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KaiserMuffin - Isn't that heresy? I thought it was a legal requirement that all major British campaigns begin with confusion and almost overwhelming lack of preparation.

Sir Humphrey - It's a good plan. I'd suggest torching the Constitution while there just to simplify the oldest commissioned ship in the world contest.

trekaddict - Certainly I think a few very specific septics should be taught a lesson. Alas I'm in no position at all to teach them.

DonnieBaseball - To be fair I imagine Obama hasn't even been briefed on the issue and if questioned wouldn't even know where they were or why the were important.

That said I doubt he do anything different if he was directing policy. It's pretty clear he's at least mildly Anglo-phobic and he does like abasing himself before dictators, as such I suspect he'd much rather suck up to Chavez and Co rather than stand by Britain.

Kurt_Steiner - I try to mix the expected (defeating Italians :D ) with the shocking (No uber-Churchill as PM!)

Derek Pullem - Agreed on both parts. From a rational view point this could be a good thing, it might finally hammer home that the special relationship was a Foreign Office delusion that's probably done more harm than good.

In fact has the Atlantic Alliance ever done any good for Britain? By which I mean getting the US to do something that it wasn't going to do anyway or something that wasn't 100% aligned with US interests. Because I'm struggling.

TheExecuter - I think the US has always been conflicted about the Falklands rather than neutral. Taking a position would involve offending some power block so it's easier just to ignore it and hope it goes away.

KaiserMuffin - I thought it was less clear cut than that. You had Caspar Weinberger and the military doing all they could (and sometimes more) to help Britain while Jeane Kirkpatrick was arguing that the US should force Britain to just hand over the Falklands to keep Argentina happy. Because while they were a mass murdering dictatorship who would have 'disappeared' the entire population by pushing them out of helicopters, they were at least anti-Communist so should be allowed, indeed encouraged, to steal the territory of a close ally and violate every principle the US purported to stand for. If there is a hell the deepest, darkest and most unpleasant circle should be reserved for people like her.

On the bigger point suree Regan came down on the side of Britain in the end, but he didn't half drag it out. Think of Haig's shuttle diplomacy, given time favoured the Argies (if it dragged out too long the Southern Hemisphere Winter would have stopped all naval operations for months) anything that wasted time gave the Argies and advantage. Not the most helpful move in the world.

Derek Pullem - Depends which bit of Washington you're talking about.
 
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I hope your time away went well and everyone is now OK.

Things are okay now, thank you.

However in bad news for the US (in this AAR at least) I happened to read this story; Link

I had been pondering having the country start to get better in the next US update. Now however I've decided things will get significantly worse in almost every way. Consider it a form of catharsis.

I see Fox News has a new "let's bash Obama" talking point.

Catharsis?

El Pip is being El Pip...but catharsis? :confused:

Bullpuckey. Reagan was practically sat there on the Phone to Thatcher yelling 'GO MAGGIE GO, BOMB THOSE ARGIE BASTARDS'

Reminds me of an old "Saturday Night Live" skit featuring Phil Hartman as Mr. Reagan.
 
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I think it is important that we keep things in perspective and not lose sight of the bigger picture.

Namely, tanks and all things mechanical and when can we expect the next update, and why should the US emergence/enmiring delay an update on the Royal Tank Corps.

BTW, I loved Catharsis' last album, Let It Bleed. Death Metal at its finest.
 
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Tanks for the reality check there Davout. Much needed!

All this Nationalistic posturing over Las Malvinas has distracted us from what is truly important... but that's sort of the point of Nationalistic posturing, isn't it?!? ;) :p

Dury.
 
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Chapter LXXXIX: Regiments, Rifles and Truck-all Else.
Chapter LXXXIX: Regiments, Rifles and Truck-all Else.

The Chetwode inspired Army re-organisation was logical, direct and solved several lingering problems, it was naturally therefore fiercely resisted by many existing and former Army personnel. The opposition caused consternation in the War Office (and Cabinet) with serious consideration was given to watering down the reforms, perhaps to the point of de-facto abandoning them entirely as too unpopular. Fortunately lessons had been learnt from earlier Army re-organisations and it was recognised that compromise in such matters did not damp down opposition but merely encouraged it. As (almost) all parties involved agreed that reform was needed the government put their weight behind implementation of the full report, reasoning it was better to face the opposition for tangible results instead of a potential 'worst of all worlds' results of a hard fight for little gain, as had happened with the mechanisation of the cavalry and other such efforts.

