Shattered World : A Worse World War

Shattered World now published...

2012-01-22T20:54:00.000-08:00

I've turned the first 29 segments of Shattered World, the 'Eurasian War' period and the 'Between the Wars' period, into two 99 cent ebooks available on the amazon kindle store. This part of the timeline is now only available via ebook. (unless you dig around the net and find the older parts cached from usenet days I suppose)

If there is any interest I could really use some reviews . I'll make them available in other formats such as for the nook and whatnot if there are some sales to justify it. Here are the links for them on the kindle store...

The Eurasian War

Between the Wars

I'll be doing the same thing for the rest of the timeline as well , and new content will be available in ebook form as well although I will post summaries and previews on here still.

New Interlude : Operation Tumble Down....

2011-02-02T17:51:00.000-08:00

The new segment is coming very soon, but the in the meantime here is a new interlude that goes with the coming segment....

Operation Tumble Down : General Atomic Warfare against 'Fortress Europa'

Launching The Fractured World...

2011-01-19T01:11:00.001-08:00

http://fractured-timeline.blogspot.com/

Here is the first posting from this project, a taste.......

Excerpt from "The Time of the Five World Wars"

Pittsburgh Presses, Neo-Windsor, 2111 AD

May 21st, 1883

The streets of New Amsterdam thronged with masses of cheering people, and great unending streamers of ticker tape fell from the eight story skyscrapers lining Central avenue in downtown Manhattan. Ceaseless columns of soldiers paraded down the avenue, their polished boots stomping the pavement in unison as brass bands played triumphant national songs vigorously and the crowd roared with approval at the passing of each immaculate regiment.

It was a mixed throng of spectators, a hundred thousand and more common laborers and mill managers, shopkeeps and news boys, maids and wives, stock brokers and bankers, curious orientals pausing from their afternoon chores and blacks in from the wharves ; all of New Amsterdam was assembled, and the spirits of all New Dutch soared with them. For the heady thrill of War was in the air. ...

...In Europe, the mother Dutch and their French patrons were mobilizing for War in The Germanies, following a decade of insults and Prusso-British aggression. The assassination of the Dutch-speaking King of Holster and the subsequent Prussian invasion had been the final straw. The French could simply not ignore the provocation as the balance of power in The Germanies threatened to swing in favor of the British-Prussian alliance. As one power after another began to mobilize during the month of May the tightly sprung system of international alliances began to unwind - the countdown to war was like an unstoppable train, fueled by the confident eagerness of willing populations.

Nowhere was the nationalist fervor more passionate than among the New Dutch of Dutchland and Pennsylvania. After most of a century of humiliation at the hands of the British and New Englanders, the opportunity to restore the New Netherlands was an intoxicating dream, one stirred by the newspapers and New Dutch politicians without fail...

...across the Hudson, British artillery sat ready amidst fortifications in the Brooklyn heights. Tense crews sat awaiting the orders that could mark the outbreak of war and send high explosive shells arcing towards New Amsterdam, the largest city in North America. The British had no shortage of modern rifled artillery, and they had been lavish with the guns when outfitting Long Island's defenses.

Readily visible to the British artillerymen, the Entente Tower dominated New Amsterdam's skyline, the soaring French-designed iron monstrosity completed just a few years before to mark the twentieth anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Liege that formalized the Entente between France, the Netherlands, and the new Dutch nations of Dutchland and Pennsylvania. A huge Dutchland flag rippled in the steady wind at the top of the tower...

...both sides had observation balloons high above the Hudson river, the balloons of the opposing armies intermingling so closely that the British artillerymen took bets on how long it would take for a couple of them to become entangled...

...Later historians would lament at the madness of these times; that across the globe people willingly, eagerly, marched into the death and darkness of the subsequent eighty years. After decades of buildup, the Time of the Five World Wars was at hand....

TO BE CONTINUED...

Idea for another timeline project...

2011-01-18T16:58:00.000-08:00

Working Title : "Fractured World : The Five World Wars"

I've been considering doing another timeline project similar to Shattered World, except set in a world with a point of departure in the early or mid 1800's, or possibly even the 1700's.

The timeline story would begin in the late 1800's, and describe a series of VERY alternate world wars that take place from the 1880's to the mid 20th century. Done in a style similar to Shattered World, but with a more consistent tone.

Atomic weapons come along a couple decades later than in OTL, allowing for several conventional world wars to occur from around 1880 to around 1960, or so.

The setting - I'm thinking the French do somewhat better than in OTL and are on more equal terms with the British in terms of economic/military/naval might and the size of their Empire. The French also do better in North America and the U.S. never quite forms, instead North America ends up divided between a few post-British and post-French and post-Spanish states. (California, Russian Alaska which stretches down to Oregon, Mexico, Texas, Indian nations, Canada, Quebec, New Foundland, New England, various independent states like New York and Virginia, Louisiana Republic, Spanish Florida, probably others like small British/French/Dutch enclaves and the like)

France never lets a unified Germany develop, instead you have "The Germanies" which are just a very loose confederation joined more by cultural than by political ties. Prussia and Austria are the largest of "The Germanies" but neither approaches the French, British, or Russians in terms of their power.

By the 1880's, technology is similar to the 1880's of OTL but Europe is a powderkeg with Britain, France, and Russia all vying for influence over "The Germanies" and the rest of central and Southern Europe. (while Prussia and Austria both still have ambitions towards a Greater Germany and are seeking to play off the three major powers against each other.

Italy also never unified, due to French interference, so southern Europe is all small squabbling states from Romania west to Corsica. South America is a mis-mash of British and French and Dutch colonies along with independent Republics, and is more developed than OTL.

Elsewhere there is intense colonial competition between Britain, France, the Dutch to a lesser degree, and Russia all around the globe.

Oh, and the Netherlands is actually a fairly major power consisting of OTL's Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxemburg. It is a nominal ally of France and on par with Prussia and Austria in terms of national power.

For those concerned this will eat into my Shattered World writing : The way I write, this won't really happen. I tend to write in "bursts" and these bursts almost always are directed into a specific project. Having a couple different projects doesn't lessen the chances of a "burst" going into any one of the projects.

Thoughts anyone?

Coming Soon...

2011-01-05T10:37:00.001-08:00

Just wanted to post a "proof of life" message since I've been quiet for awhile now. The next Segment should be coming fairly soon and it should cover a longer period than my recent micro-segments.

New material on my other project...

2010-10-07T11:09:00.000-07:00

If anyone is following my other project, Unity's Call(a high fantasy novel/worldbuilding project in progress), I posted some new material for it just now.

http://callofunity.blogspot.com/

2010-10-06T17:01:00.001-07:00

Shattered World - Micro-Segment 56.1.2

November 20th 1949 to November 22nd 1949

Eastern Front :

November 22nd 1949

At precisely 5:00 AM, in the unseasonably bitter cold of both northern and Southern Russia, German forces launch operation 'Red Downfall'. The offensive is to be the great hope of Germany, the final push to knock out or cripple the Soviet Union once and for all. Almost the entirety of German industry has been directed to fuel and re-equip the great armies in the East, as has the last real manpower reserve been squeezed dry to replenish the ranks of the fallen. Everything that can be spared, and some things that cannot be, has been stripped from the west to sustain and power the carefully planned winter offensive. The timing could not be better for the operation : The Soviet Union was increasingly starving, desperately short on fuel, her war machine sputterrnig from lack of men and material. And there was little relief in sight, with the Siberian ports still closed and the worst winter in modern history icing in the Soviet ports in the north and wreaking havoc with Alliance rail lines through Persia and Afghanistan.

Indeed, such was the cooperation of the wheather that whispers in the superstitious inner clique of the Nazi party spoke of the gods themselves stretching out their hands 'to aid the Master Race'. Ironic, that; given that much of the dust, whose cloak was the real cause of the harsh winter, rose from the ashes of German cities. It was not the hands of divine gods that ushered in the cold, but the atomic fists of men.

In the north, German armored divisions and mechanized infantry strike east and northeast, seeking weaknesses in the Soviet lines south of Leningrad. But there are no weaknesses to be found, for desperation has driven the Soviets to sew the land with every defensive work known to man. Yet, despite the strength of Soviet defenses, the heavy German forces grind forward. Their commanders know that they only need to crack the hard exterior, after which their mobile forces can maneuver at will against inferior, and under-fueled, numbers of Soviet tanks. With grim determination, and despite heavy casualties, the Germans pound forward several kilometers into the Soviet lines by the early evening while Finnish volunteers and light German forces harass the lightly defended Soviet lines to the northwest of Leningrad.

In the skies, armadas of German heavy bombers drops untold tons of explosives and chemical bombs on the stubborn, skeletal, edifices of Leningrad and Beriagrad while medium and light bombers penetrate obsolete Soviet air defenses to attack Soviet troop concentrations and logistical hubs at will. The Red Airforce, a shadow of its former glory, can offer only meager resistance; and very few Soviet bombers of any type appear in the skies over Axis forces.

In the South, the largest single army anywhere on the planet is on the move. Army Group South, flush with the latest panzers and personnel carriers from the ever-churning factories of central Europe, is advancing headlong into brittle Soviet lines and simply moving around the surprisingly few pockets of real resistance. Here and there, Red Army units already on the verge of mutiny simply surrender or melt away into the countryside. Further east, fighting between regular Red Army units and secret police detachments breaks out as the regional Red Army command moves to purge the local political apparatus. Though still resisting the Germans where they can, the remnants of the Ukrainian Front Army in southern Russia have had enough of Beria. It is open Mutiny.

In Moscow, the grim Soviet High Command loses communictions with one unit after another, and can do nothing as the southern front melts before their eyes. Despite the confusion, the general thrust of the German offensive there is clear - they are aiming to take Beriagrad, and with it all of southern Russia. With no other choice, Beria authorizes the deployment of the Soviet Union's last reserve army, stripping all of Moscow's remaining mobile reserves to bolster it. By the end of the day it is embarking onto trains that will take it south, to defend the line of the Volga. The dice, then, were thrown. The last of Germany's real might would face the last of the Soviet Union's remaining strength. The Soviet Union would survive the winter, and take vengeance on the Red Army mutineers in the south, or it would simply cease to exist. Both sides were all in, to the knife.

Europe & Atlantic :

November 22nd 1949

Despite spoiling German counter-attacks, U.S. forces have secured their beachheads in Portugal and begun fanning west, north, and south to envelop Lisbon and push Axis forces well away from the coast. Pro-German elements resisting the Portuguese defection have been crushed by Portgaul's police and army after two days of scattered violence.

German ballistic missile attacks on the beacheads and the Canary Islands continue but have caused only minimal disruption to U.S. operations.

In Britain, the effects of the German VX attacks on London, Manchester, and Liverpool continue to be felt. With German submarines still sinking a lot of shipping in the Atlantic, and with Britain's two largest ports still heavily disrupted, the British people begin to feel the cruel hand of real hunger. Rations have been cut again, to caloric intake barely above that of starvation level. Already, there are rumblings of "peace at any cost" from some political quarters. In an effort to stave off such talk, the U.S. has launched the greatest logistical effort in human history.

In a speech before Congress broadcast in America and across the Atlantic to the British Isles, President Dewey promises that "The Arsenal of Democracy shall fill the pantries of the brave British people". To do this, the U.S. begins a massive renewed effort to ship food to the British Isles via sea and air in combination with even more aggressive action against German submarines in the north Atlantic.

Privately, officials in the U.S. wonder if Britain can hold out until the Spring.

Meanwhile, at SBC airbases in Britain, Ireland, and the Canary Islands there is a dramatic uptick in the level of activity. A careful examination of the logistical flow of these bases would have shown that something big was in the works. Indeed, several clever Axis intelligence officers told there superiors as much, only to have their reports lost in the bureaucracy.

The U.S., after all, wielded ever more nuclear weapons as production slowly ramped up back in the States. And it intended to use them.

Far East :

November 22nd 1949

Around the Japanese Islands, the noose continued to tighten. More and more mines litterred the shallow seas, more and more U.S. aircraft and submarines patrolled off the coasts and in the vital waterways. More and more U.S. heavy bombers dropped seemingly limitless loads of explosives, incindiery, and chemical weapons on the increasingly shattered Japanese cities. More and more Japanese died - from starvation or fire, choking clouds of death or raining bombs in the night.

Only two vital objectives remained for the U.S. Pacific Fleet : Secure the Siberian ports and break Japanese lines of communication between the Home Islands and from the Home Islands to Korea. The plans to achieve both objectives, and sooner rather than later, were already drawn up. And with an armada unlike anything ever seen before, the USN was more than ready to enact those plans.

North Africa & The Middle East :

November 21st 1949

In Syria, nationalist pro-German elements launch a virtually bloodless coup, seizing control of government buildings and communications centers in Damascus while infiltrated border units throw open the border gates to Turkish forces. After several hours of confusion, Free-French garrison forces move into the center of Damascus and fighting erupts. The coup plotters, however, have been carefully planning their power grab for years and have thourougly pentrated all levels of the colonial government, police, and army and have much of the Free French civilian leadership in their custody before the Free French military units can react.

By the late afternoon, Free French forces find themselves engaged in standing battles in the cities with hostile native units while Turkish forces are freely moving into the country and driving unopposed towards Damascus and the Lebanese coast.

In Palestine, the British are hastily mobilizing for an intervention but have been caught completely by surprise by events in Free-French-Syria. Already, nationalist and Islamist mobs are protesting and rioting in support of the Syrian coup in Tel Aviv, Amman, and Cairo.

November 22nd 1949

In northeastern Libya, the British 7th armored division uses its last fuel reserves to launch an attack into the left flank of the German salient stretching across the Cyrenaica to the Mediterranean coast at Al Bayda. With the forces roughly even in quality and quantity, the pitched battle rages through the morning and afternoon as jet aircraft clash in the skies and dueling bombers pounce on armored columns and rake opposing infantry concentrations. In the end, the anti-tank rockets of German panzergrenadiers make the difference and the British armor is unable to break Gustov's flank; the German salient holds, keeping Benghazi and the 7th armored division cut off from British forces to the east.

The stalemate is very much a short-term strategic victory for Gustov, since the 7th armored division spent most of it's fuel trying to break out of the Benghazi pocket. However, the U.S. threat far to the west looms large on the horizon. Gustov is desperate to consolidate his gains, strengthen his wedge between Benghazi and Egypt, and meet the British 8th armored division now approaching his right flank from the east. There is a glimmer of hope for Gustov - he has an oppurtunity to defeat the two British armored divisions in detail and then resume his push eastwards towards the Egyptian frontier. Al Bayda, and its huge fuel dump, is the crucial point.

South America :

November 22nd 1949

At La Serena, the largest Chilean city in left-coalition rebel hands, civilian cargo ships under nuetral flag arrive carrying arms and international "volunteers" to aid the rebels. The arms and volunteers are funded clandestinely by the U.S. although it is not exactly a huge secret. The Junta issues a formal protest to the U.S. but otherwise ignores the provocation. SAFB arms and "volunteer" forces are already crossing into Chile in significant numbers and the Junta remains condident it can crush the rebels despite the U.S. mettling. The blockade of their coast is far more damaging, already causing massive economic turmoil across divided Chile. The Junta, however, is smart to realize it can do nothing but ride out the blockade while securing the country internally.

After heavy initial fighting sent poorly organized and equipped rebel forces hastily retreating to the north and south of Santiago, the lines in the civil war have now stabilized as both sides marshall their resources. The rebels have more men in absolute numbers but the Junta has more trained forces, more industry, and dominates the center of the nation. It also has direct SAFB support; indeed, Argentine fighter/bomber prop aircraft are already operating out of Chilean air fields with impunity, severely harassing rebel forces.

TO BE CONTINUED....

Shattered World - Micro-Segment 56.1.1

2010-06-08T16:10:00.001-07:00

Shattered World - Micro-Segment 56.1.1

The Two Open Doors

November 19th 1949

November 19th, 1949

At 4:01 AM local time, on the morning, of the 19th, the government of Free France declares war upon the European Axis Powers and re-joins the Alliance for Democracy. At precisely the same time the government of Portugal, under the cynical and self-interested rule of Salazar, surrenders to the Alliance for Democracy and declares war upon the European Axis Powers. It is a diplomatic coup for the Ages, an Alliance masterstroke. Two open doors now sit on the western flank of the Axis.

D-Day 1

In Portugal, intensive air strikes on German coastal missile and gun batteries, massive bombing of German logistics, and chaos caused by the Portuguese defection, combine to allow largely unopposed U.S. landings. Under a massive screen of U.S. carrier aircraft, U.S. forces come ashore at two locations at around 6:30 AM, met with handshakes from local officials who have recieved orders from Lisbon to welcome them. In the north, two U.S. army divisions, and an accompanying battalion of British marines, stride onto the beaches at Figueira da Foz. To the south, two additional U.S. army divisions and a battalion of Canadian infantry come ashore 50 kilometers southeast of Lisbon and, with massive air power and naval fire support, sweep aside a rear echelon German infantry unit that happened to be in the area, taking many prisoners.

In Lisbon and other major cities, German infantry and pro-German fascist elements are clashing with Portuguese police, soldiers, and an assortment of anarchists and communists eager to help get rid of the Germans. The scene in most large Portuguese cities is one of chaos, gunfire, smoke, and confusion. Though caught off guard by the Portuguesse defection, the German command in the region is beginning to react in a coordinated fashion by around noon.

First, there is the matter of crushing Salazar's "treacherous" regime in Lisbon(though Salazar himself is safely hidden away until "things settle down"). Then, there is the matter of slowing down the Americans as much as possible while reinforcements can be brought in. By the early afternoon hours, the two real combat-ready German mechanized divisions in Portugal are preparing to move from inland bases and towards the U.S. beach heads.

In the meantime, with the Luftwaffe largely driven out of Ibera by the relentless American air campaign, German strategic rocket forces in western and southern Spain come into action. By the late afternoon, around half a dozen sarin and conventional ballistic missiles have struck each American beachhead, causing moderate disruption but minimal real delays in the U.S. landing operations. Another dozen sarin-tipped missiles hit the Canaries causing mild damage, though one particularly "lucky" strike lands amidst a busy fuel depot, killing hundred's of laborers and soldiers who not been wearing their protective gear.(leading later to multiple court martials)

"D-Day 2" (later called 'Easy Day' in the U.S.)

In Free France, several American divisions pour ashore at that nation's Atlantic ports, greeted by cheering crowds of French colonials and expatriots. Axis reconaisance aircraft note the massive disembarkment, and notify an Axis High Command which has little power to do anything about it at the moment. The Luftwaffe is simply stretched too thin and cannot send any assets to disrupt the American operations. The one immediate effect of these landings is to give even more grim determination to the Axis efforts in Libya - they must now take Egypt or face an inevitable squeeze on two fronts.

Meanwhile; in Free-French Syria Arab nationalist elements, who have been carefully preparing for several years, see an oppurtunity they cannot afford to miss. Within hours of Free France's sudden re-entry into the war, nationalist militias begin mobilizing while an unusual burst of radio communications begins broadcasting in code from Syria to Turkey.

TO BE CONTINUED...

Operation Orange Fire sub-story moved to main timeline...

2010-06-08T10:47:00.000-07:00

I moved the 'Operation Orange Fire' sub-story into the main timeline on the Second World War timeline page.

Micro-Segment 56.1.1 will be posted later today

New policy on comments...

2010-01-16T20:36:00.000-08:00

I've changed this blog to only allow comments from registered users, that is users with blogger/google/openID accounts.

This is to stop spambots but also to stop the baiting and flaming from anonymous users. If you don't want to create an account with blogger/google for some reason, you can of course still use the separate hosted discussion board

2010-01-13T10:23:00.001-08:00

Operation "Orange Fire" : The Eastern Libya Campaign

Final Day : November 24th 1949

The final day of the campaign opens with renewed dawn air raids on British supply infrastructure in a stretch west and east of Tobruk. Much to the relief of the British, the nerve gas used is sarin and not the more deadly VX used earlier in the campaign.[the priority on VX stocks having been shifted west to confront the Americans after Hitler changes his mind and relents to his general's wishes]

Still, an already severely wounded British logistical system is battered further in the intensive attacks. Also hit are more British radar sites, putting more holes in an already ragged network. Again fighters clash in the skies throughout the day as greater British numbers offset their higher rate of losses. Missiles are also used in the morning hours, as they have been on most days of the operation, with a dozen ballistic missiles causing moderate and scattered damage at Tobruk.

On the ground, the British 8th Armored division under Field Marshall Thomas Harding is forced to break off its counter-attack by mid afternoon, having been stopped 5 miles east of Al Bayda by German tank busting jet aircraft as well as armored and anti-tank forces. To the southwest the British 7th Armored division has surrendered several days after running out of fuel, and some 200,000 British and Imperial soldiers are now trapped in the gradually shrinking Benghazi pocket. Italian forces have remained unable to make much progress and have by now simply dug into a holding position while events unfold to their northeast. The British supply situation in the Benghazi pocket is grim, but not yet fatally grim. They have stocks sufficient to hold out for months, though the men will soon go hungry on strict rations.

British Field Marshal Thomas Harding stared at the charred remains of another 8th armored tank and saw only the ruins of his career and the coming loss of Libya. His counter-attack to re-take Al Bayda had failed under a storm of jet stuka cannon fire, anti-tank rockets from highly skilled German panzergrenadiers, and stubborn German armored defenders. This alone was bad enough, but the entire British 7th armored division had already been forced to surrender the day before for lack of fuel. Benghazi would now remain isolated, and Harding would have no choice but to fall back upon Tobruk and await the transfer orders that would strip him of command.

How could he have been so utterly defeated, when every advantage had been his? Overhead, contrails marked the paths of bombers and the roar of jets was audible. Small arms fire and the heavier reports of cannon fire still cut the air as two of his battalions fought a rear-guard action so the rest of his division could withdraw to the east in good order. He had let down himself, his nation, and his King. He would be a failed footnote of history; The week that America invaded Africa and Europe while the British 8th Armored Division under Field Marshall Thomas Harding lost Libya in the east. For a fleeting moment he glanced at his pistol and considered the peace of oblivion....

Suddenly, a blinding white light forced Thomas to shield his eyes with an outstretched hand. The roaring blast and concussion came a moment later, and dust filled his lungs and put him into a coughing fit. Wiping dust from cracked lips, Thomas looked up to the west again and felt hope at the terrible visage he saw; A towering dark pillar, split across with angry orange streaks of flame, was soaring vertically up into the clear blue sky.

Even as he watched, the mushroom cloud gathered itself together as the awful, by now familiar, toadstool cap formed at the top of the roiling tower of dust and flame. And with that terrible hell of heat and carnage, fuel sufficient to supply an armored division for a month blazed brightly in untold fury, its untapped energy now rapidly spent. A grim smile split Thomas's dirt smeared face, and the orange fires of hell reflected in satisfied eyes. The boundless destruction of the split atom had just saved the British in North Africa, and pulled Field Marshall Thomas Harding's legacy from the ashes of eternal shame.

