Chapter VI
Awakening the Giant
We start this Chapter right after the fall of France. (By the way Toulouse was the city that triggered the surrender.) With that, a new French State is set up based out of Alger.
The borders are this ugly because they represent the current situation when the armistice was made. The French State basically got only their African colonies and a couple of Metropolitan provinces. Italy kept half of Algeria, too!
From here we go with the Destroyers for Bases decision right away which gives some outdated Destroyers to the UK and -5 Neutrality from me, and that allows me to switch to Full Mobilisation. With that I no longer have any reduction on Resources from Economic Laws and my Peacetime Consumer Goods Demand was reduced to 20%. Reserve Unit Size increased from 40% to 50%, so my Reserves are now half-strength. The reduction in CG gave about 30 IC, while the increase in Reserve Unit Size cost me 15 IC. A good deal for sure.
I was told by my readers not to enact the 'They went too far!' decision yet, so I won't do that. But it won't keep me from basically embargoing the Axis as of this moment. Not that it will help much. Japan only imports 1 Supplies from me and Germany sells me stuff (which I don't need anymore). But it's the gesture that counts! I will also try to actively support the Allies with stuff they need. Or at least I would if it wasn't for the unfortunate fact that they can't pay and thus they won't accept my offers. And I can't offer Debt, only ask for it
And this was the moment when I realized that I could join the Allies! Japan's threat towards me is 42 (Douglas Adams certainly knew something!) and my Neutrality is 63, so I'm well within the required 25 points!
So I could join, but I won't. Not yet. Because I'm not prepared. You see, I never actually did anything to my Army, Navy or Airforce. It is in the exact same state it started out in. Well, there were automatic updates I payed for with my hard-earned IC, but the OOB is almost exactly the same (the only differences are the handful of ships I had in the starting production queue.)
But then again... Let's just take a quick overview of the situation!
The Axis consists of the Big Three (Germany, Italy and Japan) and their minions (Manchukuo, Mengkukuo, China-Nanjing and Slovakia) along with Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria. From these, the Europeans are at war with the Allies but they pose no credible threat to me, I'm waaay out of their reach. Japan and their lapdogs are within the reach of my Pacific holdings but they are at war with the USSR and thus very unlikely to join the war against the Allies any time soon if at all. So why the heck would I not join right away?!
Let's fight together against the Germ-men! (Yes, I know, this is a terrible pun, I'm sorry...)
Joining the Allies brings me into war of course. This only lowers Consumer Goods Demand with like 10 IC (because the New Deal only increases Peacetime Consumer Goods Demand, not Wartime Consumer Goods Demand), which is not much, but it will help a little. Being at war also allows me to change a lot of laws. For instance, with my exceptionally high National Unity, I could enact Repression as my Civil Laws while I'm at War. The immediate benefits would make it look like a good idea but it would have some long-term consequences I wouldn't like (namely random political events from being too harsh and stuff). Free Press on the other hand is something I would gladly give up for Censored Press. We don't want foreign propaganda to wreak havoc in our national morale, now do we? Then there's the question of Industrial Policies. We are at war now, time to bring out the big guns! By which I mean it's time to switch to Heavy Industry Emphasis. It will further increase my Supply Consumption but in return it will increase IC Efficiency and Supply Throughput and decrease Consumer Goods Demand during the war, so it's worth it. This and being in the Allies reduced my 20% Consumer Goods Demand to 0, so I no longer need to spend any IC on civilian stuff! Awesome! That means I have like 100 IC surplus!
Now on the Diplomacy tab I have two new decisions I can make: "Form the United Nations" and "Call in the Reserves!". I'll do both. Calling in my reserves will give me like a bajillion Manpower while forming the United Nations decreases the Neutrality of just about every country that would be highly neutral otherwise allowing them to join the fun. (I do this because I would prefer to get this AAR out of the way as quickly as possible so I can move on to some new and exciting projects
)
But first of all, let's see the goals I have right now.
- Defend the British Home Islands. Continental Europe is lost for the time being and my newfound allies can hold their own in the North and East Africa, a potential German invasion in the UK would be devastating for the future of Democracy. We can't allow that to happen. I will ship over two full Infantry Corps as soon as I can along with Battleship Fleet (the size of which is to be decided later) and half of my Light Fighters.
