Fall and Rise: A WW2 ISOT

[lordroel]

Aug 4, 2024 9:54:15 GMT simon darkshade said:

Not all exile forces have made the transition.

So none are going to be seen in the steamroll towards Berlin.

[simon darkshade]

No. As said before, there are 2 parts left and then a brief epilogue. As a story, it is a fairly closed and self contained one, without great scope for stretch or complications.

One thing is for sure: It isn’t going to take going all the way to Berlin. The end, when it comes, will be relatively quick.

[lordroel]

Aug 4, 2024 10:30:31 GMT simon darkshade said:

One thing is for sure: It isn’t going to take going all the way to Berlin. The end, when it comes, will be relatively quick.

IS DE Britain not worried the Soviet Union might jump in like they did with Poland.

[simon darkshade]

Their opinion is informed by the poor performance of the USSR in their defeat in the Winter War, the first 18 months of Barbarossa and the grinding fight of 1943. They aren’t worried, as the Red Army isn’t in an attacking position in 1940 - remember, it is the British here who have some interesting infiltration of the Soviets.

Stalin has been just a little deterred by what Bomber Command has shown it is capable of.

[lordroel]

Aug 4, 2024 11:25:20 GMT simon darkshade said:

Their opinion is informed by the poor performance of the USSR in their defeat in the Winter War, the first 18 months of Barbarossa and the grinding fight of 1943. They aren’t worried, as the Red Army isn’t in an attacking position in 1940 - remember, it is the British here who have some interesting infiltration of the Soviets.

Stalin has been just a little deterred by what Bomber Command has shown it is capable of.

So, does DE Britain going to support a 1940 uprising of the Polish Home Army, maybe by sending Free Polish forces that might already be in DE Britain, i assume they have transports that have the range.

[simon darkshade]

The Free Polish Forces in Britain are largely conventional infantry and armour. As outlined a few pages back in the notes for Part 5, there will be a link up with the Home Army by British and Free Polish special forces, as well as an Anglo-Polish-Israeli operation against a notorious place. Further details would be giving the game away a tad.

1,174,208 IDs + 4000 frontline infantry tanks 
187,200 ADs + frontline 5200 tanks
Field Army: 1,361,408 men + 500,000 RA, 150,000 RE + 500,000 Ors for 2.5 million

[simon darkshade]

Warsaw had seen infrequent RAF overflights since The Event, with highflying Lancasters and Windsors cruising in the wild impartial skies above the Polish capital even as it suffered under the Nazi jackboot. Each night, the BBC could be heard on the wireless sets hidden in homes across the shattered capital, giving news of change, of hope and of victories. Again and again the message would come through

Hold on. Hold on. Poland has not been forgotten. The morning will come.

On this night, as to the West, Frankfurt burnt and the British Army smashed across the Seine, and in Warsaw as the Nazi oppressors continued to erect the wall around what they intended would be a Ghetto holding hundreds of thousands of Jews, the first inklings that something was afoot could be felt. For tonight, the RAF bombers dropped leaflets, telling that British, French and Polish armies were coming and that Poland would rise again.

They weren’t the only things to drop in that night.

…………….

Lieutenant-Colonel Gustavus March-Phillipps had had more comfortable landings, but the momentary discombobulation was swiftly ameliorated by his headquarters group being able to quickly assemble around their landing sight. Glider insertion from a skyship platform had been judged as the best means of getting his force into Poland on that night, taking advantage of the havoc Bomber Command was wreaking on Jerry back in Boschland.

His deputy in this hastily assembled force was an RN Lieutenant-Commander Fleming, seconded from the Commandos in some intelligence role or the other, but right now, he looked to a figure on the other side of him, whose keen almond shaped eyes could penetrate through the night in a manner that a human’s could not.

”Someone is coming up ahead, through the woods approaching the field beyond next. There. They are pausing to make the signal, as appointed.”

”Hantatyë, Master Celebhethil. We may have need of your blade and magery yet on this night, but so far, so good.”

”Indeed. I’ll to my circle, then; we shall endeavour to make contact with Lord Laurefindelë in the second battalion, for they have the more fell duty ahead, even as he bears the Sumorsweord.”

The forward pickets of the British Commandos returned the appointed torch signals from the Polish Związek Walki Zbrojnej and their accompanying SOE agents hastily parachuted in to meet them.

