The War Down Under: A Tale of Australia, 1936-1948

[TheFilthyCasual]

A few things before I start:

- Yes, I'm a noob. I haven't played this game for too long as I wasn't interested in the genre until recently
- no, I probably don't really know what I'm doing
- this is a very as-I-go kind of a deal, so if things go terribly wrong you all get to hear about it and laugh at me, if that's your thing
- depending on how this goes, veteran players may want to not follow this due to risk of death by facepalming
- I don't have photoshop so don't expect fancy graphic design

Right, moving on:

THE WAR DOWN UNDER

A Tale of Australia, 1936-1948​

As Recorded By The Right Honourable Joseph A. Lyons, Prime Minister

January 1936

As the new year begins I have resolved to take more prudent action in the cause of the defence of this island. The Mother Country and her old adversary may believe that they can ‘negotiate’ continual peace with the monsters of the world but I suspect they are delusional. Germany is not building such a large army purely for defence – for God’s sake the French can barely keep their own citizens in line, they have nothing to worry about from them. Italy is building a colonial empire in Africa. Benny seems to be trying to rival the British, if his ludicrous speeches are to be believed, and I very much doubt conquering Ethiopia will end his thirst, though Chamberlain seems to think it will (the naïve twat that he is). Most concerning to me is Japan – it is indeed scary to me to witness the unleashed fury of Nippon upon Asia now that they’ve dragged themselves into relative modernity and have discovered the joys of Empire – but from what I can tell their Empire is nowhere near the positive force the British Empire has been. Indeed they seem determined to humiliate and brutalize everyone they come across – God only knows what they will do to the rest of China if they chose to pursue their conquest further, and I see no reason why they’d not. China is a pathetic shadow of a great empire, if Japan put its mind to it the Chinese will be finished. What I am unable to predict is whether their ambitions lie beyond China – certainly they see the Russians as their nemesis, but I doubt they feel like chasing Ivan into Siberia while they have other things to attend to. The Philippines? Malaya? The East Indies? I cannot say for sure if they would dare take on the might of Britain and her offspring all at once – they have the navy to get them there but could it stand up to the Royal Navy? They have some fine ships but sheer industrial competition will win the day. For every Yamato, Britain has several ships of the line, and the Americans several more than that. I guess I will have to make a judge of character – are they fanatical and crazy enough to believe they can win, and thus risk attacking us? I cannot claim to have formed my opinion just yet.

Regardless, I took the time to think over my cabinet, and whether they have the fortitude and foresight to conduct a war. Pearce, I feel, is not. He is, on reflection, too much in the vein of Chamberlain. His willingness to avoid conflict is admirable but such a stance is flat out unacceptable when we are dealing with tyrants. At some point, a stand must be made and a line drawn where it is said “No, you shall go no further”, and I do not see him as having the conviction to take such a stance. He is too risk averse. Palmer MacBride does have such conviction – he may rile some people up when more tact may be advisable but people like him. If there were a war he’d be the man I would want doing recruitment drives. In any case Paterson can reassure people and provide some behind-the-scenes balance. He’s always been good at keeping our actual capabilities cloaked behind bureaucracy and legal mumbo jumbo and classification levels, even if he is a Bolshevik sympathizer. He can stay in the back, away from the spotlight.

Oh OK that’s unfair of me. He’s not a sympathizer, he simply sees the Reds as the lesser of two evils. But it’ll be a cold day in hell before Marshal Stalin gets any help from me.

Parkhill has done wonders for getting this deserted rock industrialized, so he can stay where he is.

McLachlan is a competent enough spymaster. He stays.

I have no viable candidates for military chief of staff. I can either hand it over to Colvin, who will no doubt conspire against the air force to build more ships instead of planes (bastard is a fine admiral but if he thinks we’re going to be able to build an armada he’s in lala land); or I could give it to Langley, a mover of men. I have no problem with the man and I would give him the spot immediately if it weren’t for the political ramifications. The man votes Country, which is too uncomfortably close to being Fascist for the public to stomach. People wouldn’t like it, and we’d be lambasted by Labour to no end in the next election for putting such people in charge. We need Country to keep our majority but putting them anywhere other than the backbench is simply too unpopular with the public and would lose us seats next time around. As such, Langley can’t be put in charge. Until a better candidate comes along I will keep the seat officially vacant and unofficially occupy it myself for practical purposes.

Lavarack, Colvin and Williams are what they are. To be honest as we’ve never had a war since the Great War ended I can’t gauge how effective they are in their positions, they’ve never fought a battle. They seem competent enough but I guess any troubles we encounter will let us know for sure, hm? In any case there are no viable alternatives to them so Australia’s military must be left in their hopefully capable hands.

