A Shift in Priorities

[rast]

A Shift in Priorities


After Generals von Hindenburg and Ludendorff had already scorned the demonstration of the so-called “Bremer-Wagen”, an early but very flawed German attempt in tank construction, in March 1917, the failed Entente tank actions near Arras and Juvincourt in April 1917 did mislead the German high command to the believe that the tank was not a decisive weapon and should be neglected.
The prospect of success for the German tank designs that were to be demonstrated and tested near Mainz in mid-May 1917 thus was rather gloomy. The high command was represented by Lieutenant-Colonel Max Bauer, originally the specialist for heavy artillery, but now also responsible for resource allocation and cooperation with the home industries. Above all, Bauer had Ludendorff’s ear and was usually able to influence Ludendorff towards the way Bauer saw things. Regarding tanks, Bauer had a negative stance from the start. He knew that the horse supply was going down and was very much interested to get lorries and tractors built that could replace horses as means of traction for the artillery. Tanks would only drain resources away from this, therefore tank construction had to be limited to the minimum, if not to be stifled at all.
Tests on the sandy training ground near Mainz soon showed that the only project that promised some success was the A7V, but even the A7V was not really convincing. The Chief of Field Motor Transport, Colonel Hermann Meyer, was in the meanwhile propagating a far more ambitious project: The Kolossal-Kampfwagen (short: K-Wagen), a monster in the class of 150 metric tons.
To Bauer, all this amounted to waste of resources. The War Ministry was favouring their A7V design, Meyer wanted his K-Wagen. He would have to concede some further design and construction to both, just to placate them. But generally he had already decided to cut this waste as short as possible. Let the specialists toy along with their favourites, but direct almost all resources to really important goals.
This was the state of affairs, when – by chance, during a coffee break – Bauer came into conversation with Joseph Vollmer, the chief constructor of the A7V vehicle.
Vollmer freely admitted that the A7V had been his first attempt in tank construction, and that with the knowledge he had today, he could design far better armoured assault vehicles. He also thought that the K-Wagen was a waste of time, effort and resources and expressed his conviction that small fighting vehicles were best suited for actual combat and the meagre German resource basis.
On this Bauer replied that armoured fighting vehicles must not get in the way of mobility for the field artillery. The field artillery was the most important companion of the infantry, if their guns became immobile for lack of horses, the armoured fighting vehicles alone could decide nothing. Therefore it was better to allocate resources to lorries and tractors instead of tanks.
Vollmer pondered this for some seconds, then he asked: “So, why not put the guns on tracks? Instead of towing them along, let’s install them on the tracked chassis and protect the gun crew by armour plates. – Wouldn’t that be far better then mere traction?”
“And how many of these could be built with the few resources we have? – Consider: The are many thousands of artillery pieces.”
“If we skip K-Wagen and A7V and concentrate on small vehicles that just carry a 7,7 cm cannon with crew and ammunition, several hundreds. We could use the engines of existing passenger cars that have been mothballed for lack of tyres and petrol.”
Bauer hesitated. He had always sought a way to tow the guns into combat. This now was different – not applicable to all field guns in the German inventory, there were just too many of them – but certainly promising for an offensive, which always would have a rather small point of main effort… He also saw the advantage of not having to unlimber the guns under enemy fire; they would be combat ready and protected all the time.
“Let me have your ideas on short notice, with a sketch of a possible vehicle, the resources required and the time to come up with a prototype.”

Vollmer’s new design received the name “Kanonen-Mobil”, short “Kanobil”. It was a 18 metric tons tracked vehicle carrying the proven 7,7 cm canon FK 96 n.A., which was smaller and lighter than the more modern FK 16. The first prototype became ready in August 1917 – and it did convince Bauer, who in turn convinced Ludendorff…

So, when by the end of November 1917, the British ruptured the German front line west of Cambrai with hundreds of their rhomboid tanks, they did not shake the German high command out of a complacency regarding tanks. The news only made Ludendorff nod. Yes, Bauer had been right again. Good that 800 Kanobils were already under construction for the planned German spring offensive. Perhaps another batch should be ordered?
“Have Lieutenant-Colonel Bauer come over.” Ludendorff tasked an aide. “I need to talk to him.”

[Rhysz]

This one is off to a great start Rast! I'm really looking forward to see where you're going to take us on this one.

If I might make one suggestion:

German military doctrine IMhO was always based on the 'one bold gambit', usually, founded in an agressive tactic. I hope you'll include this a bit in your TL.

