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My thoughts exactly!
But in all honestly, stick to what you like, and in case you want and can and are able to, just namedrop a random battle here and there to be more or less background noise on grand scheme of how British Anti-Tank gun is build in a factory at downtown York.
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El Pip and citrus? They should surely go together like love and marriage! Pip Pip and all, Old Chap!
Pip Pip and all, Old Chap! - 1
I owe everything I know about battleship gunnery calibres, tractors, tank suspension and airspeed velocities of unladen swallows to this AAR.
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I am currently on a hat trick, I've pulled @AtlanticFriend back from the dead to restart Crossfires and got @Le Jones to finally do the epilogue to King's First Minister. If I can just get a 3rd ancient HOI AAR to either finish or resurrect then I win a set of steak knives. Any chance of getting a wrap it all up epilogue on The Last Mission?
Not really.
Seriously tempted to have the OTL Royal Ordnance Factory (Engineering) Leeds mentioned in the next anti-tank gun update.My thoughts exactly!
But in all honestly, stick to what you like, and in case you want and can and are able to, just namedrop a random battle here and there to be more or less background noise on grand scheme of how British Anti-Tank gun is build in a factory at downtown York.
Also definitely going to go with writing what I enjoy and cutting down this actual war/battle malarkey. (Except maybe naval battles.)
Nominative determinism in action.El Pip and citrus? They should surely go together like love and marriage!
If that is true, then my time here has not been wasted.
Next update to follow in the next few days once I am happy on the details of an obscure and marginally relevant part of the update. As is right and proper.
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I mean, I rebooted my AAR because of catching up with this AAR. Does that get you the steak knives?
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Considering the fact that we hadn't actually got to the main story yet with Last Mission...I'm afraid a restart / continuation is the only option...
Trouble is all the other things that get in the way of writing these days...
Trouble is all the other things that get in the way of writing these days...
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Considering also that the Britsh AI in HOI seems to delight in doing nothing for years at a time, this AAR is welcome to be slow as a means of demonstration. Unlike said AI, at least this is interesting.
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Some parts are more obscure than others, I've also heard rumours that some parts advance this mysterious thing called the Plot, but admittedly that does seem quite unlikely.
I will consult the committee, see what they say. You did reboot in HOI3 so it could be disqualified, they are quite picky about such things.
There are far too many distractions from writing it is true, should you ever find the time be sure and let us all know.
I shall take that backhanded compliment.
Update today, once it has been tided and polished!
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Chapter CXXXI: The Guns of a Spanish Summer Part III.
Chapter CXXXI: The Guns of a Spanish Summer Part III.
We begin in the South of the country, as the clashes there had something of the private war about them; while fiercely fought and not without strategic consequences on the wider conflict, their short-term impact on the fighting in the rest of Spain was limited. The decisive clashes were in the Guadalquivir valley on the road from Cordoba to Seville, this was where the Republican 1st Armoured Division's offensive met the 'counter-attacking' Army of Africa. The 1st Armoured, and their French advisors, had felt the valley was ideal for the H35 to operate in; a wide, flat valley it had few chokepoints or bridges where the Monarchists could ambush them to get in close with Flandin Cocktails (petrol bombs), there was even a decent road, which was important given the H35s less than stellar off-road capability. This was all true and had the campaign continued as before there is little doubt that the Republicans would have easily reached Seville, perhaps even continuing on into Cadiz. But things had changed, the Army of Africa was a far more formidable opponent than the mix of militia and hastily trained tankettes the Republicans had thrashed previously. Just as importantly these forces had something the Monarchists Panzer Is had dearly lacked - a weapon that could destroy a H35 at range, a task that the newly arrived QF 2-pounders excelled at. The tactical choices of the two sides would only make things worse for the Republican side.
A Republican H35 tank after an energetic encounter with several Monarchist 2-pdr anti-tank gun shells somewhere outside Palma del Rio in the Guadalquivir valley. On paper this could be mistaken for a close match, the main gun on the H35 was the venerable SA-18, a 37mm calibre weapon, while the QF 2-pounder was 40mm calibre. Sadly for the Republican tankers the 2-pounder had the benefit of being designed some two decades later and the armourers had not been idle in this time. The 2-pounder could fire a shell twice the size at well over twice the speed of it's Great War era rival, this made it both more dangerous and gave it a far longer effective range. The consequences of this for Republican 1st Armoured were unfortunate, if mercifully brief.
