Ron Hubbard rises again!
This is the introduction to my revision of L. Ron Hubbard's 'Final Blackout' and certainly results in a 1984 type world:
To understand the Lieutenant and his actions, we must first examine the world in which he grew up in and the world of his maturity. The phrase “no man is an island” is true of everyone and not least true of the Lieutenant.
A child of the last years of the first phase of the ‘Greatest War’, as Churchill put it, he grew up in a Britain blighted by radiation, starvation and disease. Like many of his generation, he wasn’t tall, but compact and strong with an inbuilt immunity to most influenza and other respiratory viruses. His bright, clear grey eyes could harden to a stormy gaze that few men could stand up to and allied with a very deceptive soft tone he made a very difficult man for others to ‘read’. The rest of his story is so clearly linked to the progress of the War, that to tell the story of one is to tell the story of the other.
After the armistice of 1945 was broken by the bombing of New York and Philadelphia in the US, Leningrad and Karkov in the Soviet Union and Birmingham, England in late 1946, the war continued with even greater ferocity than before. The new weapons that had been developed by the Third Reich enabled them to hold the Allies at bay for many years until the huge manufacturing ability of the United States began to reassert itself. With the destruction of Aachen and Nuremberg, the spiritual centres of Nazi power were removed and with the introduction of inter-continental bombers and improved tanks and infantry weapons, victory appeared in sight. But even as the huge Allied armies began to press towards the German frontiers, the Nazis last terrible design was put into action.
With the improvements made to the A4 rockets used in 1946, a rain of submarine launched missiles descended on the US and Britain, loaded not only with atomic bombs, but also mutated strains of anthrax, plague and influenza. This barrage drove the US out of the war and they created a new Monroe Doctrine to hide behind, leaving the Old World to its own devices. As a final gesture, they unleashed their own biological and atomic weapons on Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan in an orgy of vengeance and hatred.
Although the war continued in Europe, it was more out of simple survival rather that national pride or for any real advantage to combative nations. Manufacturing was almost non-existent with the destruction of the Ruhr, the British Midlands and the oilfields of Eastern Europe. Even coal mining and farming activities were at a standstill with the loss of millions of workers to atomic blast, radiation poisoning and disease. As supplies of ammunition ran out, there was little or no re-supply. Oil and petrol was a luxury and spare parts for aircraft, vehicles and all the other sinews of war vanished and even simple things such as uniforms were a thing of the past. Outside the static front lines snaking across the landscape like writhing snakes there were nothing but roving band of deserters and partisans living of off what was left of the population and the shrinking areas of arable land. The standing armies had been whittled down to mere specks of what they once were. Many mechanized and armoured units had reverted back to horses (when they weren’t eating them) and divisions were no more than reinforced regiments and many brigades were the size of corporal’s guards. In almost all cases command had devolved to majors and lieutenants – some battalions were even in the charge of sergeants. The total number of official men under arms in the British Army was no more that 30,000 worldwide and perhaps not much more for any other nation. The real number was perhaps nearer half of the official number. The air force and navy were completely defunct and had been, ever since the last fighter and frigate had run out of fuel and the last spare parts had been used. Some units were so mixed that a common lingua-franca had been developed to communicate between the many nationalities. So where did that leave the national armed forces and specifically the Lieutenant?
First, it must be said that the Lieutenant was one of those curious specimens termed a patriot. He passionately believed in England and all that it stood for, its freedoms, institutions and its civilizing effect on other counties. Although these may be now seen as old-fashioned beliefs, they were shared by many of his generation and the events since 1939 had only strengthened these feelings. Although the reasons for remaining in the field as a unit of the British army had largely disappeared, the issue of duty and obedience had not. There was always the feeling that the war would finally end and they would all go home to rebuild and be accepted as heroes and saviors. Unfortunately, by the time that the 1970’s came around, this general belief had been diluted to near invisibility. It was left to a very few dedicated men to hold everything together and inspire and lead in ways that reinforced the general patriotism of their commands. This was made all the more difficult due to the constantly changing news from Britain and the confusing and largely ignored communiqués from GHQ located somewhere around the ruins of Paris.
The ruling clique of Churchill and his cronies had held the country in an iron grip until a cabinet meeting at Downing Street was obliterated during the last major bombing of London in the early ‘50’s. Since then a succession of fringe political parties had taken control though a series of coups, both bloodless and bloody, until some stability had taken hold after the English Socialist Party had wrested control from the Monarchist League in 1956. Within two years, the country had been placed under a draconian dictatorship that was seen as close to the worst excess of the Russian Royalist Uprising of 1953. Work was made compulsory for everyone over the age of 12 and Worker’s Committees were ordered to be setup in all regular army units. As a final blow to any monarchist aspirations and what was seen as a solution to any sedition and resistance, the entire royal family was be disposed of on Ludgate Hill, which had again been turned into a place of public execution.
Due to the influence of one of the mentors of the IngSoc Party (named from his influential work,’1948’), the two children of the King and Queen had been spared and became known as the Princess’s in the Tower. Unfortunately, Eric Blair died of tuberculosis soon after and with his moderating influence gone the Party became infatuated with power and was completely destroyed in the Soviet uprisings of 1962. In the decade since, there had been uncounted changes in the leadership and, in fact, no one really knew from day-to-day who was in charge. What was known however, that Scotland had succeeded from the Union, Wales had its nascent independence movement brutally crushed and a newly re-united Ireland had expelled its Protestant population, who became a new generation of landless refugees unwelcome anywhere. When boatloads of fleeing people attempted to land on the Isle of Man, they were driven off with anti-shipping missiles, flamethrowers and any other weapons that the Manx could lay hands on. Reverting to their Viking heritage, the Manx maintained an uneasy independence from England.
It stills seems incredible that regular army units still maintained a warlike stance against a enemy that seldom showed it’s face and appeared to have given up thoughts of any offensive action. At no time had any officer decided to go back to ‘blighty’ and ‘sort things out’ and most of the time concentrated on just staying alive. Commanding officers came and went with bewildering rapidity and most commanders had little idea of who, if anyone, to report to.
Maybe it is...