Okay guys, update! Tomorrow I will write about the peace treaty.
MADNESS AND ARDOR, SUMMARY OF THE GREAT WAR, 1915-1918
New weapons came into battle
The stagnation of the Great War on the Asian front and European front, plus the failure of Yankees on the Western front had encouraged utilizations of newer, deadlier instruments of death. The first was a new type of gas, called mustard gas, was deployed during the battle of Shoshoni Falls to deter Allies troops from entering the city. The effect was horrifying, but not extremely lethal: thousands of Russian and Californian troops were burned by the gas, blistered in excruciating pain, and forcing them to back down from fighting for more than 6 weeks.
On the European theatre, the Nordics created the first monoplane, the Fokker Eindecker. A surprisingly versatile and speedy aeroplane for its time, this machine allowed the Nordics to temporarily oust Europan aeroforces over the Bund. Some of the planes were sent to the Dutch and Britannians - where it would be called the Spitfire. In Ireland, Britannian-pilotted Spitfire dropped tons of Union-made mustard gases on enemy targets or blasted Irish troops with grinders from aerodecks, given these planes the nickname
Churchill’s spits by the Irish.
Tanks (or landships in TTL English) began to make an appearance in late 1915, and they were produced by the Europans in order to make a breakthrough in the Dutch front, where the CPs still held strong against the Allies. The Russians would follow up and produce their own tanks in 1916 to shield troops from increasing gas attacks by the Americans. Meanwhile, the RU began works on a form of anti-armor weapon to counter the Russian advances.
Infantry weapons got upgraded as well. The Cokies, after hearing stories about the terrifying Avtomat Fedorov, designed and supplied the Union with Purdey & Sons 7.32mm Buzzsawer, mostly as a suppressive weapon for controlling the revolting Inferiors in RU. New grenades were created with more shrapnels, and handguns became faster and more accurate, adding in the massive casualties for all sides during the Great War.
The rise of the Second Black Plague (the American Flu or Satan Flu in RU)
In 1915, reports of a deadly flu manifested in RU Inferiors ghettos. Dismissed as a disease of the fluid-weak, it soon transmitted Betters neighborhood and eventually spread to soldiers fighting in the front. The flu soon found it way to Europe and Asia through Americans shipping supplies in late 1915. The pandemic situation deteriorated quickly in 1916, with millions of civilians and soldiers got sick and thousands die everyday, especially in Europan India and China. War efforts by both sides dwindled, and troops began mutinies due to terrible war time conditions regarding the plague and intense fightings. Luckily, all Great Powers would deliver their efforts to produce a cure (a vaccine) for the American Flu. Leading the way were several research groups, most notably the Goldstein-Finch-Beijerinck group of the Leagues and Ivanovsky-d’Herrelle group of the Allies. Goldstein would beat the Allies in discovering the vaccines, but d’Herelle would beat them in mass producing the cure, giving the Allies a major advantage over the Union in the Great War.
The Intermediate Stage of the Great War (1915-1918)
American Theatre
As mentioned, the Russians and Californians were marching towards Shoshoni Falls, but were deterred by the use of lewisite gas during January and February. While Allies soldiers were familiar with Chlorine and tear gases, lewisite was a completely different game: it worked very well in dry climate prevalent around the Snake River Basin, caused organ failures in lungs, kidneys and liver, and capable of absorbing through latex or fabric. However, lewisite stockpile in the Union was small and soon Shoshoni defenders ran out of gas. The gas attack did delay Allies advances in Southeastern Oregon, but operations soon resumed by March. From 1915-1916, Oregon began to crumble - thanks to the capture of Willamette Valley earlier - with American troops were forced back or recalled into fighting in Canadian battlefields. The Allies stopped advancing against the Americans in 1917, when Oregon was fully captured, and Alyaskan sent troops to fight against the Union in California or in Canada.
In Canada, Union troops were frustrated by the lack of progress. Russian and Europan aeroplanes dominated the sky, denying the Americans aero supports, and allies defenders either raided or waged guerrillas against the Union attackers at every moment. Worse still, tanks began actions in Canadian front from late 1916, and neutralized Union gas attacks or armor vehicles. The Quebecois suffered from a worse fate, with Montreal finally fell in Summer 1916, thanks to the HOST crusaders managed a breakthrough by clearing out anti-armour nests. Yet, Quebec stubbornly fought on, with supplies sent daily by both the Russian from the port of Murmansk - established in 1908 - and mainland Europa.
The RU itself began to face troubles in 1916. The pandemic situation had become overwhelming, delaying many military activities, and Inferiors - inspired by the victories of the Allies - began revolting en-masse. They destroyed factories, murdered guards or even raided RUMP posts for weapons. Cokie foreign volunteers and militaries stationed within RU, however, proved to be an efficient force in countering these rebels. Seasoned and well-trained in the art of counter-guerrilla, thanks to years of oppressing African tribes, they organized into special squads that would enter the ghettos or Inferior strongholds at night to absolutely terrorize them, while dressing in similar clothing of the rebels. This efforts soon paid off in crushing revolts in Richmond, New York and Philadelphia. Regardless, even with the best attempts of ORRA, the Army, RUMP and the Cokies, the number of Inferiors revolting was massive and impossible to stamp out when so many resources had to be expended in fighting the Allies. Adding to the problem was that many Betters began to feel that the Strong Men of Philadelphia were not as strong nor invincible as they once thought. Many resisted drafting and even outrightly demanded peace when news and rumored spread that the Union had lost Oregon, Lincolnia, and Panama was threatened, despite the efforts of the government to silence any unfavorable news about the war.
