“One by One” {Part 2}
{9 May – 5 July, 1941
London War-Room
– Believe it or not, the resignation of Stanley Baldwin did not happen until
4 June, 41. Winston Churchill is nowhere to be seen.
– When the first full Marine-Corps were trained it knocked our Officer ratio from 122% to 107%. We had to return to researching 30 techs from our brief 32. With more Marines, Infantry and Support-units on the way, Research will be further hampered because I can see 28 (or less) coming soon. My Off/ratio target is 120. 140 is not realistic.
– I should have kept quiet. The convoy-war continues, we sank 8 Axis convoys while Axis subs sank 15 of our Allied convoys. Japan is not even in the war yet.
Research
– Techs completed.
Tac-Pilot 3,
Tac-Ground Crew 3, Tactical Air-Command 2 (this began again),
Operational Command Structure 3, Bridging Equipment 1 (meaning, we have some),
Naval Strike Tactics 4, Small Navigational Radar 1 (finally). Queued both
Light Bomb Development 2 and
Air-Lunched Torpedo 2.
Supply Transportation 3, Supply Organization 3, Mobile Warfare 3 which allows
Spearhead Doctrine but not yet queued.
Commander Decision Making 2. Better for our Battleships in the coming battles with the IJN. Further good news regarding the IJN, both
DD Escort Role and
DD Crew Training are level-3s now and none too soon.
Production
– Our 3rd LCT finished on
20 May.
– Our first Royal Marine Corps (MARx3+ENG) deployed on
23 May. General Anders commands.
– “By”
30 May 6 GAR-brigades deployed and were sent to
Ceylon to free-up an INF-div.
–
31 May our first support SpART deployed for a MOT-division.
–
4 June 2nd Armored Corps was formed, two divisions, (ARM+MOT+SpART+ENG) and (“Guards”-Div. ARM+MOT+SpART+AA) with General Messervy Corps-HQ.
Bollocks!
– At this point in time British High-Command is “content” all that can be done is being done. However, we continue to be plagued by this <ahem> less than ideal start.
1. Converting nearly an entire standing-army based on MOT x3 has been and is a logistical nightmare. Nearly all Motorized units in Africa and Egypt were reduced to x2 to save on fuel in many nasty terrains but getting any support unit for those smaller units quickly is not remotely possible. I am now 8 months into the Blitz Scenario and
we have built so far only 1 AC and 1 SpART. I started with 84 brigades of MOT. Divide that by two per the ideal division (for me) if I want a dedicated Motorized-division without Armor, and also later to upgrade to Mechanized, which means we started with a baseline for 42 divisions.
That necessitates we need 84 divisions of support-brigades to get the Combined-Arms punch that Germany certainly fields.
2. I could delete that Motorized but Britain will have an Army of 40-something Infantry brigades. It is mid 1941...that would be suicide and would not address our catch-up problem in any way.
3. We still have to build planes. England is well-protected but no other Theater. Further, we only have 5 TAC and 2 NAV and zero CAS. As I mentioned earlier, at an IC level of 200 (usually much less) something had to be left behind, I chose strategic-bombers and all of those Techs. Subs are in the same situation, but on that note, we were not a u-boat powerhouse but still sinking Axis shipping.
4. As has already been mentioned, the backbone of our Army should be Infantry but I can only build a couple of divisions here and there, since a full Marine-Army is underway.
Decision for my Staff
What do YOU think about this. We must build lots more infantry...I think we all would agree about that. Armor, just like I mentioned about STRATS is a lesser problem but to continue with both machines and all Techs, combined with so many needs, it seems will impact the Quality of our Planes and Ship Techs. Also, our Land Techs are not in the best of shape. However, we could consider taking a huge MOT-Army and making it a MECH-Army but int that we must build all the Armor-techs. If we had lots of Mechanized...do we need more than the 6 ARM-brigades nearly finished? Should I forget Mech and Light-Tanks and build tons of ARM?
