No Spanish Civil War in 1936 (my new Timeline)

[Dr. Strangelove]

As promised:

[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]From www.commonpedia.org/Juan_de_la_Cierva[/FONT]


[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Juan de la Cierva y Codorníu[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif] (21 September 1895, Murcia – 9 May 1968, London[1]) was a Spanish civil engineer, pilot and aeronuatical engineer. His most famous accomplishment was the invention in 1920 of the [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Autogiro[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], a single-rotor type of aircraft that came to be called autogyro in the English language. After four years of experimentation, De la Cierva developed the articulated rotor which resulted in the world's first successful flight of a stable rotary-wing aircraft in 1923 with his C.4 prototype. [/FONT]


[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]...He moved to England in 1925, where with the support of Scottish industrialist James G. Weir, he established the Cierva Autogiro Company. . Technology developed for the autogyro was used by experimenters in the development of the Fw 61, which was flown in 1936 by Cierva Autogiro Company licensee Focke-Achgelis. The FW 61 was the world's first functional military gyrodyne[2], predating the C 41 by five years...[/FONT]


[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]...while himself hostile to the spanish government that sprang from the February 1936 and March 1937 elections, the Cierva company was contacted by the spanish air force for the development of an Autogyro capable of delivering troops during the brief stage of autonomous spanish rearmament between 1937 and 1939. The project was cancelled in March 1939 due to the spanish' ministry of defense difficulty in funding the project, but proved important during the development of C.41[/FONT]


[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]From www.commonpedia.org/Cierva.C41[/FONT]


[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]...Cierva had tendered the project as C38 in response to the Royal Navy's 22/38 specification for a naval helicopter. While funding for the project was greatly reduced at the onset of war in 1939[3], it would be resurrected in 1941...[/FONT]


[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]...C41's prototype built at the end of 1941 was the first modern gyrodyne representing a clear evolutionary step beyond De la Cierva's earlier autogyros. Designed by Cierva's chief engineer J. A. J. Bennet...[4][/FONT]


[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]From www.commonpedia.org/Special_Air_Service[/FONT]


[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]... the Special Air Service was formed in February 1941 by Lieutenant in the Scots Guards David Stirling, during the lull in the Western Front prior to Fall Schwarz. Stirling, then serving with No 8. (Guards) Commando deployed in Navarra to counter the expected german invasion, had the idea to use small teams of, originally, parachute trained soldiers to be dropped behind enemy lines to gain intelligence and harass enemy supply routes... [/FONT]


[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]...following extensive training at Breacon Beacons and other camps in Morocco and Southern Spain, the SAS was ready to undertake its first operation in August 1941, attacking german airfields at Salamanca...[/FONT]


[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]...these successes during 1941 in both France and Iberia did not hide the fact that, operating in Northern Spain far from allied airbases in Africa, and with the germans guarding all available ports, an alternate form to insert and evacuate commandos had to be developed, one that ideally offset the disadvantages of both parachuting and gliders...[/FONT]


[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]...the C41 project had survived with minimal funding during the previous years and was in the brink of cancellation when it was given new life with the very precise briefing of creating a machine that, operating from airfields in North Africa or small ships near the coast, could fly in low altitude transporting small commandos, able to land or take off in almost any open space, and if need arose, to be hidden or dismounted with the help of local resistance cells. Stirling believed that the gyrodyne could act as a mobile airbase enabling commandos to pinpoint their landing targets with great accuracy and, what was to Stirling a great advantage over the gliders that the germans had used to great effect in 1940, move great distances outrunning overstretched German garrisons in the Spanish countryside, and avoid the problems with chaotic parachuting and difficult seaborne extractions that had plagued SAS' earlier ventures. The near-destruction of a german parachute division in the opening stages of the Battle of Cadiz in 1942 also convinced the British command that alternate methods for airborne invasions had to be developed... [/FONT]


[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]From www.commonpedia.org/Cierva.C44[/FONT]


[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]...while Sea Lion came and went without the gyrodyne project having reached beyond the testing stages, the C.44 would become the world's first operational and mass produced gyrodyne, with 275 production units being built between September 1943 and March 1945 after the five prototypes built during 1943...[/FONT]


[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]...Seven C.44 carrying twelve commandos each would perform the first major combat operation involving a rotary wing aircraft when they inserted a SAS team tasked with destroying german artillery positions over the Langres Plateau in northeastern France during the night of January 19 1944. The operation was a mixed success, with the engine noise alerting the german defenders. Two of the gyrodynes would be lost to anti air fire before insertion could be finished...[/FONT]


