Sir Chaos
Banned
Maybe a couple of conspiracy theories about what really happened on The Day The Bombs Fell? I mean, we have a right to know exactly which ancient international conspiracy is to blame!
Protect and Survive: A Timeline
- Thread starter Macragge1
- Start date
Maybe a couple of conspiracy theories about what really happened on The Day The Bombs Fell? I mean, we have a right to know exactly which ancient international conspiracy is to blame!
Macragge1
Banned
Operation Prospero [7]
This is what we've waited for/ This is it boys, this is war
A few days later, I found myself called to Portsmouth to meet the Swiss pilots. They had been released from their 'arrest' up in CHANTICLEER and flown down to Portsmouth to meet the King. Despite my being at an airbase, I could afford no such luxury and headed down in convoy. It was a regrettable necessity that an armoured car and a detachment of the RAF Regiment accompanied me, but such was the situation - unguarded movements, civilian or military, were liable to be ambushed and looted - it was up to the discretion of these new highwaymen whether the vehicle's owners made it.
Portsmouth, these days, was not an easy place to enter. As soon as the city became visible, the security was evident. The army was trying to increase the safe perimeter around the place; the roads became thicker with forces traffic the closer we came. We were stopped on three seperate occasions within ten miles of the city limits - even wearing my uniform and with my papers in order, there was a deep reluctance to let anybody in. Behind us, many were being turned away. In front of us, we saw two helicopters orbiting the town; even at Yeovilton, seeing two aircraft up simultaneously was unheard of.
The outskirts of Portsmouth were teeming - the cordon was tight, but it wasn't tight enough. Eight to a room, thirty to a house. Twice, the Fox in front of us was forced to fire her cannon into the sky in order to clear the throngs. The worst was the girls - many of them couldn't have been more than fourteen or fifteen - some of them were still wearing their school uniforms - they threw themselves against our lorries, exposing themselves - we had petrol so we were rich. There was nothing we could do - I resolved to bring it up with the local Police commander, but I doubted he was unaware; it was only one of umpteen problems that this 'blessed city' was facing.
Once we passed the inner cordon, it was as if somebody had flipped a switch. The streets were empty. They were clean. Twice, red-coated horsemen paraded past us. We could have sworn that even the weather was better. We left the Fox behind and proceeded slowly towards the...
*
The Secretary poured the glasses himself, and sat the men down next to a roaring fire. The flickering orange and red threw up the lines in his smile as he began to talk.
'The night it happened, I was in D.C. We'd not slept more than a couple hours since the war started, but there wasn't time to be tired. I was moving from one White House briefing to another with Ronnie - it was the third of the night, I think. Suddenly, the whole building started screaming; for a second, there was absolute still - 'Evacuate the White House' - that's all the robot on the PA said - in an instant, the whole place burst. Two big guys grabbed the big man, took him off his feet - one grabbed me - one of them Israeli Uzis in the other hand. The corridors pased in a blur; it was amazing how fast we could run. I caught things as I ran - Anchorage gone, Thule lost; some of the flyboys were shouting about triggering the SAC and trying to see if Omaha had launched - I'd never seen such chaos.
When we got on to the lawn it was something else. It looked like most of the army were down there - they were shooting at someone, or someone was shooting at us. Before I could ask what happened, the first blast hit downtown. It took a few seconds to realise it must have missed, because we were still alive - thank god we had our heads down, or we'd have been blinded. I saw Ronnie get thrown into a chopper - the last time I saw him - I was on the next one - it landed not twenty seconds later.
From the air, hell just seemed to get worse - the whole place was on fire - the sky burned black and burned red and burned orange. I saw a river of brakelights - the whole city trying to get out. In the sky, too, so many choppers - a swarm of flies around a corpse. It soon would be - we felt the second and third blasts as we hightailed it. For a second, I let myself visualise getting to Cheyenne, being safe, sorting this mess out.
Our chopper caught the blast of some bomb somewhere; I just about made it out, and wound up here.'
The Prospero team have so many questions but they're sitting silent. The Secretary's stopped smiling and he's pouring a second glass. This continues for a full few minutes.
'I'm so glad you're here, boys. We've got a big day ahead of us tomorrow, but you boys get some rest. G'nite'. He shakes their hands, brushes their cheeks.'
