In planning ways to advance the Italian military, so that I might meet my international commitments to defend our territory, on the one hand, but also so that I might be able to militarily stand up against the threat of Nazi Germany on the other, I was concerned about certain industrial and infantry related technologies.
The Small Arms was huge – every level of SA we advanced, the better able we would be to succeed in combat. As soon as we achieved level 6, we began researching for level 7, which might be accomplished by spring of 1939. How far along that track was Germany? We shuddered to think. Rush, rush…
Only because Italy relies upon special units, such as Mountain units, is the Light Small Arms Modification a useful tech for us. It’s certainly worth researching, now that we can. Agriculture, of course, provides us Manpower, which would be in critical demand if Italy ever had to take on populous Germany. An industrial economy would use much Energy, so Coal Processing helps us to keep going. Motorized Support Brigades are an interesting option (from the HPP mod) – adding truck-mobility to your artillery or other support brigades, so that they mustn’t rely only on horse-drawn howitzers, etc. This can speed up the movement of units with artillery so the artillery can keep up with the motorized infantry. In Kriegsgefahr, I typically just built self-propelled artillery, because I wanted a harder unit with some armor to support my units and help create combined arms units. But in Locarno, this tech is more important to me – I must build the units from scratch, or upgrade existing units by returning them to the Production Queue for a short time.
As soon as I can build Radar Stations, I begin doing so. I want to know what’s going on across the Alps in Germany, so that I can use that knowledge to help plan. It will also help with coordination of air attacks, and if conflict comes, it’s reasonably certain much of it will center around the Alpine region of Austria and northern Italy.
Tensions rise. By February, 1938, we are “looking forward” (in the literal sense of the words) to war with Germany, and are concerned at how unprepared we are. At the same time, there is a general feeling that war will come, and that we will have to initiate it, before Germany becomes even stronger. The people will just not support such a move yet. They will have to “show themselves” more forcefully, to get people to understand.
The tensions flared in April, 1938, when Germany mobilized, and the French followed in short order.
The UK is more prepared – mentally – for war, but both Britain and France are deeply concerned about events in Germany. I presume they are making plans for war, realizing that it is more likely to come, than not.
While not yet mobilizing our full army, we do increase our levels of readiness, calling in some reserves. The mobilization process doesn’t work the same in HPP as it does in vanilla HOI 3/SF – this step does not cause economic gearing. That’s in a different policy category, and we don’t meet the conditions for it yet.
The Infiltration Focus tech helps our Mountain and Militia troops, and Cavalry – each of which we already have and which will figure helpfully into our strategy. We have 14 Mountain brigades and 29 Militia brigades (many of which are still in Ethiopia). Italy still has no armored divisions (one armored car brigade) – I don’t intend to rely heavily upon them, but they would be nice to have some. If we ever do break out of the Alps, Light Armor would be welcome – perhaps even necessary.
The Coal Processing is important, as you can see. Italy won’t be conquering new territories with new resources in this game (except in Germany, hopefully), so I need to produce or trade for all my own stuff. My economy is currently using 91 IC, which requires 182 daily units of Energy. But if I get into war and mobilize my economy, that +43 daily Energy will quickly turn to deficit, and I don’t have a lot of stockpile reserve yet.
We’ve assigned one of our HQ commands to be our “business arm” – I place our armored car, cavalry and motorized infantry divisions into the “Celere” corps, which is intended to move forward quickly in time of war. We move into position along the border.
And not before time! Suddenly, Hitler pulls of a diplomatic fiat by overthrowing the Austrian government and rushing forward with his army! This is a shock. We are thrown into a flurry of reconsideration and rushed planning.
Perhaps because of my message settings, or perhaps because of the way the event was written, I didn’t have any say in this Anschluss. I was expecting to be able to accede or oppose, and if I opposed then we would be at war. As it is, I almost prefer this option – it’s an accomplished fact, and I have little to say about it. Yes, it might have been nice to go to war with the Austrian Army on our side. But we weren’t really ready for war. Would I ever be? And the Germans were preparing, too, at a rate probably way beyond what I could achieve. All in all, it might have been best for us to go to war at this point, with Austria alongside. But it didn’t happen, and I decide to accept that (Slan did provide me with an event that would have fixed this, but I decided not to use it, since I’d already played quite a bit beyond).
Germany’s Threat against France increased 20 in just one month. Their Threat against us increased, too, but not as significantly – probably because the event assumed Italy would be more on Germany’s side than against. Again, we accept the situation as the game gives it to us, rather than modding it.
Now, it was clearly urgent for us to prepare for war. War clouds loomed over the Alpine slopes, reminding us of Germany’s threat. Hitler was a madman! He thought he could do whatever he wanted. Hard memories of the Great War steeled Italians’ souls for a continuation of the old conflict.
Reinforcements – more of them – were loaded aboard transports and brought through the Red Sea from Abyssinia. The British followed France in mobilizing, just mere weeks after them. And the first signs of German troops – a Motorized Infantry division – appeared in the Austrian vales across the border from Italy, tromping across May’s wildflowers. Now, it seemed war was a certainty.
By the end of May, we had achieved more advances in technology and techniques – our artillery brigades (of which there were still few (we were considering a fix to this) were practicing timed, rolling barrages. And our officers were improving their tactics in battle, so that they would be able to respond better to the professional German war machine.
We also added more Industry to our ranks, increasing available IC from 91 to 94 during the month of May (Taranto & Foggia). We continue to promote the Grand Battle Plan operational doctrine.
There seemed little point to going to war with Germany while we were yet unprepared. This would, it was felt, be a defensive battle at first. We needed more Mountain divisions. And, even if Germany was building at a faster rate than our own army, it was felt time was needed to steel France’s nerves against Germany – to attempt to solidify an alliance upon the terms of Locarno – and also it was thought the Germans would need two or three divisions against each of ours to break through our Tyrolian defensive lines. And that, we thought, we could manage. If France were an ally, then the German military would be yet more divided, and could not concentrate against Italy only.
We waited.
We were busy, through the early summer, strengthening our northern airbases, constructing Radar/Intel stations in the mountains, completing our last Factory productions, which would soon give way mostly to military divisions, and completing equipment and training for more Mountain divisions and air squadrons. Even a Light Armored division was being slowly prepared for that day when, hopefully, we would rush north into Bavaria.
Hungary mobilized. For what purpose? We had to wonder. Were they meaning to join Germany as an ally, or were they also concerned about Germany’s intentions against the rest of Europe? We continued our diplomatic efforts to draw them toward Italy. The German threat continued to build against France and Britain. Would they obey their commitments, and join Italy against Germany’s violations of the Versailles Treaty, as the pacts at Locarno had agreed?
In July, we were reminded that not just Europe boiled with clouds of war. The most horrific atrocities were reported from the Nationalist Chinese capital of Nanking, which had just fallen to the advancing Japanese. Imperial troops had not yet quite joined, except in one mountain valley of central China, but they were advancing, building their occupation, and they had now set up a puppet government based at Nanking (the green territory you see has been ceded by Japan to China-Nanjing).
Some still hoped for peace, but no one really expected it. The world was aflame.