The fall of Cordoba, and the wider Republican front, was saved from collapse by the other prong of the Republican offensive, the coastal drive from Almeria towards Malaga by the Assault Guards. General Yagüe had weakened his other fronts to gather strength at the 'decisive point' (how much of his approach was due to the influence of the German advisors is fiercely debated but not strictly relevant), so the Assault Guards were able to make good progress against the second line troops left on the coast and soon reached the outskirts of Malaga. Recognising the threat to one of their key ports, the very port in fact that had brought the vital British AT guns into Spain, the Monarchists were forced to divert forces from Cordoba back to the coast. Further diversions proved necessary to head off a Republican spoiling offensive in Extramunda, leaving the main Army of Africa force too weak to force the city, saving Cordoba and stabilising the front. On the map it appeared to be a minor Republican victory, they had captured more territory (even if it wasn't particularly valuable), straightened out their lines and held onto one of the key cities in Southern Spain. Yet it was the Monarchists who were more satisfied by the campaign come the autumn, in exchange for minimal troop losses and some unimportant territory they had destroyed the single most effective tank force in Spain and stopped it rolling up the entire southern front. The challenge was not so much which side could rebuild their shattered armoured force first, but which could learn the right lessons (and get the right equipment and doctrines) to build a truly effective armoured division.
Canfranc International Railway Station, for scale the platform in the centre of the shot (the building with the domed roof) is approximately 240m long. This vast complex, nicknamed the Titanic of the Mountains for it's opulent extravagance, sat at the Spanish end of the Somport Tunnel and it's size was not (just) an indulgent show of power. Spanish and French railway gauges were different sized, making it impossible to run direct rains between the two countries, therefore the station was fully equipped with large platforms, sheds and cranes to rapidly tranship people and goods between trains. While never a success in peacetime, it opened less than a year before the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and was hit by a large fire in 1931, in wartime it offered a high capacity heavy rail link into France, provided of course that the French wished to supply the faction that controlled the station.
Compared to the this the Northern campaigns were far more one sided, yet significantly less intense. In essence the Monarchist Army of Catalonia wanted to retreat in good order and the Republican anarchist militias, after some early clashes, mostly let them. While battered, the Monarchists divisions were relatively well equipped, not least in light and medium machine guns, and managed an effective retreat, the two units 'leap frogging' over each other as they pulled back to the Ebro River line. In theory the anarchist militias, reinforced by the various Catalan forces that had not yet merged into larger units or been 'militarised', could have harried the retreating Monarchists and caused serious problems, after all there were very good reasons why Rey d'Harcourt was pulling his forces back. Unfortunately for the CNT-FAI the campaign soon demonstrated some new problems in applying anarchist principles to the art of war. On the defence a light infantry force with minimal supporting troops could work passably well, particularly when the units lacked heavy weapons and were defending urban areas that allowed easy 'informal' re-supply. However, when on the offensive the lack of firepower was far more serious and the lack of dedicated logistics troops became critical, to be blunt it was unclear how an anarchist logistic corps was supposed to work and so it mostly didn't. Thus, despite superior numbers, the CNT-FAI forces were unable to do more than stay in contact with the retreating Monarchists, at least until they reached the Ebro River, at which point the advanced slammed to a bloody halt as the Monarchists made a stand. Indeed Rey d'Harcourt purposely kept several bridgeheads on the eastern bank of the Ebro to make the future counter-attack easier, correct discerning that the pursuing anarchists would be unable to dislodge dug in troops once the front line was a manageable length and not a vast salient. While Rey d'Harcourt had snatched retreat from the jaws of annihilation, it was still a crushing Monarchist defeat that left Catalonia and North Eastern Spain in the hands of the Republic. Yet the CNT-FAI could not rest on their laurels, the industrial base of 'Anarchist Catalonia' provided a chance to re-equip their troops, as potentially did the captured Somport Tunnel to France, but a re-organisation was perhaps more urgent, the question was what that should organisation should be. Their ongoing fundamental, perhaps even existential, issue remained unsolved, were anarchist principles actually compatible with winning the war?