[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]...while their most famous action in the war was their massed use to capture vital points of the Wotan Line during the crossing of the Rhine in September 1944, gyrodynes would also be used during the battle of the Scheldt in spring. A less glamurous, but more widespread and useful usage was the deployment of two gyrodyne platoons as the 1[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]st[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif] Royal Airborne Ambulance Corps in June 1944, that evacuated thousands of injured allied soldiers during the tough and bloody combats for the Sigfried Line and Saarbrücken, savaing hundreds of lives...[/FONT]




[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][1]In our timeline, De la Cierva died in an aviation accident in London in December 9 1936. He had lived in England since 1925, granted licenses to build autogyros in several countries and had supported the National troops at the outbreak of the Civil War. The Cierva company would design several helicopters for the british army during the 40's and early 50's, including what was at the time (1948) the largest helicopter in the world, a 3-rotored monstrosity. Cierva believed that helicopter configurations with a tail rotor like Sikorsky's were too mechanically complicated, so his survival ITTL has important effects with regards to gyrodynes -who are more direct successors to his autogyros- surviving as more than a footnote in aeronautics history. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][2]ITTL the term gyrodyne (or girodino in spanish, a word I made up only to discover it already existed) has suplanted helicopter as the word that designates rotary wing aircraft in Europe, even if both types of aircraft coexist. Aviation geeks will make a point of telling gyrodynes and helicopters apart, but that is considered pointless pedantry in average conversation. A gyrodyne, for those who don't know (most of us) could be defined as a plane-helicopter hybrid that lacks a helicopter's tail rotor (that was Sikorsky's innovation in 1940) but provides anti-torque and propulsion via lateral propellers mounted laterally like those of a plane. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][3]IOTL the project was cancelled at this point, but ITTL Churchill was able to scrape some extra funds during the months of run up to war. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][4]IOTL Bennett was Cierva's chief engineer between 1936 and 1939 before moving to Fairey, where he would continue to develop his designs -among others the C.38- before building the world's first gyrodyne in 1946. [/FONT]

Juan de la Cierva next to an autogyro, circa 1932.

A Cierva C.44 undergoing trials in southern England, December 1943.

Propaganda picture depicting Gyrodynes based from ARE Buenaventura Durruti in action in front of the Angolan coast in August 1987.

I'll be on the beach for a few days and then there will be another interlude detailing other technological and political butterflies before I finally tackle the final months of the war.

 

[EmmettMcFly55]

I was kind of wondering whether or not I should upload the July 1944 map yet. I'm not entirely sure what the Eastern Front situation looks like, given the fact that you mentioned an offensive starting on May 29th.

 

[Milarqui]

Phheeeeeeeewwww. That's Tech Porn if I've ever seen it.

It is nice to see more things from this timeline that are not directly related to war. And it is also funny how the pseudo-Spanish word has become far more used than the one used in OTL.

All in all, an excellent update.

Have fun at the beach!

 

[Dunois]

As usual Strangelove great stuff, it seems that helicopter technology and helicopter tactics will be at least five ot ten years ahead of OTL especially for the latter.

I was thinking about one thing during the last few days, but what will happen to Spain as a tourist destination post war and beyond? Since your Spain is more focusing on industry and in building a diverse economy and industrial base, I would be tempted to think that tourism won't become as important as OTL. I might be wrong though, but will TTL Mallorca and Ibiza still be heavily frequented by tourists and drunk idiots from northern Europe or will they go elsewhere lik Italy or Yugoslavia?

 

[Dr. Strangelove]

I was kind of wondering whether or not I should upload the July 1944 map yet. I'm not entirely sure what the Eastern Front situation looks like, given the fact that you mentioned an offensive starting on May 29th.

Yes, by July 1944 the Eastern Front has all but collapsed in Belarus and the Baltics. I'll try to write the update ASAP.

As usual Strangelove great stuff, it seems that helicopter technology and helicopter tactics will be at least five ot ten years ahead of OTL especially for the latter.

Yes, and hopefully I gave a plausible explanation. With Cierva surviving, research on rotary wing aircraft in Britain goes the way of the gyrodyne rather than that of the helicopter as it will go in the US. The Navy helicopter project, that was cancelled IOTL at the outbreak of war, is kept on life support thanks to Churchill's earlier war footing, and the different needs and origins of SAS make apparent the need for a usable rotary wing aircraft as early as 1941. Gliders will be used too, but in a less widespread way.

