“Thank you,” Menzies said.
Grisham nodded. “We will also be sending Contemporary units and a handful of our own forces to India and Singapore. While the Indian Provisional Government has agreed to cooperate with us, its authority is far from total. The Princes, for example, are refusing to recognise their authority, and are in a position to throw India into chaos.”
Hanover snorted. “It isn’t already?”
McLachlan coughed. “For the moment, we are working out a power-sharing scheme for India, one that will hopefully introduce a form of democracy and give the Princes some stake in the new system. While this is a far from ideal situation, and Gandhi has inveigled against it, the only other option is to… ah, take out the Princes, and we don’t have the forces in place to accomplish that. For the moment, the Indian Army is loyal – between the Contemporary British and the IPG they have a focus of loyalty, but its badly equipped.”
“On the other hand,” General Chapman injected, “we can be fairly certain of holding Singapore this time around, even with the handful of our own forces that were inserted into the region. And, of course, the Japanese will be weaker than they were the first time around.”
Hanover looked thoughtful. “And how strong are they?”
Stirling coughed, feeling more confident than he had the first time he’d summarized the reports of the Oversight Committee. “The Japanese, at the moment, are building up their fleet,” he said. “If the worst-case is to be believed, they have four fleet carrier currently active and two more that will be fitting out at the moment. They also have a serious number of smaller carriers that we can probably dismiss unless they serve as part of the Combined Fleet; they simply don’t carry enough aircraft to be a threat.”
Mildly amused by the look on Admiral Somerville’s face, he continued. “The massive Yamato is in the process of being fitted out at the moment,” he continued. “That ship represents a serious threat; in the original time line it took hundreds of bombs to destroy. Hopefully, we can get most of the fleet with missiles, but I shudder to think what would happen if one of the Japanese battlewagons got within firing range of one of our ships.
“Apart from the Yamato, which might or might not be ready to move, the Japanese have a number of other battleships and a large smaller force, including cruisers, destroyers and submarines. Their main weakness is oil; if we strike against their tankers they will be quickly paralysed, and then we can stave them out if we have to.”
Stirling adjusted the display. “In Australia, the units from North Africa have already returned home, along with a selection of goods from RAF stockpiles. The RAAF is weaker than I’d prefer, but we’ve sent almost half of the tanks and crew from the Contemporary forces in North Africa there. Under Australian command, there are roughly 30’000 British troops, and the 7th Armoured Division (Contemporary) will be dispatched as soon as they have finished training on the Chieftain tanks.
“In essence, the Oversight Committee is certain that we can defeat the Japanese, but at considerable cost,” Stirling concluded.
“Thank you,” Hanover said. “Now, the recent developments in Spain… John?”
McLachlan picked up the control and flipped through the stored – and secure – PowerPoint files, finally displaying the brief from the Foreign Office. After the shock of their arrival had worn off, the Foreign Office had managed to come to grips with most of its new responsibilities, mainly thanks to McLachlan. Commenters were already talking about him as a possible Prime Minister in the future.
“Unfortunately, General Franco has yielded to pressure from Herr Hitler and begun preparations for war against us,” he said. A low murmur ran through the table. “As far as can be determined, the Transition seriously damaged the Spanish economy, as the Spaniards were dependent on materials from the Contemporary Britain. Of course, we didn’t know about that and we probably could not have handled the matter if we had known.”
Hanover chuckled harshly. “I suspect it went something like this,” he said. “Hitler; join us. Franco; hell, no. Hitler; join us, or we will do unto you as we did to the Poles. Franco; Jawohl, Mein Fuhrer.”
“Quite possibly,” McLachlan agreed. “At the moment, the Germans are moving heavy guns into Spain, and positioning them near Gibraltar. We believe that they will attempt to take the Fortress – and that they will succeed.”
Hanover scowled. “What will that do to our logistics?”
“Damage them,” McLachlan said. “This is coordinated action; if Admiral Turtledove’s fleet can’t pass through the Mediterranean, they will have to go the long way around. The German guns can really damage our ships. In the long term, it won’t matter that much; I don’t see any way in which Franco can hold his country together under bombardment, but of course we don’t have enough cruise missiles to really fuck up even the battered Spanish road network. The air bridge uses airports in Morocco, which are out of range of the German guns, so that won’t be affected.”
Hanover scowled. “Have the RAF stand by to strike against the German guns as soon as possible,” he said. “In the meantime, what about war production?”
Armin Prushank, the Minister for War Production, a recreated post, stood up and coughed. He’d once been a schoolteacher and it showed; Smith had made him a Minister and he’d proved himself in revamping the NHS. When the War Production post had been recreated, Hanover had offered him the post.
“Following advice from pilots who have encountered German aircraft, missile production priorities were given to short-range ASRAAMS,” he said. It was a stiff, scholarly delivery; Stirling hid a smile behind his hand. “A Eurofighter can carry eight of the missiles, which provide a powerful force multiplier. Production of cannon shells remains at a suitable level, sufficient for both fighter jet requirements and ground-based anti-aircraft weapons.
“Longer-ranged cruise missiles and precision weapons are proving harder to re-supply,” he continued. “Although we maintained a plant for their construction if necessary, a number of the components were outsourced from America, mainly Tomahawk missiles. Developing our own production has proceeded slower than I would have wished; we have had to find the materials and proceed, in many ways, almost from scratch.”
“Blasted Gordon Brown,” Hanover muttered. “How long until we can start replacing our losses in aircraft?”
“Two more months,” Prushank said. “Unfortunately, Eurofighters were built in components, which were then placed together at a central location. While we have the plans and a stockpile of strategic materials, we are short on experienced staff. Harriers, on the other hand, can be assembled fairly quickly; we hope to have the first new Harrier in two months.”
Barton coughed. “What about building something more… ah, primitive?” He asked. “A Lightning, for example, or a Meteor?”
“We don’t have the plants to build them anymore,” Prushank explained. “Ironically, it would take longer to build them than it would to build something more advanced. Unfortunately…”
“I’m getting sick of that word,” someone muttered.
“Unfortunately,” Prushank snapped, “the Ministry is forced to compete with commercial interests, all determined to sabotage British production and our chances of survival.”
Stirling took a breath. It was a sore point and much discussed on the Internet and by the Oversight Committee. The need to construct new ‘toys’ for America and the nations in the British Commonwealth was diverting resources from the war. On one hand, the British needed the dollar income; on the other, it would cripple their ability to make war.