British Tierra del Fuego

[corditeman]

...All advice will be gratefully received. I'm still working that idea out in a Word document. Once done, that and the (belated) Coronel post will make their appearances. Trouble is, Pete really got me thinking hard about how to make the Fuego-Argentino standoff go up in flames. The solution becomes clearer shortly.

As for population, I agree that a successful economy would be attractive to immigrants. The Crown Colony has a Governor, but the locally-elected PM is in real control. Juliet Allardyce is probably a feisty long-haired brunette but has absolutely no resemblance to a certain Iron Lady. And guess who's the Governor of Fuego in 1982...?

Continuing with Post 303. Rex Hunt is the Governor. Going to be interesting to see how the cruise missile attack works - the code-word 'Headsman' may give you a clue. And the replacement for Schawnk will be a headache - any names occurring to you, Pete, Almirante?

Uruguay has not been attacked - sorry, Pete - it's just 'A Bridge Too Far' for the subtle Marques. But the idiot should have foreseen that Ferrettist elements in his command might try to exploit the situation between Fuego, Chile and Argentina. There are other, far more benevolent plotters...

Julius, every little helps.

[Julius Vogel]

I'll have a think about the Maori side of things.

[Petete123123]

[QUOTE=corditeman;3570231]

...All advice will be gratefully received. I'm still working that idea out in a Word document. Once done, that and the (belated) Coronel post will make their appearances. Trouble is, Pete really got me thinking hard about how to make the Fuego-Argentino standoff go up in flames. The solution becomes clearer shortly.

As for population, I agree that a successful economy would be attractive to immigrants. The Crown Colony has a Governor, but the locally-elected PM is in real control. Juliet Allardyce is probably a feisty long-haired brunette but has absolutely no resemblance to a certain Iron Lady. And guess who's the Governor of Fuego in 1982...?

Originally Posted by corditeman

Continuing with Post 303. Rex Hunt is the Governor. Going to be interesting to see how the cruise missile attack works - the code-word 'Headsman' may give you a clue. And the replacement for Schawnk will be a headache - any names occurring to you, Pete, Almirante?

It's not difficult.
If you want "the Chilean surname" and with this I mean the one you hear and you say: -"He's Chilean", then I can recommend you "Soto" or "Rojas" or "Sepúlveda".

But many German and Croat immigrants went to Chile. Luckily in Ushuaia lives many people both with German and Croat surnames, so here there are some of my friends' surnames:
-Croat: "Naumovic", "Mustapic", "Radanovic", "Roganovic", "Vojnic", "Antolovic"
-German: "Schulz", "Schneider", "Berenstein", "Gerhardt", "Schmidt", "Glave", "Zentner", "Schorr", "Rülhe", "von Braun", "Wolfgang", "Weiss", "Hansen"

Originally Posted by corditeman

Uruguay has not been attacked - sorry, Pete - it's just 'A Bridge Too Far' for the subtle Marques. But the idiot should have foreseen that Ferrettist elements in his command might try to exploit the situation between Fuego, Chile and Argentina. There are other, far more benevolent plotters...

They don't really have something Argentina hasn't, just another port to compete with Buenos Aires.

[corditeman]

Thank you. I've tried my hand at a few names, but I've not got the knowledge of South America you've been brought up with.

The last part is dangerously close to a wank, so I may edit it before pushing on further. It's always very tempting to make all wars like the one the Israelis fought in 1967 - Yom Kippur is a more probable scenario. So is .Korea, although Macarthur could have smashed his way north to the Yalu River and that might have prevented many subsequent problems...

General Ercule Sepulveda is my way of finding a halfway-decent successor to Schawnk. A professional soldier and a patriot, he wants to know why Juliet Allardyce won't use the Fuegan Guards and Land Guards to smash northwards through the Bolivians. The answer, of course, is that it's just too far for the Fuegans to go. Neither could the Fuegans effectively invade Argentina (be like Sweden invading Russia) although they can stop Brazil from occupying Argentina. President 'Uno' Numero is going to be a political pest, now Marques is dead.

The other possibility is that poor Chile is in political turmoil because its people are war-weary, sick of Schawnk but not trusting many of his recent predecessors. The only protectors they have are the Fuegans, with minor NZ and Oz contributions. Maybe Fuego will have to administer the remains of Chile as an act of goodwill, but with a time-limit.

Thoughts on this needed - soon!!

And Cantref Mawr? It can't really be independent without a sound economic base - and the UK would be embarrassed to acquire another Colony. Should it become a UN Protectorate, administered by NZ or Oz?

[Petete123123]

Originally Posted by corditeman

The last part is dangerously close to a wank, so I may edit it before pushing on further. It's always very tempting to make all wars like the one the Israelis fought in 1967 - Yom Kippur is a more probable scenario. So is .Korea, although Macarthur could have smashed his way north to the Yalu River and that might have prevented many subsequent problems...

Well, some things about your last edit:

-Most of Argentinean military factories(arms, vehicles, planes and ammunition) are in Cordoba. See this map, the black spot is where most of them are.

-Bahia Blanca is the naval base, so it will really hamper our navy but nothing apart from that, so attacking it or the south of Buenos Aires or even Buenos Aires itself(suicidal) won't really have an effect on the military production.
-From Chubut you can't really invade Southern Chile. The places from where to do so are Rio Negro or Neuquen.
-Once Argentina occupies Santiago, then they have half of Chile's population under control. If you add Valaparaiso and Viña del Mar you then have like 65%.
-Fuego didn't attack the naval base at Puerto Argentino(ex. Puerto Ferretti).
-Chile and Argentina haven't fought in the South, which would happen even if Fuego is there, and if Fuego intervenes, at most I guess they will occupy Rio Gallegos(the next city is 350 km to the North and is a military garrison at this time, with the town having 300 people apart from them)
-Peru should be helping Bolivia and Argentina the same way Fuego is helping Chile. They hate Chile to death and at least they would send supplies, arms and aircraft to Bolivia and Argentina(they did so in Malvinas War).

Originally Posted by corditeman

General Ercule Sepulveda is my way of finding a halfway-decent successor to Schawnk. A professional soldier and a patriot, he wants to know why Juliet Allardyce won't use the Fuegan Guards and Land Guards to smash northwards through the Bolivians. The answer, of course, is that it's just too far for the Fuegans to go. Neither could the Fuegans effectively invade Argentina (be like Sweden invading Russia) although they can stop Brazil from occupying Argentina. President 'Uno' Numero is going to be a political pest, now Marques is dead.

Brazil won't invade Argentina. Why would they? They knew they didn't have nukes and thought that we had some.

Originally Posted by corditeman

The other possibility is that poor Chile is in political turmoil because its people are war-weary, sick of Schawnk but not trusting many of his recent predecessors. The only protectors they have are the Fuegans, with minor NZ and Oz contributions. Maybe Fuego will have to administer the remains of Chile as an act of goodwill, but with a time-limit.

Argentina accepts to administer Chile for 5 years and during that time they have to help reconstructing the country.

Originally Posted by corditeman

And Cantref Mawr? It can't really be independent without a sound economic base - and the UK would be embarrassed to acquire another Colony. Should it become a UN Protectorate, administered by NZ or Oz?

I propose it becoming a province on its own, because it can't be independent and if it becomes part of Fuego say goodbye to any kind of contact between both countries for a very long time.

[corditeman]

When war-fighting rapidly (brushfire/blitzkrieg) Cordoba and Wulaia aren't really significant. Stockpiles and deployed military hardware are far more important. All Generals and Presidents plan for quick victories.

The attack on Buenos Aires is the hardest and nastiest kind - a beheading strike that destroys the High Command and the communications. Britain tried it in the last days of WWII. It was thought that Hitler was at Berchtesgaden, not Berlin, so 617 Squadron (The Dambusters) were sent with Tallboys and 500-Kg Armour Piercing bombs to kill him. Berchtesgaden was under snow and hard to find (no infrared tech, then) but they found the SS Barracks (Deathshead Commando) and blew them apart. The USA missed bin-Laden due to a congressman who didn't keep his mouth shut, when they tried to hit him with a cruise missile aimed at his mobile phone. But you can appreciate the possibilities. Anyway, I need Marques out of the way so that someone else has an opportunity for a political coup - and you may have guessed who I mean.

Post-war Argentina and Chile are both weakened in different ways - the military high command in Argentina have been decimated and much military equipment has been lost. Chile is damaged by invasion and the loss of what I estimate to be at least a third of her fighting and logistical forces. Bolivia similarly. I did mention an influx of 'volunteers' and the Quechua and Aymara indios from Peru. As you seem to think it necessary, there could be clash between the Chilean and Peruvian navies and maybe a cruise missile attack. And don't forget the Ferrettistas are trying to stir things up - some went to Chubut.

Edit will have (1) some re-targetting of cruise missiles (2) naval clashes off Callao (3) Fuego and Chile seizing Rio Gallegos and not much else - they don't have the forces. 5 Cuerpo is in for a very nasty time. Hope it works.

[corditeman]

Well, here we go - expect this post to take several days to finish...