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alabama
Birmingham
Mobile
Montgomery
Arizona
Phoenix
Arkansas
Little Rock
Fort Smith
California
Allameda
Bakersfield
Compton
Fresno
Inglewood
Long Beach
Los Angeles
Oakland
Pasadena
Redondo Beach
Richmond
Sacramento
San Diego
San Francisco
San Jose
Torrance
Colorado
Denver
Pueblo
Connetticut
Bridgeport
Hartford
New Haven
New London
Stamford
Waterbury
Delaware
Wilmington
Florida
Jacksonville
Miami
Orlando
St Petersburg
Tampa
Georgia
Athens
Atlanta
Augusta
Macon
Savannah
Idaho
Boise
Twin Falls
Nampa
Illinois
Aurora
Berwyn
Chicago
Decatur
East St. Louis
Oak Park
Springfield
Indiana
Anderson
Evensville
Fort Wayne
Indianapolis
South Bend
Iowa
Cedar Rapids
Des Moines
Dubuque
Sioux City
Kansas
Kansas City
Wichita
Kentucky
Louisville
Lexington
Louisiana
Baton Rouge
New Orleans
Lafayette
Shreveport
Maine
Bangor
Portland
Waterville
Massachussets
Boston
Cambridge
Fall River
Lawrence
New Bedford
Springfield
Worcester
Michigan
Battle Creek
Bay City
Detroit
Flint
Grand Rapids
Saginaw
Minnesota
St Paul
Minneapolis
Duluth
Mississipi
Biloxi
Jackson
Vicksburg
Natchez
Missouri
Independence
St Louis
Montana
Billings
Nebraska
Omaha
Lincoln
Nevada
Reno
New Hampshire
Dover
Manchester
Nashua
New Jersey
Atlantic City
Bayonne
Camden
Clifton
Hoboken
Newark
Phillipsburg
New Mexico
Albequerque
Santa Fe
New York
Albany
Binghamton
Buffalo
Jamestown
NYC
Rochester
Syracuse
Yonkers
North Carolina
Charlotte
Winston
Salem
North Dakota
Minot
Ohio
Akron
Cincinatti
Columbus
Marion
Pigua
Springfield
Oklahoma
Norman
Tulsa
Oregon
Portland
Salem
Pennsylvania
Allentown
Harrisburg
Philadelphia
Pittsburgh
Scranton
York
Rhode Island
Providence
Pawtucket
Newport
Warwick
Central Falls
South Carolina
Charleston
Columbia
South Dakota
Sioux Falls
Tennessee
Chatanooga
Memphis
Nashville
Knoxville
Texas
Amarillo
Austin
Corpus Christi
Dallas
El Paso
Fort Worth
Galveston
Houston
Lufkin
McAllen
Marshall
Midland
Odessa
San Antonio
Wichita Falls
Utah
Salt Lake City
Ogden
Vermont
Burlington
Virginia
Norfolk
Richmond
Martinsville
Staunton
Washington
Aberdeen
Seattle
Spokane
Tacoma
West Virginia
Charleston
Huntington
Wisconsin
Appleton
Eau Claire
Fond du Lac
Milwaukee
Oshkosh
West Allis
Wyoming
Caspar
Cheyenne
Laramie
District of Columbia
Washington D.C
List is only cities - does not include USN/USAF/USMC/Army facilities.
List is incomplete.
No communications with AL or HI.
God Bless America.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is what we've waited for/ This is it boys, this is war
A few days later, I found myself called to Portsmouth to meet the Swiss pilots. They had been released from their 'arrest' up in CHANTICLEER and flown down to Portsmouth to meet the King. Despite my being at an airbase, I could afford no such luxury and headed down in convoy. It was a regrettable necessity that an armoured car and a detachment of the RAF Regiment accompanied me, but such was the situation - unguarded movements, civilian or military, were liable to be ambushed and looted - it was up to the discretion of these new highwaymen whether the vehicle's owners made it.
Portsmouth, these days, was not an easy place to enter. As soon as the city became visible, the security was evident. The army was trying to increase the safe perimeter around the place; the roads became thicker with forces traffic the closer we came. We were stopped on three seperate occasions within ten miles of the city limits - even wearing my uniform and with my papers in order, there was a deep reluctance to let anybody in. Behind us, many were being turned away. In front of us, we saw two helicopters orbiting the town; even at Yeovilton, seeing two aircraft up simultaneously was unheard of.
The outskirts of Portsmouth were teeming - the cordon was tight, but it wasn't tight enough. Eight to a room, thirty to a house. Twice, the Fox in front of us was forced to fire her cannon into the sky in order to clear the throngs. The worst was the girls - many of them couldn't have been more than fourteen or fifteen - some of them were still wearing their school uniforms - they threw themselves against our lorries, exposing themselves - we had petrol so we were rich. There was nothing we could do - I resolved to bring it up with the local Police commander, but I doubted he was unaware; it was only one of umpteen problems that this 'blessed city' was facing.
