Heavy Bombing Campaign (Part 1)
AAR REVISION NOTICE: The avatars that introduce each report showed ending positions, which was somewhat confusing. So, in future the avatars will show start positions while their movement(s) will be shown through the course of the month. These new reports will begin in the May report, so for a change this week's review will contain background information on the state of Germany's affairs.
Governmental Affairs:
DIPLOMACY: The Axis is currently in the lead in VPs. The Allies have been gaining numerous members, but most in Europe are either neutral or leaning towards the Axis. Italy has been asking for membership for over a year, but their military was deemed too underdeveloped. Now that Italy has gone to war in Greece--if they were admitted presently they would immediately be at war with Britain. Since Germany can not spare any divisions for the defence of Italy (in that eventuality), it is advisable to take a wait-see approach before making any decisions on the Mediterranean front.
PRODUCTION: The Reich has plenty of resources and supplies as well as ample industrial capacity. Following a successful rebuilding of the Lufwaffe, the queue is now filled with the Kreigsmarine building program. The Army is in upgrade mode, so will probably return to full production next month. In the short term the queue contains a number of militia and infantry corps, including a prototype mechanized infantry. Of lower priority are an impressive number of shore forts, expanded air bases, radar installations, and a missile research facility.
TECHNOLOGY:
Land forces enjoy good theoretical and practical ratings, high combat experience, and high mobile warfare doctrine rating.
The navy possesses good theoretical numbers in both surface and subsurface engineering. Submarine practical scores are very good, and the surface fleet will improve in the immediate future.
Airplane engineering numbers are very good, and practical experience in interceptor, bomber, and strategic aircraft are exceedingly good. Air combat have the highest score of any category, as well the doctrine numbers are good across the board. A trickle of effort has gone into the jet propulsion and rocket programs, which should pay dividends in the years to come.
Industrial numbers are fairly strong in mechanics, followed by electronics, chemistry, and building construction. A large number of radar installations and short forts are in the building queue, and these should improve these numbers considerably. The nuclear program also has a trickle of research that should pick up in later years.
POLITICS: Two political leaders (Hess, Speer) help propel industrial production. The army is preferred with organizational regain and supply consumption (Jodl, von Blomberg). Investments in capital ships and light aircraft are also protected (Reader, von Siemens). One thing the Axis doesn't need is drift uncontrollably, so susceptibility to Axis is preferred (von Neurath). As for intelligence, Germany enjoys several advantages from the NSDAP and espionage bonus (Hitler), so intelligence is directed towards the needs of the army and navy (Canaris).
STRATEGIC WAREFARE: Greater Germany enjoys a relatively peaceful existence. Convoy raiding goes back and forth. At present submarine and naval air forces are operating out of NW Spain and expect to return to action this month. (Background: Events in the Spanish peninsula represent something of a perfect storm as all the key Atlantic ports including Gibraltar are in German hands, while Madrid, the Mediterranean. ports and islands, along with much of Spanish North Africa is controlled by Nationalist Spain, which is a German proxy.)
Interceptors in northern France have done an excellent job of containing the Allied bombing efforts. The strategic bombing of the USSR also helps offset these numbers. Manpower numbers are very good, but officer recruitment is somewhat down due to a large number of units deployed recently. Fortunately Germany has the capacity to turn this number around quickly. One area that has been a problem is national unity, which has been stuck at 79 for some time now.
The goal is to reach "80" so Germany can implement Heavy Industry. Therefore, every time Germany has the advantage spys work to raise national unity. When Germany is loosing the strategic effort the spy network switches to counter-intellegence, and so on.
INTELLEGENCE: Soviets agents are not putting up much of a fight in the way of counterespionage. Army doctrine seems to be a top priority since it doesn't require upgrading. The Soviet Union has over 340 divisions and may be running out of manpower. Officer training also seems to be lagging, but these numbers may be off by as much as 50 percent.
