The Eagle and the Pentagon - U.S.AAR

[Gormytorysh]

I've been looking back into when the last decent (and finished!) U.S.A. AAR started and there are not that many that actually finished, so hopefully here's one. Giving it some thought on how to make it again more challenging for myself but also not dull for the readers, I came up with some rules for myself:

• No exploiting the game, mainly by guarenteeing independence on any nations other than the ones provided by the game already. Also, always taking the best law (i.e. specialist training instead of basic training) etc.
• I will not join ANY faction.
• No attacking other nations untill getting attacked (probably by Japan).
• Especially no attacking the U.S.S.R. until they are (or at least have the time to get) really strong!
• No military spending IC-wise, other than already ongoing at the start, untill Germany annexed Austria.

I might come up with one or more later today and will post them if so.

Goal:

The emphasis of this AAR is not so much on WWII itself but more the aftermath/ cold war. Meaning, I will pretty much let the AI do most of the fighting while the US remains neutral till provoked. Obviously whatever happens in Europe/ Asia, will only make it harder for me. Though Japan will most likely attack me. But will it be a limited war? Will Germany eventually win in Europe and also attack me? Who knows? I will not join any faction so I am on my own. I know I have the LS, MP and IC, but will it be too late? Let's find out!

Some details of the game and AAR:

Expansion: Their Finest Hour
Mods: none
Difficulty: Hard
Nation chosen: U.S.A.
Writing style: Just a bit of everything, including GIF's (but only because TDM likes them :laugh

EDIT: I finally found my goal .
EDIT 2: Added a new restriction.

 

[Gormytorysh]

From Depression to Action​

The stock market crash of October 29, 1929 provided a dramatic end to an era of immense prosperity. This disaster had been brewing for years. Different explanations for the crisis were given, some blame the increasingly uneven distribution of wealth and purchasing power, while others blame the decade’s agricultural slump or the international instability caused by World War I. In any case, the nation was unprepared for the crash. For the most part, banks were unregulated and uninsured. The government offered no insurance or compensation for the unemployed, so when people stopped earning, they stopped spending.

President Herbert Hoover was slow to respond to these events. Though he believed that the “crazy and dangerous” behavior of Wall Street speculators had contributed in a significant way to the crisis, he also believed that solving such problems was not really the federal government’s job. As a result, most of the solutions he suggested were voluntary. Still, the crisis worsened. Between 1930 and 1933, more than 9,000 banks closed in the U.S., taking with them more than $2.5 billion in deposits. Meanwhile, unemployed people did whatever they could, like standing in charity breadlines and selling apples on street corners, to feed their families.

By 1932, many Americans were fed up with Hoover and what Franklin Roosevelt later called his “hear nothing, see nothing, do nothing government.” The Democratic presidential candidate, New York governor Franklin Delano Roosevelt, promised a change: the New. This New Deal would use the power of the federal government to try and stop the economy’s downward spiral. Roosevelt won that year’s election handily.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt​

The new president acted swiftly to. First, he shored up the nation’s banks. Then he began to propose more comprehensive reforms. By June, Roosevelt and Congress had passed 15 major laws that fundamentally reshaped many aspects of the American economy. This decisive action also did much to restore Americans’ confidence that, as Roosevelt had declared in his inaugural address, “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”

President Roosevelt’s early efforts had begun to restore Americans’ confidence, but they had not ended the Depression. In the spring of 1935, he launched a second, more aggressive set of federal programs, sometimes called the Second New Deal. The Works Progress Administration provided jobs for unemployed people and built new public works like bridges, post offices, schools, highways and parks. The National Labor Relations Act gave workers the right to form unions and bargain collectively for higher wages and fairer treatment. The Social Security Act guaranteed pensions to some older Americans, set up a system of unemployment insurance and stipulated that the federal government would help care for dependent children and the disabled.

By the mid-1930s, events in Europe and Asia indicated that a new world war might soon erupt and the U.S. Congress took action to enforce U.S. neutrality. On August 31, 1935, Congress passed the first Neutrality Act prohibiting the export of “arms, ammunition, and implements of war” from the United States to foreign nations at war and requiring arms manufacturers in the United States to apply for an export license. American citizens traveling in war zones were also advised that they did so at their own risk. President Franklin D. Roosevelt originally opposed the legislation, but relented in the face of strong Congressional and public opinion.

On January 1st, 1936 the highest commanding officers of the US Army (MacArthur), Navy (Nimitz) and Air force (Arnold) had a meeting to discuss the growing unrest in both Europe and Asia. During this meeting they discussed the amount of troops, money available to spend and how to distribute money and resources among all three. Besides that, they discussed possible scenarios of upcoming wars, their certainty and how it would affect the US. In all scenarios US involvement was incorporated.

