'Odin' and Stalin's Secret Committee

roverS3 · Aug 25, 2017

The 29th of May 1940, Vologda, 2,8°C, 10am Moscow Time,

Report on the state of the Soviet Union for the ten day period between the 20th and the 29th of May 1940,

by 'Odin'

Army:

No changed to Army numbers or leadership for the last ten days.
Officers: 67.660 + / 78.190 needed / 86,533 %
Do not cheer too soon about this slight improvement, as the amount of Regiments that will be delivered in the next ten days will bring the OR right back down...

Air Force:

No changes in the Air Force, nor the Navy Air Fleet for the last 10 days

Navy:

No changes in the navy for the last 10 days

Politics / International:

No legislative changes for the last 10 days.
The Norwegian Front

Norway (Surrender Progress / NU): 0,00 / 85,4
Germany (Surrender Progress / NU): 0,0 / 86,9

It seems the Norwegians smelled an opportunity, and troops Garrisoning Oslo have taken back Drammen, to the east of the Capital. The Wehrmacht seems to be going straight for Bergen, having captured both Odda, and Eidfjord on the way to the province, which has both a Naval Base and an Air Base. External Committee member "Eurasia" may be right in suggesting that the Germans have no way to bring new units into Norway after their transport were sunk. With much of the Norwegian Army in Oslo they seem to be going for another Air Base...will they try to bring in Paratroopers?

The Western Europe Front

The Netherlands (Surrender Progress / NU): 46,7 / 74,4
Belgium (Surrender Progress / NU): 49,7 / 73,1 loss of Namur and Antwerpen.
France (Surrender Progress / NU): 3,00 / 49,5
Germany (Surrender Progress / NU): 0,0 / 86,9

Despite a small setback last time, the Germans are fully on the offensive again in Belgium, they have taken back Arlon, as well as taking the huge port of Antwerpen, the Forests around Dinant, and the woods around Namur, the seat of the Walloon Regional Government and part of the Charleroi-Liege Industrial belt.
The Germans in Sarreguemines, on the other hand, seem to have been contained in the fortified province.

Industry Numbers:

Working Industrial Capacity / available capacity: 236 / 318
IC Usage: ( Allocated IC / Need )

Upgrades: 46,30 / 46,42
Reinforcement: 1,66 / 1,66
Supplies: 0,00 / 35,99
Production: 241,42 / 241,42
Consumer Goods: 28,62 / 28,62

Stockpiles:

Energy: Maximum tonnes +
Metal: 81.971 tonnes +
Rares: 29.867 tonnes +
Crude: 88.455 barrels +
Supplies: 31.109 tonnes -
Fuel: Maximum barrels =
Money: 1.955 +

Intelligence:

Spy numbers, spies in (active / added / lost / caught by us)

France (Covert Operations / Counterespionage): 10 / 0 / 0 / 1

{ Germany (/): 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 }
{ Japan (/): 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 }
{ UK (/): 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 }

Other: 0 / 0 / 0 / 0

Total: 10 / 0 / 0 / 1

Reserves: 5
Spy training leadership expenditure: 0,35
There goes the Sureté's spy hunter...

Research:

No completed Research projects, no new ones started
No changes to LS Distrubution

Statistics:

National Unity: 82,863 (+0,01)
Neutrality: 0,00 =
Dissent: 0,00 =
Manpower:

Available: 1.974.000 Men
To reinforce(need): 1.400 Men
To mobilise(need): See above
Monthly gain: 45.100 Men (1 fully mobilised Infx3, AT Division every 7,5 days)

No changes in Party Popularity
Party Organisation:

- Communist Party: 66,20 (+0,30)
- Trotskyite: 11,90 =
- Bukharinite: 7,00 =

- Octobrist: 7,50 =
- Trudoviks: 4,30 =
- Social-Revolutionary: 0,00 =
- Kadets: 0,00 =

- Tsarists: 1,10 =
- NTS: 1,80 =
- POA: 0,00 =

This Information is accurate on the morning of the 29th of May 1940, I hope it serves you well in fine-tuning your possible suggestions.

'Odin'

roverS3 · Aug 26, 2017

The 8th of June 1940, Kaluga, Armoured Army Group HQ, 7,8°C, 10am Moscow Time.

After months of discussion and consideration, the Red Army and the Secret Committee (through Stalin), have completed the first, and most prestigious part of the overhaul of the Red Army leadership. 'Dva', our man in the Army, picked me up from the Air Base, where I had arrived in one of the brand new Li-2 Transport planes the VVS was showing off during the parade...

The Li-2 is not a very scary plane, but it will surely prove useful. Inspired by the american DC-3, it was built entirely in the Soviet Union, and significant changes happened under the skin, most notably the installation of various Soviet built Engines as well as many small alterations to make it suitable for mass production in the Soviet Union.

'Dva' laid out the first part of the post Winter War reshuffle of the Red Army Leadership, while outside an impressive parade was going on to celebrate the promotions and new postings (demotions because someone better has been found are happening with much less fanfare...). The parameters for who would go where have been slightly altered, as many more potential leaders are available now:

Theatres to be lead by low skilled Logistics Wizards, possibly of the Old Guard, since experience gain will be limited anyway. Here no changes were made.
Army Groups to be commanded by the most highly skilled commanders in order to improve supply distribution efficiency, with the added point that as a secondary consideration, leaders with more specialist traits would also be preferred over equally skilled ones without them.
Army leaders with a maximum of traits are preferred, above-average skill is also a must.
Corps will get leaders with a maximum of traits, and decent skill (at least SK2 with 2 traits, or SK3 with 1)
Divisions will get the leaders that remain, with a balanced approach to skill levels and the amount of traits (at least all SK1 leaders with no traits will be excluded)
At every level, priority will go to Armoured and Guards units before the rest, so that these expensive elite formations get the best leaders.
To limit chaos and resentment from the Officers it has been decided to continue the policy of promoting or demoting by one rank per year, so an ex Field Marshall has to be a General for a year before he can be demoted to Lt. General (which might be the optimal rank for his skills at the time). The rhythm of promotions will probably be increased during wartime, when having the right person at the right place has immediate benefits, and grumbling officers are less of a political threat. (This is to give some realism to the process, so leaders don't just jump ranks on their way up, or down...)

Today the changes at Army Group and Army level have been effectuated, as well as the changes at the Corps level for the most elite units, these being the most prestigious and strategically important postings in the Red Army, short of Theatre Commander. The positions not mentioned here have kept their current commander. It is to be noted that both Lt. Generals Popov M.M and Lebedenko owe their promotion to the experience they gained in Finland:

New Field Marshall Christyakov M.N. SK4 will replace now General Chuikov SK4, LW, DD, WS as leader of the 1st Army Group, Leningrad-Archanglesk HQ.
Now Field Marshall Sokolovskij SK4, will replace now General Vassilevskij SK4, LW, BM as leader of the 3rd Army Group, Brjansk HQ.

Now General Malinovskij SK4, LW, OD will replace now Field Marshall Sokolovskij SK4 as leader of 10ya Armiya, Far Eastern Theatre.

Now General Chuikov SK4, LW, DD, WS will replace now Lt. General Govorov SK3, DD, OD as leader of 6ya Armiya, 2nd Army Group, STAVKA.
New General Rokossovsky SK4, OD, BM will replace General Kolpakchi SK3,5, OD, WS as leader of 1ya Armiya, 2nd Army Group, STAVKA.
General Kolpakchi SK3,5, OD, WS has been given the command of the brand new 3ya Armiya, 2nd Army Group, STAVKA. This Army will be held in reserve, with it's troops spread out over several urban areas behind the Northern part of the front. These can be progressively activated after the initial German Assault.

Now General Vassilevskij SK4, LW, BM will replace now Lt. General Gorelen SK3, OD, WS as leader of 7ya Armiya, 3rd Army Group, Brjansk HQ.

Now Lt. General Popov M.M. SK4, DD will replace Lt. General Muzich SK3, DD, OD as leader of the elite XXIX GvSK, 2nd Army Group, STAVKA.

Now Lt. General Gorelen SK3, OD, WS will replace now General Malinovskij SK4, LW, OD as leader of I GvTK, 2ya Tankovaya Armiya, Armoured Army Group, STAVKA.
Now Lt. General Govorov SK3, DD, OD will replace Lt. General Romanenko P.L. SK3, BM as leader of II TK, 2ya Tankovaya Armiya, Armoured Army Group, STAVKA.
Lt. General Muzich SK3, DD, OD, will replace Lt. General Berzarin SK3, OD as leader of II KK, 2ya Tankovaya Armiya, Armoured Army Group, STAVKA.
Now Lt. General Lebedenko SK3, LW, WS will replace Lt. General Kulik SK3, DD as leader of XXVIII MSK, 2ya Tankovaya Armiya, Armoured Army Group, STAVKA.

'Dva' tells me that in ten days, all the other Lt. Generals will have been reviewed and some will probably be replaced. The grand reshuffle continues...

The opportunity was also taken to announce a change in Red Army spending, with more emphasis on heavy weaponry and Support Regiments, and less emphasis on training basic Riflemen. This shift is needed because despite training a Regiment's worth of officers about every 2 days since the beginning of April, the officer ratio has actually regressed because more than that was deployed. We cannot spend more on Officer training (now at 10 LS / 50 Officers/Day) without skimping on essential Research, and we have plenty of riflemen as it is... (1.320.000 approximately, counting only Rifle and Mountain Rifle Regiments, so not counting Guards nor Motorised Rifle Regiments). The shift will be implemented gradually over several months, but the result should be that we end up with more Tanks, Artillery, Engineers, TD's, Motorised Riflemen and a higher Officer Ratio by the start of 1941. Some have also spoken about starting construction on a second Carrier, diverting some industry away from the Red Army...

External Secret Committee members are invited to comment on both changes to the Leader selection criteria, and the change in the nature of Army production.

Today's update with more precise numbers should be ready at noon... (Or tomorrow in this timeline...)

Greetings,

'Odin'

roverS3 · Aug 27, 2017

The 8th of June 1940, Kaluga, 7,8°C, 12am Moscow Time,

Report on the state of the Soviet Union for the ten day period between the 30th of May and the 8th of June 1940,

by 'Odin'

Army:

3 new Infx2, TD units have been delivered to XVIII SK HQ, XIX SK HQ, and XXIII SK HQ.
4 new Art Regiments have been deployed to 3. TTGvD, 191. SD, 8. SD, and 142. SD Priority for an added Art Regiment (5th Brigade) is given to the units digging in in fortifies cities behind the front.
2 new Infx3, AT, Art Divisions, 102. SD, and 105. SD have been deployed to the new XXXI SK in Riga, no commanders have been assigned yet, this will be dealt with during the ongoing leadership reshuffle...
Now you see the problem...
Army numbers (Brigades/Personnel) Reserves included (these numbers don't include regiments being upgraded):

Front line troops: 563 / 1.689.000
Support troops: 181 / 181.000

Total fighting troops: 744 / 1.870.000

Headquarters: 56 / 56.000

Total Army Personnel: 800 / 1.926.000

Officers: 68.125 + / 80.690 needed / 84,428 %
Active Leaders: Under advisement, will be updated after the leadership reshuffle.
Our first Parx3 Division (Vozdushno-Desnataya Diviziya) has started training, with the recently delivered Li-2's of 1. TrAD ready for training jumps.
4 Eng, TD units have started training, with Su-85's being produced, these should give our regular Tank Divisions of II. TK some extra punch.
2 Art regiment's worth of 152mm howitzers are now being produced
2 Eng regiments have started training, these should reinforce our four GvSD's and add to their river crossing and digging in abilities.
Another Regiment of Su-122 SP Art with 152mm guns has started production.
A single Infx3, AT, Art Division has started training.

Air Force:

100 Lisunov Li-2 Transport planes forming 1. TrAD have been deployed, they have been placed into the brand new I TrAK. (no leader has been assigned yet)
Aeroplane Numbers (Wings/Planes):

Interceptors: 18 / 1800
Multi-Role Fighters: 1 / 100
Close Air Support: 3 / 300
Carrier Air Groups: 4 / 400

Single Engined: 26 / 2.600

Tactical Bomber: 4 / 400

Total Bombers: 6 / 600

Transport Planes: 1 / 100

Total VVS: 27 / 2.700
Total Navy: 4 / 400
Total Airplanes: 31 / 3.100

Active Leaders: 12 / 18 Reserve
Production continues, on another 100 Li-2's, they will form 3. TrAD and also join I TrAK
Production of another 100 LaGG-3 Interceptors has started, they will form 56. IAD and join V. IAK when finished.

Navy:

No changes in the navy for the last 10 days

Politics / International:

No legislative changes for the last 10 days.
The Norwegian Front

Norway (Surrender Progress / NU): 0,00 / 85,4
Germany (Surrender Progress / NU): 0,0 / 86,7

The Germans have taken back Drammen, west of Oslo, otherwise no changes here.

The Western Europe Front

The Netherlands have finally realised that they lost both Amsterdam and Rotterdam, and are now officially a 'Government in exile' governing only their colonies across the globe...
Belgium (Surrender Progress / NU): 62,0 / 73,3 loss of Gent.
France (Surrender Progress / NU): 3,00 / 49,5 loss of Sedan, recapture of Sarreguemines.
Germany (Surrender Progress / NU): 0,0 / 86,7

The Germans have broken through Gent to the Belgian Coast (Brugge), will this be a breakthrough? Will they try to cut the front off from British reinforcements and supplies by taking the French side of the Channel?
The Wehrmacht has also crossed the river Meuse into Sedan, France, this could also be a potential breakthrough.
The Germans have been chased out of Sarreguemines, probably at a heavy cost to the the French army...but at least the Maginot line is entirely French again...

Industry Numbers:

Construction of Machine Gun Bunkers (Level 1) has started in Kaunas.
Working Industrial Capacity / available capacity: 236 / 318
IC Usage: ( Allocated IC / Need )

Upgrades: 28,67 / 28,67
Reinforcement: 5,60 / 5,60
Supplies: 0,00 / 35,76
Production: 250,44 / 250,44
Consumer Goods: 28,62 / 28,62

Stockpiles:

Energy: Maximum tonnes +
Metal: 82.230 tonnes +
Rares: 29.933 tonnes +
Crude: 89.560 barrels +
Supplies: 30.131 tonnes +
Fuel: 99.991 barrels -
Money: 1.982 +

Intelligence:

Spy numbers, spies in (active / added / lost / caught by us)
France (Covert Operations / Counterespionage): 10 / 0 / 0 / 0

{ Germany (/): 0 / 0 / 0 / 1 }
{ Japan (/): 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 }
{ UK (/): 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 }

Other: 0 / 0 / 0 / 1

Total: 10 / 0 / 0 / 2

Reserves: 6
Spy training leadership expenditure: 0,35
We have so far recruited 2 like-minded Covert Operatives in our French sleeper cell...

Research:

Our top secret Nuclear Research programme has reached a breakthrough, the researchers will now be used to train even more officers, as this is more pressing than the research of Isotope Separation.
LS DIstrubution:

Research: 18,60 (-1,0)
Espionage: 0,35 =
Diplomacy: 0,09 =
Officers: 10,00 (+1,0) (50 officers / day)
Total: 29,03 =

Statistics:

National Unity: 82,873 (+0,01)
Neutrality: 0,00 =
Dissent: 0,00 =
Manpower:

Available: 1.946.000 Men
To reinforce(need): 14.000 Men
To mobilise(need): See above
Monthly gain: 45.100 Men (1 fully mobilised Infx3, AT Division every 7,5 days)

Party Popularity

- Communist Party: 48 (-1)
- Trotskyite: 4 (-5)
- Bukharinite: 7 (+1)

- Octobrist: 7 (-4)
- Social-Revolutionary: 4 (-2)
- Trudoviks: 4 (+3)
- Kadets: 8 =

- Tsarists: 8 (+1)
- NTS: 3 (+1)
- POA: 6 (+4)
This must be the job of German spies, convincing 4% of our people that National Socialism is the way to go, while driving 6% away from the ruling parties. The opposition, is very fragmented, however with the Capitalists split mostly between Kadets and Octobrists, and Japanese and German spies slogging out the war of ideas between Monarchism and National-Socialism on the right. So, with the slimmest of Majorities, our government is not fractured for lack of a plausible alternative...

Party Organisation:

- Communist Party: 66,90 (+0,70)
- Trotskyite: 11,80 (-0,1)
- Bukharinite: 6,90 (-0,1)

- Octobrist: 7,40 (-0,1)
- Trudoviks: 4,20 (-0,1)
- Social-Revolutionary: 0,00 =
- Kadets: 0,00 =

- Tsarists: 1,00 (-0,1)
- NTS: 1,70 (-0,1)
- POA: 0,00 =
Despite falling popularity, the organisation of the Communist Party keeps improving inexorably... you would think people like organised parties, but that seems to be a minority point of view now...

This Information is accurate on the morning of the 8th of June 1940, I hope it serves you well in fine-tuning your possible suggestions.

