chaffeur Erich Kempka, being instructed to avoid crowds while heading to the airport, and from there he took his plane to the Berghof, which became the new center of the Reich by that point, he would only leave a few times before his eventual death. Hitler once said he wished to retire after the war and live in his childhood city of Linz, but of course he did not resign the title of Führer even if the governance was being more and more at the hands of his subordinates and Gauleiters, which decentralized even further the National Socialist system, but he still interfered when a personal stake came. Encouraging disputes, distrust, and divisions within his own party in order to weaken any who would dare challenge his position, while also being in line with his personal beliefs of social darwianism.
There were a few moments of his personal life which still seemed to affect him, namely a certain visit to the Berghof in February from a famous Austrian conductor. While normally the Berghof was an area of extremely restricted access and initially his entry was denied, the man protested enough at the gate for the guard to reach the Führer who was taking a walk in the building, and once hearing of that name he immediately ordered him to be allowed entry and almost went on a reprimanding rant with the guard for disrespecting such honorable guest. It was August 'Gustl' Kubizek, one of the few people that the tyrant of Europe considered a true friend from his childhood, as it was Hitler's support and appeal to Kubizek's father that allowed him to enter the musical life in Vienna and become a conductor who undoubtly benefited from his personal links. Gustl and Adolf spent an entire day speaking and it was the most energetic the Führer had been in years according to Eva, which clearly caused tesion between Gustl and Bormann, the later bureaucrat being envious of the attention his Führer gave to his childhood friend who had such freedoms to break protocol, while Kubizek detested Bormann's bureaucratic and despotic methods. At the night, the two actually went to Linz, watching one of their favorite classics, Wagner, this time playing "Gotterdammerung", the Twilight of the Gods in old Germanic Mythology, a dark foreshadowing of what was to come. Kubizek had noticed how his old friend's frail health was catching up to him, and it made sense as neither of his parents had lived a long life, nevermind one with the stress of ruling over all of Europe. August was perhaps one of the few who was bold enough to ask the Führer in his final days on what would be the future of the Reich, and he received his answer in private during the performance, as the two were alone in the booth dressed in suits. "The Reich will go to the strongest", is what Hitler said that night of February 7th 1951, in a mimic of Alexander the Great's classic line attributed on his deathbed. At that moment, Gustl was taken by a sense of dread, "as if I was staring at a corpse", and he worried about his future and of his family, to which Hitler reassured that no harm would come to him, advising him to stay dedicated to the arts, which was "the highest demonstration of the beauty of a people", while Politics was certainly not something Kubizek would be able to thrive in. The two returned back to the Berghof, and said their farewells to one another, the former conductor claiming that as he left he knew that it was the last time he had seen his friend.
This was, however, not Hitler's final act, as later that month he was summoned to a more distant place, at Archangelsk where Werner Heisenberg, who became the leading Figure of the Uranverein, together with Albert Speer, Minister of Armaments, and Bernard Rust, Minister of Education, summoned the leading figures of the Reich to give Hitler the final results of his program. While it had only began to receive proper resources in 1943 and becoming the priority after Sendai, the German nuclear program, with the help of Linz Pakt scientists, archives captured in both Moscow and Bern, as well as some espionage contacts provided by the RSHA, the Program finally achieved it's goal. It was 10:09 AM when, in the cold northern plains of Russia, the sun scorched the earth for the second time to the dreadful horror of the whole world. The "Heisenberg Device", an U-235 bomb nicknamed "Wotan", the highest god of the Germanic pantheon, detonated to a devastating effect of 24 Kilotons, just slightly above the bomb detonated in January over Sendai years prior. And now, the Reich possessed the power of the Atom, thanks to the possession of the combined resources of Continental Europe, and was put as an equal in status to the United States, although Washington possessed far more devices stored and it would take several weeks for the next German bomb to be created. Upon receiving the news, President Long reached towards Prime Minister Eden, advising on increased preparations of British home defenses, when asked if America would join in a war against the Reich, Eden was infuriating over Long's hesitant response, the President claiming that he would simply do what was best for the American people, an angered Eden slammed down the phone as he asked if it was the best for the American people to see Washington razed by Nuclear Hellfire.
Long's advice proved prophetic as Hitler congratulated Heisenberg's efforts by awarding him the German Cross, with the title of "Father of the Atom", although he was not the inventor of the Atomic bomb, and called for a meeting of Wehrmacht commanders in the Wolf's Lair, a military headquarters used for the Eastern campaign during the war. In the meeting, which was attended by members of the Heer, Kriegsmarine, and Luftwaffe, Hitler discussed extensively the use of tactical nuclear weapons and the unleashing of a bombing barrage unlike any ever seen in history across the channel, thousands of rockets and over ten thousand planes, alongside the majority of the Linz Pakt assets, a Franco-German fleet which included the new Aircraft Carriers, the "Graf Zepellin" and the "Vaterland", to launch the devastating "Operation Sealion". Alongside a massive offensive of the Wehrmacht, the Syrian army, and the Italian army into Egypt and through Turkey with the final objective of capturing Israel and the oilfields of Iraq and Iran. A continuation of Barbarossa, nicknamed "Case Orange", which planned a massive push by the majority of the Wehr forces to capture all of Russia west of the Ural mountains to achieve a more "defensible and natural" barrier to the east and separate "The Asian Hordes" from Europe. On the 27th of February, Hitler left to the Berghof, giving final orders to mass produce atomic weapons and calling for the highest state of alert to all German forces, the orders being transmitted through the Linz Pakt much to the terror of Laval and Mussolini who could only stand and watch their countries being drawn to what would prove to be the Greatest War the world had ever seen, one that could very well destroy mankind itself as scientist Albert Einstein stated in New Jersey upon learning of the detonation in Archangelsk.
"The arrogance of one man, one who sees himself above all things, is what shall ultimately end arrogance altogether by making sure no more things exist."
