Last Bastion of Freedom: The US alone against the Fascist world

[History_Buff]

While Nixon would likely be a capable VP and certainly an interesting character MacArthur's also part of that package so I'm still voting for Truman. What kind of fallout will there be if MacArthur loses the election? I believe a serving general running for office is pretty much unprecedented.

That is actually something I forgot to address. I was going to address it in the next update but I will state it now. It is actually illegal for a serving general to run for office. He has to resign his commission. This is what I will role play him as having done, but just have not addressed it yet. I will state how he is recommissioned after the election if he loses. Truman cannot run again so he should have no problem recommissioning him. I may manufacture a big fight because of some elements no wanting to recommission him, but I will ultimately have him be recommissioned.

Also, whats the air war like?

Aside from a few sorties by the Axis, mostly Bulgaria, it is very uneventful. I have fighters assigned to stop them but that is as far as it goes so far.

Well, That is it. Truman takes it. I do not think that MacArthur could pull in enough votes to win it. I will not have an election map because I do not know how to do such things, but I will have it be a landslide. There will be at least one more election most likely and the next time, It will most likely be two generals. I will pick the most successful of my generals but the idea I am toying with right now is to run Bradley for the Democrats and Patton for the Republicans. If that is not something that My readers would like, then It will be the two most successful generals I have (that would most likely be MacArthur and Patton). I like the idea of having it be the final showdown between the two rivals and I also feel that if there was one thing that could get Patton to run for office, it would be news that his rival is doing so.

[SovietAmerika]

I'd rather do Patton vs MacArthur, I doubt Patton would be a Republican anyway.

[frigidmagi]

I believe a serving general running for office is pretty much unprecedented.

It is, because under US law a serving military officer cannot hold civil posts or campaign for office. In order to run for President McArthur would have to resign his commission.

Edit--Doh! Should have read Histroy Buff's response first. Sorry man.

[History_Buff]

Unfortunately, I cannot post an update today. The game is giving me problems. It refuses to recognize the election event I altered to the point it does not even recognize its ID though I know I did not change it. As a result, I cannot even load that save. This is a running problem that whatever changes or additions I make, the computer won't recognize. Therefore, I put this question to those of my readers who have experience with modding the game which I lack. What the heck is going on?

[Nathan Madien]

It is actually illegal for a serving general to run for office. He has to resign his commission.

I have a question related to this topic: can you run for President while serving on the Joint Chiefs of Staff? Or do you have to resign, like an normal general would have to?

I will not have an election map because I do not know how to do such things, but I will have it be a landslide.

Having done election maps myself, I can help you if you want.

[Maddogg1178]

If your on the joint chiefs of staff your still a commissioned officer and the rules still apply. Maybe after the election all is forgiven by Truman and MacArthur can be re-commissioned. You cant have one of your best generals sitting on the sidelines because he was a political opponent. If he can follow orders there shouldn't be a problem.

[Nathan Madien]

If your on the joint chiefs of staff your still a commissioned officer and the rules still apply. Maybe after the election all is forgiven by Truman and MacArthur can be re-commissioned. You cant have one of your best generals sitting on the sidelines because he was a political opponent. If he can follow orders there shouldn't be a problem.

I see. I am going to have to keep that in mind.

[History_Buff]

Having done election maps myself, I can help you if you want.

That would be a big help and I would really appreciate it. I still have a few more things to try to get my game to stop being lazy. I may be busy today, but if I am, I will put the update up tomorrow most definitely.

If your on the joint chiefs of staff your still a commissioned officer and the rules still apply. Maybe after the election all is forgiven by Truman and MacArthur can be re-commissioned. You cant have one of your best generals sitting on the sidelines because he was a political opponent. If he can follow orders there shouldn't be a problem.

I actually have a roleplay planned. It centers around the fact that someone had to temporarily replace him and now does not want to give up the command. The result: A royal brewhaha over the command between the two.

[Nathan Madien]

That would be a big help and I would really appreciate it. I still have a few more things to try to get my game to stop being lazy. I may be busy today, but if I am, I will put the update up tomorrow most definitely.

Okay, then. Send me a PM when you're ready for the election map and I will whip one up for you.

[History_Buff]

It may be another day before I can update. I just got a new laptop that is giving me problems so I need to fix that before working on this. Trust me when I say the next few updates will be worth the wait.

[History_Buff]

Sorry for the delays. I was not only trying to get my laptop working, but also giving Nathan Madien time to finish the Election map he was making for me hope this update and the next one prove worth it.
The Election results were in. In a massive upset, Truman had won in a landslide.

