Since the crash-landing of Suwa in the finale of the first TV series, everyone assumed that Strike Witches 2-ki would be a sequel. The problem is... Neuroi is defeated, so what are witches for anymore?

The blurb at Sea Slugs provides one possible answer: a series set in 1939, thus a prequel to the original set in 1944. I do not put too much stock into it, since I don't know where the summary comes from, and more importantly Yoshika cannot play a part since she was only recruited in 1944. But it would be a neat trick, making Lucas spin in his comfy chair.

BTW, I dropped the first series after ep.6 (although, bought ep.8 later off Crunchy, purely for Rie Tanaka's singing), and the director carries over from GONZO to AIC, so I do not expect much.

UPDATE: An article at Japanator links to scans that feature the same character set for SW2, so clearly not a prequel and Sea Slugs is mistaken.