An Italian Hoi3 AAR: "For The Pastaland"

[Guderian1992]

Version: For The Motherland [FTM 3.05]
Country: Italy
Difficulty: Hard

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The state of the empire is not so well. Mussolini will have to address the people in a few days on January the 14th of 1936, and he has not one shred of good news to tell the public.

"Should I remind them that the trains run on time?" He asked.
"No." I rejected blatantly.
"Then what?! Eight million bayonets?"
"No. Too soon."

Mussolini, or boss as he likes to be called, has no idea how to run a country. I do all the background work and I keep everything running. I'm his aide, he calls me "Il Baron" to indicate my importance to his clique. I kid you not, I do everything around here.

"Promise them victory in Ethiopia" I said.
"That's genius!" He replied fanatically.

Mussolini then rushed out to his balcony 20 minutes early declaring "We Will Win!" and people began to chat along.

Table of Contents​

1936:
1- War with Ethiopia - The Battle Plan
2- Armed Forces Evaluation - 1936
3- Industry, Research, & Production Strategies
4- Theories & Strategies
5- A Year in Review

1937:
1- Political Atmosphere - 1937
2- Armed Forces Evaluation - 1937
3- The End of Ethiopia
4- The Zadar-Split Incident: War with Yugoslavia
5- Diplomatic Relations, The Fall of Yugoslavia, & War with Bulgaria

 

[Guderian1992]

War with Ethiopia - The Battle Plan
​

War with the Ethiopians had broken out in October of 1935, and things were going well in Ethiopia. Public support for the Ethiopian campaign had skyrocketed when that fool Haile Selassie went out in public and said "One day a man named Bob Marley will make me famous" to which the boss replied "I have a deep belief that the only man who will out-smoke Selassie is going to be that Marley fellow." How little did he know...

Before we began operations in Ethiopia in 1936, I demanded that Field Marshal Cavigali be replaced with FM Balbo. He was much smarter, younger, and more importantly could run an entire army on one loaf of bread and half a can of Mussolini's arse. I also suggested to the boss that all promising talents in the army should be relocated to Ethiopia to allow them to gain some experience. Surprisingly enough he agreed to them all. Every man who could drive a tank, defend, attack, or knew how to deal with wintery conditions was sent to the front pronto.

Mussolini was drawing up plans with his generals on the 1st of January 1936 when I walked in. "Come look at this! We'll be done with Ethiopia before May!" he said ecstatically. I frowned, shook my head, and sat them all down. "You're all generals" I said, "You have no idea how to run a country. Europe is a few gunshots away from total war. Keeping the Ethiopian war going will keep our citizens quite, and our economic mobilization can continue into the future. Our army needs the investment, and that's the only way we can give it to them." Mussolini agreed with me without hesitation, we'll keep the Ethiopian war going until we're ready to invade another nation altogether.

The picture above shows our valiant army getting ready for war.

I had to take the pen from the hands of Balbo and draw up the battle plan myself. "We're far better than them" said Balbo reassuringly, and most of the attendees agreed accept for one Lieutenant General, Messe I believes his family name was... I liked that kid.

The above scroll is a brief of Italy's battle plan in Ethiopia. The arrows indicate the directions of attack of Battle Groups A & B, while the black circles indicate the choke points that should be created to encircle and drain out the Ethiopian enemy. Circles centred with a red cross are where we intend to destroy the starved enemy and move on. The empty circles are ones we'll maintain until we're ready to invade another nation.

Battle Group A will be supported by a tactical bomber from our Tobruch HQ, while Battle Group B will be supported by the Regia Marina from the coastline. Both supports will become redundant once the groups are out of their respective coverage zones.

 

[Guderian1992]

Armed Forces Evaluation - 1936​

The intent of Italy was to commit only the 147,000 Italian infantry, mountain, & militia divisions of the Armata dell'A.O.I to the conflict in Etiopia, while all efforts are to be directed to our Commando Superiore, Regia Marina, and partially the Regia Aeronautica.