For the infantry the bulk of the reforms boiled down to grouping the existing regiments together into regional brigades with most, but not all, the administrative functions of the existing regimental HQs transferred to the new central depot. To give an example the The Middlesex Regiment (Duke of Cambridge's Own), the successors to the renowned 'Die Hards' of the 57th Foot, was, naturally enough, the regiment for Middlesex and recruited in that county. These recruits were trained at the regiment's depot, the Inglis Barracks in Mill Hill, and allocated within the regiment on the basis of the needs of the battalions. Under the Chetwode reforms the Middlesex Regiment became part of the Home Counties Brigade based out of Canterbury as, using an unusual definition of 'Home Counties', the brigade was also responsible for the regiments of Kent, Surrey and Sussex. Recruitment was directed centrally as was the training and assignment of all new recruits, enabling manpower, especially the valuable specialist manpower, to be distributed across the entire brigade as needed.

It was of course not quite that simple, nothing British is ever that straightforward, the light infantry and the fusilier regiments were combined into their own brigades on the basis of role not region, leading to their recruitment area being scattered across the country. The rifle regiments continued to be almost wilfully different, the two regiments continued to recruit from across the entire country but were still combined into a single brigade, the Green Jackets Brigade, leading to the unusual looking situation of a 'corps, the Kings Royal Rifle Corps, and a brigade, the Rifle Brigade (Prince Consort's Own), both being subservient to a mere brigade. Finally the Scottish, Welsh and Irish regiments were organised purely regionally, hence their fusilier and light infantry regiments were assigned to the relevant regional formations; the Welsh, Lowland, Highland and North Irish Brigades respectively. There was, naturally, an exception, the eccentric Highland Light Infantry which refused to wear a 'highland' kilt preferring 'lowland' trews, was based in and recruited from Lowland Scotland (Glasgow) but nevertheless somehow ended up in the Highland Brigade.

alHN7U2.jpg

One of the less attention grabbing reforms enacted as part of the re-organisation was the insertion of the administrative brigades into ambitious officers career paths. It became 'expected' that candidates would have experience of running one of the brigades as preparation for more senior roles requiring the same co-ordination skills. Of course in the finest traditions of the Army none of this was written down, the flexibility to do pretty much what they liked was too highly prized by the Imperial General Staff, but it nevertheless became an established precedent, being all the more potent for not being formalised. Along with an expansion of the intake at the Imperial Defence College and the complete restructuring of Camberley Staff College this measure would provide one of the foundations for professionalism of the next generation of middle and senior officers.

Less public but more significant was the power the administrative brigades would have over training, promotions and expansion. More centralised control of training was resisted by colonels used to almost total control over their regiments but would prove to be invaluable for raising standards and encouraging professionalism in junior and middle officers. While small unit tactics, Company level and below, stayed with the regiment (no-one thought central control of, for instance, platoon small arms drill would be anything other than a disaster) any exercise above that had to be cleared by the brigade. The benefit of this was co-ordination, the brigade would ensure that several battalions from different regiments would work together with as many units from other branches (armour, artillery, etc) as possible, providing invaluable combined-arms experience. Contrary to popular belief the reforms was not intended to remove regimental rivalries but to use them; losing an exercise against a sister battalion was tolerable, but losing to a 'rival' unit would lead to months of mess room ribbing for the unfortunate commanding officers. Aside from this informal, but no less powerful, motivation regional recruiting allowed more tangible carrots to be offered to ambitious officers, instead of army expansion being on the basis of which unit could recruit enough men it could now be used as a reward for 'professional' regiments. For future army expansions the IGS, through the administrative brigades, ensured that regiments that performed well in exercises and who's officers excelled at staff college received the extra battalions. Quite aside from the prestige this was a significant carrot; the officers and NCOs for a new battalion were typically drawn at least in part from the regiment's existing battalions. As it was well known in the Army that the second fastest route to promotion was for your regiment to recruit a new battalion (the fastest being very bloody combat 'creating' a vacancy above you) even officers dismissive of the value of exercises began taking them very seriously indeed.

While the Army would never become 'bookish', indeed it retains an affectation of rugged anti-intellectualism to this day, studying manuals and discussing tactics did lose the stigma the 'amateur army' attached to them. Through the carrot of promotion and preference and the stick of mockery and bruised egos professionalism began to spread through the officer corps, though it would take many years and the retirement of the stubborn hard core before the process could be called complete. Over the long term it was correctly believed the expansion of Army education (through enlarging Sandhurst, Camberley and the Imperial Defence College) would ensure the next generation never knew any attitude other than professionalism.

Before leaving the infantry there is one last change to note, one that links with the tanks to come; the re-emergence of specialisation. The process had began years earlier with the Rifle regiments being designated as the sole source for the new motor-rifle battalions, the building blocks for the Support or 'Pivot' Groups that were intended to support armoured units. For the remainder of the regiments a less elaborate mechanisation was intended; assigned fleets of trucks from the Royal Army Service Corps (RASC) they were to become lorried infantry. Despite the RASCs unique status as a combatant rear echelon corps the order of battle for a lorried infantry battalion was essentially unchanged from a foot unit, the lorries were only intended for strategic transport (i.e. between battles) and not for tactical deployment. The Chetwode review recommended that as additional motor-rifle units would be needed to support the expansion of the armoured forces (more on which in the next chapter) it would be wise to spread the burden of supplying these additional battalions beyond the Green Jackets Brigade. The meat lay in one of the reviews rare forays into tactical details, given the mission of the motor-rifle units standard tactics and weapons, including the latest Lee-Enfield Rifle No.1 MkVI, were dismissed as quite inappropriate and dedicated tactics and new weapons were explicitly recommended.

pshPyPR.jpg

Trucks such as the Morris 30cwt would form the backbone of the lorried infantry, though despite the best efforts of the logistic units there was no standard truck and a variety of manufacturers were approached to contribute subtly different models. Eventually logistical concerns would triumph over ideology and a standard pattern was decreed, depriving the Army of the occasionally nebulous benefits of competition and innovation in favour of the far more concrete advantage of standardisation and mass production.

Whether Chetwode intended this recommendation as a Trojan horse with which to completely replace the standard service rifle or if he genuinely just intended that only certain units receive the new weapon is unclear. While the later was a not unreasonable possibility, the armoured units had a distinct supply train from the infantry so it would not have been too logistically difficult to maintain different rifles for different units, the evidence of his analysis of both the Great War and the Abyssinian War indicated the standard .303" cartridge was unnecessarily powerful and long ranged in almost all engagements. While too much power was not itself a problem a smaller, lighter cartridge would be a logistical boon and, more importantly, would also allow individual automatic and semi-automatic weapons that were just not practical with a heavy recoil cartridge such as the .303". It is therefore tempting to believe that total replacement was always the aim and only the Treasury's opposition (based on their deep seated desire to avoid obsoleting the tens of millions of rounds of 0.303" ammunition and associated weapons that lay in warehouses across the Empire) forced Chetwode into the subterfuge.

Regardless of the reasoning it was accepted by the IGS that a new cartridge and weapon would be required for certain units and a requirement was issued for a new semi-automatic weapon based on the most promising cartridge from the 1920s trials, a rimless variant of the .256" British. With the Royal Small Arms Factory Enfield working on both the revised Lee-Enfields and the new Bren light machine gun, the contract went to the Birmingham Small Arms Company who only had the Besa tank machine gun on their books. As a backup a small contract went to the little known Sterling Armaments Company to develop their proposal for a light fully automatic weapon, an option dismissed by many officers as either impractical or downright undesirable, it nevertheless went ahead as the IGS' weapons sub-committee revelled in their freedom to finally escape the .303" monoculture. When the time came to decided which brigade should provide the battalions for these new units there was only one option, one set of regiments already marked out due to their predecessors unusual firearms; the men of the Fusilier Brigade would be the first to receive the new rifles and, when the full potential of them became apparent, become the envy of the rest of the infantry.

---
Notes;

To the men of tanks I say this, I always promised tanks and trucks. And surely a tank is close enough for now?

Game effects, well the big ones you can see. Slight org and morale uplift, more to come when doctrines are developed later, that's also the point I'll add the combat event changes. Other change you can see is the new truck brigade I modded in. Add that to an infantry unit and you get almost, but not quite, a motorised infantry unit but a little cheaper.

Lorried infantry was how the army ran most infantry units, the trucks just carried you to the battle but then you fought on foot. The exception was the Motor Rifle units but even then they weren't really supposed to fight from the trucks along side the tanks, more support the tanks when they stopped or bogged down. I think it's this that left the British Army with a post-war doctrine that you never fought from an APC but instead dismounted as fast as possible.

The defence colleges got a big re-org in 1938 which I've added to as Chetwode was very keen on education for officers, seemed natural he'd apply the lessons from India to the rest of the Empire. On which note all these courses are of course Empire wide with candidates from India and all the Dominions attending. That in fact was part of the OTL problem, spaces were limited and many of them were taken up by Empire students squeezing out British Army candidates.

A new infantry weapon was on the cards for much of the 1930s but the cost of replacing all the old rounds and weapons held it back. The 1920s tests were real as is the cartridge, however the Treasury baulked at the idea so the Army laboured on with the .303". Worse, as they were stuck with it, new weapons like the Bren were expensively re-chambered for it and so it became deeper and deeper entrenched. The cunning plan therefore is to argue that men jumping out of the back of trucks need short range, rapid firepower (hardly arguable) and that the standard rifle doesn't do that. From their the new weapon can sneak across to other units (Paras, Marines, special forces, anyone who needs firepower really) and eventually the rest of the Army.
 
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Once again you have inspired me for an update of my own, one that I shall begin writing soon.

As for the new Rifle, are we looking at a Semi-automatic Lee Enfield or something completely new ala EM2 (it's too early for that though)?
 
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Far be it from me to criticise, but the far sightedness, the clear and obvious benefits, and the smooth transition of these reforms really stretch the suspension of disbelief. This is the British Army, is it not? I fear what must be about to go wrong with the tanks to balance this sudden outbreak of commonsense.

As (almost) all parties involved agreed that reform was needed the government put their weight behind implementation of the full report, reasoning it was better to face the opposition for tangible results instead of a potential 'worst of all worlds' results of a hard fight for little gain, as had happened with the mechanisation of the cavalry and other such efforts. (emphasis added)

Giving rise to the famous taunt, "Truck you and the horse you rode in on".
 
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Far be it from me to criticise, but the far sightedness, the clear and obvious benefits, and the smooth transition of these reforms really stretch the suspesion of disbelief. This is the British Army, is it not? I fear what must be about to go wrong with the tanks to balance this sudden outbreak of commonsense.



Giving rise to the famous taunt, "Truck you and the horse you rode in on".

By the blazes you are right! How could I not notice?
 
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And to consider the fact that the mess that is the reformed regimental system is still a huge improvement to the old situation :eek:

As for the new .256-calibre weapon I predict something like FN-49 or MAS-49, maybe even a British equivalent of Fedorov Avtomat. If it´s handy enough and the magazine is large enough (20 rounds like in BAR seems to be the standard of the day) the Army won´t even need SMG:s in the first place.

It´s still way too early for projects like EM-2, especially since the fighting in the open sands and long distances of Libya logically favor the proponents of "full-powered" cartridge.
 
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Never mind that during a war introducing a new Cartridge is utter madness, so if War should break out within the next two-ish years the project is dead.
 
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Well, Nazis certainly were utterly mad but they nevertheless introduced the 7.92x33mm Kurz in a middle of war and were able to field weapons using it in significant numbers.
 
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Never mind that during a war introducing a new Cartridge is utter madness, so if War should break out within the next two-ish years the project is dead.

Why so? It's just that during a war it is impossile to *replace* the existing ammunition/service rifle in a minute.... but I can't see why you couldn't start producing and unit by unit begin to put in use a new weapon/cartridge. Like said above, others have done it IRL... :confused:
 
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Was a shorter 303 round ever thought of?

Alternatively have that kiwi Philip Charlton design his automatic rifle (from conversions of Lee Enfields and Metfords) with a shorter barrel. Then issue Lanchesters to everyone else.
image3381.jpg


Or maybe go for a semi-automatic Lee Enfield, as designed by Rieder?
http://www.rieder.741.com/
image3241.jpg


Oh and use plenty of the new fangled stuff like plastic, stamp metal pressings and rubber et al.

This link might prove interesting: http://www.forgottenweapons.com/
 
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Hmm... A Semi-auto Lee Enfield........:D

PS: I still can't see a Semi-auto or Auto Rifle anytime soon.
 
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Interesting on the pressure to keep the .303 and the deft move around that (I know the RN faced similar issues moving beyond the 2pdr AA). Will we see a home-grown (lighter weight hopefully) alternative to imported Tommy guns?

I love the truck brigade--I assume it gives leg infantry motor infantry speed at the cost of fuel usage but leaves all else unchanged? Very cool.
 
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Interesting on the pressure to keep the .303 and the deft move around that (I know the RN faced similar issues moving beyond the 2pdr AA). Will we see a home-grown (lighter weight hopefully) alternative to imported Tommy guns?

I love the truck brigade--I assume it gives leg infantry motor infantry speed at the cost of fuel usage but leaves all else unchanged? Very cool.

The problem with new kit is mostly that nothing teaches the need like a very, very costly defeat.
 
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I thought motorized infantry already did represent the idea of taking a truck to the battle, dismounting and then fighting?

I mean, shooting from a truck seems... Tricky, at best, anyhow.
 
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Nathan Madien - Actually I'd be interested to know if the Falklands issue has become/was a stick to bash Obama with. My gut instinct is no as I really can't see the US relevance, but I'd interested to know what's actually happened if anything.

And my catharsis is to work out my general annoyance at all things political about the US. Essentially I'm somewhat annoyed that after decades of using self determination and democracy as a weapon to destroy the British Empire the US dumped them completely for the Falklands, an issue where those factors are unequivocally on Britain's side.

It's the shear gross hypocrisy of both US parties that offends me but obviously as the party of government the Democrats shoulder the bulk of the blame, not least for Hilary Clinton's latest retarded comments about mediation. What the hell is there to mediate if you believe in self determination? And if you don't give a stuff about what the people want and instead work off historic claims shouldn't the US hand New Mexico back to Mexico, Alaska to the Russians and basically reduce itself to the 13 colonies before demanding to rejoin the British Empire?

trekaddict - Not a semi-auto standard Lee-Enfield, I'm torn between a 'Jungle Carbine'-esque semi-auto design re-chambered for .256" and a blank piece of paper design that's totally new. Probably the former, after all we can't have too much innovation, it may scare the horses!

Davout - While not without a grain of truth that is still a foul and libellous slur on the British Army. The education reforms were inevitable from Chetwode (he was almost obsessive with the matter in the Indian Army) while the brigade reforms are a variant (OK a big variant) of the war time system which saw all recruitment done by regional depots. Indeed the brigade names are mostly from the post-war re-organisation, admittedly that was aimed at shrinking the army not growing it but the principle still stands.

Besides who said the Fusilers would find things going smoothly? ;)

Karelian - Funny you should mention the Fedorov Avtomat, the round used in that rifle were the base for the British .256" round. Long story but Britain panic purchased a large number of Arisaka Japanese rifles in 6.5x50mm in 1914 for emergency service. They never actually got used beyond training and most of them were sold onto Russia along with all the ammo. However the idea of a cartridge that size stayed behind and was one of the permutations tested post-WW1 before lack of funds caused the entire idea to be dropped mid-1920s

It is therefore a very, very logical place for any development to start.

As for dismissing SMGs, well I think Sterling will have something to say about that and I must confess to something of a soft spot for that firm so I wouldn't count them out yet. ;)

trekaddict - Sure a complete 'From tomorrow we will use only this' switch-over is impossible, but if you use that argument no Army would ever change cartridge and the world would still use black powder in twists of paper. Or indeed Longbows.

Karelian / Kasakka / KaiserMuffin - Indeed gentlemen, the 'K's have it. :D

Sir Humphrey - Not that I'm aware of, I think just shortening it would throw the ballistics of the bullet out and would in any event mean re-chambering all the guns anyway. As the ammo would be incompatible there was no practical difference between a short .303" and any other brand new cartridge, besides the fact a new cartridge would be dynamically better due to being in balance.

Links look interesting I shall have to check them.

trekaddict - If your leaping out of the back of a vehicle you need short ranged and rapid fire weapons, it was obvious even to the OTL IGS hence the 1920s trials on new ammunition. This time they have the budget so are going ahead, but are cautiously limiting this new weapon to just the armoured infantry.

DonnieBaseball - To be fair the Treasury has a point, quite aside from the wasted cost disposing of tens of millions of rounds of ammo isn't easy or cheap. Paying good money to dispose of something you paid more good money to acquire is a tough sell, too tough for the OTL army.

Sterling certainly hope their SMG will trounce any overseas competitor but that does depend on anyone being interested.

And yes you've pretty much got it on the motor brigades though they also have a small boost to defensiveness and soft attack (all the extra MGs, mortars and ammo you can fit on a truck) but no hard attack, air attack, toughness or softness bonus. So pretty much a motorised division, but when facing Panzers or Stukas they'll wish they the towed AT or AA weapons a 'proper' motorised unit has.

Arilou - To paraphrase blue emu 'The numbers and units in the game represent the numbers and units in the game, any other connection is purely coincidental.' But I'm drawing the line at where the men get off the truck based on OTL British thinking, lorried infantry where driven to the edge of the front line they then walked to the front and fought from there. Motor Rifle units were driven to the actual front and, where possible, driven to objectives then fought to defend them while the tanks sorted themselves out

Subtle I know but it's the difference between leaping out of a truck and walking to a fight and leaping out a truck into a fight. In theory at least, in practice the rolls blurred as intelligence and planning were never quite that good.
 
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A very nice update Pip. I think you've got the mix of carrot and stick about right with the changes to recruitment and training.

As others have said I'm a little uneasy about everything going right with the infantry (well pretty good anyway) and am dreading what you've done to the Royal Tank Corps to balance the ledger... :(

At the moment I'm expecting the Corp to go completely with light tanks and MkI Matildas! :eek:

Dury.
 
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