A House of Cards (An alternative KR-MDS AAR)

[El Pip]

Exciting things in Central and Southern America. All very bad decisions obviously, though when those nations are defeated and the regimes fall and are replaced by more competent governments, maybe they will turn out to be 'good' decisions after all (for the nation, not the specific leaders obviously)

 

[Kurt_Steiner]

@El Pip: Bearing in mind the great hability of some South American political leaders (disregarding their political ideas) to f**** their own countries beyond believe, I wouldn't hope that anyhting short of being puppetized by Ottawa would be enough

South America (III).

Chavez came to power in 1992 on a raft of promises that everything would be different from now on: wages would rise, prices would remain stable, there would be freedom of speech, and those responsible for crrimes against the country would be punished. Although the nation was quite skeptical after all the failed promises of the previous goverments, Chavez was believed to be an honest and well-intentioned man, and his promises bought him some time. He used this time to create a new economic program, one based on oil but also on large-scale borrowing from the Commune of France and, later on, from some unexpected countries: mainly Switzerland, Sweden, Finland and even Japan to buy technology that would upgrade Venezuela's production of export goods. This massive borrowing, estimated to have totaled 10 billion pounds, was used to re-equip and modernize the industry, and to import consumer goods to give the workers more incentive to work.

For the next three years (1992–95), the new regime optimistically engaged in reform and experimentation and for the first time many Venezuelans could afford to buy cars, televisions and other consumer goods.The incresasing price of oil favoured the Veneszuelan economy and the authorities made sure that the workers received proper wages. The peasants were paid higher prices for their products and free health service was finally extended to rural Venezuela. The intellectuals had censorship eased and there was some cultural and political relaxation. Massive investments were made, expected to both improve the standard of living of the various segments of society and establish an internationally competitive Venezuelan industry and agriculture, based on purchases of Western technology. The modernized manufacturing would result in a vastly expanded export of Venezuelanh-made products to the West, which in turn would generate hard currency to pay-off the debts.

This "New Development Strategy" depended on the global economic conditions and, of course, of the increasing oild prices. the program faltered suddenly because, after several years of increased oil prices, Urquhart put into line the OPEC and prices fel from £90 a barrel in 1999 to below £60 a barrel in 2001 and £45 in 2003. The effects of the oil crisis resulted in a sharp increase in the price of imported consumer goods, coupled with a decline in demand for Venezuelan exports, particularly oil. Venezuela foreign debt roe dramatically and borrowingfrom the West become increasingly difficult. Consumer goods began to disappear from Venezuelan shops. The new factories built by Chavez's regime also proved to be largely ineffective and mismanaged, as the basics of market demand and cost-efectiveness were often ignored. The significant internal economic reform, promised by Chavez, had not materialized.

Chavez's growing difficulties led also to increased dependence on the Commune of France, including tight economic cooperation and displays of submissiveness hardly ever seen and it all helped to coalesce the emerging circles of active political opposition.

Syndicalism in Venezuela was leading to the complete downfall of the country.

Then the war came and, with the seas roamed by the Canadian and US navies, all help from Europe was cut. Chavez was running out of time and of ideas. He needed a solution, and he needed it fast.

 

[Asalto]

SyNdieZ in general seems to be in quite a trouble?

 

[Kurt_Steiner]

@Asalto: As some Communist countries were during the Cold War plus the fact that the equivalent to the USSR that supported them, the CSA, is no longer here and the Commune de France and the Union of Britain too far away...

The Battle of the Atlantic: Planning the battle (Early days of October 2003)

The reality of war was proving to be more complex than expected. London and Paris were unable to keep open the sea lanes to South and Central America once the CSA was gone. So, Chairwoman Gautier had an idea that thrilled Malcom Tucker and terrified the naval staffs of both navies:

-To send to Brazil a big convoy protected by the bulk of the combined British and French navies with some Spanish and Italian support.

Of course, the Canadian and US surface fleets would try to stop it and then there would be a big battle that either would decide the naval war or would left the enemy navies too damaged to become a threat. Even if the enemy commanders resorted to use just their submarines, the ASW power of the combined fleets would be enough to deal with them.

After the failure of the attack against Iceland, many navy commanders in the two sides of the Channel were anxious about their necks, as the pressure upon them had increasing because of the perceived failure of the late Admiral Byng. Thus, both staffs agreed fast upon creating a Joint Staff to plan and execute the operation, which received the codename of Operation Pedestal.