Keep up the good work,
Rhysz

[wiking]

Sorry to rain on your parade, but if these tanks cannot travel as far and fast as WW2 panzers, there is no way this will win the central powers the war. Nor will it even pull a draw, in fact it may help shorten the war as this will deny them other equipment, like machine guns or artillery that are more in demand or crucial than tanks. The primary reason German lost the 1918 offensives, was that they could not move fast enough to exploit the successes on the battlefield. The allies were able to move in reinforcements of fresh troops faster than the Germans could advance. And they outran their artillery support while running into masses allied guns.
Frankly they cannot win and the wasting of resources on tanks just makes the loss that much sooner.

[rast]

Trial and Experiment

Not without regret did Captain Willy Rohr, commanding officer of the elite Assault Battalion No. 5, watch how the Kanobils churned his former fine assault infantry training ground near Doncourt into a muddy mess. He had been charged with the task to find procedures and tactics for this new weapon. Lieutenant-Colonel Bauer knew that he, Rohr, was the most competent evaluator for technical equipment to be used in combat with the German Army, and he had no qualms to task him with developing this new arm into something useful.
30 Kanobils and their crews had arrived at Pierrepont rail station five weeks ago, accompanied by a technical echelon and a bunch of mechanical engineers, headed by Joseph Vollmer himself.
The Kanobil looked like a coffin fitted with tracks on both sides, the cannon sticking out front and the exhaust at rear. There was a small fixed turret on top, the observation post of the vehicle commander. The maximum velocity was about 15 km/h on hard surface and 9 to 10 km/h on soft ground. The Kanobil could travel approximately 40 to 50 kilometres if required to return to base, or 80 to 90 kilometres if fuel supply did follow up. It carried 120 rounds for the 7,7 cm cannon, in a mix of 40% grapeshot, 50% explosive and 10% massive shells. Technical reliability was still an issue: About one third of the vehicles didn’t start at all or went out of action before even commencing the mission, and more than half of the rest didn’t finish any given mission for technical reasons. But Vollmer was confident that serviceablity could be raised so that two thirds of the Kanobils sent out would successfully complete their task.
Bauer had only outlined that the Kanobils should accompany the infantry and act like conventional accompanying artillerie batteries. But Rohr had soon realised that the potential of the Kanobils was much higher. They were a weapon that could push forward the attack, so why waste them lingering around? Fire and movement was the key to success, the Kanobils had fire power and they could move fast even over difficult terrain. Shell holes were no real problem, but very wide trenches might stop them. This was a problem of reconnaisance before the mission. If there were wide trenches, the Kanobils could be equipped with fascines, like the English had done with their „Tanks“ at Cambrai five weeks ago.
The Kanobil could fire while moving, but tests quickly reveiled that this wouldn’t result in any hits. So, for aiming and shooting, the vehicle had to stop in order to be able to destroy the target. That meant one portion of the vehicles would move forward, while another portion covered them with fire. The artillerists, which formed the major part of the crews, suggested platoons of two vehicles, just like their two gun platoons in the artillery regiments. But that was of course nonsense, a platoon must be able to have two covering guns, two moving guns, plus the platoon commander, thus five Kanobils in total. That led to a company of three plattons with 15 vehicles plus the one for the company commander and two as his reserve, adding up to a total of 18 Kanobils in one company. That was exactly the fire power of one complete artillery battalion. It would be used in support of an attacking infantry battalion on front of 500 to 600 metres. That really would be a „Schwerpunkt“ (point of gravity).
But the Kanobils could do more, they could flatten wire obstacles by simply rolling over them. They could eliminate enemy strong points – and they could speed ahead and destroy the enemy artillery.
There also were shortcomings: The vehicles didn’t carry a single machine gun. They couldn’t straddle trenches and use machine guns to suppress the trench garrison.
Rohr had already proposed that the second lot of Kanobils should also encompass machine gun armed vehicles, and that those already completed as gun carriers should receive an aperture on each long side to operate a machine gun if required.
He also had proposed to construct some vehicles without guns, these could carry supplies and be used for recovery. A Kanobil battalion should have three companies of combat vehicles and one echelon of supply carriers and recovery crafts. Lieutenant-Colonel Bauer had already agreed to these changes.
Now, Lieutenant Krug, one of Rohr’s training supervisors, had come up with the idea to use gunless vehicles to carry along infantry squads, so that the Kanobils could have infantry protection when they tackled the enemy artillery.
Rohr sighed, he very clearly saw where this all was leading to. Thank Goodness that Lieutenant-Colonel Bauer was behind all this, otherwise the established brotherhood of those who rejected change in general and this revolution in special would already have thoroughly sabotaged the effort for a new kind of warfare. But the Bauer – Ludendorff connection warranted that all negative interference would be coldly suppressed. Rohr had spent three years attempting to optimise infantry attacks by close coordination of fire and movement. He had created the assault infantry. And now he had found something that was far more effective – and he was determined to bring this new arm to success. He would create the assault artillery! It was high time that this bloody war came to a positive end!

