Very much so. It runs a bit slower than normal ARMA, but the additional tech slots, the revamped intelligence system and single province air orders make up for that.
-
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Very much so. It runs a bit slower than normal ARMA, but the additional tech slots, the revamped intelligence system and single province air orders make up for that.
Ah, V1 spam becomes worthwhile!
They are probably still utterly inaccurate, I was more referring to TACs and CAS.
Quick AOD Multiplayer review:
Stable, relatively lag free and easy to use via Gameranger.
That is all.
Stable, relatively lag free and easy to use via Gameranger.
That is all.
Noted. Once my new computer arrives I'll be getting it I believe
I'm intrigued by this Liverpool arc, very different pace from AAO's normal, fast paced, action. Very enjoyable reading, Trek!
Le Jones Thank you. Eventually we'll come back to that.
23rd March 1942
Aldershot, United Kingdom, British Empire
It was a dark, dark night and had the blackout not been in force in all but one of the Offices the lights would have been turned off hours ago. The Officer in question was a Major and the report he was reading through was one he and seventeen other Officers of all the services had worked on for the better part of four months. When he had been tasked with this particular 'theoretical' field problem he had at first been tempted to hand in his commission or at the very least ask for transfer to the front, because he would rather jump out of a Dakota into a batter of 88s than lay it on the line with this report. One way or another, he would soon be out of here. He sighed, and began to read through the summary again, or at least he had wanted to, because right in that moment CIGS himself stepped in without knocking. Gort waved the Major to stay seated and exchanged a few words for the report. He stepped back outside and strode back down the corridor towards his own office where the Deputy CIGS, Marshal of the Royal Air Force and Chief of the Air Planning Staff Dowding was waiting.
“The Admiral has stepped outside for a moment, the tea was used up.”
Remarks about sailors only drinking rum and the general lack of appreciation the Senior Service had for the other branches of HM's Armed Forces and when the Admiral returned, they went to work.
'Snowstorm Field Problem – Summary'
'The problem facing the Allied Forces is one of numbers. The combined Axis Armies significantly outnumber those of the Allied Powers and in the estimation of the Intelligence Sources that were available at time of writing, the added manpower potential should the Soviets fully mobilize their reserves would be enough to jeopardize the campaign. (For detailed Information on Red Army strength + potentially mobilized manpower including Far Eastern Deployments see Appendix A) The Snowstorm Field Problem as posed on 29th September last year was to devise ways and means to defeat the Red Army and potential German remnant Forces with inferior numbers. (For detailed Order of Battle Allied Forces Europe at time of writing including Forces slated for deployment see App. B) Also the Allied Manpower pool is lower than that of the Soviet Union, and especially the exiled nations will most likely take some time before any forces beyond those already in the field can be sent to the front after the liberation of their countries, this being especially true in the case of the Low Countries, as seen in Section 4 of this report. It is estimated that the French will take the least time to send a significant Expeditionary Army to the east, even though the eventual strength is difficult to estimate. British Manpower on the other hand is relatively well preserved so far. Overall losses in the Italian Campaign are between three and 10% above estimates depending on Branch of Armed Forces (Statistics App. C) which leads to the conclusion that manpower reserves are not yet fully mobilized. Detailed analysis of the Imperial Manpower situation including the Commonwealth can be found in Section 1 of this report, this summary however states that if losses rise no more than 15%/annum convalescence of wounded service personnel and fresh recruitment all over the British Empire would allow us to maintain the Army at establishment strength, if losses rise no more than 9.6% an additional expansion of the Army by a maximum of nine Divisions by mid-1943, including deployments and other needs in the Far East.
The exact technological disparities between the two opposing forces is more difficult to establish. While the Allied Forces are for the most part all similarly trained, organized and equipped, the Axis forces are far more difficult to quantify, especially on the ground. The German Forces are relatively homogeneous in terms of general Equipment and Organization, but the Soviets still field a large number of different weapons, the quality of which varies, especially in Armour. The least best equipped section of the Axis Forces are the Armies of the various minor Axis nations of Central and Eastern Europe. With the exception of the Czech and Romanian Forces it is estimated that they all lack any sort of Armoured Force except a few singular vehicles (Estimates see Section 2). Overall it is estimated that technological parity exists in most areas except Main Vehicle guns. (Comparison between Weapons see Section 3).
It is the purpose of this report to give the Ministry of Defence and the Imperial General Staff an overview and options.'
At this point Grand Admiral Pound looked up from his own copy and wondered aloud why there was so much prose in a military report of this kind and that perhaps they were getting ahead of themselves, given that Germany was far from defeated. Gort took this interruption to light a rare Cuban cigar and after taking a few deep drags replied.
“Oh my dear Admiral, one cannot plan these things early enough. Besides, HM's Government is of the persuasion that being convinced is half the victory, and I am inclined to agree with them on this point. After all what is the point of fighting if you are sure you will be eventually defeated anyway?” The men leaved through the first few sections of the report. Since they contained data meant for civilians and with which they were intimately familiar with anyway.
'Section 6'
'Advancing along the entire front is unfeasable with the number and composition of Allied Forces currently present and present in the near and mid-term future. The Forces that can be raised in a realistic timeframe (between two and four years) would not allow this form of attack if irreplaceable losses and sets the army at risk. The numbers of the Soviet Forces present also prohibit any large-scale encirclements since if they are achieved at anything beyond the tactical level, the forces present within and without the pocket would do their utmost to smash through the ring of Allied forces.
Any advance into Russia however has the pre-requirement of the defeat of Germany itself and the destruction of a large number of the remaining Axis Forces. In Section 4 this report gives a short overview of the estimated state of affairs in the minor Axis nations. (Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria) As indicated in this section most of the smaller Axis nations are likely to fight with less than the enthusiasm displayed by the German and Soviet forces, especially the Czechs who were initially less than willing Axis members. Also the Foreign Office and MI6 estimate in their report from the 12th of last month that the threat of Soviet/German Forces is keeping them in line, but also states that if Allied Forces approach their borders/Capitals, peace is possible from these quarters. This White Paper therefore discounts these armies from the equation as it can be expected that they are neutralized one way or another before the main assault on the Soviet Union begins.
