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That’s one of the ‘other areas’ (the Med) that will be covered later. But basically, nothing happened. The TAC wing has not yet quite fully recovered its organisation, there were no air battles, nuthin’ else. Next time should see some more action there - in the air, anyway.
Another excellent update, action-packed if perhaps short only by the standards of this AAR. First Guildenstern, now Rosencrantz...it would be a disservice to the Shakespearean inspiration of this AAR if the two of them do not sometime end up together in a distant corner of the continent sooner or later, up to some form or another of comic hijinks!
I imagine that the IC here was commissioned before the start of the GLW, but if I were the president of the UGNR (and not a two-bit news correspondent ), I would halt construction on those factories in favor of building more weapons and barracks. The estimated return on investment for those factories is such that it would take some five years before the IC spent began returning a profit in terms of economic production, and God only knows where Turkey will be five years from now! Better to spend our resources on planes and tanks, to assure that our five-year plan will include bratwurst and schnitzel in Berlin!
Here I have to admit that I'm impressed with the AI concentrating its air attacks along a single line of attack, and not randomly bombing provinces across the whole front. It's a rare moment when the AI even accidentally gives the appearance of cleverness, and here it certainly deserves to be noticed!
Hmm, good point about the factories (never did the calls on them). Yes, they were commissioned way back, when manpower was an issue and the Government was looking for other stuff to spend IC on. Also, when it was thought the whole of the Balkans would be lost and War was not predicted until around mid-1941 (ie traditional Barbarossa time). The first comes on line in a couple of weeks, so that will be welcome. The President will have the War Department work out the remaining IC cost vs likely output over about a five year period to see what the cost-effectiveness is. At the moment, each IC gets a 75% mark up from laws and other factors. If Nukeluru Slorepee’s advice is borne out, he may have another reward in the offing for his industrial reporting
I’d been waiting for ages to get Rosencrantz into this - though had avoided the too-obvious at the start by having Perse take that name. Though I was tempted! In altiverse, the motivations of the two are diametrically opposed: a venal capitalist advertising exec vs a committed communist newspaper editor! Will see if/how that longer term story arc pans out.
And yes, when I looked at it, it really struck me how quite logical the strikes pattern was in France and how the air War was being fought to try to stave them off. The French did better that week than I expected, though of course I can’t see the unit dispositions.
"all the staff here" The three of you do a mighty-fine job.
Merry Christmas and a great new year to you too. ps...ham makes a tasty alternative.
Cheers all!
You too. There will be ham and turkey consumed, some chicken too. But not the famed ‘turducken’ we’ve heard about but can scarcely believe! All the best for the season, my friend.
I do agree, though I think the allies will be pretty crushed by the end of the war and the 'West' will not exist outside of the Americas. UK may be under heel or at very least 'under siege' by a unified communist Europe. I doubt France will hold out against both the Germans and the Russians as well, especially as they were already full of socialists. And Germany is deffo going down the Soviet path unless their lines break now and the allies can invade some of it. But I doubt it. The UK hasn' done anything outside of Africa yet so Yes, they'e conserved their manpower but they'l also probably not intervene in Europe before it' too late. Which leaves Spain and Scandinavia, both of which would easily fall to a combined Soviet response (actually I think Scandinavia might be harder) and the US...actually, it' a toss up as to whether they would prop up Franco or not since they did quite a bit of that in the 50s.
But it is entirely possible that all or most of Europe bar UK is communist by 1950.
The only thing that can really stop or slow that down right now bar the us and UK invading Europe is Japan and how well they push into Russia.
EDIT: okay so the war is going pretty well everywhere but Asia, which is what we would expect. UK continues to do nothing (maybe the others are on to something and the imperialists staged a coup in the governent and they really are planning on swooping in at the last second to take over Germany?) aside from send planes to die in france. France meanwhile is a real trooper but being worn down by impossible odds. There will be no talk of cheese eating surrender monies in this time line though. They'e done a good job holding the line. Of course their leaders should never have let that happen in the first place but still...
Germany is being strained even as they make their way to Paris. Unlike Russia, they can' afford a long and bloody push to a capital city. That' showing in the eastern front. Nearly surrounded armies? Hungary's front faltering? All signs that they'e running out of puff, men and oil.
Not sure what we can do about Mongolia except promise to avenge it...Which might not go down well.
Perhaps yes...That's a little worrying because for all we know France is on the brink of collapse already. We already know they'e struggling and so is Russia in the far east...oh dear. But if they hold, we should win this in Europe at least. If Russia gets into a long war in Asia, that's their problem. We can use that time whilst theyre distracted to try and stop the Turkish republic from falling apart after the war. Might be a hopeles fight but we have to try.
Thanks for these and your many in-depth comments and engagement over the last year. Best of the season to you. All remains in the balance - just a little tip could upset the balance in favour of either side, though I think the Germans are having a harder time of it right now than old Adolph had expected (or me, for that matter).
