• We have updated our Community Code of Conduct. Please read through the new rules for the forum that are an integral part of Paradox Interactive’s User Agreement.
Well, I'm always thinking in the worst case scenario, and in the worst case scenario, Bulgarians try to land in the Crimea, and the Germans are heading for Sevastopol, whime we have to hold off the Turks... that's where a slightly improved Georgian Aiir Base will be a godsend, also it's closer, so if I want to use CAS against Turkey, I can't use Sevastopol as it's too far from the front...

Sounds reasonable. And you're right; I didn't measure the distance from Sevastopol to Northern Turkey, but eyeballing it now I'd say about 200 km in game, which is roughly the range of our CAS, meaning they indeed can't reach the current border. And hey, if Iran's beleaguered oil drillers need liberation from the clutches of capitalism, that base in Tbilisi could prove useful!
 
2nd of August 1941, 'Tri' & 'Shest': Foreign Government Report #4, The United Kingdom
The 2nd of August 1941, Vologda, 2,7°C, 10pm Moscow Time

A heavy August storm is raging outside, the ground is already getting muddy, and it's worse in the Leningrad Area... Once it gets a bit colder, these storms will migrate south, and any German offensive will be hindered by mud, lot's of mud, the window for good offensive weather is now clearly closing very quickly indeed for the Germans. Now, to the matter at hand...

Now finding themselves with too much time on their hands after having rushed preparations for a German attack, 'Tri' and 'Shest' decided to write another Foreign Government Report, summarising information gathered from 'Odinatsat' and GRU assets in the United Kingdom, as well as some diplomatic 'Research' and eavesdropping by 'Tri' and our diplomats. The report is now finally ready, with everything you want to know about the British government, and a lot more... :


Report on the state of the United Kingdom:

First some context. The United Kingdom is a Monarchy, well, a constitutional one, of sorts. The king retains sweeping powers on paper, but in practice any use of those powers would see him speedily overthrown, exiled, and replaced by the real governing powers, the Government, the house of Commons, and the House of Lords.


Now, Britain pretends to be democratic, but we really do have our doubts, you see, the house of Commons is elected, through a First past the post system. This means that every district elects it's own representative to the house. While this isn't ideal as it strongly favours people with strongly localised support over those with weak, but nationwide support, this could be considered democratic. The system also strongly favours a two Party system as people will vote tactically to get the government they want... It's not worth it to vote for a small party candidate if there is a big party candidate with a lot of support you particularly dislike, therefor, you will vote for the candidate of the other big Party in order to make sure the hated one doesn't make it into office. There are no second rounds, so people routinely win seats with less than 50% of support in their constituency...

The problem is the House of Lords, a mix of nobles, Anglican clerics, and Rich People proposed by the Prime Minister, but approved by the king. This second house functions a bit like the Senate in France, being able to send back a bill to the Commons if they don't like it or parts of it. They don't veto bills, they just bog them down in an eternal back and forth with the House of Commons. Now, the lords aren't elected, they're either hereditary positions, or they are appointed by the king on a recommendation from the government. And then they say that our government has no mandate from the People...

Now, before the war, the two main parties were Labour and the Conservative Party. The former calls itself 'socialist', but they're really just for Capitalism Lite with some measure of state control, pretty pathetic if you ask me... The latter is Socially conservative, but mostly Economically Liberal. With the War, the Conservatives have gained massively in popularity as many Labour figures had advocated cutting the Armed forces budget shortly before the war.

Now, when the War started, a conservative government, lead by Neville Chamberlain was in office, more about him later... but the Conservative Government just won another election in November last year, with Chamberlain at it's head. We'll go through what this election meant, when we discuss the members of the cabinet:

Head of State (King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, Emperor of India): His Royal Highness George VI (Conservative Party)

kinggeorge6-min.jpg

The second son to King George V, born in 1895, Albert Frederick Arthur George of Windsor never expected to become king. He grew up in the shadow of his elder brother Edward Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick David of Windsor. As royals tend to do when they're not the next in line for the throne, Albert joined the Royal Navy. He studied at the Royal Naval College in Osborne as a cadet in 1909. He graduated in 1911, last of his class, not such a great student really... This, of course, didn't stop the Royal Navy from giving him preferential treatment, and he was admitted to the Royal Naval College in Darthmouth to continue his education as a Naval Officer.

Meanwhile, in 1910, his grandfather king Edward VII died and his father George V became king.

Albert continued his career in the Navy, spending six months in 1913 sailing the world on the Royal Navy Training ship HMS Cumberland, visiting the East Indies and the West coast of Canada. That same year, he was rated Midshipman and joined the crew of the St-Vincent-Class Dreadnought Battleship HMS Collingwood. He participated in the Battle of Jutland on board the Battleship as a turret officer, and was commended for his actions during the battle, though it's unclear what he did exactly, besides his job... He was sent on leave shortly after the battle due to a severe ulcer and would see no further combat.

In 1918, he returned to the Navy at the Royal Navy Air Service training centre in Cadwell, he was Officer in charge of Boys there. In April of 1918, the RAF was formed, combining Royal Navy Air Service and Army Air Service and prince Albert joined the new RAF. In mid 1918, he took a few days of RAF training before being given command of a squadron of cadets at St Leonard-on-Sea RAF Cadet School. October 1918 saw him fly across the Channel to join General Trenchard's staff in Nancy. The war ended before Prince Albert could fly any combat missions. He returned to the UK and was fully qualified as a Combat Pilot in mid 1919, this allowed for his promotion to Squadron Leader.

After his service in the Armed forces, in 1919, Prince Albert left the RAF to study History, Economics, and Civics, at Cambridge University's Trinity College. He stopped his studies in 1920, when his father named him Duke of York, Earl of Inverness, and Baron Killarney. He started to represent his Father on official trips across the country's Industrial heartlands, some nicknamed him the 'Industrial Prince' because of all the Coal Mines and Railway Yards he visited.
His love life was also pretty interesting. Before 1920, he had been seeing an Australlian woman named Sheila, Lady Loughborough, but after being named 'Duke of York', he broke off this relationship after his father asked him to. He then courted and seduced, over several years, Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, daughter to the Countess and Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne, proper British nobility... interestingly, he did get to pick his own wife among the British nobility and no one was imposed upon him. They were married in 1923.


In 1924 and 1925, the newly-weds toured the British Empire on a long honeymoon, hunting big game in Kenya, Uganda and the Sudan, before travelling to Aden.

He was somewhat shunned by the public because of a bad stammer, which seriously impeded his capacity for public speaking. He was quite athletic though, and qualified as a participant for Wimbledon 1926, where he played in the Men's Doubles. He did lose in the first round. During the following years, he organised summer camps for boys of all classes, and he took a keen interest in improving the working conditions of Industrial workers.

Prince Albert did see a renowned Australian speech therapist from 1925 onward to help with his stammer. In 1927, he went on a tour of Australia and New Zealand, opening a new Parliament House in Canberra in the process. He went on to Fiji, where it was noted that he played doubles tennis with a black man, very unusual for the time, and suggesting that he's quite tolerant, and probably not (very) racist, something new for British Royals to display out in the open. After all this travelling, he settled down in London with his wife and two Daughters, Elizabeth, born in 1926, and Margaret, born in 1930 and lived a nice quiet family life.

The death of his father, George V, in May 1936, was rather uneventful, the crown Prince Edward VIII was well regarded and there seemed to be no problem with the succession. There was a small niggling detail though, the new King was still unmarried. The government pushed for him to get married soon, and to someone suitable, just as his brother had already done.

The calm in Prince Albert's life was shattered, when in late 1937, king Edward VIII, against all convention and decorum, married his twice divorced, American, mistress, Wallis Simpson, in France. This marriage was unacceptable to the British public and to the rest of the Royal Family, Both marrying Divorcees, and marrying outside of British nobility, let alone outside of Britain, are definite no-no's for British Royals, let alone kings. Under pressure from the public, the government, and his own family, king Edward VIII abdicated on the 9th of January 1938.

It should be noted that the scandal was cleverly seized upon by the Parliament of the Irish Free State to reform it's constitution, removing much of the King's influence, and effectively becoming a mostly independent member of the British Commonwealth, like Australia, Canada, and New Zealand.

Quite suddenly, the adequately married Prince Albert, who had been working on his stammer outside of the spotlight was thrust forward as the new King. He chose to go as King George VI, to emphasise continuity with his father's well-regarded reign. His first action was to name his brother Duke of York, and to remove all semblance of Edward having a claim to the throne. In 1939, King George toured Canada and the United States, in the hope of tightening relations and soften American Isolationism with the threat of war looming in Europe. He created a strong bond of friendship with President Franklin Roosevelt on this particular trip. During the Blitz and the Battle of Britain, King George VI was nearly killed when German bombs landed in a courtyard of Buckingham Palace. This was great for British morale, as it showed the king sharing their hardships, and surviving to boot... He started going on big Morale-boosting tours throughout the United Kingdom and it's Dominion, as well as French territory, as soon as the war started.

Other notable contributions are his support for the formation of sovereign states from British Dominions, to be grouped for continued cooperation purposes under the banner of the Commonwealth. This process was put on hold for the war, but, if the British win it, this may be put back on the agenda.

Overall, King George VI is widely considered a Benevolent Gentleman, he is somewhat stubborn and insusceptible to external pressure (-5%), but his Morale-boosting tours and radio appearances (his stammer is mostly gone), help the Armed Forces re-organise more quickly (Org Regain Rate +5%)

Head of Government (Prime Minister): Arthur Neville Chamberlain (Conservative Party)
Right_Honourable_Neville_Chamberlain._Wellcome_M0003096-min.jpg

Neville Chamberlain was born in Birmingham in 1869, to Joseph Chamberlain, a prominent member of the Liberal Party, then the main opposing force to the Conservatives. His father, who was a self-made business-man turned politician, would go on to become Mayor of Birmingham, leader of the main opposition in the House of Commons, and secretary of State for the Colonies, amongst other positions.

Young Arthur Neville got his education at Rugby School, and was sent for higher education at Mason College (now called Birmingham University of Birmingham). Neville wasn't one for higher education, and his father found him a position as an apprentice in an Accounting firm, when it became clear his studies wouldn't amount to anything.

Arthur Neville did great in the Accounting firm, becoming a full time employee within six months of the start of his training. Later on, as his father financial fortunes were waning, Neville travelled to Andros Island (Bahamas) to set up a sisal plantation on his father's behalf, this was a failure, and after a couple of years the operation was shut down after six years with an estimated loss of 50.000 pounds sterling.

Upon his return from the Bahamas, Neville bought Hoskins & Family, a company specialised in the production of metal ship-berths. This definitely wasn't a business failure, with Neville at the helm for 17 years, the company prospered. As befits any successful businessman, he also did some civic work, as governor of the Birmingham General Hospital, and as founding member of the national United Hospitals Committee within the British Medical Association.


A Bachelor until the age of 40, he fell in love with Anne Cole in 1910, and married her in 1911. This was also the year of his entry into politics, in 1911, a member of the Unionist Party, he was elected for a Birmingham City Council seat within his father's constituency. He was promptly named Chairman of the Town Planning Committee,and was responsible for the adoption by Birmingham of one of the first Town Planning Schemes in Britain.

Due to the start of the war his Town Planning Schemes were never realised, but in 1915, he was elected Lord Mayor of Birmingham. As Mayor in Wartime he was admired for his hard work, and he even cut down on his pay and benefits, all for the war effort. This did not go unnoticed and in 1916, the Prime Minister, D. Lloyd George offered him the job of 'Director of National Service', a key post with the responsibility of organising conscription and keeping Wartime Industry running smoothly.

In this position, Chamberlain constantly came into conflict with Prime Minister Lloyd George, and he resigned in mid 1917, having come to hate Lloyd George through their continuous conflicts. Neville Chamberlain then stood for the house of Commons in Brimingham Ladywood, and won his seat with more than 70% of the vote at age 49.