Once we passed the inner cordon, it was as if somebody had flipped a switch. The streets were empty. They were clean. Twice, red-coated horsemen paraded past us. We could have sworn that even the weather was better. We left the Fox behind and proceeded slowly towards the...
*
The Secretary poured the glasses himself, and sat the men down next to a roaring fire. The flickering orange and red threw up the lines in his smile as he began to talk.
'The night it happened, I was in D.C. We'd not slept more than a couple hours since the war started, but there wasn't time to be tired. I was moving from one White House briefing to another with Ronnie - it was the third of the night, I think. Suddenly, the whole building started screaming; for a second, there was absolute still - 'Evacuate the White House' - that's all the robot on the PA said - in an instant, the whole place burst. Two big guys grabbed the big man, took him off his feet - one grabbed me - one of them Israeli Uzis in the other hand. The corridors pased in a blur; it was amazing how fast we could run. I caught things as I ran - Anchorage gone, Thule lost; some of the flyboys were shouting about triggering the SAC and trying to see if Omaha had launched - I'd never seen such chaos.
When we got on to the lawn it was something else. It looked like most of the army were down there - they were shooting at someone, or someone was shooting at us. Before I could ask what happened, the first blast hit downtown. It took a few seconds to realise it must have missed, because we were still alive - thank god we had our heads down, or we'd have been blinded. I saw Ronnie get thrown into a chopper - the last time I saw him - I was on the next one - it landed not twenty seconds later.
From the air, hell just seemed to get worse - the whole place was on fire - the sky burned black and burned red and burned orange. I saw a river of brakelights - the whole city trying to get out. In the sky, too, so many choppers - a swarm of flies around a corpse. It soon would be - we felt the second and third blasts as we hightailed it. For a second, I let myself visualise getting to Cheyenne, being safe, sorting this mess out.
Our chopper caught the blast of some bomb somewhere; I just about made it out, and wound up here.'
The Prospero team have so many questions but they're sitting silent. The Secretary's stopped smiling and he's pouring a second glass. This continues for a full few minutes.
'I'm so glad you're here, boys. We've got a big day ahead of us tomorrow, but you boys get some rest. G'nite'. He shakes their hands, brushes their cheeks.'
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alabama
Birmingham
Mobile
Montgomery
Arizona
Phoenix
Arkansas
Little Rock
Fort Smith
California
Allameda
Bakersfield
Compton
Fresno
Inglewood
Long Beach
Los Angeles
Oakland
Pasadena
Redondo Beach
Richmond
Sacramento
San Diego
San Francisco
San Jose
Torrance
Colorado
Denver
Pueblo
Connetticut
Bridgeport
Hartford
New Haven
New London
Stamford
Waterbury
Delaware
Wilmington
Florida
Jacksonville
Miami
Orlando
St Petersburg
Tampa
Georgia
Athens
Atlanta
Augusta
Macon
Savannah
Idaho
Boise
Twin Falls
Nampa
Illinois
Aurora
Berwyn
Chicago
Decatur
East St. Louis
Oak Park
Springfield
Indiana
Anderson
Evensville
Fort Wayne
Indianapolis
South Bend
Iowa
Cedar Rapids
Des Moines
Dubuque
Sioux City
Kansas
Kansas City
Wichita
Kentucky
Louisville
Lexington
Louisiana
Baton Rouge
New Orleans
Lafayette
Shreveport
Maine
Bangor
Portland
Waterville
Massachussets
Boston
Cambridge
Fall River
Lawrence
New Bedford
Springfield
Worcester
Michigan
Battle Creek
Bay City
Detroit
Flint
Grand Rapids
Saginaw
Minnesota
St Paul
Minneapolis
Duluth
Mississipi
Biloxi
Jackson
Vicksburg
Natchez
Missouri
Independence
St Louis
Montana
Billings
Nebraska
Omaha
Lincoln
Nevada
Reno
New Hampshire
Dover
Manchester
Nashua
New Jersey
Atlantic City
Bayonne
Camden
Clifton
Hoboken
Newark
Phillipsburg
New Mexico
Albequerque
Santa Fe
New York
Albany
Binghamton
Buffalo
Jamestown
NYC
Rochester
Syracuse
Yonkers
North Carolina
Charlotte
Winston
Salem
North Dakota
Minot
Ohio
Akron
Cincinatti
Columbus
Marion
Pigua
Springfield
Oklahoma
Norman
Tulsa
Oregon
Portland
Salem
Pennsylvania
Allentown
Harrisburg
Philadelphia
Pittsburgh
Scranton
York
Rhode Island
Providence
Pawtucket
Newport
Warwick
Central Falls
South Carolina
Charleston
Columbia
South Dakota
Sioux Falls
Tennessee
Chatanooga
Memphis
Nashville
Knoxville
Texas
Amarillo
Austin
Corpus Christi
Dallas
El Paso
Fort Worth
Galveston
Houston
Lufkin
McAllen
Marshall
Midland
Odessa
San Antonio
Wichita Falls
Utah
Salt Lake City
Ogden
Vermont
Burlington
Virginia
Norfolk
Richmond
Martinsville
Staunton
Washington
Aberdeen
Seattle
Spokane
Tacoma
West Virginia
Charleston
Huntington
Wisconsin
Appleton
Eau Claire
Fond du Lac
Milwaukee
Oshkosh
West Allis
Wyoming
Caspar
Cheyenne
Laramie
District of Columbia
Washington D.C
List is only cities - does not include USN/USAF/USMC/Army facilities.