• 26th March : At this time, Argentine forces surround Santiago on three sides and tens of thousands of Chileans are fleeing south from the fighting, using cars, lorries, buses or simply going on foot. The Chilean capital is a ghost town, with only street-fighting and the rattle of gunfire breaking the dawn light. Further north, the Bolivians (now openly reinforced by Peruvian armed services personnel) have mopped up all Chilean forces north of Taltal and are heading south. They are down at the 26th parallel and in territory that has always been part of Chile. There is growing uncertainty that they are doing the right thing, but the Bolivians want territory they can use in peace negotiations. General Sanchez is also suspicious that his Argentine allies are looking for a Pacific seacoast of their own - a matter neither he nor his Peruvian allies are keen on.
• Argentine Army forces realise that they are becoming over-extended as logistical services cannot move supplies across fast enough, hampered by the Andes and Chilean and Fuegan air attacks. General Felix Rosas (a descendant of the great Presidente) decides to hold position and to reduce ammunition expenditure to the bare minimum. He knows that he is facing Chilean formations so short of ammunition that they are using sporting rifles and shotguns. Most Chilean artillery is reduced to mortars and rifle grenades, so it only needs a few Argentine deliveries from their Cordoba factories to change the situation. But the lack of response from headquarters in Buenos Aires is troubling Rosas - he has sent aides back into Argentina to try to phone somebody in authority. A bombing raid on the capital has obviously affected communications, but why is there no response to any signal?
• The efforts of Marques to reinforce the invasion army left the forces in Chubut and Argentine Patagonia too weak to resist the Fuegan attack, but it is only on the 25th March that FAF reconnaissance flights reveal the Argentine weakness south of Bahia Blanca, astonishing the Fuegans and their Chilean liaison officers. The war in central Chile being effectively lost, the forces in the Southern Chilean provinces suddenly realise that, if they take advantage of Argentine disorganisation, they can seize a major bargaining-chip. The Hunters and Canberras at bases in Fuego hastily load up with cluster munitions, rocket pods and anti-tank missiles, whilst the Lincolns each stagger into the air with four Sapphire cruise missiles. At sea, the submarines load their remaining cruise missiles and are made ready for an outrageous bluff. After this there will be fewer than thirty Sapphire missiles left, but Argentina will not know that. The German Fuegans have pointed out that the tanks and Land Rovers can head north along the coastal highway at 60 kilometres an hour, so in theory could be in the Chubut Valley within 15 hours and seize most of Argentine Patagonia. Despite the fears of 'A Bridge Too Far', the Maoris overlooking the Chubut valley are told to check Argentine defences and report that they are a shell, if a tough one. Maori attack teams go in two hours later, hunting down Argentine tanks and APC, driving aside the infantry units that try to engage them. In the meantime, the Fuegan Guard armoured and anti-tank units are racing northwards, encircling the limited opposition and destroying it before carrying on northwards. It is a strange kind of Blitzkrieg, dependent on lightly-armed vehicles moving faster than warnings of their progress, but with close air-support. Commodoro Rivadavia air base suffers a cruise-missile FAE attack five hours after Buenos Aires was hit, then whilst reeling from this, its perimeter defences are overrun by light tanks and armoured cars that take and hold the airfield, leaving a small holding-force to guard the runways so that FAF aircraft can land.
• Fuegan Land Guard land rovers are equipped with winches and radio, but it is their weapons fit that marks them out as unusual. All are equipped with general purpose machine guns, sniper rifles and ballistic glass. Organised in teams like the old Long Range Desert Group, every team carries a guided missile anti-air/anti tank system with reloads, one recoilless anti-tank rifle, one mortar unit and a special infantry squad. The teams can either fight from their vehicles (as in Patagonia) or dismounted (as in Araucania) and according to Argentine witnesses, will treat a vertical cliff as a road climbed with piton holdfasts and winches. Training concentrates on teamwork, weapons drill, covert patrolling (the vehicles have special silencers), special operations (termed 'hunting') and turning to advantage all features of the terrain. The Fuegan SAS are basically the same but a lot tougher and trained in recon, demolitions and 'invisible operations', so they are probably the best rough-country special forces in the world.
• Patagonia was perfect terrain for the Fuegans, a fact they had not fully appreciated until at the limits of Chubut province and entering Rio Negro, where the greater numbers of population and built-up areas forced them to call a halt to their headlong advance. The Fuegans cannot go any further north - the weather is too hot for them (25 degrees as against 5 degrees C) and the population of Rio Negro and Neuquen Provinces massively outnumbers the entire Fuegan population.
• General Sepulveda discovers that he is effectively the senior military and governmental official of Chilean mainland high command left free, for the rest are either dead, captured or isolated. This apolitical professional soldier is the de facto Presidente of Chile, greatly to his dismay. He attempts - in between fighting Argentina and trying to help refugees - to find at least a figurehead politician to act as Presidente, but no politician dares take up such a poisoned chalice. Apart from the risks of assassination by Bolivia and Argentina, this Presidente will at the least have to agree to a partition of Chile, at worst, sign an unconditional surrender. General Sepulveda is left to assemble a motley collection of politicians as a 'Government of National Unity', but then has the fluke of discovering old General Ernesto Montt, still in his estancia outside Puerto Montt. The Montt name is worth a division, so Sepulveda personally goes to beg Ernesto Montt to become Acting Presidente, a duty the General only agrees to (like the Almirante his famous ancestor) if an election is held within four years. The new Presidente Montt then contacts his ally Juliet Allardyce to find out what help - if any - she can give him.
• "Argentina has lost its High Command. We've killed them with a cruise-missile attack." The Fuegan PM explains the situation. "I'm trying to get them to agree to a cease-fire. NZ and Oz aircraft will arrive tonight. Bolivia and Peru are being contacted. Da Avila is willing to cease-fire but wants the Atacama. Peru has had a bloody nose from the Chilean Navy and is reluctant to lose more. Frankly, even with NZ and Oz help, I don't think we can do much more. Chile must remain in being."
• "Why didn't you attack earlier?"
• "Because it's a last-chance move and we'd have no international support if we'd fired first. The Junta would've scattered if they'd known the accuracy we are able to achieve - and the USA could have turned off the GPS system. Wait a moment - I'm getting some news in from Argentina..."
• The newsmedia in Argentina had been the first to realise that their country had lost its Junta, the Air Force General Bruno Miltares being in hospital and too shaken to impose a news black-out; most of his staff had been killed and the lower echelons were trying to make sense of the situation. The nationalised TV and radio services were afraid to say anything, until it was realised that mass panic was developing and outlying areas thought a nuclear bomb had been dropped. There was sheer terror that the Fuegans would soon be bombing Cordoba and other key centres - the rumour mill said it had already happened - the Brazilians announcing the the truth late on 27th March after its Embassy had sent out aides to discover what had happened.
• "The dictator Marques is dead and so is Almirante Chop. FAA General Miltares is in hospital. The Fuegans destroyed the military headquarters and Presidential Palace with very accurate and very powerful guided missiles. They did not use atomic bombs. PM Allardyce has told Presidente Numero that Argentina must stop fighting at once or more severe reprisals will take place. It is not clear who will have authority to order this cease-fire or surrender. Presidente Numero has offered his help and the services of the Embassy in Buenos Aires in diplomatic negotiations. State-controlled radio and television in Argentina has so far only admitted that there was an air raid that affected Buenos Aires and seems to be trying to hide the truth. Fighting continues in Chile and in Patagonia..."
• At his villa in the northwestern suburbs of Buenos Aires, Brigadier Jorge Garramuno hears the Brazilian broadcast and decides he has to move fast; he has carefully cultivated the Channel 9 editorial and production staff, with interviews on the history and future of Argentina - bland, harmless stuff, not thought of as being political by the Committee of Social Justice. The Committee for the Future of Argentina, Garramuno's private organisation, is actually a political party in disguise, with an excellent intelligence service and thousands of informants who discuss technical, social and administrative questions. They have agitated for better sanitation and rubbish re-cycling, particularly for poor areas, on the grounds of public health, and have a contempt for corruption that pleases many; the CFA has a team of tame lawyers to assist the poor with problems involving the rich, Garramuno arguing that those with voices should speak for those with none. His credentials are well established when a POSENA assassin tries to kill the Brigadier and is shot dead with a Luger pistol that Garramuno acquired from a Luftwaffe pilot back in 1945. The producer of Channel 9 is delighted when 'The Air Brigadier' contacts them and offers to discuss the post-Marques future of Argentina, unaware that Garramuno is at last making his push for power.
• "...The Chile-Bolivia war was Marques' attempt to win unity at the expense of Chile and Fuego." Garramuno explains to the anchor interviewing him. "But it was an opportunity for POSENA and the Ferrettistas to start a shooting war between Argentina and its neighbours. The cost in lives has been appalling and I am not surprised that Fuego has destroyed the three Defence Ministries, the Presidential Palace and the headquarters bunker. That leaves us with Miltares in hospital and no head of state to negotiate with Fuego and Chile. As with the defeat of V Cuerpo and the fall of Rio Gallegos, it seems that the Fuegans did not know their own power... Oh, you didn't know? The Second Armoured Brigade was also halted in the Andes near Rio Chubut. Whilst General Rosas has been conquering central Chile, we have been losing Patagonia... I think it is time to tell the people the truth - Argentina has been fighting a war that is endangering its future and its honour..."
• "...What do we need? A Government of National Unity that will end this war with honour, before we are so deep in a mire that only the Ferrettistas profit. I suggest that General Miltares convenes such a government with all speed... Would I serve on it? Yes, I would, if I was needed. But I say to you, that we will need to return to a democratic elected government within at most four years... Democracy is our greatest protection against the extremists."
• "Do we arrest Brigadier Garramuno, General?" His senior surviving aide asked Miltares; the FAA chief shook his head, in pain as he dared not have so many sedatives that he could not think.. "No, you bring him here. He may be able to negotiate an end to this mess. If he is right, Patagonia may be almost defenceless. We are too heavily committed in Chile and on the Brazilian border, to bring reinforcements to stop Fuego."
• Miltares knows that V Cuerpo de Ejercito is effectively unable to fight and the damage done by WAIA-2 and WAIT-1 missiles to the II Brigade Caballerio Blindada tanks and Hinds has been more severe than even Garramuno can guess. When the Fuegans realise the weakness of the Argentine army, they will be able to seize territory as fast as their light tanks can move north. He does not as yet realise how close the Fuegan Guards are to seizing the entire gasfield and oilfield area of Argentine Patagonia, for intelligence has been very sketchy. The Army has been slow to share information with the FAA, an inter-service rivalry that costs Argentina time and success, made worse by the 'Headsman' operations. It is only the fall of Commodoro Rivadavia that has brought home to the High Command just how dangerous the situation is; the air base was reporting the FAE damage when the Fuegan Guards attacked. As one angry Colonel reports to Miltares, "Two lousy brigades of Fuegans are holding most of Patagonia!" With over half the Army stuck in Chile and under-supplied, a quarter of the rest wiped out and II Cuerpo stuck up near Brazil and Paraguay, Argentina has lost almost a quarter of its land area to a force of Fuegan and Chilean reservists. For a nation that is defeating Chile, this has been an extraordinary situation; Rosas has just taken the surrender of Santiago and has seized enough fuel, rations, arms and ammunition, to continue mopping up Chilean resistance.
• Brigadier Garramuno is astonished when he meets Miltares at the hospital and learns the truth, realising that Argentina needs very rapid negotiations if it is to avoid a particularly bizarre defeat. He asks what his position as a negotiator is, to be rather surprised when Miltares wearily informs his visitor that he wants Garramuno to be Acting Presidente of Argentina. General Miltares was only included in the Junta as a gesture to the FAA, but knows he needs someone else as a figurehead - no, say rather, as a leader - so as a national figure he needs Garramuno. The Brigadier agrees, but takes oath before the TV cameras on the Bible to do his utmost for all the people of Argentina. There is a sense of relief in Buenos Aires, with a little hope that Garramuno may be able to get them out of trouble.
• Presidente Garramuno's first action is to send orders to General Rosas to halt operations and prepare to withdraw from Chile; he points out that Fuego now holds Patagonia almost to the 40th Parallel of latitude and leaving the Army in Chile is loco. His next action is to call da Silva in La Paz and to tell him that Bolivia and Peru must be ready to negotiate in good faith with Chile and Fuego. Word has come through that Sepulveda has been able to persuade Ernesto Montt to become Acting Presidente for Chile, so the Schawnk and Marques regimes have both ended. Brazil's Presidente Numero asks Garramuno if he needs Brazilian help to throw the Fuegans out, but Garramuno instead suggests that Brazil keeps to its own side of its borders.
• "We are surprised you have not used your nuclear bomb-."
• "Argentina no more has a nuclear bomb than you do." Garramuno gives that secret away without a qualm. "Your cities are quite safe."
• A final long-distance call by way of Uruguay to Ushuaia takes time to set up, but at last Jorge Garramuno manages to contact Juliet Allardyce to agree upon a truce and the negotiation of a peace. He asks her why the Fuegan Guard have taken so much territory and her reply stuns him.
• "You'd taken half of Chile, so we needed somewhere the refugees could settle. Do you want everything south of the 40th Parallel to be Fuegan and Chilean, with all between there and the 24th Parallel to be Argentina?" Only the laughter in her voice makes him realise that this is a piece of typically-Fuegan rough humour.
• "Senora Allardyce, I want an equitable peace." The Brigadier explains that he cannot return to Chile's pre-war borders - the Bolivians are now too entrenched for that - but Marques and the Ferrettistas' interference caused an unwanted war. "Argentina must return to democracy. I think we and - Presidente Montt, is it? - must reach an agreement before the Yanquis try to impose one for their own benefit."
• The prospect of US interference is a powerful stimulant to the peace process, for the hand of Uncle Sam is heavy and unsubtle. Argentinos have also had the unpleasant discovery that the battered Fuegans are capable warriors, given the right equipment. Bolivia politely agrees to set up a Panmunjom-type negotiating centre on its ceasefire line, Presidente Da Silva saying that Bolivia has no further territorial demands now that it has its beloved Litoral back. Da Silva also starts a War Relief Fund for Chileans displaced by the invasion, for he reminds his people that the Chileans are neighbours, even if rather angry ones. Presidente Montt has stated quite categorically that Bolivia has no entitlement to the Atacama and that the Argentinos richly deserved the thrashing they got in Patagonia. Chilean troops reinforce the very thin Fuegan lines along the 40th Parallel, whilst the Fuegan Guards and Fuegan Marine let Argentine traffic go north and stop any attempts to go south. Bahia Blanca naval base is closed by Fuegan mines, to the dismay of the ARA, whilst the oil and gas fields of Patagonia are largely intact and in Fuegan control. For the moment, gas and oil is piped north to Buenos Aires, but it only needs a Fuegan hand to turn the valves and this will cease. The Argentine provinces of Chubut and Santa Cruz are entirely controlled by the Fuegans and the allies, which puts 40% of Argentina's oil and gas, all its best wheatfields and most of its fishery, under Fuegan control.
• On the 28th of March 1982 the Argentine Army attempts to bring heavy equipment back across a bailey bridge replacing a ferroconcrete masterpiece that had spanned an Andean gorge and loses five troopers, two tanks, a transporter and the bailey bridge. General Rosas realises that he can bring men and light vehicles back, but his heavy artillery, heavy armour and the Argentine's main stock of bridging equipment, is stuck in Chile. This is considered absolutely hilarious by the Maori forward observers and demolition squads, whose efforts have been devoted to just such a careful trap. General Sepulveda suggests to President Montt that this windfall will do wonders for diplomacy and for the Chilean Army. Presidentes Montt, Da Silva and Garramuno are not amused; Rosas is a crony of Marques and a 'loose cannon' with a large army under his control, so for different reasons, they all want to see him out of Chile. The snag is that Rosas loathes Garramuno and thinks Militares is incompetent, so as senior surviving Army General tries to claim he is General Marques's successor, demanding that General Hugo Chacona, in charge of II Cuerpo de Ejercito, recognise his authority and follow his orders. Chacona, a rather stolid soldier with only military ambitions, resented Garramuno's appointment, but equally resented the arrogance of Rosas, so told both claimants to the Presidency that he would defend Argentina and only Argentina. But Chacona did order about half of II Cuerpo south to screen Buenos Aires from possible Fuegan attacks, sending Militares a message that he personally considered this defensive, but that he was also concerned about Garramuno's suitability as a commander in chief. Militares assured him that Ernesto Garramuno was a better choice than General Rosas, but thanking him for remaining neutral.
• PM Juliet Allardyce in the meantime had persuaded her NZ and Oz allies to move two squadrons north in Chile to help defend Puerto Montt, which let her move more of the FAF into Argentine Patagonia. Somewhat to her dismay, she had been reminded by the acerbic Swiss and Uruguayan Consuls in Ushuaia that Fuego now had duties as an Occupying Power to administer the province. The main provisions (according to the International Committee of the Red Cross) added up to these :-
• Article 42 of the 1907 Hague Regulations states that a "territory is considered occupied when it is actually placed under the authority of the hostile army. The occupation extends only to the territory where such authority has been established and can be exercised." While the Geneva Conventions do not define occupation, the Fourth Convention nevertheless contains provisions applicable in occupied territories.
• Since occupation does not imply sovereignty over a territory, the occupying power may not alter the legal status of protected persons. Occupation confers certain rights and obligations on the occupying power.
• The duties of the occupying power include restoring and ensuring, as far as possible, public order and safety; providing the population with food and medical supplies; agreeing to relief schemes undertaken by other States or impartial humanitarian organizations if the population is inadequately supplied; maintaining medical facilities and services; ensuring public health and hygiene; and facilitating the work of educational institutions.
• The occupying power must uphold the criminal laws of the occupied territory and may suspend them only when they constitute a threat to the occupying power or an obstacle to the application of international humanitarian law. Should legal proceedings be instituted against protected persons, the occupying power must respect all judicial guarantees and ensure a regular trial for such persons.
• Prohibited actions include forcibly transferring protected persons from the occupied territories to the territory of the occupying power; compelling protected persons to serve in the armed forces of the occupying power; and looting.
• Fuego had to look back to the District Commissioner system of the British Empire and its own early days as a Colony, to find precedents for organisation, which involved a lot of administrative work. The estancias of Patagonia were largely self-administering and self-sufficient, but the Fuegan Military Police and the Royal Fuegan Mounted Constabulary still had a lot to do. The first question the District Commissioners faced at the start of each visit to an estancia, was "When are you leaving Patagonia?" The answer was "When the politicians finish negotiating a peace. By the way, the kids can go to school, the laws are being upheld and we'll continue to maintain medical and public services." Neither side expected the Fuegans to remain in Patagonia for very long - they are severely outnumbered, even with Chilean refugee and army support and manifestly follow the Hague Regulations.
• The same cannot be said for the military rule Rosas instituted in the areas of Chile between Bolivia and Puerto Montt that he had managed to seize. The ICRC and the neutral Embassies found they were ignored and excluded, even the important foreign Embassies such as the British, French, German, United States and Brazilian ones, for Rosas isolated them behind 'protective cordons' of Argentine troops. The Chilean population had expected curfews and tanks in the streets, but not the wholesale seizure of food, fuel, medical supplies and transport. If objectors were vocal enough, they were shot, otherwise they were 'moved on' with bayonets and the threat of force. An American military aide was strongly reminded of images of the Nazi occupation of France, and he was not the only outside observer to feel that way. By March 29th, the question was being asked - was Rosas under the control of Buenos Aires, or was he carving out his own autonomous fief?