The Cabinet and the latest polls

We absolutely must convene the cabinet and generate a defence plan. I feel a storm brewing and if it comes our way this country needs to be in a position to defend itself. It currently is definitely not. We have over 50000 troops on the rolls, but 3/4ths of them are reservists who are currently working their day jobs not manning their posts. All but one of our infantry regiments lack transport of any kind, they can only walk, making them utterly useless as anything but static garrison troops. In a country with this much coastline and so few people that isn’t an option. The defence must be flexible, troops must be able to fall back inland to continue resistance and must be able to move along the coast to counter landings away from their assigned positions. One, I stress this, ONE regiment has trucks to drive around in. This is unacceptable. Our only other mobile unit are two bloody cavalry regiments. Bloody horses! I thought we learned our lesson with those in the last war, I seriously have to interrogate Lavarack as to the purpose of such units when a few machine guns could take out hundreds of them in seconds.

Our “Royal” Navy has 2 Heavy Cruisers, 2 Light Cruisers with a 3rd to be launched by the end of February, a few dozen transports and Colvin’s “Scrap Iron Flotilla”, a collection of aging Destroyers that can barely float let alone sink an enemy ship. I don’t know what will be done with them. Our “Royal” Air Force consists of exactly one tactical bomber wing with about a hundred outdated aircraft. Those branches of our military don’t really earn their regal titles by any stretch of the imagination. Lavarack and Williams at least seem to realize our inadequacy in some manner. They both recently requested additions to the budget to requisition equipment and recruit men for new formations. Lavarack wants to organize a tank regiment and Williams wants three more tactical wings and a fighter wing (400 aircraft! Christ, Parkhill is going to have a heart attack). They haven’t given a full explanation for their requests. But I’m sure they will.

I really hate long meetings but I have a feeling I’m gonna be having a lot more of them for the foreseeable future.

***NEXT TIME: The Military Chiefs deliberate over defence strategies, force allocation while competing with each other over R&D funds and production lines; Parkhill tries to sync his infrastructure plans with military priorities; the PM juggles trade agreements.***

 

[TehDarkMiner]

Don't worry about being a noob, we'll help you along the way where you need it

subbed! I always enjoy an Australian AAR.

 

[sebas379]

This is looking promising, I'll tag along! I like the amount of detail you put into the political part of the post, well done.
And fear not, we all start out as noobs doing facepalming stuff, but you have the guts to start an AAR on it too, that's got you points already

 

[TehDarkMiner]

This is looking promising, I'll tag along! I like the amount of detail you put into the political part of the post, well done.
And fear not, we all start out as noobs doing facepalming stuff, but you have the guts to start an AAR on it too, that's got you points already

^

Just going through what you've done when you post your AARs teaches you a lot anyway. You start thinking things like 'why did I put that division there' or 'why have I wasted my LS on that tech?' and it really helps in itself

 

[TheFilthyCasual]

February 1936

To be honest I'm surprised how easy it was to get our deficiencies in resources covered. Oddly the Americans were pensive about giving us various metal ores but our British bretheren were all to happy to sell to us. Advantages of an international empire and common ancestry I suppose. We did get a supplies-for-oil deal from the Americans - they seem to be trying to build massive supply stockpiles. Why they would need Parkhill's wonderfully-realized surplus I have no idea considering their own production capacity but we are running an oil surplus with increasing stockpiles as a result so I don't really care for their reasoning to be frank.

Other than showing our pathetic production capacity, all of this is good news.​

A bigger issue was the allocation of funding. As one might expect the defence chiefs insisted they needed more than the others for any number of reasons but ultimately I shut them all down by ruling in favour of Parkhill's industrial plans. Yes we need tanks, yes we need specialized infantry equipment and training, yes we need modern destroyers and yes we need modern aircraft but without a solid industrial base with sleek and sexy efficiency we are going to be accomplishing those goals at a snail's pace. More resource extraction, more construction teams, more engineers - we need all of this. As it is, even if we mobilize our entire economy we could train, equip and supply 2 fighter wings by the end of the year. That's great if the air force is all you care about, but we have many other things to build.

I gave Parkhill's plan our research funding, much to the military's chagrin.​

The biggest issue we dealt with in January however by far was the issue of defending Australia. We juggled two ideas and it took quite a bit of debate to come to a conclusion. Colvin wanted to go "Singapore First" - we should assist the British in defending Malaya and keeping the British in the South Pacific. As long as Britain has Singapore, the Far East fleet can challenge the Japanese in the East Indies and South China Sea and thus, away from Australia. Britain's flanking position in Burma gives us a good opportunity to surround and destroy any Japanese attack force in Malaya. Colvin envisioned a battle in Malaya as "the decisive battle", victory in which would destroy what we assumed would be a sizable Japanese force and cripple their offensive capability, allowing for a smooth-going counter offensive and keeping the momentum in our favour. And while I agreed that holding Malaya is a critical goal, I had to side with Lavarack in the end. Malaya is not Australia, and if we should fail in Malaya we would, due to our limited capabilities, be unprepared for a solid defence of our own territory. Malaya can, though with some difficulty, always be retaken later. We must take care of our own citizens first and foremost. That was what Lavarack proposed - a strategy of "Australia First", I suppose you could say.

