Chapter 27
"American Forces attack Regina" - Sideline, Toronto Gazette, 26th June 1916
"Soldiers of Canada! We face an enemy who would destroy us. An enemy who would take away our very ways of life if we allowed them to. An enemy who has tried three times to take this city from us. Three times they have tried and three times we have beaten them. Let us face them now once more, let us face them and give them the message that our children, our grandchildren will be able to use in pride for whenever the world would seek us harm.
YOU SHALL NOT PASS!"
- Captain Terry Eastwood, 4th Day of Regina - 1968 A Pinewood Studios Film
Regina,
Saskatchewan,
Canada
28th of June, 1916
It was unnervingly quiet. The artillery had stopped it's shelling, no soldiers were taking potshots at each other, the air was still and lifeless and there was no birdsong or dogs barking as one would expect in a city like this. The Chlorine gas on the second day had killed off the local wildlife as well as enacted a toll on the cities civilian population. At the beginning of this war such an action would have been unthinkable but by now it didn't even seem unusual. The American forces were dug in just inside the outskirts of the city, and while the artillery did it's best to flatten every building Canadian soldiers and militia continued to fight from the buildings and rubble.
As it was Cpl Jack Reed and his squad were tasked with clearing out a department store for possible Canadian soldiers. He couldn't understand why the Canadians, and for that matter the Irish, where so determined to fight against the United States. All they were doing was falling further and further under the control of the Reactionaries in London while all the United States wanted to do was help them throw off the chains of oppression from the British and help them become the Socialist Republics they deserved to be. He sighed. Not for the first time he regretted voting for Wilson for President. Socialist or not the man was just out of touch with how the world needed to be fixed.
His squad moved up to a pile of debris that offered a good piece of cover between them and the department store. He checked his Krag to make sure it was loaded and for the millionth time wished he had a rifle on par to what the Reactionaries were equipped with. Rumours were abound that a new rifle was being developed in Springfield, and something even more interesting from some ex-officer in Connecticut. But until they were in Jack's hand that's all they were. Rumours. He signalled for one of his men to make the dash over to another pile of debris to get them closer.
The man had barely moved his head out of cover when he heard the crack of a rifle and the soldier was sprawled on the ground next to him. 'Another dead soldier' Cpl Reed thought 'I hope Washington knows what it's doing.'
Saskatchewan Saver Department Store,
Regina,
Saskatchewan,
Canada
28th of June, 1916
Florence Patel worked the action on her rifle and made a mark in her notebook. Another damn Yank dead. She crawled out of her position and brought her Ross rifle up to be ready to look around the room behind her. She had learned quickly that moving was essential or else someone would figure out where you where. Her total tally of dead Yanks now was 16. 3 Captains, 5 Leftenants, and eight others. She moved to another side of the Department store and got into position. The Ross was a very accurate rifle, however it needed to be maintained constantly. Florence had grown up on a farm near the border and as such was very skilled at both shooting and cleaning, and ever since her husband had been killed near action in Vancouver she had no other desire then to kill Yanks.
Another one of them moved. He was moving carefully towards new cover. She smiled to herself. She let him get half way across the street before she pulled the trigger. The Yank flopped to the ground but at that moment the other Yanks behind the cover ran across the street and got into cover that would allow them to get to her. She could stay and hope to shoot a few more of the bastards but she knew what to do. She got out of cover and made her way out the rear entrance of the store. She had her escape routes planned and within no time what so ever was further back into the city where other Canadians were stationed, ready to hold of the Yanks with everything they had.
She was restocking on ammunition when the Yank artillery started firing again. On her way to a dugout in front of the City hall a shell threw her sideways into a wall. Her last thought before blacking out was a simple 'I forgot to mark that yank down'.
Regina,
Saskatchewan,
Canada
28th of June, 1916
Terry Eastwood was the officer in charge of the defence of Regina. The fact that he had wound up in that position die to the people above him being killed was a morbid reminder of how easily you could die. He was over-seeing a deployment of a machine gun when the latest Yank artillery barrage started up. He sighed as he got into the nearest cellar. It was a crowded dark and damp room. The place was packed with soldiers waiting out the barrage and refugees from the surface who had taken permanent shelter underground, after all that was the only thing that had saved most peoples live during the gas attack. Some of those without masks had huddled underground had gotten lucky. In some of the cellars though, well it didn't bare thinking about.
By the time the attack had ended everyone had been cramped in the small room for the better part of an hour.
"Okay folks let's go. We need to get back to our positions before the Yanks come." Terry looked around the room as he spoke. No one budged. "Come on soldiers up and at them."
He was greeted with various calls of "Bugger off Captain".
He couldn't blame them for not wanting to move. Hell if he could he would join them. But he couldn't, whether he wanted it or not he was the man in charge. And he had a duty to his country, and come hell or highwater he was going to carry out his duty. "I know you don't want to but we have to. Do you want the yanks to take over the country?" he was greeted with several variations of "no" to that. "Then move your sorry asses and get back into position. Whether or not you like it we have a duty here. And that's to tell the Yanks to go to hell. They won't get past us so move."