As an MP he continued working tirelessly. As chairman of the Unhealthy Areas Committee (1919-21), he visited slums across Britain, and made a positive impression on his peers. The elections in 1922 saw a reshuffle, with the Unionists leaving the coalition, and Lloyd George being pushed out. The Unionists won that election, and controversial Unionist bigwig Bonar Law became Prime Minister. This gave Chamberlain big opportunities for advancement as many within his party refused to serve in government under Bonar Law. He was initially appointed Postmaster General, but ten months after the elections, Bonar Law became terminally ill, and Stanley Baldwin, then Chancellor of the Exchequer replaced him as Prime Minister. Chamberlain took Baldwin's place. But it didn't last long, the 1923 General Election saw the Conservatives (then a coalition including the Unionists) defeated, and the first Labour Government in British History. That government didn't last long though, and in 1924, another General Election was called and won by the Unionists.

Chamberlain was named Minister of Health, and as usual he was very industrious and productive in this function.He was responsible for the abolissement of the Poor Law Boards of Guardians, which were supposed to distribute aid to the most helpless of the population, but according to the unionists, they were bastions of patronage, controlled mostly by Labour members. Chamberlain always had great contempt and disdain for Labour members in general, so this was right up his alley. He wrote this about Labour in 1927:

'More and more do I feel an utter contempt for their lamentable stupidity '
More drama happened after the 1929 election, with a hung parliament and another Labour government under MacDonald, which proved quite incompetent, and in 1931, there was a big scandal when it appeared there was a huge budget shortfall that actually came as a surprise to the government. After the government resigned, MacDonald remained in place at the head of a temporary National Government with Conservative support, and as part of the musical chairs, Chamberlain returned to the Health Ministry.

A General election was held later in 1931 where the Conservatives won an overwhelming victory. Somehow, MacDonald remained in power, but he named Chamberlain as Chancellor of the Exchequer. This is when Chamberlain proposed a 10% tariff on Foreign goods, along the lines of the 'Imperial Preference' policy that his father had advocated. This became the 1932 import duties act, and it passed with ease in parliament. As a good conservative Chancellor Chamberlain implemented deep spending cuts, and through clever monetary policy, he managed to cut the interest on Britain's enormous War debt from 5% to 3,5% by 1937.

After the 1935 election victory for the Conservatives, Baldwin became Prime Minister once again. The victory was less sweeping, mostly because Chamberlain had pushed to reverse some of the cuts on the armed forces he had previously enacted to balance the books. Labour painted this a scaremongering and the consequence was still an absolute majority for the conservatives, but with 70 fewer seats. Chamberlain retained his job as Chancellor. Finally, in July 1938, Stanley Baldwin Resigned after an uncompleted third term as Prime Minister. Chamberlain was next in line as Chancellor, and he thus became Prime Minister at the age of 69. He was good with numbers and hard work, but it would soon become clear that he may have some trouble with Foreign Policy.

In September of that year, he was responsible for the Treaty of Munich, and the policy of appeasement towards Germany. This treaty basically stripped Czechoslovakia of painstakingly constructed fortified lines on it's border, and a significant part of it's territory... the fallout from the deal combined with covert German interference would lead to the implosion of Czechoslovakia and the annexation of all of the Czech region by Germany and the formation of Slovakia as a German vassal state, this too was seemingly fine with Chamberlain. Ultimately, he drew a line in the sand with his French colleague President Albert Lebrun. In March 1939, the Allies guaranteed the independence of Poland. And we all know what happened next.

Chamberlain's domestic agenda, presented months before the outbreak of war, was widely applauded across most of the Conservative Party, but also in the wider population, with provisions to improve working conditions in factories, cheaper holiday camps, and housing subsidies for those who were still living in slums. Not much came of it, as the looming war finally caught up to this man, who was very much a man of peace in a time of war.

From the start, he seemed overly cautious, sending in only token support to assist the French, but in the meantime him and his cabinet worked hard to streamline the wartime Industry and conscription. Despite his, in hindsight, disastrous 'peace in our time' speech, the Conservative party mostly stood behind his cautious approach to the war. A few backbenchers demanded a more muscled stance and more expeditionary forces to be sent to France. Weary of casualties, the Chamberlain government quickly got into the habit of sending a minimal amount of elite troops, with very heavy Air Support to the world's hotspots, when something could be saved. Royal Marines were sent to France, but it was too little, too late. After the German landings in Norway, Paratroopers were sent to Oslo, and the Royal Navy hunted down the Kriegsmarine's Transport Fleet, to great success. When Italian incursions into North Africa started, he sent in some Marines and a large part of the RAF Tactical bomber force, undoubtedly slowing down the enemy and causing many casualties, but as we know, this approach is risky, and the Italian reinforcements easily got through the thin British lines.

On the home front, he was very popular. His 'peace in our time' blunder was forgiven by many, as casualties from the war at large were minimal, no British troops in any French meat grinders, a heavy focus on the Navy and the Air Force, and the concentration of the bulk of British armed forces on the home islands, made sure the people felt safe from the great storm that raged over the continent. In East Africa, Chamberlain was more liberal with resources and lives, but those were Indian Divisions, so mostly unrelated to his voters at home. All of this, and the inability of Winston Churchill, the most vocal of the backbenchers demanding Britain engage itself more heavily in the ongoing war, didn't manage to get very far with Chamberlain's popularity so high. In the November 1940 elections, the British people voted for the Conservatives by an overwhelming majority, increasing Chamberlain's political capital even more, and making a take-over less likely.

As long as the strategic points of the Suez Canal, Gibraltar, Malta, Singapore, and Oslo remain unconquered, Chamberlain will be able to continue running this approach of minimal boots on the ground, though, recently, with the fall of El'Iskandarîya, the Prime Minister has been called to parliament to justify his cabinet's plan to retain control of the vital Suez Canal, and ideally retake the city and it's important Naval Base. This lead to Chamberlain striking a conciliatory tone with the least sanguine of the backbenchers and promising to double the forces in the area, and ordering eventually, the first deployment of Tanks into the field by the United Kingdom since the last great war.

It remains to be seen whether he will be able to hold his seat, Winston Churchill remains a very vocal critic of the way the war is being fought, and since the start of hostilities, the Prime Minister's health has been deteriorating, he has been developing an ulcer from the stress induced by the war. His critics see him as a Naive Optimist, others just as an optimist, the fact remains that he tries to find peaceful solutions, and to minimise the use of force on his government's behalf. He has the firm belief that it's never too late to go to the negotiating table and thrash things out diplomatically. (Threat impact: -10%)
Foreign Minister (Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs): Ernest Bevin (Labour Party)
ErnestBevin-min.jpg

Born in Somerset in 1877, to a single Mother, Ernest Bevin didn't have the greatest start in life. His mother died in 1889, when Ernest was only 12. He then went to live with his half sister's family. He briefly attended a couple of Village Schools in Somerset, and later, he attended Hayward School in Crediton, Devon for two years. Even before leaving school, from age 11, he worked as a labourer. After leaving school at age 15, he went to work in Bristol as a Lorry Driver.

Bristol is where Ernest's life really took off. He became part of the Bristol Socialist Society. With the years he gained respectability, and in 1910 he was named Director of the Dock, Wharf, Riverside, and General Labourer's Union's Bristol branch. He soon proved a great organiser, despite his lack in formal education. In 1914, he became a national organiser for the Union. The same year he became father to Queenie after marrying her mother, Florence Townley.

In 1922, Ernest Bevin was one of the founders of the 'Transport and General Workers Union' (TGWU), in which he was soon elected General Secretary, making him one of the main Labour leaders in Britain. Within the Labour Party, he was to the right of most of the party, repeatedly voicing strong opposition to Communism (sic.) As a labour leader he always considered a strike as a last resort, always looking to talk, and negotiate a compromise rather than calling a strike. An attitude not dissimilar to that of Chamberlain in his foreign policy.

He stepped down as Secretary General of the Union after failing to win a seat in the 1931 General Election. Bevin remained active in negotiations with successive governments though, and he managed to have paid holidays extended to a large share of the workforce through intense negotiations and the threat of a general strike. The passing of the 'Holidays with Pay Act' of 1939 was the culmination of this effort, extending paid holidays to 11 Million Workers.

In opposition to most of the Labour Party, Ernest Bevin was definitely not a pacifist, he argued for sanctions on Italy during the Abyssinia Crisis in 1935, and, privately at least, against appeasement.

Now to why he was named Foreign Secretary. What is clear is that Ernest Bevin's fortunes are closely liked with that of Anthony Eden, a darling of the conservative Party who held the office two times now. Initially Foreign Secretary of the 1935 government lead by Baldwin, Anthony Eden remained in office until, in 1938, Prime Minister Chamberlain went around his back and signed the Munich Treaty, which prompted Eden's resignation in protest of the former's appeasement policy.

The choice of the hawk, Ernest Bevin, to replace him may seem strange, but it seems Chamberlain wanted an outsider, someone who wasn't part of one of the many Conservative Party Backbencher's cliques just looking for an opportunity to grab power. The selection of a Labour member with many centrist, and even Right Wing views was maybe not such a bad thing after all.

After the November 1940 election Chamberlain briefly handed the Foreign Affairs portfolio back to Eden under pressure from his party's MP's, but the two soon entered into conflict again, and Bevin was a known quantity and well liked by the public, so he was called back after one month of Anthony Eden, who had, again, resigned, this time in protest against Chamberlain's lack of commitment to Norway.

Instead of getting into a fight with his Prime Minister's soft War Policies, Bevin is working around the Prime Minister's reluctance by going around wooing and tricking the world's nations large and small into joining the Allies. Recently he has organised, and successfully lead, state visits from the United States, Mexico, Ireland, but also Siam and Brazil. He himself has recently been making trips to Ankara and Istanbul, in the hopes of dissuading Turkey from linking it's fate too closely with that of the Axis nations, something that, incidentally may also be helping out the Soviet Union in potentially avoiding a future Caucasus Front...

Many say he is quite devious, but in a jovial way, a true Cloak and Dagger Schemer under his uneducated and large appearance. (Susceptibility to Allies: +10%)

Armament Minister (Minister of War Production): Lord William Maxwell Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook (Conservative Party)
MaxAitken-min.jpg

A Canadian by birth,Max Aitken was born in Maple, Ontario in 1879, one of a Presbyterian Minister's ten children. He grew up in Newcastle New Brunswick and went to the local school. At the age of 13 he set up a successful school newspaper called 'The Leader'. Outside of school he worked selling newspaper subscriptions and distributing newspapers in his neighbourhood. As a teenager, he was also the local correspondent of the 'St John Daily star'. He went on to try out higher education, at King's College Law School, but he soon dropped out.

As an adult, he worked in a shop and saved some money to move to Chatham, New Brunswick where he worked as the local correspondent for the 'Montreal Star', as well as side-lining as a life insurance salesman and a debt collector. He worked for a short time in a local Law Office, the one lead by Richard Bedford Bennet, which he helped win a spot on the Chatham town council. Then, he and Bennet moved to St John, New Brunswick, and he ran Bennet's campaign for a seat in the North-Western Territories Legislative Assembly in the 1898 general election. He failed in his efforts to set up a meat business, and soon returned to selling insurance, and writing.

A big turning point in his life was his move, in 1900, to Halifax, Nova Scotia, where he met the Businessman John F. Stairs, who saw a lot of raw potential in the young Maxwell and took him under his wing, giving him a job and teaching him the in's and out's of the finance business.


In 1904, Aitken became a Minority shareholder in, and General Manager of the newly set up, by Stairs, 'Royal Securities Corporation'. Aitken and Stairs worked well together, putting together a series of lucrative deals, and planning a couple of bank mergers, before Stairs prematurely passed away in late 1904. The other shareholders remained confident in Aitken's capabilities and he remained alone, in charge of the company. He invested in stocks and developed business interests in Cuba and Puerto Rico.

