Iron Eagles

This is a TL I've been tinkering with for some time, and this is the first time it is being offered up for public viewing.

Comments/thoughts are appreciated.....

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IRON EAGLES

By Michael A. Cessna
Work In Progress (2007-2009)

Sometimes, a seemingly minor incident can upset everything that follows. What follows is a very different chain of events that resulted from a different outcome to a minor skirmish.


1923 - Beer Hall Putsch in Munich. Adolf Hitler killed in exchange of gunfire; NSDAP disintegrates as surviving leaders are either jailed or fight amongst themselves. Alliance of Communists and Spartacists control roughly half of German cities; the remainder are controlled by the Weimar Republic’s Wehrmacht forces; 'Freikorps' units control the countryside. 'German Naval Soviet' controls Kiel, Bremen/Bremerhaven and roughly half of Berlin.

In the USA, the Spanish Influenza returns; deaths break 2 million in less than three months; Eastern Seaboard hit particularly hard; many Americans withdraw into their homes, limiting personal contact; Congress paralyzed, as few Congressmen risk exposure to the Flu; President Wilson rules via limited Executive Decree - policy continues under Calvin Coolidge (elected in the lowest voter turnout election in US history).


1924 - Red Army crushes main White Russian armies in Crimea, southern Urals; isolated units flee into Turkey, Iran and Republican China; Henry Ford hires a White Russian infantry brigade to protect his Brazilian rubber plantations from native revolt; brigade reequipped with Model 1921 Thompson SMGs, M1918 BARs and M1894 12gauge "Trench Guns".


"A Very Long, Hot Summer..."

May/June - Rump US Congress passes numerous inter-state commerce laws, heavily taxing interstate shipment of goods valued at over US$100; many states protest, saying that the laws passed are invalid due to lack of Congressional quorum.

When President Coolidge attempts to send Federal troops into Port Arthur, TX [July 23] to enforce the new Federal regulations, Texas responds by ordering its National Guard to protect the port’s Customs House; US 24th Infantry Regiment destroyed in three days of savage fighting; Texas secedes [July 29], reforming the "Republic of Texas"; they are quickly followed by the former Confederate states, who reform the Confederacy (capitol at Birmingham, AL), including Kentucky and Missouri. Texas launches swift invasion and conquest of Oklahoma, stating that it is "adhering to its treaties with the Cherokee". Confederacy surprises all by immediately enlisting almost 20,000 Negro troops under White officers.


"Fall"


August 1 - President Coolidge issues orders to Federalize all State National Guards and Militia to subdue the new rebellion in the South; New England States immediately convene a New England Congress and vote to secede as the "New England Republic" [August 6], hiring former USMC Brigadier General Smedley D. Butler to head its armed forces; New England is quickly followed by Washington and Oregon (who form the "Cascadian Republic"), and California (reclaiming "Bear Flag Republic" moniker) [August 12 - 15]; San Francisco secedes from California, becoming a Free City [August 25]. Hawaii makes deal with local US Army garrison to allow resumption of Hawaiian aristocracy; Washington, D.C. acquiesces. [August 27]

October - Radical Catholic priest Father Coughlin leads a sweeping movement of "Christian Socialists" that takes the Plains States out of the Union, in the Prairie Congress of October 3 - 12, to form the "Christian Socialist Republic of the Americas" (CSRA).

November - New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois form the "Old Northwest Republic" on November 1; Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin form the "North Star Republic" on November 10.

December – Utah formally secedes on Christmas Day, becoming the Holy Union of Deseret; launches immediate attack [December 28] on Denver, to claim Colorado territory; remainder of Colorado, as well as Alaska, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Nevada and the Arizona/New Mexico territories in anarchy.

US Army Colonels George S. Patton, Jr. and Matthew B. Ridgeway, and USMC
Capt. Lewis B. Puller - among many others - formally resign their commissions, and join the Confederate military, either retaining their ranks and seniority, or with promotions; Col. Omar Bradley and USMC General John A. Lejeune (resigning after a thunderous argument with President Coolidge) join CSRA Army; Lejeune promoted to Captain-General commanding, Bradley to Lt. General as his deputy; John J. "Black Jack" Pershing remains as General of the Army for USA, names MacArthur as his Deputy, and probable successor.