[corditeman]

The idea of Fuego seizing Patagonia by being largely ignored in a war involving Chile, Argentina and Bolivia, was too good to leave out.

Is it practical?

[corditeman]

Rosas is ruthless, but can he be conciliating? How does Fuego extricate itself from Patagonia - 'Patagonia is Argentinian!' Can Garramuno exert authority over Argentina? Let's see...

• 29th March -The leader of the DINA is arrested and brought to Rosas, who loathes Gerhardt Vojnic on sight, but listens to this self-serving official who is known as 'Schawnk's Executioner'. Vojnic knows the politics of Chile and which strings to pull, being rather too good at propaganda and political manipulation. When asked sarcastically what he can do to avoid a firing squad, Vojnic suggests to Rosas that he may be able to turn Rosas from the invader of Chile into its liberator.The disgusted Rosas realises he has acquired that most despised kind of collaborator - a quisling.
• "Brigadier Garramuno and Ernesto Montt do not have the power. You do. The Bolivians are invaders. You make a peace with De Silva first, as the designated successor to General Marques. I will get Schawnk's supporters behind you. Then we re-open the munitions factories and produce the ammunition you need for re-supply. Can Garramuno's forces drive the Fuegans out of Patagonia? I do not think so."
• Vojnic's negotiation for his life turns into something like a planning session, at the end of which General Rosas has acquired a subordinate who is a cross between Himmler and Joseph Goebbels. The DINA resurface within a day, a peaked-cap outfit who frankly irritate the Argentinos, most of whom wish to return home; those conscripts are the weakest point in Rosas's army, although the DINA wheel out wine, fine foods, dancers, bands and a supply of the whores from the red-light districts of the cities and towns Rosas now controls. General Rosas is aware that some of his officers - particularly the transferees from other Cuerpos - mutter about the dishonour of encouraging the DINA, but he reminds them that Garramuno, neither elected nor in the Junta, has taken power in Buenos Aires. The war in his mind is not yet finished, merely postponed, so he arranges to meet with De Silva at the 26th Parallel, there to dictate a peace and its frontiers. Presidente Montt he largely ignores - the southernmost provinces of Chile hold barely a fifth of the pre-war Chilean armed forces and would collapse without Fuegan and RNZAF assistance. PM Allardyce of Fuego he cannot ignore, but informs her by cable that as the designated successor of Marques he requires her to withdraw from Patagonia at once and compensate Argentina for any losses. If she signs any treaties with Garramuno, they will be null and void.
• Presidente De Silva of Bolivia is rather dismayed to see Vojnic amongst Rosas's entourage at the Parallel 26 meeting on the 31st March, for he and his men know what DINA was like; he is unable to discuss anything with Rosas away from Vojnic's hearing, but Bolivia at least has a 26th Parallel frontier with Chile at the end of the day. Rosas negotiates with De Silva for nitrates, gas and other resources, but most importantly leans on De Silva to get him to transfer Tarija Province to his, Rosas's control. Life is difficult for De Silva - even with Peru supporting him, the Bolivian Presidente cannot fight Rosas successfully. After the meeting, details of the 26th Parallel Agreements are cabled to Buenos Aires by the Peruvians, who are most uncomplimentary about Rosas and wonder if he is criminally insane. The Peruvians quietly recognise Garramuno as the rightful Presidente of Argentina and are not slow to advise Presidente Numero of Brazil to do the same; discreetly and efficiently, the diplomats of South America begin the process which is to isolate Rosas quite as effectively as they did to Schawnk.
• Ernesto Montt has been in contact with Jorge Garramuno and has confirmed to him that Patagonia would remain under Fuego's reluctant control until Rosas could be removed from Northern Chile. PM Allardyce had confirmed that normal life was being continued but that all Argentine military forces in Patagonia had been interned. Montt also revealed that the much abused Patagonian Welsh in Fuego - and some from the Malvinas - had volunteered to help administer Patagonia and some had re-settled in the Chubut valley on lands Ferretti had evicted them from in 1961. That caused a minor argument, when it became clear that the lands had been seized by Ferrettistas in 1963. Garramuno's government wanted the Ferrettistas taken to Buenos Aires for questioning, but the Hague Regulations forbade this so instead officers of the Policia Federale Argentina entered Patagonia on 31st March to interview the suspects held by the RFMC. It became clear that the Ferrettistas were behind the actions that had triggered the invasion of Chile by Rosas; the Ferrettistas are quite unrepentant, daring the PFA to make them into martyrs for the Ferretti cause. The RFMC halt the interview at that point, warning both the PFA and the suspects that this will have to be investigated by the International War Crimes Tribunal at the Hague. The suspects have torpedoed their own case, for the revulsion in Argentina, Fuego, Chile and Bolivia, is profound.
• On 1st April Presidente Montt is recognised by Brazil as 'Presidente of Chile Australe', an unfortunate term which recognises a military partition along a 40th Parallel ceasefire line, with Rosas's forces to the north. There is a rapid adoption of this title amongst other countries, with the Ecuadorian Ambassador to the UN suggesting recognised partition as a diplomatic solution. Chile's UN Ambassador is outraged, saying that his country is under occupation by Bolivia and an Argentine adventurist who needs to be stopped. Bolivia regrets that he cannot comment, but Peru states that it knows Bolivia has no further territorial ambitions and is trying to offer a sanctuary for refugee Chileos in northern Chile. Brazil more trenchantly states that Rosas is abusing his military authority and welcomes the Argentine Ambassador to the UN, saying that the governments of Presidente Montt and Garramuno are legitimate and calling for world recognition of their governments. It also asks when the Fuegans (who have no UN status) are going to relinquish control of Patagonia; the UK Ambassador states that this is unclear, as the governmernt of President Montt has demanded that no handback occur until Chile is freed from Argentine occupation. The Chilean Ambassador confirms this and asks for international support for his embattled nation.
• "Presidente Garramuno is a worthy statesman but Chile and Fuego are still at war with the forces of Argentina and need some kind of bargaining chip. But it is clear that the Fuegan forces are treating the Patagonians with respect. The ICRC are given unrestricted access to the population and - as all can find out - all is well." But he glared at the Bolivians. "Can you say as much about the Chileos in the Atacama and in that occupied part of Chile between 26 and 40 south?"
• "The ICRC has access and any faults it finds, we will correct as fast as we can." The Bolivian Ambassador to the UN was unhappy. "But I cannot comment on Chile under Argentine administration. Bolivia does not have access." What he did not admit, was that Bolivia's Red Cross had been refused entry, despite their genuine desire to help.
• One unusual facet of the Patagonian Occupation, as the Fuegan occupation was soon being called, was that the Fuegan forces included several thousand members of the Karukinka Federation, with Ona, Yamana and Akalaluf prominent. Their autonomous status within Fuego was the envy of the Patagonian and Araucanian Mapuche and Tehuelche indios, who were willing enough to collaborate with the occupation forces. Repressed by both Chile and Argentina, the Mapuche regarded the Fuegans as liberators, wanting to be given back lands taken from them. Rather to the dismay of the Fuegan forces, nearly a hundred thousand Chileos - mainly Mapuche - fled from Rosas's forces over a twenty-day period, to seek sanctuary inside Argentine Patagonia. Unlike many refugees, the Mapuche under their chiefs (loncos) were well-organised and formed extensive refugee-camps, offering their services to Fuegan Karukinka and Maori officers as workers and militia. As Patagonia held most of the oil, gas, wheat and lignite in Argentina, it was a vital resource that Garramuno needed for his people. The easygoing Fuegans permitted existing contracts to be honored, but also made it clear that the indigenous peoples deserved better treatment and gave them preferential employment on relief-work and military construction projects. There was great concern in Argentina as it becomes clear that neither Rosas nor Garramuno are going to back down and the Fuegans and their native supporters reluctantly begin to plan for a longer occupation and a longer war. PM Allardyce becomes famous for her 'Tomorrow' speech, in which she said that Fuego's Army of Occupation would leave tomorrow, as long as Chile is restored to its people.
• By 16th April the lines are entrenched and fortifications face inwards towards Occupied Chile - even on the Andean frontier with Argentina. Chacona's II Cuerpo and the remains of the V Cuerpo - repatriated by Allardyce as an act of good faith - are anxiously garrisoning the border. Refugees stagger across into Argentina and Patagonia, telling of rationing imposed by Rosas. Most seriously of all, these include both Chilean civilians and Argentinos deserting Rosas's Army, for the young conscripts have learned that they are angering their families by staying on in Chile. In Patagonia, the civilian population are learning that occupation is purely notional, except for the northern front line with Neuquen Province. There is regular liaison between the Argentine local authorities north and south of the front line and Argentino TV crews start joking that the Fuegans are becoming another Argentine province of Patagonia. The Fuegans smile tolerantly but point out that there are now three matters to be dealt with - Rosas, the freedom of Chile and autonomy for the Mapuche and Tehuelche tribes. That last demand causes a mental lurch in Argentina, for it has been a condition imposed by the NZ Maori in return for their military reinforcement of Chile and Fuego; Garramuno's Cabinet of businessmen and academics faces a difficult diplomatic problem. The Mapuche will not be satisfied by a few thousand square miles of bare Patagonian shingle - they want access to farmland and a share of the country's mineral assets, so established farmers and businesses in Patagonia are becoming militant.
• Garramuno makes his famous "Come home to Argentina" broadcast to Rosas's conscripts, telling them to either desert to Argentina "as so many have done", or to return as a military formation to the frontier. In any case, he tells the conscripts that it is their national duty to disable equipment held by Rosas and his Chileos quislings before returning home. But the DINA has been on watch for this - aircraft in particular are guarded and it is revealed by one escaping pilot that Chilean pilots are being trained to fly FAA aircraft. Garramuno and Allardyce - now on excellent terms - agree that their agents' reports show that Vojnic is trying to re-establish the Schawnk regime with Argentino equipment.
• Sepulveda and Montt have not been waiting around but have established an alliance with the Mapuche to give them the Chilean province of Araucania as a Karukinka-type substate of Chile. This immediately gives Sepulveda a guerrilla army that has been a serious nuisance for Schawnk, making 'Chile Austral' very popular with the Maori and the Native American lobby in Washington. The subtle Ronald Reagan then has the excuse he needs to start shipping arms south to Montt, although not to Fuego; the USA still feels that Fuego is a British foot in their South American back yard. The Fuegans nevertheless provide the Mapuche and Tehuelche with the training they need to be an army, doing so in the open lands of Patagonia, over two intense weeks; Garramuno's government know about it, but welcome anything that will be more pressure on Voljic and Rosas, although for form's sake they object to anything that might seem to show that the Fuegans are taking root in Patagonia. Certainly, there are now more Fuegan forces in Chile Austral and Pategonia than in Fuego itself, so when RNZAF aircraft start to use Punta Arenas and Rio Gallegos, nobody is much surprised. The NZ and Fuegan SAS are already busy in Occupied Chile, ambushing DINA and CSJ troops trying to suppress the Chileos and Araucanian Mapuche, for the Mapuche know most of the DINA agents and abolish them in a rather primitive fashion - although not before extracting such military intelligence as they can gather.
• Rosas is in more trouble than he has appreciated; Chacona has recognised the Garramuno government as the legitimate rulers of Argentina and almost twenty percent of the Argentine invasion force has defected - some flee to the Bolivian Atacama, where De Silva sends them home, some surrender to Fuegan border patrols and others walk back across the mountain passes to Argentina. The FAA are flying reconnaissance missions high above Rosas's scratch air force, on occasion finding that they are alongside long-winged Hunters and Canberras of the FAF on similar missions. But the two sides exchange waves, not cannon-fire or missiles, as an unofficial truce exists. Offshore, the Chilean Navy is blockading its own ports, supported by NZ, Fuegan Marine and Peruvian warships; De Silva has persuaded the Peruvians that this is necessary to oust Rosas and Voljic, both of whom are now disliked throughout South America.
• In the Argentine Patagonian provinces of Santa Cruz, Chubut and Rio Negro, there is consternation amongst the residents; tax demands from the provincial governments and the federal government in Buenos Aires, have been received. The Fuegan District Commissioners confirm that this is being done to maintain local services as it appears that it may be the end of 1982 before Rosas is out of Chile; the mountain passes of the Andes will soon be closed and winter will descend upon Chile Austral and Patagonia. The Federal taxes payable to Buenos Aires will be sent there, so it is up to Patagonian residents whether they wish to pay them or not. The Fuegan administration is by and large hardly noticed by Patagonians in their day to day activities, except that the Royal Fuegan Mounted Constabulary are present in their dark-blue uniforms and blue Land Rovers. The FAF provide Patagonia with a Flying Doctor and Flying Ambulance service, using STOL aircraft such as the Beechcraft Bonanza and Twin Bonanza, DHC Otter and Twin Otter. This is a popular and successful service that saves many lives and can operaste from roads, rough airstrips or airports. Captured Argentine Hercules of the FAA are to be used that winter to fly in or airdrop urgent supplies to some isolated communities.
• On 30th April the pooling of intelligence between Chile and Fuego - with some discreet exchange between the Garramuno government at its nominal foes - revealed that General Rosas has managed to hold onto about 70% of his forces, mainly by paying them mercenary rates of pay. As against that, the coast and all borders of Occupied Chile are closed to him, blockaded by a diversity of forces. The only military front is the one just north of Araucania Province, where the forces of 'Free Chile' are well-dug in, with an assortment of effective ground-to-air missiles and artillery that keep his forces from pressing south. His valuable tanks are being targetted by RNZAF and FAF fighter-bombers, but he has taken a hint from Fuegan actions in Patagonia and is building 'technicals' on light trucks with salvaged weapons and improvised or recycled armour. These contrast with the efforts of 'Chile Austral' which is equipping its forces with Fuegan-type vehicles that have a weapons fit designed for effectiveness rather than machismo. Argentina's military factories at Cordoba are equipping 'Gaucho' light reconnaissance vehicles to about the same standards as the Fuegan Land Guards, finally appreciating that a tank unit surrounded by Fuegan land-rovers is likely to become a very expensive scrapyard. At the same time, tanks are too useful to dispense with, so Garramuno wants those in Chile returned to his government's control.
• May offers one last opportunity for an end to the war before the winter, for it was on the 25th May 1809 that Argentina at last declared its independence from Spain. There are many ways to celebrate it - a good party with wine and a barbecue amongst them - but Garramuno proposes that all Argentinos are to pledge their allegiance to the flag of the Argentine 'In the presence of God'. This is intended to catch out Rosas as the pledge will remind his forces that they are acting against the legitimate government in Buenos Aires. On enquiry, the Patagonian Argentines discover that the Fuegan Occupation administration has absolutely no objection to a bit of flag-waving and pledge-signing, and in fact agrees to allow a deputation of up to a thousand Patagonians to leave Chubut and Santa Cruz for a great rally in Buenos Aires. By coachload and lorry-load, with Argentine flags flying, the deputation are seen off by no less than Paul Morales, the Fuegan Regional Commissioner, with a short speech trusting that they will return the Argentine Army to its homeland and make it possible for Fuego and Argentina to be neighbours again.
• "You don't like us? Go home, then!" A heckler from a lorry calls back.
• "We like you. But we can't go home until this damn' war's finished!" That reply convulsed the Argentinos; if good for nothing else, the Fuegans are good for a laugh.
• In the Casa Rosada, President Garramuno faces his cabinet with two interesting pieces of news, both involving Patagonia. The Fuegan forces included a team of Maori and Scots geologists, who have put their undoubted skills to work on the largely-unevaluated mineral deposits there. Commercially-useful deposits of galena - the ore of silver and lead - placer gold, lignite and copper pyrites have been found. The Fuegans are asking for Argentine permission to exploit them, partly for themselves and the Mapuche, but with a share of the proceeds going to Argentina's federal treasury. It is all very polite and according to the Hague Regulations, but it splits the Cabinet between fury and laughter. General Miltares considers it better to drive the Fuegans out and achieve a military victory, but Jorge Garramuno quietly calls him to order. Argentina would need all its troops to force the deceptively-thin Fuegan lines, unless it waits for its own 'Gaucho' technicals to be made ready, and that would let Rosas march in. Fuego will give up Patagonia once the peace treaties have been signed, so it is less expensive to do that. But then Garramuno calls to his Secretary of the Treasury to report on another matter - Federal taxation - and this time Miltares has to laugh. The Fuegans have received a large quantity of taxation for the Argentine government and have remitted this large sum with only a modest five percent collection fee. The amusing feature is that the incidence of fraud and tax evasion is at an all-time low; the Patagonians have asserted their Argentine nature by a very large margin. The Cabinet agrees to Garramuno's proposal that Fuego be allowed to start operations - as long as there is an official Argentine presence to assess the value of production.