Langley was at Lavarack's side during the proceedings and was enthused about the possibility, but even Lavarack rejected Langley's notion of raising a sizable civilian militia to defend Australian territory while the regulars fight in Malaya. Splitting our focus between a regular branch of the army and a militia branch, and all the split logistics, training programs and equipment stocks would sap our resources and lead to overall mediocrity. It was nice in theory, but but we simply don't have the capacity for a force that large and diverse. We decided our entire army will be proffessional - I have even implemented a more rigourous training regimen for any newly formed units. It takes longer to train the men but I think it will get them more prepared for actual combat. This way we can focus all our attention on making sure our forces have sufficient and modern equipment and are thoroughly skilled in fieldcraft. We want any given number of our men to take on and defeat an equivalent number of the enemy every time - a tall order, but one a small military must meet to survive.

So we decided we would focus on our own defence, but how would we go about it? We can't directly challenge Japanese fleets so aggressive and extensive naval presence in the surrounding seas won't do any good. Australia is a huge place with a large coastline and not many people to defend it. Everywhere cannot be defended - we have to pick and choose what we defend. Ironically enough we started with Western Australia - the coast between Darwin and Perth contains only a few small ports that have no road access to the rest of Australia. Any landings there are essentially pointless as they will be unable to progress inland. As such, only Perth and Darwin at the north and south points of the west of our island will be defended - and Darwin not because it is militarily important (it too is isolated and inaccessable from land), but because it is such a large city and I cannot allow such a large number of our citizens to be left undefended. Perth has a coastal road running along the south coast to Adelaide, so obviously it has to be defended to keep the enemy out of the southeast, our heartland.

Since Darwin is isolated, it has to be connected to the interior road network so we can shift troops to counter any successful landing there. It currently is not and we do not have the construction equipment or manpower to do so, but I have instructed Parkhill to making its construction a top priority. The ability to quickly move across the country to counter enemy landings is why Lavarack wanted armour, and it is suited to much of Australia's terrain. It shan't a quickly granted request given the massive amount of funding we have to pour into the infantry and air force.

Eastern Australia will be defended by proxy in New Guinea and the Solomons, which contain the ports and airfields any potential invader would need to stage their attack. As such, the defence of our territory beyond Australia proper is absolutely key to our safety, and warrants a serious allocation of forces. Not enough to garrison every island of course, we don't have the men for it, but several key locations that keep anything of importance out of Japanese hands. Parkhill is skeptical about our ability to create a force large enough to meet our plans in any reasonable amount of time, especially the total aircraft tally (almost 800 total), so it may be an idealized defence plan, but we judge it solid enough to stand on, particularly if we can also raise a corps of Marines to act as a fast reaction and reinforcement force to assist the garrisons.

Given our limited production capacity, we cannot both produce the forces needed to defend the islands and construct more defences, namely airfields, everywhere we'd like. Guadalcanal, for example, should have an airfield. But since this is unlikely to happen (and, furthermore, the less is built, the less use anything the enemy capture is to him), the divisions assigned to defend New Guinea and the Solomons (and Australia proper, for that matter) will have a regiment of anti-aircraft artillery attached to each of them to defend against aircraft if our fighters cannot assist them. General purpose or overseas/offensive divisions will substitute the anti-air regiment for another regiment of infantry.

Time to get to work I suppose.

Defence Plan for New Guinea and the Solomons​

 

[TehDarkMiner]

I really like the effort you put in in the last picture. It's excellent

But here's a few er, important things to note - don't be discouraged by this. I'm not saying you're bad or that this AAR is bad. The detail is excellent.

You won't be able to get that many units I'm afraid. It's unfeasible. You will need to put every last IC to get just your interceptors. I personally say, remove all of your air fleet plans. Have a two-int or a three-int air unit if you can, and put it in Lae. It should be able to reach far enough to counter any Japanese air (they'll be CAGs - carrier planes, so they won't be too strong against you).


Next,

Perth has a coastal road running along the south coast to Adelaide, so obviously it has to be defended to keep the enemy out of the southeast, our heartland.

The Japanese will not, and I can guarantee this, touch Perth. At least until Sydney falls - they are much more likely to strike there. Don't worry about defending Western or South Australia at all. The infrastructure from Perth to Adelaide is awful, consider that. The Japanese will not be able to reach Adelaide even if they do attack Perth in time. Their supply lines from Perth to Adelaide will be weak. Keep garrisons in Sydney and Brisbane of course, but Perth isn't worth losing a good garrison division to anyway.

Next, you will not be able to get a corps of marines
One or two divisions, sure. But especially with the high demand for the rest of your airforce and infantry you definitely won't be able to.

