AN:
Extensively edited by Gremlin Jack and Nla Eid
Chapter 2 revision: I toned down the number of mage infants that the CSR was getting from their experiments. Normally I try to avoid making plot changes after publishing a chapter, but I felt it had to be made more plausible to avoid painting myself into a corner for future chapters.
Regarding the "CSR's leadership is too competent" messages that I got, the chairman is a loose adaptation of the real life Zhang Wentian, and from my interpretation, he was the closest of an "economist" that the PRC had. Not surprisingly, Mao eventually got rid of him.
November 2nd, 1942, somewhere in Sibyria:
Chen Shusheng was patrolling in an area where their pack animals and porters were carrying large quantities of supplies for the division. Foraging food was simply insufficient for the winter operation, and winter had arrived early, and hard. With every day of marching away from the nearest rail line and usable roads, he could feel the energy in the entire division being sapped away by the cold. Roots are much harder to dig up, animals going into hibernation and berries being long gone meant that they could no longer "travel light". Although "traveling light" was still exhausting when it involved marching for a few weeks straight through rough terrain where there weren't even a dirt trail within the range of a day's march. If it wasn't for the local guides teaching them how to survive in this inhospitable land, things would have gone very poorly long before winter set in.
The hostile Rus factions had learned that engaging in a conventional war against other Rus factions that were backed by the CSR's mages and sheer manpower was suicide, so they switched to guerrilla warfare. Rumors had it that someone high up in the CSR command decided they don't need roads, and that they'll just run down the hostile Rus forces by having the army go on very long and enthusiastic walks no matter the terrain or distance.
He hated the stealth marches, where they would camouflage themselves and only march at night with no lights or fire. Even the mages would also march along with them to maximize stealth. One of his friends in another division had complained about doing a month-long stealth march just to hunt down several hundred Rus soldiers that simply surrendered after they got tired of trying to avoid the pursuing division.
It was a good thing that the logistics officers had anticipated that their operations against the uncooperative Rus factions could drag on for more than a year, and had been stockpiling winter gear even in the first few weeks of their summer campaigns. Except they left out one important thing.
"I could use some real tea. All we had for months was pine needle tea." he muttered to himself.
He shifted his coat and scarf to block out the biting cold wind, and suddenly heard a whizz of bullets fly right past him. He dived to the ground as the tree next to him exploded in splinters from bullets that were meant for him. Above him, bursts of anti-aircraft and DShK heavy machine gun fire downed the patrolling CSR mages.
He brought his bolt action rifle to bear and saw how well prepared the enemy Rus were for their ambush. A horde of Rus soldiers came charging over the hilltop and down towards the convoy, while at least three machine gunners provided overwatch in his area alone.
'If we only had the Russy semi automatic rifles and submachine guns, then we might have had a better chance. Too bad most of the good stuff that was captured from the Rus was reserved for front line soldiers.' He thought to himself.
But he had to try, so he aimed his rifle at one of the machine gunners and squeezed off a round. The machine gun was silenced for about a second before another Rus soldier jumped in to resume firing. He kept cycling and firing until the entire machine gun crew was wiped out and his five round clip was emptied, but another group of Rus soldiers ran up to the machine gun to use it while he was reloading his rifle. Before he could resume shooting again, he saw one of the anti-aircraft guns being repositioned to face his general direction, and a DShK crew member pointing at him.
This was one of those moments where a fanatic believer in the communism cause would try to kill a few more enemies before being sliced up into raw meat to be used in a fuqi feipian dish, or fix bayonets and charge, instead of running away. But he wasn't that type of a person, and the enemies were also communists. More specifically, the crazy communist types that if they were religious, they would have been indistinguishable from fanatical militant Buddhist monks that the CSR gave up trying to stamp out and instead signed a peace deal to leave them alone. Some of the stories his father told him when they were fighting against Buddhist rebels back in the 1920's were terrifying to this day.
He ran down the slope to break line of sight from the anti-aircraft gun and DShK crew, stepping aside to avoid a falling small tree that was cut down by the heavy caliber rounds slamming into it.