 

[El Pip]

That's possibly the worst naval plan I've seen since.. the entire IJN war plan? Possibly even as bad as Admiral Tirpitz.

The RCN and USN will be utterly delighted, their two main opponents have decided to throw away every advantage they have and combine themselves in one easily locatable and killable group. Are we sure Chairwoman Gautier isn't an undercover agent sent to bring down the Syndies from the inside?

 

[Kurt_Steiner]

@El Pip Chairwoman Gautier an insider sent by Urquhart.... Anyway, don't be so harsh on her...

Mmmmh... Pip, you have given me an idea for an update! Malcom Tucker thanks thee!!!!

October 5th-7th, 2003

In spite of the initial amount of mistrust that Urquhart felt about his Foreign Minister, lord Irwin was proving himself to be very reliable, always doing whatever job given to the Prime Minister`s satisfaction and without any complaint..

Then Colin Powell, Bush's Secretary of State made a speech in California concerning United States foreign policy and, poetically speaking, shit hit the roof. Powell's words caused near-instant worldwide reactions. He was walking about the present war and, making a reference to the unprovoked Spanish invasion of Portugal, Powell began reviewing some of the crimes of the Syndicalist regimes and ended up calling them all ‘the evil empire’ while making long references to the mass arrests and the extrajudicial killings taking place in those countries, in their puppets states and now in the under-occupation Portugal.

The regime of Gautier and her cronies were ‘illegal’, Collins stated, and that she and the rest of Syndicalist leaders were at the top of a ‘cartel of murderers’. Collins finished his remarks going as far as asking the rest of the "free nations of the world" to show their support to the cause of freedom by cutting of diplomatic relations with the Syndicalist nations should their leaders ‘continue on their path of lies, terror and murder’.

Worldwide, there were a whole range of reactions expressed in relation to Collins' speech. Urquhart made it clear to his Foreign Secretary that the Canadian Government was going to stand shoulder to shoulder with the United States until the end and so Lord Irwin had to make sure that the position of support that Canada had with the United States was expressed.

This was no easy task for Lord Irwin to do. The problem did not came from the "usual suspects" as they were bound to criticise Collins for whatever he said as he knew how to deal with them. It was other nations that caused Irwin to show off his talents as a statesman though. The Egyptian High Commissioner in Ottawa complained furiously to lord Irwin about his support of Collins’ comments, ones which Egypt regarded as ‘undiplomatic’ and ‘unnecessarily inflammatory’. Basically, even if Egypt was a "close" ally to Canada, she kept commercial dealings with Syndicalist nations through other countries in a quite complicated game of masks. For Urquhart that meant, in simple terms, high treaon but, for the moment, he was forced to pretend being fooles and to know nothing about Egypt's duplicious behaviour. Meanwhile, perhaps some rogue submarine may sink two or three Egyptian merchants bound for any of those third parties involved in the game...

Furthermore, India also complained to lord Irwin for the same reason, leaving Urquhart wondering about the reason. After all, Delhi had the Bengali Popular Republic to care about... Indeed, the Prime Minister thought, India and Egypt were asking for his very personal attention...

All in all, as Lord Irwin managed to trick, persuade, deceive and appease to those angered about Collin's wordand Canadan's position, the incident proved that Urquhart had made a good choice in Irwin because he managed to upset nobody apart from those looking to be upset, so the Prime Minister was quite pleased with him. Then, next came the following crisis, when Irwin found himself the Prime Minister about the political fall-out caused in the Netherlands by the resignations of a pair of Dutch politicians.

It all began when a member of the upper house of the Dutch Parliament tendered his resignation from the Senate and fled to South Africa. It was only after a second politician acted in a similar manner the following day that Urquhart started to take notice. That second politician was from House of Representatives (the lower house of the Dutch Parliament) and represented a seat for Apeldoorn; unexpectedly, he had quitted his position that very morning that the newspaper de Volkskrant made shocking revelations about him which had him taken into the custody of the Dutch security services and at once questioned about what thede Volkskrant was saying:

Had he been secretly accepting money for many years from the Union of Britain?

Both Dutch politicians had been regarded beforehand as true patriots, real stalwarts of the right-wing in the Netherlands. And suddenly the newspapers had revealed their treachery. Shocked, the Netherlands looked in silence at the unfolding of the drama.

