Hey, Tanner151, I would just like to ask a question in regards to the Austrian State's future military, namely their air force.
Since the Austrian Air Force in OTL, by the time of the Anschluss, had obsolete aircraft in the form of biplanes (apart from the Focke-Wulf Fw 58 Weihe, Caproni Ca.133 and Junkers F 13), what sort of aircraft do you envision that this Austria's air force would equip itself with?
Would they obtain maybe a licence from Germany to licence-build Bf 109s (maybe low-powered versions, the A, B, C and D) or maybe, obtain a contract to have the Heinkel He 112 as their main fighter? Or would Austria essentially be in a state in which a huge percentage of it's air force still has biplane fighters/bombers/ground-attack aircraft and only a small amount of it's squadrons have the latest fighters, maybe because Germany has high priority for such aircraft?
Austria’s Air Force will take a while to get off the ground, no pun intended. As of now the Austrian Air Force is illegal due to Treaty of Saint-Germain. Now Dollfuss, as did the previous Social Democrat and Conservative governments before him, secretly funded ‘flying clubs’ to have a small pool of experienced pilots and mechanics and to allow the Austrian industry some experience with aircraft parts though most of these flying clubs are flying Italian and German aircraft. However Dollfuss is still more focused on the dismal economy and lackluster industry than military expansion, something Austrian cannot do right now in 1932 even if it wanted to.
Once Hitler becomes
Führer in 1934 the Air Force will get more of a focus though I wouldn’t expect it to be fully modernized until just before WW2 breaks out. Once it is modernized the Austrians will be focusing more on fighter interceptors and dive bombers with few tactical bombers and no strategic bombers. Smaller industrial base means some things are just not made at all or not made in large numbers.
The Air Force will be comprised of mostly Austrian built planes with some foreign ones when they conquer territories.
While we're talking about the Austrian army, what equipment would be given out to the average boots on the ground?
Considering our army minister and his clique seem to carry the steyr m1912 as a self-defence weapon, I imagine that we'll see an updated version used as a standard use side-arm (I imagine the new "Steyr m1936" would basically be the same as the m1912 but with a detachable mag.)
The principal rifle of the
Volkswehr will be the Männlicher 1937 which will be a six round semi-automatic rifle, fed by an en-bloc clip. Faster to fire and slightly more ammo than the M1895 it obviously pales in comparison to the Garand, M1 Carbine, or Gewehr-43/SVT-40, but I’m trying to be realistic on what their industry can manufacture.
They were going to have an assault rifle equivalent in 1943 but I’ve shelved that idea as I don’t see how they could mass produce a brand new type of weapon in the middle of war. There will probably be a Gewehr-43 equivalent sometime in the tail end of the war but won’t ever replace the M1937.
Steyr 1912 will be the default pistol for officers and security forces.
An SMG based on the MP-34 design with a cheaper and more mass produced version in the late 1930s.
Artillery is a bit rough. They will have an ~80mm howitzer and a 150mm mid-range artillery. Not a lot of ‘heavy’ stuff. Austria wants a military that is ‘lean, mean and fast.’ Don’t have much for trench or attritional war.
Panzers for Austria will be somewhere between Panzer III and Panzer IV for much of the war. Eventually they’ll get a Panther equivalent but nothing heavier, at least as of now. It is subject to change.
Austrian divisions are also smaller than average, being around 8,000-9,000 per division. More machine guns and mortars per company/regiment than many other peer militaries, at least at the start of the war.
The Volkswehr will be more motorized per capita than the Wehrmacht was in the war’s beginning. Industrial expansion, both through domestic increase and conquest, will greatly aid the smaller Volkswehr.
The Poles, Italians, Hungarians and Ukrainians will make up the lion’s share of the Axis manpower throughout the war with the Austrians be the ‘tip of the spear’
On a different note:
Also apologies for lack of update. Last quarter of the school year, plus lack of creative juices for Der Kampf, AND a writing itch for a new alt-history has taken a lot of time and energy.
The new alt-history may never see the light of day, but I’m already 30 pages into it with about 7-8 characters planned initially. Set in an alt-WW1 that will lead to an alt-WW2, the war is more widespread than OTL.
No USA, multiple countries there instead. The novel largely revolves around Texas vs California with characters on both sides. A Britain and Prussian-led League vs a French, Russian and Austro-Hungarian Entente with Texas and California on opposing sides.
Probably will never see the light of day but that is something I’ve been working on in my spare time as it has my attention right now. Will be focusing on Der Kampf again in the coming weeks and will get that chapter out before the end of school. Over the summer I hope to get 1-2 more chapter out AND finalize Book 2 for publication.
Still waiting on Book 1 to be released by Sea Lion Press. Haven’t heard back from them in 4 months.