[Petete123123]

This is going awesome, you are a really good writer

But I saw three things:
-By this time the Tehuelches are a thing of the past(most of them lost their culture and emigrated to Buenos Aires, so there are like 300 or 500 who live in reservations in Santa Cruz and Chubut), and the Mapuches live far to the North, in Rio Negro and Neuquen. The Mapuche lands are like 1700 km from Port Jones, which I think is a bit more of what Fuego can handle. Not saying it's impossible, but this area is the Apple Country, a place where like 800.000 people live by this time(60.000 are Mapuches, but Argentinians are like 3 or more times Fuego population), which aren't city people but farmers who have weapons and dislike Chileans and their friends(the Argentineans). And the Mapuches can't be given any good lands in Patagonia. By this time they are already used, and to give them land there you have to move the Argentineans(who are more). So maybe a solution would be to grant them a nice part of Pampa province(good farmland) to them.
-The Fuegan lines will be extremely over extended. To reach Rio Gallegos they have to do 100 km from coast. Then to reach Caleta Olivia, the next important city it is like 600 km. Then to Comodoro 100 km more, from there to Trelew another 200 km. Now you have shifted from 5ºC in Fuego to 25º in Trelew. If you dare to continue, you can either go to Viedma, the small capital of Rio Negro from where you can go to Buenos Aires(extremely suicidal) or you can go to Esquel, 350 of Patagonia hills(here there are more Bushes which makes it harder to go there). From Esquel you then have 150 km to Bariloche and from there 400 km to the Apple Country. After that you have 250 km to the Nequen oil fields(In Argentina oil fields are: Comodoro has 35%, Neuquen and Mendoza have 50%, Salta 10% and Santa Cruz and Fuego 5%). The problem is that after entering Rio Negro you are in an area with like 40ºC in summer.
-The other is that as I said, Fuego can't seize more than 40% of Argentina's oil. And Patagonia never ever ever ever has most wheat from Argentina, that is in the Buenos Aires area. Nor it have most of the minerals, it has the biggest iron mine of the country in Rio Negro, but all the rest is in the Northwest zone.

So I think Fuego can reach up to the Chubut Valley. After that, there are too many people against them and it's too hot for a Fuegan(I say this from experience). In this situation the have seized like 40 percent of Argentina's oil production and a big deal of their fishing.
After the war, the Mapuches are given lands in La Pampa, which becomes a province and is called Llünged(plain soil). Also, borders in Argentina are redefined to take power from Buenos Aires and the capital is changed to Viedma(that little town I told you)

[corditeman]

Went back to Post 312 and wrote in about Chubut and Santa Cruz.

Your maps and critiques are absolutely essential.

Patagonia is under 'nominal occupation', as it would be awkward to hold and still more dangerous for Argentina if Fuego adopted a 'scorched earth' policy. Frankly, it's just intended as a bargaining-chip, but the Fuegans area a nice bunch and the Patagonians find them useful...

Glad to know you like it - I've some more to put in - this war is going on longer than I expected. I wish I'd never thought of that Quisling Voljic. Rosas is a damned nuisance - he's left Argentina down to a third of its fighting strength, once casualties are considered.

Isn't La Rioja a wine I've seen in Tesco? I don't seem to be able to forget Argentina, these days...

And I want to spare the Casa Rosada - did the 1980s Junta use it, or the military offices? Or do I direct the cruise missiles to the Presidential estate outside BA?
(Rats! Just looked at the wiki entry for Galtieri and he appeared on a balcony of the Casa Rosada during the 1982 Conflict - but, hooray! Galtieri actually stayed at the Campo de Mayo Army Base outside Buenos Aires - getting the administrator to modify post 303 accordingly)

Regarding the Mapuche, if Araucania's a no-hoper, the Wiki description of Patagonia indicates thin settlement - large areas weren't suitanble for agriculture and there's a lot of undeveloped though low-quality mineral wealth. Maybe, like the Basques, as they're a cross-frontier group, their sub-state should reflect this. Your idea gives us an Andean Araucania and mine produces Mapuche Patagonia. Shall I toss in the King of Araucania and Patagonia? The claimant's Prince Felipe Orelie-Antoine, at present. You'll find him on the internet. http://micronations.wikia.com/wiki/A...and_Pantagonia. He'd be 30 in 1982.

[Petete123123]

Well, I like the idea of Chile having also a Mapuche land. The problem is that Chile is even more densely populated and the Mapuches are outnumbered like 6 to 1 in their former lands. So my proposal is this, a Mapuche region(province for Chileans) called Mapupehuen(Mountain Motherland), in which 70% percent of Chilean Mapuches can live. The rest should go to Llünged, where there is far more space. The only problem is that in Chile the only empty places where Atacama(now Bolivian) and Chilean Patagonian islands, they can't live there, they are like three times taller than Fuegan Maori islands and don't have any plain place to settle. So I only could thought in giving them the less populated Chilean area of the already populated ones.

[corditeman]

This is the final part (no, really?) which will bring the 1982 war to an unexpected conclusion.

