Order of Battle 1938
 

Hi,

Would anyone have the Orde of Battle for the Luftwaffe and Italian Air Force for the Munich Crisis of August/September 1938?

Alex

I have a preliminary analysis at: http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/2072/Munich.html

Jason
PS why do you want to know about the Italians?

Hi Jason,

Thanks for the link and info, much appreciated.

I'm planning to write a novel based on WWII staring in 1938 after the Munich Agreement failed. It will be centered around one RAF Squadron and one pilot in particular.

As Italy attacked France in 1940 when Mussolini thought it would be easy pickings there is always the same thought for my story based in 1938. Will he stay out or join in. Likewise Russia threatened to come to the aid of the Czechs if Hitler invaded. This aid would have to cross Poland. What then would Poland do?

Alex

The situations are entirely different in 1938 and 1940. Primarily because Italy was still embroiled in the Spanish Civil War in 1938. There weren't a major number of Italian ground troops committed, but it was a serious drain on the Regia Aeronautica and supplying the Nationalists came at the expense of building up Italy's own stockpiles. At most I believe that Mussolini would commit a brigade or so of "volunteers" to assist the Germans. Remember that they'd not yet signed the Pact of Steel and weren't formally allies.

As for the Poles and Russians, the latter had an agreement to ship troops to Czechoslovkia via Romania and didn't _necessarily_ have to try and go through Poland. OTOH I do tend to believe that Stalin would try and revenge himself against the Poles if an opportunity offered itself. Polish seizure of Teschen, despite Soviet warnings not to do so, would likely have been used as the casus belli. This would lead to the unnatural, at least to our modern eyes, semi-alliance of Germany and Poland. I say semi-alliance as I seriously doubt that the Poles would whole-heartedly throw in the Germans, especially since they were quite aware of the German claims against West Prussia, Danzig and the like.

I have a complete RAF OB for the period if you're interested as well.

Jason

Hi Jason,

Thanks for the info. Any help with the ORB for the RAF in this period would be appreciated.

There would appear to be a number of various scenarios for this period. Some further research is called for.

Alex

acrawfordATblueyonder.co.uk

Alex,
I'm embarassed to say that I can't find a file to email you, probably because I did it about 15 years ago and it must have been lost in the several HD crashes I've had since. I think that I've got a hard copy around in my files that I'll hunt up for you.

The diplomatic situation re Munich is extremely complex, not least because the Czechs had managed to alienate all of their neightbors except the Romanians.

There are a few books that you need to read to understand a lot of the political and military things going on:
Williamson Murray: The Change in the European Balance of Power 1938-1939
Eugenia Kiesling: Arming against Hitler
Gabriel Gorodetsky: Grand Illusion
Jiri Hochman: The Soviet Union and the Failure of Collective Security 1934-1938
Gerhard Weinberg: Germany, Hitler and World War II

Jason