Chapter 5.5 - Persia
IV and V Állandó Hadseregs had been withdrawn early from Spain not just to reduce Hungarian supply needs there but also to prepare for the next war. On the day that Spain surrendered, the 8th of August 1938, the two corps were already sitting on the Persian border hence a declaration of war was immediately sent to Tehran.
There was one slight problem however, although the two corps had already been in place for quite a few days, their supplies hadn't quite caught up and they were unable to launch an attack on the Persian border province of Khvoy.
After the conquest of Switzerland I had 7.22 leadership. It has now shot up to 7.87, an increase of 0.65. For many nations this would be considered a small increase, for Hungary who started with only 3.84, this is huge. As a result, I decide to start a couple of new research jobs, firstly Infantry Support Weapons to increase my troops' defensiveness. Although still primarily an offensive army I don't want the defensive side to lag too far behind, I'll need it eventually. Talking of lagging behind, that's exactly what my HQ divisions have been doing as the HQs have a speed of 3kph compared to the infantry's 4kph. Hence the second new research job is Mobile Warfare to add an extra 0.50 kph to the speed of my HQs.
Even with these two new research jobs I am still able to fund the training of 7.8 new officers per day. My officer ratio is currently at 177%, helped mainly by being able to put any extra leadership from occupied provinces before I annex them into officer training. Taking a bit of time before capturing the last required VP actually helps a bit in this respect as leadership gain from Collaboration Policy is a lot better than following annexation.
As well as a large leadership gain, Spain has also massively boosted my manpower income. From a prewar total of 12.0, I now get 15.4 manpower per month. I'll soon be able to start new builds on a regular basis. My IC on the other hand hasn't seen such great increases, base rising from 119 to 133 and effective from 190 to 216. This still means that I have a large shortfall in my IC compared to the builds I currently have queued. Even so, I add a couple of convoy transport serials as although I have plenty for my current needs, I am expecting those needs to shortly go up considerably.
Persia has a National Unity of 75% and a total of 7 VP points split up as follows: Tehran 2, Tabiz 1, Esfahan 1, Ahvaz 1, Bushehr 1, Bandar-e 'Abbas 1. Therefore, for them to surrender I need to capture all bar one of their VP provinces and as Bandar-e 'Abbas is the farthest away I will most likely go for the others. As I can't reach the Persian coast with my transport ships, the attack will have to solely rely on the overland route from the north east. As the Persian army shouldn't pose to great a problem for my two corps, a nice simple broad front strategy will be used with IV Állandó Hadsereg taking the northern end of the front and V Állandó Hadsereg the southern.
The army has waited for 10 days for supplies to finally catch up but they are now able to launch their attack. The Persians are fully mobilised and have the advantage of mountainous terrain so it will be a hard and bloody battle unfortunately. Hopefully once I am past the first few provinces and reach the plains and deserts beyond, Persian resistance will become a lot less. It's a shame I hadn't realised that I was out of supply when I declared war as the Persians have also now had a chance to dig in, making the battle just that bit harder.
With only two corps being utilised in Persia, the other three need something to do as idle soldiers can cause trouble. Thankfully, the Hungarian high command have a plan for them and war is also declared on Norway. This war will be conducted mostly by I and II Állandó Hadseregs with III Állandó Hadsereg in reserve. II and III are currently sitting in La Coruña waiting to be picked up but I Állandó Hadsereg go straight into action the moment the declaration is made.
Norway has a National Unity of 90% and two VP provinces, Oslo which is 5 points and Narvik which is similarly 5 points, hence I will need both. As elements of the Norwegian navy are sitting in both Oslo's and Narvik's harbours a direct assault is decided against. The plan instead calls for I Állandó Hadsereg to land near Tronheim, take the port and then head north towards Narvik. A second landing will then be conducted by II Állandó Hadsereg near Bergen, similarly they will take the port and then head eastwards towards Oslo.
The first landing is completed without a hitch and an attack is launched on Trondheim. It appears that Norway weren't ready for a war which is good news as fighting a mobilised army in the horrible terrain in Norway would not have been pleasant.
Interestingly, I receive news that New Zealand have decided to stop influencing me. This is rather odd, as I never heard that they had started or for that matter that France, the Allied nation that I thought was influencing me had stopped. On checking the diplomatic page, France are indeed still influencing me for the Allies so I'm not sure what is going on here. I have seen this kind of thing before so it is not a one off, just not sure what causes it though it's clearly a bug of some sort.
As you can also see, the battle for the Persian border province of Khvoy is still ongoing though it has now swung decidedly in my favour.
