I am honoured to be mentioned! Sorry if I spammed your notification bar. When I first read this I was far too shy to comment even though I was blown away by the humour, history and excellent writing (I first heard about while I was reading Inevitable Defeat, an AAR which actually made me fall off my chair with laughter) I actually only found the alternate history forums while scrabbling around trying to find something on your level. My second reread a couple of years back was scuppered by trying to scroll around to read all your question and answer sections (My first big reread I got to the end too early at the “Guns of Spanish Summer” and was left grasping for more!)Not even close, but at least things have stopped going backwards. That was a worrying trend for a while.
That's a bit harsh. In four years I've managed 22 whole chapters, easily covering a couple of months of game time.
It absolutely is, a work that bears regular re-reading to fully appreciate the many threads and subtle depths.
Such ill-advised optimism! Good luck on the re-read, look forward to seeing you when caught up.
In other news, welcome and appreciation to @Chomp87 currently liking their way through the work according to my notifications. It is deeply heartening to see that people are still finding and reading their way through this, please feel free to comment or question on even deeply ancient chapters as it will be much appreciated and answered in excessive detail if required.
After seeing your comment I realised I might be doing you a disservice lurking and keeping my thoughts to myself, so I started reading again from scratch and noting down any questions or thoughts I had. Feel free to answer any amount of my comments or none, please don’t take any as criticisms of the AAR or you or your past self, because I love this AAR from Argentine Beef exports though to Tractors and Latvian Floatplanes.
Chapter 2 Who calls the vote of no confidence?
Chapter 3 Does TTL Gejaz Fritz have an opinion on Martin H. Kennelly?
Chapter 5 Good to see Leslie Hore-Belisha, hopefully he’ll have a less ignominious end than the Pillbox affair this time around
I quite like the screenshot from an AAR perspective- grounds things a little, shows off your modding work and is an interesting artifact for the people who have not played HoI2
Chapter 6 After reading Alanbrookes diaries (...I was revolted by his monkey like hands reaching into the icebowl… an evil genius…) I am unable to look at a picture of Beaverbrook without noting that his hands are indeed very hairy. It will be an interesting time for whichever PM will have the poisoned chalice of having to pry his empire away from him. At least he (hopefully!) can’t build a private army this time!
Chapter 7 To be fair the French were active in the seaplane carrier front in the form of Commandant Teste which may actually be more capable than Béarn, speaking of actually did Giuseppe Miraglia (the Italian seaplane carrier) survive the Abyssinia crisis? I have a bit of a soft spot for seaplane carriers.
I think the UK arguing that the counting of fresh water (for boilers) in treaty tonnage calculations was prejudiced against them and getting it exempted from the treaty calculation, then immediately happening to have on hand a plan to use water as anti-torpedo defence on the King George V’s to be a bit sneaky, not to mention the Country Class one weakness being thin armour and the RN happening to have some armour plates on hand which conveniently fit perfectly on them without much trouble.
Very edifying chapter indeed! Hope (but do not expect) that army air cooperation will get some love
Chapter 8. A frankly rather large amount of naval planning seems to involve the cooperation of the enemy. German planning in 1914 seems to have been based on the RN trying to sail straight down the Elbe or Jade and the RN presumed that Germany would try a fair fight in the open sea. Speaking of crazy naval plans, I wonder if the Gibbs and Cox Hybrid Soviet Battlecarrier sale could go ahead ttl actually talking of there is a good chance without the Anglo-German naval pact and the London treaty that the Jean Ecole faction in Russia will be accepted, and if Soviet-Italian naval cooperation is scuttled that means any Russian ships will look very different. Maybe the Project 21 Nelson knock off will have its chance?
