I wouldn’t mind some of those Yak 7s in my parallel time line! Best we currently have are ‘new’ Polykarpov I-16s, with LaGG 3s on order.
This waiting is getting hard to bear!
This waiting is getting hard to bear!
Well, I'd love to have some T-34s and IS-2s... I seem to have different research priorities from the Soviet AI in Talking TurkeyI wouldn’t mind some of those Yak 7s in my parallel time line! Best we currently have are ‘new’ Polykarpov I-16s, with LaGG 3s on order.
Glad you liked it. You'll be glad to know that those planes are exactly to scale... just goes to show just how huge the TB-3 is compared to, well, pretty much anything short of an Aircraft Carrier...A most excellent report! The new aircraft currently on order should be a nice little boost to the effectiveness of the VVS. All the technical details have my engineer heart positively bursting with joy.
It will be kept in mind... if war is declared, we should get a serious production boost from total economic mobilisation, so we could always add more Transports...both on sea and on land...especially as those don't take up valuable officers... Also, my Heavy Aircraft Practicals aren't too bad and we're producing Strategic Bombers anyway.If there are vacancies in the production queue, I would advocate for adding another air transport corps, or perhaps increasing the existing one to three flights instead of two, if not enough capacity for two flights can be spared. It would do wonders for our ability to conduct airborne assaults and to supply units even when they are cut off from our main lines. Especially important, if our troops end up getting pushed back, as cities are considerably easier to defend and may be able to hold while the lines get pushed back around them. It would be heartbreaking to have a city heroically hold its own but be forced to surrender because we don't have enough planes to keep them supplied.
Well, first of all, with my practical levels the difference in expenditure is less than 70 IC-days, so with my enormous IC, that's pretty close to nothing...What is the reasoning behind using the heavy fighter/multirole planes as escorts for the assault corps? I would think that since CAS has such short range, the cheaper INTs would be able to the job just as well while saving some IC for other things.
Those bourgeois in the British high command couldn't care less about loss of life, as long as their tanks are safe...The Fascists advance! Truly, it is an insult to workers and common folk everywhere that the fascists are running them down with ease while their supposed "protectors", the wretched capitalists, show their complete ignorance by using armour to stand guard on an island!
Right now, they still have more units in East Africa than in the Middle East... says it all (just as the tanks in Malta do...)The Middle East: it seems the British just don’t know how to defend there properly and are running out of time to learn.
Norway is the delay... explanation to follow in the coming report...The GPW: the Germans are beginning to run out of time for a 1941 campaign - into July already! Norway must be the delay. It will prove fatal - the Fascists will be roasted in their own lard.
To be fair, they're also pulling Infantry and Mountaineers away from the Soviet border as well...though the H Arm and Mot are already in Sweden because of their higher speed. But it's not only that, imo they should have ignored the 'opportunity' Norway presented, at most sending in one or two Gebirgsjäger Divisions, and charge at the Soviet union in late May or Early June. They may not know it yet, but H Arm or not, this miscalculation will be their early demise... considering the troops and tanks we'll have in the spring of 1942, and the fact that the Japs will most likely be distracted, they may just get pushed back to Berlin by 1944... especially if they leave H Arm Divisions rolling around in Norway and Egypt of all places.Heavy tanks and motorized infantry pulled away from the Soviet border to fight in Norway? That's absurd! They will be fuck-all useful in the mountains (considering cost vs benefit of foot infantry and them) and the preparations for Barbarossa now suffer from an even more severe lack of teeth than before. OKW must have gone collectively insane.
With all those reinforcements moving up through Sweden , things might speed up in a week or two though... not because tanks will be much faster, but because the Germans will simply have more units to move up with, swamping the brave Norwegians with superior numbers, and Air Power...I feel that Norway is a sure German victory - but it will be a slow one at the rate they are advancing.
Well, moving that Tank Division from Malta to the Suez Canal Area would be a good start... also, the British defence is getting better organised every day, and the Italian supply lines must be stretched to their limits, or beyond... Having to supply troops from the Suez Canal to the Atlantic coast is not that easy, especially if the Med, particularly the Eastern part of it, is swarming with Royal Navy Fleets... so I do expect a certain amount of supply problems for the Italians. Maybe in this case a small but well supplied, experienced, and nimble force trumps the behemoth of an army the Italians are fielding, with all those heavy units, supply needs must be hard to meet.And the UK really have to do something about Africa and do something to protect the Middle East. Having Malta means nothing if they lose Suez Canal. Do they still have Gibraltar?
So, it was Norway. And their goose will certainly be cooked. My money is on them attacking as soon as they have reinforced again after taking out Norway. I don’t think they will wait until 1942 - but they have already missed the boat.
Right now Panzers are roaring to life and moving north-west... I do think @Bullfilter might be right, though that still gives us another couple of months, and great defensive weather to look forward to... as you say, they've missed the boat.Comrades, I can almost feel the German Panzers roaring to life and preparing to move East.
Well, our least confident commanders are those in the Far East, though they do believe us to have near parity with Japanese forces in the area... maybe a few more Amur Tiger Cavalry Divisions, and a few more Engineer Regiments will give them the punch they need to hold off the Japs, and maybe even do some damage... Not to mention the reserve Mountain Rifle Corps north of Mongolia, which could be just enough to tip the balance... Of course it's all theory until the fighting starts, and the local commanders aren't necessarily taking the Jap's experience from superior training and the Sino-Japanese war into account.Let’s blame the irrationality and folly of Hitler. Like Stalingrad in OTL, he can’t forgive the Norwegians for frustrating his plans so. You may be in Berlin by the end of 1943. Keeping Japan off your back would be a great boon, though they usually do seem to attack.
Good news at the Suez, with Britain finally getting its act into gear and the supply crunch we were all expecting finally hitting. And still the Hun hesitates.
Yes, the way it's looking now is that it's a full scale Italian rout, but they do have a lot of space to loose before they're threatened with annihilation... so now is the time for the British to speed ahead, and take as much as they can... with the troops they now have, they should be able to hold a narrow line, like at El Alamein or near Tobruch easily, even if the Italians re-establish supply...And so the jumbled house of cards that is the Italian Logistics finally collapses. Now if the British can really go to town on the Axis troops before supply is re-established in sufficient amounts, that theater will be a wrap, potentially leading to the destruction or surrender of significant portions of the Italian Army and at least one German Heavy Armour division, which would prove to be a major milestone in the war.
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...Couldn't airbases on the Crimean peninsula also serve well against Turkey, or are you expecting to use that against Germany simultaneously and thus prefer to base the air assets for that operation elsewhere?