The battle for Khvoy ends up taking more than two weeks but I end up being victorious though for the loss of 2721 soldiers. Due to the length of the battle I occupy the province immediately and I am able to head on without any combat delay. Only troops from IV Állandó Hadsereg were involved in this first battle meaning that V Állandó Hadsereg can only now start their advance into Khvoy.
When I previously passed Bergen with my transports there had been an infantry division guarding the port city. However they have now disappeared off somewhere meaning that I can land directly in the city as well as outside it. On successfully landing I also find no Norwegian defenders nearby and I am able to start heading eastwards unopposed which is nice. I suspect the Norwegian army is all legging it northwards to counter my first landings around Trondheim. The transport ships are heading back to La Coruña to pick up III Állandó Hadsereg who will also be brought to Bergen although they won't bother themselves with advancing when they get there.
I also complete my first licensed build, an Interceptor squadron which for the moment will simply be added to the 1st Interceptor Wing. This will help reduce my build queue backlog somewhat.
Well it would of, but I have decided to add some more items to my build queue, 5 brigades of armoured cars. In conjunction with two light armoured brigades each, these will form my light armoured divisions and will also give the divisions the combined arms bonus. They have the added advantage that they are the same base speed as light armour, 9kph, meaning that they won't slow the divisions down. I'm a great fan of light armour, especially against the AI, as being able to zip around the back of the enemy very quickly can make the difference between winning or losing war.
I've found another German spy but they seem to be replacing them almost as fast as I can catch them which is frustrating. Meanwhile, I have won the battle for Trondheim and because I had sent troops around the rear to surround the port city, the three defending Norwegian divisions have been destroyed. That removes what is probably a good chunk of the Norwegian army and should make the rest of the campaign easier. Thus I Állandó Hadsereg have also secured themselves a port meaning that fresh supplies can be brought to them for the rest of their campaign.
If you look in the outliner, you will see that there is a difficult battle going on in Maku. This is the second mountain province on the IV Állandó Hadsereg's line of advance in northern Persia and this battle will prove to be another long and hard one.
8 days later, on the 18th of September, another German spy is caught, yet this is still not the last.
The advance northwards by I Állandó Hadsereg is ongoing and resistance has been minimal. However, as II Állandó Hadsereg have so far encountered no resistance on their march to Oslo I decide to take a small risk and start embarking a division onto my transports. The plan is to drop them into the province next to Narvik rather than making them walk all the way. There are still Norwegian ships berthed in Narvik hence why I don't intend to land my troops directly into the port although the Norwegian division defending it has decided to come south to meet me in Nesna.
Thankfully, the risk pays off and my troops are landed successfully and are subsequently able to take Narvik unopposed. With the first VP province down I am now halfway to conquering Norway. I notice however that there are only two Norwegian subs in the harbour when I arrive. On previous scouting missions along the coast my transports had spotted a heavy cruiser, I guess it must have sallied to try and catch my transports but thankfully wasn't able to catch them in time.
Down in the south of Norway, II Állandó Hadsereg have found it pretty easy going, only encountering one Norwegian division en route to Oslo. Having brushed this division aside, the lead elements of II Állandó Hadsereg are now next door to Oslo and having found the capital empty have started their advance. They will arrive at 5pm on the 23rd of September, meaning that this little war will end at midnight on the 24th. Although I would doubtless have won this war whatever the Norwegians did, their defensive strategy has been particularly poor.
It's been another long battle and again it's cost me a fair number of casualties but I have finally won the battle of Maku against the Persians. Many of the divisions in IV Állandó Hadsereg are now pretty low on org and in fact one division had to drop out of the battle after completely running out. V Állandó Hadsereg are having a much easier time of it on the southern axis of advance which is a good thing as they will eventually have further to go. They will however also hit mountains when they reach the coast but hopefully by then the Persians will have little fight left in them.
With me having occupied their capital, Norway surrenders and I annex them. Just before I do so, more Norwegian divisions start to show themselves but it is too little and far too late.
With the Norwegian campaign over, my leadership has now risen over 8 to 8.16. However, 0.07 of this is from the occupation of Persian Tabriz so in reality I have only gained 0.22 leadership from Norway. Still, not to be sniffed at, it all counts. It becomes trickier from now on to determine exactly what I gain from what as I have multiple campaigns going on.
As you can see, German spies are still at work disrupting my research. I'm still trying my hardest to get rid of them but they are proving to be tricky so and sos.
I now have a monthly gain of 16.3 manpower, a base IC of 144 and an effective IC of 234. Still someway short of the IC I need but I am getting there.
I have also received the slightly disturbing news that my annexation of Norway has prompted the Finns to mobilise. Slightly annoying but I can't really blame them, I guess they can see what is coming with the recent history that Hungary has.