The savior of the world from this brink of precipice proved to be something so small and petty that it was almost comical how one of the most powerful men in the world was brought down by it's smallest creature. His short stay in the cold winter of Archangelsk proved to be Hitler's undoing, as the Führer of the Greater Germanic Reich, on the brink of causing the deaths of tens, maybe hundreds of millions, caught something as simple as a cold. Normally that was hardy fatal, but the cold of the European Alps, added with Hitler's hipocondria, stress, and frail health, soon began to evolve into something more lethal. Doctor Morell merely proscribed even more pills to the Führer, but his stress and fear of death when on the brink of starting what he dreamed to be his greatest victory, his final war against the Reich's enemies, is what proved to be his undoing as he began to overdose on his medicine, demanding his dosage to be increased daily to fight the infection despite Morell's warnings. The doctor saw no choice but to continue to proscribe pills to the Führer, as well as injections of different drugs, vitamins, and even opioids, which led to an ultimate fatal end on the 12th of March 1951, a month from his 62nd birthday, after he took over 40 different pills during the night and went to his private cinema, closing himself alone inside as he began to watch his final movie, "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs". In the movie, near it's end, the villainous witch is about to achieve her victory over the dwarfs when a lightning strikes the precipice she stood on, and she ended up crushed by the same boulder she planned to use on others, the same way Hitler had planned to use biological weapons such as Anthrax against Britain during the bombing campaign, he ended up killed by a disease at the height of his pride when closest to his victory, just as the evil Queen. In another twist of Irony, the greatest enemy of America, a man who publicly despised all things American as degenerate and cosmopolitan, died of a cardiac arrest while watching his favorite American movie.
The Morning of March 13th would be the first day of Germany in over 18 years where Hitler was not in charge, and the first one to notice was none other than Klara, Hitler's young daughter who woke up early that morning. The toddler wanted to watch a movie, a cartoon, and woke up her mother Eva, who at first did not notice the lack of Hitler's presence, as it was usual for him to wake up before her. She guided the young Klara towards the private cinema room where an SS guard was standing at the door, claiming that the Führer did not want to be disturbed, Eva asked him if he had seen Hitler leave the room, as the guard was taking the morning turn, he said he didn't, calling through the phone to the station of the night guard where he also claimed he did not see him leave the Cinema, with the movie still on a loop inside. The guard hesitantly knocked on the door and received no answer, the three finally deciding to investigate the lack of response and opening the door to see Hitler apparently asleep on the chair. Eva and Klara attempted to awake him, at first gently, but upon receiving no answer, Eva became more desperate which frightened Klara, causing her to run from the room in fear while Eva shouted for the guard to summon Doctor Morell. Morell had just left the Berghof and was staying at an Hotel in Salzburg, with the SS officers barging inside his room and ordering him to dress up and head immediately towards the Berghof, still dressed in his Pajamas he entered the vehicle while the city was still unaware of what was happening. As the doctor came in, he went straight to the room where a desolate Eva begged him to do something, claiming she could not live her life without Adolf, ordering the doctor to reanimate him, and as much as he tried, Morell could do nothing. Adolf Hitler was dead.
Martin Bormann was naturally the first one in the scene, he lived in a nearby house in the Obersalzberg, and was still asleep when he received a phone call, waking up to take it as it came from one of his informants inside the Berghof claiming that Eva was screaming in panic and calling for Doctor Morell. Bormann's usual stoic bureaucratic behavior broke as he realized the moment he was expecting for so long has arrived at last, yet nothing could prepare him for this as his face immediately went pale, he spoke to the man across to close down all access and phone lines to the Berghof, this news could absolutely not leak. He finished by exclaiming "Scheisse", a rare bad mouthed moment for the Brown Eminence as he immediately got up from the bed and all sleep went away even for the standards of the workhorse. He dressed up, not even brushing his teeth or hair as he shouted for his driver to take him to the Berghof, only telling his wife about an urgent business which required his attention. He arrived shortly before Morell and immediately followed Eva's cries, seeing Klara hidden under the blankets of her bedroom along the way, being consoled by Traudl Junge, Hitler's personal secretaries who was almost like an aunt to the girl. He went to the cinema and saw Eva crying desperately over Hitler's corpse, and as he saw the dead body of his Führer, Bormann used of all his focus to not panic, as much as he was not a fanatic like Goebbels, he was still a fiercely loyal servant of Hitler, following him for over two decades, and this was a shocking experience for him. Yet he quickly absorbed it, offering to comfort Eva, staying with her for just a couple of minutes before telling her to await Morell while he went to speak with Kempka to break the news. While the Doctor attempted to reanimate the Führer in vain, Bormann instructed the staffers to completely lock down the building, and the Brown Eminence already began his scheeming as he had pickpocketed Hitler's pocket while consoling Eva, going towards his office to secure the one document he needed the most: His Last Will and Testament.
And yet, the news spread, Bormann was not the only one with staff members inside the Berghof, after all they were SS men. Himmler was already awake, being in Munich for the incoming inspection of a regiment of Waffen-SS graduates to be sent to Amiens where the preparations for the invasion were being made. His inspection was interrupted as one of his aides rushed towards him, giving a quick salute and handing him a document rushly written from the Berghof. Heinrich's hands trembled as he read that document, immediately leaving the inspection to the confusion of the SS soldiers, immediately taking a car to the Obersalzberg and giving strict instructions to contain the news. However that was far too late, Bormann was the first one to give the news to one man in Germania, Hess still being asleep when Bormann immediately summoned the Deputy Führer towards the Berghof without explaining any other reason through the phone lines which he knew could be tampered. Rudolf took his private plane to Linz, from where he would take a car to the Oberzalsberg. By coincidence, Speer was meant to go to the Berghof that day, in order to deliver the news that the Reich's second nuclear device was completed, and even without receiving the news he was headed from Germania to the Führer's residence, being in a car when he saw Himmler's vehicle rushing past him towards the Berghof at a speed he had not seen a Mercedes go before, the two ended up in a literal race towards the Berghof, later being joined by Hess' car in an almost cartoonish way. Goebbels was working tirelessly to prepare his incoming war speech when one of the Berghof staffers informed him of the commotion, the Minister of Propaganda was not told the cause, and yet he rushed all the same in a plane, landing in Munich where his car soon found the others on the road, the four raced through the Bavarian alps in a dangerous, yet comical, way that shows that reality is sometimes crazier than fiction.