To be entirely honest, I'd recommend buying interceptor production licenses from the US/UK or just skipping building them entirely. They're too expensive - I'm not joking when I say you won't have enough IC to build a single interceptor at 100% speed in the early years. And really, they don't have enough use. Japan can only bomb you with CAGs, which really won't affect the outcome of the battle.

Stop researching rare materials refining and coal to oil conversion too
You won't get enough out of that. You have too limited research. Put that on infantry techs or radio.

And that's the final thing: get the radio tech as soon as possible. It's essential

Just a few tips. Otherwise, an excellent start
If you want me to explain the reasons behind those in some more detail, just ask and I'll explain

 

[sebas379]

I second what TehdarkMiner wrote.
A tip, look at the infrastructure map. Every province that has 0% or 10% infrastructure cannot be traversed. That limits where the Japs can invade and move around. It's all fine and dandy if they strike in some forsaken patch of desert, but if they can't move out of it cause of the infra, who cares? That also counts in the Dutch East Indies, there are entire parts of the islands you cannot get into with units.

 

[MC Hammer]

Looks good, and I would follow what TehDarkMiner said, because I myself have been lacking in land units in the time of war due to emphasis on planes... Didn't go so well...

 

[TheFilthyCasual]

I really like the effort you put in in the last picture. It's excellent

But here's a few er, important things to note - don't be discouraged by this. I'm not saying you're bad

Given the tone of the last sentence there, I'm not so sure that's actually the case. But thank you for trying to hide it.

or that this AAR is bad. The detail is excellent.

You won't be able to get that many units I'm afraid. It's unfeasible.

I know that. It's a goal, it will never be done in any reasonable amount of time.

You will need to put every last IC to get just your interceptors.

Once the Perth is done, my IC is sufficient even with Civilan economy that I could build the fighter wings I wanted by 1938 (I think; don't have the game in front of me, don't exactly remember the production time). That's too long really, but I could do it. I can get the fighters built, it's the bombers I most certainly can't.

I personally say, remove all of your air fleet plans. Have a two-int or a three-int air unit if you can, and put it in Lae. It should be able to reach far enough to counter any Japanese air (they'll be CAGs - carrier planes, so they won't be too strong against you).

I know the AI is unlikely to seriously attack me with air, but for roleplaying purposes (perhaps I should have mentioned I was doing that) I have to assume they might.

Next,

The Japanese will not, and I can guarantee this, touch Perth. At least until Sydney falls - they are much more likely to strike there. Don't worry about defending Western or South Australia at all. The infrastructure from Perth to Adelaide is awful, consider that. The Japanese will not be able to reach Adelaide even if they do attack Perth in time. Their supply lines from Perth to Adelaide will be weak. Keep garrisons in Sydney and Brisbane of course, but Perth isn't worth losing a good garrison division to anyway.

Again, roleplaying. The AI won't bother and I know it, but at the time, Australia wouldn't know what to expect and wouldn't leave Western Australia's largest port undefended.

Next, you will not be able to get a corps of marines
One or two divisions, sure. But especially with the high demand for the rest of your airforce and infantry you definitely won't be able to.

"Not" is too simplistic. You should say "not before the fighting starts", which I won't. But I will get one eventually, you need them in the Pacific.

To be entirely honest, I'd recommend buying interceptor production licenses from the US/UK or just skipping building them entirely.

Production licenses is an idea I can defend, but none at all?

They're too expensive - I'm not joking when I say you won't have enough IC to build a single interceptor at 100% speed in the early years.

As if I didn't know that just by looking at the numbers.

And really, they don't have enough use. Japan can only bomb you with CAGs, which really won't affect the outcome of the battle.

Again, roleplaying. I really should I have mentioned that I suppose.

Stop researching rare materials refining and coal to oil conversion too
You won't get enough out of that.

I only research those two (and no other resource techs) because without trade I don't have enough of either of those and once the war starts there's no guarantees of anything. But you're right, I'd much rather be getting radios and jungle equipment right now (though I will start depleting stockpiles if any of my trade agreements are ever cancelled).

You have too limited research. Put that on infantry techs or radio.

And that's the final thing: get the radio tech as soon as possible. It's essential

Now that I did already know. I do know some things.

Just a few tips. Otherwise, an excellent start

Given you just demolished my entire air force plan and my research I again doubt that. But thank you anyway.

Addendum: Since I can already tell this AAR will be a bit weird (I'm gonna make a decision, then someone's going to tell me I'm wrong and since they'll probably be right, the very next post I'll be reneging on all my decisions thus making Lyons look bipolar/stupid), I'll ask this before I get to the point where I have to make this decision:

At least from my POV, the amount of IC and time building more IC requires isn't worth the hit to my unit production so I'm better off relying on practicals and efficiency techs to get as much out of what I have as I can, rather than also building more IC. But since I've already proven to be bad at predicting things, what do you think?