"Winter"


Rump United States of America consists of Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey and West Virginia, along with the District of Columbia. Most of remaining Federal Army troops either desert or join newly formed national armies. Bulk of US Navy and Marine Corps remain loyal to Washington, DC. Pacific Squadron regroups at Shanghai, Republic of China and Cavite/Manila, Philippine Islands (P.I.); US Army in P.I. under MacArthur and Eisenhower remain loyal to Washington, DC. USN Atlantic Squadron regroups at
Newark, NJ and Baltimore, MD maintaining control of Hampton Roads, VA and the Roosevelt Roads naval station off Puerto Rico.

Canadian Government in Ottawa requests Imperial troops from Great Britain to reinforce Canadian troops due to unrest in US. UK sends 42nd Royal Highland Regiment, 23rd Royal Welsh Fusiliers, the Rifle Brigade and 3rd Tank Regiment to Montreal-Ottawa-Winnipeg-Vancouver. [Naval reinforcement begins October 7, first troops ashore on Oct. 13.]



1925 - Weimar Republic in chaos; Communists/Spartacists gain ground against Weimar government; Mussolini meets in secret with 'Freikorps' leaders in mountain villa on Austro-Italian border; Mussolini offers funding and munitions to Friekorps leaders only if they form a political party; Freikorps leaders form German Workers Fascist Party, electing Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck Party Leader.

April 15 - Soviet Communist Party Chairman Josef Stalin executed for "counter-revolutionary activities"; new government forms, with Leon Trotsky as Peoples' Commissar for Defense and External Security, Felix Drzhinskiy as Commissar for State Security, I.N. Sokolov as President of the Peoples' Presidium and Communist Party Chairman.

- Weimar Republic collapses following general strike and attempted putsch by Spartacists [April Revolt, April 12 - 30]. Freikorps swings into action, invading Munich, Frankfurt, Strassbourg and Berlin; German Naval Soviet in Berlin votes to support von Lettow-Vorbeck; house-to-house fighting rages for 12 days; on 04/25, Wehrmacht sides with the Freikorps, German Fascist Party; Spartacists annihilated in 6-day bloodbath.


May - British Government falls following release of "Zinoviev Letter"; Winston Churchill called by King George V to form a government. Churchill quickly recognizes the "Old Northwest" and New England Republics, and concludes treaties with both guaranteeing British naval protection for Grand Banks Fisheries. US protests are ignored.



May 14 – Japan announces that it will repudiate the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922. In its letters to the other signatories, Tokyo states its reasons as a “…lack of a workable quorum, considering the present unfortunate internal difficulties of the United States…” even hinting that it found the legitimacy of the sitting US government to be in question. Italy immediately follows suit; both nations accelerate their naval building programs.

May 15 – Cascadian Republic institutes the Draft, begins extensive armament program, including construction of new destroyer and patrol-torpedo boat classes, citing the Japanese treaty repudiation as a “…clear and present threat…” to Cascadian security. California follows suit on May 20, with both nations announcing a joint defense treaty.

May 25 - Battle of the Grand Banks. USN and RN naval vessels respond to wireless distress signals from Spanish fishing fleet. HMS Knightsbridge and USS Indianapolis torpedoed at almost the same instant. Indianapolis opens fire on Knightsbridge at 8000 yards at 0037 hours, ceases fire at 0048, believing the explosion of the torpedo strike on Knightsbridge to be that ship's opening gun salvo; Knightsbridge sinks at 0842 hrs. Incident nearly leads to war, until joint USN/RN commission - meeting in secret - determines that neither warship ever fired its torpedoes. Incident remains a mystery.

June - "Dust Bowl" conditions begin to be felt in Oklahoma, quickly spreading to Kansas and Nebraska. Crops adversely affected; blame is thrown in all directions, and war looms between Texas, CSRA and Confederacy.

June - September: Numerous government officials are assassinated throughout Europe and Britain in wave of attacks by unknown group; no letters claim responsibility, and all assassins who do not escape or are killed by police/security forces commit suicide to avoid capture. Von Lettow-Vorbeck nearly killed by sniper in Stuttgart; Churchill slightly injured in bombing outside Parliament; Marshal Foch severely wounded by gunman in Paris (who is killed shortly after in gun battle with police), forcing his retirement from politics.

