BlondieBC
Banned
a good question, to me, is, sans WWI to accelerate development, when does the military powers realize mechanized is the wave of the future? the world is reletively new to the notion of horseless carriage vs the horse&buggy, so a bit of a pass can be given in 1914. But, how much longer afterward would people start to say "ya know, an armored gun with mechanical locomotion might be a good idea"?
Same thing for aircraft. 1914 is only 11 years after the first recognized flight. People had already prophecied that they would be offensive weapons. how long before they start being designed as such.
It's a guess to me, but to me, 1925 is a reasonable timeframe.
The Great Powers were already using armoured cars, and had some tanks on the drawing board, so early 20s seems likely.
The 1920's seem reasonable. It will likely be a much more of an evolution process than the giant leaps of OTL. The dates are a bit off since from memory, but the German military asked for more trucking battalions in the 1908 bill (or nearest date). The received less than half of what they asked for. Without WW1, I would expect another boost in the first big bill after 1914. Then again in early 1920. Armored cars had obvious usage, especially in colonial warfare against poorly armed natives. Easy to see them being used. The missing piece is engine to move heavier machines that we would call tanks. Again no reason this can't be done. Slow evolution.
The harder part is when they get the total package done. Easy to see armored cars, trucking regiments, better airplanes, bombing from air, need for encirclement. But with the way large organizations work, it could be quite a while before we see the true combined arms doctrine at a corp level or bigger. For some of the bigger gains, you just have to have large size units.