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Why so long without updates?
 
I apologize for how long I've gone without posting or updating. The last few weeks have been very busy, with exams, papers, holidays, and preparation for studying in England next semester eating up most of my time. The good news is, you can start expecting new updates to appear in the next few days. :)
 
I apologize for how long I've gone without posting or updating. The last few weeks have been very busy, with exams, papers, holidays, and preparation for studying in England next semester eating up most of my time. The good news is, you can start expecting new updates to appear in the next few days. :)

Okay. I hope your education is going well. :)
 
I apologize for how long I've gone without posting or updating. The last few weeks have been very busy, with exams, papers, holidays, and preparation for studying in England next semester eating up most of my time. The good news is, you can start expecting new updates to appear in the next few days. :)
Good :D
 
First let me say that I've enjoyed reading this quite a bit; your portrayal of a post-war world where the USA never got involved has interested me to say the least, and I'm looking forward to seeing how the war goes. I confess I'm a bit of a West Coast supporter myself, and will be secretly cheering for them even if you are the victor here. ;)

Secondly, I know this isn't entirely convenient given your busy studying schedule, but I'm irrepressible that way. This AAR has been nominated for the Weekly Showcase Award. You've done a great job and I look forward to seeing more out of this once you find time to update again. Please do keep going, I for one will be subscribed and watching eagerly for the next update.
 
i just read through this AAR and i have to say its fantastic. It seems like the federals are winning the battles and loosing the war, they seem to be controlling less and less. I'll be sure to keep reading
 
Wow...great AAR. Salthis knew what he was doing when he nominated you.
 
Well, I have bad news for those of you expecting an imminent update. I've come down with a pretty bad case of the flu and, with this week being finals, my free time is pretty sparse. But don't worry, I'll update eventually. :)
 
Well, I have bad news for those of you expecting an imminent update. I've come down with a pretty bad case of the flu and, with this week being finals, my free time is pretty sparse. But don't worry, I'll update eventually. :)
:( Get better soon!
 
The Second American Civil War - Part VII

After National General Patton's ferocious assault on Federal positions in Charlottesville, Virginia, Marshall braced his II. Army for another whirlwind offensive like that one in late August. Once again, the star National general defied his opponent's expectations, refusing to continue the assault and disappearing back into the south Virginia wilderness as quickly as he had appeared.

For the first time since the civil war had begun, it seemed as if the Eastern Front had ground down into a stalemate. I. and III. Army remained pinned in place in Ohio and Kentucky, unable to risk significant offensives without seriously overextending their lines and inviting a flanking counterattack or encirclement. MacArthur demanded more troops if he could be expected to carry the fight into Indiana, and suggested Washington begin pressuring the Canadian government of Prime Minister Mackenzie King into blockading the Syndicalist supply convoys through Lake Michigan. And in Virginia, Marshall refused to budge before he could ascertain the whereabouts of Patton's seemingly invincible army.

But matters in Texas would ultimately force the Federal hand. On September 28, Californian troops captured the town of El Paso. While the city held no military or strategic importance, it signaled to planners in Washington that the Federals had finally run out of western land to sacrifice to gain more time. For their part, Stillwell and Wainright had planned for this months in advance, knowing they could not hold their current positions if the Pacific State made a concerted effort. Immediately, IV. Army sounded the retreat, abandoning Oklahoma and northern Texas to rebel occupation, redirecting troops to San Antonio to block a move against the vital port facilities in Corpus Christi that linked IV. Army to Washington and resupply.

Overnight, IV. Army's position transformed from an easterly-facing line to a tortoise shell that extended from the Rio Grande, through San Antonio to Dallas before diverting to New Orleans. Stillwell feared for the worst, ready to abandon occupied Louisiana the moment Corpus Christi came under threat. But the Pacific State showed little enthusiasm in its drive into Texas, and President Merriam rebuffed any suggestion in Sacramento that California's enormous territorial gains could be exploited into acquiring an eastern coast as foolish dreaming.

Cali.jpg

President Merriam congratulates a soldier for exploits on the front. Fair but bureaucratic, Merriam treated his new country like a corporation.

But President Roosevelt, worried by the popular discontent and demoralization stalemate in the east and retreat in the west might generate, refused to accept his commanders’ passivity. He could not give MacArthur the new divisions he requested, and Roosevelt firmly believed that the Canadians should not be relied upon to deliver a victory in a strictly internal matter. Thus, he directly ordered Marshall to renew the offensive: fretting over Patton’s exact whereabouts only fed the National general’s reputation and was completely counterproductive.

