There might not be an chapter tomorrow because I'm taking my oath as a lawyer tomorrow and my family wants to celebrate.
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1917-November-16-December-6
The sound of my weapon echoed in my ears and I slowly raised my gaze, observing the distance.
''On target, mein Herzog'' my observer said, looking through his telescopic sight.
''Good, it seems this rifle is fine'' I said, rising from the ground while observing the target some 800 meters away.
Standing up, I positioned myself and began pulling the trigger repeatedly, nine times to be exact, until the weapon was empty, firing at several ranges to test its effectiveness.
''9 out of 10, mein Herzog. The seventh shot, at almost one kilometer, was inaccurate, with a deviation to the left. The wind may have interfered'' my observer said while writing everything down in his notebook, his eye still fixed on my results.
I remained looking at the weapon we had developed, which in reality was nothing more than a crude copy of the Gewehr 43, using a mixture of a semi-automatic rifle and my attempt at making an assault rifle.
Since I was completely determined to enter the standard use of the assault rifle, we already had mostly semi-functional prototypes of the weapon, but what a fire it became when I began calculating the cost of arming troops with a weapon that ate bullets as if there were no tomorrow.
Troops had to be trained, and that cost bullets, which, with Germany stockpiling everything for its great offensive, were difficult to find, since they were taking everything to the warehouses in preparation for the spring offensive.
So in these peaceful areas, considering that we had not had larger events than a few strikes or minor protests, there was no need for our regular shipments of ammunition from Germany to even arrive.
Besides, I could not simply have Vasyl send me free ammunition, since both of us were in economic difficulty while trying to whiten our economies, trying to take advantage of the fact that Russia continued buying everything we offered them as used weapons, new uniforms, boots, food and bandages, with our industry profiting from the civil war like never before.
So when I calculated how much the cost of maintaining the armed forces would rise, I backed away from my idea of every one of my men having access to an assault rifle.
In training alone, a soldier would spend between 30 and 150 bullets a day, and I did not even want to imagine what that would be with 10,000 men. That would be a far greater expense than a German division while being a quarter of one, so my dream died immediately, since I did not even want to imagine the expense when my army entered combat.
I thought for a couple of seconds.
''It still needs the use of chamber gas adjusted better, but in general terms I feel it is fine. I would like to use less wood, since it receives too much vibration, but this is what we can do without moving the production line too much'' I said, inspecting the weapon and beginning to disassemble it in some parts.
''Should I send the approval then, mein Herzog?'' one of my observers said.
''I want more men to carry out firing tests and see how it performs under long combat stress, since at least the first 20 shots seem to have worked well'' I said, observing the weapon and extending my arm so one of my Jägerkommandos could take it and begin aiming.
I handed him a new magazine and the shots began, carrying out at least 100 more shots with 5 different shooters, finally observing the final result of the weapon, which had an effective range of 750 meters and a rate of fire of around 40 shots per minute, so it was a good weapon for assaulting positions, although it was not what I wanted.
But since I needed to increase the military forces, now by Germany's request, to begin slowly moving the forces of the Eighth Army back to the front, I had to reach around 20,000 men and, if possible, have around 20,000 reservists. But that would be dreaming with what we suffered to get only 10,000. Doubling that was already very difficult, especially obtaining 20,000 more reservists.
And of course, that meant much of the gold I had obtained had to be invested through recently printed Baltic marks, which would be used to finance the expansion, preparing new training facilities, the uniforms and, of course, the weapons. Weapons whose production should only now begin, and 20,000 weapons, even at cost price, would be a great expense, and even more so the ammunition, so I could not go mad with automatic weapons either, since that was what machine guns were for.
So my scarce resources became even scarcer, waiting for the moment when the Spanish flu arrived, since a large part of our budget was going into that.
One of my expenses was the large production of gauze using Ukrainian cotton to produce several types of gauze. I spent time thinking and modifying German machinery that already produced gauze normally until I managed to produce gauze cloth in large quantities to make those fabrics, trying to imitate the result of surgical gauze.
Since masks were needed, the best way to avoid the Spanish flu was to prevent it, so we had to try to flood the large German cities near the front so everyone would use masks, in addition to offering bandages.
That was something sold both to Germany and Russia, good bandages. In that way, by the time the epidemic began, we would have a developed or semi-developed industry, since I doubted that just a couple of machines, no matter how much they managed to produce per day, would be enough to protect millions.