France looks like it can hold a tad longer. My issue is with the USSR. If it were not for Japan I assume they would be all over Germany by now. But with Japan draining Comintern resources and taking important centers of industry the USSR, and its Allies, were slowly losing strength.
Still, if Germany WERE to advance the battlefront would just get WIDER. They would be forced to make their line thinner or bring in more units.
So, once again, it kind of swings back to France. France falls and Germany gets the reinforcements it needs to hit the USSR and Turkey. France holds and the Comintern has a chance.
Yes, though even with France out of the way, I think Germany will find it tough to expand the Eastern Front too quickly now, but we could be unpleasantly surprised. If the US ever enters against Japan that should take some wind out of their sails, but that could be years off. I’m interested to find out and to a large extent am in the hands of the various major power AIs, though not powerless either. Helps keep me interested in the game and finding out what happens next.
If Perse really thinks a Sicilian will break Omerta just to help out Turkey she is further gone than I feared. "Sona cosa nostra" as Don Corleone would have explained to her if she had asked.
Given that Guildenstern is effectively 'dead' to us, I don't fancy much for Rosencrantz's chances. His best bet for a long and fulfilling life involves not getting this job, being careful on sea voyages and always reading messages he is asked to deliver ( )
It is a damning indictment of Turkish intelligence that they tolerate Sonny at all, he's a worse spy than he was Don! That said he shouldn't be a problem for too much longer, Swiss Counter-Intelligence was low profile but effective. For neutrality reasons (and to keep the Swiss banks full) they may have had to tolerate all the foreign agents running around the place, but they were always well aware of who was who and did not hesitate to kick out anyone who made a fuss or disturbed the locals. The Swiss ran a KGB / Stasi level of surveillance, after the Cold War it emerged they kept files on over 900,000 people, this is out of a population of less than 7 million. The Swiss will know all about Sonny, I expect the Turkish ambassador will be summoned and asked to keep things discrete or see his agents kicked out of the country.
And a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you to. After this busy year of excellent updates you have definitely earned a good Christmas break!
Perse has to try and is working under orders. But I agree it is very unlikely another Sicilian would take Turkish money - even if from a rival family. The poster is really more for internal propaganda purposes: the people need their villains, and there was a rich tradition at the time of painting one’s wartime opponents as gangsters and criminals and doing cheesy wanted posters of them for propaganda purposes . And Bruno’s is a face crying out for such treatment!
I knew you would read into the R&G are dead theme, but in this case they live (though all must eventually return to the earth). I have a few ideas sketched out for them and believe we may hear of BJagain at some point, but there’s always more happening than meets the eye in this alt-Turkey. Even Lord El Pip may end up being surprised by some of the twists in store.
Sonny’s flame does burn bright, and as you say the Swiss won’t be impressed, even if Sonny does carry Diplomatic immunity as part of his cover appointment (though he doesn’t make a very convincing Cultural Attaché, does he ). I wonder whether he will be able to keep his temper in check?
And thank you for the well wishes my friend, it has been a busy year writing and (I must say) even busier working.looking forward to a short break now and a longer one in a few months!
The President will have the War Department work out the remaining IC cost vs likely output over about a five year period to see what the cost-effectiveness is. At the moment, each IC gets a 75% mark up from laws and other factors.
As a rough estimate, it looks like each IC takes a bit over 10 months to build judging from your screenshot, at a cost of about 5 IC, which works out to roughly 4.2 IC-years. At 75% mark-up you're getting 1.75 IC-years per year from the factory once it's built, which means you should be able to produce 4.2 IC-years in a bit less than 2 1/2 years once it's built. The earliest being on-line in only a couple of weeks, that means it will take until around February 1943 to break-even (and the others shifted based on their finish times, of course). If the war lasts as long as in OTL, you ought to reap proper benefits from at least the first factory, the others look more dubious of course.
The other thing you have to count for though is the sunk cost, if an IC is already half-built you can't recoup the 2.1 IC-years already spent, so you have to think in terms of how fast can you make up the remaining 2.1 if you keep building it, which would take about a year and 2-3 months. For the factory coming out next February that really means it will take until April or May 1942 to "break even" compared to if you killed the production order right now (and then another 15 months to make up the sunk cost, but at this point that's a write off). The first factory of course will only take a couple more weeks to build, so at this point there's no reason not to finish it as the sunk cost is nearly all of the cost. The third one, on the other hand, would probably take into 1943 to justify continuing its construction as it will not finish until the end of April 1941.
So if my ATL persona were to make a lateral move to the business section (does Turkey have a Wall Street Journal? ), he would definitely recommend keeping the first factory going, and would probably suggest stopping construction on the third (or at least shoving it to the bottom of the queue). The second factory, the one finishing in February, is the tricky one, that decision requires a sober assessment of where Turkey expects herself to be in terms of military position in mid-1942. If she expects to hold fast and/or make small gains, then the factory can be kept under construction. If there's a strong possibility that the Yeniceri Line folds and it's every man for himself, she may be better served to use those IC to arm a few more of those men before the day of reckoning!