[MrP]

Interesting idea, this! I can't comment on the technical feasibility, but nothing particularly leaps out at me. I know the British had SPGs on the Western Front. Let me see if I can find the Wiki page . . . here.

[rast]

Getting Ready

Max Bauer very much enjoyed the struggle to integrate assault artillery – his assault artillery! – into the German tactic of all arms attack. General Ludendorff had been won over when inspecting the Leaders‘ and General Staff Training Course Sedan, where a whole division had demonstrated an attack, supported by two battalions of Kanobils. But others had still been entrenched in resistance to change. The mulish Chief of Operations Ia, Wetzell, had almost driven him to frenzy. The Ic, Major Vollard-Bockelberg, responsible for military hardware, was hardly better. Finally, Bauer had dragged both away from the supreme command staff and given them a free ride on some Kanobils, including a life fire exercise. That had done the job.
The younger officers of the supreme command staff (Oberste Heeresleitung – OHL) had quickly grasped the advantage that the Kanobils offered. Especially Captain Geyer, who had composed the original manual „Attack in Position Warfare“, was a great help in adapting the manual to incorporate Kanobil use.
But the paper lions of the War Ministry in Berlin were the worst of all. Still sullying that he had overridden them in Kanobil production, they had really done everything to throw sticks between his spokes. The Kanobils were motor vehicles, so they must go the motor transport branch! – Nonsense, the motor transport branch was a rear area service, the members of which were famous for their black market deals, not for their braveness in battle. It had cost him three weeks to get this imbecile idea revoked. The artillery had the right offensive spirit, the Kanobils would remain with the artillery. The motor transport branch proved even unable to provide a sufficient number of drivers, but the artillerists were eager enough to train drivers of their own.
Another problem had been to find the right kind of artillerists. His original idea had been to convert whole regiments coming from the eastern front into Kanobil units. But Captain Rohr had convinced him that this was not the best solution. Eastern front units weren’t used to western front conditions, they needed some time to customise. It was better to replace western front regiments by eastern front regiments and use the former for Kanobil crews.
Bauer had not lingered along and asked for volunteers for the new arm, transformation to Kanobil had been ordered. 25 field artillery regiments each had supplied one of their battalions.

21 Kanobil battalions were ready for the offensive, each counting 70 Kanobils. More were under formation, but would not become ready for „Michael“, which was scheduled to start next week, on March 21st.
Fifteen battalions would go to 17th Army and six to 18th Army. It had been another struggle to achieve this distribution, but it was pointless to scatter the Kanobils evenly all over the front. The vehicles were designed for use at the „Schwerpunkt“ (point of gravity), there were a breakthrough was intended. Bauer was very confident that the Britsh front lines at Arras and St.Quentin would be ruptured and British 3rd and 5th armies would be caught in a big cauldron.

[Xgentis]

Originally Posted by wiking

Sorry to rain on your parade, but if these tanks cannot travel as far and fast as WW2 panzers, there is no way this will win the central powers the war. Nor will it even pull a draw, in fact it may help shorten the war as this will deny them other equipment, like machine guns or artillery that are more in demand or crucial than tanks. The primary reason German lost the 1918 offensives, was that they could not move fast enough to exploit the successes on the battlefield. The allies were able to move in reinforcements of fresh troops faster than the Germans could advance. And they outran their artillery support while running into masses allied guns.
Frankly they cannot win and the wasting of resources on tanks just makes the loss that much sooner.

Agree with this comment.

[Van555]

Dude come on...

[Expat]

Statute of limitations invoked!

[daveytrackels]

Thx you have been very helpfull

[stjernkjempe]

My hat off to you Rast. Excellent management of the TL. I can’t see any plausible ways to turn lighter than air aircrafts into battleships or aircraft carriers I do see a great future for them as cargo lifters and mobile cranes. If there is any unitized cargo system in style whit IOTL cargo containers then the zeperliners could work excellent as cargo ships to outlandish areas instead of building railway there.

I wonder also if the extensive use of zeperliners has improved the electric motor so that truck lifts and other cargo handling machines are in more extensive use ITTL. This two combined could in itself revolutionize international trade within the COMECON and mittleafrica. A modern trade economy that is actually balanced from the start in strong equal blocks makes ITTL so much better place to live in than IOTL.