The presidential insistence on a renewed offensive in Virginia was greeted enthusiastically by II. Army HQ. Although Patton had disappeared weeks before, Marshall was confident that, if he had not simply been redeployed to another theater, he had moved too far out of position to pose any danger to his planned offensive. With that in mind, Marshall began his attack in the early morning hours of October 10. Richmond, defended by a single militia unit under Mj. General Bestwick, was immediately overcome in a three-pronged assault, with Miliikin and Chamberlain leading the advance. The National defense crumbled, and the city was captured with little effort. Encouraged by Patton’s continued absence, Marshall pressed his advantage, probing the Norfolk defenses before hurriedly calling them off.

From the National perspective, it seemed clear Marshall had aborted the attack on the naval yards due to Patton’s sudden reemergence in western Virginia, where he had rapidly overrun a detachment of III. Army’s defenses south of Marion. But unbeknownst him Patton and the Norfolk garrison commander General Stockman, Marshall was preparing a repeat of his April encirclement. Once again, Chamberlain’s V. Corps was ordered to advance onto the Atlantic south of Norfolk with Miliikin in support while the main body of II. Army departed the capital for Richmond. Realizing what Marshall was up to, Bestwick made a stand in V. Corps’ path, the National militia fighting furiously in the hopes Stockman would realize the danger he was in. Patton was too far away to intervene when the trap finally shut around Stockman on October 25, but the Norfolk garrison held on desperately, sustaining heavily casualties until Stockman finally surrendered on the 27th. The second surrender of Norfolk was an even greater victory than in April. Two divisions, one militia and one regular, had been knocked out of action.

Civil10.jpg

National forces were easily trapped in Norfolk by II. Army’s maneuvering.

Enraged by the reverse and determined not to cede the initiative to Marshall, Patton launched himself into a renewed attack, assaulting Hodges and Krueger at Charlottesville just hours after word of Norfolk’s surrender arrived. General Craig responded quickly, launching his own attack on Patton’s rear guard at Marion. Patton immediately aborted his attack to deal with the new threat behind him, but III Army, no match for the brilliant National commander, quickly ground to a halt and Patton immediately took up the offensive again, driving Hodges and Krueger before him. Marshall was determined not to let Patton reclaim all of western Virginia without a serious fight. Ordering V. Corps back from the Atlantic and Miliikin from Norfolk, Marshall gathered the majority of II. Army to Richmond for what he hoped would be the final fight for ownership of the state of Virginia.
 
Delenda ist Virginia?

Patton would ride to Washington?

So many questions... Don't stop now!
 
So what are the exact goals of the Californians? Obviously if the US wins they'll fail in the long run, but if the AUS or CSA take full power they're situation could be messed up. Hmm....
 
The Californians just run around like crazy trying to defend their independence. Have never seen them survive (except once when that random event that made them a non- belligerent neutral fired).
 
GeneralHannibal: The Pacific State's goal is fairly eclectic. The West Coast was never heavily hit by the economic downturn of the last 15 years, so radicalism never sprung up, beyond a few of the Midwesterners the Dust Bowl displaced and sent packing to California ala Grapes of Wrath. So come '36, it remained strongly Republican and unwilling to totally subordinate itself to Roosevelt, who looked like nothing more than a strange cross between old style Democrats, Syndicalists, and National Socialists.

At the moment, California's split between people who want to just sit out the war and hope that neither radical side wins out, and those that think no one faction is acceptable and that California should go it alone from here-on-out.

As an aside to all interested readers, I recently discovered that no rebellious faction is actually at war with each other (with possibly the exception of CSA vs AUS). I'm currently debating whether or not to do some editting so that they're all at war with each other. Any opinions?

--------​

The Second American Civil War - Part VIII

It was fast approaching the year anniversary of Franklin Roosevelt’s electoral victory in the 1936 election on a campaign platform promising to bring an end to the ruinous economic depression and civil strife that had plagued the United States since the general defeat of the Entente Powers in the Great War. But despite his and his generals' best efforts, stability continued to elude the Democratic president and reforms had yet to be implemented for the struggling, war-torn populace.

Roosevelt hoped to change all that; concerned about flagging Federalist moral in the critical war months almost to the point of obsession, the President's voice filled the airwaves every week with his so-called 'Fireside Chats,' personalized addresses to any American willing to listen. In each weekly broadcast, Roosevelt would attempt to explain the progress of the war effort to a country untouched by military conflict in over half a century, and explain why badly-needed reform and relief had not yet come.