He attempted to find another position to fire from, only to see that his comrades were already in a losing melee. One CSR soldier attempted to stab a Rus soldier with the bayonet fixed to their long rifle, but the Rus soldier grabbed the front end of the rifle, pushed it to the side, pulled it to carry the CSR soldier's momentum forward, and then elbowed the CSR soldier in the face. Another CSR soldier missed a shot while trying to use the bolt action rifle at less than four meters range, and was shredded by a double barreled shotgun's blast while he was busy cycling the next round.
The anti-aircraft guns and DShK machine guns had now been repositioned to rain lead on the remaining CSR holdouts. Off in the distance, he could see Rus soldiers were already killing the pack animals and lighting their supplies on fire.
He heard someone bark an order at him, and while he wasn't sure what they were exactly saying, he could infer that they were telling him to give up. He dropped his rifle and put his hands in the air, before being struck from behind with a rifle butt and his world turned black.
November 2nd, 1942, Berun:
Vishia, Lergen, Admiral Albrecht, air force Generals Weiss and von Richtoffer, and a few other senior officers were staring at the map of the South Bharati Ocean, pictures of each island formation, and their tides. Originally I had planned on just releasing the colonies. Now with North and South Bharat accusing each other of being illegitimate governments and that they were the rightful government of both countries, and other inflammatory statements, it reminded me too much of the leadup to the Korean War where both governments perceived themselves as the rightful ruler of both halves. Having a base of operation for that conflict would be useful, as letting South Bharat entirely fall would guarantee turning the entire Asia continent into a communist bloc.
Even if they don't go to war, the CSR could end up trying to stick their nose into the Middle East and Africa when those power kegs blow, like how the USSR got involved with those continents. The Middle East's plentiful cheap oil would be an irresistible target for the CSR. And China in my previous world was aggressive with expanding their influence in Africa for mineral and agricultural resources. Unless the CSR somehow develops a navy that rivals the Allied Kingdom, having a chain of fortified islands would be a deterrent against their power projection towards the two continents, and it would be cheaper than having a dozen carriers. I remember China in my previous world had been building artificial islands and turning them into military bases as their power projection against other countries' navy forces, so why not use that same strategy against them? Albion shouldn't be concerned with some static islands, and besides, their naval arms treaty with us never specified anything about foreign military bases.
Of course should the colonies press for independence, as long as I retain the military bases in some sort of a long term lease agreement, I wouldn't care. In fact those would probably become a revenue source for them in terms of providing services for the bases. Once the leases expire and I no longer have a need for the bases, they could convert them into civilian usage, such as airports and harbors for tourists to come in. A win-win for both of us.
Admiral Albrecht spoke up. "The first thing we need to consider is where our ships can perform major maintenance and repairs, such as from collisions or wartime activity. I think Malagasy would be the best option to build a drydock and airbase, as we already had built some infrastructure last year."
I pointed my finger at Akitsushima Dominion on the map. "We could ask them for permission to also build our own drydock and airbase as well, that'll give us a footprint in the Pacific without having to take another island, and make it easier to coordinate potential joint exercises with them."
Lergen frowned at the mentioning of the Akitsushima Dominion. "Building a military base in Akitsushima Dominion? Wouldn't that be a bit provocative for the CSR?"
I could see his logic behind that. The Albion was constantly worried about other countries' navies. To park our fleet right on the CSR's doorstep would encourage the commies to develop and build their own navy to contest us, and I'd rather not get into a naval arms race like what happened with the Allied Kingdom and the Empire decades ago.
"We'll get the authorization, the land and some basic infrastructure first, then hold off on the rest of the construction. If the CSR starts to exert their influence over the ocean or threaten the Akitsushima Dominion, then we'll start the rest of the construction. Also, do we have underway replenishment capabilities?"
"Very limited." Admiral Albrecht responded. "There hasn't been a need because our navy mainly operates in the Baltic Sea with many nearby ports."
"Then we'll need to decide which ports will be able to handle cargo ships and oil tankers for underway replenishment. Although the navy would also need to practice how to do underway replenishments as there simply won't be as many deep water ports compared to the Baltic Sea. Maybe we could ask the Akitsushima Dominion and the Unified States for advice. I'd rather not bother with the Allied Kingdom ever since they tried requesting a so-called technology exchange that was tilted in their favor after they initially refused to blockade southern Ildoa. As for the rest of the islands..."
