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Damn Commies! Prepare to meet the SAS!
 
Damn Commies! Prepare to meet the SAS!

They will. Soon.


Also a retcon. I've been thinking about what has been said, and to my shame I must admit that it makes perfect sense and therefore I have decided to change that, the Owen will not be issued to the entire Army. Should something like that come up in the future, then you are encouraged to bring it up in the comments. But I always would like some time to think things through before answering.
 
No need for any shame tk, it was hardly a serious issue. If it was a completely unrealistic major plot idea such as a Brazilian-Albanian war or a plan for the British Army to re-equip with Japanese Type 97 tanks that would be bad. ;)
 
No need for any shame tk, it was hardly a serious issue. If it was a completely unrealistic major plot idea such as a Brazilian-Albanian war or a plan for the British Army to re-equip with Japanese Type 97 tanks that would be bad. ;)

No real shame, but I hate to admit that I am wrong as much as the next guy. :D
 
Damn your eyes tk, your forcing me to agree with a Frenchman. :( ( :p )

Well, El Pip, we've found another thing we can agree on. :p

Also a retcon. I've been thinking about what has been said, and to my shame I must admit that it makes perfect sense and therefore I have decided to change that, the Owen will not be issued to the entire Army. Should something like that come up in the future, then you are encouraged to bring it up in the comments. But I always would like some time to think things through before answering.

I believe the Owen can still be of some use in the SAS. But as for my own AAR, I'm thinking of some MP design that can lead to an assault rifle. ;)
 
Oh dear. I found a massive typo in one of my older chapters... Will go back and correct. It has to do with the numbers of guns that defend Singapore.
 
Whats it today? I've been thinking about some other older things and again went back. It's again only something minor. Thats what you get for having a lot of your notes stolen.

In the Intermission about strategic Bombers, I changed the last pic.

New version:

 
I kinda miss your naval porn. :(
 
Trust me, there will be lots in the future.
 
Trust me, there will be lots in the future.

As a proud member of shipbucket (but I almost can't stand not using the metric scale), my standards are high. ;)
 
As a proud member of shipbucket (but I almost can't stand not using the metric scale), my standards are high. ;)

Well, I am currently going over my 1960s Lion Class again....:D
 
Well, I am currently going over my 1960s Lion Class again....:D

Some dude did this Lion (1938) before:


lionjv9.gif



I hope this is a better base for you to use than last time. ;)
 
I used the Wesworld Lion Class drawing from the archive. It's enough for my needs, as I don't plan on positing the revised version anyhow.
 
I used the Wesworld Lion Class drawing from the archive. It's enough for my needs, as I don't plan on positing the revised version anyhow.

haha, well, then get something else "awesome" up. I'm confident that my own designs can beat every design you can bring up, mwahahahaha. :D:p:D:p
 
Well, you did get me to register. Mainly because I need additional parts for my wacky fantasy designs, as there is a sad lack of WW2 eara FAA aircraft on the archive. Currently going through the plane-bucket thread and saving what I might be able to use.
 
Insert customary rant about microsoft and Windows.

Meaning that I had to reinstall today, but as soon as I have reinstalled certain programs I will finish the update. Later today, promised.
 
Disclaimer: I am taking massive artistical liberties with the transport infrastructure of Quebec here. Considering that it is still winter-ish, and therefore cold and snowy I simply presume the following. Since this was never meant to be a theatre in the first place, I didn't do any research for it.


Chapter 158

IMG_3889_11.jpg

26th March 1941

South of Quebec City


“In the long run they did us a tremendous favour with shooting him.” Drake's second in Command said. Drake could only agree, but could not say anything. The patrols of the entire wing were slowly making their way towards Quebec city, in small, two-patrol groups using maps provided by the Canadian Army. It was risky sending a group of this size over unfamiliar territory that was hostile in more than one way, but there was little else to be done. The Canadians were hastily assembling a force to drive towards Quebec City and end this uprising once and for all, and the SAS was probably the only way to get anything resembling accurate intelligence. Normally Drake would have preferred insertion by parachute, but the terrain and the simple fact that no aircraft large enough could be spared were good enough reasons for them to go in the old fashioned way in small, two-patrol sized groups. They all cursed the cold, they cursed the snow, but most likely they cursed Drake who had been the one to chuck the mission of simply scouting ahead of the Canadian Units that advanced two days behind them out of the window and send them onto this trek through could and snowy Quebec woods. The SAS troopers were at last wearing official SAS gear, with all national and unit insignias that came with it. Over their normal SAS battledress they wore white camouflage suits that had been provided by the Canadian Army that had acquired them for some reason.[1] Heavy but warm boots, along with snow shoes were strapped to their feet, and on their backs they carried heavy packs that contained everything from wireless sets to weapons, food and tents. The winter training they had had was now paying huge dividends, as unlike most of the British Army, with the exception of the Mountain Divisions that were raised in India and the UK, the SAS had winter survival as a part of the training ever since the Regiment had first been formed. But that was of no concern. The troops walking through the cold Canadian countryside were determined to do their job, because the faster they did it, the faster they would be back home again. The mission itself was something that was greeted with enthusiasm, in spite of the cold, as it was exactly what the SAS was trained for. Their orders were to report on any rebel movements on the approaches to Quebec city, disrupt any attempts to form a coordinated defence of the few roads in the area, and then, as soon as the Canadians had arrived go into the city itself and raise havoc wherever they could. It was what Stirling had intended the SAS for when he had first snug into the Headquarters of the Imperial General Staff before he had found willing listeners in No.10 and Aldershot.

