Against all Odds: The British Empire in World War Two

[trekaddict]

El Pip Aye. The RN should do better methinks, as it has fewer, shorter shipping lines to protect than in OTL.

Lord Strange&El Pip2 Well, Belgium will definitely make an appearance once case yellow starts, I don't know in what way yet though.

 

[unmerged(85800)]

After many drunken conversations I have assembled a short list to answer this common pub quiz question;
Jean Marc Bosman, of Bosman transfer fame
Adolphe Sax, inventor of the saxophone
Hercules Poirot, possibly slightly fictional.
Tintin, see above.
Jean Claude van Dammn, sadly not fictional at all.

what about Dr Evil?

 

[trekaddict]

Chapter 72

September 24th, 1939

Northern Commonwealth of West Virginia, UAPR

The small village was nestled in the northern part of the Shenadoa Valley, just beyond the border to the Republic of Roanoke, formerly Virginia. It was relatively far from the centres of Power in Washington and Chicago, and the people living there liked to be left alone, just as they always had been, even before the Revolutionary War. The only indication that something had changed from before was that instead of the the Stars and Stripes the flags hanging from the lamp-posts and houses displayed the Hammer and Spade of the UAPR. The man walking along the narrow, unpaved side road that intersected with the paved main road up ahead did not care much for the village, he was only here to do his job. As a member of the 2. Directorate of the American Peoples Security Service his job was foreign Intelligence, but the mission he was tasked with right now was of an entirely different nature. He had been called to meet someone here, near a small shack where the Communist Party handed out newspapers and Propaganda leaflets of all sorts. He already knew the headlines by heart, but it was a part of his cover to get a newspaper, sit down close by on one of the many benches that had been erected for this very purpose and to wait for his contact. The newspaper he received in exchange for showing his ID-Card concentrated it's front page to the recent Party Council in Chicago and the war in Europe. The lead article decried the Soviet betrayal of Communism and the entry into the Axis of Evil, and said that the Imperialist Powers of western Europe were letting the Fascists win in order to use them to counter-weigh the Japanese in Asia, and as proof it saw the fact that the Chinese, in a last act of defiance against Japan, had given the British Hong-Kong as a gift, rendering the lease treaty void.

“Excuse me, Comrade, is this seat taken?” It was the proper code word, but much to the agent's surprise a distinctively female voice had spoken them. He automatically replied with his pre-arranged response. He looked the woman, and determined that she was a stunningly beautiful brunette. The only thing that marred her appearance was the scar on her left cheek and the ice-cold, utterly lifeless eyes. “We better get somewhere where we can talk.” she said, and promptly stalked off, the agent walking by her side, feeling like a schoolboy that follows the teacher to the headmaster. They followed the road back the way he had come earlier, and did not stop until they reached what had once been some sort of restaurant, but what was now boarded up. The woman moved some bushes that revealed a door that seemed to be in perfect condition. “In there.” she bellowed, and he gladly followed her in. The door led to a dark corridor of some kind, and judging by the rotting tiles on the walls this had once been the delivery entrance. The woman was nowhere to be seen, but ahead he could see a glimmer of light coming from beneath a door. He walked up and opened it. The room had once been the main dining area, and in the far corners of the room, where only meagre hints of the day outside could be seen through the creeks in the wall and the wood on the windows he could see the chairs and desks in haphazard piles. He stepped over the threshold, and the next thing he knew he was slammed into the wall, with the woman holding a most deadly looking knife to his throat. “Now listen here, prettyboy. Who do you work for?” When he tried to scramble together some words the knife on his throat moved an inch upwards and she said: “I am not renown for my patience, Comrade.” He tried to find words, and the fear for his alive finally enabled him to form a coherent sentence. “Th..the second Directorate. I was told to come here and meet someone..” Much to his relief the knife disappeared and the woman sat down on a chair. “Let's talk.” He pulled up another chair and sat down, all the while holding his throat in a futile effort to forget the feeling of cold steel that he hated, despite, or actually because of his long years of experience. “Call me Marcus. As you know I am working for the second Directorate, and by the look of it you are the first Directorate Agent in this area. In case no one has told you there is a group of armed Rebels in these mountains, and we are here find and smash them.” She nodded thoughtfully. “I am Caroline and indeed the senior operative here. Now, there is indeed a group of such people here, but if you think that we two can do anything about them you are gravely mistaken, Comrade.” Marcus answered with a cold smile: “Just get me close. I may not seem like much, but rest assured I know my way around a gun, and anyway, by now the Feds should be a disorganized rabble.” Caroline stood up and came close. She pointed at the scar and said with a disturbingly calm voice: “Rabble, eh? Then why are the damn Feds still around after so many years? I can take you where I last spotted their trail in a few hours.”