This was just the start though…

 

[El Pip]

I do look forward to seeing the results of Urquhart's 'close attention' to Egypt and India, particularly India which appears to be up to something.

And what of the Dutch? Is there great significance in Apeldoorn, it's historic links to the House of Orange portending a massive conspiracy reaching to the very heights of the Dutch establishment?

Or was it a random town Kurtie picked because he liked the name. Who can tell?

 

[Kurt_Steiner]

@El Pip Even if in this timeline there was nothing like 1956, Urquhart has his own reasons put the Egypt into line, of course. And talking about India...

What of the Dutch? You'll see. About Apeldoorn... well... it was Peti, my loyal dog, who selected the place, you know...

October 8th-15th, 2003

Powell’s speech had a major effect upon the campaign of his President. Even if Bush had secured the Republican Party nomination, what he had said had not helped his President little bit. Bush immediately faced questions from the media asking whether he supported Powell’s comments regarding the Syndicalist Alliance. After a short answer of twenty minutes, the questioning journalists could think that Bush supported his Secretary of State, of course, just as he always had done since he appointed him as Secretary of State when it came to foreign policy. He agreed with Collins. Fully. Completely. Without question.

Away from the cameras, and with his campaign team, Bush talked with his NSA advisor, Condolezza Rice and asked her a simply question:

-Would you like to be my next Secretary of State?

Thus was settled Collin Powell's fate. Bush, in fact, was furious. He didn’t want the media attention on his campaign to be directed towards foreign events that he had absolutely no control over. The war was one damned thing. This was a complete different one. He wanted the political campaign based on the economy and domestic affairs, where he saw himself as having an edge over his Democratic opponents.

Rice, Powell and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumselfd listen to President Bush speak about the Dutch events​

Across the Atlantic, war kept going on. In what was later revealed to be a British-orchestrated operation the Red Army Faction (RAF - Rote Armee Fraktion) detonated several bombs, made attempts on the lives of prominent Germans and launched commando-style armed attacks against corthouses in Hamburg, Dusseldorf and Mannheim and foreign-owned companied based in the Ruhr. The RAF followed the notion of ‘propaganda by the deed’ and sought to generate as much media coverage for their actions as possible. Of course, his cause had zero support in the German Reich, but that didn’t mean that they didn’t make press releases after their attacks to claim credit for all of their strikes and to promise that they would continue to strike again and again.

The German security services had been caught unawares of the scale of the attacks, which killed 36 people in just a week. After all, the RAF's activities had been winding down since the 1990s, after the police had arrested or killed most of its important leaders and since 1997 the RAF had stopped his terrorist campaign. However, they were back. Of course, the government could not allow the continuation of such a bloody campaign. The gloves came off and the members of the R.A.F. were actively sought. If they were to show any sign of resisting the police, they were to be shot down on the spot. Laws were bent and even broken sometimes, all in the name of defending the German Reich.

Even if the attacks had not been a big success, they had achieved the main goal that the Totalitarist cliché at London wanted: to create terror and repression in Germany.

 

[Kurt_Steiner]

The road to the Night of the Long Knives: October 8th-15th, 2003 Paris-London

When Malcolm Tucker became "enforcer" of the Department of Social Affairs and Citizenship, he got used to speak very frankly to his boss. In fact, he was too frank. Excessively frank. Also, Tucker's temper made him quite prone to bursts of rage that ended bad for the health of the unlucky human being on top of the Department. His brash, impulsive and volatile persona made him infamous and feared, but his enemies failed to grasp his intelligence and his long-term thinking; added to this we have his constant scheming, bordering "malchiavellian" traits and his radical thinking, that made him to be on the very left of the British Totalist Party (he was heard once calling the late Gordon Borwn to be a "fucking sissy").

All in all, Tucker had little patience to what he perceived as incompetence. That "problem" had helped him in his rise from the DSAC when the Federalist Party was forced, at the beginning of the 2000s, to include some members of the other Syndicalist parties in the Cabinet. He simply was in the right place and in the wrong time and thus he became the second in command after Simon Forster. After three years working together, Tucker had become dead tired of the "pussiness" of Forster. And now he was seeing some of that jazz happening on the other side of the Channel. To hear Forster giving his whole suport to Gautier half-witted strategy was too much for Tucker.