Using my orb, I shined laser dots at the Tromelin, Île du Lys, Agaléga, Réunion, and Comoros Islands.
"Generals Weiss and Richtoffer, what is your opinion of those smaller islands?"
"I think those islands should be big enough to at least accommodate a small airport or port." Generals Weiss said. "I don't think we'll need significant military assets on those islands if we have a base on Malagasy. Once we have more details about all of the islands' geography, we can narrow down the list of which places to build at. Even just a flat airstrip would be helpful in augmenting our carrier operating in the Bharati Ocean."
"Depending on the islands' geography, we might be able to build deep water ports, or we may have to dredge out sand and rocks to build them." Admiral Albrecht added. "Or build shallow water ports for small supply ships to operate out of."
"Well gentlemen." I said, "If there's nothing else to be discussed, all that's left is a detailed proposal for the Diet to vote on for the construction funding. I look forward to paying those islands a visit in the future. Let's begin the research and development discussion if no one has anything to add."
After some paper shuffling to shift to the new discussion, Admiral Albrecht started his report. "R&D said that they had problems with developing an anti-ship missile that could punch through a capital ship's armor, and still inflict severe damage behind the armor. The simplest way would be to use shaped charge warheads which are not dependent on the missile's speed to penetrate the armor. Similar to how anti-tank rockets work against tanks. But if the missile hits a sacrificial compartment, nothing serious happens to the ship other than that compartment being showered with molten metal bits and high temperature gas. Especially if they had already shut the compartment doors to contain the blast. We could use kinetic penetrators, but we haven't been able to build a missile that can fly fast enough for them to go through the armor."
The gears were turning in my head.
"General Lergen and Deputy Chancellor Serebryakov, what do people use to defeat isolated tanks if they lack mages, artillery, aircraft, tanks or proper anti-tank weapons? Such as insurgents or suicidally determined rioters?"
They both started rattling off ideas. Grenades into opened hatches. Improvised explosives planted on the tracks. Jam logs and metal bars into the tracks. Dig a deep trench and bait the tank into it for it to be stuck. Use a cutting torch to open up the hatch. Open up the engine compartment hatch to throw in an explosive or a burning bottle of flammable liquid. Light the tank on fire to smoke the crew out.
Flammable liquid.
Fire.
"Admiral Albrecht, what if the missiles carry long burning incendiary payloads and the fire can't be easily put out with water? As in engulfing the ship entirely in shrapnel and fire? If you take away a ship's radar, fire control, radios and any other components that aren't behind the armor, what good is that ship even if it's still afloat? It can't shoot at what it can't see. The crew can't fix anything when the entire top side is on fire. The captain might not be able to look outside of his bridge to see what is going on. At some point the ship is going to have ventilation problems because I'm assuming all of the air intakes are located on the top side."
Lergen hid the look of awe on his face quickly, but I saw it. Even now, he must be formulating ways for us to burn down all of our enemies. Crazy warmonger.
I better steer his imagination towards less murderous thoughts, "I understand that the missiles might be dangerous to handle for our crew, so it'll need inherently safe designs to minimize the risk of it catching on fire. I don't want a repeat of that rocket submarine. I guess the only other thing that can quickly sink a battleship are torpedoes. What was the range of our torpedoes again?"
"15 kilometers. We are still working on getting to the 30 kilometer range without increasing its size." Admiral Albrecht said. "It's already about 10 meters long."
Hmm, I never asked for the 30 kilometers range. In fact I was avoiding that so we didn't spook the Albion when we were worrying about being partitioned by the Francios Republic and Russy Federation. Why am I surrounded by jingoists?
"I think we'll need to ask the engineers, researchers and anyone else that is familiar with battleship designs and anti-battleship strategies for their inputs. We may need a different form of missile warheads or designs."
I looked at the destroyers' current anti-air armaments. They were plentiful, but there is still room for improvement. The modern navy ships in my previous world had radar guided cannons that spit out a stream of lead to knock down inbound missiles.
