The Sound of Drums - A British Hearts of Iron II AAR

[Kan' Sharuminar]

Because it would defeat the point of having a Cabinet, and e350tb has hinted at wanting Hurricanes (though he seems to have changed his mind recently).

Though honestly, I'm quite surprised at the vast difference between the stats. It's not even as if the Hurricane can be upgraded earlier than the Spitfire.

 

[GeneralMatt]

For some reason I thought the Hurricane had better range than the Spitfire, laughs on me I guess.

With my ratio, I just mean eventually, I understand it would be slow. But that was with the assumption that Hurricanes had a much better range. So my argument is total waste now, so feel free to ignore it.

 

[e350tb]

If we have both Spitfires and Hurricanes, we'll effectivly even out our fighter support.

 

[e350tb]

I'll give you one better:

At the moment we simply don't have the industrial strength for that. At most we can produce just one squadron at a time, hence the discussion now for choosing one or the other.



They'll be needed for the defence of the Home Isles and Egypt. A full Air Force reorganisation will be done later this year.



Whichever fighters chosen will be under the jurisdiction of the Chief of the Air Force, Mr. e350tb as they will be primarily for defending/attacking ground or air resources.

The Chief of Navy only has a direct say on the Carrier Air Groups, though his opinions on the Hurricane/Spitfire debate will be given weight

Sorry to double post, but may I ask why we're still using Battles?

 

[rabidveggie]

We don't need to intercept, we need to attack the enemy with our superior skill, and technology. Italy won't know what hit them.

 

[GeneralMatt]

The problem is that as Germany is starting to grow as a threat (Repossessing the Rhineland and all that) we might end up a war with them. Then, with their larger air wing we will end up on the defence. And Spits will serve us well in that situation.

 

[Kan' Sharuminar]

The Sound of Drums - A British Hearts of Iron AAR
Part Ten​

25th February - 13th March 1938
Anschluss!

Watching over the new Austrian population.

Concentrating as they were on the Italian and Japanese situations, it was fairly unsurprising that British intelligence failed to pick up the warning signs that, in hindsight, were clearly visible in the run-up to “Anschluss,” the German reunification with Austria.

First came the sudden reorganisation of the German Wehrmacht with the loss of two of its most influential chiefs. Later investigations would reveal that, through threats and blackmail, Field Marshall Werner von Blomberg and Werner von Fritsch were removed from power as Commander-In-Chief’s of the German Army. They were replaced almost immediately by men more openly loyal to Adolf Hitler. In effect, he had seized direct control of Germany’s armed forces.

His timing couldn’t be better when, during the first week of March it was reported that the Soviet government was in turmoil. Several Red Army Generals were openly criticising the Soviet Premier, and several rebellious groups were reported to have begun terrorist attacks against industrial targets. Dissent was high, and Stalin was showing uncharacteristic restraint in dealing with the problem. There was no reports of any harsh reprisals, no ‘disappearances,’ no ‘reorganisation’ of the Red Army. It appeared the Soviet government was quite willing to simply ride out the storm. Doing so however, effectively removed it as a threatening influence on Hitler’s ambitions. He decided to try his hand.

He already had an advantage in taking Austria thanks to the fall of its government in early February to a more German-friendly one. Since then, Austrian Chancellor Schuschnigg could only watch as his power was quickly usurped, with his own attempts at maintaining independence only throwing the country into more instability. He could do nothing to deter the inevitable ultimatum from Hitler - give up power willingly or see Austria taken by force. On March 13th Austria was incorporated into Germany’s Third Reich.

An expanded Germany

Reaction from Britain and France was one of neutrality. Austria had appeared to welcome unification with open arms, so outright condemnation of the Anschluss would only serve to aggravate them and Germany. The British Cabinet of Doom quietly accepted the new arrangement, but suddenly realised the potential new danger Germany represented. Still worried about the Italian troop-building, the obvious question came up, “What if Italy allied itself with Germany?” The two governments were similarly aligned, and such an arrangement would require a complete rewrite on the military operation plans in the event of a British-Italian war. For now, it was best to stay quiet and see what Hitler’s next move would be.

That said, there was little opposition to the news that a new production order had been placed to Vickers-Armstrongs Limited. The new Spitfire was to begin production immediately - Britain’s airspace was to be protected…

 

[rabidveggie]

This is an unwelcomed development. However are French allies defensive line is near impregnable, and on the off chance that it is breached, which is impossible in my opinion, our navy and air force will defend the English channel from any enemy stupid enough to enter it. At the moment though I recommend some redeployment of forces along the Maginot Line to deter any German aggression. A line manned by British forces is far more intimidating then one manned by the French.

 

[Captain2]

pssh, we should implore the workers and farmers within Austria to resist this annexation

they cannot crush the proletariat!

(I figured since everyone else is playing the anti-communist role I should offer the counter point)

 

[Kozmos]

Well I say we preemptively attack the buggers on their airfields before they hit ours.