Rotary wing aircraft in the US will go through the OTL path, but Britain and by extension Europe will continue working with gyrodynes, leading to the helicopter being more widely used in America and the gyrodyne in Europe. People will probably be aware that helicopter/gyrodyne is one of those silly transatlantic linguistic quirks like lift/elevator, usually without knowing that both words refer to different concepts of aircraft.

I was thinking about one thing during the last few days, but what will happen to Spain as a tourist destination post war and beyond? Since your Spain is more focusing on industry and in building a diverse economy and industrial base, I would be tempted to think that tourism won't become as important as OTL. I might be wrong though, but will TTL Mallorca and Ibiza still be heavily frequented by tourists and drunk idiots from northern Europe or will they go elsewhere lik Italy or Yugoslavia?

If anything, the boom will begin before, in the early-to-mid 1950's. There's focus on industry, but there's also easy money to be made on tourism.

 

[Dr. Strangelove]

[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]From: Mankind's adventure. International cooperation and Space Exploration, by Eugene F. Kranz, New York, 1981. [/FONT]


[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]...the V-1 had the honour of being the first true precursor of a space rocket to be given a practical use. Soviet Katyushas, spanish Gaitas and British Crecys were useful only insofar as they could be used en masse, since each individual rocket was by itself relatively weak and inaccurate -it is true, though, that by the end of the war the British Army was experimenting with a guidance system for Crecy rockets whose results would help kickstarting the British and European space programs- but the V1 was a very sophisticated device for its time, and its use attacking Antwerp, Southern England and Paris in the last months of the war in Europe raised some eyebrows in allied leadership, who wondered what other sort of wonder weapons would Germany have...[/FONT]


[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]...the V-2, if ever used, could have caused a powerful psychological impact among the allies. This weapon was a precursor of every modern space rocket and ballistic missile. It was a weapon advanced twenty years to its age, and one shudders to think of the effect it could have had on Antwerp or allied bridgeheads over the Rhine. Fortunately, german economy was never in a shape to mass manufacture it, and after Hitler's retreat, the Kamarilla chose to concentrate into production of cheap, simple weapons for the defense of the Reich. Only a few prototypes were built in late 1944 to be captured by allied and Italian forces. The myth that Gladio prevented a V-2 sarin or tabun attack in the closing days of the war...[/FONT]


[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]...in all, these develpments make us hope that mankind might be able to set foot on the moon before the end of the Century, perhaps even before this decade ends.[/FONT]




[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]From “Symphony of Titans: the Eastern Front, 1942-1944”, by Eugene E. Richards, 1998. [/FONT]


[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]...that the Soviets were willing to delay the beginning of Suvorov until May 29 to take full advantage of favorable weather forecasts, foregoing the symbolic date of May 25 that marked the second anniversary of the german invasion, shows how committed Stavka was this time to finally drive the Axis forces out of the Soviet Union and to invade the Reich. Seeing how the Western allies were already on the verge of entering Germany must to have been a powerful motivation...[/FONT]


[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]... german intelligence had correctly gauged that soviet losses at Kiev would prevent them from mounting any more major offensives until the end of the spring. That was about everything it got right. In May 27, a dispatch to Berlin was confident that, having left May 25 go unnoticed, the Soviets might not attack until the end of June, or that they were even reverting to a defensive stance fearing an axis counteroffensive with western allied help! Either way, soviet maskirovka and german self-deception helped to convince OKH that the attack, if it came, would be directed to Riga across the Dvina river -during April and May, reserves were bolstered toward the Baltics to that effort. The Soviets would indeed be grateful that the germans were leaving wide open the door to the Reich... [/FONT]


[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]...The blow came shortly before 430 AM in May 29. By noon, Army Group Centre Headquarters had completely lost control over its operations. By June 1, Army Group Centre would have ceased to exist. Konev's Belorussian Front began the attack in a narrow front around Vitebsk, through the gap between the upper Dvina and Dnieper rivers. The germans had correctly judged that gap the weakest link in the Dvina-Dnieper line, but incorrectly assumed that the soviets would attempt to outsmart them by attacking from the north -and soviet maskirovka had been happy to oblige. [/FONT]