Heydrich was actually in there before the four Ministers, as Chief of the Gestapo and the Intelligence Services, he had naturally discovered the commotion not just from his own sources but, as Bormann suspected, tampering the phone lines coming from the Berghof. Despite Bormann's order, Heydrich issued a counter order to the SS staff to keep the phone lines on, in order to deny the Brown Eminence the monopoly on information. Which is why Bormann was taken by surprise by Heydrich's early arrival as the "Man with the Iron Heart" came in to see Hitler's corpse in the cinema, laying down on the floor with Eva having passed out on a seat and Morell attempting to keep her stable. Heydrich did not show strong reactions, giving instead a disciplined salute and a little show of sadness and grief that Bormann noticed to be quite disingenuous. Later came in the four ministers, rushing inside one after another to meet the sight of a passed out Eva Braun, a panicking doctor who was fearing for his life, a bureaucrat in pajamas, and a sociopath in uniform standing with his face half covered by shadows, it all resembled a scene taken straight out of some dark comedy film. Himmler, already knowing of what was the reason for the panic, still felt disoriented for a while, taking off his glasses with trembling hands and circling around the room. Goebbels, Hess, and Speer had the more genuine and dramatic reactions as the closest and most devoted men towards the Führer. Goebbels fell on his knees in a drama that only a propaganda Minister could produce with a desperate cry of agony, his forehead touching the carpeted ground, calling out loud on why he had to be taken so early. Hess began to cry to himself as he paced around his body, kneeling down above his head and holding it, crying on his hair. Speer was in complete shock, having to sit down at a seat besides Eva as the commotion began to wake her up. Bormann began to approach Doctor Morell, while Heydrich went to a corner of the room with Himmler, the two already beginning to whisper to one another with both Bormann and Speer giving glances at them.
Eventually, Bormann called for the other members of the Inner Circle, saying that they should move Hitler's body to his room, to which Goebbels immediately protested by standing up and shouting "Who are you to give orders? We follow only the commands of the Führer!" to which Bormann said that Hitler was clearly not "available" at the moment, in a condescending way that only his secretary could say, Goebbels insisted to which Bormann challenged Goebbels to get an answer to the Führer, finally silencing the short spokesman of the Reich. Eva finally broke the awkward silence in the room, asking if they could take her husband's body to his bedroom, to which all agreed, the inner circle formed a circle around Hitler, subtly competing to who would carry his body. Speer ended up losing the competition and instead accompanied Eva with one arm wrapped around her as they went towards his room, and he heard of Eva asking for a Cyanide pill, claiming she couldn't live on without Adolf, to which Speer had to talk sense in her head, bringing her to Klara's room to stay with her daughter, claiming that Hitler wanted her to stay and raise the future generation of his family, to serve as a model for all German women. After talking her out of suicide, he arrived at Hitler's bedroom just as Heydrich was closing the doors, almost being stuck outside as they all began to discuss what to do. Doctor Morell was in the room and gave what he believed to be the cause of his death, a cardiac arrest. It was probably the worst thing to say in the worst place, already being quite unpopularly called a charlatan by Hitler's courtiers, he had to admit that the probable cause of the arrest, after seeing his medicine stash, was an overdose caused by his panic reaction to getting a flu. Immediately Goebbels began to call Morell a murderer, grabbing him by his shirt and claiming he had poisoned the Führer with venoms, the others had to separate the two to avoid Goebbels from strangling the doctor out of rage. Himmler ordered the doctor to be kept under custody by the SS but immediately Bormann claimed that only the Führer could dismiss his doctor, to which Himmler reminded Bormann that Morell was a member of the SS and he was still the Reichsführer-SS. As another argument was seemingly starting in the room when Speer proposed that Morell was escorted out of the room under Bormann's orders as secretary, and since the Berghof was under lockdown he could not leave the house anyways. Heydrich voiced his agreement with the proposition and Bormann complied by ordering Morell to leave the room and stay within the Berghof. Shortly afterwards, both Eva and Klara entered the room, Speer asking if she was better and Goebbels attempting to cheer up the young girl.
Naturally all wanted to hear his Last Will and Testament, and Bormann went towards his safe with the key and took it, although he had already done so before. He then began to read out loud to the room as silence fell, all of the men standing in attention to each word. Naturally it all started with him drawing a line from his "calling" in the trenches all the way to the victories of the Reich, speaking of the hopeful future to the German people which made Goebbels and Hess particularly emotional, especially as Hitler mentioned both of their names alongside the others during their "road to triumph". Hitler left the Obersalzberg and his residences, alongside the royalties for the "Second Book", to Klara Hitler, the largest art collection of Europe being given to Eva Braun alongside the guardianship of Klara and the watch over all her assets. The Royalties for Mein Kampf and several other proprieties were to be given to the Party, while Hitler praised the determination of his followers and their loyalty, while also lamenting the death of the Iron Marshal Hermann Göring, who he claimed to be a "Natural successor for the Reich". Finally he went through the qualities of some of his underlings, and claimed that Germany must never be left with a weak leadership, which would only allow it to fall prey of the Jewish enemies of the Reich. Bormann gave a pause as he finally announced in Hitler's will the name of Rudolf Hess, claiming him as an always loyal follower from the Start, a great friend and ally even in the darkest times, who should naturally be expected to receive the torch to carry the Aryan race to a bright tomorrow upon his death. The Bureaucrat finished the testament and gave it to Himmler as he requested to see with his own eyes. As it was confirmed that Bormann was speaking the truth, all of them turned to a nervous Rudolf Hess who was standing besides Hitler's corpse in complete silence. Bormann was the first to raise his arm in a salute, "Heil Hess", with quite more enthusiasm compared to the others who did the same with a varying degree of devotion, overwhelming the deputy with this demonstration as he realized what had just happened. He looked down at Hitler's body for a moment and then claimed that he was not worth a salute, that nobody should be equaled with Hitler's magnanimously, that he was the Eternal Führer of the Reich and therefore above Hess for eternity. Hess raised his arm and gave a Hitler salute which was replied first by Goebbels and then the rest of the room, this was seemingly an ensured and smooth power transition from the Leader to his Deputy, but of course it was not that simple. While the Reich now had a Führer, it was clear that Hess was a follower, not a leader, he did not have the ambition and ability to lead on his own, and that was shown by the way he was looking towards Bormann during the whole ordeal, and as Hitler claimed in his Testament, a weak leader could not lead the Reich.
