James G
Squadron vice admiral
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Post by James G on Oct 30, 2020 17:46:09 GMT
Accidental assassinationIt was the early hours of December 19th 1998 when Jaguar Flight departed from Ahmad al-Jaber Airbase in Kuwait. The two American warplanes flew northwards, crossing into Iraq and taking part in Operation Desert Fox: air strikes against Saddam’s regime. There were other US Air Force, US Navy and British RAF aircraft flying on similar missions to that which Jaguar Flight was undertaking too. For the two airmen who flew this pair of strike-fighters, they were focused on their mission rather than the bigger picture. Their unit, the 522nd Fighter Squadron, had only recently arrived in-theatre after deploying from home station back in New Mexico. Captains Martinez and Turner each flew their F-16C Fighting Falcons towards a selected target which they were ordered to strike at. There were fighters in the skies too along with electronic warfare and command-&-control aircraft. Everyone had a job to do and that of Jaguar Flight was to hit an identified command centre deep inside Iraq near to the city of Al Amarah. Leading the way due to his seniority, Martinez took Jaguar Flight along the assigned route. Known and suspected dangers – Iraqi ground based air defences – were avoided and the AWACS aircraft flying was keeping watch in case the Iraqis should do what they hadn’t on previous nights and put fighters up. He didn’t think that they would do so though he and his wingman were as prepared as they could be should the worst happen. They were carrying bombs but had self-defence air-to-air missiles on their aircraft wingtips too. He listened throughout the flight for a warning but none came that hostile jets were up. Further and further inside Iraq, without opposition, Jaguar Flight went. The Iranian border was some distance away to the east but Martinez took them nowhere close to there. That route which he did follow towards Al Amarah wasn’t direct yet progress was on schedule. Soon enough, final approach towards the target was made. Dropping low, Martinez and Turner each increased speed. Their F-16s were singled-engined fighters but could go fast enough for this mission. Jaguar Flight raced low over the ground in the pitch black darkness. Arming switches were released as each airman waited for the exact moment for release. They couldn’t see their target and wouldn’t do so even at the moment of weapons release. However, they didn’t need to. The command centre was up ahead and they were going to bomb it in the darkness. Their weapons wouldn’t destroy the site completely but there was the expectation that they could do rather a lot with their bombing. Neither airman intended to disappoint. The countdown to weapons release raced towards its finale and then, on cue, Martinez called out over the radio mike linking him direct to Turner: “Bombs away.” Dozens of high explosive bombs fell away from each F-16. They were contact- & radar-fused and exploded after Jaguar Flight had already departed the immediate target area. Martinez led Turner away to the west and began climbing as those detonations occurred, following the pre-planned egress route to perfection. Away from Al Amarah they went and towards a waiting tanker to give each aircraft a top-up of fuel to allow them to get back to Kuwait. Each man concentrated on their flight as they monitored flight systems and listened out for warnings of enemy action. They thought little of what exactly they had just done with the actual bomb run and what they might have achieved. In the back of Turner’s mind especially, he would like to see the post-strike images that would come but for now, like Martinez, his attention was elsewhere. They wanted to get back safely to where they came from when completing this combat mission. The identity of one of the many people killed on their bomb run was unknown to them. In Washington, such a thing was discovered several days later. December 19th was the finale of Desert Fox but it wasn’t until the 22nd that that Central Intelligence Agency came to the understanding that Saddam Hussein was dead. Iraq’s dictator had been at that Al Amarah command base. He was within a column of vehicles departing at the exact moment when Jaguar Flight appeared above. The man had been the victim of an accidental assassination, a stroke of luck. There was a leadership vacuum inside Iraq and confusion surrounding what had happened to Saddam yet he was certainly dead. The CIA’s head paid an urgent visit to his president. Bill Clinton shed no tears for Saddam. The man was a monster whose hands were dripping in the blood of many innocents. An enemy of America, a killer of his own people and others from elsewhere, Saddam’s death was, overall, a Good Thing. However, Clinton hadn’t authorised bombings of Iraq to kill the man. The Iraq Disarmament Crisis was something which he inherited upon entering the White House. Saddam’s regime was being bombed to bring it to heel and allow for UN inspectors to do their work where Iraq would be disarmed of its capability to manufacture and employ weapons of mass destruction. Ridding the country of its leader hadn’t been a goal which Clinton, nor his allies in Britain & elsewhere, sought. It had happened though. Saddam was dead, killed by American bombs. There were going to be consequences.
Interesting and always a possibility. Of course a lot of people will be convinced or claim that the targeting was intentional. Also going to be interesting and important who wins the power struggle in Iraq for the succession or it might lead to an earlier collapse of the state.
Steve
It is something I have had in my head for a while. It would be almost certain that most people would think it was intention. Without Saddam, Iraq is going to collapse. The Saudis and others didn't support Desert Fox, nor Iraqi Freedom, for their fears that American attacks could bring down the regime. |
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forcon
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Post by forcon on Oct 31, 2020 15:06:44 GMT
I'm not sure if this is the thread for this, but here is an AH list of US Presidents. I'm posting from my phone so sorry for any formatting issues, I'll fix those when I get on my PC.
President James Carter (Democratic) - January 20, 1976 - January 20, 1981.
President Ronald Reagan (Republican) - January 20, 1981 - March 30, 1981.
President George H.W. Bush (Republican) - March 30, 1981 - January 11, 1986.
President Tip O'Neil (Democratic) - January 11, 1986 - January 21, 1989.
President Jack Kemp (Republican) - January 20, 1989 - October 9, 1989.
President Elizabeth Dole (Republican) - October 10, 1989 - October 17, 1989.
President Dan Quayle (Republican) - October 17, 1989 - January 4, 1990
President Dick Cheney (Republican) - January 4, 1990 - July 19, 1992.
General Norman Schwarzkopf (National Reconstruction Administration) - July 19, 1992 - August 24, 1993.
President John Warner (National Reconstruction Administration) - August 24, 1993 - November 13, 1996
President John Kerry (National Reconstruction Administration) - November 13, 1996 - November 13, 2000.
President Colin Powell (National Reconstruction Administration) - November 13, 2000 - June 3, 2002.
President David Duke (American Saviour Party) - June 3, 2002 - June 21, 2002.
General Eric Shinseki (National Reconstruction Administration) - June 21, 2002 - November 13, 2004.
President Joe Biden (National Reconstruction Administration) - November 13, 2004 - November 13, 2008.
President John McCain (New Republican Party) - November 13, 2008 - November 13, 2016.