Of all the branches of the Italian armed forces, the air force, or Regia Aeronautica was in the best shape, little investment was needed in this field for now. Only about 5 - 6 CAS were needed to keep ground attacks pumping in case of a local threat to the homeland. The Regia Marina was still relatively modern and could become a regional powerhouse with the right investment choices (BB - DD). Finally, the Commando Superiore was in shambles.

Italy's choice of infantry divisions was a binary one (INF-INF; MTN-MTN), which was effective given the manpower troubles Italy would have should we wish to add one INF or MTN brigade to each existing division and continue forward with a triangular formation (INF-INF-INF; MTN-MTN-MTN). We therefore made the most logical decision of committing two additional support brigades to our existing divisions and moving forward under the same schema unless the necessity arose of a triangular formation in the future (see 1944 Liberation of Ethiopia - To be Posted in the Future).

Editors Note: Throughout this AAR I'll be providing some tips and hints in the form of editors note's just like this one for the new or inexperienced players who happened to stumble across this AAR.

Immediately, the boss was struck by my report of the Commando Superiore's state. In such a set-up, we wouldn't even be able to topple Yugoslavia in the near future. We only possessed around 218,000 troops, of which only 77,000 were in the East Army Group stationed on the Yugoslavian border. The West Army Group stationed on the French border had around 68,000 troops. The rest were stationed in the southern and central parts of Italy as reserves.

Editors Note: When reorganizing the Commando Superiore, it may be tempting for the player to split Italy into two theatres, East & West, however, this is not advisable due to the lack of proper Italian generals, however by pushing the war in Ethiopia into the late 1937's, or until you're ready to attack another nation, you can consistently attack whatever Ethiopian forces you can find and easily have an abundance of skill 3 & even skill 4 generals way before 1939 or 1940. This means that your later forces will be commanded by better generals, which is especially useful when assisting Germany in it's invasion of the USSR.

 

[mankle30]

An Italian AAR? Subbed!

 

[Guderian1992]

Industry, Research, & Production Strategies​

Taking a break from the Ethiopian war, the boss wanted me to meet with the armament minister Guido Jung and discuss the production strategies of our armed forces. We sat down with the joint chiefs of staff (Army, Navy, & Air Force) to decide how things were going to progress. We decided that the first production runs were going to be limited to:

A- A single Battleship.
B- A single Destroyer.
C- An existing Light Cruiser.
D- 3 parallel Anti Tank brigades running for 3 production cycles (3 parallel & 3 serial).
E- 3 parallel Artillery brigades running for 3 production cycles (3 parallel & 3 serial).
F- 3 parallel Anti Aircraft brigades running for 3 production cycles (3 parallel & 3 serial).
G- 3 binary divisions of Infantry running for 3 production cycles.
H- 1 Close Air Support squadron.
I- 2 Convoys running for 11 production cycles (36 months in total).

The distribution of our Industrial Capacity (IC) was like so:

As for research, it was decided that the following strategy would be implemented for the first half of 1936:

Total Available Leadership: 14.30 points.

Research: 10.10 points.
Espionage: 2.00 points. (0.1 Spies/Day)
Diplomacy: 0.20 points. (0.1 Influence/Day)
Officers: 2.00 points. (12 Officers/Day)

The above strategy was implemented due to the following reasons:

A- 11 research projects running would be sufficient to keep our nation in similar technological knowhow as the rest of the majors.
B- 1 spy every 10 days means that in 300 days we'd have 30 available spies for deployment. Our targets for espionage were Yugoslavia, France, & finally our own counter-espionage efforts. All others were pointless.
C- We didn't have any need for diplomacy besides creating trade agreements. 1 Influence every 10 days would be sufficient.
D- We have 12,312 officers covering our 216 brigades, our studies indicate that 12,190 officers would be enough to cover our active brigades. So 12 officers per day would be sufficient to cover our existing and planned for brigades for the year of 1936.

Our technological policies would be revised semi-annually indefinitely. An emergency mandate from Il Duce would also force a revision at any time.

 

[max_explorer]

Subbed!

 

[Guderian1992]

Theories & Strategies
​

"As a disclaimer, this is all an editor's note. I'm not interested in writing an entire segment of this AAR/Guide in Italics."