'Odin'

roverS3 · Aug 28, 2017

The 18th of June 1940, Sevastopol Naval Base and Shipbuilding Yard, 16,6°C, 10am Moscow Time,

I had flown to Sevastopol for several events, and had taken 'Piat' ', our navy man, with me. The first 5 Sevastopol-Class Destroyers have been launched, 2. Flotiliya Esmintsev will soon start off on their training trip in the Black Sea before being commissioned in ten days time. Production of the fast Destroyers will continue in Sevastopol's smaller Dry docks. Meanwhile, work on the Kiyv is moving along nicely, our first Carrier of the Kiyv-class, which will be able to carry two KPA's and is comparable in size to the French Carrier Bearn. A second Carrier, the Minsk, also of the Kyiv-Class, has been laid down. Once the Kyiv is built, we will see the experience gained during it's construction have a real effect on construction time and cost for Minsk.

A blueprint of a new Sevastopol-Class Destroyer. It's essentially a Kiev-Class Destroyer with more powerful 60.000 HP engines giving it a maximum speed of 31 knots(less than the original Kiev-Class project 48) and a larger fuel tank, giving it a range of 2700 km. It thus has the same armament setup: 3 twin 130mm Gun Turrets, 5 twin 22mm AAMG's (Worse than in the original project where 4 twin 85mm AA Gun turrets and a single automatic 38mm AAMG were planned), a bunch of lighter 12.7mm MG's can be mounted, and the ships can carry up to 76 mines each. The Armour also remains the same at 20mm (so close to nothing...). The first five ships of the grandly named I. Avianosets Flote (Carrier Fleet) are leaving the port tonight for exercises in the Black sea.
(Considering the Kiev-Class was never built and I invented the Sevastopol-Class because no Destroyers were planned for construction during ww2 after the Kiev-Class, this is a blueprint for the never built Kiev-Class)

The list with Leadership changes at the Corps level has come in from 'Dva' as well, now changes at the Division level will be discussed, one Army at a time, starting with 2ya Tankovaya Armiya:

New Lt. General Rodin G.S. SK2, DD, WS will take command of the new XXXI SK, 2nd Army Group, STAVKA.

Lt. General Krasnopevtsev SK3, DD, FB will replace Lt. General Cherevichenko SK3, LW as leader of XXX MSK, Armoured Army Group, STAVKA.
Now Lt. General Bagramian SK3, LW, OD will replace Lt. General Zakharov G.F. SK3, Trck as leader of II KK, Armoured Army Group, STAVKA.

New Lt. General Ivanov I.I. SK2, DD, WS will replace Lt. General Malinin SK3, LW as leader of IX SK, 6ya Armiya, 2nd Army Group, STAVKA.
New Lt. General Kashuba SK2, LW, WS will replace Lt. General Reiter SK3, OD as leader of VIII SK, 6ya Armiya, 2nd Army Group, STAVKA.
New Lt. General Katkov SK2, DD, WS will replace Lt. General Meretskov SK3, LW as leader of V SK, 6ya Armiya, 2nd Army Group, STAVKA.

New Lt. General Selivanov SK2, LW, OD will replace Lt. General Sandalov SK3, OD as leader of XVII SK, 1ya Armiya, 2nd Army Group, STAVKA.

New Lt. General Fomenko P.I. SK2, WS, Trck will replace Lt. General Kirponos SK3, DD as leader of XI SK, 7ya Armiya, 3rd Army Group, Brjansk HQ.
New Lt. General Kirichenko SK2, LW, WS will replace Lt. General Kondratchev SK3, OD as leader of XIII SK, 7ya Armiya, 3rd Army Group, Brjansk HQ.

Lt. General Cherevichenko SK3, LW will replace Lt. General Krasnopevtsev SK3, DD, FB as leader of IV SK, 4ya Armiya, 3rd Army Group, Brjansk HQ.
Lt. General Terekhin SK2, OD, DD will replace Lt. General Shumilov SK3, FB as leader of VI SK, 4ya Armiya, 3rd Army Group, Brjansk HQ.
Lt. General Meretskov SK3, LW will replace Lt. General Zakharov M.V. SK3, FB as leader of VII SK, 4ya Armiya, 3rd Army Group, Brjansk HQ.

New Lt. General Biryukov SK3, LW will replace Lt. General Poluektov SK3, FB as leader of XVIII SK, 8ya Armiya, 3rd Army Group, Odessa HQ.
New Lt. General Belov P.A. SK3, LW will replace Lt. General Sofronov SK2, DD as leader of XIX SK, 8ya Armiya, 3rd Army Group, Odessa HQ.
New Lt. General Zakharov G.F. SK3, LW will replace Lt. General Zakharov G.F. SK3, Trck as leader of XV SK, 8ya Armiya, 3rd Army Group, Odessa HQ.

New Lt. General Zyrianov SK3, Cdo will replace Lt. General Potapov SK2, WS as leader of XX GSK, Far East Theatre.
New Lt. General Osade SK2, OD, Cdo will replace Lt. General Terekhin SK2, OD, DD as leader of XXVI SK, 10ya Armiya, Far East Theatre.

Lt. General Malinin SK3, DD will replace Lt. General Klyuchko SK2, DD as leader of XXI GSK, 9ya Armiya, 5th Army Group, Stalingrad HQ.

My Report on the state of the Soviet Union is around here somewhere... I'll send it out as soon as I find it in my chest of Committee documents, which seems to have been shaken up during the Aeroplane flight into Sevastopol this morning. No one opened it as if anyone had tried without my key, it would have exploded, and it was marked as experimental explosive ammunition anyway, which begs the question: What would have happened if the chest had really been filled as labelled. The VVS seems to have been quite sloppy with this one...the Li-2 crews are probably still a bit too green and unorganised, let's hope they learn and organise before an accident happens...

That's it for now, once I find my report, I'm going to go enjoy our Black sea beaches before returning to Vologda tomorrow, by plane via Kharkov to Moskva, and then by rail and car to Vologda and our compound in the woods...

See you soon,

'Odin'

roverS3 · Aug 28, 2017

The 18th of June 1940, Sevastopol, 18,6°C, 11am Moscow Time,

Report on the state of the Soviet Union for the ten day period between the 9th and the 18th of June 1940,

by 'Odin'

Army:

2 new Art Regiments have been deployed to 43. SD and 78. SD, part of Lt. General Gastilovich's III SK, 3ya Armiya, 2nd Army Group, STAVKA, which is stationed in Kaunas.
Army numbers (Brigades/Personnel) Reserves included (these numbers don't include regiments being upgraded):

Front line troops: 563 / 1.689.000
Support troops: 183 / 183.000

Total fighting troops: 746 / 1.872.000

Headquarters: 56 / 56.000

Total Army Personnel: 802 / 1.928.000

Officers: 68.625 + / 80.890 needed / 84,837 %
Active Leaders: Under advisement, will be updated after the leadership reshuffle.

Air Force:

No changes in the VVS nor the Navy Air Fleet for the last ten days.

Navy:

Our first five Sevastopol-Class Destroyers have been delivered and they will form 2. Flotiliya Esmintsev, part of the new I. Avianosets Flote
Navy Numbers (Flotillas / Ships)

Transports: 2 / 10
AG-boat Class (I): 11 / 55
Series II Class(II): 9 / 45
Series V-bis Class(III): 3 / 15

Submarines: 23 / 115

Norvik-Class (I) : 3 / 15
Gnevnyi-Class (II): 2 / 10
Kiev-Class (IV): 1 / 5
Sevastopol-Class (IV+): 1 / 5

Destroyers: 7 / 35
Light Cruisers / Profitern-Class (I): 3
Escorts: 10 / 38

Heavy Cruiser / Krasnyi Kavkaz (I): 1
Battleships / Gangut-Class (I): 3
Escort Carriers / Moskva-Class (I): 2

Capitals: 5
Total combat ships: 15 / 43
Total Navy: 41 / 168
Leaders: 12 / 8 Reserve

In the Sevastopol shipyards, work has started on 10. Flotiliya Esmintsev, another flotilla of Sevastopol-Class Destroyers.
Another large dry dock in Sevastopol has been mobilised for the construction of the Minsk, our second Kyiv-Class Carrier.

Politics / International:

No legislative changes for the last 10 days.
The Norwegian Front

Norway (Surrender Progress / NU): 0,00 / 85,4
Germany (Surrender Progress / NU): 0,0 / 86,6

The Germans have lost Drammen, South-West of Oslo, but they have taken Honefoss, North-West of the Norwegian Capital. Nothing else has changed, and it seems that without reinforcements, the best the Germans in Norway can do is maintaining a stalemate...Maybe all they wanted was Heavy Water...

The Western Europe Front

Belgium (Surrender Progress / NU): 61,9 / 73,4
France (Surrender Progress / NU): 0,00 / 49,4 recapture of Sedan
Germany (Surrender Progress / NU): 0,0 / 86,6

The Allies seem to have stabilised the front, they have taken back Brugge, and Sedan, and thereby countered two potential breakthroughs.
The Wehrmacht has taken Aalst and Philippeville, meaning Bruxelles (Brussel) is under serious threat from three sides, and our analysts believe that the Fall of the Belgian capital would be the end of Belgium in Europe.

Industry:

The Machine Gun Bunkers (Level 1) in Riga have been delivered,
Construction of Machine Gun Bunkers (Level 1) has started in Kyiv.
The Air Bases in Novomoskovosk, Berezan, and Homel have all gained a third Runway (Level 5)
The Air Bases in Berezan, Homel and Demjansk will now get additional hangars and some concrete taxiways (Level 6) to allow even more Aircraft to be stationed and maintained there.
The Air Base of Rezekne is now operational (Level 1) as an Airfield, now the Runway will be paved and basic maintenance facilities (Level 2) will be installed.
The Runway of Lwow Air Base has now been paved (Level 2) and now a concrete control tower will be added, as well as a second, dirt runway. (Level 3)
Industry Numbers:

Working Industrial Capacity / available capacity: 236 / 318
IC Usage: ( Allocated IC / Need )

Upgrades: 14,88 / 14,88
Reinforcement: 7,33 / 7,33
Supplies: 16,59 / 34,80
Production: 251,28 / 251,28
Consumer Goods: 28,62 / 28,62

Stockpiles:

Energy: Maximum tonnes =
Metal: 82.682 tonnes +
Rares: 29.964 tonnes +
Crude: 90.665 barrels +
Supplies: 28.984 tonnes -
Fuel: 99.863 barrels -
Money: 1.982 +

Intelligence:

Spy numbers, spies in (active / added / lost / caught by us)

France (Covert Operations / Counterespionage): 10 / 0 / 0 / 0

{ Germany (/): 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 }
{ Japan (/): 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 }
{ UK (/): 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 }

Other: 0 / 0 / 0 / 0

Total: 10 / 0 / 0 / 0

Reserves: 6
Spy training leadership expenditure: 0,35
We have so far recruited 3 like-minded Covert Operatives in our French sleeper cell...
We have proof of foreign spy activity in the Soviet Union, yet our Spy hunters seem incapable of catching them...

Research:

The VVS has come up with better Interception Tactics (Level 3), the new manuals have been delivered to all our Fighter Divisions.
Now they have started to pursue Rocket Tests, this new technology could in the medium term provide added propulsion power to our Aircraft, and long term there are all sorts of potential applications. One of the reasons for this development, is that Germany seems to have a fully operational Rocket Test Site near Schweinfurt.
No changes to LS DIstrubution

Statistics:

National Unity: 82,883 (+0,01)
Neutrality: 0,00 =
Dissent: 0,00 =
Manpower:

Available: 1.947.000 Men
To reinforce(need): 5.700 Men
To mobilise(need): See above
Monthly gain: 45.100 Men (1 fully mobilised Infx3, AT Division every 7,5 days)

No changes to Party Popularity
Party Organisation:

- Communist Party: 67,40 (+0,50)
- Trotskyite: 11,70 (-0,1)
- Bukharinite: 6,80 (-0,1)

- Octobrist: 7,30 (-0,1)
- Trudoviks: 4,10 (-0,1)
- Social-Revolutionary: 0,00 =
- Kadets: 0,00 =

- Tsarists: 1,00 =
- NTS: 1,60 =
- POA: 0,00 =
There is definitely something going on on the right side of things, as both the National-Socialists and the Monarchist didn't lose any comparative organisation compared to the Capitalists. This indicates that spies are actively propping up their organisation.

This Information is accurate on the morning of the 18th of June 1940, I hope it serves you well in fine-tuning your possible suggestions.

'Odin'

roverS3 · Aug 28, 2017

The 22nd of June 1940, Vologda, 18,6°C, 4pm Moscow Time

On the 20th I had been retained by an over-eager NKVD official wondering why I was flying experimental explosive ammunition into Moskva and not out to the Navy's bases. Masquerading as a Navy Captain of a small troop transport had allowed me to blend in really well with the crowd in Sevastopol. Once in Moskva, however, I stood out, and I had hoped to get through the Airport as quickly as possible but it was not to be... The situation was only resolved when 'Tri' called the Moskva Airport NKVD office, as he had news for me. Having all sorts of powerful cover identities, he easily outranked the commanding officer and ordered for me to be released and handed the telephone.

"Well 'Odin', and I thought you were invisible to non-committee members, guess I was wrong... Everyone makes mistakes... To the matter at hand, the inevitable end of France. Italy has declared war on the Allies, impatient for the spoils of a war it thinks only the Axis can win... The Italian Army is reputed to be quite a bit smaller than on paper, with many Divisions less than 2/3 of one of ours ... Mussolini's talk of 8 Million Bayonets is a running joke throughout the Red Army, which, counting just shy of 2 million men, is one of the largest armies on the planet (if not the largest). A regional power like Italy cannot possibly have trained half as many, making 8 million seem entirely ridiculous... Nevertheless, Italy's entry into the war should be a real headache for the Allies, as it will probably tilt the fragile balance in France decisively in the Axis' favour. Indirectly it will make the UK even more unwilling to send a significant portion of it's army into France, as it's colonies in the Mediterranean are now threatened... The Italians also bring a large and powerful navy for their size, meaning that the UK will have to keep several fleets in the med to contain the Regia Marina... Pressure on the Kriegsmarine will lessen significantly... This is a game changer, making the possible invasion of the Soviet Union more likely in the short term rather than the medium short term...Brussels has fallen, so this is obviously not the Allies' day, nor their year ... We could be under attack by spring next year...well that's it, now you know, and you're free to go..."

Well 'Tri' had a lot to say about these Italians, I'm sure they will prove a nuisance to the Allies, as soon as they have taken care of their Albanian revolt in Durres...

Bruxelles / Brussel has fallen, but it seems the Belgians have laughed this off as less crazy than their own political intricacies and then relocated the Government to Charleroi, which seems to have made running the country somewhat less complicated somehow. The Belgae are still hanging on after losing all of their VP's in continental Europe. We'll have to see how long it take the Belgians to see beyond the surrealism of the situation, stop making fun of their own predicament, and retreat to exile in the king's Congo... maybe they could find something to do with all of that Uranium... actually let's hope they don't...

Well that's the big news, until the next update,

Greetings,

'Odin'

roverS3 · Aug 29, 2017

The 28th of June 1940, Vologda, 6,4°C, 10am Moscow Time,

Report on the state of the Soviet Union for the ten day period between the 19th and the 28th of June 1940,

by 'Odin'

Army:

A new Infx3, AT, Art Division, 90. SD has been deployed to Lt. General Rodin G.S.'s XXXI SK, 2nd Army Group, STAVKA. Based in Riga.
2 new Eng Regiments, 13. GvIP and 14. GvIP, they will reinforce 1. GvSD and 72. GvSD in Minsk.
A Garx2 Division has finished training. 5. Garnizon DIviziya, consisting of Finnish soldiers and Soviet Officers will keep the peace in Viipuri.
Army numbers (Brigades/Personnel) Reserves included (these numbers don't include regiments being upgraded):

Front line troops: 568 / 1.704.000
Support troops: 187 / 187.000
Total fighting troops: 755 / 1.891.000
Headquarters: 56 / 56.000
Total Army Personnel: 811 / 1.947.000
Officers: 69.125 + / 81.650 needed / 84,660 %
Active Leaders: Under advisement, will be updated after the leadership reshuffle..
Production of BT-7M tanks and Su-85 Tank Destroyers has been stepped up, as to form a new Arm, Motx2, TD, Eng Division, 8. Tankovaya Diviziya

Army Leadership:

XXIX GvSK:

Maj. General Vatutin SK4 will be replacing the recently promoted Lt. General Bagramian SK3, LW, OD as leader of 3. TTGvD, XXIX GvSK, 2nd Army Group, STAVKA.