(As a side note, putting my military correspondent hat back on, if we could hypothetically expect to make massive gains before mid-1942, it would actually be better to cancel the factory and build troops. This is not for defense but rather to make the crushing blow as much of a "sure thing" as possible. You wouldn't want your grand offensive to stall just before you could win the Race to Bratislava, for want of a single infantry division that never got trained because of economic development! Basically, the factory makes the most sense if you expect the war to last long enough that it provides a good net contribution to the war effort without unduly stressing your short-term position.)
Nice. Aust 1st Armd Regt, then 2nd Cav Regt (Recon). Long time ago now, though. We were training for our scaled down version of WW3 on the North German Plain, back in the early-mid 80s when it was considered a realistic prospect. Turned out a bit differently, didn’t it?
PS: had a troop sergeant once from 1 RTR. Well over 30 years ago, mind you
As a rough estimate, it looks like each IC takes a bit over 10 months to build judging from your screenshot, at a cost of about 5 IC, which works out to roughly 4.2 IC-years. At 75% mark-up you're getting 1.75 IC-years per year from the factory once it's built, which means you should be able to produce 4.2 IC-years in a bit less than 2 1/2 years once it's built. The earliest being on-line in only a couple of weeks, that means it will take until around February 1943 to break-even (and the others shifted based on their finish times, of course). If the war lasts as long as in OTL, you ought to reap proper benefits from at least the first factory, the others look more dubious of course.
The other thing you have to count for though is the sunk cost, if an IC is already half-built you can't recoup the 2.1 IC-years already spent, so you have to think in terms of how fast can you make up the remaining 2.1 if you keep building it, which would take about a year and 2-3 months. For the factory coming out next February that really means it will take until April or May 1942 to "break even" compared to if you killed the production order right now (and then another 15 months to make up the sunk cost, but at this point that's a write off). The first factory of course will only take a couple more weeks to build, so at this point there's no reason not to finish it as the sunk cost is nearly all of the cost. The third one, on the other hand, would probably take into 1943 to justify continuing its construction as it will not finish until the end of April 1941.
So if my ATL persona were to make a lateral move to the business section (does Turkey have a Wall Street Journal? ), he would definitely recommend keeping the first factory going, and would probably suggest stopping construction on the third (or at least shoving it to the bottom of the queue). The second factory, the one finishing in February, is the tricky one, that decision requires a sober assessment of where Turkey expects herself to be in terms of military position in mid-1942. If she expects to hold fast and/or make small gains, then the factory can be kept under construction. If there's a strong possibility that the Yeniceri Line folds and it's every man for himself, she may be better served to use those IC to arm a few more of those men before the day of reckoning!
(As a side note, putting my military correspondent hat back on, if we could hypothetically expect to make massive gains before mid-1942, it would actually be better to cancel the factory and build troops. This is not for defense but rather to make the crushing blow as much of a "sure thing" as possible. You wouldn't want your grand offensive to stall just before you could win the Race to Bratislava, for want of a single infantry division that never got trained because of economic development! Basically, the factory makes the most sense if you expect the war to last long enough that it provides a good net contribution to the war effort without unduly stressing your short-term position.)
Very helpful extra analysis there. I think the Istanbul Times has a comprehensive Finance section. I’m gambling we’ll hold the line for quite a while now, but also that defeating the Axis (probably Japan in the end) will take a while yet, but after that we may need to carry the war to the Capitalist Imperialists to achieve the level of victory required, so the longer term IC may still be of value, though I’ve built no more since those and had no plans for any more. If France falls and an emergency looks imminent, it will all go into defensive units - though barring a disaster, the generals believe they now have enough troops to at least hold the Calistar Line indefinitely, perhaps even make a show at holding the Iskandar Line as well, for a while anyway.
Nice. Aust 1st Armd Regt, then 2nd Cav Regt (Recon). Long time ago now, though. We were training for our scaled down version of WW3 on the North German Plain, back in the early-mid 80s when it was considered a realistic prospect. Turned out a bit differently, didn’t it?
PS: had a troop sergeant once from 1 RTR. Well over 30 years ago, mind you
Flipping 'eck, that outs you as slightly younger than my grandfathers!
I do like collecting war and service stories especially from primary sources. The accounts I've had from people stationed in West Berlin and Germany were particularly notable because many of them knew how superficial it all would be if the Russians did end up invading (short of the obvious nuclear armegeddon, apparently conventional forces wouldn't have held for very long at all). What were your views in those days?
I thought they (Soviets) were a definite threat, but that it (a Soviet attack) wasn’t so likely on balance.