• Rosas realises that he is faced by a serious crisis of confidence by his army; the Dia de Revolucione on the 25th of May, with Garramuno's proposal of dedication to the Flag of Argentina, will bring matters to a head. Chileos have heard the broadcasts, as have the Bolivians, whilst leaflet-raids by the FAF and FAA have spread the word to Chile. "Are you Chileans or Argentinos? Is the love of Argentina alive in your hearts? Where are your families? Come home to Argentina!" To the Chileos, the pamphlets gave another message. "Chileans, who is your Presidente? Do you want the usurper Vojnic and the Argentine General Rosas? Or will you return to Chile's constitution iunder the guidance of Almirante Montt's descendant, Ernesto Montt? Choose, then - the bandits of the DINA or the honesty of Presidente Montt."
• Rosas chooses to hold a military parade in Santiago at the Plaza de la Constitucione outside the La Moneda, the Presidential Palace, with a flagpole erected especially for the Argentine flag. The idea is that the soldiers will salute the flag as they pass, with an 'eyes-right' for General Rosas on the saluting podium below the flag. This is Vojnic's idea of defusing the tension Garramuno caused, but whilst it might work with other troops, it will not work that well with homesick conscripts. There is anger in the ranks that Rosas is becoming more of a Chilean dictator than an Argentine General, as well as the knowledge that the ordinary Chilean people are becoming increasingly angry and desperate at the military rule of Rosas and Vojnic. The Argentine border is being guarded increasingly by units of the DINA-controlled Carabineros as Argentine units lose soldiers through desertion, whilst the Argentino troops fighting the Chileos and Fuegans on the Southern Front feel they are just being used up as cannon-fodder against an increasingly-powerful alliance of enemies. A newspaper cartoon repeated in one of the pamphlets showed an Argentine flag sinking into mud labelled 'Chile'.
• On the 24th May the Patagonian Argentino deputation parades before Garramuno, who salutes their gesture and asks them if the Fuegans are behaving properly. This leads to a frank exchange of views in which Garramuno learns that the Fuegans are good-natured and helpful, their Constabulary is very correct and the people of Patagonia are free to follow their lives, but...there is this sense of unfinished business. Garramuno explains that the Fuegans feared another Ferretti-style invasion and were winning room in which to fight, until they suddenly realised the scale of the bargaining-chip they had seized. To the deputation's laughter, he tells them that the Fuegans literally did not how to rule an occupied country - an unplanned experience - so they relied upon the ICRC to explain it. The results were a type of benevolent Colonial administration which reminds Garramuno of pre-independence Canada, but the Patagonians have freedom otherwise to live normally. That truth at last makes sense of what has been going on, to the astonished Patagonians. However, Garramuno does point out that every military facility in Patagonia is held by Fuego or its allies, there are Fuegan strongpoints along the northern border of Chubut and the Patagonian Sea is patrolled by the Fuegan Marine. That also explains the sense of unfinished business; the Chileos and the Mapuche want security and that is why their allies the Fuegans are continuing to hold onto Patagonia.
• "When we are back in Argentina, what is going to change?" A troubled young woman - one of the Chubut Cymreos - speaks up from the back of the group. "Will there be a military occupation by your armed forces?" That causes some unrest in the group, until Garramuno brings them back to order.
• "The FAA will resume its use of air bases, the ARA will return to naval bases and the Ejercito Argentina will be back in its bases. The Policia Federal Argentina and the Gendarmerie will replace the RFMC. Taxation will remain the same." That raises a few grins and also a few hands; even the most patriotic Argentino Patagonians are concerned about past problems with the Police. All the Argentine military and police services had been involved in the 'Dirty War' and its 'disappearances', as one young man candidly points out. "One of my own family was 'disappeared'." Brigadier Garramuno points out, to nods.
• "Your Excellency - Senor Presidente - I think we are maybe afraid it will happen again." One of the older men explains. "POSENA, the CSJ and the Ferrettistas, have not been seen in Patagonia since the Fuegans arrived."
• "Ah..." Presidente Garramuno was saddened; the Patagonians had come full of confidence and patriotism, but the fate of the Chubut Cymreos and the actions of the Ferrettistas, had weakened their trust in the country's armed and police services. "For that I have no easy answer. Yet, you are Argentinos and I care very much about your futures. Tomorrow, let us celebrate our country and its freedom."
• But Garramuno was right to be worried; the Patagonians numbered many who were now wondering whether their uncritical support of Buenos Aires was so wise. The RFMC was as famous as the RCMP - the 'Mounties' of Canada - for its freedom from corruption and devotion to duty. The Fuegan Guards and the Land Guards also had a rigid disciplinary code that strictly forbade abuse of their authority. The horrible behaviour of the Ferretti Government to its opponents had left a deep scar and Rosas had re-opened old wounds. The older members of the group advised that they give Garramuno their support next day, but they consider the future very carefully when they returned home.
• 25th of May 1982 was a day that was to remain deeply in the memory of Portenos, for it had so many high and low points. It began with bands playing a 'Reveille' or wake-up call, along the avenues leading to the Casa Rosada, followed by services in the Churches and speeches recalling the wish of the Founding Fathers to be free of the Spaniards and able to decide their own futures. The amplified and relayed speech of Jorge Garramuno from the balcony of the Casa Rosada to all Argentinos was heard by millions by radio and on TV, even in Patagonia, where the District Commissioners had politely brought it to the attention of the population, all of whom knew it was happening.
• "People of Argentina! Children of the Founding Fathers! On this day in 1809 we began the fight for our independence and our honour as a people independent and free - a fight that continues!" Garramuno's speech had been carefully scripted; he recounted the gradual displacement of the Viceroy and his replacement by a first Junta of honoured men, then the progression towards a more democratic republic.
• Ferretti's neo-Nazi vendetta against the harmless Cymreos of Chubut had ended in the massacres of Fuego, ultimately with the declaration of 'Cantref Mawr' and the seizure of Patagonia by Fuego. Garramuno did not excuse this, nor did he forget the deaths that occurred when V Cuerpo was defeated so ruthlessly by the Fuegan Guards, fighting in Land Rovers and tiny Snapdragon tanks against the might of the Argentine Army. That much was war, so it was amazing that the Fuegans had not become so vengeful that Patagonia was annexed by them. V Cuerpo had been defending Argentine territory, so their war was if anything the more honorable, but the survivors had been cared for and returned north to Buenos Aires; this was news to some, not to others, but was the hardest point Garramuno had to overcome. He stated that the bizarre occupation of Patagoniat would end tomorrow, if the Argentine Army returned home from Chile in peace. To laughter, he said that the Fuegans had sent the Federal taxes of Patagonia to Buenos Aires to show that their holding onto Patagonia was a temporary matter; they had fought hard, but their behaviour to the Patagonians was impeccable.
• "There has for too long been a belief that corruption is unavoidable - but is it? Does not the Church show us that we must love one another, not cheat one another? Brothers and sisters of Argentina, the people of Patagonia paid their taxes to show that they are Argentines!" He gestured to the thousand-strong deputation. "See them - they speak openly with one another, they trust us to treat them fairly - do we show them and Cantref Mawr that Argentina will welcome them and be true to them?" There was a roar of "Si!" from hundreds of thousands of throats, broad grins from the Patagonians and cheers from them for Garramuno. The President had won them back, but at the cost of making a promise that they would hold him and Argentina to.
• "I will say to you, quite frankly, that sending our army into Chile was a serious mistake. Our sons and brothers there are unhappy, but held by orders and fear into supporting both General Rosas and his creature, Schawnk's lackey Vojnic. Between them, they are ruining Chile and our Army, which spends its blood fighting the Chile Austral, the 'Free Chile' run by the honest and honorable Presidente Ernesto Montt. Whilst that goes on, the Fuegans hold Patagonia in a kind of bond for the freedom of Chile. As I said in the past, so I say again to our soldiers in Chile - throw off the yoke of fear and shame that Rosas has laid upon you, return home to the land of the Founding Fathers! Bring your equipment with you if you can, but otherwise put it out of use, so that Rosas and Vojnic cannot in the end use it against Argentina. Remember Argentina - and never forget her!"
• Garramuno's speech was in its way quite as powerful a call as any Ferretti had made, but combined both patriotism and self-control, with a restoration of the honour that was much needed by the people. It was marred by a shot that rang out across the square and Jorge Garramuno reeled back on the podium as a bullet tore through his left upper arm. If he had not moved to one side to glance at the Patagonians, the bullet would have gone through his heart, as it was, his blood spattered the podium and his Presidential Guard detachment had to work on him hastily. An aide got to the microphone and made an announcement. "Shot through the left upper arm - he will live! Building, southwest corner of square, near the top! Please remain where you are!"
• But the sniper's next bullet barely missed the aide, who had gone flat behind the podium. Two Guards were killed protecting Garramuno with their bodies, for the sniper kept firing until a Special Operations detachment stormed the building and killed him with a hail of gunfire. Amongst the material by the bullet-riddled body were pictures of Ferretti and Marques. The Ferrettistas had not forgotten Garramuno and wanted him dead. But they had made a major mistake - the Portenos were angered by this attempt on a good man's life, whilst other Argentinos were deeply shocked; Garramuno was a peacemaker and his opponents wanted war and death. The sacred 25th May had been polluted, but after an anxious hour, it was reported by the Presidential Doctor that, although badly traumatised, their now-beloved Presidente would recover to lead them again. President Ronald Reagan and Presidentes Montt and De Avila sent messages thanking God for his preservation, whilst the more-pragmatic PM Juliet Allardyce of Fuego offered the assistance of trauma consultants from the Fuegan Health Service. The well-wishers were thanked but assured that Presidente Garramuno would recover from his wounds. Garramuno had said from his hospital bed that it would do him the most good if the 25th May was celebrated joyfully and in the spirit of his speech to them - reconciliation and honour.
• Buenos Aires took him at his word and did indeed celebrate, although a few remaining POSENA and Ferrettistas found themselves informed on and detained rather swiftly for police questioning; offered the chance to speak or death at the hands of rioters outside the Jefetura, the accused admitted the truth and that lead to more arrests. Garramuno's speech had almost killed Ferrettism and the bullets that hit him (one grazed his head) made it as popular as Nazis after Auschwitz. But there was much argument about Patagonia, with the 'Patagonian Thousand' stating that they would honour the Fuegan bond until it was time for a joyful reunion with Argentina. "It took Presidente Garramuno to explain it to us, but we, the people of Chubut and Santa Cruz, are the honour-bond that there will be peace with Chile. The Fuegans hold military bases, but otherwise it is an occupation in name only. Our taxes are payable to the Treasury of Argentina."
• The impact within Chile was muted by the tramp of army boots, but the news of the speech and the shooting spread surprisingly fast, despite Voljic's attempts to stop it; Argentine troops at the Southern Front were in any case being showered with pamphlets and could hear PA systems relaying events in Buenios Aires live to them. The shooting of Garramuno shocked them, but it was the action of Capitano Alfredo Garcia that was to be the catalyst; he had been helped by the New Argentina lawyers in the past and knew it was now or never. He called his sergeants to him, discovered that his men had also had enough, so went to see officers in other units. One officer had just shot a Volunteer and a Cabo for trying to desert, so his sergeants had to hold him down, but his unit and other adjoining units were full of homesick and worried conscripts; they had not received letters or calls for weeks and were desperately unhappy.
• "I will go forwards to the Chileos under a flag of truce and see if they will let us go home." Garcia offered his colleagues and countrymen; it was agreed, a white flag was waved in the trenches and Garcia went forwards, fully aware that it only needed one Fuegan or Mapuche sniper to kill him and cause a fire-fight. Buit the flag was respected, he was met by a Coronel who called in a Fuegan Maori Commander for the discussion, and it was agreed that the Argentines could be interned until repatriation. As a gesture of good faith, two Maori returned with some C-rations - the Argentinos were no very well fed - but nearly caused a riot by offering Fuegan Brandy, which the Argentinos regarded as rotgut. However, the truce held and that one hole in the line began to bleed out nearly an eighth of the combat troops on that front. A DINA officer tried to stop it and was promptly shot by a Mapuche, whilst the Fuegans spread out to the rear of the front line, taking prisoners and talking others into a very rapid surrender. Most Occupied Chilean troops had also had enough and wanted an end to the fighting, but many insisted on surrendering to a Fuegan, being now afraid of the Mapuche and the Chile Austral soldiers. The collapse had begun near the coast, spreading into the foothills of the Andes as the Fuegans and Chile Austral soldiers encircled their opponents, the cry of "Surrender and be free!" an ironic warcry.
• When the news arrived in Santiago two hours later, that the Southern Front had disintegrated and that Argentine soldiers were surrendering en masse, Vojnic went to find General Rosas and found him in dress uniform on the saluting-base as units paraded before him. Even to Vojnic it looked odd; the news of the attempt on Garramuno's life had been told to Rosas, but left him unmoved, as if he no longer cared what happened. The DINA commander came up behind him and whispered over his left shoulder.
• "General, your units on the Southern Front have mutinied and deserted - you will need to send others, or the Fuegans will drive north!"
• "Your people will resist. We will deploy when it is necessary." Rosas did not look at him, but carried on saluting his troops. "We have time to finish this and to beat them... Or is it that your people will not resist, but will acclaim them as liberators? Vojnic, you have lied to me. Did you order Garramuno to be shot?" He had raised his voice slightly.
• "Make Garramuno into a martyr? Are you loco? No, it was your accursed Ferrettistas, may they rot in Hell!" Vojnic almost spat out the words, goaded into a rage. Beside them the General's aides and before them, the troops, heard all. "I am trying to save Chile from her enemies!"
• "So how can you regard me, Vojnic...? At ease, lads, this farce is ended!" Rosas's voice cracked out across the plaza, halting the parade. "Arrest this traitor to two countries -!" His gesture to Vojnic was cut short when the head of the DINA drew his side-arm; he was fractionally faster than Rosas's aides, who cut him down with two bullets as Vojnic's tore a red blossom in the middle of Rosas's chest. The General died with a smile on his lips and blood leaking from his mouth.
• It was the end of the fighting, except for the deaths of four DINA agents who had been with Vojnic and were gunned down, then the General's body was removed and Rosas's second in command, General Gaultier, met with a Junta of senior Argentino and Chileo officers to decide what to do. It was agreed to ask Montt and Garramuno for a cease-fire and for President Montt to declare an amnesty - except for the hated DINA - and for the Argentine forces to return home. The Army was in a state of near-mutiny after Rosas was killed, so to repatriate them was the safest move. the Chileans wanted to hang onto the Argentine armour and artillery, with thoughts of attacking Bolivia, but Gaultier had had enough; he told them that Argentine forces would take back all but rations, medical supplies and some ammunition.
• "I will not leave them here to be grabbed by the Fuegans - if you want to remain free of Montt, you will have to come to terms with him, and if Da Silva has any sense, he'll come to terms with you!"
• President Garramuno was woken next morning with the news that the Argentine Army on the Southern Front was surrendering fast and that the Northern Chileans were stabilising a new front line south of Concepcion. Rosas was dead and his army withdrawing towards the Andean passes, requesting that they be allowed home and to bring their heavy equipment with them. Fuegan agents had confirmed most aspects and Fuego was proposing a peace-conference, to be held at Puerto Madryn. It was anticipated that the Northern Chile forces would collapse rapidly and that the end of June should see a staged withdrawal by Fuegan forces, to be completed by the end of July 1982. The news was most heartening and Jorge Garramuno enjoyed a pleasant breakfast.
• Chile is not to see the last of the Argentines for some time, unfortunately for all; the Andean passes were damaged by Fuegan precision bombing and are full of snow, so Gaultier is forced to halt his march home in the foothills of the Andes. However, Marques's informal truce with the Chileans still holds; Eduardo Azocar, one of the Christian Democrat party's politicians, surfaces in Santiago and forms a Committee of National Unity with union, army and municipal officials, as Northern Chile needs competent administration. A cease-fire has been established on the Concepcion Line between North and Austral Chile by General Ettore Berenstein, a career soldier and one of Chile's best Generals; he realises that Land Rovers are vulnerable to mines and tyre-breaking metal chains, deploys all the LAWS anti-tank missiles left in Chile and forces a stalemate. The Fuegans have regained Araucania for Montt, but are reluctant to go further as it becomes clear that they are taking sides in a Chilean civil war, however unintentionally. President Montt agrees that the situation has radically changed and agrees to negotiate with Eduardo Azocar, who (like others in Chile) looks with disfavor on the agreement to establish Andean Araucania as a Mapuche homeland, even if he wants Chile re-united. Neither Garramuno nor Allardyce is acceptable in mediation, whilst Presidente Numero of Brazil is not trusted by anybody and the Peruvians and Bolivians are out of the question. For the moment, the Two Chiles exist and will be a headache for everybody for some time.
• On May 31st Commissioner Morales is delighted to inform the Patagonians that Fuego is making arrangements to leave them as soon as the Argentines in Chile have been repatriated, so for a smooth transition invites Chubut and Santa Cruz provinces to assemble a Transitional Government Committee. This well-meaning gesture is intended solely to ease the transfer of duties back to state and federal institutions, but to his dismay the Patagonians refuse to form it or to confer with federal officials. The state governments of Chubut and Santa Cruz had been re-showing the film 'La Patagonia Rebelde', which was made in 1974 and made into heros the mineworkers killed in 1922 by the central government. Sponsored by a Ferrettist-sympathising State governor of Santa Cruz, the film and the reports of their visit by the Patagonian Thousand, have re-awoken latent Patagonian separatism. There is a strong respect for the ethics of the Fuegan Commissioner service and a desire to integrate those advantages into Patagonian Argentina permanently; Governor Enrico Mustapic was imprisoned by the Junta and (although recanting Ferrettism) has not yet been released, although popularly elected and respected even by the Chubut Welsh. Commissioner Morales bluntly asks the Santa Cruz government (based in Rio Gallegos) just for how long this is going to go on. An up-and-coming jurist named Gustav Zentner makes his reply.
• "Commissioner Morales, we want you to remain here as a neutral Governor until such time as Buenos Aires agrees to the formation of an autonomous National Government of Patagonia within Argentina. I understand that Cantref Mawr is arguing for something similar." This is greeted with dismay by Morales.
• "I do not have that mandate, Senor Zentner - and I must cable my government for instructions."
• On the 1st June, Presidente Garramuno admits that the Patagonians want to remain within Argentina - but on their own terms. The delay in repatriation of what is now Gaultier's army means that in theory the Fuegan Commissioner can remain, but the Fuegans are pointing out that this is not what they expected and troops are already being withdrawn by her from Chile. The Chubut state government confirms that it supports the stand of Santa Cruz and (to the dismay of the Fuegans) opens rudimentary border posts on the roads south into its province. Fuegan Constables reproach the Chubut Patagonians and tell them not to obstruct the traffic, or the state policemen manning the border posts will be removed by Fuegan Guards. This farce is witnessed by Argentine media crews out of Buenos Aires, who are hugely delighted by this situation. Eventually, there is a commonsense solution, with Constables of the RFMC in charge of each border post and permits issued to all civil traffic entering Chubut and Santa Cruz. Both Fuego and Argentina are very embarrassed by this situation, the Federal Police and the RCMC - already on good terms - shaking their heads over 'these mad Patagonians'.
• To reassure Gaultier's army, they receive regular air-drops of mail and supplies, courtesy of the FAA and the FAF, but already it has become clear that the fastest method of repatriation is to fly the troops home from Santiago Airport and to ship the equipment home by sea from ports in Chile. Chilean and Argentine engineers confirm to their governments that repairing the roads up through the passes will take years of work and that November 1982 will be the earliest that work can begin. Bridge and tunnel damage, and the destruction of buttressed roads up the sides of the passes, are the biggest time-wasters, so unless the Army remains in place until 1984, a sea or air return is inevitable. Presidente Montt - still very influential, with his seat of government at Valdivia - refuses to let now-Presidente Azocar re-arm with discarded Argentine equipment and insists that all of it be removed or dumped at sea. A further headache is that Argentine conscripts from Santa Cruz and Chubut insist that they be re-patriated there, since they fear the Garramuno administration will intern them until the Patagonian Question is settled. Garramuno says that all troops must see their families before returning to the colours, so his decree settles that problem.
• By July 1982, the 'air bridge' between Northern Chile and Argentina (all parts, change at Buenos Aires) is in full operation, supported by the Brazilian Air Force and RAAF Transport Command, mostly using rented commercial aircraft. Maori and Argentine ships arrive at Chilean ports, fill up with military equipment then run it south through the Strecho Magallanes into the Atlantic and north to Buenos Aires. One of the biggest sea-lifts ever done in the southern hemisphere, this is done with skill and efficiency, so by early August 1982 the task is done and the Two Chiles are free of Argentina. That leaves only the peace settlement with Bolivia, reluctantly signed by Azocar and Montt at the 26th Parallel under the eyes of Da Avila, who offers to be a go-between if they need him to help resolve differences. That leaves two major problems for Garramuno and Allardyce - Patagonia and Cantref Mawr..