From left to right: General Douglas MacArthur, Admiral Charles Nimitz and General Henry H. Arnold​

Source: History.com and Wikipedia

 

[sebas379]

So in essence this is a Japan first, as opposed to a Europe first strategy? That could get interesting, depending on how Germany fares.
And I also like the gifs!!

 

[Belgiumruler]

subbed!

 

[Gormytorysh]

So in essence this is a Japan first, as opposed to a Europe first strategy? That could get interesting, depending on how Germany fares.
And I also like the gifs!!

Unless Germany has some weird unusual twists, yes this will be a Japan first. Hopefully there will be lots of resistance and difficult problems for me . Which reminds me, I started playing last night for a bit, but this morning I realized I started playing at normal difficulty level, while I wanted to play at hard level *sigh*. So, I have to start over again. Not a big deal, just need to reorganize the navy and army again, which took up most of my time last night .

subbed!

Welcome! Hope I will not disappoint you, neighbor . And also, thank you for WritAAR of the week nomination! Though I do not feel it is deserved, I do feel very honored and it is always a massive motivation boost.... though now I feel a lot more pressure to keep posting high standard updates .

Also, I added a new restriction for myself in the first post.

 

[Gormytorysh]

Discussion and action​

The following meeting took place on January 1st, 1936 and although none of the attendees took notes, General MacArthur wrote a manuscript, years later, for his memoires where the meeting was written down.

As Nimitz, MacArthur and Arnold are discussing their plans which needed to go to the Congress, the President walks into the room.

Roosevelt: ”Gentlemen, thank you for coming in and taking the responsibility which is needed to ensure our freedom and peace. Currently the Congress is not willing, nor does not see the need, to spend US tax dollars in the Army, Navy or Air force. This means we will have to be very creative with what we got until they finally see the need. What have we got so far and what do we need?”

Nimitz: “Well Mr. President. Not much. We have a good navy and I am happy the Congress did agree to finish a few more ships for the Navy and especially the Enterprise and Yorktown. In the end, if Japan decides to go to war, they will have a head start and we need to make sure our technology is at least up to date and keep it there. Other than that, I told my staff and the Generals here that we need to reorganize the fleet into 4 separate categories. 1 – A fast moving medium and light fire powered fleet containing light and heavy cruisers; 2 – A slower but brute powered fleet with battleships and destroyers to search and destroy submarines and thus protecting or battleships; 3 – A submarine fleet, which speaks for itself; And 4 – a transportation fleet with some minor protection from destroyers. Post these different fleets along the east and west coast and the USN is done.”

The production of the USS Enterprise (left) and USS Yorktown (right) in Newport ​

Arnold: “Needless to say the Air Force is still a minor part of the Army. With only a few fighter and tactical bomber squadrons, we are far behind Germany, Japan, the UK and even the Soviet Union. It would require a immense amount of the industry investments to get up to par with them. So once the Congress agrees, I would like to start off with a few fighter squadrons and build the rest from that point. One thing I do want to mention, a few pilots suggested the idea of developing some sort of multi-role planes. We are investigating the need and feasibility of these type of planes. If there is a need and we can do it, research will probably start somewhere next year. No restructure of the air fleet composition is needed.”

MacArthur: “I am sorry to say that the Army also has some demands when the Congress finally agrees to lift the embargo on us. First of all, we only have a volunteer army and I would rather have a professional army and conscripts who will receive more than a basic training and on a daily basis. Next to that, we do not have any artillery and our old ones are still from the previous world war. We do know how to make tanks, though we have none and I hear Germany already has a few tank division in service. If we were to fight the Germans, which is a possible scenario we discussed, our infantry would have major problems. Strategic and tactical adjustments need to be made, because if we go to war, we do not want to dig in and send our men into a massacre again. Last but not least, we need to restructure our Armies. I haven’t come up with a plan for the Pacific just yet.”

Old and obsolete artillery from World War I​

Roosevelt takes a moment to gather his thoughts and replies: “Right gentlemen, thank you for your information and honesty. We have our work cut out for us. I will make the Congress aware of our situation and post a bill.” He walks out of the room afterwards, leaving the general commanders behind.

In January and February all forces were redistributed and reorganized.