Updated timeline...

2010-01-13T10:09:00.000-08:00

I put Segments 55.5.1 and 55.5.2 up on the main 'Second World War' timeline

Shattered World - Micro Segment 55.5.2

2010-01-08T12:26:00.001-08:00

Shattered World - Micro Segment 55.5.2
November 13th 1949 to November 17th 1949

"No No No No No!" Hitler shouted, spittle spraying out from the visibly enraged Fuhrer's lips as fists weakly pounded the conference table. The senior members of the general staff eyed each other in frustration, but none spoke. The leader of the Reich was visibly declining, his thoughts and orders becoming increasingly irrational in recent months, his skin increasingly pale, and his body noticeably whithered since the previous year. Rumors of ill health and drug use swirled around Berlin though nowhere where the Gestapo or SS might overhear. Yet, he remained the Fuhrer and the Germany Army prided itself for its stalwart loyalty. It was a matter of honor. Gathering himself, Hitler continued.

"I already made a critical exception in releasing the VX gas stocks for use in North Africa, I will not make another" Hitler said, his voice lower as he struggled to constrain himself before continung.

"We must continue to punish the British if their American masters continue to pummel us with these atomic attacks! And to do this we need that VX. No, you must make do with sarin. Move missiles into range for precise attacks, and then hammer the Americans!" Hitler said, his voice rising to a high pitched crescendo as he gestured violently towards the Canary island chain on the western edge of the detailed map.

"The Americans are soft, their soldiers mere mongrel peasants. We shall strike them in their island bases, and we shall smash them right back into the sea when they finally decide to risk direct confrontation with my Reich!" Hitler nearly shouted, his tone leaving no room for compromise on his decision. A moment of silence hung thick in the air as Hitler eyed his generals.

"Yes, my Fuhrer. Heil Hitler!" the assembled command staff said, snapping off sharp Hitler salutes before exiting the room. Privately, more than a few of them would grumble at the Fuhrer's stubbornness and grieve at the lost opportunity to hit the American assembly areas on the Canaries with VX.

"This is the BBC, world news report, broadcasting live from London on this the 13th of November, nineteen hundred and forty nine".

"Reports from across the northern hemisphere continue to point to a very brutal winter this year, perhaps the worst since accurate record keeping began in the nineteenth century. In Russia, where the temperatures have dipped to those usually not seen until mid-December, clear skies, solid frozen ground, and reports of German troop movements have raised fears of an Axis winter offensive despite the bitter cold. Worse, in a potentially disastrous bit of news for the allied cause, vital ports from northeastern Canada to northwestern Russia have been closed or severely hampered by heavy, and unusually early, ice flows. Even Murmansk, typically ice free year round, has experienced some ice difficulties in addition to the growing destruction from increasingly frequent German bombing raids on the vitally strategic port".

"In other news, the American naval offensive at Gibraltar continues to make steady progress despite losses described as 'heavy' by U.S. Atlantic Fleet personnel. In the words of U.S. Admiral Johnston, 'we continue to pound the enemy and expect to gain possession of the straights in a matter of days'".

"We take you now live to the U.S.S. Lincoln somewhere near the action at the straights".....

"Good afternoon, this is Walter Cronkite, reporting from the deck of the massive U.S. fleet carrier Abraham Lincoln. As you can no doubt hear over the sound of my voice, U.S. jet aircraft have been taking off and landing on the carrier deck continously for the past several days as intense combat operations continue in what the U.S. navy is calling 'Operation Avalanche'. Only several hours previous, I was witness to the heroic action of the proud crew of this mighty ship as radar-directed AAA filled the skies for more than twenty minutes and jets surged into the sky. Not long after, tragic reports of the loss of the U.S.S. Essex were confirmed. By all accounts several Nazi guided rockets struck the Lincoln's slightly smaller sister, igniting her magazine and sinking the ship rapidly with the loss of all hands, some 2,600 souls. Despite this grave loss, navy officials remain confident and report additional successes since the overwhelming victory at what the sailors are already calling 'The Battle of the Pillars'"....

"Thank you, Mr. Cronkite. Due to naval news restrictions, our brief live air time from the deck of the Lincoln has ended. We expect to receive more reports from Mr. Cronkite in the coming hours as events unfold. In other news...."

November 13th 1949

In the largest single concentrated naval air attack of the war in the Atlantic, nearly 100 German maritime strike aircraft approach through swarms of U.S. carrier jet fighters. Nearly a third of the strike aircraft, escorted only by long range prop fighters operating out of southern France, are downed before they can launch their rockets. The rest, some sixty in all, launch a salvo of some 240 second generation guided anti-ship rockets. The U.S.S Essex and several nearby escort destroyers and cruisers are sunk while another two carriers, a heavy cruiser, and nearly a dozen destroyers suffer moderate to heavy damage. The Axis pay a heavy cost for the devastating strike, losing another third of the maritime strike bombers and over fifty prop escorts to vengeful American fighters. The loss of nearly 2/3 of the attacking naval strike force is a stunning loss for the Axis, representing the loss of a significant percentage of their remaining maritime strike capability in the theatre.

Meanwhile, in Libya intense fighting continues as operation 'Orange Fire' continues to unfold. While the air battle, bombing, and ballistic missile attacks continue; Italian forces remain bogged down along the coast south of Benghazi while to the east Field Marshall Gustov's complex plan has led to confused and chaotic fighting. Gustov's main armored thrust has entered into a third day of intense armored clashes with a larger British armored division. However, Gustov's helicopter mobile infantry force(landed behind the British armored division the day before) has thrown the British into confusion and interupted their lines of communication while a German mechanized calvalry force races east and north around the British flank. In northern Libya, German paratroopers continue to hold out against desperate British attempts to re-open east-west lines of communication along the coastal plain.

Of particular note - the desert fighting in the Cyrenaica has seen the first widespread use of effective infra-red night vision equipment by German armored forces - something that is a key component of Gustov's plan. Poorly equipped for night fighting, and kept off balance and on their heels by the tenacious German operational tempo, the British command has been frustatingly unable to bring their superior numbers and firepower to bear on the smaller, but more mobile, German force.

November 14th 1949

In what will later be regarded by military historians as one of the greatest armored combat movements of all time, Field Marshall Gustov executes the final piece of his plan. In the early pre-dawn hours, German armored and mechanized forces in the Cyrenaica change their axis of attack simultaneously; now attacking directly north. In the confusion of night fighting, the gambit succeeds. The main armored strength of Army Group Africa smashes into and through what had been the relatively quiet right flank of the British 8th armored division. With their right flank utterly shattered, and German mechanized calvary now racing north around their left flank, the British have no choice but to begin moving northeast to break contact with German forces and re-establish lines of communication back to Tobruk. Unfortunately for the British, this movement leaves the heart of northeastern Libya wide open to Gustov's rapidly moving panzers. And move fast they must; Gustov's armored columns are low on fuel and will be sitting idle in days if they can't link up with the paratroopers at Al Bayda and the massive captured supplies of fuel bunkered there.

November 16th 1949

U.S. light cruisers, escorted by numerous destroyers, finally succeed in fully breaking out into the Sea of Alboran under the cover of carrier aircraft(less aircraft than the U.S. admirals would have preferred, given the loss of Essex and the crippling of another carrier) and numerous prowling allied submarines. The movement is not without cost, as German and Italian submarines strike out from carefully prepared positions to put numerous torpedoe salvos into the U.S. naval taskforce while Italian torpedo boats and destroyers dart in amongst the U.S. taskforce. Several U.S. cruisers and destroyers are sunk or damaged in the heated close-quarters engagements before U.S. ASW destroyers and helicopters force the Axis submarines to scatter to the east while the Italian torpedo boats and destroyers die under intense, accurate, fire from multiple USN guns or flee to the east.

Late that evening, a second larger U.S. naval taskforce emerges into the more open waters of the Sea of Alboran. After some 9 days of combat, the loss of 2 carriers sunk or crippled and another moderately damaged, the sinking or crippling of nearly a dozen cruisers, the loss of dozens of destroyers and well over a hundred carrier fighters, thousands of sailors and hundreds of pilots killed - The U.S. now holds the straights of Gibraltar and the western Mediterranean is in play.

November 17th 1949

In Libya, Gustov's panzers reach the coast just north of Al Bayda, linking up with besieged German paratroopers and driving off Australian and Canadian infantry that had been attempting to re-capture the supply depots there. British forces to the west and south, including the British 7th armored division and some 200,000 British and Imperial infantry in and south of Benghazi, are now cut off from British lines of supply leading back to Tobruk.

In Iberia, rail cars using some of the minority of open rail lines(open through sheer luck or the hasty brute labor of forced labor battalions) begin arriving in central and southern Spain. Concealed under canvas and tarps are ballistic missiles and their mobile launch vehicles.

Off the Canary Islands, the first wave of transports, escorted by an armada of battleships and cruisers and an unheard of flotilla of destroyers, begin steaming northeast under a massive umbrella of land-based fighters. D-day 1 and D-day 2 are set for November 19th, and two whole amphibious corps are afloat and on the move.

Far to the East and North, in the unseasonably bitter cold, German forces massing southwest of Leningrad and in southern Russia prepare to launch dual winter offensives. The overall plan, bluntly named "Red Downfall", is aimed at capturing Leningrad in the north and Beriagrad in the south. Symbolicly and strategically, taking either one of them or both would be another great blow to the already wavering Soviet Union.

TO BE CONTINUED in Segment 56.1....

2009-12-30T16:53:00.001-08:00

Shattered World - Micro Segment 55.5.1
November 8th 1949 to November 12th 1949

November 8th 1949

New Axis offensive in Libya begins with a barrage of chemical ballistic missiles, intensive bombing, massive fighter engagements, and ground attacks up the coast towards Benghazi and northeast across the desert in the general direction of Tobruk. It is a desperate ploy by the Axis, a final effort to capitalize on British woes in Egypt before the Americans can put Army Group Africa into a vise by clamping down from the west.

November 9th 1949

With a morale boost from the Axis offensive underway in Libya, insurgent elements across Egypt step up their attacks on British troops and assets. The anti-British insurgency is no longer in a position to seize power(aside from a few isolated pockets), but it remains capable of giving the British a major headache. In addition to the violence of the insurgency itself, a general strike called by Islamists and nationalist unions continues to paraylize parts of the Egyptian economy and slow down the flow of materials. Worst of all for the British, the Suez canal and the port at Alexandria both remain closed due to ships sunk by insurgent forces and other sabotage.

November 10th 1949

In the straights of Gibraltar, the US Navy clearly has the upper hand. Despite heavy losses of destroyers and cruisers to Axis naval maritime guided rockets and bombs, the sheer numbers of U.S. ships have swamped the defending Italian navy. Italian naval forces, aided by a large German naval air presence, continue to fight desperately but they are fighting a rising tide and a torrent of U.S. airpower continues to hammer southern Spain as more and more US ships surge into the straights. By late in the afternoon, some U.S. torpedo boats and destroyers are already probing out into the western Mediterranean itself while a massive line of U.S. battecruisers virtually wipes out a smaller force of Italian cruisers in the straights proper.[The Battle of the Pillars]

Back at the Canaries, the islands seem ready to sink from the weight of U.S. men and material. Ominously, from the perspective of Axis intelligence officers scouring over aerial reconnaissance photos, the amount of transport vessels present on the islands seems to have risen considerably in the past several days. Indeed, the buildup is so sudden and so massive that a flash message goes out from Berlin to all Axis forces in Iberia, southern France, and Algeria. AMERICAN INVASION OF IBERIA, NORTHWEST AFRICA APPEARS IMMINENT. ALL FORCES OF SOUTHWESTERN COMMAND ARE TO MAINTAIN UTMOST VIGILANCE.

November 12th 1949

After a month of hellacious fighting in the tunnels and bunkers of the few remaining Japanese pockets of resistance; Okinawa is at last declared fully secure(for the third and final time).

TO BE CONTINUED in Micro Segment 55.5.2....

Timeline links fixed...

2009-12-11T10:16:00.001-08:00

Just got the timeline segments back up, the timeline links should work again now. Transferred my old geocities stuff over to Yahoo small business hosting. Sorry this took so long.

Missing content...

2009-11-23T15:59:00.001-08:00

So, as some of you must have noticed by now, some of the parts in the main timeline are inaccessible right now. This is because of the shutdown of geocities, which I had been using to store a lot of the old parts in.
I still have all this content, just need to get it up on a new site.

I am still alive, believe it or not ;)

2009-11-23T15:39:00.000-08:00

This has probably been the longest gap in this timeline since I started it ten years ago. Just want to apologize to everyone and reassure anyone who is still out there that I AM still around and I Will get this thing going again.
Been a combination of really bad writer's block and getting married that has caused this current loooong hiatus.(been just over a month now since I got married, things were very hectic there for awhile)
Anyway, to anyone still reading this I'll try to reward your patience sometime soon.

Operation Orange Fire : Day 1

2009-06-25T12:26:00.000-07:00

Day 1 of Operation Orange Fire...

Operation Orange Fire

This is an interlude focused entirely on the Axis attack in Libya. Very much a work in progress and I'm open to critiques, ideas, etc. I'll be releasing each new day as I finish it. Then I'll post the entire thing as an interlude in the timeline once its completed.

Segment 55.4

2009-06-19T16:31:00.000-07:00

A short segment, covering only a week. Hope you enjoy.

Segment 55.4

(made some minor typo corrections. It was a Chilean sub that was sunk, not a Argentinian one. Also, B-34's dropped the atomic bomb not the B-36 ;)

Major edit to Segment 55.3

2009-05-28T10:05:00.000-07:00

Hi all,

After a lot of thought I've decided to make a major change to Segment 55.3
I have removed the reference to the Germans using biological weapons against the British. Instead, their retaliatory attack is limited to the VX chemical attack. I decided that it just doesn't make sense for the Germans to escalate to bio at this point, especially given the unknowns involved.

Status Update...

2009-04-22T12:04:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to let everyone know I'm still alive here ;)

I've started a new job and with the long hours and whatnot my creative juices haven't been flowing much. I'm thinking that I'll try to knock out another very short segment sometime within the next week or two.

Shattered World - Segment 55.3

2009-02-14T12:02:00.000-08:00

Shattered World - Segment 55.3

Shattered World - Segment 55.2

2009-02-12T23:12:00.000-08:00

Please note that this segment is very short. It covers only one week and it isn't a particularly active week. I mainly just wanted to update the situation on the Eastern front. I figured it would be better to just go ahead and post what I have rather than waiting to add a another week or two of content.

I'll try to get out the next segment fairly soon to make up for this short segment.

Shattered World - Segment 55.2

My other project...

2009-01-18T00:30:00.000-08:00

Hi all, I just wanted to share another project I have been working on for some time now. This one is an epic fantasy novel that I've been dabbling with on and off for a couple years. A lot of it was lost in a hard drive crash awhile ago but I've recently been reconstructing it from memory and adding in bits and pieces.

I'm posting chapters and notes from it at a new blog I just created...

http://callofunity.blogspot.com/

I'd love to hear some comments if anyone out there is interested in fantasy in addition to WW2 alternate history ;)

Oh, and before you guys worry, this other project really doesn't impact Shattered World since my bursts of writing tend to hit for one project or another and they never really overlap. I'm either in the mood for alternate history writing or I'm in the mood for fantasy writing, so neither is really stealing time from the other

Shattered World - Segment 55.1

2008-12-03T19:51:00.001-08:00

Shattered World - Segment 55.1.1(revised)

October 6th 1949 to October 13th 1949

October 6th 1949

British and American heavy bombers operating from the Canaries and the middle east hammer Tunis and Tripoli in large conventional strikes that significantly set back Axis repair efforts on the critical strategic harbors there. Alliance bomber losses are heavy in the unescorted raids.

At the same time that the large conventional raids are hitting Tunis
and Tripoli, another smaller raid approaches the Tunisian port city of
Bizerte which has become an important port and naval base for the Axis
after the atomic attacks on Tunis and Tripoli. This smaller raid,
approaching from out of the Sahara, consists of a dozen B-31 bombers
and their long ranged fighter escorts operating from British-held Libya. One of the B-31's
carries a 24 kiloton British atomic bomb. However, the Germans have
been watching and waiting for just such a small, escorted, heavy bomber raid and a
swarm of Axis interceptors of all types meet this small force
head on. Despite the desperate efforts of the British escort fighters,
5 of the 12 B-31 bombers are shot down and the rest are forced to turn
back. One of the downed bombers had been carrying the lone atomic bomb.
When the stricken bomber descends below 2000 feet in a dead spiral the
atomic bomb detonates over the barren terrain of southern Tunisia,
killing several hundred extremely unlucky villagers.For the first time in history, an atomic bomber has been lost in action with its payload. It is a heavy blow for the British, who are still struggling to produce one atomic bomb every 4 to 6 weeks. As news of the shoot down
speeds around the world, the SBC convenes a top level meeting at the
Pentagon. By order of the president, all use of atomic weapons is
suspended until such time that the procedures for atomic bomber shoot
downs can be reviewed.

October 8th 1949

Except for a few locations, Nationalist Chinese forces have succeeded in
driving the communists out of China proper and into Soviet-dominated
Manchuria. However, the fighting in China is far from over. Communist
guerrillas infest China from the interior to the coast, and the Chinese
communist regime itself lives on from an extensive network of bases on
the communist Manchurian side of the border.

October 9th 1949

With German paratroopers and Marines now arriving in direct support of the
Finnish rebellion, and Red Army forces there little more than a
skeleton garrison, the Soviets have no choice to retreat. Soviet forces
in southern Finland begin withdrawing to the defensive fortifications
north of Leningrad while those further north head east to the old
Soviet-Finnish border where they'll man aging pre-war defensive
positions. As estatic Finnish citizens celebrate in liberated Helsinki,
the German-dominated Finnish government-in-exil prepares to re-assume
power as an Axis nation.

In Casa Blanca, covert American diplomatic agents and Free French
officials conclude a lengthy series of negotations underway for several
weeks and sign a highly secretive agreement that will bring Free France
back into the war on the side of the Alliance. In exchange for
significant monetary and military assistance, Free France agrees to
declare war on the Axis Powers at a date to be determined by the U.S.
and to allow U.S. forces to enter Free France and make use of all Free
French facilities and infrastructure. The war in North Africa will soon
be getting more complicated for the Axis.

October 11th 1949

In the southern Ukraine, minor Axis forces continue to move largely
unnoposed towards Rostov, isolating and capturing tens of thousands of
Soviet soldiers along the way. Hungarian and Italian armor is now east
of Mariupol, advancing along the Black Sea coast with only the mud and
lengthening lines of supply slowing them down.

To the north, in the central Ukraine, hundreds
of thousands of Soviet soldiers continue to slog east in a bid to
escape the growing disaster that the Ukraine has become for the Red
Army. However, advance German forces have managed to reach the Dnepr
river at several points northwest of Kremenchug, blocking the escape
route for the 150,000 Soviet soldiers still in the central Ukraine. The
'Kiev pocket' now extends from Kiev itself in the north to 35km
northwest of Kremenchug in the south. Further east, the 250,000 Soviet
soldiers east of the German pincer of continue to flee on foot towards
Russia itself, their heavy equipment long since abandoned. The
worsening mud and overly stretched logistics is all that is stopping
German pincers from pocketing the entire Soviet exodus.

October 13th 1949

After another week of heavy and confused fighting in many of Chile's larger
cities, leftists and anti-Junta elements come out on top across
northern Chile and in the extreme south, aided by labor organizations
and defecting army units. The left-centrist coalition declares La
Serena as its provisional capitol, and begins seeking international
recognition as the legitimate government of Chile. The Alliance and
ODAS nations quickly recognize this government, while the SAFB and Axis
loudly condemn them as rebels and "communist pests". With both sides
consolidating power in the regions where they hold sway, the lines seem
set for a Chilean civil war.

At San Diego, the brand new Essex class carrier 'Gettysburg' quietly
begins steaming south with frigates, destroyers, cruisers, and
submarines in escort. Meanwhile, late in the day the SAFB formally
offers membership to the Chilean military government of Santiago. The
Junta remains silent on the offer, still hoping to crush the "rebels"
without outside assistance. In a strongly worded joint statement, the
ODAS openly threatens war if the SAFB interferes in the "internal
affairs of Chile".

Sergei Baryshnikov inhaled deeply from his cigarette, huddling under his harsh
woolen blanket and staring in awe at the spectacular sunrise
manifesting to the east. As a boy on a small farm east of the Urals,
Sergei had seen many sunsets but this was by far the most stunning. It
seemed that every color in the rainbow was visible to one degree or
another, and the mildly cloudy sky was alive like a multicolored flame
licking down from the heavens. It was almost enough to make him forget
about the war, or the intense cold that had him shivering under two layers of clothes and filthy blanket.

It was the coldest October that anyone could remember. It had already snowed twice, a white blanket still veiled the open field that loomed off to the west. Somewhere over there
were Germans, probably huddling in the cold and admiring the sunrise as
he was. Despite the cold, despite the beautiful sunrise, the war did not relent.

Shells burst somewhere far to the north, then another salvo of artillery
shrieked overhead to explode somewhere to the east. Gas alarms followed
that barrage, and Sergei and the other exhausted men around him donned
the chemical warfare gear with a steady, plodding, efficiency that
spoke of too much experience with the deadly German gas.

Luftwaffe and Red Airforce planes clashed overhead, and he watched the specks above circle each other and draw trails across the sky with the sort of detached observation he
might have given to birds of prey engaged in a mating ritual. In a life
that now seemed almost unreal, Sergei had delighted in watching
birds through the old field glasses his retired Russian Army father had
handed down to him before passing away one cold Russian night some
decades before. Now Sergei delighted in very little, and thought of life before the war very rarely if at all. Then the war came home once again, as it did inevitably.

"Panzers!" a gnarled old Sergeant called out. "And infantry with them, get ready Comrades!". There was little else to say. This unit was as veterean as they came, having
started the current war riding west in trucks during the initial heady
days of the offensive towards Minsk and now entrenched on the defensive
lines hundreds of miles east of where that optimistic offensive had
begun. Behind them was Leningrad. Sergei risked a quick glance over the
heaped dirt that constituted the top of the trench that he was
sheltered in. The panzers were Cougar I's, late model, the type the
Germans liked to attach to mechanized infantry to give them extra
punching power.

Even as Sergi recognized the type, rockets lanced out from the Soviet lines to strike at the advancing Panzers. The weapons, simple unguided models churned out in countless numbers
east of the Urals, were not very effective against the frontal plate
armor of a Cougar I, but sometimes if you launched enough of them
you got lucky. One Panzer did begin spewing smoke, and as the hatch
opened and the crew began to tumble out Sergei and other Soviet
soldiers coldly gunned them down one by one. Infantry across the world had no love for tank crews.