August 12 - Soviet naval group of warships and transports sortie from Port Arthur and Vladivostok, taking northerly course, apparently heading for Alaska; Imperial Japanese Navy ships shadow Soviet fleet; IJN notifies USN and UK-RN in Shanghai, via unofficial channels; impromptu joint task force formed with no official sanction from any government: 3 RN Cruisers (CR), 2 US Battleships (BB), with 2 CRs and 5 Destroyers (DD), and an IJN task group of 2 BB, 3 CRs, and 4 DDs steam at flank speed to intercept Soviet squadrons.

August 14 - Sokolov announces that Soviets intend to "restore law and order" to Alaskan territories. Joint IJN/RN/USN task force ambushes and wipes out Soviet force in murderous night actions off Anchorage and Seward; Soviet casualties are 2 BB, 2 CR, 4 DD and 17 transports carrying 7,000 troops; bodies float ashore as far south as Gnome. Cheka infiltrators/5th columnists manage to assassinate most of Alaskan Territorial Government; joint naval squadrons land Marines to assist local police/militia in wiping out Cheka infiltrators.

September - Start of "The First Black War" - US and RN Naval Intelligence, joined by Imperial Japanese military police intelligence (the dreaded 'Kempei Tei') launch a massive secret operation to wipe out Cheka assets overseas. Nearly 5,000 Soviet agents are killed or captured over the next year; Felix Drzhinskiy suffers stroke as a result of stress and is replaced by his Deputy, Anton Trellisa.


"Red October"


October 14 - German Statz-Polizei, assisted by Freikorps unit, launches raid on remote Bavarian farm. Raid turns into major battle, with heavy casualties among Polizei and initial Freikorps unit. Additional Freikorps units respond to calls for assistance, and arrive with heavy mortars and machine guns...although farm is largely destroyed and all personnel within are killed, numerous documents found on-site point to a shadowy group called the "Thule Society" as being behind the recent assassination campaign.

Oct. 15 - Mexican troops invade Texas via Laredo crossing point; Laredo burned, San Antonio shelled. Texas responds with full mobilization. Texian air force mauls Mexican invasion force south of San Antonio on Oct. 17. Confederate troops mass along the Sabine River, ready to come to Texas' aid if called.

Oct. 18 - USN shells Vera Cruz, lands Marines at Tampico and Merida, later joined by Confederate Navy and Marines. USN carrier planes raid Mexico City, dropping light bombs (first carrier raid on a land target more than 100 miles inland). Pandemonium in Mexico City, as few even knew of the invasion of Texas. Same day: Texian Ranger units deploy into Mexico in 4-Ranger teams via auto-gyro transports, laying ambushes with mortars and machine guns along route of Mexican retreat; Mexican invasion force wiped out to the last man. Ranger raids continue all over Chihuahua and Coahuilia - multiple charges of unwarranted brutality and massacres result.

Oct. 20 - Hindenburg and Churchill issue joint statements asking all European powers to join in united effort to root out the Thule Society.

Oct. 21 - Naval Battle of Merida (the “Merida Shooting Gallery”): USN and CSN warships attacked by swarm of submarine-launched torpedoes at 0445 hrs; USS Tallahassee, Clarkstown and CSS Virginia, Jacksonville sunk; USS Chicago, Germantown, CSS Mobile, Birmingham and New Orleans suffer heavy damage; no known enemy casualties. Same day: Port Arthur, RTX and Texas City, RTX port facilities shelled at 2245-2312hrs by heavy naval ordnance, estimated at 6- to 8-in guns; moderate damage to oil transfer rigs and docks. No sign of hostile warships found.

November 1 - 6: November Concord. In summit meeting in Philadelphia attended by all new nations except the CSRA, US Federal Government recognizes "sovereign, self-determined rights of the Several States present", and lays the groundwork for a "North American Alliance"; Virginia secedes from Confederacy, rejoins USA.

November 5 - RN Cmdr Cummings, head of UK Secret Service, retires, is replaced by George Hill, who names Sidney Reilly as his deputy.

November 7 - Hindenburg, citing ill health, makes impassioned plea to German people to accept von Lettow-Vorbeck as his replacement during speech in Berlin; near the end of the speech, he is shot dead by a surviving Spartacist, who is executed five days later following a brutal interrogation and a very hasty trial. Despite some grumbling, most Germans are hungry for stability, and cautiously back von Lettow-Vorbeck as “Chancellor of the Republic”.