Section 6 theorizes on how the Numerical Superiority of the Soviet Union, especially the Red Army can be neutralized without wrecking the Allied forces and the Allied War Effort while doing so. Again it must be emphasized that the Soviets are able to absorb greater losses in men and war material than the Allied Powers, so the key is to overwhelm near and medium term ability of the Soviet War Industry to replace the losses in advanced equipment and to inflict such losses on the Red Army that the needed replacements in manpower force them to divert resources from the other parts of the Union so that in time, when the disruptions of the war cause turmoil and economic troubles which then will leave the Soviet Leadership either the chance to sue for peace or face such internal unrest that their war effort collapses by default. The power structure of the Soviet Union is so rigid and inflexible so that when the leading clique is shown to be weak (which would simply lead to a general election in the Empire) efforts to remedy this situation must be made. This can (and his in the past done so) take the form of a purge of the existing elites within the state which are perceived to have let the rulers down and failed to carry out their tasks and/or have personally failed the leader. The Soviet Union is especially susceptible to this sort of purge because not only is there a precedent, but judging by the monitored propaganda broadcasts made by Radio Moscow and by pre-war experience gathered by Foreign Office Staff and other British Nationals (Examples in App.D) which then brings us to[...]
The White Paper went on for several dozen more pages in the smallest typed font to be had. In essence it detailed how the numerically inferior Allied Forces could defeat the Red Army in Eastern Europe and hopefully force the Soviets to the table without the need to march on Moscow, because that was something no one dared to contemplate too openly. Gort had this horror vision of a large British Army marching deeper and deeper into Russia only to be gobbled up and never seen again. The Marshal had studied every campaign that had been fought in Russia during the time the report had been written and he knew that if the Soviets decided to be stubborn, then the War had to potential to drag on forever. The strategic depth that had been of so great use to the British cause during the Napoleonic Wars was now turning against them, because even with motorized vehicles, planes and long-range Artillery the Russian countryside hadn't shrunk much. It had taken the Germans almost more than three years to get to where they had been at the time the treaty of Brest-Litovsk had been signed, and that had been well short of either St. Petersburg or Moscow. No, marching on Moscow had to be the very, very, very last option considered. For the moment the plan was to try and grind down the Red Army through brute force and Superior Firepower[1], and by simply utterly destroying their best units. Sending wave after wave of raw conscripts against an experienced, bloodied and most importantly mechanized to a high degree force which was lusting for blood. At the moment morale was high, but what would it be like if month after month was spent fighting against fanatical resistance somewhere in the depth of Russia? No, better try and force the decision as long as morale was high. Trying to grind down the Red Army without being ground down yourself was a monumental task as it was, and the war promised to go on for at least several more years. When the ideas had first been laid before him by his staff and his planners, he had doubted it, because it boiled down to attrition warfare on a scale that dwarfed the Trenches of the First World War, with the potential loss of life on both sides being enormous. Not that he felt any particular love for Soviet or German footsloggers, war was war after all, but he detested sending his boys to kill without reason, and reason was what he hoped Stalin would have, once (hopefully) Germany was defeated and end the war. Gort thanked God that he was only IGS and not the Prime Minister who would have to make the final decision if the Soviets decided to be stubborn.
The same day, somewhere south of Rome
The voice of the Colonel boomed all over the camp where the Peshawar Lancers were stationed ever since they had been transferred out of the 7th Armoured Division.
“CORPORAL BALPAN!” the Colonel, or rather the Lt. Colonel yelled again. He was transferring the orderly out of the Regiment anyway, but that was no reason for the man not to attend to his duties as long as he was here.
The demanded instantly came running from where he had carried out maintenance at one of the Regiment's Armoured Cars and was now aware that Lt. Colonel Albert Lethbridge-Stewart was not a happy man. The Colonel hadn't been happy ever since the directive had arrived just after the heavy Axis attack on the British Army. Now the Regiment was down here, he was suddenly promoted to Regimental Command when the old Colonel had been jumped to Brigadier General and was now commanding one of the other cadre Brigades of the Division. He had snorted at the idea first, because he doubted the validity this type of force in modern warfare, but then again his family had long been tied together with the Regiment, as had the one of the late Captain King.
“Ah Corporal, there you are.” the Colonel said. He had his arms crossed behind his back and tapped his riding crop against his legs like he always did when he was less than pleased with something or someone.
“Listen Corporal, I know as well as you do that you have mislaid my No.2s, so I suggest you find them before the General arrives.”
The Corporal saluted by putting his hand to his turban, turned around and marched across the parade ground with a precision that would not have been out of place in the guards when they were trooping the colour in front of the King. Lethbridge-Stewart snorted and turned around. He decided that until the Corporal could lower himself to find his uniform, he might as well inspect the array of AEC Armoured Car Mk.IIs.
He had to say he liked them, the 6pdr gun alone was a good argument for them. Still, he was not so sure he liked the rest of what had gone by since they had been transferred out of the 7th Armoured, but alas, he who took the King's Shilling did the King's bidding, so here he was. He turned the numbers over in his head: Three Regiments, one Light Mechanized like the Lancers, one Light Armoured and one of Infantry partially mounted on lorries and partially on some form of more armoured vehicle, at least eventually, formed a Brigade, and three of these Brigade formed a Division. In itself nothing special, but the Division was to be known as the 1st Cavalry Division, not related to the old 1st Cavalry that had been first drawn down to cadre strength and then been fully disbanded in 1925. This new Cavalry was not anything like the old one though. The Lancers had, like most Cavalry Regiments, be they armoured or not, still had their fair share of Horses at their home bases, but he had though the traditional roles of the Cavalry long since been filled by Armour and aircraft. And now someone at Horseguards fancied 'bringing back the Cavalry' with a similar role as in the olden days but with considerably more modern equipment. Lethbridge-Stewart mulled over the memorandum bit by bit.
'to provide cover on the flank of existing breakthroughs, to exploit breakthroughs and use superior mobility and cross-country capabilities to capture or raid such targets that are too out of way or otherwise inaccessible to the other branches of the Army.'