2ya Tankovaya Armiya:

Now Maj. General Berzarin SK3, OD will replace Maj. General Levandovski SK3 as leader of 12. TD, II TK, 2ya Tankovaya Armiya
Now Maj. General Romanenko P.L. SK3, BM will replace Maj. General Boldin SK3 as leader of 64. TD, II TK, 2ya Tankovaya Armiya
Now Maj. General Grebionnek SK3, OD will replace Maj. General Kazakov M.I. SK3 as leader of 81. TD, II TK, 2ya Tankovaya Armiya
Now Maj. General Reiter SK3, OD will replace Maj. General Gordov SK3 as leader of 6. TD, II TK, 2ya Tankovaya Armiya
Now Maj. General Sandalov SK3, OD will replace Maj. General Moskalenko SK3 as leader of 39. TD, II TK, 2ya Tankovaya Armiya

Now Maj. General Kirponos SK3, DD will replace Maj. General Gerasimov M.N. SK2, Eng as leader of 163. MSD, XXVIII MSK, 2ya Tankovaya Armiya
Now Maj. General Kulik SK3, DD will replace Maj. General Bochenkov SK2, DD as leader of 198. MSD, XXVIII MSK, 2ya Tankovaya Armiya
Maj. General Shaposhnikov SK3, DD will replace Maj. General Trufanov SK2, Eng as leader of 163. MSD, XXVIII MSK, 2ya Tankovaya Armiya
New Maj. General Antonov A.I. SK3 will replace Maj. General Kachalov SK2, DD as leader of 82. MSD, XXVIII MSK, 2ya Tankovaya Armiya
Maj. General Moskalenko SK3 will replace Maj. General Larichev SK2, DD as leader of 7. MSD, XXVIII MSK, 2ya Tankovaya Armiya

Maj. General Rodin A.G. SK3, BM will replace Maj. General Pavlov D.G. SK2, BM as leader of 29. KD, II. KK, 2ya Tankovaya Armiya
Now Maj. General Kondratchev SK3, OD will replace Maj. General Melnik SK2, OD as leader of 5. KD, II. KK, 2ya Tankovaya Armiya
Maj. General Levandovski SK3 will replace Maj. General Marchenkov SK2, Cdo as leader of 7. KD, II. KK, 2ya Tankovaya Armiya
Maj. General Gordov SK3 will replace Maj. General Novikov V.V. SK2, BM as leader of 16. KD, II. KK, 2ya Tankovaya Armiya
Maj. General Boldin SK3 will replace Maj. General Vivtorov SK2, Trck as leader of 12. KD, II. KK, 2ya Tankovaya Armiya

I KK:

Maj. General Chibisov SK3, Trck will replace Maj. General Tamruchi SK2, OD as leader of 6. KD, I. KK.
Maj. General Kurochkin P.A. SK3, OD will replace Maj. General Primakov T.S. SK2, OD as leader of 3. KD, I. KK.
New Maj. General Koroteev SK3 will replace Maj. General Saladze SK2, Cdo as leader of 32. KD, I. KK.
New Maj. General Sharokhin SK3 will replace Maj. General Kutyakov SK2, OD as leader of 9. KD, I. KK.
Maj. General Kazakov M.I. SK3 will replace Maj. General Petrushevskij SK2, OD as leader of 24. KD, I. KK.

Air Force:

100 LaGG-3 Interceptors, forming 54. IAD have been deployed, they have joined Air Lt. General Rychagov's IV. IAK
100 new carrier-based planes (both LaGG-3's and Il-2's) have been delivered to the Navy Air Arm, they will form 5. KPA (Leader not yet assigned)
Aeroplane Numbers (Wings/Planes):

Interceptors: 19 / 1900
Multi-Role Fighters: 1 / 100
Close Air Support: 3 / 300
Carrier Air Groups: 5 / 500
Single Engined: 28 / 2.800
Tactical Bomber: 4 / 400
Total Bombers: 6 / 600
Transport Planes: 1 / 100

Total VVS: 27 / 2.700
Total Navy: 5 / 500
Total Airplanes: 33 / 3.300

Active Leaders: 12 / 18 Reserve
Production continues, on another LaGG-3's, they will form 73. IAD and be the first Division of a new VI. IAK
Another 100 carrier planes will also be built, these will be formed into 6. KPA and join 5. KPA in a 100 plane formation for operations on the Minsk.

Navy:

No changes in the Navy for the last 10 days

Politics / International:

No legislative changes for the last 10 days.
Italian diplomats have been overheard saying that "This is our time" and something about only needing a couple of thousand Italian corpses in order to have influence at the Axis victory negotiating table. But do they know about Hitler's "Drang nach osten"? A couple thousand seems a bit conservative, and an Axis victory is far from guaranteed...
The USA have called out Italy for their "Stab in the Back", this is about both the Allies' back, and the USA's as the Italians had pressed the fact that all Italy wanted was peace with American diplomats. Some of our analysts are saying that the Americans will use this as an excuse to step up their Military expenditure and increase conscription levels, but we can't be sure this is actually the case...
The Norwegian Front

Norway (Surrender Progress / NU): 0,00 / 85,4
Germany (Surrender Progress / NU): 0,0 / 86,5

The Germans have lost Honefoss, North-West of the Norwegian Capital. Otherwise they have made sudden progress in Norway, capturing Bergen, and seemingly aiming to go even further north towards Trondheim...Did the reinforcements arrive, or did they get lucky?

The Western Europe Front

Belgium (Surrender Progress / NU): 98,90 / 73,6 loss of Bruxelles /Brussel
France (Surrender Progress / NU): 3,00 / 49,3 loss of Wissembourg
Germany (Surrender Progress / NU): 0,0 / 86,6
Italy (Surrender Progress / NU): 0,0 / 79,6

The Germans have taken back Bruxelles / Brussel, and the rest of Belgium as well, except for the Forests around Philippeville.
Belgium has moved it's capital to Elisabethville in their king's Congo, one of the two most Uranium-rich provinces in the world... (what are they planning?) Somehow they still haven't recognised their European defeat, and their Army seems to be helping the Allies hold the Germans back at the Northern French border, officially they still aren't a Government in exile...
The French have lost another Maginot line province, Wissembourg, which must mean their men are spread really thin on their famed fortified line..
For now the Italians haven't managed to cross the French border.

Brithish North Africa Front

United Kingdom (Surrender Progress / NU): 0,0 / 77,8
Italy (Surrender Progress / NU): 0,0 / 79,6

The Italians seem to have just walked into British-controlled Egypt, they are already 80km into British territory along the Mediterranean coast, having reached Sidi Barrani, and El Dab'a.

French North Africa Front

France (Surrender Progress / NU): 3,00 / 49,3
Italy (Surrender Progress / NU): 0,0 / 79,6

With France under serious Attack I don't think the Italians can expect that much resistance here either, and indeed, they are 62km into French controlled Tunisia, having reached the outskirts of the Mediterranean port town of Gabes.
The going seems so easy that Italy is pushing East and West at the same time...

Industry:

Working Industrial Capacity / available capacity: 236 / 318
IC Usage: ( Allocated IC / Need )

Upgrades: 17,10 / 17,12
Reinforcement: 3,10 / 3,11
Supplies: 17,90 / 34,74
Production: 251,28 / 251,28
Consumer Goods: 28,62 / 28,62

Stockpiles:

Energy: Maximum tonnes =
Metal: 83.045 tonnes +
Rares: 29.996 tonnes +
Crude: 91.770 barrels +
Supplies: 29.366 tonnes +
Fuel: 99.558 barrels -
Money: 2.002 +

Intelligence:

Spy numbers, spies in (active / added / lost / caught by us)

France (Covert Operations / Counterespionage): 10 / 0 / 0 / 0

{ Germany (/): 0 / 0 / 0 / 1 }
{ Japan (/): 0 / 0 / 0 / 1 }
{ UK (/): 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 }

Other: 0 / 0 / 0 / 2

Total: 10 / 0 / 0 / 4

Reserves: 7
Spy training leadership expenditure: 0,25
We have so far recruited 4 like-minded Covert Operatives in our French sleeper cell...
Finally. Maybe this will stem this annoying foreign political meddling... Our spy hunters seem to be back from their vacations...

Research:

Our logistics specialists have come up with new and improved guidelines for Supply Organisation (Level 3), as well as lighter and standardised packing crates, allowing more supplies to be carried per truck (Throughput)
They are now looking for ways to make Supply Transportation (Level 3) cheaper with better cargo handling procedures and by making better use of the railway network along with new locomotives. All this would mean less Supplies are lost and used up along the way.
The VVS has developed a new 100kg Light Bomb (Level 1) that should improve the ground attack capability of all our single engine Aeroplanes.

A VVS schematic showing how 6 of these new 100kg bombs can be carried in the wings of an Il-2 Shturmovik after some light modifications of course...

A decent Basic Fuel Tank for our Twin Engine planes is now being designed, as their largest advantage should be their operating range, and 400km is a bit short, especially considering both our CAGs and our Ftrs have a longer range now...
LS DIstrubution:

Research: 18,75 (+0,15)
Espionage: 0,25 (0,10)
Diplomacy: 0,04 (-0,05)
Officers: 10,00 (50 officers / day)
Total: 29,03 =
Having no more dangerous missions, the KGB and GRU budgets as well as those of our diplomatic service have been revised in order to speed up our research efforts

Statistics:

National Unity: 82,893 (+0,01)
Neutrality: 0,00 =
Dissent: 0,00 =
Manpower:

Available: 1.944.000 Men
To reinforce(need): 9.850 Men
To mobilise(need): See above
Monthly gain: 45.100 Men (1 fully mobilised Infx3, AT Division every 7,5 days)

No changes to Party Popularity
Party Organisation:

- Communist Party: 67,40 =
- Trotskyite: 11,60 (-0,1)
- Bukharinite: 6,70 (-0,1)

- Octobrist: 7,20 (-0,1)
- Trudoviks: 4,00 (-0,1)
- Social-Revolutionary: 0,00 =
- Kadets: 0,00 =

- Tsarists: 1,00 =
- NTS: 1,50 (-0,1)
- POA: 0,00 =

This Information is accurate on the morning of the 28th of June 1940, I hope it serves you well in fine-tuning your possible suggestions.

'Odin'

roverS3 · Aug 30, 2017

The 8th of July 1940, Vologda, 6,4°C, 10am Moscow Time,

Report on the state of the Soviet Union for the ten day period between the 29th of June and the 8th of July 1940,

by 'Odin'

Army:

A Garx3, Art Division has finished training. 6. Garnizon DIviziya, consisting of Finnish soldiers and Soviet Officers will keep the peace in Helsinki.
Army numbers (Brigades/Personnel) Reserves included (these numbers don't include regiments being upgraded):

Front line troops: 571 / 1.713.000
Support troops: 188 / 188.000

Total fighting troops: 759 / 1.901.000

Headquarters: 56 / 56.000

Total Army Personnel: 815 / 1.957.000

Officers: 69.624 + / 81.840 needed / 85,073 %
Active Leaders: Under advisement, will be updated after the leadership reshuffle..
Training of another Garx2 Division has started

Army Leadership:

XIV MSK:
Now Maj. General Poluektov SK3, FB will be replacing the recently promoted Lt. General Popov M.M. SK4, DD as leader of 57. MSD, XIV MSK, Armoured Army Group, STAVKA.
Now Maj. General Shumilov SK3, FB will be replacing Maj. General Remezov F.N. SK2 as leader of 81. MSD, XIV MSK, Armoured Army Group, STAVKA.

XXX MSK:
Now Maj. General Zakharov M.V. SK3, FB will be replacing Maj. General Kazakov V.I. SK3 as leader of 103. MSD, XXX MSK, Armoured Army Group, STAVKA.

For the rifle corps on and near the German border no more than 2 leaders per corps will be replaced every 10 days to keep up combat efficiency and to spread out decent leaders over all of these Divisions.

6ya Armiya:
Maj. General Kazakov V.I. SK3 will be replacing Maj. General Gidov SK2 as leader of 24. SD, IX SK, 6ya Armiya, 2nd Army Group, STAVKA.
Maj. General Bochenkov SK2, DD will be replacing Maj. General Rakutin SK1, Cdo as leader of 50. SD, IX SK, 6ya Armiya, 2nd Army Group, STAVKA.

New Maj. General Petrov I.I. SK3 will be replacing Maj. General Ershakov SK2 as leader of 217. SD, X SK, 6ya Armiya, 2nd Army Group, STAVKA.
Maj. General Gerasimov M.N. SK2, Eng will be replacing Maj. General Starostin SK1, FB as leader of 89. SD, X SK, 6ya Armiya, 2nd Army Group, STAVKA.

New Maj. General Pokrovski SK3 will be replacing Maj. General Ponedelin SK2 as leader of 85. SD, VIII SK, 6ya Armiya, 2nd Army Group, STAVKA.
Maj. General Kachalov SK2, DD will be replacing Maj. General Pervushkin SK1, LW as leader of 37. SD, VIII SK, 6ya Armiya, 2nd Army Group, STAVKA.

Now Maj. General Klyuchko SK2, DD will be replacing Maj. General Golubovskij SK2 as leader of 16. SD, V SK, 6ya Armiya, 2nd Army Group, STAVKA.
New Maj. General Bakunin SK2, Eng will be replacing Maj. General Eliseev SK1, FB as leader of 3. SD, V SK, 6ya Armiya, 2nd Army Group, STAVKA.

1ya Armiya:
New Maj. General Bolotnikov SK2, BM will be replacing Maj. General Nikolaev SK2 as leader of 190. SD, XVII SK, 1ya Armiya, 2nd Army Group, STAVKA.
Maj. General Trufanov SK2, DD will be replacing Maj. General Shaposhnikov SK3, DD as leader of 99. SD, XVII SK, 1ya Armiya, 2nd Army Group, STAVKA.

XXXI SK:
New Maj. General Cheremisov SK2, OD will be taking command of 102. SD, XXXI SK, 2nd Army Group, STAVKA.
Maj. General Kutyakov SK2, OD will be taking command of 105. SD, XXXI SK, 2nd Army Group, STAVKA.

7ya Armiya:
New Maj. General Primakov T.S. SK2, OD will be replacing Maj. General Kurochkin A.G. SK3, OD as leader of 86. SD, XI SK, 7ya Armiya, 3rd Army Group, Brjansk HQ.
New Maj. General Baranov V.I. SK2, BM will be replacing Maj. General Chibisov SK3, Trck as leader of 113. SD, XI SK, 7ya Armiya, 3rd Army Group, Brjansk HQ.

4ya Armiya:
Now Maj. General Sofronov SK2, DD will be replacing Maj. General Kotlyarov SK1, BM as leader of 180. SD, VI SK, 4ya Armiya, 3rd Army Group, Brjansk HQ.

Maj. General Larichev SK2, DD will be replacing Maj. General Mishanin SK1, BM as leader of 121. SD, VII SK, 4ya Armiya, 3rd Army Group, Brjansk HQ.
Maj. General Novikov V.V. SK2, BM will be replacing Maj. General Oborin SK1, FB as leader of 56. SD, VII SK, 4ya Armiya, 3rd Army Group, Brjansk HQ.
XVI SK:
Maj. General Vivtorov SK2, Trck will be replacing Maj. General Egorov E.A. SK1, OD as leader of 199. SD, XVI SK, 3rd Army Group, Brjansk HQ.

Air Force:

No changes in the VVS nor the Navy Air Fleet for the last 10 days

Navy:

Another five Sevastopol-Class Destroyers have been delivered and they will form 6. Flotiliya Esmintsev, part of the new I. Avianosets Flote
Navy Numbers (Flotillas / Ships)

Transports: 2 / 10

AG-boat Class (I): 11 / 55
Series II Class(II): 9 / 45
Series V-bis Class(III): 3 / 15

Submarines: 23 / 115

Norvik-Class (I) : 3 / 15
Gnevnyi-Class (II): 2 / 10
Kiev-Class (IV): 1 / 5
Sevastopol-Class (IV+): 2 / 10

Destroyers: 8 / 40

Light Cruisers / Profitern-Class (I): 3
Escorts: 11 / 43
Heavy Cruiser / Krasnyi Kavkaz (I): 1
Battleships / Gangut-Class (I): 3
Escort Carriers / Moskva-Class (I): 2

Capitals: 5
Total combat ships: 16 / 48
Total Navy: 41 / 168

Leaders: 12 / 8 Reserve
In the Sevastopol shipyards, work has started on 11. Flotiliya Esmintsev, another flotilla of Sevastopol-Class Destroyers.

Politics / International:

No legislative changes for the last 10 days.
Mustafa Kemal aka 'Ataturk' has died, we are all saddened by this, but mostly we hope Turkey will maintain the strict neutrality of before his demise...
The Belgian Government in Elizabethville has finally admitted to itself, and the world that Brussels and Antwerp have irrevocably fallen, they are now officially a government in exile, and all their troops in continental Europe have been disbanded...
The Norwegian Front

Norway (Surrender Progress / NU): 0,00 / 85,3
Germany (Surrender Progress / NU): 0,0 / 86,4

The Germans have now lost Rollag, pushing the front further away from Oslo. They have made however captured the insignificant province of Gulen, north of Bergen. This doesn't look like reinforcements have arrived at the front lines, it just seems they were lucky last time, or maybe the Norwegian high command is just, successfully, throwing most of it's Army into Oslo and it's surroundings.

