The Heer - Confidential

[Kaiser Kirk]

Subjects in this folder are not common knowledge, or even uncommon, but known to a limited number.

[Kaiser Kirk]

Bavarian Landwarfare Concepts :

"Hammer and Anvil"
Defensive lines and fortifications are to form stops to allow the opposing advance troops to be depleted and tired.  A heavy counter attack at the flank, with forces following en echelon, which will then form a salient penetrating the opposing line. The forces will then attempt a single wing envelopement of a portion of the enemy force, or if possible a double invelopment with the goal of isolating a portion of the forward opposing forces. A general counter attack will then follow.  The result should be the destruction of the leading edge of the opposing army on favorable terms.

Generally Speaking, Reserve formations full of green troops are to be used for simple maneuvers, for set piece defenses and attacks. This will keep them in favorable situations where unit cohesion and morale will likely remain high.  Regular formations will be used for flanking and assault duties, trusting these units will be capable of executing moderately demanding efforts.  The Elite formations are entrusted with complex and high risk manuevers- night marches, retrograde actions, infiltration tactics, and critical points.  

Early stages of most war scenarios sees Elite units committed to the forward fight, and slowly retreating while Reserve forces construct defensive works. Elite units have been provided with some armor in an effort to provide mobile strongpoints to screen their retreat. Once the foe has advanced and been fixed by the defensive works, the remaining Elite units, in conjuction with Regular units, will launch a counter attack and sever the enemy main force from its rear areas.  

In any war, the Kommandos are expected to infiltrate the enemy rear and emerge at the time of the counter attack to paralyze his communications and supply lines.  To aid this effort a series of citadels are planned commanding choke points. These should take substantial effort to reduce and will choke the enemies supply lines until that has been achieved. Regardles of if the foe pauses to take time to reduce the citadel and free the supply lines, or pushes past the citadel with limited supplies, the citadels will have reduced the enemy's ability to project force rapidly and decisively over the borders.

Warplans include projected defensive points and lines to fall back to and expected counter attack avenues.

Offensive warplans look to leverage the 8 Corps of Mtn troops into a localized advantage. Holding conventional attack corridors static and flanking them through mountains, allowing the foe to be leveraged out of his position, or forced to fight where Bavarian formations have inherent advantages.

These Mountain troops hold decisive advantages on most Bavarian borders, the exception being with the ESC and Ukraine.  The majority of the Hapsburg border is mountainous, as is the Italia border, and the French.

[Kaiser Kirk]

Bavarian expertise is codes is limited.

As such they expect their codes to be broken. They expect the more they use a code, the more rapidly it will be broken.
A code officer reviews outgoing messages and assigns them a priority based on adverse effects if they are decrypted. 

For normal activities- supply reports, etc, these are transmitted/telephoned/telegraphed in the clear. Couriers are preferred if they can deliver the information in a timely manner.

Clear transmission, one time codes :
This also provides 'cover' for coded sequences that blend into the general chatter, and are tied to specific missions.
An example would be if Two songs play in sequence on a commercial station, then the 3rd song is tied to a code denoting certain orders.
Or if a Zeppelin makes routine hourly reports "10:00, all is clear", adding in the phrase "Will commence return to base at 11:15, expect arrive 30min late, save 10 servings of dinner" can be tied to a particular set of instructions.

For the vast majority of reports- casualty levels, ammo levels, etc, the general purpose code is used.

Generally, for the less urgent matters the general purpose and limited codes suffice, with the special code being used very sparingly.

Mission codes : There may be mission specific codes which are devised for say an offensive and distributed to the troops participating. This may include such things as deliberately skewing clock times reported, swapping the names of towns or referring to destinations as types of fruit. These are expected to be transitory but allow more confident use of the regular codes for necessary battlefield exchanges

As a result there are several major codes.
1. Prewar general purpose code.
2. Postwar general purpose code. This is to be implemented 2 weeks after a declaration of war. This will both give time for it's delivery, ensure a universally understood time of implementation, and go into effect about the time hostile forces are being fully committed.
3. After every 6 months of warfare, a new general purpose code will have been developed and be implemented.

4. Limited use code. This is for units reporting reaching march or combat objectives, alerting higher command to a minor battlefield change, etc.

5. Special use. This is limited only to extremely urgent messages which can effect the course of events- A major change on the battlefield, the explosion of an ammo dump, the incapacitation of a Division level or greater general, etc.

[Kaiser Kirk]

The following map shows potential invasion routes from France, the Hapsburgs and the Ukraine.

The Ukrainian routes will be constrained if the ESC is not in the war, as a sliver of ESC territory separates the two realms between Kallenz and Rosenberg, north of Czestochowa.

Off map to the south, a Hapsburg thrust between Goriza and Trieste, and a second into the heart of the Tyrol up the river Drau.

The border with Italia is strongly constrained by geography and heavily fortified.  Amphibious attacks and flanking the Treviso line through the Venetian Alps is expected to be attempted.