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BritishImperial said:
i would think that mr blair could not do a worse job as president.
I know you Brits are all annoyed with Tony and tossed him out, but I have to say I thought he was remarkably eloquent when I saw him speak in LA at the World Affairs conference there. Your toss-outs would be outstanding leaders here.
 
no no, you misunderstand me. i meant he couldnt do any worse than bushy-wushy. i actually quite liked blair, except for the war. he's better than the rest in my opinion.
 
Please, let's keep Real World politics out of this, okay? :)
 
BritishImperial said:
i actually quite liked blair, except for the war. he's better than the rest in my opinion.
Then you really weren't paying attention to what he was doing. ;) He had a great deal of JFK about him; outstanding spin, attention grabbing headlines but a miserable failure at the practical policy level.

trekaddict said:
There is a region in Eastern Germany, near Wismuth where they say the same thing. In OTL the Sovs got the Uranium for their nukes there.
I've been to the East German uranium mines, went there on a European Mining exchange a few years back. Truly a bleak, bleak landscape - nothing but low-level radioactive grey coloured dirt as far as the eye could see.

On the other hand you can see the Rhineland open cast lignite mines from space, if you have a look on Google Maps the large white scars east of Aachen are the mines. It could just be mining makes a mess of the landscape regardless. :D
 
I don't know, that picture is missing something...maybe a few more Union Jacks? :D
 
trekaddict said:
Please, let's keep Real World politics out of this, okay? :)

sorry. :(
 
BritishImperial said:


Never mind, I simply think that this is the place to discuss TTL politics. :)
 
So, the next AARlander is just around the corner! Apart from myself many others have contributed so far. Still, canonized asked me to encourage new writers and contributers for the next edition, which I am doing now. If anyone is interested he is to contact canonized via PM.
 
trekaddict said:
[Now, who might that mysterious boffin be? :D And sorry for the character development, but considering that Leiter will be a major character I felt like giving him a bit more of a profile. Maybe I'll go into his background some more in the future. Also in TTL the US won't be as 'tainted' as they are in OTL. ;) ][/SIZE]

Tainted?

Carriers, nukes, India's industrialization... the Treasury must be crying tears of blood.
 
Faeelin said:
Tainted?

Carriers, nukes, India's industrialization... the Treasury must be crying tears of blood.

Tainted as in USA = evil. :D


The treasury will cry blood, but not for much longer. The economy is picking up speed fast, with the rearmament and the new market systems both in the Empire and abroad starting to show.
 
trekaddict said:
Tainted as in USA = evil. :D.

You don't KNOW The POWER of the DARK SIDE! :D

Seriously... In this time line, It's not the USA.... "A Republic, but not as we know it Jim...."
 
Next update is about half done, and as I am bored like hell today we might even see it today.
 
Chapter 44


highst_station_pre_02-1.jpg

January 7th, 1939

Swansea High Street Station, approx. 22:43 PM


Philby once again cursed the idiocy of his bosses at MI6. It had taken them three hours to decide to grant him leave to cure is incredibly bad ( but well-faked ) Pneumonia, and he had been forced to take the last train, one that went to Swansea, at the wrong end of Wales and, as if to add insult to injury, halted at every little village train station between London and its final destination. At least he had gotten some sleep for the first time in days, and that was certainly something that was worth the otherwise terrible journey. Now he was standing in this damnable welsh town, a bit unsure how to proceed. The easiest prospect would be to simply go north and onto Anglesea, but if there really was a top-secret Government research installation then MI5 would most certainly have all the ferries covered. Before he had left for Wales he had visited another dead letterbox near Paddington Station, and in there he had found additional information, but most likely horribly out of date. Still, it was all he had to go on so he used it. Before contact had been lost after the control-officer in Wales had been arrested in a recent sweep up two points ahd been established, one in an old Boathouse at a lakefront near Bangor. As far as he could tell Maclean was already arrested to and MI5 might wait at the contact point, reinforced by a squad of Bobbies, but that was a risk that came with the job. He decided to spend the night in a close-by bead&breakfast, as no trains were running north for the rest of the night, and a good night of sleep, followed by something to eat were so tempting that it was an easy decision to make. Luckily for him the owner always had someone on the night shift, so he was able to get himself a room, preparing himself for the day's work ahead.

January 8th, 1939

He was once again sitting in a train, this time speeding north towards Bangor, and from there over the Britannia Bridge on to Holyhead at the north-western tip of the Island. There were two contact points, one near Bangor, in an old hut by a lake, and another one on Holyhead, with the first one being the main spot where Maclean was to get his orders. But being who he was, Maclean had insisted on establishing a secondary drop, one that was closer to his actual workplace, wherever that was. When he finally reached Bangor he followed the instructions, but was still lost. He entered a pup, where several old men were sitting and enjoying their pints. “Excuse me,” Philby said and asked for directions. “Terribly sorry, Mr, but that lake isn't there any more. They have filled it up and are turning it into a camp for some Army unit..” Philby was devastated and mildly annoyed. This meant that he would have to go to Anglesea, where security measures would be greatly increased, if there really was some secret research facility. With this he briskly walked through the town and when he reached the described location he could see construction work, but halted for the winter. The lake had been filled up and on the created free area barracks were constructed, according to a sign the home base for the 6th Airborne Brigade. Philby filed this information away for future use, maybe someone in Moscow would be interested. When he had made sure that there was no way the drop was still active he realized that there was no way around going to Holyhead. 'Church, second row to the left, far left corner, under the bench.' Such was the drop, according to the message he had retrieved in London. If approached he would tell them that he was on leave from work and wanted to have a look at the old Roman fort before continuing north to Glasgow, where a nonexistent parents were living, where he planned to spend his holidays. Three hours later he was back on the train, crossing the bridge and hoping that this infernal assignment was over as soon as possible. One thing that looked up was that he could not see any MI5 men in the vicinity, easily recognizable by their suspicious behaviour, at least to a trained eye, all he could see was a CPO of the Royal Navy, chatting with a woman about his age. What he could not see was that both were actually shadowing him, and were not a CPO and a civilian woman but rather an Midshipman and a WREN of the same rank, working for the local NID office. For Philby all was fine and well, and he started to actually enjoy this voyage. He did not know that he had been trailed ever since leaving London, and that an entire section of the British Intelligence community was secretly focused on that particular task.