The Western Europe Front

Belgium is now a government in exile, their troops are no longer active in this theatre.
France (Surrender Progress / NU): 16,90 / 49,0 loss of Dunkerque, Sedan, Cattenom, Sarreguemines, and Nancy.
Germany (Surrender Progress / NU): 0,0 / 86,5
Italy (Surrender Progress / NU): 0,0 / 79,6

The Belgians have pulled out, and now the French are really in trouble...
The Germans have taken Dunkerque along the Channel coast and Sedan, south of the Meuse river.
Wissembourg seems to have been the start of a serious German Breakthrough, they have now taken both Sarreguemines and Cattenom on the Maginot line and have already reached the city of Nancy more than 80km from the border and on a straight path between their initial breakthrough and Paris. The fragile stalemate is clearly over, it's only a matter of time now before the French surrender.
Our spies in France have confirmed the presence of a single 'Belgian' unit on the front, it is not clear why the British didn't ask Belgium to return the 4th Royal Marines Division to them after the Belgian Army stopped fighting, there is now an entire Belgian command structure in northern France, just for this one British unit... with those levels of efficiency, why should we even be surprised the Allies are losing this war...
The Italians still haven't managed to cross the French border.

British North Africa Front

United Kingdom (Surrender Progress / NU): 0,0 / 77,8
Italy (Surrender Progress / NU): 0,0 / 79,6

The Italians have made spectacular gains here, they have reached El Hammân, 280km from where the border was, on the outskirts of El iskandarîya, the city with the largest British Naval and Air Base on this side of the Mediterranean, let's hope they have at least some men defending it...
If the Italians can capture this city, it will only be a matter of time before they manage to take over the Suez canal, cutting the British empire in half, and making the Eastern part easy pickings for Japan, if they ever decide to enter the war against the Allies...

French North Africa Front

France (Surrender Progress / NU): 16,90 / 49,0
Italy (Surrender Progress / NU): 0,0 / 79,6

Surprisingly, the Italian advance was slower into French held Tunisia, they captured the small Mediterranean port town of Gabès and quite a bit of Desert. But along the coast, on the way to Tunis, where it really matters, they have reached 'only' 180km into Tunisia, up to the province of Shikra, just North-West of Gabes.
Did the french foolishly keep troops in North Africa while the homeland was under serious attack?
Now only two real question remain: Will the Italians capture Tunis, and maybe even Alger before the French surrender, and what will happen with these gains once the French surrender?
Well, in about a year's time we should have a Mediterranean Carrier fleet to mess with the Italians if they come asking for it...

Industry:

Working Industrial Capacity / available capacity: 236 / 318
IC Usage: ( Allocated IC / Need )

Upgrades: 14,80 / 14,84
Reinforcement: 1,95 / 1,96
Supplies: 24,84 / 34,07
Production: 247,79 / 247,79
Consumer Goods: 28,62 / 28,62

Stockpiles:

Energy: Maximum tonnes =
Metal: 83.419 tonnes +
Rares: 30.009 tonnes +
Crude: 92.875 barrels +
Supplies: 28.799 tonnes -
Fuel: 99.753 barrels +
Money: 1.994 -
There has been a slight change in Trade policy... as we have everything we need, we have started buying out Swedish Metal stocks regardless of price. This many benefits: For our long term metal supply as our IC is using very close to all of the Metal we produce and trading with Sweden requires no convoys.
Reparation of very low relations due to our annexation of their neighbour, and most importantly, every ton of Metal we buy is a ton of Metal the Germans can't buy...
We have already concluded our first trade agreement along these lines...

Intelligence:

Spy numbers, spies in (active / added / lost / caught by us)
France (Covert Operations / Counterespionage): 10 / 0 / 0 / 0

{ Germany (/): 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 }
{ Japan (/): 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 }
{ UK (/): 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 }

Other: 0 / 0 / 0 / 0

Total: 10 / 0 / 0 / 0

Reserves: 7
Spy training leadership expenditure: 0,19
We have so far recruited 5 like-minded Covert Operatives in our French sleeper cell...
No spies caught by our spy-hunters this week, again...

Research:

The Ground Crews assigned to of our Fighter Divisions will now be receiving even better Training (Level 4) than before, something that will surely boost our pilot's morale...
Now the Training for Fighter Pilots will be revised and improved (Level 3), this should mostly yield organisational benefits for these formations...
LS DIstrubution:

Research: 18,75 =
Espionage: 0,19 (-0,06)
Diplomacy: 0,10 (+0,06)
Officers: 10,00 (50 officers / day)
Total: 29,03 =
Having no more dangerous missions, the KGB and GRU budgets have been revised down again, in order to beef up our diplomatic service this time...

Statistics:

National Unity: 82,903 (+0,01)
Neutrality: 0,00 =
Dissent: 0,00 =
Manpower:

Available: 1.948.000 Men
To reinforce(need): 7.180 Men
To mobilise(need): See above
Monthly gain: 45.100 Men (1 fully mobilised Infx3, AT Division every 7,5 days)

Party Popularity:

- Communist Party: 58 (+10)
- Trotskyite: 1 (-3)
- Bukharinite: 8 (+1)

- Octobrist: 4 (-3)
- Social-Revolutionary: 3 (-1)
- Trudoviks: 3 (-1)
- Kadets: 10 (+2)

- Tsarists: 4 (-4)
- NTS: 0 (-3)
- POA: 10 (+4)
Organised parties are clearly back on the menu, with a welcome jump in popularity for the Communist Party. Both the Capitalists, and the Fascists have both lost in overall popularity, but both seem to have chosen a single faction to represent their political thinking, the Kadets for the Capitalists, and no doubt with a small nudge from German spies, the National-Socialist POA for the Fascists... This means that both of these now feel they have the support to demand a seat at the Government's table... our government, very popular once again, is also fractured again...

Party Organisation:

- Communist Party: 67,99 (+0,59)
- Trotskyite: 11,60 =
- Bukharinite: 6,70 =

- Octobrist: 7,20 =
- Trudoviks: 4,00 =
- Social-Revolutionary: 0,00 =
- Kadets: 0,00 =

- Tsarists: 1,00 =
- NTS: 1,50 =
- POA: 0,00 =

This Information is accurate on the morning of the 8th of July 1940, I hope it serves you well in fine-tuning your possible suggestions.

'Odin'

roverS3 · Aug 31, 2017

The 18th of July 1940, Vologda, 6,4°C, 10am Moscow Time,

Report on the state of the Soviet Union for the ten day period between the 9th and the 18th of July 1940,

by 'Odin'

Army:

No changes to Army numbers
Officers: 70.124 + / 81.840 needed / 85,684 %
Army Leadership:

6ya Armiya:

Maj. General Tamruchi SK2, OD will be replacing Maj. General Rudny SK1, WS as leader of 6. SD, IX SK, 6ya Armiya, 2nd Army Group, STAVKA.
New Maj. General Hadeev SK2, FB will be replacing Maj. General Lavrinovich SK1, BM as leader of 19. SD, IX SK, 6ya Armiya, 2nd Army Group, STAVKA.

New Maj. General Dratvin SK2, Trck will be replacing Maj. General Zherdiy SK1, Cdo as leader of 120. SD, X SK, 6ya Armiya, 2nd Army Group, STAVKA.
New Maj. General Horujenko SK2, OD will be replacing Maj. General Gorodnianskij SK2 as leader of 61. SD, X SK, 6ya Armiya, 2nd Army Group, STAVKA.

Now Maj. General Potapov SK2, WS will be replacing Maj. General Skvirskij SK1, Eng as leader of 52. SD, VIII SK, 6ya Armiya, 2nd Army Group, STAVKA.
New Maj. General Kariofilli SK2, FB will be replacing Maj. General Zherdev SK1, DD as leader of 53. SD, VIII SK, 6ya Armiya, 2nd Army Group, STAVKA.

New Maj. General Kriuchenkin SK2, WS will be replacing the recently promoted Lt. General Lebedenko SK3, LW, WS as leader of 73. SD, XXIII SK, 6ya Armiya, 2nd Army Group, STAVKA.

1ya Armiya:

New Maj. General Krivoshein SK2, LW will be replacing Maj. General Belous SK1, WS as leader of 71. SD, II SK, 1ya Armiya, 2nd Army Group, STAVKA.

Maj. General Melnik SK2, OD will be replacing Maj. General Zygin SK2 as leader of 164. SD, XVII SK, 1ya Armiya, 2nd Army Group, STAVKA.

3ya Armiya:

Maj. General Pavlov D.G. SK2, BM will be replacing Maj. General Vatutuin SK4 as leader of 43. SD, III SK, 3ya Armiya, 2nd Army Group, STAVKA.
New Maj. General Remizov SK2, BM will be replacing Maj. General Rodin A.G. SK3, BM as leader of 78. SD, III SK, 3ya Armiya, 2nd Army Group, STAVKA.

XXXI SK:

Maj. General Petrushevskij SK2, OD will be taking command of 90. SD, XXXI SK, 2nd Army Group, STAVKA.

7ya Armiya:

New Maj. General Krutikov SK2, WS will be replacing Maj. General Spiridonov SK2 as leader of 42. SD, XI SK, 7ya Armiya, 3rd Army Group, Brjansk HQ.
New Maj. General Rivkin SK2, OD will be replacing Maj. General Kuznetsov F.F. SK2 as leader of 49. SD, XI SK, 7ya Armiya, 3rd Army Group, Brjansk HQ.

New Maj. General Lazarev SK2, BM will be replacing Maj. General Vishnevskij SK2 as leader of 45. SD, XIII SK, 7ya Armiya, 3rd Army Group, Brjansk HQ.
New Maj. General Rogachev SK2, Trck will be replacing Maj. General Laskin SK2 as leader of 62. SD, XIII SK, 7ya Armiya, 3rd Army Group, Brjansk HQ.

New Maj. General Leselidze SK2, FB will be replacing Maj. General Romanov M.T. SK1, DD as leader of 11. SD, XII SK, 7ya Armiya, 3rd Army Group, Brjansk HQ.
New Maj. General Sergatskov SK2, WS will be replacing Maj. General Varennikov SK2 as leader of 2. SD, XII SK, 7ya Armiya, 3rd Army Group, Brjansk HQ.

4ya Armiya:

New Maj. General Mitofranov SK2, BM will be replacing Maj. General Shvydkoi SK1, Eng as leader of 48. SD, IV SK, 4ya Armiya, 3rd Army Group, Brjansk HQ.
New Maj. General Shtevnev SK2, BM will be replacing Maj. General Panin SK2 as leader of 10. SD, IV SK, 4ya Armiya, 3rd Army Group, Brjansk HQ.

New Maj. General Erastov SK2, OD will be replacing Maj. General Filatov SK2 as leader of 184. SD, VI SK, 4ya Armiya, 3rd Army Group, Brjansk HQ.
New Maj. General Obukhov SK2, BM will be replacing Maj. General Lopatin SK2 as leader of 181. SD, VI SK, 4ya Armiya, 3rd Army Group, Brjansk HQ.

New Maj. General Ermakov SK2, OD will be replacing Maj. General Iakovlev SK2 as leader of 143. SD, VII SK, 4ya Armiya, 3rd Army Group, Brjansk HQ.
New Maj. General Pavelkin SK2, BM will be replacing Maj. General Podlas SK2 as leader of 55. SD, VII SK, 4ya Armiya, 3rd Army Group, Brjansk HQ.

XVI SK:

New Maj. General Glazunov SK2, BM will be replacing Maj. General Garnov SK1, DD as leader of 197. SD, XVI SK, 3rd Army Group, Brjansk HQ.
New Maj. General Pushkin SK2, BM will be replacing Maj. General Smirnov SK2 as leader of 140. SD, XVI SK, 3rd Army Group, Brjansk HQ.

Air Force:

No changes in the VVS nor the Navy Air Fleet for the last 10 days

Navy:

No changes in the Navy for the last 10 days

Politics / International:

No legislative changes for the last 10 days.
Ethiopia has followed it's puppet master Italy in declaring war on the Allies, not that they will be the ones to sway this war...
The Norwegian Front

Norway (Surrender Progress / NU): 0,00 / 85,3
Germany (Surrender Progress / NU): 0,0 / 86,4

The Germans have capture some more unimportant territory North-East of Bergen, no other movement in Norway...

The Western Europe Front

France (Surrender Progress / NU): 27,60 / 48,8 loss of Lille, Metz, and Haguenau.
Germany (Surrender Progress / NU): 0,0 / 86,4
Italy (Surrender Progress / NU): 0,0 / 79,6

The Germans have crossed all of the French border between Dunkerque on the channel coast and Haguenau, on the Maginot line,150km north of Switzerland.
In doing this they have captured Lille, Metz and Haguenau. Their southermost units behind the Maginot line are only 100km from the Swiss border, and encircling whatever Garrison is left between Strasbourg and Mulhouse.
The Italians still haven't managed to cross the French border.

British North Africa Front

United Kingdom (Surrender Progress / NU): 0,0 / 77,8
Italy (Surrender Progress / NU): 0,0 / 79,6

It seems the British did Garrison El iskandarîya, and the Italian advance towards Suez has stalled on the outskirts of the City, there have also been some reports of the Iraqi Army marching west towards the front, this could possibly hold back the Italians indefinitely, unless they get heavy reinforcements...

French North Africa Front

France (Surrender Progress / NU): 27,60 / 48,8
Italy (Surrender Progress / NU): 0,0 / 79,6

The Italians have reached and taken the small Mediterranean port town of Sousse, less than 80kms from Tunis. In the Desert, they have reached the shores of the Medjerda river in El Oued.

East Africa & Ethiopia Front

Ethiopia (Surrender Progress / NU): 0,00 / 75,8
France (Surrender Progress / NU): 27,60 / 48,8
United Kingdom (Surrender Progress / NU): 0,0 / 77,8
Italy (Surrender Progress / NU): 0,0 / 79,6

We have not paid much attention to this slow and insignificant front, but with Ethiopia's entry in the war, we take a look...
Even before Ethiopia's DOW, the Allies had successfully cut them off from the Red sea by taking the Italian port of Edd, and all the Italian provinces around it.
The Italians, on their part have reached the outskirts of the UK base at Berbera.
The French have already reached the outskirts of Addis Abeba, the Ethiopian capital by taking Diredawa, of course they have troops here as well...

Industry:

Working Industrial Capacity / available capacity: 236 / 318
IC Usage: ( Allocated IC / Need )

Upgrades: 29,60 / 29,69
Reinforcement: 1,60 / 1,65
Supplies: 10,39 / 34,35
Production: 247,79 / 247,79
Consumer Goods: 28,62 / 28,62

Stockpiles:

Energy: Maximum tonnes =
Metal: 83.793 tonnes +
Rares: 30.018 tonnes +
Crude: 93.980 barrels +
Supplies: 28.450 tonnes -
Fuel: 99.759 barrels +
Money: 1.986 -

Intelligence:

Spy numbers, spies in (active / added / lost / caught by us)

France (Covert Operations / Counterespionage): 10 / 0 / 0 / 0

{ Germany (/): 0 / 0 / 0 / 1 }
{ Japan (/): 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 }
{ UK (/): 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 }

Other: 0 / 0 / 0 / 0

Total: 10 / 0 / 0 / 1

Reserves: 7
Spy training leadership expenditure: 0,19
We have so far recruited 7 like-minded Covert Operatives in our French sleeper cell...

Research:

A new Light Tank Engine (Level 3) design, the GAZ 202, is ready for production. These engines will be used in all matter of vehicles: Trucks, Armoured Cars, and Light Tanks.
This means our Light tanks are now pretty much T-60's though this is not modelled in game, the BT-7 being the only model included... Anyway, the T-70 had a 20mm TNSh cannon with a 750 rounds/min. fire rate, as well as a 70hp GAZ 202 Gasoline Engine.

A traffic jam of T-60's with their brand new engines...

Research has now started on a better Light Tank Gun (Level 3)
Land Combat theorists at our Military Academies have successfully delivered a way to cram more tanks in the same amount of Frontage, they call this the Spearhead Doctrine, and this development should allow us to use our tanks in a more concentrated way.
Now, they are looking into improving our Delaying tactics, especially the efficient use of Artillery and AT Artillery within this Doctrine (Level 4), this should have a positive effect on the moral of gun based support units.
No changes to LS Distribution

Statistics:

National Unity: 82,913 (+0,01)
Neutrality: 0,00 =
Dissent: 0,00 =
Manpower:

Available: 1.958.000 Men
To reinforce(need): 2.910 Men
To mobilise(need): See above
Monthly gain: 45.100 Men (1 fully mobilised Infx3, AT Division every 7,5 days)

No changes in Party Popularity in the last 10 days
Party Organisation:

- Communist Party: 68,00 (+0,01)
- Trotskyite: 11,50 (-0,1)
- Bukharinite: 6,60 (-0,1)

- Octobrist: 7,10 (-0,1)
- Trudoviks: 3,90 (-0,1)
- Social-Revolutionary: 0,00 =
- Kadets: 0,00 =

- Tsarists: 0,90 (-0,1)
- NTS: 1,40 (-0,1)
- POA: 0,00 =

This Information is accurate on the morning of the 18th of July 1940, I hope it serves you well in fine-tuning your possible suggestions.

