The Great War

[Ricobirch]

Tarquinius: Thank you very much, although I wasn't aware I was nominated.

And for everybody else here is a little screenie to help you understand some things.



AS you can see this was taken from later on in the game, I've marked where all the major places in the story are.

I was able to modify the world map without too much trouble so that gives you a reasonable idea of the current situation at the outbreak of WW1

Color code is:
Blue: Americans
Grey: Indians
Brown: Russians
Pink: French
Yellow: Egyptians
Green: Persians
Orange: English

Hope this helps you understand the geogrophy better.

[civman2000]

Originally posted by Ricobirch
Tarquinius: Thank you very much, although I wasn't aware I was nominated.

You weren't, Tarquinius lied! But now you are...

[Ricobirch]

A million thatnks Civman, guess this means i should start writing chapter 6.

[Ricobirch]

Here is a quick update to hold you over

Chapter 6
“My job was to protect America’s security, not Egypt’s.”
-Excerpt from President Roosevelt’s memoirs


A Persian torpedo narrowly misses an American transport

November 15th, 1908
Grand River
Joe and Sam opened the door to their room in the Hotel Iroquois.
Sam’s jaw hit the floor “Wow, look at those beds, they actually have clean sheets on them. I haven’t slept on clean sheets since my last time here in Grand River.”
“Yep lucky you got me as a friend or you would be at the barracks with the rest of the men.” Joe walked over to the bed and picked up a newspaper. “Hello, what do we have here? Yesterday’s edition of “The Grand River Post”, good I’ve read nothing but “Stars and Stripes” for the past 6 months. It’ll be good to find out what’s actually going on in the world.”
“Hey Joe throw me the sports would ya?”
Joe flipped through the paper, found the sports section and threw it at Sam.
Sam quickly went to the baseball section, “Hey look at this, while we were at the front the Cubs won the series. Says here it might be the start of a dynasty.”
“Oh those sports writers don’t know what the hell they are talking about.”
“Well this guys pretty sure, I quote “This could be the start of one of baseballs greatest streaks.” He means it.
“Yea right and then a pitcher will hit 60 homers in a season, get real. You need to pay attention to the sections that matter like world news.”
“How are our allies doing?”
Joe shook his head, “Not very good Cairo fell 2 weeks ago, and the Egyptians are in full retreat. Problem is they don’t have much further to go, says here they got about 2 months before they are completely destroyed. The Persians are not accepting anything less the complete surrender. Although they did sign a treaty with the English giving them their entire East coast.”
“We can’t do anything about it?”
“You know full well that all the manpower we have is going toward holding off the English, Persians, and the Indians. Not to mention that our navy is not large enough to clear a path to the Egyptian continent. Not with those damn Persian subs all over the place.”
“Hope the news about the Russians is better.”
“Well says that their front has stabilized outside of Kiev. Guess the Indians see us as the greater threat. What else is in here, ooh the Indian navel raiding party south of here was wiped out by a destroyer squadron and the rail lines back home have been restored. A French invasion force was wiped out off the coast of China. There are reports of rioting in Indian controlled Japanese cities. Egyptians rebels severed several rail lines heading to New Karachi. WOW, president Roosevelt has told the press that the Indians have come forward with several peace offerings, and that negotiations might begin before the year is over.”
“You’re kidding me, we could be home by spring!”
“That’s what it says, man to think I might actually survive this. The thought never really occurred to me. But no need to get optimistic yet that can be a dangerous thing up at the front.”
“Maybe, for me it will make life a little bit easier knowing that it could end any day.”
“Well we can worry about that when we go back to the front. Until then let’s enjoy our leave. And that means we are going out drinking.” A large smile crept across Joe’s face. Lets see if my liver has recovered from my last leave.”
Joe and Sam walked out of the hotel room and headed off to the local bars. Apparently Joe’s liver hadn’t lost its tolerance cause they didn’t return until 5 pm the next day.
They were walking into the hotel when the evening paper was delivered. Joe walked up to the stack grabbed one, and tossed a nickel to the paperboy. He looked at the front page and stood there staring at the headline, speechless.
“Joe what the hell is it!” Yelled Sam.
“Look!” Joe turned the paper around so Sam could read the headline.
Egyptians, Russians Sign peace drop out of war!
Sam was speechless; several other people in the lobby had the same reaction.
Joe finally recovered and started to read the article out loud, “In separate ceremonies held this morning both the Egyptian and Russian governments signed peace treaties with the Persian and Indian governments. Details of the treaties are sketchy but rumors indicate that the Egyptians completely surrendered to Persian forces. They’re by effectively ending Egyptian sovereignty. The Russian-Indian treaty sets the new border as the current front line, with reparations to be paid by Russia. In a statement released from New York today, our governments response was, we are shocked by the Russian betrayal of our alliance. We were under the impression that we were in this together, but we were apparently wrong. We know that the Indians will not keep their word and now we are perfectly willing to let Moscow burn.”
Sam stood there shell shocked, “My god, we could be in some deep trouble Joe”
Joe was about to respond when a Captain ran into the hotel, “All leave is hereby canceled, report to the train station in 3 hours!”
Joe ran up to the captain, “Sir, we just got here after 6 months on the front lines how can they cancel our leave?”
The captain grabbed the paper from Joe’s hands, “This is how sergeant, now grab your pack and get you ass to the station!”
Joe motioned to Sam and they went to their room. Packing didn’t take long, and by midnight they were on a train bound for Cambridge.”