As an aside: We had a visiting group of West German counterparts come and visit us (must have been about 1984 or so, when I was a young tank troop leader). We asked them how they thought it would go if it came to another war. It may have been a bit of bravado, but he sounded serious, as he said words to the effect that they (the German mech forces) would ignore the Soviet attacks, go around them, destroy their echelons then keep striking east as fast as they could. And, I remember it as clear as day, “... and this time we won’t stop until we get to Moscow.”
My view around this time was that the Soviets may have some initial success if they attacked, but that the rest of the Warsaw Pact (on which they would have to rely to sustain it) would not be at all keen - especially if they were exposed to the meat grinder. Think about it, aside from maybe the East Germans: the Poles, Czechs and Hungarians, with all that history (plenty of it recent), bleeding out for the Russians? Not likely! I thought it likely the whole thing would have split apart like a rotten tomato. But it would have been a catastrophe, even if it didn’t go nuclear.
Of course, West Berlin itself would have been lost very quickly, but once they got going, I thought NATO would have made a right mess of the Soviets once they recovered from the shock. Visited (on holiday) checkpoint Charlie and went through it it 1989, just a few weeks before the Wall came down. That was only five years later, and look how easily the whole edifice came tumbling down.
And, perhaps with a fair degree of hindsight, I think many in the West underestimated the trauma and impact of WW2 on the Russians and overestimated the strength and capacity of their armed forces, especially technically and tactically. Mind you, best to be careful and expect the enemy to be tougher than they are (within reason), unless and until proven otherwise! Certainly, that is the approach the TT Turkish Government takes - they don’t wish to choke on their own hubris, nor to cower timidly as world events pass them by. Be careful in striking, but when you do, make it swift, terrible and do it with everything you can bring to bear!
Well, I may be a bit late to the party this time around... The GRU had other things to do... Anyway, glad to see that you finally have some top quality Soviet Tank Destroyers ready for action. You'll really like that investment when the German Panzers start arriving on the Yeniceri line...
Well, lucky Turkey.. Once you get those I-16s you'll be shredding apart those Italian innovations of the previous decade... Back in the present, as the air war over the German-Soviet front will now be referred to, we face Ju-88s and Me-109s every day, I'm sure our pilots will have a good laugh over this when they hear about it...
As a rough estimate, it looks like each IC takes a bit over 10 months to build judging from your screenshot, at a cost of about 5 IC, which works out to roughly 4.2 IC-years. At 75% mark-up you're getting 1.75 IC-years per year from the factory once it's built, which means you should be able to produce 4.2 IC-years in a bit less than 2 1/2 years once it's built. The earliest being on-line in only a couple of weeks, that means it will take until around February 1943 to break-even (and the others shifted based on their finish times, of course). If the war lasts as long as in OTL, you ought to reap proper benefits from at least the first factory, the others look more dubious of course.
On the factories, I'm all for building lots of them, but, @nuclearslurpee makes a good point, if you want to act sooner rather than later, you might want to revise your priorities... That said, I wouldn't scrap any project, just put it on hold, and that way you don't necessarily lose the sunk cost. Of course the project that finishes in a couple of weeks should go ahead.
One thing that nuclearslurpee didn't account for was practical knowledge though. Once Turkey's next Industrial Complex is completed, you should see a considerable boost in Construction practical. Therefor I believe that the second complex to be finished should definitely remain in the queue. At the very least, the calculation should be redone once the first complex is finished. The IC-days cost was overestimated in these calculations, and the final cost for the second one will be significantly lower, which, for me, makes it worth it. The real break even point of the second one should come quite a bit sooner, especially if you factor in improvements to IC efficiency and Production technologies.
The last one can safely be pushed to the bottom of the queue, or even scrapped to make way for the production of much needed weapons.
You may be surprised that even in the Soviet Union, we celebrate Christmas... well we don't call it Christmas of course, but a tree is decorated, gifts are given, and songs are sung for 'Grandfather Frost' and his granddaughter 'The Snowmaiden', this happens around the new years, as opposed to the previous date of the 7th of January that was in use by the religious Tsars. I have to note that the traditions surrounding Christmas were illegal after the revolution, and only in 1935 were the traditions of tree decorating, gift giving, singing, and storytelling reinstated officially, as part of the secular new year's celebrations. The Mass itself is of course still outlawed, though I'm sure this isn't as widely respected as we would like to think.
Well, I may be a bit late to the party this time around... The GRU had other things to do... Anyway, glad to see that you finally have some top quality Soviet Tank Destroyers ready for action. You'll really like that investment when the German Panzers start arriving on the Yeniceri line...
Well, lucky Turkey.. Once you get those I-16s you'll be shredding apart those Italian innovations of the previous decade... Back in the present, as the air war over the German-Soviet front will now be referred to, we face Ju-88s and Me-109s every day, I'm sure our pilots will have a good laugh over this when they hear about it...