 

[feye1]

Looks good so far. Subbed

 

[Gormytorysh]

1936 – A turning point

The political view of January 1936​

As the Congress is still divided about spending on the army and with the New Deal still in effect, President Roosevelt suggested to build more factories in Detroit, St. Louis and Norfolk, increasing it by 4 IC to a total of 132 IC. Detroit is it would be the centre of building tanks, armored vehicles and motorized vehicles in the future. St. Louis would receive ammunition and aviation factories. Norfolk would specialize itself in naval construction. The Congress was not oblivious to the world and agreed that, even though it would not agree to build military things right away, it would be advisable to prepare the nation for anything that could happen. Construction of 12 new factories started right away. Next to that, the construction would provide again a lot of jobs and with unemployment that high, hardly anyone could object. Obviously with elections coming up later in 1936, Roosevelt was hoping to receive more votes to ensure another term as President of the United States.

Construction of factories started​

With the earlier meeting in the back of Roosevelt’s mind, he called in J. Edgar Hoover, his Head of Security, to address his concerns about the possible enemies. MacArthur, Nimitz and Arnold made it clear that there were two real threatening nations: Germany and Japan. The three leaders also mentioned US technology being behind on several issues and Roosevelt thought of increasing the spy network. Hoover laid out some plans and said to focus on Germany and Japan for now, later on the network could spread out to the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom and France. Spies would concentrate on looking into technology and see if they could get their hands on some plans. Spies were send out the very next day across both oceans to carry out their tasks.

Spy network focus​

January 11th, 1936 – The two Generals and Admiral did point out the importance of providing better training for the Army, Navy and Air Force. Roosevelt did send a new bill to the Congress which was discussed and agreed to on this day. Finally some steps were taking into the right direction though especially MacArthur was far from being pleased and held the President accountable. Roosevelt kept on blaming the saying it was the Congress that should be convinced. A few days later MacArthur announced he would be run for office of President in the elections of November. Roosevelt was shocked but was confident he would win the elections.

A new law passed Congress ​

By the end of February, the reorganization of the Navy was finally finished. As spies reported about the naval strength of Germany and Japan, a focus was given on the Pacific Fleet. Admiral Nimitz would lead the Pacific Fleet, while Vice Admiral Burke would be in charge of the Atlantic fleet. The reorganization of the Army took a little longer, but by the end of the Summer, all divisions were in place. General Patton was given 1st Infantry Army and stationed on the east coast while General Stillwell was given 2nd Infantry Army stationed on the west coast. Both positions would only be temporarily as more reforms and structure would be carried out later, supposedly somewhere in 1937.

The Navy after the reorganization ​

After that, not much happened in the US, politicians were more focussed on the upcoming elections rather than to lead the nation. Meanwhile in August, Spain fell into a terrible civil war where the Nationalists, lead by Franco, tried to overthrow the Republican government. Both sides seemed to receive help from other nations, Germany, Italy and the Soviet Union were mentioned, but there was hardly any proof of that.

Earlier that year, in Africa, the war between Italy and Ethiopia ended with the surrender of Ethiopia who became a puppet of Italy.

Civil War in Spain started

Earlier that year Ethiopia became a puppet of Italy​

November 1936 – The elections took place on November 1st and it took over a week when the shocking results were announced: MacArthur won! Prior to the elections, President Roosevelt focussed on providing more jobs and welfare for the US citizens while MacArthur addressed the eminent threat that echoed over several continents and that was foolish to remain ignorant. Also more jobs would be provided if he was elected. These jobs would be mainly in the factories and the army.
MacArthur got his work cut out for him. The Congress was more divided after the elections then before. More people voted on either left-wing and right-wing parties then ever before and it was his job to make it a unified government.

The new Political view​

By the end of 1936, Charles Hughes, the new Head of Security, reported back to President MacArthur the effectiveness of the spy network and the President agreed that they should keep on going with what they are doing and he was even thinking of increasing budget for the spy network. But that would be something for 1937. First priority was convincing the Congress to increase military budget.

The effects of the spy network​

 

[Gormytorysh]

Looks good so far. Subbed

Thank you and welcome!

 

[sebas379]

Looking good so far, though I think your chief of the navy needs to rethink his fleet deployment a little bit. But that will surely come once the shipyards start cranking out more vessels to defend the US coastline.

 

[Gormytorysh]

Looking good so far, though I think your chief of the navy needs to rethink his fleet deployment a little bit. But that will surely come once the shipyards start cranking out more vessels to defend the US coastline.

I've been thinking and re-thinking it a lot and basically there are 2 real types of fleets for me. The fast dispatch fleets, usually consisting out of 5 heavy cruisers and 5 light cruisers and a thrusting force containing 1 or 2 carriers, 3 or 4 battleships and 8 destroyers. The sub fleets are there for recon and convoy raiding mainly. The transport fleets have a few battleships right now, but I might change that when I have more ships coming from the docks.

