Chapter 8: Anybody got a light? I have a treaty to burn!
At the beginning of 1937, the CSA was knee deep in a full blown industrialization program. Mid-January saw a slew of new factories come online and many more undertake further expansion efforts. But what worried Jake Featherston the most was the paltry amount of men of military service age. NBF3 estimated that there were only about 250,000 men able to be induced into the military in the event that they were needed. By contrast, the CIA estimates that the US has more than triple that at its disposal. Given that this situation was could only get worse as time went on, the CSA began to prepare its battle plan for the imminent war with the US with this overshadowing fact in mind. It was readily apparent that not only would the CSA need to win the upcoming war quickly, but it would have to have a military force that was on the cutting edge of technology and tactics.
Fortunately, this was one area that Featherston felt confident that he could have the advantage. The CSA was expanding its factory base to allow for the mass production of tanks (I know they are called barrels in the book, but here I will depart from standard
Settling Accounts nomenclature) and aircraft. The grants from the government were helping to steer private companies towards developing new weapons of warfare. Part of these funds included the purchasing of new technology for early combat testing in Spain. This was one area that was a boon to the CSA. The precious few divisions that he did at his disposal were slowly being rotated in and out of Spain, so that all of the CSA divisions could gain valuable battlefield experience. It also provided a fertile ground for the further refinement of new tactics and doctrines. Many old army and airforce doctrines were being abandoned or refined and new ones were being developed.
But time was the real enemy to the CSA. It had to start building up its military forces or there would never be enough time to fully prepare for the upcoming war with the US. The question that plagued the CSA government was how to violate the treaty, without violating the treaty? In the end, Featherston knew it would be impossible. But tensions had eased by March of '37 to the point that the CSA military thought it could start rearming itself, albeit in baby steps. Again, as before, the CSA began a full court press in the diplomatic circles, to prep that nations for the eventual US response. But on the 7th of March, the CSA committed its first flagrant violation of the Great War treaty by ordering the construction of AA batteries around the country.
It has begun:
In the end, it was a clever move by the CSA. AA batteries could in no way be interpreted as an offensive weapon. They posed no threat to any nation, unless that nation was attacking the Confederate States. The US, as expected, lodged a protest and this time Germany and Austro-Hungary backed the US in the international scene, but Britain and France, as well as many neutral unaligned nations felt that a nation trying to protect itself, especially after the war on its southern border, could not be condemned for building defensive weapons. The US populace, struggling to pull itself out of the deep depression, was less than concerned about what its southern neighbor was doing. There were simply too many people that were to worried about whether or not they would go bankrupt to worry about whether or not the Rebs were building stationary artillery pieces. The socialists and their media lapdogs tried to stir up public sentiment, but it was a losing proposition. Even in congress there were just too many people that remembered the awful bloodshed of the Great War all too clearly. To them, and a great many people in the US, anything short of the CSA invading their country was not worth starting another war over.
This was the CSA's first major accomplishment in its quest to rearm, and it was, by far, the most important. It became clear to the leading CSA officials that it just might be possible to build up its military without sparking a premature war. It just needed to be handled discretely.
In May, the CIA scored its second big victory in its war for continual funding. It managed to sneak out of Germany blueprints and schematics for something called a Nuclear Reactor. The treasure from Operation Chernobyl was not something that as immediately deemed useful, but many of the leading physicists in the CSA took an acute interest in it. If nothing else, it shored up domestic support for the continuance of Potter's spy program.
Operation Chernobyl:
Meanwhile, overseas the SCW continued to drag on, costing countless Spanish lives and displacing millions of innocent civilians. There was hope, however, as it seemed that the Nationalists had finally gained an upper hand in the conflict, no small thanks to the tireless and purely benevolent efforts of the CSA military. The Nationalists had managed to push the communist forces back into the north-east corner of Spain. Unfortunately, this was some of the worst country to wage battle in, so the war ground on.