'Odin'

roverS3 · Aug 31, 2017

The 28th of July 1940, Vologda, 6,4°C, 10am Moscow Time,

Report on the state of the Soviet Union for the ten day period between the 19th and the 28th of July 1940,

by 'Odin'

Army:

A Garx2 Division has finished training. 7. Garnizon DIviziya, consisting of Finnish soldiers and Soviet Officers will keep the peace in Oulu.
7. Gvardeskaya Tankovaya Divisiya, our 5th Armx2, Mot, Eng Division has been delivered to Lt. General Gorelen's I GvTK, 2ya Tankovaya Armiya, Armoured Army Group, STAVKA.
Army numbers (Brigades/Personnel) Reserves included (these numbers don't include regiments being upgraded):

Front line troops: 576 / 1.728.000
Support troops: 189 / 189.000
Total fighting troops: 765 / 1.917.000
Headquarters: 56 / 56.000
Total Army Personnel: 821 / 1.973.000
Officers: 70.624 + / 82.300 needed / 85,813 %
Active Leaders: Under advisement, will be updated after the leadership reshuffle..
Production of 2 Regiment's worth of Su-122 SP Art Guns has started
A Regiment of Su-85 Tank Destroyer crews and a Regiment of Engineers will be trained together before joining a Tank Division once the Su-85s have been delivered.

Army Leadership:
6ya Armiya:

New Maj. General Vasilev SK2, BM will be replacing Maj. General Ozeryakin SK1, Cdo as leader of 34. SD, IX SK, 6ya Armiya, 2nd Army Group, STAVKA.

New Maj. General Zaev SK2, BM will be replacing Maj. General Puganov SK1, BM as leader of 17. SD, VIII SK, 6ya Armiya, 2nd Army Group, STAVKA.

8ya Armiya:

Maj. General Panin SK2 will be replacing Maj. General Afrosimov SK1, FB as leader of 176. SD, XIX SK, 8ya Armiya, 4th Army Group, Odessa HQ.

10ya Armiya:

Maj. General Marchenkov SK2, Cdo will be replacing Maj. General Magon SK1, Eng as leader of 66. SD, XXIV SK, 10ya Armiya, Far East Theatre HQ.
Maj. General Ponedelin SK2 will be replacing Maj. General Malinovsk SK1, DD as leader of 39. SD, XXIV SK, 10ya Armiya, Far East Theatre HQ.

Maj. General Saladze SK2, Cdo will be replacing Maj. General Rykov SK1, FB as leader of 26. SD, XXV SK, 10ya Armiya, Far East Theatre HQ.
New Maj. General Reshetov SK2 will be replacing Maj. General Potaturchev SK1, OD as leader of 21. SD, XXV SK, 10ya Armiya, Far East Theatre HQ.

New Maj. General Haritonov SK2, Cdo will be replacing Maj. General Nikitin I.S. SK1, LW as leader of 92. SD, XXVI SK, 10ya Armiya, Far East Theatre HQ.
Maj. General Nikolaev SK2 will be replacing Maj. General Zverev SK1, DD as leader of 93. SD, XXVI SK, 10ya Armiya, Far East Theatre HQ.

Maj. General Varennikov SK2 will be replacing Maj. General Alexandrov SK1, FB as leader of 94. SD, XXVII SK, 10ya Armiya, Far East Theatre HQ.
Maj. General Kuznetsov F.F. SK2 will be replacing Maj. General Kirilov SK1, Eng as leader of 157. SD, XXVII SK, 10ya Armiya, Far East Theatre HQ.

XX GSK:

Maj. General Spiridonov SK2 will be replacing Maj. General Dedaev SK1, DD as leader of 69. GSD, XX GSK, Far East Theatre HQ.
Maj. General Podlas SK2 will be replacing Maj. General Karmanov SK1, DD as leader of 95. GSD, XX GSK, Far East Theatre HQ.

XXI GSK:

Maj. General Lopatin SK2 will be replacing Maj. General Iuchimchuk SK1 as leader of 44. GSD, XXI GSK, 9ya Armiya, 5th Army Group, Stalingrad HQ.
New Maj. General Ahmanov SK2 will be replacing Maj. General Kiselev SK1 as leader of 58. GSD, XXI GSK, 9ya Armiya, 5th Army Group, Stalingrad HQ.

All leadership changes (except for GarDs) have been completed for STAVKA, Brjansk HQ, and Odessa HQ, no changes were needed for Leningrad HQ. Only the Far East, and Stalingrad HQ remain to be wrapped up

Air Force:

No changes in the VVS nor the Navy Air Fleet for the last 10 days

Navy:

No changes in the Navy for the last 10 days

Politics / International:

No legislative changes for the last 10 days.
The Norwegian Front

Norway (Surrender Progress / NU): 0,00 / 85,3
Germany (Surrender Progress / NU): 0,0 / 86,4

The Germans have captured some more unimportant territory North of Bergen. But they have been pushed away from Oslo, when the Norwegians took back Kongsberg.

The Western Europe Front

France (Surrender Progress / NU): 42,90 / 48,7 loss of Calais, Reims, and Strasbourg.
Germany (Surrender Progress / NU): 0,0 / 86,4
Italy (Surrender Progress / NU): 0,0 / 79,6

The Germans are now moving into France all over the front. They are slowly rolling up the Maginot line with the capture of Strasbourg. They have moved south along the Channel coast down to Boulogne. And they have reached the outskirts of Troyes. 180km from the Belgian Border, and 220km from the German one. The French seem to be holding them back a bit in the vicinity of Paris, where the Wehrmacht is still more than 100km away from the French capital, but it's not looking good...
The Italians still haven't managed to cross the French border.

British North Africa Front

United Kingdom (Surrender Progress / NU): 0,0 / 77,8
Italy (Surrender Progress / NU): 0,0 / 79,6

The British have pushed the Italians back to the West by retaking El Hammâm, it seems the Italians won't cut off Suez anytime soon after all...

French North Africa Front

France (Surrender Progress / NU): 42,90 / 48,7 loss of Tunis.
Italy (Surrender Progress / NU): 0,0 / 79,6

The Italians have taken Tunis, this will probably hasten France's eventual Surrender. In the Desert, they haven't moved.

East Africa & Ethiopia Front

Ethiopia (Surrender Progress / NU): 0,00 / 75,8
France (Surrender Progress / NU): 42,90 / 48,7
United Kingdom (Surrender Progress / NU): 0,0 / 77,8
Italy (Surrender Progress / NU): 0,0 / 79,6

The French have not captured Addis Abeba, but they have now taken the insignificant province of Tandaho as well, making our analysts believe that the French have more than one Division down in Eastern Africa, while the hun overruns the homeland...
The British have now taken to the stage here as well, they have pushed north from British-held Kenya and taken Mega, they are also on the outskirts of the Ethiopian capital.

Industry:

Working Industrial Capacity / available capacity: 236 / 318
IC Usage: ( Allocated IC / Need )

Upgrades: 37,81 / 65,41
Reinforcement: 3,20 / 3,26
Supplies: 6,60 / 34,75
Production: 241,77 / 241,77
Consumer Goods: 28,62 / 28,62

Stockpiles:

Energy: Maximum tonnes =
Metal: 83.793 tonnes +
Rares: 30.018 tonnes +
Crude: 93.980 barrels +
Supplies: 28.450 tonnes -
Fuel: 99.759 barrels +
Money: 1.986 -

Intelligence:

Spy numbers, spies in (active / added / lost / caught by us)
France (Covert Operations / Counterespionage): 8 / 0 / 2 / 0

{ Germany (/): 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 }
{ Japan (/): 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 }
{ UK (/): 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 }

Other: 0 / 0 / 0 / 0

Total: 8 / 0 / 2 / 0

Reserves: 7
Spy training leadership expenditure: 0,19
Minor members of the Allies are now hunting spies in France... we lost two spies, one to the South Africans, and one to the Canadians. These will not be replaced, as the fall of France is getting closer by the day...
We have so far recruited 8 like-minded Covert Operatives in our French sleeper cell...

Research:

A new range of Infantry Small Arms (Level 4) is ready for production. The new standard issue rifle for all of our riflemen is the SVT obr. 1938.

A gas-operated rifle designed by Fedor Tokarev, it had a magazine with 10 standard 7.62mm calibre rounds. It is a very light weapon (3.85kg unloaded), but it is quite complex by Soviet standards and requires frequent cleaning, especially when firing corrosive rounds. It is very versatile, with a detachable reloadable magazine, and rails for the possible addition of a telescopic sight for long range shooting. There is also a sniper rifle version with an additional locking notch for an open sight. With a scope and/or the sniper sight, the effective firing range was over 1.000m. This example has all the bells and whistles: Sight, Bayonet,...

Researchers are now looking into better Infantry Anti-Tank Weapons (Level 4).
Improved Assault Weapons (Level 2) should help our engineers negotiate difficult terrain and fortifications even better.
A better AT Barrel & Sight (Level 4) is now in development, this should increase the staying power of our Rifle Divisions, especially when faced with Panzers
No changes to LS Distribution

Statistics:

National Unity: 82,923 (+0,01)
Neutrality: 0,00 =
Dissent: 0,00 =
Manpower:

Available: 1.962.000 Men
To reinforce(need): 2.750 Men
To mobilise(need): See above
Monthly gain: 45.100 Men (1 fully mobilised Infx3, AT Division every 7,5 days)

No changes in Party Popularity in the last 10 days
Party Organisation:

- Communist Party: 68,60 (+0,60)
- Trotskyite: 11,50 =
- Bukharinite: 6,60 =

- Octobrist: 7,10 =
- Trudoviks: 3,90 =
- Social-Revolutionary: 0,00 =
- Kadets: 0,00 =

- Tsarists: 0,90 =
- NTS: 1,40 =
- POA: 0,00 =

This Information is accurate on the morning of the 28th of July 1940, I hope it serves you well in fine-tuning your possible suggestions.

'Odin'

roverS3 · Sep 2, 2017

The 7th of August 1940, Vologda, 2,4°C, 10am Moscow Time,

Report on the state of the Soviet Union for the ten day period between the 29th of July and the 7th of August 1940,

by 'Odin'

Army:

A Garx3, Art Division has finished training. 8. Garnizon DIviziya, consisting of Finnish soldiers and Soviet Officers will keep the peace in Turku.
Army numbers (Brigades/Personnel) Reserves included (these numbers don't include regiments being upgraded):

Front line troops: 579 / 1.737.000
Support troops: 190 / 190.000
Total fighting troops: 769 / 1.917.000
Headquarters: 56 / 56.000
Total Army Personnel: 825 / 1.983.000
Officers: 71.124 + / 82.490 needed / 86,221 %
Active Leaders: 232 / 115 more available

Army Leadership:

10ya Armiya:

Maj. General Vishnevskij SK2 will be replacing Maj. General Mihajliv SK1, Cdo as leader of 59. SD, XXIV SK, 10ya Armiya, Far East Theatre HQ.
Maj. General Smirnov SK2 will be replacing Maj. General Proshkin SK1, OD as leader of 22. SD, XXIV SK, 10ya Armiya, Far East Theatre HQ.

Maj. General Iakovlev SK2 will be replacing Maj. General Ogurtsov SK1, Trck as leader of 20. SD, XXV SK, 10ya Armiya, Far East Theatre HQ.
Maj. General Golubovskij SK2 will be replacing Maj. General Prohorov SK1, Eng as leader of 29. SD, XXV SK, 10ya Armiya, Far East Theatre HQ.
Maj. General Gorodnianskij SK2 will be replacing Maj. General Rubtsov SK1, LW as leader of 12. SD, XXV SK, 10ya Armiya, Far East Theatre HQ.

Maj. General Gidov SK2 will be replacing Maj. General Ryabchev M.E. SK1, Cdo as leader of 40. SD, XXVI SK, 10ya Armiya, Far East Theatre HQ.
Maj. General Filatov SK2 will be replacing Maj. General Zhatkov SK1, DD as leader of 65. SD, XXVI SK, 10ya Armiya, Far East Theatre HQ.
Maj. General Remezov F.N. SK2 will be replacing Maj. General Shestopalov SK1, LW as leader of 32. SD, XXVI SK, 10ya Armiya, Far East Theatre HQ.

Maj. General Ershakov SK2 will be replacing Maj. General Sudec SK1, LW as leader of 114. SD, XXVII SK, 10ya Armiya, Far East Theatre HQ.
Maj. General Laskin SK2 will be replacing Maj. General Horolenko SK1, OD as leader of 136. SD, XXVII SK, 10ya Armiya, Far East Theatre HQ.

XX GSK:

Maj. General Zygin SK2 will be replacing Maj. General Karpezo SK1, LW as leader of 83. GSD, XX GSK, Far East Theatre HQ.

XXI GSK:

Maj. General Bikzhanov SK2 will be replacing Maj. General Kutlin SK1, Cdo as leader of 101. GSD, XXI GSK, 9ya Armiya, 5th Army Group, Stalingrad HQ.

Maj. General Zhuckov SK1, LW will be replacing Maj. General Budennij SK1, OG as leader of 1. GarD, 1st Army Group, Leningrad HQ. (Leningrad)
Maj. General Ryhlin SK1, WS, Cdo will be replacing Maj. General Goryahov SK1, OG as leader of 2. GarD 1st Army Group, Leningrad HQ. (Murmansk)
Maj. General Zherdiy SK1, Cdo will be the first leader of 5. GarD 1st Army Group, Leningrad HQ. (Viipuri)
Maj. General Nikitin I.S. SK1, LW will be the first leader of 6. GarD 1st Army Group, Leningrad HQ. (Helsinki)
Maj. General Ryabchev M.E. SK1, Cdo will be the first leader of 7. GarD 1st Army Group, Leningrad HQ. (Oulu)
Maj. General Sudec SK1, LW will be the first leader of 8. GarD 1st Army Group, Leningrad HQ. (Turku)

With this list of leadership changes 'Dva' sent me a cheerful message rejoicing about the fact that the big reshuffle of the Red Army Leadership is finally over...
He also noted that just shy of 50 Maj. Generals were demoted to the level of Regimental Commander or were simply thanked for their service and sent to the Red Army's retirement resort near Yalta, on the Black Sea Coast. They had done nothing wrong, there was just someone smarter and more cunning than them available.

Air Force:

No changes in the VVS nor the Navy Air Fleet for the last 10 days

Navy:

No changes in the Navy for the last 10 days

Politics / International:

No legislative changes for the last 10 days.
The Norwegian Front

Norway (Surrender Progress / NU): 0,00 / 85,3
Germany (Surrender Progress / NU): 0,0 / 86,4

The Germans have captured even more unimportant territory North of Bergen. Meanwhile, the Norwegians took back Rollag, pushing the Germans even further to the West and away from Oslo.

The French Front

France (Surrender Progress / NU): 46,00 / 48,6 loss of Troyes.
Germany (Surrender Progress / NU): 0,0 / 86,4
Italy (Surrender Progress / NU): 0,0 / 79,6

The Wehrmacht has reached the Outskirts of Dieppe, the outskirts of Besancon... , and the outskirts of Paris... The Germans have all but encircled what is left of the Maginot line.
The Italians still haven't managed to cross the French border.

British North Africa Front

United Kingdom (Surrender Progress / NU): 0,0 / 77,8
Italy (Surrender Progress / NU): 0,0 / 79,6

The British are still pushing the Italians back to where they came from, retaking El Alamein, Abu Haggag, and Bi'r Abu al Hudum the British now clearly have the advantage here, let us hop it lasts...

French North Africa Front

France (Surrender Progress / NU): 46,00 / 48,6
Italy (Surrender Progress / NU): 0,0 / 79,6

The Italians crossed the Medjerda river in Tunis, and they have now reached, but not yet conquered the small Mediterranean Port Town of Annaba. The Italians seem to have slowed down a bit here, but they keep moving West inexorably.

East Africa & Ethiopia Front

Ethiopia (Surrender Progress / NU): 0,00 / 75,8
France (Surrender Progress / NU): 42,90 / 48,7
United Kingdom (Surrender Progress / NU): 0,0 / 77,8
Italy (Surrender Progress / NU): 0,0 / 79,6

With the British now Attacking from the North-West as well, the Allies have encircled the province of Makale. The Ethiopians haven't been sitting idle either, they have taken Malakal from the British. All of these provinces have no strategic interest whatsoever...
The Italians, have taken the Port of Berbera, which gives them a small port in the Gulf of Aden,... it's something, but without Italian access to the Suez canal it probably won't last...
That's what is really mind-boggling about all these forces fighting in Eastern Africa, the fight that will decide the fate of these nations is in Europe, the fight that will decide the fate of their empires is in Northern Africa, around the Suez-Canal, and maybe later, Gibraltar as well as naval Domination in the Med. What are all those troops doing down there?

