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What little French I do speak is very very rusty, but Le Ciel est Toujours Bleu means something like "The Sky is blue today" if I am not mistaken. I am working on the next update and a side-project... When it's don I'll probably even post it.

Well, that's almost what I'm trying to have as my site name. I enjoy looking at the blue sky I have now. (Yay, sunshine! :D) If it gets too rainy or snowy here I'll change it.

Side project? Mind telling me what it is like so I can design a better one? :p
 
Well, that's almost what I'm trying to have as my site name. I enjoy looking at the blue sky I have now. (Yay, sunshine! :D) If it gets too rainy or snowy here I'll change it.

Side project? Mind telling me what it is like so I can design a better one? :p

Bear with me on that ´please, explaining will take a bit.

AAO is a long-term project. I seriously doubt I will be finished for several years, considering the scope and the AAO-related projects I have. However, my idea is that after it, I will do something Dieselpunk themed, and my current project is a massive SuperSuperheavy Battleship for the Royal Navy.
 
Bear with me on that ´please, explaining will take a bit.

AAO is a long-term project. I seriously doubt I will be finished for several years, considering the scope and the AAO-related projects I have. However, my idea is that after it, I will do something Dieselpunk themed, and my current project is a massive SuperSuperheavy Battleship for the Royal Navy.

Well, my own AAR will span a total timeline of 200+ years, want to bet on who will finish their's first?

btw, since you're going for a SuperSuperHeavy BB, make sure it beats the middle, or even the top one in this pic. The bottom one in the pic is the RL Yamato for comparison. ;)
 
Well, my own AAR will span a total timeline of 200+ years, want to bet on who will finish their's first?

btw, since you're going for a SuperSuperHeavy BB, make sure it beats the middle, or even the top one in this pic. The bottom one in the pic is the RL Yamato for comparison. ;)


Britannia has no need to ocvercompensate anything. :D
 
“We can't carry prisoners with us anyhow.” “Suggestions, gentlemen?”

Easy, man.

Take their guns and equipment from them, and tell them, that if they got caught again, they're going to go to work perpetually in the cigar's farm for good old Winnie.:D
 
Lord Strange Agreed on all accounts.

Kurt_Steiner Well, they did blow themselves up.
 
The coolest thing ever just happened, which for some reason (;)) prompted me to drop by and catch up on this AAR (which is always a spiffing read btw):

I heard a loud buzzing noise outside, so popped into the garden to have a look, just in time to see a Lancaster fly past, almost directly over my garden... Couldn't have been more than a couple hundred meters up.

It's got me back in the Hoi2 mood again:)
 
The coolest thing ever just happened, which for some reason (;)) prompted me to drop by and catch up on this AAR (which is always a spiffing read btw):

I heard a loud buzzing noise outside, so popped into the garden to have a look, just in time to see a Lancaster fly past, almost directly over my garden... Couldn't have been more than a couple hundred meters up.

It's got me back in the Hoi2 mood again:)

Good to hear that. Anyhow, when did you drop out?
 
Indeed, we had a Lancaster fly over Lords today. What could be more english, a Lancaster and cricket?
 
Anyhow, the uprising will end in the next chapter, and after that it's off to Singapore. After Singapore I have two Chapters to fill from around the world. What would you like to see?
 
Anyhow, the uprising will end in the next chapter, and after that it's off to Singapore. After Singapore I have two Chapters to fill from around the world. What would you like to see?

Something from Japan?
 
Chapter 159



29th March 1941

Southern outskirts of Quebec City

“Open the door, in the name of the revolution!” were the words with which the family was awakened that day. The mother was worried about what was to happen to them, with their father off to join the 5th Armoured Brigade. Ever since the rebels had taken over the city those who had relatives serving with the Canadian Army had been rounded up and detained, sometimes worse. Now they feared it was their turn. Offering resistance would only make things worse, so she opened the door and looked fearfully into the faces of three members of the militia. “Citizen, we requisition this building and all the rooms within for the cause of the revolution! You have two minutes!” the youngest said. The mother was dumbfounded and asked: “Why and what for?”

