A Shift in Priorities

[rast]

Hardly anybody is living in these remote and hardly accessible lands. The resources that today make them attractive IOTL have not yet been discovered ITTL. - The Chinese population centres are not affected, for the US and all others it's business as usual with China.
The infrastructure of Tibet, Uyghurstan and Mongolia is non-existent, other than cavalry no forces can be used there. The threat to Central China thus is minimal.

[AMF]

Originally Posted by rast

Indlela ibuzwa kwabaphambili
(A way forward is asked from those who are in front – Zulu saying)

On the way up from Port Elizabeth, they had visited the Rift Valley Railway Bridge near Costermansstad, the largest bridge in the world, now under construction since three years and scheduled to be ready in mid-1927, by when the Middle African railway system would be fully connected.

Hello rast,
could you kindly give some information concerning the bridge mentioned above in this timeline, or about projects in our timeline for a bridge in that location? Thank you very much for your trouble in advance!

[rast]

Θέρος, τρύγος, πόλεμος
(Summer, autumn, war – ancient Greek proverb)

Adrastos Mastropoulos was a spy. Born in a small village near Karesi, he had grown up bilingually, speaking Turkish as fluently as his native Greek tongue. Together with his family (minus his father, who had been led away and never had come back) he had been expulsed to Greece in 1921. Apparently, back then he had looked too young and frail for the Turks to lead him away as well.
His mother had made him swear that he would revenge his father.

At the age of fourteen, he had volunteered for Venizelos’ φύλακες (guardians), which was a ‘cool’ way to earn one’s living, especially if you were a poor newcomer. The legal opportunity to pry on the old-established tax evaders and fraudsters was not intended to further integration, it was Venizelos’ attempt at changing Greek society – away from rugged individualism towards a well co-ordinated and supervised community.

After the environment had become too ‘hot’ for Adrastos, he had been offered new assignments: Either he could go to Italy and spy on the Greek communities in Sicily – or he could move to Istanbul and find out about Ottoman designs to ruin Greece.
Speaking Turkish, but not having a clue about Italian, his choice had been preordained (not much to the surprise of his case officer). Also, he still had some bones to pick with the Turks...

Looking back at Greece, where being poor and reglemented was the rule nowadays – with ‘voluntary’ work outings, quarter managers as supervisors, uniforms everywhere (quite comforting for the poor, who couldn’t afford new clothes), and an aligned press – Turkey, and Istanbul in special, was quite like a place on another planet. The capital of the Ottoman Empire was a bustling metropolis. The expulsion of its Greek inhabitants had been compensated by new citizens from all over the realm, and the town was home for at least 1.5 million inhabitants today.
Germans, Italians, Bulgarians and many other nationalities were present everywhere (in Greece, there never had been foreigners, at least Adrastos never had met any). Elegant ladies were ambling along the Bosporus promenades and sitting in well heated cafés, nobody wore veils or headscarfs. Newspapers from all over the world were sold on every corner. The shops – not only in the bazaars – were full of luxurious goods. Motor cars and motorcycles were noisily driving around. (In Greece, Adrastos only had seen a motorcycle once in a while, and about three cars in his whole juvenile life.)

If Adrastos hadn’t sworn revenge, he might have considered forgetting the past and making a living here. His papers identified him as Ahmed Ekmekoğul from Siwas, a freshman in mechanical engineering at the Istanbul Technical University.
That made him unsuspicious when he krept around in the harbours. The empire needed engineers, and a young man interested in ship engines found many open doors.

His most remarkable intelligence result, so far, was that ‘Müezzinzade Ali Pasha’, the first of the Bayern class battleships to be commissioned for the Ottoman Navy – and currently performing crew training exercises in the Black Sea, was not running on coal but had powerful diesel fuelled high-pressure steam boilers and four steam turbines. According to his informants, drunken Turkish sailors bragging about their new vessel, the battleship could run with 26 knots sustained speed – and with 28.8 knots top speed.

Another interesting feature was aircraft production. At Nicomedia, the Italian Savoia-Marchetti Company had set up a production plant for floatplanes. And at Kilyos, the German Rumpler Aviation Company had established a testing station for their new T. III torpedo bombers, which they hoped to sell to the Turks in the next contest held by the Ottoman Navy. At both places, the student Ahmed had applied for a traineeship – and had been accepted cheerfully.

