Shattered World : A Worse World War

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.

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, gr...

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

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.

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.

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 :(

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

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 chang...

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.

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 ca...

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

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

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.

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.

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 ...

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.

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 thinkin...

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, ...

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.

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...