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unmerged(11745)

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Nov 17, 2002
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This is my very first AAR, I welcome your coments and suggestions. Thanks.





Good evening ladies and Gentlemen,

I am pleased that you are interested to hear my story. I served in the U.S. army from 1935 to 1950. My first post and only post during the second great war, was in the United States Army War College. A very interesting posting for me as you will all soon find out.

I reported for duty at 0630 on 1 January, 1936. Being a holiday, everyone, with the exception of the Officer of the day, was with their families. He greated me with a sort of condescending look as if he didn't want to be bothered. (Especially since he was a Captain and I myself was a newly promoted 1st Lieutentant). He was however kind enough to arrange for me quarters in the officer's B.E.Q. and informed me that the rest of the staff would be in tomorrow for a meeting with the current armaments minister along with the heads from each branch of service.

Early the next morning the meeting began promptly at 0800. President Roosevelt's Chief of staff and head of the army, General Malin Craig presided. He began with a world intelligence briefing, of which the main points are as follows:

1. European advances in Land Warfare.
2. The mechanization of Land Armies.
3. Spread of National Socialism and Fascism in Europe
4. A general build up of multinational alliances.

After the discussing of these issues, it was decided that the military in general needed to improve in doctrinal and equipment areas. We implemented research into the motorization of the army. The development of an armored branch of the army to consist of mechanized infantry divisions along will whole divsions of tanks. (This was the area of development of which I was to be a part) The meeting was adjourned and everyone went about their task.

8 January on my way to work I heard over the radio that Germany was attempting to make a territorial move by demanding that the nation of Austria give up its sovreignity and join the reich. The Austrians refused which somewhat puzzled me since the austrians are ethic Germans, strangely enough this subject never came up at work that day.

Another interesting day occured on the 8th of February when Tannu Tuva joined the Comintern with the Soviet Union and the backwards nation of Mongolia (At the time they were backwards, though I don't really know about now).

On the 21st of February the Admiral Standley, Chief of the Navy announced that the entire Pacific Fleet including two aircraft carriers, the U.S.S. Lexington and the U.S.S. Saratoga being were to be moved to Pearl Harbor, where the fleet would be better able to perform its primary duty of protecting the sealanes from pirates and other such people.

In a briefing to the chief of the army I announced that our very first tank, based on an early British model, was completed on 10 April. General Craig was very estatic about this and ordered the construction of our first two tank divisions, with production to begin on the 20th of July.

Finally, headway was made in divisional and army signals which made notable increases in organiztion in most of our operational units. This announcement was made mid-June of 1936 and our reasearchers were able to redirect their focus and begin extinsive research into more modern bombers,with emphasis on both airframes and engines alike.

More big news reached the War College on the 18th of July when General Franco began his revolt against the Republican Spanish government. To make matters worse, both Germany and Italy of the Axis alliance intervened on behalf of Franco and his rebels while the Soviet Union sent men and material to aid the republican government. A poll taken two days later in the U.S. showed that 16% of the population favored going to war with Germany. This alarmed the American General staff and even more thought went into research and to the production of a few new military units.

In mid-August doctrinal advances were made in air warefare by the implementaion of the blitz bombing doctrine and this advance multiplied even further by our advancements made in the aformentioned research in to bomber tecnology in mid-September.

Another interesting turn of events took place on 15 September when Chiang Kai-Shek's Nationalist China annexed Communist China. At this point we feared Soviet intervention in China would eliminate us having Chaing Kai-Shek as a potential ally against communism.

On 15 October, the Navy announced in a meeting they had made a breaktough in battleship design which would allow the majority of our World War I battleships to undergo extensive refits. Two weeks later Nationalst China was back in the news having forced Tibet to give up several provinces which greatly increased thier nation's territory and possibly their industrial capacity also. Maybe Chaing's people aren't that weak after all?

This being an election year in the U.S., on Nocember 4th the nation re-elected FDR to his second term ensuring another four years of the New Deal which will hopefully pull this nation out of its worst depression ever.

In a meeting on 12 November two dicoveries were announced and both were to assist in modernizing the air force. Basic decimeteric radar and an advance into more modern fighter technology.

On 1 December while everyone was looking forward to the new year approaching, a new poll came out in which 26% of U.S. citizens favored war with the Axis. I would hate to have to tell the average American on the street that none of our armed forces would even be close to the challenge of taking on the axis alliance. So much to be done and so little time to get it accomplished. Around 13 December another advance was made this time in Corps Signals. Fortunately this again improved the army units organization.

Oh dear me ladies and gentlemen, here now you have let me ramble on for nearly two hours. I don't know about you all, but I need a break, a drink, some rest and relaxation, and in due course if you are interested I will continue on. Thanks for listening to an old war veteran with nothing but memories to share. Good bye now.
 
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Hello again Ladies and Gentlemen,

Care to hear more of my story? I guess I shall continue to tell you of the bits of news and inside stories traded around inside the war college during the eventful year of 1937. Eventful in world news and in military advances made by the United States in preparation for the war that was soon to come.

Now people before I begin if anyone has any questions or comments please be sure to let me know, so that I may tailor my story to your needs.

OK 1937, A very turbulent year in the world aboard. One very nasty ocurrence or I should say occurences was inside information that we recieved from within the Soviet Union that they were killing off several of their generals who were suspected of political unreliability. A fellow colleauge of mine joked that czarist era generals don't make very good communist....but anyway if you think that was bad wait till you hear this.