The newspaper bug did come back to him, and in 1910, he started the 'Canadian Century', a weekly, invested money in the 'Montreal Herald', and only just missed out on buying the 'Montreal Gazette'.

In the meantime, he founded several other companies, in 1907, the 'Montreal Engineering Company', and in 1909, the 'Calgary Power Company Limited'. With that last company, he oversaw construction of Horseshoe Falls Hydro Station.

In the following years he continuously expanded his business empire, buying a series of small regional cement plants in 1910-1911, and merging them into Canada Cement, which gave him a near-monopoly on cement in Canada. Then, he did the same for steel, creating the 'Steel Company of Canada'.

From 1910, Aitken, already a Millionaire by this point, started to move his assets to Britain, and near the end of that year, he made the move permanent. In the process, he became friends with Andrew Bonar Law, also a Canadian, who would later become Prime Minister. In December 1910, Aitken managed to convince Bonar Law to let him run for the Ashton-under-Lyne House of Commons seat, and to win the it to boot. This surely had something to do with the lavish financial support he was giving the Unionist Party at the time.

In 1911, being rich, and a successful MP, he was knighted by King George V. Aitken promptly bought Cherkley Court, near Leatherhead, a large Late-Victorian Neo-Classical Mansion and estate, which he used to host lavish parties and receptions, as well as high level Party Meetings.

Being a PM didn't stop Aitken from doing business and making money... He bought shares in Rolls-Royce Limited, gradually increasing his stake in the company, though there was a lot of resistance to him taking control of the company within it, so he sold his holding in 1913. He then turned back to newspapers, investing in the failing 'Daily Express', attempting, but failing to buy the 'Evening Standard', and finally gaining control over 'The Globe'. In 1916, a secret deal also gave him a controlling stake in the Daily Express, but this was kept secret.

During the Great War, the Canadian Government charged Sir Aitken with creating a Canadian War Records Office in London. Which he did, going above and beyond, and using his connections to get many stories on the Canadian contributions to the War printed in both Canadian and British papers. He also stared a collection of Art about the War, and he was very successful in getting people to buy War Bonds with his elaborate publicity campaigns.

In wartime politics, Aitken soon became hostile to Prime Minister Asquith, being very critical of the Prime Minister's management of the war effort. This sentiment was shared, and after Asquith was ousted, his Lloyd George took over. Aitken resigned in late 1916 from the Commons to allow Albert Stanley, a close Friend favoured by Lloyd George to take his seat and be eligible for a Ministerial position. In return for this graceful exit, he received a peerage in early 1917, becoming the 1st Baron of Beaverbrook, a title he chose himself, and thus a member of the house of Lords.

In late 1917, Lord Beaverbrook lost some of the goodwill from his party, when his secret control in the 'Daily Express' became public, as this newspaper had a reputation of being critical of the Conservative Party Aitken was a part of.

Aitken received the honorary rank of Colonel in the Canadian Army, and visited the front in 1916, after which he wrote a three volume chronicle called 'Canadians in Flanders'. He continued writing books after the war ended, publishing 'Politicians and the Press' and 'Politicians and the War' in 1926 and 1928 respectively.

In early 1918, Lord Beaverbrook was named Minister of Information, being essentially responsible for propaganda in Allied and Neutral countries, a job that fit him like a glove...He had a few clashes with his colleagues, he sparred with the Foreign Secretary over who was responsible for Intelligence. Beaverbrook won the Political struggle, but when the Intelligence Committee was assigned to his Ministry, the experienced staff quit en masse, and the Committee had to be reformed within the Foreign Ministry. The, in mid 1918, Lloyd George became particularly furious with him over a leader in the 'Daily Express'.

After this major falling out, he came increasingly under attack from MPs on both sides for being both a 'Press Baron' owning several newspapers, and being employed by the state, which some saw as a serious conflict of interest. Then, at the end of the year, he resigned, because of ill health. At this point, he was distrusted by most of the British political class.

After his health improved, thanks in part to a few very expensive doctors, he returned, not to politics, but to the newspaper business, concentrating on running newspapers. He ran the 'Daily Express', launched the 'Sunday Express' weekly (1918), bought the 'Evening Standard' outright (1923), and acquired a controlling stake in the 'Glasgow Evening Citizen'. Then, in 1923, he launched the 'Scottish Daily Express'.

He was the biggest of the big four of Fleet Street (Lords Beaverbrook, Rothermere, Camrose, and Kemsley), who together owned most of the papers in the country during these interwar years. He had a fearsome reputation for making or breaking those of others with his array of newspapers. Notably, his newspapers continued to openly criticise Lloyd George, and later Stanley Baldwin.

Always the shrewd investor, Lord Beaverbrook sold the vast Majority of his shares shortly before the 1929 crash, making it through with his fortune intact. He promptly launched a single-Issue Political Party the 'Empire Free Trade Crusade' (sic.). The movement had some limited success, but never really broke through, and in 1931, it was disbanded.

During the Succesion Crisis following George V's death, Beaverbrook privately pressured Edward VIII to give up his affair with Walllis Simpson, all the while publishing every sordid detail of it in his newspapers. Stanley Baldwin got a life long rival in Beaverbrook after saying that British media Barons held 'Power without Responsibility' (he continued to compare them to Harlots).

Lord Beaverbrook was in support of Appeasement, and negotiating peace with Germany, after the war had started. Somehow, he is also a close friend of Winston Churchill... go figure. His Foreign and War policy views quite aligned with those of the Prime Minister, and his business acumen never in question, Baron Beaverbrook was appointed Minister of War Production in April 1940. After the November 1940 election, Chamberlain temporarily held the post himself, before passing it on to Oliver Stanley in early December, and then back to Lord Beaverbrook in early 1941.

It's easy to see why he was reinstated despite the protests of many MPs against his continued use of his media empire to serve his political interests. He gets the job done, as a proven Administrative Genius, he manages, through his superior managerial and organisational skills, to increase Industrial output by 10% across the board. (Industrial Capacity +10%)

Neither Oliver Stanley, who boosted Military Supply production, nor Chamberlain himself, who convinced the masses to give up some creature comforts to aid the war effort (lower CG need) could really compare.

Minister of Security (Home Secretary): Sir Samuel Hoare (Conservatie Party) Later named Viscount Templewood
Sir_Samuel_Hoare_GGBain-min.jpg

A London native, born in 1880, the eldest son of Conservative MP and Baronet, sir Samuel Hoare (Senior). Samuel was classically educated at the prestigious Harrow School, and later moved on to New College, Oxford, where he was a member of the infamous Gridion and Bullingdon Clubs (of spoiled rich brats...). He studied an undergraduate in the Classics, and then moved on to a B.A. In Modern History, from which he graduated with First Class marks in 1903. He continued his studies off and on, and graduated with a M.A. In Modern History in 1910.

In 1909, he was married to Lady Maud Lygon, daughter to the 6th Earl of Beauchamps. It was an arranged affair, but the pair did get along well.

Hoare's Career in politics started in 1905, when his father got him a job as secretary of Colonial Secretary Alfred Lyttleton. After a failed bid for a parliamentary seat in 1906, he turned to local politics instead and was elected to the London City Council in early 1907.Finally elected to the House of Commons for Chelsea in 1910, he mostly concentrated on supporting Tariff Reform, Female Suffrage, and public education.

When the war broke out, the 34 year old Sir Samuel Hoare volunteered to join the Army. With his familial history, he was commissioned temporary Lieutenant in the Norfolk Yeomanry (A volunteer Cavalry Regiment) in late 1914. At first, he was only a recruiting officer, and then, when he got promoted to temporary captain in 1915, and finally had an opportunity to go to the front, he fell ill, and was instead retained as a recruiting officer. The same year his father passed on his Baronecy to him. To pass the time, the now Baronet learned Russian, and in 1916, this prompted the MI6 to recruit him for the position of Liaison Officer with Russian Intelligence in Petrograd (now Leningrad). He made quite an impression, and soon, he was given the temporary rank of Lieutenant-Colonel, and named the head of the British Intelligence Mission with the Russian General Staff.

Then in 1917, MI6 posted him to Rome, where he remained. He was charged with dissuading Italy from dropping out of the war and there are rumours that he recruited Benito Mussolini himself on behalf of MI1. After the war he was decorated in England, in Russia, and in Italy.

After being re-elected to parliament in 1918, Hoare soon became disillusioned with PM Lloyd George and he helped organise the backbencher's revolt that overthrew Lloyd George in 1922. He was made Privy Councilor and Secretary of State for the Air in the ensuing short Bonar Law Government. In late 1923, Stanley Baldwin confirmed his position in the cabinet as Secretary of State for the Air.

In this position, 1st Baronet Lord Hoare oversaw the creation of Imperial Airways through the heavily subsidised merger of four large private Airlines. After a short hiatus in 1924, he retained the same position in Baldwin's second government, supporting Trenchard in his belief that the RAF had to remain an independent service branch. He was instrumental in setting up RAF squadrons in Oxford and Cambridge to train clever students into RAF Officers.

His wife Lady Maud, was very supportive, and the pair made it a point of pride to travel by air whenever possible.In 1927, his wife was awarded the DBE medal (Dame Commander of the British Empire), and Lord Hoare was awarded the GBE (Knight Grand Cross of the British Empire). The couple was on the first civilian flight to India, on which Lord Hoare published the book 'India by Air'. For his support of the RAFs cause, he was named Honorary Commodore of Nos 601 (1930-1932)and 604 Bomber Squadrons.(1932-1957).

During a stint in the opposition, in 1930, Lord Hoare wrote a book on the Russia in the Great War called 'The Fourth Seal'. Then in MacDonald's mid-1931 National Government, he was named Secretary of State for India. He enjoyed good relations with Ghandi and committed Britain to eventual self-government, though not full independence (which Ghandi wanted), for India.

After submitting a white paper to change India's Franchise and propose a first draft of a future Indian constitution was sent to parliament and a select Committee debated the bill heavily for more than six months in 1934. This proposal was the starting point of some serious bad blood between him and Winston Churchill, who opposed any measures giving more independence to India. There was a large row over the right of India to impose tariffs on British textiles with accusations of impropriety towards Hoare, of which he was exonerated by an extensive investigation.

The bill was further debated and amended for another year, resulting in the 'Government of India Act', an extraordinarily complicated piece of legislation, when it finally passed the vote in early 1935. Hoare, together with Under-Secretary Butler was instrumental in pushing for the bill, greatly improving India's say in it's domestic affairs.

In mid-1935, with the third Baldwin Government, Lord Hoare was given the choice of either Viceroy of India, or Foreign Secretary. The ambitious Baronet chose the latter. He gave a world famous speech at the League of Nations that same year, in response to Italian aggression in Abyssinia. He said that Britain stood 'for steady and collective resistance to all acts of unprovoked aggression'. Despite the speech, Italy went ahead, and limited diplomatic sanctions were imposed.

Lord Hoare was then responsible for the agreement with Laval and Mussolini stipulating that Italy would be allowed to claim some territory North of Ethiopia, while the rest of the country would be administered by an Italian Client State with it's army under Italian control. When the secret pact was leaked to the press, it caused some serious public outcry, especially because of the contrast with the recent Geneva speech... Not, the pact, but it's leaking put severe pressure on Hoare to resign, despite the fact that the whole cabinet had stood behind the pact when it was still a secret, and he did so in December of 1935. He was succeeded by Anthony Eden, who definitely didn't share his predecessor's enthusiasm for appeasement.

A British noble with nine lives, Hoare returned to Baldwin's government the very next year as Lord of the Admiralty, where he pushed for naval rearmament, and confirmed orders for the King George V Battleships Prince of Wales and King George V.