Truman carried 402 electoral votes where as MacArthur only managed to pull in 129. Amazingly, MacArthur even failed to win his home state of Arkansas. MacArthur was dumbfounded, as he believed he had the election in the bag but even his popularity was apparently no match for Truman's. MacArthur therefore decided to resume his command in the Pacific only to find that he had been replaced. Bradley, realizing that he needed a capable commander to command in the Pacific in MacArthur's absence, had assigned General Stilwell to be his temporary replacement.
This would not be a problem if it were not for the fact that Stilwell did not want to give the command back. The result was a complete and utter mess wrapped in a PR nightmare. Neither General were initially willing to make a big fuss. This was because the easiest solution would be for Truman to simply fire one of them and neither one wanted to be the unlucky one. However, they both appealed to other generals to back them in this matter. Stilwell appealed to Bradley, saying that He had appointed Stilwell for a reason and that MacArthur's personal grudge against the Japanese might make him less then ideal for the command. He also warned that MacArthur might very well be after Bradley's job as Chief of Staff as a stepping stone to help him if he decided to campaign for President a second time. Bradley, believing Stilwell just as capable of the command as MacArthur and intending to use MacArthur for an offensive he had planned elsewhere, agreed to back him. MacArthur appealed to Patton. His appeal was more simplistic. He said that Bradley was trying to undercut him. He also warned, and Patton feared, that if this could happen to MacArthur, it could just as easily happen to him. Patton therefore agreed to back MacArthur. Both made appeals to Truman to put one or the other in charge. That's when things got ugly. MacArthur, emboldened by Patton's backing, mounted an assault on Stilwell in the press, citing the fact that he was unproven as a theater commander, and at Bradley, citing his unworthiness for the position as Chief of Staff given his history of dismal failures in his own offensives. Bradley was thus drawn into the fray as he attempted to defend himself against MacArthur's attacks. Patton attempted to rein in MacArthur, knowing all to well how Truman liked to handle such situations, but it was to no avail. Eventually, Stilwell, enraged by MacArthur's attacks, started launching attacks of his own on both MacArthur and Patton. He called MacArthur "America's answer to Ceaser" trying to insinuate that he was a powermonger whose dangerous ambition would lead America down the path to totalitarianism. With Patton, he called him "The World's most prolific butcher", referring to the quagmire that Spain had become and the thousands of lives lost in the attempt. Patton therefore began firing back at Stilwell. Bradley also tried to restrain Stilwell, but with no more success then Patton had with MacArthur. The four generals were now in an all out war between MacArthur and Patton on one side and Stilwell and Bradley on the other. This was a nightmare for Truman, and one he could not easily solve. If he ruled in anyone's favor, he could very well end up having to fire two of his best generals. The royal brewhaha in the press went on for a month before Truman came up with a potential solution. Truman gave MacArthur back command of the Pacific. However, Stilwell was promised the command of the eventual invasion of China. To compensate for this, MacArthur was promised the command of the invasion of the Japanese Home Islands and India when they came. This satisfied everyone, but Truman made it clear that if such a thing happened again, he would fire all involved instantly. This also resulted in more generals being drawn into what was quickly becoming two armed camps. The lines now stood with Eisenhower and MacArthur in Patton's camp and Stilwell in Bradley's. This also created yet another seething rivalry. While Truman had forced the lid back on the powder keg, no one knew if or when it would explode again.

Politics and rivalries aside, the war was still going rather well. Burgos fell into American hands shortly after the conclusion of the election.

Patton also had a plan to break the stalemate in the west. He had discovered via spies and ships off the coast that Barcelona was very weakly held. He therefore ordered Eisenhower and 34 divisions unto boats and to try and launch an amphibious assault to create another breakout.

The Spanish instantly tried to throw them back into the Mediterranean without successes.

After Eisenhower established himself, he ordered an attack toward Tarragona in tandem with General Ironside in Castellon.

The result was that they were able to force the Germans from the region and secure it for the Americans.

It also had an unintended consequence. The Germans once again withdrew from Spain. This left the bulk of the country wide open for American attack.

Patton immediately ordered a general attack to seize as much of the country as possible.

The result was an American victory in all provinces except Huesca.

A second attack was immediately ordered and it succeeded.

An Attack was immediately ordered on Bilboa after the fall of Saragoza, however, a complication emerged. After much pleading by Franco, Hitler was finally convinced that Spain should not be abandoned and he sent his men into through them back out.