This was a mistake. The nest thing she knew was that one of the rebels slapped her in the face and crumpled to the floor. Her two daughters began to cry when they saw their mother fall to the ground. The fighters did not care and dragged the three persons out on the street, smashing their belongings in the process. The mother clutched the one thing she always carried with her for this reason to her chest, a picture of her husband and the father of the two girls. She did not look back when they made their way deeper into the city, so they did not see when a machine gun and a 2pdr Anti Tank gun were delivered by a lorry. All over Quebec City defences were hastily prepared. All but the most fanatical rebels realized now that the rebellion was doomed. Historians would later put it into three phases: The first when the rebels had seized control of Quebec City and the surrounding and had failed to try and secure Montreal while the Canadian Army was still in the south, arrayed against the Americans or preparing to ship out to Europe. The second had been from after they had proclaimed the socialist republic, and the last one had begun when they had executed the Cardinal. Of all mistakes made, this one would eventually be seen as the most desicive one. The rebels had overestimated the discontent and the communist leanings in greater Quebec to begin with, but shooting the church's representative had been what had made many Franco-Canadians flock to the banner of the Government forces and had made them feel more at home in Canada, even more so when King had seized the opportunity and promised more autonomy within the Federation and that the draft would not be extended to them if the citizens of Quebec fought or at least did not aid the rebels.

A mere four miles away the father of the family was sitting in his lorry and waiting for the order to move forward. He had been one of only a handful of Franco Canadians in the Brigade and had been the first to take the Oath when it had been put to him and the others in the brigade, and he had been quickly accepted back into the ranks. He knew that he could and should consider himself lucky in that respect, many other units were shunning their own francophone Canadians and did not trust them. But then again, he was only an Infantry man and it was not as if he had any chance to betray his unit. Still, it was nice to feel trusted. At the moment the Royal Canadian Air Force at last made an appearance in the form of several Wellington bombers. They had no orders to actually bomb anything, in fact their payload were hastily printed leaflets that urged the rebels to surrender, promising amnesty if they turned in their weapons, never mind having twelve of these machines flying over the city in tight vic formations was a good way to show that one was not to be messed with. As expected no AA fire came up, and the planes finished their mission unmolested. Up next were several Hurricanes and Spitfires, followed by more Wellingtons, all planes wearing the new maple leaf insignia. Inside the city it told those there one thing: The Canadians were coming.

300px-RCAF-Roundelsvg1.png

Inside the city the brutal measures of the rebel militia kept some semblance of order, but even the most devout communists now began to realize that the uprising was coming to an end. From the highest building one could see that the entire city was surrounded with a thin but noticeable line of military units, for the most part the 1st and 2nd Canadian Infantry Divisions with the 5th Canadian Armoured Brigade providing backup. But that was not what was most worrying. What worried the leaders of the failing rebellion the most was that all over the city the civilians began to become upstart. While for the most of the time the rebels had held a tight grip on the city and therefore the civilians that were not in support of what was happening had quickly realized that it was best to keep quiet, but now, as the situation unravelled itself, people became more and more willing to risk things. Graffiti on walls and requisitioned vehicles, walls, passers-by sneering at sentries. Nothing that required any sort of heavy-handed response, but enough to let the leaders know that the people of the city were aware that the winds of change had come. For more than three days the Canadians were content with besieging the city as they brought up more and more Infantry, amassing overwhelming numbers. The rebels in the city numbered about four thousand, with around five-hundred more busy with keeping the city down. The Canadians had amassed overwhelming numbers, roughly eighteen-thousand men in two short Divisions as some units were needed to guard the rear and to crush various smaller holdouts that were, or rather had been scattered all over the near area. On the third day of the 'siege' however it was clear to both sides that the day had come. No overflights, no air-dropped leaflets, just a lead silence lay over the city and the snowy countryside. It was a marvellous day, but the two sides staring each other down had no eyes for the sun that had at last begun to melt the snow. There was no signal. No shrill whistle, no single artillery round, like it had been when the CEF had attacked Vimy ridge. Instead, at the appointed hour of the 29th the line simply moved towards the city, and soon enough the first shots rang out. The Canadians could not use heavy weapons, but at the same time the rebels only had a few 2pdr Anti-tank guns that while relatively ineffective against the RAM I tanks of the 5th Brigade, were still good enough against anything lighter, and the rebels had had no qualms about blowing up buildings to create defences. In the chaos of the battle nobody noticed when small, four-man groups slipped through the rapidly dissolving lines into the city.