 

[TheFilthyCasual]

I second what TehdarkMiner wrote.
A tip, look at the infrastructure map. Every province that has 0% or 10% infrastructure cannot be traversed. That limits where the Japs can invade and move around. It's all fine and dandy if they strike in some forsaken patch of desert, but if they can't move out of it cause of the infra, who cares? That also counts in the Dutch East Indies, there are entire parts of the islands you cannot get into with units.

I found that out while dicking around with the British once. I wanted to help the Dutch but their islands have such low infrastructure their ports can barely supply my units and their airfields are inadequate for housing aircraft groups.

I'm garrisoning Perth for roleplay reasons - Perth is a VP, the VPs would be places the government wouldn't want to just give up without a fight. But I know about infrastructure, how else would I have decided to abandon Western Australia based on the fact there's no roads inland?

 

[TheFilthyCasual]

March 13, 1936:

Mussolini’s men captured the King of Ethiopia yesterday, leading to a hasty capitulation. The Italians announced the creation of a “civilized” government that will bring “order and modernity to the negroes”, which is bullshit-speak for an Italian puppet government.

British foreign minister assures me the Italians have no further interests beyond Ethiopia and Benny would be a fool to attack the British or the French in Africa. Indeed he would be, but the problem with British logic is that Benny is a damned looney fool indeed, far as I can tell.

March 24, 1936:

Came down to Melbourne yesterday so that today at noon I could smash a bottle of the cheapest most ghastly champagne I could find (I did buy the good stuff, but I’m keeping it) on the bow of His Majesty’s newest Australian Ship, the Perth. Colvin of course was delighted but Lavarack and Williams were even more ecstatic as we could now divert our production to other things. I had to let Williams down gently. I can’t create an army and build an air fleet at the same time, we don’t have the capacity right now. I’m diverting our assembly lines to equipping the army – chiefly, properly training and equipping our troops who are effectively garrisons, given their lack of transport. As such, I diverted part of the budget to mobilizing the reservists and getting them back on the training grounds so they have a bloody clue what they’re doing. Whatever space on our assemblies we have left over from manufacturing their equipment is to be used to construct artillery of both the anti-ground and anti-air varieties.

Back to the training camps boys.​

Parkhill has revised his estimates for how many raw materials we’re going to need and the current balance will be negative unless we get our hands on more. Looks like more trade deals for MacBride to negotiate. We’ll see how it goes.

 

[TehDarkMiner]

Given the tone of the last sentence there, I'm not so sure that's actually the case. But thank you for trying to hide it.

Australia's a hard country to play. You haven't played for too long; don't feel bad about some of the issues I pointed out

I think my tone was slightly too critical there, I hope you weren't insulted or disheartened by it

Hm, I like that idea, converting garrisons to infantry. You don't have to worry about the techs associated with militia.

 

[TheFilthyCasual]

September 1, 1936

By God this summer has been hectic. Every time Parkhill gives us the weekly consumption estimate MacBride and I have to spend hours calling people up, setting up meetings and making more trade arrangements to keep the resources flowing. The Dutch, the Americans, the French, the British, the Kiwis, everybody, anybody to buy and sell. The “selling” part is the hardest, as our only resource of consistent surplus is supplies which few save the Americans have any money for and the Americans seem to have decided their stockpiles are obscenely large enough as they refuse to buy any more than what they already do. Raw materials and crude oil are the ones we’re using the most and our stockpiles ever so slowly decrease as we manufacture.

And manufacture we do. I had to argue with Williams and Colvin for the entirety of an evening back in May before I got them to back down on getting their own piece of the production pie. I told them without the forces to hold ground, the air force will simply find its airfields getting overrun. Investment in ships was simply too expensive at this juncture – and Colvin was particularly unhappy when I told him the air force would get priority over the navy. Lavarack smugly accepted his victory but I am not trying to play favourite, just prioritizing. If I could I’d be building entire fighter groups and destroyer squadrons, but alas, that is not possible. Instead, once the troops had finished retraining as regular infantry, Lavarack sent his production request to Parkhill, and it was rather simple: Artillery and AA.
Back in June I took the plunge and reinstituted a 3-year draft to keep our divisions stocked with trained men for an extended period. The public naturally is discontent but not terribly annoyed – I’ve had MacBride, Pearson and McLachlan running damage control. But they aren’t ready for a full draft, naturally – there’s no war. Yet.

Yesterday marked the completion of the formation of the 1st Anti Aircraft Regiment, Royal Australian Artillery, which has been attached to our 1st Division along with the 1st Infantry, 7th Infantry, and 1st Regiment RAA. Langley plans to deploy it to New Guinea, probably to Port Moresby. A second division, once completely outfitted, will be sent to Port Lae. A third division will defend the north coast once a road is built there from Port Moresby. By January we’ll have enough guns for 3 more divisions.