President Barrack Obama (Democratic Revival Party) - November 13, 2016 -
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Post by elfastball7 on Oct 31, 2020 20:25:44 GMT
I'm not sure if this is the thread for this, but here is an AH list of US Presidents. I'm posting from my phone so sorry for any formatting issues, I'll fix those when I get on my PC. President James Carter (Democratic) - January 20, 1976 - January 20, 1981. President Ronald Reagan (Republican) - January 20, 1981 - March 30, 1981. President George H.W. Bush (Republican) - March 30, 1981 - January 11, 1986. President Tip O'Neil (Democratic) - January 11, 1986 - January 21, 1989. President Jack Kemp (Republican) - January 20, 1989 - October 9, 1989. President Elizabeth Dole (Republican) - October 10, 1989 - October 17, 1989. President Dan Quayle (Republican) - October 17, 1989 - January 4, 1990 President Dick Cheney (Republican) - January 4, 1990 - July 19, 1992. General Norman Schwarzkopf (National Reconstruction Administration) - July 19, 1992 - August 24, 1993. President John Warner (National Reconstruction Administration) - August 24, 1993 - November 13, 1996 President John Kerry (National Reconstruction Administration) - November 13, 1996 - November 13, 2000. President Colin Powell (National Reconstruction Administration) - November 13, 2000 - June 3, 2002. President David Duke (American Saviour Party) - June 3, 2002 - June 21, 2002. General Eric Shinseki (National Reconstruction Administration) - June 21, 2002 - November 13, 2004. President Joe Biden (National Reconstruction Administration) - November 13, 2004 - November 13, 2008. President John McCain (New Republican Party) - November 13, 2008 - November 13, 2016. President Barrack Obama (Democratic Revival Party) - November 13, 2016 - National Reconstruction Administration-Natural disaster? Civil War? Nuclear War? |
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James G
Squadron vice admiral
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Post by James G on Oct 31, 2020 20:32:06 GMT
I'm not sure if this is the thread for this, but here is an AH list of US Presidents. I'm posting from my phone so sorry for any formatting issues, I'll fix those when I get on my PC. President James Carter (Democratic) - January 20, 1976 - January 20, 1981. President Ronald Reagan (Republican) - January 20, 1981 - March 30, 1981. President George H.W. Bush (Republican) - March 30, 1981 - January 11, 1986. President Tip O'Neil (Democratic) - January 11, 1986 - January 21, 1989. President Jack Kemp (Republican) - January 20, 1989 - October 9, 1989. President Elizabeth Dole (Republican) - October 10, 1989 - October 17, 1989. President Dan Quayle (Republican) - October 17, 1989 - January 4, 1990 President Dick Cheney (Republican) - January 4, 1990 - July 19, 1992. General Norman Schwarzkopf (National Reconstruction Administration) - July 19, 1992 - August 24, 1993. President John Warner (National Reconstruction Administration) - August 24, 1993 - November 13, 1996 President John Kerry (National Reconstruction Administration) - November 13, 1996 - November 13, 2000. President Colin Powell (National Reconstruction Administration) - November 13, 2000 - June 3, 2002. President David Duke (American Saviour Party) - June 3, 2002 - June 21, 2002. General Eric Shinseki (National Reconstruction Administration) - June 21, 2002 - November 13, 2004. President Joe Biden (National Reconstruction Administration) - November 13, 2004 - November 13, 2008. President John McCain (New Republican Party) - November 13, 2008 - November 13, 2016. President Barrack Obama (Democratic Revival Party) - November 13, 2016 - National Reconstruction Administration-Natural disaster? Civil War? Nuclear War? July 1992? I'm guessing a nuke attack from a collapsed/collapsing Soviet Union. |
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forcon
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Post by forcon on Oct 31, 2020 22:14:22 GMT
Here is the TL for the president's list.
Hinckley kills Reagan during the assassination attempt. Bush becomes POTUS and wins the 1984 election, but Iran-Contra is revealed early and it leads to Bush's impeachment, removal and criminal indictment.
Later on, a crisis between the US and USSR erupts in 1989, which leads to an all-out nuclear exchange on October 9
President Kemp is killed, and the command structure is so frazzled for the first few days that Dole is the first cabinet member who is located and sworn in as POTUS until VP Quayle is located. Following this, Cheney stages a soft coup of some sort against Quayle, believing him to incapable of saving America, eventually followed by a counter-coup by Schwarzkopf, who in turn hands power over to a senior member of the newly forming National Reconstruction Administration, Senator John Warner.
Warner in turn holds a very primitive election in 1996, using paper ballots and the remnants of the military to ensure a fair election. Kerry wins, but the election is essentially a primary within the National Reconstruction Administration as opposed to a two-party election.
Kerry in turn holds an election four years later, with November 13 becoming the new election date by precedent. Colin Powell, who survived the nuclear exchange as a senior military advisor and ended up in the National Reconstruction Administration, wins.
He is assasineted by separatists led by David Duke (I couldn't think of anyone else, but any far right terrorist will do) who seize nominal power for a week or two while Shinseki organises a counter-coup. Shinseki holds power till the next election, and as the US recovers from the nuclear war in the 2000s, the democratic process is slowly repaired as new parties form.
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stevep
Fleet admiral
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Post by stevep on Nov 1, 2020 12:37:39 GMT
Here is the TL for the president's list. Hinckley kills Reagan during the assassination attempt. Bush becomes POTUS and wins the 1984 election, but Iran-Contra is revealed early and it leads to Bush's impeachment, removal and criminal indictment. Later on, a crisis between the US and USSR erupts in 1989, which leads to an all-out nuclear exchange on October 9 President Kemp is killed, and the command structure is so frazzled for the first few days that Dole is the first cabinet member who is located and sworn in as POTUS until VP Quayle is located. Following this, Cheney stages a soft coup of some sort against Quayle, believing him to incapable of saving America, eventually followed by a counter-coup by Schwarzkopf, who in turn hands power over to a senior member of the newly forming National Reconstruction Administration, Senator John Warner. Warner in turn holds a very primitive election in 1996, using paper ballots and the remnants of the military to ensure a fair election. Kerry wins, but the election is essentially a primary within the National Reconstruction Administration as opposed to a two-party election. Kerry in turn holds an election four years later, with November 13 becoming the new election date by precedent. Colin Powell, who survived the nuclear exchange as a senior military advisor and ended up in the National Reconstruction Administration, wins. He is assasineted by separatists led by David Duke (I couldn't think of anyone else, but any far right terrorist will do) who seize nominal power for a week or two while Shinseki organises a counter-coup. Shinseki holds power till the next election, and as the US recovers from the nuclear war in the 2000s, the democratic process is slowly repaired as new parties form.
Interesting and somewhat frightening. I was concerned about a President Quayle [albeit not as much as Duke!] given his rather limited capacity but Cheney staging any sort of even soft couple probably disatablised things further at the time,
Must admit if it was a full scale exchange I doubt all those people would be alive and a US, or probably any other nation in the northern hemisphere especially would survive intact enough to have any sort of central government.
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James G
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Post by James G on Nov 2, 2020 18:30:06 GMT
The Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Britain in 2020
Following defeat in the Second Great War, mainland Britain – formerly known as the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland – was divided into several occupation zones by the victorious Allied Powers. The Americans, the Canadians, former Empire forces (the Australians, New Zealanders & others) and the Franco-German Continental Bloc split up the country. Their occupation wasn’t meant to last for long. Post-war geo-political struggles saw the wartime alliance fall apart though and this resulted in a divided Britain… one which would last until 1990. The occupation zones in the north and the west eventually joined together with an independent nation. To the south, the smaller Continental Bloc formed their own country. North Britain (the Federal Republic) and South Britain (the Democratic Republic) were split into armed camps throughout the decades where each country, as well as their superpower sponsors, stood in opposition to each other ready to fight a Third Great War at any moment. The Second had seen the defeat of the Triple Alliance of Britain, Japan & Russia but fears of a third were present for many decades afterwards.
The Inner British Border (IBB) ran east-to-west from The Wash to the Severn Estuary. It was a highly-militarised zone. Bedford, Bristol and Cambridge were in North Britain while Oxford and Swindon were located within South Britain. On the northern side of the IBB, military attention was focused on the Chiltern Hills, The Fens and the Watford Gap but each side feared a hostile invasion by the other. South Britain was far smaller than North Britain though did include the former capital with its large population (North Britain had its capital in Derby). London was divided just as Britain was. Inside, the Americans and their allies maintained the exclave of North London. This sat on the northern side of the River Thames and was surrounded by the London Wall. It was an island of freedom inside a sea of oppression according to North Britain propaganda: a bastion of evil, so said South Britain. The river wasn’t the dividing line though. The ruins of Parliament, the intact Tower of London and the devastated City were in the South while Buckingham Palace and the old West End belonged to the North. In late 1989, the London Wall fell and the IBB was opened up. South Britain collapsed in a peaceful revolution of civil disobedience alongside the Continental regimes of the Strasbourg Treaty nations. The next year, the two nations were united under the leadership of North Britain: the southern regions were incorporated as states into the Federal Republic rather than the former country as an administrative whole. London was formally reunited though and, over the next decade, government institutions moved from the small Derby to the big London. Foreign forces eventually left and reunited Britain became a fully independent nation with a role on the world stage.