To sell it : Cargo zeperliners filled whit ayrian goods arrive in Volgograd to German restaurant owners delight. “Right in time to relive my troop’s besieged whit opening my new restaurant, this air bridges shall make it possible to conquer whole of Russia. The Aryan people sure produce cheaper furniture to lower prices”

[rast]

Sent to me by stjernkjempe:

Polar Paradise

Biera-Juhan watched as the council Zeppelin dropped off supplies to the waiting hunters. It would go on and load timber and meat from the tribe to unload in Murmanska or what the local tribe there called Muurman. This hunter tourism had been gold in the pockets for the Sami tribes that had been relocated to the Finish reservations in Guoládat, or Kola Karelia as the Finish called it. The area mostly consisted of forests, lakes and rivers with only some tundra in the north; perfect reindeer country with ample opportunity to fish and hunt.

A largely unpopulated, after the expulsion of almost all Russians from Finland, and undeveloped area, Finland had jumped on the opportunity to create a Sami protectorate. The issue of what to do with the Sami had risen in Sweden and Norway after the war and Biera-Juhans father Juhan-Karl had been one of several tribe leaders that had gone to Finland and asked for some of the land they were giving away to be developed after the war. Better than being 'civilised' after Swedish standards, Juhan-Karl had thought. So Finland created the Sami protectorate out of Guoládat and many of his tribesmen and other tribes moved there.

Beira-Juhan mused a bit about it, ten years passed quickly and he could barely remember his childhood in Sweden. His children would not know about anything but this land, their land. The Sami councils genial idea to buy and hire out Zeppelins for cargo transport to all companies that wanted to develop the land the Sami had obtained from Finland in 1921, were paying off for the tribes too. The Hungarians that came with this ship had paid large sums for the opportunity to hunt bear, wolf and anything else that crossed their path. The really good thing about these tourist hunters were that all they wanted were the trophies, all the meat would go to the tribe. Sure the Fins wanted some in tax, but that was the council's headache to extract from these tourists and the companies that mined the area, not his.

The thought of fresh meat got Beria-Juhan to snap out of his thoughts and start walking towards the group of hunters assembled under the Zeppelin. Yes, times were good, his wife and children were growing fat and he could afford to send his sons to school in Murmanska next year. He got to remember thanking his father with the heart of the bear, when he came home tonight.

[Monty Burns]

Originally Posted by stjernkjempe

My hat off to you Rast. Excellent management of the TL. I can’t see any plausible ways to turn lighter than air aircrafts into battleships or aircraft carriers I do see a great future for them as cargo lifters and mobile cranes. If there is any unitized cargo system in style whit IOTL cargo containers then the zeperliners could work excellent as cargo ships to outlandish areas instead of building railway there.

Fully agree with you here. Zeppelins will be great as transports, but not usable in fighting - besides what rast already sketched out: silent deployment of Zeppelin infantry.

I also agree that containering might be developped soon. ITTL, trade should be far greater than IOTL, even if it is concentrated on the big trading blocks. And trade between Europe and Africa, and particularly between Mittelafrika and Germany, will probably already have reached levels not seen so far IOTL. Long-range rail transport, as seems standard ITTL would also benefit from containers. Not to speak of the fact that a European trade bloc is the perfect place to discuss such international standardization.

[stjernkjempe]

Originally Posted by Monty Burns

Fully agree with you here. Zeppelins will be great as transports, but not usable in fighting - besides what rast already sketched out: silent deployment of Zeppelin infantry.

Now I now for a fact that heavier than Air aircrafts is employed in cargo handling IOTL today, at a fraction of the cost for ordinary airlift services. It’s in active use as heavy lifters for construction sites in China, its being used to transport heavy equipment to mining sites in northern Russia and its experimented on as a military delivering system. There is even a company in UK that managed to raise money during the credit crunch for starting production of commercial cargo blimps.

The fact is that the roll Zeppeliners took until 1937 were more and more a cargo roll. As fixed aircrafts were not that economical for cargo handling and some good needed heavy transporters out of terrain where building railroads were not economical it were plans for constructing special cargo zeppeliners for this purpose alone. I know that aircraft development made them a bit uneconomical post ww2 but this don’t have to hold true ITTL.