Undaunted, the rest of the Panzers rumbled forward. German infantry fanned out ahead of them, and mortars began impacting up and down the Soviet line. Rifle fire, both aimed
single shots and the contnious bangbangbangbang of fully automatic fire
filled the air. Soviet machine guns made viscious chainsaw-like ripping sounds as they sent streams of death zig zagging into the advancing German infantry. The Germans, as always, were competent and relentless. Advancing in leapfrog order, in rushes, taking advantage of all available cover. Some of them fell, most came on. The Panzers followed close behind them, belching forth high explosive rounds to explode with deadly effect on Soviet machine gun nests.

The leading German infantry were within twenty meters of Sergi's trench when artillery shells began exploding directly amongst them, right in the open space in front of the Soviet
line. Whether the bursts were perfectly aimed Soviet ones or errant
German ones he could not tell; but the effect was quite clear. Shrapnel
from the proximity fused shells cut down the German infantry in a wave
that rolled for close to a minute, leaving very few of the German infantry alive or un-harmed. The Panzers, having lost their screen of infantry and coming under intense
rocket fire, were forced to begin reversing back towards their own
line. And then, out of nowhere, one of the Panzers exploded in a
brilliant orange flame that sent its turret flying high into the air,
trailing exploding ammunition.

Then Sergei heard it, the familiar thunder of Soviet high velocity cannons. Several T-48's had broken cover from a clump of Forrest to the north and were now firing well
aimed shots into the exposed side armor of the Panzers. More of the
German armor exploded or began spewing smoke and the rest beat a hasty
withdrawal. German artillery began crashing up and down the Soviet lines, and Sergei
huddled back down at the bottom of the trench. He allowed himself to
smile as he lit up a new cigarette. You took what small breaks you
could, and tried not to think about the next clash. The war came and
went, and men had no choice but to float in the tide. Snow began to
fall again, and Sergei stared up into the lazily falling snow flakes as
they fell in their countless millions against a gray and dreary sky.
The spectacular sunrise was long forgotten but the bitterly cold mid October was not.

TO BE CONTINUED in Segment 55.2...

2008-08-21T23:37:00.000-07:00

Shattered World - Segment 54.4

September 16th 1949 to October 5th 1949

September 16th 1949

The German position in the Atlantic continues to deteriorate as the USN and the Royal Navy conduct a campaign of aggressive joint submarine sweeps across the Atlantic shipping lanes. Now utilizing helicopters, first generation sonabouys, and the latest sonar and radar technologies, the Alliance ASW efforts have resulted in German submarine losses spiking to unsustainable levels. Not yet willing to concede the shipping lanes, the Germans continue to turn out their latest designs from yards in northern Germany at record pace. However, work on entirely newer models is so far relegated to a few half-completed prototypes.

In the cold waters of the far north, however, the situation remains more even. Over the past week, two huge Alliance convoys have been attacked and suffered severe losses in merchant shipping to German submarines and long range maritime aircraft operating in concert. Both convoys lose nearly a full quarter of the tonnage being shipped to the Soviets, every ton lost a hard blow for the teetering Soviet Union.

September 20th 1949

In western and southern Spain, two more major Axis air fields are struck by atomic bombs in a massive operation that includes heavy conventional bombing of other Iberian airfields and ports, as well as the use of radiation-homing bombs to destroy several Axis radar sites. Axis air forces in Iberia have been so degraded in terms of command & control, personnel, aircraft, and airfields that their air defense and naval aviation sorties are down by 50% compared to early August. However, Axis AAA and SAM defenses remain strong and the U.S. continues to suffer heavy losses of B-31 bombers and fighters.

September 21st 1949

After a week of pitched gun battles between the CNP and the PPC on the street's of Chile's major cities, and a lack of decisive action from the paralyzed government in Santiago, the Chilean Army seizes control of the government. The military junta quickly crushes the street fighting, begins disarming and arresting the radical elements of the PPC, and orders an end to the general strike. Decrying what they call a "fascist coup", the PPC, labor organizations, and left leaning centrist elements call for a continuation of the general strike and restoration of civilian government.

September 23rd 1949

Following the ongoing nuclear strikes and massive conventional attacks across Iberia and western France, Hitler unleashes his promised retaliation with a massive new air offensive against Britain.

Operation Angel

Just before noon, roughly 800 German A-4f ballistic missiles launch from mobile launch vehicles and fixed facilities across northern France and the lowlands. Accurate to within half a kilometer at the short distance across the Channel, the missiles fall like the hammers of god at RAF airbases across the southern portion of Britain. With two ton warheads split between air burst, ground burst, and chemical dispersion, five major RAF airbases and two spoof bases operated by the RAF as decoy facilities suffer heavy damage. Each of the air fields is targeted with over a hundred ballistic missiles, and at each facility at least a dozen of the missiles score a successful hit. The pattern of damage at each base varies due to the random nature of the missile falls, but all experience some degree of damage to aircraft on the ground, hangars,fuel supplies, and other infrastructure in addition to heavy losses of personnel and confusion sown by the sudden introduction of deadly and persistent nerve gas.

Even before the missiles began impacting at the RAF airbases, 150 German jet fighters and 100 medium jet bombers begin taking to the skies. Pausing briefly to form up, the German aircraft soon surge out over the Channel in the direction of England. Clouds of chaff fill the skies and German jamming crackles across the air waves. Despite the strikes on the RAF airbases, and despite German ECM, some 200 British jet fighters rise to confront the Germans head on. With the short distances and near supersonic speeds involved, the action comes fast and furious. While German and British jets clash in a chaotic fur ball over the Channel and southeastern Britain, German medium jet bombers streak in at low altitude to launch conventional, chemical, and radiation-homing attacks on numerous British radar stations. At the same time, one group of German jets breaks out of the growing fur ball to make a dash for three separate British ARP aircraft. Cutting through waves of British fighters, several German jets manage to engage the radar aircraft with cannon and experimental guided air-to-air missiles. Two of the three precious British ARP aircraft on patrol are downed. On the ground, all along the southeastern coast of Britain, numerous British radar stations are destroyed, damaged, or otherwise suppressed.

An hour after the first ballistic missile launch, the primary phase of the German operation begins. As German jet fighters and medium bombers return from their missions over Britain, and others continue to engage British fighters over the Channel, the first of 350 German jet and propeller fighters, and 400 Ural and Ju-588 heavy bombers begin to take to the skies. It takes most of 30 minutes for the attack force to form up, and when it finally begins moving out over the channel clouds of British fighters, as many as 400 in all, sweep in to stop them. In some of the most confused, desperate, and wide ranging air combat of the war to date British fighters will down 60 German fighters and over 25 German heavy bombers over the next half hour, in exchange for more than 90 of their own lost. British AAA will account for another 40 German heavy bombers downed. In the largest German raid on Britain to date, the 350 or so bombers that reach the city drop nearly 2000 tons of incendiary and high explosive bombs on London. Much of the city's center is destroyed in a terrific fire storm, including most of the famous government buildings. Despite the tremendous scale of the raid, casualties are relatively low due to excellent British civil defense procedures and the fact that most of the city's population lives out in the suburbs or in underground shelters if they must live in the central districts. Still, some 20,000 British civilians die in the raid.

The German operation was not without cost. In all, the Germans lose 80 fighters of all types, 35 medium jet bombers, and a devastating 65 heavy bombers. The British lose over 115 fighters in the air and on the ground, in addition to the heavy damage at five airbases and the severe degradation of their radar defense network. In the evening Hitler gives a typical blustery speech on Radio Berlin, ominously warning the British that the "chemical weapons used to gas her airbases could just as easily be turned on her cities" . The only British response is an ineffective but symbolic salvo of 50 ballistic missiles aimed at the German city of Hamburg.

September 24th 1949

Germany unleashes day 2 of its air offensive against Britain. Again, hundreds of German A-4f ballistic missiles rain down to damage additional RAF airbases, followed up by escorted medium bomber strikes on British radar and AAA sites. This is followed up again by a surge of hundreds of fighters and hundreds of heavy bombers. The British meet them again, achieving .7 to 1 kill ratios with the German jets and downing a couple dozen German heavy bombers. This time the German heavy bombers target Manchester, 250 of them dropping nearly 1500 tons of ordinance on the city's manufacturing center. The factories suffer heavy damage, and the civilian toll climbs above the losses in London with some 35,000 killed in a nightmarish firestorm that engulfs whole residential districts. German losses are again heavy, losing another 65 fighters, 20 medium bombers, and 50 heavy bombers. The British lose another 95 fighters and their airbases and air defense systems suffer further degradation.

On the Eastern Front - German forces have achieved a general breakout north of the Ukraine, having taken Bryansk and surrounded Orel. At the point of great penetration, German armored spearheads are approaching Kursk from the north as the offensive swings southward. The orderly Soviet withdrawal from the Ukraine is degenerating into a disaster as the German breakout to the north and the tentative probes of minor Axis forces to the west, threaten the total annihilation of the Red Army in the Ukraine. A thin screen of grimly determined Red Army units are holding minor Axis forces at bay at Kiev and along the Dnieper River while the rest of the Red Army lumbers east. However, a critical lack of fuel and heavy Luftwaffe bombing has torn the soviet timetable to shreds. Desperate to save the retreating army in the Ukraine, Beria orders all available aircraft to this theater.

Meanwhile, to the south the Axis advance in the Caucasus continues to accelerate as it has now broken entirely into the flat plains. The Soviets are retreating in good order here, intending to re-occupy the extensive fortifications at the post-Eurasian War German-Soviet frontier.

September 25th 1949

The first U.S. fighter squadron operating out of Britain is declared fully operational and begins joining RAF elements in the ongoing desperate battle over Britain and the Channel Front. The 'Eagle' jet fighters, the world's best in terms of pure performance, are a rude surprise for German jet pilots used to having the edge over British jets. Still, the lack of experience among the American pilots means that the first appearance of the Eagle in combat results in a 1 to 1 kill ratio with German jets. U.S. air power is on the rise in Britain, as additional air bases are being constructed and numerous U.S. bomber and fighter squadrons will be going operational across the British Isles over the coming months as the 8th Air force ramps up its capabilities. In addition, the SBC is working on two major airbases on Britain that will support B-31's and B-34's.

To the south, U.S. forces have now been massing on Madeiras and the Canary Islands for roughly four months. The islands are virtually overflowing with U.S. soldiers, weapons, and war material. B-31 and B-34 bombers operating from airbases on the islands are now routinely hammering targets in Iberia and western France, often with long range fighters also operating out of the islands along with massive carrier air power. The U.S. buildup is obvious to all, and it is equally obvious that the islands are being turned into a spring board. The question that is giving Axis intelligence fits is : will the Americans use the spring board to jump into Iberia or North Africa?

In China, the nationalists clearly have the upper hand in the fierce civil war raging there. Nationalist forces have finally crushed communist resistance in Beijing itself and the communist Chinese forces are being pushed steadily east and north towards the coast and the border with Soviet-occupied Manchuria. Behind nationalist lines, a virulent communist guerrilla movement has taken root across northern and eastern China as the Chinese communist regime methodically transitions itself into a guerrilla fighting force.

September 26th 1949

German forces capture Kursk as the rupture in the Soviet front continues to widen. With Bryansk, Orel, and Kursk in hand the Germans begin an operational pause, resting their forces after their stunning advance southeast from Smolensk. In the skies, Red Air force planes thrown hastily into the air over the front fall by the dozens and then the hundreds to German fighters and radar-guided mobile anti-aircraft systems.

In Japan - the U.S. drops a 42 kiloton atomic bomb on the already battered city of Fukuoka , killing 50,000 and destroying much of the city. Elsewhere, all around Japan, massive conventional raids by B-31's and B-34's have been hammering Japanese cities, military installations, and transportation networks on a steady and sustained basis despite relatively high B-31 losses. In the inland seas and the coastal regions south and east of Japan, American air patrols, submarine sweeps, and mine delivery have begun to severely inhibit all Japanese maritime shipping and harvesting activities. Only the sheltered Sea of Japan remains relatively open to Japanese shipping, although U.S. airborne delivery of mines and long ranged maritime attack aircraft are beginning to take their toll here as well.

September 27th 1949

Using all of their armored forces from the eastern Ukraine, and much of their remaining fuel supplies, the Soviets launch a desperate armored counter-punch, aiming northeast towards Kursk in an effort to buy time for the bulk of the 500,000 Red Army soldiers in the Ukraine to escape to the east. Outnumbered and outclassed, and with the Luftwaffe still maintaining near total air superiority in the region, 400 Soviet tanks move stoically across the open plains 75 kilometers southwest of Kursk. Moving to meet them are some 600 elite panzers with the most experienced crews in the world. Overhead, Luftwaffe ground attack aircraft of every variety swarm in their dozens while German jets drive off desperate hordes of inferior Soviet aircraft.

In Chile, the general strike devolves into massive, violent, street riots after the military junta attempts to arrest strike leaders and break up strike gatherings. In Santiago, communists and hard socialists are openly calling for revolution.

September 29th 1949

On the unseasonably cold plains southwest of Kursk, two German panzer divisions destroy the entire armored strength of the Soviet Union's Ukrainian Front in an intense 10 hours of combat, destroying some 250 tanks and forcing the rest to flee in disorder. German tank busting aircraft will destroy many more before sunset arrives. To the south, hundreds of thousands of Russian troops are marching east, mostly by horse or by foot. Their march remains orderly, despite the rain of death falling from the dominant Luftwaffe above. Yet, hanging over them is a burning pall of doom.

October 1st 1949

The German air campaign against Britain has reached its end after one full week. Following the two consecutive massive raids that began the campaign, the Luftwaffe maintained the pressure with daily operations focusing on hammering RAF and RN facilities as well as transportation infrastructure. Despite the loss or severe curtailing of much of its radar capability, British air defense command and control remains fairly effective. The damage to numerous RAF airbases has been a harder blow, with RAF sorties reduced by 40% by the end of the campaign. However, Luftwaffe losses have been painfully high, so much so that the operation is ended a full four days before the scheduled completion date. The operation has cost the Luftwaffe dearly, losing nearly 200 fighters, a hundred medium jet bombers, and more than 150 precious heavy bombers.

"The Blitz", as the British are calling it, has heavily damaged London and Manchester, rocked the RAF back on its heels, and gave the British an extremely hard pounding. Yet, the operation has been more a propaganda coup for the Germans than anything else. RAF losses, while equally painful, are mitigated by the ever increasing numbers of U.S. aircraft arriving on the British Isles.

Far to the east - despite heavy and bitterly cold rains, German panzers and mechanized infantry slog generally south from Kursk, fanning out and cutting through the withdrawing Red Army forces with ease.

From Sumy in the west to Belgorod in the east, German forces grind southwards. The only thing slowing them down is the worsening mud.

On Okinawa - the U.S. now largely controls the central and southern portions of the island, although significant pockets of Japanese resistance remain dug into the extensive underground tunnels and fortifications. In the past two weeks, two more atomic bombs have been used in a tactical role; one too reduce a particularly nasty pocket of resistance in Chinen and the other to blast a hole in a Japanese line of defense at Aha in the north of the island. U.S. losses have been staggering, with some 15,000 dead and many more wounded. Japanese losses are even higher, and include a large percentage of the civilian population.

October 2nd 1949

In Chile, the military junta begins rounding up communist and socialist activists and declares the PPC illegal. When police and military forces arrive to close down PPC headquarters in Santiago and other cities, the PPC resists. The resulting battles result in numerous deaths on both sides. Later in the day, socialist and moderate leftist parties side with the PPC, declaring in a joint statement that the junta government is illegitimate and calling for ODAS intervention to "restore democracy and sanity in Chile". The CNP and other nationalist and right-leaning parties

react swiftly, calling the left traitors and enemies of Chile. The smell of violence is in the air.

Finnish nationalist rebels launch an uprising they have been quietly planning for years. Simultaneous coordinated revolts erupt in Helsinki and other larger cities, supported by German naval bombardments, air strikes, and special forces. Soviet forces in Finland have been stripped to the bone to put more men in the defensive belts around Leningrad and despite the small size of the underground nationalist Finnish forces, they succeed in capturing parts of Helsinki and other cities by the end of the day. For the first time in years, the Finnish flag flies proudly in open defiance of Soviet rule.

October 3rd 1949

Alliance retaliation for The Blitz, so far limited to symbolic ballistic missile attacks, finally grows teeth as the RAF stages a 400 bomber raid on the German city of Hamburg, dropping 1800 tons of explosives on the already hard hit German port city. Civilian losses run to 30,000 dead and the city's naval construction yards suffer a tremendous blow. The British lose 50 B-31 bombers and 40 escort fighters in the raid while the Germans lose only 15 of their own fighters.

Heavy fighting erupts in Santiago and other cities around Chile as some elements of the police and military defect to the leftist/populist cause. In Santiago - armored forces equipped with Sherman tanks, and loyal to the military junta, move against leftist forces, adding their firepower to a pitched battle that levels part of the city. The night ends with the Chilean parliament building in flames after being shelled by a leftist artillery unit.

October 4th 1949

The fighting sputters and dies in Santiago after routed leftist elements flee the capitol, seeking to join other leftist forces around the country to form an emergency government. With the fires still being put out in Santiago, and fighting continuing in other cities, SAFB and Axis radio from Buenos Aires to Berlin hail the military junta for "moving to restore order and crush communist elements" in "defiance of the imperialist Anglo empires and treacherous international communism". At the same time, the ODAS and its allies in the Alliance declare sanctions and an embargo against Chile "until such time that civilian rule is returned and elections scheduled in accordance with democratic principles". The staff officers in the junta are decidedly not fascists, but they are Chilean nationalists and have no love of communism. When they begin receiving invitations for "consultations" with SAFB diplomats and other more covert contacts, they do not reject them out of hand but instead begin to carefully consider their options.

October 5th 1949

Exhausted German forces, becoming increasingly bogged down by the muddy terrain, none-the-less capture the critical transportation hub of Kharkov. To the southwest, the German offensive runs out of steam after desperate Soviet forces, with the aid of mother nature clearing the skies of aircraft, make stands at Pryluky and Poltava. Despite the halt of the German advance, the Soviet position remains dire. 150,000 Soviet troops remain west of the German south-pointing salient, and the Germans are only 75 kilometers east of the river Dnieper at points. Another 250,000 withdrawing troops have been forced by the fall of Kharkov to fan out across the southern Ukraine as little more than a surging mob; all abandoning heavy equipment and striving desperately to escape to the east. Only 100,000 Red Army soldiers have so far escaped east into Soviet territory.

Meanwhile, minor Axis forces are finally ready to move. Italian, Hungarian, and Romanian armored forces, bolstered by a couple German panzergrenadier divisions, launch a sharp attack, moving from positions east of the Dnieper River in the southern Ukraine and intending to plunge directly east towards Rostov. Following rolling artillery barrages that pin down the thin screen of Soviet defenders, the minor Axis forces surge ahead and simply overwhelm the Soviet rear guards by sheer numbers and greater mobility. By the end of the day, minor Axis armored forces have plunged 20 kilometers across the frontier and there are only hastily withdrawing columns of Soviet infantry ahead of them as snow begins to drape the soggy landscape.

To Be Continued in Part 55...

2008-08-07T16:07:00.000-07:00

Shattered World - Segment 54.3

September 8th 1949 to September 15th 1949

The airstrip on southeastern Kyushu hummed with activity, the heavy continuous drone of numerous massive propeller engines combining into a single terrific roar. Flight crews scurried about the air strip, or crawled lovingly over great lumbering bombers. These aircraft were the pride of the Japanese Air forces, and represented one the few remaining strategic offensive assets that the Japanese Empire possessed. Committing the majority of the precious heavy bombers in such a large operation was a huge gamble. Yet, Japan had to show the world that it remained in the Global War. To that end, in service of Japanese honor, the last fully operational squadron of Fukoku heavy bombers had been tasked with destroying a large new airfield on Okinawa, an airfield that Japanese intelligence believes the Americans are close to completing.
With jet fighters swarming overhead, the heavy bombers climbed into the air one by one, formed up, and headed out over the Pacific towards the flaming hell that Okinawa had become.
In the east, the rising sun dominated a clear blue sky.

September 8th 1949

Moscow, gradually being reduced to rubble, suffers yet more as the German strategic bombing campaign against the Soviet Union continues. Some 400 heavy bombers launch a mixed conventional and nerve gas raid on Moscow that kills tens of thousands and heavily damages an important factory district.
Immediately after the raid, Beria broadcasts a fiery and defiant message from his command bunker deep beneath the Kremlin, vowing to "fight from the hills and the plains of mother Russia, to fight from the sewers and the rubble, until the last Russian man kills the last fascist invader".

At Okinawa - Japanese heavy bombers escorted by long range propeller fighters strike a large U.S. SBC airbase that had been nearing completion on the island. Another distracting raid targets U.S. naval forces in the area, drawing away much of the U.S. carrier air cover while being torn to shreds before it ever reaches the U.S. fleet.
Of the 50 or so Japanese heavy bombers involved in the raid, only 25 reach Okinowa to drop their mix of nerve gas and conventional explosives, causing heavy damage to the base and setting back the construction time by several weeks. Another 10 of the Japanese heavy bombers are downed on their way back to Japan. Japanese heavy bomber capability is now dead.
On the ground, U.S. forces continue to push slowly north and south into the areas of fanatically defended Japanese control.

September 10th 1949

The U.S. and Britain launch a massive conventional raid on the Portuguese capitol of Lisbon, with some 700 allied bombers attacking the city's central and port districts. The port is virtually destroyed and some 100,000 civilians are killed in a hellish firestorm. Alliance radio broadcasts blame the bombing on Lisbon's support of Germany and its membership in the Axis Powers.

As German land based fighters clash with U.S carrier fighters just off the coast of Portugal, Axis maritime strike aircraft sink one Essex class U.S. carrier with guided anti-ship rockets and moderately damage a second. Several escort ships are also damaged to varying degrees. Large numbers of German maritime aircraft are downed in this operation but Radio Berlin hails the operation as a "stunning blow" against the U.S. Navy. In secret, the German High Command warns Hitler that Axis maritime air power in western Europe is in danger of being destroyed given the ongoing pace of operations and rates of attrition.

September 13th 1949

U.S. launches massive atomic and conventional attacks on coastal Iberia. B-34's drop single 40 kiloton atomic bombs on the cities of Malaga and Huelva as well as two large Axis air fields in coastal southern Spain. In addition, large conventional raids hammer other coastal cities and military installations. Deaths from the atomic attacks on the two cities combined exceed 60,000 and Axis air power in the region suffers another terrific blow, with two large airfields destroyed along with dozens of aircraft on the ground. Axis resistance to the sweeping raids is fierce, with over 80 U.S. B-31's downed along with dozens of carrier based fighters, but their own fighter losses are substantial as well.

September 14th 1949

On the Eastern front - German forces massing southeast of Smolensk open a fresh offensive, surging southeast towards Bryansk and Orel. Two veteran panzer divisions, probably the best two panzer divisions in the German army, lead the attack with the Luftwaffe swarming overhead temporarily controlling the skies and hitting everything that moves behind the Soviet lines.