Naval Theory & Strategy:

"Disband them all" said Mussolini in a harsh and angry voice. Boss was a smart guy, but sometimes he lacked foresight.
"Boss, we'll never be able to abolish the Royal Navy, but we can abolish them regionally." I said.
"What the heck does that mean Baron?" He said quizzically.
"It means we need the Regia Marina in order to move our troops from and to Libya, and our future conquests will necessitate the presence of a powerful navy. Our strategy will involve hit and runs. We'll have local superiority over the Royal Navy due to our closer ports. And if it came to war with the British our armies will push them all the way to the Arab gulf, and with a lack of local ports their Royal Navy would not be able to carry out sustainable operations in the region, especially if we were to take Gibraltar as well."

I insisted that the Regia Marina receive at least 30% - 35% of our annual IC investment in order to provide the necessary Battleships and Destroyers. I suggested we keep all existing ships, but rearrange them between three classes which are the most obsolete (from Roman days), the latent contemporaries, and finally the modern. Once this was done we could task our ships with zones that would either bring them into head-on collisions with the Royal Navy or keep them for local convoy protection in the Adriatic sea for example.

The Italian Battleship Vittorio Veneto During An Exercise.


Air Force Theory & Strategy:

The Regia Aeronautica was in the best shape in 1936. Italy owned 3 Naval Bombers, 3 Tactical Bombers, 1 Transport Plane, & 5 Interceptors. 3 Tactical bombers weren't going to cover our ground attack needs all on their own. It was of my belief that 5 - 6 Close Air Support planes were needed to cover both ground attacks and extra naval strikes if possible (See Battle of the Mediterranean 1940 - 1941 - To be added later).

The strategy for Italy's air force was simple, regional superiority! Italy can't possibly match the Luftwaffe or Germany's IC capabilities, so our hopes are to cover our Eastern Front, our Libyan Front, our AOI Front (Ethiopia), & Italy's own aerial defence without overstretching our Regia Aeronautica.

Our Valiant Tactical Bombers In A Flying Exercise.


Army Theory & Strategy:

Ground forces are essential for any sweeping victory. Our infantry divisions were going to be binary, with 2 attached support brigades (AT/ART/AA/ENG/TD/SPA...) for additional firepower. Understanding frontage is a difficult thing, but the reason Italy will keep it's binary system is due to frontage. 6 Infantry brigades with 2 support brigades (3xINF + 1 ART) will face 6 Infantry brigades with 6 support brigades (2xINF + 2 ART) meaning that our support brigades will out-stack the opposing infantry without causing any penalties because support brigades don't take up any combat width / frontage. It's the 6 Infantry brigades that will cover the front since they take up width.

So does that mean that binaries are the best formation for infantry? No.

Why? A simple doctrine that makes this game 6000x more tough - Superior Firepower.

When Superior Firepower kicks in all pre-SF divisions fall under threat from their post-SF counterparts. The more divisions there are in a battle, the less efficient the battle will be for that team. Meaning that if the frontage allowed for 5 combat brigades, the side that had those 5 brigades in one division would benefit from no negative buffers due to multiple brigades on a single front. (Exact numbers are still unknown to me, I've studied this theory for well over 2 years now & I still can't put my finger on it, but the difference is there. 1 division of 5 infantry brigades will always outmatch 2 divisions of 3 brigades & 2 brigades respectively on the condition that they are attacking from the same direction.) [All of the aforementioned information is not related to stacking penalties, it's what I call a hidden synergy bonus/penalties]

Il Duce & Myself In The Back Inspecting Our Infantry.

 

[Guderian1992]

A Year In Review
​

1936 was a good year in many respects. Production of our first battleship in the modern era is underway, our army has grown in size - albeit moderately - and most importantly we've made some significant breakthroughs in technology.

A British representative was evaluating our new 1936 stamped Beretta rifles & hand guns when he asked if his country could place an order for our weaponry but we blatantly refused such a prospect. 'Only Italian hands are fit to hold Italian arms" said the boss with a straight face, until he noticed how dumb that sounded. In terms of infantry we were still lacking a proper Order of Battle but the boss kept saying he'd start work on it tomorrow, and one day has to be tomorrow.