November 08 - Battle of Mona Passage. USN, CSN, UK-RN, Royal Dutch Navy ships fight wild, confusing night action off Grenada with unknown force of submarines and torpedo boats. No Allied units sunk, although many are lightly damaged by machine gun and light cannon fire. Dawn sighting by UKRN float planes finds abandoned submarine aground on shoals off of Dutch Guiana; sub is of French design, matching the 'Surcouf'-class "cruiser submarine", armed with twin 8-in guns. Documents on board indicate that the sub was under the command of Thule Society. France vehemently denies building the sub, citing the fact that the Surcouf class had not even been approved for construction.

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July 25, 1934 - The “Vienna Putsch”. The Thule Society stages one last, desperate gambit for power, staging a coup de tat in Vienna, Austria. Austrian Army paralyzed by assassination of many senior officers at dinner party on July 24-25. Thule Society deploys most of its remaining combat strength to aid the Austrian National Socialist Party (DNSAP) in its takeover bid. Engelbert Dollfuss, Austrian Chancellor and nominal Austrian Fascist leader, assassinated by Thule agents despite heroic, impromptu and bloody rescue attempt by German, Italian, British, Texian and US agents.

German and Italian troops swiftly invade Austria; Italians execute first mass parachute assault, dropping 2,000 elite Bersaglieri mountain troops onto the outskirts of Vienna on the evening of July 28. German light infantry on bicycles swarm into Austria the same night, overrunning most of northern part of the country by dawn.

Heavy fighting rages for two weeks; Thule Society military strength virtually annihilated by August 4, 1934.

Benito Mussolini, impressed by the performance of German troops operating at short notice, initiates proposal to jointly train Italian and German forces; von Lettow-Vorbeck quickly agrees.

December - Tensions escalate between Italy and Ethiopia over the Ogaden region.


1935 - Austria, Germany and Italy jointly launch the “Autobahn Project”, to create a “super” road network linking the three nations via the Alps.

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The War of 1939:


Europe


September – Following a period of escalating tensions over the status of the city of Danzig, Germany declares war on Poland, on September 1 and invades the same day. Joint attack by Soviet Union; Poland overrun in thirteen weeks, divided between Germany/USSR; UK/France declare war.

October 1939 – May 10 1940: “Phony War”, as British and French troops slowly assemble, Germany shifts its troops west.

May 10, 1940 - “Western Invasion”. France overrun in 3 weeks; Charles De Gaulle KIA in southern France in ambush by invading Italian forces; General Heinz Guderian drives his tanks into the sea on the Dunkirk beaches – there is no "miracle" rescue fleet: British Expeditionary Force (BEF) surrenders on June 1; Low Countries, Norway fall in under 4 weeks.

September - 200 U-Boats concentrate around Britain, largely wiping out Home Fleet; Kriegsmarine surface units shell RN fleet bases at Plymouth and Scapa Flow. U-Boats move into picket relays in mid-Atlantic.

September 5 - German Luftwaffe bombers penetrate UK air defenses, appearing over London at 4pm, local time…but do not drop bombs. Instead, they drop the helmets of the BEF to rain down onto the city, sending a powerful psychological message.

October - Fascist uprising in Northern Ireland, sabotage campaign begins in UK

November - Churchill's government falls

November 3 - RN squadron wiped out by 10 U-Boat wolf pack off Trondheim, Norway.

December - Ceasefire negotiated by Duke of Sutherland; Churchill flees to Canada with George VI, resistance continues in Egypt, India.

May, 1941 - Massive German-Italian invasion force seizes Suez Canal in "Operation Merkur" (“Mercury”); Cyprus, Malta isolated.

September 1 - Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester seated as King Henry IX in England, names Sir Oswald Moseley as PM; Canada joins "North American Alliance", withdraws from Commonwealth.


Asia


1937 - Japan manufactures reason for war with China; slow grind, as Japan overruns central China; "Rape of Nanking"


1940 - Republican China collapses; Japan forms "East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere"


May 1942 - German/Japanese/British invasion of USSR; CSN/CSMC storm Dardanelle’s with German/Italian/British naval support.

June - Trotsky collapses on battle map table in Kremlin; Red army holds for a time, then collapses, and fragments. USSR east of Urals overrun and liberated. Simultaneous Japanese invasion takes Irkutsk, Vladivostok. Guerrilla war/terrorism by holdout Bolshevists continues for twenty years.

August 1 - Mexican President Juan De Villar Pedrosa assassinated during military coup de tat.