They forced the Americans to abandon the attack on Bilboa

Soon after, Oviedo fell to the Americans, leaving Franco in possesion of only two provinces.

After getting beaten by the Americans several times, Hitler sent in his best general, General Rommel, in to drive the Americans back.

Eisenhower was forced to retreat and a new stalemate ensued.
Truman ordered the raising of several new divisions, some to be sent to the Pacific to combat add raise the force once commanded by Hodge and now commanded by Stilwell from 7 divisions to 12. The rest would be held in reserve to be sent on new offensives as deemed necessary.

Patton had a plan for there use. He planned to send them to Brittany. The plan was simple. Since Spain was deadlocked, he would land in Brittany, were German defenses were weak. He would seize as much land as possible and anchor his line on the first available defensive barrier. Patton hoped this would force the Germans to chose between defending Spain or defending France, and he felt he knew which one they would chose if that happened. Whatever one they chose, the other would be left weakened and he hoped he could take advantage of that situation to create a breakthrough either in France or Spain.
Truman also decided it was time to launch the long-anticipated invasion of Africa.Several transports were ordered to return to the states to pick up the troops that would take part in the campaign, a force of 620,000 men. This would make Bradley's command second only to Patton in size.

As he was preparing to lead the attack, he received news from Truman. Truman informed Bradley that, seeing as he would then be Supreme Allied Commander of Africa, Chief of Staff, and Secretary of the Army, he felt that all of these responsibilities to be too much for anyone person and that he may remove him from the position of Chief of Staff or Secretary of the Army and replace him with MacArthur. Bradley knew that he had to perform, and perform well or most likely lose his Chief of Staff position to one of his rivals, who not only hated him, but also wanted the Pacific to take priority. That meant he would likely find reinforcements few and far between in Africa.

Truman also sent a peace offer to Franco. He offered to give back all of the territory he took if he would not only abandon the war effort, but also join the American alliance against the German (become an American puppet). Franco refused the generous offer and force Truman to call for an unconditional surrender.

In International Affairs, the British Monarch, George V finally died and was replaced by Elizabeth II. Clement Atlee's government also collapsed, which also brought Winston Churchill back into power.

Truman also finally declared war on Vichy France. Vichy France had managed to stay out of the war so far, but when they refused to allow the Americans access to their lands in Africa and join the Americans against Germany, Truman declared war.

Well, that's the most recent update done, the next will feature the invasion of Africa. Do not forget to vote for this AAR as your favorite Gameplay or History Book AAR ( I classify it as a little bit of both) in the ACA awards.

[SovietAmerika]

Very nice election, glad to see the old Democrats win! Stevenson can always run in '56.

Looks like you gotta crack Nationalist Spain completely, ah well, I'd rather have Republican Spain liberated anyway, makes more sense.

Go Eisenhower/MacArthur/Patton!

[Nathan Madien]

History_Buff, I am glad I was able to help you with the election map.

I gotta say: I loved watching Truman's generals all go at each others' throats like girls fighting over something.

[Zhuge Liang]

The war's still going fairly well despite the best efforts of your general to derail it, but I do hope the campaign against Vichy/the landings in Brittany go well or the battle for France could be even more painful than the Spanish campaign.

[morningSIDEr]

Good stuff. I enjoy the infighting amongst the generals almost as much as the combat itself.

[History_Buff]

Very nice election, glad to see the old Democrats win! Stevenson can always run in '56.

Looks like you gotta crack Nationalist Spain completely, ah well, I'd rather have Republican Spain liberated anyway, makes more sense.

Go Eisenhower/MacArthur/Patton!

I prefer to liberate Republican Spain and fully expected them to decline, however, I think that the United States in reality would have given a clearly beaten opponent a chance to give up first, at least at this point, seeing as Spain was only a junior partner in the Axis.

Bradley will also soon get a new member of his camp. The camps do serve a purpose beyond story, but I will not reveal it yet.

History_Buff, I am glad I was able to help you with the election map.

I gotta say: I loved watching Truman's generals all go at each others' throats like girls fighting over something.

It was a big help, and I am glad you liked the catfight between the generals. I wanted this to be more then me telling about what as I was doing and actually have my generals be dynamic characters and not just names to fix to accomplishments and I think I have accomplished that.

The war's still going fairly well despite the best efforts of your general to derail it, but I do hope the campaign against Vichy/the landings in Brittany go well or the battle for France could be even more painful than the Spanish campaign.