[civman2000]

great , but i can't see the pic

[Ricobirch]

Problem solved

edit: now it's not showing again, I'll just find a new pic.

[Tarquinius]

Sorry about the lie, (I must be getting old ) to make up for it I nominated you for the second contest

[Ricobirch]

Ok here we go again.

Chapter 7
“We, have been abandoned by our allies, and left to fight this crusade on our own. And we will bear this burden as we have bore countless others. With pride, honor, and dignity. For we are Americans, and to abandon our principles would be a worse crime then the treachery we just experienced.”
-The closing lines of President Roosevelt’s speech to congress the day after “The Great Betrayal”


English troops going "over the top" during the stalemate

December 20th, 1908
50 miles north of Cambridge
Sam sat in the trench shivering, the snow falling all around him. It was cold, the kind of cold that would make Eskimos wish for a vacation. He hugged his knees tighter, trying to keep in every ounce of heat. Winter had arrived with a vengeance a week earlier. It did have some advantages though; the Indians hadn’t launched an attack since the snow began to fall. And you no longer had to worry about the mud, it was frozen solid. The rats seemed to disappear too, and watching your spit freeze before it hit the ground provided hours of entertainment. But if you poked your head above the trench line it would still get blown off, so life was still miserable.
Joe came walking up carrying two cups he took a sip from one and grimaced, “Well this was hot coffee 2 minutes ago, now it’s only a few degrees from freezing.”
Sam grabbed one of the cups “Better then nothing at all.” He threw back the coffee like a shot of whiskey and grimaced himself, “Eh, my god that is the worst coffee I’ve ever tasted, what the hell did you do to it?”
“Well while I was preparing it my hands were shivering so much that I dropped the coffee grounds in some dirt. Rather then waste them I just scooped it all up and put it in the filter.”
Sam looked at Joe for a second, “Eh, there’s got to be some nutritional value in dirt right?”
“That’s what I figured, now what do we have in the way of food?”
“Well we got some beef jerky, topped with shredded beef jerky.”
“My kingdom for some fruit or vegetables.”
“Hey it could be worse, did you hear those gunshots followed by the horses screaming last night?”
“Yea thankfully we still got our supply line intact so we don’t have to eat our animals.”
Joe took a bite of his jerky, chewed hard and swallowed, “Speaking of luxuries from back home, look what I snagged from the last supply train.” Joe reached inside one of his pockets and pulled out a new pack of cigarettes. “Now all I need is a way of lighting one of these things. You got any matches?”
Sam swallowed his jerky and shook his head, “Nope sorry, not that they would be of any use in this wind.”
Joe looked around and his eyes centered on the machine gun they operated, “Bingo, watch this.” Joe went over to the gun and fired it until it overheated. He put the end of the cigarette on the hot barrel and inhaled. Sure enough, smoke emanated from Joe’s mouth. Joe sat back down with a smug look of satisfaction on his face.
Sam had a disapproving look on his face, “That is not an efficient use of government resources soldier.”
“What are you talking about, I saw something move out there.”
Both of the men laughed and finished their dinner.
Joe put out his cigarette and looked up to the sky, “I remember a time when I prayed for the snow to fall. I would wake up and dash to the window to see if the drifts were high enough to cancel school. My mom would come up behind me and lay her hand on my shoulder and say, “Sorry Joe, not high enough today go get ready.” I would whine and moan but it wouldn’t make a difference. But it didn’t matter how many times I was disappointed, every time it snowed I would run to the window my face filled with hope.” Joe looked back down to the ground, “And now I’m here in the trenches, where hope comes to die.”
Sam sat there mulling over what Joe had just said, “No you’re wrong, this is where hope flourishes. Whether it’s the hope of a cease-fire being signed tomorrow, or the hope of you getting shot in the ass and being sent home. In only a place like this can hope alone keep you going. It’s what makes you get up in the morning; it’s what keeps you from putting a bullet in your own head to end the nightmare. When everything else has been taken, there is always hope.”
Now it was Joe’s turn to mull over what Sam had said. He sat there contemplating for a while until he just slowly nodded.
Sam smiled. “Well I let you think about that one while I try and get some shut eye. Good night Joe.”
“Night Sam.”
And with that Sam crawled into one of the shelters and for the first time since he joined the army he fell asleep easily.