In the following thirty years since reunion, Britain’s armed forces have undergone a transformation. The mass of armies and air forces have either gone home (the foreign ones) or been converted into something different. A fight for the IBB is a thing of history. Part of the world community, Britain has intervened in humanitarian peacekeeping missions. The Armed Forces are spread across the nation though there are fewer bases in the former South than might be expected due to the still ongoing post-1990 tensions with (now divided) Continental powers. The British-Scottish border isn’t militarised and there are no hostile relations with United Ireland across the sea either. Britain’s military industry is highly advanced with general domestic production though from America there does often come some specialist gear. Britain remains part of the NATO organisation too.
Retaining its historic name, the British Army is expeditionary rolled. There are no units with the title ‘Royal’ in their name and all traces of the pre-1945 military in terms of historic naming conventions are gone. Numbered battalions replaced named regiments. Airborne and marine units are extensive but there are regular tank and infantry units. All told, including reservists, the British Army is just over two hundred thousand strong. There is much experience within the British Army and morale is usually highly rated. However, every post-1990 military operation abroad which the army has taken part in has been either US- or NATO-led.
The British Air Force is expeditionary rolled too. There is a national air defence mission but Continental threats are regarded as low. Fighters, strike aircraft, transports and helicopters are aplenty. There are nine major airbases in operation with only one of them in the former South Britain. Air defence missiles are nowhere near as numerous as they were during the years of the divided Britain but the British Air Force operate them for protection of British shores. There is also a force of anti-missile weapons operated by the British Air Force too… which are supported by American assets in the face of the considerable offensive missile force still in the service of Continental powers.
The British Navy operates sixteen major surface combatants (destroyers, frigates & corvettes) and nine submarines. There are support ships and helicopters too. Three major naval bases are in use including Portsmouth which South Britain and its former allies made use of through the years 1945-90. Elements of the British Navy have seen action overseas since reunification alongside long-term allies with anti-piracy operations in the Eastern Med. and support too for Americans in the wars with Arab regimes across the Middle East. Recent exercises have also taken place with United India, a former colony which broke away during the Second Great War yet didn’t fight against Britain when other Empire portions did so.
For the future state of the British Armed Forces, there is ongoing modernisation and increased focus on expeditionary capability beyond Britain’s shores. London wishes for the military to continue to play the role in the world which they desire and for the past to be forgotten as much as possible.
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lordroel
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Post by lordroel on Nov 2, 2020 19:07:19 GMT
The Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Britain in 2020Following defeat in the Second Great War, mainland Britain – formerly known as the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland – was divided into several occupation zones by the victorious Allied Powers. The Americans, the Canadians, former Empire forces (the Australians, New Zealanders & others) and the Franco-German Continental Bloc split up the country. Their occupation wasn’t meant to last for long. Post-war geo-political struggles saw the wartime alliance fall apart though and this resulted in a divided Britain… one which would last until 1990. The occupation zones in the north and the west eventually joined together with an independent nation. To the south, the smaller Continental Bloc formed their own country. North Britain (the Federal Republic) and South Britain (the Democratic Republic) were split into armed camps throughout the decades where each country, as well as their superpower sponsors, stood in opposition to each other ready to fight a Third Great War at any moment. The Second had seen the defeat of the Triple Alliance of Britain, Japan & Russia but fears of a third were present for many decades afterwards. The Inner British Border (IBB) ran east-to-west from The Wash to the Severn Estuary. It was a highly-militarised zone. Bedford, Bristol and Cambridge were in North Britain while Oxford and Swindon were located within South Britain. On the northern side of the IBB, military attention was focused on the Chiltern Hills, The Fens and the Watford Gap but each side feared a hostile invasion by the other. South Britain was far smaller than North Britain though did include the former capital with its large population (South Britain had its capital in Derby). London was divided just as Britain was. Inside, the Americans and their allies maintained the exclave of North London. This sat on the northern side of the River Thames and was surrounded by the London Wall. It was an island of freedom inside a sea of oppression according to North Britain propaganda: a bastion of evil, so said South Britain. The river wasn’t the dividing line though. The ruins of Parliament, the intact Tower of London and the devastated City were in the South while Buckingham Palace and the old West End belonged to the North. In late 1989, the London Wall fell and the IBB was opened up. South Britain collapsed in a peaceful revolution of civil disobedience alongside the Continental regimes of the Strasbourg Treaty nations. The next year, the two nations were united under the leadership of North Britain: the southern regions were incorporated as states into the Federal Republic rather than the former country as an administrative whole. London was formally reunited though and, over the next decade, government institutions moved from the small Derby to the big London. Foreign forces eventually left and reunited Britain became a fully independent nation with a role on the world stage. In the following thirty years since reunion, Britain’s armed forces have undergone a transformation. The mass of armies and air forces have either gone home (the foreign ones) or been converted into something different. A fight for the IBB is a thing of history. Part of the world community, Britain has intervened in humanitarian peacekeeping missions. The Armed Forces are spread across the nation though there are fewer bases in the former South than might be expected due to the still ongoing post-1990 tensions with (now divided) Continental powers. The British-Scottish border isn’t militarised and there are no hostile relations with United Ireland across the sea either. Britain’s military industry is highly advanced with general domestic production though from America there does often come some specialist gear. Britain remains part of the NATO organisation too. Retaining its historic name, the British Army is expeditionary rolled. There are no units with the title ‘Royal’ in their name and all traces of the pre-1945 military in terms of historic naming conventions are gone. Numbered battalions replaced named regiments. Airborne and marine units are extensive but there are regular tank and infantry units. All told, including reservists, the British Army is just over two hundred thousand strong. There is much experience within the British Army and morale is usually highly rated. However, every post-1990 military operation abroad which the army has taken part in has been either US- or NATO-led. The British Air Force is expeditionary rolled too. There is a national air defence mission but Continental threats are regarded as low. Fighters, strike aircraft, transports and helicopters are aplenty. There are nine major airbases in operation with only one of them in the former South Britain. Air defence missiles are nowhere near as numerous as they were during the years of the divided Britain but the British Air Force operate them for protection of British shores. There is also a force of anti-missile weapons operated by the British Air Force too… which are supported by American assets in the face of the considerable offensive missile force still in the service of Continental powers. The British Navy operates sixteen major surface combatants (destroyers, frigates & corvettes) and nine submarines. There are support ships and helicopters too. Three major naval bases are in use including Portsmouth which South Britain and its former allies made use of through the years 1945-90. Elements of the British Navy have seen action overseas since reunification alongside long-term allies with anti-piracy operations in the Eastern Med. and support too for Americans in the wars with Arab regimes across the Middle East. Recent exercises have also taken place with United India, a former colony which broke away during the Second Great War yet didn’t fight against Britain when other Empire portions did so. For the future state of the British Armed Forces, there is ongoing modernisation and increased focus on expeditionary capability beyond Britain’s shores. London wishes for the military to continue to play the role in the world which they desire and for the past to be forgotten as much as possible. So the monarchy was abolished, the Canada is also a republic then. |
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James G
Squadron vice admiral
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Post by James G on Nov 2, 2020 19:14:03 GMT
The Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Britain in 2020Following defeat in the Second Great War, mainland Britain – formerly known as the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland – was divided into several occupation zones by the victorious Allied Powers. The Americans, the Canadians, former Empire forces (the Australians, New Zealanders & others) and the Franco-German Continental Bloc split up the country. Their occupation wasn’t meant to last for long. Post-war geo-political struggles saw the wartime alliance fall apart though and this resulted in a divided Britain… one which would last until 1990. The occupation zones in the north and the west eventually joined together with an independent nation. To the south, the smaller Continental Bloc formed their own country. North Britain (the Federal Republic) and South Britain (the Democratic Republic) were split into armed camps throughout the decades where each country, as well as their superpower sponsors, stood in opposition to each other ready to fight a Third Great War at any moment. The Second had seen the defeat of the Triple Alliance of Britain, Japan & Russia but fears of a third were present for many decades afterwards. The Inner British Border (IBB) ran east-to-west from The Wash to the Severn Estuary. It was a highly-militarised zone. Bedford, Bristol and Cambridge were in North Britain while Oxford and Swindon were located within South Britain. On the northern side of the IBB, military attention was focused on the Chiltern Hills, The Fens and the Watford Gap but each side feared a hostile invasion by the other. South Britain was far smaller than North Britain though did include the former capital with its large population (South Britain had its capital in Derby). London was divided just as Britain was. Inside, the Americans and their allies maintained the exclave of North London. This sat on the northern side of the River Thames and was surrounded by the London Wall. It was an island of freedom inside a sea of oppression according to North Britain propaganda: a bastion of evil, so said South Britain. The river wasn’t the dividing line though. The ruins of Parliament, the intact Tower of London and the devastated City were in the South while Buckingham Palace and the old West End belonged to the North. In late 1989, the London Wall fell and the IBB was opened up. South Britain collapsed in a peaceful revolution of civil disobedience alongside the Continental regimes of the Strasbourg Treaty nations. The next year, the two nations were united under the leadership of North Britain: the southern regions were incorporated as states into the Federal Republic rather than the former country as an administrative whole. London was formally reunited though and, over the next decade, government institutions moved from the small Derby to the big London. Foreign forces eventually left and reunited Britain became a fully independent nation with a role on the world stage. In the following thirty years since reunion, Britain’s armed forces have undergone a transformation. The mass of armies and air forces have either gone home (the foreign ones) or been converted into something different. A fight for the IBB is a thing of history. Part of the world community, Britain has intervened in humanitarian peacekeeping missions. The Armed Forces are spread across the nation though there are fewer bases in the former South than might be expected due to the still ongoing post-1990 tensions with (now divided) Continental powers. The British-Scottish border isn’t militarised and there are no hostile relations with United Ireland across the sea either. Britain’s military industry is highly advanced with general domestic production though from America there does often come some specialist gear. Britain remains part of the NATO organisation too. Retaining its historic name, the British Army is expeditionary rolled. There are no units with the title ‘Royal’ in their name and all traces of the pre-1945 military in terms of historic naming conventions are gone. Numbered battalions replaced named regiments. Airborne and marine units are extensive but there are regular tank and infantry units. All told, including reservists, the British Army is just over two hundred thousand strong. There is much experience within the British Army and morale is usually highly rated. However, every post-1990 military operation abroad which the army has taken part in has been either US- or NATO-led. The British Air Force is expeditionary rolled too. There is a national air defence mission but Continental threats are regarded as low. Fighters, strike aircraft, transports and helicopters are aplenty. There are nine major airbases in operation with only one of them in the former South Britain. Air defence missiles are nowhere near as numerous as they were during the years of the divided Britain but the British Air Force operate them for protection of British shores. There is also a force of anti-missile weapons operated by the British Air Force too… which are supported by American assets in the face of the considerable offensive missile force still in the service of Continental powers. The British Navy operates sixteen major surface combatants (destroyers, frigates & corvettes) and nine submarines. There are support ships and helicopters too. Three major naval bases are in use including Portsmouth which South Britain and its former allies made use of through the years 1945-90. Elements of the British Navy have seen action overseas since reunification alongside long-term allies with anti-piracy operations in the Eastern Med. and support too for Americans in the wars with Arab regimes across the Middle East. Recent exercises have also taken place with United India, a former colony which broke away during the Second Great War yet didn’t fight against Britain when other Empire portions did so. For the future state of the British Armed Forces, there is ongoing modernisation and increased focus on expeditionary capability beyond Britain’s shores. London wishes for the military to continue to play the role in the world which they desire and for the past to be forgotten as much as possible. So the monarchy was abolished, the Canada is also a republic then. We'll go with a Yes on that... I hadn't considered it, but it would be: same with Australia and New Zealand. Britain is England, Wales and the Isle of Mann. Scotland and Ulster are independent. The Channel Islands are French and there are zero overseas territories - Caribbean, Atlantic, Pacific, Gibraltar... all gone. |
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Post by fieldmarshal on Nov 3, 2020 4:24:28 GMT
RADEK'S SOVIET REMNANT “Moscow, once the cradle of our great Revolution, is now under the control of traitors and thieves. Their so-called Commonwealth of Independent States is a thinly-veiled farce; little more than a Western-backed plot to separate the Soviet republics, divide the Soviet peoples along ethnic lines, and dismantle the very union our fathers fought and died to preserve against fascist aggression not fifty years ago. The survival of the Soviet Union and of World Socialism itself is at stake. Due to these extraordinary events, I have been forced to take extraordinary measures. I have ordered the loyal Soviet soldiers under my command to take control of the situation in the Central Asian region to maintain order and ensure the preservation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. …” - General Ivan Radek, Commander of Soviet Turkestan Military District, announcing the formation of the State Committee of National Emergency, December 18 1991
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“Our second goal is to prevent regimes that sponsor terror from threatening America or our friends and allies with weapons of mass destruction. Some of these regimes have been largely silent since September the 11th, but we know their true nature. North Korea is a regime arming with missiles and weapons of mass destruction, while starving its citizens. Iran aggressively pursues these weapons and exports terror, while an unelected few repress the Iranian people's hope for freedom. Iraq continues to flaunt its hostility toward America and to support terror. The Iraqi regime has plotted to develop anthrax and nerve gas and nuclear weapons for over a decade. This is a regime that has already used poison gas to murder thousands of its own citizens. This is a regime that agreed to international inspections, then kicked out the inspectors. This is a regime that has something to hide from the civilized world. Perhaps worst of all is the remnant Soviet Union in Central Asia. A military dictatorship that turned it’s back on democratic wave that swept the rest of the world in that time in favor of maintaining a brutal and repressive communist regime. A regime which has committed heinous acts against the Tajik and Turkmen peoples — acts that can only be described as genocidal. A regime that has supported terrorism across the globe from Colombia to Chechnya to Cambodia. A regime that already has a vast and lethal arsenal of chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons; and as many of its citizens languish in poverty, that arsenal of tyranny continues to expand. States like these and their terrorist allies constitute an Axis of Evil, arming to threaten the peace of the world. By producing weapons of mass destruction, these regimes pose a grave and growing danger. They could provide these arms to terrorists, giving them the means to match their hatred. They could attack our allies or attempt to blackmail the United States. In any of these cases, the price of indifference would be catastrophic.” - Excerpt from the State of the Union Address by President George Bush, January 2002__________ “The Union of Central Asian Soviet Republics maintains an arsenal of nearly 3000 nuclear warheads, and there are indications that they intend to nearly double that amount within the next twenty years. This arsenal is primarily centered around the 150 SS-18 “Satan” ICBMs located at the Derzhavinsk and Zhangiz Tobe missile fields in the Kazakh SSR. These missiles are capable of hitting targets across Europe and in the continental United States … There are also believed to be a large number of tactical warheads with yields varying from beneath a kiloton to in excess of five hundred kilotons. These are believed to be mounted on a number of short-range ballistic missiles such as the SS-1 SCUD-D and SS-21 Scarab, as well as a number of intermediate-range missiles such as the SS-20 Saber. These short range missiles are primarily positioned to the country’s northern border with the Russian Federation, intended to defend against a potential Russian invasion. The IRBMs are scattered throughout the territory of the Central Asian Soviet republics, and are believed to be targeted at major Russian military, political, and logistical targets, such as Moscow and Vladivostok. … Perhaps more concerning than even this, however, are reports that the Soviet regime has considered the sale of tactical nuclear warheads to rogue states such as Iran…” - Federation of American Scientists Report on Soviet Nuclear Arsenal, 1998