Before they even left the room came the question on breaking the news to the public, and immediately all eyes fell upon Goebbels, he did not even question if he was still the propaganda minister, as Hitler appointed him to that position and Hess did not challenge it. They were quick to argue as each one desired to tell their interest groups first, then came the argument on informing the Army, the Gauleiters, the Industrials, and Foreign missions. Upon having the point of the foreign delegations brought up, Speer made the question which was hanging at everyone's head, if the plans for the incoming war were to be cancelled or not. Goebbels immediately began to angrily shout that going back down was a show of weakness and cowardice, that Hitler's will for the destruction of the Zionist and degenerate democracies was not to be stopped, the final orders of Hitler could not be overturned after his death, Himmler agreed with that statement but then Speer raised the concern that they still needed to give a public funeral and days of mourning, which could be easily exploited by the enemies of the Reich as the soldiers should have the right to honor him, Bormann agreed with Speer and claimed that Hitler was not expecting himself to be unavailable, which contradicted Morell's claims. Hess agreed in principle that he could not overturn Hitler's orders but just as the argument continued to escalate, Klara silenced the room with weeping, upon seeing Hitler's body closer, Bormann ordered Eva to take Klara out of the room, Eva's eyes glancing over to Speer, the family friend, who nodded and suggested for her to follow Bormann's "advice", which caused an angry glare from the bureaucrat as Eva and Klara left the room in silence. Heydrich finally stepped in, he claimed that the Führer's desire for the destruction of the Zionists was obvious, however he reminded the SD and RSHA reports, the death of Hitler would cause a general commotion not just in the Reich but all of Europe, and they would need a united front against the enemy, and besides, the people had a duty to honor the Führer, something which just could not happen if the funeral procession was bombed by the RAF. All eyes fell upon Hess again, and he hesitantly called for a "postponing" of the plans, to which Goebbels finally agreed as well as Himmler. War would be avoided, for now.
The announcement later that evening was something that shocked the world. In Washington and London, both Long and Eden knew that there was some strange move happening in Germany, with the rumors spreading around of Ministers and Gauleiters mobilizing, many expected that the war was finally about to begin, Eden was in contact with the RAF command to ready the bombers for a preemptive strike on the European Atlantic Coast, especially against the Wasserfall batteries and the air bases. Finally news came from Germania at 5:00 PM GMT, when Goebbels was the first one to come on TV in a rushed out assembly in the Volkshalle, together with the other high-ranking figures of the Reich with the sole exception of Hitler, there was even the rare instance of a woman being seated behind, Hitler's widow Eva who was dressed in black and was now the richest woman in Europe. The Reichminister spoke as the entire world stopped, expecting a war declaration and instead receiving the news of the decade, if not the century, Adolf Hitler was dead, claimed to have been poisoned by Doctor Theodor Morell who provoked a cardiac arrest by falsely proscribing pills under the orders of his "Occult Masters we know so well". Goebbels spoke passionately of Hitler's testament, of his devotion to the people, of his duty to the Fatherland, and the nation which was already on the brink fell on their knees in commotion. Thousands committed suicide to follow their leader to his grave across Europe, the German nation was in complete shock, and the Mobilization for the incoming "Inevitable War" was to be postponed indefinitely, finally Goebbels announced Hess as the New Führer under Hitler's will, giving him the podium as the world awaited. Hess was a skilled orator, although not to the level of Goebbels and Hitler, he was able to work out an already shocked crowd into a complete show of fanaticism, calling for the Unity of the German People's Community an the European Nations to continue the work towards triumph and prosperity, while also continuing the fight against the International Jew, he also made a call, especially to Britain, which brought Eden to a state of confusion, as well as practically every soldier listening to the speech. Hess called for Britain to join together into the European Community, praising the British Empire as a civilizational force in the world, something which coincided with Hess' Anglophilia and his childhood under British Alexandria, asking for their leaders to cast of the shackles of the Jews and join their Germanic brothers in the fight against the Zionists of Israel and the United States. Eden reportedly asked if his Television was not broken.
Around the world, celebrations broke out over the death of Hitler, in Israel there was a party that flooded the streets of every settlement. Anne Frank in her diary claimed that she had not seen such joy ever since the victory over the Syrians, that no people had ever celebrated so much over the death of one man, reminding her of how the Hebrews celebrated after crossing the Red Sea. In America, the people acted in an explosion of joy mixed in with relief, believing the threat of an incoming war to be over, the streets filled as if it was the Victory Day of 1947, President Long opening a bottle of champagne and making a celebration in the White House, even opening up the gates for the people to head into the garden in a similar way to Andrew Jackson's victory party, although the Secret Service forbade anyone of actually entering the building itself. In Russia, Cities such as Omsk, Vladivostok, and Novosibirsk ran out of Vodka as Monarchists, former Soviets, partisans, and all sorts of enemies set their differences aside to celebrate the death of Russia's greatest destroyer. Celebrations in Eastern European Cities, in Concentration camps, in farms and settlements still manned slavs, were spontaneous, with partisans celebrating with a wave of attacks on German targets and citizens, with local uprisings, all of that having to be violently repressed by the SS over the following weeks with even the involvment of some Wehr units. However, in Germany itself the death of Hitler was meet with a wave of public comotion, while the few remaining resistance members making their own private celebrations inside their homes. Hess declared a week of mourning, Hitler's body being brought to rest in the Volkshalle and exposed to the people for the week. He would be given an official funeral on the 20th of March 1951, a month before his birthday, his body being kept in a closed casket, with an SS honor guard to stay with it. Il Duce Benito Mussolini, the Prince of Wales Albert Windsor, Vice-President Roosevelt, President Campanema, Antoun "Al-Zaim" Saadeh, Caudillo Francisco Franco, Tsar Simeon II, and several other world leaders all came to the funeral, even members of rival nations, although other countries such as Israel and Russia, did not send any representatives for obvious reasons. After a grand spectacle, finishing with each of the main leaders giving a speech, the casket would go by plane to Linz, where Hitler would request in his Will to be kept in the Führermuseum. His body would be embalmed, exposed in a glass structure under strict watch of an SS Honor Guard 24 hours a day, becoming a place of pilgrimage inside the Reich to his devoted followers.