...Which must wait till the next posting. I've just had an oven installed, I'm going to eat, and tonight I have a shift at Tesco *sigh*...

[Petete123123]

Originally Posted by corditeman

This is the final part (no, really?) which will bring the 1982 war to an unexpected conclusion.

• Rosas realises that he is faced by a serious crisis of confidence by his army; the Dia de Revolucione on the 25th of May, with Garramuno's proposal of dedication to the Flag of Argentina, will bring matters to a head. Chileos have heard the broadcasts, as have the Bolivians, whilst leaflet-raids by the FAF and FAA have spread the word to Chile. "Are you Chileans or Argentinos? Is the love of Argentina alive in your hearts? Where are your families? Come home to Argentina!" To the Chileos, the pamphlets gave another message. "Chileans, who is your Presidente? Do you want the usurper Vojnic and the Argentine General Rosas? Or will you return to Chile's constitution iunder the guidance of Almirante Montt's descendant, Ernesto Montt? Choose, then - the bandits of the DINA or the honesty of Presidente Montt."

Good idea, just a little thing. We have a Flag day which is in June 22nd, and the 25th of May we remember the values and dreams of our founding fathers as well as the start of the Independence war.

[corditeman]

...Trouble is, Garramuno has to trigger a revolt amongst Rosas's troops. Holding an earlier flag dedication on 25th May, rather than in the depths of the southern hemisphere winter, is a solution.

[Petete123123]

Originally Posted by corditeman

...Trouble is, Garramuno has to trigger a revolt amongst Rosas's troops. Holding an earlier flag dedication on 25th May, rather than in the depths of the southern hemisphere winter, is a solution.

Well, two things. One is that the Southern hemisphere winter is harsh south of the Colorado River(Neuquen and Rio Negro). In most of the rest it doesn't even snow, maybe there are like 4 or 5 days below 0ºC but not more than that.
And the flag dedication can't be done earlier. Ask people from the USA if they would like to have the independence day in Febraury. Here it is the third more important day after 25th May and 9th of July.
So I thought that to do it in autumn, remembering the troops the values of the Founding Fathers as well as their fight for freedom will trigger a revolt even more than a dedication to the flag which actually means the eternity of our country and our true desire of governing ourselves.

[corditeman]

What kind of ceremony do you and the other Argentinos advise? I can write in what you suggest, as long as I don't pass the maximum editing time for the post.
If not the flag, then what symbolism do you advise?
Waiting with bated breath...
...Carried on with Post 318. The solution to the Patagonian and Cantref Mawr crisis comes next. Commissioner Morales was the most ethical Fuegan I could think of...
...And Kirchner's too big to butterfly away...Santa Cruz seems to breed determination.
...And the Fuegans are bloody exhausted and in need of a strong drink!

[corditeman]

Fuego's effects on Southern America and the South Atlantic continue to be profound.

