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Raaritsgozilla - Huzzah! I sprung another surprise, I might be getting the hang of this twists and turns thing. :)

Bafflegab - Close but no cigar, the tape is the very old school big separate reel variety. Which had been around since the mid 1930s in one form or another. (Yes I was sad enough to check that prior to picking the type of tape)

Thus the lower limit is 1940 while the upper one is 1972 when Hérain died. Hope that helps! ;)

Enewald - You are the last person who can complain about brief posts! :p
 
Bafflegab - Close but no cigar, the tape is the very old school big separate reel variety. Which had been around since the mid 1930s in one form or another. (Yes I was sad enough to check that prior to picking the type of tape)

Thus the lower limit is 1940 while the upper one is 1972 when Hérain died. Hope that helps! ;)

Blast! Foiled again! Wait 'til my trenchcoat analysis unveils the entire works!!!

With respect to sadness, I can't claim to be any better as I will not claim to have an ever-poresent knowledge of the development of the cassette from it's inception... Yes, I too went a-lookin' for some meager clue that would shed some light on our story before you'd had a chance to tell it. (Although, truth be told, I hoped to be wrong as I'd rather hear it from you in the first place.) Now that probably trumps your sadness...
 
well no-one wore trench coats past the 70's, unless its really cold which it shouldn't be inside a room, so i'd guessed the upper boundary. i loved that last twist so much though, 100% not predictable, at least for me
 
The Swords? DCRG? La Cagoule? I'm officially mystified--which is what you want in a good thriller--and eagerly awaiting developments. :D
 
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are we allowed to guess on here if we have ideas, or would you prefer PM guessing? (or not at all since my guess is pretty random?)
 
Bafflegab - To be honest I found it very cheering that someone was enjoying this enough to do such research. :)

DonnieBaseball - Well two of those groups existed in different forms in OTL while the other is purely my imagination. Hopefully that merely adds to the mystery rather than ruining it. ;)

BritishImperial - PM is probably best, as I'm managing to keep people surprised (with a few exceptions ;) ) best not to ruin it. If the guess is wrong I'll post it in the thread hows that? :D
 
Part XVIII
Part XVIII

The words on the tape flowed past the trenchcoat as he laid back, eyes closed, barely listening to the voice as his brain worked on the problem of finding Montbel. While the story of Reynaurd's cynical abuse of the memory of Petain would have doubtless interested historians, and indeed the general public, it was of no use for a man hunt. As Montbel recounted the story of the famous "Fight on for Petain, Fight on for France!" speech and the applause of the hoodwinked deputies the trenchcoat would have looked asleep to the casual observer.

However when the narrative moved onto the Battle of Paris his eyes snapped open and he sat forward, intently listening for a clue to a favourite location in the capital, a possible bolt hole for his quarry. As he concentrated Montbel continued.

"If I were conventional I suppose I would say the defining moment was the destruction of the Arc de Triomphe, the German's artillery breaking it's back and the entire edifice collapsing into rubble. But I must be honest,I was in the Ministry's basement at the time of that collapse, sorting out paperwork and art for evacuation as the government fled the capital. In a perverse way I suppose that makes me somewhat unique, the only man in Paris who wasn't watching at just the right moment to have seen the Arc's collapse!" A dry, almost humourless laugh.

"So if not the breaking of the Arc then what? An event I did see, and one which for me sums up France's entire war; the collapse of the Eiffel Tower. I was in a convoy heading for the main station when out of nowhere a Stuka appeared and seemed to head straight for us. I must confess I felt close to panic, I hadn't even wanted to be in the convoy and now I was going to be bombed. Fortunately for us as he approached he flew into a wall of flak from the guns on the Champ de Mars and how we cheered as the gunners struck home, the German plane flipping over into a death dive." A sad pause then Montbel slowly continued.

"Our cheers froze in our throats as we watched the dying Stuka descend, heading closer and closer to the Eiffel Tower before, with a grim inevitably, crashing in a giant fireball at the base. The tower shuddered, swayed then elegantly collapsed onto the Champ de Mars, taking the flack gunners with it. If that doesn't sum up France's war what does?"
 
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I have already demolished Notre Dame and the Invalides in another AAR, but there are plenty of buildings to choose...:p
 
Excellent! As the landmarks tumble, the joy increases! What is next, Sacre Couer? Versailles? My guess would be the Louvre if he's off to wisk the artwork out from Hitler's closing grasp... :D

Be more creative, people. Landmarks can be destroyed but they can be rebuilt, so...

I have already demolished Notre Dame and the Invalides in another AAR, but there are plenty of buildings to choose...:p

Kurt, what you've got is nothing compared to what I have in plan. :p

Woah, something epic!
French military surely knows how to win a war. :cool:

To be honest not epic enough in my view, haha. Yes, El Pip, I'm making a honest comment while at the same time trying to annoy you. :D

Geez Pip, no sacred cows in your AARs--first you kill Ghandi, now you wipe out the big Paris monuments--whatever next? ;-)

Well, it better be big, bc it sure ain't big enough now. :p

Answers to possible questions: No, I'm not intimidated by your writing (hopefully not yet). And yes, I do like to annoy people for my own entertainment. :p
 
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Well, you have effectively sneezed in our general direction, so apparently some people validate some stereotypes...

I don't sneeze in people's general direction, I fart. :p (hopefully you know where this comes from)
 
Bafflegab - I suspected this update would be popular. :)

Kurt_Steiner - Indeed, where do you think I got the idea from?

This was going to be a completely different update when I first planned it, but then I was inspired by Archie's heroics :D

Enewald - Wars not over yet, plenty of time for you beloved fascist to get the righteous kicking they deserve.

DonnieBaseball - I was thinking of doing a 1944 start gameplay AAR where the player doesn't win. :eek: But then I realised such heresy may well get me banned.
 
Enewald - Wars not over yet, plenty of time for you beloved fascist to get the righteous kicking they deserve.

after punching comes kicking, when will you know the art of stabbing? :D

DonnieBaseball - I was thinking of doing a 1944 start gameplay AAR where the player doesn't win. :eek: But then I realised such heresy may well get me banned.

the player is always unbeatable by the ai in hoi2, unless you suck. You still suck even if you lose intentionally. :p
 
Damnit, you're El Pip, not Micheal Bay! Stop destroying French monuments. What's next? Giant robots with steel wrecking testicles urinating on people and spewing ghetto slang?
 
I want to see the destruction of more famous things!!!!

And Transformers was cool :D
 
C&D - I'm actually slightly offended, I think this has far more plot than anything Mr Bay has ever done. ;)

Just because something features gratutious destruction doesn't mean it can't be relevant to the plot....

Raaritsgozilla - Who doesn't like seeing destruction? I can promise some more focused explosions, destruction with a purpose. :D
 
I want to see the destruction of more famous things!!!!

And Transformers was cool :D

Transformers are cool, but not cool enough. Skip to around 3:30 if you like. :D

C&D - I'm actually slightly offended, I think this has far more plot than anything Mr Bay has ever done. ;)

I agree, and congrats on that. :)

Just because something features gratutious destruction doesn't mean it can't be relevant to the plot....

I agree more than I agree above.

Raaritsgozilla - Who doesn't like seeing destruction? I can promise some more focused explosions, destruction with a purpose. :D

Yes, who doesn't like seeing destruction? However, the scale of your destruction is still a bit disappointing. I shall admit that I'm more critical than usual in this AAR about your writing since you're writing a French AAR after all. :p