After Baldwin retired in 1938, Chamberlain offered him the pick of any Ministry he wanted, except the Exchequer, and Hoare picked the Home Office. He was an excellent fit in this position, being a real man of the People (LS +5%), always well regarded in the press, he inspired leadership and learning in the British population throughout his term. In mid 1940, after a small scandal involving his weak response to mass infiltration of foreign spies he was replaced by John Simon who quickly gained a reputation as a crime fighter.

After the election, in November 1940, Lord Hoare made his return as Home Secretary as it became clear that his inspiring, academic,articulate and hard-working image, as well as his proposed scholarship grants and increased pay programme for officer cadets may be better in a long war, as it encouraged more people to apply themselves to becoming officers, diplomats, spies, or weapons researchers.

Head of Intelligence (Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service, subordinate to the Foreign Minister) and Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs: Robert Gordon Menzies (Conservative Party / Liberal and Country League) United Party of Australia
RobertMenzies-min.jpg

Robert Gordon Menzies was born in North-Western Victoria, South-Eastern Australia, in 1894, to a storekeeper and his wife. His father, James, was elected to the Victorian Parliament in 1911. His uncles Hugh Menzies, and Sydney Sampson also held political offices in the 1900s. Robert had a good education, first in a local state school, then in private school in Ballarat, and then on to Welsley College in Melbourne, graduating from the University of Melbourne with a law degree and first class honours in 1916.

At the start of the great war, 19 year-old Robert resigned his commission in his university's Militia unit at the very moment all his classmates were clamouring to join... His parents later stated that he had resigned out of consideration for his parents, as both his elder brothers were enlisted, he wished to spare them the possible loss of three sons, so he stayed to finish his studies. This was never confirmed or denied by Robert Menzies himself. Robert won academic prizes and became the editor of the Melbourne University Magazine, soon gaining a reputation for being very intelligent and articulate.

Menzies passed the Victorian Bar Examination in 1918 and promptly started his own practice, specialising in constitutional law. In 1920 he took a big case to the High Court of Australia, and the case became a precedent concerning the legal interpretation of Commonwealth powers over it's constituent states. This gained him national recognition.

In 1928, Menzies entered politics, representing the Nationalist Party of Australia in the Victoria State Parliament, where he was a prominent member of the Victorian Legislative Council. Constitutional Democracy, the rule of Law, the sanctity of contracts, and the preservation of existing institutions were his main concerns in office. He was suspicious of the Labour Party and always defended the free enterprise as superior. He faced a small crisis when he was attacked in the press by an association of veterans, for not having enlisted during the war, but his career survived the ensuing scandal quite well.

In 1929, Menzies founded a Youth wing for the Nationalist Party, the Young Nationalist and he moved to the Legislative Assembly, becoming Attorney General for Victoria and Minister of Railways, and ultimately Deputy Premier of Victoria between 1932 and 1934.

After this rapid rise through the levels of power, he went into national politics. He resigned from Victorian politics in late 1934, joined the United Australia Party, and threw his hat in the ring for a federal seat. He won an easy victory as he ran for a safe conservative seat, and was immediately Attorney-General and Minister of Industry under Premier Lyons. He had to prosecute a tense case for this government, where it was being sued by a Czech Jewish Communist for refusing entry to Australia to the man...and he lost.

In 1936, he called for a live and let live attitude in Europe in the face of rising nationalism in Germany and Italy. Named Australia's Privy Counsellor in 1937, he was a strong believer in Chamberlain's Appeasement. He visited Nazi Germany for several weeks in 1938 to get a better fell for the situation, but that didn't change his mind.

Soon after the start of the war, he went on a trip to Britain, and Chamberlain, again, looking for outsiders who supported his political views and his previous appeasement policies, asked him to become Chief of Intelligence under Ernest Bevin. Menzies resigned as Attorney General of Australia and moved to the United Kingdom for his new function as leader of the Secret Intelligence service.

After the November 1940 elections in Britain, and in Australia. Anthony Eden became Foreign Minister of Britain again, bringing in Sir Hugh Sinclair to replace him as head of Intelligence. Menzies didn't mind very much as the newly elected Isaacs Government and Governor-Generalship back in Australia offered him the post of Foreign Minister. As wartime Australian Foreign Minister, he spent most of his time in the United Kingdom and it's territories in Asia, especially Singapore and Hong Kong.

When Ernest Bevin replaced Anthony Eden as Foreign Minister for the second time, Bevin wanted his Australian Friend back as head of British intelligence as Sinclair was very much seen as Anthony Eden's Man. As he was spending most of his time on British soil anyway, Robert Menzies accepted his previous position, but he continued to be Australia's Foreign Minister as well, a strange combination of mandates which has seen British Intelligence focus a bit more on Asia...

As Australian Foreign Minister, he is known as an Apologetic Clerk (Tendency to drift due to internal factors -5%), which is befitting to his legal background. As head of British intelligence, he's known as a Dismal Enigma, (Land Intel +10% / Naval Intel +10%) mostly because no-one can understand how he manages to combine the job with that of Australian Foreign Minister and still do a decent job of both...

Chief of Staff (Minister for Co-ordination of Defence): Sir Alan Francis Brooke (Conservative Party) None
AlanBrooke-min.jpg

Alan Brooke was born in the French Pyrenees in 1883, to an Anglo-Irish family from Ulster with a long Military tradition. He is the 7th Child of Sir Victor Brooke, 3rd Baronet of Colebrooke, Brookeborough, Fermanagh, Ireland. Sir Alan had his early education in Pau, France, where he lived until age 16, he is a perfect English-French bi-lingual and is also relatively fluent in German thanks to his childhood abroad. He is really good with languages and over his years travelling the British Empire, he learned to speak Urdu and Persian as well.

After his arrival in the United Kingdom, he went to study at the Woolwich Royal Military Academy and in December 1902, he was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant into the Royal Regiment of Artillery.

During the Great war, Brooke served in the Royal Artillery in France, where he became known for his great organisational and operational planning skills.He introduced the use of the French 'Creeping Barrage' tactic with success at the Somme, protecting the advancing Infantry from Machine-gun Fire. He served shortly with the Canadian Corps in Early 1917, planning the Artillery Barrages for the battle of Vimy Ridge, using Canadian Artillery and batteries from the British First Army in close cooperation.

Soon, he was promoted to GSO1 (General Staff Officer 1st Class) and appointed senior Artillery Staff Officer in the First Army. Sir Alan came out of the war in one piece, with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel and a Distinguished Service Order.

After the war, Brooke gave lectures at the Imperial Defence College and the Camberley Staff College. Then, in the mid 1930s he started getting more important positions, first Inspector of Artillery, then Director of Military Training, followed in 1937 by the post of General Officer Commanding of the then experimental 1st Mobile Division. He continued his rise through the ranks, becoming Lt. General in 1938, before being assigned command of the Anti-Aircraft Corps, where he got to know and befriend Air Marshall Hugh Dowding. In early 1939, he was put in charge of II Corps.

When the war started, on the 1st of September 1939, he was promoted to General and appointed Chief In Command of the British Expeditionary Force. (1 Motorised Division and 1 Royal Marines Division...). This posting didn't last long either, as his constant complaints that the French would not hold on their own and that the BEF was much too small to do anything about it, he resigned in protest.

Now, surprisingly, upon his return in the United Kingdom, he was offered, and accepted, the job of Minister for Co-Ordination of Defence

Alan Brooke believes in Mass Combat and overwhelming superiority in numbers, much like our own Shaposhnikov, he believes that quantity is the ultimate quality that wins battles. More men, more Artillery shells, more Planes, more ships, more submarines, always more... (National Manpower Modifier: +5%, Human Wave Doctrine Decay: -10%)

This is in stark contrast to the man he replaced in December 1939. Edmund Ironside, who, as a logistics specialist was more focused on working out how many men, planes, and ships, can be properly supplied and improving supply networks to supply more, than on sending in untrained masses.

Chief of the Army (Chief of the Imperial General Staff): Field Marshall Sir Cyril John Deverell (Conservative Party) None
Sir_Cyril_Deverell_in_1936-min.jpg

Born in 1874, the son of a Lieutenant John Baines Seddon Deverell, Cyril had an uneventful upbringing going to school at the Private Bedford School. He was commissioned into the Prince of Wales West Yorkshire Regiment in 1895. After taking part in the 1896 4th Anglo-Ashanti War, he was promoted to Lieutenant in 1898, then Adjudant of his Regiment and Captain in 1904. In 1906-1907, he studied at the Royal Command and Staff College in Quetta, Pakistan, before returning to the United Kingdom.

Deverell then started 1917 with a promotion to full Colonel and temporary Major General in command of 3rd Division. He lead the Division to bloody successes at Arras, and in the 3rd Battle of Ypres. Then,rhe returned to the Somme, and particiâted at the Battle of Lys alongside Portuguese units. In 1918, his Division was part of the 100 Days Offensive that lead to the final German Surrender. Deverell was named 'Companion of the Order of the Bath, and received the French 'Croix de Guerre' in 1919.

In early 1919, he was promoted to non-temporary Major General an was placed in command of the 53rd (Welsh) Division. 1921 saw him move to India to command the United Provinces District. He was then appointed 'Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire' in 1926, became quartermaster General of India in 1927 and was promoted to Lieutenant General in 1928. After being upgraded to Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath in 1929, he was appointed Chief of the General Staff in India in 1930, then General Officer Commander-in-Chief of Western Command in 1931, promoted to General and assigned General Officer CIC of Eastern Command in 1933, appointed Aide-de-camp general to the king in 1934, a position which he retained until, in early 1937, he was promoted to Field Marshall, and appointed Chief of the Imperial General Staff by Stanley Baldwin, a position he retained under Neville Chamberlain and Minister for Defense Co-operation Alan Brooke.

Field Marhsall Sir Cyril Deverell is very attentive that all of the troops get the supplies they need, moreover he has put in place measures for the British Army to waste fewer bullets and reduce food waste to a minimum, this has allowed for production of Supplies to be scaled back, as well as somewhat reducing the strain on the stretched imperial supply networks. When Field Marshall Brooke dreams of deploying 100.000 men, 10.000 Artillery Pieces, 1.000 planes, and 100 ships somewhere, Deverell brings him back to earth, with his grasp on the supply network and what it can actually handle... Guns & Butter is what wins wars (Supply Consumption -10%)

He did take a month's leave for health reasons after the November 1940 election, during which Alan Brooke temporarily took over his functions, until he returned near the end of December the same year.

Chief of the Navy (First Lord of the Admiralty): Admiral of the Fleet Sir Alfred Ernle Montacue Chatfield ( Conservative Party) None
220px-Ernle_Chatfield_1933-min.jpg

The son of Admiral Alfred John Chatfield, born in 1873, Ernle was always destined to become a navy man. He received his primary education at St Andrew's School before entering the Royal Navy as a cadet in 1886, at age 13. He trained on HMS Britannia, and graduating from his training, a midshipman, he was sent to sea on the corvette HMS Cleopatra in late 1888.In 1890, he was transferred to the Cruiser HMS Warspite, flagship of the Pacific Station.

He soon started to rise through the ranks, promoted to sub-lieutenant in 1892, and to Lieutenant in 1894, he then joined the 1890 Battleship HMS Royal Sovereign, flagship of the Channel Fleet. After a short stint with the Channel Fleet, he attended the Gunnery School HMS Excellent in 1895 before being assigned to the staff of another gunnery school HMS Cambridge at Devonport in 1897.

After all this gunnery, he became gunnery officer on the Atlantic Fleet Cruiser HMS Good Hope in late 1902, before being transferred once more, to the Battleship HMS Venerable of the Mediterranean Fleet in 1904. He then returned to HMS Excellent as part of the staff in 1906, before being promoted to Captain in 1909. He was promptly assigned Flag Captain of the Battlehsip HMS Albemarle, the flagship of Rear-Admiral Sir Colin Keppel, 2nd in Command of the Atlantic Fleet. He then followed Rear-Admiral Keppel to his new Flagship, the Battleship HMS London in 1910.