In the end, it was simply impossible for Roosevelt to enact any portion of his proposed 'New Deal' while so large a part of the country continued to be wracked in a state of rebellion and, worse still, even the capital itself remained threatened with the possibility of attack from Patton's determined defense of Virginia. Thus, a military resolution was the only way by which American's could feel relief from their present circumstances.

With I. Army's advance into Michigan and Indiana stymied by the preponderance of Syndicalist forces facing MacArthur's force across the front lines, III. Army pinned in place in eastern Kentucky, and IV. Army trapped between the Californian and National armies in Texas, such a solution could only be decided by General Marshall's II. Army, battling tooth and nail for every mile in Virginia. The Virginia campaign had proved inconclusive for months, both sides advancing and retreating back and forth across the state again and again as if repeating the events of seventy years past.

But the second National defeat at Norfolk had seriously undermined Patton's ability to continue his aggressive counterattacks against Federal advances. With the whole of his right flank now wide open to exploitation, Patton's range of options had narrowed substantially. Marshall, even without the President's prompt encouragement, was all too eager to take advantage of the National commander's reversal of fortune before the onset of winter would hamper offensive operations.

On the morning of November 5, Marshall's attack began. Advancing from Richmond with Miliikin and Chamberlin in the east and detachments from III. Army in the west as support, II. Army battered its way through Patton's militia detachments on the road to Roanoke over the course of two days' fighting. Unable to mount a substantial counterattack, Patton began pulling National units out of the eastern half of the state at an accelerating rate. A week after the first attacks, the second Federal blow connected, with III. Army forcing Patton, who had headquartered in Marion, to abandon the state entirely. His retreat was hounded stubbornly by Federal air units, that mercilessly pounded away at exposed columns of infantry as they fled into North Carolina.

Roosevelt, overjoyed that the state had been all but cleared of organized National resistance in such short order, urged Marshall to maintain his momentum. All too happy to comply, II. Army's commander rapidly redeployed his army, dispatching the usual combination of Mj. Generals Miliikin and Chamberlin south from Norfolk along the virtually defenseless Carolina coast until almost all of Cape Hatteras was once more under Federal control. Marshall meanwhile pushed south with the main bulk of the army toward the state capitol of Raleigh and the city of Greensboro, hoping to split the state straight down the middle. Perhaps rather outlandishly, Marshall began to envision a sweeping advance that would roll the National forces before him, using III. Army's positions as an anchor to pivot his army from south to west-facing.

Unfortunately, National Lt. General Etheridge had other plans in mind. Bolstered by Patton's reinforcements and the increasingly frequent invective Kuhn was launching from on high in Atlanta, Etheridge finally managed to halt II. Army's offensive at the gates of Charlotte on December 14. It had been a harsh month for the National cause, indeed. Patton had been soundly defeated, Virginia was completely lost, and North Carolina was now on the brink as well. Although Kuhn put up a brave front in Atlanta, President Long began to privately wonder if a time would come when the capital would have to be moved farther west.

But neither had the Federal cause been entirely in the ascendant during the month of November. On the 24th, news that military planners in Washington had feared finally arrived: the Pacific State had attacked! Surrounded on three sides and with its back to the Gulf of Mexico, IV. Army had lived a precarious existence since the first California troops had entered western Texas. Now, General DeWitt's cavalry and national guard contingents were under attack at San Antonio. Initial reports were grim; five divisions under General Patch were pressing the Federal forces hard. Stillwell and Wainright immediately concluded that the outer defensive perimeters could not be held. Dallas and New Orleans were immediately abandoned, with all remaining divisions falling back on the vital port city of Corpus Christi and Houston.

Roosevelt and MacArthur, free from frontline duties now that the Ohio front had stalemated, consulted as to the fate of IV. Army. Fighting a way east to Marshall would be impossible, and it seemed at the rate the Pacific State was bringing forces to bear Stillwell would be overwhelmed, a disaster the Federal cause could ill afford. But Texas had been one of Roosevelt's staunchest supporters since the civil war had begun in the spring, and was still a vital center of loyalist activity, and abandoning it would be a terrible blow. Furthermore, a full-scale evacuation was virtually impossible. What remained of the Federal navy was docked idle in Pearl Harbor, and what little remained of the merchant marine was totally inadequate to ferry IV. Army to safety.

As the new year approached, the Second American Civil War was still far from over.

Civil11.jpg

The frontlines as of mid-December 1937.

 
Well, the situation in the West is awfull, but in the East isn't so bad... is it?