__________ “Ever since it’s violent beginnings in the early 1990s the Union of Central Asian Soviet Republics has operated a number of what it refers to as “reeducation and rehabilitation facilities” located primarily in the Kazakh, Tajik, and Turkmen Republics. Ostensibly these camps are a means of “deradicalizing” captured Islamist fighters so that they may reintegrate into Soviet society — ‘a humane alternative to the American excesses of Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay,’ prominent Soviet apologist Alejandro Cao de Benos once famously declared. In reality, these camps are at best little more than a revived version of the infamous Gulag system that the old USSR maintained from the 1930s to the 1960s. At worst, they can be compared to the infamous concentration camps of Nazi Germany … “ - Excerpt from Ethnic Violence and Genocide in the Central Asian Soviet Union (Kaoru Mori 2020)________ " The Union of Central Asian Soviet Republics, often referred to as the Soviet Union or Soviet Central Asia, is a socialist state in Asia. It is the fifth-largest country in the world by surface area, Its territory includes all Central Asian republics of the former USSR and parts of the Caucasus. Its five climate zones are tundra, taiga, steppes, desert, and mountains. Its diverse population is collectively known as Soviet people. The Soviet Union is the most dominant nation of Central Asia economically due to it’s thriving oil and gas industry and vast mineral resources. The country is bordered to the southwest by Armenia and Turkey, southeast by Iran and Afghanistan, to the East by China, and to the north by the Russian Federal Republic, with the heavily fortified Central Asian Demilitarized Zone (CADMZ) separating the two. During the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991, forces from the USSR’s Turkestan Military District commanded by then-General Ivan Radek launched simultaneous coups in the newly-independent republics of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. From Alma-Ata, Radek’s State Committee of National Emergency declared itself the legitimate government of the Soviet Union and denounced the post-Soviet governments Over the next few months the rump Soviet state would consolidate it’s control over the remaining Soviet Central Asian republics - Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan. In 1994, Azerbaijan joined the Soviet Union as an autonomous republic following the conclusion of the Nagorno-Karabakh War, while Georgia was annexed after a widely controversial intervention in 1995. It’s aspirations to be the sole legal successor state to the Soviet Union (along with concurrent efforts by the newly-independent Russian Federation) were thwarted by UN Security Council Resolution 713, which declared the Soviet Union had ceased to exist and that both the UCASR and Russia were new states. As part of a compromise, the UCASR adopted its current official name and was granted a permanent seat on the Security Council alongside Russia in a controversial 1994 decision. According to the 1995 Soviet Constitution, the UCASR is nominally a “union of independent Socialist republics.” The Soviet Union is generally viewed as a totalitarian Stalinist dictatorship, particularly noting the elaborate cult of personality around it’s supreme leader, Marshal Ivan Radek. The Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) holds absolute power in the state and membership is required to hold public office or serve as a military officer. According to article 3 of the Soviet Constitution, a modified version of Marxism-Leninism known as National Bolshevism is the ruling ideology of the Soviet state. The Soviet Union possesses nuclear weapons and maintains the third-largest nuclear arsenal in the world after Russia and the United States. The Soviet Union is a member of COMECON, the G77, and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. The Soviet Union has been widely criticized for its human rights record, particularly in regards to violent suppression of mass protests, accusations of ethnic cleansing in the Tajik and Turkmen republics, and reported war crimes committed by the Soviet Armed Forces during the War in Russia (2004 - 2010). A 2015 UN report human rights in the Soviet Union found that the abuses detailed “were nearly unparalleled in the modern world." - Wikipedia entry on the Union of Central Asian Soviet Republics, 2020
(A few quick notes:
- Bush's State of The Union is largely the same as OTL with some revisions, most notably the addition of the section denouncing the Soviet Union.
- Much of the text from the Wikipedia entry is cannibalized from existing real-life Wikipedia articles, namely the pages on the Soviet Union, Kazakhstan, Serbia and Montenegro, Iran, and North Korea.
- The fictional character of Ivan Radek is taken from the 1997 Harrison Ford film Air Force One, in which a character of the same name is the communist dictator of a nuclear-armed Kazakhstan hellbent on restoring the USSR by force.) |
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stevep
Fleet admiral
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Post by stevep on Nov 3, 2020 11:44:32 GMT
The Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Britain in 2020Following defeat in the Second Great War, mainland Britain – formerly known as the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland – was divided into several occupation zones by the victorious Allied Powers. The Americans, the Canadians, former Empire forces (the Australians, New Zealanders & others) and the Franco-German Continental Bloc split up the country. Their occupation wasn’t meant to last for long. Post-war geo-political struggles saw the wartime alliance fall apart though and this resulted in a divided Britain… one which would last until 1990. The occupation zones in the north and the west eventually joined together with an independent nation. To the south, the smaller Continental Bloc formed their own country. North Britain (the Federal Republic) and South Britain (the Democratic Republic) were split into armed camps throughout the decades where each country, as well as their superpower sponsors, stood in opposition to each other ready to fight a Third Great War at any moment. The Second had seen the defeat of the Triple Alliance of Britain, Japan & Russia but fears of a third were present for many decades afterwards. The Inner British Border (IBB) ran east-to-west from The Wash to the Severn Estuary. It was a highly-militarised zone. Bedford, Bristol and Cambridge were in North Britain while Oxford and Swindon were located within South Britain. On the northern side of the IBB, military attention was focused on the Chiltern Hills, The Fens and the Watford Gap but each side feared a hostile invasion by the other. South Britain was far smaller than North Britain though did include the former capital with its large population (South Britain had its capital in Derby). London was divided just as Britain was. Inside, the Americans and their allies maintained the exclave of North London. This sat on the northern side of the River Thames and was surrounded by the London Wall. It was an island of freedom inside a sea of oppression according to North Britain propaganda: a bastion of evil, so said South Britain. The river wasn’t the dividing line though. The ruins of Parliament, the intact Tower of London and the devastated City were in the South while Buckingham Palace and the old West End belonged to the North. In late 1989, the London Wall fell and the IBB was opened up. South Britain collapsed in a peaceful revolution of civil disobedience alongside the Continental regimes of the Strasbourg Treaty nations. The next year, the two nations were united under the leadership of North Britain: the southern regions were incorporated as states into the Federal Republic rather than the former country as an administrative whole. London was formally reunited though and, over the next decade, government institutions moved from the small Derby to the big London. Foreign forces eventually left and reunited Britain became a fully independent nation with a role on the world stage. In the following thirty years since reunion, Britain’s armed forces have undergone a transformation. The mass of armies and air forces have either gone home (the foreign ones) or been converted into something different. A fight for the IBB is a thing of history. Part of the world community, Britain has intervened in humanitarian peacekeeping missions. The Armed Forces are spread across the nation though there are fewer bases in the former South than might be expected due to the still ongoing post-1990 tensions with (now divided) Continental powers. The British-Scottish border isn’t militarised and there are no hostile relations with United Ireland across the sea either. Britain’s military industry is highly advanced with general domestic production though from America there does often come some specialist gear. Britain remains part of the NATO organisation too. Retaining its historic name, the British Army is expeditionary rolled. There are no units with the title ‘Royal’ in their name and all traces of the pre-1945 military in terms of historic naming conventions are gone. Numbered battalions replaced named regiments. Airborne and marine units are extensive but there are regular tank and infantry units. All told, including reservists, the British Army is just over two hundred thousand strong. There is much experience within the British Army and morale is usually highly rated. However, every post-1990 military operation abroad which the army has taken part in has been either US- or NATO-led. The British Air Force is expeditionary rolled too. There is a national air defence mission but Continental threats are regarded as low. Fighters, strike aircraft, transports and helicopters are aplenty. There are nine major airbases in operation with only one of them in the former South Britain. Air defence missiles are nowhere near as numerous as they were during the years of the divided Britain but the British Air Force operate them for protection of British shores. There is also a force of anti-missile weapons operated by the British Air Force too… which are supported by American assets in the face of the considerable offensive missile force still in the service of Continental powers. The British Navy operates sixteen major surface combatants (destroyers, frigates & corvettes) and nine submarines. There are support ships and helicopters too. Three major naval bases are in use including Portsmouth which South Britain and its former allies made use of through the years 1945-90. Elements of the British Navy have seen action overseas since reunification alongside long-term allies with anti-piracy operations in the Eastern Med. and support too for Americans in the wars with Arab regimes across the Middle East. Recent exercises have also taken place with United India, a former colony which broke away during the Second Great War yet didn’t fight against Britain when other Empire portions did so. For the future state of the British Armed Forces, there is ongoing modernisation and increased focus on expeditionary capability beyond Britain’s shores. London wishes for the military to continue to play the role in the world which they desire and for the past to be forgotten as much as possible.