To the south, the broad German offensive in the Caucasus is beginning to gather steam as the Soviets continue an orderly withdrawal, trading land for time. At the points of greatest penetration, Axis forces have reached Georgiyevsk and Kizlyar and are breaking into flatter country.

In the Eastern Ukraine the Red Army is moving into action. There is not quite a panic in the air, yet the need for a hasty evacuation is becoming more clear by the hour as reports come in of disastrous German penetrations to the north and slower but steady German advances to the south in the Caucasus. There seems to be little to stop the Germans from taking Bryansk and Orel, and little to hold them back after that. Around the Eastern Ukraine, Soviet special teams are swinging into action, carrying out carefully pre-planned total scorched earth operations even as what remains of the civilian population are being moved east by all available means.

In the north, the front from Leningrad to east of Smolensk has settled into an uneasy stalemate as Germany halts its efforts to envelop Leningrad in the face of mounting losses. Both sides are focused on the action in the south.

September 15th 1949

The Luftwaffe, under more and more pressure from the western allies in the air over Iberia and France and taking unsustainable losses, is none-the-less preparing for large air operations directed against Britain. Hitler has demanded a retaliatory response to allied nuclear attacks in Iberia. Heavy bomber squadrons are being transferred from the east where the strategic bombing campaign against the Soviet Union is to be temporarily halted, and fighters and medium bombers are being stripped from squadrons across every front.

With a general strike continuing in Chile, and daily street clashes and riots rocking Santiago and several other major cities, an accusation surfaces that the right-wing Chilean National Party(CNP) has been penetrated by, and received funding from, SAFB agents. Communists, prodded by armed radical elements of the People's Party of Chile(PPC), go on a rampage. CNP headquarters is ransacked and conservative political gatherings are assaulted and broken up. Dozens are killed and hundreds injured.
The following day, the PPC demands that the CNP be banned, branding them as "fascist stooges". More street violence breaks out, escalating to isolated gun fights between armed CNP and PPC elements. Across Chile there is a growing sense of anarchy.

TO BE CONTINUED in Segment 54.4...

2008-05-22T18:05:00.000-07:00

Shattered World - Segment 54.2

September 2nd 1949 to September 7th 1949

September 2nd 1949

Germany scales up mass production of its latest road and rail mobile ballistic missile system, the A-4f. This weapon is accurate to within half a kilometer out to 500 kilometers and to within a kilometer at 1200 kilometer range. This model is to replace earlier iterations of the A-4 as it is cheaper to build and easier to operate. It may be configured with a conventional 2000 pound warhead or a chemical/biological warhead. Another project, labelled as the A-6 , is a specialized variant of the multi-staged A-5(itself still in development) intended to place a small satellite into orbit. This missile is to be tested sometime in 1950.
By comparison, the best British and American ballistic missiles have ranges out to 800 kilometers and accuracies to within 2 or 3 kilometers at that range. These allied ballistic missiles require specialized launch stands and thus lack the mobility of the latest German systems. The U.S. does have a ballistic missile in development that will rival the German A-4 series but it is not scheduled for production until mid or late 1950. However, the Alliance is aware of this missile gap and the U.S. is applying its industrial and technological might to begin closing the gap.

September 3rd 1949

After several more British attempts to advance into Axis lines in Libya are repulsed, both sides once again settle down into a stubborn stalemate. Yet, to the east an ominous pall of hatred and anger lies over the land of Nile. Strikes, protests, and riots continue to sputter and flame across Egypt, increasingly drawing British and Imperial troops into constabulary work and garrison duty. Egypt, once a clear British ally, is coming more and more to look like a nation under occupation. The effect on the British front lines is clear, as infantry are transferred east and supply delivery becomes a bit less reliable, worsening week by week.
In Chile, growing tensions between communists and conservative elements boil over into small scale street fighting in the streets of Santiago, the nation's capitol. Police are forced to disperse the angry crowds, resulting in dozens of injuries and hundreds of arrests. A general strike called by socialists and communists has led to increasing political tensions in Chile after political gridlock and the fall of the moderate centrist-conservative coalition government. Political turmoil has been mounting in Chile since the dominant Radical Party, becoming increasingly influenced by communists, dissolved into three bitterly competing leftist, centrist, and right wing parties in the period between 1945 and 1947. Increasingly, the communist People's Party of Chile and the reactionary, quasi-fascist, Chilean National Party have become militant, with both secretly forming an armed cadre and engaging in more and more street protests and political violence.

September 4th 1949

On Okinawa, U.S. forces continue to pound ahead in the north and south of the island - using armor, napalm, flame throwers, massive off-shore bombardments, and the blood of infantrymen to wrest control of each square foot from the insanely determined Japanese defenders. Even Japanese civilians have become a part of the fighting there, conducting suicide bomb attacks behind the lines, on advancing armor, and resisting in every way possible up to an including sneaking up on sleeping U.S. marines with knives and bamboo spears. As a result, unofficial U.S. policy has become "shoot anything that moves".
All around the Japanese Home Islands, massive conventional B-31 raids continue on major cities, military bases, and strategic facilities. Yet, Japanese air defenses have been strengthened with more powerful and accurate AAA, improved radar systems, and more efficient command & control of air defenses in addition to increasing numbers of purpose-built interceptors capable of attacking the U.S. heavy bombers. U.S. B-31 losses have increased steadily but remain within acceptable margins. At the same time, the U.S. has stepped up efforts to mine and raid amongst Japanese coastal waters and inland seas, resulting in a sharp decline in Japanese fishing productivity and coastal shipping. Only the yellow sea and the waters north of Japan remain relatively safe although even these waters are beginning to receive more and more unwanted visitations from U.S. submarines and aircraft.
In Minsk, the last significant pocket of Soviet defenders surrenders to German forces although sporadic sniping and unconventional resistance will continue for another week.

September 5th 1949

400 British heavy bombers out of the British Isles and 200 U.S. heavy bombers out of the Canaries launch a massive coordinated raid on the Spanish port city of Vigo on the Bay of Biscay. Escorted by U.S. carrier fighters which struggle against the superior German land-based fighters, the bombers suffer heavy losses to Axis AAA and fighters yet drop roughly 2000 tons of high explosives, destroying the city's port and industrial district while igniting a firestorm and killing an estimated 50,000 people.

September 7th 1949

In the Caucasus, Axis forces launch a general offensive. The Soviet divisions here, dug into static defensive lines, are largely reserve units lacking mobility, and are relatively poorly equipped compared to the Red Army forces further to the north. The Soviets have stripped units here to the bone, gambling that the Axis lack the offensive strength in the theatre to launch a large offensive. The Axis, for their part, are lacking in armor but have several divisions of German, Italian, and minor Axis mechanized infantry. These divisions plunge ahead into the Soviet lines and begin pushing forward with the aid of Luftwaffe air support. In the skies, the Luftwaffe enjoys almost total air superiority and the German commanders are using this advantage to maximum effect. By the end of the first 12 hours of the offensive, Axis forces have penetrated as much as ten kilometers at some points.
Meanwhile, to the north the Germans have not been sitting idle during their week long operational pause. Indeed, two German panzer divisions have been resting, receiving reinforcements, and massing southeast of Smolensk. To the increasingly worried Soviet high command, the German intentions are obvious. Axis forces are attacking northwards in the Caucasus. Far to the north, Smolensk has fallen months before the Red Army was counting on, and German panzer divisions now sit east of the Beria line, casting their gaze towards Bryansk and Orel. The implication is clear; Two great pincer movements are in the works, and the Soviet army in the eastern Ukraine with its 500,000 men lies in great danger of outright envelopment. Reluctantly, Beria has already signed orders calling for a complete withdrawal from the Ukraine and the execution of pre-laid plans for a scorched earth campaign approaching the destructive levels of the one inflicted on the western half of that terribly suffering region.

TO BE CONTINUED in Segment 54.3....

Quick update...

2008-04-16T10:21:00.000-07:00

I've added segments 53.3 and 54.1 to the 'Second World War' time line page.

Also, regarding Segment 54.2, my goal is to have it ready before the end of April.

2008-04-14T18:07:00.000-07:00

Shattered World - Segment 54.1

August 16th 1949 to September 30th 1949

The massive bunker complex in the mountains west of Kofu, Japan, was a marvel of human engineering. Built underneath a mountain and sitting on giant shock absorbers, the facility was designed to withstand a direct atomic strike. Impressive as it was, the grandiosity of the buried Japanese High Command Headquarters was a sign of desperation rather than one of strength. The Japanese Empire was on its last legs, no one in the ornate conference room at the facility's heart could deny that. The mood in the room was as sombre as it had been since the facility became operational two months before.
The leaders of the Japanese Military elite sat arrayed around a large map table in the middle of of the room, many glared at each other, blaming one another for the disastrous series of misfortunes that Japan even now continued to suffer. These men were fanatical, cut from stone. They had defied the God-Emperor himself out of a desperate need to preserve Japanese honor. The very future of the Japanese people was now at stake. The story displayed on the strategic maps before them was grim.
Okinawa split in two, the northern and southern halves being steadily devoured by the relentless American war machine as atom bombs rained from the sky. China lost, aside from a few key port cities and strategic islands off the coast. Singapore entirely isolated and out of communications aside from radio contact and the occasional lucky plane or submarine that slipped through the Allied gauntlet. Japanese-held islands in the central Pacific entirely cut off and withering on the vine. And worst of all, Japan herself ragged with more and more cities turned into rubble, burned out cinders of their former selves; Her defenses unable to stop the fall of atomic destruction whenever the Americans chose to bring it forth between massive conventional attacks that came night after night.
Yet, Japan fought on. She was battered, exhausted, and growing more hungry by the week, but she fought on. More and more underground factories were coming online, and from those spewed the manned anti-aircraft missiles and anti-shipping rockets, the anti-tank rockets for the infantry, the jet fighters, the nerve gas, and all the other necessary weapons and tools of war. Farmers worked the fields, growing the rice that fed the people. Fishermen plied their trade when and where they could, though the risk they took increased by the day and the amount of food gathered from the sea was beginning to dwindle.
And there was Korea, heavily fortified and churning out resources and some manufactured goods, still relatively safe thanks to the exhaustion of Soviet forces in the east. And one project there in particular continued to move ahead, if slowly and not without numerous setbacks. A project that drank in well over over half of the electricity on the Korean peninsula, and that remained for the moment shrouded in the utmost secrecy, a project that carried the hopes of the defiant men assembled beneath a mountain.
Japanese war aims, once with ambition to conquer all of eastern and southeastern Asia in addition to much of the Pacific, were now focused to a single point - national survival. Hope remained to the west, where the European Axis Powers might yet conquer Russia, smash the British, and convince the Americans to accept an armistice that included an independent Japan. This was an outcome that would preserve Japan's honor and allow some hope and aspirations for the future. It was that or national oblivion. These men saw nothing in between.

August 16th 1949

In North Africa, Egyptian nationalists and Islamists launch a general strike, threatening to cripple the transportation sector and economic activity there in general. The strike's leadership, dominated by the Nationalist Islamic Movement, threatens to continue the strike until Egypt declares neutrality and British forces agree to leave the country. British and Egyptian authorities respond quickly and without hesitation, issuing a 24-hour ultimatum for the strike to be called off.
To the west, the front in Libya remains bogged down as both sides strengthen defensive lines and bring in supplies and reinforcements. The British have a substantial advantage in overall manpower, by as much as 2 to 1. However, the two sides remain at relative parity in terms of armored strength and mobility. The British have not received substantial armored reinforcements in some time whereas the Germans have transferred several panzergrenadier divisions from France over the past few months and replaced some of the losses within existing armored units. The contest in the air remains fairly stalemated as well, with larger numbers of older British aircraft countering the smaller number of superior German planes. The favored tactic of both sides here is to slip in streams of medium jet bombers flying low and fast from out of the deep southern desert; however improving radar-guided AAA systems and increasingly experienced anti-aircraft crews are making this tactic more costly by the month.

August 18th 1949

British and Egyptian police and military forces break up the general strike in Egypt, arresting many nationalist and Islamist leaders and forcibly dispersing crowds of protesters. Riots break out in Cairo and other large cities but are quickly crushed with dozens killed and wounded. Some transportation hubs west of Alexandria remain hindered by strikers and protesters, interfering to a moderate degree with British logistics into Libya. Rommel, sensing an opportunity, begins drawing up plans for an attack to be launched as quickly as possible, taking advantage of the disruptions in Egypt before the British have that situation there fully in hand.

August 19th 1949

U.S. carrier aircraft, in conjunction with heavy bombers out of the Azores and Britain, stage a massive raid on the western French port of Bordeaux. German submarine facilities, both the hardened docks themselves and surrounding infrastructure, suffer heavy damage as do French-Fascist Aquitaine military and political targets. Civilian loss of life is heavy, leading to official protests from Free France and growing anti-Anglo sentiment in the French fascist puppet states and occupied northern France.
On Okinawa, SBC bombers explode 40 kiloton atomic bombs over the city of Nama and a major nearby airfield. Japanese air power on Okinawa, what little remains of it, suffers a crippling blow. In the city of Nama, many of the hardened underground bunkers survive the atomic blast relatively unscathed although the city itself and less hardened facilities are destroyed. U.S. forces, having secured the center of the island, have been plodding south and north against fanatical Japanese resistance. In the south U.S. forces have surrounded Machinato and are approaching Shuri. In the north U.S. forces, aided several days before by a tactical atomic strike north of Kin, are driving hard towards Chuda. Casualties on both sides are horrendous and even Japanese civilians have been fighting to the death, up to and including women and children being used as 'human shields' by the Japanese defenders; forcing American soldiers to abandon all rules of engagement in favor of war to the knife.

August 20th 1949

German troops enter and capture Smolensk. Soviet forces, having only narrowly avoided being pocketed and having been forced to abandon much of their heavy equipment, continue to withdraw east with German mechanized forces harassing their rear flanks. To the west, Minsk remains a major annoyance for the Germans, but the 120,000 starving Red Army soldiers there are approaching the ends of human endurance. To the north - the front southwest of Leningrad remains stagnant with German troops now within 15 kilometers of the city proper yet still facing that city's well defended inner fortifications and still unable to make progress in enveloping the city.

August 26th 1949

After a week of hasty preparations, Army Group Africa strikes northeast from out of positions around Ajdabiya with a sharp armored thrust. Rommel intends to cut across the Cyrenaica, bypassing Benghazi altogether and forcing the British to fall back upon Tobruk while they get their lines of supply back into shape following the general strike and widespread civil violence in Egypt. In an effort to maintain secrecy, the attack is not preceded by a sustained artillery barrage or a surge of aircraft. British resistance at the point of attack is fierce, with well entrenched infantry equipped with anti-tank weaponry taking a heavy early toll on the advancing panzers. However, by the time dusk has fallen one column of panzers is streaming northeast with British forces desperately attempting to shift in order to block the thrust and threaten Rommel's flank.

August 27th 1949

The Japanese launch a major attack against the U.S. fleet off the coast of Okinawa. In the mid-morning hours, some 300 conventional Japanese aircraft from out of Kyushu conduct an attack in coordination with nearly 80 carefully hoarded kamikaze rocket bombs launched from caves and hidden bunkers around northern Okinawa. U.S. carrier aircraft savage the conventional Japanese attack, downing nearly 200 of the attackers in exchange for only 60 of their own downed. The few Japanese conventional aircraft that do manage to reach the fleet inflict only light losses, lightly damaging two carriers and crippling a destroyer and a cruiser. The massed kamikaze rocket attack is somewhat more successful, sinking three destroyers and a supply ship, crippling two destroyers, and moderately damaging half a dozen more vessels ranging from a carrier down to several cruisers and destroyers.

August 28th 1949

With Army Group Africa threatening to break out into the Cyrenaica, the British launch a massive air operation over the intense battlefield. Surging as many fighters as they can get into the air, the British launch a massive fighter sweep that over the course of the morning evolves into a dogfight of epic proportions, with hundreds of fighters from both sides locked in a struggle to the death. Just before noon the British surge bombers into the air as well, sending huge formations of heavy bombers towards the battlefield to carpet bomb while long streams of medium jet bombers penetrate behind Axis lines hammering supply depots, supply columns, and transportation hubs.
With German fighters and AAA defenses fiercely reacting to the massive British surge, one tiny formation of RAF B-31's flying particularly high is missed amongst all the chaos. It is one of these B-31's which drops a 30 kiloton atomic bomb on a particular portion of the main advancing German armored column. In an intelligence coup which will remain a closely guarded secret for decades to come, a British intelligence source has pin-pointed the precise location of Rommel's command car and relayed this information via radio to the British command. By a fortunate coincidence, the RAF had already been preparing to launch an atomic attack against the advancing German armored column and was intent on avoiding the sort of catastrophe that had happened the last time they tried to use an atomic bomb in a tactical role.
The atomic bomb detonates several hundred feet in the air, and close enough to Rommel's command car to smash it like a tin can while pulping the bodies of those inside to mush. Erwin Rommel, the Desert Viper, is dead and a good portion of his main armored thrust now lies smashed or burning, strewn across the blasted and desolate landscape.

August 29th 1949

What had been a promising Axis advance into the Cyrenaica has turned into a disastrous route. British armored forces, already shifting into position to launch a counter-attack before the atomic attack, are able to cut off and surround surviving forward elements of the German thrust with Axis forces in chaos and confusion. Axis units west of the atomic attack are in headlong retreat, returning to defensive lines along the starting point of the attack.
In Berlin, the mood is grim despite recent success at Smolensk. What had looked like the beginning of an offensive that might turn the tide in Libya has turned into an outright disaster for the Axis position in North Africa. With Germany's best armored division in North Africa now destroyed or pocketed, with the Desert Viper killed, and with the U.S. continuing to mass on the Canary Islands and Madeiras, the Axis outlook in North Africa seems bleak. After many hours of debate the search for a replacement for Rommel settles on Heinz Gustov, a young Panzer General who had made quite a name for himself over the past year. Field Marshall Gustov would have the unenviable task of commanding a battered and beleaguered Army Group Africa.

August 30th 1949

Civilian Climatologists and Meteorologists from across the Alliance have issued a special report detailing an alarming rise in the amount of dust in the upper atmosphere, the phenomena believed responsible for the spectacular sunsets and sunrises being viewed world wide over the past months. The report speculates that smoke and dust thrown up by the growing number of atomic bombings and widespread burning of cities may be responsible and that the dust may obscure some sunlight and lead to an unusually cold and prolonged winter. The report is largely dismissed by the Alliance governments but the International Red Cross does take notice, and begins making preparations for what may be a harsh winter.
In Minsk, two of the three remaining Soviet pockets of resistance have collapsed with some 80,000 soldiers captured by the Germans. One last pocket, with some 35,000 men, fights on from the dense rubble in the city's center and a network sewer tunnels and bunkers.

August 31st 1949

With yet another atomic blast on Muslim lands, and the Egyptian strike and protests brutally crushed by British and Egyptian authorities - the mood across Egypt and the rest of the middle east is tense. Now driven largely underground, groups like the Nationalist Islamic Movement and The Army of Islam secretly plot a campaign to throw out the British and topple the Egyptian government. Across the wider region, from Casablanca to Baghdad, anti-British sentiment has never been higher. There are whispers across the Arab world, whispers of revolution and blood.
Meanwhile, in the Cyrenaica, the German armored forces cut off after the atomic attack are isolated, caught out in the open, out of fuel, and coming under withering air and artillery bombardment. Just before dusk, what remains of Rommel's best panzer division, some 80 panzers and thousands of supporting infantry, surrender to British forces. To the west, German and Italian anti-tank infantry repel several half-hearted British attempts to probe the Axis defensive lines south of Benghazi. The British have smashed the Axis attack but they still lack the strength to break the Axis defensive lines.

September 1st 1949

On the Eastern front, logistical concerns have forced the Germans to stop pursuing Soviet forces east of Smolensk and instead consolidate their hard-won gains there. The Soviets, with a bit of breathing space to work with now, are already settling into their next line of defense; the recently strengthened Mozhaysk Line stretching from Kalinin towards Volokolamsk and Kaluga. At Leningrad, the Germans have been forced to halt offensive operations, out of exhaustion and lack of supplies, with their leading elements within just 14 kilometers of the city. Far to the south, Soviet intelligence has noted with concern a significant and increasing buildup of Axis forces in the Caucasus. Turkish, Chechnyan, German, and Italian forces have grown in number and increased the tempo of raids and bombardment along the static front there in recent weeks.
Meanwhile; The Kreigsmarine has been forced to concentrate its submarine activity in the northern Atlantic and the far northern sea lanes as aggressive, and increasingly effective, Alliance anti-submarine warfare efforts take a heavy toll. With Germany now concentrating its efforts on the blockade of Britain and the northern Soviet ports, and with the Italian navy having pulled its submarines back into the Mediterranean, the Alliance buildup on the Canary Islands and Madeiras is now proceeding largely unmolested. To the east, Axis naval and air assets are massing across the western Mediterranean in anticipation of a coming U.S. effort to breach the straights of Gibraltar.

TO BE CONTINUED in Segment 54.2...

Discussion Board is back!

2008-03-22T10:59:00.001-07:00

...and now with its own domain. There may still be a few bugs to shake out, but its pretty much ready.

http://www.shatteredboard.net/forum/

Shattered World to remain my hobby

2008-03-11T12:54:00.001-07:00

I'm dropping the 'fundable' idea as clearly the idea was rejected. I'm just going to continue on with doing this as a hobby as previously. But the pace will probably remain pretty slow.

My other hobby...

2008-02-27T16:05:00.000-08:00

Hi all,

First of all, the new board will be back up once my brother can get it running on the new hosted service. All of the discussions and whatnot are saved to backup so we're ok there. Until then we'll use the old board.

Now, about my other hobby. If anyone is into gaming or just interested in seeing me write in a drastically different setting, check out my new gaming/fiction blog, NOT IRL

Its short for "Not In Real Life", it'll be my thoughts about the future of gaming, virtual worlds, etc, as well as a place to host my bits of fiction set in gaming/virtual world environments

Temporary Discussion Board...

2008-02-19T10:08:00.000-08:00

Hi all,

I've changed the discussion board link to point to the old discussion board at http://com5.runboard.com/bshatteredworld

This is just a temporary measure until my brother gets the real discussion board running on the host he purchased. My brother has all the database files for the board, he just needs to get it integrated and up and running on the host he purchase

Gone for a week...

2008-01-26T08:29:00.000-08:00

Hi all,

I'll be gone for the next week on vacation. My brother is close to getting the board running again, this time on a hosted site so we avoid these down times in the future. I would expect the board to be back up by next weekend.

Bobby

Part 1 re-polished!

2008-01-11T16:03:00.000-08:00

I've finally started a project I've been thinking about doing for years, which is to go back and clean up all the old parts.
If you re-read part 1 you should find that the formatting has been updated to match the formatting I've used for more recent parts. But more importantly the writing is generally better now IMHO. I'm just a better writer now than I was 10 years ago when I started this thing.
I've also tried to clarify points that may have been ambiguous previously. I'll be very interested to here people's thoughts.
(you may have to refresh the Eurasian War timeline page to see the new link for part 1, it is a google hosted document just like the most recent parts)

Lastly, I'll try to see if I can make some progress to getting the board back up.