[stevep]

Aug 4, 2024 14:28:08 GMT simon darkshade said:

Warsaw had seen infrequent RAF overflights since The Event, with highflying Lancasters and Windsors cruising in the wild impartial skies above the Polish capital even as it suffered under the Nazi jackboot. Each night, the BBC could be heard on the wireless sets hidden in homes across the shattered capital, giving news of change, of hope and of victories. Again and again the message would come through

Hold on. Hold on. Poland has not been forgotten. The morning will come.

On this night, as to the West, Frankfurt burnt and the British Army smashed across the Seine, and in Warsaw as the Nazi oppressors continued to erect the wall around what they intended would be a Ghetto holding hundreds of thousands of Jews, the first inklings that something was afoot could be felt. For tonight, the RAF bombers dropped leaflets, telling that British, French and Polish armies were coming and that Poland would rise again.

They weren’t the only things to drop in that night.

…………….

Lieutenant-Colonel Gustavus March-Phillipps had had more comfortable landings, but the momentary discombobulation was swiftly ameliorated by his headquarters group being able to quickly assemble around their landing sight. Glider insertion from a skyship platform had been judged as the best means of getting his force into Poland on that night, taking advantage of the havoc Bomber Command was wreaking on Jerry back in Boschland.

His deputy in this hastily assembled force was an RN Lieutenant-Commander Fleming, seconded from the Commandos in some intelligence role or the other, but right now, he looked to a figure on the other side of him, whose keen almond shaped eyes could penetrate through the night in a manner that a human’s could not.

”Someone is coming up ahead, through the woods approaching the field beyond next. There. They are pausing to make the signal, as appointed.”

”Hantatyë, Master Celebhethil. We may have need of your blade and magery yet on this night, but so far, so good.”

”Indeed. I’ll to my circle, then; we shall endeavour to make contact with Lord Laurefindelë in the second battalion, for they have the more fell duty ahead, even as he bears the Sumorsweord.”

The forward pickets of the British Commandos returned the appointed torch signals from the Polish Związek Walki Zbrojnej and their accompanying SOE agents hastily parachuted in to meet them.

  Well that sounds interesting.  Have seen mention of dwarves and also hobbits, although largely in a catering role as well as dragons and human mages but can't remember a significant elven role in medium/large scale combat in the DE stories before.  Looking forward to seeing what develops.

[simon darkshade]

Celebhethil means Silver Blade, being an original character.
Laurefindelë has been known by other names, which carry the same meaning of ‘Golden Tresses’. I am informed that he was tall and straight; his hair was of shining gold, his face fair and young and fearless and full of joy; his eyes were bright and keen, and his voice like music; on his brow sat wisdom, and in his hand was strength.

The second location being visited by his group, which includes others such as Moshe Dayan, A.D. Wintle and a Commander Bond, is a new concentration camp near the town of Oświęcim.

[stevep]

Aug 4, 2024 14:54:26 GMT simon darkshade said:

Celebhethil means Silver Blade, being an original character.
Laurefindelë has been known by other names, which carry the same meaning of ‘Golden Tresses’. I am informed that he was tall and straight; his hair was of shining gold, his face fair and young and fearless and full of joy; his eyes were bright and keen, and his voice like music; on his brow sat wisdom, and in his hand was strength.

The second location being visited by his group, which includes others such as Moshe Dayan, A.D. Wintle and a Commander Bond, is a new concentration camp near the town of Oświęcim.

  I did wonder given the 2nd part of his name.  He's going to find a lot of evil there and plenty of people needing rescue but no balrogs so hopefully a better ending for him this time.

  So both writer and character exist in TTL as well.  The bird watcher [of the feathered kind] and the bird watcher [of the non-feathered kind]

  Wintle sounds like quite a character.  Not sure if totally sane but definitely determined on achieving his aims.

[simon darkshade]

In terms of how an elflord would perform in combat, a bit different to the flashy approach of Peter Jackson. Certainly very fast and far, far stronger than they might appear, but above and beyond that I hope to conjure something of the style of Tolkien, where a powerful elflord or elflady could repel, turn or destroy evil creatures with sheer power and light. I’d also take some elements from the Jackson pictures, but not just the ‘really cool Legolas’ stuff, but the performance of Sauron at the opening battle of FoTR and a little touch of some of The Hobbit pictures. Another influence is the Jedi, with a combination of physical force (lightsabers) and supernatural power (The Force).

In DE, magic is far less minimal than the derisory presence in Peter Jackson’s pictures; an elflord has the ability of an archmage.