I know it's short that's why chapter 8 will be up later tonight. I was just writing and thought this would be a perfect place for a chapter break. Now enough wasting time, I've got writing to do.

[Ricobirch]

Ok as promised

Chapter 8
“They climbed tentatively out of their trenches, they were ready to jump back in at a seconds notice. But slowly the walked through the wire and met each other in the middle. There they talked, joked, and traded for the better part of a day, then when the sun set they went back to their own lines and resumed trying to kill each other.”
-A reporter’s description of the New Years Truce of 1909


American Aerial photos of the Indian trench lines

January 23rd, 1909
50 Miles North of Cambridge
Negotiations began in late December and ever since then the Indians had been attacking with everything they had, trying to get a better position at the bargaining table. There had been one or two breakthroughs but they were quickly contained and repulsed. Then last week the bombshell had been dropped; the Persians had agreed to a cease-fire. That pretty much signaled the end of any Indian or English attacks, since it would be utterly helpless without any artillery support. During this time the Americans had built up their strength and were ready to try to do a little negotiation by force of their own.
Sam walked out of the shelter and was welcomed by the smell of fresh coffee. Ever since new years new troops had been pouring in. And with them came fresh food, water, ammo, and clothing. Morale was at its highest point in years, there was a feeling that they would all be home by spring.
He found Joe scanning no-mans-land with the periscope. “What do you see out there Joe?”
“Nothing out of the ordinary.”
“Then why are you looking?”
“Just curious that’s all”
“No I know you, you are not the curious type.” Sam looked around and put two and two together. “So when do we go over the top?”
“Who says we are?”
“Oh please, we’ve been building up our men for almost a month. Not to mention we have been bombarding them a lot more then normal. I’m not an idiot, were going to attack, they just haven’t told us grunts when.”
Joe sighed and put down the periscope. He leaned in toward Sam and whispered, “I’m only telling you this because it will become public knowledge in less then a hour, today around noon.”
Sam stared into space for a minute, then said, “Well then looks like I’ve got some letters to write.”
“You go do that, but it might not be necessary.”
“What do you mean it won’t be necessary, just sticking your head above that line is suicide, let alone your entire body.”
“Well first off, since the Persians are gone they don’t have any machine guns over there, and second we’ve been told that we got one hell of a surprise for them.”
“Well what is it?”
“They wouldn’t say, they only told us to make sure we are in our shelters by 11:45.”
“I hope it’s not just artillery, that never softened us up very much.”
Joe shrugged, “Guess we’ll find out in about 2 hours. Now go write your letters while I tell the rest of the men.”
Sam went into one of the shelters while Joe went down the line informing the men. By 11:40 Sam had finished his writing and everyone was inside their shelter.
Joe looked at his watch, “5 minutes to spare, no need to risk it.”
Sam looked at Joe, “Yea why risk dying now instead of in 15 minutes?”
Joe shot Sam a glare when a he herd a slight rumble, “What is that, sounds like something big is coming this way. Like a plane but deeper.”
Sam listened carefully, “Na, it’s almost on top of us and it’s too quiet to be a plane, they don’t fly that high. Sounds like a several large trucks heading this way.”
Then another sound overtook the rumble; it was a high-pitched whine like an artillery shell descending. But there had been no explosion to announce its launch so that couldn’t be it.
