alternatehistory.com
Ragnarok 1940s
From Ragnarok 1940s: The Deadliest Decade, a military historical TV show which aired in Germany in the mid 2000s and saw great commercial success
An American Union State P-65 “Tigercat” heavy fighter patrols off the Florida Keys, 1944. Despite having a limited industrial base and smaller manpower pool than their main enemy, the Combined Syndicates of America, the Union State was able to hold out against the might of the syndicalist giant the longest out of any other American faction. Part of this was due to skill—Union State commanders like George Patton, Matthew Ridgeway, Lewis “Chesty” Puller, William Simpson and Joseph Collins became famous across the globe for their skill, most notably in the summer 1943 Operation Ripper, an offensive which very nearly broke the back of the CSA in the Midwest—and part was due to their technology. The Tigercat, possessing two 20mm cannons and two twin .50 caliber machine guns, was just one of the “new breed” of vehicles and weapons which had been rolled out in time for Ripper, and like so many of the others, it had provided absolutely lethal. From its introduction in the summer of 1943 to the Second American Civil War’s end in March of 1945 the Tigercat would be the mainstay of the AUS Air Force, used in interception, ground attack and anti-submarine roles, all of which it performed fairly well.
American Union State submarine USS Bull Shark sits in New Orleans harbor, spring 1942. Both the Union State and the Combined Syndicates extensively made use of submarine raiders to target each other’s conveys, carrying vitally needed supplies from elsewhere in the world to fuel the war machines. The CSA also made extensive use of surface raiders as well. With the AUS surface navy effectively wiped out by 1942 the CSA was slowly able to establish an effective blockade of the southern coast which prevented the Union State from launching another large scale offensive after Operation Ripper ended. Union State submarines would continue attacks on CSA shipping under the very end of the war, but with fewer and fewer successes as more and more of the CSA’s Tanner class destroyers—potent submarine hunters which would serve for several decades after the war—came into service. Bull Shark would actually survive the war; in January of 1945 it was stationed in Mobile Harbor when the Turner Brigade launched its daring assault on the city. APN commandos supported the operation by launching a raid on the docks itself, successfully managing to catch the small fleet of AUS ships there with their figurative pants down. Captured intact when the scuttling charges failed to detonate the Bull Shark would be retained for testing for several years after the war before being moved to the newly opened Victory Museum in Chicago, where members of the public could actually tour the insides of the submarine itself.
A CSA/USSA infantryman fires an M2 carbine, central Alabama, 1944. Following the failed general uprising of 1939, in which a number of largely African American syndicalist aligned insurgent groups managed to take control of a swath of land ranging from Biloxi to Mobile, the Union State began large scale repression and intimidation tactics against the African American population across the south. The fact that African American generals Oliver Law and Edward Carter Jr held prominent positions in the CSA military made many white southerners quite angry, and mixed with fears of syndicalist influencing spreading it caused them to crack down even more brutally. Silver Legion and “Nightrider” paramilitaries launched campaigns of terrorism across much of the south, with Minuteman troops largely deployed to the front and therefore unable to intercede. As the CSA finally broke through in Tennessee and advanced into northern Alabama and Mississippi, capturing Birmingham by March of 1944, they were greeted by floods of African American refugees fleeing northwards to escape the predations of the Union State’s brutal secret police forces. Some of these refugees were survivors of insurgent groups such as the Turner Brigade and Alabama Emancipation Army who would be reorganized by the CS Army and redeployed south to continue the fight in unliberated areas.
View attachment 510207
Members of the “James Brigade”, a pro AUS paramilitary unit, pose with the Confederate flag, Eastern Kansas, 1938. Many in the south saw the rise of the AUS as the long promised second attempt at “freedom” and the display of Confederate flags and insignia was commonplace—although the Minutemen cracked down hard on it anywhere where non-friendly cameras could potentially see it. The Union State military was an odd mix of a hardened core of elite regular troops(the Minutemen) and a wide array of militias, paramilitaries, foreign “volunteers” and simple thugs. Following the defeat of the Union State many of these paramilitaries faded back into the countryside and launched a two year long guerrilla campaign against the newly established USSA.
An L5 light tank of the CS Army, named “Eagleclaw”, sets up an ambush for remnant AUS insurgents, Kentucky, 1946. The L5 began replacing the redoubtable L3 in October of 1942. Equipped with an American made copy of a French high-velocity 75 millimeter cannon, the L5 outclassed it’s competitors—the Union State Stuart, the Pacifican Fremont, and the Canadian Matilda—by a significant margin. Fast and easy to mass produce, the L5 would become widely used throughout the New World by the forces of the USSA’s client states for decades to come, in many cases even long after the USSA had retired it.