Merry Christmas...

2007-12-24T00:18:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas everyone. I'm leaving tomorrow morning for Christmas vacation so I'll be mostly offline for the next week. I'll check in with my brother and see if he can try to get the board back up soon, I apologize for it being down so long. Its something we need to work on so this doesn't happen again.

2007-12-21T13:20:00.000-08:00

Shattered World - Segment 53.3

"Leningrad und Smolensk, oder Tod"

Nuclear fire blossomed like the all consuming brilliance of some ancient warrior god. In the middle, hell boiled and reached upwards for the heavens. All around, concentric circles of overpressure extend out to snuff out life and property like a million angry fists, smashing all before them. 40 kilotons of death and mayhem, delivered from the great predator birds of war - flying far overhead, now withdrawing eastward with fighters in vain pursuit; like gnats pricking the giants of old or hawks throwing themselves at the Earth in desperate rage.
Shifting the viewpoint downward and out to sea, to the inferno that had been the Island of Okinawa. The battle lines are stark, brutal scars cutting their jagged path across a tortured terrain becoming more that of nightmare by the hour. Craters dot the land, making it appear like the surface of some hostile alien world. Off the coast, great ships mass in their hundreds. Flashes erupt among them, and dozens of small, fast, human projectiles throw themselves into the depths of exploding shrapnel and a million aimed shells and rounds. Explosions erupt among the great vessels, and a few of them heave in their death throws, plunging into the abyssal depths to end their days of service - taking with them hundreds of struggling men to new watery graves.
Back to land, where columns of metal machines crawl across the earth, surrounded by men in masks and mottled uniforms, wielding clever personal weapons of death. They push ahead, leap frogging at times, at others flowing slowly like thick molasses; pushing into areas of enemy weakness. Foul clouds fill the air, noxious vapors that bring only death carry on the winds;killing and maiming all those unfortunate enough to lack protective measures. Explosions ripple, moving with the front lines - leaving broken men and death in their wake. Mechanical contraptions that flit about on whirling blades buzz this way and that. Molten fire bursts suddenly here and there, raining from the air to melt flesh and burn all before it;like the breath of some great ancient Dragon.
And now, rain; as if the Earth itself wept at the deeds of men.

August 4th 1949

On Kyushu, Kagoshima is struck by a 40 kiloton atomic bomb in another B-34 raid following massive conventional bombardment of anti-aircraft defenses in the area. In a scene that is grim, but now all too common in Japan, much of the city is destroyed; hundreds of thousands are dead or wounded.
The Battle of Okinawa rages on. U.S. Marines, with the help of massive air support and three more atomic blasts over the past three days, have slogged across muddy terrain and have largely secured the center of the island, landing with 5 divisions around Hogushi and rapidly pushing north, east, and south. Although U.S. forces have seized most of the center of the island, many pockets of Japanese resistance remain determined to fight to the death. After an initial surge, U.S. forces have now been stalled by strong Japanese defensive lines in the north and south where independent Japanese commands still hold strong positions and intend to hold out as long as possible. The civilian population, largely concentrated in the south of the island, is suffering greatly and have largely fled inside massive bomb shelters and tunnels dispersed around the towns.
Off the coast of Okinawa the fierce battle at sea continues, with Japanese submarines attempting with little success to disrupt the U.S. fleet's lines of communication and K-24 kamikaze rocket-bombs and conventional aircraft out of Kyushu making intermittent massed attacks. Since the initial landings on August 1st another dozen U.S. vessels, ranging from supply ships to destroyers and cruisers, have been sunk or heavily damaged, with others more lightly damaged.

August 5th 1949

On the Eastern Front, German infantry backed by heavy tanks and massive artillery and air support continue to press into Minsk, paying dearly for every collapsed house and rubble strewn street corner they seize. Soviet Forces there, resigned to their fate, are determined to fight on as long as human willpower can endure; making Minsk an ongoing nasty wound in the German side. To the east, German forces have slogged another 5 kilometers closer to Leningrad, putting the southwestern outskirts of that city under direct artillery and rocket bombardment. To the South, Smolensk is a death zone for the German Army. German forces have pushed several kilometers on the northern and southern portion of soviet defenses there but have not managed a breakout that would allow an encirclement. Determined to achieve their objectives before the Autumn rains, the German high command commits the last of its heavy reserves. It is "Leningrad und Smolensk, oder Tod" for the German Army.

August 7th 1949

In northeastern China Nationalist forces put Beijing under siege, push back Chinese communist forces across a broad front. Despite these Nationalist gains, communist guerrillas open a widespread guerrilla campaign behind the lines and across many parts of China in general. It is the beginning of the "Time of the Red Terror" in China, a terrible chapter in Chinese history. Communist guerrilla forces, with Soviet backing, have planned in detail for a vicious campaign of total warfare and terrorism that borders on genocidal in its scope and cruelty. Food production is to be attacked with Soviet developed anti-agriculture bio weapons, water supplies are to be poisoned, chemical and bio terrorist attacks launched, amongst all manner of other vicious and cruel terrorist and guerrilla operations.

August 8th 1949

After a series of large, intensely contested, conventional heavy bomber raids and fighter sweeps over the past week around Southern Spain, U.S. B-34 bombers escorted by swarms of carrier jet fighters conduct an atomic attack on Cadiz and two nearby air fields.
At Cadiz, two atomic bombs are detonated 500 feet over the city - targeting the Axis Naval Command Base and the port facilities. Cadiz is mostly wiped off the map, and over half of its population is killed and many of the rest injured. Axis naval infrastructure, both administrative and the naval facilities themselves, are completely wiped out along with much of the Axis's Unified Naval Command leadership. Some do survive in bunkers, but for all intents and purposes the heart of the Axis Naval Command has been torn out and Cadiz rendered useless as a center of naval power or a center of anything else for that matter.
In the same attack, two airfields in the region around Cadiz are destroyed by atomic bombs, though many of their aircraft were airborne at the time and simply move to other air fields. Overall, Axis naval power on the Atlantic coast of southern Spain has been dealt a fatal blow and air power has been dealt a harsh but not quite crippling blow.The only good news for the Axis is that there were no significant warships in the port at the time since the Axis had already withdrawn their naval assets into the western Mediterranean

August 9th 1949

In a joint Anglo-American broadcast directed at Spain, the U.S. and British demand that Spain surrender, hinting darkly that Madrid isn't that far north of Cadiz and that Spain would be "well advised to seriously consider its national interests". In a recently completed bunker beneath Madrid, Franco has been engaged in intense meetings with his most trusted allies. Above, in the streets of the Spanish capitol, the mood is somber. There is anger at the "massacre of Cadiz", but more than that there is fear of what city may be next.
Fearing that Spain may be wavering, Hitler orders the Luftwaffe to "defend Spain as if she were the Fatherland". The Luftwaffe's high leadership, looking at maps showing active theatres on all sides of the Reich, have difficult choices to make. Increasing assets in Spain will mean decreasing them somewhere else. But where to draw these assets from? From Baku, with its vital oil fields? From the Eastern front where the war may hang in the balance? From the Fatherland itself where the German people lay under the shadow of nuclear destruction? From Rommel's valiant forces struggling for control of North Africa? From the Channel Front where the RAF grows more bold with its fighter sweeps and bomber streams by the week?

August 11th 1949

The extensive use of nerve and mustard gas by the Japanese on Okinawa has proven to be quite effective against U.S. forces in the oppressive summer heat. Despite this, and despite the loss of many tanks to Japanese anti-tank rockets(Nicknamed 'Yellow Bazookas' by U.S. forces), U.S. Marines have crushed the last pockets of resistance on the island's mid regions and have consolidated their positions in the face of fierce Japanese counter attacks in the north and south. U.S. naval and air bombardment of the Japanese held north and south is perhaps the most intense the world has ever seen although there have been no new atomic attacks since August 3rd. Japanese use of their kamikaze rockets has fallen off sharply although U.S. intelligence cannot determine if this is due to them all being used, them being destroyed, or the Japanese hoarding them for future use. Conventional air attacks from Kyushu have been a daily occurrence despite brutal losses suffered by the Japanese. Since August 5th conventional Japanese air attacks and sporadic kamikaze rocket attacks have only managed to sink another three destroyers, a cruiser, and two transports; with half a dozen other vessels sustaining light to moderate damage, including one U.S. carrier that is forced to steam for the Philippines after a lucky level bomber manages to deliver a bomb to her flight deck.

[* The Japanese anti-tank rocket mentioned above is based on an ATL 1945 German design that is very similar to German anti-tank rockets from OTL sirca 44'-45' *]

August 11th 1949

A huge U.S. convoy, having suffered the loss of only several merchant ships to prowling German submarines in the cold harsh waters of the north, reaches Murmansk - delivering vast amounts of supplies for the sagging Soviet war effort. These supplies include fuel, radar guided anti-aircraft equipment, jet engines for the jet airframes being churned out east of the Urals, spare parts, and other critical supplies. Some of this material is destined to head straight for the front to Leningrad and Smolensk, or east to feed the hungry Soviet industrial complex out beyond the Urals.
After pausing for nearly a week to consolidate and bring up reserves, the German pushes on Minsk, Leningrad, and Smolensk resume with massive conventional and nerve gas artillery and rocket bombardments. A surprise surge of Red Airforce fighters partially disrupts German carpet bombing efforts although Luftwaffe fighters take advantage of this by scoring dozens and dozens of kills. Southwest of Leningrad the battle almost resembles the western front circa 1918, with German infantry infiltrating forward into the massive belt of Soviet defensive works there. At Smolensk, however, there is little resemblance to the Great War as an epic clash of armor occurs south of the city. Both sides lose many dozens of tanks, but by the late afternoon German mechanized infantry are pouring through a gap exposed in the Soviet lines.

August 13th 1949

With Smolensk rapidly being enveloped by the German breakout to the south, the Red Army has no choice but to begin pulling out of the strategic city. The Soviet Union cannot afford to sacrifice another entire army to serve as a wound in the side of the Germans as happened at Minsk. Encouraged by the early signs of the soviet pull-out, the German army smashes forward to the north of Smolensk, severely pressuring Soviet forces tasked with holding that flank until Smolensk can be evacuated.
Further north Leningrad is proving a harder nut to crack. German forces are now 17 kilometers due southwest of the city but have not made much progress in their efforts to push around the city to encircle it. With most German armor committed further to the South, the front here is not fluid.

August 14th 1949

German forces now control half of Minsk and the ragtag Red Army forces there are starving and desperately short of ammunition; yet 125,000 of them fight on.
At Smolensk the orderly Soviet withdrawal is degenerating into a route as German forces surge ahead on the city's northern flank and German forces from the southern breakout begin to fan out east of the city. With German artillery and bombers pummelling the remaining soviet evacuation route the Red Army repeats a chaotic scene that they've seen too many times before over the past decade - hundreds of thousands of men fleeing for their lives through a narrow corridor of death.

August 15th 1949

In South America, a tense peace reigns. Despite growing ODAS support for rebels in Bolivia, the SAFB continues to maintain a cautious approach, not wanting to anger the nuclear-armed United States. Both the ODAS and SAFB have been engaged in an arms race for some time, and south America is now heavily armed and fortified. Argentina, the most powerful of the SAFB nations, now has a large professional army, navy, and air force equipped largely with early 40's era German weapons and equipment manufactured on license by its young but booming arms industry. Chile and Brazil, the two largest ODAS South American nations, are relatively well armed with reliable but obsolete surplus U.S. equipment but they have not quite achieved the professionalism and level of training in their armies that Argentina has managed to attain.
Formally, Britain is at war with Argentina and by extension the SAFB as a whole - but there has been little action since a series of British air raids on Argentina earlier in the war and some trade even continues between the two under the table. Britain seems content to leave Argentina alone as long it refrains from allowing German submarines to base or resupply there; this fragile truce has held for several years now. South America's economy in general has been booming for a decade as all sides in the Global War desperately need the raw materials and goods that South America can provide. Undoubtedly this economic success is another reason that outright war has not yet erupted here.
The wild cards of South America are Columbia and Venezuela, still very neutral and quite happy to listen to diplomats and business men from all sides

TO BE CONTINUED...

Second World War Timeline updated...

2007-12-18T11:06:00.001-08:00

I've updated the Second World War timeline page so that the new maps and segments 53.1 and 53.2 now appear there.

Discussion Board and next part...

2007-12-17T01:58:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone,

My brother had to rebuild his computer several times, and switched OS's as well, etc. With work and everything getting the board back up has taken way longer than he expected. He is aware that everyone is anxious to get the board back and hopefully it will be up soon. We're looking into getting the board hosted so we don't have these down times in the future.
Rest assured it will be back up, one way or another. And the next part will be coming as well, after a much longer delay than I had intended. I'll try to have the next segment up before I head out for Christmas vacation.

Discussion Board down for a few days

2007-11-12T09:49:00.000-08:00

Hi all, the discussion board will be down for a few days as my brother is in the process of upgrading his server machine. Sorry for the late notice on this.

Watch out for SPAM...

2007-10-26T14:55:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to warn everyone to watch out for these SPAMS that are appearing among the comments here lately. The links included in these SPAM messages very possibly lead to websites containing malicious software of some sort. I'm deleting them as they appear but its hard to keep up with them. I may have to change the policy to only allow registered people to post :(

I'm still alive...

2007-10-19T10:43:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to assure everyone that despite my prolonged silence I am still alive :) Just been very busy the past couple months, and haven't had my creative/writing juices flowing. I will pick up work on the next part soon

Segment 53.2 updated...

2007-08-15T14:20:00.000-07:00

It is now version 53.2.2

There will be no further changes unless someone spots a typo or gross editorial error.

The changes I made were pretty subtle, didn't change anything much on a macro scale.

* mention of german subs involved in battles with convoys during blockade of canaries
* correction made to U.S. fleet movement descriptions(previously I kep saying 'east' where I had meant west. The fleet movements should make more sense now
* Japanese aircraft operate out of Okinawa and Kyushu during battle of East China Sea
* U.S. land based aircraft are also involved during the battle of East China Sea
* Losses to U.S. task force during battle of East China Sea are a bit higher, and more fighters on both sides are downed
* Minsk has 150,000+ surviving soviet soldiers as of August 1st rather than 200,000+
* The Japanese attack on the U.S. task force on August 1st includes Japanese aircraft from out of Kyushu and does slightly more damage
* Battle of Northern Phillipine Sea changed very slightly. Reasoning behind Japanese fleet's 'death run' explained
* Destruction of remaining Japanese surface fleet changed slightly(Japanese plan to support the surface fleet with aircaft out of Kyushu disrupted by U.S. attacks on Kyushu air fields)

Segment 53.2 is up, and about the board

2007-08-06T21:52:00.000-07:00

As you can see below, Segment 53.2 is posted. Let me know what you think!

Also, I apologize regarding the board still being down. My brother has run into some difficulties in retrieving the backed up board data and this has slowed him down in bringing the board back up. I'll post here when I have more information. In the meantime we can continue to use the comments sections here on the main site.

Rest assured that the board will be back, its just taking longer than I expected to get it back up.

2007-08-06T21:51:00.000-07:00

Shattered World - Segment 53.2.2

It was approaching 2:00 in the afternoon local time and the 500 B-31's flying high over the Pacific due east of Sakhalin Island stretched for miles and miles, formations of the huge bombers glinting in the bright sun like a string of pearls draped over the blue ocean below. Captain Dan Wood had been on nearly a dozen similar missions, but those had been to the south over Honshu and Kyushu. This was his first mission this far North, and from what intelligence had said he wasn't looking forward to what awaited him. This raid was the biggest attack launched against Japanese oil facilities on Sakhalin so far and it was also the first large daylight raid. But no one doubted that the Japanese were waiting for them.
"Look sharp everyone, we're getting to within range of Jap fighters" Dan said into the mike, glancing at his co-pilot with a slight nod. And, sure enough, a couple minutes later word came over the radio that Jap fighters were inbound. Dan's job here was easy, as far as piloting went. He stayed in the carefully maintained formation and kept a steady hand on the controls. The hard part was the waiting, and he shared another tense look with the co-pilot. Then he spotted two enemy fighters, moving in from the northeast.
"We've got two Jap fighters at out three O'clock!" Dan said calmly, letting his gunners know what was what. Ten seconds later the gunners started hammering away, their 20mm shells lancing out to wipe the enemy out of the sky. Tracers arced out from his own bomber and dozens of others in the immediate vicinity. One of the Jap fighters exploded in a spectacular fireball and the propeller driven interceptor smeared out into a black and orange smudge against an otherwise clear sky. The other Jap fighter made it into the formation, and a moment later a B-31 dropped out trailing smoke and flame from two engines. Dan hoped the poor bastards on the stricken bomber made it back to the Marianas. For its part, the Japanese fighter was nowhere to be seen.
More minutes passed and eventually word got around that the Japanese fighters were moving off to the west back to their air fields. Nearly a dozen B-31's had been downed, and nearly as many forced to turn back. The massive bomber formation lumbered ahead, and Dan and everyone else in the raid kept a weary watch.
"Well, we've seen worse" John, his co-pilot, said hopefully. Dan winced inwardly, hoping his co-pilot hadn't just cursed them. You learned to get superstitious like that after commanding a bomber on a dozen or so missions over Japan. As if to strengthen his growing superstition, his fears were soon confirmed.
"Darts, we've got darts!" a voice screamed over the radio.
"Shit" Dan muttered, then relayed the warning to his gunners. U.S. Air crews had taken to calling the Japanese jet interceptors darts due to their high speed and slick profile. They were bad news for the lumbering and unescorted B-31's. He'd encountered the darts twice, and both times he'd thanked Jesus upon landing safely back at base. More than a few B-31's hadn't been so lucky. His gunners hammered away as a dart streaked in, lines of tracers crisscrossed through the sky; they all missed. Seconds later a B-31 was spiraling towards the ocean below, trailing smoke, flame, and a couple of parachutes. Minutes later another dart came at his part of the formation and for a horrifying moment Dan was sure the Japanese jet was heading directly for him. Instead it bore down on a B-31 to his left and sent explosive rounds into its fuselage. Another B-31 tumbled out of the sky but this time the lines of tracers met upon the dart and exacted revenge, wiping the sleek jet out of the air.
News from around the air armada wasn't good. Another dozen bombers had been downed, and more forced to turn around and withdraw. The 500 bomber raid was now a 460,or so, bomber raid. Ahead, land came into view. Sakhalin. Now came the flack. The Japanese had apparently arranged every flak cannon in the world in and around Nogliki to defend the oil infrastructure in the area. Black puffs of smoke erupted around the huge bomber formation, in their thousands, and every one seemed aimed directly for him. Occasionally bits of shrapnel clanked off the fuselage, and Dan prayed none of those bits got too big. When the lead bombers began dropping their bombs, he breathed a heavy sigh of relief. Not long after his own bomber lifted into the air as the bomb bays emptied and his ungainly bomber suddenly weighed quite a bit less.
Soon the formation was wheeling north and east to make for home, and Dan saw in satisfaction that massive plumes of smoke were rising into the air - birthed by what appeared to be dozens of raging fires. Later recon missions would judge better than him, but to Dan it sure looked like they'd done a lot of damage.
"Don't let your guard down guys, they're likely to hit us as we leave. They can't be happy down there" Dan said, not that he thought his men would really ease up. And they didn't have to wait long. Not more than a minute after he'd voiced the warning something streaked into the formation from what seemed to be directly below and a bomber not far to Dan's right in the formation was rolling over and falling like a stone, its left wing falling away separate from the fuselage.
"What the hell was that?" John said, looking around in all directions. Similar questions, some not quite so delicate, came over the radio. Several more bombers got struck out of the sky not too much later, again proceeded by something streaking up from directly under the formation. Whatever the Japs were throwing at them, they stopped coming after the formation had gotten out over the Ocean a ways. So, the Japs had something new eh? Dan wished he could strangle the intelligence officer who he was sure hadn't mentioned anything about a new Japanese anti-bomber weapon. Gripping his controls and willing the formation on, Dan set his teeth and resigned himself to some nasty missions in the future. The bright flash that washed over the cockpit a couple minutes later brought him out of his funk. A flash like that could only mean that the Japs had just caught hell somewhere back on Sakhalin. That made Dan and his co-pilot feel a bit better.

July 16th 1949

In a large daylight raid, some 500 U.S. B-31 bombers strike Japanese oil infrastructure in and around Nogliki on Sakhalin Island, causing moderate to heavy damage to the facilities in that area. U.S. bomber losses are heavy, with some 40 bombers downed and more damaged. The raid see's the first Japanese use of their new anti-bomber rocket interceptor, a small rocket powered aircraft capable of short but rapid ascents into the midst of bomber formations where it then rams enemy bombers. They are essentially human-guided anti-aircraft rockets and turn out to be fairly effective against B-31's although most of them miss their targets and end up gliding back home.
However, the new rocket-interceptors are far less effective against the faster and higher flying B-34's and the B-34 raid that strikes Okha, on the northern tip of Sakhalin, only suffers one bomber downed out of 24 aircraft. The rest drop high explosives on the town, except for one B-34 which instead drops a 40 kiloton atomic bomb. The atom bomb air bursts directly over the town of Okha, virtually wiping it off the map and doing massive damage to the oil producing and transporting infrastructure there. The fires of Okha will burn for weeks. Japanese oil production on Sakhalin has been a dealt a stunning blow.

Off the east coast of the Americas, German submarines have inflicted significant losses to Alliance and neutral shipping but aggressive anti-submarine sweeps by U.S. and Brazilian naval forces have inflicted sharp losses to the German submarine fleet in these coastal waters. The Kriegsmarine, determined to make the Atlantic a death zone for Alliance shipping, begins redeploying German submarines into the shipping lanes of the mid and Northern Atlantic. Many of the German and Italian submarines involved in running battles with convoys throughout the blockade of the Canary islands will remain in place, in hopes of slowing the Alliance build up there.

July 17th 1949

Columns of Nationalist Chinese troops entering northeast China to assume control are attacked and repelled by organized communist Chinese infantry in heavy fighting over the past two days. The communist Chinese forces are poorly equipped but fanatical and well organized. Nationalist forces, surprised by the ferocity and coordination of the communist forces, begin massing for a more vigorous offensive into northeastern China.The Chinese civil war is underway.

July 20th 1949

The U.S. 7th fleet, steaming northwest towards Iwo Jima, has grabbed the attention of the Japanese who are rapidly assembling their remaining combined fleet for what they hope will be an epic battle. The 7th fleet has some 7 fleet carriers and a slow battle line the likes of which the world has never seen, with numerous massive battleships and cruisers. The Japanese combined fleet remains dangerous with 4 carriers and a battle line with about half the strength of the U.S. battle line. In addition, the island of Iwo Jima has been turned into a massive fortress and many dozens of K-24 kamikaze rocket-bombs stand ready to launch from special hardened launch stands while some conventional aircraft are based out of the bustling airfield.