Now that Parkhill has gotten a lot of what he wanted, the Army gets a bone. Keeping infantry equipment modern is top priority, followed by the artillery. At some point along the line we’ll make investments in Jungle, Desert, and Mountain equipment, and we’ll slowly work on getting some tanks for those damn cavalry. I’ll keep some funding open for fighter design – we will build them at some point.

January 1937

A new year and new challenges.

But first the good news. We have 4 fully equipped Infantry Divisions in position in New Guinea and the Solomons as of this writing. The 1st Division is in Port Moresby, the 5th Division (which contains the militia-turned-regulars New Guinea Regiment) is in Lae, the 2nd Division is in Rabaul and the 3rd Division is on Bougainville. By April the 4rd Division should be on Guadalcanal and the 7th Division in the Admiralties (the 6th will eventually garrison Darwin).

Current and upcoming defence forces​

At this point juggling trade deals is typical and hardly worth a mention. Suffice it to say it has kept me rather busy the whole year while other have tended to everything else. However, starting this year I have again reviewed my cabinet and decided to make some changes. First, and most painfully, was Parkhill. He is a fine man, a brilliant industrialist and entrepreneur, and it is because of him we have been able to maintain our stockpiles even as we manufacture so many arms. But his actual handling of our factories is average at best, he bungles things on occasion and his production methods have never been the most smooth. By contrast, one of his subordinates, a former factory owner turned MP named G. A. Street has always run his assigned factories will the utmost speed, efficiency and accuracy. He gets things off the line faster than anyone else, and for that reason I offered, and he accepted, Parkhill’s seat. Sure enough he’s managed in just a short time to improve our total capable output by 10% - with as little industry as we have, any little bit helps. He doesn’t have Parkhill’s skill with resource management but I think if we leave Parkhill as Natural Resource minister we can remedy that.

New Cabinet, and a concerning portion of red in the polls.​

I finally found a replacement for that Red apologist Pearson. A young military officer trained in the last year named Kenneth Eather has shown a remarkable ability for code-cracking, spy catching (caught some crafty bastard who’s been poking around Melbourne taking stock of the troops and equipment we were sending to the Solomons) and defence planning. Putting him in as Defence Minister is a natural choice given his skills (Lavarack vouched for him without reservation). His coolness and automaton-like actions look to me like the signs of a sociopath but if he gets the job done, what do I care?

Lastly, I finally have someone to put as military Chief. Sir Cyril Bingham-White of Great War fame was recalled to duty by Lavarack, and as he has a higher rank than anyone currently in the army it would be absurd not to put him in charge. Lavarack confided in me his practical skill with troops was rated poor but his strategy is solid - thus better to put him at the top where on-the-ground experience is not so important. Everyone, even Colvin (who despises Lavarack for the simple fact the army is getting all my attention), agrees Lavarack is our most skilled commander, so I persuaded Bingham-White to promote him to corps commander of the New Guinea Defence Command, our most critical defence sector. The Solomons Command was given to Langley – he too is an old soldier stuck in his ways, but Bingham-White is a friend of his and he was the only other man with sufficient rank to command a corps so it would look absurd to pass him by for someone else.

My issue now is politics: while I am sure I am right about the world’s fascist powers, the public is not. Our party has dwindled to less than 33% popularity as the other parties have each gained their own influence, mainly by denouncing our association with Country and my calling me a war-monger. It doesn’t help that the British and French don’t agree with me, meaning that, at least to the public, believing me about the necessity of my defence policy is a matter of faith. The Left has latched right onto this, with about a quarter of the populace now blatantly supporting socialist and communist parties: the Movement Against War and Fascism (an oxy-moronic title), the State Labour Party (these guys and Labour should just fucking admit they’re the same thing already, Labour’s denial is adorably stupid) and the bloody Communist Party! To say I’m concerned about that kind of popularity is an understatement – god forbid we actually end up with Red MPs after the next election! Christ this coming election is going to be a bitch. The backbenchers mumble about replacing me so we don’t lose our government but the cabinet is fully behind me – the insiders know what’s going on, what the threat is and why what I’m doing is necessary. If only the public weren’t so easily manipulated by those fucking Marxists.

On the planned docket for this year: more infantry divisions, more merchant ships, aircraft R&D, artillery improvements, more supplies, more men – god, just more everything! With any luck I might be able to put Williams’ fighters on next year’s list.

Some basic aircraft upgrades. Army may have production priority but we need capable planes, when we finally get around to constructing them.​

 

[TehDarkMiner]

Those popularities are all over the place

Well, it looks like you'll manage your division production fairly easily, and yeah, with a high officer ratio/inf org techs you'll probably be able to face Japanese marines easily

 

[Gormytorysh]

Don't worry about being a noob, we'll help you along the way where you need it

I agree, but than again, I am still a noob and yet I still don't care. It is all about the fun you have in playing and writing so don't worry about that too much.

