WesWorld

July 2nd 1933- Brigadier General Alejandro Sanz and the commander of the German training mission, Hans Kundst, stood by the pier while the first of the British build 6-tons were being lifted from the cargo ship to the ground. The sight of the vehicles was very good news for both men.

"So you think we could be ready by the end of the Spring?" asked Sanz to his German countepart.

"The principles have been teach already to the crews of how to use the vehicles in a combat situation, now comes the part of actually teaching them to physically use the vehicles and take care of them. Must likely they will be ready for hat we have planned for them." was the response by Kundst.

Sanz nodded in agreement, smiling and them both men turned back in the direction of the vehicles; the first one alreay been loaded into a vehicle for their transport to the base near Lima.

Excerpts from Field Marshall Ricardo Arjona’s private diary.

July 3rd 1933- “Snow continues to fall on the passes but luckily the partisan operations seem to be going down due to both weather and our measures to ensure the elimination of their sympathizers in the area. Supply now is reaching our troops on a steady basis and moral is growing accordingly.”

July 9th 1933- “The member units of the CVI (1) are finally all together, the Angolans finally reaching the frontlines and taking their positions by the Iberian mountain troops and naval infantrymen. General Mola (2) assures me they will be ready by the time the snow clear the passes and I believehim for once. If they all perform as the Mountain Division did in the early days of the campaign they could do some real damage indeed.”

July 13th 1933- “The Iberians launched yesterday a bomber attack over the city of Cochabamba that caused extensive damage to the city, with propaganda lies by the Bolivians (3) that bombs hit an hospital and a crowded market and no military worth target were hit. The enemy must be getting very desperate to come with these lies to try to gain support from the League. I told Francisco (4) to began to prepare a defense to the trump charges the Bolivians will present to the League.”

(1) Cuerpo de Voluntarios Iberianos.

(2) General Emilio Mola, commander of the Iberian Volunteers Corps.

(3) actually it was true but of course he has to deny this. Think Guernica on a larger scale.

(4) Francisco de La Guarda, Peruvian Foreign Minister.

July 9th 1933- De La Garza read the reports in regard to the cost of purchasing the two South African battleships and shook his head.

"We will be forced to cancel all support ship construction for the beginning of next year and them we will be hard press to do anything until at least the beginning of 1935. But something need to be done to take care of the problem." he thought while reading what the effect of the purchase were doing to the destroyer construction schedule.

He knew the funds for the construction of those ships weren't going to be available and he began preparing a memo ordering the best minds of the Ministry of the Navy to come up with a way to take care of the coming problem.

Quoted

Originally posted by perdedor99
(3) actually it was true but of course he has to deny this. Think Guernica on a larger scale.

Sweet Madre De Dios, I hope not!!

Note - schedule eye tests for all iberian bomb-aimers!

Excerpts from Field Marshall Ricardo Arjona’s private diary.

July 16th 1933- “The world reaction to the Iberian acts in Cochabamba have been very negative to both our cause and to their presence in the area. I have ordered a full investigation and Mola(1) has agreed to cooperate to follow the spirit of our friendship.”

July 27th 1933- "Preliminary reports indicate that indeed the Bolivians situated ammunition dumps near by to the Hospital and the must likely cause of the destruction of that building was the force of the explosion after the enemy ammunition was destroyed. But in the case of the market accusations we have discovered that it happened in the very first minutes of the raid(2) and it seems to be a truly tragic mistake by certain crews that got lost and delivered their cargo far away from their targets. Of course Mola and I have agreed to keep this under wraps.”

July 13th 1933- “I have been briefed by Alejandro(3) that his forces will be ready by November. If everything goes well we could have victory by the end of the summer.(4)”

(1) General Emilio Mola, commander of the Iberian Volunteers Corps.

(2) A bad air defense early warning system.

(3) Brigadier General Alejandro Sanz, commander of the Mobile Regiment.

(4) Wishful thinking, more like early fall.

Excerpts of the private diary of Francisco de La Guarda

July 13th 1933- “The meeting with the Argentinean Foreign Minister went as good as possible, with some very good progress being made in regard to Brazil and the assurances that arm shipments to Bolivia are being curtailed were also very good news but in everything else it was a wash. They try to mediate in the current conflict but of course we refused with the war as good as over and victory at our grasp and their attempt to try to distance us from the Iberians also failed miserably. I‘m not convinced of the wisdom of our growing reliance with Iberia as Ricardo(1) does but for the moment is a very good proposition for us.”