Cavalry... He was not convinced, but he would do his duty. His Regiment and the Brigades Light Tank Component, the 17th/21st Lancers, were the only Regiments of all three Divisions on hand in anything even approaching strength. Supposedly the 1st Mounted Infantry Regiment was on the freighter somewhere between Malta and Taranto, so it would still be some time before they disembarked and made they were way north on the heavily damaged roads of Southern Italy. The new Cavalry was an untested experiment, and as a career soldier Lethbridge-Stewart hated experiments, but if it worked out then the Cavalry would be the scourge of the enemy and go where those ungainly beasts on tracks couldn't. He failed to realize that he was already beginning to form Esprit de Corps when the General came driving through the door in a Land Rover. The Colonel straightened his moustache for a second before walking over. He didn't wear his good uniform, but since the General seemed to be wearing Battle Dress himself, that was no problem.
He stepped up to the landy, saluted the General and said:
“Welcome to the Peshawar Lancers, Sir.”
Major General Andrew Christopher Hawthorne returned the salute and then went straight down to businessmen.
“It might interest you to hear Colonel that the 1st Mounted will join us tomorrow evening.”
Normally telling something like this to the Regimental Colonels would be the Brigadier's job, but these days most of the actual work was done by the Divisions commander, with his Brigadiers concerned with the day to day mechanics of keeping the Division running. This system had only recently been officially sanctioned, even though the Army had been using it in de facto since several years before. Even though Lethbridge-Stewart didn't belong to the new breed of Officers that weren't exactly well inclined to their Brigade Commanders he liked the system because it had elevated the Regiment to prime importance on the Battlefield. The new Cavalry was built around this system, with the Light Tank Regiments providing the punch, the Armoured Car Regiments provided the eyes and the flanks and the Mounted Infantry prevented their own equivalents in the opposing force from doing anything nasty. Combined Army was this called, and as Lethbridge-Stewart followed the General into the Officers mess he glanced at the row of vehicles where his men were applying the new Divisional insignia, a yellow horse on it's back legs and black background. He liked it and he would do it proud.
Order of Battle, First Cavalry Division
1st Cavalry Brigade
Peshawar Lancers (Armoured Cars)
17th/21st Lancers (Light Tanks
1st Mounted Infantry Regiment
2nd Cavalry Brigade
11th Hussars (Prince Albert's Own) (Armoured Cars)
1st King's Dragoon Guards (Light Tanks)
2nd Mounted Infantry Regiment
3rd Cavalry Brigade
12th Royal Lancers (Armoured Cars)
13th/18th Royal Hussars (Light Tanks)
3rd Mounted Infantry Regiment
[Notes: The Snowstorm White Paper includes quite a few rough estimates and guesses, thanks to the game mechanics, since there is no way to display actual losses in HOI2 DDA, and no way to keep track on how much manpower has been expended. El Pip, this was not stolen from your AAR, it rather seems that we both had the same idea. ]
[1] I went with the American doctrine tree.
The provisional Orbats of the other two Cavalry Divisions are as follows:
2nd 'CANZAC' Cavalry Division
1st Brigade (Canada)
8th Princess Louise’s New Brunswick Hussars (Armoured Cars)
The Ontario Regiment (Light Tanks)
1st Canadian Mobile Infantry Regiment
2nd Brigade (Australia)
2/11th Armoured Car Regiment
2/5 Armoured Regiment
15 Mounted Regiment
3rd Brigade (New Zealand)
Auckland Mounted Rifle Regiment (Armoured Cars)
3 Light Tank Regiment
Wellington Mounted Rifle Regiment (Mounted Infantry)
3rd 'Imperial' Cavalry Division's
4th Cavalry Brigade
22nd Kenya Mobile Regiment (Armoured Cars)
1st Rhodesian Tank Regiment
33rd South African Mounted Rifle Regiment
5th Cavalry Brigade
1st Caribbean Armoured Reconnaissance Regiment*
99th South African Light Tank Regiment
4th West African Mounted Infantry
6th Cavalry Brigade
1st Indian Armoured Reconnaissance Regiment
1st Indian Light Armoured Regimen
1st/77th Indian Mounted Infantry
*Comprised of troops from all over the British Crown Colonies in the area
Chapter 214
'Forward, the Light Brigade!'
Was there a man dismay'd?
Not tho' the soldiers knew
Some one had blunder'd:
Their's not to make reply,
Their's not to reason why,
Their's but to do and die:
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon in front of them
Volley'd and thunder'd;
Storm'd at with shot and shell,
Boldly they rode and well,
Into the jaws of Death,
Into the mouth of Hell
Rode the six hundred.
Was there a man dismay'd?
Not tho' the soldiers knew
Some one had blunder'd:
Their's not to make reply,
Their's not to reason why,
Their's but to do and die:
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon in front of them
Volley'd and thunder'd;
Storm'd at with shot and shell,
Boldly they rode and well,
Into the jaws of Death,
Into the mouth of Hell
Rode the six hundred.
23rd March 1942
Aldershot, United Kingdom, British Empire
It was a dark, dark night and had the blackout not been in force in all but one of the Offices the lights would have been turned off hours ago. The Officer in question was a Major and the report he was reading through was one he and seventeen other Officers of all the services had worked on for the better part of four months. When he had been tasked with this particular 'theoretical' field problem he had at first been tempted to hand in his commission or at the very least ask for transfer to the front, because he would rather jump out of a Dakota into a batter of 88s than lay it on the line with this report. One way or another, he would soon be out of here. He sighed, and began to read through the summary again, or at least he had wanted to, because right in that moment CIGS himself stepped in without knocking. Gort waved the Major to stay seated and exchanged a few words for the report. He stepped back outside and strode back down the corridor towards his own office where the Deputy CIGS, Marshal of the Royal Air Force and Chief of the Air Planning Staff Dowding was waiting.
“The Admiral has stepped outside for a moment, the tea was used up.”
