Sachyriel
Banned
HMCAS Killer Whale
[AKA: 1812 in 1912]
[Remember, this is AH...I'm not going to explain all the PODs, nor all the butterflies, just, enjoy]
By Dash Trudeau
In response to: AH Challenge: War Dirigibles!
The war had started in 1912, but had progressed into territory beyond the years it seemed. America had taken Newfoundland in a bold act of aggression and the Newfoundlanders had begged Britain for help, and Britain had Canada invade the United States for a distraction while they gathered up forces. By November in 1912, British Troops were in California and Michigan, setting up bases and securing supply lines, Canadian troops were being used as spear-points to take what British troops could not. Newfoundland joined Canada for protection and rebuilding efforts after it was liberated. By 1913, the Confederate States had broken loose from the United States and America had two fronts, though Mexico tried harder than ever to remain neutral, Confederate armies and navies would constantly kill their citizens who brought supplies to the North. In the Beginning if 1914 the world had divided itself into camps beyond reconciliation and fighting broke out in places where it had come so often, and places where it had only been legend.
But the real battles were to come...
March 3rd, 1914
Cloudy, Evening
Just outside Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
"All troops loaded and ready to depart!" shouted the Ground-master, in charge of ensuring that there would be no combat-ready soldiers left behind. Without him, there would probably be no way that this attack would work, and the troops who were further south would go over the top and be slaughtered for next to nothing. Of course, that depended on whether they got anything from the over-land attack at all, which was always in doubt now. The Worlds longest trench system was still being fortified by both sides, wavering along the 49th Parallel. Naval battles in the Pacific were beginning to shift it only tens of kilometres now, when before they were trumpeted as the way to end the war and break through the line.
Private James 'Bull Frog' Hamilton readied his rifle, a British-designed, Canadian-built Lee-Eenfield .303 and looked out the window of his Troop-ship, the HMCAS Killer Whale as jittery as any first-time dancer could be; The ground was still a mere two feet away, and already, if he got off he would be shot for desertion. Others around him prayed, and he wondered if they would be able to take in the sights. He wondered if those who were praying would bother to take in the sights, or did they have their eyes closed so they wouldn't vomit up the pitiful lunch because of extreme vertigo? He didn't glance at them any longer, and instead stepped away from the small opening that he would be later going out of.
Small groupings of privates and corporals, either not praying or finished, stood near the 'safe' zones, where the windows and ledges were too small to let a man fall out of. Smoking they tried to laugh, but it sounded too forced to James. The cigarette smoke burned his eyes and seemed so odd to him now. The clouds at this level of the air, when they would soon be getting up to above them for the cover provided them by the clouds, seemed trivial. With that thought of being covered by clouds, he heard the doors shut and the cry to close the windows; the lines would be cut and the first wave would start to ascend.
Now the need for a cigarette affected James, and he pulled out his own pack. The Confederate States were under siege and worked to get them out as much as they would any other actual war product, even more so since they would probably be seen as the actual financing of the war effort in history's eyes. Lighting it with a match he inhaled the smoke and wandered to a window, exhaling. The ride up was amazingly smooth, aided by the nerve-calming cigarette he barely finished before the windows were finally closed to conserve the air. He flicked the small butt of his smoke out the window, closing it and watching it tumble in the air currents to the earth. He would soon follow, though without so much rotations he hoped. So when he couldn't see his tossed-out cigarettes embers against the ground he knelt near the chaplain and began to pray.
Not only for himself, but for the other members of his 'Leaf'. The leaves had been training since the beginning of the war to jump from the Airships, an entire company jumping out of three doors and parachuting to the ground with their rifles and grenades. The name 'laves' had stuck because someone thought it would be patriotic to name the brave men after the 'Maple Leaf', a Canadian symbol for the war effort it seems. Not only are they falling, James mused, but they fall to their death, as the leaves are not alive once they leave the tree. He chuckles at this, and others around him look at him like he is crazy, and he laughs all the harder for it. But he keeps it to himself, as it would not be taken as lightly by the others he thinks, and stops laughing enough to find his own leaf checking their gear.