July 15th 1933- “it seems the attempt of the Iberian to test the ideas of tactical bombing(2) backfired. We are launching an investigation to try to defend our position but the damage to our position in the League has suffered a terrible blow. I will be leaving for Geneva at the end of the month to try to defend our position there.”

(1) Ricardo Arjona, Army Commander.

(2) IIRC the Italians IOTL were the main proponents of tactical bombing against cities to force the enemies into the negotiation table. I guess we could see the members of the AANM trying soemthing else ITTL.

August 4th 1933- Captain Hector Suarez stood over the bodies of the partisans and shook his head.

"Are you sure they were partisans?" he asked the sargent in charge of the platoon that made the kill.

"Si, señor. Look at the weapons we captured." responded the NCO while pointing at the obsolete rifles captured.

Suarez turned in the direction of the weapons and then again in the direction of the bodies. "But all I have here is old men and young lads. How you can be sure they were partisans?"

"Easy, Señor, they refused to give us their supplies. That made them partisans according the last standing orders in regard to the rebels." was the easygoing response of the NCO.

Suarez knew the orders very well but never have to see the way they were being enforced, with poor farmers been deprived of their supplies during the winter in an attempt to deny them to the real partisans. His thoughts only of the worst. "Madre de Dios! We are butchers and all we are creating is a quagmire that could last for a long time." But all he did was to nod to the Sargent and turn in the direction of his vehicle. "We are all damned for what we are doing here to this poor souls." was his last thought after giving a last look to the bodies from the backseat before leaving the place.

August 5th 1933- The Ministry of the Navy is reporting today that the destroyer Capitan Hernandez will arrive later in the week from Germany and will join the fleet in El Callao. It was alos announced a new submarine, also build in Germany, will arrive later in the month. Both units are a welcomed addition to our Fleet.

August 7th 1933- The Iberian heavy cruiser Capo Ferro will make a courtesy call to Lima before departing back to Iberian waters in their expected rotation. While no replacement has been announced or expected, it was also announced the destroyers D104 and D105 will depart escorting the Capo Ferro but will be replaced in the Iberian Pacific Squadron by two new destroyers.

August 9th 1933- The Iberian commander Emilio Mola announced today that a bandera of the Spanish Foreign Legion will arrive late on the month and attached to the Colonial Brigade.

Mola recognized that the Foreign Legion troops, created during the early part of the century to police the new African territories, could be difficult to integrate to the conditions of the Andes but he also considered their elite status could bring what he described as "flavor" to the CVI(1).

(1) Cuerpo de Voluntarios Iberianos.

Excerpts from Field Marshall Ricardo Arjona’s private diary.

August 5th 1933- “The winter months are helping our forces to recover their strength for the coming Spring operations. Already the CVI (1) is getting accustomed to the conditions in the region, the 1st and 3rd Divisions are up to strength and the 4th and 2nd Divisions are almost there also. I have to admit the German mission really has done their job in regard to training and organization and I really want to see how the Mobile Regiment comes out. Alejandro (2) tells me the training is coming along fine and they should be ready by the expected time."

August 14th 1933- "Weather has reduced air operations to a minimum and the crews have taken that time to drill in supply and maintenance procedures. We expect the time been spent will bring benefits in the Sping.”

August 22nd 1933- “The news from the South indicate the siege of Sucre continues, with what it seems the bulk and best trained forces of the remaining Bolivian military facing the Chilean forces to a standstill due mainly to the weather. But our indications say the Bolivians have maybe the resources to last until late in the Summer without help but no further than that. Francisco (3) has told me the Bolivians have sent some peace feelers thur the Swiss Embassy but he has refused to discuss terms at all. We need to test our forces and at the same time demonstrate how close our alliance with the Iberians truly is. (4)”

(1) It will be composed of 2nd Mountain Division, the 3rd Naval Infantry Brigade, a Angolan Colonial Infantry Brigade and the 4th Spanish Foreign Legion Bandera.

(2) Brigadier General Alejandro Sanz, commander of the Peruvian Mobile Regiment.

(3) Francisco de La Guarda, Peruvian Foreign Minister

(4) Arjona is truly a pro-Iberian, using the alliance to try to reach political power for himself. Let see how far he goes.