On the factories, I'm all for building lots of them, but, @nuclearslurpee makes a good point, if you want to act sooner rather than later, you might want to revise your priorities... That said, I wouldn't scrap any project, just put it on hold, and that way you don't necessarily lose the sunk cost. Of course the project that finishes in a couple of weeks should go ahead.
One thing that nuclearslurpee didn't account for was practical knowledge though. Once Turkey's next Industrial Complex is completed, you should see a considerable boost in Construction practical. Therefor I believe that the second complex to be finished should definitely remain in the queue. At the very least, the calculation should be redone once the first complex is finished. The IC-days cost was overestimated in these calculations, and the final cost for the second one will be significantly lower, which, for me, makes it worth it. The real break even point of the second one should come quite a bit sooner, especially if you factor in improvements to IC efficiency and Production technologies.
The last one can safely be pushed to the bottom of the queue, or even scrapped to make way for the production of much needed weapons.
You may be surprised that even in the Soviet Union, we celebrate Christmas... well we don't call it Christmas of course, but a tree is decorated, gifts are given, and songs are sung for 'Grandfather Frost' and his granddaughter 'The Snowmaiden', this happens around the new years, as opposed to the previous date of the 7th of January that was in use by the religious Tsars. I have to note that the traditions surrounding Christmas were illegal after the revolution, and only in 1935 were the traditions of tree decorating, gift giving, singing, and storytelling reinstated officially, as part of the secular new year's celebrations. The Mass itself is of course still outlawed, though I'm sure this isn't as widely respected as we would like to think.
Not late at all - and very welcome. Just finished reading of Mother and Odinatsat’s adventures in the archives of the Secret Committee in the alt Christmas time there - also a welcome adventure to read about.
Useful info re the industry: Inonu will take it on board as well. There is quite a bit sitting ‘below the line’ at the moment, and the third IC can easily join them, waiting for a more opportune time. But the game could well drag on beyond the hoped-for victory over Germany, so it might still pay itself off in the long term.
From what I’ve seen of the air reports from the eastern front, the Germans have kept their fighter strength in the West for now, while the Soviets are using their TAC and CAS but seem to be holding their fighters back. Not sure why, of course. Some decent fighter strength of my own would of course be nice, but I think that is going to be a while away yet - very expensive to build and to train the pilots and air crew.
In the TT altiverse, Christmas will be celebrated in the Orthodox areas of the UGNR of course, without any State discouragement - Kemalism-Inonuism is of a secular nature and they are happy enough to tolerate religious celebrations so long as they don’t seek to undermine the State or the war effort. Nor would they seek to impose any religious domination on other cultures in the Union. To that extent, Christmas (when it arrives in a few months in this 1940) will be a locally celebrated festival in the Balkan GNRs but will come and go without much comment elsewhere in the Union.
You may be surprised that even in the Soviet Union, we celebrate Christmas... well we don't call it Christmas of course, but a tree is decorated, gifts are given, and songs are sung for 'Grandfather Frost' and his granddaughter 'The Snowmaiden', this happens around the new years, as opposed to the previous date of the 7th of January that was in use by the religious Tsars. I have to note that the traditions surrounding Christmas were illegal after the revolution, and only in 1935 were the traditions of tree decorating, gift giving, singing, and storytelling reinstated officially, as part of the secular new year's celebrations. The Mass itself is of course still outlawed, though I'm sure this isn't as widely respected as we would like to think.
Interpretive communist dance kittens - something I must admit to not having had the previous pleasure of viewing! And there I was thinking I hadn’t seen enough Christmas songs this season
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Chapter 94: Hits and Misses (8 to 14 September 1940)
Chapter 94: Hits and Misses (8 to 14 September 1940)
Prologue - Ankara
Perse is a busy woman these days. As she keeps the Turkish propaganda presses running hot with anti-Fascist material, she receives word from the Propaganda Chief: her nominee for managing editor of the new Türk Doğrusu (“Turkish Truth” - or “Pasha’s Pravda” as the staff have begun to nickname it) has been accepted. Tom Rosencrantz will commence his circuitous trip to Istanbul, courtesy of the British Government, who seem willing enough to help. And probably to be rid of a Communist troublemaker, even if they are currently fighting a common Fascist enemy.
“Yes, this one is excellent, Mehmet – simple and easily relatable. Let us re-caption it from “To the West” to “To Berlin” and run off 10,000 of them.” Perse sends the propaganda officer away to get the job going.
Plenty of good Soviet propaganda is available through their Embassy – easy to rebadge and saves having to be original!
“I’m just popping off to the British Embassy to ensure Mr Rosencrantz’s travel documents are in order. I will be back shortly.” With a name like that, they don’t want him being mistaken for a German at the border!