Asking the corporal to check his, he looked out the window as the corporal made sure that his parachute was in working order. The land was far below, only occasional breaks in the clouds allowed him to see the muddy fields where prosperous farms were once planted. Trench systems broke into the ground like a long bloody cut into the Earth and went on for longer than he could see. Little could he see of the men, but he was sure they were there, praying just as the ones up here were; He moved when the higher-ranked man tapped him confidently on the shoulder, closer to the window to watch as what could very well be the first and last time he actually saw war from above. The American trenches came next, no signs of activity, but he knew he would be wrong.
The alarm went out, five minutes till the jump would commence and everyone should be ready. "If you haven't been checked for a proper chute, get checked and ease your mind!" yelled the Captain Armstrong through the din. The man knew what he was talking about since he had been overseeing nearly all the training and knew a simple check would save more lives than a working rifle would. To make his point, he picked out a private in James' leaf and asked him "Private, have you been checked?". The startled young man stood straighter and said "Sir, yes I have been checked, sir!" and went silent. The Captain nodded and looked around to see if others were still being checked, or praying for safety.
James took his position as fourth in line as the horn for one minute till jump time rang out. Just before that though, the emergency alarm sounded, the blaring noise painful to his ears before the captain turned to see what was wrong just to their bow. The look on his face made James question his willingness to turn to his right to look at what they were headed for. However, his morbid curiosity got the better of him and his head turned. This new threat wasn't something that the High Command had considered, and James was unable to see why, as tactics are rarely secrets to spies.
An American airship was emerging from a cloud ahead of their own cloud, a mere two miles away. It was surely on the same mission they were, and James rushed to the front of the airship and began to shoot at it. Before he got to his third shot, the Captain grabbed him and told him not to waste ammunition, throwing him back against the rest of his leaf as he raised a telescope to see what the American Airship was carrying in it's own hold. Before he could make it out though, a flight of Sopwith Mustangs began to shoot their machine guns at the lead Airship. Even as they did, another pushed aside the flimsy cloud cover, revealing it's white-star on a blue circle roundels on either side quickly. The American airships were fast, but lacked any sort of air plane cover, becoming easy targets for the British-made Vickers machine guns.
But the single pass had brought the Sopwith Camels to far to turn around and fire at the airship that broke the clouds behind them, and it was closing on the British Armada quickly. As other Airships of both sides broke through their respective cloud cover, Americans the South and the British North, there were audible shouts and swears of surprise. The second American ship closed into range and the Americans could not do anything about the machine guns that the Captain ordered to open up on them. Americans weren't used to carrying the machine guns into battle yet, and though the shotguns they carried were effective in the trenches, the had shorter range than the rifles. The captain told them to open up, and the hydrogen gas in the American airships went up without question, the second airship following the third to land and engulf the American trenches in flames.
As the Sopwith Camels were joined by another flight, more American ships went down and the Canadian leaves were hustled back into position. James unquestioningly took his position again, reloading his rifle with a fresh charger and watched as the three people in front of him jumped out of what they once knew as safety into the horrible sound of wind past their ears. He looked back at the others, there was very little to encourage him and even then only the stalwart faces reminded him that he too must be brave. In his desperation to see if they respected him as he left the airship he nearly dropped his rifle; before he let it go, he jumped, reaching it before it escaped him. The parachute opened from the line it was attached to the bloated ship of the sky with and let him down to the ground with safety.
The trenches to the North go at the predetermined time, and just as they Americans in the trenches below were screaming at the fires engulfing them, the small bits of resistance were not enough to stop the charge of men from the two fronts. The first wave of British and Canadian trench rats found their objectives nearly empty, and continued to chase the Americans who had ran, only to find themselves stopped by a giant pyre of their own comrades. Soon, some were taken prisoner, and more of the American blimps fell onto the retreating soldiers, causing such confusion that many dropped their rifles and ran into the machine gun fire coming from the newly-Canadian lines.