- Build up my Pacific Defences. While Japan is not an immediate threat (them being distracted by the USSR and all) but a conflict in that Theatre is only a matter of time. I want to be prepared when that happens.
- Disrupt German shipping lanes. Well, I'm not sure how much of that exists in the first place but I don't like the idea of Germany getting resources from overseas. I'll station half of my Submarines in the area to cause some mischief.
- Protect British shipping lanes. While I don't want Germany to get stuff from overseas, I do want the UK to do so. For this effect, I will send as many ASW-capable ships to the UK as possible. Not yet sure how much that will help because I have absolutely no idea how many ships I have at the moment, but we'll see in a moment.
- Disrupt convoys to Japan. Not sure how useful this will be considering that the only country I'm at war with that can send stuff to Japan is Germany who I will blockade anyway, but I will still send one quarter of my Submarines to raid convoys around Nippon. If stuff that would help Japan goes to the bottom of the sea that can only be a good thing.
- Build up enough forces to fight Germany in Europe. That will take time, even with the insane Industrial Capacity the US possesses. I will need a strong Navy to get there, lots and lots of supplies (and fuel!) to feed my armies, tons of convoys to get the stuff there and of course the armies themselves. I want lots of Motorised Infantry, Tanks, Rocket Artillery, Light Fighters and Light Bombers.
- If necessary, intervene in Africa or India. This hopefully won't happen. Italy is a joke as usual and Japan is not yet involved in the conflict against the Allies (and they won't be either until the USSR is defeated), so India should be safe for now. But just in case.
- Keep at least 3-4 full Corps of Infantry at home. Because I don't like surprises. And I also don't want Axis countries on my turf, so I will break any American countries that would get the funny idea of joining the wrong faction.
The mighty leader of the Allies is defended mostly by the shattered remains of the BEF. Note the Rocket Test Site in Norwich!
So, it's time to spend that excess IC! The first thing I do is start building five paralels of two serials of Motorized Infantry Divisions consisting of three Motorised Infantry Regiments and one Rocket-Artillery Battalion. You might be wondering why would I want to slow down my Motorised units with slow-moving Artillery. The answer is simple: I don't. My support brigades are already motorised, towed by trucks provided by General Motors, so they won't slow down my Divisions one bit. Unless they go into rough terrain of course, but that would be a problem for the Infantry part, too.
The next day my three Light Fighter Wings were finished (thanks to the increase in efficiency no doubt), so I have 150 spare IC now! And I will get 2000 manpower within a month! So that's six more wings of Light Fighters. Plus I start training five paralells of two serials of Infantry Divisions consisting of three Infantry Regiments, an Engineer Battalion and a Rocket Artillery Battalion. These boys will punch through rivers in Europe. From the rest of the IC I start three parallels of three serials of Marines consisting of five Marine Regiments. These guys will wipe the floor with Japs in the Pacific when the time comes.
Time to reorganise the "army" that I already possess. Let's go through the branches one by one, shall we?
Airforce
I have the following wings:
- Ten CAGs, attached to my five Carriers. They technically belong to the Navy anyway.
- Three Light Bombers. They will stay States-side for now since I won't conduct any offensive operations for quite a while.
- Nine Light Fighters. They will be split into three Groups of three Wings and sent to Europe. All of them. They will be stationed at Plymouth, Dover and Norwich and protect the UK from Nazi aircraft.
- One Patrol Bomber. That Wing will stay at home too because I have no idea what I should do with it...
- Three Medium Bombers. They will stay too because they are not needed yet.
- Two Transport Planes. Same as above.
Army
First, the raw numbers: 2 Anti-Air, 1 Medium Armour, 5 Armoured Cars, 2 Cavalry, 3 Garrisons, 81 Infantry for a total of 94 Brigades. Plus about 10 HQs. And all of this was organised into two Theatres: a West Coast and an East Coast. Here's how I will re-organise it:
- XXXXXX Home Front, - Responsible for the troops that stay at home as well as the newly trained formations until their assignment to one of the other Theatres.
- XXXXX West Coast- Defends the Western Coast of the United States and recieves the boys to be sent to the Pacific and Asia.
- XXX 1st Western Army Corps (five Divisions of three Infantry Regiments each)
- XXXXX East Coast- Defends the Eastern Coast of the United States and recieves the boys to be sent to Europe (and Africa, if necessary).