---xxx---
8 Sep 40
9 Inf Div continues to advance on Senta, after having defeated the Hungarians there the day before. But before they can occupy the province, at 8am they find a small (2 x INF) division of Italian Alpini (the 4th) has slipped in. They are skilfully commanded, with their MAJGEN Trezzani putting in a vigorous counter-attack, which evens up the odds somewhat.
Way to the south, the ground bombing of Rodi commences, Örlungat leading his now fully recovered TAC wing into battle. The plan is, like in the Dodecanese campaign, to conduct a long softening up bombardment before sending in 15 Inf Div to dislodge the defending Italian militia division. An amphibious landing on mountainous terrain will not be easy, given the lack of Turkish doctrine or marines to carry out the task. Which therefore exposes the fleet to a long period at anchor.
While the battle in Senta seems to be going well enough, at midday LTGEN Yamut (Army Chief and Commander 3rd Corps) sends in 12 Inf Div from Timisoara to reinforce the attack. He also figures their support weapons will be useful when defending Senta subsequently.
After a 14 hour firefight, the Italians withdraw from Senta with significantly heavier losses than the attacking Turks.
And just before midnight, the veteran 1st Armoured Car Brigade, recently detached from 1 Cav Div, arrives in Kraljevo to form the 1st Motorised Division, which will become the 1st Army reserve for the Yeniçeri Line.
9 Sep 40
9 Inf Div arrives in Senta in the early morning and begins digging in – they anticipate Axis counter-attacks. Yamut decides to keep 12 Inf Div moving to Senta as well, to reinforce their comrades during this vulnerable time.
Back in Ankara, the War Ministry actions the latest memo from the President (as War Minister): work on two of the three factory complexes under construction is temporarily suspended. At least one is likely to be resumed when the next factory – due to be completed on 20 September – is finished. The spare capacity released is put into infantry, garrison and artillery units that had been further down in the queue. At this time, Industrial Capacity stands at 92: a base of 46, increased to 80 due to legislation and other factors, plus 12 lend-lease from the Soviets. Manpower remains healthy at 159 and the officer corps is at 113%.
10 Sep 40
Italian TAC bombers commence a series of raids on Sânnicolau Mare, where Turkish units help the Romanians to man the line. Some of the Romanian brigades are in relatively poor shape. This vulnerable corner of the line needs the added steel Turkey can provide. Three raids conducted throughout that day kill 294 Turkish and Romanian troops. They brace themselves in case a land attack follows.
11 Sep 40
At 9am, 12 Inf Div (which only has an acting commander due to Turkish senior officer shortages) takes up position in Senta, reinforcing 9 Inf Div. They are just in time: six hours later, the German 23rd Inf Div attacks – it is the redoubtable MAJGEN Busch again! His troops may not be fully recovered from their last engagement with us, but they are willing to attack once more anyway. Busch seeks a rapid breakthrough – and Yamut is glad he’d previously ordered 12 Inf Div in to reinforce the line.
That evening, worrying news is received at Supreme HQ in Ankara from Soviet liaison officers: the Japanese have broken through from Manchuria and threaten to cut off the bulk of the retreating Soviet Far East Army! This will bear close watching. In a somewhat perplexing development, a Soviet surface fleet, led by a battleship, is in the neighbourhood. What they think they can achieve against the Japanese Imperial Navy is unknown. Let’s hope they steer clear of the Tsushima Strait!
3 AA Bde makes it to Ada by 7pm – although the air attacks there have let up, this will reinforce 10 Inf Div, bringing that unit up to full strength.
12 Sep 40
The ground battle for Senta continues and is going reasonably well, but in the early morning a massive Italian-Hungarian air raid hits the province. This begins a sustained Axis air attack that last all this day and the next.
While there is one Turkish AA Bde in Senta, such is the bombing that Turkish troops resort to novel means to try to bring enemy aircraft down. Though it is somewhat unlikely this method will be effective against medium bombers! But it helps the morale of the troops, one supposes.
News Report: Montignac, France. Prehistoric cave paintings are discovered in the Lascaux Cave near Montignac, France. The paintings are mostly of animals and are some of the finest examples of art from the Upper Paleolithic age.
Lascaux is the setting of a complex of caves near the village of Montignac, in the department of Dordogne in southwestern France. Over 600 wall paintings decorate the interior walls and ceilings of the cave. The paintings are primarily of large animals, typical local and contemporary fauna that correspond with the fossil record of the Upper Paleolithic time. This stunning painting depicts aurochs, horses and deer.
13 Sep 40
That morning, news comes through that the French port city of Calais has been taken by the Germans. This is the first province to have changed hands in the West this week. As it happens, it will be the only one, which overall is good news given the ground lost in preceding weeks. It does bring German aircraft closer to southern ports in England – and here is footage (unsubtly turned into ripping propaganda in a British Movietone Newsreel) of one such raid on Dover.