Industry:

The Air Bases in Demjansk, Berezan and Homel have been expanded again (Level 6), and can now host and repair 600 VVS Aircraft at any one time...
The addition, now underway, of a Fourth Runway and a series of Hangars for our recent Li-2 Transport planes (Level 7), will boost that number to 700 for all three Airbases.
The expansion (Level 3) of the Air Base of Lwow has been delivered
Construction continues with a tarmac surface for the second runway and a Pilot's Mess (Level 4)
The Air base in Reznzke now has a hardened Runway (Level 2),
a second dirt runway will be constructed newt to it as well as some maintenance hangars (Level 3)
Working Industrial Capacity / available capacity: 236 / 318
IC Usage: ( Allocated IC / Need )

Upgrades: 44,63 / 71,50
Reinforcement: 0,80 / 0,85
Supplies: 7,13 / 34,80
Production: 236,84 / 236,84
Consumer Goods: 28,62 / 28,62

Stockpiles:

Energy: Maximum tonnes =
Metal: 84.549 tonnes +
Rares: 30.038 tonnes +
Crude: 96.190 barrels +
Supplies: 29.106 tonnes +
Fuel: 99.733 barrels -
Money: 1.974 -

Intelligence:

Spy numbers, spies in (active / added / lost / caught by us)
France (Covert Operations / Counterespionage): 8 / 0 / 0 / 0

{ Germany (/): 0 / 0 / 0 / 1 }
{ Japan (/): 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 }
{ UK (/): 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 }

Other: 0 / 0 / 0 / 1

Total: 8 / 0 / 0 / 2

Reserves: 8
Spy training leadership expenditure: 0,19
We have so far recruited 8 like-minded Covert Operatives in our French sleeper cell...

Research:

An entirely Soviet Small Warship Radar (Level 1) design is ready for production and installation on board our Destroyers and Cruisers, this should give our fleets a certain visibility over the horizon.
Improvements in the Design of our Aircraft have been implemented, some are calling the new standards "Advanced"... The main benefit of this Design is that it allows for the possible installation of Radar-type systems.
Members from both these teams have now teamed up to develop a Air Search Radar (Level 1) system Small and light enough to fit in our smallest, redesigned, planes.
The others have started the development of a new Aero Engine (Level 2), potentially increasing the speed of all of our Aeroplanes.
Our Industrial specialist have improved the yields of our Agriculture (Level 6) yet again, this time through better irrigation techniques.
They have now started looking for ways to make our Military Supply Production (Level 6) industry more efficient
A team of tank designers tasked with making our Medium Tanks and their TD and SP Art variants more Reliable (Level 3). They seem to have come up with an entirely new design for a Tank Destroyer as well as one for a more coherent SP Gun:

The new Su-100 Tank Destroyer is Designed for a 100mm AT Gun, but this gun is still in Development. The rest of the Design was so good, that the Red Army decided to start fielding them right away, with the current 85mm Gun. This model improved on the Su-85 by having the Gun integrated, instead of having a separate gun turret on top of a slightly modified tank (Historically a T-34) body. The picture in HOI3 shows an Su-85 for the Su-100...

The Su-152 Zveroboy was built from the start to have a 152mm howitzer, and this eliminates quite a few reliability problems with our current "up-gunned" Su-122's. Historically this beast became known as "Zveroboy"(Beast Slayer) as it could slay Tigers, Panthers etc. all day long with non-AP rounds (at relatively close range, usually in ambushes or urban terrain) thanks to it's huge calibre. It only had some trouble with Elephants at medium range, and it seems that this prompted Su-152's to deal with Elephants by blowing the entire turret off at close range... With only 20 rounds of 152mm ammunition on board, every shot had to not only hit, but destroy it's intended target...

The clever tank Designers are now looking into making our Light Tanks more Reliable (Level 4).
No changes to LS Distribution

Statistics:

National Unity: 82,933 (+0,01)
Neutrality: 0,00 =
Dissent: 0,00 =
Manpower:

Available: 1.974.000 Men
To reinforce(need): 2.310 Men
To mobilise(need): See above
Monthly gain: 48.200 Men (1 fully mobilised Infx3, AT Division every 7 days)

Party Popularity:

- Communist Party: 58 =
- Trotskyite: 1 =
- Bukharinite: 7 (-1)

- Octobrist: 4 =
- Social-Revolutionary: 8 (+5)
- Trudoviks: 2 (-1)
- Kadets: 10 =

- Tsarists: 1(-3)
- NTS: 0 =
- POA: 11 (+1)
Not much has changed since last month, with German spies convincing all people with serious Right wing leanings that National-Socialism is the way forward, the POA is becoming a thorn in our side, when it comes to a unified government... The Capitalist are more split than last time, so no one is feeling entitled to government representation there...

Party Organisation:

- Communist Party: 69,12 (+0,52)
- Trotskyite: 11,40 (-0,1)
- Bukharinite: 6,50 (-0,1)

- Octobrist: 7,00 (-0,1)
- Trudoviks: 3,80 (-0,1)
- Social-Revolutionary: 0,00 =
- Kadets: 0,00 =

- Tsarists: 0,80 (-0,1)
- NTS: 1,30 (-0,1)
- POA: 0,01 (+0,01)

This Information is accurate on the morning of the 7th of August 1940, I hope it serves you well in fine-tuning your possible suggestions.

'Odin'

roverS3 · Sep 3, 2017

The 8th of August 1940, Petsamo, 1,8°C, 9am

I have myself travelled to Petsamo to see our new Arctic railway line in action, this should allow our troops facing the Norwegian border to advance into Norway with less potential Supply issues as the small port of Petsamo doesn't quite have the capacity to supply more than a Division or 2. Between Murmansk and here, the railway only has a single track, but construction has already started on a second track. I actually took a small rail transport train from Murmask to here.

Building the Arctic railway in Summer is tough enough, it will be tougher still by November, when the second track is due to be delivered... The workers are being pressed to work hard now and many locals and prisoners are have being enrolled to help speed things up. This job is much is easier while the daytime temperature is above the freezing point... 'Devyat' has already noted that Infrastructure expansion here will have to stop until spring after this second track has been laid... Railway snow ploughs and snow blowers are already being produced and the amount of points is kept to a strict minimum as keeping them Ice-free is time consuming and expensive. Experienced crews from the original construction of the Trans-Siberian Railroad are also present to speed things up.

Another meeting reviewing our Infrastructure has been concluded, I was present as an aide of 'Devyat', and things are shaping up nicely, slowly our Infrastructure is improving, even to near western European levels in some places.

The 20 Infrastructure projects on which only the final touches are still to be done are the following:

-Transsiberian railroad, Kuybyshev-Omsk:
Infrastructure will be upgraded to 'Level 7' in Sengiley and Kuzkino.

-Memel Northern Bank, Minsk-Kaunas-Memel railroad:
Infrastructure will be upgraded to 'Level 7' in Jeremicze and Iwje.

-Eastern Finnmark Coast, Murmansk-Petsamo railroad:
Infrastructure will be upgraded to 'Level 3' in Polyarny, Zapadnaya Litsa, and Petsamo.

-String of Lakes/Rivers around lake Salvijärvi, Petsamo-Lulea railroad:
Infrastructure will be upgraded to 'Level 3' in Kolosjoki, Nautsi, and Ivalo.

-Kholm-Pskov railroad:
Infrastructure will be upgraded to 'Level 7' in Izborsk.

-Don East Bank, Stalingrad-Voronezh-Tula-Moskva railroad:
Infrastructure will be upgraded to 'Level 7' in Kalach, Dubrovskiy, Elanskaya and Bukanovskaya.

-Lake Ladoga East Coast, Tihvin-Sortavala-Viipuri-Leningrad Railroad
Infrastructure will be upgraded to 'Level 4' in Olonets and Svirstroy.

-Neva North Bank, Finnish border railroad:
Infrastructure will be upgraded to 'Level 8' in Osinovets.

-Volkhov East Bank railroad:
Infrastructure will be upgraded to 'Level 8' in Novaya Ladoga and Volhov.

'Level 2' fortifications in Krasne have been delivered.
Work has started on the first Machine Gun Bunkers (Level 1) in Izborsk.

The same strategy has been followed to decide on the next 25 projects which will now start.
Some new projects have started in Northern Finland in preparation for a possible Norwegian Front, in Southern Finland, work has started on an alternative supply line for the Southern Finnish coast and Leningrad around Lake Ladoga.
To improve the flow of supplies from our central Depots in Moskva to everywhere else, infrastructure is now being improved around the capital, this is done through additional investment adding another 5 projects to the list...
Provinces are being upgraded to 'Level 8'.
In the following 25 provinces work will begin (17), or continue (8), adding an extra track or another hardened road.

-Transsiberian railroad, Kuybyshev-Omsk:
Infrastructure will be upgraded to 'Level 7' in Melekes and Iskaly.

-Eastern Finnmark Coast, Murmansk-Petsamo railroad:
Infrastructure will be upgraded to 'Level 4' in Polyarny, Zapadnaya Litsa, and Petsamo.

-String of Lakes/Rivers around lake Salvijärvi, Petsamo-Lulea railroad:
Infrastructure will be upgraded to 'Level 4' in Kolosjoki, Nautsi, and Ivalo.

-Lake Ladoga East Coast, Tihvin-Sortavala-Viipuri-Leningrad Railroad
Infrastructure will be upgraded to 'Level 5' in Olonets and Svirstroy.

-Volkhov East Bank railroad:
Infrastructure will be upgraded to 'Level 8' in Malaja Vishera and Proletariy.

-Lovat East Bank Demjansk-Vitsyebsk railroad:
Infrastructure will be upgraded to 'Level 8' in Parfino, Marevo, Andreapol, Toropets, Velikie Luki and Haradok.

-Dvina North Bank Riga-Vityebsk railroad:
Infrastructure will be upgraded to 'Level 8' in Dominikovo and Drozdy.

-Moskva peripheral railway network:
Infrastructure will be upgraded to 'Level 7' in Istra, Taldom, Dmitrov, Podolsk and Yegoryevsk.

We are making good progress towards the 'Level 8' objective for our Defensive line, as well as in Finland. The First Defensive line that is being upgraded is the Leningrad-Novaya Ladoga-Vityebsk-Homel-Kyiv-Dnipopetrovsk-Zhaporizhzhya-Mykolaiv defensive line, a continuous river line with only two already fortified gaps less than 100km wide.

Greetings,

'Odin'

roverS3 · Sep 3, 2017

The 9th of August 1940, Minsk, 8,1°C, 6am Moscow Time

Dear Afanasy Fyodorovich, dear brother,

It has been a long time since we last spoke,

I have been busy, but I take the time to write to you now as I have a feeling something is big is going to happen soon, and that that war in Finland was just a warm up round...

First there was the huge amount of changes in appointments for commands on the Division level and above, not that I will complain about that,
I swapped my trusted 43. SD for 3. Tyazhelaya Tankovaya Gvardeskaya Diviziya, arguably the most powerful Division in the entire Red Army.
Moreover my direct superior is Lt.General Markian Mikhailovich Popov, another Winter war veteran who was in the thick of the fighting, why he was promoted and I wasn't remains a mystery to me, but it's just as well...
I get to play with 50 huge KV-1 tanks and 6.000 Guards under my direct command. I'm not wanting for support either, with a full Artillery Regiment with hundreds of 152mm howitzers and a Regiment of Engineers to keep all of this heavy machinery moving, and to blow stuff up on the way, this really is a great Division.

The reshuffle didn't worry me that much, as it seems only proper that able veteran commanders from the Finland campaign were shown the recognition they deserved.
But, in combination with Yesterdays Strategic redeployment order for the entire XXIX GvSK, it seems STAVKA is preparing for the worst.
My KV-1's are being loaded on trains as we speak, the destination is Lodz, a fortified city 80km from our German border in Southern Poland, we're not being told why we are moving, but considering the path we are taking, I suspect we will be facing the Germans quite soon.

High command has gone through the trouble of making our trains take a detour, so that our tanks would not be visible to the German troops on the border... The redeployment, and the location of our KV-1's is to remain a closely guarded secret...

Our Military intelligence suggests that sector will be hit the hardest once hostilities begin. I have no idea whether we will be attacking the Germans, or they will be attacking us, but considering what I have heard, the Germans have quite a few tanks facing the Area, and who knows how many they will be able to add once the fight for France is over? My children have both moved out and that's a good thing as things might get hairy sooner rather than later where I'm going.

<his daughter>
Jelena, she's 20 now, is currently studying Journalism in the Lomosov Moscow State University, and she has promised to send me newspaper clippings, especially those about the Military, with her commentary, so that I know what she thinks of them, and I can compare the contents to facts on the ground and my knowledge about the situation of the Red Army... She does not know where I will be posted, and I'm not allowed to tell her, but I'm sure she can find that out for herself and be subtle about it.

<his son>
Viktor, now 18, seems to have vanished of the face of the earth after having gone to Moscow to study Military Strategy, I have heard nothing of him in months, I hope he will turn up again soon...

<his wife>

I will take only Tatiana Romanovna with me to Lodz, so we can at least spend some time together, Lt. General Popov M.M. has told me I will be busy, making sure my Division is well dug in, and taking trips to the Border to evaluate the Enemy's strength for my Lt. General.

I'll write again when I get there,

I wish you much success in your Military career,

Hope to see you again soon,

Nikolaj Fjodorovich Vatutin
Maj. General, commander of 3. Tyazhelaya Tankovaya Gvardeskaya Diviziya and your dear brother.

P.S. I have set up this uncensored and confidential line of communication through a childhood friend in the VVS, this should allow us to communicate freely, even in times of war... I know I can trust you to keep everything discussed in these letters to yourself

The co-pilot of this childhood friend thinks he is working for the NKVD when he intercepts the Maj. General's confidential letters and takes microfilm photographs of them. He'sreally a Secret Committee Asset, and he should continue delivering all of Maj. General Vatutin's private correspondence, meaning it will inevitably end up on my desk...

This could get interesting, and I will keep picking out the interesting letters we intercept,

Greetings,

'Odin'

What is real, and what's not, a note from your WritAAR:
All the names of his family members are correct. I discovered that his daughter was a Journalist and Editor who emigrated to Prague in 1958, all I could find about her was the fact that she had studied Journalism in Moscow. (No year) and that she had set up at least one Russian Language paper in Prague. This information comes from a 2014 Bachelor's Thesis:
"Enrichment of cultural life in the Czech Republic by Russian immigrants in the second half of the 20th century" by Petra Vítečková from the department of Russian Language and Literature of the University of Brno.
It seems some information was gathered about Jelena Vatutina, then still alive in Prague (She died in 2016). None of the sources for this thesis seems to mention her in the title, and it was already a Google translation from Czech. I speak 3.5 languages, but Czech and Russian are not among them...
The son remains a mystery, with only his date of birth to be found anywhere online. About the brothers, all that I could find was that both his brothers fought in the Red Army and that they died in 1944, close to Vatutin's own untimely demise. I'm sure that if I had to write a thesis about this, I would be able to come up with more info, but this is an AAR, and several hours of internet searches (Google and my University's academic literature search engine) is all you get...
Of course Vatutin's rank and posting are not historical (he was a Lt. General by 1939...), I will try to write a 'photographed letter' from Vatutin from time to time, especially to illustrate the Great Patriotic war... There are some hints in the letter as to how I would frame that...

roverS3 · Sep 4, 2017

The 17th of August 1940, Vologda, 2,4°C, 10am Moscow Time,

Report on the state of the Soviet Union for the ten day period between the 8th and the 17th of August 1940,

by 'Odin'

Army:

No changes to Army numbers for the last 10 days
Officers: 71.624 + / 82.490 needed / 86,827 %
Active Leaders: 232 / 115 more available

Air Force:

100 La-5 Multi-Role Fighters, forming 47. IAD have been deployed, they have joined Air Lt. General Novikov's II. ShAK to give it some protection from enemy Fighters.
Aeroplane Numbers (Wings/Planes):

Interceptors: 19 / 1900
Multi-Role Fighters: 2 / 200
Close Air Support: 3 / 300
Carrier Air Groups: 5 / 500

Single Engined: 29 / 2.900

Tactical Bomber: 4 / 400

Total Bombers: 7 / 700

Transport Planes: 1 / 100

Total VVS: 29 / 2.900
Total Navy: 5 / 500
Total Airplanes: 34 / 3.400

Active Leaders: 12 / 18 Reserve
Production continues, on another La-5's, they will form 78. IAD and join I. BAK

Navy:

No changes in the Navy for the last 10 days

Politics / International:

No legislative changes for the last 10 days.
The Norwegian Front

Norway (Surrender Progress / NU): 0,00 / 85,3
Germany (Surrender Progress / NU): 0,0 / 86,4

The Germans seem to have stopped expanding to the north, and now they seem to be countering the Norwegians offensive, taking Kongsberg, but losing Tonsberg. Maybe they will be able to clear the road to Oslo once more

The French Front

France (Surrender Progress / NU): 52,30 / 48,5 loss of Besancon. and Sélestat.
Germany (Surrender Progress / NU): 0,0 / 86,4
Italy (Surrender Progress / NU): 0,0 / 79,6

The Germans have taken Besancon, effectively cutting off what is left of the Maginot line, as for the Fortified line itself, they have continued rolling it up with the capture of Sélestat, just south of Strasbourg.
The Wehrmacht is still in the Northern Outskirts of Paris, more troops are closing in on the capital from the East as well, and they are only 60km away. Soon, the city could be enveloped. Near the coast, they have reached the edge of Rouen, and thereby reinforced their position for an attack on Dieppe.
The Italians still haven't managed to cross the French border.

British North Africa Front

United Kingdom (Surrender Progress / NU): 0,0 / 77,8
Italy (Surrender Progress / NU): 0,0 / 79,6

The British counter-offensive continues, with no sign of running out of breath, retaking everything up to Ra's Abu Lahw, Qara, and Ayn Tumayrah. The British are now 90km from the original border, and if they continue at this rate, they might reach Tobruk, now only 130km away, in less than 20 days.

French North Africa Front

France (Surrender Progress / NU): 52,30 / 48,5
Italy (Surrender Progress / NU): 0,0 / 79,6

Not much has happened here, except for the Italians encircling the province of L'Ariana, just South-West of Tunis, no real progress has been made. Our analysts suspect that the Italians are pulling troops from here to face the British threat to the East...it might explain the lack of progress...

East Africa & Ethiopia Front

Ethiopia (Surrender Progress / NU): 0,00 / 75,8
France (Surrender Progress / NU): 52,30 / 48,5
United Kingdom (Surrender Progress / NU): 0,0 / 77,8
Italy (Surrender Progress / NU): 0,0 / 79,6

The encircled province of Makale has been cleared out, and integrated into the British empire. The Italians took the province of Bohotleh, south of Berbera. None of this has any strategic implications whatsoever, short of taking ports and scarce resources, there really isn't that much to gain down here, but they fight on regardless...

Industry:

20 Infrastructure upgrades were delivered, work has started on another 25 (see previous update)
Working Industrial Capacity / available capacity: 236 / 318
IC Usage: ( Allocated IC / Need )

Upgrades: 43,70 / 71,22
Reinforcement: 1,10 / 1,13
Supplies: 7,01 / 36,13
Production: 237,58 / 237,58
Consumer Goods: 28,62 / 28,62

Stockpiles:

Energy: Maximum tonnes =
Metal: 84.923 tonnes +
Rares: 30.040 tonnes +
Crude: 97.295 barrels +
Supplies: 28.682 tonnes -
Fuel: 99.723 barrels -
Money: 1.969 -

Intelligence:

Spy numbers, spies in (active / added / lost / caught by us)

France (Covert Operations / Counterespionage): 8 / 0 / 0 / 0

{ Germany (/): 0 / 0 / 0 / 1 }
{ Japan (/): 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 }
{ UK (/): 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 }

Other: 0 / 0 / 0 / 2

Total: 8 / 0 / 0 / 3

Reserves: 8
Spy training leadership expenditure: 0,19
Our spy hunters seem to be back on the job now...
We have so far recruited 9 like-minded Covert Operatives in our French sleeper cell...

Research:

No completed projects, no new Research for the last 10 days
No changes to LS Distribution

Statistics:

National Unity: 82,943 (+0,01)
Neutrality: 0,00 =
Dissent: 0,00 =
Manpower:

Available: 1.986.000 Men
To reinforce(need): 340 Men
To mobilise(need): See above
Monthly gain: 48.200 Men (1 fully mobilised Infx3, AT Division every 7 days)

No changes in Party Popularity
Party Organisation:

- Communist Party: 69,22 (+0,1)
- Trotskyite: 11,30 (-0,1)
- Bukharinite: 6,40 (-0,1)

- Octobrist: 6,90 (-0,1)
- Trudoviks: 3,70 (-0,1)
- Social-Revolutionary: 0,00 =
- Kadets: 0,00 =

- Tsarists: 0,80 (+0,1)
- NTS: 1,20 (-0,1)
- POA: 0,00 (-0,01)
It isn't clear how yet, but the Tsarist are becoming more organised. Traditionally this would be the work of Japanese spies, but we haven't caught one of those in ages...

This Information is accurate on the morning of the 17th of August 1940, I hope it serves you well in fine-tuning your possible suggestions.

'Odin'

roverS3 · Sep 5, 2017

The 27th of August 1940, Vologda, 2,4°C, 10am Moscow Time,

Report on the state of the Soviet Union for the ten day period between the 18th and the 27th of August 1940,

by 'Odin'

Army:

A new Infx3, Art, AT Division has finished training. 80. Strelkovaya Diviziya has been deployed to Lt. General Rodin G.S.'s XXXI SK, 2nd Army Group, STAVKA. Currently in Riga.
Army numbers (Brigades/Personnel) Reserves included (these numbers don't include regiments being upgraded):

Front line troops: 582 / 1.746.000
Support troops: 192 / 192.000

Total fighting troops: 774 / 1.938.000

Headquarters: 56 / 56.000

Total Army Personnel: 830 / 1.994.000

Officers: 72.124 + / 82.990 needed / 86,907 %
Active Leaders: 233 / 114 more available
Another Infx3, Art, AT Division has started training, this one will also join XXXI SK in Riga.

Army Leadership:

New Maj. General Feklenko SK2 has taken command of 80. SD, XXXI SK, 2nd Army Group, STAVKA

Air Force:

No changes in the VVS, nor in the Navy Air Fleet for the last 10 days.

Navy:

No changes in the Navy for the last 10 days

Politics / International:

No legislative changes for the last 10 days.
The Norwegian Front

Norway (Surrender Progress / NU): 0,00 / 85,2
Germany (Surrender Progress / NU): 0,0 / 86,2

Now the Norwegians have shifted their attention north, the have retaken Tyin and Gol , bringing the front slightly closer to Bergen. No changes in the south, no visible initiative from the Germans.

The French Front

France (Surrender Progress / NU): 60,30 / 48,4 Besancon back in French hands. Loss of Le Havre, Rouen, Dieppe, and Nice.
Germany (Surrender Progress / NU): 0,0 / 86,2
Italy (Surrender Progress / NU): 0,0 / 79,6

The French have retaken Besancon, what is left of the Maginot line is still cut off however.
The Wehrmacht has progressed mostly along the Channel coast, they have taken Dieppe, Le Havre, and Rouen, in quick succession have reached the outskirts of Caen.
In this coastal push, they have also taken Vernon, directly North-West of Paris as well as Melun South-East of the capital. The Germans now have 4 axis of attack into the capital, while the French have only two ways to retreat left, they are enveloped.
Surprise! The Italians have taken Nice.

British North Africa Front

United Kingdom (Surrender Progress / NU): 0,0 / 77,8
Italy (Surrender Progress / NU): 0,0 / 79,6

The British counter-offensive went even better than expected, they have already crossed into Libia, and have taken Bardia and Ridotta Capuzzo, meaning they have reached Tobruk from both the East and the South, let's hope they can take the fortified Port city, that would be a significant blow to the Italians in Northern Africa.

French North Africa Front

France (Surrender Progress / NU): 60,30 / 48,4
Italy (Surrender Progress / NU): 0,0 / 79,6

The Italians have entirely stopped advancing here, probably to send the troops to defend Tobruk from the British.

East Africa & Ethiopia Front

Ethiopia (Surrender Progress / NU): 0,00 / 75,8
France (Surrender Progress / NU): 60,30 / 48,4
United Kingdom (Surrender Progress / NU): 0,0 / 77,8
Italy (Surrender Progress / NU): 0,0 / 79,6

The French have taken Dessye from Ethiopia, while the Italians have taken all of British Somalia / Somaliland.

Industry:

The latest fortifications in Moskva have been delivered, they include underground ammunition storage space, and heavy Artillery Bunkers.(Level 6)
Now, fortifications in Leningrad will be improved with the addition of a large command bunker and underground tunnels linking the main fortifications.(Level 4)
The planned concrete trenches (Level 2) in Chalopienicy have been completed.
Now Machine Gun Bunkers (Level 1) will be built in Maloryta, on the Polish border, just south of Brzesc-Litewski. This could help by stopping an initial breakthrough in the South spill over into the North and vice versa, and should slow down the possible encirclement of Brzesc-Litewski.
Working Industrial Capacity / available capacity: 236 / 318
IC Usage: ( Allocated IC / Need )

Upgrades: 42,90 / 61,32
Reinforcement: 1,20 / 1,26
Supplies: 8,00 / 35,32
Production: 237,28 / 237,28
Consumer Goods: 28,62 / 28,62

Stockpiles:

Energy: Maximum tonnes =
Metal: 85.301 tonnes +
Rares: 30.045 tonnes +
Crude: 98.400 barrels +
Supplies: 28.181 tonnes -
Fuel: 99.683 barrels -
Money: 1.964 -

Intelligence:

Spy numbers, spies in (active / added / lost / caught by us)
France (Covert Operations / Counterespionage): 7 / 0 / 1 / 0

{ Germany (/): 0 / 0 / 0 / 1 }
{ Japan (/): 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 }
{ UK (/): 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 }

Other: 0 / 0 / 0 / 1

Total: 7 / 0 / 1 / 2

Reserves: 8
Spy training leadership expenditure: 0,19
Australian Spy hunters caught another one of our spies in France.
We have so far recruited 10 like-minded Covert Operatives in our French sleeper cell...

Research:

No completed projects, no new Research for the last 10 days
No changes to LS Distribution

Statistics:

National Unity: 82,953 (+0,01)
Neutrality: 0,00 =
Dissent: 0,00 =
Manpower:

Available: 1.990.000 Men
To reinforce(need): 3.250 Men
To mobilise(need): See above
Monthly gain: 48.200 Men (1 fully mobilised Infx3, AT Division every 7 days)

No changes in Party Popularity
Party Organisation:

- Communist Party: 69,62 (+0,4)
- Trotskyite: 11,30 =
- Bukharinite: 6,40 =

- Octobrist: 6,90 =
- Trudoviks: 3,70 =
- Social-Revolutionary: 0,00 =
- Kadets: 0,00 =

- Tsarists: 0,80 =
- NTS: 1,20 =
- POA: 0,00 =

This Information is accurate on the morning of the 27th of August 1940, I hope it serves you well in fine-tuning your possible suggestions.

'Odin'

roverS3 · Sep 5, 2017

The 1st of September 1940, Kerch Coastal Fortifications, 9. Garnizon Diviziya HQ, 4,3°C, 9am Moscow Time,

I had gone down to Kerch, on the West Coast of the Kerch Strait. Officially as an NKVD officer to make sure the new recruits of 9. Garnizon Diviziya have the right political convictions. 'Devyat' ' was also there, posing as my assistant, he was actually there to asses the Fortification of the Strait as he was our agent in the department responsible for all types of Military and Infrastructure Construction: Infrastructure, Fortifications, Air Bases, Naval Bases... . Analysts and planners in Vologda had been asking for an unbiased assessment of the Fortifications there, as they has a feeling the official information was grossly overstating the scale and effectiveness of what was present. The results were disappointing to say the least:

The oldest part, the fortress of Eni Kale was built by the Ottoman empire in 1699-1706. It's pretty, but entirely useless against anything but small arms fire...

The best parts were from 1857, and even those were on the wrong side of the Strait, they would be somewhat effective against a naval invasion, but against an attack overland they would be entirely useless as they have been oriented entirely towards the Sea.

Officers of 9. Garnizon Diviziya had just finished installing a telephone line in the room of the 1857 Fortress they had selected as headquarters, when the telephone rang. The number had not even been included in any government telephone books or written down by any telephone operator, but somehow, as always, 'Tri' had found a way to get to me...

"The Bulgarians seem to be quite full of themselves, as well as being quite close to the Axis. Taking a leaf from the Axis playbook, they demanded the Area known as 'Dobrogea' from their larger neighbour Romania. Amazingly, the Romanians decided that they couldn't afford to waste their Army on a war with Bulgaria, having a border with both the Soviet Union and the Axis... They reluctantly gave the three provinces to their annoying neighbour...
Now... what does this mean for us? ... The Soviet Union has some claim to the land north east of the Prout river, and north of the Donau Delta, this area is also known as 'Bessarabia'... Many in the diplomatic service now believe we could easily take Bessarabia without firing a shot, just by demanding it... There is however a problem here... right now Romania is on the fence between the Allies and the Axis. Taking Bessarabia from them would probably result in them attacking us in retribution, possibly with Axis support, as soon as there is a reasonable chance of success, so when we can least face it...
With this Bulgarian land grab, their relations with their neighbour have significantly soured, and as Bulgaria is close to the Axis, there is a good chance that the Romanians will keep out of an Axis-Comintern war, or even Join in to retake 'Dobrogea'... All that would go out of the window if we claimed that resource-less strip of land along the border... My opinion, and that of our analysts in the Committee, is that it's not worth it,... so tell our Comrade Secretary General that taking over Bessarabia would give us only a very marginal short term gain for a possibly catastrophic stab in the underbelly when the Germans Attack... Tell him that if the Romanians don't join the Comintern, we can still Annex the entire country once we have dealt with the Axis... Taking the entire country now would lengthen our front with the Axis enormously, so that would also be pretty counterproductive... Right now, we have to limit the amount of potential enemies we create...And maybe some of our neighbours can be thorns in the Axis side, instead of ours..."

As always, 'Tri' has a lot of interesting things to say, this should indeed prove helpful to our Comrade Secretary General,

A map with the new border, Bulgaria has gained Dulovo, Dobrich, and Cavarna, none of them of any strategic value... This might prove the mistake that ultimately sinks the German prospects in the East...Especially as Romania is swimming in oil, and the more hostile to the Axis they get, the less Oil they will sell to them...

As for our fortifications, 'Devyat' ' is talking about building some modern Coastal fortifications in Anapa, East of the Kerch strait to contain any conquest of the Crimea to the peninsula itself, and thus protect our crucial Oil supply in the Caucasus. Work on this is not a very high priority, so it might take some time before anything significant gets built here, but if the Germans were to get close to the Crimea, the priority level will surely be increased.
In addition he made the suggestion of building an Air Base in Novorossijsk in order to provide Air cover, but as Air bases are built a lot faster than Fortifications I'm sure that's even further away... And we will have our carriers to provide Air cover if the Base isn't finished or even built in time.

I'm going to go and visit some more of these old fortresses now and then enjoy a nice black sea beach before going back to Vologda,

Greetings,

'Odin'

roverS3 · Sep 6, 2017

The 5th of September 1940, Moskva train station, 2,8°C, 4pm Moscow time,

After having spent a few days enjoying the Black sea breeze and the view of our new Destroyers in and around Sevastopol, I returned to Vologda, by train, and all trains lead inevitably to or through Moscow.

I had only just set foot on the platform, still dressed as a ranking NKVD official, when a uniformed NKVD officer motioned me to the station's NKVD office, it seems someone high up in the GRU wanted to talk to me, and he was there in person...

'Shest' ' was sitting at the table, he had no trouble moving around as he was known under many different aliases as someone vaguely important within the GRU, or the KGB, or was it the NKVD... The point was that he knew about everything of importance in the intelligence community before anyone else did, so much for compartmentalised information, and anyway, the Committee has a need to know...

"I have just received news that an NKVD asset in Mexico City has clumsily, but successfully, assassinated Leon Trotsky. It seems he was hit in the head with an ice axe, but only died from his wounds a day later. I'm sure Comrade Stalin will be happy to hear the news. Even though Trotsky was instrumental in the success of the Revolution, he later strayed from the Party line. I have assembled some writings and images, many of them illegal in the Soviet Union to remind us all of who the man was,

Comrade Stalin himself wrote this in his book "The October Revolution" in 1934, this has of course been redacted since :

"All practical work in connection with the organisation of the uprising was done under the immediate direction of Comrade Trotsky, the President of the Petrograd Soviet. It can be stated with certainty that the Party is indebted primarily and principally to Comrade Trotsky for the rapid going over of the garrison to the side of the Soviet and the efficient manner in which the work of the Military Revolutionary Committee was organised."

Leon Trotsky addressing the Red Army in 1917.

In 1930 Trotsky wrote this about attacks on his leadership of the Red Army in 1919:

"It is no wonder that my military work created so many enemies for me. I did not look to the side, I elbowed away those who interfered with military success, or in the haste of the work trod on the toes of the unheeding and was too busy even to apologise. Some people remember such things. The dissatisfied and those whose feelings had been hurt found their way to Stalin or Zinoviev, for these two also nourished hurts."

From this quote from comrade Lenin, we learn some of the reason for his extraordinary military success:

"When Comrade Trotsky informed me recently that the number of officers of the old army employed by our War Department runs into several tens of thousands, I perceived concretely where the secret of using our enemy lay, how to compel those who had opposed communism to build it, how to build communism with the bricks which the capitalists had chosen to hurl against us! We have no other bricks! And so, we must compel the bourgeois experts, under the leadership of the proletariat, to build up our edifice with these bricks. This is what is difficult; but this is the pledge of victory."

Trotsky did try to find reconciliation with the Party, but do I also detect some sarcasm in this speech from the 1924 13th Party Congress:

"None of us desires or is able to dispute the will of the Party. Clearly, the Party is always right... We can only be right with and by the Party, for history has provided no other way of being in the right. The English have a saying, "My country, right or wrong", whether it is in the right or in the wrong, it is my country. We have much better historical justification in saying whether it is right or wrong in certain individual concrete cases, it is my party... And if the Party adopts a decision which one or other of us thinks unjust, he will say, just or unjust, it is my party, and I shall support the consequences of the decision to the end."

Leon Trotsky during a speech in Copenhagen in 1932 called "In Defence of October". He was possibly still redeemable to the Communist cause at this point.

Comrade Lenin wanted to keep him around despite some dissenting views, in July 1922, when hearing about the Central Committee's intentions to throw out Trotsky, he said:

"Throwing Trotsky overboard – surely you are hinting at that, it is impossible to interpret it otherwise – is the height of stupidity. If you do not consider me already hopelessly foolish, how can you think of that????"

As you can see, he was bound to get thrown out, being a free thinker, and not agreeing with Stalin's way of doing things. We considered trying to get him to join the Secret Committee, but he was too far gone to even want to help from the Shadows, a regime that he now..."

'Shest' ' was then interrupted by the ringing of the top secret telephone on his desk, surprised by this unexpected call he picked up the telephone, looked a bit distraught, then handed me the telephone. It was of course 'Tri':

"This won't be long... I have good news and bad news... The bad news is that Bulgaria has joined the Axis, it seems their pulling a Munich agreement on Romania pulled them even closer to the Germans... The good news is that we have now border with Bulgaria, and that their navy is probably laughable. And wait, there is more good news, as they just took territory the Romanians consider rightfully theirs, the Romanians are now drifting away from any diplomatic ties to the Axis because of this. Unless we do something stupid now, Romania is more hostile to the Axis than to us, and that's really good news... The only real downside is that Turkey is now very slightly more interested in Joining the Axis, due to it's proximity to Bulgaria. For now this isn't problematic yet though. That's all, tell 'Shest' ' hi, all the best, and that his phone line is not as secret as he would like it to be and he can come to me for suggestions..."

'Shest' ' finished his thought from before the call:

"Despised... A regime that he now despised is what I wanted to say."
"How does he do that? Always know where you are and how to reach you, even I don't know where you are all the time..."

"Don't look at me, I don't know how he does it either." I replied

'Shest' ' showed me a last photograph:

Leon Trotsky at his desk in 1938, surely ready to slander Stalin's Communist party some more... He was gone at this point and Stalin ordered increased efforts to assassinate him...

And that about wrapped things up, I just managed to get on the 5:30pm to Vologda, now dressed like a lumberjack who was going home after visiting his family in Moskva.

I should get to the Base in time to send out the next Report on schedule,

Greetings,

'Odin'

roverS3 · Sep 6, 2017

The 6th of September 1940, Vologda, 2,0°C, 10am Moscow Time,

Report on the state of the Soviet Union for the ten day period between the 27th of August and the 6th of September 1940,

by 'Odin'

Army:

A new Garx2 Division has finished training. 9. Strelkovaya Diviziya will be guarding the province of Kerch.
Army numbers (Brigades/Personnel) Reserves included (these numbers don't include regiments being upgraded):

Front line troops: 584 / 1.752.000
Support troops: 192 / 192.000

Total fighting troops: 776 / 1.944.000

Headquarters: 56 / 56.000

Total Army Personnel: 832 / 2.000.000

Officers: 72.624 + / 83.050 needed / 87,446 %
Active Leaders: 234 / 113 more available
Another Garx2 Division has started training, this one will be guarding Novossijsk, also on the Black Sea Coast.

Army Leadership:

Maj. General Malinovsk SK1, DD was happy to be pulled out of retirement to take command of 9. GarD in Kerch.

Air Force:

No changes in the VVS, nor in the Navy Air Fleet for the last 10 days.

Navy:

No changes in the Navy for the last 10 days

Politics / International:

Leon Trotsky was Assassinated
Bulgaria claimed "Dobrogea" from Romania
Bulgaria joined the Axis
The Norwegian Front

Norway (Surrender Progress / NU): 0,00 / 85,2
Germany (Surrender Progress / NU): 0,0 / 86,1

The Front in Norway has not moved an inch for 10 days...

The French Front

France (Surrender Progress / NU): 69,70 / 48,2 Loss of Caen, Colmar, and Mulhouse.
Germany (Surrender Progress / NU): 0,0 / 86,1
Italy (Surrender Progress / NU): 5,90 / 79,5

The Maginot line is no more, it has been entirely overrun by the Wehrmacht.
Along the coast, the Germans took Caen, they have been moving south from there and have reached the outskirts of Blois.
To the South of Paris, Etampes has been lost to the Hun, and Germans are now standing at the gates of Orléans. The french capital is connected to the rest of the country by the province of Versailles alone.
The Italians haven't moved beyond Nice, but the French managed to take Aosta from the Italians with it's beautiful Alpine valley, so maybe their soldiers can enjoy the scenery before their inevitable surrender...

British North Africa Front

United Kingdom (Surrender Progress / NU): 0,0 / 77,8
Italy (Surrender Progress / NU): 5,90 / 79,5 Loss of Tobruch.

The British have captured Tobruch, they haven't managed to advance beyond the Port city, not yet anyway.

French North Africa Front

France (Surrender Progress / NU): 69,70 / 48,2
Italy (Surrender Progress / NU): 5,90 / 79,5

Still no movement here.

East Africa & Ethiopia Front

Ethiopia (Surrender Progress / NU): 0,00 / 75,8
France (Surrender Progress / NU): 69,70 / 48,2
United Kingdom (Surrender Progress / NU): 0,0 / 77,8
Italy (Surrender Progress / NU): 5,90 / 79,5

Two more meaningless Ethiopian provinces, Dangila, and Debra Markos have been taken by the Allies. The Italians have now taken French Djibouti, if they manage to take Obock, they will probably cut off supply for the French troops in Ethiopia, not that any of this matters one bit.

Industry:

Working Industrial Capacity / available capacity: 236 / 318
IC Usage: ( Allocated IC / Need )

Upgrades: 42,39 / 55,91
Reinforcement: 1,10 / 1,20
Supplies: 8,67 / 36,25
Production: 237,23 / 237,23
Consumer Goods: 28,62 / 28,62

Stockpiles:

Energy: Maximum tonnes =
Metal: 85.677 tonnes +
Rares: 30.049 tonnes +
Crude: 99.505 barrels +
Supplies: 28.099 tonnes -
Fuel: 99.534 barrels -
Money: 1.965 +

Intelligence:

Spy numbers, spies in (active / added / lost / caught by us)

France (Covert Operations / Counterespionage): 6 / 0 / 1 / 0

{ Germany (/): 0 / 0 / 0 / 1 }
{ Japan (/): 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 }
{ UK (/): 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 }

Other: 0 / 0 / 0 / 2
Total: 7 / 0 / 1 / 3
Reserves: 9
Spy training leadership expenditure: 0,19
Canadian Spy hunters caught another one of our spies in France.
We have so far recruited 10 like-minded Covert Operatives in our French sleeper cell.

Research:

Our Military Theorists have finished their new handbook on the use and execution Mass Assault (Level 4) tactics, this should improve morale in our Rifle Divisions.
Now, they are looking into improving Integrated Support (Level 4) for our special forces.
No changes to LS Distribution

Statistics:

National Unity: 82,963 (+0,01)
Neutrality: 0,00 =
Dissent: 0,00 =
Manpower:

Available: 1.999.000 Men
To reinforce(need): 2.230 Men
To mobilise(need): See above
Monthly gain: 48.200 Men (1 fully mobilised Infx3, AT Division every 7 days)

Party Popularity:

- Communist Party: 52 (-6)
- Trotskyite: 5 (+4)
- Bukharinite: 6 (-1)

- Octobrist: 0 (-4)
- Social-Revolutionary: 8 =
- Trudoviks: 5 (+3)
- Kadets: 10 =

- Tsarists: 0 (-1)
- NTS: 0 =
- POA: 13 (+2)
The Communist Party has lost a good chunk of popularity, but that is partially redeemed by the popular revival of the Trotskyites within the government, did people become sentimental at the news of Trotsky's demise? In the centre, support for the Octobrists has evaporated into support for the Trudoviks. And finally on the right, the Germans spies seem to really know what they are doing, the only party that is left here, with 13% popularity and claiming 2 cabinet positions, is the National-Socialist party, all this without any organisation to speak of... (see below)

Party Organisation:

- Communist Party: 70,12 (+0,5)
- Trotskyite: 11,20 (-0,1)
- Bukharinite: 6,30 (-0,1)

- Octobrist: 6,80 (-0,1)
- Trudoviks: 3,60 (-0,1)
- Social-Revolutionary: 0,00 =
- Kadets: 0,00 =

- Tsarists: 0,70 (-0,1)
- NTS: 1,10 (-0,1)
- POA: 0,00 =

This Information is accurate on the morning of the 6th of September 1940, I hope it serves you well in fine-tuning your possible suggestions.

'Odin'

roverS3 · Sep 7, 2017

The 10th of September 1940, Lwow, 4,6°C, 8pm Moscow Time

Dear Afanasy Fyodorovich, dear brother,

I write to you again so quickly as I have made a frightening discovery,

Let me start from the beginning,

Yesterday Lt. General Popov M.M.'s XXIX GvSK finished setting up in Lwow. So today we made a small field trip to the border, more precisely to Sanok, 74km away. This location was chosen because it allowed to observe German troops in both Debica, and Gorlice.

The trip was a real General's party, we started off from Lwow in three cars, the Commanders on board were Lt. Generals Popov M.M. and Fomenko P.I. (XI SK). as well as all Maj. Generals of XXIX GvSK: Zhadov (1 GvSD), Rotmistrov (72 GvSD), Barinov (76 GvSD), Badanov (77 GvSD) and myself.

In Sanok, we were received by Maj. General Krutikov in his 42 SD HQ for an early lunch. After lunch things really became interesting, when our little General's club went Tank-spotting in forward positions along the Eastern bank of the San river. First, we looked into Debica, where some medium tanks had been spotted earlier. Here there were no surprises, and the open plains allowed for a clear view of several Pzkpfw III's, we know these tanks from the units Military Intelligence photographed in Poland. Although it seems the current model has a little bit of extra armour on the turret.

German Pzkpfw III's practicing manoeuvres in the plains of Debica, photographed by one of our scouts.

That was all pretty much as expected, but after several hours of staring into dense forests of Gorlice, we saw something entirely different and frightening.

This huge beast was spotted in the forests of Gorlice across the river, this is the latest and best picture we have.

Estimates of this unknown German tank's dimensions were 7.4m long by 3.8m wide, or about 60cm wider and 50cm longer than our KV-1's. The armour must be a lot thicker than that on our KV-1's, especially on the turret, it is also sloped, which proves that the Germans have also understood the advantages of sloped armour. The only advantage our KV-1's have is their calibre, with 122mm vs the estimated 88mm of the gun in the picture we have an advantage there, but the long barrel does indicate that they must have a longer effective firing range. Let's hope they don't have too many of these, because this is beyond even our most advanced Heavy Tank prototype. But another thought came from Lt. General Popov M.M., he reckoned that these beasts must be very expensive to build, and must have soaked up enormous amounts of investment in Research. He suggested that producing one of these would cost at least twice as much as producing a Pzkpfw III does, and he preferred to face less but bigger tanks, as long as they had a way of knocking them out. Not having any information about German production numbers or even the amount of Regiments equipped with these. All we know is that none of these have been seen in France.

A secret report by the GRU made available for consultation only to Lt. Generals and above as well as Maj. Generals of Armoured and Guards units on the Western Front counts 7 Divisions equipped with various heavier versions of the Pzkpfw III, as well as 2 Divisions with lighter, faster versions. 7 Motorised Divisions were also counted in France. This ads up to quite a lot less tanks than we have. A total of 8 Medium Tank Divisions, 1 Heavy Tank Division, 2 Light Tank Divisions and 8 Motorised Divisions (of which 1 with SS insignia) have been spotted on both fronts, while we have 10 Medium Tank Divisions, 1 Heavy Tank Division, 10 Light Tank Divisions and 11 Motorised Divisions. But the Germans may of course have reserves behind the front.

We are not supposed to communicate this discovery with anyone who wasn't cleared for the GRU report from France. Officially, our tanks are superior in every single way as to keep our men motivated and ready to defend the Motherland with everything they've got...

Well, now you know, don't be surprised if you see one of those mammoths roll your way once the fighting starts...

I'm still waiting to hear from you, where are you posted exactly? Last I know of was that you were posted on the Turkish border a couple of months ago. I heard my messenger found you in Semipalatinsk, near Mongolia, but he didn't know where you were headed, having only managed to find a notice of 'Training exercises' to avoid alarming the population by the presence of 52.000 Mountaineers.

I eagerly await news from you,

Nikolaj Fjodorovich Vatutin
Maj. General, commander of 3. Tyazhelaya Tankovaya Gvardeskaya Diviziya and your dear brother.

This is surely interesting to the Secret Committee, and I'm sure some of you will have something to say about this huge beast's discovery.

I tagged to Germany for 5 seconds while zoomed in on the 2 relevant provinces and only looked at the picture of the tank in the Armour Brigade for each Division, I have not seen, nor wanted to see anything else. It seems incoherent that there is now way to have an idea of what kind of tanks are posted just across the border from our units. Not details, the general type of tank... I mean, they can see that there are tanks there, so they can see the general shape of the vehicles... (even turning on the sprites didn't show the actual type of tank, German Medium tanks look like Panthers and Heavy Tanks look like Tiger I's) This is just a bit annoying for storytelling, as you want to show pictures of your opponent's tanks spotted in the field... Otherwise it's a minor inconvenience of little actual consequence.

roverS3 · Sep 8, 2017

The 15th of September 1940, Kaunas, 4,2°C, 10am Moscow Time

I had been in Kaunas for a few days now, doing the rounds of our newest Machine Gun Bunkers wile they mount the Machine-Guns, as well as admiring the quite recently expanded Air Base.

A picture of one of the new bunkers, in the forests near Kaunas (Picture of an actual ww2 Soviet Bunker in Palanga, Lithuania)

When, coming back from my morning walk past the new bunkers, I walked past 3ya Armiya HQ, I was called inside by a clerk. It seems 'Tri' had called the HQ exactly 10 seconds before I walked past, so that the clerk just had the time to run outside and call me in for the call, he never ceases to amaze me...

"I think this was long expected, but the time has finally come, Paris has fallen, and France with it. Well it was more drawn out than expected... the Capital had been encircled for three days before the defence collapsed, this might not seem like much, but the garrison consisted of three binary Garrison units with Military Police Detachments.... Now that the French have become a Government in Exile, their Armies on the continent have been disbanded, and it has become apparent just how little support they actually received from the United Kingdom. The only Allied unit left in France is a single Royal Marines Division, which is, for obscure reasons, the only unit within a full Belgian chain of command. This is, to say the least, bizarre, as the Belgian Army has been disbanded a while ago, and it seems the Belgians set up this entire string of HQ's, just for this expeditionary Division. There are also some Dutch HQ's left as well. It seems the Germans are annexing France outright, while giving just Nice to the Italians. The entire Diplomatic service is now on the edge of their seats, awaiting where Germany will concentrate it's attention now, bets have been placed and questions have been raised. North Africa? Wrapping up Norway? Taking a stab at the UK? The Balkans? Or maybe straight for Moscow? The truth is, only the Germans know for sure, all we can do is bet and speculate... I've sent some maps to 3ya Armiya HQ, you should be getting them within the hour. The Armistice was signed at midnight, so I sent them ahead... Always nice to hear your voice... until next time"

France on the morning of the 13th of September, Paris has already been encircled for about a day at this point.

French front lines at the time the Armistice and unconditional surrender was signed. By that time the Germans had taken Besancon again, as well as Orléans for the first time.

France after German annexation. The 2 province Belgian pocket around Blois contains the Royal Marines Division, while the others only contain HQ's. So, to sum up British losses... 1 Royal Marines Division in the Netherlands, and 1 Royal Marines Division in France.

The European Axis
Germany has about tripled in size since the start of the war...
Note the uprising in Albania, still not dealt with by the Italians.
We also see Romania's uncomfortable position between Hungary and Bulgaria. If Yugoslavia is incorporated into the axis in some way, they may really be in trouble if they ever have a war with the Axis...

Well, it's the moment we've all been dreading, and waiting for, the fall of France.

I have a flight to catch back to Moskva. I'm playing steward again...this time to some high ranking commissar.

I should be back in time to send out my usual report tomorrow,

Greetings,

'Odin'