Malcom Tucker showing his delight and happiness at Gautier's plan and Forster's support​

Thus, Tucker began to conspire again. He regretted to take that action, as the war demanded having a strong leadership but having Forster (who did not run anything at all) and Gautier (who wanted to run too much and in the wrong direction) meant that both the Union of Britain and the Commune of France had no one worth running the show. As much as he regretted to do that, he saw that there was no possibleand better suited replacement for Forster than Tucker himself, so he began looking for support.

Then Gautier began her mad idea of the "Combined Fleet" to be sent to the Atlantic to chase ducks (or to become a sitting duck) and Tucker run out of patience. Thus he had an idea and two main "partners": Tom Stephens, the head of the British Secret Services, and his French counterpart, Vincent Crochon.

The meeting began with the following words by Tucker:

Not only have I to work with fucking idiot and his fucking idea of a fucking New Way for All that has less fucking meaning that having a fucking refrigerator in the fucking North Pole, no... he's also fucking mental. Marx's Balls, look around, this whole fucking war is a fucking omnishambles, that's what it is, fucking fuck!!!

​

 

[El Pip]

Having the spectacularly sweary Tucker in charge of the Union of Britain would be almost enough to make me root for the Syndies. Almost, but not quite enough as they do persist in allying with the French.

Now if Tucker were to become leader and then invade France....

 

[Kurt_Steiner]

@El Pip An AngloFrench Union? First try in the Middle Ages didn't work too well, Pippy...

North Atlantic, September 14th-17th 2003

Unexpectedly, the Spanish and the Italian navies came with a very innovative (and very controvesial had elections been possible in Spain and Italy) when they send two Task Forces to scourge the Atlantic Ocean. The Spaniard were to send their flagship, the aircraft carrier España (1), with her battlegroup (three Spanish Frigates and a French one) into a convoy foray around the Azores Island. They became the northern element of a combined operation aimed at destroying all the Entente traffic around the Azores when the Italian navy added their might to the operation, creating a two-princer movement. The southern element was formed by the Italian carrier Garibaldi, two guided missile destroyers and two submarines and sailed together with the Spanish fleet from Valencia to Gibraltar, when the two groups departed ways and entered the Atlantic.

However, weather conditions made quite difficult the launching of the aircraft for both carriers. Thus, while the Spanish commander, Admiral Fernando Sánchez García, took a cautious approach and took his task force away from the range of the attack planes based at the Azores (in spite of Portugal defeat the island still remained under Entente control protected by an Anglo-Portugese garrisson) and tried to move his force around the island, his Italian counterpart, Admiral Arturo Riccardi, chose a more direct approach wind and prepared his planes for an attack against the Azores as soon as the weather allowed.

It was then when the radar of the carrier España detected three Portugese vessels to the south of her position. The enemy ships were were conducting some exercises around the Azores. They were two missile-corvettes and a submarine which were conducting training in ASW tactics. So far away from Europe, they thought themselves to be safe.Whenthey became aware that there was another ship nearby and it was also tracking them with its radar, it was too late.

To investigate those radar contacts, the Spaniards had send the missile guided frigatte Cipriano Mera. The Camoes was the lead Portugese ship. Evern if the enemy ship was twice the size of its Portguese counterpart, the crew of the Camoes were not intimidated. Their weapons matched that of the Mera and their sister-ship, the Henrique O Navigador was nearby and catching up fast. Furthermore, there were CAPs ready to help them. Of course, they were on the strong side, but the Spaniard ship was not told about that.

The missile-tracking radar from the Mera locked onto the pair of Portugeuse ships and before they could engage their own fire-control radars, she fired a missile at them. Electronic warfare detection systems on both the Camoes and the Henrique O Navegante weren’t by any means state of the art, but before the Portuguesthe could react, two MAB-2T (2) missiles were crossing the distance between the vessels at near-supersonic speed. The first missile raced past the Camoes and towards the Henique, slamming against the small ship before exploding in a thunderous roar. Then the second missile hit the Camoes before her captain had time to react.

The 570 kg warhead of the first missile had shattered the Henrique, while the second obliterated the Camoes. A few seconds later both ships blew up in immense fireballs and took the majority of their crew of each with them. After that, the Cipriano Mera withdrew to rejoin the task force.

(1) Just imagine some kind of mix between the Principe de Asturias and the Kievs aircraft carriers...
(2) The Spanish Exocet.