(0:59) ‘The Battle of Dover’
By 6am, Turkish arms once again find victory in Senta. Casualties are quite heavy on both sides. Axis air raids continue there until late that night: by then (11pm that night), a total of 745 additional Turkish casualties have been incurred in two days of heavy air raids.
14 Sep 40
Örlungat provides a summary of air operations over Rhodes over the last week. His wing eventually switched to daylight only raids, as the night missions were proving less effective and he wants to sustain the organisation of his obsolete bombers for as long as possible. They are currently holding up quite well.
From 8 to 14 September, these raids have only killed an estimated 651 Italian defenders. Only one wing of relatively ineffective bombers makes this slow going. A decision will need to be taken in the coming week as to whether the naval landings should now proceed or the long and slow aerial preparation should continue.
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Europe - Overview
The overall situation on the Western and Eastern Fronts is summarised below. Little has changed in the West – as mentioned before, just Calais has been lost. There has been the usual back-and-forth exchange of territory in the East, though with the balance slightly in the Comintern’s favour.
In France, the blue dotted line represents start positions as at 0700 on 8 Sep and in the east, the green line.
Drilling down, of particular interest is the Soviet thrust towards Konigsberg. Large formations from both sides are in play. There seems to be a major German counter-attack on the south of the salient, but the Soviets are also sending reinforcements to Gumbinnen.
On the ‘Polish Front’, the now typical see-saw battle continues. The Soviets gain in the centre, while the Germans nip at the edges.
It is a similar story on the Hungarian sector. Kosice and Debrecen still remain in Hungarian hands and they have again pushed into Romania. But the Soviets attack in the north and seem to have a large formation about to advance unopposed into Humenne in eastern Slovakia – an objective earlier request by the Turkish High Command. That could become interesting!
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North Africa - Overview
Tunisia has seen the Italians make more gains, though it seems to be in the trackless wastes to the south.
In Libya, Britain (presumably through the Iraqi Army) continues to make gains (the yellow line representing progress as at 0700 on 8 September).
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The Far East – Overview
More gains have been made by the Japanese and their lackeys, but the neck of the pocket remains open – for now.
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General Summary
Overall, the news is relatively good in Europe for both the Allies and Comintern: the Germans are stalled and must be suffering considerable casualties, especially against the Soviets. The one major concern continues to be the Far East – but the Cabinet is convinced the war will not be won or lost there. Germany first!
Victory Points. As one (very rough) measure of Major, Middle and Minor powers, here is the current ranking of VPs held by each country. It isn't indicative of national power (military or industrial - look at the US on 55), but is of passing interest. Turkey with 30 (would be 38 counting the Romanian ‘puppet’ points) comes in eighth, after the seven Major Powers. Depending on how you look at it, the smallest of the Majors or the largest of the Middle/Minors.
Naval Update. The only known naval ships sunk during the last week were Italian – a heavy cruiser and a destroyer flotilla. That Soviet fleet in the Far East must have made it to port – there are still only three Soviet sub flotillas that have fallen prey to the Japanese.
Trieste was the second of two Trento-class heavy cruisers built for the Italian Regia Marina (Royal Navy). The ship was laid down in June 1925, was launched in October 1926, and was commissioned in December 1928. Displacement 13,540 tons; main armament 8 × 203 mm (8 in) guns. Sunk by the HMS Renown (BC) in September 1940 – which coincidentally also sunk its sister ship, the Trento.
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Epilogue - Zurich
Ambassador (and European spy chief for Turkey) ‘Vito’ Ceylan is being driven home from the Embassy to his Residence. He sees a fruit vendor is open and tells his son and driver tonight - Feridun or 'Fredo' - to pull over. He has used it before: it sells excellent dates, and he would have some for tonight.
“Fredo, I’ll only be a minute. I'm gonna buy some fruit.” He gets out of the car and walks up to the vendor. “What is this? Gimme three. And that one...” He gets the dates, also some oranges and a green pepper.
(1:36)
Ceylan turns around as he hears the footsteps of someone running. He immediately realises what is happening and starts running towards the car. Two gunmen open fire as he stumbles and falls onto the car, uttering a short grunt and then collapsing to the kerb.
Fredo emerges, fumbling the gun in his hand, but the two men have already run off.
After the shock and despair of seeing his father gunned down in front of him, all Fredo can do is quickly load the Ambassador into the back of the car and race to the nearest hospital – and away from the scene, should the would-be assassins come back to check on their handiwork. He doesn’t know whether his father is alive or dead – he just drives as fast as he can.
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Meanwhile, the Embassy’s First Counsellor, Timur ‘Tom’ Heygan has been kidnapped by Tattaglia goons. He was walking along the street in downtown Zurich when a car pulled up.
“Hey, Tom Heygan, I’m glad I ran into you, I wanna talk.” It is Carlo Rizzi, one of Bruno Tattaglia’s chief henchmen in Zurich. His face is still badly bruised from his recent ‘conversation’ with Sonny Ceylan.