Chatfield then went to study at the Royal Naval War College in Portsmouth, the in 1911, he was Captain of RMS Medina on the Royal Tour of India, and then in the summer of 1912, he became commander of Heavily Armoured Cruiser HMS Aboukir in the reserve Fleet, before moving his flag to the more modern HMS Southampton in late 1912, and finally to the Cruiser HMS Lion, Flagship of Vice-Admiral Sir David Beatty's Battlecruiser Squadron in 1913.

Chatfield was present at the battle of Helgoland Bight in August 1914, as Flag Captain of HMS Lion, again at Dogger Bank in early 1915, and finally at Jutland in May 1916, where Beatty made the famous remark: “There seems to be something wrong with our bloody ships today, Chatfield”

After Jutland, Chatfield was appointed to the orders of St. Michael, St. George and the Order of Bath. Beatty was promoted to Commander in Chief of the Grand Fleet, and Chatfield followed him, becoming the Flag Captain of the Battlehsip HMS Iron Duke, and then, in 1917, the Battleship HMS Queen Elizabeth. After the War, in 1919, Chatfield was advanced to the Knight Commander of the Orders of Sts; Michael and George. Then, later in 1919, he became 4th Sea Lord, responsible for Naval Supplies of the whole Royal Navy.

Chatfield was also appointed Naval Aide-de-camp to the King in early 1920, before being promoted to rear-Admiral and assigned Assistant Chief of the Naval Staff that same year. His order of Bath was advanced to Knight Commander in 1922, and he became Commander of the 3rd Light Cruiser Squadron and third Sea Lord and Controller of the Navy in 1925, followed by a promotion to Vice-Admiral in 1926. In 1929, he was named CIC of the Atlantic Fleet with HMS Nelson as his flagship, then, in 1930, promoted to full Admiral, he took command of the Mediterranean Fleet from the deck of HMS Queen Elizabeth.

Chatfield made it to First Sea Lord in early 1933 (he was advanced to Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Bath). Chatfield soon made a name for himself, arguing for a 70-cruiser navy rather than the 50-cruiser one that had been agreed in the 1930 Naval conference, and also arguing for the continued use of Battleships, as well as the assertion that the Fleet Air Arm should be part of the Navy rather than the RAF.

He was promoted further still to the highest naval rank of Admiral of the Fleet, and raised as Baron Chatfield of Ditchling, Sussex in 1937. After his retirement in 1938, he retook command of the Navy in the Chamberlain Government, this time as First Lord of the Admiralty, a position he retains to this day.

Chatfield was absent from his post for a while after the November 1940 election as the Conservative party wanted new blood. In the interim h the navy was lead by First Sea Lord Admiral Dudley Pound, who has a very similar Decisive Battle Doctrine to Baron Chatfield, who returned in early may of this year, as Chamberlain didn't find any good new blood that was to his liking.

Chatfield likes big guns, and he is a big advocate of the King George V Class Battleship Programme (Capital Ship Practical Decay -25%)

Chief of the Air Force (Chief of the Air Staff): Air Marshall Sir Owen Tudor Boyd (Conservative Party) None
owen-tudor-boyd-min.jpeg

Owen Tudor Boyd was born in Marylebone, London, in 1889. He got his Military education at the prestigious Royal Military College in Sandhurst. Upon his graduation in 1909 he was commissioned and placed on the 'unattached list for the Indian Army'. After travelling to India, he was first attached to a British Army Regiment there, before being posted to the Indian Army's 5th Cavalry and promoted to Lieutenant in 1911.

In late 1915, with the war raging in Europe, Boyd was named temporary Captain, Indian Army. Then, from April 1916 he learned to fly and became a flying Officer with the Royal Flying Corps. Once he had mastered the basics of flight, he started flying with No. 27 Squadron on the Western Front, where he was promoted to flight commander in July. He must have been pretty good, as he received the military Cross in August of the same months after he had started flying missions. He continued his progress through the ranks, and in October 1916, he was made Officer Commanding of No. 66 Squadron which he joined at the start of 1917. Then, in June, he was transferred and made staff officer 2nd Class or equivalent to Captain, or acting Major. A year later, in July 1918, Captain Boyd was transferred again to command No. 72 Squadron in Mesopotamia.

After the war, in 1919 he was a staff officer (acting Lieutenant-Colonel of the RAF), and he was finally commissioned Major in August of that year. He later became a staff officer with the Mesopotamia Wing HQ in 1920, and had some dealings with the Directorate of Operations and Intelligence as well.

He went back to commanding a Squadron (No. 24) one last time in 1922, before moving into desk jobs. Boyd became Commandant of the School of Army Co-operation in 1923, took some further lessons in the Army Staff College, Camberley in 1926, and by 1928, he was part of the Direction of the College. In 1930, Boyd was named deputy director of staff duties, from 1931, he was officer Commanding of RAF Aden.

Then, Boyd was named Secretary of State for the Air for the Headquarters Fighting Area in 1934, having to report on the state of RAF headquarters to the politically appointed Secretary of State for the Air, then Charles Vane-Tempest-Stewart 7th Marquess of Londonderry.

The next year, Boyd was Air Officer Commanding of the RAF Central Area. 1936 saw him receive his next promotion, to Air Commodore, and named Commander of No.1 Group. Later that same year, he was appointed director of personal services at the Air Ministry, then lead by Secretary Philip Cunliffe-Lister 1st Viscount of Swinton.

In early 1937, Boyd was promoted to Air Vice Marshall, and when Baldwin retired, in 1938, Boyd was promoted to Air Marshall and named Chief of the Air Staff by Neville Chamberlain, replacing Air Marshall Edward Ellington. He cooperated closely with Air Minister Sir Kingsley Wood, but in early 1940, there was a falling out between the two men, and Sir Owen Boyd resigned and was succeeded by Air Marshall Cyril Newall. Newall had initially opposed Boyd's proposed policy of prioritising Fighter production over Bomber production, something that was the very antithesis of common pre-war RAF doctrine.

The Air war over France and the start of the Battle of Britain, as well as the arrival of the brand new and capable Hurricane, and Spitfire Fighter designs convinced Newall of two things: The bomber doesn't always get through, and Fighters are vital for the defence of Britain and thus more important than bombers. His thinking now quite aligned to that of Boyd meant that the switch didn't cause any real ripples in the RAF procurement and training programmes.

After the November election, and as the Battle of Britain wound down, Newall was forced to step down as he had taken effective control of most Aircraft production at the height of the first Battle of Britain, which was actually the prerogative of the Secretary of State for Air, Sir. Kingsley Wood. Kingsley Wood wasn't especially annoyed by this, considering the extreme circumstances and his own full plate, but Newall's encroachment on a political agenda meant he had to go. Sir Kingsley Wood returned to the back benches after the elections. Both men had become very overworked by the demands of the Battle of Britain.

This opened the way for the return of Owen Boyd as Chief of the Air Staff, in tandem with the brand new Secretary of State for Air, Sir Archibald Sinclair, an ex-Army Major, and a member of the Liberal party and an opponent of the RAFs strategic bombardment doctrine.

The top priority for Owen Boyd is Air Superiority (Llight Aircraft Practical Decay -25%), and, with Secretary Sinclair, the second priority was changed from Long-range Strategic Bombardment to Close and Tactical Air Support. To keep production lines humming while the German Air Force is otherwise occupied, it seems a modified Hurricane variant is being produced specifically for close Air Support, but our spies don't have any details.

Our spies have been able to provide a rough outline of British industrial output, research, and armed forces.

Industry:
A total of 157 Industrial complexes, or 274 effective IC if we take laws and efficiency into account.
Current production is devoted to many things. The navy is getting the modern Battleships HMS King George V, HMS Prince of Wales, both slightly more than half-way done, and the recently laid down HMS Duke of York.


To escort these vessels, four different shipyards are simultaneously constructing new County-Class Destroyers, probably the best Destroyer Design out there right now. There will be no lack of fast escorts and U-boat hunters.

Additionally the Royal Navy is getting it's own Group of Coastal Naval Bombers', the aeroplanes are being built at the Bristol factory, exact specifications are unknown, but they are definitely twin-engined and capable of carrying Air Launched Torpedo's.

The RAF has ordered a slew of Close Air Support aeroplanes based on a Hawker Hurricane Chassis. Three separate factories are currently building the planes, and several Groups will be formed with the Aeroplanes. There is also an order for more Spitfires, but no work has been done on them for now.

Not to be outdone, the Army is getting two Motorised Infantry Divisions, 45th Infantry and 3rd Indian Division.

Someone in the Army wrote out an order for a 1st Airborne Division to be raised, trained, and equipped, but that person must have been drunk, as 1st Airborne already exists and is actively defending Oslo under Norwegian command

Consequently, there was no investment into this project, for now.

Somehow, the funds were found to build a new factory complex in Indore,in India, that project is almost done.

The rest of the budget is devoted to the mass production of merchant vessels to keep resources flowing into the home islands and supplies out to the troops and dominions in the face of the U-boat threat. At least 8 mid-sized civilian shipyards are working around the clock, churning out standardised Merchant ships to join the Merchant Navy's convoys.
The resource situation is pretty good for everything except Energy, of which they have, once again, ran out. All the British stockpiles are dwindling, but Metal and Rare Material stockpiles are in the tens of thousands of tons, while coal reserves are non-existent. A partial shutdown of industry may happen again in the face of this shortage... if only they would let us sell them Coal, the Soviet Union is digging up so much more than we need for our industry right now.
Armed Forces:

A good count of all British forces is hard to come by, but we did manage to compile some rough estimates. These suggest about 100 Front line Brigades (30-40 Divisions) on foot, this includes a few Gurkha's and Mountaineers (together about three Divisions). There are an estimated 4 motorised Divisions and 2 Armoured Divisions. The Royal Marines, all seem to be deployed to Egypt, currently counting two Divisions.

The bulk of these forces is situated on the Home Islands, along with a ca.60.000 strong Home Guard.

North Africa has the Marines, one Armoured Division and three Infantry Divisions, one of them Iraqi.

East Africa has 6 regular Infantry Divisions and a couple of loose Brigades, some of them poorly trained Militia.

Smaller units are guarding the Ports in Gibraltar, Malta, Tel Aviv, Colombo, Diego Garcia, Rangoon, Singapore, Kuala Belait, Hong Kong, Makin, and Fiji, all other British Naval Bases, as well as the Indian interior remain entirely unmanned. If this intelligence were to reach the Japanese, I'm sure they would soon be taking over Indonesia, Indochina, and Burma, before moving on to India... this is a serious liability.

Now to the Navy.

The Royal Navy lost only few Capital ships, and most of them are deployed in the Med and in the Atlantic. More importantly, the Royal Navy seems to have a huge number of transports and Landing Craft, which is how they keep moving units around so quickly... incidentally some intelligence was picked up about transports waiting in Port Sudan... maybe the British are going to redeploy units from East Africa to the North, or to the East, either would be good.

The numbers are good, by our count, the Royal Navy has 10 Battleships,2 Battlecruisers, 4 Fleet Carriers, 3 Escort Carriers, 10 Heavy Cruisers. As for Escorts, they are estimated to have more than 300- Destroyers, a slightly more reasonable 25-ish Cruisers, and then mostly a lot of transports, more than 10 flotillas of Landing craft, and about the same of conventional Troop Transport ships. There are also some submarines, but there don't seem to be very many, and they're hard to track. In total, the Royal Navy is at least three times the size of it's French or Soviet Counterparts.