An American Union State P-65 “Tigercat” heavy fighter patrols off the Florida Keys, 1944. Despite having a limited industrial base and smaller manpower pool than their main enemy, the Combined Syndicates of America, the Union State was able to hold out against the might of the syndicalist giant the longest out of any other American faction. Part of this was due to skill—Union State commanders like George Patton, Matthew Ridgeway, Lewis “Chesty” Puller, William Simpson and Joseph Collins became famous across the globe for their skill, most notably in the summer 1943 Operation Ripper, an offensive which very nearly broke the back of the CSA in the Midwest—and part was due to their technology. The Tigercat, possessing two 20mm cannons and two twin .50 caliber machine guns, was just one of the “new breed” of vehicles and weapons which had been rolled out in time for Ripper, and like so many of the others, it had provided absolutely lethal. From its introduction in the summer of 1943 to the Second American Civil War’s end in March of 1945 the Tigercat would be the mainstay of the AUS Air Force, used in interception, ground attack and anti-submarine roles, all of which it performed fairly well.
American Union State submarine USS Bull Shark sits in New Orleans harbor, spring 1942. Both the Union State and the Combined Syndicates extensively made use of submarine raiders to target each other’s conveys, carrying vitally needed supplies from elsewhere in the world to fuel the war machines. The CSA also made extensive use of surface raiders as well. With the AUS surface navy effectively wiped out by 1942 the CSA was slowly able to establish an effective blockade of the southern coast which prevented the Union State from launching another large scale offensive after Operation Ripper ended. Union State submarines would continue attacks on CSA shipping under the very end of the war, but with fewer and fewer successes as more and more of the CSA’s Tanner class destroyers—potent submarine hunters which would serve for several decades after the war—came into service. Bull Shark would actually survive the war; in January of 1945 it was stationed in Mobile Harbor when the Turner Brigade launched its daring assault on the city. APN commandos supported the operation by launching a raid on the docks itself, successfully managing to catch the small fleet of AUS ships there with their figurative pants down. Captured intact when the scuttling charges failed to detonate the Bull Shark would be retained for testing for several years after the war before being moved to the newly opened Victory Museum in Chicago, where members of the public could actually tour the insides of the submarine itself.
A CSA/USSA infantryman fires an M2 carbine, central Alabama, 1944. Following the failed general uprising of 1939, in which a number of largely African American syndicalist aligned insurgent groups managed to take control of a swath of land ranging from Biloxi to Mobile, the Union State began large scale repression and intimidation tactics against the African American population across the south. The fact that African American generals Oliver Law and Edward Carter Jr held prominent positions in the CSA military made many white southerners quite angry, and mixed with fears of syndicalist influencing spreading it caused them to crack down even more brutally. Silver Legion and “Nightrider” paramilitaries launched campaigns of terrorism across much of the south, with Minuteman troops largely deployed to the front and therefore unable to intercede. As the CSA finally broke through in Tennessee and advanced into northern Alabama and Mississippi, capturing Birmingham by March of 1944, they were greeted by floods of African American refugees fleeing northwards to escape the predations of the Union State’s brutal secret police forces. Some of these refugees were survivors of insurgent groups such as the Turner Brigade and Alabama Emancipation Army who would be reorganized by the CS Army and redeployed south to continue the fight in unliberated areas.
View attachment 510207
Members of the “James Brigade”, a pro AUS paramilitary unit, pose with the Confederate flag, Eastern Kansas, 1938. Many in the south saw the rise of the AUS as the long promised second attempt at “freedom” and the display of Confederate flags and insignia was commonplace—although the Minutemen cracked down hard on it anywhere where non-friendly cameras could potentially see it. The Union State military was an odd mix of a hardened core of elite regular troops(the Minutemen) and a wide array of militias, paramilitaries, foreign “volunteers” and simple thugs. Following the defeat of the Union State many of these paramilitaries faded back into the countryside and launched a two year long guerrilla campaign against the newly established USSA.
An L5 light tank of the CS Army, named “Eagleclaw”, sets up an ambush for remnant AUS insurgents, Kentucky, 1946. The L5 began replacing the redoubtable L3 in October of 1942. Equipped with an American made copy of a French high-velocity 75 millimeter cannon, the L5 outclassed it’s competitors—the Union State Stuart, the Pacifican Fremont, and the Canadian Matilda—by a significant margin. Fast and easy to mass produce, the L5 would become widely used throughout the New World by the forces of the USSA’s client states for decades to come, in many cases even long after the USSA had retired it.
- Tiburon
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