==[1910-1950]==
Forward
Dear readers,
my name is Arthur C. Drake and I would like to welcome you to the first Journal of the Alexandria Institute. Like the great library and my cherished compatriots have decided to undertake the momentous task to documenting and collating interviews of those who witnessed the great events of our world. Our aim is to make sure their voices are not lost in the abyss of the past, to make sure those in the future will always have a record of our feelings, memories and insight before they fade away. May the future generations use this information and never forget.
I would like to thank the great workers of the BBC who have supported this endeavour and their assistance has been greatly appreciated. I would like to thank Jack Bolton and Benjamin ‘Benji’ Griffiths with their help in collecting these reports for whom without there help this may have never come into existence. I would like to thank my father, Charles Drake as inspiration on this task. Finally I would like to thank my darling wife, Katie for without her unwavering love and support in this undertaking I would surely have failed. .
Thank you dear readers.
==[x]==
The Man from Philly.
The Man from Philly.
January 21st, 1950
Camden, New Jersey, Republic of New England.
Celebrations of the 2nd New English president inauguration was still on-going as I met Walter Cooke in a Cafe overlooking the Delaware Bridge. It was an uneasy feeling being surrounded by the jubalous crowd, especially when I remembered just across the river were perhaps hundreds of Union soldiers and artillery officers peering at the crowded through their binoculars, guns at the ready. Truth be told, it felt more gloating than a true celebration of democracy. Though, I must admit, at-least these American’s were enjoying a small fragment of the normally tense situation. My guest assured by it was fine, there hadn’t been an issue in months he said as the coffee was brought to our table.
“Let ‘em watch, that’s what I say!” Walter was a burly man, from the looks of him, not one that you would have thought found himself fighting across the once United States, from New Orleans, to Chicago to Montana - or so he told me in our first contact. “Traitors the lot of them, took the easy route and they still think they won. Well they ain’t got this part of the States nor could they even get over the Rockies! Ha! Let em stew.
If there was one thing I want you to understand is that the true American’s stay loyal to the stars and stripes, though I gotta make do with the tree now. If there was one regret it was not standing up sooner, but you must see no-one believed this could happen. Think most still thought we’d got it out our system in our grandparents days. But no, old wounds never healed - only scarred.
I didn’t grow up here you see, I grew up across the Delaware in Philly. What was it… 29..30 when it crashed? You know the markets. Anyway, everyone was dirt poor. Lines stretching for blocks on blocks just to get that rancid soup. Heck, pretty sure it was more the warmth people lined for that anything. Then they started to appear, the Reds ‘n’ White-shirts Though there weren’t as many White-shirts as in the south but you could always feel them, stirring something up either with the reds or local guys, police barely touched them - well the ones that weren't them at least. I had a mate, Jimmy O’Toole, got beat up pretty bad by both the Red’s ‘n’ White-shirts, not one police officer lifted a finger to help. As I said before, traitors the lot of ‘em.”
As he finished the sentence we heard yelling and then a gunshot. I ducked under the table then rose to find Walter shaking his head. What had transpired was another seemingly daily part of Camden life. Someone had attempted a run for freedom over the Delaware bridge. The Bridge stood as a factor in the relationship between the Union States and New England. Technically the Bridge was owned by the Union State hailing from their “successive state” from the former united states by the international community - not that you’d want to say that in either New England or the Pacific States! In actual fact the two nations held checkpoints at each of their ends and left the centre of the bridge as a sort of no-man's-land. People do make it across the bridge, though that normally depended on the accuracy of the Union soldiers on duty and the weather. It happened so often the people of Camden barely took notice or even flinched at the gunfire.
“Poor lass.” Walter was still shaking his head. Though his tone made it sound more a formality than compassion.
“So you said you were at the battle of St. Louis?” I said quickly changing the subject. In hindsight it came across brash and unsympathetic considering what had just occurred. Walter didn’t seem to mind.
“Oh, the battle of the three armies? Yeah, I was there. Though I will be truthful I wasn’t there at the start. I got there maybe 3 weeks into the siege? I’d just been up north at Louisiana, the Red’s had been trying to cross the Mississippi and I’d been with my section helping to scrap the bridges. I think it was then I started to realise it we were on the true defensive. We were not looking to re-cross the Mississippi any time soon, only to stem the tide.
It might have been Bradley’s or Collins’ idea to hold onto St. Louis. The Reds had already taken the eastern side by the time we got there. They had probed across the river though we through them back each time. When the Fascist lot came we knew we were in for a fight - a proper brawl. Heaven’s knows why all three of us thought that city was the best choice of battle, though I suppose that's why I wasn’t in charge of anything.
The Red’s ‘n’ Whiteshirt fought like rabid dogs over a half-eaten carcass in the east side. Many of us watched across the river from our perches. Even night didn’t stop them fighting. It was easy to see the engagement points from the flashes or orange glow at night - but hey, fuck ‘em right? They were both traitors to the flag so why should be care if they killed each other off. If anything it was better for us. I think it was Monday morning the week after I got there we made contact for the first proper time. Whiteshirts had crossed the river at Oakville I think? We held them along the Meramec but they came pouring into the city. It wasn’t till later I found out-halfwit thought the Red’s had won in the east side and pulled troops north to protect against them in a possible attempt to cross the river. Do you believe that? We’d pushed them back every single time they put a foot in that river - every time!
Anyway, We held them good for a few days. News from the north was that the Reds had finally beached at Davenport, La Crosse and Dubuque and our defence at Alton fell shortly after. Stupid bastards forgot to blow that bridge as they ran.”
“The brass told you that?” I asked.
“Heaven’s no. Would you have? Would you have told your men that a red tide was flowing down from the north? No, it was another thing I found out later. Suppose it didn’t do the red’s any favours in the end. I was in St. Louis for maybe another 3 weeks before we moved out, then what? Another few more months before we hid behind the Rockies? No, I’m being too harsh, we held those mountains good, even better then at the Meramec. We were not defeated at St. Louis, we left on our own merit. Not that it means anything, we still ran away but they didn’t get us there - that's the important thing.
However it did turn out that St. Louis was the death bed of the Red’s. Poor bastards.They put so much effort getting that city it drained them. Supplies, men, equipment and their Armour - all to get a city which didn’t help them in the slightest. Another year and Chicago was in the hands of the Whiteshirts. Another year after that even the Whiteshirts stopped at the Rockies - the Last defence of the west.”
==[x]==
Thank you for your time in reading another attempt at a TL. I wanted to go for a different style, one inspired by a similar style portrayed in the books; WWZ by Max Brooks. I thought it would be interesting to have a TL based on people's insights on the events with the addition of anecdotes by the "author" Arthur Drake. I wanted to do this style in the best helps to improve my own writing so any critique would be most welcome.
In short this is based of the TL I created involving some Infoboxes I dubbed the Titanic Mistake. In short this is set after an Alt-WW1 with the Author looking back on the events that followed it.
Once again, thank you and I hope you enjoy.
Thank you for your time in reading another attempt at a TL. I wanted to go for a different style, one inspired by a similar style portrayed in the books; WWZ by Max Brooks. I thought it would be interesting to have a TL based on people's insights on the events with the addition of anecdotes by the "author" Arthur Drake. I wanted to do this style in the best helps to improve my own writing so any critique would be most welcome.
In short this is based of the TL I created involving some Infoboxes I dubbed the Titanic Mistake. In short this is set after an Alt-WW1 with the Author looking back on the events that followed it.
Once again, thank you and I hope you enjoy.