A few hours later the two were walking through the thicket behind the village, both armed with a Rifle and sidearm. Marcus knew that this area had been heavily fought over just like during the first Civil War, and here and there you could still see the remnants of the battles that had been fought in the valley. The small path had been one of the supply routes for the Federal forces in the area and the littered left-overs of war paid testament to this. When they reached the wreckage of a downed P-36 Interceptor she stopped and turned around. “Here is when I last saw a trace of the group after they tried to set fire to the party office in town.” She paused briefly before asking: “Tell me, Marcus, why don't you enlist the local Army units if you want to destroy them so badly?” Marcus grumbled something that sounded like 'need to know' in response and started to retrieve a box from his back pack. While Caroline secured the area he attached a scope to his Springfield. “Lead on then.” They left the path and re-entered the thicket. Much to Caroline's surprise Marcus seemed to know what he was doing, considering the way he carried his rifle and moved almost without making a sound. It could clearly be seen that he had seen combat before, and she wondered where it had been, because he had a predatory look on his face that she knew was mirrored on her own. It seemed that he hated the Federals just as much as she did, and that he too had a part in his history that he didn't really talk about. It pained her that after all these years there were still those who hung onto the corrupt ideals of the old United States, and every year on May 1st and July 4th party offices, news stands and high officials almost everywhere in the Union where under threat from these groups. The People's Army and the Security Services always tried to put an end to these attacks but to no avail, and for some reason they were unable to cope with this low-grade insurgency. Official policy was that the groups would eventually burn themselves out, so for the last year or so all active attempts to hunt them down had ceased, or at least that was what Caroline had thought, despite her orders to monitor all the activities in this area. Luckily for her this district was not a no-go area like so many places in the Rocky Mountains or the Appalachians, but the people here were always armed, despite the recent gun regulations coming from the de-facto Capital Chicago.

This way the two quietly moved through the bushes of West Virginia for almost three hours, always following the faint trail on the ground. By now the sky had cleared, and the wonderful autumn this region always enjoyed came to full fruition. Suddenly Marcus stopped and Caroline did the same. Up ahead a man wearing the tattered remnants of a U.S. Army Combat uniform and a battered Tommie helmet was obviously on guard duty for something. Marcus inched closer, attempting to catch the guard from behind. He stood up behind him, grasped his head and twisted the man's neck sharply, producing an audible snapping of bones. He moved the body off from the path so that it could not be seen by a casual observer and silently moved forward, with Caroline close behind. They followed the path, encountering no more guards until they reached a small depression, completely devoid of trees, bordered on one side by a steep cliff that ran about thirty yards upwards. The clearing was filled with men milling about, and the two agents could see that much of their supplies and weapons had to be in the cave that could be seen on the bottom of the cliff. “There they are!” Caroline whispered. Marcus, who hadn't said a word since they passed the plane only grabbed the rifle from his back and sighted it carefully, the barrel pointing down at the rebels. “Wha..” Caroline was baffled. “What are you doing?” “Watch my back.” was his answer. Before she turned back she could see why Marcus was here. No. It couldn't be. He had last been seen when the Federals retreated from New York.