"Regarding air defense, could we use the Jo 87's 30 millimeter revolver cannons with a radar guidance system to replace the 37 and 20 millimeter guns? Since we don't have to worry about the weight of the aircraft, perhaps the rate of fire can be scaled up to the originally planned 1,000 rounds per minute. We might get some extra deck space from the replacements while still maintaining a powerful anti-air defense, and I'm sure you could find uses for it. If the radar guidance performs well enough, we might be able to use even less revolver cannons for more open deck space. Deputy Chancellor Serebryakov, what do you think of trying to fly towards a ship that has a few of those revolver cannons?"
While Admiral Albrecht was writing down the discussion points and underlining the radar guidance system, Visha thought for a moment before saying: , "It would probably make me hesitate for a second before following through with your orders. Well, unless the ship has something seriously wrong with it or their air defenses are fully focused on something else."
I nodded. It would be complete insanity for me to even consider flying in that wall of lead, even with the Type 95 Orb. A direct hit from a 30 millimeter shell would be enough to punch through a mage's defensive shell and mess them up badly. Mary Sioux would probably be able to shrug off the shells and sink the ship, after getting all of her fellow mages killed in the process.
General Lergen looked like he had an idea in his head.
"What is it, general?" I asked.
"We could use the same 20 or 30 millimeter rounds for air defense of ground forces and also as a fire support. Considering that our new threat is the brewing insurgency and the increasing presence of CSR mages in the Russy Federation, light vehicles with that cannon would be faster and cheaper than using tanks."
Autocannon vehicles were something I wasn't too familiar with. But it does make sense, as the insurgents would only have light vehicles and buildings or trees as cover, which would easily be destroyed by the 20 and 30 millimeter shells. Their heaviest fire support option would be mages, which would also quickly die. A vehicle that weighs less than half a tank would be useful for heavy fire support in counter-insurgency operations, such as escorting a convoy.
"If the soldiers fighting the insurgents like the prototypes, then that vehicle should be considered for mass production. We could use the destroyer's 20 millimeter cannons for the prototyping stage."
While Albrecht and General Lergen were writing things down, I traced my hand over the destroyer's surface deck section. With so many of the 20 and 37 millimeter cannons being replaced by a few 30 millimeter revolving cannons as part of the future ship upgrades, there might be some extra deck space.
I recall the early cold war ships had a few different designs for missiles. The Soviets had large anti-ship missile launchers attached to both sides of the ships and facing forward. The US relied on smaller missiles so they used rails that held two missiles and rotating missile box launchers.
"Admiral Albrecht, with the possible extra deck space from the anti-air revolver cannons, have you thought about using that for missile launchers?"
"No, I haven't. I was thinking about how to add more higher caliber cannon turrets, but then that would run into problems with the spacing below decks."
"We could have rails that hold one or two missiles or rotating missile boxes. If there is enough deck space, we could use large missile launchers like this."
I used my computational orb to render the US-style and Soviet-style missile launchers.
"Those missile launchers would be directly dependent on what our future missiles will look like and how much deck space we can clear up with the anti-air replacements. I understand that it might be messy to retrofit our current destroyers with the missile launchers, but it would be hard to justify to the Diet of a large funding bill to build a new class of destroyers that would only end up provoking the Albish into a naval arms race. We're already going to be spending a lot of money on developing the missiles, so we have to make the implementations cost efficient when those missiles are ready."
I don't know exactly how modern navy missile exchanges happen, but I figured there was a good reason why China in my previous life was running around with new anti-ship missile designs while the United States was finding ways to protect their carriers. I think the British Navy took some losses in the Falklands War from the anti-ship missiles.
"While we're on the topic about missiles, there has been a proposal in the air force for a long range missile that could travel across a continent to hit a target, with a payload large enough to carry a nuclear bomb." General Richtoffer said. "The theory is that at a high enough altitude, the air resistance would be minimal which would greatly extend the missile's range, and when it enters terminal descent, it would be too fast to try to intercept it. The proposal is a bit controversial within the air force so I think your opinion would help settle the debate, especially with the 203rd mage battalion's history of flying in rockets."
"Intercontinental ballistic missile?" I asked. Richtoffer gave me a confused look and said "That's an interesting name for the proposed missile design."