And obviously the hope was that when the epidemic arrived, I could pass the cost on to Germany, although I think that would not go so well, since they would most likely make me treat it as a patriotic act. But I had already sent to Berlin to patent the mass production of penicillin, since the doctors had created a kind of steel tank that they used to expand and produce the Penicillium fungus after choosing the best strain of all, and they had already begun producing the liquid and a purification process.
It was not perfect, but it was much better than fighting an infection simply by keeping the wound clean, and this would be what truly made me rich, since while it was being patented, I was offering it to the army to sell doses and provide training to doctors on how to use and administer it. And because we did not want super bacteria 50 years early from playing with biology.
So, after finishing the test and giving the production order for equipment with the modifications I had mentioned, in addition to seeing whether it was feasible to move the weapons factory from Posen here, although that was something I did not know if it was feasible or if they would allow me to do it because of the war.
While that was happening, I visited the Romanovs to see how they were and how they were dealing with the winter pains their son had, but beyond that, the Romanovs remained calm in their family retirement.
As always, the visit was tense, with Nicholas trying to learn something about what was happening outside, but it was necessary to keep him completely ignorant of what was happening, since if he learned about the civil war, the idiot would surely try to do something to help the conservatives who were still fighting for the monarchy, especially since it was a very established rumor that the Entente was sending a great deal of equipment to the Whites.
It was unknown whether it was because of the news that the Romanovs had been burned, but the war did not seem as tilted toward one side as it had been historically, since it seemed the fate of the Tsar had been quite divisive in society, completely changing the sympathies the Tsar supposedly had.
Several weeks passed like that, where we were simply waiting for the new equipment and beginning recruitment and preparation for the new expansion of the armed forces, considering that the growing economy could allow it as long as gold kept arriving from Russia.
But by December I had decided to request that I be transferred as head of the occupation forces to move temporarily to the front, to give them some combat experience, asking to be assigned under the command of the Crown Prince so I could be on the Western Front and mobilize around 7,000 men, while the other 3,000 stayed behind training the new recruits.
While waiting for the response to my proposal, it was quickly accepted once I placed Ferdinand as the regional head of the occupation, as he was the most experienced and highest-ranking officer available, while I could leave the duchy safely in Manstein's hands, since there was no immediate danger, and he could also continue simply making sure the military equipment arrived.
My request was approved just as the first models of the Gewehr 43 began arriving, although I had clearly modified them so they would have the designation Gewehr-18, since it would be strange to name it as it would be in the future.
It did not take long before we began mobilizing by train toward the Western Front, trying to arrive as soon as possible, loading the train with all the medical equipment we were offering to the Western Front, while awaiting the response both on the patent and on whether they wanted to buy at the price I was offering, although I was expecting a counteroffer from Germany.
Within a day, we arrived on the outskirts of the city of Dijon, which was where the front currently stood, where the forces of the Crown Prince were stationed, waiting for instructions to launch the massive offensive.
The city of Dijon was a ruin, showing what had also happened in Verdun before the breakthrough. The city was currently in no man's land, where patrols fought to see who controlled the rubble of the city while both sides prepared for the offensives.
When I arrived, I found that the German trenches were well built and were even being reinforced further, using cement to give more layers of protection to the underground shelters.
And in the rear, massive troop training was being carried out, since apparently they planned to use veteran troops to lead the charges against the trenches, beginning to make use of the Sturmtruppen.
There I soon saw that my submachine guns were in the hands of many soldiers who were training in how to use the weapon.
In addition to thousands of artillery pieces and warehouses packed with ammunition, so it would not surprise me if the French defenses were shattered when we carried out the attacks in the coming months.
Supposedly, the preliminary bombardments would begin in early February to coordinate an attack in late February or early March.
After getting off, we began joining the Crown Prince's camp, setting up our tents, in addition to putting our medical equipment into position, deploying everything we had brought to begin fighting the plague, since it was only a matter of time before the first cases were heard of and we had to distribute masks and prepare the necessary things for the sick.
In addition to preparing food for the people, since one of the main things that greatly increased mortality was hunger, because people had nothing to eat and, therefore, no strength or resistance to fight the viral disease that sought to kill them.
It was known that there was some scarcity in Germany, but it was not something severe. Things were expensive, but it was not as though there was nothing. Rye, potatoes and certain meats could be found in all German markets, though not in large quantities because of the army's stockpiling.
So I made sure to prepare my men, distribute the duties of the officers and begin organizing ourselves for whatever tasks we were assigned, but I would certainly try to use some of the influence I had so my men would be reserved for offensive missions and not latrine duties or things of that sort.
''Well… time to visit the army commander'' I said, observing the center of the command post.
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