July 21st 1949

Southwest of Leningrad German forces continue to push ahead, surrounding strong points where they encounter them and leveraging their growing air superiority to limit Soviet mobility and bombard Soviet forces wherever they concentrate to make a stand. Pskov has already been surrounded and is being relentlessly shelled. The Red Army, for its part, is falling back eastward towards the defenses outside Leningrad and Novgorod.

In Minsk, Red Army forces have been pushed deeper into the city, and nerve gas attacks are coming in nearly around the clock. To the east, German forces are hammering at the Soviet defenses west of Smolensk and suffering heavy losses for little gain. Soviet forces defending Smolensk are well positioned, well equipped with anti-tank weaponry, and dug in deep; what air strength the Soviets have left in the north has been concentrated here, making Luftwaffe attempts to control the skies very costly. The battle for Smolensk is rapidly becoming a cauldron of blood and destruction for the German Army.

July 23rd 1949

With the U.S. 7th fleet about 200 kilometers south of Iwo Jima, the U.S. puts plans for its ambitious operation Torch Light into effect. Early in the morning, U.S. B-34 bombers appear over Iwo Jima. Having been unchallenged by Japanese defenses, one of the bombers drops a 40 kiloton atomic bomb on the island. Fused for a ground burst, the atomic bomb explodes almost exactly in the center of the island, wiping out a large area of Japanese fortifications, destroying the island's air field, and throwing vast amounts of radioactive dust and fine ash all over the island. The extensive Japanese fortifications, designed with air burst atomic attacks in mind, prove ineffective against ground bursts. Japanese aircraft, having taken off to avoid a potential atomic strike from the incoming B-34's, flee to Okinawa. For the Japanese garrison on the stricken island, radioactive contamination is now a death sentence.

To the south, the U.S. 7th fleet shifts it course to a more northwesterly direction. At nearly the same time, a powerful U.S. naval task force begins steaming northeast from out of the Philippines. This task force, itself nearly half the size of the U.S. 7th fleet and including many troop carriers stuffed full of marines, is the second pincer in a vast envelopment maneuver being executed by the USN. The Japanese combined fleet, unaware of the U.S. task force steaming from the Philippines, continues to linger north of Iwo Jima in a highly dispersed formation designed to mitigate the effects of an atomic attack on the fleet. Their plan is to wait until the U.S. fleet approaches Iwo Jima and to then launch a ferocious conventional and kamikaze strike on the vulnerable U.S. troop transports and supply vessels. They don't yet realize that the 7th fleet is no longer approaching Iwo Jima or that another task force is heading from the Philippines directly towards Okinawa.

July 25th 1949

A Japanese submarine spots the 7th fleet well west of Iwo Jima, and steaming northwest. Realizing that the true target must be Okinawa, the Japanese combined fleet begins steaming northwest at flank speed. The Japanese Navy believes the U.S. has made a huge mistake and that the Japanese combined fleet may be able to combine with land based air forces out of Okinawa to inflict crippling losses on the U.S. fleet. However, they remain unaware that another U.S. task force is approaching Okinawa. On Iwo Jima itself most of the Japanese garrison not killed outright in the atomic explosion is either dead or dying from radiation poisoning, turning the island fortress into an island mausoleum.

July 27th 1949

Japanese observation aircraft flying out of Okinawa spot a large U.S. task force moving to the west of Okinawa proper, throwing commanders there into a panic. They have been preparing to meet the massive U.S. 7th fleet in the waters to the south or east, and now a second large force has been observed to the west. After a frantic series of exchanges with the high command back in the home islands, Japanese air forces on Okinawa and Kyushu are ordered to strike the U.S. force moving in from the west.

In northeast China, Nationalist forces backed by U.S. tactical air support begin a broad offensive into the communist held region in northeast China. Despite bitter communist resistance the Nationalist forces make steady progress. The communist forces, with little in the way of heavy weaponry and no air power, have no choice but to withdraw, making stands wherever the terrain is favorable. This fighting is ugly, with neither side taking prisoners or showing any mercy.

July 28th 1949

The Battle of the East China Sea begins as Japanese aircraft attack the large U.S. task force moving in from the west of Okinawa. Japanese propeller and jet fighters from Okinawa and Kyushu tear into a swarm of U.S. carrier jets and land-based long range propeller fighters, engaging in an epic air clash in which some 200 Japanese fighters are downed in exchange for roughly 70 U.S. fighters. While the fighters engage in their huge fur ball, the Japanese launch a two-pronged assault on the U.S. task force itself. Several waves of aging, conventional, Japanese bombers of all types attack the four carriers in the task force and the surrounding ships, while medium and heavy bombers drop nearly 100 K-24 kamikaze rocket bombs. The conventional Japanese bombers manage to inflict only moderate damage on one carrier, several destroyers, and a couple of cruisers while losing nearly half their number, but the K-24's are more successful. Of the 91 K-24's successfully deployed against the U.S. task force, 21 find a target while the rest either malfunction, miss their targets, or are shot down by flak and enemy jet fighters. The 21 kamikaze rocket-bombs which do find a target inflict serious losses on the U.S. task force - crippling a fleet carrier, sinking a troop transport with the loss of all hands including thousands of Marines, as well as sinking six supply ships and three destroyers.

Several hours after the air clashes and attacks on the U.S. task force, a B-34 squadron passes over Okinawa and drops two atomic bombs. Both 40 kiloton devices are air burst over Okinawa's largest air fields where most of the Japanese aircraft based out of Okinawa that survived the Battle of the East China Sea are wiped out along with the air fields themselves and surrounding depots and troop concentrations.

August 1st 1949

Pskov falls to German forces, and leading German elements have advanced to within twenty five kilometers of Leningrad and to within forty kilometers of Novgorod. Soviet defenses have finally begun to firm, on a line from Leningrad south to Novgorod and from there down to Smolensk. In Minsk the remaining 150,000+ Red Army troops continue to hold out despite supplies that are now dwindling. Anxious to reduce Minsk once and for all, German infantry have begun to press hard into Minsk proper despite the resulting heavy losses.

After several days of air attacks on coastal gun batteries, troop concentrations, and air facilities all around Okinawa not wiped out in the two atomic bombings, U.S. marines come ashore on the central part of Okinawa. The landings, preceded by massive conventional, napalm, and mustard gas bombardments on the landing areas by air forces and cruisers off shore, succeed in securing several strong beach heads although Japanese resistance is fierce. In the mid-afternoon hours Japanese forces surprise the U.S. task force with several successive waves of Kamikaze attacks accompanied by a conventional air attack from aircraft out of Kyushu. While the conventional attack accomplishes little while getting cut to pieces by U.S. fighters, the K-24 kamikaze rocket-bombs, launched from hardened stands around the northern part of the island, streak into the U.S. task force in the waters off the island, sinking two more supply ships and sinking or damaging several cruisers and destroyers.

August 2nd 1949

In its last major engagement of the Second World War, the Japanese Navy's combined fleet engages the U.S. 7th fleet several hundred kilometers southeast of Okinawa in the Battle of the Northern Philippine Sea.
After both fleets attempt to maneuver to gain advantage, the battle begins with both sides launching large carrier attack forces. The Japanese aircraft, the last fleet air strength that the Japanese possess, are heavily outnumbered and largely cut to pieces by American carrier fighters. The few Japanese bombers that make it through are relatively ineffectual, only moderately damaging several ships and sinking a destroyer. The American carrier attack is devastatingly effective, cutting through a vastly out-numbered Japanese carrier fighter force to sink all four remaining Japanese fleet carriers and several lesser ships as well. The surface portion of the Japanese fleet, short on fuel on having little hope of ever fully refuelling, continues to steam northwest in vain pursuit of the 7th fleet in a desperate hope that they can close and, in combination with Japanese air forces, inflict significant damage in a final suicidal charge. It is the death run of the last great Japanese naval battle line.

After a series of small but persistent bombings on British military units and diplomatic facilities across Egypt, following the earlier large bombing of the British Embassy, tensions have ratcheted to new levels in the troubled British ally. In Alexandria, Cairo, and other Egyptian cities the Muslim Brotherhood and the Nationalist Islamic Movement have called on the "apostates" and "British puppet government" to expel the British and declare neutrality in the ongoing war. The crack down by British forces and the Egyptian government has clamped down even tighter, and there are whispers of revolution on the streets. Although the upper classes mostly back the British and the economic growth they have brought, the feeling on the "Arab street" is decidedly anti-western and anti-British in particular. The Army is mostly pro-British as well, but it is also nationalist to a degree and radical Islam has been seeping in for the past few years.

August 3rd 1949

With U.S. heavy bombers hammering air fields and strategic sites around Kyushu, the Japanese are unable to launch their planned land-based air attack on the 7th fleet. As a result, southeast of Okinawa swarming U.S. carrier aircraft sink virtually the entire remaining Japanese combined fleet, including all the remaining battleships. The pathetic remnants of the Japanese surface fleet have no choice but to turn towards the Home Islands where they may be used for scrap metal or incorporated into coastal defenses. The grand U.S. feint towards Iwo Jima and the pincer movement on Okinawa has been a brilliant success for the USN despite heavy losses to kamikaze rockets off the coast of Okinawa, throwing the carefully crafted Japanese "decisive battle" plans into chaos and forcing them to fight on the USN's terms. In a week of fighting, despite a bitter last stand, the remaining strength of the Japanese navy has been destroyed;Iwo Jima has been turned into a island of the dead, of little use to anyone; and Okinawa has been blockaded, invaded, and most of its air power destroyed. In the coming weeks U.S. sailors will call this week "The Huge Pacific Week" and the Battle of the Northern Philippine Sea will go down as among the most lopsided in naval history.

In Italy the aircraft carrier Aquila is launched and enters official service; she carries 75 aircraft and can make 30 knots. Still reeling from the disastrous campaign in the Atlantic, the Italian navy is licking its wounds and organizing itself to hold the western and central Mediterranean which it still dominates. The U.S., for its part, continues to mass forces on the Canary Islands and the SBC is rapidly expanding and upgrading an existing air field to support B-34 operations. This buildup has been hindered to a degree by a series of volcanic eruptions on the islands, but undaunted by the forces of nature the U.S. buildup continues.

To Be Continued in Segment 53.3...

New map of Pacific...

2007-07-31T14:38:00.001-07:00

This map shows the Asia/Pacific region as of July 15th 1949

New map of Europe...

2007-07-30T21:49:00.000-07:00

I've decided to post this new map before releasing Segment 53.2, the map shows Europe as of August 15th 1949 - so you are seeing Europe as of the end of Part 53

Discussion Board down

2007-07-26T19:47:00.000-07:00

Due to computer problems my brother is experiencing the discussion board is currently down. It should be back up by this weekend or early next week. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Ending the Shattered World Email List

2007-07-19T12:27:00.000-07:00

I'm thinking that between the comments sections here on the main site and the discussion board, the Email List is probably a bit redundant. I'm going to remove the reference to it on the main site.

2007-07-18T21:10:00.000-07:00

Shattered World - Segment 53.1

June 17th 1949 to August 15th 1949

"The Japanese are a disease of the skin, while the Communists are a disease of the heart"
Chinese Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek

It was a blisteringly hot day in Tianjin, China, and the crowd gathered in front of the City Hall suffered in relative silence as the grim People's Liberation Army soldiers force-marched a dozen blind-folded men towards the recently erected gallows. An officer in front of the gallows paced menacingly, casting harsh glares at the condemned men and then turning to face the crowd, staring accusingly through the spectacles that so many Party intellectuals liked to wear.
"See the People's enemy, the Japanese-licking running dogs of greedy capitalists, warlords, and foreign barbarian scum. See the justice of the Party at work!" the officer shouted, pointing at each of the condemned as they were forced into position in front of each assigned noose. Hisses and several cast stones emerged from the crowd, none dared show any sympathy for the Party's enemies. One man who had apparently pleaded for his life now had a rag stuffed in his mouth, and bleeding sores on his face showed where the soldiers had indicated their displeasure.
One by one the trap doors opened, and each of condemned in turn fell to their death, legs thrashing with involuntary motions and bowels loosening in one final disgrace. Hu Bao looked on from his position at the back of the crowd in anger and disgust, barely containing the urge to spit on the pavement at his feet. He hated the communists the way only the son of an executed business man could, with deep and abiding passion. He'd climbed the ranks of the Nationalist Army rapidly, proving his loyalty time and again with a variety of special missions carried out against the communists. Now, he'd penetrated deep into communist controlled northeast China. Rumors of this execution had reached his ears through a small but growing network of informants, and he'd come to confirm the rumor.
And, indeed, the communists had executed a well placed friend of Nationalist China, a powerful informant and former acquaintance of someone powerful in the Nationalist leadership. The crime here would be remembered, and avenged a hundred fold when the communists were rooted out of China like the worms and insects they were. Hu longed for that time, and hated the Russian barbarians for delaying its arrival. Forcing his grimace into a lopsided grin, Hu turned away and paced down an alley towards his home in the city's center. The time would come, and in the meanwhile he would prepare.

June 17th 1949

Nationalist Leader Chiang Kai-shek continues to demand that Soviet forces withdraw from northeast China and Manchuria, accusing them(truthfully) of working to establish communist regimes in both of their zones of occupation. The Nationalist Chinese leadership is reaching its boiling point, even threatening privately to withdraw from the AfD and invade the Soviet occupation zones.
On the Eastern Front German forces link up northeast of Minsk, isolating some 250,000 Soviet soldiers in a large pocket with the city of Minsk at it's center. Over the previous several days some 80,000 Soviet soldiers managed to flee to the north and east, mostly on foot and horse back. For the Soviet soldiers trapped inside the Minsk Pocket, surrender is not an option. They know what fate awaits them in German captivity.

June 19th 1949

Jubilant celebrations in NAZI occupied Sweden become tempered as reports begin to filter out of the Red Army's "area denial" operations. Although not as thorough as operation 'Black' in the western Ukraine, Soviet forces are none-the-less destroying ports, factories, mines, machinery, and other strategic assets as they continue their careful withdrawal from the country.

June 22nd 1949

The great German push in the north continues to drive ahead. In the Baltic states the Soviets have abandoned Riga and are now falling back towards Estonia and Russia itself. In Belorussia the Minsk pocket remains completely cut off and Soviet forces are withdrawing eastward as rapidly as their limited fuel reserves allow. Red Army forces all along the unraveling northern front have now been ordered to withdraw to positions along the Beria Line which runs roughly along the border of Russia itself from west of Leningrad and south to Smolensk, and then further south, merging into the powerful Soviet defensive lines in the eastern Ukraine.
German forces for their part have reinforced their ring around the Minsk Pocket but their powerful mobile forces are driving hard to the east.

June 27th 1949

After several weeks of mopping up operations, AfD forces declare the Canary Islands and Madeiras fully secured. Although the facilities on many formerly Axis held islands remain heavily damaged, the islands held by the British are a buzz of activity as existing infrastructure is expanded and new construction booms across the islands. Axis reconnaissance aircraft note the frantic buildup, sparking concern in Berlin and Rome.
In Scandinavia Soviet forces have largely completed their orderly evacuation from Sweden into Finland, leaving behind a Swedish countryside rendered largely pre-industrial by Soviet demolition units. In Finland itself the guerrilla activity in the countryside, which was never quite totally stomped out, picks up considerably.

June 28th 1949

A massive bomb, hidden in the basement of the British embassy in Alexandria, explodes - destroying the building and killing over two hundred British nationals and locals, including some of the diplomatic staff. The "Nationalist Islamic Movement", a radical Islamic Arab Nationalist organization, claims credit for the bombing and calls for an uprising against the British. Over the coming weeks British forces and the Egyptian government will begin a series of harsh crack downs - outlawing Islamic Nationalist groups, several political parties, and throwing thousands in jail.

June 29th 1949

As the Minsk pocket shrinks steadily back into the city itself yet continues to hold out, the German logistical situation has begun to become a major issue. With Minsk still in Red Army hands, all German supplies flowing east must go by truck on a limited system of roads around the city. This is beginning to slow down the leading panzer spearheads, giving the Soviets just enough time and breathing space to continue their desperate move into the Beria Line.

June 30th 1949

In a concession made only after much bitter resistance to massive pressure applied by the U.S. and Britain, the Soviet Union agrees to begin transitioning power in northeast China over to Chinese Nationalist forces. However, Beria refuses to begin withdrawing from Manchuria, claiming loudly that an early Soviet withdrawal there would leave a power vacuum, "inviting the Japanese or internal warlords to seize power there".
Communist Chinese forces, meanwhile, have no intention of giving up power in northeastern China or Manchuria. Flush with Soviet arms, and with the benefit of plenty of time to prepare, they intend to unite all of China under Chinese communism. China is on the brink of full scale civil war.

July 5th 1949

After a small Soviet counter-attack nearly cuts off one leading German panzer division, the German High Command calls for an operational pause along the northern front while logistical lines are improved. In the north, German forces have now cleared the Baltic states and have advanced to within forty kilometers of Leningrad itself and to within twenty kilometers of Pskov. To the South, German forces stand at the border between Belorussia and Russia proper and are within 75 kilometers of Smolensk. Further to the south the front is stable, with neither side currently prepared to act very aggressively in the Ukraine.

July 7th 1949

In a huge underground complex inside western Poland, German engineers are working on a very special missile, a missile designed to deliver a very special payload - a payload designed to leave the bounds of the Earth, achieving orbit. It is Von Braun's true dream, to turn humanity into a space faring species. And, in the process, deliver a stunning propaganda coup to the Third Reich.

July 10th 1949

The Minsk Pocket has now shrunk to include little more than the city itself. However, the 225,000 Soviet soldiers still alive there remain grimly determined to fight. There are still enough supplies thanks to the massive stores built up prior to the German offensive and the Russian soldiers there, exalted and hailed as stoic heroes on Soviet radio broadcasts that they can hear, are fighting for the survival of Russia itself and against their own grim fate. Many of them even still believe the words of their commanders and the voices on the radio, promising a coming counter attack to relieve the beleaguered army. Though the smarter Red Army soldiers know the lie, Minsk promises to remain a running sore in the side of the German Army for quite some time.

July 13th 1949

After several weeks of intense and highly secret negotiations, diplomats and military staff in Casablanca strike an accord between Free France and the United States. Although Free France will not join the AfD, the United States will be granted full rights of passage through Free French air, ground, and sea territories, in addition to the use of Free French transportation and supply infrastructure - payment for this passage will come in the form of significantly increased U.S. military and economic aid to Free France. The British reluctantly agree, turning over coming operations in the Free French theatre to the United States.
In the Pacific, the massive U.S. 7th Fleet is assembling for operations against Iwo Jima. The Japanese combined fleet, what remains of it, is dispersed around the Japanese Islands awaiting orders to sortie for one last battle with the Americans. Hundreds of human-piloted rocket bombs, a Japanese weapon of kamikaze, are being rapidly prepped for combat. These deadly craft, launched from heavy bombers, air fields, or warships, can achieve over 500mph and are guided by dedicated, if fanatical, human minds.

July 15th 1949

After having stopped for ten days to rest and bring up supplies German forces renew their offensive in the north, crashing northeast towards Leningrad and directly east into the Beria Line towards Smolensk. Led by carpet bombing and a massive nerve gas attack, German infantry and heavy panzers move into the massive defensive belts southwest of Leningrad. Despite the bombings and nerve gas the attack runs into heavy Soviet resistance and spends many men and panzers to advance just several kilometers.
The push towards Smolensk gets off to a better start, with German forces surging around Soviet strong points and penetrating as much as seven kilometers into the Beria Line west of Smolensk. However, the Soviets have cleverly positioned their forces to cover the relatively narrow approaches to Smolensk and the campaign promises to be a costly one for the Germans.

To Be Continued in Segment 53.2...

Part 52 added to the main timeline...

2007-07-13T09:42:00.000-07:00

The four segments of part 52 can now be accessed in the normal 'Second World War' timeline page. It was starting to get confusing with the four segments spread across the blog postings.

Want more Shattered World?

2007-07-12T09:50:00.000-07:00

Up until now, I've always regarded Shattered World as purely a hobby activity. I've had ads on here from time to time which often roughly covered hosting costs, but that was the extent of it. The pace of new content has slowed over the years as I've gotten busier with new jobs and whatnot. As an experiment, I've decided to try accepting donations, I've added a button on the main site to accept donations/payments via paypal or credit card.
What I plan to do is this : If donations do get made, I'll give higher priority to working on the next segment. Making it more than just a casual hobby. If donations reach the $100 mark then I'll
commit to getting the next segment out within a couple days. Then I'll start the cycle again for the next segment. If no donations come in I'll still continue as normal, as a hobby, with a new segment coming out every couple of months or so depending on my schedule. If there is enough demand then I'll start thinking more about trying to do a full book eventually.
Anyway, thoughts appreciated. Love this idea, hate it?

2007-07-11T15:24:00.000-07:00

Shattered World - Segment 52.4

June 3rd 1949

A German submarine sinks a merchant ship just off the coast of Florida, marking the first of many such incidents. While the U.S. merchant marine fleet is well trained on paper, and the U.S. coast guard has been training intensely for just this fight - the German submariners are very experienced while U.S. coastal forces are very raw.

[* Note that unlike our timeline the U.S. is using black outs, coastal convoys, well coordinated anti-submarine defenses, etc, right from its entry in the war. There are also Royal Navy advisers in the U.S. Atlantic Fleet and coast guard, providing their expertise and experience from the long battle of the Atlantic *]

June 4th 1949

U.S. and British marines land in several locations around the island of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, and other lesser islands, facing scattered but fierce resistance from Axis forces in the first hours. However, Axis morale could not be lower and by the end of the day their resistance is waning. Axis forces in the Canaries are cut off and out of hope, and they know it. The heavy guns of four American battleships and numerous lesser ships begin to lay waste to fortified Axis positions as U.S. and British carrier aircraft saturate Axis troops with mustard gas and napalm.

June 5th 1949

Germany opens its largest offensive since the invasion of western Europe. Thousands of guns and rocket launchers pummel Soviet lines along broad portions of the front in the northern Belorussian sector and in the southern Ukrainian sector. The Soviets conduct similarly massive barrages of their own, having been informed by captured soldiers that the German offensive was coming. In the air, some 2,000 Luftwaffe aircraft surge into the skies - a thousand German fighters battle a thousand Soviet fighters across a dozen great clashes as countless swarms of Luftwaffe bombers strike Soviet troop concentrations, supply dumps, and transportation junctions from the Baltic states to the Black Sea coast of the Ukraine. Soviet bombing efforts are less successful, with German radar guided AAA and missiles exacting a heavy toll on the slow, lumbering, Soviet bombers.