Politically, Hitler and his version of Germany were starting to create quite a fuss in the northern part of the continent. The boss never really liked Hitler - nor the Germans really - as he believed that Hitler wanted to annex Austria, and Austria was Italy's younger cousin as Mussolini would always say. "You don't mess with our younger cousin!" he'd always say when I asked if he'd accept Hungary or Germany's claims on parts or all of Austria respectfully.

I smell war, but with all that's been brewing around the continent and the boss's reaction to them I'm not really sure how he's going to react to a war between the so called "Allied" powers and Germany. I can only hope he'll choose the winning side. Frankly, with the League of Nations not even capable of stopping us from attacking Ethiopia, and the Germans gaining membership due to British demands, I can't see an end to this tunnel we're being driven into.

 

[Jagdpnzr]

I must say I enjoy what you've got so far. I like when the writers explain their strategy and builds.

 

[Guderian1992]

I must say I enjoy what you've got so far. I like when the writers explain their strategy and builds.

Thank you kind sir. I can assure you that a lot more is yet to come, all of which is styled in similar fashion. I hope you'll enjoy the rest.

 

[Cardus]

Why you don't try your AAR with the mod below?

 

[Guderian1992]

Why you don't try your AAR with the mod below?

I would've loved to but this AAR is already completed in terms of play. I'm just writing up the action right now. If I write another AAR I'll be sure to check it out.

 

[Guderian1992]

Political Atmosphere - 1937
​

1937 was a year of escalating aggressions from all sides. The Allies were trying to prove that they were no pushovers, but in return they seem to be floundering by the minute. The Allies blew their last chance of seemingly keeping Italy on their side when they denied our honest request to reclaim our cores from Yugoslavia in early 1937. The League of Nations, now the sick man of Europe, actually approved our re-occupation but we were swayed by Great Britain to not attempt such an act or they would withdraw their guarantee of Rhodes & our islands off of Greece & Turkey, which in themselves were widely disputed.

Germany on the other hand were starting to look like a more alluring ally by the minute. Adolf Hitler, their supreme leader decided to completely rip apart the Treaty of Versailles by re-occupying the Rhine land in mid-1936. Il Duce was very worried by these developments and for this reason he decided to accept the German re-occupation in return for Germany's public approval of Italy's claims on Yugoslavia & Albania.

Il Duce didn't really like Hitler, he thought highly of Austria, and the Germans were proposing the idea of Anschluss in late 1936 and he wasn't happy about that at all. Il Duce was however, politically savvy and he learned a long time ago that any ally is still better than no allies.

Il Duce and his Fuhrer-ness Adolf Hitler, that's me in the back!

At once it became apparent to Il Duce that Germany & Hitler in particular were going to become aggressive in the near future, he told me "One day we'll either have to approve of their atrocities or die with the rest of them. They're mad men, and worst of all, they're mad men who run a country."

 

[Guderian1992]

Armed Forces Evaluation - 1937

​

I've just received these change reports from Field Marshal Balbo - supreme commander of the Regio Esercito (military), Admiral Ghé - supreme commander of the Regia Marina (navy), and finally Marshal of the Air Force Balbo (unrelated to FM Balbo of the military).

Regio Esercito Evaluation 1936-1937​

Manpower Report:

Brigades recruited over the past 16 months (01.01.1936-30.04.1937): 56 Brigades.
Brigades per Month: 3.5

Men recruited over the past 16 months: 78,000 men.
Total Men in the Regio Esercito: 434,000 men.

- Men in Commando Superiore: 278,000 men.
- Men in Tobruch HQ: 156,000 men.​

​

Order Of Battle & Production Strategy Report:

​

OOB: Still unorganized - poor allocation of generals. (Missing from Report)

Objectives of Existing Production Strategy: To increase the practical knowledge of existing armourers & production facilities for artillery pieces (AT-AA-AR) [now 13.1] & maximize the efficiency of existing divisions with support firepower. [achieved]

New Production Strategy: Gradually begin increasing the size of the military to reach around 650K to 700K on all fronts by the end of 1938.