If the Brittany plan fails and Spain becomes truly stalemated, I will go to plan B. Plan B is essentially to take down Japan first. I will take China, thereby luring the Germans into India, Indochina, and Russia those regions. If I do take Indochina, I will leave it empty to draw them in. Then, when they are committed to combating my men in China and hopefully Tibet, I will pounce. I will land in India and quickly sever the connection between India and the rest of Axis Asia if possible and create several giant pockets. Once that happens, I will land in Siberia to support the troops in China and slowly begin to push the Germans back. At the very least, this will stretch Germany pretty thin.

Good stuff. I enjoy the infighting amongst the generals almost as much as the combat itself.

Believe it or not, I actually enjoy it almost as much as the combat as well. I figured that brewhaha between my generals would be entertaining. I can just picture myself listening to this on the radio and reading it in the papers back then and thinking "what a godawful mess" (probably what Truman thought too). Either that, or simply laughing my butt off at the whole confused situation.

After much preparation and a brief stay in Gibralatar, Bradley finally made his landing in Africa, he landed on February 9, 1953 in Casablanca and met only 20,000 soldiers in the form of resistance.

This was easily brushed aside.

He was ecstatic as he realized that Africa had such a low priority it was unlikely to have much in the way of defenses, meaning that he would likely make rapid progress.
The first American soldiers to set foot on the African continent since the Battle of Derna in the Barbary wars arrived on February 13, 1953. This first force was a collection of forces only 50,000 men each that amounted to 200,000 men in total.

They were ordered to advance on Marrakesh. This force was to be the principle force used in the campaign to take the African interior, and the small size of each individual army meant that they could easily split up to cover a great deal of ground. Since the enemy was unlikely to hold the territory very strongly, it was believed this could be done with impunity.

Clark, who was to become something of a protege to Bradley, was ordered to advance on Marrakesh, with the job of covering Bradley's flank as he advanced along the coast. Eagles and Marshall were ordered to advance to Mogador and take the Western Coast of Africa.

As soon as he was able, Bradley advanced on the Spanish held city of Ceuta to begin his advance along the coast.

Africa would eventually come to be called "the Forgotten Front". This was due to the fact that, at least in the early stages, the region was notoriously unguarded. The Axis assigned it a very low priority in the beginning and allotted few troops to its defense. What spare men they had, they would usually send to Spain to get chewed up by Patton in what had become something akin to a scene from the Western Front of World War I. This made advancing incredibly easy and Marshal was actually ordered to advance to Vila Cisneros, the farthest south part of Spain's Rio de Oro colony, and reached it without encountering a single Spanish or Vichy soldier.

The small forces that had first been ordered into Marrakesh were ordered back to advance on Bouarfa.

Eagles meanwhile was ordered into Ouezzane, with the intention of eventually advancing through the Sahara and into the Niger River Valley.

Clarke also advanced on Oujda and seized it from the Vichy forces.

Upon seizing Ceuta, Bradley decided to advance on Algiers. He would have ordered his men to advance much farther, but he would have left Clark in the dust and left his right flank dangerously exposed.

The Vichy French tried to make a stand at Villa Sanjuro, but it was to no avail, as they were quickly brushed aside.

The only area of Africa that was a cause for some concern was the Sierre Leone region. It was occupied by quite a few men and it was unsure just how many men the Axis had there.

Then, on March 10, the 10 Aircraft Carriers that had been in construction since the Australian campaign was still in full swing (and which had been eating my IC) were finally completed.

These ships were launched in San Fransisco, however, they still awaited the 10 Heavy cruisers and 10 destroyers, who had just recently been ordered, that would serve as their escorts.

Bradley ran into a force of Vichy troops when assaulting Algiers who he engaged. However, they were quickly brushed aside

In the Pacific, Admiral Hart, who was bringing troops to Stilwell, had encountered a mix up. He was supposed to be escorted by a fleet of light cruisers, but these cruisers never got the orders and he was caught in the open and several transports were lost.

The African front at this time was very uneventful and simply consisted of the Americans advancing virtually unhindered for a good while this meant that a good deal of territory was seized virtually without a fight

[Nathan Madien]

I honestly don't think FDR should get his own carrier. Other than that, so far so good in Africa.

[History_Buff]

I honestly don't think FDR should get his own carrier. Other than that, so far so good in Africa.

Did you notice that one of them is named the Midway and that battle never happened in this timeline. That I thought was pretty funny.

[Nathan Madien]

Did you notice that one of them is named the Midway and that battle never happened in this timeline. That I thought was pretty funny.

Is there anyway you can change these carrier names?

[History_Buff]

Is there anyway you can change these carrier names?

I can, but I would have to figure out what the heck to name them first.