Chapter 27: The Krupp Arms Factory

Even if Guderian hadn’t asked for it himself, Wilhelm was already planning to make that switch for him.

The future Father of Armored Warfare belonged in the tank corps — keeping him in the infantry would’ve been a damn waste.

And Guderian wasn’t the only one. Wilhelm planned to put a serious focus on armored warfare training for his other officers too.

In the wars to come, if you didn’t know armored tactics — if you weren’t familiar with how to fight with tanks — you might as well be a crippled general. Useless for the big jobs.

Sure, there were a few niche scenarios where armor couldn’t do much — that’s where you’d need paratroopers and mountain infantry, the special forces types. But everywhere else? Armor was the king of the battlefield.

Looking back at history, the reason the Germans lost World War II wasn’t that they leaned too hard on their armored forces. It’s that their armored forces just weren’t strong enough!

The Führer — just like a certain former U.S. president — used maximum pressure tactics to score win after win: marching into the Rhineland, the Anschluss with Austria, swallowing the Sudetenland. A whole string of victories.

That created a dangerous pattern — he got hooked on that playbook. So when the Danzig crisis came up, he tried the exact same move again.

What he didn’t realize was that his constant flip-flopping and broken promises had completely burned his credibility.

After watching Chamberlain cave again and again — and seeing where that got him — the British and French leadership had hit their limit with the guy. They stopped backing down and started pushing back hard.

On top of that, the Poles figured they had Britain and France backing them, so they got cocky and decided to go toe-to-toe with the Germans.

Result? The situation spiraled out of control, and World War II kicked off way earlier than anyone planned.

When Germany blitzed Poland, their armored forces weren’t actually all that impressive.

Most of their tanks were the Panzer II and Panzer III light models. The Panzer IV was rare as hell. In terms of hardware, they really weren’t that far ahead of the Allies.

But thanks to their advanced armored tactics, they wiped out Poland in a month, took down France in forty days, and chased the British into the sea — basically hitting every goal they’d set before the war.

The problem was, starting a war without being fully prepared — that weakness got exposed hard when they ran into the Soviet Union.

One Blitzkrieg punch wasn’t enough to put the Soviets down. It just hurt them a little.

Once the Russians caught their breath, they learned German tactics and started hitting back with even bigger armored formations. From that point on, Germany was cooked.

But if the Germans had been better prepared before the war — built up more armored divisions — maybe they could’ve pushed way faster.

At the very least, they wouldn’t have had to pull Guderian’s 2nd Panzer Army — the one meant to strike Moscow — over to the Ukrainian front because they didn’t have enough men.

If that hadn’t happened, the Battle of Moscow might’ve turned out completely different.

Learning from the Führer’s mistakes, Wilhelm decided that before he flipped the table, he was gonna lay low and play it smart. No moves unless he was absolutely sure of victory.

Essen, Krupp Arms Factory.

This legendary factory — famous worldwide for the Krupp cannon — was now looking pretty damn bleak.

With World War I over and Germany defeated, Krupp was in the same boat as every other arms factory in the country.

No more military contracts. Plus the threat of being cleaned out by the Entente. Their future looked dark as hell.

And after the Kaiser abdicated, the worker uprisings in the Ruhr region hit them hard too.

Sure, the German army recaptured Essen pretty quick and freed the factory from the left-wing militias. But by then, a lot of their equipment was already wrecked, raw materials were basically gone, and most of their workers had scattered during the chaos.

A factory that used to crank out thousands of cannons a year was now dead in the water. The production lines sat silent — no more hum of machinery.

To make things worse, word came from the Paris Peace Conference that the French were pushing hard to have Gustav Krupp — the family patriarch — listed as a war criminal.

On top of that, the Entente was calling the Krupp factory an accomplice to German aggression. They planned to send troops in after the war and tear the whole damn place apart.

That news threw the entire Krupp family into panic.

In total despair, Gustav Krupp planned to ship his kids and family overseas to safety. He himself decided to stay behind and face the Entente’s judgment.

But just as they were about to accept their fate, a group of mysterious people showed up at their door.

