I truely do have no life. I felt like doing another update, a transitional piece, as nothing much happens for almost all of 1937 and 1938. I really hate it when I have to jum such large gaps, but a lot of the stuff that the game has for that time period wont fire.
After the French had squashed Italy unexpectedly fast the German Armed Forces faced a possibilitsy no one dared thinking about before. Fighting a two, and if Austria actually joined the Allies, three front war. This did not ease the sleep of the planners at the KSS and the MoD at all, but the situation could not be helped. The Cabinet and the Bundestag approved a bill that would allow the Heer to almost double its strength by the end of 1938, and the Panzertruppen also recieved good news: Not only would they soon get the Panzer III "Fuchs", armed with a 50mm gun, and until that model was ready the Panzer II "Luchs" with a 20mm gun as a stopgap measure.
A "Luchs" shortly after beeing delivered to the 7. Panzerdivision
A early prototype of the Panzer III "Fuchs"
Politically nothing changed in the Republic, but the world stood by no means still. In North and Central Africa the French were still slowly pushing the British back, although the British had captured most of the Belgian Congo. In Lybia the meager Italian forces that hadn't yet thrown the towel slowly but surely retreated towards the Egyptian border. This was the Situation in Africa, and it would stay essentially like that as both sides were either unwilling or unable to commit larger forces than what already was in the theatre, although the British sent several Divisions to strengthen the Italian hold onto Sardinia. In Africa British Forces consisted of mainly Militia, and these could not hope to match the Armeé d' Afriques thinly stretched but professional Infantry and Cavalry Divisions. The British tried multiple landings in Morocco, but each was too weak to hold the Bridghead for more than a few weeks, and lost multiple Divisions that way. What they did accomplish was that the French could not hope to break the line in Lybia, despite some local gains in the area.
This was the situation: Great War type trenchwarfare in Lybia and turtle-speed advance in central afrika.
Like that 1937 went by, with a rapid expansion of the Heer, the Luftwaffe and the Marine, which recieved the first Bismark Class BB, the DMS Bismark and two new Battlecruisers, DMS Scharnhorst and DMS Gneisenau. 1938 began similarly, only that the Heer grew stronger, as the first Divisions of the third Panzerkorps were deployed to the area south of Berlin and the first "Fuchs" medium tanks were delivered to the units in the field, and tmuch to the delight of the Panzer Troops prove itself to be a reliable and capable machine, despite its relatively small main armament, but the Krupp works already had something bigger on the drawing board, sporting a 75 mm gun, and just waited for funding to develop it into a full production model, but for the moment their task was to develop a new line of field and AT guns for the Infantry Corps.
A standard Bundeswehr Infantry Corps was made up of Six Divisions, with two of them equipped with an Artillery, Anti Tank Gun and AA attachement, as the Luftwaffe would not always be there to provide air cover same as the Heers panzers could not be everywhere at the same time. The Heer hoped that this would make the standard Corps a well-rounded formation, versitaile enough to perform well on both Offense and Defense. The Standard German Panzerkorps was made up differently, to make use of what Guderian, now Commander of the I. Panzerkorps had described as "Combined Arms". Its four Divisions of Panzers would be closely followed by Infantry that was to be fully motorized to be able to keep up with the spearheads, to protect the flanks of said spearhead against any counterattacks by bypassed enemy units and stragglers that might find the opportunity too tempting to pass on. The years 1937 and 1938 was therefore a busy year for the Germans, wether they worked in agriculture, an Office or the Armaments Industry, and that made them forget that the world did not end at the German borders and not even the beginning of the 2nd Sino-Japanese War in june 1937 could bring them out of this state. This however changed rapidly when a new crisis brewed up in Europe, and this one concerned the Germans directly. In Chzeckoslovakia the German Ambassador was scheduled for retirement and was to fly home with a converted He 111 Bomber used by the Exequtive Squadron of the Luftwaffe and this plane was clearly marked as such, but this apperantly did not occur to the two Chzeck pilots that were out on a standard training flight, to practice attacks on ground targets. They apperantly mistook the executive flight for a spay-plane. The Chzeck Air Force had promised to send escorting fighters, but these had not showed up at the rendezvous point, and the plane had to make the run to German Airspace alone. The two fighters that did find the plane approached from the rear and made, according to radio intercepts no challenge and shot the plane down with three short bursts.
The Incident exploded into a full-fledged crisis not until several days later. The Czecks pilots who were scorned by their superiours clamied that they had seen the plane photograph border fortifications. This was most certainly not true, but the Czecks were still milking the incident for what propaganda value it had. They recieved unexpected assistance from the United Kingdom, where Moseley, after the last two years catastrophic defeats in Africa, where the French had finally advanced to the Egyptian border. He also still bore a grudge on the Germans as they had made him look like a fool in front of his own country. He also personally hated the Republic because in his eyes the democratic system was "full of decadent Bolshewiks and Socialist scumbags that will jump into bed with the socialists at the earliest opportunity". He also secretly accused the BND and the BRD in general of secretly aiding the French in their war against him. He had long yearned for a opportunity to get back at the germans and he so jumped to this opportunity when teh Chzeck ambassador asked for the terms under which the Chzeckoslovakian Facist Republic might join the Allied Alliance.
The Czecks demanded an immediate apology by Germany for trying to spy on the border. Adenauer felt like he was listening to a broken record, especially when he thought of the Submarine crisis that had led to the Anglo-French war. He made a speech in front of the Bundestag three weeks after the plan had been shot down, knowing fully well that the last such crisis had let to a full-scale war.
Adenauers speech said:
Fellow members of the Bundestag. The Heinkel Crisis that has sprung up so unexpectedly has the potential for a major regional conflict. The Czechoslovakian Facist republic has accused us of spying on their borderfortifications in preparation for a full scale war! This is most certainly not true. There were times when talk like that would have been used as a casus belli, in fact a equally minor incident sparked off the great war! This is why I am asking my coleague in Orague to reconsider. I am willing to refrain from any demands on the Czecks but the one that they apologize to the families of the victims of this tragic incident.
Germany held its breath.