Interesting and frightening. If somehow I wasn't butterflied I'm born just north of the fortified line as I'm in the Fens. Presumably also conscripted at some point. 
I think you have a small error in that with those border Derby would be the northern capital rather than the southern one, which is presumably within the southern region of London.
Also you mention peaceful relations with a united Ireland, which would have prompted me as to what happened to the population, deported, suppressed or what but then in your reply to Lordroel you mention Ulster as independent.
Obvious parallel's with WWII here but was the defeated British-Russia-Japanese alliance communist or fascist? Possibly from a WWI pod?
Steve
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stevep
Fleet admiral
Posts: 24,867
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Post by stevep on Nov 3, 2020 11:53:57 GMT
RADEK'S SOVIET REMNANT “Moscow, once the cradle of our great Revolution, is now under the control of traitors and thieves. Their so-called Commonwealth of Independent States is a thinly-veiled farce; little more than a Western-backed plot to separate the Soviet republics, divide the Soviet peoples along ethnic lines, and dismantle the very union our fathers fought and died to preserve against fascist aggression not fifty years ago. The survival of the Soviet Union and of World Socialism itself is at stake. Due to these extraordinary events, I have been forced to take extraordinary measures. I have ordered the loyal Soviet soldiers under my command to take control of the situation in the Central Asian region to maintain order and ensure the preservation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. …” - General Ivan Radek, Commander of Soviet Turkestan Military District, announcing the formation of the State Committee of National Emergency, December 18 1991
__________
“Our second goal is to prevent regimes that sponsor terror from threatening America or our friends and allies with weapons of mass destruction. Some of these regimes have been largely silent since September the 11th, but we know their true nature. North Korea is a regime arming with missiles and weapons of mass destruction, while starving its citizens. Iran aggressively pursues these weapons and exports terror, while an unelected few repress the Iranian people's hope for freedom. Iraq continues to flaunt its hostility toward America and to support terror. The Iraqi regime has plotted to develop anthrax and nerve gas and nuclear weapons for over a decade. This is a regime that has already used poison gas to murder thousands of its own citizens. This is a regime that agreed to international inspections, then kicked out the inspectors. This is a regime that has something to hide from the civilized world. Perhaps worst of all is the remnant Soviet Union in Central Asia. A military dictatorship that turned it’s back on democratic wave that swept the rest of the world in that time in favor of maintaining a brutal and repressive communist regime. A regime which has committed heinous acts against the Tajik and Turkmen peoples — acts that can only be described as genocidal. A regime that has supported terrorism across the globe from Colombia to Chechnya to Cambodia. A regime that already has a vast and lethal arsenal of chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons; and as many of its citizens languish in poverty, that arsenal of tyranny continues to expand. States like these and their terrorist allies constitute an Axis of Evil, arming to threaten the peace of the world. By producing weapons of mass destruction, these regimes pose a grave and growing danger. They could provide these arms to terrorists, giving them the means to match their hatred. They could attack our allies or attempt to blackmail the United States. In any of these cases, the price of indifference would be catastrophic.” - Excerpt from the State of the Union Address by President George Bush, January 2002__________ “The Union of Central Asian Soviet Republics maintains an arsenal of nearly 3000 nuclear warheads, and there are indications that they intend to nearly double that amount within the next twenty years. This arsenal is primarily centered around the 150 SS-18 “Satan” ICBMs located at the Derzhavinsk and Zhangiz Tobe missile fields in the Kazakh SSR. These missiles are capable of hitting targets across Europe and in the continental United States … There are also believed to be a large number of tactical warheads with yields varying from beneath a kiloton to in excess of five hundred kilotons. These are believed to be mounted on a number of short-range ballistic missiles such as the SS-1 SCUD-D and SS-21 Scarab, as well as a number of intermediate-range missiles such as the SS-20 Saber. These short range missiles are primarily positioned to the country’s northern border with the Russian Federation, intended to defend against a potential Russian invasion. The IRBMs are scattered throughout the territory of the Central Asian Soviet republics, and are believed to be targeted at major Russian military, political, and logistical targets, such as Moscow and Vladivostok. … Perhaps more concerning than even this, however, are reports that the Soviet regime has considered the sale of tactical nuclear warheads to rogue states such as Iran…” - Federation of American Scientists Report on Soviet Nuclear Arsenal, 1998
__________ “Ever since it’s violent beginnings in the early 1990s the Union of Central Asian Soviet Republics has operated a number of what it refers to as “reeducation and rehabilitation facilities” located primarily in the Kazakh, Tajik, and Turkmen Republics. Ostensibly these camps are a means of “deradicalizing” captured Islamist fighters so that they may reintegrate into Soviet society — ‘a humane alternative to the American excesses of Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay,’ prominent Soviet apologist Alejandro Cao de Benos once famously declared. In reality, these camps are at best little more than a revived version of the infamous Gulag system that the old USSR maintained from the 1930s to the 1960s. At worst, they can be compared to the infamous concentration camps of Nazi Germany … “ - Excerpt from Ethnic Violence and Genocide in the Central Asian Soviet Union (Kaoru Mori 2020)________ " The Union of Central Asian Soviet Republics, often referred to as the Soviet Union or Soviet Central Asia, is a socialist state in Asia. It is the fifth-largest country in the world by surface area, Its territory includes all Central Asian republics of the former USSR and parts of the Caucasus. Its five climate zones are tundra, taiga, steppes, desert, and mountains. Its diverse population is collectively known as Soviet people. The Soviet Union is the most dominant nation of Central Asia economically due to it’s thriving oil and gas industry and vast mineral resources. The country is bordered to the southwest by Armenia and Turkey, southeast by Iran and Afghanistan, to the East by China, and to the north by the Russian Federal Republic, with the heavily fortified Central Asian Demilitarized Zone (CADMZ) separating the two. During the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991, forces from the USSR’s Turkestan Military District commanded by then-General Ivan Radek launched simultaneous coups in the newly-independent republics of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. From Alma-Ata, Radek’s State Committee of National Emergency declared itself the legitimate government of the Soviet Union and denounced the post-Soviet governments Over the next few months the rump Soviet state would consolidate it’s control over the remaining Soviet Central Asian republics - Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan. In 1994, Azerbaijan joined the Soviet Union as an autonomous republic following the conclusion of the Nagorno-Karabakh War, while Georgia was annexed after a widely controversial intervention in 1995. It’s aspirations to be the sole legal successor state to the Soviet Union (along with concurrent efforts by the newly-independent Russian Federation) were thwarted by UN Security Council Resolution 713, which declared the Soviet Union had ceased to exist and that both the UCASR and Russia were new states. As part of a compromise, the UCASR adopted its current official name and was granted a permanent seat on the Security Council alongside Russia in a controversial 1994 decision. According to the 1995 Soviet Constitution, the UCASR is nominally a “union of independent Socialist republics.” The Soviet Union is generally viewed as a totalitarian Stalinist dictatorship, particularly noting the elaborate cult of personality around it’s supreme leader, Marshal Ivan Radek. The Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) holds absolute power in the state and membership is required to hold public office or serve as a military officer. According to article 3 of the Soviet Constitution, a modified version of Marxism-Leninism known as National Bolshevism is the ruling ideology of the Soviet state. The Soviet Union possesses nuclear weapons and maintains the third-largest nuclear arsenal in the world after Russia and the United States. The Soviet Union is a member of COMECON, the G77, and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. The Soviet Union has been widely criticized for its human rights record, particularly in regards to violent suppression of mass protests, accusations of ethnic cleansing in the Tajik and Turkmen republics, and reported war crimes committed by the Soviet Armed Forces during the War in Russia (2004 - 2010). A 2015 UN report human rights in the Soviet Union found that the abuses detailed “were nearly unparalleled in the modern world." - Wikipedia entry on the Union of Central Asian Soviet Republics, 2020
(A few quick notes:
- Bush's State of The Union is largely the same as OTL with some revisions, most notably the addition of the section denouncing the Soviet Union.
- Much of the text from the Wikipedia entry is cannibalized from existing real-life Wikipedia articles, namely the pages on the Soviet Union, Kazakhstan, Serbia and Montenegro, Iran, and North Korea.
- The fictional character of Ivan Radek is taken from the 1997 Harrison Ford film Air Force One, in which a character of the same name is the communist dictator of a nuclear-armed Kazakhstan hellbent on restoring the USSR by force.)
Interesting and dark, although not as much as I initially thought. With those commentaries by Radek and Bush I was fearing a lot of those nukes flying. What is the status of Russia in this world? Assuming since there was conflict with the 'Soviet Union' its not a Putin dictatorship? Although since its mentioned as the 'War in Russia' does that mean a civil conflict with Soviet intervention.
Is the UCASR a predominantly Kazak state or one with the Russian minority riding roughshod over everybody else.
Thought I recognised Radek's name. Rather over the top like so many Hollywood action films but quite good.
Steve
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James G
Squadron vice admiral
Posts: 7,608
Likes: 8,833
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Post by James G on Nov 3, 2020 19:11:27 GMT
The Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Britain in 2020Following defeat in the Second Great War, mainland Britain – formerly known as the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland – was divided into several occupation zones by the victorious Allied Powers. The Americans, the Canadians, former Empire forces (the Australians, New Zealanders & others) and the Franco-German Continental Bloc split up the country. Their occupation wasn’t meant to last for long. Post-war geo-political struggles saw the wartime alliance fall apart though and this resulted in a divided Britain… one which would last until 1990. The occupation zones in the north and the west eventually joined together with an independent nation. To the south, the smaller Continental Bloc formed their own country. North Britain (the Federal Republic) and South Britain (the Democratic Republic) were split into armed camps throughout the decades where each country, as well as their superpower sponsors, stood in opposition to each other ready to fight a Third Great War at any moment. The Second had seen the defeat of the Triple Alliance of Britain, Japan & Russia but fears of a third were present for many decades afterwards. The Inner British Border (IBB) ran east-to-west from The Wash to the Severn Estuary. It was a highly-militarised zone. Bedford, Bristol and Cambridge were in North Britain while Oxford and Swindon were located within South Britain. On the northern side of the IBB, military attention was focused on the Chiltern Hills, The Fens and the Watford Gap but each side feared a hostile invasion by the other. South Britain was far smaller than North Britain though did include the former capital with its large population (South Britain had its capital in Derby). London was divided just as Britain was. Inside, the Americans and their allies maintained the exclave of North London. This sat on the northern side of the River Thames and was surrounded by the London Wall. It was an island of freedom inside a sea of oppression according to North Britain propaganda: a bastion of evil, so said South Britain. The river wasn’t the dividing line though. The ruins of Parliament, the intact Tower of London and the devastated City were in the South while Buckingham Palace and the old West End belonged to the North. In late 1989, the London Wall fell and the IBB was opened up. South Britain collapsed in a peaceful revolution of civil disobedience alongside the Continental regimes of the Strasbourg Treaty nations. The next year, the two nations were united under the leadership of North Britain: the southern regions were incorporated as states into the Federal Republic rather than the former country as an administrative whole. London was formally reunited though and, over the next decade, government institutions moved from the small Derby to the big London. Foreign forces eventually left and reunited Britain became a fully independent nation with a role on the world stage. In the following thirty years since reunion, Britain’s armed forces have undergone a transformation. The mass of armies and air forces have either gone home (the foreign ones) or been converted into something different. A fight for the IBB is a thing of history. Part of the world community, Britain has intervened in humanitarian peacekeeping missions. The Armed Forces are spread across the nation though there are fewer bases in the former South than might be expected due to the still ongoing post-1990 tensions with (now divided) Continental powers. The British-Scottish border isn’t militarised and there are no hostile relations with United Ireland across the sea either. Britain’s military industry is highly advanced with general domestic production though from America there does often come some specialist gear. Britain remains part of the NATO organisation too. Retaining its historic name, the British Army is expeditionary rolled. There are no units with the title ‘Royal’ in their name and all traces of the pre-1945 military in terms of historic naming conventions are gone. Numbered battalions replaced named regiments. Airborne and marine units are extensive but there are regular tank and infantry units. All told, including reservists, the British Army is just over two hundred thousand strong. There is much experience within the British Army and morale is usually highly rated. However, every post-1990 military operation abroad which the army has taken part in has been either US- or NATO-led. The British Air Force is expeditionary rolled too. There is a national air defence mission but Continental threats are regarded as low. Fighters, strike aircraft, transports and helicopters are aplenty. There are nine major airbases in operation with only one of them in the former South Britain. Air defence missiles are nowhere near as numerous as they were during the years of the divided Britain but the British Air Force operate them for protection of British shores. There is also a force of anti-missile weapons operated by the British Air Force too… which are supported by American assets in the face of the considerable offensive missile force still in the service of Continental powers. The British Navy operates sixteen major surface combatants (destroyers, frigates & corvettes) and nine submarines. There are support ships and helicopters too. Three major naval bases are in use including Portsmouth which South Britain and its former allies made use of through the years 1945-90. Elements of the British Navy have seen action overseas since reunification alongside long-term allies with anti-piracy operations in the Eastern Med. and support too for Americans in the wars with Arab regimes across the Middle East. Recent exercises have also taken place with United India, a former colony which broke away during the Second Great War yet didn’t fight against Britain when other Empire portions did so. For the future state of the British Armed Forces, there is ongoing modernisation and increased focus on expeditionary capability beyond Britain’s shores. London wishes for the military to continue to play the role in the world which they desire and for the past to be forgotten as much as possible.