It was an interesting life Adrastos was leading, spying and learning at the same time. The money he received for his intelligence helped him to afford a decent living, as if his fictious big landowner daddy was sending him a regular bursary.
There even was a pretty girl in the neighbourhood, Esen, who studied to become a physician – and seemed to be interested in entering into a relation with him...
Somehow, Adrastos was about to desist from revenging his father. The ancient village life with his family seemed so far away; the miserable life in the camp near Kórinthos was better forgotten than remembered; the time with the φύλακες had been funny but also shallow; living in Istambul was much better than everything he had known before.
Being an avid student, perhaps he some day could even go to Berlin, the capital of Europe, for further studies...

[rast]

Hello rast,
could you kindly give some information concerning the bridge mentioned above in this timeline, or about projects in our timeline for a bridge in that location? Thank you very much for your trouble in advance!

The decided to bridge the Great Rift Valley with one gigantic structure, which is about 30 km long and about 1.5 km high. A typical gigantomanic German enterprise achieving a goal that could have been accomplished much more cheaper and quicker by following the structures of the terrain. Its the final link to fall in place to provide railway traffic throughout Mittelafrika.

[rast]

A True Born Englishman

Robert Vansittart was a British diplomat, more or less bred and trained by Sir Eyre Crowe, the old enemy of Germany and the Germans. Like his foster-father, Vansittart believed that Germany was at the root of all evil that had befallen the British Empire.
And it had been Crowe, Permanent Under Secretary at the Foreign Office, who had placed Vansittart in Warsaw. After all, Polish nationalist aims were irreconcilable with German nationalist ones; and in the current situation of German predominance, the unsatisfied aspirations of the Poles offered a splendid opportunity of sowing dispeace. Polish action might trigger a harsh German reaction. Everything that made Germany look as ugly and brutal as in August 1914, when she had ‘raped’ ‘poor li’l Belgium’ was highly welcome to the group of Germanophobes in the British Foreign Office.
Whether Arthur Henderson, the British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, really didn’t know about this group of Germanophobes and their aims, Vansittart had no clue, but he was well aware that Eyre Crowe and his crew were working against the declared volition of the MacDonald government by seeking a confrontation with Germany. – There were loose connections with Winston Churchill, Alfred Duff Cooper, Harold Macmillan and the Duchess of Atholl, this Vansittart understood, but he was fairly ignorant about the objectives of all this – beyond making Germany look bad.

Roman Dmowski barely had won the presidential elections. Some serious ballot rigging had been necessary to secure a comfortable majority of 55 percent for him. It seemed that there were still quite some Poles around who had other aims than restoring the borders of the Piast Dynasty in the west and those of the Jagiellon Dynasty in the east. One hoped that the upcoming elections for the Sejm would bring a better result for the nationalists. At least pogroms against the Jews proved to be quite popular, and the number of Polish Jews fleeing to Germany, Czecho-Slovakia and Lithuania hadn’t decreased over the weeks.
Diplomats in Warzaw thought that approximately the moiety of the three million Jews had already left. The Germans claimed they were sheltering 950,000 Polish Jews, but reliable figures from Lithuania and Czecho-Slovakia were not available.

What Vansittart now held in his hands would make Dmowski foam with rage and hatred. It was a report from the British minister in St. Petersburg, indicating that Russian Prime Minister Matutin had – in principle – agreed to the formation of a Jewish state on Russian soil. – This alone was already was scandalous for any Polish anti-Semite; even worse, the territory chosen was considered righteously belonging to Poland by every Polish patriot. – But… and here Vansittart hesitated – it would direct Polish enmity towards Russia – and not Germany.

After some deliberation, Robert Vansittart filed the report and locked it in his cabinet. No issue to detract President Dmowski from his hatred of Germany…
There was another paper from his colleague in Berlin, dealing with German military preparations at the border to Poland. This was far better suited to keep Mister Dmowski aligned against the Germans. If one omitted some details about the directives Chancellor Erzberger had given…
Yes, this sounded quite aggressive now…

Vansittart took the telephone and called the Royal Castle, asking for an appointment with President Dmowski.

[rast]

On Salisbury Plain

Colonel-Commandant J.F.C. Fuller watched the three prototype chassis rummage through the mud. Yes, this had potential.They were not yet quite there where he wanted them to be, but the general ability was recognisable.
It had not been easy to have the Vickers engineers understand what was required.