However, no event was as impactful in Europe in reaction to Hitler's death than what happened in France. The News of the death of the German Führer caused an outbreak of massive celebrations across French Cities, especially Paris. And, as history shows many times when it comes to that specific country, it soon began to turn into bigger and bigger protests against President Laval's regime. In Verdun, the Wehrmacht garrison brutally suppressed the celebrations made by the French citizens of the city as it was considered a territory of the Reich, soon the reaction to the repression, which included at least 17 deaths, led to growing protests within France. Laval was seen as nothing but a traitorous German puppet, and when he began to deploy the police against the protestors, it only sparked greater fury on the French people who began to protest against Laval and the Germans alike, and while the President claimed these protests were under control it was far from the truth. It was a strange mixture that was in these rallies, communists, fascists, republicans, monarchists, liberals, and conservatives all alike were united under the same cause against the declining economy due to the isolation in the Linz pakt and the bankruptcy of French businesses against the German conglomerates, French workers being driven away by Germans and "foreign laborers" from the Eastern territories. German troops garrisoning the coast, with the U-Boat naval bases keeping the nation still under de facto occupation which was only worsened by the mobilizations, with the many unwilling to be drafted to a nuclear war for the sake of the Reich despite the growing Anglophobic propaganda. Laval's cabinet meet at Versailles to discuss the growing crisis, but on the 23rd of March, the reunion was interrupted as a large mob marched towards the palace, including a formation of fascist militiamen led by Jacques Doirot. A general strike was called across the country by underground labor unions as the resistance cells long dormant began to activate, the people saw their chance in the March towards Versailles. Laval attempted to escape by helicopter, only to realize that his pilot had allied himself with the protesters, leading him to land in the middle of the crowd as a very familiar scene in French history repeated itself in one of the most dramatic power transitions of the century. Laval was dragged by the mob towards a guilloutine, a Judge taking the stage over a wooden box and calling the crimes of the President out loud, which included collaboration, desertion, cowardice, and treason against the French people and nation. Laval's cries were deafened out by the mob as he was put in the guilloutine and sentenced to death by the people of France, even the own supporters of Petain's regime abandoning the man who was so hated by the Marechal. Laval would lose his head and now the French people, for the first time in History, had executed a sitting President.
The scandal shocked Europe, and from there, similar protests began to erupt against the Linz Pakt and German exploitation, a last huzzah of resistance cells long suppressed. In the former Yugoslavia, the infamous Poglavnik Ante Pavelic would be assassinated by a Communist Serbian partisan, rebellions breaking out across the Independent State of Croatia and the Serbian puppet government at Nis. Josip Broz "Tito", leader of the Communist partisans who quickly became one of the most organized and successfull guerrillas in Europe, declared the "Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia", partisans and local militias used the chaos in order to seize large amounts of territory in Bosnia, while the chaos engulfed Croatia. The SS heavily suppressed a rebellion at Prinz-Eugenstadt, former Belgrade, but soon would see themselves increasingly isolated as similar protests happened in Hungary and Romania, against the Arrow Cross and the Iron Guard respectively, in Bulgaria, Hristo Lukov's regency was threatened by protests in Sofia calling for an anticipation of Simeon's reign, although the Prince was barely 14-years old. In Greece, the Italians would have to deal with a General Strike and increased partisan attacks in the Epirote mountains, the Greek terrain proving itself very favorable to Guerrilla warfare. In Portugal, the protests would be more modest, and through a mixture of compromises and repression, Salazar would be able to take control of the country. In Spain, something quite different happened, the Protests, many of them led by old republicans, were beginning to escalate into violence, and General Franco would suffer a fate similar to Pavelic by being assassinated by a former Anarchist guerrilla. However the power vaccum did not last, the protests would be crushed by the Falangist-alligned military, and José Antonio Primo de Riviera, for years overshadowed by Franco, used the opportunity to seize the Spanish State for himself and his Falangist movement, becoming the new Caudillo of Spain. In Italy, the protests were successfully repressed by the MVSN blackshirts, with the use of intelligence, infiltration, and overwhelming force.
The French Regime had accidentally created it's worst enemy, the constant propaganda against General Charles de Gaulle only served to make him the figurehead of the Resistance more successfully than any of de Gaulle's own legitimation efforts. In Brazzaville, the General heard about the revolution in Paris, and he knew he would simply not have a better chance as many in the resistance called for him to assume power. He had to be quick, after all, Doirot was already positioning himself to attempt the creation of a proper Fascist State in France, and God-forbid the communists from actually emerging victorious. He did not consult his allies before ordering the Free French forces to mobilize it's naval and land assets, first planning to seize West Africa by taking Dakar, an objective which had failed in the years before, and then advancing northwards towards France to assume the Presidency. However, de Gaulle knew there was a massive looming problem in this approach: The French coast was guarded by the Wehrmacht, the majority of the Navy had sided with the Petain Regime, and it was likely only a matter of time before the Germans intervened. The only way France could survive is if it had the full backing of Britain and the United States, including even to the nuclear end if necessary. De Gaulle presented his case towards Eden at first, and the British PM was all too happy to neuter the threat across the channel and deliver the decisive blow against the Reich, however Britain alone would not be able to defeat the Reich's Festung Europa, it was not something which could be accomplished without the deaths of millions. The Russians, began an initiative of their own to present the case to President Long, "Just give us your backing and all of Eurasia shall stand with you", said Tsar Andrei in a letter, which arrived shortly before Huey Long received a phone call from Eden to bring in de Gaulle's plan. That was it, the grand opportunity, the people of Europe begged for America, from Tito's communists to Greek Monarchists, French resistance and de Gaulle, calls from all across the continent by resistance movements and governments-in-exile, all awaited for just a permission. It was a fateful choice, and Long was not willing to expose America into another total war, having been elected on an anti-war platform compared to the hawkish MacArthur, Long's war was internal, to fight for the American common man against the Federal Reserve, the Monopolies, Banks, Oligarchs, Klansmen and Corporations, and entering in a war would only bring an end to this internal agenda just as the Wheeler Administration was forced to abandon it's programs for sake of wartime measures, and fewwanted a return to draft and rationing right after Operation Sunset inside Long's Cabinet. Besides, with the Reich's advances in rocketry still being mostly an enigma, there were histerical fears that, with the new nuclear capabilities, the Germans would be able to strike nuclear bombs in London, Lancaster, even New York itself. Ultimately, President Long made the decision that entering an European War was not within the interests of the American people, which caused a shocking sense of betrayal all across Europe, French resistance members who once proudly waved the American flag and called for the American army were now realizing they were left to die.
