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BwenGun&Bafflegab :rofl: Still, the Russians and Germans combined outnumber me about 1.5:1 if you are counting in the forces of the pup...erm Allies I made in Western Europe.
 
The next update is ready. I only have to run it by a moderator then I can post it.
 
Atlantic Friend said:
Nobody would complain about British Empire in the 1930s. Probably, as decolonization kicks in in the 1960s, it will change names to become a Commonwealth or Union, but in the 1930s, it's the Empire and the sun still can't exactly set on it !
Hate to jump in here, but empire has weird connotations; even after the birth of the German Republic in 1919, plenty of people still referred to the German Empire, and not just on the right.

So, just as plenty of people in America today have no problem talking about an "empire of liberty", I could see pride in Britain's realm into the present day.

Among Britons, at least.


trekaddict said:
In India for example it was a combination of these which brought nationalism and the wish for independence to the fore, but not before the Indian National Congress had tried to go down the path of self-government whilst remaining part of the Empire (albeit with a better representation, something more akin to a dominion), it's why they to a degree supported the Empire quite happily in WW1.

The problem is that then you get into the issue of rising expectations.

I await Nehru's visit to the USSA.
 
trekaddict said:
That is why in the future the British will do something all my AAR countries do: have working Hydrogen Cars on the road by 2008. :D ;)
Hmmm Hydrogen Cars, giving a whole new meaning to the word car bomb!
 
El Pip Yeah well.. I friend of mine works at a Hydrogen research centre and a while back I was there visiting him and he told me that had the will been there we could have fielded them ten years ago, so I simply presume that in TTL the will is there. :D

Bafflegab True, but still.. the numbers worry me.

Faeelin re pride in the realm: Rest assured that a lot of work will go into waking the same pride in the rest of the Imperial Subjects of the Crown, not just the Britons.

Neruh won't visit America. As he is an Imperial Subject and not a member of the Diplomatic Corps he isn't allowed anywhere within the area of the (insert name) - pact nations lead by the UAPR. (Union of American Peoples Republics)
As for rising expectations: That, is IMHO something we can't say with any degree of certanity, as the PoD is at this point in time (1938) already more than a decade back, and even more so after the war.
 
Chapter 37

cfed8ddc.jpg

December 19th, 1938

The Berghof, Bavaria*

The car was worming its way up the mountain past various checkpoints and guardposts. Even the head of the German Military Intelligence had to identify himself before he was allowed into the inner sanctum of the Reich and that somewhat annoyed the Admiral. What annoyed him even more was the cause because of which he had been summoned here. The Führer wanted to know everything the Abwehr had on the Empire Plan it its possible implications. The Officer on the phone had indicated that the Führer was 'emotionally distressed' about what the British had done. In Hitler's opinion the British had spit upon the Imperial idea as Hitler had interpreted it. Canaris could already imagine the ravings about Subhumans and all, not that he agreed. Truth to be told the whole world had reacted with surprise and sometimes also with consternation when the British had announced the Empire Plan all these weeks back. The French reacted coolly as they feared for the integrity of their own crumbling Empire, the Russians were teeming with rage but did nothing because a resurgent Britain would not take kindly to Russian efforts to start Communist Revolutions in their Colonies. The Americans were equally silent. They were apparently still trying to decide a course of action. Only the Japanese were openly criticizing the plan, denounced it as a 'European plot to cement the oppression of all Asiatic Nations'. Canaris had quickly realized that this was because the Japanese had been foiled in their plans for the area whatever they were, because if the British really went through with the plan the Japanese Propaganda about an East-Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere would fall on even deafer ears than it already did.

The heavy Mercedes finally reached the House almost an hour after it had started at the foot of the mountain Canaris got out, saluting the SS men in passing. As he made his way through the building back to the open area where Hitler was holding many meetings as of late he could already hear the Führer's ranting in the back. “The British have spit on all ideas of Imperial Glory! How dare they..” Canaris tuned out, knowing that he needed his sanity. By the time he joined the party Hitler had calmed down some and was now...pouting? Canaris quickly decided he had to be wrong. The Führer did not pout. When Hitler saw that Canaris was finally seated he said: “Now, my dear Admiral, what does the Abwehr have on this despicable Empire Plan of theirs?” “Not too much, Mein Führer. As per your orders I concentrated on collecting material of a military nature and there haven't been too many shifts as of yet.” Canaris cleared his throat and said: “Mein Führer, what I am about to tell you are mainly estimates and predictions made by the Abwehr based on the limited information we can get. The British are getting more and more adept at catching our operatives as of late and....” Hitler interrupted him with a dismissive gesture. “Yes, Yes, I know that Admiral. Tell me what you know.” “Yes, mein Führer.” The Admiral then extended some maps and papers over the table they were sitting around and pointed. “The Military situation has not changed significantly yet, but that is about to change. The British are recruiting all over their Empire, and troopships full of native recruits are arriving in the United Kingdom all the time. They are also erecting training camps in great numbers, and new Divisions are formed by the dozen. Hitler studied the papers intently. “Are they letting their colonials serve alongside European troops?” “No, mein Führer. They form special Divisions, but I will explain that later. I gather that the Foreign Ministry has already informed you about the political changes?” “Yes, Yes. Go on man!” he said with a dismissive gesture.