[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]...under the Kamarilla's secret leadership, german doctrine had changed to that of a flexible defense, preparing in-depth defenses and retreating from exposed positions, except in the so-called "decisive objectives" of Riga and Mogilev. By 630 AM, german forces under attack in the Vitebsk Gap received orders to retreat back to defense positions behind the Beresina river 150 km west. They never had the chance: by the next day two german armies were already cut off. Later in the evening of May 29, at the headquarters of Army Group Centre in Minsk, it was becoming clear that orders given to frontline units could not be performed and were based in unrealistic assumptions. In fact, the soviets' dizzying advance made difficult to know what frontline units were. In June 2, Konev's tanks reached the Beresina, whose woefully undermanned defenses were overcome in less than 36 hours of frantic combat. Meanwhile, the remains of Army Group Centre were attempting to break out from encirclement. Again, the soviets were happy to oblige -but forcing most of them to retreat north toward Riga. The defenses of Misk were overwhelmed in June 12 -by that point, Chuikov's 2nd Belarussian front was attacking across the Upper Dnieper toward Mogilev. Despite orders to resist to the death, the germans retreated from Mogilev, but that did not keep them from being encircled. [/FONT]


[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]... by late June the soviets had liberated all of Belarus and were within reach of Brest. The first phase of Suvorov being an unqualified success, the second began in June 22. In the north, the Belarussian front striked towards Vilnius and Kaunas, while in the Ukraine, Vlasov's Ukrainian fronts broke out of the Kiev perimeter and advanced west. With the bulk of Army Group South still protecting the overexposed Dnieper bend, soon Axis forces in the Ukraine were routed. Matters were not helped by the Italians' unilateral decision to retreat to a defense line in the Bug river in June 24, and then to the Dniester two days later when it was clear that Vlasov did not want to stop. By this point, Ciano was in full damage control mode, hoping to salvage as much from his balkanic empire as he could. With only the german component of Army Group South willing to resist, the Ukrainian front unraveled. However, the offensive north was the top priority, and Vlasov, not having enough trucks to keep up with his advance, was forced to slow it down, preventing him from encircling most of Army Group South and allowing it to retreat into Lvov or Romania...[/FONT]


[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]...in Lithuania, Vilnius fell after a week of combats, when Konev's spearheads had already reached Kaunas. In July 13, Soviet tanks entered Eastern Prussia. The remnants of Army Groups North and Centre, that in January 1943 had a combined force of two and a half million men in a front running from Tallinn to Ukraine through Central Moscow, were now a remnant of 200.000 men, huddled in a cauldron between the Dvina and Nieman rivers, a fact Stalin was happy to share with the other allied leaders at Kabul a few days later... [/FONT]

 

[King Henry]

Wow, compared with the bloodbath in Antwerp, that degree of success is probably going to help determine borders in Kabul.

I'm still curious how Ciano gets out of this with anything east of Venice honestly.

 

[Dr. Strangelove]

Will Wallace shre the secrets of the Bomb openly with the Soviets as per For All Time or not?

I'll have this post from the Historical Misconceptions Thread answer for me:

Another misconception: Henry Wallace is a Retarded Person

There is a widespread belief that, upon assuming the presidency in the event of Roosevelt's death, Henry A. Wallace's brains shall melt into a thin communistic soup. That, instead of being at all influenced by the grizzled experts cultivated by the Military and the Administration for the past ten years, he would stick to his blind mission of personally fellating Josef Stalin on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. He would continue to ignore obvious geopolitical realities because he'd spoken out in favor of a wartime ally, which apparently is the equivalent of signing up to be Lenin's ottoman.

Wow, compared with the bloodbath in Antwerp, that degree of success is probably going to help determine borders in Kabul.

Yes, but Suvorov begins weeks after Antwerp has fallen, and when it ends the allies have already cracked the Siegfried Line and entered Pfalz, while the Soviets are still beginning to "liberate" Eastern Poland.

I'm still curious how Ciano gets out of this with anything east of Venice honestly.

Well, he is too. He is even more curious of how he will get out of this with anything north of the Appenines.

 

[EmmettMcFly55]

Very nice.

Italy would be best off seeking peace immediately. Ciano could try to humble himself before Stalin in the hope that'll please him and get Italy a light peace. If only Truman were in charge of the US: having a guy like Wallace on top is going to rid Ciano of any Western sympathy he has left and make his task very, very hard.

by late June the soviets had liberated all of Belarus and were within reach of Brest.

Since I included a Polish SSR on my map and you didn't contradict me, I suppose that ITTL Belarus refers to the borders it had IOTL pre-1939. But even then, Brest would be in reach.