Anyhoe, I'm subbed. Good luck and have fun .

 

[TheFilthyCasual]

May 2, 1937:

Civil War breaks out in Spain – not a surprise to anyone really. The turned too far to the left and pissed a lot of people off, including their own army. Unsurprisingly, the fascists and communists of the world have flocked to support each side, effectively meaning this will be a proxy war between Germany and the Soviet Union. I have no idea who will win, but either choice is terrible.

May 6, 1937:

Nazi Hindenburg airship went up in smoke today. Anyone who knows basic chemistry knew that was an inevitability, but I guess that’s what happens when you care more about money than safety. No one should be surprised that that the Nazis do. Not going to lie, I’m finding it hard to sympathize with the bastards even when they are falling from the sky in flames.

May 28, 1937:

Chamberlain is PM of jolly old England.

God helps us all.

Might as well crack open that good champagne now, this is clearly a sign of impending doom.


June, 1937:

Defences - New Guinea, New Britain, Admiralites, Solomons and Western Australia.

As of now, our infantry garrisons have, with one exception, been raised and set up in their assigned sectors. The 1st, 2nd, 5th and 7th have garrisoned New Guinea, Rabaul and the Admiralties as planned. The 3rd and 4th are in the Solomons. The 6th has returned to Darwin. Our first new division (as opposed to re-trained, re-organized reservists), the 8th, was raised and stationed in Perth as the lone sentinel of our western reaches. All divisions have a full complement of anti-ground and anti-air artillery – in just a year and a half the Royal Australian Artillery has grown from a single regiment of guns to 16 regiments, 8 of howitzers and 8 of anti-aircraft guns. Street and his magnificent production schedule should be very proud of themselves for producing so many munitions is such a short time with so little to work with. The first half of this year has seen our stockpile of absolutely every kind of war materiel grow, with only occasional hiccups. Credit for that must go again to MacBride and his negotiating skills. He finally convinced the Dutch to help us out more than they were, and we have several convoys shipping raw materials straight from the nearby ports in the East Indies. We had to divert several factories to manufacturing steel for more merchant ships, he set up so many new trade routes!

On the horizon, the 9th Division is being raised in Brisbane. It will remain there as a mobile garrison, along with the cavalry, until a road is built from Port Moresby to the North coast of New Guinea, when it shall garrison that area. Since the road to Darwin takes priority of the two, it may be a while until that road is built. Now that our garrisons are sufficient, we are retooling our factories towards – yes, Williams, you finally get your wish – building fighter aircraft. These planes require such extensive industrial resources that we can only support creating two wings at a time at most, and that’s if we don’t build anything else. As we still have other things to produce (Marines, chiefly), we will only be building one wing at any given time for the foreseeable future. But that’s being negative – we’re getting aircraft! Williams is, naturally, relieved his tactical planes will have fighter cover.

No. 2 Wing RAAF is under construction.

July, 1937:

Most major R&D projects we started at the beginning of the year are now complete. Investment in better manufacturing machinery and techniques continues. Even as our artillery has been speedily produced, we must continue to keep it modern, so we have devoted a chunk of funding to that. We’re also setting up a Marine Infantry training school so we can raise, eventually, a marine corps to act as a mobile defence/counterattack force. To make these troops more effective as assault troops, we’ll also be setting up an engineer training school so we can raise engineer regiments to attach to the Marines – blowing obstacles, bunkers, clearing minefields, etc.

So much to do, so little time.

As an aside, I have also finally set aside a portion of the budget to work on designing some tanks for our cavalry regiments. They’re not getting a greater portion of the budget than I’ve now given them, so they won’t get them fast, but eventually we’ll have our very own armoured division to defend our island.

 

[TheFilthyCasual]

October 7, 1937:

Today there came across my desk an offer from the British government to enter into an official military alliance along with France and themselves to provide collective assistance to each other. In other words, Chamberlain is trying to resurrect the Allied Powers – though, so far, that grand alliance is missing its other key player, that being the US. But the Americans, interested as they may be in enabling our militarization, are not interested in war, at least the populace isn’t. President Roosevelt has struck me as a man who realizes what I realize – that a war of some sort is looming and his country will (or should) be dragged into it. But he can’t do anything while his voters remain such an isolationist bunch.

But that is a secondary matter – if Britain ever went to war we certainly would join, official alliance or not. What is more concerning, indeed, heartbreaking and enraging, is the result of the most recent party caucus as our election campaign goes into high gear. Our esteemed Governor General, Sir Isaac Isaacs, has been increasingly popular among our supporters lately and he decided a while back he would try his hand at elected politics instead of resting on his appointed laurels. What is absolutely outrageous is that, without having even won his seat yet, he put his name forward as a replacement for me as party leader! The son of a bitch lambasted my leadership in front of the entire caucus and said that if I remained in charge I would ruin the party and we would lose the government. Immediately the backbenchers who had been grumbling about my poll numbers stood up and supported his move. This set off several hours of debate which ended in a vote to decide our leader – and it was Isaacs.