9e0a84d8.jpg

“Well, they apparently plan to form 'national' armies where their colonists and the natives will serve side by side. One of our sources ” he neglected to mention that this 'source' had been an Embassy clerk reading the London Times over breakfast, “tells us that their Air Force and Navy will be open to everyone equally.” Hitler said nothing at first, but Canaris could literally see his face go beet read. He hadn't yet inwardly braced himself for the coming onslaught when Hitler started to scream: “How dare they! They are muddling up .....!” Once again Canaris did only pretend to listen. “This is intolerable! They must be punished at once.” Canaris and the other military officials at the table quickly realized where this was going. Von Mannstein, currently Hitlers favourite said: “Mein Führer, before we can take action we need to coordinate with the Russians, their and our forces won't be ready for another year or so.” This however did not deter Hitler in any way. “COWARDS! I am surrounded by cowards!” he slammed his fist on the table, stood up only to continue to rant. After a few minutes Himmler worked up the courage to intervene and said: “Mein Führer, of course it would be smart to strike now, but with our forces so unprepared and out of position as they are victory cannot be assured, and we also need to build up the Luftwaffe before we will smash the RAF**.” Then Raeder, the Grand Admiral of the Kriegsmarine spoke up too. “Mein Führer, with the British carriers in the Mediterranean Sea the Graf Zeppelin will give us an decisive advantage, and she won't be read for operations before August next year.” Hitler sat back down. He refused to admit that he was wrong but still admitted that the OKW had a valid point. “Then what are you going to do?”

Raeder cleared his throat. “Mein Führer, as per your orders, the planning department in the OKM has drawn up a plan for the invasion of Great Britain. We dubbed it Operation Sea Lion and...” Canaris tuned out. He did not have the patience for Raeders stupid ideas right now. He knew that any attempt to invade Britain was unrealistic at best. He was on par with Read Admiral Dönitz, the BdU who believed that Britain could only be brought down by strangling through U-Boat warfare. This rather unstructured way was typical for Hitler's high-command meetings and there was no way to tell when he might be asked something again. He therefore left the round at the first opportunity with the excuse of having to make an important phone call in relation to the woods outside the headquarters of the Abwehr, which was a codeword for Pinie and went to the phones. The first thing he did there was lighting his pipe and making a few deep drags. Twenty minutes later he rejoined the others where the talk had in the meanwhile shifted to something called “Fall Barbarossa”. When they saw Canaris coming back in they quickly changed the subject. It seemed that even the head of the Abwehr was not privy to know everything. Not that he really cared. “Ah, Admiral, I am glad you are back.” Hitler said. You said that their Navy would be integrated. Do you have anything on their future build policy?” “Yes, mein Führer. They have laid down fiver additional Battleships of their new King George V-Class and several Illustrious-Class Carriers, along with several flotillas of their new Battle-Class Destroyers.” Raeder then interrupted Canaris. “Mein Führer, this illustrates what I said. We have to strike before 1939 is out. After that they will simply outnumber the Kriegsmarine decisively. We definitely need at least three more Bismarks and at least two more Graf Zeppelins.” He did not know what Canaris knew and had not mentioned to save his own Skin as no one would have believed him. Canaris knew that the first full British Carrier Fleet, dubbed Force A would have fifteen Carriers instead of the four or five Raeder liked to fantasize about. This however was not his concern. The earlier Raeder got axed and replaced by Dönitz the better.


*about as 'deep South' as you can get outside of the United States :D
** yeah, right. *whistles the theme of Battle of Britain*


[Game effect: The Germans are furious and I had a lot of fun writing this. I can seriously recommend listening to The Who while writing updates. The results are quite funny. I still ran this by a mod, just to be sure.]
 