In Germania, this little wave of Revolutions was seen as an opportunity by more ambitious men, with Hess vacilating personally on what orders to be given, being overwhelmed by this position and still in grief for his departed friend. Hitler's will was remembered by one man in particular, Heinrich "Loyal Heinrich" Himmler, the chief of the SS and the most powerful man in Germany. As the SS brutally suppressed revolts in the east, especially in Poland, through brute force, Himmler remembered the words of Hitler's will, Germany could not be left to a weak leader, and that is something he planned to capitalize. In France, after Laval's death, his cabinet was in chaos, many members being caught and lynched by mobs over the country, what was left of the Cabinet fled to Orleans, and Himmler began to prepare to act on his own in order to end the French chaos engulfing the country. Joseph Darnand, member of the Waffen-SS and Commander of the French paramilitary Milicie, launched a coup in Orleans against the Vichy regime, Laval's cabinet was dissolved and the Milice took control of the French State, launching a request for aid to the Linz Pakt to restore the national order and unity of France. In Paris, the fortified German Embassy was attacked by an armed mob, the Germans used of a local arsenal, including machine guns and even artillery pieces, to fight of the siege of the embassy, however it would be finally broken on the 27th after several days, the mob stormed into the building, lynching anyone inside who spoke German including functionaires, while the local garrison used flamethrowers and gasoline in order to burn the files, with the mob inside the building as it caught on fire, many would be trapped into the flames as the building burned, the ambassador himself commiting suicide before his capture. Verdun was put under siege, all railways and roads were closed down and the population entered on strike, with the threat that an event similar to Paris could happen as the French militia was preocupied in restoring the order in other areas. Doriot and the Fascists would end up sidelined in Paris, the movement's leadership declaring the creation of the Second Paris Commune and ordering the execution of any "Collaborators" within the city, which even included former collaborators like Doriot who had switched sides after seeing the effects of the German dominance over France in the 1940s. Hess finally ordered the intervention on April 1st, Wehrmacht units under General Rommel and Waffen-SS units across the border and within France, including the assets mobilized for an invasion of Britain, stormed into the country to support Darnand's new regime.
France was doomed if it depended on the United States, it was something de Gaulle realized upon hearing of Long's rejection, and he knew he would have to act by himself if he was supposed to at least emerge victorious in this struggle. The modest Free French forces could never invade the mainland, but he knew they were enough to be able to take Africa. With the naval forces spearheaded by the Aircraft Carrier Bern, with land forces under General Philippe Leclerq, and a friendly support by the Royal Navy, the Free French set the sights on the port of Dakkar, the key to control the massive territories of West Africa. Before, in 1940, a failed landing was a humiliation to the Free French forces, but this time things would be different, this time on the 3rd of April 1951, there was no need to fire a single shot. The Governor, who had his loyalty to Petain, refused to recognize Darnand's new regime, with him and his forces freely recognizing Charles de Gaulle as leader of Free France, and with that, the administrations of the majority of French West Africa defected to the Free French, much to the shock of both the General and Darnand. However, in France the Paris Commune would not have the same luck, Jean Moulin, a French Resistance operative in London, would report the horrors in the City of Lights when the Wehrmacht descended upon it, with Panzers destroying the makeshift barricades, SS soldiers accompanying the German army quickly making their arrests and executions right behind. The Hotel de Villers, traditional center of French revolutionary activities, was shelled by heavy artillery for 36 hours before the final surrender of it's defenders, with Wehrmacht troops once more marching down the Arc du Triumph, but this time not in the conquest of an enemy nation, but a pure massacre of mostly civilian militiamen, something Rommel was not particularly proud of, but he had his orders.
Soon Darnand, now with his power secured in the mainland, wished to finally end the Free French threat, with the Reich's permission to expand it's armed forces and mount an expedition with the support of the Kriegsmarine, an expedition would be launched on the 16th of May towards Dakkar and Hess would face his first crisis. Eden, differently from Long, was not willing to back down in his position, challenging the hesitation of the United States by showing Britain as the defender of the Free French. The Royal Navy under Admiral Lord John Tovey, was stationed outside of Dakkar, blocking the way of the Franco-German taskforce with a Franco-British one. A tense stalemate began as both sides dared the other to fire the first shot, but who would break first? Who would back down? The Dakkar Crisis was another instance where 1951 almost began the third world war, but in this case, Rudolf Hess ordered the Kriegsmarine to retreat first, not desiring to enter in a conflict with Britain while the Linz Pakt still had to reorganize itself and due to his Naive Anglophilic atitude, believing himself some diplomatic genius who could turn Britain against America. Without German support, Darnand's expedition was forced to retreat and the Allies celebrated as the massive territories of French West Africa were now given to the Free French, while in Germania, Himmler, who orchestrated this scheme with Darnand, now had the excuse he needed. Germany could not have a weak leader, and now Hess had backed down against the British despite the clear supremacy of the Reich over "Inferior puppets of Judeo-Capitalism", as well as letting the German embassy be massacred. Himmler had a set day to act, the 20th of April, when the Tag das Sieges arrived and the Waffen SS was parading through the Unter den Linden, it would be the perfect time to be rid of Bormann and his puppet Hess once and for all.
Intrigue brewed inside the Reich, and everyone seeked a way to undermine those in power to take it for themselves. Bormann was the one in power, while Hess was mostly an incompetent and weak figure, Bormann was a sociopathic bureaucrat who ruled from the Shadows, the Brown Eminence, who was behind both Hitler and Hess for decades. It is no wonder Martin Bormann was hated, hated by Speer for his bureaucratic apparatus stagnating the economy, hated by Goebbels for his despotic atitude and manipulative nature towards Hitler, hated by Himmler out of Himmler's desire for power. Hess listened to Bormann's words as a King who always had an ear to his advisor who truly ruled behind the throne. Bormann had started to take full powers from Hess, he was appointed as Deputy Führer, took care of Hess' paperwork that the German leader did not care about, bureaucratic manners that ended up giving Bormann power over several affairs, while the office of Deputy Führer meant that Bormann now vetted the entry of civil servants inside the Reich's robust system. Hess, surrounding himself with more and more interest on astrology and occultism, was an eccentric man, once even giving Himmler several different pots as a gift when the Reichsführer complained about a headache, claiming that he should immerse his feet at water with different temperatures to balance out his mood and heal his mind and body. While Himmler had his own occultist beliefs, it was just ridiculous to him just how open he was about it, apparently he even consulted with Astrologists before taking decisions, many of them being considered as Charlatans who whispered on Hess' other ear. Truthfully, Hess was simply not fit for the job and that is something Hitler himself knew, once commenting in private that if Hess ever became Führer he didn't know who he should pity more, Hess or the Party. Why did Hitler appoint Hess? He did not, that is the answer, Bormann knew of the original contents of the Last Will and Testament, once spying on the Führer himself as he saw the final draft while Hitler had passed out into sleep due to his pills earlier that year. The Brown Eminence took the original Will, which had Hitler's concerns of Hess written on it and recommending merely that he is kept in his current position and far from the real levels of power, and instead he read the copy, with a forged signature, while keeping the real Will with him, in case he ever needed to blackmail Hess. As the Reich became more and more Hess' dominion, Himmler prepared to enact the duty of a National Socialist, the rule of the strong must prevail, he entered in contact with Heydrich and the commander of the Leibstandate Wilhelm Mohnke, the stage was set and soon the Day of Victory would come.