I cannot not believe the change in fortunes. So many of our members had sat back silent and never said a thing about my conduct, but when Isaacs and the other backstabbers began waiving around poll charts they bailed on me and supported the man who promised he would restore our popularity. The absolute gall of that man! Damn him. Damn you Isaacs! I accepted you into this party because I thought you agreed with the direction I was taking the country, but it seems you were just another politician who cares more about getting elected and collecting his pension than ruling properly. Well to hell with you all! I refuse to continue to lend my support to such a self-absorbed party – if you can’t see the danger you put this country in if you don’t follow my plans then I’m done with you! I hereby resign my position as Prime Minister and withdraw my membership in the Liberal Party. You will regret what you have decided this week, I swear on my mother’s grave you will, and Australians will die because of your lack of foresight.

You think you’re such a fucking genius Isaacs? Then get in the fucking chair and try your hand at it. You know nothing of this kind of leadership, you sit in your villa all day entertaining the elite and signing the occasional document which you never read because you never care. I don’t have to wish to see you crash and burn, I know it will happen and you will take Australia with you.

Don’t ever write or call me again.

 

[sebas379]

Well, that ended with political fireworks. I sense somebody is not particularly happy.
Also looks like Franco is winning in Spain, right? Not that it really matters to you.

I wonder what problems are going to arise from this political shitstorm. Looking forward to it.

 

[TheFilthyCasual]

As Recorded By The Right Honourable Sir Isaac Alfred Isaacs, Prime Minister & Governor General of Australia

October 23, 1937

I'd like to state for the record I have nothing against my predecessor personally and I am disappointed he has decided to withdraw from our political process because of some perceived betrayal. I always did, and still do, believe he was right, and still is right about the state of the world. My issue was never on the reality of the situation, but on how he dealt with it. Mr. Lyons is gifted with incredible foresight in terms of threat assessment but his conviction is so strong that realpolitik is something he willfully ignores for the sake of self-righteousness, which we cannot afford. I do not think he realized the impact his signing this country into the Allied Powers will have - our foreign and military policy is far outside the accepted norm as practiced in Britain. MacBride has made it clear multiple times where we stand and said it rather loudly, to the ire of those who seek reconciliation. MacBride has certainly galvanized the base and particularly Country voters to our banner but most people are more inclined to believe Chamberlain than Lyons due in part to the fact that no country he is accusing of being a threat has actually done anything. As such when I became Prime Minister and he quit the party, rather than shaking confidence in us it made some more assured. In the past couple of weeks I have played the crowd by promising a softer foreign policy and return of some of our industry back to civilian production. To placate the British as well as the public I replaced MacBride and Eather, both of whom were very much Lyons' cheerleaders. I gave Pearce and Paterson their old jobs back - Pearce gets along quite well with Chamberlain and Paterson is not an intrusive Peeping Tom when he conducts counter-intelligence ops. Eather was good but he pissed a lot of people off with his disregard for privacy or any kind of civil rights really. Finally, I gave Parkhill his job back. If there was one thing I think was a mistake on Lyons' part in terms of actual policy, it was getting rid of Parkhill. Street's miniscule amount of extra production he squeezed out wasn't a sufficient replacement for Parkhill's genius for industrial growth, technology and resources extraction. And aside from that, his sudden and frank dismissal was needlessly harsh and robotic - the man is no robber baron, he's an absolute softie and his cheery face would be enough for me to keep him around.

The New (or is it really the old?) Cabinet.

In the end my changes were enough to let us squeak by past Labour and pull a win - in fact our party is larger than it was before the election, even though our poll numbers are only at 25%, a lot of UAP voters went for us because UAP botched their campaign even worse than the Douglas Creditors. Add their votes to Country and our Liberal/Country coalition remains in power with a combined popularity of about ~45%. Thankfully people seemed to come to their senses when I reassured them of Liberal's platform and stopped being alarmist, as support for Socialists and Communists is now virtually non existent when they were polling at nearly 25% combined earlier this year. There are two fringe groups still opposing each other - the Movement Against War and Fascism and, ironically, the Fascist Union which gained some popularity in response to the strong leftist showing int he spring. But they remain at the margins. The point is, we are still here, and even if to everyone else I have to play like everything is fine and Chamberlain is right, internally the military and I are going to keep working on making Australia safe.

 

[sebas379]

Did I mention I like how you actually weave the politics into the stoy? I tend to overlook this part of the game beyond picking the most useful guy, nice going.
I've got the feeling they need to keep an eye on what they'r brewing up in Europe cause some people there might not be up to any good...