Speaking of Panama Canal, Grand Colombia agreed to join the war against RU in 1916 after promises that it would get all of Dutch Guyana and a share of American Carribean. While Colombian troops were neither modern nor well-trained, they helped burdening the Union war efforts. 150,000 Colombian-Brazillian troops finally defeated 20,000 Union defenders in Georgetown, thanks to Mexican rebels in Metropolis and Sweetwater dealt significant troubles for RUMP and ORRA.
Eventually, in 1918, the Final Solution of the Inferior problem was passed. Orders were given by Steele (Custer was dead in 1917, and Steele was declared emergency President) and ORRA Supreme Chief Dewey to shoot and kill 75% of the Inferiors. RUMP and ORRA began flattening Inferior ghettos, but the Inferiors also fought back harder than ever before. They would arson Betters facilities, held hostage whole buildings or throwing sick bodies into Betters’ neighborhoods, causing huge chaos and headaches for the Union; and some rebellious Americans even supported the Inferiors in exchange for their own safety. However, the Union government managed to kill 2 millions Inferiors before the war end, or about 12% of the Inferior population. But the damages had been done and it was clear to many that RU was spiraling down quickly: constant revolts, a broken economy and huge military casualties for little gains.
European Theatre
By 1915, the Central Powers had Northern Bunds under their control. With this, the Dutch received more supplies from the Nordics and Scandinavians, allowing them to hold grounds against Europa. The Europans weren’t too worrying about the Central Powers and mostly played attrition war against them to strain their war industry, while focused much more on the Canadian-Quebec front to weaken the RU. On the British Isles, the Irish continued to be pushed back by the relentless Britannian, Cokies volunteers and American troops, with increasingly large amount of poison gases being used on by both sides to annihilate their opponents. Many Irish citizens were evacuated to Europan Africa to avoid the carnage, and only the sturdiest and toughest remained on the isle to combat the crazed invaders.
In Nordreich, Polish unrests were growing more and more by they day. They received clandestine helps from the Russian, mostly from near the Baltics where the thick forests provide good covers for Polish activities. Polish people began resisting drafts, citing concerns about fighting against their Catholics and Slavic brethren. Some even went so far as to do bombing against German targets if their demands on independence and self-rule could not be guaranteed - an act which would ingrain in and produce an intense hatred for Slavic people later in post-war Nordreich. Meanwhile, the Russian began amassing entire armies along the Nordic-Russian border to prepare for a new goal - to incorporate Poland into Russia and complete the idea of uniting Poland with Russia, lobbied by millions of Poles in Russia.
From 1916 - 1917, the frontline did not change much. But in the Central Powers, the war had strained their economy so much, and the American Flu only worsened the terrible situations. People began to demand an end to the war, and some even deflected to Illuminism or Socialism and staged revolts. Mutinies were common and especially plagued the Dutch and Nordics due to the Afrikaners and Polish were increasingly refusal to fight. Adding to the problem was that vaccines for the Second Black Plague would not be ready until late 1918 due to difficulties in mass producing the cure in the Central Powers; meanwhile the Allies - thanks to their huge and relatively intact industries - had allowed them to up the game in production by early 1918.
Situations were terrible in 1918 for the CPs. Polish revolution was full-swing, and Russia sent in 200,000 troops to support the rebels, effectively declared war against Nordreich. Warsaw would fall to Polish and Russian hands by May 1918. The Dutch were falling back, after an Europan offensive which saw the capture of Eindhoven and liberation of Cologne from the Protestant. Eventually, the Central Powers collapsed in June 1918, due to a combination of food and supplies shortage, large mutinies, and the fact that the Allies promised to the Dutch and Nordics that the punishment on them would be less harsh the earlier they surrendered. Only the Britannians continued in their vain fighting, despite knowing that victory was nigh impossible. Dutch, Scandinavians, and Nordics laid down their arm, and a new peace treaty - the Munich Peace Treaty - would be imposed on them. Russian and Europan people were jubilant with their ultimate victory, and the Americans were absolutely demoralized to hear that their fellow Pinnacle men were defeated by “
the hordes of Inferiors.” The end of the war in Europe would relieve an extra 3 million war-hardened and experienced soldiers for the Allies for the American theatre, where they would prevail over the exhausted Union Army.
The chapter would have grow too long had I incorporated the Asian and African theatre. It will be added in the last update about the Great War, where we would see the defeat of the fascist RU, Australia, BU and Japan, the rise of a new Cokie Empire and their Korean allies, as well as the situation in Europe following the Munich Peace Treaty.