An elflord is something beyond just a ‘sick’ melee fighter and a very powerful wizard in one package, but can project their power, presence and awe through their connections with another world. To see one unmasked in his wrath is to know fear. To put it another way, Jackson’s elves were all Third Age types, whereas in DE, there are some certain few who might approach some Second or First Age types when fully roused.

They aren’t fond of guns, viewing them as a very crude modern perversion. Some are want to just ignoring their effects due to their accumulated protection magics. Bows are preferred as a more civilised, elegant missile weapon.

[simon darkshade]

Narvik
June 26th 1940

As Leutnant Unglückselig stood waiting on the dockside for his turn to embark upon the ship that would carry him across to England, captivity, and safety, he finally remembered the French phrase he had been trying to remember through the day

Coup de main.

The 2nd and 3rd Mountain Divisions had retaken Narvik less than three weeks ago, and in that time had quite naturally little opportunity for the erection of any permanent or major fortified defences and fieldworks. There had been some concern of repetition of the earlier naval raids and the rampage of Warspite, but the Allied evacuation of Norway had seemed to have put paid to that prospect. In any event, General Dietl’s force had maintained outer pickets out in the Ofotfjord and the surrounding heights overlooking and controlling the approaches to Narvik harbour, and these were naturally expected to provide warning of any approaching enemy.

It was thus a circumstance of no small perturbation and confustication to the German garrison when, at 0942, an enormous British fleet had appeared in the middle of the fjord and began shelling the battered remnants of the coastal batteries and other strong points. There had been no warning, nor even any telltale sound, just a normal June morning and then a veritable maelstrom of destruction. Five huge battleships, ten cruisers and dozens of destroyers, all flying battle flags and bristling with guns, had delivered the first punch, but that had not been the most disturbing feature of the day.

Nor, for that matter, had been the sudden appearance of hundreds of English fighters and dive bombers out of an empty sky, swooping down to strike everything in feldgrau that could be seen in the open with withering cannon fire, barrages of rockets and some sort of horrific jellied gasoline bomb. It was a shock, to be sure, and he still couldn’t understand how they seemed to appear out of nowhere without the usual noise of engines, but aircraft and ships were known threats and ones that could be understood.

What had came as a true shock beyond the ken of ordinary experience was the troops who had seemingly rose up from the mountainside and fell down upon the Gebirgsjager emplaced around Narvik, for one simple reason.

They were not men.

Thousands and thousands of heavily armoured dwarves had charged down forth at the Germans, firing stubby automatic rifles and machine guns and supported by mortars and mountain howitzers. Many of the mountain troops had tried to fight back gallantly as befits good German soldiers, but they were outnumbered, outgunned and beset from all sides; those positions that did offer resistance were swiftly subdued by some form of shoulder mounted rocket launchers wielded by the dwarves or equally devastating grenade guns.

The German troops on the other side of the Rombaksfjord had the distinctly strange experience of being better off facing a surprise attack by several thousand Gurkhas, even as the tender attentions of the furious fighters from the far-off Himalayas would very, very rarely be seen as the lesser of two evils; a ferocious smile and razor sharp kukri was only ever so slightly less disconcerting than a bearded midget trying to introduce a landser’s nether regions to a doubled-bitted battleaxe.

Within an hour of the appearance of the fleet, the swarms of aircraft and the troops, all semblance of organised resistance had ceased. The landing ships carrying the Light Division then appeared from behind their screens of illusion and began to land the division directly onto the dockside, whereupon they proceeded to fan out into the town as per the carefully laid plan. Once empty, they were used to ferry the German prisoners out to the transports further out in the fjord.

The morning would see other landings at Trondheim and at Bergen, similarly using the decidedly unfair combination of concealing magics and overwhelming force to come down upon the Germans as the Assyrians of old, like a wolf upon the fold. Royal Air Force bombers and Mosquitoes flying from Scotland and Gloster Reapers out of the Shetlands continued to hammer every airfield in Southern Norway through the morning, following on from the constant bombing of the last week, all working towards a greater purpose.

From airfields across the North of England, hundreds of Vickers Victoria transports took to the skies carrying the first wave of I Airborne Corps. The British and Canadian paratroopers were bound for Sola and destiny.

The liberation of Norway had begun.

[lordroel]

Sept 1, 2024 10:20:09 GMT simon darkshade said:

Narvik
June 26th 1940

As Leutnant Unglückselig stood waiting on the dockside for his turn to embark upon the ship that would carry him across to England, captivity, and safety, he finally remembered the French phrase he had been trying to remember through the day

Coup de main.