The navy also has about 500 planes for service on it's carriers, but they are still using Sea Gladiators... to some considerable effect I might add.
The RAF:

They have more than 1.000 Fighters, Hurricanes and Spitfires combined, around 150-200 Dive Bombers, of which the newest ones are based on the Hurricane. There are also about 1.000 twin-Engined bombers, of which approximately a third belong to the navy. And to top this all off, there are some 400-500 Heavy Four-Engined Bombers, most of them of the Handley Page Halifax type, and to round things off a couple hundred DC-3-based Douglas Dakota transport Aeroplanes...It seems everyone is using DC-3 variants to transport their troops...


Research and technology:

Current British Research:

Mechanised Infantry, Coal to Oil Conversion, Medium Tank Reliability, Oil Refining, Assault Concentration, Integrated Support, Carrier AA, Large Aircraft Fuel Tank, Tra Cargo Hold, Logistical Strike Tactics, CAS Ground Crew Training, Capital Ship Main Armament, Battleship Engine, Battlefleet Concentration Doctrine, and Militia AT weapons.

The oil technologies are surprising as the UK doesn't have a shortage of Oil, and Coal to Oil conversion is entirely pointless as the UK has a shortage of Coal (but they won't buy even part of our surplus...)

British scientists are most skilled in applying lessons from Air and Naval combat in their research, and in Naval Engineering. British shipyards are particularly skilled at churning out Destroyers, as proven by the huge amount of Destroyers in the RN.

'Tri', and 'Shest',
There you go, a comprehensive report on what we know about the United Kingdom right now..

That'll be all for now, I'm off to bed,


Greetings,

'Odin'
Notes from your WritAAR:

As usual, the information is mostly based on second hand sources found on the internet, as I won't invest in a small library, nor take the time to go to one, for each of these... I looked at published service records as well as Wikipedia, and other second hand sources like history buff forums etc.

George VI's story is pretty much historical, with only some dates altered to stick with this ATL.

Stanley Baldwin resigned later in ATL than in OTL, and Chamberlain wasn't thrown out of office as Norway didn't fall yet, partly thanks to General Montgomery's 1st Airborne Division being placed in Oslo as soon as the Germans got close the first time, as well as the extraordinary success of the Royal Navy in sinking all of Germany's transport ships, and most of it's Battle fleets, in short order. I guess the event chain will trigger a “Norway Debate” once Norway eventually falls. OTL, chamberlain died in November 1940, of complications linked with a severe ulcer due to the stress of the War, and especially his forced resignation from office after the disastrous Norway Debate. Greece was probably deemed less important by British Politics. I guess that, as long as no Military Disasters happen abroad, Chamberlain would retain his domestic support. I'm curious to see where this goes.

Ernest Bevin was selected by Churchill to be part of his National Unity Government, Minister of Labour and National Service he was responsible for the continuous running and organisation of the War Industry, achieving impressive production figures, while avoiding strikes during the war. He was laso responsible for conscription and thus instrumental in the British success in the war. Churchiill once said that Bevin was 'by far the most distinguished man that the Labour Party have thrown up in my time.

Bevin served as Foreign Secretary in the 1945 Labour government lead by Attlee. In this ATL Anthony Eden, again, stormed out of the Government for a second time after Chamberlain would not commit the troops necessary for a Norway rescue plan that he had worked out with the Norwegians themselves... Also Lord Halifax is a sidelined backbencher here, as even after Eden's resignation, he never came close to being Foreign Secretary...

Hoare only became Viscount Templewood after the war, so bad marks for Paradox there... He was ousted from power as a known appeaser together with Chamberlain. He was also never replaced by John Simon for a couple of Months in OTL...Otherwise pretty accurate.

Menzies was actually Prime Minister of Australia in 1939-1941, and he never served any role in Britsh Politics... After ww2 he won another slew of elections and was Prime Minister again between 1949 and 1966, when he retired from politics. I found no British Robert Menzies who could conceivably have been appointed Head of the SIS during ww2, the only one I found with the right age was a New-Zealand professional Cricket Player... So, if he hadn't been Prime Minister of Australia at the same time, Robert Menzies might have had a tiny shot at a sub-Ministerial Post in the Chamberlain administration as both men really saw eye to eye, but not while being the Foreign Minister of Austraila simultaneously... Also the picture for Head of the SIS shows a wartime Menzies, and the picture for Foreign Minister shows a post-war older and wiser Menzies, it's definitely the same guy.

Also the Liberal and Country League didn't exist before Menzies started it after ww2...

This was also not a mixup with Stewart Menzies, as he is also available for the position in ATL... The strange world of Paradox...

Alan Brooke's promotions were accelerated in ATL... A somewhat strange choice as he was critical of the small size of the BEF in OTL, so I can only imagine how pissed he must have been TTL... I suggested getting him closer to the government might have been a way to keep him close instead of constantly railing against the Government from France... His experience in the First World War makes him a plausible Mass Combat Proponent, pushing for lot's of troops, and Decisive Battle Proponent pushing for lot's of Artillery.

Cyril Deverell seems like a plausible choice, considering that he was actually Chief of the Imperial General Staff and Field Marshall from 1936, we can assume that this promotion never materialised, and that he was later called upon to second Alan Brooke instead. In OTL, he retired because of conflict with Chamberlain over Army expansion, which was only very slow during his tenure. After he publicly called out Chamberlain for skimping on Army expansion when War seemed to come ever closer, he was chewed out, in the end, he resigned from the Army in 1937. Now, it's impossible to know what he would have done, had he not held such a senior position at such a time, so, good job Paradox...

Up to his retirement from the Navy, Chatfield's progression is perfectly historical. His return as First Lord of the Admiralty should explain his return, on the political side of things. He's definitely a disciple of Mahanian Decisive Battle doctrine, and it is thus natural that all he wants for the Royal Navy, is a collection of big, new, shiny Battleships...


OTL Owen Boyd never made it to Chief of the Air Staff, though he did have a brilliant carreer, making it to Air Marshalll, and being appointed deputy to the Air Officer CIC Middle East in 1940. On his way to his new post, he was captured by the Italians after his plane was forced down over Sicily by the Regia Aeronautica, on it's way to Malta. He later escaped together with two Generals captured in North Africa in 1941, missing several rendez-vous with submarines and boats, laying low, and finally meeting the Allied Troops on the brand new Italian Front in December 1943. He died from a heart attack in 1944, a week after his wife divorced him.

Secretary of State Sinclair actually got in a big row with Churchill and then Chief of the Air Staff Portal over the strategic bombing strategy. More specifically against Bomber Harris' strategy for bombing Dresden.

This update really is another foray into my inner @El Pip ... with detailed descriptions of how these people got to where they are in British Politics, and the pointing out of Paradoxical absurdities like a two-hatted Robert Menzies...

Edit: Spelling correction and removal of some overlooked remnants of the French Government update which was used as a template.
 
Last edited:
You have the wrong Menzies. My version of HOI3 has Stewart Menzies, who is the right man (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stewart_Menzies).
Yes, I'm aware of Stewart Menzies, and I believed it to be him with a wrong picture and name at first, but, tagging to the UK, I checked the options for head of Intel, and there I found that both Robert Menzies and Stewart Menzies are options. As stated in my notes here:
This was also not a mixup with Stewart Menzies, as he is also available for the position in ATL... The strange world of Paradox...
HeadOfIntelligencePicks-min-min.jpeg

See here a screenshot of the UKs options for Head of Intelligence in my game, note the presence of both Stewart and Robert Menzies, the second is clearly the guy who was a long time prime minister of Australia, and that is the one the AI selected... I know it's hard to wrap your head around that this would be the case, but I really did check everything...

I could not find any British Robert Menzies of the right age bracket and with enough political profile or at least a public presence for the position. Unless you count a New-Zealand Cricket player who was born in 1916. (Robert Menzies (disambiguation) - Wikipedia)

So, to answer your query, I don't have the wrong Menzies, my version of HOI3 has too many Menzies, both right and wrong...​
 
Last edited:
Yes, I'm aware of Stewart Menzies, and I believed it to be him with a wrong picture and name at first, but, tagging to the UK, I checked the options for head of Intel, and there I found that both Robert Menzies and Stewart Menzies are options. As stated in my notes here:

View attachment 367606
See here a screenshot of the UKs options for Head of Intelligence in my game, note the presence of both Stewart and Robert Menzies, the second is clearly the guy who was a long time prime minister of Australia, and that is the one the AI selected... I know it's hard to wrap your head around that this would be the case, but I really did check everything...

I could not find any British Robert Menzies of the right age bracket and with enough political profile or at least a public presence for the position. Unless you count a New-Zealand Cricket player who was born in 1916. (Robert Menzies (disambiguation) - Wikipedia)

So, to answer your query, I don't have the wrong Menzies, my version of HOI3 has too many Menzies, both right and wrong...​
This is just off the top of my head, but I’m pretty sure Menzies - as Australian PM - travelled to London to deal directly with the British Government. While there I think he would have sat in on Cabinet meetings and was, IIRC, actually invited to join the British Cabinet (not sure in what capacity), an offer he ultimately turned down. And yes, in his second go as PM after the war, he became our longest-serving PM. A record which remains and is unlikely to ever be remotely approached again. Times have changed somewhat: we trade them in more frequently now. ;):D
 
This is just off the top of my head, but I’m pretty sure Menzies - as Australian PM - travelled to London to deal directly with the British Government. While there I think he would have sat in on Cabinet meetings and was, IIRC, actually invited to join the British Cabinet (not sure in what capacity), an offer he ultimately turned down. And yes, in his second go as PM after the war, he became our longest-serving PM. A record which remains and is unlikely to ever be remotely approached again. Times have changed somewhat: we trade them in more frequently now. ;):D
Thanks for the info... That's sort-of how I explained it, though it's one thing to be part of the cabinet as some kind of secretary for Commonwealth Coordination, and another to be head of the British Empire's Secret Intelligence service...
Let's hope times don't change the other way again... as Orban and Erdogan are in their 12th and 15th year of power to name just a few close to home, the long-ruling nationalist tough guy seems to be making a comeback... (This is definitely not 'Odin's position), as he really loves his long-ruling tough guy Joseph...
 