The German Kanobils of the Great War hadn’t been faster than the British Whippets, nor had they had a greater autonomy. But – although the Germans kept all data secret – Fuller was sure that their modern design, the Kanobil II – or Panzerkampfwagen as they called it now – was much faster and had a greater autonomy.
Fuller had studied the discussion in the German military journals; they were writing about deep thrusts, encirclement and fighting through the depth of the enemy territory. This wasn’t new, they always had talked about that. But they were also talking about the time required for such operations.
Fuller had extrapolated from this discussion that the ‘Panzerkampfwagen’ could run with at least 16 miles per hour and had an autonomy of no less than 125 miles.

The Vickers engineers had found many objections against an armoured fighting vehicle that could run at 20 miles per hour. Tracks would only last for 150 miles, the running gear would be worn out after 200 miles, engines and transmissions would hardly stand more than 300 miles, etc.

But none of the German Kanobils in the Great War had run 150 miles. Like everybody else, the Germans had done long distance transport by rail, today they also had semitrailers and heavy duty trailers – as was reported from the recent manoeuvres near the Polish border. Actual movement in combat had been far less than 20 miles of distance, perhaps 30 miles including all manoeuvring; only the Verdun operation had involved a long distance attack over 35 miles, the most ambitious advance of all.
And the Germans had had a whole corona of lorry borne mechanical engineers following their Kanobils, repairing or replacing everything that needed repair or replacement.

So, if a track was worn out after 150 miles, it would be replaced with a new one. The same would apply for running gear and engines. A force working with tanks required strong repair services. It all was a matter of organisation, wasn’t it? And the military was famous for its ability to organise things.

The prototypes could run 23 miles per hour on hard surface and still 10 miles per hour in heavy terrain; this was not bad in Fuller’s mind. However, they did not yet carry armament – and the weight of that would certainly reduce their performance.
The question was now, which weapon to mount.
The six pounders of the British heavy tanks in the Great War had been quite powerful guns, but nevertheless been insufficient against 40 mm Kanobil front armour. Fuller thought that the ‘Panzerkampfwagen’ had a thicker armour still, something like two inches at least.
A weapon like the 13-pounder QF artillery gun – or even the 18-pounder – was at least required to deal with that. Vickers Ltd. was presently testing how to penetrate three inch sloped armour at distances of one mile and above on their shooting range near Sheffield. Fuller had insistend on a big gun, not a three or four pounder, which had been proposed by the Vickers engineers because of the reduced weight.
The Germans had apparently kept their proven 77 mm field cannon for their ‘Panzerkampfwagen’, anything with less punch therefore was not acceptable.

Fuller thought that a complete prototype of the Cruiser Tank Mk. I – that was the designation he had given the vehicle – could be ready by March 1925.
He was working on the doctrine for his armoured brigade already. In the Great War, the Germans had used their Kanobils in two roles, basically. Some vehicles had sped ahead and fought against the British artillery, others had accompanied the advancing infantry.
Accompanying the infantry was conventional, British tanks had done that as well. The armoured spearhead was what intrigued Fuller. Breaking through the enemy’s lines, annihilating his artillery, overrunning his higher headquarters, smashing his supply services, and taking his railheads – that would decide the next war on land. And the British Army would hopefully be capable of doing all this. At least War Minister Mosley had promised him that funds would be available for his armoured brigade and all tests he wanted to conduct…

[rast]

The most violent element in society is ignorance.
(Emma Goldman)

With some help by her friend Rosa Luxemburg and support by the PDS, Emma Goldman had established herself in Straßburg. The Erzberger Government had provided her a German passport, an extradition request by the US had been declined.
Goldman had deliberately chosen the Republic of Elsaß-Lothringen as new domicile. She felt uncomfortable with the monarchistic and militaristic attitudes of most German states, especially Prussia (although run by a PDS government) appeared to her as a stronghold of militarism.
That Germany entertained such strong regular armed forces made the country suspect in Goldman’s mind. That the Germans apparently loved their soldiers troubled her. Even the PDS supported a strong military, only her friend Rosa seemed to share her concerns that militarism must lead to war and oppression.
Having spent six years in Königsberg in her youth, her command of German was excellent (although she and Rosa still often conversed in Spanish, the language they both had learned in Mexico), and her offer to write articles about her experiences in the USA and Mexico had been accepted by the ‘Vorwärts’, the newspaper of the PDS.