List is incomplete.
No communications with AL or HI.
God Bless America.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Last edited:
Well, that's me almost certainly done, whether I was at home or at school - I suppose I might've had a shot if I'd just happened to have been visiting my father's parents down in Marshfield when the excrement hit the airfoil.
Hooray it's come early!
Looks like Portsmouth is a really fun place to live. Mind you some wags might suggest that it isn't much worse than before the bombs.
It's interesting to see some information on the fate of America. I suspect that Reagan probably made it to NIGHWATCH, HMX-1 did, after all, train for decades just for that moment when they would have to get the POTUS from the White House to Andrews AFB and to NEACAP.
By now the POTUS, or his successor, is probably at one of whatever Presidential Emergency Facilities, perhaps Mount Weather, or Raven Rock.
The list is certainly incomplete - no mention of Anchorage, but it does mention that comms are out with AL.
Looks like Portsmouth is a really fun place to live. Mind you some wags might suggest that it isn't much worse than before the bombs.
It's interesting to see some information on the fate of America. I suspect that Reagan probably made it to NIGHWATCH, HMX-1 did, after all, train for decades just for that moment when they would have to get the POTUS from the White House to Andrews AFB and to NEACAP.
By now the POTUS, or his successor, is probably at one of whatever Presidential Emergency Facilities, perhaps Mount Weather, or Raven Rock.
The list is certainly incomplete - no mention of Anchorage, but it does mention that comms are out with AL.
Texas
Amarillo
Austin
Corpus Christi
Dallas
El Paso
Fort Worth
Galveston
Houston
Lufkin
McAllen
Marshall
Midland
Odessa
San Antonio
Wichita Falls
[/QUOTE]
Yup, me and my parents are dead, unless we went to visit my maternal grandparents. Noticed you left Brownsville off the list (I've just been to the 1983 Doomsday site. Good site, IMO, if somewhat goofy at times). A & M-College Station (spared according to your list) has a Corps Cadet class. They will be very good at maintaining order in the Brazos Valley (what's left of it). This means that Texas will be overrun by...Aggies.
Just kidding, Aggie fans.
Seriously, this is one of the better timelines I've read (though not as good as Fear, Loathing, and Gumbo on the Campaign Trail 1972 (have you read that, BTW?)).
You also left Baltimore off the list. Was it hit, or was it spared?
Amarillo
Austin
Corpus Christi
Dallas
El Paso
Fort Worth
Galveston
Houston
Lufkin
McAllen
Marshall
Midland
Odessa
San Antonio
Wichita Falls
[/QUOTE]
Yup, me and my parents are dead, unless we went to visit my maternal grandparents. Noticed you left Brownsville off the list (I've just been to the 1983 Doomsday site. Good site, IMO, if somewhat goofy at times). A & M-College Station (spared according to your list) has a Corps Cadet class. They will be very good at maintaining order in the Brazos Valley (what's left of it). This means that Texas will be overrun by...Aggies
.Just kidding, Aggie fans.
Seriously, this is one of the better timelines I've read (though not as good as Fear, Loathing, and Gumbo on the Campaign Trail 1972 (have you read that, BTW?)).
You also left Baltimore off the list. Was it hit, or was it spared?
Orville_third
Banned
My hometown is still there, though we might get fallout from some groundbursts. Of course, people fleeing Columbia, Atlanta and Charlotte may be heading for us. I think Oconee Nuclear is still running, as are the hydro dams on Lakes Hartwell and Jocassee. We also have GSP in Greer and Donaldson Center, which can take in big aircraft.