Finally we come to Central Spain, a theatre dominated by the Madrid-Valencia Axis. The two capitals exerted a constant influence on all military thinking in the region, even when not the notional objective of an operation the default tendency was still to interpret things from the perspective of how the threat/security of the two cities had changed. The first force to move were the communists, the International Brigades hurling themselves at the town of Almazán to 'avenge' the defeat of the T-26s earlier in the summer. These 'battles' sent a very highly motivated infantry force lacking in heavy weapons, artillery and training against a large number of well dug in Vickers machine guns, this went as well as you would expect and the attacks were only called off when the Brigadiers threatened to mutiny rather than risk another suicidal charge. This setback prompted the PSOE/PCE, and their Soviet political advisors, to order a change of plan, cancelling the planned push towards Burgos and sending overwhelming force to finally take the town. The PSOE/PCE militias had recently been "militarised" and were now divisions, far more importantly they had also been properly equipped and assigned supporting artillery and engineers. A liberal application of heavy artillery fire, and another very bloody infantry charge, finally got the Republicans over the river in numbers and forced the Monarchists out of Almazán, the Republican commander General Lister being feted as a hero for this 'incredible feat of arms'. The deliberations on what to do next were rudely interrupted by the Monarchist Northern Army who had re-routed their own 'Valencia Offensive' to deal with what they believed to be a terrible threat to Madrid. The initial clashes went well for the communists as they had the benefit of the urban conditions that had so hampered their efforts earlier, prompting ever more elaborate propaganda claims to be made, inflating the importance of the town further still. As both sides poured in reinforcements, the Monarchists to 'save Madrid' and the Republicans as a matter of pride to protect their propaganda victory, Almazán was slowly transformed from a town into a ruin. As the summer dragged on Monarchist numbers threatened to become decisive, almost the entire Northern Army and it's reserves had been committed to the attack, prompting the communists to appeal to the Republican government to attack elsewhere to relieve the pressure.
General Enrique Lister, committed PCE member, long time revolutionary and 'Hero of Almazán', seen here with his trademark jaunty had and leather jacket, along with the sartorially questionable choice of a tie. As the Republican militias 'Militarised', regularising their equipment and organisation and introducing proper ranks and a chain of command, the new divisions needed commanders. A graduate of the Soviet Frunze Academy and experienced revolutionary, Lister was chosen for the elite 11th Division and led them with distinction, and high casualties, during the summer campaign. However he was one of the exceptions, the communists preferring to shun the high profile front line roles and dominate the less showy yet vital jobs in the War Ministry controlling supply and discipline.
Give the lack of Republican co-ordination this appeal should have come to nothing, yet with effective control of the War Ministry the communists were able to convince the commanders along the Tagus river to launch a limited offensive towards Madrid. No-one expected Madrid to be taken, least of all the former Mancheguian militias of the 54th "La Mancha" Division that spearheaded the attack, but it was hoped it would distract the Monarchist. In this it exceeded beyond all expectations, convinced that the entire battle around Almazán had been a feint and that this was the real offensive towards Madrid, the Monarchist Military Council panicked. The Northern Army was responsible for protecting Madrid, yet had committed most of it's forces to Almazán, the few forces left on the river being pushed back by the Republican offensive. To stabilise the situation the Carlist Requetes and the Porto-Irish division cancelled their planned attack on Santander and rushed south to meet the threat and defend the capital. The Requetes lived up to their reputation and rapidly pushed the Republicans back to the river Tagus, before boldly pushing on across the river to capture Toledo, their British supplied equipment, not least in the air, providing a decisive edge. While the Toledo arsenal had long since been emptied it was still a psychologically significant blow to the Republic, though worse was to come as the Requetes fanned out across La Mancha, aiming to take the whole agriculturally rich province before the harvest. The fateful decision was made to pull back to the next defensive line, the River Guadiana and the strong point of Ciudad Real, while the Republican Grand Army command released the strategic reserve to reinforce those sections of the line that could not be anchored on a river. Theses reserves, including the propagandist's favourites the brigade of US M2A2 tanks, stabilised the front and stopped the advance, though the Monarchists reaching the limits of their logistics doubtless also helped. Unfortunately none of this had helped the communists, the Monarchist Northern Army had kept up the pressure and finally pushed them out of Almazán and back to the Ebro, the PSOE/PCE eventually managing to rally and hold Zaragoza.