April 20th, 1951, The parade was hours from starting, Hess was in his office, not the Reich Chancellery where he had never stepped his foot on since Hitler's death. He was looking fixated at a portrait of Hitler, reminding himself of his birthday that day, remembering of their journey together for Germany. He was not a leader, he knew that, and yet his old master seemed to have trusted him, believed him worthy of his Title even if Hess did not believe himself up to even lick Hitler's boots. He was a show man, one with good contacts, but he was not a Führer, refusing to accept that others saluted him, forbidding people from removing Hitler portraits or even put a portrait of his own at the same level or above Hitler's, and now he was supposed to be the leader in the Victory Day. As the hour struck, he knew he had to get ready, fixing up his uniform, Hess was about to leave his room when someone came through the door, two SS guards in their black uniforms entered his private room and locked the door behind them, holding their Gewehr 47 Rifles, one of the best models for semi-automatic rifles in the Reich. "Mein Führer", one of them said, "You must remain at your quarters, there is an ongoing emergency". Hess attempted to question it further but he did not receive any conclusive answers, and despite not being particularly skilled at intrigue he already knew what was going on, and considering these were SS soldiers, he knew who was behind it.
Martin Bormann was in the Reich Chancellery when he saw the SS trucks stopping at the front door, from the window he could see the black-clad soldiers rushing inside the building, his own guard being overwhelmed and disarmed, if not supportive of their Schutzstaffel comrades. Bormann would never let himself be captured, but would he just let everything go down the drain? He was a survivor, he did all sorts of things for sake of power, and he could not just have it all be in vain. He knew there was only one man who he could get help from at this moment, grabbing a phone, he called for Generaloberst Friedrich Fromm, the Commander in Chief of the Reserve Army, the main force left in Germany as other Heer units were deployed across the continent. Unknowingly to Bormann, Fromm knew about the coup, and he was not reporting it to the Deputy, he was rather reporting it to another circle of characters who were awaiting for the ideal opportunity. With the SS launching the first blow, it would be easy to justify an intervention to restore the order, this was the moment they all awaited, when the National Socialist apparatus inevitably turned against itself. Fromm, who had begun to grow more distant of the leadership in Germania and owed no personal loyalty to Himmler or Hess, was approached by Tresckow the night before as his sources in the Abwehr informed of unusual SS mobilizations on the eve of the Tag das Sieges. With the coup now being obvious, the Wehrmacht officers would never let this army of fanatics take over the nation, and by claiming Hess has been imprisoned by the conspirators already, Fromm executed Unternehmen Walküre.
Germania, which was just awakening to see the victory day celebrations, was not awakened by alarms but by machine gun fire. Troops from the Reserve Army entered in combat with Waffen SS units right before the parade, the tanks supposed to participate did not possess ammunition, but that did not stop them from being used as cover or rammed against walls, barricades and crowds of soldiers. Over ten thousand soldiers of both groups made Germania's streets into a battlefield, while the Waffen SS arrested Hess and Bormann, the Army units went after Reichsminister Albert Speer who was in the city to participate in the parade events, he was approached on a radical proposal, with said officers proposing to make him the new Führer of the Reich, or at the very least keep him as Minister in the incoming government. Speer was kept in house arrest as he was not making any decisions so quickly, for the coup to succeed one side still had to neutralize the other, and for now the SS held the two main cards in the Chancellery. Himmler moved Bormann and Hess to the SS Main Office to keep his two "trophies" secured, and uupon their arrival, Hess demanded explanations from Himmler, receiving only the information that the Army was moving into a coup, stabbing in the back the National Socialists to secure power to themselves. Technically that was not wrong, but Himmler did not speak that he was the one unleashing his own coup first, and the Army was merely exploiting that momentary division. His Chief of personal staff, Karl Wolff, was ordered to keep the two of them on watch in separate rooms, and both Bormann and Hess realized quickly that they had no authority in the room, this was Himmler's playground, and more and more he was acting like the Führer he believed himself to be.
Goebbels was the key figure lacking in this plot, the public image of the party during speeches and announcements, the man who was Gauleiter of Germania and the Master of Information in the Reich. Having him meant cutting the communications and seizing the local party apparatus, Himmler knew that Goebbels could make the news public, use the Tag das Sieges, where all eyes were upon the city, to make the narrative he wished and turn the people at any direction, The Schawrze Kapelle (Black Orchestra, as the Conspirators were refered by the Gestapo) knew that. Goebbels saw from the window of his office as SS and Wehr troops fought one another to see who would be the one to capture him, and he would rather bite a cyanide pill than be captured by either of them. But he had an insurance, he had the communications, the telephones, and just like that his telephone ringed, "Yes, they are coming here, do what needs to be done". The SS were the ones who beat the army into the building, and it was just as he had hoped, with the assurance made by his ally, he would survive this day. Goebbels was kept under watch inside the building, not being moved to Himmler's office like Hess and Bormann, there would be another fate for him as his benefactor finally arrived in a Black car, their alliance was tenuous and unlikely, and Goebbels still had a pill in his pocket in case that was a mistake, but soon the tall "Blonde Beast" entered his office, the guards giving him a salute as Reinhard Heydrich came towards him. "Do you trust me?" Heydrich asked, to which he quickly received a "No" reply, "Good, I don't either". Heydrich gave him a rare smirk while Goebbels just looked at him wondering if he should have taken the pill while he had the chance.
Keitel was quickly secured by the Schwarze Kapelle and the conspirators, who spoke of the SS coup, but there was one commander who was still free and outranked Fromm and the conspirators, the OKW Chief of Staff Heinz Guderian. The General, who was preparing the troops for the parade, was not foolish to not know of the conspiracies inside the army, but he owed no loyalty to Tresckow, Olbrich, Witzleben, Stauffenberg, or Fromm, he had his loyalty to Hitler, even if they had their disagreements, a Wehrmacht officer never engaged in treason. Goebbels was the only one he was able to reach, and from him he received the confusing news, the Reserve Army was launching a coup and the SS was fighting with government forces against the putschists. Guderian had received confusing reports, after all, he was informed by many sources that the SS were the ones launching the first blow, it was a chaotic situation where two coups were happening at once and he was the only commander near Germania who had a force sufficient to crush both of them if necessary. While some entertained the idea of him seizing power, using his personal prestige as the victor of Barbarossa, Guderian had no intention of doing so, and at the decisive moment he decided to trust the call from Goebbels' Ministry, placing his loyalty to the regime and the true Wehrmacht against the conspirators. Soon he mobilized his divisions and began to enter the city against the troops of the reserve army, but if the SS was truly launching a coup then why did Goebbels not inform Guderian?