 

[nodikus]

I don't see any need to change our immediate rearming plans. We just have to keep a closer eye on Germany.

 

[Kan' Sharuminar]

This is an unwelcomed development. However are French allies defensive line is near impregnable, and on the off chance that it is breached, which is impossible in my opinion, our navy and air force will defend the English channel from any enemy stupid enough to enter it. At the moment though I recommend some redeployment of forces along the Maginot Line to deter any German aggression. A line manned by British forces is far more intimidating then one manned by the French.

That line is specifically designed to force any German invasion elsewhere, even if manned by the most minimalist of French forces. Should there be a war with Germany, the bulk of the French Army and the BEF will be along the Belgian border. It is very likely the Germans would try a repeat of their Great War invasion strategy.

 

[e350tb]

Now we have looked at our fighter production, it might be an idea to inspect our bombers.

Current bombers are rather...terrible, actually. If this government continues to rely on Blenheims and Battles we may as well let Germany annex us tommorrow. I suggest we up Wellington production and research the possibliliy of heavier and faster bombers.

 

[germanicus12]

Grand Admiral Germanicus has ordered the British fleet in the Mediterrnean Sea on high alert. The carriers are constantly moving and have the fighter/interceptors routinely fly around the carriers searching for aggressors.

But do not actually fly in Italian airspace, as this is no doubt an act of war.

 

[nodikus]

I think Admiral Germanicus is overracting. Political developements, no mater how unpleasant, do not constitute an military threat. Add to the fact that Germany dosn't have any naval or air forces in the Mediterranean and Italy isn't currently allied with them.
In my opinion the fleet is more likely to provoke something we're not ready for.

 

[rabidveggie]

Unless Austria was annexed by force I do not recommend any military flexing so close to Italy. It could be the match that ignites the powder keg. After all, it took the death of one monarch to spark the Great War.

 

[Peck of Arabia]

I've been forcibly barred, by circumstance, from my duties (whatever they are) for the past 3-4 days- what did I miss?

oh...

Still I maintain that Italy is still the predominant threat to British power in the European theatre- as shocking as the Anschluss sounds, reports do indicate that the new border forcibly created by Germany, to Italy's north, has worried Mussolini, and led to a slight emnity between the two fascist nations, despite their matching ideologies. And anything that distracts Mussolini has to have a good point, right?

 

[sirtommygunn]

the french dont seem too smart making fortifications there instead of behind belgium, afterall the usual german invasion plan is too go through belgium. preety much every german invasion of france in history has been through belgium

 

[GeneralMatt]

The thing is, that would violate Belgium's Neutrality basically, make it look like they are a threat to the French or what what.

 

[Riptide_Monzarc]

An excerpt from a speech to the House of Commons by the (unelected, self-appointed) leader of the Imperial Defence Council:

...The Japanese advance into the harsh terrain of China is quite surprising, and in such a short time, no less. While the offensive appears to have stalled, the Japos might simply be biding their time to build up their forces for a renewed attack. I would say that since they've basically halved their territorial distance to India and Indochina in those five months, it is conceivable that should they break the backs of the Chinese and get either simple transit concessions or even collusion (or outright conquest) then both our and the French Empires are in serious trouble...

...The Anschluss puts me in two minds. While it strengthens Hitler's position, he has not honestly made a threatening move toward Britain, or even France. True, he's repudiated the Versailles and Locarno Treaties, but those treaties themselves meant that any real German political move would be a violation of them. And the union of German-speaking peoples which have an almost identical culture is no more hypocritical than our own continued union with Scotland and Ulster; to condemn it on those grounds would be to expose the integrity of our own nation to the selfsame criticism.

I say we look warily at an expanding Germany, but Germany is hardly our biggest threat. Even the absorption of the German-speaking Czechs in the Sudetenland wouldn't alarm me nearly as much as the rapidly-expanding threat of the Italians in Africa. We must strive to preserve the peace, while preparing with all possible haste for war.

As part of those preparations, I must ask...what state are our supply convoys in? We can hem and haw over fighters and bombers, even battleships and tanks, but if we haven't the shipping to keep our boys in-stock we're not going to be able to hang on to our Empire. Convoy ships are the lifeblood of the Empire, and the shipping lanes are the Empire's arteries. If even for a matter of weeks our convoys deliver fewer supplies than our troops consume, our capacity to fight will be degraded to such an extent that even the Italian forces we might face could turn us back at the Front, and then at Alexandria, and then at Cairo, and then at Khartoum.

Taking that in mind, we must also see what manner of smaller, faster Naval forces we might be able to compose, possibly incorporating Submarines, to take on our enemies' own supply convoys. While Germany or the Soviets will hardly be checked by such harrying, Italy and Japan rely on convoys to keep their troops supplied, and as such this direction of Naval expansion has to have at least some merit worth considering...

It has been commented that the speech, while showing some manner of restraint compared to previous orations, was still no less urgent in its drive to prepare the Government, and the British people, for a coming clash of nations.