Hold on there. It says that the list does not include military facilities.
I'm willing to bet that this would include the Presidio and Camp Pendleton for a start. Bummer.
R
Tovarich
Banned
Actually, cassettes can skip, sort of, if the player is set to auto-reverse when it hits the end of the tape (most common in cars).
Having an old cassette that's getting a bit stiff 'fools' the mechanism into flipping from side-to-side and repeating the same two snatches of music until frustration makes you rip the bloody thing from the deck and chuck it out the window onto the hard shoulder of the M11
(er, for example)
Great update. Interesting to hear about Portsmouth.
It is well worth considering that Portsmouth is actually an island, which will help in some ways with the security cordon around the town. The island is borderd by Ports Creek to the north and is crossed by a motorway bridge, two further road bridges, two footbridges and a railway bridge (not sure how many of these would have been there in the 1980s though).
Immediately after Ports Creek you have a moat across the island, followed by the 19th century Hilsea Lines, a series of fortifications, ramparts and gun emplacements that could easily be adapted in TTL. See Hilsea lines on Wikipedia.
You then have an island that is four miles long and three miles wide - and 90% urban. Probably in the best part a cess pit, but an easy to defend cesspit at that.
Next door you have Hayling Island, much more rural, with caravan parks and easy to defend access to the one bridge linking it to the mainland. You've also got the Isle of Wight, which I don't think was hit? Quite a good little network of infrastructure there with natural/semi-natural defenses that will probably provide the nearest thing to civil government in southern England.
I could very easy see the people of Portsmouth - potential minor injuries from the Southampton blast, but generally fit and well - being shipped out to Wight and Hayling to a ) relieve the urban area b ) assist with the manual nature of agriculture on these two rural islands.
It is well worth considering that Portsmouth is actually an island, which will help in some ways with the security cordon around the town. The island is borderd by Ports Creek to the north and is crossed by a motorway bridge, two further road bridges, two footbridges and a railway bridge (not sure how many of these would have been there in the 1980s though).
Immediately after Ports Creek you have a moat across the island, followed by the 19th century Hilsea Lines, a series of fortifications, ramparts and gun emplacements that could easily be adapted in TTL. See Hilsea lines on Wikipedia.
You then have an island that is four miles long and three miles wide - and 90% urban. Probably in the best part a cess pit, but an easy to defend cesspit at that.
Next door you have Hayling Island, much more rural, with caravan parks and easy to defend access to the one bridge linking it to the mainland. You've also got the Isle of Wight, which I don't think was hit? Quite a good little network of infrastructure there with natural/semi-natural defenses that will probably provide the nearest thing to civil government in southern England.
I could very easy see the people of Portsmouth - potential minor injuries from the Southampton blast, but generally fit and well - being shipped out to Wight and Hayling to a ) relieve the urban area b ) assist with the manual nature of agriculture on these two rural islands.
Sir Chaos
Banned
No Carson City?
And how come Las Vegas is not on the list? Surely the Soviet Union would spare a missile or two to wipe this symbol of Capitalist decadence off the map? They wouldn´t hit, of course - the house bets against a hit, and nobody wins against the house...
Military targets weren't on the list. I suspect Vegas was taken out along with Nellis AFB. Similar to the omission of Dayton, Ohio, which would have gone up when Wright-Patterson was hit. In any case, there's a clear disclaimer that the list is incomplete...
Similarly Tuscon will have potentially gone with Davis-Monthan AFB and Oklahoma City with Tinker AFB.
Hmm, looks like Cleveland or Raleigh as the two largest possibilities for not being slagged.
Hendryk
Banned
I can imagine some of the less scrupulous (or conversely, some of the more soft-hearted) soldiers taking up "girlfriends" from among them, rationalizing it as "saving them from a worse fate".
One wonders whether Reagan will be able to remain an effective leader, this kind of situation will be hard on a 74-year-old man in the early stages of Alzheimer's Disease. Let's hope Bush has made it too.
Meant to add nice Nena reference. I've always preferred the German original to the English translation though.
I also like the '09 version, which is in both French and German. IMVHO Nena herself is like a good wine vintage, she's improved with age. I think she's better looking now than she was in '84.
For a laugh I did write a scene where Black Watch soldiers are taunting DDR ones opposite them by singing 99 Luftballons at them.
For a laugh I did write a scene where Black Watch soldiers are taunting DDR ones opposite them by singing 99 Luftballons at them.