With all those balance-questions in mind, at the moment I am trying to bounce around and take something, anything to the next level. SS, STRAT, new-class BBs & CVs are not on my radar now. Should I ignore any more areas of research? i.e. Capitol-ship techs from now on? Forget CAS entirely? Remain at current Industry-Techs when they come due and try to catch-up on Tanks & Men? Etc.
If you need the Overviews because you cannot grasp the situation...just ask for them.
The Royal Navy
With Battleship King George V “cleared for action” the Admiralty reorganized three fleets.
KG V goes into 1st Battleship Fleet and Hood remains leading 1st Cruiser Fleet.
BB HMS Prince of Wales and BC HMS Repulse sail to their fate.
The Far-East Fleet arrived in Singapore on 13 June.
Persia
Persia of course was a cake-walk but it was one long lasting stumble.
Battles – Won and Dead.
– 03 Apr. Yasuj losses 166 - 545
– 12 Apr. Estabhan losses 48-115
– 23 May Shiraz losses 308-347 (enemy dug-in and in Mtns.)
– 03 Jun. 2nd Estabhan losses 43-186
Total killed – Britain 565 men – Persia 1,193 men.
1 July, 1941, 2nd Motorized rolled into Tehran and established an Allied Government
{{{Tip: Saudi Cavalry joined the Iraqis in attacking into NW Persia while British troops moved inland from the coast. However...they stopped. I TAGGED to SAU, and (took it out of the A.I. command) and made the Saudi Cavalry attack next-door into
Tabriz, a
VP. Upon tagging back to your own nation, sometimes the A.I. will re-claim a unit and stop my attack but this time it didn’t. }}}
Helping our Allies
– RAF fighters protected Soviet subs heading east in the Channel on
7 June.
–
We will try to hold the Dutch East-Indies and prevent the Japanese from accessing the
Oil-Refinery, the
Gold Mines and the
Rubber located on
Java and Sumatra. The DEI-Defense OOB was organized with General Mountbatten (Skill-4 COM) commanding; he reports to
Singapore AG. Lt. Gen. Leese (Skill-4 BM+LW)was given Corps HQ. Leese commands, the 7th Indian Inf-Div, guarding
Batavia and its nearby Gold and another division is in route to
Oosthaven. Soon a third will be sent to hold those three ports.
Around the World
– Our Intelligence service through our Diplomat to the S.U. tried repeatedly to warn Stalin that Germany was building a very strong force on the German/Soviet border.
On
1 June, 1941 Hitler attacked Stalin.
We later learned that Stalin thought we were trying to make the SU Germany’s enemy. Hitler has proved Stalin’s paranoia was a huge blunder.
– America enacted the
Pan-American Security Zone. A USN DD soon sank a U-boat.
– Both Portugal and Nationalist-Spain move towards the Axis. Portugal already gives the Nazis
Tungsten.
– Liberia gave Britain
Transit-Rights and Military Access on
17 June.
–
20 June A major Danish revolt. But it was soon crushed by Italian troops.
Around the RL War
22 April 1941: The British, both military and civilian, begin to evacuate Greece.
May 1941
01: – Seven nights of bombing of Liverpool by the Luftwaffe began, resulting in widespread destruction.
09: – A Japanese brokered peace treaty signed in Tokyo ends the
French-Thai War.
10: –
Rudolf Hess was captured in Scotland after bailing out of his plane wanting to make peace.
– The United Kingdom's House of Commons was damaged by the Luftwaffe in an air raid
12: – The RAF bombed several German cities, including
Hamburg, Emden, and
Berlin.
24: – British battlecruiser HMS Hood was sunk by the German battleship Bismarck.
– The Greek government left Crete for Cairo.
28: – British and Commonwealth forces began evacuating Crete.
– "Operation Brevity" failed.
July 1941 3: – Stalin announced a "
Scorched-Earth policy".