There were only three roads that were passable until the snow melted and turned all of it into mud in a few weeks, and both sides knew this. For that reason had the rebels, realizing that they were not getting the popular support hoped for, and slowly but surely the a feeling of impending doom crept in. The American agents had disappeared after the Cardinal had been executed, and their promises of 'securing more American support' were greeted with suspicion by those that had more knowledge of military matters. Had the rebellion ended just then a lot of blood had not been spilled, but the spiral of violence continued. The rebels came under more and more attack, and the lack of any means to touch the RCAF when it stayed at altitude came back, because the Canadians flew over Quebec City with impunity, and even though no air attacks had been made yet, the rebels knew that if things went badly, ( as they already were ) then the Canadians could bring overwhelming force to bear on them. Defences needed to be prepared, and as a part of this, every bus, lorry and taxicap in Quebec City had been seized and used to bring part of the most loyal and powerful militias to strategic points along the few passable roads that led into the city at this time of the year. One such position was built around a logging camp and relied on the telegraph line back towards Quebec City to report any movement on the road that went past about half a mile away. It was the biggest camp, as this road was the one with the widest roadbed and the shortest route from the point where the Montreal group had blown the railways before it had been smashed by the Canadians. This was a sound strategy, at least in the eyes of the commanders and the trenches they had blown out of the frozen earth and the wooden buildings made this a formidable post. They had arrived here three days ago, even before the Cardinal had been shot and had used the meantime to reinforce their position, mostly blowing aforementioned trenches using the Dynamite that was on site and that they had brought with them. None of the men was trained militarily beyond what they had learned during the time just before the uprising when the Americans had first sent over advisers three months ago. It was not enough, and most certainly not enough to deal with what was about to happen, even though they had thirty men there. The area was small. Two blockhouses and one long, stretched barracks comprised the buildings that had been there before, with all of them now connected by some relatively shallow trenches. The thirty rebels inside the compound lacked heavy weapons aside from three machine guns, but their job was more that of a tripwire and a speedbump than actually stopping the Canadians. The compound was not lighted, and several sentries were patrolling between the houses. Fourty yards away, just at the edge of the clearing Drake wished that they had a PIAT, because it's projectiles would have been excellent to take out the buildings. Each contained a machine gun and they were roughly ten to twenty yards away from the treeline, as it was a relatively new camp.