“Well, I haven’t got the time.”
“Ah, you can make the time Consiglieri. Get in the car.” Tom sees a couple of goons in the car – one opens his coat enough to show a large calibre handgun in a shoulder holster. “What are you worried about? If I wanted to kill you, you'd be dead already.”
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Back at the Embassy, Sonny is on the phone – he is trying to find out what has happened to his father Vito. He hangs up and the phone rings again – he picks it up “Yeah?”
Sonny Ceylan gets an unwelcome phone call from an unpleasant acquaintance.
He hears Carlo’s voice on the phone. “We have Tom Heygan. In about three hours he'll be released with our proposition. Listen to everything he has to say before you do anything. What’s done is done. And don't lose that famous temper of yours, huh Sonny?” He hangs up.
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Rizzi turns to Heygan. “Your boss is dead. I know you're not in the muscle-end of the Turkish spy outfit, Tom, so I don't want you to be scared. I want you to help the Ceylans, and I want you to help me.”
He offers Tom a drink. “Yeah, we got him outside his office just about the time we picked you up. Go on, drink it.” Carlo continues: “So now it's up to you to make the peace between the Tattaglias and Sonny, then the rest of the Turkish Government.”
“Sonny'll come after you with everything he's got.”
“That'll be his first reaction, sure. That's why you gotta talk some sense into him. The Tattaglia family is behind me with all their people. The other Sicilian Families will go along with anything that will prevent a full-scale crime war. Let's face it, Tom, and all due respect, the Ambassador, rest in peace, was - slippin'. Two years ago could I have gotten to him? Well - now he's dead. He's dead, Tom, and nothing can bring him back. So you gotta talk to Sonny.”
“I'll do my best.”
“Good. Now, you can go. We don't like violence, Tom. The Tattaglias are business men. Blood is a big expense.”
Timur ‘Tom’ Heygan, First Counsellor at the Turkish Embassy in Zurich, is informed by Carlo Rizzi of Ambassador Vito Ceylan’s assassination. It seems the Tattaglias do not respect diplomatic immunity!
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Coming Up: Has France been stabilised, or is it just a pause before the Germans break through to Paris? Can their Destiny there be denied? The tug-of-war in the east continues: there are some promising Soviet offensives in progress, but can they be sustained? To this point, the Germans have always managed to blunt and then counter-attack such breakthroughs. Hungary is not yet ripe for the taking, especially given the large amount of the Romanian Army that has been sent to the Far East and the stubborn refusal of the Soviets to provide any expeditionary forces that might be used to support a limited offensive on Budapest. Perse eagerly awaits her old university chum as the publication date for the first issue of ‘Pasha’s Pravda’ approaches. And how will Sonny react to the news of his father’s shooting and the Tattaglias’ ‘business proposition? Have they picked the wrong wise guy with whom to make a peace deal, do you think? What will Ankara advise – and can Sonny be relied upon to follow orders and stay the course following the provocation of this hit on Vito Ceylan?
one thing: While it is certainly intelligible, Türk Doğrusu is not entirely correct grammatically. On paper it means Turkish Truth but it actually means like Truth is Turkish as in Truth is a person who is born in Turkey (Türk mühendis: Turkish engineer) or Truth is a food grown/produced in Turkey (Türk tütünü: Turkish tobacco). Türkün Doğrusu would be a better translation which would mean something like Truth of Turkish.
one thing: While it is certainly intelligible, Türk Doğrusu is not entirely correct grammatically. On paper it means Turkish Truth but it actually means like Truth is Turkish as in Truth is a person who is born in Turkey (Türk mühendis: Turkish engineer) or Truth is a food grown/produced in Turkey (Türk tütünü: Turkish tobacco). Türkün Doğrusu would be a better translation which would mean something like Truth of Turkish.
would a distractionary suicidal cavalry drop somewhere on Italy proper work? Are there any unguarded shores? Just to disrupt and distract attention of the Axis.
would a distractionary suicidal cavalry drop somewhere on Italy proper work? Are there any unguarded shores? Just to disrupt and distract attention of the Axis.
There could be, but there is probably still too much Italian Navy out there for me to want to risk it - and as the line is holding in the East and West for now, there isn’t too burning a need for distraction. Hopefully Mussolini is finding Libya pretty distracting at present,
As time goes on, it would be good to see the Allies try it - in some strength too. And later in the war, I wouldn’t mind having the capacity for a genuine naval landing ability for raiding around the Med - just a modest one. Which it would have to be.
), I would halt construction on those factories in favor of building more weapons and barracks. The estimated return on investment for those factories is such that it would take some five years before the IC spent began returning a profit in terms of economic production, and God only knows where Turkey will be five years from now! Better to spend our resources on planes and tanks, to assure that our five-year plan will include bratwurst and schnitzel in Berlin!