Remarks about sailors only drinking rum and the general lack of appreciation the Senior Service had for the other branches of HM's Armed Forces and when the Admiral returned, they went to work.
'Snowstorm Field Problem – Summary'
'The problem facing the Allied Forces is one of numbers. The combined Axis Armies significantly outnumber those of the Allied Powers and in the estimation of the Intelligence Sources that were available at time of writing, the added manpower potential should the Soviets fully mobilize their reserves would be enough to jeopardize the campaign. (For detailed Information on Red Army strength + potentially mobilized manpower including Far Eastern Deployments see Appendix A) The Snowstorm Field Problem as posed on 29th September last year was to devise ways and means to defeat the Red Army and potential German remnant Forces with inferior numbers. (For detailed Order of Battle Allied Forces Europe at time of writing including Forces slated for deployment see App. B) Also the Allied Manpower pool is lower than that of the Soviet Union, and especially the exiled nations will most likely take some time before any forces beyond those already in the field can be sent to the front after the liberation of their countries, this being especially true in the case of the Low Countries, as seen in Section 4 of this report. It is estimated that the French will take the least time to send a significant Expeditionary Army to the east, even though the eventual strength is difficult to estimate. British Manpower on the other hand is relatively well preserved so far. Overall losses in the Italian Campaign are between three and 10% above estimates depending on Branch of Armed Forces (Statistics App. C) which leads to the conclusion that manpower reserves are not yet fully mobilized. Detailed analysis of the Imperial Manpower situation including the Commonwealth can be found in Section 1 of this report, this summary however states that if losses rise no more than 15%/annum convalescence of wounded service personnel and fresh recruitment all over the British Empire would allow us to maintain the Army at establishment strength, if losses rise no more than 9.6% an additional expansion of the Army by a maximum of nine Divisions by mid-1943, including deployments and other needs in the Far East.
The exact technological disparities between the two opposing forces is more difficult to establish. While the Allied Forces are for the most part all similarly trained, organized and equipped, the Axis forces are far more difficult to quantify, especially on the ground. The German Forces are relatively homogeneous in terms of general Equipment and Organization, but the Soviets still field a large number of different weapons, the quality of which varies, especially in Armour. The least best equipped section of the Axis Forces are the Armies of the various minor Axis nations of Central and Eastern Europe. With the exception of the Czech and Romanian Forces it is estimated that they all lack any sort of Armoured Force except a few singular vehicles (Estimates see Section 2). Overall it is estimated that technological parity exists in most areas except Main Vehicle guns. (Comparison between Weapons see Section 3).
It is the purpose of this report to give the Ministry of Defence and the Imperial General Staff an overview and options.'
At this point Grand Admiral Pound looked up from his own copy and wondered aloud why there was so much prose in a military report of this kind and that perhaps they were getting ahead of themselves, given that Germany was far from defeated. Gort took this interruption to light a rare Cuban cigar and after taking a few deep drags replied.
“Oh my dear Admiral, one cannot plan these things early enough. Besides, HM's Government is of the persuasion that being convinced is half the victory, and I am inclined to agree with them on this point. After all what is the point of fighting if you are sure you will be eventually defeated anyway?” The men leaved through the first few sections of the report. Since they contained data meant for civilians and with which they were intimately familiar with anyway.
'Section 6'
'Advancing along the entire front is unfeasable with the number and composition of Allied Forces currently present and present in the near and mid-term future. The Forces that can be raised in a realistic timeframe (between two and four years) would not allow this form of attack if irreplaceable losses and sets the army at risk. The numbers of the Soviet Forces present also prohibit any large-scale encirclements since if they are achieved at anything beyond the tactical level, the forces present within and without the pocket would do their utmost to smash through the ring of Allied forces.
Any advance into Russia however has the pre-requirement of the defeat of Germany itself and the destruction of a large number of the remaining Axis Forces. In Section 4 this report gives a short overview of the estimated state of affairs in the minor Axis nations. (Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria) As indicated in this section most of the smaller Axis nations are likely to fight with less than the enthusiasm displayed by the German and Soviet forces, especially the Czechs who were initially less than willing Axis members. Also the Foreign Office and MI6 estimate in their report from the 12th of last month that the threat of Soviet/German Forces is keeping them in line, but also states that if Allied Forces approach their borders/Capitals, peace is possible from these quarters. This White Paper therefore discounts these armies from the equation as it can be expected that they are neutralized one way or another before the main assault on the Soviet Union begins.
Section 6 theorizes on how the Numerical Superiority of the Soviet Union, especially the Red Army can be neutralized without wrecking the Allied forces and the Allied War Effort while doing so. Again it must be emphasized that the Soviets are able to absorb greater losses in men and war material than the Allied Powers, so the key is to overwhelm near and medium term ability of the Soviet War Industry to replace the losses in advanced equipment and to inflict such losses on the Red Army that the needed replacements in manpower force them to divert resources from the other parts of the Union so that in time, when the disruptions of the war cause turmoil and economic troubles which then will leave the Soviet Leadership either the chance to sue for peace or face such internal unrest that their war effort collapses by default. The power structure of the Soviet Union is so rigid and inflexible so that when the leading clique is shown to be weak (which would simply lead to a general election in the Empire) efforts to remedy this situation must be made. This can (and his in the past done so) take the form of a purge of the existing elites within the state which are perceived to have let the rulers down and failed to carry out their tasks and/or have personally failed the leader. The Soviet Union is especially susceptible to this sort of purge because not only is there a precedent, but judging by the monitored propaganda broadcasts made by Radio Moscow and by pre-war experience gathered by Foreign Office Staff and other British Nationals (Examples in App.D) which then brings us to[...]