James landed in no-mans land and quickly found that the commanders had taken this stroke of good luck farther than he was assigned to go. The Captain had rounded up his men, and told them to advance, not knowing how far they would be going. Few American paratroopers made it down to the ground, abandoning their airships as they saw the others burst into flames suddenly. James raised his rifle to his eye and aimed at the slowly-descending soldiers, not older than himself, and fired. His first shot went through the forehead of a boy not old enough to drink in the states, yet old enough to die for nothing. His second made sure the youth was dead, and he ran forward to confirm it as the corpse came to the ground, slumped in a circular hole with water at the bottom.
Raising his Lee-Eenfield rifle again at an American corporal who was just landing, he fired without aiming as sure as he had before, hitting the person in his iron sights in the shoulder. The man screamed and dropped his shot gun, not having shot it before another Canadian from his leaf ran up to stick him in the chest with a bayonet. James looked up and saw only dead Americans floating down, unable to see if the British falling as well were shooting. He did recognize the whistle of artillery and threw himself into the crater where the first person he had killed lay. As mud and dirt rained around him, he closed his eyes and tried to think of home.
Epilogue
The Battle of Manitoba was a stunning success for the Canadian Army and Airship Navy. It had split the United States effectively in half, as forward Air Plane bases could bomb the train tracks of United States Supply routes that the Confederate States could not. This allowed the West coast to be starved and eventually surrender. Within thirty months the United states of America had surrendered and the Confederate states had absorbed what they had lost to Mexico and the USA. Canada grew larger, though had to sustain a large occupation force for decades afterwards, helped by the Commonwealth.
The War in Europe ended later, on November 11th, 1920, with the Treaty of Rammstein assuring the German domination of the continent after the war had raged there for nearly seven years after the alliances had been activated.
[Map to Come if responses are positive]
[AKA: 1812 in 1912]
[Remember, this is AH...I'm not going to explain all the PODs, nor all the butterflies, just, enjoy]
By Dash Trudeau
In response to: AH Challenge: War Dirigibles!
The war had started in 1912, but had progressed into territory beyond the years it seemed. America had taken Newfoundland in a bold act of aggression and the Newfoundlanders had begged Britain for help, and Britain had Canada invade the United States for a distraction while they gathered up forces. By November in 1912, British Troops were in California and Michigan, setting up bases and securing supply lines, Canadian troops were being used as spear-points to take what British troops could not. Newfoundland joined Canada for protection and rebuilding efforts after it was liberated. By 1913, the Confederate States had broken loose from the United States and America had two fronts, though Mexico tried harder than ever to remain neutral, Confederate armies and navies would constantly kill their citizens who brought supplies to the North. In the Beginning if 1914 the world had divided itself into camps beyond reconciliation and fighting broke out in places where it had come so often, and places where it had only been legend.
But the real battles were to come...
March 3rd, 1914
Cloudy, Evening
Just outside Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
"All troops loaded and ready to depart!" shouted the Ground-master, in charge of ensuring that there would be no combat-ready soldiers left behind. Without him, there would probably be no way that this attack would work, and the troops who were further south would go over the top and be slaughtered for next to nothing. Of course, that depended on whether they got anything from the over-land attack at all, which was always in doubt now. The Worlds longest trench system was still being fortified by both sides, wavering along the 49th Parallel. Naval battles in the Pacific were beginning to shift it only tens of kilometres now, when before they were trumpeted as the way to end the war and break through the line.