2nd of August 1941, 'Odin', 10-day report #167
The 2nd of August 1941, Vologda, 6,7°C, 10am Moscow Time,

Report on the state of the Soviet Union for the ten day period between the 24th of July and the 2nd of August 1941,

by 'Odin'

Army:
123. Strelkovaya Diviziya, a new Rifle Division, has been deployed to XXXIII SK, 3ya Armiya, Reserves AG, Moskva HQ/STAVKA. (Tallinn)
Army numbers (Brigades/Personnel) Reserves included (these numbers don't include regiments being upgraded):
Front line troops: 638 / 1.914.000
Support troops: 276 / 276.000
Total fighting troops: 914 / 2.190.000
Headquarters: 61 / 61.000
Total Army Personnel: 975 / 2.251.000
Officers: 89.516 + / 97.510 needed / 91,802 %
Active Leaders: 259 / 164 more available
A new Mountain Rifle Division has started training, it will be the second Division of our 4th Mountain Rifle Corps, and will be deployed to the Turkish Border, Scandinavia, or The Far East.
Half-track production has been increased once more, to upgrade 28 KP, part of Maj. General Rodin A.G.'s 29 KD, II KK, 2ya Tankovaya Armiya, Armoured Army Group, Moskva HQ/STAVKA.
This means two Cavalry Divisions and one Guards Tank Division are now in the process of re-training and equipping their Motorised Regiments into Mechanised Regiments. That's one fifth of our planned upgrade programme.
Army leadership:
New Maj. General Panov SK2, BM, has been placed in command of the new 123. SD, XXXIII SK, 3ya Armiya, Reserves AG, Moskva HQ/STAVKA. (Tallinn)
Air Force:
No changes in the VVS nor the Navy Air Fleet for the last 10 days.​

Navy:
Another five Sevastopol-Class Destroyers have been delivered in Sevastopol. They will form 12. Flotiliya Esmintsev, and are on their way to I. Avianosets Flote.
Navy Numbers (Flotillas / Ships)
Transports: 2 / 10
AG-boat Class (I): 11 / 55
Series II Class(II): 9 / 45
Series V-bis Class(III): 3 / 15
Submarines: 23 / 115
Norvik-Class (I) : 3 / 15
Gnevnyi-Class (II): 2 / 10
Kiev-Class (IV): 1 / 5
Sevastopol-Class (IV+): 4 / 20
Destroyers: 10 / 45
Light Cruisers / Profitern-Class (I): 3
Escorts: 13 / 53
Heavy Cruiser / Krasnyi Kavkaz (I): 1
Battleships / Gangut-Class (I): 3
Escort Carriers / Moskva-Class (I): 2
Fleet Carrier / Kyiv-Class (I): 1
Capitals: 7
Total combat ships: 20 / 57
Total Navy: 45 / 182
Leaders: 13/ 21 Reserve
In the Leningrad ship yards, work has started on a new fleet of 5 large troop transport ships.
Politics / International:
The Norwegian Front
Norway (Surrender Progress / NU): 0,00 / 84,9 =
Germany (Surrender Progress / NU): 0,0 / 82,8 =
For some reason, Germany has started Infantry Divisions out of Norway even before their replacements finished making their way through Sweden. This has lead to a slowdown in German operations. Two provinces were lost to the Wehrmacht, Nordberg and Gråho, halfway between Bergen and Trondheim. Norway took back the German bridgehead over the river Glomma in Alvdal, indicating that they may be pushing north to cut off German reinforcements by taking back Roros.
GNW41-08-02-min.jpeg

In the South, nothing happened, again.
British North Africa Front
United Kingdom (Surrender Progress / NU): 5,5 / 77,7 Retaking of Al Qahira.
Italy (Surrender Progress / NU): 0,00 / 79,4
BNAF41-08-02-min.jpeg

The British forces are rapidly pushing the Italians back across the Nile. British tanks rolled into Al Qahira. Moreover, the British seem to be forming a stable line along the Eastern bank of the Nile while they clear the area between the Red Sea / Suez Canal and the Nile. British forces can now see Alexandria across the Nile, and it is expected that they will soon recover the city.
French North Africa Front
France is a Government in exile.
Italy (Surrender Progress / NU): 0,00 / 79,4
FNAF41-08-02-min.jpeg

Here, the Italians seem to remain well supplied, at least better than the French Army, they have reached the outskirts of Casablanca. While the French navy continues it's repairs and the Admirals hold large banquets, the Garrison of the city remains the only force in the area with some bullets and some semblance of organisation. The upcoming battle of Casablanca will be the first actual battle in French Northern Africa in several months.

Industry:
Working Industrial Capacity / available capacity: 240 / 324
IC Usage: ( Allocated IC / Need )
Upgrades: 20,30 / 31,16
Reinforcement: 2,00 / 2,24
Supplies: 28,00 / 42,37
Production: 244,54 / 246,61 (the Licensed MP remains mostly unfunded)
Consumer Goods: 29,16 / 29,16​
Stockpiles:
Energy: Maximum tonnes +
Metal: Maximum tonnes +
Rares: 39.658 tonnes +
Crude: Maximum barrels +
Supplies: 42.354 tonnes +
Fuel: Maximum barrels +
Money: 2.179 -​

Intelligence:
Spy numbers, spies in (active / added / lost / caught by us)
France (Supporting our Party / Counterespionage): 5 / 0 / 0 / 0
{ Germany (/): 0 / 0 / 0 / 1 }
{ Japan (/): 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 }​
UK (Laying low) : 7 / 1 / 4 / 1
Other: 0 / 0 / 0 / 4
Total: 12 / 1 / 4 / 6
Reserves: 0
Spy training leadership expenditure: 0,65 (a new spy every 10 days)
Another approach was tried by our restless spies in the UK, as they went on the offensive. The result was a draw, with 4 spies captured in the UK, one from Australia, one from Nepal, one from Australia, and one from Scotland Yard. On the flip side, 4 of our spies were caught by agents from New Zealand, Buthan, Iraq, and the UK. Our spies in the UK have again returned into hiding, waiting for reinforcements to wear down British counterespionage some more in hopes of getting it low enough to do some actual espionnage...
At home, one spy from Germany and one spy from Hungary were caught.
Research:
A new type of 250kg Lights bomb (Level 2) is ready for use. The new Bombs were designed specifically to be carried in pairs under the wings of the brand new Ilyushin Il-10s.
Il-10Bombs-min.png

A diagram showing the various possible bomb loads of the Il-10. On the left, four 100kg bombs in and below the wings, on the right, two new 250kg bombs under the wings.
Funding was shifted to VVS theorists and tacticians for them to further develop the VVSs Battlefield Interdiction (Level 2) bombardment strategy, which consists in teaching our bomber crews to better spot and bomb enemy reserves preparing to reinforce a battle.
Statistics:
National Unity: 83,241 =
Neutrality: 0,00 =
Dissent: 0,00 =
Manpower:
Available: 2.108.000
Men To reinforce(need): 6.660
Men To mobilise(need): See above
Monthly gain: 48.200 Men (1 fully mobilised Infx3, AT Division every 7 days)​
Party Popularity:
- Communist Party: 57 (+7)
- Trotskyite: 4 (-3)
- Bukharinite: 8 (+4)

- Octobrist: 7 (-2)
- Social-Revolutionary: 5 (-5)
- Trudoviks: 4 (-4)
- Kadets: 5 (+2)

- Tsarists: 3 =
- NTS: 5 (+4)
- POA: 1 (-5)
The people of the Soviet Union are actively rallying to support the Communist Party now, especially the people previously supporting the Capitalist factions seem to have had a change of heart.
Party Organisation:
- Communist Party: 81,12 (+0,42)
- Trotskyite: 8,90 (-0,1)
- Bukharinite: 4,00 (-0,1)

- Octobrist: 4,60 (-0,1)
- Trudoviks: 1,30 (-0,1)
- Social-Revolutionary: 0,00 =
- Kadets: 0,00 =

- Tsarists: 0,00 =
- NTS: 0,00 =
- POA: 0,00 =
This Information is accurate on the morning of the 2nd of August 1941, I hope it serves you well in fine-tuning your possible suggestions.

'Odin'​
 
Last edited:
Not much to suggest at this point. I think we are all waiting for the first shoe to drop. Outside of sending the Mountain Rifle Division to the Far East but that may be me just being paranoid.
 
Our spies have been able to provide a rough outline of German industrial output, research, and armed forces.

While excellent news, perhaps a tad out of place in a report on British industry? ;)

That was certainly a detailed report and made for quite a spot of reading! I now know far more about British politics than I ever wanted to, and doubtless far less than @El Pip would like all of us to.
 
Impressive work!
Thanks for your support. I'll try to keep up these standards for future updates.

Not much to suggest at this point. I think we are all waiting for the first shoe to drop. Outside of sending the Mountain Rifle Division to the Far East but that may be me just being paranoid.
I'm not sure where those mountaineers will be sent yet, but as all three places (besides the main front) I believe we might need or want more men have a lot of mountains, Mountaineers are a good way to go...They will take several months to train, so we'll have to see then, whether the first shoe will have dropped, and where...

While excellent news, perhaps a tad out of place in a report on British industry? ;)
How did that even happen, I swear sometimes my fingers have a mind of their own when I'm typing...:rolleyes:

That was certainly a detailed report and made for quite a spot of reading! I now know far more about British politics than I ever wanted to, and doubtless far less than @El Pip would like all of us to.
I think few people will ever come close to the level of knowledge @El Pip would like them to have on this particular topic...;)
 
I think few people will ever come close to the level of knowledge @El Pip would like them to have on this particular topic...;)
That is correct, but you are making a valiant effort.
IndeedSir.gif
 
In depth analysis (well, for most normal mortals, anyway ;) ) on the politics! And the Germans continue to fritter away precious time in Norway while the Committee continues to make the SU a nastier proposition than they faced in OTL - and still lost! Hitler had better ensure his bunker in Berlin is well fortified ...
 
That is correct, but you are making a valiant effort.
IndeedSir.gif
In depth analysis (well, for most normal mortals, anyway ;) ) on the politics!
Thank you for your support, I'm glad you appreciate the work, I will endeavour to keep standards up, and if time permits, to raise them further...

And the Germans continue to fritter away precious time in Norway while the Committee continues to make the SU a nastier proposition than they faced in OTL - and still lost! Hitler had better ensure his bunker in Berlin is well fortified ...
Well, the more resources he spends on his bunker, the fewer he'll have spent on placing Tiger in our way before we get there... Then again, our generals might just be very incompetent and unable to take advantage of the numerous forces at their disposal... Though I don't see them use tanks to Garrison an Island, mainly because we don't have any Islands that even remotely matter... The Red Army remains mostly untested, Winter War Veterans are but a small fraction of the leadership, and the winter war was not won through the General's skills but through overwhelming numerical superiority, unchallenged Air Superiority, and heavy bombardments for every single battle... It's a large front, and many things can still go wrong, but with the forces we've added this summer, I'm ever more confident of final victory, on the European theatre at least... Soon, the Germans will have lost the war before they even start fighting us, if that's not already the case...
 
That brings up something I would like to ask. One way we can help our "Generals" is find any weak spots in the German lines, figure out which General is facing it, and making sure that, maybe, he has a little extra force to deal with it. In other words, putting the deck in our favor in the spots we can bring over-whelming force to. If that is even possible. Any areas along the line where the Axis has NOT done their best to properly prepare? Any cracks in the German wall?
 
That brings up something I would like to ask. One way we can help our "Generals" is find any weak spots in the German lines, figure out which General is facing it, and making sure that, maybe, he has a little extra force to deal with it. In other words, putting the deck in our favor in the spots we can bring over-whelming force to. If that is even possible. Any areas along the line where the Axis has NOT done their best to properly prepare? Any cracks in the German wall?
For starters, the Axis is still moving a lot of units around, so any such measure would be tough to implement now to say the least. We've been adding Artillery to Rifle Divisions on the border, giving priority to the places where the line is at it's thinnest. As the AGs are run by the AI, adding units will not necessarily result in strengthening of the area in front of a German weak point anyway. We have defensive reserves in cities and some other areas behind the front, which will be activated in case the front gets to them, and 2ya Tankovaya Armiya hasn't received any orders yet, so that could quickly be given objectives anywhere north of the marshes.
In the south we have a smaller mobile reserve of 2 MSK and 1 KK, as well as our H Arm Division and another on the way.
 
12th of August 1941, 'Odin', 10-day report #168
The 12th of August 1941, Vologda, 6,7°C, 10am Moscow Time,

Report on the state of the Soviet Union for the ten day period between the 3rd and the 12th of August 1941,

by 'Odin'

Army:
11. 12. and 13. Garnizon Diviziya (Garx2) have been deployed to Odessa, Batumi, and Archanglesk.
10. Tyazhelaya Tankovaya Gvardeskaya Diviziya (H Arm, Gdsx2, Art, Eng) has been deployed to Horodok, 180km behind the southern part of the German Border, for now it is attached to 4th Army Group, Odessa HQ independently.