The White Paper went on for several dozen more pages in the smallest typed font to be had. In essence it detailed how the numerically inferior Allied Forces could defeat the Red Army in Eastern Europe and hopefully force the Soviets to the table without the need to march on Moscow, because that was something no one dared to contemplate too openly. Gort had this horror vision of a large British Army marching deeper and deeper into Russia only to be gobbled up and never seen again. The Marshal had studied every campaign that had been fought in Russia during the time the report had been written and he knew that if the Soviets decided to be stubborn, then the War had to potential to drag on forever. The strategic depth that had been of so great use to the British cause during the Napoleonic Wars was now turning against them, because even with motorized vehicles, planes and long-range Artillery the Russian countryside hadn't shrunk much. It had taken the Germans almost more than three years to get to where they had been at the time the treaty of Brest-Litovsk had been signed, and that had been well short of either St. Petersburg or Moscow. No, marching on Moscow had to be the very, very, very last option considered. For the moment the plan was to try and grind down the Red Army through brute force and Superior Firepower[1], and by simply utterly destroying their best units. Sending wave after wave of raw conscripts against an experienced, bloodied and most importantly mechanized to a high degree force which was lusting for blood. At the moment morale was high, but what would it be like if month after month was spent fighting against fanatical resistance somewhere in the depth of Russia? No, better try and force the decision as long as morale was high. Trying to grind down the Red Army without being ground down yourself was a monumental task as it was, and the war promised to go on for at least several more years. When the ideas had first been laid before him by his staff and his planners, he had doubted it, because it boiled down to attrition warfare on a scale that dwarfed the Trenches of the First World War, with the potential loss of life on both sides being enormous. Not that he felt any particular love for Soviet or German footsloggers, war was war after all, but he detested sending his boys to kill without reason, and reason was what he hoped Stalin would have, once (hopefully) Germany was defeated and end the war. Gort thanked God that he was only IGS and not the Prime Minister who would have to make the final decision if the Soviets decided to be stubborn.
The same day, somewhere south of Rome
The voice of the Colonel boomed all over the camp where the Peshawar Lancers were stationed ever since they had been transferred out of the 7th Armoured Division.
“CORPORAL BALPAN!” the Colonel, or rather the Lt. Colonel yelled again. He was transferring the orderly out of the Regiment anyway, but that was no reason for the man not to attend to his duties as long as he was here.
The demanded instantly came running from where he had carried out maintenance at one of the Regiment's Armoured Cars and was now aware that Lt. Colonel Albert Lethbridge-Stewart was not a happy man. The Colonel hadn't been happy ever since the directive had arrived just after the heavy Axis attack on the British Army. Now the Regiment was down here, he was suddenly promoted to Regimental Command when the old Colonel had been jumped to Brigadier General and was now commanding one of the other cadre Brigades of the Division. He had snorted at the idea first, because he doubted the validity this type of force in modern warfare, but then again his family had long been tied together with the Regiment, as had the one of the late Captain King.
“Ah Corporal, there you are.” the Colonel said. He had his arms crossed behind his back and tapped his riding crop against his legs like he always did when he was less than pleased with something or someone.
“Listen Corporal, I know as well as you do that you have mislaid my No.2s, so I suggest you find them before the General arrives.”
The Corporal saluted by putting his hand to his turban, turned around and marched across the parade ground with a precision that would not have been out of place in the guards when they were trooping the colour in front of the King. Lethbridge-Stewart snorted and turned around. He decided that until the Corporal could lower himself to find his uniform, he might as well inspect the array of AEC Armoured Car Mk.IIs.
He had to say he liked them, the 6pdr gun alone was a good argument for them. Still, he was not so sure he liked the rest of what had gone by since they had been transferred out of the 7th Armoured, but alas, he who took the King's Shilling did the King's bidding, so here he was. He turned the numbers over in his head: Three Regiments, one Light Mechanized like the Lancers, one Light Armoured and one of Infantry partially mounted on lorries and partially on some form of more armoured vehicle, at least eventually, formed a Brigade, and three of these Brigade formed a Division. In itself nothing special, but the Division was to be known as the 1st Cavalry Division, not related to the old 1st Cavalry that had been first drawn down to cadre strength and then been fully disbanded in 1925. This new Cavalry was not anything like the old one though. The Lancers had, like most Cavalry Regiments, be they armoured or not, still had their fair share of Horses at their home bases, but he had though the traditional roles of the Cavalry long since been filled by Armour and aircraft. And now someone at Horseguards fancied 'bringing back the Cavalry' with a similar role as in the olden days but with considerably more modern equipment. Lethbridge-Stewart mulled over the memorandum bit by bit.
'to provide cover on the flank of existing breakthroughs, to exploit breakthroughs and use superior mobility and cross-country capabilities to capture or raid such targets that are too out of way or otherwise inaccessible to the other branches of the Army.'
Cavalry... He was not convinced, but he would do his duty. His Regiment and the Brigades Light Tank Component, the 17th/21st Lancers, were the only Regiments of all three Divisions on hand in anything even approaching strength. Supposedly the 1st Mounted Infantry Regiment was on the freighter somewhere between Malta and Taranto, so it would still be some time before they disembarked and made they were way north on the heavily damaged roads of Southern Italy. The new Cavalry was an untested experiment, and as a career soldier Lethbridge-Stewart hated experiments, but if it worked out then the Cavalry would be the scourge of the enemy and go where those ungainly beasts on tracks couldn't. He failed to realize that he was already beginning to form Esprit de Corps when the General came driving through the door in a Land Rover. The Colonel straightened his moustache for a second before walking over. He didn't wear his good uniform, but since the General seemed to be wearing Battle Dress himself, that was no problem.
He stepped up to the landy, saluted the General and said:
“Welcome to the Peshawar Lancers, Sir.”
Major General Andrew Christopher Hawthorne returned the salute and then went straight down to businessmen.
“It might interest you to hear Colonel that the 1st Mounted will join us tomorrow evening.”
Normally telling something like this to the Regimental Colonels would be the Brigadier's job, but these days most of the actual work was done by the Divisions commander, with his Brigadiers concerned with the day to day mechanics of keeping the Division running. This system had only recently been officially sanctioned, even though the Army had been using it in de facto since several years before. Even though Lethbridge-Stewart didn't belong to the new breed of Officers that weren't exactly well inclined to their Brigade Commanders he liked the system because it had elevated the Regiment to prime importance on the Battlefield. The new Cavalry was built around this system, with the Light Tank Regiments providing the punch, the Armoured Car Regiments provided the eyes and the flanks and the Mounted Infantry prevented their own equivalents in the opposing force from doing anything nasty. Combined Army was this called, and as Lethbridge-Stewart followed the General into the Officers mess he glanced at the row of vehicles where his men were applying the new Divisional insignia, a yellow horse on it's back legs and black background. He liked it and he would do it proud.