SCW - May '37
Soon after this graphic was created, the province of Oveido fell to the Nationalists. Now, since the communists lacked control of an Atlantic port, it was next to impossible for the American aid to get to Republican Spain. The British, controlling Gibraltar, refused to let ships carrying military supplies through to Spain. The British government issued a statement saying that "it could not allow any goods passage through the strait that would just serve to prolong the conflict and increase the suffering of an already war ravage peoples." Now the only supplies coming to the Republicans were those that managed to slip through the blockades that the Nationalists had setup blocking Spain's eastern ports. It was only a matter of time. The CSA began slowly drawing down its "humanitarian relief efforts" in Spain.
In June, the CIA scored its thrid major victory in less than a year, when it successfully pulled off Operation Big Guns. This provided some valuable insites into the state of the Japanese military. It also sent the CIA's internal prestige to all-time highs and ensured Potter's efforts many years of generous funding. Potter knew how lucky they had been to have three major successes within the year, but it would take the CSA nearly four more years to realize the full potential of the spy networks that Potter had been strenuously cultivating.
Operation Big Guns:
The next big ripple on the international scene in 1937 came at the beginning of July. It seemed that the already heightened tensions between Japan and China finally boiled over when a couple of Japanese soldiers were killed in a border incident. The reaction from Japan was as immediate as it was severe.
Now they've gone and done it...
Japan had never been truly beaten in the Great War. The American's and British had signed a truce with the Japanese to end hostilities, rather than face many years of bloody naval and island campaigns. But since they had not been beaten, Japan had its army and more important its navy come through intact and had avoided the harsh punishments imposed upon the Entente powers. Japan's immediate imperial expansions had been stopped, and Japan was content to lay low for awhile, giving it time to consolidate its Great War gains. But the US knew this would not last forever, and many in the US feared that Japan threatened its Pacific interests. Japan, not the CSA, was seen as the biggest threat to the security of the US. It was this in mind that the US offered assistance to the Chinese. However, China was still bitter over the treaty between the US and Japan, which effectively marked China as a country in the Japanese sphere of influence. This betrayal was not forgotten by the Chinese, and would complicate Chinese-American relations for many years to come.
You only love us when its convenient for you:
Japan held the initiative in the China-Japanese war from the beginning and never let go. Chinese forces were sent reeling out of northern China, and in a desperate attempt to get back on its feet, China offered to make peace with all of the warring factions, if they would join the fight against the Japanese aggressors. The warlords agreed to this proposal, all with the secret anticipation that once the Japanese were defeated they could resume their infighting for control of the Chinese mainland.
The CSA, meanwhile, had turned its attention to its navy. Many in the Department of the Navy felt that the widespread submarine tactics of the last war were a complete failure. While not everyone shared this opinion, this anti-submarine camp had the support of one of only two people who's opinion realy mattered and that was Secretary of Navy, Edward Borne. Under his guidance, the navy began to move away from its policy of making submarine warfare the major naval focus, to one that more closely mirrored the English and French doctrine of naval fighting. While none of the CSA's naval leaders were particularly skilled in this new approach, the CSA began an exchange program with both Britain and France, whereby its naval leaders could be sent to these countries for tuturship in the newly implemented Fleet-in-Being doctrine.
The end of the year saw the CSA finishing its second round of industrial expansion, and the success of yet another spy mission against the US. Operation OPEC had managed to steal blue prints for a new and modern oil refinery. Featherston was a believer in the CIA, but he always wondered where Potter came up with the names for these spy missions. What the hell does OPEC mean? Oh well. Featherston had bigger fish to fry. With the successful construction and deployement of AA defenses and with the second round of factory expansion complete, Jake knew it was time to move into phase three. He met with the board of the CCC and they agreed to start manufacturing large quantities of crop dusters that were specially designed to hold weapons, with only minor modifications necessary. These planes had served well in the SCW as ground support aircraft, and Featherston was gambling that he could manufacture several thousands of these without causing a flabble.
The Confederate Air Force is Reborn:
The beginning of the year had seen the CSA in a state of worry. But by the end of it, Featherston had managed to get his country back on track for a crash course with the US. He had manage to build air defenses against the inevitable Yankee air raids in the upcoming war and managed to start building his airforce all without provoking the ire of the US. It seemed his diplomats were on the verge of being able to hammer out an alliance with Britain and France, and he had seen success with his army in Spain. Yes, he thought, we just MIGHT be able to pull this off.
Next Update: Burn Baby Burn!