I find it interesting that the logistics of how the various forces would be directly affected would be known to the Brits only a couple of weeks removed from the conference, let alone to the Germans, but it is definitely apparent that this administration makes things happen in a far more forthright fashion than its predecessor.

Poor Canaris... To know you are ultimately reporting to a moron. It makes every day just that much more difficult.
 
Antikristuseke Glad to see you here.

Bafflegab Indeed. The thing is though that he doesn't feel pressed to do anything about it.

also: :D
 
Bafflegab said:
Facts and logic have no place in this joke. :mad:
Quite right sir, some people need to embrace the humour and put aside practicality.

However for those that insist consider this; if you think a petrol tank makes a big bang when it blows up that is nothing as compared to the explosion a tank of pressurised hydrogen would produce!
 
trekaddict said:
*about as 'deep South' as you can get outside of the United States :D

Except, that we have about seven Socialists strongholds aka cities over 40.000 inhabitants and two of them are the largest Cities!

Humpf, mumbles Pseudo-Prussians mumbles! :p

Anyway now its time to see if Germany can catch up with Britain, eh!
 
Zauberfloete said:
Except, that we have about seven Socialists strongholds aka cities over 40.000 inhabitants and two of them are the largest Cities!

Humpf, mumbles Pseudo-Prussians mumbles! :p

Anyway now its time to see if Germany can catch up with Britain, eh!


Prussians? No dear Sir, them ruddy prussians aren't welcomre around here. I.e. I live a bit west of Bavaria, if you know what I mean. You know.... the area where the Car was invented. In fact Benz and Maybach first met in a workshop around 2km from where I am sitting right now.
 
I bow to you Trek.. Simply outstanding.. :)

And to be both frank and honest, although I am not sure why I should involve frank, since he's a fairly nice guy, I don't really care whether or not your Empire Plan is truly realistic.. Ideas about a modern British Empire, where the sun never sets is quite enough for me.. I don't need facts.. ;) Facts are simply for the unimaginative.. And please pardon me, if someone feels hurt by this, that was and is not my intention.. All I'm trying to say, in my own roundabout fashion is.. Marvelous AAR, simply... Marvelous.. :)

About the idea of working within the 'limits' of the game engine, I can only agree with you.. In my own story, I sacrifice the entegrity, so to say, of the game, to fit the story whenever necessary.. All it really takes is coming up with some form of plausible explanation why the changes you make, might've happened. To me that's what AH is all about: What might have been.. ;) Of course, since I use Kaiserreich, my might is just a tad bit more far fetched than yours.. :D But I love it none the less, as I do your AAR..

The British Empire.. Those three simple words stand for glory, romanticism, faith, power, beauty and above all, it emphasizes and underlines the human need for a true 'And they lived happily ever after'-ending.. No other phrase of such simple magnificense can express that need the way those three words do.. And to *ell with everything else... ;)

Oh and in the spirit of this, I'll even, just this once, forego my evening coffee for a nice cup of tea.. Earl Grey with lemon of course.. But only this once, mind... :D
 
Raging Hitler never gets old. :D
Poor Canaris, reduced to using the newspaper as intelligence.

It doesn't matter how clean/safe hydrogen cars are: the masses think they can go BOOM! ala Hindenburg, so the politicians use them as a debate topic, which is stupid, since only by magically replacing all cars with hydrogen models right now can global warming be slowed enough to stop...and that won't happen. :(
 
Doge Robert Thank you very very much. The Idea of a modern British Empire isn't really mine, but I've always found the idea of a modern British Superpower fascinating, and the only way to do that in a somewhat realistic manner is to hold the Empire together.

In case of the AAR writing I personally see the game engine as the groundwork and basics for the Story I want to tell, and sometimes I too ignore/modify the game engine so that the story can be pushed along.

"glory, romanticism, faith, power, beauty and above all, it emphasizes and underlines the human need for a true 'And they lived happily ever after'-ending"--- Again, I fully agree. Also despite all the darker parts that come with any sort of colonial history the British Empire was/is a symbol for all these things. Especially as a German in a country that was turned upside down four times in the last century we sometimes like to think that at least somewhere things don't change that much. Their sense of tradition is one of the things I like most about the British.

I still prefer coffee though.


ColossusCrusher He can't do much else, all foreign Spies are dead.

Re Hydrogen Cars: I don't know enough to say this for sure, but methinks the dangers of this technology are vastly overblown.