Regina,
Saskatchewan,
Canada
29th of June, 1916
The American offensive began the next day. The Canadians were quickly pushed back towards the centre of the city. Captain Eastwood had planned for this. All throughout the previous day he had been getting soldiers to set up choke points and dig in with machine guns. City hall was the anchor point of his defence and from there runners carried supplies of ammunition to anyone who needed it, while in the ample basements of the building the wounded were held in a make shift hospital.
Food and water was rationed carefully and the plan seemed to completely stall the Americans at first. Eventually however they started to feel the weight of the American advance as it slowly started to push them back. By nightfall on the 29th of June the Americans had pushed them back into the third line of defence after the first two had been over run. Ammunition was starting to run low but Captain Eastwood ordered that every person under arms be prepared to fight the next day. Sentry duty was assigned and food was passed out. The only foodstuff they had in any amount of numbers was potatoes.
"Hey captain. I thought the Irish were out East? Why did they leave their food here?" It was a bad joke but any humour is good in a situation like Regina.
Regina,
Saskatchewan,
Canada
30th of June, 1916
Cpl Reed fired his rifle around the corner. There was no way to be able to aim it properly but he was hoping it made some Canuck down the hall keep his head down. He was fighting inside what had been a lodging house and was currently around a corner from a hallway that the Canucks were dug in at the end of. He worked the action on his rifle and fired again. Private Gunthers tapped him on the shoulder and passed him one of the little red capsules. They were Grenades, they had started being issued only a few months before but they were not very reliable. Generally speaking even opening a box of the damn things could kill you. Reed pulled the fuse on the grenade, all the while praying to a God he didn't believe in for it not to blow up in his hands, and tossed it down the corridor.
A hollow boom signalled the grenade exploding and Reed, his bayonet already attached, lead the charge down the corridor. He moved over the remains of a few Canadians, one of them still armed came out of a room to his right. He dove his bayonet into the Canadian and felt it grate when he tried to pull it back. He swore. He had placed it into the ribcage instead the softer belly. He pulled the trigger on his rifle and used the recoil of the action to pull his bayonet free. At this point he heard another hollow boom and turned around in horror as Pvt Gunthers and the men near him, were replaced with a lump of pure carnage. One of the other grenades he was carrying must have gone off.
Reed was so shocked he didn't even notice the lump of shrapnel that had dug itself into his leg. He was found hours later on the ground of the corridor in pain and was evacuated back to a rear position.
Regina,
Saskatchewan,
Canada
1st of July, 1916
Captain Eastwood fired his revolver out the window of City Hall. The Yanks were now surrounding the building and he and his remaining soldiers were making their last stand in the building. Near him a machine started yammering away at the Yanks while rifles cracked and fired. They continued to fire for what felt like an eternity before a white flag appeared among the Yank lines.
"Cease Firing" he called out as he went down the stairs to find out what the Yank wanted. He came out the front door of the Hall, his revolver holstered, and moved towards the Yank with the flag. He was a US Army major and was offering his men the opportunity to surrender to the United States. Captain Eastwood said he would think about it and received a five minute truce. Eastwood had no intentions of taking that offer and ordered the soldiers under his command to reload.
Two and a half minutes into the truce however and he heard gunshots. "God Damn Yanks. Can't even hold up a bargain." He was about to give the order for his men to open fire when he realised that the shots were distant. They were not coming from the Americans outside. His hope took off like a bird and took flight.
~~~~~~~~~~
The Battle of Regina lasted from the 26th of June until the 1st of July when, on Commonwealth day no less, a Canadian army Brigade smashed through the encircling American lines of the city of Regina and relieved the small number of defenders left under the command of Captain Terry Eastwood. The American attackers who were understrength from a combination of the operation being rail-roaded into action and nearly a weeks worth of heavy Urban fighting had left no real troops to form a Rear-Guard. They also began to surrender en-mass to the Canadian attackers as the American troops were considerably demoralized. Only a handful of American soldiers managed to escape back South to the United States.
~~~~~~~~~~
Somewhere between Regina and the United States Border
Jack Reed rode uncomfortably in the back of the make shift ambulance. The volunteer driver, a 17 year old named Hemingway, was not a very good driver. He could have been the best driver in the world but Reed would still have been angry. He was angry at the defeat, he was angry at the army for not providing them with the equipment needed to win. Most of all though he was Angry at President Wilson. It had become clear to Jack that the Socialist party had become corrupted by Bourgeoisie elements. Headed by men who would rather get rich then help their fellow workers fight against the Reactionaries with every availability possible.
Jack Reed knew what had to be done. There needed to be changes.
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So Questions etc?
Sorry about the delay it took me ages on how to wrap my head around how exactly this would work. Also shockingly in this Irish AAR the next update actually has the Irish in it. personally i don't think that style will catch on here though