Order of Battle, First Cavalry Division
1st Cavalry Brigade
Peshawar Lancers (Armoured Cars)
17th/21st Lancers (Light Tanks
1st Mounted Infantry Regiment
2nd Cavalry Brigade
11th Hussars (Prince Albert's Own) (Armoured Cars)
1st King's Dragoon Guards (Light Tanks)
2nd Mounted Infantry Regiment
3rd Cavalry Brigade
12th Royal Lancers (Armoured Cars)
13th/18th Royal Hussars (Light Tanks)
3rd Mounted Infantry Regiment
[Notes: The Snowstorm White Paper includes quite a few rough estimates and guesses, thanks to the game mechanics, since there is no way to display actual losses in HOI2 DDA, and no way to keep track on how much manpower has been expended. El Pip, this was not stolen from your AAR, it rather seems that we both had the same idea. ]
[1] I went with the American doctrine tree.
The provisional Orbats of the other two Cavalry Divisions are as follows:
2nd 'CANZAC' Cavalry Division
1st Brigade (Canada)
8th Princess Louise’s New Brunswick Hussars (Armoured Cars)
The Ontario Regiment (Light Tanks)
1st Canadian Mobile Infantry Regiment
2nd Brigade (Australia)
2/11th Armoured Car Regiment
2/5 Armoured Regiment
15 Mounted Regiment
3rd Brigade (New Zealand)
Auckland Mounted Rifle Regiment (Armoured Cars)
3 Light Tank Regiment
Wellington Mounted Rifle Regiment (Mounted Infantry)
3rd 'Imperial' Cavalry Division's
4th Cavalry Brigade
22nd Kenya Mobile Regiment (Armoured Cars)
1st Rhodesian Tank Regiment
33rd South African Mounted Rifle Regiment
5th Cavalry Brigade
1st Caribbean Armoured Reconnaissance Regiment*
99th South African Light Tank Regiment
4th West African Mounted Infantry
6th Cavalry Brigade
1st Indian Armoured Reconnaissance Regiment
1st Indian Light Armoured Regimen
1st/77th Indian Mounted Infantry
*Comprised of troops from all over the British Crown Colonies in the area
Please. Tell me that in that Cavalry of your there are no buddies called Raglan, Lucan, Cardogan and Edward "Fuckyousir" Nolan...
Kurt
What is your problem with the Cavalry's commanding officers? I hope your not trying to criticism them.
You do realise that is a serious breach of military disciplines.Seriously, hopefully the dead-wood that infected the British cavalry, including when mechanised, will be cleared out. If nothing else the 2nd Cavalry Division is comprised solely of Dominion forces and while they sometimes have their problems blind obedience to stupid orders are not amongst them.
Also if Lethbridge-Stewart gets out of his depth we can probably rely on Jon Pertwee to turn up and give him some advice.
Steve
Kurt_Steiner None of those.
stevep The British Army as a whole is more open to new things. In the pre-war defence reforms there was a brutal culling of all but the most politically connected dead wood, and lots of promising youngsters were promoted/listened to. As a result there is no shortage of retired Generals and Colonels.
And as awesome an appearance of the Doctor would be, whatever the incarnation, it would take fiction references too far, since even ITTL the show must exist.
Griffin.Gen One cannot invade Russia as Britain without a significant Cavalry component on the southern flank.
stevep The British Army as a whole is more open to new things. In the pre-war defence reforms there was a brutal culling of all but the most politically connected dead wood, and lots of promising youngsters were promoted/listened to. As a result there is no shortage of retired Generals and Colonels.
And as awesome an appearance of the Doctor would be, whatever the incarnation, it would take fiction references too far, since even ITTL the show must exist.
Griffin.Gen One cannot invade Russia as Britain without a significant Cavalry component on the southern flank.
Excellent news.
As you may have guessed that was totally tongue in cheek.
Rather surprised that at your age you know about L-S and the Pertwee years. My favourite doctor, partly because I was at the right age at the time. A young and hot Sarah Jane might have had something to do with it as well]Griffin.Gen One cannot invade Russia as Britain without a significant Cavalry component on the southern flank.
Rubbish, all you need is a thin Red line.
Steve
Excellent news.
AAO started out as a thought exercise on "What if the hawks seized power earlier and Britain was more prepared" but soon (actually right after the first chapter) went into "How to retain Britains Great Power status until the present day". Then I watched that multi-part documentary about Winston's Bodyguard and the bit where they describe the "We shall fight on the beaches" speech which always was a favourite of mine since first watching Battle of Britain I got the brainwave for reforming and confederating the Empire, the rest went on from there, the more I realized that Britain would be pressed to pay for what I had them do, the more I changed the background History. Commie US was initially a way to keep them out of the European War.
As you may have guessed that was totally tongue in cheek.
It started a couple of years back when I watched the first Series of NWho, but never really went past the first few episodes of Series Two. Then, a couple of months ago I was desperate for something to watch and then went into Who big time and literally spent days reading through the Doctor Who Wiki, where I picked up a lot of lore, including the Brigadier and have since watched a lot of classic Who I accquired through ....various means, including the one where Sarah Jane is introduced and the one where the Master appears first, including even the very first Series with William Hartnell, so yes I have seen the first ever episode where he broke the chameleon circuit. Mind you, I like the modern-day Santarans more, and you have no idea how often I had to stop myself writing something like:
"Bugger me, what is that Police Box doing here?"
Rubbish, all you need is a thin Red line.
Steve
In the absence of Redcoats, Cavalry must do.