• By July 1st 2010 the Malvinas Welsh have renamed Puerto Rosas into Porth Mawr, with Welsh and Spanish as the major languages and English as a lingua franca. 'Asphalt' remains moored in San Carlos as an air defence vessel and the Welsh have acquired a small fleet of coastguard and patrol vessels captured from Argentina by the Fuegans. They need these to protect the licenced fishing vessels that provide foreign exchange and are seriously considering licences for oil drilling between Fuego and the Malvinas. Cantref Mawr is acquiring a sense of economic independence and has opened contacts with the Patagonian Argentinos.
• Gustav Zentner is emerging as the leading voice in Santa Cruz and in Patagonia as a whole. He is quite charismatic and his electorate has many women in their ranks. Neither Allardyce nor Garramuno completely trust him - he is a lawyer and a professional politician, but he does have a surprising opponent.
• Prince Felipe Orelie-Antoine, the descendant of a Frenchman who was made King of Araucania and Patagonia by the loncos (chiefs) of the Mapute, has been publicising their desire for a homeland since his father Antoine III died in 1952. A largely notional title, the Prince is nevertheless respected by the Mapute and Welsh, and although persona non grata with the Juntas and subsequent administrations, has managed to sneak in through Fuego or Chile under his French passport. Loving the chance to cock yet another snook at both Santiago and Buenos Aires, the Patagonians have given him a warm welcome, as he is their only 'native' royalty, with a line back to 1860. It is rumoured that his ancestors frequently visited Fuego and certainly he is able to stomach Fuegan Brandy, deemed by some to be a taste only acquired over generations. Zentner is by no means pleased to see Felipe, but the Prince has said that he would stand for election if Patagonia needs a head of state, and is already negotiating with legal skill with Montt, in getting the Araucanian Andes province established. The certainty that any Mapute or Welshman would now vote for Felipe, is alarming Zentner and other politicos.
• Fuego spends the winter recovering from an unwanted war and making plans for the future. The venerable Hunters and Lincolns are showing their age and need replacement, for the conflict has been their swan-song. Rex Hunt, the quiet Governor of Fuego Colony, admits that he, too, is tired, for the war has been as trying for him as for his PM, Juliet Allardyce. Finances in the Colony are not good - wars are expensive and Patagonia has had to be occupied for far too long. There is no doubt that new resources are needed - more tidal power stations, new wind-turbines, offshore oil drilling and exploitation of Patagonian mineral deposits. Fuego also has to take in more immigrants from Chile, Patagonia and Cantref Mawr, and a trickle from the UK and Australasia. For those with eyes to see them, there are scars in Fuegan Patagonia - mass-graves, bullet and shell splinter marks under masonry and paint, some old Ferrettista minefields that claim lives every year. North Trelew has a new granite slab with the names of Fuegan dead upon it, some folk already wondering if in twenty years there will be yet another one to add.
• Patagonia spends July trying to screw concessions and guarantees out of Buenos Aires, retaining the Fuegan Occupation for as long as treaties and the return of the Army remain incomplete. The Patagonians think they have a strong position, since they control half the oil industry and a lot of the fishing and field agriculture, but that is an equal reason why the Federal government are determined not to lose control of those key resources. Argentina as a whole is rather shocked by this reformism, particularly when the reasons for it become clear - Patagonia has experienced government by Fuego, which has very little corruption in its public services and commerce and virtually no censorship at all. The wily Garramuno extracts Zentner by getting a Buenos Aires law firm to offer him a local partnership and discussing his possibilities as a candidate for the Falange, although Garramuno's own New Argentina party looks likely to retain power at the next election.
• 1st August 1982 is an awkward day for both Fuego and Argentina, for the Fuegans point out that, with matters at a stand in Chile and Gaultier's army re-patriated, there is very little reason to claim a mandate for the occupation. Questions are already being asked in the UN as a diplomatic solution is being sought over Cantref Mawr, whilst there is a good deal of sniggering internationally at the problem Argentina and Fuego have with Patagonia. Any attempt by Fuego to do more than rotate its small army through postings in Patagonia, raises roars of protest from the Patagonians; Argentina might have sent in military forces in the days of Marques, but that is unthinkable in the new climate of Garramuno's administration. In the good old spirit of trying it on the dog first, a solution is being discussed for Cantref Mawr, although the Welsh are highly suspicious of it.
• Cantref Mawr is physically separate from Argentina, so an argument exists for complete independence. Unfortunately, its small size and strategic location near the oil-bearing strata of the Malvinas Basin makes it extremely unlikely that Argentina will give it up, even though some Welsh agitate for a union with Fuego. The 1963 Agreements did give Fuego a mandate to guarantee the safety of the Cymreos on the Malvinas and to intervene if necessary, but the actions of Baltasar showed that one extremist could trigger a war. The situation in Cantref Mawr is unlikely to change for the foreseeable future, except for pending agreements between the Fuegans, Argentinans and Cantref Mawr, to split the profits of oil and gas extraction in the Cantref Mawr Economic Zone three ways.
• A similar arrangement is already suggested for Patagonia - existing offshore fields split profits two ways between Argentina and Patagonia, future fields split unequally three ways to include revenue for Fuego to maintain its Police and Military presence. This is not popular with either Argentina or Fuego, as it commits Fuego to stationing its forces permanently in Patagonia whilst Argentina's forces are excluded. Commissioner Morales decides to get to the root of the problem and it turns out to be the heavily-politicised Police and Armed Services in Argentina - a thing that British practice excludes by having municipal and county Police and Fire services and an apolitical Army, Navy and Air Force. With that now out in the open, Garramuno orders some sweeping reforms; Buenos Aires has for a long time agitated for its own Police force, as have the provincial cities. The RFMC have experimented already in Rio Gallegos and Commodoro Rivadavia with a local police auxiliary that is recruited and run by professionals, not politicians, with fairly good results. Instead of looking at the Police and Army as a stepping-stone to a political career, there has to be a new ethos of pure career-oriented professional volunteer armed and emergency services. Military conscription will change and there will be a professional Army, ARA and FAA, supported by a part-time volunteer military force like the Land Guard, organised nationally, rather than giving state governors their own 'National Guard' armies, as in the USA.
• "After long discussions with all those involved, it has been decided to introduce new Army and Police reforms in Patagonia, then, if successful, to extend these to the rest of the Argentine Republic." Garramuno announced on Channel 7. "These are supported by the Fuegan Government, who are agreeing to stay on for a one-year transition period. They have also agreed to garrison one naval base, three airfields and three army bases, mainly as training centres for Patagonian units of the Argentine Armed Forces. All other bases are to remain closed except for caretaking services. Both Fuego and Argentina are agreed that any third party trying to take advantage of this, will be hit hard by our joint armed forces. Joint exercises will take place this summer. The forces from Australasia are mostly home already, except for a small liaison team in Fuego. A small Fuegan force of RFMC and Fuegan Guards will police the Chubut-Rio Negro border, but there will also be joint civil patrols along the Chile Austral frontier. Patagonia will indeed have some autonomy, but will remain within Argentina. Cantref Mawr will also be encouraged to send recruits for training and to observe the success of this joint mission. Myself and Premier Allardyce and the Fuegan Colonial Governor, Sir Rex Hunt, are in agreement that this is the best way forwards." He then looked somewhat embarrassed.
• "Prince Felipe Orelie-Antoine has been chosen by the Mapuche Council of Loncos as their leader in both Andean Araucania and the proposed Patagonian Mapuche Reservation. Myself and Presidente Montt have agreed that this should be respected. It is the final element of the Peace Settlement involving the Fuegans, as their Maori and Karukinka citizens require this. In the same way as the land of Andorra between France and Spain, there is to be a joint Principality, with the Presidentes of Chile Austral and Argentina sharing government with the Orelie-Antoine dynasty. The Council of Loncos, the Mapuche chieftains, will oversee the government. The Mapute have asked me to assure all non-Mapute in their homeland that their votes and economic input are welcomed. Local taxes will support the homeland, whilst federal taxes will be divided between Chile and Argentina according to residence in Araucania or Mapute Patagonia. This multiple tax status is the most remarkable feature devised by our countrymen in Patagonia, and may be of use elsewhere in the world."
• There were a lot of rich men around the planet who heartily cursed Presidente Garramuno for the Patagonian Solution, for the idea would have massive impacts in places with high immigrant populations and in tax-avoidance havens; it underlined that a citizen's birthplace, place of residence and workplace, might all have claims for taxation purposes. The Isle of Man, the Channel Islands, Monaco, Andorra, San Marino and a host of other 'Offshore' locations were to find themselves faced by either having to declare outright independence or having to cough up tax money to their residents' genuine nations. The accountants were to have a field day sorting this problem out, in the face of electoral enthusiasm.
• Matters in Patagonia were going to work themselves out, but Chile was still in a very strange position; the 'Northerners' had long thought of the 'Southerners' as country bumpkins needing care and guidance, so it was irritating to find out that Santiago was now very unpopular for letting the DINA and Rosas rule whilst the 'Free Chileans' had kept on fighting. Chile Austral thought of itself as the real Chile, primarily agricultural with limited industry but a lot of mining. Above all, Chile Austral had the Navy, an Air Force in being and the Antarctic bases and Chilean Pacific islands, so it held the Embassies and the UN membership. Chile Austral was also closely allied with the Fuegans - there had been some intermarriage since 1900 - and strong economic links with Maoriland. Rather than differences being resolved by the passing of some ships and planes to Northern Chile, the efforts of Montt and Azocar faced local prejudices made worse by distance. Going all the way from the arid tropics down to the sub-Antarctic, Chile was an anomaly as countries went, so the unintentional partition along the Concepcion Line rapidly become an international boundary.
• It did not help the Chileans to know that Argentina was resolving its own Patagonian Question or that the Bolivians also had problems, with the Aymara wanting a Karukinka-style homeland across the boundaries of Bolivia and Peru. Even in the Brazilian rainforest, indigenous groups were starting to clamour for their own homelands, whilst in Canada the famous Inuit had won the April 14th Nunavut Plebiscite that committed the Canadian government to the formation of Nunavut. Elsewhere in the world the Chinese of Hong Kong, the Mongols of Inner Mongolia and the Tibetans were giving the Han Chinese a dull pain under the hat and the Bretons of France agitated for either autonomy or independence. Spain faced the problem of the Basques and had the contradiction of trying to take over Gibraltar, whose status as a Colony was almost as great a legal fiction as Fuego's. Britain, as ever, faced the Northern Irish Question, also the haiverings of Scottish and Welsh Nationalists, but the most severe problem was in Belgium, where the 'Freedom for Flanders' crisis engaged the diplomats of the Netherlands and France as well. To their dismay, the Norwegians, Swedes and Finns, found that the Saemi peoples (the Lapps) wanted to form their own nation, crossing the borders of all three countries; monolithic Russia regarded this as an affront, for the Saemi culture extended all the way to the White Sea, behind Russia's strategic nuclear bases at Murmansk Fjord. So far, the Saemi had to be content with Scandinavian cross-border cultural exchanges and good-natured tolerance by three nations cocking a snook at Russia.
• Presidente De Silva of Bolivia had not been completely unprepared for the Aymara demand - he had used them almost as an occupation army - and he agreed to let them consider Arica Province as their homeland. In the past it had been Peruvian, so its resettlement by Bolivian and Peruvian Aymara was no big deal; the Peruvians were rather hurt, until 'Manco Capac', the charismatic leader of the Inca Sun Aymara and Quechua party, pointed out that they were a link between the two nations, even as the Mapute would be between Patagonian Argentina and Chile Austral. Both native groups would act as a buffer state to reduce future conflicts; as a final telling point, he reminded them that the Maori and Karukinka were prepared to admit their Mapute, Aymara and Quechua friends to the Assembly of Indigenous American Peoples that would soon be meeting in Timatanga. De Silva had pointed out that the Maori were not American indigenes, but from Micronesia, a matter that 'Manco Capac' disputed after reading Thor Heyerdahl's well-meaning but inaccurate 'Kon Tiki' and 'Aku-Aku', which had little respect amongst the Maori themselves. But the Maori did debate whether they had come from Hawaii or Micronesia, neither of which were in the Americas, as De Silva pointed out; however, he agreed that the native peoples of the Americas had found a champion in the Maori, even as the Mapute had in Orelie-Antoine. De Silva was considered by Capac and others in Peru and Bolivia to be as great a statesman as Garramuno and Montt, both of whom now had near-heroic status amongst Indios for their benevolent treatment of the Mapute. But Fuego remained the place the Indios respected most; some Aymara would deliberately go to the north side of a hearth fire and pray looking south, in the belief that it would influence the Fuegans to help them.
• Juliet Allardyce was not to escape this respect when she arrived in Puerto Montt to visit war graves and to meet with both Prince Felipe and Ernesto Montt; the Mapute called her 'Mama Igneos', after the Incan fire-goddess; fortuitously, the long-haired brunette was wearing a dress and a long plaid wrap, which strongly reminded the few Aymara present of the costume reputedly worn by the First Wife of the Incan Emperor or that of the Mama Cunas, the Priestesses. From then until the end of her life, PM Allardyce was named 'Mama Igneos' by the world's press, by this media pressure to be a world spokeswoman for the cause of native rights. As she was to tell her husband Michael Braun (who the media largely ignored), she went to Chile as a politician and returned as something of a shaman, which was most embarrassing for her Presbyterian and Anglican relatives. Prince Felipe told his family that PM Allardyce was witty and plain spoken, but rather a strong character and with a great sense of duty. He then had to apologise to his wife, Princess Elena, who felt that he had been spending all too much time (though entirely under the public eye) with the famous Juliet.
• Presidente Garramuno also had his personal embarrassments; the Congreso Nacionale required his attendance after his convalescence and asked for a formal explanation for his absence from duty; Jorge Garramuno apologised but pleaded having been shot twice by a sniper. Vice Presidente Ramon Vaduz then came to his elbow, as the President of Congress, to gesture forwards General Miltares, beaming and straight backed, who saluted the astonished Jorge Garramuno and reverently passed a box to the President of the Chamber of Deputies, Pedro Modeste. To Garramuno's shock, the box was opened and revealed the medal and ribbons of the Argentine Army's Distinguished Service Order, Grand Cross level, which Ramon Vaduz then pinned carefully to the left chest of Garramundo's suit. That Jorge winced due to his wound was considered excusable; the Presidente then made the worst speech of his life in thanks, tears streaming down his face, for he was overcome.
• "Argentina has won this medal, not I." Jorge Garramuno said then and later. "But I will wear it with pride all of my life." Other nations were to award Garramuno honours - he was pipped at the post for the Nobel World Peace Prize by others - but he treasured the DSO Grand Cross above all.
• Once the fighting was over and things had settled down, there were Presidential visits from a number of countries, the United States coming in September; Ronald Reagan had declined to visit frosty Fuego, so came whilst Juliet Allardyce and her husband were visiting Buenos Aires. The Fuegan 'First Family' were a lot less sophisticated than those from Washington, but Nancy Reagan did admire the fine pashmina-like wrap Juliet wore over her trademark Inca-style pinned and embroidered dress - a gift from the Bolivian Aymara. Asked if it was vicuna or cashmere, Juliet explained that it was guanaco underwool from Fuego, woven by the Maori and dyed using local plants. The Maori had recently contacted the Inuit to acquire some musk oxen, as their quiviut was more abundant and musk oxen liked the Fuegan climate. The Mapute had watched the experiment with interest, which promised to develop a fourth source of luxury fibre for Fuego clothmakers. Ronald Reagan was more interested in the influence Fuego had upon Argentina, which made Garramuno chuckle.
• "Senor Reagan, we are both Sudamericanos!" The Presidente was most amused. "Patagonia is still Argentine - maybe the Argentina of the future, no?" He glanced at Juliet, who shrugged shoulders kept slim by the pressure of government. "But, yes, we have the army and navy exercises, the FAA and FAF like each other and the Chile Austral FACh respect us. The Mapute keep us honest."
• "I was thinking about Cantref Mawr." That drew a sigh from both his hosts; the Cymreos were an obligation almost harder to deal with than the Patagonians.
• "Under Fuegan administration, for the moment." Allardyce's eyes dared Garramuno to disagree. "A Colony can't have a colony, but we can administer by the request of the citizenry...And, no, we're quite satisfied with Governor Rex Hunt, Mr. President." She glanced at Garramuno again. "It's a rule that one of us has to be at Ushuaia when the other's out of Fuego - a strategic requirement."
• "The Gregbunker, I presume?" Ronald Reagan knew where it was, the PM realised; this might well be bad news, with US satelites able to look down on the South Cone. "Your cruise missiles were quite effective. We've a lot of our own. I hope you won't be exporting them, Mrs. Allardyce?"
• "That would disturb the balance with Brazil, if Argentina buys them." A frosty response from Garramuno. "Senor Reagan, we are here to keep the peace, not to make another war - on that myself, Senora Allardyce, Presidente De Silva and Presidente Montt are in agreement. And Presidente Alcozar has established a Hot Line to me to guard against another war. Presidente Uno - apologies, Presidente Numero -" A brief giggle from Juliet. "- agrees with me that we need to extend Mercosur to the Fuegans. As for Argentina's missile and weapons programmes - Senor Reagan, the Alacran has a range of 150 kilometres and the best use for nuclear material is in a power station!"
• "President Reagan is a poker player, Jorge. He wants to know what cards you hold." Juliet Allardyce had the satisfaction of making Reagan start. "Oddly enough, Mr. President, we did think about satellite overflights when we designed the Gregbunker. Also, radio intercepts. I'll bet you've found one of the decoy sites." Her smile was seraphic, but Garramuno choked off a laugh at Reagan's face. "Why not go after Russia and make them fold? Our intelligence is that their economy is on the rocks, because of a severe recent military overspend. Or will you let them mislead you, as you did after that handful of missiles and bombers they built in the 1960s? A lot of money wasted, facing a non-existent threat!"
• "I...see..." The President of the United States faced one of the toughest little nations on Earth. "I remember Thomas's advice to Eisenhower, 'way back in the 50's...?" A brief sideways flip of the head as Allardyce frowned and her face cleared as she recalled it; she nodded. "I see... Yes, most useful, this visit." Then he changed the subject to Native American Peoples, as Jorge Garramuno digested what had just happened. As he said in his most secret memoirs, not to be released until the year 2000, he had seen Reagan try to dominate Fuego and get his fingers burnt in the politest of ways, only to be given a way to deal with his worst enemy. Garramuno made up his mind in that moment to try to live long enough to see out Reagan's plots.

[corditeman]

The thread has developed several sub-plots :-

(1) The postwar refit of Fuegan forces and the Swedish and Russian Crises. This comes next - I'd overlooked the potential of a Scandinavian link, but the climate (and WWII stopping of 'Orion') had opened up some possibilities. The war with Chile had delayed the refit of the 'Oberon' class and a general renewal of equipment was needed.

(2) Patagonia's Constitutional Crisis - does the doctrine of Separation of Powers exist in Argentina? Does the 'Golden Rule' on Courts' interpretation of legislation exist in Argentina? Your answers will really help to develop and resolve the situation - maybe poor Commissioner Morales will get home to his estacione at last.

[corditeman]

This sub-plot runs alongside the War and continues after it. Fuego's advanced technlogy is nearly as good as the Israelis' and will involve the neutral Swedes. It is also going to make the USSR hate the Fuegans' guts (not you, sir, just your guts - Radar) but very cautious about going near Cabo de Hornes.