I did not want to be known as the "Queen of nuclear weapons", and would have much preferred it if someone else was the Chancellor to make that decision. I'm also afraid to keep advancing nuclear weapons because at some point, other countries will start to catch on. I don't know how they might choose to react because there aren't any atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to set a global precedence of how nuclear weapons should be used.
But, that missile could also help make the reality of launching satellites and astronauts into space sooner. Satellites that could broadcast TV signals across the world to spread our culture before the Unified States' rock-and-roll culture takes full strength would be nice. Reconnaissance satellites to watch what the CSR is doing without having to fly reconnaissance planes directly over their land and risk getting them shot down like what happened to the Americans with their U-2 spy planes. GPS satellites would also be great.
"General Richtoffer, let's start with proof-of-concept rockets that can reach the needed speed and altitude, and go from there."
Back in Sibyria:
"Hey, you. You're finally awake."
Chen Shusheng got up in confusion and his whole body was in pain, along with a throbbing head. A CSR mage was preparing to shock him again using their spell.
"What happened here?!" the mage demanded.
"T-they ambushed us." Chen stutters out, "They had concealed anti-aircraft guns to shoot down the overwatch mages right at the start of the attack, and then closed the distance to render our bolt action rifles ineffective."
The mage curses, "Damn it… Well, you sure are a lucky one. Some Rus was going to put a bullet in your head before we showed up."
Chen looks at the mage in confusion, "What do you mean I'm a lucky one?"
The mage points out to the distance, "Take a look at that tree line over there."
"Huh?" Chen followes the mage's finger, "Wha-why is there a line of bodies… Oh..."
The mage nods, "They were executing all of the prisoners when we arrived to investigate the source of the noise. We killed some of those bastards before the rest disappeared into the forests."
Chen is slacked-jawed for a moment before realizing something; "...They were burning our food and tent supplies, and if they're executing prisoners, that means they don't have enough food for us either. What do we do now?"
The mage shrugs, "I have no idea. We can't retreat either because all of us will starve on the march back. Pine bark is only going to get us so far, and there aren't too many animals around during the winter for us to hunt."
1942, December 4th:
I was sitting in my office looking through the insurgency reports and the counter-insurgency plans. Damn the CSR and the Rus factions that allied with them are good at exploiting ethnic tensions in the new republics. Suomi, Livonia and Legadonia Entente are struggling with the Rus uprisings in the Petrograd area. Major Koenig was putting up a good fight, but I'm all too aware of how many counter-insurgency operations end up being "won every battle but still lost the war". We may have bitten off more than we could chew.
I remember the Allied Kingdom not directly stating, but strongly implying during the peace talks that they did not want the Russy Federation to have access to the Baltic Sea or Black Sea. Which meant the new republics had to take land that had a majority Rus ethnic presence, and that was proving to be quite a poison pill for everyone but the Albish. I wouldn't be surprised if Albion had intentionally done that to ensure that the Russy Federation would never have a navy that would threaten them, and also keep OZEV pinned down with endless insurgency problems.
I heard a knock on my office door.
"Come on in."
An aide opened the door holding three packages. "Chancellor, Otto Lutz, General Ugar and the BND have some information for you to look at."
"BND?"
"Sorry, the Bundesnachrichtendienst."
"You can leave it on my desk. What is it?"
"They said it was only for you to know."
The aide placed the packages on my desk and exited the room. I opened the first one that was sent by Otto Lutz from the Usedom Island testing center and a "Top Secret" envelope was in it with Dr. Max Kramer's name on it. After opening that one, I could see why they took those precautions. It appears they took my suggestion of "ask everyone for their inputs" seriously and there were a few proposals from different R&D departments.
A two stage missile where a solid fuel booster is used to get it up to a certain speed, then the ramjet engine fires up to bring the missile to 4-6 times the speed of sound, with a narrow and long kinetic penetrator rod that would be made of something denser than steel to punch through the battleship's armor and multiple interior compartments.
A missile that would carry a small torpedo, where it would drop the torpedo into the water outside of ships' effective anti-air range and the missile could keep flying on in hopes of hitting an unarmored target. It could also be used against submarines if there was a way to reduce the noise from the torpedo hitting the water so that the ships don't have to get up close to the submarines to drop depth charges directly on top of them.