The 2nd and 3rd Mountain Divisions had retaken Narvik less than three weeks ago, and in that time had quite naturally little opportunity for the erection of any permanent or major fortified defences and fieldworks. There had been some concern of repetition of the earlier naval raids and the rampage of Warspite, but the Allied evacuation of Norway had seemed to have put paid to that prospect. In any event, General Dietl’s force had maintained outer pickets out in the Ofotfjord and the surrounding heights overlooking and controlling the approaches to Narvik harbour, and these were naturally expected to provide warning of any approaching enemy.

It was thus a circumstance of no small perturbation and confustication to the German garrison when, at 0942, an enormous British fleet had appeared in the middle of the fjord and began shelling the battered remnants of the coastal batteries and other strong points. There had been no warning, nor even any telltale sound, just a normal June morning and then a veritable maelstrom of destruction. Five huge battleships, ten cruisers and dozens of destroyers, all flying battle flags and bristling with guns, had delivered the first punch, but that had not been the most disturbing feature of the day.

Nor, for that matter, had been the sudden appearance of hundreds of English fighters and dive bombers out of an empty sky, swooping down to strike everything in feldgrau that could be seen in the open with withering cannon fire, barrages of rockets and some sort of horrific jellied gasoline bomb. It was a shock, to be sure, and he still couldn’t understand how they seemed to appear out of nowhere without the usual noise of engines, but aircraft and ships were known threats and ones that could be understood.

What had came as a true shock beyond the ken of ordinary experience was the troops who had seemingly rose up from the mountainside and fell down upon the Gebirgsjager emplaced around Narvik, for one simple reason.

They were not men.

Thousands and thousands of heavily armoured dwarves had charged down forth at the Germans, firing stubby automatic rifles and machine guns and supported by mortars and mountain howitzers. Many of the mountain troops had tried to fight back gallantly as befits good German soldiers, but they were outnumbered, outgunned and beset from all sides; those positions that did offer resistance were swiftly subdued by some form of shoulder mounted rocket launchers wielded by the dwarves or equally devastating grenade guns.

The German troops on the other side of the Rombaksfjord had the distinctly strange experience of being better off facing a surprise attack by several thousand Gurkhas, even as the tender attentions of the furious fighters from the far-off Himalayas would very, very rarely be seen as the lesser of two evils; a ferocious smile and razor sharp kukri was only ever so slightly less disconcerting than a bearded midget trying to introduce a landser’s nether regions to a doubled-bitted battleaxe.

Within an hour of the appearance of the fleet, the swarms of aircraft and the troops, all semblance of organised resistance had ceased. The landing ships carrying the Light Division then appeared from behind their screens of illusion and began to land the division directly onto the dockside, whereupon they proceeded to fan out into the town as per the carefully laid plan. Once empty, they were used to ferry the German prisoners out to the transports further out in the fjord.

The morning would see other landings at Trondheim and at Bergen, similarly using the decidedly unfair combination of concealing magics and overwhelming force to come down upon the Germans as the Assyrians of old, like a wolf upon the fold. Royal Air Force bombers and Mosquitoes flying from Scotland and Gloster Reapers out of the Shetlands continued to hammer every airfield in Southern Norway through the morning, following on from the constant bombing of the last week, all working towards a greater purpose.

From airfields across the North of England, hundreds of Vickers Victoria transports took to the skies carrying the first wave of I Airborne Corps. The British and Canadian paratroopers were bound for Sola and destiny.

The liberation of Norway had begun.

Three times the charm at Narvik, this one seems to be bigger and the finisher.

[simon darkshade]

It more than seems to be bigger - it is very much bigger, with three and a half divisions; 5 BB, 10 CA and 42 DD; and FAA aircraft from four carriers plus 250 RAF planes.

It doesn’t just seem to be the finisher, but is that. The Germans don’t have a fleet to get troops to Norway again.

[lordroel]

Sept 1, 2024 10:20:09 GMT simon darkshade said:

Thousands and thousands of heavily armoured dwarves had charged down forth at the Germans, firing stubby automatic rifles and machine guns and supported by mortars and mountain howitzers. Many of the mountain troops had tried to fight back gallantly as befits good German soldiers, but they were outnumbered, outgunned and beset from all sides; those positions that did offer resistance were swiftly subdued by some form of shoulder mounted rocket launchers wielded by the dwarves or equally devastating grenade guns.

What unit are the dwarves from.