At the same time, Goldman was intrigued by the events in the east. The arrival of so many Jewish refugees from Poland was a major event in the press and in radio broadcasting. – Contrary to expectations in political circles, the German population had not turned against the refugees. The misery of these people was so obvious that most Germans felt pity on them. Several organisations had started fund-raising campaigns in support of the Polish Jews, and the initiative ‘Host a Refugee’ was so successful that no large camps for the displaced were required.
Although the DVP and the Anti-Semites made much fuss about ‘superalienation’ and ‘infiltration’, they didn’t gain in public favour.
It certainly helped that the Polish Jews all spoke Yiddish, which linguists rated as a German language derived from the Middle High German of the years around 1300, and which – with the exception of few words – could be understood by contemporary Germans.
Goldman was well aware that the German populace did not expect the Polish Jews to stay forever. Nevertheless, she was pleased about the German readiness to help, which seemed to prove her thesis about social solidarity.

Goldman was in contact with the leading German Anarchists, Gustav Landauer and Erich Mühsam, who both were – little surprise – Jews. The two men were not happy about the merging of KPD and SPD and thought that the evolutionary and state supporting ideas of the former SPD would prevail. Thus social equity could not be hoped for. Germany would remain a capitalist and militarist country, even if the PDS won the upcoming elections in March of 1925. However, Mühsam, who was a well established writer and journalist, offered his splendid contacts with the Munich art scene for Goldman to exploit. This provided Goldman with a contract for a book about ‘Free Love’ to be published by Droemer & Knaur, Munich.

Her friend Rosa tried to convince her to join the PDS, but Goldman tended to see things in a similar way like Landauer and Mühsam. Scheidemann’s PDS was too tame and too loyal to the German Empire to be able to model the kind of society Goldman wished for.

But when Nahum Goldmann paid her a visit and told her about the project of a Jewish state, she changed her mind. She never had been a Zionist, had even negated her own Jewish ancestry, yet, she could see the suffering of the Jewish people in the east, who had no safe place to go. If there was a possibility to create a Jewish nation, she would gladly be of help.
In Goldmann’s presence, she took the telephone and asked for a connection with Rosa Luxemburg in Berlin.
“Rosa? – It’s me, Emma. I’ve contemplated your offer. And yes, I will join the PDS with pleasure. – Please expect me in Berlin tomorrow. We need to talk.”

[Bmao]

Nice past few updates. Don't have too much to comment about them, except that military technology seems to be progressing on schedule, or rather for Germany likely how it might have progressed were it not for Versailles.

Looking to see how the new Jewish state progresses. Hopefully, it wouldn't case as many problems as Israel did OTL, but I have a feeling that it will, when you consider how Anti-Semetic Poland is.

I'm still a little confused at what the exact borders are, even though you included a map.

In any case, good job.

[sedsa]

Why is the yiddish state not situated in Galicia? In A-H times there was already a 20-30% jewish population.

[Jeremak]

I suppose, that Poles will be beaten by Yiddysh state that same as Arabs by Israel.

[Expat]

Originally Posted by Bmao

Looking to see how the new Jewish state progresses. Hopefully, it wouldn't case as many problems as Israel did OTL, but I have a feeling that it will, when you consider how Anti-Semetic Poland is.

I've got the same concerns, but I guess the zookeeper could convince the lamb to lay down next to the lions if the zookeeper's got a friggin panzer muzzle pointed directly at the lion. (happily that is not a mixed metaphor in this case!)

I suppose with Goldman involved we might see something similar to Kibbutzim ITTL? (I hope I hope I hope)

[sloreck]

If the Heimstaat has some sort of military alliance with Germany, that will help keep the Poles in line. No reason that over a 10 year period the Jews can't build a decent military with German patronage.

[glowjack]

well I'm worried how similiar this would be to otl, I don't want to see poles having their land forciablly taken away or in a state of constant low-level war and with no one helping the polish due to unconditional support from some superpower. (similiar to something today)

[rast]

The anniversary post. One year of 'A Shift in Priorities'.


There’s Something in the Wind…

On December 10th, 1924, the International Committee of the Red Cross denounced the Polish government’s course of action opposite the Jewish minority in country as ‘vicious’ and ‘uncivilised’. As immediate consequence, all personnel of the ICRC was expelled from Poland.
Although the ICRC estimated that ‘only’ about 5,000 persons had been killed so far, the number of displaced people was believed to approach two million. “There’s widespread looting and arson going on. Refugees are ransacked on the roads.” an ICRC spokesman said in Geneva. “We ask the Polish government to stop these criminal actions, and we ask the European governments to exercise their influence on Warsaw to end this human tragedy.”

