YALP – Yet Another Logistics Post : 1843
YALP – Yet Another Logistics Post : 1843
Ammunition: Britain
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]By late March, the first saltpetre shipments from South America have arrived in Louisiana, and Louisiana starts a series of powdermills to process it. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]When word of the war, and the Louisiana order, hit South America, an obvious opportunity presented itself. Firstly, a couple of small merchants with available stocks set sail immediately, hoping to get to Nicaragua first (and thus be able to sell what stocks they had before the 'official' supply arrived). Other merchants, cut out of the 'official order', decide to mine and ship some of their own on spec. Sure, Louisiana won't buy it, but the Mexicans are in this war, as are the US, and so they might be able to sell as much to them as the Louisianans were buying. Since multiple merchants have the same idea, and try to do this in secrecy, there ends up being much more saltpetre shipped north than there should have been markets for. Imagine the surprise of a laggard ship who arrives at Tehuantepec or Acapulco, which forced south to Nicaragua – and still ends up selling his entire cargo, at a premium price.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]By the time those first loads appear, Britain realizes she needs all the saltpetre she can get. The first load goes to Louisiana, as they ordered it, but further loads are shipped to Cuba (for the Spanish), to Halifax and to New England – as well as to Louisiana. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Moreover, Britain had expected to go to war in the spring and already had supplies enough (they thought) for a full army in the pipeline. Of course, the anticipated 'full army' is less than half the size of the number of men they eventually get in uniform (counting all the Canadian militia units, especially), and the rate of ammunition usage in actual warfare is about twice what was expected, so supplies for the armies in Canada are tight, very tight. Britain tries 'borrowing' gunpowder from other European nations (i.e. buying it at inflated prices, and promising to replace the supplies at a later date), which nets them some extra supply.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Emergency orders are sent, especially to India, but the initial order (sent at New Year's) doesn't result in supplies reaching Britain until fall, and those orders were too small anyway.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]The Central America/South America loop is much shorter, but it's not until July or so that the 'we'll buy every scrap you can ship' message really starts easing the supplies for the Allies. Together with the increased Indian supply starting to arrive in August or so, the British supply constraints ease from VERY tight to merely tight.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]If major supplies of gunpowder had not been prepositioned in the border forts of the Protectorate, the Canadian supply situation in the early months of the war would have been pretty desperate. As it is, the reserves have mostly been used up by early summer, and everyone breathes slightly more easily when new powder starts trickling in (from the too small British orders, and from Louisiana). [/FONT]
Ammunition: US
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]However, the United States is in a horrible position. They had pre-positioned enough supplies for all their offensives to succeed, so they thought, but where the British underestimated ammunition consumption by a factor of 2, the US underestimated it by a factor of 3 or more. Domestic production was up massively over pre-war amounts (mining bat caves), but it basically had only been developed to a level to support one active theatre and minor counterinsurgency in a couple of others. And, again, that was assuming a much lower consumption rate than actually occurred. Moreover, the odd sortie from e.g. Fort Liverpool to hit US supply dumps (only once SO effective, but several times managed to destroy some supplies), and the constant ambushing of US supply lines in Florida and the Protectorate, meant that even more was needed – where essentially none was available. And, of course, there were all those coastal batteries needed along the Atlantic, plus smaller versions on the Mississippi and Great Lakes.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]The first thing that got hit was civilian supply. All gunpowder and saltpetre was requisitioned for military use. (Which, of course, went over like a lead balloon in the West and South.) Secondly, all live-fire training and even shooting practice was stopped, as the supplies were too vital. (Not that the US had gone in for regular live-fire training, even before.) This was especially problematic for the coastal batteries, as the massive expansion meant that few of the gunners had fired a gun (or at least THAT gun), until they actually try to fire in live action, which results in almost ineffectual performance, and minimal damage to the Allied raiders. One US battery commander did decide his men needed practice, but then a British raid came and his battery was out of ammo, and thus it was TOTALLY ineffective, not just mostly. He was court-martialed and made a thorough example of and no one dared repeat his 'error'. Fourthly, production of rapid fire breech-loaders (Hall rifles) is stopped, as the US can't afford the ammunition usage their superior rate of fire produces. (Note that the thousands in the field are not recalled.) Similarly, Maceroni rocket production is slowed, as being simply unaffordable – for a given amount of damage to the target, a cannon uses rather less gunpowder. And fifthly, production at the various bat caves and saltpetre refineries is stepped up, and by fall they will have doubled production over what it was at the beginning of the war, but that is still horribly inadequate.