August 15, 1942 – NAA/CSA/Texas invade Mexico as it collapses in anarchy.


1943 - Japanese troops wipe out last remaining Chinese Communist troops.


1944 - American Fascist Party candidate William Dudley Pelley elected President of USA

1946 - Essentially Fascist European Union seated in Brussels

1948 - "North American Alliance" formalized; largely Fascist state, firmly allied with EU and Japan, forming the World Fascist Concord

1949 - Chuck Yeager breaks sound barrier; first commercial fission pile begins powering Salt Lake City, Deseret (which remains semi-independent of the NAA); integrated circuit, microprocessor.

1950 - First artificial satellite launched by Britain

1952 - First man in space: Chuck Yeager. NAA takes lead in space technology

1957 - International Team (Col. John Glenn, USMC; Col. Edward Blake, RAF; Major Guiliano Sforza, Italian Navy; Flight Col. Karl Wagner, Luftwaffe; Col. Kenji Nakamura, IJN) lands on Moon; against orders, team disables its on-board cameras and only cut in externals once all are on the surface, so that no one nation can claim to have been first. Astronauts refuse to answer questions in public, maintaining public vow of silence for the remainder of their lives. No notes or journals ever detail who stepped out first, although Col. Nakamura is known to have had a one-hour private audience with Emperor Hirohito.

1950s - 1960s: Colonialism transforms into "dedicated State paternalism"; no Communist revolutions lead to a slow but steady improvement in "3rd World" conditions

1965 - First modular space station (Tsilokovsky Station) constructed in LEO as Lunar Transfer Station

1969 - First permanent Lunar base (Da Vinci Base) completed at Tycho Crater to operate massive radio telescope.

1970 - First very small O'Neill-type habitat constructed at L1 LaGrange point

1972 - First successful test of NERVA nuclear rocket propulsion system

1974 - First manned mission to Mars lands international team in Syria Planum (April 19); with NERVA, Earth-to-Mars transit takes four months

1977: IBM releases 1st generation PC; OS is fixed at manufacture, but is highly customizable, core programs are ‘open-source’; swiftly becomes the industry-standard, worldwide

1979: AT&T Global and IBM announce release of access to the Network (Internet analog)

1980: Hilton Hotels open first-ever "space hotel" in LEO; package rate is ¤10,000 per person for a 3-day/2-night stay, including transport; Hilton reports three-year-in-advance bookings within 14 days.

1985: Earth population breaks 7 billion; nearly 20% of planetary households have an IBM/ATT PC

May 15, 1997 - First paper published at MIT scientists describing the “Fabber”, a “3-D Copy Machine”, designed to build simple items up from plastic compounds.

August 23, 1999: Deep Space 4 deep-system manned probe discovers and activates functional GAS Station near Pluto; crew is nearly killed by transit to Tau Ceti; discovers Human-habitable planet. Repairs to ship take six months; ship again crippled on return trip, but crew gathers valuable data on GAS-Station sheer forces.

January 1, 2000 - World celebrates new Millennium. Joint statement by world leaders declares an official Year of Celebration.

April 7 - 12, 2000: One Hundred Nations - Despite attempts to keep news out of the press, word leaks that DS4 is limping home, heavily damaged. Rumors run riot across planet, quickly consuming all news channels and causing the first overloads of Network traffic systems. Emergency meeting of leaders of the world’s one hundred countries at Birmingham, AL Space Control Center under massive security only heightens fears, as many believe that an alien invasion is immanent.

DS4 crew - entering orbit near L3 - are debriefed by video feed as world leaders look on. Leaders retire to the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex, surrounded by a full Confederate Army corps and numerous bodyguard units.

Following a non-stop, three day meeting, a drawn and haggard-looking NAA President John Glenn emerges onto the auditorium steps, flanked by the 99 other world leaders, and announces the DS4 discoveries to a stunned world. He follows this with the announcement of the Hundred Nations Concord, formally unifying the Earth under one government (the Terran Concordat), stating in part “…We do not know what tomorrow’s dawn may bring, but we can no longer face that dawn separately…”

September 2000 - First details are released of first dedicated expedition to Tau Ceti system.

April 4, 2002 - TCSS Magellan activates Pluto GAS-Station, transits to Tau Ceti in one hour

January 1, 2010 - Now.



NB: "¤" = Terran Credit
 
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