In all honesty, I have never had a real grand fleet, the closest I got, was in my Nat. China AAR and lets face it, that is laughable compared to what you have in your Hochseeflotte . So I am still looking what is best, that is another reason why I choose to play the USA, they have a nice fleet already and now I can learn how to use it properly. When I get the main idea, I have to learn how to use my Air Force :blink:.

 

[feye1]

I've been thinking and re-thinking it a lot and basically there are 2 real types of fleets for me. The fast dispatch fleets, usually consisting out of 5 heavy cruisers and 5 light cruisers and a thrusting force containing 1 or 2 carriers, 3 or 4 battleships and 8 destroyers. The sub fleets are there for recon and convoy raiding mainly. The transport fleets have a few battleships right now, but I might change that when I have more ships coming from the docks.

In all honesty, I have never had a real grand fleet, the closest I got, was in my Nat. China AAR and lets face it, that is laughable compared to what you have in your Hochseeflotte . So I am still looking what is best, that is another reason why I choose to play the USA, they have a nice fleet already and now I can learn how to use it properly. When I get the main idea, I have to learn how to use my Air Force :blink:.

Well if you mix carriers with battleships, the screens will stay back to protect the carrier, while your battleships go forward and try to engage the enemy. This can work good in a few cases, but often it's a bad choice. You don't want to get your 3-4 battleships engage another battlefleet, while having no protection for screens.

Imagine the following happen: your battleships shoot at the Japanese destroyers with a bit bad luck, while the Japanese battleships target your battleships (since they are the only target in range they always target your battleships!). The result would be pretty clear in this case.

 

[Gormytorysh]

Well if you mix carriers with battleships, the screens will stay back to protect the carrier, while your battleships go forward and try to engage the enemy. This can work good in a few cases, but often it's a bad choice. You don't want to get your 3-4 battleships engage another battlefleet, while having no protection for screens.

Imagine the following happen: your battleships shoot at the Japanese destroyers with a bit bad luck, while the Japanese battleships target your battleships (since they are the only target in range they always target your battleships!). The result would be pretty clear in this case.

Ah, did not know that! Thanks for the heads up, and I have to rethink my fleet composure for sure. Reporting back with a new one tomorrow.... or the day after .

 

[TehDarkMiner]

Writing style: Just a bit of everything, including GIF's (but only because TDM likes them )

<3 <3 <3 <3 You got that right

Subbed, of course. I'd love to see a cold-war oriented AAR so I think this might just scratch that itch

 

[Gormytorysh]

<3 <3 <3 <3 You got that right

Subbed, of course. I'd love to see a cold-war oriented AAR so I think this might just scratch that itch

Let's hope so! And of course you are most welcome to this AAR ^^.

Just a question for any of you. Looking into the matter of fleet composition I read the following combinations are considered 'valid':

CV and CL
BB and Destroyers
Carriers and CL

What I can't seem to find, or what is still debatable, is the ratio. Any pointers in that direction?

 

[sebas379]

Ah, did not know that! Thanks for the heads up, and I have to rethink my fleet composure for sure. Reporting back with a new one tomorrow.... or the day after .

Hint: If you keep the CV engines upgraded anyways, CVL can be a good way to provide some air cover to BB. The screens won't prioritise CVL over BB or BC so they will charge in with the gun ships in that case. Doesn't work with CA though.
Or do like me and have enough screens around your BB with up-to-date AA and chew up those planes

 

[feye1]

Let's hope so! And of course you are most welcome to this AAR ^^.

Just a question for any of you. Looking into the matter of fleet composition I read the following combinations are considered 'valid':

CV and CL
BB and Destroyers
Carriers and CL

What I can't seem to find, or what is still debatable, is the ratio. Any pointers in that direction?

CV + CL if you need 5000 range or so.
CV + DD if you want to speed up your CTF (average speed) and have enough with 3500 range.

BB/BC + DD if you want to increase chance to catch carriers.

Ofcourse the screens have to be modern (at least the engine; the tech you always should rush imo).

 

[Gormytorysh]

Alright, thanks both. I'll work from there and report back in when I'm done

 

[TehDarkMiner]

Regarding ratio, you need at least 1:1.
Some people say 1:2 works best, some say 2:3 works best. As long as you have some more screens than capitals you should be good though.

 

[feye1]

Regarding ratio, you need at least 1:1.
Some people say 1:2 works best, some say 2:3 works best. As long as you have some more screens than capitals you should be good though.

I think that really depends on the goal, but yes ratio should at least be 1:1. If you want to catch carriers for sure, I'd suggest 4 BB + 16 DD and a good commander or something similar. That way you always close in the AI fleets.
If you go 4 CV 4-6 CL your average speed is fairly low and a fast fleet of the enemy can catch your poor carrier fleet. It's all about balance, costs and what you actually need/want to achieve