On 4 May the republican spanish government was overthrown by an underground communist movement and a stalinst government was established. Not only did the Spanish communist keep fighting the civil war against Franco's nationalist state....they joined the Comintern with the Soviet's, which cost us another ally that was a liberal democracy and we shan't be able to count on the Nationalist in Spain to be of any help seeing as they only occupied one remote province at the time. So it seems that the communist have scored another point in the game of international diplomacy and power.

Oh goodness, I unfortunately forgot to mention the Japanese and the agressive tactics they employed in China and against the Dutch East Indies. On 2 March they declared war on the Netherlands and not two days later they invaded China. This worried the general staff because Japan was very succesfull in its opening campaign against Nationalist China, rolling over every Chinese unit in sight. They also made an amphibious landing in Shanghi that may as well have been undefended from all the intell we could gather. That offensive took the Japs all the way to Nanking which I am sure is a week that the Chinese people will never forget. They bombed civilians by the thousands and caused serious injury to the Chinese nation as a whole. At home in the states war cries from ethic Chinese citizens and many other American citizens. I believe a poll at that said something like 52% of the population supported a war, but nothing ever came of it.

Now I would like to Share with you some of the technological advances that were made (some of which I had a direct hand in!).
Early January the Navy informed the war college of its plans to begin building a new series of Battleship that were top have 350mm naval guns...I'm glad I wasn't going to be on the recieving end of those things. Oops, I'm getting sidetracked back to the story. If you remember the last segement I informed all of you that we had begun production on the first two armored divisions in U.S. history, well they became operational in mid January, even though they were a copy of an early British model they were an impressive sight while conducting manuvers in the field.

A major change occurred in the way the Navy conducted its business. Admiral Standley retired from his post as chief of the navy. He was replaced by Admiral Leahy, an open seas advocate, who immeadiately made his presence felt by making his ideas and theories the new practice of the Navy. This was a good change because it drastically improved several fleets organization and raised the morale of all the sailors. The day after the Nanking Massacre on the 20 of April the airforce announced the successful testing of light bomber prototype which will allow for a new dive bomber and torpedo bomber designs. Later on in the year the airforce announced that all operational fighter squadrons would soon recieve a new interceptor aircraft dubbed the P-40 Tomahawk, I never did know why but the airforce guys were really excited about that new model.

I absolutely believe I forgot to tell you all that I am one of the pioneers who revoluitoned America's tank forces. My specialty was designs and armaments and I had a direct hand in every tank design the U.S. fielded during the war. This particular model was approved for further testing and the 2nd Armored division was designated to be the recipient of the first batch of the new model. This new tank, the M3 "Stuart" was revolutionary for us because it mounted an actual cannon, a 30mm to be exact. AT this time our thinking led us to believe that this tank would be beneficial to us because it could fire a high-explosive shells to kill infantry and to destroy fortifed obstacles, however as we were later to learn that we were definetly going to need bigger tanks with bigger guns. On 15 September 2nd Armored began to be upgraded with its expected finished date being around Christmas day.

Good Lord, telling you all about a single year is tiring work. Unfortunately soon I will be taking a long vaction and I will not be able to relate to you the rest of this story till sometime after the new year. So please bear with me and I will attempt to tell you more in the near future. Thank you and good night!


Comments are welcome................
 
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Will be out till New Year

I will be out till the new year, so no new parts will be added as of yet. Please leave comments and suggestions.
 
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It's a good start. I like the perspective. The one main comment I have to make is to use paragraph breaks to create more 'white space'. It's easier on the eyes to read.

For example, I've taken a few of your paragraphs and inserted the neccessary breaks:



OK 1937, A very turbulent year in the world aboard. One very nasty ocurrence or I should say occurences was inside information that we recieved from within the Soviet Union that they were killing off several of their generals who were suspected of political unreliability. A fellow colleauge of mine joked that czarist era generals don't make very good communist....but anyway if you think that was bad wait till you hear this.

On 4 May the republican spanish government was overthrown by an underground communist movement and a stalinst government was established. Not only did the Spanish communist keep fighting the civil war against Franco's nationalist state....they joined the Comintern with the Soviet's, which cost us another ally that was a liberal democracy and we shan't be able to count on the Nationalist in Spain to be of any help seeing as they only occupied one remote province at the time. So it seems that the communist have scored another point in the game of international diplomacy and power.

Oh goodnes, I unfortunately forgot to mention the Japanese and the agressive tactics they employed in China and against the Dutch East Indies. On 2 March they declared war on the Netherlands and not two days later they invade China. This worried the general staff because Japan was very succesfull in its opening campaign against Nationalist China rolling over every Chinese unit in sight. They also made an amphibious landing in Shanghi that may as well have been undefended from all the intell we could gather. That offensive took the Japs all the way to Nanking which I am sure is a week that the Chinese people will never forget. They bombed civilians by the thousands and caused serious injury to the Chinese nation as a whole. At home in the states war cries from ethic Chinese citizens and many other American citizens. I believe a poll at that said something like 52% of the population supported a war, but nothing ever came of it.


It makes the reading a touch easier on these tired old eyes. :)
 
Reply to LOrd Durham:

Thanks for the tip.... I am vactioning right now in the great state of Texas, going to spend CHristmas with Family and old friends. Unfortunately for me I could not bring my PC with me or else I would continue on with the story and yes I am suffering from withdrawals...LOL...Any more advice will be greatly appreciated.


Thanks.