A missile with a shaped charge warhead that would dive into the water at the last minute to punch a hole under the ship's waterline where the armor is also usually thinner.
A missile with a home-on-emissions seeker to knock out a ships' radio and radar systems by simply looking for sources with the highest energy emissions.
A missile loaded with some sort of a petroleum jelly and white phosphorus mixture, where the mixture was demonstrated to have burned for a few hours at around 800 Celsius, then smouldered for days afterward at a lower temperature but still enough to inflict burns, difficult to remove due to its stickiness, difficult to put out with water, generated lots of dense smoke, and the fumes from the fire were highly toxic to the animals. There was also a note about possibly using sodium metal or magnesium which means any water used against the fire would cause an explosion instead of putting out the fire, which would just spread the fire even more.
I wasn't too familiar with modern naval warfare, but all of those seemed promising. Though the last one was particularly brutal for my taste as it reminded me of too much of the Americans' love of napalm in WW2 against the Japanese, then in the Korean War and then the Vietnam War. I think there was even a song that was titled something along the lines of "napalm sticks to kids."
But if those three other options fail, I still need something more than just 15 kilometer range torpedoes, dive bombers and mages to take down a battleship. The Allied Kingdom have likely begun their efforts to greatly improve their anti-air systems in response to the bombers and mages, and are probably working on something to counter our torpedoes or destroyers. The CSR would also be relying on their manpower advantage given their large population size and that they haven't been throwing away bodies in pointless wars for the past 30 years. Napalm delivered via dumb bombs or flamethrowers would be an efficient way of denying that manpower advantage, even if the missile itself doesn't work out.
Hopefully General Lergen won't consider using the napalm weapon for counter insurgency operations. He'll likely just write off the risk to civilians as 'acceptable casualties.' Germania doesn't need that sort of PR disaster.
The home-on-emissions missiles... that could be something the air force would also take an interest in. During WW2 in my previous world, a major reason why the Brits held out for so long against the Germans' Blitz was because of their radar stations that the Germans never targeted. During the Vietnam War and whatever other conflict Israel was involved with, they had to worry about anti-air radar systems. It's only a matter of time before the Albish and Americans start extensively using anti-air radar systems, and the CSR would probably try their best to steal those technology secrets as they would need something to deal with our superior airforce in a shooting conflict.
The other three I wasn't so certain about. I didn't know much about missile technology in my previous life to make a call on that. But stuffing a miniature torpedo in a missile body seems more feasible than the other two as we already have good torpedo technology, and I like the idea of how it can also be used against submarines.
I opened up the next package that was sent by General Ugar. He reported that they were making progress in developing a working nuclear reactor. It was to be moderated using graphite rods after the scientists deemed it was an efficient way to produce electricity and weapons grade plutonium at the same time, and also cheaper than using heavy water.
Graphite moderation. That sounded familiar. I remember after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster when I went down the internet rabbit hole of nuclear power and came across the topics about Windscale fire and the Chernobyl disaster. Those two power plants both used graphite moderation. And my scientists nearly got themselves killed along with General Ugar. I'm going to need to sit down and talk with General Ugar and the nuclear scientists to remind them again of their safety being something of the highest priority, and that everything else was secondary. If there's another screw up, I might have to find someone with even less tolerance for risks and brow beat the scientists and everyone else to maximize safety measures.
I picked up the phone and dialed Admiral Albrecht.
"Good afternoon Chancellor. Admiral Albrecht speaking."
"That R&D proposal you sent me? The torpedo missile seems the most promising. I recommend having the air force share the home on emissions missile research as they would have an interest in defeating anti-air radar systems. As for the emissions seeking missile and incendiary missile research, have the air force and the army look at them to see if those interest them. The petroleum jelly mix itself might be useful. I'll leave it up to you to determine how much resources to allocate for the projects as the Diet is preparing for further military spending cuts and getting the economy back on civilian footing."
Regarding the third package, I had allowed Elya to reform the intelligence operations under the new BND, the Federal Intelligence Service, and it was the first time seeing the package under that organization's name.