Somewhere in the city, at the same time as Drake and his men began to filter inside to do their work one of the leaders of the uprising was talking with the sole remaining American representative. The Americans had left the city before the Canadian special forces had managed to cut all the roads even though it was suspected that these were in fact British SAS troops, and he was only here because he was the most experienced one and had volunteered. He was confident in his abilities to evade capture, and he was not confident at all about the abilities of the rebels to stretch the uprising for the 'three weeks' the leaders suggested, let alone the rest of the day. The Canadians had smashed through the defensive line at the edge of the city with considerable ease, and were now advancing towards the centre against stiffening resistance. He had decided long ago that it was not time for him to start make his own escape if it was still possible, but this last 'request' for a meeting, reinforced by two fighter that had carried rifles in their shaking hands. Now here he was, standing in the room that had served for the meetings of the central committee of the Socialist Republic of Quebec and listened to the increasingly mad ravings of a man who had clearly lost touch with reality. “We can hold, we can hold, just tell your comrades in Washington that we can hold until they send their troops.” So that was it. It seemed that the man had forgotten that intervention was out of the question. Intervention in Canada meant going to war against the British Empire, which was, albeit strung out all over the world, a formidable foe at the best of times, and the war preparations of the UAPR were geared towards Japan for months now. The leaders in Foggy Bottom and elsewhere in Washington had never thought that it would come to this. True, no one had expected that the Canadians would bounce back like this and that the British reaction, or rather the lack thereof was what it was. It had been expected that the British, as heavily engaged in Europe as they was, could do nothing but sit by as Canada collapsed, which would have allowed the UAPR to sweep in and intervene on behalf of the oppressed Franco-Canadians. But the lack of British response and the fact that Canada had bounced back fast without ever falling apart in the first place had killed those plans before they had even passed their first stage. But despite the fact that the Canadians had broken through and that morale among the militias was declining rapidly, the leaders of the Republic still believed that the Americans were to risk a war against the leading Western power in order to save a doomed uprising. “When can we expect help from our comrades from south of the border?” “You must be kidding. Don't you realize that the revanchists have won this round? You do realize that intervening now would mean war with the British Empire and their puppets, do you? That can't be in anyone's interest, and is most certainly not within the intrests of the UAPR.” “YOU BASTARD! YOU SOLD US OUT!”


“The hell we did. You gave us the impression that the Canadians would be unwilling to come down hard. And now, what do you hear?” the American said and motioned to the sounds of battle outside. “Good day.” He turned around and was about to leave when the other man pulled a Colt from his belt and made moves to shoot the American in the back. But then suddenly the American turned around and fired first, hitting the rebel leader right between the eyes.



In the meantime the Canadians, with intelligence support from the SAS, were working their way towards the citadel that contained the majority of the most fanatical defenders. The initial ring had been broken after a few anti-tank guns hidden in a few buildings at the edge of the city had been destroyed or captured, and the advance was going forward. In later years Drake would comment that this was nothing like the sort of combat he had, or rather would experience in later in the war. Still, the wing lost two men, not the first and not the last combat dead of the Regiment, but the first under Drake's command. On the whole though losses for the Canadians and the civilians were light. When the 22eme took the post office and the burnt-out ruins of the police headquarters after a pitched battle at around mid-day, the few remaining coherent units the rebels still had under their command fled towards the citadel, where it was decided to make a last stand, and the regiment saw it as something personal to raise the flag over the citadel again. Even though the troops where exhausted and many were wounded, they ran against the old walls time and again. They were bloodily repulsed several times before a member of the Royal Canadian Engineers managed to run the gauntlet three times and blow the gates in before succumbing to his wounds, in the process earning the second ever RCE Victoria Cross after the Battle of Vimy ridge. From then on it was only a matter of time as the regulars streamed into the citadel and made short work of the tired and demoralized rebels. By the time the sun set, the Maple leaf flag[1] was once again raised over Quebec City, and the uprising was over. It would take literally decades to heal the wounds, but Canada had experienced a new sense of togetherness that would be badly needed later on in the war.








[Notes: The offer is still on, I want to know what you want to see after Singapore.]


[1] Remember, in TTL it looks like this.
 
Well, now that the commies are down, let's get to serious bussiness. Time to trash Adolf and Uncle Joe!