Private James 'Bull Frog' Hamilton readied his rifle, a British-designed, Canadian-built Lee-Eenfield .303 and looked out the window of his Troop-ship, the HMCAS Killer Whale as jittery as any first-time dancer could be; The ground was still a mere two feet away, and already, if he got off he would be shot for desertion. Others around him prayed, and he wondered if they would be able to take in the sights. He wondered if those who were praying would bother to take in the sights, or did they have their eyes closed so they wouldn't vomit up the pitiful lunch because of extreme vertigo? He didn't glance at them any longer, and instead stepped away from the small opening that he would be later going out of.
Small groupings of privates and corporals, either not praying or finished, stood near the 'safe' zones, where the windows and ledges were too small to let a man fall out of. Smoking they tried to laugh, but it sounded too forced to James. The cigarette smoke burned his eyes and seemed so odd to him now. The clouds at this level of the air, when they would soon be getting up to above them for the cover provided them by the clouds, seemed trivial. With that thought of being covered by clouds, he heard the doors shut and the cry to close the windows; the lines would be cut and the first wave would start to ascend.
Now the need for a cigarette affected James, and he pulled out his own pack. The Confederate States were under siege and worked to get them out as much as they would any other actual war product, even more so since they would probably be seen as the actual financing of the war effort in history's eyes. Lighting it with a match he inhaled the smoke and wandered to a window, exhaling. The ride up was amazingly smooth, aided by the nerve-calming cigarette he barely finished before the windows were finally closed to conserve the air. He flicked the small butt of his smoke out the window, closing it and watching it tumble in the air currents to the earth. He would soon follow, though without so much rotations he hoped. So when he couldn't see his tossed-out cigarettes embers against the ground he knelt near the chaplain and began to pray.
Not only for himself, but for the other members of his 'Leaf'. The leaves had been training since the beginning of the war to jump from the Airships, an entire company jumping out of three doors and parachuting to the ground with their rifles and grenades. The name 'laves' had stuck because someone thought it would be patriotic to name the brave men after the 'Maple Leaf', a Canadian symbol for the war effort it seems. Not only are they falling, James mused, but they fall to their death, as the leaves are not alive once they leave the tree. He chuckles at this, and others around him look at him like he is crazy, and he laughs all the harder for it. But he keeps it to himself, as it would not be taken as lightly by the others he thinks, and stops laughing enough to find his own leaf checking their gear.
Asking the corporal to check his, he looked out the window as the corporal made sure that his parachute was in working order. The land was far below, only occasional breaks in the clouds allowed him to see the muddy fields where prosperous farms were once planted. Trench systems broke into the ground like a long bloody cut into the Earth and went on for longer than he could see. Little could he see of the men, but he was sure they were there, praying just as the ones up here were; He moved when the higher-ranked man tapped him confidently on the shoulder, closer to the window to watch as what could very well be the first and last time he actually saw war from above. The American trenches came next, no signs of activity, but he knew he would be wrong.
The alarm went out, five minutes till the jump would commence and everyone should be ready. "If you haven't been checked for a proper chute, get checked and ease your mind!" yelled the Captain Armstrong through the din. The man knew what he was talking about since he had been overseeing nearly all the training and knew a simple check would save more lives than a working rifle would. To make his point, he picked out a private in James' leaf and asked him "Private, have you been checked?". The startled young man stood straighter and said "Sir, yes I have been checked, sir!" and went silent. The Captain nodded and looked around to see if others were still being checked, or praying for safety.
James took his position as fourth in line as the horn for one minute till jump time rang out. Just before that though, the emergency alarm sounded, the blaring noise painful to his ears before the captain turned to see what was wrong just to their bow. The look on his face made James question his willingness to turn to his right to look at what they were headed for. However, his morbid curiosity got the better of him and his head turned. This new threat wasn't something that the High Command had considered, and James was unable to see why, as tactics are rarely secrets to spies.