- Build Theory: For all armies stationed across the Eastern border, we expect to recruit 2 brigades of infantry, 1 anti-tank & 1 artillery brigade as support on average. Two corpses must be specific anti-tank corpses [INF-INF-AT-AT or INF-INF-TD-TD]. The Western front will necessitate the existence of artillery and anti-aircraft divisions as well as anti-tank divisions, a mixed build strategy will be followed on that front.
- OOB: 4 brigades per division, 5 divisions per corps, 4 - 5 corps per army. Army groups will cover East, West, & National Defence (Italian Port Protection). [Expected men distribution per army group E:60%;W:30%;ND:10%]
​

Evaluation of Performance in Ethiopia - So Far:

The action in Ethiopia displayed some staggering weaknesses in our army. The RE (Regio Esercito) were a complete mess and failed to properly encircle and destroy the enemy on many occasions. At the end of the day they did what was requested of them and the front towards Addis Ababa is stable and coherent with our plans.

Regia Marina Evaluation 1936 - 1937​

Only 1 destroyer was built throughout the past 16 months, however, the second will be completed in only one day so that's not an insurmountable deficit. Our real breakthrough in the navy comes in the form of technological advancements. We've managed to design new hulls, guns, and anti-aircraft guns for our escort and capital ships and they'll be put to good use in our future builds.

Pretty much, we're on course to achieving our goal of a powerful navy.

Regia Aeronautica Evaluation 1936 - 1937

​

In 1936, our main objective was to increase the firepower of our air force by producing around 5 CAS before 1938, we're on course to achieving our goal with ease. The Regia Aeronautica is one of the most modern and best equipped air forces in the world.

 

[mosin_nagant]

Subbed

 

[Guderian1992]

Subbed

Thank you! Hope you'll enjoy the rest of it!

 

[mosin_nagant]

Wooow impressive

 

[Guderian1992]

The End of Ethiopia

​

The Italian/Abyssinian (Ethiopian) war began in October of 1935; and today, September the 20th 1937 nearly two years later, Mussolini has had enough. It was our idea - or should I say mine - to prolong the war in Ethiopia as much as possible in order to keep our citizens quite and thus enable us to focus on our military and it's necessary upgrades and size increments. However, things took a drastic turn for the worst when Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia called Mussolini a 'big headed, big nosed, egomaniac' during a League of Nations meeting in early September 1937.

The boss doesn't take kindly to insults, he turned to me and said "This guy... I'm going to have him castrated!" in absolute rage when he heard the comments from our delegate. "Haile Selassie has overdone it this time. He's going to swim with the fishes!" exclaimed Mussolini as he threw a fit of rage, the first I'd seen from him yet. "Issue a directive to General Lisi of the Armata dell AOI, and tell him to storm Addis Ababa at once, and bring me Selassie alive."

The directive was issued at Mussolini's command and sent out to the Tobruch HQ where it was channelled to General Lisi. The directive came into action on the 22nd of September, 1937.

At 10:00 am of the same day, the 5th, 6th, 7th, 26th, & 30th divisions stormed Addis Ababa from 3 directions at once, quickly overpowering and overwhelming the local defences. The 5th division comprised of elite mountain infantry trained in the Eritrean mountains and was tasked with the difficult task of taking the Imperial Palace of Addis Ababa and capturing Selassie then returning him to Italy alive. These crack troops had no problem surging through whatever the Ethiopians could to throw at them and by the 1st of October they were ready to surround the Imperial Palace.

It took about 8 or 9 hours for the mountaineers to comb through the palace and eventually they found their target, deposed Emperor of Ehtiopia Haile Selassie I. Within moments of that declaration Ethiopia in it's entirety laid down its arms and the war was officially over - on paper that is.

The boss was ecstatic, no longer would he have to come up with ridiculous excuses for the reporters when asked how the war in Ethiopia was going, it was officially over. Mussolini held a general cabinet meeting within the first hour of the good news and declared the 1st of October a national holiday. The cabinet then approved a legislation that would incorporate the country of Ethiopia into the Kingdom of Italy as a client state.

There was no time to rest and celebrate a victory in Ethiopia, as one war concluded, another had begun only one day before total victory was declared in Ethiopia.

 

[racebear75]

Nice story so far, subbed.

 

[Guderian1992]

Nice story so far, subbed.

Thank you sir, more action tonight!