Interesting and frightening. If somehow I wasn't butterflied I'm born just north of the fortified line as I'm in the Fens. Presumably also conscripted at some point.
I think you have a small error in that with those border Derby would be the northern capital rather than the southern one, which is presumably within the southern region of London.
Also you mention peaceful relations with a united Ireland, which would have prompted me as to what happened to the population, deported, suppressed or what but then in your reply to Lordroel you mention Ulster as independent.
Obvious parallel's with WWII here but was the defeated British-Russia-Japanese alliance communist or fascist? Possibly from a WWI pod?
Steve
Certain conscription indeed for everyone in both nations though the North might be a little less restrictive. Derby is the North, yes: edited, thank you. The parallel is Divided Germany and so Ulster is, say the Sudentland, with 'Brits sent home'. Scotland is Austria here. I didn't really have a POD but thought that an alliance of the UK/Russia/Japan against Western Europe & America would be an interesting one. |
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stevep
Fleet admiral
Posts: 24,867
Likes: 13,252
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Post by stevep on Nov 4, 2020 18:02:37 GMT
Interesting and frightening. If somehow I wasn't butterflied I'm born just north of the fortified line as I'm in the Fens. Presumably also conscripted at some point.
I think you have a small error in that with those border Derby would be the northern capital rather than the southern one, which is presumably within the southern region of London.
Also you mention peaceful relations with a united Ireland, which would have prompted me as to what happened to the population, deported, suppressed or what but then in your reply to Lordroel you mention Ulster as independent.
Obvious parallel's with WWII here but was the defeated British-Russia-Japanese alliance communist or fascist? Possibly from a WWI pod?
Steve
Certain conscription indeed for everyone in both nations though the North might be a little less restrictive. Derby is the North, yes: edited, thank you. The parallel is Divided Germany and so Ulster is, say the Sudentland, with 'Brits sent home'. Scotland is Austria here. I didn't really have a POD but thought that an alliance of the UK/Russia/Japan against Western Europe & America would be an interesting one.
Ah so basically the Brits and Russians are fascists and central Europe end up as communists. And the bulk of the population are deported from Ulster post-war. |
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James G
Squadron vice admiral
Posts: 7,608
Likes: 8,833
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Post by James G on Nov 4, 2020 18:24:05 GMT
Shot Before Sundown
British Army soldiers shot half a dozen prisoners previously sentenced to death before sundown on May 31st, 2025. Each of the six was executed by a firing squad, following military trials, at the Catterick Garrison in North Yorkshire. Those killed had been convicted of treason and with Britain still under martial law following a failed revolution and extensive & deadly civilian strife, their punishment was the forfeit of their lives. Last minute reprieves had been attempted regardless of each prisoner either still affirming their innocence or refusing to recognise the justice being melted out to them, yet the firing squads sent them all to meet their maker.
Colonel Thomas Houghton was the first to be shot. He was forty-six years-old, a former professional accountant with a wife and young family. Before the revolution, Houghton had spent some time with the Army Reserve though had never achieved any high rank like he did among the forces of those in revolt against the legitimate government. The conflict saw him rise high like he did. He was placed in charge of captured prisoners at a detention facility and in that role, Houghton was responsible for the murder of thirty-four of them. Witnesses and documentation proved that this ordinary-looking man was a mass murderer who killed the helpless. Justice caught up with him today and he was shot to death.
Elizabeth Salisbury was next for the firing squad. She had been involved in the illegal rebellion in a supervisory position with their secret police. This fifty-seven year-old woman, a grandmother of three, had once served in MI-5 (Britain domestic intelligence service) yet Salisbury had joined the revolution. Her treason came alongside her wartime crimes where she had hunted for alleged subversives within occupied communities held by rebel forces. Those identified had been killed by the regime with the military court which has recently convicted her deeming them innocent civilians targeted for terror purposes rather than any possible crimes. Hit by bullets fired by soldiers serving a legitimate government, Salisbury was killed today.
Third to be shot was Andrew Bailey. He was a young man, only twenty-four. During the revolution, he had taken over his father’s business when that older man mysteriously disappeared. Bailey imported arms from abroad for the rebels. He was intimately involved in the smuggling of high-tech weaponry. Evidence against Bailey was extensive, much of it coming from him himself where transcripts of his confession post-arrest had been presented to the military court which sentenced him to death. It was the rocket artillery with thermobaric warheads and heavy machine guns which Bailey smuggled into the country which killed many British Army soldiers during their eventual overcoming of the rebellion. Bailey shouted obscenities as his last words before being cut down by a fusillade of bullets.
Leading Aircraftman Matthew Green had defected from the Royal Air Force to the rebel’s army late in the conflict. This twenty-seven year-old had left his husband behind when going over to the other side and fighting against his country for revolutionaries. Other turncoats had prison sentences imposed upon them once the fighting was over, long ones too. Green was sentenced to death though. His defection so late in the conflict was held against him and so too was his lack of contrition for what he did. Moreover, Green appeared in rebel propaganda in a willing fashion and tried to induce others to follow him. His death sentence was the most controversial of this batch of prisoners. Executed alongside Bailey, Green was silent and had no last words before the bullets came.
Leon Raderneki was responsible for as many as hundred deaths during the revolution. He served in one of the militia units which begun the armed phase of the rebellion against the democratically-elected government. Politically-active beforehand, Raderneki long held disdain for certain sectors of British society, especially its political class, and had served a short prison sentence for threats of violence against MPs. Raderneki had taken up arms and induced others to join him. He had ended up being given much responsibility in a small city in the North of England and did a remarkably terrible job of running civil affairs there. His crimes for which he was sentenced to die were those of slaughtering innocents opposed to the dictatorship established in rebel-held areas, often using rather brutal methods. Families of victims testified to the military court. Shot today, the thirty-eight year-old was verbally unrepentant but was seen shaking when faced with the firing squad.
Petty Officer Emily MacDonald was the second woman and last prisoner shot today. She had committed treason, like the others, with this member of the Royal Navy engaged in espionage for the revolutionaries via the support of an overseas power. The thirty year-old passed detailed information on Royal Navy deployments supporting the maritime blockade against rebel-held territory to her country’s enemies. Caught, she continued to deny her crimes were those of treason. Instead, MacDonald claimed that she was in fact a patriot fighting for what she called a democratic cause. The military court disagreed. Her death sentence was nearly one of life imprisonment due to her being a mother of a young child, but no final reprieve came. She was shot today just before the sun set.
The bodies of each shot traitor were taken to a mass grave near to the garrison. There were the remains of others there, those who’d been previously executed with more soon to join them. Each corpse was treated with respect with regard to their burial: there were many other sites nationwide where throughout the conflict bodies hadn’t been put into the ground in such a manner. Observing the burials was a party of senior officers including those who’d been on the military courts who’d delivered these recent death sentences. In addition, among the witnesses to the shootings and this finale for the six was a Russian military officer. He watched as enemies of his country’s aims, those who had fought against his nation’s subversive takeover through proxies of Britain, be finished off. This was a good day for the New Britain and for the Rodina’s global interests too.
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