In Germany, General Hoffmann was still pressing for an armed intervention; however, it was clear that he was only keen to test the new weapons and procedures under combat conditions, while he had no clear concept what to do once Poland had been occupied.
“Right now, we have one million ‘Ostjuden’ to care for.” stated War Minister von Tirpitz. “If we occupy Poland – and there is of course no doubt that his could be accomplished quickly and effectively – we’ll have three million of them at our feet. – And some eleven millions of Poles, some of which will surely start a nasty guerrilla war. – There’s nothing we can gain from conquering Poland, it’s a swamp in winter and a sandy desert in summer. We don’t want it and we don’t need it.”

The Poles in Germany did not react to appeals from Warsaw asking them to rise against German oppression. Since the Prussian government of Otto Braun had given them complete cultural autonomy, most of them didn’t feel oppressed any more. There was no discrimination of Germans of Polish ethnicy, and living conditions inside the Reich were much more convenient than those in Poland proper.
Nevertheless, there were some people who shared the dream of a Greater Poland, but these had seen the German Army move into positions near the border. Nothing thus could be hoped from an uprising, the Germans were prepared for it. In Upper Silesia, where Albert Korfanty still had many followers among the industrial workers, not even a strike was staged. The 3rd German Army was making its presence felt in this area. There were no checkpoints or other forms of military control, but soldiers were everywhere, especially around the villages on the periphery of the industrial towns where the majority of ethnic Polish workers were living.

On the other hand, many Poles in Germany were shocked by the behaviour of the Poles in Poland. The German media portrayed the Polish Jews as victims and reported constantly about their suffering. The Polish deputies in the Reichstag sent an address to Warsaw, asking the Dmowksi regime to stop violating the rights of the Jewish minority; and in Posen a committee was formed that collected money for the support of Jewish refugees from the Poles of the province.

In Wazsaw, Roman Dmowski had in the meanwhile realised that things were slipping out of his control. Thus the Polish police and Haller’s militia got orders to intervene against ethnic cleansing, looting and arson. As many police- and militiamen had participated in the acts they now were ordered to prohibit, it took some time before the new directions were heeded.
But then the news about the intended Jewish state on Russian soil eventually leaked out. Now, this was an outrage! The area righteously belonged to Poland! Russia had no right to give it to the Jews!
Within few hours after the Russian ambassador had answered Dmowski’s urgent request and confirmed the intentions of Prime Minister Matutin to donate the westernmost part of Russia to a Jewish state the witch hunt on the Polish Jews was re-opened.

On December 15th, the socialist government in Prague asked Germany and Hungary for support. Because many Polish Jews lived in Galicia, they had fled to Slovakia, which was the nearest country. Now, the humanitarian situation in Slovakia was deteriorating, under severe winter conditions in the mountains, additional shelter, water and food were urgently required.
Under German pressure, Hungary offered to accept 250,000 refugees from Slovakia. At the same time, the 10th German Army in Bavaria and Austria received orders to shift tent material, field kitchens and water trucks to Slovakia. However, reconaissance elements sent to Slovakia soon reported that the road and rail infrastructure was abysmal and there was no hope that the material could arrive in time.
This provided General Hoffmann at last with the oppurtunity to test a new technique: From December 17th on, the Luftwaffe started dropping supplies over the Slovakian mountains.

On the same day, the uprising of the Poles in Western Russia started. Before being ‘donated’ or ‘sold’ to the Jews, these people rather would fight. Joining Poland seemed a good idea now.
On December 18th, elements of General Haller’s militia crossed the border into Western Russia, while in St. Petersburg Prime Minister Matutin tasked Marshal Tukhachevsky with restoring ‘law and order’ in the border province to Poland.

[C.Cain]

Originally Posted by rast

The anniversary post. One year of 'A Shift in Priorities'.

Congrats!
This TL is one year of pure awesome.
Keep it up.

[thales]

One year and still going strong!

You have my eternal gratitude for writing this story and keeping it up for so long. I hope the next year will be just as productive

Keep up the good work!

[Winand_von_Rabenmund]

I have to fall in line with the posters above: This is one of the greatest TL's on the board! So congratulations on one great year, may the next one be just as good

[schrammy]

i 2 have to congratulate you on one of the most awsome TL ever, it has become a daily read for me

thanx and please continue

[Expat]

Here them! Here them!

Congrats on this achievement, looking forward to voting for it in the next Turtledoves!

[Gwalchy]

Let me add my congrats to the above posters. 1 year of daily read of the better thought and researched TL