Heydrich was supposed to have returned to the Main Office with Goebbels in his custody by now, Himmler was nervous, his right-hand man had never failed in fulfilling an order, unless the military had reached to the Propaganda Minister first. The Reichsführer-SS was tranquilized when he saw Heydrich's car and his escort coming to the building, but then he noticed that there was the lack of a midget with a broken foot and skeletical face in it. As soon as Heydrich entered his office, Himmler demanded to know where was Goebbels, and Heydrich only informed that he had killed himself with a Cyanide pill, not just that, but Guderian's troops were about to enter the city and nobody knew which side he was loyal to, after all they had Hess. Himmler's argument immediately stopped as the Television airwaves were turned on all across Germania, the news reaching the Reich and the world about what was truly happening in that chaotic day: A coup was launched by military dissidents planning to seize power for themselves, a cabal of military officers stabbed the Reich in the back, but the government forces were restoring the law and order in the city with the help of the Party forces in order to preserve the legacy of Adolf Hitler. Himmler was left confused, was Goebbels not supposed to be dead? Why was he now siding with them? Perhaps he expected to be a part of the future government? That is when he heard the cocking of a gun behind him, and the "Man in the Iron Heart", his ever loyal henchman, pointed a gun at point blank range at Himmler, and as he was left in shock, his own guards approached and handcuffed him, the Reichsführer was in complete shock as he finally realized he was no longer in charge of the SS, and had not been in a long time.
Bormann thought he had been saved, that the troops of Guderian would smash the putsch and restore order to the Reich, and indeed the Wehrmacht loyalists had entered the city, and the government quarters was being put back in the control of the Hooked Cross troops. But he was not saved, far from it, when the office he was in opened up, he saw Heydrich stepping in, and Bormann already knew of Heydrich's dubious loyalty to Himmler, he promised that the "Butcher of Prague" would be properly rewarded for his loyalty, by taking the command of the SS itself. But then, once he saw the gun at his hand, Bormann's color drained from his face, instead he desperately went on his knees and began to pathetically beg for his life, no words came from Heydrich, only a bullet to the Brown Eminence's head. In the cell on the other side, the scene was quite different once Heydrich arrived, Hess was not shot, instead he was rescued, informed that Bormann had been executed and Himmler planned to do the same to him, but the Reichsführer had been stopped before he could act on his maleficent schemes, Guderian's troops were now collaborating with the SS to crush conspirators within the armed forces who tried to use the chaos to seize power to themselves. Hess chose to believe Heydrich's affirmations, knowing very well he had no choice on that matter and that the Chief of Secret police desired his own reward for this.
For the rest of the day, the situation on the ground quickly made it's change, Monkhe, being part of Heydrich's plot, collaborated with Guderian's forces, and the combined strength of the Wehrmacht and the Waffen-SS proved far too much for the conspirators. Speer was released from his house arrest, and the plotters surrendered to avoid more death and carnage in Germania, the officers were arrested, and Speer was barely saved thanks to his contacts, as many had believed him to be a part of the conspiracy. The April coup was a failure, soon the main opposition figures within Germany ended up arrested while Goebbels took to the airwaves to announce the restoration of order, the Conspiracy of Heinrich Himmler within the SS being stopped by loyal elements within the party, and the army being stopped by loyalists in the Wehrmacht itself, the legacy of Adolf Hitler would be mantained and he warned that the Reich "Cannot be destroyed from out or within, it's foundations shall last for a thousand years". The "unfortunate" death of Bormann by the putschists was also put on the news the following day, because that night was when Heydrich made his move, in what was called the "Second Night of the Long Knives", Himmler loyalists all across the Reich, and even in other parts of the Linz Pakt, would be assassinated in charges of conspiracy, while many Bormann loyalists were subtly executed or arrested. Over 400 officers of varying degrees from the SS and NSDAP would be executed in one night, all while Roland Freisler was summoned to organize the public show trials in the "Peoples' courts" to the conspirators within the Army.
As a reward for his services in difusing the conspiracy, Hess felt "obligated" to give Heydrich the title of Reichsführer-SS, alongside the title of Deputy Führer. Goebbels was rewarded for his decisive actions, being finally given the Ministry of Education and Culture from Bernhard Rust, who was quietly encouraged to retire, while the Ministry of Science was split up and awarded to Heisenberg for his discoveries in the field of Nuclear Physics. Speer received the Ministry of Economy with the retirement of Walter Funk due to his declining health, finally achieving almost a monopoly on the control of the Reich's robust economy and State corporations. Hess was kept as the Führer for now, but Heydrich recovered something in Bormann's office after his arrest, something he could keep close in case Hess ever began to get any bright ideas other than showing himself up to public with speeches praising the late Führer. Without the support of the allies, the attempted revolutions in Europe were crushed by the brute force of the Linz Pakt, and while it lost a large portion of Africa, it survived it's first major test, but with an increasingly stagnant economy that was only put in more shock by the coups between March and April, that was surely not going to be the last test for the Iron Eagle.
On the 23rd of April came the day of the execution, Colonel Stauffenberg, one of the leading figures in organizing the conspiracy, was put in front of a firing squad. He had dedicated his life for Germany, and only too late did he realize the true scale of the Reich's monstrosities. And now their one gamble was lost, the other officers being either placed in camps or executed like him, and honestly he preferred an immediate execution rather than the horrors happening in the East. Their time was passed, the Abwehr was dissolved as soon as the extent of it's oppostion was discovered, it's functions being absorbed by the RSHA, Colonel Hans Oster, who for years led the resistance de facto, who even tried to warn the allies before all of this began, had been executed the previous night, and now it was his turn. The SS firing squadron, as he did not get the honor of a military execution, aimed their rifles at him as he had his back against a stained wall. He could only pray that the Lord would have mercy upon this nation, and hope that at the very least their show on the 20th could show the world that not all Germans were like the criminal gang that took over a nation of honor and made it a nation of scoundrels. His last words were to give a military salute, shouting "Long live our Sacred Germany!" as the bullets fired and it all faded into black and red, at least he would not have to witness the horrors that would come to this world after their departure. Even in death, Hitler had won, his regime survived, and now it would belong to the strongest.
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This kinda of reminds me of the death of Stalin movie.
Fuck sake long, you just alienated most if not all of your potential Allies. Not only that, you just lost a golden opportunity.