A few days later, the Krupp family members were relocated to Mainz — not far from the front lines. And Gustav Krupp himself was brought to the headquarters of Army Group B for a secret meeting with Crown Prince Wilhelm.

"Your Highness — I finally get to see you. I never thought you’d be the one to save us old-timers!"

Gustav broke down in tears the second he saw Wilhelm, practically ready to grab the Crown Prince’s leg and sob out every bit of misery from the past few weeks.

The Second Reich had only been dead for a month, but he looked like he’d aged decades. His face was weathered, his hair almost completely white.

Wilhelm had met Gustav before — back when he’d accompanied his father, the Kaiser, to receive him.

When Wilhelm II had arranged Gustav’s marriage, Wilhelm had even attended the wedding as a representative of the royal family.

Honestly, Gustav Krupp owed everything he had to the royal family’s favor and support.

Without that, how would a regular diplomat ever end up running the Krupp company?

Back then, Krupp was basically the biggest arms dealer on the planet. At its peak, they had over 200,000 workers and produced thousands of cannons and over ten million shells a year!

Their cannons were so good — such solid quality and reputation — that they weren’t just standard issue for the German military. They sold to dozens of countries overseas. Hell, even the British had to pay Krupp patent fees just to use their shell designs.

A monster that size? Calling them "wealthy enough to rival a nation" wasn’t even an exaggeration.

Wilhelm II put Gustav in that position because he trusted him completely.

And Gustav never let the royal family down. He ran the company with total dedication, helping the Germans produce and improve tons of artillery during the war — a massive boost to the war effort.

Near the end of the war, when the military demanded something crazy to bomb Paris, Gustav organized a team of experts to design and build the Paris Gun — a monster cannon with a 172-caliber barrel that could hit targets 130 kilometers away.

The Paris Gun didn’t save Germany from defeat, sure. But the fact that they could even pull off something that insane showed just how committed they were to the cause.

"You’ve been through hell. I failed to protect you — that’s on me."

Wilhelm walked over and personally helped Gustav to his feet.

This man was basically a loyal retainer of the royal family. His devotion to the Empire had been tested through both world wars.

Wilhelm valued him highly. He was willing to take huge risks just to pull him out of the fire.

"Please, Your Highness — don’t say that. None of this is your fault. Given how desperate the situation was, the fact that you managed to do all this — that’s already incredible."

Gustav wasn’t just flattering him. Even the Emperor himself had cracked under the pressure and fled. But the Crown Prince? He didn’t run. He stayed and fought.

He used his political skills and influence to outmaneuver military heavyweights like Hindenburg, quietly pulling together this much army support.

That kind of guts and cunning — Gustav was in awe. Even if Frederick the Great came back from the dead, he couldn’t have done better.

By the time he’d heard the full story of what Wilhelm had done and how much power he’d gathered, Gustav was completely won over. He genuinely believed this young heir could lead the Empire through the fire and back to glory.

After they caught up, Wilhelm finally got to the point:

"The Paris Peace Conference isn’t over yet, but the punishment is pretty much clear. The Entente is gonna strictly limit the Empire’s military after the war — and every major arms factory in the country is gonna get hit."

"For the bigger picture — and for your own safety — I need you to fake your death. Dodge the Entente’s prosecution. Also, when you get back, I need a detailed list of Krupp’s top technical talent and engineers. I’ll find ways to place them in different industries and keep them protected."

"On top of that, to make sure the Empire doesn’t fall behind in weapons development, I need you to lead a team to the Netherlands, Sweden, and Switzerland. Use Krupp’s existing technical foundation to secretly develop new weapons and improve the artillery we’ve got."

Wilhelm laid out his plan patiently, then added with a slightly apologetic tone:

"I’m sorry. I don’t have enough power yet to go head-to-head with the Entente. So I have to ask you to make this sacrifice."

"No problem at all. I’ll do whatever it takes to serve the Empire. I just hope I live to see the day Germany rises back to the top!"

Completely different from the broken, beaten-down man he’d been just days ago — after hearing the Crown Prince’s plan for him, Gustav’s eyes lit up. He looked twenty years younger, like he’d found his purpose again.