TL-191 DBWI: Confederates Reach Lake Erie

[Desmond Hume]

(OOC: I'm new here, so I hope this is in the right forum and makes a modicum of sense)

So the 68th anniversary of the CSA's invasion of Ohio is in a couple days, and I've been wondering: WI the US Army under the brilliant leadership of Gen. Dowling had failed to stop the invasion at Columbus? Could the CSA have made it all the way to Lake Erie as they apparently planned? What would have happened if they did? Presumably the war would have lasted far longer than 1943, when Featherston was executed in the Generals' Coup and Chairman Potter began his twenty-year reign by requesting an armistice.

 

[Michael B]

Interesting questions. Here are some answers.

1) The USA builds a super railroad though Canada. That along with shooting hundreds of Canuck guerillas handles the communication issues.

2) The war is still going to turn nuclear. Given that the CSA has less bombs and can only deliver those they have by truck, no prizes for guessing which American country is going to be most leveled by superbombs. Given that the USA is now doing worse that it did historically it has even more incentive to blow the Dixie out of Dixieland.

3) If the war is going better for the CSA then Featherston is less lightly to be deposed in a coup. He is more lightly to have a super bomb dropped on his secret bunker.

 

[Solomaxwell6]

ASB. The Confederate military was too inexperienced. I mean, it was just cobbled together in secret, and with only funds that Featherston managed to hide from the official books so it didn't get a chance to train nearly as well as OTL, and it lacked the equipment. Contemporary war, up until super bombs were created, was meant to be static and defensive. Featherston's attempt at a war of maneuver was doomed to failure. Logistics don't work that way! If an army begins to move too fast, supplies and communication can't keep up, and they're easy pickings for the defending army. Look at how the war turned out. A slow, inexorable advance by the US until super bombs were invented and Richmond was destroyed. More or less the same as the Great War, just with slightly more movement because of barrels. None of this hundreds-of-miles in a day crap.

2) The war is still going to turn nuclear. Given that the CSA has less bombs and can only deliver those they have by truck, no prizes for guessing which American country is going to be most leveled by superbombs. Given that the USA is now doing worse that it did historically it has even more incentive to blow the Dixie out of Dixieland.

Interesting that you mention that, Michael. There's actually research that the CSA was developing an early long range missile. If this project really got a chance to be finished before the war was over, it might lead to missile based super bombs years in advance, and the Confederates would actually have an advantage in the arms race of the 50s.

ooc: I'm assuming that an early failure of blitzkrieg on an operational level means people lose faith. It'll still be used; it's too useful. Just not on a wide scale. If you want to correct my character and say "War of maneuver was used successfully at such a place, it's just not very well known," feel free.

 

[Desmond Hume]

You both make very good points.

ASB. The Confederate military was too inexperienced. I mean, it was just cobbled together in secret, and with only funds that Featherston managed to hide from the official books so it didn't get a chance to train nearly as well as OTL, and it lacked the equipment. Contemporary war, up until super bombs were created, was meant to be static and defensive. Featherston's attempt at a war of maneuver was doomed to failure. Logistics don't work that way! If an army begins to move too fast, supplies and communication can't keep up, and they're easy pickings for the defending army. Look at how the war turned out. A slow, inexorable advance by the US until super bombs were invented and Richmond was destroyed. More or less the same as the Great War, just with slightly more movement because of barrels. None of this hundreds-of-miles in a day crap.

[snip]

You're completely right about the flaws inherent in Featherston's lightning war idea, Solomaxwell. That sort inability to understand the most basic principles of logistics is obviously why Featherston never made Lieutenant in the first war

Another thing that occurs to me: if the war had lasted for another year, would there even be a CSA today?