But he had no Piat, only the two patrol Brens, some hand grenades, and of course the Owens and Lee-Enfields they had with them, but nothing heavier than that. This seriously constrained his freedom of action. Normally he would have just left this camp to the Canadians, but the Telegraph line that went from this camp in the direction of Quebec City made it necessary to take it out and made any attack also part of his mission, and the fact that it lay in a depression at the foot of some hills made sure that no direct line of sight in the direction of Quebec existed. Without heavy weapons it would be difficult at best to do so fast enough to prevent any message from getting through, but that was something that was easily fixed. One of the masts a hundred yards away had been fitted with a small charge just large enough to produce a loud bang and to fell the mast, thereby cutting the telegraph line between the camp and Quebec City. There was of course the possibility that the rebels had orders to report at a regular interval, but that was a risk he would have to take. With a bit of luck the lack of connection would be credited to weather, damage by deer or simply malfunctioning equipment, on the whole it was something he had no influence on and there was no reason to worry about something you could not influence anyhow. The two Brens were instrumental to his plan. The explosion of the mast would be small, but loud enough to serve as a signal for the two Bren gunners and the man with them who carried an Owen and some hand grenades. The three men would begin to fire into the camp to draw the attention to their side while the rest of the group would jump and rush the hopefully blind side of the camp. Frontal assaults where something that the SAS frowned upon, and Drake was no exception. One of the centrepieces of the training had been the value of deception and giving the enemy what he expected and wanted to see. Against trained regular troops this course of action would be even more dangerous, but these were most likely militias and that sort of men were never trained up to the standards of a regular army, let alone the Special Air Service Regiment. Drake glanced at his wristwatch and decided that now as as good a time as any. He knew that by now the other group had to be in position and he quietly worked his way from where the group lay to the mast. There Little was leaning behind a tree and waiting for orders. Drake took a risk and rose to his feet before saying: “Give me ten minutes to get back, then let it rip, Lance Corporal.” “Righto, Captain.” Drake made his way back to where the others were waiting, and a minute or so after he had taken his position again, a sharp bang shattered the silence, immediately answered by automatic gunfire from the other side of the camp. The sentries that patrolled between the buildings where the first to go down. Those that had survived the first salvo dove into the shallow trenches or ran into the buildings. Drake and his group rose to their feet and ran from the treeline towards the nearest building, the short side of the hall. Prior observation had told Drake that oddly enough there was no machine gun poking out from the slit in the wall, so there was a small blind spot in the coverage. But not enough. As soon as they were halfway to the barn, one of the other machine guns started to hammer away. The shots impacted closer and closer, and the barn seemed ever farther away. The small fountains of snow were all around them when they reached the barn and the gun stopped shooting. As soon as he was not running any more, Drake suddenly felt a stabbing pain in his arm. Looking down on it, he saw that one .303 bullet had graced his arm. Blood was flowing from a relatively deep cut, but with strange detachment Drake noted that the arteries must have been undamaged since there was relatively little blood. While his men prepared the hand grenades, Drake grabbed his med kit and quickly wrapped a bandage around his arm and pulled the sleeve back down. The bullet was through, and despite the pain there was most likely no arterial damage. NO reason to be worried about right now until Little, the patrol medic, could later have a look at it. “Everything ready?” Drake asked. Upon receiving the affirmative, he just nodded. The three men threw the bundles of hand grenades through the slit and the British solders ran towards the next building. This time no gunfire disturbed them, and before the barn burst into flames, something a few hand grenades were not supposed to cause, Drake could see that the Trenches were full, and that the rebels were shooting at the treeline from where as far as he could see the two Brens were still shooting into the compound. The blast wave had thrown them down, but as they were trained soldiers, they collected themselves faster than the militias. Luckily for Drake and his men they had been with their backs to the explosion, so there were no injuries safe for some bleeding noses. Back in the trench, the shooting resumed, but by that time four SAS troopers were already at the next house where the machine gun had not resumed it's fire.

Two more hand grenades made sure that it never would, only that this time no massive explosion followed. Now at last the remaining rebels in the third building pulled themselves together and tried to do something about the group that was attacking them from behind, and opened fire. This time the British managed to take cover behind the silenced building and returned fire. Drake kneeled at the corner and fired his Owen at the slit from which inaccurate but intense small arms fire slammed into the house he was hiding behind. Right at that time the men in the trenches tried to retreat back into the house, because they had also just now realized that they were horribly exposed outside. They tried at least, and some were cut down between the exit of the trenches and the door of the house by both the Brens and the more accurate small arms fire from the British. Still it was a stalemate. The rebels could not go anywhere because the British had them totally surrounded, the British could not get inside because they lacked numbers and could not afford any losses. Drake wished once again that a PIAT was in his current inventory, but wishing for one would not make it appear out of thin air, and so he decided that no more useless expenditure of Ammunition was needed. He ordered his own group to cease fire, and at the same time the Bren gunners also stopped shooting. Drake grinned when he noticed. Most likely one of the others had seen Drake giving the signal now that it was light enough and with the burning building illuminating the scene. Drake grabbed a rifle that lay on the ground and tied a white handkerchief to the muzzle. He showed the rebels the makeshift white flag, but the only answer were several shots from a rifle. Drake pressed himself against the wall again and said: “It seems they don't want to talk.” “We can't carry prisoners with us anyhow.” “Suggestions, gentlemen?”

On the inside meanwhile there was also a discussion on what to do. Some wanted to give up, some wanted to fight to the death. When the first group made moves to actually give up one of the others, one who was devout to the cause took a hand grenade and pulled the pin.


[Notes: I should quit having the Bond Films running in the background whilst writing.... Anyhow, I plan to have the climax of the uprising soon, mainly because the Canadian Army is closing in on Quebec City. Why this rush, you ask? Well, I have this scene in Singapore in mind, and it involves BL 16 inch Mark II Naval Guns that were never built in OTL...]

[1] Will be disclosed in due course. Griffin, you know what that is.
 
Always good, naval guns + singapore. Also, yay for SAS! Nice scene.
 
Well, you did get me to register. Mainly because I need additional parts for my wacky fantasy designs, as there is a sad lack of WW2 eara FAA aircraft on the archive. Currently going through the plane-bucket thread and saving what I might be able to use.

Ahh, nice. You get to see my latest work (in non-shipbucket drawings). But I plan to break away from shipbucket when I have enough drawings since I'm determined to work in metric. ;)
 
Ahh, nice. You get to see my latest work (in non-shipbucket drawings). But I plan to break away from shipbucket when I have enough drawings since I'm determined to work in metric. ;)

Tell me when you do so.