 

[Kurt_Steiner]

North Atlantic, September 18th-21th 2003

Once the news about the enemy ships were known, Admiral Sánchez began to ponder his options.If the enemy vessels had time to inform about the attack by the frigatte Cipriano Mera, the situation of the Task Force would be a quite risky one. Thus he informed his Italian counterpart about the situation and to try to find a possible solution to it.

As Admiral Ricardi was just preparing to launch his strike against the Azores, he wanted to follow with the plan as he envisaged it and then go on wrecking havoc among the convoys. Sánchez, not so optimistically minded, thought that the two sunk ships may had informed about the attack and not only the base at the Azores would be ready to defend (and to strike!) itself, but also the convoys would be diverted from the island and perhaps the US and Canadian navies were sending their ships to chase them.

Thus, with Admiral Bying's fate still fresh on his mind, Sánchez radioed Barcelona for instructions. Navy commanders in Barcelona were acutely aware of Sánchez's situation. Even if the España was equipped with SP-500 SSMs that could be used to engage enemy ships at long rage and a heavy AA defence, the shortcommings of his airgroup, made up by the short-legged VA-1S Matador (1) and ASW helicopters mainly, with two AEW helicopters were simpy not up to face a Canadian Task Force. However, Sánchez decided not to leave Riccardi on his own and, as it has already been said, with Admiral Byng in mind, he wanted to try to win a victory for the Syndicalist navies.

Three VA-1S Matador as those used by the España​

(1) The Spanish version of the Italian VSTOL ARA-191 (Aerei da Ricognizione e Attacco 191) attack aircraft, in this TL the Italian (working -so, so...-) alternative to the VAK 191B

 

[El Pip]

Who on earth wants an Anglo-French Union? I agree that would be a very silly idea. The Union of Britain invading and outright conquering and then dismembering France, offering up bits of the former country to it's neighbours to buy them off, now that's a winning plan.

If nothing else this is tale is very thoroughly proving that Syndies don't float. I think the fate of Sánchez will probably further cement this, though I am torn. If it goes too badly wrong then even someone as dense as Forster may notice and we'll be denied the sweary beauty of Prime Minister F*cking Tucker.

 

[Kurt_Steiner]

@El Pip: Who on earth wants to have anything to do with France, apart form the usual trashing, destroying and plunder of the country after the typical short and victorious war? About having the Union of Britain doing that, they would had to shift friends and ally themselves with Germany, as both sides would want the same, but methinks that the Kaiser wouldn't be quite happy being alliled with those dirties Syndies..

Well, Syindies can float, but I dunno if they can surf too... Sánchez has managed, so far, to sunk two enemy ships and to remain over t he waves, not under, as it ws customary in this aar till today...

By the way... I don't thinkn that Malcom "F*cker" Tucker would stop changing the guard even if Sánchez manages to sunk the whole Entente fleet...

North Atlantic, September 22th, 2003

Admiral Riccardi, after listening carefully to what Sánchez told him, decided to go ahead with his plan and to send 20 of his 35 strike fighters against the Azores. The aim was too attack the ships anchored in the harbour and to bomb the airbase. In the first wave, two IMAM Ro.267 strike fighters were surpised when they found the harbour almost empty but launched one Exocet each at the few visible ships. The Canadain destroyer HMCS Ontario was hit with a single impact that crippled her after she was struck amidships with devastating effect, ultimately killing 5 crew members and severely injuring 11 others. The ship gutted and deformed by the fires that continued to burn for six more days in the harbour, that remained untouched by the strike. The other missible, the Italian flyers claimed, had sunk the Canadian aircraft carrier HMCS Queen Victoria, that, with her Battlegroup, was sailing towards the island since the news of the attack had been received by Ottawa (1).

The first wave of IMAM Ro 257, seeing here thought the lens
of a gun camera of another Italian fighter, flying towards the targeted objetive.​

The two IMAM Ro 257 that had sunk the Ontario withdrew, having expended their weapons, but the rest went on and they managed to have a small edge upon the enemy AA defences. The first four planes (Cpt Dimeglio, Cpt Roderico, Lt Beamontelli and Lt Castello) opened fire with their 30mm cannons while their 1,000 lb (450 kg) bombs exploded with devastating effect against the buildings of the base. However Lt Beamontelli was shot down and killed by a SAM.

It took the defenders twenty minutes to scramble their first fighters. In that lapse of time six more enemy fighter bombers attacked the airbase, evading the enemy SAMs and AA gun fire, but causing only light damage. Then, the Portuguese Skyshark interceptors began to make short work of the incoming bogeys. Of the next four planes wave, half of them were shot down by Red Top AA missiles. As the Skysharks appeared on their radars, the last attacking planes resorted to drop their ordenance in any available target and run away before the enemy fighters could find them and then returned to their carrier.