Chapter 215
25th March 1942
Malaya
The main attack on the British defensive line was going not going to be announced to the defenders by an air-raid into the teeth of the Fighters that were still numerous, and neither would the rather weak Asiatic Artillery bombard the defences. Instead the Japanese would employ the tactics that they had used with such success in China and attempt to infiltrate in between the British Defences and take them from the rear. It was dark when the columns of the Imperial Guards Division, the 11th Chinese Mountain Division and the 56th Infantry marched forward. General Yamashita wanted to overwhelm the British with numbers and he believed that three Divisions would do the trick, because what was facing him? A Division-sized formation in the fortifications with troops from three different countries and several irregular and ill-armed battalions of very recently raised and untrained militia in Johore Bahru, concentrated in and around the Sultan Ibrahim Building which also housed a group of Royal Artillery observers. The Japanese expected to have tactical surprise in this attack, and had good reason to think so. They had spent the last few days clearing out the militia which infested Malaya even more than was the case in Burma, at least from the immediate siege area and was now confident that any movement of units to the front would remain undetected. However he did not know that No.6 Commando Wing was out in Force (had been for almost a week) and did what the SAS was there to do by monitoring Asiatic troop movements and avoiding contact. For the moment the Japanese were still unaware that the SAS even existed, let alone what it was doing and proceeded as normal. They went into their positions and awaited the appointed time.
Opposing them was 23 Fortress Division, a mere administrative unit to encompass those Regiments which happened to be on rotation for the frontline at any given time, at this four British (Imperial and Islanders[1]), one Australian and one of late arrivals, the Franco-Canadian 23rd Infantry[2] of which all troops spoke English. Slim hated it that he had to pluck these units together in this fashion, but there was little else he could do, because in addition to the Forward Line each Division also had to defend it's stretch of coast, and there was no use in tiring one Division out only to have it placed somewhere along the cost when the next one went into the line. Rotating Regiments like this was far from a perfect solution, but his job was not to develop perfect solutions, his job was to hold this fortress until told otherwise. In the forward line the feelings were similar as the man were standing behind their machine guns, mortars and firing ports and waited for dawn to come.
When the first shots rang out none of the men on the Allied side of the battle realized that this was to be the biggest battle of the early siege period. These shots were coming from the northern edge of the city where the Militia were beginning to take shots at what they thought to be Japanese Infantry, but what rather was a battalion of Chinese Mountain Troops that were tasked with clearing out the city. The troops in this Battalion where the best in their Division which in turn was widely regarded as one of the best Divisions in the Chinese Army. Even so they had little experience in city fighting. Neither had the Militia for that matter, but they had the edge that they all knew it like the back of their hands and they would make good use of that knowledge even as the sound of their Rifles began to be mixed with the wood-pecker sound of Japanese-made machine guns and the occasional small explosion of a Molotov Cocktail or rare hand grenades. This was enough to convince the Major General in command of 23 Fortress Division to order his men to stand to, and soon the fighting compliment minus the reserve companies were in the forward line of defences. Infantry filed into the concrete-reinforced trenches that were dry in spite of recent weather, manned the mortar pits and machine gun nests. For the most part the forts were built into the countryside and had been fitted with extra camouflage the moment war had been declared but a bit back from the line one larger concrete building had been constructed. It was too large to fully camouflaged but also strong enough to supposedly withstand a direct hit from the 16'' shells aboard the Japanese Nagato Class Battleships. It was the command bunker for the entire forward line and also the most heavily defended piece of the forts since it covered the road to and the immediate beginning of the widened causeway. It was a new thing that these lines didn't contain heavy artillery, which was far too valuable to risk on this side of the straits, so instead the Major General lifted his field telephone and used the below-water and therefore invulnerable line to set the Artillery on alert, and that in turn sent the entire Island to the highest alert status. By the time General Slim was woken and in his bunker, the gun crews of the 25pdrs and other pieces were already standing by with Illumination and High Explosive shells to do their work.
The Japanese plan for breaking the line was that once British attention was firmly fixed on the battle on their left flank, the main Japanese attack would hit their right flank hard, punch through the line and flood in their rear area towards the causeway. General Yamashita had no illusions about being able to use the causeway since it was most certainly prepared for demolition and anyway he would not risk his men on a road as narrow as that one. No, he would have to cross the straits via boat, and to do that he needed to be rid of the fortification to have his back clear. So for almost two hours the crack Japanese Infantry listened as their Chinese brothers in arms assaulted the city against the determined Milita that was still forced to fall back but inflicted serious losses. When it was almost dawn, the General gave the order and soon the forward parties worked their way towards the British lines. In front of the lines the land had been cleared and mind, but lack of resources and funds had prevented the British from installing illuminating lights all along the front, so only some sectors were lit, and Yamashita had been careful to choose one that was not. In the pre-dawn light the Japanese Infantry could easily work it's way through the minefield which too was narrower than many on the other side of the line would have liked. The forward Japanese attack parties were not only equipped with mine clearing equipment but also each man had a wirecutter which were supposed to ease the progress through the admittedly elaborate passive defences that were placed in front of the British line. Normally this sort of attack would have been conducted at night, but not even the Imperial Guards cleared minefields and night. The Officers began to watch from their vantage points behind the lines as the the first group, consisting of volunteers and not expected to survive the day went forward and began to clear the mines to make a route for the Assault parties into the defensive systems. Almost immediately the Japanese assault parties were spotted by the British who replied with machine gun and mortar fire against what they suspected to be the assault parties. In the shallow light many bullets and grenades went wild since the Japanese were hidden against the background of the terrain and the plantlife and soon gunfire was rippling out along the line as troops took the cue from their neighbours and exited Officers and men fired blindly into the night. The attack went in at three spots roughly a mile apart and soon enough the British spotted them for real. By that time daylight was sufficient for them to see properly, and they began to use their Rifles and Vickers MMGs with devastating effectiveness. The Japanese had cleared the gaps in the minefields and began to charge towards the concrete bunkers and the Machine guns, with predictable results. In the entire defensive line more than a hundred Machine guns (Brens or Vickers) were present either mounted or in reserve, which allowed the defenders to put up a murderous defensive fire against which the Japanese could do little. The first few squads were wiped out almost to a man since the no mans land provided next to no cover, so the forces retreated back to the vegetation line. The Japanese had little in weapons that were capable to crack open the concrete shells of the positions in front of them from a distance, but they still tried. The Type 10 and Type 89 Grenade dischargers were simply too small to have any hope of knocking out the machine gun nests, but they were useful against the Infantry in the concrete trenches between the bunkers and nest, so amongst exploding British Mortar and Light Artillery fire they fired their own as fast as they could and the defending Infantry began to take losses. Twice more the Japanese Infantry tried to get close enough to use their Satchel Charges against the defences, twice more they failed and things settled down to an intense but relatively ineffective exchange of rifle and machine gun fire over the open zone.