Now ITTL there is more aeronautic development, there is more trade and there is still plenty of areas in Europe and the rest of the world that don’t have access to railroads (or roads) that have great potentiality for development whit the help of Zeppeliners. Besides, it’s a great way to get some Zeppeiner development into heavier lifters and faster motors that the military could use for their troop transporters I’m just saying, Zeppeliner wank

[nerdknight01]

¡ HI ! to Anarchy 4 All: ¡ no ofence please ! but please remember this is a free forum and we don´t know who are reading this posts, i say this because of what you said about the "happiness herb", and for myself, i be remember not talk how my life in México are really, really happy because for example, i have a xbox 360 chipped and i can play ARMY OF TWO part 2, CALL OF DUTTY:BLACK OPS, etc.. only for 5 dollars, or i can see very good in pirate dvd EAT, PRAY, LOVE or THE KING´S SPEECH, etc.. for 3 dollars for dvd´s movies, maybe we are in deep s... in México, but at same time is so good and nice to living here.
And one final how to say, gossip, i see that you like anarquy/revolutionary ideas, in this moment of my life i don´t belived in that class of ideas, (no ofense please) but i recomended a magnificent, magic and autentic revolutionary book: The Condemmed of the Earth from Frantz Fanon, with prologue of Jean-Paul Sartre, that book have some truths about how to say, liberation fights/justificed violence/freedom be violent ways, . Thanks and good luck.

[Peabody-Martini]

While Zeppelins are an amazing footnote in aviation history and its nice to see them get their due, the early thirties were the high point of their development. In TTL we are right at the point where the limits of lighter than air aircraft would become apparent. There is less use of hydrogen gas so the Zeppelin era wont have the fiery ending that it did in OTL, but the hazards of weather mixed with advances in heavier than air aircraft will soon force them to secondary roles. Carrying cargo to remote areas and as a sky crane. That is until the helicopter gets invented.

I hate to ask about what another person is up to ITTL but considering the topic at hand, Igor Sikorsky becomes very important.

[ANARCHY_4_ALL]

Originally Posted by nerdknight01

¡ HI ! to Anarchy 4 All: ¡ no ofence please ! but please remember this is a free forum and we don´t know who are reading this posts, i say this because of what you said about the "happiness herb", and for myself, i be remember not talk how my life in México are really, really happy because for example, i have a xbox 360 chipped and i can play ARMY OF TWO part 2, CALL OF DUTTY:BLACK OPS, etc.. only for 5 dollars, or i can see very good in pirate dvd EAT, PRAY, LOVE or THE KING´S SPEECH, etc.. for 3 dollars for dvd´s movies, maybe we are in deep s... in México, but at same time is so good and nice to living here.
And one final how to say, gossip, i see that you like anarquy/revolutionary ideas, in this moment of my life i don´t belived in that class of ideas, (no ofense please) but i recomended a magnificent, magic and autentic revolutionary book: The Condemmed of the Earth from Frantz Fanon, with prologue of Jean-Paul Sartre, that book have some truths about how to say, liberation fights/justificed violence/freedom be violent ways, . Thanks and good luck.

Thanks for the heads up Nerd. But I know very much about viewers on the site. My concern for their interests is about as much. As their interest for some family that split in the Free Territory of Ukraine. Hemp can be the life saver of our little rock resting in the forces guided by the multiverse. Everyone is is entitled to their oppinion. Mine just comes from 20 years of experiences and advancements in knowledge. But yes I am a strong believer in anarchism( in its many pseudo-forms). I read the entry for anarchism in an encyclopedia when I was 8. Converted me right then in there. Of course I have became a more inclined anarchist since then. But I will gladly check out that book. If I was Adam I would have taken all the apples.

[NHBL]

I just started reading this, and have a long ways to go--so far, I like. It's good to see a Central Powers victory that still has all kinds of bumps along the post-war way!

[nerdknight01]

¡ Hi ! to WIETZE: ¡ THANKS !, opps, because i was to tired, i forget to say in my worries about America´s futures the options of inner colapse/inner crush, civil war, enviromental epic disaster, or some class of how to say, "SOMALIZATION" as desert with violent warlords fighting, you know, in any way, is suspect that Rast the great be doing some scary, epic and magnificent about America, in short, will see interesting times.
Peace and good night.

[nerdknight01]

¡ HI ! ¡ WOW !, ¡ SAD !, ¡ WOW !.
Yep, that´s the tragedy, if the cirscunstancies were a little diferent that Harry Olsen it be a real hero, with a decent work, a decent life, etc.. but that warrior how to say, the options for a decent life was closed by the great depresion, the economic crisis, the enviromental disaster, a blind goverment, etc.. the scary situation is that a lot of war veterans it be going in the Harry Olsen way of life, you know, and finnally, another big internal problem for USA: another scary big epic wave of terrorism, i wonder what be the objetives, the economy, historical monuments, ballot box, etc....
Is late, i going to sleep.
Peace and good luck.