Happy with the result, Riccardi planned for another strike with the full fore of his remaining fighter bombers. Then, urgent news from Admiral Sánchez threw his plans into disarray.

(1) The Syndie hability to sunk the ship that is not even there never ceases to amaze me...

 

[Kurt_Steiner]

North Atlantic, September 23-24th, 2003

The news couldn't be worse. One of the recce planes had spotted a massive armada sailing towards the Azores. It had managed to report about the task force. It was made up at least by two aircraft carriers (Queen Victoria class, apparently) and another thirty or forty warships that were racing towards them.

As soon as Sánchezheard about that, he knew he had no chance against that powerful force so he asked Barcelona for instructions and hoped that they would see the grim reality he was facing. Meanwhile, he also informed Admiral Riccardi about the developing events.

Here comes the Navy!
​

As soon as Ottawa and Washington got news about the attack against the two ships in the Azores vincinity, two Canadian carriers, the HMCS Ark Royal and the HMCS Bonaventure had been redirected towards the area, along with two more US carrier groups, the Carrier Strike Groups Nine (lead by the USS Abraham Lincoln) and Eleven (led by the USS Nimitz). They werer saling at full speed, eager to came to blows with their enemies, that were reported to be, at least, one carrier group, but it was expected to face heavier enemy forces.

Sánchez was a pragmatic man. He knew that his ship, the España, was not a match not even for one of the enemy carrier, let alone four, and that his task force was not good enough to face one of the enemy force, so he pleaded to Barcelona to be allowed to writhdraw and save his forces. Barcelona agree. When the two new aircraft carriers, the Republica and the Libertad, were finished, they would be more than capable to fight and defeat their enemies, but the light carrier España was not in that situation. Thus, the Spanish task force turned their backs to the enemy and run to fight another day.

Of course, Riccardi didn't agree. At home, First Secretary Amatii saw clearly that, alone, Riccardi was to be annhilated so he ordered him to withdraw. Amati ws neither a psycopath nor a man used to be disobeyed, and he knew Riccardi's temper well, so he told him to withdraw and to remember that he had a family to care about. Thus, the Italian admiral, bitting his tongue and refraining himself from speaking aloud his real thoughts, ordered his task force to withdraw.

He could show, when he arrived to Rome, that his planes had managed to heavily damage the enemy airbase and to cause some degree of damages to the harbour. Thus, the Azores were rendered useless to the Entente and he could go back home without much ado.

 

[Kurt_Steiner]

October 1st, 2003, Ottawa

When the news of the Azores raid were know in the United States, Bush's headaches had no end. The public uproar that the attack caused had no proportion with the damaged inflicted (the harbour was lightly damaged and the airbase, although it was hit hard, was fully operational). Furthermore, that the enemy task forces had managed to give the slip to the Entente navies had only intensified the anger of the public opinion. Of course, all that hit hard Bush's reelection campaign.

​

On his part, Urquhart was less than happy with the present situation. As he had feared, the dim-witted US president was beginning to be a nuisance for him, as he was quite difficult to understand and had some dangerous ideas of his own. Frankly speaking, since the "event" that had "taketh" away the CSA and "giveth" back the USA, the Canadian-American relations had grow to such a size that included not only the complex relations between two powerful nations and their competition for world supremacy but also to military cooperations. Thus, while both countries were closely related through some common interests, at the same time they were at odds in some important matters.

One of the points of contention that made the relations between Ottawa and Washington a bit less friendly was the Persian Gulf. As the Revolution of 1925 had thrown into disarray the British Empire, the Persian Gulf had began to gangerously drift away from British hegemony. After the reformist process of the 1960s that led to a revisited version of the Commonwealth as it had been established in the 1930s, the worst fears of many die-hard imperialist came true: Canada, the heir of the defunct United Kingdom, was not recognized by neither the South African Union, nor the Australasian Confederation nor Delhi as nothing but a member of the Commonwealth with the same rights and obligations than the rest of the associated members of the Union.