[Game Notes: I hope you forgive the pun, but I couldn't resist. This chapter is an experiment of sorts, I am not quite sure yet where this will go. Hope you liked it anyway. Part 2 of this up soon. I want to use these chapters to flesh out the early thirties in North America some more, to give the UAPR a more 'Soviet' feel so to speak, to make both you and myself see it a bit more like the OTL Soviet Union. True, my views of it are tainted by the Iron Curtain and me being born in mid-80s West Germany, but this is my timeline after all.]

 

[Raaritsgozilla]

Noes! Not the president?! Maybes...
Is this a game you have modded yourself? Cause it seems very very fun!

 

[humancalculator]

I'll vote Barack Obama was born early. :rofl:

 

[trekaddict]

Raaritsgozilla No, the last sitting President is dead, and the VP is in Canada. I modded several things, but lost some when I migrated the AAR to a new comp, but luckily I already finished the game.

humancalculator Nope, it's not him.

 

[unmerged(85800)]

its someone like Macarthur or Marshall, i think. and... i seem to have missed the pun. though i thoroughly enjoyed reading that.

 

[trekaddict]

its someone like Macarthur or Marshall, i think. and... i seem to have missed the pun. though i thoroughly enjoyed reading that.

The whole Axis of Evil thing...

 

[humancalculator]

humancalculator Nope, it's not him.

hhmmmmmm...........Hillary Clinton in male form? o

 

[unmerged(85800)]

The whole Axis of Evil thing...

ah yes, i'd forgotten you mentioned that

 

[unmerged(110969)]

Yet again Trekaddict another marvolous update! Though I wonder if a Socialist America would have states?

 

[trekaddict]

Yet again Trekaddict another marvolous update! Though I wonder if a Socialist America would have states?

Well thank you.


Socialist America does indeed have states of a sort, because officially the country is, much like the Soviet Union, a Union. The full name is Union of American People's Republics for a reason.

 

[trekaddict]

I got my hands on a working copy of Call of Duty 2. Hooray! *dances happily and turns up subwoofer for artillery mission*

 

[Raaritsgozilla]

I got my hands on a working copy of Call of Duty 2. Hooray! *dances happily and turns up subwoofer for artillery mission*

Ive been looking for one of those for ages! Unfortunately over here they sell for around 60-70 bucks even on the online auction. It sucks, cause I sold a copy I once had for abour 20 cause my computer at the time couldnt run it.
I want any COD to play!

 

[trekaddict]

Ive been looking for one of those for ages! Unfortunately over here they sell for around 60-70 bucks even on the online auction. It sucks, cause I sold a copy I once had for abour 20 cause my computer at the time couldnt run it.
I want any COD to play!

I got mine through...alternative sources so to speak, but if you are looking for something, I saw CoD1 plus the add-on for 10 Euros recently, so it shouldn't be too expensive in Kiwi-land.

 

[Raaritsgozilla]

Bah, COD + United Offensive = 50 dollars NZ. Its insane. Alternative you say? That could indeed be the answer

 

[trekaddict]

Bah, COD + United Offensive = 50 dollars NZ. Its insane. Alternative you say? That could indeed be the answer

50 $NZ?

Edit1: I consider CoD2 to be the best of the series, so you probably should invest the money at some point.

Edit2: Wow, more than 30k views!

 

[unmerged(85800)]

why's it worth so much? i've still got my copy, just nothing to play it on. it is by far the best one.

 

[El Pip]

Mystery target, not the President or VP (it would help if I could remember who either of those chaps were in this AAR o )

Patton? Don't know why, mainly he just seems the kind of chap to lead a desperate and tenacious resistance.

 

[trekaddict]

Mystery target, not the President or VP (it would help if I could remember who either of those chaps were in this AAR o )

Patton? Don't know why, mainly he just seems the kind of chap to lead a desperate and tenacious resistance.

Both are relatively unimportant. The last president, Hoovers 1932 running mate is dead, and the VP is in Canda, and we will hear from him soon. The target isn't Patton, but mainly because I don't like him much.