An American airship was emerging from a cloud ahead of their own cloud, a mere two miles away. It was surely on the same mission they were, and James rushed to the front of the airship and began to shoot at it. Before he got to his third shot, the Captain grabbed him and told him not to waste ammunition, throwing him back against the rest of his leaf as he raised a telescope to see what the American Airship was carrying in it's own hold. Before he could make it out though, a flight of Sopwith Mustangs began to shoot their machine guns at the lead Airship. Even as they did, another pushed aside the flimsy cloud cover, revealing it's white-star on a blue circle roundels on either side quickly. The American airships were fast, but lacked any sort of air plane cover, becoming easy targets for the British-made Vickers machine guns.
But the single pass had brought the Sopwith Camels to far to turn around and fire at the airship that broke the clouds behind them, and it was closing on the British Armada quickly. As other Airships of both sides broke through their respective cloud cover, Americans the South and the British North, there were audible shouts and swears of surprise. The second American ship closed into range and the Americans could not do anything about the machine guns that the Captain ordered to open up on them. Americans weren't used to carrying the machine guns into battle yet, and though the shotguns they carried were effective in the trenches, the had shorter range than the rifles. The captain told them to open up, and the hydrogen gas in the American airships went up without question, the second airship following the third to land and engulf the American trenches in flames.
As the Sopwith Camels were joined by another flight, more American ships went down and the Canadian leaves were hustled back into position. James unquestioningly took his position again, reloading his rifle with a fresh charger and watched as the three people in front of him jumped out of what they once knew as safety into the horrible sound of wind past their ears. He looked back at the others, there was very little to encourage him and even then only the stalwart faces reminded him that he too must be brave. In his desperation to see if they respected him as he left the airship he nearly dropped his rifle; before he let it go, he jumped, reaching it before it escaped him. The parachute opened from the line it was attached to the bloated ship of the sky with and let him down to the ground with safety.
The trenches to the North go at the predetermined time, and just as they Americans in the trenches below were screaming at the fires engulfing them, the small bits of resistance were not enough to stop the charge of men from the two fronts. The first wave of British and Canadian trench rats found their objectives nearly empty, and continued to chase the Americans who had ran, only to find themselves stopped by a giant pyre of their own comrades. Soon, some were taken prisoner, and more of the American blimps fell onto the retreating soldiers, causing such confusion that many dropped their rifles and ran into the machine gun fire coming from the newly-Canadian lines.
James landed in no-mans land and quickly found that the commanders had taken this stroke of good luck farther than he was assigned to go. The Captain had rounded up his men, and told them to advance, not knowing how far they would be going. Few American paratroopers made it down to the ground, abandoning their airships as they saw the others burst into flames suddenly. James raised his rifle to his eye and aimed at the slowly-descending soldiers, not older than himself, and fired. His first shot went through the forehead of a boy not old enough to drink in the states, yet old enough to die for nothing. His second made sure the youth was dead, and he ran forward to confirm it as the corpse came to the ground, slumped in a circular hole with water at the bottom.
Raising his Lee-Eenfield rifle again at an American corporal who was just landing, he fired without aiming as sure as he had before, hitting the person in his iron sights in the shoulder. The man screamed and dropped his shot gun, not having shot it before another Canadian from his leaf ran up to stick him in the chest with a bayonet. James looked up and saw only dead Americans floating down, unable to see if the British falling as well were shooting. He did recognize the whistle of artillery and threw himself into the crater where the first person he had killed lay. As mud and dirt rained around him, he closed his eyes and tried to think of home.
Epilogue
The Battle of Manitoba was a stunning success for the Canadian Army and Airship Navy. It had split the United States effectively in half, as forward Air Plane bases could bomb the train tracks of United States Supply routes that the Confederate States could not. This allowed the West coast to be starved and eventually surrender. Within thirty months the United states of America had surrendered and the Confederate states had absorbed what they had lost to Mexico and the USA. Canada grew larger, though had to sustain a large occupation force for decades afterwards, helped by the Commonwealth.
The War in Europe ended later, on November 11th, 1920, with the Treaty of Rammstein assuring the German domination of the continent after the war had raged there for nearly seven years after the alliances had been activated.
[Map to Come if responses are positive]