The situation in Spain at the start of September 1937, with the various gains and losses of the two factions marked as indicated. Neither side was particularly happy with the overall progress, every triumph seemingly matched with a disaster, but at the faction level there had been significant changes. For the Republicans the Anarchists had secured the North East, gaining them prestige, a rail link to France and an industrial base, while the Communists had seen a high profile defeat and were widely blamed for the loss of La Mancha. On the Monarchist side the Carlists (and the British) continued to enhance their reputation, while the much vaunted Army of Africa and their Germans had very little to show for a lot of hard fighting and lost tanks.
By the end of August the summer campaigns spluttered to a halt, all supply lines exhausted, all reserves committed. All except one, the Basque forces having carefully preserved their forces, waiting for the Monarchists to commit, saw their opportunity to strike. The La Coruna Offensive was a formidable effort and, by the standards of the rest of the war at the time, relatively well equipped. In the skies the Basque Air Force was numerous if varied, the Basque cause had attracted some interesting supporters resulting in a somewhat motley collection of aircraft ranging from ex-Latvian Bristol Bulldogs to Mexican Vought V-99M Corsairs (the 1920s O2U biplane version, not the 1940s F4U monoplane). On land the shipyards and metal works of the Basque country had been busy, supplying a range of armoured vehicles of varying quality including such delights as the 'Bilbao Modelo 1932' armoured car and the Tanque Euskadi (Basque Tank). While far from the best equipment in Spain, experience had shown that any tank, or aircraft, was better than none and no-one expected the under-strength garrisons of La Coruna and Ferrol to be capable of putting up any significant resistance to the Eusko Gudarostea (Basque Army). In the event however, the initial surprise attack and subsequent advance would be the highpoint of their campaign, as we shall see in the next chapter the Basque would be stopped and thrown back by Cervantes, Castaños and Spanish Venom.
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Notes:
Is this a cliff hanger? Sort of, I think we've all seen enough Spanish civil war battles and this seemed a good point to stop on. I am quite pleased with the new map with River names on it, I think it looks quite good. Due to the nature of the HOI2 map of Spain the rivers end up being quite important so I referred to them a lot, because all of this is very much based on what the AI actually did. Hopefully the map makes things a little bit clearer. You could argue either way on which side did better out of all that, I would lean towards Bloodily Inconclusive but other opinions are available.
Methodical Battle is a funny one, as stated driven by the French preference to minimise casualties and to work with a few well trained professionals directing a large army of mostly conscripts and under-trained officers. A big chunk of the reasons for avoiding a fully professional army was undoubtedly cost, while the Maginot Line did not eat up that much French defence expenditure (given how long it took to build and the fact concrete is fairly cheap, it wasn't that much in % of budget terms per year) the French inter-war state was not rich. I've also seen a lot of references to the left being afraid of a military coup and/or being ideologically committed to a 'citizens army', both of which sound plausible given the time period. I suspect it's probably a bit of all these reasons, most things are. Either way it gave the world Methodical Battle, which probably works quite well under the right circumstances and if you are properly equipped for it, sadly for 1st Armoured neither of those applied outside Cordoba. The French will learn from this, they have enough observers and 'volunteers' embedded, what they learn is a different question.
The Motor Dragoons in their Lorraine 4x6 trucks did well (as in survived) and this will not have gone un-noticed by the many observers. This in part because shooting Armour Piercing shells at advancing infantry tends not to go well, certainly compared to shooting High Explosives at them, or even better canister shot. Mark that as another chance for the British to learn that a HE shell for the 2-pounder (and all future tank/towed guns) is important, this will add to lessons from the Abyssinian War and Hobart shouting about it. I know the Ordnance Board was quite obstinate, but I am going to assume that by now this fact has got through to them.
Militarisation was a real process and it was heavily pushed by the communists as they did control the War Ministry. The militias probably did need some professionalising, but the way it was done does seem to be more about centralising political control and sidelining other factions than fighting effectiveness. With the French around the Soviet influence is reduced, so it's happening a bit slower than OTL, in particular the Anarchists are still resisting and have kept better control of Catalonia so can scrape up an industrial base of sorts.
The M2A2 tanks arrived in Spain back in Chapter LXXIX, the Latvian Bulldogs in Chapter CV and we briefly met the brave men of the Mancheguian militias in Chapter LXXI, so lots of long set up things starting to bubble up. I mention this because I'd be amazed if anyone would notice that without being prompted. The Mexican contribution to the Basque cause is new however and will be discussed in the next update, as well the unusual Basque armoured vehicles which were OTL but fairly rare, mostly because the Basque territory was far smaller and was captured by June '37. In Butterfly the Basque have more territory and have used the extra time and resources to churn out some more equipment, not least some unusual tank-like vehicles.