Canada had little option but to agree with that, as we can see in Harold MacMillan's Winds of Change speech (1960). Only with Margaret Thatcher's victory in 1979 this policy was fully abandoned along with Trudeau's reapprochement with the CSA. If the so-maligned Trudeau was happy to admit that Canada was unable to keep its imperial compromises and that its power had diminished, Thatcher was determined to prove him wrong: she was to find "Canada's place under the Sun" and to rearm the country and the Empire in front of the Syndicalist threat. And woe to those who dare to oppose her! Thus, with Thatcher the Canadian armed forces (along with Australasian and South African forces) returned to the Middle East.

In that aspect, Urquhart was a trully Thatcherian remnant of the age. In spite of the war, he had a plan to restore the British Empire, albeit in a quite different way. The war, in his opinion, was just to help him to achieve his objectives earlier than expected. The Australasian Confederation, the South Africa Union and India could consider themselves as equal partners to Canada, but he couldn't possibly comment. And he wasn't to, either.

However, Washington had also something to say about that. In his universe, before the world went nuts and send elsewhere, since the end of the Vietnam War, Washington's attention gradually focused on the Persian Gulf. This new policy began with the Carter Administration, when the president signed Presidential Directive (PD) 18 on August 24, 1977, a part of which called for the establishment of a mobile force capable of responding to worldwide contingency. The United States could be now in a dfiferent world, but, to Bush, the Persian Gulf was a strategic area for the United States, so he told to Prime Minister Urquhart.

So HE tinks that he can meddle in MY Middle East!!!​

Urquhart already suspected that. And he was not happyvat all with that kind of interest. In the last six months several countries that were close friends of Canada were suddenly very interested in becoming closely related with Washington, too. And that was quite noticeable in the arrival of American weapons that had been flooding the Persian Gulf in the last six months.

That was just the tip of the iceberg that annoyed Uruqhart so much. Of course, he had a backup plan to fix the present state of affairs.

 

[Kurt_Steiner]

October 7th, 2003, Ottawa

“It has been confirmed,” said the newsreader on the CBC. “General de Lioncourt, the President of the French Republic is dead. The whole city of Alger is deep in mourning...”

Francis Urquhart turned the television off. Lioncourt's death was hardly a surprise. Seventy-two years old, with his health weakened by the constant struggling that his long tenure of the National France premiership (since 1982) had inflicted upon him while trying to keep Algeria, Morocco and Tunis under the French rule, it was hardly a surprise that he was dead. The real wonder is that he haqd managed to live for so long, Urquhart mused.

What Urquhart found really surprising (and almost amusing) was that de Lioncourt, in his final years, had arranged everything to be succeed after his death by no one else than a prince of the royal blood.

What the blazes..., Urquhart thought.

 

[Kurt_Steiner]

October 9th, 2003, Alger

Apparently, the succession of de Lioncourt had began to be arranged by the general himself. It all began on July 22nd, 1999, when the then Count of Paris, Jean (1), was invited to the inaguration of the Parliament, where he swore loyalty to the Constitution of the IV Republic, which he did with little outward hesitation, and was officially designated heir-apparent with the new title of Prince of France (not the traditional Dauphin of France. The French parliament ratified the move that very day. All this was thought to be just an out-fashioned question, as using the french name of the capital, "Alger", in use instead of the most common one, "Algiers", but, anyway, it went on.

Since then Jean met de Lioncourt many times while heir apparent and often took part in official and ceremonial state functions, standing alongside the dictator, much to the anger of traditional republicans and more moderate liberals, who hoped that de Lioncourt's death would bring in an era of reform. However, Jean was also meeting secretly with political opposition leaders, who hoped to bring liberal reform to the country. De Lioncour, for his part, remained largely oblivious to the prince's actions. Thus, when the general grew ill, he gave full control to Jean, who became de facto Head of the State. The general died three weeks later, on Octber 9th, two days after de Lioncour's death, the Parliament proclaimed Jean III, King of France.

In his address to the Parliament, the new king spoke of three factors: the historical tradition, national laws, and the will of the people, and claimed that he wanted to become the king of ALL the Frenchmen and Frenchwomen. That simple line proved to be the cause of great problems for him. In the words of general Phillipe Soustelles, governor of Alger and one of the future main characters of the events that were to unfold:

"The King wanted to do something that no French leader (2) had ever tried so far, that is, to forget and forgive the betrayal of November of 1919"

It was to be , inded, a daunting objective.

