New Year 1936 is here...
Chapter 1: 1936 - Dawn of new era
General Staff meeting, Prague, March 16th, 1936
František Machník, Chief of Staff: Gentlemen, we have met because of planning a general strategy for forcoming years. We all know the situation well, but I would like to inform you in detail about our current political situation out of my position of Intelligence Head.
The
Peace of Versailles left lots of ambitions burried in an ash, but not enough deep. The most prominent representative of revanchism is Germany. After deposition of Výmarská Republika (Weimar Republik), the National Socialist government did lots of notable acts. Revival of Branné Moci (Wehrmacht), political processes etc. The last one was re-occupation of French zone, Porýní (Rheinland). Without any responce from French. Alarming. I think we stay on a break of new power escalation.
Notably, fascist Austria has frequent contacts with both, Hitler and Mussollini, who is also player of power chess, since he declares the recreation of Roman Empire and currently is close to destroy one of the last independent states of Africa, enlarging thus Italian colonial power. Again, no responce from either French nor UK.
Our independece is currently guaranteed by UK, Germany and Poland. We have non-aggression pacts with SU, Romania and Yugoslavia.
Czechoslovakia is strong, but... Let we hear our esteemed guest, Mr. Kalfus, who is responsible for armament. Welcome.
Josef Kalfus (Minister of Armament): Thanks for invitation. Our industry works on final output of 40 (33 base), we have means to support two development team being involved in military research. Currently we spend some resources (7.00) on actualisation of some old equipment, but we will need much more to be up-to-date in a horizon of one year. Most of our resources are consumed because of high internal market demands and lack of important crudes. We lack 5.8 rare materials and 0.4 oil. These we need to import for our high quality goods. Those we lack for us. But, I am highly interested and involved in a boost of our economical possibilities. I supervice personally the research of new industrial technologies (manufacturing). We have also aimed Cryptography, Agriculture, Synthetic Oil to be the most important industrial themes, as Infantery and Land doctrine for military ones.
František Machník, Chief of Staff: I thank ones again Mr. Kalfus for his contribution. And now to our direct matters. General Syrový is going to tell us something. Go on, Jan.
Jan Syrový, general of Czechoslovak Army: Brothers, as you may know, we have invested some efforts into mapping of a current situation, so to say, around us. Thanks to the profuse governmental support, we have finished border fortresses in four provinces, but still it would need almost two times more to get shielded from all current threats. Let me sum them.
Germany. Strong industry, experienced staff, unfilled dreams of world domination. Authoritarian goverment, which frightens any violance. 7th strongest army of world.
Austria - Potential German ally. Fascist goverment, unfortunatelly very poor industry, dependent much on Germany. 24th strongest army of world.
Hungary - dtto, plus we have unsettled issues from past, namely 1919-1921, when we pushed them of Slovakia and Ruthenia. Hunagry also two times let Habsburgs to try a new game. 25th strongest army of world.
Poland - also old issues, Těšínsko (Teschenland) and quite unfriendly foreign affairs minister Józef Beck, who accuses us instantly from spreading communism in central Europe. Ridiculous. 6th strongest army of world.
Romania - friendly country, but very unstable. Who knows a day, they will turn against us. Might it be the moment, we would need it not. 10th strongest army of world.
So, our current defence policy must be re-consider. Our army is inferior to German, being 12th strongest army of world, but superior to armies of our unfriendly neighbours. Yes, fortresses might stop our enemies, but better option is to have none enemy. Our defence must be spiced with well-pointed offence. What you think?
Ludvík Krejčí, field marshal of Czechoslovak Army: I fully agree. together with brother Jan we have prepared a new defensive plan.
First, reorganisation. The most important issue the the phenomenon of fast war-fare. Our, erm, men in Russia informed in past years us about intense excercises of German tank units under benevolent supervision of Red Army. That and new findings gained directly from German high ranks (
noding in audience) convinced us to brake the classical French organisation of units and introduce a new one. This new one consists of two classes of armies -
hrotová formace (spear-head) and
bojová formace (operational). These two will be concerted to utilise the only advantage we have, fast, high quality armour equipment and brave men on battle-field. Fast break-throughs, encirclement and rear attacks, that is what might put us forward. We co-ordinate this quite well with our industry too.
Josef Kalfus (Minister of Armament): Yes, according to these visions, we have also focused on tank research. Our designers already work on a new version of our current armour; we plan it for year 1938.
Ludvík Krejčí, field marshal of Czechoslovak Army: Thanks for details. Let me continue. Out of all our tank divisions, a new army will be created, 1. ČS Obrněná Armáda (1st CZE Armoured Army) under leadership of gen. Viest. The rest will be reorganised into army corps of four divisions, namely 1. CS Armáda - under my command, 2. CS Armáda under gen. Sergej Vojcechovský, 4. CS Armáda of gen. Syrový. 5. and 6. CS Armáda of Lt.General Sklenkovský and Husárek will be reinforced to full strenght as soon as possible; the date is approximatelly mid July. Then, in a year, 3. CS Armáda of gen. Votruba will be fully equipped with armoured cars and will create a second spear-head to work together with 1. CS Obrněná.
Unfortunately, our Air force is non-existant, so we must be quick and avoid at all costs long affairs with enemy having air superiority.
Now, let us calculate some equations: Germany is now out of our reach. Poland too. Romania is friendly. Austria has independence guranteed by UK, Germany, Italy and Hungary, whereas Hungary by Italy and Austria. If we are going to eliminate some threats pretty soon, we are going for Hungary. Revisionistic Hungary target us with demands, which are going against Trianon Treaty. More, Hunagry is hungry, but weak. Let us pray, that Austria feels weak too. Then, after invading Hunagry, we will face only Italy, which is nicely hidden behind Alps. We may also expect Germany to come to our aid (
decent smiles in auditorium) as we have their guarancies. UK also may come to help, but we all know Mr. Chamberlain enough not to rely on it. We should not over-extend our expectations (
decent smiles in auditorium) too much.
Sergej Vojcechovký, general of Czechoslovak Army: But, how we can realise out plan under current government? President Dr. Beneš has recently became more involved in possible rearangements of our relations with neighbours (+1 to Interventionalism), but he is explicitely worry about any armed conflict (+ 30% to DoW), especially, he is also our Foreign Minister.
Jan Syrový, general of Czechoslovak Army: See Sergej, there are elections in few months. We may, cooperating with certain political parties, control the Parliament in a way, we gain access to such decisions even on political level. Let us wait and see, whom our citizens will elect face to face the reality. Hungary will issue one more official demand on Slovakia and whole Slovakia will go with us. Let us wait... involvingly...
František Machník, Chief of Staff: Gentlemen, if you have no other questions, I declare this meeting closed.