On the ground, the great push is in the North. One massive panzer force crashes into Soviet lines southwest of Minsk while another drives directly northeast into Soviet-occupied Lithuania. The soviets have been expecting such a move and have placed their best anti-tank forces in the theatre directly in the path of the German juggernaut. The resulting clashes are epic, and German panzer columns advance in fits and starts across a hellish landscape baked in napalm, high explosives, nerve gas, mustard gas, smoke, blood, and the stench of death. Despite heavy panzer losses, and the disruptive pre-dawn Soviet artillery and rocket barrages, the German armored pincers advance as much as eight kilometers in the first day.

To the south, Soviet commanders report proudly to Moscow that the German advance into the Ukraine has been blunted utterly - with heavy German losses. Strangely, local field commanders on the ground are bemused at the uncharacteristic lack of tenacity displayed by the Germans and by the unusually large amount of minor Axis forces seen on the battlefield. The implications, suspected by some, will take several days to filter up to Moscow.

June 6th 1949

U.S. marines land on Madeiras, reinforcing the British marines still in control of much of the island. Axis forces on the island are largely out of supply and in disarray, having been under pressure from aggressive British marines ever since their airfield, main field headquarters, and supply dump were wiped out in the recent atomic strike.

June 9th 1949

Axis forces on Santa Cruz de Tenerife, driven into several inland pockets and into the smoldering ruins of the port city itself, surrender to American and British forces. Later in the same day, Axis forces on Madeiras also surrender. Though the Allies will continue to mop up the various Axis held lesser islands for several more weeks, the five week Battle of the Canary Islands is essentially over and the Axis have been dealt a shattering, stunning, defeat. They have lost their experienced marine and paratrooper forces as well as a large chunk of their maritime air power in the Atlantic. American media trumpets the dramatic and incredibly successful American entry into the war against the European Axis. Euphoria sweeps the American people and there is open talk of the war in Europe "...being over by Christmas".

Across Axis Europe the mood is more sombre as official news reports, including Radio Berlin itself, concede that "our forces have been dealt a set back in the battle for the South Atlantic". Hitler's mood is grim, yet his knowledge of Germany's own progress in its atomic program and the progress in the east allows him to remain confident. The Third Reich is less than a year from deploying its own atomic bomb and the German atomic program is spread far and wide, well hidden, and heavily fortified. And German panzers are driving all before them in Belorussia.

Mussolini, having now lost his entire Atlantic surface force including his most modern battle cruiser and his entire marine force, decides that he should be content with the Mediterranean and turns his focus back towards North Africa. Italian and German engineers are steadily repairing and modernizing the facilities at Gibraltar and other coastal strong points in the south of Spain. Powerful, modern, radar-controlled heavy guns and swarms of land based aircraft will stand ready to challenge any Alliance attempt to force the straights.

June 10th 1949

In Belorussia the German advance has cut to a point directly south of Minsk and the main Soviet defensive lines in the region have been ruptured, leaving German panzers and mechanized infantry to flow into central Belorussia with stunning speed. Soviet forces, battered, weary, under intense attack from the air and desperately short on fuel, lack the mobility to properly realign their defenses and instead begin to fall back in disarray north to Minsk and east towards Russia itself. In Lithuania the German advance has been slower but still steady and soviet forces have fallen back in good order to a secondary defensive line anchored on Vilnius.

June 12th 1949

German infantry, supported by heavy panzers, enter the ruins of Vilnius and enter into bloody house to house, and rubble to rubble, fighting with Soviet forces. With the Vilnius line wavering and German panzers now moving east of Minsk - the Baltic states erupt into violent rebellion. Nationalist elements in Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia launch major uprisings in nearly every large city, and rebel forces begin what will be a sustained campaign against Soviet logistics in the Baltic states. Meanwhile, in the air the Luftwaffe has gained the upper hand as the Red Airforce sustains massive losses and begins limiting its operations to a purely interception role in an effort to husband its diminishing resources. Germany does not yet have complete air superiority, but it is getting close to that point in the skies over the northern front.

Late in the day orders begin to go out from Moscow, and Soviet forces in occupied Sweden begin to execute plans for the evacuation of Sweden.

June 14th 1949

After several British B-31 raids on east Algerian ports from airbases out of west Africa, a particularly large British B-31 force approaches Tunis from out over the Sahara desert. The force, 200 bombers strong, is met by Italian and German interceptors south of the city and over two dozen of the bombers are downed. The rest hammer the port of Tunis and one of the trailing bombers drops a 22 kiloton British atomic bomb on the city. The atomic warhead explodes off target, several hundred yards inland rather than over the port itself, but much of the city and its associated supply depots and transportation junctions are destroyed or heavily damaged by the blast and the resulting three day inferno that sweeps through the city. Many tens of thousands of civilians are killed in addition to several thousand Italian troops. The port is also heavily damaged, mostly by the conventional element of the raid.

June 15th 1949

The U.S. Army Air Force establishes three new Air Force commands. The 8th Air Force, operating out of the British Isles. The 13th Air Force, operating out of Egypt, Crete, and Cyprus. The 16th Air Force, operating out of British Palestine and occupied Iraq. In addition, the SBC(Strategic Bombing Command) will establish facilities and operational capability in these same three theatres. It will take months to build up in these distant lands, but the wheels of the U.S. war machine are turning.

In Algeria, Egypt, Palestine, and Iraq massive anti-British protests turn violent with dozens killed in the resulting clashes with colonial police and British forces. The atomic bombings of the Canaries, Tunis, and Tripoli have ignited passions and turned Arab sentiment even more dramatically against the British. Egypt in particular is a hot bed of Arab nationalism and radical Islam, with a growing radicalized movement calling for the expulsion of the British and neutrality in the "White Christian's war".

On the northern portion of the eastern front, the success of the German offensive continues despite bitter and relentless resistance from the Soviets. Red Army forces in and around Minsk have been severely disrupted and the Soviet position in this region is unravelling. German forces are now well to the east and southeast of Minsk - and German armored probes are already pushing south from Lithuania and north from central Belorussia to encircle Minsk. In Lithuania Vilnius has fallen to German forces but not without a horrendous loss of blood and machinery for the Germans. The Vilnius line has been broken, and Soviet forces are struggling against Baltic nationalist guerrilla forces as they move into their next line of defense at the Lithuanian-Latvian border

Heinz Gustov inhaled deeply from one of his precious cigarettes and took a moment to appreciate life. That he was still alive was quite surprising to him, to say the least. A full year in the Eurasian War, commanding that tin can of an Mk4, had nearly done him in more times than he cared to remember. Even on the last day of that war, he recalled, he'd only narrowly escaped being killed by the fourth T-34 he'd encountered that day. The first three he'd killed himself, or rather his gunner had at any rate. The glorious years of peace in between seemed a distant memory to him now, less real than his harsh year in the Eurasian War. Then had come the tough campaigns in France and Greece, less nasty than the Eurasian War's Eastern front perhaps but no less likely to have killed him. Instead, rather, he'd claimed the lives of more than a few French, British, and Greeks. Not without a cost, a Parisian sniper had got him in the shoulder during the brutal slog into the French capitol - he'd never forgive the orders that sent his tank into the rubble strewn fortress that Paris had been. He'd seen so much death.
And then the real horror began. The Red Army tore into the Reich's eastern flank the summer before with all the vengeance of a Red Horde of devils and Heinz Gustov, now a young Colonel, had been there through it all. The fighting withdrawal back towards Minsk and then falling back more still, towards the East Prussian frontier itself as the Baltic states were once again gobbled up and the Red Army threatened to encircle his men time and again. The Soviet equipment was second rate, their soldiers were still ill trained by his own standards, yet they came forward - an oncoming wave of men and machines that seemed like a tide that would never break. Yet, break it did.
The Reds ran out of steam, and as 1948 became 1949 Heinz accepted his promotion from Colonel to Major General with a grim resignation as the Reich gathered its strength all around him. He'd earned the promotion more by outliving his comrades than for any other reason, though his service had never failed for quality or bravery. From a young tank commander at the tail end of the Eurasian War, Major General Heinz Gustov now found himself in command of a panzer division.
And now, for two full weeks, a nightmare of constant radio chatter, ceaseless uncomfortable driving in his command APC, death from every direction, responsibility weighing down like a great stone crushing him. He'd lost so many men, so many. And too many panzers, more than he dared dwell upon. Yet, two weeks into the campaign Heinz Gustov crushed a cigarette on torn earth - to the east of Minsk. The strategic Belorussian city was nearly surrounded, the 350,000 Soviet soldiers there trapped in a tightening circle of steel and flame from which Heinz and his fellow officers did not intend to let go. Even now, jets screeched overhead as Luftwaffe bombers maintained a constant bombardment of the remaining corridor out of the Minsk pocket. Artillery rumbled, and rockets rippled in staccato high pitched continuous rips as more and more firepower fell upon Minsk.
And to the East the quiet was unsettling. Sporadic artillery fire and a few rocket salvos were all the Red Army had been able to muster for the past two days. Heinz felt confident that, with his panzers even now being refuelled, he could resume his drive east with little effective Soviet resistance. And so, sighing at the loss of one more cigarette, Heinz walked back to the hastily erected field tent near his command APC and stared gloomily at the map as his aides glanced at him impatiently.
He began to issue orders. Axis of advance. Artillery missions. As much Luftwaffe support as he could beat out of the stubborn Airforce Colonel over the static filled phone. Around him the temporary headquarters buzzed with activity. Cougar II's, their engines purring with fresh fuel like great contented cats, rolled east in a seemingly endless stream. Helicopters came and went, the chopchopchop of their roters filling the air as scout craft probed east and larger models took away wounded and brought in replacements. Jets roared and propellers droned overhead as Luftwaffe and occasional Red Airforce planes passed overhead. Nearby, one of the new mobile radar-guided anti-aircraft vehicles sat still, its radar turning endless circles as its deadly looking 20mm barrels angled into the air. Once, the chemical weapons siren screamed and Heinz and everyone else scrambled into their protective suits and waited for the deadly smoke that never actually arrived. The wind had shifted East momentarily and Heinz hoped fervently that some of the filthy gas had drifted back over Soviet lines.
Finally, after the last cougar II had rolled through Heinz helped his aides pack up the maps and radios and other equipment into the command APC. The tent was broken down, the temporary emergency field hospital folded into trucks and one by one the vehicles that made up the mobile headquarters rolled down the road to the east, leaving great belching clouds of smoke in their wake. Heinz's command APC went last and only a scorched open field and a variety of trash, debris, and bloody bandages marked the passing of the 2nd panzer division.

The atmosphere in the ornate command room deep beneath the Kremlin was as silent and grim as a tomb. The news from the west was bad, as bad as could possibly be imagined. When word had arrived that the offensive in the north was clearly the real German effort, Beria had fallen deathly silent, glaring through his spectacles at anyone who dared glance in his direction. Minsk was nearly surrounded, and German panzers were now slashing east towards Russia itself, driving all before them. Sweden was in the process of being evacuated, conceding away the Soviet position in Scandinavia. Lithuania was lost and the rest of the Baltic states were in open and violent rebellion. To make matters worse, a muted rumble from above marked another German bombing raid on Moscow. No one in the bunker beneath the Kremlin had taken notice of the barely audible air raid sirens wailing above.
The Soviet Union was in dire straights. Everyone in the room knew it, but none dared mouth the words with Beria looking like an angry wasp waiting to sting.
"Gentlemen" said Beria, Secretary General of the Soviet Union and the central peg in the Soviet intelligence and security apparatus. He continued, after a brief silence. "It would seem we have no choice but to implement the recommendations as set forth in plan Gambit". Heads nodded gravely around the table. No further words were called for or wanted.
The plan, worked up by Red Army and party leaders over the past several months, represented the Soviet Union's response in the event of a significant German break through. Garrisons in the East and central Asia were to be cut to the bone, and the scant freed up manpower sent west. Defenses along the front with Japan would be cut to an absolute minimum, on the reasonable basis that the Japanese were simply in no shape to conduct offensive operations. Preparations for the invasion of Korea would be put on hold, indefinitely. Civilian energy and other rations would be cut even deeper, to absolute bare minimum levels. All non-essential research projects would be cancelled in favor of immediate practical arms production. Boys and girls as young as 13 and fit senior adults as old as 68 would be drafted to work in industry and civil defense roles. In short, plan Gambit was the last major additional mobilization that the Soviet Union could muster - the last source of new strength. The body, lacking any further fat reserves, would begin to consume muscles and bone. It would take as many as four to six months to fully implement, and the Soviet Union had to hold on until the last of its reserves could be mustered as per Gambit's requirements.
Holding on would not be easy. The Soviet Union's problems were many, far more and greater than anyone but the innermost circle of the Party knew. Firstly, there was the problem of oil. The Soviet Union simply did not have enough, and the limited drilling and refinery production it did have was coming under German bombardment in one region in particular, east of the Caspian Sea. And moving the oil was becoming more difficult as well, as German bombing of rail infrastructure was becoming more and more of a problem. Oil shortages were now so acute that the Red Airforce had been forced to curtail its sorties severely, thus severely hampering its efforts to counter the German summer offensive. The Red Army was not immune either, it having been forced more and more to reserve its fuel only for use in specially designated mobile reserve armored divisions. Horse traction was being used more and more to move Soviet infantry and even heavier equipment wherever practical. To a degree, the Red Army was in the process of de-mechanization. Such were the shortages that large-scale offensive operations were simply no longer possible, and even large-scale re-deployment of Red Army divisions would be problematic. The rest of Soviet Union's limited energy reserves had to go to industry, where factories churned out the weapons of war that kept the Red Army in the fight.
Then, there was the problem of manpower. Since the Russian civil war and Stalin's purges Russia had been bled white. The Eurasian War slaughtered a high percentage of the Soviet Union's young men, and then the Second World War's slaughter had come. The great Russian cities in the west were bombed out shells of their former selves, regularly coming under chemical bombardment. civilian losses were in the untold millions since the summer of 1948. The Soviet Union, home of the People's Communism, was running out people, rapidly. And there were no more fresh reserves to be had aside from scraping the bottom of the barrel by conscripting children, the elderly, and the physically disabled and handicapped.
If the enemy were anyone aside from the Nazis then the rational thing would have been for the Soviet Union to simply accept harsh terms for an Armistice, and spend a generation or more licking her wounds. But war with the fascists was war to the knife, a war of Slavic racial survival in Europe. No one doubted that the Germans would ultimately treat the Slavs as they had treated the Jews if they reigned over everything west of the Urals. And so, the Soviet Union would fight until the seams of its foundations simply fractured and the society that was the Soviet Union faded away for lack of people.
This was the harsh reality that everyone in the room, including Beria himself, well understood. And plan Gambit represented perhaps the last step shy of the melting away of Russia. Although, of course, there were other plans in the secret files of the Party, plans involving a vast migration of people and mobile assets. At last resort the Urals would make a formidable shield after all, and moving Russia was perhaps preferable to losing it all together.

To be continued in Part 53...

Shattered World Yahoo Email List...

2007-06-07T08:35:00.000-07:00

I've created a Shattered World email list on yahoo. To join, go to...

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/shattered-world/

This list is intended to supplement, not replace, the existing shattered world discussion board.

2007-05-13T22:58:00.000-07:00

Shattered World - Segment 52.3.1(Revised)

May 19th 1949

The United States and Brazil formally enter the Alliance for Democracy. The new seat of the Alliance will be based in San Francisco, where an elaborate headquarters facility is to be built. The Alliance for Democracy is the largest Alliance of any kind in the history of the world.

Meanwhile, in East Prussia the German High Command is meeting to discuss the summer offensive campaign. Hitler is adamant that the Soviets be "smashed before the American mongrels stab us from the west". German forces have been massing eastward for months, and the Reich's army in the east has swollen to over two million men in all, stretched along a front from the Baltic sea to the southern Ukraine. One great concentration of men and material masses in the stark terrain of the western Ukraine, where repaired rail lines and roads flow with constant streams of food and supplies necessary to feed and arm close to a million men. Romanians, Italians, Bulgarians, Serbians, western European and Swedish volunteers, and others bolster Axis forces there.

The bustle is unmistakable, and it has not gone unnoticed. From Kiev and south down the line of the river Dnieper dense belts of defensive lines run along the river and east all the way back to the border of mother Russia. A large fraction of the Soviet Union's remaining resources have gone into the defenses in the Eastern Ukraine, and the 800,000 troops there represent a significant portion of the Red Army's remaining strength. It is here, Beria has decreed, that the Soviet Union and International communism shall make its stand. The strategic thinking is clear - for east of the Ukraine lies the wide open plains of Southern Russia and the key transportation hub of Beriagrad, including access to Rostov and the Caucasus region where the Red Army still hopes to blast its way to the oil fields of Baku.

Yet, north of the Pripet swamps lies another expanse of open plains - Belorussia, the key city of Minsk, and the Soviet occupied Baltic states. It is here, where the front has been stable for months, that the German High Command senses an opportunity. The Soviets have nearly a million men in this theatre, and lots of armor strength, but nothing like the fortifications in the Ukraine. The battle here can be on German terms, wide open battles of maneuver. A successful thrust in the north would threaten Moscow and render all the Soviet defenses in the Ukraine worthless. And so, with no way to fully disguise their intent, the Germans have simply planned and prepared for two simultaneous massive summer offensives. One in the south, and one in the north. Only Hitler, a few of his top aids, and the very upper echelon of the High Command know that the southern offensive is in fact a grand farce. East Prussia and Poland are a frenzy of activity, the signs of a great army preparing for a great offensive are unmistakable. A million men, almost all of them German, and thousands of panzers are massing here. 80% of the panzer strength of the German army is concentrated in this theatre. To the south, whole 'divisions' of German armor massing in the western Ukraine are in fact equipped mostly with obsolete models, broken down machines, wooden decoys, old men, and boys - mere shells of armored divisions.

May 21st 1949

British carrier aircraft break through Axis land-based air cover to stage a devastating attack on a major Italian supply convoy making the run from Southern Spain to the Canaries theatre of operations. No less than 7 Italian transports are sunk and the rest forced to scatter in all directions. In addition, two Italian destroyers are sunk and another severely damaged. Within days scavenging British and American submarines sink 4 more of the transports. In all, nearly 75% of the tonnage in the convoy is put to the bottom of the ocean.

May 23rd 1949

With British carrier air power and British/American submarines now cutting deeply into their tenuous supply lines, and sensing the size of the oncoming U.S. naval force, Axis forces in the Canaries and on Madeira have no choice but to switch to a defensive standing. A large German fighter and naval maritime presence is now in place on the islands and 25,000 Axis troops are digging into the same defensive positions used by the British a couple weeks earlier.

Meanwhile, to the west many of the German submarines not involved in the blockade of the Canaries and Madeira are heading for the waters off the coasts of the United States and Brazil in search of the rich merchant pickings there.

May 26th 1949

For several days now intense air clashes and sea engagements have raged in the skies and waters around the Canary islands. In the skies the clashes are a relative stalemate, with both sides losing many fighters and slipping through bombers to hammer opposing air fields and other installations. On the seas amongst the Canary islands British and Italian destroyers and other light vessels clash in several sharp engagements - ending decidedly in the favor of the Royal Navy. Superior British training and radar gunnery prove quite decisive in these close-in day and night time engagements.

Axis control of the waters around the Canary islands has been effectively broken. The main bulk of the Italian fleet in the Canaries now sits mostly immobile under cover of heavy anti-aircraft defenses and land based air cover. Axis supplies on the islands are running dangerously low as fewer and fewer re-supply ships and air transports arrive. The British supply situation, meanwhile, has been nearly as poor but is now improving steadily thanks to effective anti-submarine sweeps that have already sunk a dozen German and Italian submarines. The weight of the Royal Navy is proving too much for the Axis forces to handle, especially with the Royal Air Force now operating in strength from the islands the British still hold.

To commanders and knowing observers on both sides the tide in the Battle of the Canaries has clearly turned in favor of the British. And the U.S.'s huge Atlantic Fleet is less than a week away.

May 28th 1949

Visibly pale, quaking, gaunt, and notably distracted by preparations for the summer offensive in the east - Hitler angrily refuses a request by the Axis naval command to begin withdrawing from the Canary Islands and Madeira, instead ordering that the occupied islands there be held at all costs as a "forward shield against the Americans". Mussolini, faced with pleading requests from his own naval commanders to evacuate the Italian fleet back into the Mediterranean while they still can, is similarly rebuffed when he approaches Hitler about the matter in a private call that evening.

June 2nd 1949

Twelve SBC B-34 bombers, operating out of the new SBC base in Puerto Rico, approach the Canary Islands as the sun rises - escorted by a swarm of 200 American carrier jets and electronic warfare aircraft. Roughly 100 German and Italian fighters of all types rise to meet this force, vectored onto the incoming American strike by the functional but degraded Axis radar net - and several dozen of the German planes are jets themselves. The fighter clash is epic, and both sides fight well. German experience and superior land-based jet aircraft gives the Axis an overall favorable 2 to 1 kill ratio. But the U.S. has carrier fighters to spare and they can easily afford the steep price of 52 carrier jet fighters that are downed. The Axis cannot afford the 28 fighters that they lose.

Worst of all for the Axis - the massive B-34 bombers, flying above the pesky fighter duels below them and surviving attempted interceptions by several Axis fighters, make their way over the Canary Islands and Madeira largely unmolested. Three of the bombers are carrying 40 kiloton atomic bombs and all three detonate several hundred feet over their intended targets. The main Axis air field on Santa Cruz de Tenerife is entirely wiped out and an Italian battlecruiser and two destroyers are sunk by the second atomic strike which all but wipes out the port town on the same island. Future historians will debate the morality of the strike on the port of Santa Cruz de Tenerife and its resulting heavy civilian toll(some 55,000 dead and wounded) - but that is for future historians. The third atomic bomb, meanwhile, wipes out the Axis-controlled airbase on Madeira along with a good portion of the Axis command staff and supplies on that island. Half of the Axis bombers and maritime aircraft on the islands, desperately scrambling for the skies, are destroyed outright on the ground in the atomic blasts or knocked out of the skies by the shock waves in the air. The other half are set upon by American fighters and suffer heavy losses. In a single hour the Axis position in the Canary Islands and Madeira has been dealt a crippling blow.

Later, as the B-34's lumber back towards the Caribbean and U.S. carrier jets are returning to the flat decks of six aircraft carriers - Axis aircraft of all types are forced to land on open fields, narrow roads, runways slagged into glass and still radioactive, and any spot of flat land or beach they can find. Nearly a quarter of these aircraft are damaged beyond repair in these hasty emergency landings, and the rest no longer have functioning air fields to operate out of. Over the coming days barely 20 Axis fighters, a dozen bombers, and several maritime aircraft will manage to fly through Alliance air patrols to reach air bases in Spain.

Later in the day, adding insult to injury, nearly two hundred British carrier aircraft range over the Axis held islands at will, bombing and strafing everything that moves as well as sinking Italy's remaining troop transports and severely damaging the only Italian battleship in the theatre. "The Big Day", as the Americans will come to call it, has been the single greatest military disaster in German and Italian history.