Jean III (the coronation was so unexpected that the king
had to use some regalia copied from the British one)​

(1) To sum up: Henri, Count of Paris (1908–1999) had as a first son, François, instead of his daughter Isabelle, and everything got butterflied from then on. So short, so simple.
(2) At least, no National French leader...

 

[Kurt_Steiner]

October 15th, 2003, Ottawa

The Prime Minister was having a bad week. As the elections race won speed, George Bush's temper became more and more impossible to understand. He was pressing to win some kind of outstanding victory after the Azores' fiasco. His idea had not only frigthened the Entente military Staffs but also caused Uruqhart to doubt about the IQ of his US counterpart.

What Bush first proposed was, simply stated, to obliterate Irak in some kind of a blitz attack, but that idea was abandoned quite fast when the military planners began to mention the logistical nightmare that such an invasion would meant (moving at last half a million of soldiers, equipment, supplies, etc) and the time it would requiere. Also, there was also some "minor" problems, as, for instance, finding a good "casus bellis" and a place from where to launch the attack.

The plan was abandoned, to Bush's displeasure and to Urquhart's sadness, as he was considering how to "reorganize" the Persic Gulf area, without the United States, of course.

This small affaire had left Francis Urquhart quite anxious about his US neighbour. Above all, because Bush was showing little understanding of the current state of affairs and was looking like a madman for a "election-winner" move. And all that affaire reminded Urquhart too much about Field Marshal Haig's attempts to win the war (Somme, Passchendaele) that ended up in a vulnerable British army being smashed up by the German Summer Offensive. There were some differences about the two situations, of course, what Urquhart's discomfort was not made less disgusting by them.

Thus, the day was ending and the Prime Minister was still busy going over some transcripts of interrogations, when the phone rang. Urquhart picked it up phone.

“Yes?”

“Mrs. Brady to see you, sir,” said his Private Secretary.

“Send her in straight away.” Who the hell was that Mrs. Brady?, Urquhart wondered. Oh, yes, that American journalist. He sighed, tired. He was beginning to regret that stupid moment when he accepted to be interviewed by the NBC... He hung up the phone and rose to his feet.

The door opened and a blond, well manicured, nattily dressed woman entered his office. For a moment, Urquhart was shocked. The woman had a startling resemblance to someone else. He shut his eyes and remembered a soft, yielding body of a girl half his age, and a cry of, “Daddy!” as she plunged to her doom.

“Prime Minister, it is an honor to talk with you in person,” the woman said. Urquhart was brought back fast to himself by the soft twang of the newcomer. It was nothing like her voice. “I’m Sharon Brady, from the NBC.” She stuck out her hand.

Uruqhart smiled wolfishly while taking her hand.

“How very pleasant to meet you, Ms. Brady.”

Sharon Emma "Stone" Brady.​

 

[Kurt_Steiner]

October 1st-9th, 2003, North Atlantic

The "battle of the convoys" began when HI.12 departed from Halifax inboud to Iceland. Since the recovery of the island the Entente had been supplying with too much ado the garrison there, and that was unnaceptable for London and Paris. The air raids against Iceland were met with fierce resistance from the AA defenses and the fighters deployed in Reykjavik so the Syndicalist powers changed their strategy and the submarine force of the two nations, with a bit of Spanish help, began to act against the Entente convoys

The first battle was centered around the convoy HI.12, made up by 20 merchant ships which sailed from Halifax on 1st October, making for Iceland with war materials and fuel oil. It was escorted by two destroyers, and two frigates from the 4th Escort Group, under Commander Alban Hardy. On October 3rd, the convoy was sigthed by the Spanish submarine S-71,which sent in a sighting report and commenced shadowing the convoy. He was joined throughout the day by twor other boats: the French submarines S620 and S623.

On the night of 3rd the attack started; S623 was able to torpedo a tanker, which, although damaged, did not sunk anad managed to reach port; all other attacks that night were frustrated by the activities of the escorts and by a few Nimrods flying aql lover the area. Nevertheless, the pack tried again as night fell on the 4th. S-71 managed to close the convoy from the north and to sunk two tankers before having to run away after heavy attacks from the escorting ships; she was depth-charged and severely damaged, but managed to escape. The S620 was detected by a patrolling Nimrod MR4 and, although suffered from heavy attacks, she managed also to escape.

There were no further attacks on HI.12 and the convoy arrived to Iceland without too much ado a few days later.

To London the lesson was clear. things had to change. And, as Comrade Tucker said about the whole issue, they were "to change fucking fast or fucking else".