• By Christmas 1982 the Fuegans could look back on their most momentous year since 1963, but this time all potential foes were in disarray and their way of life was actually being copied by those who had despised it. But as Juliet Allardyce was to say to the Fuegan Assembly, the price of their freedom had been vigilance and the constant readiness to defend themselves. The world had moved on considerably since her grandfather's day, so even as early as 1980 Fuego had had to consider obtaining (or modifying) suitable replacements for the ships and aircraft that were showing their age. To laughing heckling about 'Virago', she grinned, but pointed out that the Royal Navy was disposing of a range of aircraft. Several Assemblymen wanted four ex-RAF Avro Vulcans, tremendously impressive delta-wing long range bombers, until reminded that these had the same problem as an aircraft carrier - a lot of bang, but lose one and you lose a quarter of the air force. Others looked to modified civil airliners carrying control-crews for coveys of single-use or re-usable drone aircraft like the Predator. The winners were those wanting missile-platforms such as fast patrol-boats, stealthy aircraft or stealthy submarines. A highly-secret intelligence asset in Sweden had learnt that the Kockums company were developing a Stirling diesel/liquid oxygen system as an auxiliary propoulsion system for submarines. This was not unusual - there had been British and Russian attempts with hydrogen peroxide (HTTP), but the advantages of lox/diesel were stability and reliability. Another system talked about was to use liquid methane and lox in a fuel cell for direct electricity generation - an advance that was worth studying but was still going to need a lot of development. The Fuegan Marine decision was to retrofit their 'Oberon' class submarines with a longer section for the AIP Stirling unit, some time in the early 1990s.
• During late 1981, the FAF had looked at several redundant British and European aircraft before settling upon some Harriers and the Saab Viggen, this last being modified to take a Rolls Royce Spey engine. As transports it chose four Hercules C-130 and two old VC-10, but as replacements for the Lincolns it was to choose the Nimrod AS/EW in return for some technical information. Although not as great a system as the US Boeing E3-D Sentry AWACS, the Nimrod was a long-range aircraft with a huge bomb-bay for modular mission-packages. Wulaia and De Havilland Fuego were already working on a second-generation Sapphire II cruise missile and a tiny turbojet drone aircraft - the Hornet - able to carry reconnaissance sensors or a range of weapons. Much of this would only be operational in the 1990s, but it was a start. All this had to be put on hold in early in 1982, for the war had meant a re-evaluation of Fuego's military needs.
• Although the Fuegan Guards had been satisfied with the performance of their equipment in Patagonia, the problems of altitude and terrain had not been kind to the Land Rovers; there was also the problem of river-crossings, for the Guards needed either to float over or to fly over, so a light amphibious vehicle was needed. The Land Rover company Rolls-Royce Fuego had come up with a Land Rover 'swimming kit' of inflatable pontoons, but this was a stop-gap. ATVs were too small, so an Alvis Stalwart was tried and its drive mechanism was prone to mechanical failure, so the Wulaia Arsenal had to consider a Volvo-built drive system (VG) in its place; the Alvis was a good size but the Guards needed reliability. They decided to continue the use of the DUKW, as they had done since the 1950s, until the StalwartVG was ready for use. To the amusement of the Argentinos, the Fuegans seriously examined the 'Gaucho' vehicle as a replacement for the Land Rover, but in fact it was unsuitable for the task, so a modernised version of the old warhorse was chosen. However, the Swedes' Bv202 tracked all-terrain vehicles were also studied and some ordered for the Fuego-Chileo Antarctic Survey.
• Juliet's husband, Michael Braun, was a marine engineer connected with Ushuaia Dockyard and Wulaia Arsenal, so it was not, in retrospect, much of a surprise when he went in February 1982 to Sweden, to speak discreetly with the firm of Kockums and the Swedish government. What he discussed was Fuego's first non-Commonwealth defence partnership - the development of the 'Fitzroy' class of stealth submarines, based on Swedish proposals for the new 'Gotland' class. The Fuegans had become skilled at controlling noise and vibration from engines and submarine drive systems, as well as the stealthy design of streamlining and sonar-absorbtive coatings. The Swedes had a far greater engineering capacity and the ability to produce and weld large quantities of titanium, had already started on the Stirling AIP system and wanted access to Fuegan electronics and programming. When a group of Swedish engineers reported back to their government, a month later, they called Fuegans 'South American Scandinavians', because in climate and approach to life they were not unlike one another. The mutual satisfaction was to develop into one of the longest-distance business and social relationships established between any two small countries, spreading into the joint design, production and profit-sharing, of matters as different as wind and tidal-flow turbines, IKEA furniture (Fuego already had Fuegan Timber Industry's FTI designs), clothing and exchange visits between schools. 'FMS/M Fitzroy' and 'HMSwS Gotland' were to be launched by 1989 after a remarkably fast development owing a lot to early Fuegan computer-aided-design (CAD) work.
• Sweden had considered dispensing with its destroyers and frigates in 1982, but access to Fuegan experience was to modify this attitude considerably; the Swedish Navy realised that it could not dispense with anti-submarine warfare capability and was increasingly troubled by Russian incursions into its waters. In May 1983, in the latest of a series of incidents outside Sundsvall and Toreviken, the Swedish Navy detected submarines and an informal exchange of advice took place between the Fuegan Marine and the Swedish Navy. Fuego had sent over its latest guided torpedo - the WST-12 Shark - for tests; the tests concluded with its shaped-charge ripping into a Russian submarine that had deployed an underwater tracked vehicle, sinking the submarine and all of its crew. The Russians were furious, but, as the Swedes pointed out in the United Nations, the test area had been notified to mariners well beforehand and the submarine was 'mistaken' for a sonic target drone. The drone had been rapidly manufactured at Wulaia and was flown over just in time to be displayed to the world press. The United Nations charged the Swedes with the recovery of the submarine and its crew, but it was found that the submarine had been torn open by a lucky hit on the HTP-fuelled torpedoes in the torpedo storage room of the submarine. The Soviets tried a second penetration outside Karlskrona naval base, later in October 1982, only for the underwater tracked vehicle to be ripped to fragments by another WST-12; Fuego declined to comment 'operational matters' but it was believed that the visit of 'FMS Narwhal' coincided with this incident. From then on, Russian incursions ceased and the Swedish Navy became very popular in its own country; the Swedish destroyer 'Ostergotland' made one of her rare outside visits to another country in November 1983 when she sailed by way of Britain, Gibraltar, Brazil and Argentina, to Fuego. The Ushuaia Dockyard refitted the destroyer as a missile cruiser and sent her back with several casks of Fuegan Brandy, in mid-1984.
• Sweden had no formal alliances - like Switzerland, it was proud of its neutrality - but the deadly result of the 'business relationship' with the Fuegans had hurt the Russians badly; the Russians never knew when 'FMS Narwhal' managed to close on units of the Baltic Fleet undetected and to take close-up scans of the Alfa class attack submarines supposedly keeping interlopers like her at arm's-length. The 'Narwhal' took back to Fuego photos of key secret parts of the submarines and details of the underwater sonar of other ships, which made it abundantly clear that even the old and re-worked 'Oberon' submarines were too quiet to be spotted. The 'Narwhal' had lain on the bottom ahead of the projected course of the Russian squadron, then taken underwater flash photos as the Russians passed, unseen and unheard. Only later did spies in Sweden discover that the Swedish Navy had acquired these pictures at the time when 'Narwhal' was in the Baltic, by which time years had passed. The 'Narwhal' took on a more dangerous assignment when purportedly back on her way to Fuego - she loitered outside Murmansk for a week, gathering useful information on Russian Alfas and other classes, before returning to pass copies to the Norwegians, Swedes, Danes and the Royal Navy.
• Soviet Russia was not inclined to forgive or forget anybody who had made it look foolish and had cost it two undersea tractors and a submarine, so there is a Politburo decision to move some assets into the South Atlantic and make Fuego and its friends uneasy; if at all possible, Fuegan ships should suffer 'accidents' and maybe an aircraft or two as well. The Soviets also decided to send a stiff Note to the PM of Fuego through its largely-unused Consulate in Ushuaia, which was shared with a number of other Eastern European nations and had a total staff of two. The Military and Commercial Attache was Boris Gorshkov, an ageing Major who spent most of his time trying to count the scrapped equipment being dealt with in Ushuaia and Wulaia, and assisting the handful of Soviet citizens (mostly fishing crew and Antarctic station personnel) who assume that Fuegan good-nature can be imposed upon. To his dismay, he was required to wait upon the Prime Minister with a diplomatic Note of Protest, wired to him by Moscow, and to make sure that its contents were clearly understood. Major Gorshkov waited uneasily in the anteroom to Juliet Allardyce's office, his best suit on and his diplomatic valise at his feet, wishing at least for a Vodka, at worst for a Fuegan Brandy.
• "Another fisherman with drink troubles in Cantref Mawr, or is it a scientific officer stranded on an ice-floe, again?" The Prime Minister gestured him to a chair, then saw his face and his unease. "No - I see it's more serious. Do you want a drink, Boris, whilst I deal with this?" The Major nodded as he handed her a rather thin envelope, to down a tot of Fuegan Brandy with a shudder. He saw Juliet Allardyce give a thoughtful "H'mm!" and read the message two or three times before she reached for a phone and speed-dialled a number. "Crisis Briefing Team - ten minutes!" Then she turned towards Boris Gorshkov and smiled. "Moscow is warning us that it regards the sinking of S-347 as an Act of War by Fuego, even if undertaken in Swedish waters. Do you want Fuego to give you the status of a political refugee and naturalise you as a Fuegan citizen, or would you rather we deported you to Russia?"
• "Your Excellency, I would be hunted down and killed by the KGB, if I stayed here as a refugee." Boris Gorshkov told her that quite openly. "At least, if you deport me I will see Moscow once again. I fear I am not much of a spy - I am not much of a diplomat, either."
• "Then I will punish you by requiring that you stay in Ushuaia." The PM knew how to make him squirm. "Madame Irena Gorshkov, also... The Fuegan response to this message will take us a little time to compose. You may return to your Consulate, but the standard communications privileges are suspended. Groceries and other supplies will be sent to you, if Madame Irena makes out a shopping-list. It's not your fault, Boris - you're just the messenger."
• "Your Excellency is kind." The little Major came to his feet and clicked his heels. "I will leave you now."
• "It's a threat, to call it an Act of War. Possible reprisals, folks?" Juliet looked round the table in the Briefing Room; Rear-Admiral Murdoch grinned, an old warhorse scenting a battle. "You think they'll attack us, Sinker?"
• "They'd need a long-range bomber, a land-launched ICBM or a sea-launched IRBM, to even place a weapon on our territory. I'd say we're looking at interference with the Merchant Marine, the Air Fuego flights or possibly a submarine blockade." 'Sinker' Murdoch was studying the Navy Lists for the Fuegan Marine. "We can clear every Soviet base out of Antarctica within a week. NZ and Oz don't like Russia any more than we do, so they'll help. Plan 32, Ma'am. As for a blockade - well, we can get the MACs in position to help and we've acquired Cantref Mawr as an AEW/ASW point. The Americans would love to set up a SOSUS network between Harbourtown and the Palmer Peninsula. If they don't send more than three or four submarines or bombers, we can handle them. Patagonia's a help and a nuisance."
• "Amen to that. Anything else?" There was a little - the FAF and the Marine had the Lincolns, Gannets, Buccaneers and Sea Vixens. It was the old story - the Russians would find distance and the USA in the way of rapid power-projection and the Brazilians would not be happy, either. The Royal Navy was overstretched, but a couple of hunter-killer subs might come and assist. Air-traffic control would have to watch out for clandestine attacks by modified commercial aircraft, the Fuegan Guards would watch out for Spetsnaz units trying to attack Fuego's defences and government, so all that could be done would be done.
• "At 1300 AST the Russian Government sent a Note to Fuego accusing Fuego of an Act of War in the sinking of a submarine illegally within Swedish territorial waters. PM Allardyce has replied by saying that Fuegan forces who were guests in Sweden were asked for assistance in removing hostile submarines. Fuego has also taken precautions to guard its territorial waters and islands from attacks. Any submarine within 600 sea miles of the coast of the Fuegan Islands must surface and proceed with its hatches open out of that Restricted Area or to Inspection Sites, as otherwise it will be sunk. Fuego apologises in advance to submarines of nations not involved in this dispute. Russia is advised to leave Fuego and its aviation and commerce alone as action will be taken in their defence. This Warning to Mariners and Pilots issued at 1400 AST."
• Ronald Reagan called the Soviet Ambassador to the White House about ten minutes later and famously advised him that it was not a good idea for Russia to send forces into the South Atlantic to attack Fuego there 'or anywhere else' as the United States might be forced to intervene. More frankly, he had told Andropov, the Soviet President, that Russia had got its fingers burnt trying to infiltrate Sweden and should not try to take revenge on Fuego. "The Fuegans do not understand superpowers and will fight you without fear. That will do you no good at all. We are sure that they have the quietest and fastest non-nuclear submarines in the world. It will be interesting to see who wins in a submarine shoot-out between an Alfa and an Advanced Oberon, but remember that we've not yet allied ourselves to them."
• Andropov recalled the five submarines to their normal patrol patterns two days later, after it became clear that a US 'Los Angles' class submarine had been forced to leave the Restricted Zone on the surface, escorted by a Lincoln ASW/AEW aircraft. As the 'Los Angeles' class were believed to be the USA's quietest and fastest nuclear attack submarines, the far noisier 'Alfas' would be easy for the Fuegans to detect and sink. This matter was kept out of the media, but caused considerable shock to both the US Navy and the Soviet Navy; the emphasis on stealth that the Fuegans had been practicing for decades, now became a paramount concern in submarine operations. Russia restricted its SSBN missile submarine fleet to operations in the almost-landlocked Sea of Okhotsk and White Sea, now seriously afraid that otherwise the US, UK and Fuego, could wipe out a third of the Soviet strategic deterrent. It was to be the most dangerous crisis Fuego had ever faced, as at one time three members of the Politburo angered Andropov by suggesting a limited nuclear strike on Wulaia, Ushuaia and two other targets. Andropov furiously told them that it would end with nuclear bombs on Moscow and Leningrad (St.Petersbourg) and enrage South America; a poll of the main South American countries had warned Andropov that they would go to war beside the USA. The Gregbunker was never accurately located by Russia or America until the 1990s, so a counterstrike could have been ordered with Sapphire 1 missiles with FAE warheads.
• After two months under house arrest, Major Boris and his wife Irena were allowed to resume their normal lives, but on the death of USSR President Chernenko in 1985, they both applied for political asylum and were resettled under new names in Maoriland, later resuming residence in Ushuaia when it became clear that Gorbachev wanted the 'Fuego Embarrassment' to be put to rest. Russian scientific and military staff were prevented by Brazilian, Argentine, Chilean and Fuegan forces, from using their countries or facilities to access or operate Soviet bases in the Weddell Sea area. This contributed to the closure of all but one Russian base in that sector of Antarctica and showed that the 'British Fuego-Chileo Antarctic Territory' had become a South American Antarctic Zone.