NOTES ON THE WORLD OF
THE DOMINATION

War and repression are the raison d'etre of the Domination's state machinery; the Draka exist in a state of either war or serious preparation for same. The War Directorate itself owns a considerable share of the economy, and certainly not less than 20 percent of the total GNP is dedicated to military-related purposes.

There are essentially two Draka armies: the Citizen Force and the Janissaries. The Citizen Force is ultimately descended from the Loyalist volunteer regiments of the American Revolutionary period, and the militia units that conquered and held southern Africa in the late eighteenth century. Other influences included Classical history (notable in the military terminology), various European armies (particularly the Prussian) and native developments. The following description applies to the period of the Eurasian War, 1941–1946.

Training: Citizen children are enrolled in boarding schools eight months of the year from the age of 5. Military training begins almost at once, both physical and psychological. The aims are toughness, hardiness (ruthlessness and indifference to pain are emphasized), independence, leadership and cooperative teamwork.

Robotic obedience is not encouraged; the Draka have always been outnumbered, and cannot afford to bludgeon their enemies to death. After 12, training becomes more specific: marksmanship, fieldcraft, technical subjects, small-unit tactics, wilderness survival, live-firing exercises, etc.

Military service begins at 18 and lasts or four years in peacetime. Since the conscript is already in fine physical condition and more than familiar with the basics, "basic" training is actually more like an advanced specialist's course. Leadership candidates are identified during the first year, and qualification testing screens applicants for NCO rank. All officers are promoted "from the ranks," and then receive advanced training in a number of specialized schools. After the basic four years (longer for officers and NCOs) most Draka undergo two months' reserve service a year; after age 40 most are transferred into second-line formations. At full mobilization, 19.2 percent of the total Citizen population is under arms.

Most units (the Air Corps and Navy aside) are territorially based, with recruits drawn from a single area. Great efforts are made to keep down personnel turbulence, and the average Draka soldier spends his/her military life with roughly the same group of faces. The basic field formation is the Legion (roughly, a division); Armies and Army Corps are plugged together from these basic building blocks as need and opportunity dictate.

In 1942, there are three types of Legion: Armored, Mechanized, and Special—Airborne, Mountain, and Amphibious. The Armored/Mechanized constitute about 95 percent of total strength. Organization is (roughly) as follows:

At higher levels (e.g., Army Corps), formal rank designation would be "Arch-Strategos"—roughly, Senior General—with a functional qualifier to designate role. Note that each grade would contain junior/senior levels, and also that the Draka concept of rank is rather flexible-ad hoc units under relatively junior commanders can be patched together at need.

At full strength a Legion of the Regular Line will contain roughly 9,200 Citizen personnel and about 3,000 serf auxiliaries. These are unarmed support troops and fill most of the lower-level noncombatant functions. Thus, over 75 percent of the Citizen troops in a Legion will actually be carrying rifles, driving tanks or stuffing shells into guns; the percentage of auxiliaries increases with distance from the front. (In the Air Corps, most of the ground crews, etc., are auxiliary personnel.) The percentage of officers is low (about 4.5 percent) and "lead from the front" is an axiom. It is more dangerous to be a company commander than a private. Given the lavish state of their armament and high motivation, a Citizen Force Legion is a devastating opponent; its weakness is its lack of reserves. The Citizen Force is designed as a specialized instrument, an army-crusher, built for short-duration, high-intensity combat.

An armored legion has most of its infantry/armor teams integrated down to cohort level: two tank centuries, two infantry, one support and miscellaneous (medical, signals, etc.). (The model used here is the Archonal Guard Legion, 1st Armored, as of March 1st, 1942.) It would be organized roughly as follows:

Two three-tank lochoi plus a command tank to a tetrarchy. Three of these make a tank century. Two of these per cohort: total 40 tanks, 200 effectives. The tanks are Hond III, crew of 5.

Three infantry lochoi of one APC each plus H .Q. lochos: one infantry tetrarchy. Three of these to an infantry century. Two centuries per cohort: total, 28 APC's, 280 effectives. The APC's are Hoplite-class, modified Hond III hull, 8 infantry and 2 crew.