Japanese Infantryman using his Type 89 discharger
At this point and roughly three hours after the first shots had been fired the commander of the Imperial Guards decided to play his aces. The Guards were the elite of the Japanese Army just like their British Counterparts, and as a result the Division had been allocated most of the Armour within the 25th Army. A dozen Type 94 Te-Ke were among them, but for the most part the Armoured detachment was made up of two dozen Type 97s. It was expected that these vehicles would help punch through the line if the Infantry failed to find any gaps within the line, and the Japanese had failed to probe the entire line for weaknesses that were in every static line of defence, they only had to be found. The Japanese Tanks didn't take long to appear near the battlefield, and this time there were no SAS patrols to warn the British.
Battle Emplacement 5, Fort Hope, Singapore Siege Line
'Battle Five' as it was known was one of the two anti-tank bunkers of Fort Hope and sported a 2pdr and a 6pdr gun apiece. Anti-tank guns were few and far between here at Singapore, and the presence of the old Mathildas only partially made up for that, but then again the Japanese didn't have much in armour, and if rumours were to be believed the RAC had only disdain and ridicule for their Japanese counterparts. Even so, when the twenty-ish shapes appeared down the two roads covered by Fort Hope an hour before lunch, the men stood to their guns as if Rommel and Zhukov themselves were out there. Both of the emplacements could cover a 180° arc if pressed, but normally each covered one of the roads. Orders were to hold fire until told otherwise or vehicles were sighted to preserve ammunition, but now there were some. Fort Hope was Royal Marine manned, the crew drawn from the Singapore Marines, a battalion that had arrived shortly after the before war had been declared. The Commanding Officer of the bunker was a Lieutenant so young that behind his back the men joked that he was too young to even shave, but the Royal Marines were like most Naval Infantry around the world and said that if a man managed to make it past selection and training and then managed to Officer courses to boot he couldn't be half bad and anyway the real command outside of combat lay with the Sergeant who was in the Marines longer than the Lieutenant was probably old. His fancy name was not a problem, even though William Manticore was far from the usual names used in Northern Scotland. Here now he had no mind for the teasing on the schoolyard and instead watched as the Japanes Armour drew nearer and nearer through his own viewing slits, and even though they were within nominal range of even the two-pounder by now he waited before opening fire, in accordance with the standing orders to save ammunition. In his mind this meant to make sure that every single shot told. By now the machine gunners half a mile further out had handily surpressed the enemy attack in the sector in front of Fort Hope and now the few precious Brownings and the more numerous Vickers guns were...Manticore hardly believed his eyes, but they engaged one of the tank columns! From what he could see at the distance the lighter of the two types present didn't take them well, because by the time he had ordered his men again to hold fire, two of them were on fire and one of them was shuddering to a grinding halt at the edge of the minefield. Good, they were close enough now. He opened his mouth, yelled the word and instantly and at the same time as Battle Six, the other AT bunker opened fire. The muzzle flashes from the 2 and 6pdr guns weren't as big as those of the Artillery which was supporting the desperate defence of the city to the west where the Chinese were now throwing the entire Division at the Militia, and only the guns were holding the enemy back. But Manticore had neither eyes nor ears for that, as he watched his own little piece of the Battle develop. The Japanese Tanks ignored the gunfire that was concentrated on them and instead charged up the cleared gaps in the minefield towards the British lines where they would be save from the punishing crossfire and break through the enemy lines where the vaunted Infantry had failed. Four AT guns against what had to be at least equivalent to a British Armoured Squadron wasn't much on the battlefields of Europe, but here it proved to be enough, because tank after tank was knocked out or disabled, with only one actually managing to cross the minefield and attack the trenches where it was then disabled by an anti-tank Rifle.[3] This was the high point of the day's attack, because then the Japanese retreated when a battery of 25pdrs began to rain death and destruction into the area in front of the minefield and the forward Brigade of the Division collapsed, after having been under fire for the entire morning and not achieved anything except for some dead and wounded amongst the entrenched Infantry. The first attack on the main Siege line had been repulsed.
Farther west the battle for Johore still raged, with the Militia and the Artillery holding the Chinese back and turning the city into a heap of ruins and rubble. Once again the Japanese had attacked with tactics that had been developed to a perfection in China, only that this time the enemy was not only prepared but also had the morale and the support to fight it out. The Japanese had slammed their heads against the line and had received a bloody nose, one that would have immediate consequences. Firstly General Yamashita was relieved of his command and sent to guard the Manchurian Border against the Soviets, secondly the 25th Army was relabelled as the Malaya Theatre Army and stocked up by two additional Divisions during April.
Another consequence of the failed attack was that several support units, chiefly several Fighter Groups, were diverted from the front in Burma which was at that point already effectively stalemated even though Tokyo had not yet admitted this to itself. It also put a stop to any Japanese plans for moving the war to the Indian Ocean, as so often in the war so far as long as Singapore had one viable airfield, forcing the Dutch East Indies on the surface or sending planes through the stretch of territory with a Indian Ocean Coastline
[Notes: Lots of combat coming up.]
[1] Since 'British' applies to all forces fighting under the Union Flag, Islanders is a term for troops and Forces coming from the United Kingdom itself.
[2] In the aftermath of the uprising the Franco-Canadians have started to volunteer in such great numbers that it allowed the Canadian Government to form several Battalions and a few Regiments that hadn't existed previously.
[3] Since a lot of obsolescent and obsolete kit was dumped in the Far East, some Boys AT Rifles and ammo made it to Singapore.