Army numbers (Brigades/Personnel) Reserves included (these numbers don't include regiments being upgraded):
Front line troops: 647 / 1.941.000
Support troops: 278 / 278.000
Total fighting troops: 925 / 2.219.000
Headquarters: 61 / 61.000
Total Army Personnel: 986 / 2.280.000
Officers: 90.015 + / 98.190 needed / 91,674 %
Active Leaders: 259 / 164 more available
Production of KV-122s continues while more Guards Riflemen are trained, another TTGvD will be formed as soon as the tanks have all rolled out of the factory, probably by the start of the new year.
2 more Garx2 Divisions have started training, to be placed in the coastal defences in case the Rifle Corps in Tallin and Riga are needed elsewhere.
Army leadership:
New Maj. General Novikov N.A. SK3, BM, has been placed in command of the new 10. TTGvD, 4th Army Group, Odessa HQ.
New Maj. General Sokolov SK1, LW, has been placed in command of the new 11. GarD, Odessa HQ in Odessa.
New Maj. General Tutarinov SK1, LW, has been placed in command of the new 12. GarD, 5th Army Group, Stalingrad HQ in Batumi.
New Maj. General Tutarinov SK1, LW, has been placed in command of the new 12. GarD, Leningrad HQ in Archanglesk.
Air Force:
124 Il-2M3s have been delivered to the VVS, they have been formed into 10. ShAD, and attached to now Air Lt. General Rudenko's IV. ShAK, bringing his Assault Aviation Corps up to the standard CASx2, Ftr.
Aeroplane Numbers (Wings/Planes):
Interceptors: 26 / 3.224
Multi-Role Fighters: 6 / 744
Close Air Support: 8 / 992
Carrier Air Groups: 7 / 434
Single Engined: 47 / 5.394
Tactical Bomber: 4 / 400
Total Bombers: 12 / 1.392
Transport Planes: 2 / 248
Total VVS: 45 / 5.608
Total Navy: 7 / 434
Total Aeroplanes: 53 / 6.042
Active Leaders: 18 / 24 Reserve
For now, the production line has switched to churning out Il-10s for existing Assault Aviation Divisions to replace their Il-2M3s.
Navy:
No changes to VVS nor Navy Air Fleet numbers for the last 10 days.
Politics / International:
The Norwegian Front
Norway (Surrender Progress / NU): 0,00 / 84,9 =
Germany (Surrender Progress / NU): 0,0 / 82,8 =
Fresh German units have started arriving in Roros in force, Infantry, Mountaineers, Motorised Infantry, even Heavy Armour are all arriving in quick succession. In response, the Norwegians launched a small scale offensive to try to close the gap, but it was too little too late. After having recaptured Koppang, and Tynset on their way there, they were faced with many times their own number once they were in a position to challenge the Wehrmacht for Roros.
The Germans didn't sit still, and as Norway pulled troops for it's offensive to the East, the Wehrmacht captured the Graho-Nordberg salient, significantly shortening the route to the south for the incoming reinforcements.

GNW41-08-12-min.jpeg

Shortly after the last report was delivered, the British decided to try and help out Norway, finally. However, to limit British casualties, an exiled Belgian unit, the 2ème Division de Ligne was selected for the job at hand. Now, this would have been fine, and even great if they had been dropped in Oslo, but, not caring about Belgian casualties, the British had them perform an opposed amphibious landing with no landing craft... in 10 days, more than 1.000 of the Belgian Infantrymen, lead by quite an inexperienced and unskilled leader, were killed out on the beaches of Kristiansand, while they did their best to quickly offload their Divisional 155mm howitzers from what are little more than wooden rowing boats. The assault is still ongoing, with little chance of success despite facing a Garrison they outnumber and being backed up by Naval Gunfire from HMS Warspite.
I'd like to know who in the British high command thought that sending in a bunch of Belgians trained for trench warfare on an amphibious Assault, against a manned fortified position, heavy artillery pieces still in tow, would be a good idea. This isn't even a distraction for the Germans as their Garrison remains almost perfectly organised, having lost only a couple hundred men, mainly to Naval bombardment, in ten days of fighting thanks to the protection of their Coastal Fortifications. What an exercise in futility... All while specialised Royal Marines, who could have pulled this off are fighting in the desert in Egypt...
British North Africa Front
United Kingdom (Surrender Progress / NU): 5,5 / 77,7
Italy (Surrender Progress / NU): 0,00 / 79,4
BNAF41-08-12-min.jpeg

The Italians may be out of supplies, but they aren't quite beaten yet, as several of their Divisions, including a Light Armour Division make a stand as the British Armoured Division tries to cross the Nile into Ezbet Abû Keifu. The British tankers seem to have the upper hand in the battle, aided by another RAF Ground Bombardment campaign and plentiful supply, they are slowly overcoming the downsides of crossing a river in tanks, under fire, facing superior numbers... They're doing a lot better than the Belgians in Norway anyway...Here, there is no excuse... There is a Royal Marines Division in the province to the south that could have done the job better... To the South, said Marines crossed the Nile unopposed at El Faiyûm and are moving north, rolling up the Italian lines over land along the Nile, while an Infantry Division is reasserting control over the now unoccupied provinces East of the Nile, starting with Râs Ghârib.
French North Africa Front
France is a Government in exile.
Italy (Surrender Progress / NU): 0,00 / 79,4
FNAF41-08-12-min.jpeg

After the Italians took Rabat, reaching the Atlantic for the first time, the battle for Casablanca started. A single well-supplied Italian binary Infantry Division is fighting two dug-in binary Garrison Divisions and a binary Motorised Division, which miraculously managed to steal just enough supplies from the French Navy to be able to help out. It's a heroic fight, mostly hand to hand combat, but there is no way they will win when the Italians are well-fed, and have actual bullets for their rifles.
Overhead, a desperate Air Battle rages, with one of the Béarn's Air Groups, low on fuel and ammunition, contesting the skies overhead with more than twice their number in Italian SM79 Spaviero's endeavouring to bomb the French Garrison into rubble.
In the panic, a French fleet of composed of 4 transport Flotillas and the Light Cruiser Pluton is fleeing the port and heading for Beirut, cargo holds and decks empty... This is the last straw for France, without it's main transport Fleet in the area, there is no chance for any more than a Division or 2 of the Armée de l'Afrique to get out, if that...
Industry:
More Radar detection equipment was delivered, some of it was installed to expand the reach of the Vitsyebsk Radar Station with large antenna's and beefed-up electronics (Level 5)
The rest was used to start up a new Radar Station at Berezan Air Base, it will be modest to start with (Level 2), but more equipment has been ordered to bring it up to par with the Leningrad and Vitsyebsk installations.

Working Industrial Capacity / available capacity: 240 / 324
IC Usage: ( Allocated IC / Need )
Upgrades: 27,70 / 34,13
Reinforcement: 4,00 / 4,15
Supplies: 28,00 / 42,98
Production: 235,14 / 237,01 (the Licensed MP remains mostly unfunded)
Consumer Goods: 29,16 / 29,16​
Stockpiles:
Energy: Maximum tonnes +
Metal: Maximum tonnes +
Rares: 40.015 tonnes +
Crude: Maximum barrels +
Supplies: 42.610 tonnes +
Fuel: Maximum barrels +
Money: 2.164 -​

Intelligence:
Spy numbers, spies in (active / added / lost / caught by us)
France (Supporting our Party / Counterespionage): 5 / 0 / 0 / 0
{ Germany (/): 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 }
{ Japan (/): 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 }​
UK (Laying low) : 7 / 1 / 1 / 0
Other: 0 / 0 / 0 / 0
Total: 12 / 1 / 1 / 0
Reserves: 0​
Spy training leadership expenditure: 0,65 (a new spy every 10 days)
After our small covert offensive, Scotland Yard beefed up it's counter-Espionage operation and they managed to capture one of our spies who was just not laying low enough... he was replaced the day after, so we're exactly back where we were last time
Research:
Red Army Theorists have released new and improved guidelines for Artillery to Concentrate (Level 3) it's rolling fire during any sort of Assault.
Now they are looking into improvements to our Rifle Divisions' Platoon and Squad level organisation, to better adapt it to their improving understanding of Infantry Warfare (Level 4).
The VVS theorists, not to be lest behind, came up with much improved communications and organisation at the Tactical Air Command (Level 2) level for the coordination of ground bombardment operations. This should decrease the time necessary to re-organise bomber units in between operations.
As much improvements can still be made, they were told to continue their work on the Tactical Air Command (Level 3) level.
Statistics:
National Unity: 83,241 =
Neutrality: 0,00 =
Dissent: 0,00 =
Manpower:
Available: 2.102.000
Men To reinforce(need): 7.870
Men To mobilise(need): See above
Monthly gain: 48.200 Men (1 fully mobilised Infx3, AT Division every 7 days)​
No changes in Party Popularity for the last 10 days
Party Organisation:
- Communist Party: 81,22 (+0,1)
- Trotskyite: 8,80 (-0,1)
- Bukharinite: 3,90 (-0,1)

- Octobrist: 4,50 (-0,1)
- Trudoviks: 1,20 (-0,1)
- Social-Revolutionary: 0,00 =
- Kadets: 0,00 =

- Tsarists: 0,00 =
- NTS: 0,00 =
- POA: 0,00 =
This Information is accurate on the morning of the 12th of August 1941, I hope it serves you well in fine-tuning your possible suggestions.

'Odin'​
 
The new Heavy Guards Tank Division will surely be a fine addition to ̶m̶y̶ ̶c̶o̶l̶l̶e̶c̶t̶i̶o̶n̶ the Red Army and should bring some much-needed heavy hitting power to the Southern part of the front. A lot of work on doctrines, which will surely be a nice power multiplier.

The Norwegians seem to now be fighting a battle they have already lost, as do the French. What possessed them to not evacuate a part or all of their troops with the transports I will never understand, but given their very limited numbers it may not be too destructive for the Allies as a whole. Hopefully the RN is prepared to continue to intercept supply convoys headed for Italian North Africa, so the Royal Army can keep running down the Axis. Destroying that German HARM would be a major blow.
 
The new Heavy Guards Tank Division will surely be a fine addition to ̶m̶y̶ ̶c̶o̶l̶l̶e̶c̶t̶i̶o̶n̶ the Red Army and should bring some much-needed heavy hitting power to the Southern part of the front. A lot of work on doctrines, which will surely be a nice power multiplier.
Yes, we now have twice as many KV-122s as before... and all of them are in the south... they are behind the front line as well, meant as a nasty surprise for any German offensive in the south...

The Norwegians seem to now be fighting a battle they have already lost, as do the French. What possessed them to not evacuate a part or all of their troops with the transports I will never understand, but given their very limited numbers it may not be too destructive for the Allies as a whole.
It has been long clear that the coordination between the French Army and the French navy is close to non-existant... this is just the logical consequence of non-communication between the branches of the French military.
Well, 'limited number' is relative... the French have about 50 Brigades total, and they stand to loose about 30 of them in Northern Africa... The British have 175 Brigades, so it's still a significant loss for the Allies... if those Divisions had received supplies, the Italians would surely have lost their North-African holdings months ago, not to mention, that just a few of those Divisions in Egypt would be quite helpful for the British... And that's not counting the units that were overrun previously...
Maybe more significantly, the fall of Casablanca will probably prompt the relocation of the French Surface navy to somewhere with supplies, probably Beirut. And the French navy is still a force to be reckoned with... 4 BBs, 1 BC, 1 CV, 6 CA, 6 CL, 10 DD, 7 TP. If the RN has to peel off surface units to defend the Far East, it might be handy if the French Navy is there to fill the gap in the Med, or the Atlantic, or both... The fact that there was no vichy means that the Naval balance should be more in the Allies' favour, as long as the French fleet is repaired and well supplied...

Hopefully the RN is prepared to continue to intercept supply convoys headed for Italian North Africa, so the Royal Army can keep running down the Axis. Destroying that German HARM would be a major blow.
Incidentally, it seems the most successful convoy hunters in the Med are the 14 French Submarines, based out of Beirut, and hunting around Taranto and Palermo.

What a great work, this political overview about the Brits!
Thanks for your support, I'm glad you liked it, I will endeavour to keep writing these kinds of updates every so often, as time permits... The next government report will probably be about Italy... though I don't have a timeline for when you can expect it yet.