Meanwhile, in Eastern Europe the front lines in the main front of the Second World War have been ominously quiet for several days. Both great armies are tense, coiled to spring at a moment's notice. The outcome of the war may soon be at hand.

TO BE CONTINUED in Segment 52.4...

Segment 52.2 updated

2007-03-06T12:22:00.000-08:00

The Segment is now 52.2.1(Revised)

The Revised Segment

Here are the changes I made...

-- number of British POW's in Libya mentioned.
-- British armor situation in Libya mentioned

-- The initial German bombing raid in the Battle of the Canaries involves more heavy bombers and targets Madeira in addition to the Canaries. German losses in aircraft are considerably heavier. The Italian naval force escorting the troop transports is substantially larger, including multiple cruisers and a battleship.

-- made it more clear that the British atomic bomb detonated over a real Italian supply column.(not a decoy column)

-- In the second German air raid it is made clear that British radar coverage has been reduced a lot but not destroyed altogether. Also, when the Royal Navy carrier aircraft make their first attack on the Italian fleet the damage they do now reflects the larger size of the Italian fleet. In addition, instead of a troop transport being sunk a supply vessel is sunk.

-- When the Axis launch the second phase of operation Felix on May 6th, it involves intense
bombing and an air drop of 4000 paratroopers on Madeira. The Axis capture the airfield but it takes nearly 36 hours to repair it to the point where transports can begin landing there.

-- When British carrier aircraft arrive in the theatre in mid May they arrive on May 12th rather than May 10th. This gives the Axis two additional days to repair the air facilities on Madeira before the air clashes begin.

-- When the 5000 British marines arrive as reinforcements in the theatre in mid may they land on Madeira rather than in the Canaries.

-- The details of the British evacuation from Santa Cruz de Tenerife have been altered to reflect the changed scenario.

-- The description of the overall status of the battle of the Canaries as of May 16th has been
updated to reflect the changed scenario.

-- The new SBC facility in the Caribbean is on Puerto Rico rather than the British Virgin Islands.

Will be updating Segment 52.2

2007-02-19T21:42:00.000-08:00

I'll be making some revisions to Segment 52.2 based on some of the concerns raised over aspects of the Battle of the Canary Islands. Theres enough problems with it that a revision seems warranted. I won't go into what specific changes I'll make but they will be related to the Battle of the Canary Islands. Look for the updated segment to be posted here soon.

2007-02-18T17:13:00.000-08:00

Shattered World - Segment 52.2.1(Revised)

May 1st 1949

In the waters between Spain and the Canary Islands, operation Felix is launched by Germany and Italy. On the Canary Islands themselves, three submarine-delivered Italian commando teams come ashore in the black pre-dawn hours. These teams, veterans with experience in operations across the Mediterranean, are tasked with disabling the three main British radar stations keeping watch over the northern approaches to the islands. Two of the teams succeed in their mission but the third, spotted by a British patrol squad, is surrounded and wiped out. A similar operation on Madeira falters when the Italian commandoes experience equipment failures and are forced to call off their action.

Meanwhile - a large 225 plane German raiding force of Ju-588's, older Ural bombers, and Fw-360g escort fighters is spotted by Free French radar outposts. On the Canary Islands and Madeira British forces, already on alert because of the Italian commando raids and now informed of the incoming Axis bomber force by sources inside Free France, now leap into action. British jet fighters take to the skies from Madeira and the Canaries and, vectored by Madeira air control and the surviving radar station in the Canaries, tear into the Axis raiding force well out to sea.

The German fighter escorts battle valiantly and aggressively but the British jet fighters are faster, more maneuverable, and are more free to burn fuel. 5 British jet fighters are downed versus 28 of the German escort fighters - nearly half of the entire German fighter escort force is lost. But the heavy sacrifice of the escorts allows most of the German bombers to slip through and they hammer the primary British air fields and naval facilities on the Canary Islands and Madeira with a mix of conventional and nerve gas bombs. British losses on the ground to personnel, equipment, and buildings are heavy and their remaining functional radar stations on the Canaries and Madeira are destroyed or damaged. British fighters exact a large measure of revenge by downing nearly thirty German heavy bombers as they make their way north back towards Spain.

To the North - the Italian Atlantic surface task force, with its two modern battlecruisers and several destroyers, steams out of the port of Cadiz and steers a course due south. At the same time Italian troop transports, crammed with some 20,000 experienced German and Italian marines and soldiers, surge through the straights of Gibraltar with numerous destroyers, two cruisers, and a battleship in escort. The Italian Navy has sortied for battle. The Royal Navy, still processing the extent of what has happened on the Canary Islands and Madeira, sends out orders for two powerful naval task forces to converge on the waters off Northwest Africa.
The Battle of the Canary Islands is underway.

May 2nd 1949

After a lull in Rommel's counter-thrust, both sides have slowed operations for several days as units and logistical lines realign themselves. Now, sensing weakness in the British, Rommel resumes his attack. Just as the Axis thrust is beginning to advance again the Royal Air Force uses its second atomic bomb. The 38 kiloton British device is detonated above what, by all appearances, is a German panzer division advancing across the desert. Confident that the atomic bomb has destroyed Rommel's main panzer column, and perhaps killed the Desert Viper himself, British armor plunges ahead in the shadow of the Mushroom cloud and meets very little resistance...until German panzers and mechanized forces plunge into their exposed flank.
In a disastrous failure of intelligence for the British, the atomic bomb was actually dropped on a supply column of Italian trucks and armored cars. Axis deception efforts, including heavy use of smoke and dust to obscure their true movements, have proven either successful or very lucky.The real German panzer division, six kilometers away from the atomic blast, is largely unaffected aside from the loss of some men to flash blinding. Rommel, getting reports of British armored forces pushing through ground zero, soon realizes the gift he has been handed and orders a sharp counter-attack.

May 3rd 1949

With British air operations on the Canary Islands and Madeira now curtailed by the damage to their air fields, a second German raid, this time conducted during the day, now pummels the islands. The British jet fighters again fight brilliantly, but there are less of them in the air this time and British radar coverage in the theatre has been significantly reduced. 6 of the British jets are downed for the loss of 13 German escort fighters and German heavy bombers pound British supply depots, air fields, barracks, and defensive positions around the islands.
In the waters north of the islands the two Italian naval forces have now combined into a single fleet. Late in the afternoon British torpedo and dive bombers, launched from two carriers nearly two hundred miles to the west, attack the Italian naval force approaching the Canaries. The older of the two Italian cruisers, two destroyers, and a supply vessel are sunk. Other ships, including one of the battlecruisers and the battleship, suffer varying degrees of damage.
While the British carrier aircraft are savaging the Italian naval force German maritime aircraft attack the two British carriers northwest of the Canaries. As long range German escorts clash with the British carrier fighters, 24 Sea Dragon maritime attack aircraft launch a total of 48 anti-shipping rockets. 12 of the complex weapons fail outright for one reason or another, tumbling harmlessly into the sea. Of the 36 remaining rockets, well over half simply miss their target due to technical problems or operator error. Three more are shot down by the hail of anti-aircraft fire that fills the air around the carriers like a fog of lead.
Four of the rockets strike the Aircraft Carrier Hermes and five rockets strike the carrier Bulwark. On the Hermes one of the rockets ignites fires and explosions which sink the carrier several hours later. The Bulwark is moderately damaged and is able to recover its aircraft, and some from the Hermes, while steaming west to safety. Most of the aircraft from the Hermes are forced to land on the damaged airfields of the Canaries and Madeira.
With the loss of one vital carrier and the other damaged, the Royal Navy's nearest combat capable aircraft carrier is now a week away from the Canary Islands. The Axis have succeeded in gaining a valuable, if short, window of time in which they control the waters between Spain and the Canary Islands.

May 4th 1949

After several hours of naval bombardment, Italian and German marines come ashore near the primary towns of the Canary Islands, Santa Cruz de Tenerife and LasPalmasde Gran Canaria. British forces, well entrenched on both of the primary islands of the chain and determined to hold the Canaries after the humiliating losses of Malta and Gibraltar, launch fierce counter attacks into the Axis beachheads which succeed in splitting Axis forces near Santa Cruz de Tenerife and nearly repelling the Axis beachhead near Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. Late in the afternoon a British submarine torpedoes and sinks two Italian destroyers, then succeeds in slipping away unharmed. Nearly half of the Italian naval force in the Atlantic has now been sunk.
Meanwhile, in North Africa the British are in shock after the sharp German counter-attack following the botched tactical atomic bombing. British forces on the Libyan front are now reeling in full retreat. Rommel's thrust has succeeded in seriously threatening the British southern flank on a strategic scale, forcing the shell shocked British command to order a general withdrawal. However, a frustrated Rommel knows he lacks the depth of forces and logistics to encircle and destroy the British. In addition, the 35,000 British and Imperial POW's being transported west are helping to clog Axis supply lines. Instead of racing east the Axis forces march methodically back into Surt and maintain a steady advance, fighting through numerous British delaying actions.

May 5th 1949

Desperate to secure the Canary Islands before the Royal Navy can return in force to the theatre, Axis forces press their invasion vigorously. In the morning close-in bombardments by Italy's remaining naval force and carpet bombing by close to one hundred German heavy bombers allows Axis marines to join hands and form a single unified beachhead near Santa Cruz de Tenerife once again. However, British defenses remain in tact and the other Axis beachhead near LasPalmas de Gran Canaria is in danger of being pushed right into the ocean.

May 6th 1949

With British air power on the Canaries and Madeira now largely suppressed - Axis forces launch the second phase of operation Felix as some 4,000 German and Italian paratroopers land right on top of the airfield on Madeira following an intense conventional bombing of nearby British barracks and the town of Funchal. Despite heavy losses to anti-aircraft fire the Axis paratroopers quickly seize the airbase intact and establish a strong perimeter extending some distance around the airfield. By late in the afternoon on May 7th German transport planes are landing on the degraded but hastily repaired runway - crammed full of additional paratroopers, supplies, equipment, light vehicles, and artillery. Multiple desperate but poorly coordinated British assaults on the airfield have been repelled by the Axis paratroopers.

On the other side of the world Japan continues its great suffering. U.S. B-34 bombers drop 40 kiloton atomic bombs on Kobe and Kure. Hundreds of thousands more Japanese civilians are dead or soon will be, two more great cities are roiling storms of flame. At Kure the second largest Japanese naval base is wiped out by a third atomic bomb along with several warships and numerous merchant ships docked there. In a fit of rage the Japanese military regime broadcasts threats to "exterminate" the western populations of Singapore and Hong Kong if atomic attacks on its cities continue. Other than retaliating against westerners under its control, there is little the Japanese can do to stop the B-34's. Several desperate Japanese projects to create weapons capable of intercepting a B-34 have yet to reach even the prototype stage.

May 8th 1949

Axis marines, supported by the heavy guns of the Italian fleet, have succeeded in carving out a larger beachhead near Santa Cruz de Tenerife at a high cost in blood. However, on Gran Canaria the Axis have been forced to evacuate in the face of aggressive British counter-attacks. Axis casualties have been extremely heavy on both islands.

May 9th 1949

Axis paratroopers on Madeira, now numbering close to 7000, are driving out of their pocket at the airfield while Axis engineers continue to hastily repair the facilities there. British forces bend in the face of the paratrooper assault but do not, quite, break. "Hold on until the squids arrive!" has become the rallying cry of British forces on Madeira. A race is now on as two Royal Navy carriers steam south towards Madeira from the British Isles while more Axis reinforcements arrive via air transport into the captured air field.

May 12th 1949

North of the Canary Islands German and Italian fighters operating out of the captured airbase on Madeira clash with British carrier jet fighters in a desperate struggle for control of the skies over that island. The Royal Navy has returned to the theatre and is determined to hold the Axis out of the South Atlantic. Unlike the first air battles over the Canaries, the Germans now have some of their own jet fighters - evening the odds greatly. The day's clashes end in a tactical draw with both sides losing a dozen or so fighters. The British carrier raiding force does not succeed in sinking any Italian ships, instead moderately damaging a destroyer and a troop transport.

May 14th 1949

The Battle of the Canary Islands rages on. Operating with a cover of carrier fighters overhead some 5,000 Royal Marines come ashore on Madeira to reinforce the faltering defenses there. The day is marked by more fierce clashes in the air with the losses being relatively even once again.
In Libya, after a week of retreat, the British have decided to dig into lines of defense south and southeast of Benghazi - the same defensive lines used by the Axis not so long ago. Axis forces, now operating on an ever extending supply line and lacking sufficient mobile forces to overwhelm the still numerically superior British, are forced to stop and dig in themselves. In Libya, the lines once again settle into a stalemated front. Britain's North African army, still larger than the Axis army in total numbers of men, has taken severe losses to its mobile strength. The three British armored divisions that started off so confidently in the British offensive on Surt have been reduced to shadows of their peak strength and the British command is already in the process of consolidating the surviving armor into two reduced divisions.

May 15th 1949

German submarines ambush a British supply convoy that had been attempting to infiltrate supplies to the island of Madeira. Four transports and a British destroyer are sunk, along with many tons of valuable supplies. The Kriegsmarine has now surged nearly half its entire Atlantic submarine force into the waters around the Canary Islands and Madeira in an effort to completely blockade them.

On the eastern side of the Caspian Sea German heavy bombers heavily damage the major Soviet oil refinery at Krasnovodsk despite fierce resistance by Red Airforce interceptors and anti-aircraft defenses. The attack is only the latest of a recent series of relatively successful raids on Soviet oil infrastructure in the region. The Luftwaffe intends to aid the coming summer campaign by reducing Soviet oil supplies and thus limiting the Red Army's mobility.

May 15th 1949

After more heavy conventional and nerve gas bombardment by the Luftwaffe, as well as heavy off shore bombardment - Axis marines manage to drive most remaining British forces on Santa Cruz de Tenerife into a narrow pocket on the coast. With the Axis now holding a commanding advantage the British position on the island of Santa Cruz de Tenerife seems untenable.

May 16th 1949

In a brilliantly executed Royal Navy operation the 6,000 remaining British marines on Santa Cruz de Tenerife are evacuated by sea to the island of Gran Canaria under cover of carrier aircraft. However, the island of Santa Cruz de Tenerife and several of the lesser islands of the chain are now in Axis hands. The balance of air power over the islands is now in favor of the Axis as 'Sea Dragons' and all kinds of Axis fighters and bombers can now operate from the captured islands in addition to the airfield on Madeira.
The Royal Navy, however, is not ready to give up. A third carrier has now joined the growing task force which is operating out of the Cape Verde islands and Britain's west African territories. In addition Gran Canaria and a few of the lesser islands remain in the hands of some 15,000 British Marines and Madeira remains hotly contested.
On top of all that - British Engineers, under cover of Royal Navy air power, are now rapidly repairing the air facilities on Gran Canaria.

May 17th 1949

With the British back on the defense in Libya, Italy controlling the western and central Mediterranean, and the Axis now firmly established in the Canary Islands - the United States and Brazil jointly declare war on the Axis Powers. Dewey, in a dramatic speech before a joint session of Congress, blasts the Axis Powers, saying "...this fascist grab for a foothold in the South Atlantic represents a threat to the western hemisphere that the American people can no longer ignore. This dire situation, in combination with the intensification of the outrageous and illegal assaults upon our civilian shipping in the North and South Atlantic, have given me no choice but to ask Congress to confirm that a state of war now exists between the United States of America and the Axis nations of Germany and Italy, and I have been assured that our Brazilian friend and ally shall do the same...."

Germany and Italy, well aware that this was coming, declare war in turn - seeing it as inevitable. Hitler and Mussolini never believed that the U.S. would allow the British to be defeated without joining the war on their side. Hitler, surrounded by aides and top figures within the German high command, privately celebrates the American declaration of war, claiming it "shows the British are now desperate".

May 18th 1949

Off the east coast of the United States a massive armada is steaming due southeast. The force, composed of some 6 fleet aircraft carriers and an immensely powerful surface element, had been assembling in anticipation of the declaration of war. U.S. and British naval planners have been putting together an operational plan for the past two weeks. If they pull it off, it will be the largest coordinated naval operation yet seen.

Meanwhile, at a U.S. airfield on Puerto Rico, a dozen massive bombers and numerous heavy transports have arrived over the past few days. Signs bearing the letters "SBC" have suddenly appeared all over the bustling air field, as have grim looking MP's with hard faces and sub-machine guns.

To be Continued in Segment 52.3

The New Shattered World

2007-02-13T23:48:00.001-08:00

Hi all, welcome to the new Shattered World. As you can see, I've abandoned the awkward old web page in favor of this newer slick blog look. On the right side of this new page you'll see links to the discussion board, the Shattered Wiki, and the old site for purposes of nostalgia. Below that you'll see links to the main three content "books" of Shattered World - Eurasian War, Between the Wars, and The Second World War.

All new content, including things like updates and announcements, will come through this site in the form of a blog. New Shattered World material will be released in small segments which will combine into full parts as my writing progresses. So, part 52 will be divided into Segment 52.1, Segment 52.2, etc. Each new segment will be very short, covering perhaps a week or two of the time line. But they will link together to form the larger parts that you are used to.

I've decided to move to this format in order to publish in a style that better suits my erratic writing schedule. In addition, this blogspot site is much easier for me to maintain - it basically maintains itself. The result of all this should be much more frequent content updates for you the readers.

Oh, plus you can comment on each new Segment right in the blog - you should see an option to comment below each of my posts on here.

To get things rolling, the first new segmented content will follow shortly...

2007-02-13T23:39:00.000-08:00

Shattered World - Segment 52.1

April 21st 1949 to June 15th 1949

April 21st 1949

At the port of Cadiz, in southwestern Spain, in the headquarters of the newly created Axis Unified Naval Command for the Western Theatre of Operations, German and Italian naval staff officers plot the next phase of operations to strangle the British Empire. With the capture of Malta the Axis have cemented their domination of the central Mediterranean and the vital shipping lanes there. With the Rock of Gibraltar now flying the Swastika the western Mediterranean is an Axis lake - as a result the Italian navy, in the form of a substantial surface task force, now sits at anchor on the Atlantic coast of Spain while German and Italian submarines ply South and mid Atlantic waters wreaking havoc on British and neutral shipping. But Axis ambitions do not end there. With directives straight from Hitler and Mussolini, the Axis intend to extend their hold into the South Atlantic.

Operation Felix, the invasion of the Canary Islands, is scheduled to commence on May 1st.

April 22nd 1949

In Libya, the British offensive continues to grind forward into Rommel's lines with heavy casualties. German and Italian forces have now been driven out of Surt and have fallen back to a third line of defense some 5 kilometers to the west. The heavy use of chemical weapons by both sides has played into the advantage of the defender, limiting British mobility, and the British offensive seems to be unwinding.
Army Group Africa, recently bolstered with the addition of a fresh German mechanized infantry division(a second mechanized infantry division is still assembling in Tunisia) and several Axis French infantry divisions, continues to launch small counter attacks and has managed to maintain and expand a reserve of relatively fresh mobile German and Italian mechanized forces. With the Axis supply situation improved since the chaos caused by the atomic bombing of Tripoli, Rommel now plans a sharp counter attack.

April 24th 1949

As 2 British armored divisions continue to pound into anti-tank defenses in the central and coastal portion of the Libyan front, Rommel strikes with 5 divisions, 3 of them German. The force, with 50,000 men and 250 tanks, is well experienced and relatively fresh. Several hours after a short artillery and rocket barrage, German and Italian armor and mechanized forces are plunging into British lines in a growing gap in the southern part of the front. Supported by a surge in Axis air activity, the force has penetrated fifteen kilometers and pocketed tens of thousands of British and Imperial soldiers by the time darkness falls.

April 25th 1949

With Rommel's sharp attack threatening to roll up the entire British position in Libya, British armored forces wheel south to meet Rommel's panzers. Some in the British high command see an opportunity to cut off the head of the Desert Viper once and for all. Late in the afternoon, a large clash of armor occurs 35 kilometers southeast of Surt. Some 60 German and Italian tanks are destroyed for the loss of over 200 British tanks. The British armored forces, exhausted from the earlier grinding advance into Axis anti-tank forces, have been routed and sent reeling northward. Unwilling to let the opportunity pass by, Rommel arranges his mechanized columns and orders a risky advance that threatens to outpace his supply capabilities.

On a large, recently completed, German airfield near Cadiz, Spain, the newest maritime air squadron of the Kriegsmarine is completing final preparations for operation Felix. The squadron's brand new 'Sea Dragon' maritime patrol and attack aircraft, based on an updated model of the reliable Sea Ural, are armed with the Kriegsmarine's latest radar detection systems as well as a new generation of guided anti-shipping rockets. Scattered around other airbases in the region, long range German propeller fighter squadrons are also in final preparations. These fighters, perhaps the most advanced propeller based fighters in the world, were made with long range naval missions in mind and can operate out to ranges of up to 2,500 kilometers when configured with dual drop tanks.

Meanwhile the Italian Atlantic surface task force prepares for the boldest, and most risky, naval sortie in Italian history. At sea German and Italian submarines continue to score numerous kills on merchant ships in the shipping lanes between Britain and South America despite the growing calls of protest from the United States and Brazil. Largely unnoticed by British naval planners, a small but substantial surge of Italian and German submarines are concentrating off the northwestern coast of Africa.

[* The long range fighter mentioned above is the Fw-360g, a very refined model of a long range fighter developed by the Luftwaffe in the early to mid 40's as a fighter to escort Ural bombers over the vast distances of Russia. The version mentioned here is a naval variant, equipped with two drop tanks to operate out over the Atlantic Ocean on very long range escort missions. It has seen a lot of action over the North Atlantic and North Sea, escorting Sea Urals on missions against the Royal Navy and merchant shipping. In overall capabilities think of late model P-51's from our timeline, except that it actually has a longer range than the P-51 ever had in our timeline *]

April 27th 1949

In Libya a series of small tank battles result in more British tank losses, forcing the British to commit their last armored division to blocking Rommel's thrust. The new British armored division advances aggressively into Rommel's northern flank, forcing him to slow his advance and allowing the two routed British armored divisions some breathing space to whip themselves back into shape. In the air the Royal Airforce has met the Luftwaffe's surge plane for plane, pilot for pilot, and neither side can quite claim the upper hand. With both sides on the end of long supply lines, with both sides exhausted, and with both sides grimly determined - the Battle of Surt hangs in the balance.
Meanwhile, on the Eastern Front, Germany has not been idle. In preparation for a coming summer offensive a tide of men, material, and weapons has begun to flow from the Reich's industrial interior to the great war front on its east flank. Nor are the Soviets inclined to rest on their laurels - The fortress that is the Eastern Ukraine grows more hardened by the day and Beria's regime scours the Soviet Union from end to end in search of fighting men and boys, and women for the factories and auxiliaries. The Russian people are being squeezed as much as any people in all of history, squeezed and bled white and trimmed to the bone. Still the commissars demand more, in the name of socialism and mother Russia.

To be continued in Segment 52.2