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Old 05-20-2017, 01:55 PM   #1
L.J.Steele
 
Join Date: Apr 2005
Default Research help for Pulp Adventure

Looking for some good sources on the secret German rearmament efforts in the 1920s and 30s. Found a bit about a Dutch company building U-boat components (NV Ingenieurskantoor voor Scheepsbouw or IvS) in _Blackett's War_, but given how thoroughly WWII has been written about, someone must have written a decent book on specifically on the rearmament efforts. (Which would make a dandy foe for an inter-war years Pulp game.)
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Old 05-21-2017, 06:20 AM   #2
johndallman
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Default Re: Research help for Pulp Adventure

Good question, and I want to know the answer, too. I take it you're much more interested in the factories and designers doing the work than the German internal politics?

I don't have anything myself on the practical side. I found a recommendation for the Time-Life book Fists of Steel, and decided to take a punt on it, since it's very cheap used.
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Old 05-21-2017, 06:50 AM   #3
L.J.Steele
 
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I'm thinking more about pulp espionage than pulp politics, tho inter-war era Germany is a very interesting place that hasn't been done much in games.
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Old 05-23-2017, 11:15 AM   #4
Michele
 
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Default Re: Research help for Pulp Adventure

There is Corum's book about Von Seeckt's army reforms. The Roots of Blitzkrieg.

Lots of information is available online concerning the German-Soviet R&D joint efforts, which is something that can be pretty interesting. You should look up the tank school of Kama and the flight school of Lipetsk.
Infiltrating either, for a Western agent, would be really very hard.
Here's an example, a bundle of original documents from the BAMA (but it's in German).
https://www.bundesarchiv.de/oeffentl...ndex-1.html.de
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Michele Armellini
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Old 05-24-2017, 02:13 AM   #5
Michele
 
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Default Re: Research help for Pulp Adventure

Quote:
Originally Posted by L.J.Steele View Post
Found a bit about a Dutch company building U-boat components (NV Ingenieurskantoor voor Scheepsbouw or IvS)...
Well, there's more to that. First, the "Dutch" company was a front for a German joint venture of AG Vulcan and AG Weser, under the auspices of the Reichsmarineamt. Second, the IvS designed entire submarines, not just components, and had them built in and for third countries: Finland, the Soviet Union, Spain (with the two boats eventually being sold to Turkey instead). The contracts provided for IvS engineers to participate not just in sea trials but also in the initial training stages, so these "Dutch engineers" managed to get first-hand experience with modern submarines - which were forbidden to Germany by the Versailles treaty. Unsurprisingly, these small but modern submarines eventually turned out to be the prototypes for the German Typ I and Typ II classes.
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Old 05-25-2017, 03:17 AM   #6
Michele
 
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Default Re: Research help for Pulp Adventure

Another lode you might wish to mine is Germany's early efforts to redevelop know-how as to chemical warfare. You'll find the same pattern: German scientists (chiefly Stoltzenberg) working for other countries (Spain, the Soviet Union etc.) and accumulating information for use by Germany at a later time.

While truly revolutionary breakthroughs came along well after Nazi Germany had overtly abandoned Versailles restrictions (nerve agents, 1937 or thereabouts and on through to 1944), the efforts with improvements of WWI-style gases had already begun by 1922.
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Old 05-30-2017, 02:38 PM   #7
johndallman
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Quote:
Originally Posted by johndallman View Post
I don't have anything myself on the practical side. I found a recommendation for the Time-Life book Fists of Steel, and decided to take a punt on it, since it's very cheap used.
It's not that great. It has a few things, and quite a lot of nice pictures, but I can't recommend it.

It concentrates on the work done through Krupp, since they were involved with a lot. There was a viewpoint that they had major responsibility for the re-armament of Germany, and the head of the company from 1909 to 1941, Gustav Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach was due to be tried at Nuremberg, but he was senile, and clearly unfit for trial. The prosecution didn't notice this until late on and tried to substitute his son Alfried, but the judges would not have it.
Quote:
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First, the "Dutch" company was a front for a German joint venture of AG Vulcan and AG Weser, under the auspices of the Reichsmarineamt.
Yup. The actual design work was done in Germany. A note from the Time-Life book is that in the early 1930s, IVS obtained a lot of submarine components (periscopes, diesel engines, and the like) and stockpiled them in Kiel. There's a sabotage mission there.

I've found a much more detailed book, Covert German Rearmament, 1919-1939, by Barton Whaley. Is there any particular sub-period you're interested in?
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Old 05-30-2017, 04:42 PM   #8
L.J.Steele
 
Join Date: Apr 2005
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Quote:
Originally Posted by johndallman View Post
I've found a much more detailed book, Covert German Rearmament, 1919-1939, by Barton Whaley. Is there any particular sub-period you're interested in?
I saw that and I'm going to see if my reference librarian is up to the challenge of finding it via ILL. 1920s has been my pulp focus.
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Old 05-31-2017, 01:36 AM   #9
dcarson
 
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Worldcat seems to find it pretty commonly in university libraries. Not so much in public ones.
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Old 06-06-2017, 05:40 PM   #10
Bud
 
Join Date: Oct 2016
Location: Calgary AB
Default Re: Research help for Pulp Adventure

Hi Lisa,
The works by and about William Stephenson (aka Intrepid) provide some insight, Stephenson reported to Churchill about German military expenditures and rearmament efforts. See books incl. A Man Called Intrepid, The True Intrepid, Camp X, Heroes Rogues and Spies, The Civilian Bomb Disposing Earl.
Later on Stephenson was involved efforts against German Heavy Water research (heavy water for atomic bomb development), which is an adventure hook for any hero worthy of the title.
The rearmament program is generally taught now as having been one of three parts of an economic policy; rearmament, repudiating Germany’s foreign debts and saving German agriculture. Edward Bennett, and more recently Richard Evans, have written a great deal on this, and are probably still recommended reading in universities.
Ben MacIntyre has written historical accounts about WWII espionage, you might look up his work.
Then there is the occult / weird science efforts, of which I don't know much beyond "Raiders of the Lost Ark", but I recall reading a news article suggesting that Goring oversaw a project to "bring back" (clone I guess?) aurochs and possibly other prehistoric animals.
cheers
Bud
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