Up Next; Corsairs, Trubia, Cervantes, Castaños and Spanish Venom.
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Methodical Battle is best used in the context within which it was developed (Western Front trench warfare)...and some of it's applications are important...but the increased ability to supply and maintain firepower on the move have created a more fluid battlefield.
IMO, the right approach for this situation was somewhere between methodical Battle and deep operations...which was a favorite chimera of British, Russian, and German theorists...and was debunked in the 1944 offensives.
IMO, the right approach for this situation was somewhere between methodical Battle and deep operations...which was a favorite chimera of British, Russian, and German theorists...and was debunked in the 1944 offensives.
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I agree to a point, but the war France wanted to fight (i.e. in Belgium) would have been on a narrow front with no real space to exploit the mobility or ever really get a favourable force ratio. For that scenario Methodical Battle probably works well, unless you make an inexplicably stupid mistakes. Which unfortunately the French did.
A decent blocking force on the Ardennes, or just a bit of effort put into finishing and manning the fortifications that France started building at Sedan, and the German Panzer arm is hurling itself into a meatgrinder and Blitrzkreig would have come badly unstuck. But then the Germans weren't idiots and if photo recon had shown the Sedan forts were actually finished then they never would have gone that way, though the alternative was fighting the sort of war France wanted to fight, on the ground France wanted to fight on, so maybe they would have taken the risk regardless.
Almost as rare as comments on this chapter.A rare sentence on this forum...
But I care not, for I have finished adding Threadmarks to all of the chapters in Butterfly Effect and so I am feeling most virtuous.
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To be fair, the mistake to move up to Netherlands was a well calculated gamble, as it was part of the French high command desire to attempt to force Dutch army to fight for Allies side to bitter end, and to lessen the pressure on French manpower as at the time it was still thought that the WW2 would turn into a gruesome, slow, brutal war that WW1 was. After all, how could you have strategic planning against guys jumping out of airplanes, that merely 10 years before were hardly able to aim a flour bomb properly to ground below.
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...or even a faster response to the German Ardennes effort once it became clear. Even being a few hours faster could have made enough of a difference to prevent the unilateral withdrawal of Belgian and British forces in unhelpful directions.
Alas, for the world...that didn't happen.
Alas, for the world...that didn't happen.
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It seems like the Carlists are losing on most of the peripheral fronts, and should the French decide that the CNT/FAI/Catalan coalition is worth supporting, I'm not sure how the Monarchists can reclaim the North without a gruesome struggle. Granted, wearing the Monarchists down might well be in France's strategic interest, especially if they can't rely on the United Kingdom to fight with them on the Continent (although Eden is probably seen, rightly, as much more likely to cooperate with the French). It seems that the war is very much up in the air at this point, (although I suspect the Republicans will win).
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I'm pretty sure the monarchists win...just my read of how things will go.
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Humphrey, age is catching up with you. You've repeated yourself.
It is (still!) debatable who is going to win. Which...eh, I can see why but knowing everything as we do, I don't really want the republicans to win (even though they should really, they are the elected goverment here). Best case scenario for them is moderstes (somehow) get control in Madrid when they win and Catalans get independance. Much more likely is they win (somehow) and then fight amongsy themsevles gor long ebough that the facists come back, this time with muvh more suppirt.
But generally, because of the powers involved, and the sides they picked, this civil war may well end up with a worse result for everyone, especially Spain. How...depressing?
It is (still!) debatable who is going to win. Which...eh, I can see why but knowing everything as we do, I don't really want the republicans to win (even though they should really, they are the elected goverment here). Best case scenario for them is moderstes (somehow) get control in Madrid when they win and Catalans get independance. Much more likely is they win (somehow) and then fight amongsy themsevles gor long ebough that the facists come back, this time with muvh more suppirt.
But generally, because of the powers involved, and the sides they picked, this civil war may well end up with a worse result for everyone, especially Spain. How...depressing?
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Just coming at the same majestic pace and frequency of the updates.Almost as rare as comments on this chapter.
And rightly so.
As to the chapter itself, as always a remarkably plausible blend of history and alt-history. There seems to have been much praise of Lister, bordering on hysteria - ‘Listeria’, perhaps?
Probably has the same effects. - 1