One fire-support tetrarchy, 7 Flail SP mortars on Hoplite chassis, 40 effectives. A 160 mm automortar, crew of 5.

The legion would essentially consist of six of these cohorts, plus several "pure" armor and infantry cohorts, giving a total of approximately 300 main battle tanks, 2,000 infantry (including APC drivers and gunners), the reconnaissance cohorts (armored cars and Cheetah light tanks), and a merarchy of SP guns—155 gun-howitzers and 200mm rocket launchers on modified Hoplite chassis, for a total of about 100 heavy-bombardment weapons. There would also be combat engineer, signals, medical and other units in proportion. Units larger than the cohort are "plugged together" as needed, but would usually consist of three merarchy-sized combat teams with supporting arms attached. Standard Draka practice (insofar as this exists) is "two up, one back."

A mechanized legion would be similarly organized, but with an armor/infantry ratio of 1/4 instead of 1/1. Independent chiliarchoi of varying composition also exist, to increase the flexibility of an Army or Army Corps commander. The reserve formations available to such a commander would include heavier artillery (200mm howitzers and 175mm guns, all self-propelled), engineers, and the support "slices" as appropriate.

The special-purpose units (Airborne, etc.) differ mainly in that they are foot-transported once dropped or landed. Their auxiliaries and mechanical transport are provided by the Logistics Corps as needed, and more of their maintenance and support units are Citizen personnel (which also increases their emergency reserve of infantry replacements).

Training cohorts are maintained for each legion, but in emergencies, individual "fillers" may end up in units outside their cantonal recruiting areas.

A notable feature of the Citizen Force is the attitude toward "discipline." In most armies, there is an analogy between social and military rank—the officer as gentry, the enlisted personnel as peasants; not least in the American Army (in both timelines). The Draka have no such tradition. Every private is an aristocrat, and military rank is regarded as equivalent to a medical degree—a technical qualification worthy of respect, but no trace of social awe. "Creative disobedience" is an honored tradition, and approved provided it works. Certain aspects of discipline—march and fire discipline, for example—are excellent, and the long training in teamwork provided by the Draka educational system makes for intelligent cooperation in the field. (Peer pressure tends to restrain barrack-room lawyers and congenital screw-ups, said pressure manifesting itself as anything from mockery to a grenade rolled under the bunk.) Formal military ritual is sparse everywhere and nonexistent in the field. Looting and rape, so long as they do not interfere with the mission, are officially recognized prerogatives of troops on foreign soil. Draka armies are notoriously atrocity-prone and utterly intolerant of attempts to restrain them in these matters.

The weaknesses of the Citizen Force are made up by the Janissary Corps. This is the serf army, commanded by Citizen Force officers and senior NCOs. Most Janissary legions are "motorized rifles"—strong in rifle infantry, antitank weapons, and towed artillery, but with considerably less heavy armor. Training and discipline in the Janissary forces are much more conventional and routinized than the Citizen Force, aimed at producing unthinking obedience. About two thirds of the Domination's infantry are Janissaries. Recruitment is by levy on private serf owners and the Combines. Given the privileges of even the lowliest Janissary private, volunteers are never lacking. The Janissaries are also extensively used for internal-security work in time of peace.

All services are united under the Supreme General Staff. In practice, this means the Army dominates, since the Draka are a continental power. Draka tactics and strategy both emphasize the indirect approach—overwhelming an opponent with movement and firepower rather than head-on battering: "Winning battles by attrition is to the Art of War as a paint-by-numbers kit is to the Mona Lisa." By the 1940's the armed forces of the Domination were not only of high quality, but also very large indeed. At maximum strength (early 1943) the Domination mobilized 4,200,000 Citizen Force troops, 6,500,000 Janissaries and 3,000,000 auxiliaries (not soldiers by Draka reckoning, but fulfilling functions that would absorb uniformed personnel in other countries), for a grand total of just under 14,000,000. And the Domination's war economy was capable of equipping them with the best weapons of the day, in any quantity needed.