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]The only force that is anything like adequately supplied is the currently operating siege – first at Ft. Francis until the beginning of April, then Liverpool. The minor sieges get starved of gunpowder just like all the other theatres. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]The ceasing of production of new Hall Rifles, means that the horrendous problems trying to produce percussion caps for them is lessened. Thus the US lack of access to (much) mercury is a smaller problem, and experiments with silver fulminate are terminated.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]The US is also desperately short of lead for bullets, which doesn't help. Production at the few mines in US territory is stepped up (this usually actually means silver mines are being mined for their lead content!), and a great patriotic appeal is made to the civilian population to volunteer lead and pewter objects that can be melted down for 'our boys in blue'.[1][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Cannon balls and cannon, being iron are constrained by TTL's much smaller iron industry, but every existing cannon can be supplied with balls, it's that there aren't as many new cannon as would be liked. [/FONT]
Ammunition:Mexico
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Of the various combatants, Mexico actually has the smallest problems with ammunition supply. Not because they have good supply, but because much of their army is stuck in San Antonio, and not fighting anyone. The most active force is in the northern states where resistance is quickly building to the forced requisitions of supplies.[/FONT]
Rail
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]The incredible logistics advantage that rail provided was partly appreciated before the war, but was driven home very clearly during the Canadian counter-offensive campaign in late winter. This would have been simply impossible without the rail connexion to the existing forts – and without the almost completed rail connexion to the Atlantic.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]As a result, the filling in of gaps between Montreal and Detroit becomes the top priority of the British/Canadian effort once the ground thaws. By the beginning of June, Montreal (and thus Boston) were connected to Detroit (and Lake Michigan, although connexions to Chicago, and points south, such as Prophetstown, Liverpool and St. Louis would have to wait).[/FONT]
Food Supplies:Britain
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Food for the army is holding out reasonably well. The flood of refugees put a bit of strain on supply, but Ontario (and to some extent Michigan) are becoming the Breadbasket of the Empire, and it's mostly a matter of getting it from where it's stored to where it's needed. Of course, food eaten by refugees won't be available in Britain, so significant grain purchases are made from Poland, Prussia and Russia.[/FONT]
Food Supplies:US
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]The supply of food is just fine. By late summer, farmers are starting to be wary about taking bank-notes for their produce, and prices start going up. But they don't have much choice, as where else would they sell it? It's not like anyone is going to buy their produce for coin. (Well, except on the shores of Lakes Erie and Ontario <g>). [/FONT]
Food Supplies:Mexico
This is where the problem lies. There is 'lots' of food in Mexico, but supporting the army in San Antonio is very, very difficult. Food has to be transported across hundreds of miles of trail, and the logistic tail is awful. If they tried sourcing the food from central Mexico, it would be absolutely impossible, so food is taken from the three border states Nuevo Leon, Coahuila and Santander (modern Tamaulipas). Initially, most of the local farmers and ranchers were happy to sell, especially to the patriotic war effort. But when the war turns sour quickly, and the San Antonio occupation is basically a running sore, well, the patriotic rush fades quickly. Besides, the army quickly runs out of coin with which to pay for supplies, and starts paying in paper money, then scrip or IOUs, if the farmers are lucky. This turns the population strongly against the army's supply corps, and people start refusing to sell. The army needs the supplies, so more army units are brought into the area, which means they need yet more food, and relations spiral out of control.
These three states were already very unhappy with the central government of Santa Anna for the revocation of the federal constitution. In fact, there had recently been an abortive 'Rio Grande Republic' consisting of these three states, which was put down by the central authorities. It doesn't take long for people to start flocking to the banners of the new Republic, again[2]. And Britain has been quietly landing arms (mostly obsolete muskets) and ammunition since the Mexican army crossed the Nueces. Now, those arms are being taken up and used.
–
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]1 compare the OTL WWII campaigns for fats and aluminium and ….[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]2 actually, the previous rebellion wasn't terribly widespread, and so 'again' is a bit much here, as there wasn't any 'flocking' the first time 'round. Now, however, people are thinking 'We should have listened to these guys then, and then we wouldn't have to put up with this c**p now.'[/FONT]
