US Joint Army and Navy Board War Plan RED briefing, October 1st, 1934:
Hello gentlemen, thank you all for coming today. As you may know, our war planners have recently come to the alarming conclusion that a general European war is in the making, and will come within the next 5 years. This, gentlemen, is a cause of serious concern. Our army is tiny, far too weak to play a major role in such a conflict, and the Army Air Corps is little better.
Furthermore, the amount of industry that can be devoted to war making is very small, partially because of the ongoing depression, partially because it is simply unprofitable to devote production to war making. There are, however, a few strong points in our situation. One, if fully mobilized, our industry would be the equivalent of most of Europe combined. Two, we have a decent, though slightly backwards Navy.
Since we are surrounded by ocean, we can afford to play a waiting game, and, in any event, require a powerful navy to do anything. Therefore, we have contracted North American to look into ways to increase our war-geared industrial output. In addition, we have a Hungarian mathematician, John von Neumann, researching mechanical computers, projected to speed our research several percent. Finally, a number of admirals and Naval College staff are looking into improved ways to use our fleet.
In the longer term, we hope to have a large, technically and doctrinally advanced fighting force by the time war breaks out. To do so will require increased industrial capacity, so we have funded a number of defense contractors near New York, paying them to expand or add capacity under the auspices of Roosevelt's "New Deal."
We plan to continue doing this until mid 1937, when we will shift funding to a massive naval buildup. All existing forces are to be filled out (details are in the supplement), while four new Carrier Task Forces and two new Cruiser Surface Action Groups are to be constructed. All told, Naval Plan STORM will require the construction of 21 new Yorktown-class carriers, 18 new heavy cruisers, 16 light carriers, 51 light cruisers, and 200 destroyers (organized into 40 five-ship flotillas). This is believed to be barely possible by 1940. The Army, meanwhile, will get its own buildup (projected to start in 1938). The goal here is the amphibious invasion of a hostile Europe. The target here is currently assumed to be Germany; furthermore, Britain is assumed to be friendly and willing to host American invasion forces. Current Army planning envisions an attack on three major corridors: the Low Countries, Greece, and Italy.
Overall planning goal; blue stripes indicate areas to be under American influence
The Low Countries will be the main attack corridor; current planning calls for an attack one year after entering the war (projected to be no earlier than 1941 for a war starting in 1939) using 12 marine divisions organized into 3 corps as the initial assault. This will be followed up by a planned 150 infantry divisions, 36 armored divisions, and 48 motorized infantry divisions. Each minor corridor will have 12 marine divisions and 50 infantry divisions assigned to it; War College staffers are looking into substituting specially trained mountain divisions for some of the infantry divisions, due to the rugged terrain in this area.
w-day indicates the day on which America joins a general European war; +1, 2, etc. indicate years afterward
In the event of a simultaneous attack from Japan, US naval forces will attempt to defend the coast. One corps of garrison forces will be assigned to every vulnerable Pacific-facing province, requiring 60 total garrison divisions. Additional artillery support is planned to be available to each garrison to help defend against naval attack. The Philippines are not believed to be defensible and have not been assigned any US forces.
Gentlemen, War Plan RED is the best plan America's got. We will be able to knock any hostile European power out of the war in just a year or two, then focues on a hostile Japan. No other plan will be able to achieve such a quick resolution at such minimal casualties.
(meeting adjourned; recommendation of War Plan RED to the Secretaries of War and Navy approved)
(Notes on the game itself: Hard/Normal on mod-34 Armageddon. Obviously, the idea is to do a very early D-Day with overwhelming force, knocking Germany out of the war while merely holding the line in the Pacific. This strategy was successful in Normal/Normal vanilla Armageddon, let's see if it'll work here!)
Also: I'll be out of town a good chunk of this week and next week, so updates won't be regular until next Wednesday or Thursday.
Hello gentlemen, thank you all for coming today. As you may know, our war planners have recently come to the alarming conclusion that a general European war is in the making, and will come within the next 5 years. This, gentlemen, is a cause of serious concern. Our army is tiny, far too weak to play a major role in such a conflict, and the Army Air Corps is little better.
Furthermore, the amount of industry that can be devoted to war making is very small, partially because of the ongoing depression, partially because it is simply unprofitable to devote production to war making. There are, however, a few strong points in our situation. One, if fully mobilized, our industry would be the equivalent of most of Europe combined. Two, we have a decent, though slightly backwards Navy.
Since we are surrounded by ocean, we can afford to play a waiting game, and, in any event, require a powerful navy to do anything. Therefore, we have contracted North American to look into ways to increase our war-geared industrial output. In addition, we have a Hungarian mathematician, John von Neumann, researching mechanical computers, projected to speed our research several percent. Finally, a number of admirals and Naval College staff are looking into improved ways to use our fleet.
In the longer term, we hope to have a large, technically and doctrinally advanced fighting force by the time war breaks out. To do so will require increased industrial capacity, so we have funded a number of defense contractors near New York, paying them to expand or add capacity under the auspices of Roosevelt's "New Deal."
We plan to continue doing this until mid 1937, when we will shift funding to a massive naval buildup. All existing forces are to be filled out (details are in the supplement), while four new Carrier Task Forces and two new Cruiser Surface Action Groups are to be constructed. All told, Naval Plan STORM will require the construction of 21 new Yorktown-class carriers, 18 new heavy cruisers, 16 light carriers, 51 light cruisers, and 200 destroyers (organized into 40 five-ship flotillas). This is believed to be barely possible by 1940. The Army, meanwhile, will get its own buildup (projected to start in 1938). The goal here is the amphibious invasion of a hostile Europe. The target here is currently assumed to be Germany; furthermore, Britain is assumed to be friendly and willing to host American invasion forces. Current Army planning envisions an attack on three major corridors: the Low Countries, Greece, and Italy.
Overall planning goal; blue stripes indicate areas to be under American influence
The Low Countries will be the main attack corridor; current planning calls for an attack one year after entering the war (projected to be no earlier than 1941 for a war starting in 1939) using 12 marine divisions organized into 3 corps as the initial assault. This will be followed up by a planned 150 infantry divisions, 36 armored divisions, and 48 motorized infantry divisions. Each minor corridor will have 12 marine divisions and 50 infantry divisions assigned to it; War College staffers are looking into substituting specially trained mountain divisions for some of the infantry divisions, due to the rugged terrain in this area.
w-day indicates the day on which America joins a general European war; +1, 2, etc. indicate years afterward
In the event of a simultaneous attack from Japan, US naval forces will attempt to defend the coast. One corps of garrison forces will be assigned to every vulnerable Pacific-facing province, requiring 60 total garrison divisions. Additional artillery support is planned to be available to each garrison to help defend against naval attack. The Philippines are not believed to be defensible and have not been assigned any US forces.
Gentlemen, War Plan RED is the best plan America's got. We will be able to knock any hostile European power out of the war in just a year or two, then focues on a hostile Japan. No other plan will be able to achieve such a quick resolution at such minimal casualties.
(meeting adjourned; recommendation of War Plan RED to the Secretaries of War and Navy approved)
(Notes on the game itself: Hard/Normal on mod-34 Armageddon. Obviously, the idea is to do a very early D-Day with overwhelming force, knocking Germany out of the war while merely holding the line in the Pacific. This strategy was successful in Normal/Normal vanilla Armageddon, let's see if it'll work here!)
Also: I'll be out of town a good chunk of this week and next week, so updates won't be regular until next Wednesday or Thursday.