wylfa-power-station.jpg

Wylfa Nuclear Power Station, built on the grounds of the original Tube Alloys centre.​

Tube Alloys Research Centre, approx. 18:34 PM

The phone-call had arrived three minutes ago, and Leiter was in search for Fleming who had gone for something to eat after Leiter had replaced him on the watch. After searching the records they had three suspects that had been at Cambridge at the same time Philby had been there, among them Maclean who had been in the Mess hall with them yesterday. That however was hardly concrete evidence, as most of MI5 and MI6 had been at Cambridge, a preferred recruiting location during the late 20s and early 1930s. This complicated things to no end, as two men couldn't possibly detain and interrogate all of them at once, and if they interrogated each on his own chances were they were pulling the wrong person and spooking the real spy away, and that went against the whole goal of the operation. If the spy disappeared into thin air then the rest of the ring would disappear with him, and they would have difficulty tracking them down again, if they ever could. Fleming was saying that his gut said that Maclean was their man, but Leiter wasn't so sure. To find out who was right they needed to be able to connect him directly with Philby, and so far all they had was the fact that they had been at Cambridge at the same time. However things were coming together. Maclean would again go to the cinema tonight, and Philby's train had arrived in Holyhead an hour later. The next cinema was in the nearby town of Cemaes, so it only figured that the drop would be somewhere in or around the town. Philby would most likely tramp or take a Taxi north and unfortunately the NID lacked the manpower to stake out every railway halt between the Britannia Bridge and Holyhead, so they would have to wait for Philby to come to them, which was risky at best. He might spot the surveillance teams and be gone before the NID even knew he was there. If this happened then all their work would be for naught. It was risky enough for him and Fleming to shadow Maclean tonight, as he technically might recognize them. But they had no other choice, and Fleming insisted that he was their man, and he was the Officer leading this operation, so he always had the last word. Fleming was as boneheaded as they came, sometimes not the best trait for an intelligence officer, but so far everything had gone well.

And there they were, four minutes later, in the same bus as Maclean, three rows back, and on their way to town. Normally the distance was short enough to walk, but the atrocious weather and the construction of the nearby Chain-Home RDF station had merited the bus service to town. Maclean sat in the first row, reading the Times sports page, and looking as if he had nothing to hide. Fleming was sure that he was their man. He didn't know why, he didn't know how he knew, all he had to go on was his gut feeling, something that had both helped and failed him numerous times. Gut instinct had saved his father during the Great War when he had instinctively taken cover in a different crater, so there was a good precedent for the Flemings in this area. Still, it carried a risk as Maclean could technically recognize them, even administrative clerks like him weren't selected for a lack of observational skills. Everything went fine, Maclean bought a card for “Modern Times”, the first Chaplin film made in the Pinewood studios, and after the showing he walked through the town, purposefully walking down the narrow street to a pub. He did not enter, but rather 'rested' against the window front. Much to Fleming's and Leiter's satisfaction Philby arrived three minutes later, still followed by an NID man. From there everything went haywire.



[Game Effects: For now I am only RP-ing my Paras, but I plan to have four Divisions by late 1940 or so, including the usual transport planes. If everything works out as planned then the four Airborne Divisions will be the über-elite Units in TTL 2008, as can be seen in my sig. SAS will be a reinforced regiment formed by several companies from each Division. So fans of 22 Regiment, rejoice! And to the MI5 fanboys: whoever screws up this bad for over twenty years needs to be punished, and when this is over MI5 is going to be royally disgraced for a while anyway, while NID's reputation will be boosted. Also, I admit that I did use Google Earth for my research, so if there are any real welch here please forgive me. In TTL Modern Times decipts the downfall of the US from the viewpoint of the same character Chaplin plays in the OTL version.]
 
So with a nuclear power plant in Wales, when that time comes will you deploy your nuclear reactors there or not? A great update by the way. And I think the Naval Intelligence Division needs to increase their manpower by the sounds of it.
 
I will deploy my reactors there, yes. As for NID, they do have considerable manpower, considering that this isn't exactly their usual mission.
 
Ahh no shoot-out amongst the piles it seems. A shame, but I concede it would be neither practical, plausible nor sensible. :)

I think Fleming (and the country) would be best served by paring him up with an intensely logical officer of the same rank. Gut-instinct is all well and good, and can make amazing leaps that following evidence can't, but when it misses you need someone to pick up the pieces and get things back on track.

Good update and I liked the details. :)
 
El Pip said:
Ahh no shoot-out amongst the piles it seems. A shame, but I concede it would be neither practical, plausible nor sensible. :)

I think Fleming (and the country) would be best served by paring him up with an intensely logical officer of the same rank. Gut-instinct is all well and good, and can make amazing leaps that following evidence can't, but when it misses you need someone to pick up the pieces and get things back on track.

Good update and I liked the details. :)


Aye, but a shootout amongst the piles would have been fun to write that I admit.

As for the pairing: That's what Leiter is for, he won't stay a mere Lieutenant forever. ;)