I'll post a map in two or three days' time, when I have restored access to my own computer (I'm on holiday now).

 

[Dunois]

[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]...in all, these develpments make us hope that mankind might be able to set foot on the moon before the end of the Century, perhaps even before this decade ends.[/FONT]

That's very interesting since it is a clear statement that mankind has not gone beyond the Earth orbit yet with manned spacecrafts.

At the same time I am rather puzzled by the fact that TTL electronics and computing technologies are between ten to fifteen years ahead of OTL. That allusion of alt Don Draper designing microcomputers (you are the one which got me into Mad Men through this post by the way Strangelove ), makes it rather obvious, alongside other snippets of informations thrown everywhere.

The BIG push towards the large scale manufacture of integrated circuits was the need for miniature chips to go on ICBMs and on the Apollo capsules computers. Without this happening an alternative "push" is needed. ICBMs will still be needed in this world by the sixties unless rocketry technology is ten years behind.

I somehow have a feeling that TTL Spain will become in some ways OTL Japan and that Spanish planners, end up making a huge and eventually winning bet on electronics and building up an electronics industry.

In any case its really good that the war is drawing to a close, as we will finally move into the post war world where all the threads you left dangling around will be tied up.

 

[EmmettMcFly55]

Here's the map. 1st of July, 1944.

Comments and constructive criticism are welcomed.

 

[TheBerlinguer]

British Somaliland should be part of the Italian Empire: the Fascists received it as a compensation for the independence of Ethiopia and I don't remember the fact being retconned. And what's that pink dot next to Saar?
Aside from that very accurate!

 

[Dr. Strangelove]

That's very interesting since it is a clear statement that mankind has not gone beyond the Earth orbit yet with manned spacecrafts.

The space race is delayed by 10-20 years.

The BIG push towards the large scale manufacture of integrated circuits was the need for miniature chips to go on ICBMs and on the Apollo capsules computers. Without this happening an alternative "push" is needed. ICBMs will still be needed in this world by the sixties unless rocketry technology is ten years behind.

I somehow have a feeling that TTL Spain will become in some ways OTL Japan and that Spanish planners, end up making a huge and eventually winning bet on electronics and building up an electronics industry.

There is an ideological reason, and yes, Spain will play a part in it, although not as big as Japan's IOTL.

Here's the map. 1st of July, 1944.

Comments and constructive criticism are welcomed.

The Soviets have occupied most of Lithuania and there's a german pocket in Curland and Riga. By this point of July Malaya and Indochina have been liberated or are about to be (but of course you couldn't know that)

British Somaliland should be part of the Italian Empire: the Fascists received it as a compensation for the independence of Ethiopia and I don't remember the fact being retconned. And what's that pink dot next to Saar?
Aside from that very accurate!

Er, no, the Italians only kept Eritrea and their part of Somaliland IIRC.

 

[EmmettMcFly55]

The Soviets have occupied most of Lithuania and there's a german pocket in Curland and Riga.

I thought that wasn't until later in July. Although I admit the Eastern Front should have been slightly further to the west in that region.

 

[TheBerlinguer]

Er, no, the Italians only kept Eritrea and their part of Somaliland IIRC. [/QUOTE]

Sorry, my bad: I misinterpreted a line of post #69 (how long ago, huh?) and I realized my error only after re-reading.

 

[Archangel]

Dr. Strangelove, I was surfing the web for some old legislation and found this: A List of Opposition candidates for the National Assembly of the OTL Portuguese "Estado Novo" (1945-1973). It might came handy to check potential Portuguese politicians for the post-war.

 

[Ben the banjo player]

I've said this before, but this TL is all sorts of awesome. I'm jonesing for an update.

 

[Linense]

I would like to know more about the international context, notably in Latin America. For example, there will be Peronism in Argentina?

As for Spain, is formally annexed Spanish Morocco, staying as several Spanish provinces which later formed an autonomous region?

 

[naraht]

Here's the map. 1st of July, 1944.

Comments and constructive criticism are welcomed.

Did I miss a Chaco War II in TTL? The POD is in 1936, but the border between Paraguay and Bolivia is what it would be if Bolivia got all of the land in dispute in the Chaco War.

And Honduras and Nicaragua are US controlled?

 

[EmmettMcFly55]

On that first issue, blame the base map.

As for Honduras and Nicaragua, I'm not sure why they're outlined that way, but I presume their governments were strongly pro-American in that period.

Here a slightly better map. Still July 1st, 1944.