September 2nd 1933- It has been announced today construction will start on fortifications to cover the approaches to the Naval base in El Callao. It was stated the guns dismounted from the armored cruiser Callao will be mounted in concrete bunkers to try to upgrade the defensive capabilities of the base.

September 7th 1933- Field Marshall Arjona reported from his headquarters in La Paz that the forces in Bolivia will be reorganized for the coming operations in the Spring. (1) While the units in question are not identified by name it has been suggested a large part of our nation's armed forces will participate in the coming operations. (2)

(1) due to the area must likely large offensive operations will not start until December.

(2) The Ibero- Peruvian force is now composed of the CVI (2nd Mountain Division, 3rd Naval Infatry Brigade, the 4th Spanish Legion Bandera, an Angolan Colonial Infantry Brigade), the 1st Corps (1st and 3rd Infantry Divisions with some border guards as reserve and the tank battalion will arrive in early November), the 2nd Corps (the 2nd and 4th Divisions with the Naval Brigade arriving by the end of November and serving as Corps reserve), the 3rd Corps (only the 6th Division by early September but the Fast Brigade (the Mobile Regiment and a Border Guard Cavalry Regiment) will join by early November) The 5th Division is covering the border with Chile while the recently raised 7th Division is covering the border with Brazil.

September 7th 1933- Minister de la Garza read the reports coming from overseas with interest. "It seems the Italians will be forced to sell some of their new armored cruisers due to possibly violating the Cleito Treaty," read the report from the Italian mission,"is our hope the Iberians or another member nation of the AANM get that ships."

De la Garza lamented of the possible sale of the ships but with the already completed arrangement to purchase the South African ships any attempt to purchase any capital units will not feasible at this time.

He put that report down and picked up one of the reports regarding the problem of support ships. "The size of our current submarines is not economically feasible and maybe smaller submarines will be the way to go." He put the report down and noted the possibility of acquiring some designs overseas.

Next another report recommended the pursuit of cheaper escort ships and De La Garza also scribbled an order for the missions in Europe to search for smaller destroyers.

He put his pen down and went to the table were a cup of coffee was waiting for him. He sipped his coffee but he knew that even that efforts to get cheaper ships will not get be succesfull until at least the middle of next year.

18 September

Field Marshall Arjona finds an envelope stuffed under his doorway. It contains a "limited time offer", asking if Peru would desire a "volunteer group" of "heavy bombers and escorts" to "assist in the present conflict".

The signature:

"M."

Did M include a self-addressed, pre-paid envelope for Arjona's reply?

Quoted

Originally posted by Swamphen
18 September

Field Marshall Arjona finds an envelope stuffed under his doorway. It contains a "limited time offer", asking if Peru would desire a "volunteer group" of "heavy bombers and escorts" to "assist in the present conflict".

The signature:

"M."

September 19th 1933- Arjona pondered all night the message sent by the mysterious M, already almost a mythical figure in the Far East, knowing full well the implications of joining his destiny with him could be.

The instructions to how to respond to the message were enclosed on the letter and as such he sent a small letter to the post office box on the letter.

"We will accept this so-called volunteer group's help but with no compromise of any future payments. It will be I guess a way to "evaluate" your products in real action."

Signed,
A

26 September
Port of Bangkok

"Careful with that crate there! Careful now! Trust me, you don't want to drop any of this!"

The captian of the S.S. Kobayashi Maru turned away from where his first mate was supervising the loading of sixteen rather large crates, these following a multitude of smaller ones. He'd told most of the crew that they were carring "supplies ordered by Peru", only a few men (including the mate) knew the true contents of their cargo. Operations like this made him nervous, he hated having become indebited to the infamous Siamese "security chief" so many years ago, but at least now that the favour had been called in he'd be in the clear. Well, hopefully, you could never be sure where the White Mice in general, and "M." in particular, were concerned.

He entered the bridge, ever-aware of the "plainclothes security officers" who had been posted aboard at M.'s "request". They were Mice, of course, but he'd play along as long as he got paid. Picking up the "top secret" stamped manifest, he checked the loading order once again. The four P-30s and four Fw 42As were aboard, the lone Fw 42B was currently being cursed at by the first mate, and the crates for the five Do 11s were next up for the crane. After that they could sail, and that wouldn't be soon enough. He wasn't sure what portion of his cargo he was more worried about - the 250kg bombs, or the rubber and gasoline...

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Fw 42As and Fw 42B of the "White Elephant Squadron", remarked with Peruvian roundels: