Our Finest Moment
1/1/1936, 10 Downing Street. Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin gives the order for some wholesale changes. The Empire is large but not in the best of shape. Change is needed and change there will be. The Empire must be preserved.
The situation in Europe doesn't bode well for the future. An ever increasing belligerent Hitler getting firmer and firmer in control of Germany, the Soviet Union under Stalin and the fear of the spread of the Revolution, a Japan seeking an Asian empire and a hoist of autoritarian and fascist states like Italy which has recently teamed up with Germany. As a response we set up our own allaince with ourselves, the nations of the Commonwealth and France, which also was become ever more worried.
Our liberal conservatvie cabinet consisting of people like Eden and Chamberlain is competent on average, just like the leaders of our military but it could be better. Still, some very bright spots here and there which bodes well for the future.
The military forces need an overhaul. First of all the air force. In case of war we want to occupy a defensively very sound position and therefor we need an RAF that is capable of beating up and aerial attack. For that lots of work still is needed. Anti air batteries, radar installation and lots of R&D went towards a new fighter type, the Spitfire, basic short range interceptors, which should provide us air superiority. The strategic bomber program was aborted and the Chief of Air was replaced accordingly.
The Royal Navy then. Cause for optimism here. We still put the largest fleet in the world to water. But it looked to be somewhat disorderly. We had all sorts of ships but nothing that looked very organised. We had carriers but no carrier oriented fleet, we had subs, battleships all thrown together. A definitive doctrinal choice was needed and was made. We opted for a decisive battle doctrine that depended largely on battleships, with cruisers in support. We had a wide range of 150mm battleships and looked into expanding that corps.
The carriers were kept around but started playing 3rd fiddle. The submarine program was terminated completely. Another area to take care of was the transportation of goods and supplies around the empire. Our merchant marine received a corps of destroyers to accompany them.
Then there was the Army. Our weakest part. Quite a bit of infantry but that was about it. Quite defensive attitude with some efforts being made towards getting heavy artillery. Armour development, no resources for it after spending them just about all to the air force and navy. Rocket technology? Nuclear technology? Hah! Yeah right.
Needless to say, the navy sucked up the main part of the resources allocated to the military. We had the world's largest fleet, now let's keep it that way. It's obvious a naval strategy is the way to go for an island nation.
Talking about resources, we had quite a bit of them in our empire and quite a bit of industry back home in good ole England. Oil from the Middle East and rubber from the Far East. Trouble is getting it to the homelands. We could still use more industrial capacity. Work was being made of that as efforts were being made in Scotland, around the Suez Canal, in Singapore around the Malaccan Strait and esp in India. The Jewel in the Crown of the Empire was about to carry its load in that area.
Troops were deployed near the Suez Canal, Singapore, Hong Kong, Gibraltar as garrison with the main bulk of the forces being in South England and Bombay.
1/1/1936, 10 Downing Street. Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin gives the order for some wholesale changes. The Empire is large but not in the best of shape. Change is needed and change there will be. The Empire must be preserved.
The situation in Europe doesn't bode well for the future. An ever increasing belligerent Hitler getting firmer and firmer in control of Germany, the Soviet Union under Stalin and the fear of the spread of the Revolution, a Japan seeking an Asian empire and a hoist of autoritarian and fascist states like Italy which has recently teamed up with Germany. As a response we set up our own allaince with ourselves, the nations of the Commonwealth and France, which also was become ever more worried.
Our liberal conservatvie cabinet consisting of people like Eden and Chamberlain is competent on average, just like the leaders of our military but it could be better. Still, some very bright spots here and there which bodes well for the future.
The military forces need an overhaul. First of all the air force. In case of war we want to occupy a defensively very sound position and therefor we need an RAF that is capable of beating up and aerial attack. For that lots of work still is needed. Anti air batteries, radar installation and lots of R&D went towards a new fighter type, the Spitfire, basic short range interceptors, which should provide us air superiority. The strategic bomber program was aborted and the Chief of Air was replaced accordingly.
The Royal Navy then. Cause for optimism here. We still put the largest fleet in the world to water. But it looked to be somewhat disorderly. We had all sorts of ships but nothing that looked very organised. We had carriers but no carrier oriented fleet, we had subs, battleships all thrown together. A definitive doctrinal choice was needed and was made. We opted for a decisive battle doctrine that depended largely on battleships, with cruisers in support. We had a wide range of 150mm battleships and looked into expanding that corps.
The carriers were kept around but started playing 3rd fiddle. The submarine program was terminated completely. Another area to take care of was the transportation of goods and supplies around the empire. Our merchant marine received a corps of destroyers to accompany them.
Then there was the Army. Our weakest part. Quite a bit of infantry but that was about it. Quite defensive attitude with some efforts being made towards getting heavy artillery. Armour development, no resources for it after spending them just about all to the air force and navy. Rocket technology? Nuclear technology? Hah! Yeah right.
Needless to say, the navy sucked up the main part of the resources allocated to the military. We had the world's largest fleet, now let's keep it that way. It's obvious a naval strategy is the way to go for an island nation.
Talking about resources, we had quite a bit of them in our empire and quite a bit of industry back home in good ole England. Oil from the Middle East and rubber from the Far East. Trouble is getting it to the homelands. We could still use more industrial capacity. Work was being made of that as efforts were being made in Scotland, around the Suez Canal, in Singapore around the Malaccan Strait and esp in India. The Jewel in the Crown of the Empire was about to carry its load in that area.
Troops were deployed near the Suez Canal, Singapore, Hong Kong, Gibraltar as garrison with the main bulk of the forces being in South England and Bombay.
As I seem to always say in AARs, good luck BiB.