I opened it and my eyes opened wide when I realized what I was looking at.
The potential development of the first helicopter. The Unified States and Allied Kingdom had turned down Igor Sikorsky's proposal to develop a prototype helicopter. I couldn't blame them because aerial mages could do almost everything a helicopter could except better. Unfortunately for them, I knew from my previous world that the invention of the helicopter had a major impact on the world, almost as important as the invention of the first airplane. The United States loved their helicopters during the Vietnam War, and during the Cold War, both sides fielded thousands of helicopters.
While mages are a very limited human resource, the only thing holding back how many helicopters a country could field is the raw material to build them, aviation fuel to keep them running, and the number of trained pilots. For every task that a helicopter can do instead of a mage, I could have the mages focus on other things.
And now Sikorsky is asking if Germania could fund his research.
I picked up the phone to call Elya. Instead, someone else answered my call.
"Good afternoon Chancellor. This is Anna."
"Anna?"
"Yes chancellor, Elya is away right now. She's dealing with a time sensitive matter with the insurgency in the new republics. I can take a message for her."
Poor Elya. After all of what she has done to help ensure Germania comes out on top in the aftermath of the Second Europan War, instead of being able to take an extended vacation, now the CSR and an increasingly resurgent Russy Federation is piling more work onto her. I hope she doesn't get tired of dealing with the intelligence operations.
"Did she tell you anything about helicopter development?"
"I was the one who got in contact with Igor Sikorsky, Chancellor."
"Give Sikorsky the funding he needs for his prototype helicopter, under the condition that he works on our soil. I am curious to see how it performs and the possible applications it could be used for. It would be nice if he ends up working for us as a long term business."
"Yes Chancellor, that shouldn't be a problem."
I'm trying to search through my memories of what post-WW2 technologies that the United States and United Kingdom were developing. I remember computers and programming were a big topic, and there was a reason why Silicon Valley was established in the United States, and how the United States maintained a major computing edge for decades.
"Also, keep an eye for the Unified States' and Allied Kingdom's computer and programming advancements, such as transistors. It doesn't have to be just government research."
"Yes Chancellor. We'll… um…" A momentary pause, "I'm sorry my Chancellor, but what's a transistor?"
...Oops, I got a bit ahead of myself.
"It's a basic building block of electronic devices. The successor of vacuum tubes." I replied, hoping that they wouldn't press me for further details.
"Ah, understood. I'll let Elya know and make preparations for monitoring those two countries' research and development."
1943, January 20th, somewhere off the coast of Malagasy:
Visha and I had been hopping from island to island in the South Bharati Ocean. The official reason was to inspect the base constructions. In reality though? Well, it was a long overdue tropical island getaway that we needed from the constant work. I wish we could have come out here sooner, but that veterans bill hit some snags earlier and I had to stick around for an extra week to iron out the problems. Oh well, one less thing to worry about.
We were walking along a beach when Visha suddenly spoke up.
"Tanya, remember when you ranted about running off to Argentina with me?"
"The what?"
"It was the night after you got the Treaty of Triano cancelled."
Now I remember. The appeasement that everyone was offering while the Rus was gearing up for their adventure in Europe. And I had gotten completely drunk when I had no idea how to deal with the Rus when the Unified States and Allied Kingdom had just thrown the Francois Republic under the bus instead of just asking me to be exiled to a tropical island.
"Sort of. Why are you bringing it up now?"
"You mentioned wanting to go somewhere warm and safe. And building a villa. Raising horses here might be a bit difficult, but I don't mind going without them. Is this the "Argentina" that you were talking about?."
"Hmm. Villas." An idea then springs from the thought, "Visha, I've been thinking about making the islands as tourist destinations. We're already building ports and airfields, and other infrastructure for people to live on the island."
Visha raises an eyebrow before smiling in amusement, "Tourist destinations? Who would be coming to the islands?"
"Everyone from around the world. It won't just be limited to Germania or OZEV. Of course, for the smaller islands, this would be after when we don't really have a military need for the island to avoid having foreign spies just camp next to the ports and runways with a notebook and a pen."
Visha hums, "Speaking of tourists from around the world, I was told that you were learning Akitsushiman."