- XXX 1st Eastern Army Corps (five Divisions of three Infantry Regiments each)
- XXX 2nd Eastern Army Corps (five Divisions of three Infantry Regiments each)
- XXX 3rd Eastern Army Corps (five Divisions of three Infantry Regiments each)
- XX Panama Garrison (three Garrison Regiments)
- XXXXXX Pacific Theatre, - Responsible for the defence of my Pacific holdings as well as any future operations in the area and also in Asia.
- XX Honolulu Garrison (three Garrison Regiments, to be trained)
- XX Guam Garrison (three Garrison Regiments, to be trained)
- XX Wake Island Garrison (three Garrison Regiments, to be trained)
- XX Midway Garrison (three Garrison Regiments, to be trained)
- XXXXXX European Theatre, - Responsible for the defence of the United Kingdom for the time being and later on for any offensives operations in Europe.
- XXXXX UK Expeditionary Forces, - Responsible for the defence of the United Kingdom.
- XXX 1st Expeditionary Army Corps (four Divisions of three Infantry Regiments each)
- XXX 2nd Expeditionary Army Corps (three Divisions of three Infantry Regiments each)
- XXX 1st Armoured Corps (the Cavalry until their upgrade into Motorised Infantry, plus the Medium Armour)
(I went only to as much detail as I would care to read as a reader. Hope you don't mind
)
Navy
This was a bitch to reorganise, there's just so much! First, the numbers: 15 Battleships, 5 Carriers, 30 Destroyer Flotillas, 16 Heavy Cruisers, 10 Light Cruisers, 16 Submarine Flotillas and 24 Transport Flotillas for a total of 116 ships. I will create the following fleets:
- USN First CTF, King - The five Carriers, escorted by the five most modern Heavy Cruisers. (Note that in the HPP Heavy Cruisers are considered screens.) It will be stationed at Guam so supplies and fuel will start flowing into that port.
- USN First SAG, Nimitz - The five most modern Battleships escorted by Heavy Cruisers. Stationed in the UK and ordered to intercept Germany ships.
- USN Second SAG, Halsey - Another five Battleships escorted by Light Cruisers. Stationed in North Africa and ordered to intercept Italian ships.
- USN Third SAG, Spruance - The last five Battleships escorted by Light Cruisers. Stationed in the Philippines, just in case.
- USN First, Second, Third and Fourth Submarine Fleets - Two-two Submarine Flotillas operating out of the United Kingdom, disrupting German shipping around Europe.
- USN Fifth and Sixth Submarine Fleets - Two-two Submarine Flotillas operating out of the Philippines, disrupting Axis shipping around Japan.
- USN Seventh and Eighth Submarine Fleets - Two-two Submarine Flotillas operating out of Egypt, disrupting Italian shipping in the Mediterranean.
- USN Pacific Transport Fleet - Six Transport Flotillas with the remaining six Heavy Cruisers, tasked with transporting troops around in the Pacific.
- USN Home Transport Fleet - Six Transport Flotillas in case of an emergency in the Americas.
- USN First and Second Atlantic Transport Fleet - Six-six Transport Flotillas tasked with transporting troops between the American continent and Europe, then operating in Europe as needed.
- USN First through Tenth ASW/Patrol Fleet - Three-three Destroyers operating out of the United Kingdom and Norway, hunting for German Submarines.
So, that's how I intend to deploy my forces. It's not much, but it's a start. Well, the Navy is definitely a lot (in fact I don't think I will ever need more ships than this!) but you know what I mean.
Anyway, one last thing I wanted to mention before closing this Chapter: the integration of the Air Force and the Navy into my command hierarchy. As I hinted at it earlier, supplies will be one of the main enemies I will have to fight because I will use supply- and fuel-intensive units accrosss oceans, so every tiny little bit of discount counts! Every time I rebase a Fleet or Air Group, the first thing I'll do is attaching it to the local Army Group so it benefits from the discounts. I will also keep my armies localized and employ a full command hierarchy for my fighting Divisions so they can benefit the most from the Logistics Wizards and highly skilled Army Group leaders I have. At the moment I have two Generals with 5 Skill and another five with 4 Skill (and three of them are Logistics Wizards as well), they will be my Field Marshalls. (And I may even get more high-skilled men later on!)
Well, I'm really sorry you only got to vote once but hopefully the fight will be epic enough to make up for it
See you next time!