Perhaps it was not a great idea to allow the Archangel's Legion the rights to pilgrimage to Constantinople and the Holy Lands, as their means and methods were soon adopted by various Israeli groups like Irgun and Herut, eager to cleanse the Holy Lands and especially the West Bank of Jordan of any non-jews.
The British were not amused, as they were also ruling over a huge part of the Middle East filled with Arabs. Crackdowns on the immigrants and extra weapon control points made life harder for the Jews returning home, but it could have been much worse. The British 'harsh' measures were nothing compared to concentration camps and similar stuff in USSR or Germany.
Although the Great Depression was over and food was not being thrown away just to keep prices high, due to my policies (not just me, but the entire National Peasant government)
it meant that agriculture output had doubled in the past 5 years, while industry output had tripled. Technology and science had grown immensely as well, partly from intensive investments into research centers, military testing and numerous schematics being sent from all over the world.
The Greek diaspora had also been co-opted into the Network, as well as Romanian emigrants, and to a much lesser extent various other nations from the Empire.
The Royal Corporation in America was already in top 500, and sneakily hiring inventors from all over the world. Half of the secret work was dedicated to radar and sonar technologies, while the public effort was made for dual-use technologies like tracks, trains, engines of all kinds, plus better steel and oil production. The Americans were not that interested yet in who owned my corporation or what they were doing in their labs, instead being happy to buy our products.
Several inventions never made it to the market, instead being packed and sent to Romania with all haste. An engine with 20% better performance and reliability would have made a pretty buck, but I preferred to gained in edge in my war machines. The IAR_80 was a direct descendant of the IAR_14 that fought bravely over Hungary, Bulgaria and Yugoslavia, but it was for this time the best propeller fighter in the world. Its speed had doubled though, reaching 500 km/hr compared to the former IAR 14 speed of 250 km/hr.
This was indeed an era of wonder and discovery, as technology made huge progress all over the world.
The Royal Airforce immediately put an order for 1000 new IAR 80 planes, but even 1000 planes would not be enough.
To keep the skies of Romania safe from incursion, we will need jet fighters, but that work was still slow. My friend Henri Coanda had a large team around him to help him make his dream into reality, but without computers and graphic programs it took a long time to create a decent flying machine. Even worse, there was nobody to steal the tech from, as we were the leading edge in jet planes at the moment.
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As for naval technologies, diesel submarines with air snorkels were being tested in both Greece and Romania, in great secrecy. We had bought and stolen torpedoes from a dozen nations, and the stolen British Unrotated_Projectile was being tested as a depth charge delivery system against submarines and mines. They had no chance hitting a flying airplane with those things, but I wouldn't bother to tell them unless they became my allies.
And for the moment, the British were doing British things, thinking themselves the rulers of the world. Made them pretty obnoxious and unlikable, but then I was also doing Empire things in the Balkans.
A similar unrotated projectile system was being considered for the Army, as a tankette like the Malaxa UE could carry a rocket launcher with 8 such rockets and deliver a punishing barrage up to 3 kms away. Using a proper tank chassis would allow for a 30 rocket launcher to be installed on a Ferdinand tank, and 60 rocket launcher on the Grey Wolf.
In the end, all three options were approved, as long as the tank could also fire its main gun or machine-guns too. That lead to the creation of a tank destroyer with a fixed casemate in the front for the main gun, just like the Wolf or the Hetzer, but that would be continued with a flat portion to carry the rocket launcher. It looked a bit like the yet-not-made SU-85 , but with a swivel missile launcher on the back. I decided to use the light tanks for this rocket role, and keep the medium tanks in their turreted role.
Seeing +30 damage to both hard and soft attack in my game menu made me very happy when I examined the first prototype. A battalion of 40 these babies would boost any division to impressive stats, even if they complicated logistics and maintenance. The 23 mm twin-autocannons used by the Anti-air company also added +30 piercing, air and soft attack, while the UE tankettes added +2 armor and +20 soft attack to every infantry division.
I also had ideas for a flame tank, but the tankettes would be bombs on tracks due to their low armor, same with the Ferdinand light tanks. The Grey Wolf chassis was the only option remaining, and quite viable too, but the time wasn't right. Before building support units for an armor division, I needed to equip that division with normal tanks first.
While the Romanian Empire was re-building the damaged territories and growing at an absurd rate, in Spain things were going crazy. USSR was supporting the local communists as to expand the Revolution on a global stage, while reactionary countries Germany and Italy were supporting General Franco and his nationalist clique.
Volunteers were pouring into Spain from all over the world, eager to die for their beliefs. I decided to help them die faster. Unmarked submarines departed for Spain loaded with torpedoes, and ordered to sink any ship heading into a Spanish port.