Elya must have noticed that newspaper and told Visha about it! That's the problem with having a competent intel director - they can also spy on you. Maybe I can try downplaying the situation.
"Oh it's nothing much, just some basic phrases."
"Well you were reading Akitsushima Dominion's newspapers, weren't you? Those can get complex."
I could feel my face become warm. "It is important to learn the languages of allies instead of just relying on translators."
"Maybe you are a fan of the Akitsushima Dominion's culture?"
Now I could definitely tell my face was red at getting caught. "No, Visha."
"You surprised the Akitsushiman ambassador when he had the mochi brought out, and me as well when I learned how much you knew about Akitsushiman desserts. The number of Germanians that have a remote idea about their main dishes is a minority. An even smaller minority even knew about that specific dessert." she teased me while putting her hand on my face. "Oh my, your face is very warm right now." She tilts her head and blinks prettily, "Are you having a fever?"
She was definitely right about most Germanians not knowing much about the world outside of Europe, or even the Empire's territories. There was no internet to browse through, and TVs were just starting to become commonplace which meant there was very limited broadcasting of shows featuring foriegn countries, so one had to go to a library and find specific books about foriegn countries.
I brushed her hand aside and she immediately put it on my chest. "And a rapid heartbeat. I think Elya mentioned something about rapid heartbeats and polygraphs."
I could now feel the color start to disappear from my face. The last thing I want is for Elya to inadvertently pry knowledge about my previous life from me while practicing lie detection. One, or both of us, would be declared as mentally ill and get thrown into a padded cell.
"I think we should go swimming." I quickly deflect, "I want to test out the underwater spells."
"To cool off?" Visha giggled. "I mean it's not healthy to have a high body temperature."
I rolled my eyes and took off flying from the beach, and headed towards one of the reefs. Visha followed suit.
Three days later, I was enjoying the sunset on the beach, watching the waves crash while cuddled up against Visha, when my orb came to life with a voice spell:
"Chancellor and Deputy Chancellor, you need to return to the base. There's been a situation."
AN:
CSR's tactics were based on the real life Chinese military's tactics during the Korean War. The difference is that instead of having years to practice those tactics in their civil war against the Nationalists, the CSR's Sibyrian Army is getting a crash course.
CSR's camouflage and night time marches from the Wikipedia page on the Korean War:
Immediately on his return to Beijing on 18 October 1950, Zhou met with Mao Zedong, Peng Dehuai and Gao Gang, and the group ordered two hundred thousand PVA troops to enter North Korea, which they did on 19 October.[226] UN aerial reconnaissance had difficulty sighting PVA units in daytime, because their march and bivouac discipline minimized aerial detection.[227] The PVA marched "dark-to-dark" (19:00–03:00), and aerial camouflage (concealing soldiers, pack animals, and equipment) was deployed by 05:30. Meanwhile, daylight advance parties scouted for the next bivouac site. During daylight activity or marching, soldiers were to remain motionless if an aircraft appeared, until it flew away;[227] PVA officers were under order to shoot security violators. Such battlefield discipline allowed a three-division army to march the 460 km (286 mi) from An-tung, Manchuria, to the combat zone in some 19 days. Another division night-marched a circuitous mountain route, averaging 29 km (18 mi) daily for 18 days.[82]
As for the inner tree bark, turns out it is edible.
Early RL ballistic missile projects were the RTV-A-2 Hiroc and SM-65 Atlas. Both were designed in the mid 1940's.
From the Wikipedia page on the Vought-Sikorsky VS-300, the first operational helicopter:
The first "free" flight of the VS-300 was on 13 May 1940.[2] The VS-300 was the first successful single lifting rotor helicopter in the United States and the first successful helicopter to use a single vertical-plane tail rotor configuration for antitorque. With floats attached, it became the first practical amphibious helicopter.
Igor Sikorsky's quest for a practical helicopter began in 1938, when as the Engineering Manager of the Vought-Sikorsky Division of United Aircraft Corporation, he was able to convince the directors of United Aircraft that his years of study and research into rotary-wing flight problems would lead to a breakthrough. His first experimental machine, the VS-300, was test flown by Sikorsky on 14 September 1939, tethered by cables.[3]