Chapter 9 That the good doctor also decided to give the inside scoop to his favourite newspaper before offing the king is another black mark imo
Chapter 10: It is really strange to me that both Germany and Italy started the war without torpedo bombers, you’d really think it would be a priority with the RN stomping around. I don’t think the Soviets had any torpedo bombers either
Chapter 12: The SS Dino is the loony action in the AAR- what did Italy hope to achieve? It’s not like they could control the canal lock gates or anything- maybe the Italians thought they’d get the backing of Egyptian army officers or officials like they thought they would in Greece or got in Albania otl? Maybe the original plan was to start a riot or mutiny in Port Said and have the Bersaglieri “happen to be transiting” and be on hand to “restore order”. Perhaps the terms of the Anglo-Egyptian treaty got leaked showing that the Egyptian army would outnumber the British troops away from the canal and the proposed withdrawal of British inspectors would allowed the Italians to delude themselves into thinking they could win via intrigue with Egyptian officers?
No doubt the Cement Incident in ‘35 would be looked at in a different light with all this going on, and that many of the troublemakers in Palestine were coming from French Syria. I wonder if the British will find out that the Italians are funding the Mufti of Jerusalem?
Chapter 14: With all this air spotting do we end up seeing a catapult floatplane battle? It’d be interesting to hear the result of an action between the RN’s tough and large Walrus against the RM’s lighter and more manoeuvrable Ro.43
Chapter 15: You can tell we have reached the end of the Redux chapters, poor Gloster Gladiators called obsolete a year before they’d even come into service! I wonder if the RAF was considerate enough to rush some Gloster Gauntlets or Hawker Fury’s down to Egypt in time, although knowing the RAF it is unlikely, they would probably argue that they are the only thing stopping an enterprising Italian floatplane squadron from winning the war by destroying London or something. I think the only thing saving the RAF is that the CR series and the Ro.41 are too short legged, and the Italian fighter floatplanes which can be matched by a Bristol Bulldog or Hawker Demon will not have a base on Egypt open coastline without exposing themselves to a passing RN cruiser's wrath. I wonder if the Italians would impound the Breda Ba.27 and Caproni Ca.114’s going to China and Peru?
On the reread I can see how significant the Italian advance been halted by the Indians will have in the balance of power between the Raj and the Colonial office. It's fortunate that the Italian divisions are closer to an Indian brigade, which is the size of force the Indian army fought best at. Did the Egyptian army get involved in any of the border clashes? Did the UK raise any Senussi battalions or make any promises to Idris? I guess I should wait till I reread the Aftershocks Africa
Chapter 16: Does Balbo get the explorer Almásy in on his invasion? I can imagine Italian newspapers declaring victory after say a single motorised recce column reached the Nile and the British army being “outflanked” only to get a rude shock only a few weeks later. I imagine there are a whole bunch of frustrated Blackshirts lining the docks in Naples who otl would have made up Citrine division. The politics of who gets the very limited transport aircraft space to Libya most be utterly cutthroat. Nice to see Agar promoted to Dorsetshire early!
Chapter 17: I think Romania suffered worse in WW1 in terms of casualties, Serbia as well I think, although a lot of the latter counties were civvy casualties although baring the Ottomans I think France was the worst off of the Great Powers though. From what I read the French in the Middle East never quite forgave the UK for the Kingdom of Syria and blamed somehow laid the blame for the Druze revolt on the UK as well, so I am not surprised they ended up not joining in.
Chapter 18: Poor Balbo was not anticipating 8 Commonwealth Divisions on M+30~! Looking at the size of the forces the UK and Indian armies must have been getting ready extremely fast- maybe the RN has formed some bluejacket battalions? For the Tobruk landings I guess destroyers are being used to transport a lot of the men? Theoretically you could beach a ship or two with the heavy equipment in if you feel confident enough, mobility may be a problem though
Sorry if this is overdoing it a bit- kept being distracted with looking into things (Did you know the British planned to raise 10 battalions of Senussi Infantry complete with AT rifles and mortars in 1939?) If I don’t have a question or comment it doesn't mean I didn’t enjoy the chapter! If I had to mention all the times I found something interesting or humorous I’d break post size limits! Thanks again for the great AAR!
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