The sound got louder and louder, then the earth seemed to explode. The shaking went on for several minutes then suddenly as it came it stopped.
Joe and the others carefully poked their heads out of the shelters; there was an amazing amount of dust in the air. So much that it looked like dusk instead of mid-day. The rumbling was retreating to the south. A captain ran up to Joe, “Get your men up to the line, we go in 2 minutes!”
Joe nodded and the captain ran off to inform everyone else. Joe turned to his men “You herd the man to your stations now!” Everyone went to the trench wall.
Joe looked through the periscope again. He saw nothing but smoke coming out of the Indian lines, and about a million new craters had just appeared. He put the periscope down and a look of complete astonishment was on his face.
“What is it Joe, what the **** just happened!” Sam asked
“All of their barbed wire is gone.”
Sam was about to answer when the whistle blew. The men climbed up out of the trench and braced themselves for the oncoming onslaught. But it didn’t come, they ran through the wire and out into open ground yet still no shots were fired. Joe was right all of the Indian barbed wire was blown to pieces, so the men arrived at the Indian trench unopposed. They stopped dead in their tracks and stared at what was before them.

[ElDiablo]

This is a GREAT story!

[civman2000]

bump

[Nikolai]

Hey! Pleaase don't stop now! We need more history! Didn't you know that history is my favourite genre?

Please?

[Ricobirch]

Sorry, real life has hit me hard this past week. I had 2 old firends fly in on Saturday. So most of my time has been spent with them. But don't you worry chapter 9 is going to be a doozy.

[Nikolai]

OK! Friends are important, we all know! Have fun and write when you have a chance!

[Ricobirch]

Hello agian readers!
I apologize about the long wait but I've had one hell of a case of writers block combined with a heavy dose of real life. But that has passed and I now give you Chapter 9 of "The Great War, Northen Front" Enjoy

Chapter 9
“The total cost of the war can of course never be ascertained, but here is a fact to think over. If the war never happed the total world population today, 20 years later would be almost 50% higher.”
-WWI a Retrospective


American Artillery in Action

January 23rd, 1909
50.25 Miles North of Cambridge
The men just stood there staring, not believing what they saw. The entire Indian defensive network was gone. The trenches themselves were now just a series of smoldering craters. Body parts of the defenders littered the landscape. Whatever had happened had wiped the defenders off of the map. Very few shelters survived and now the few survivors stumbled out of them. They just stood there looking around not reacting to the sound of the oncoming American troops. (It was later found out that they were infact deaf, the concussions had collapsed their eardrums). They finally spotted the Americans and threw their arms up in surrender.
“My god Joe what the hell happened here?”
Joe didn’t answer, he was in very deep thought trying to figure out what could do this. As he was thinking the order was given to advance deeper into Indian Territory. They got a mile and a half before they met any kind of opposition. In that mile and a half they collected 16 prisoners, none else was found alive.
The Americans took full advantage of the breakthrough; troops poured through the hole in the Indian lines. The second and third line forces could not take the pressure and they fell easily. They fought their way through a stunned rear support area and by nightfall the entire Indian army in the sector was either dead or captured. Nothing stood between the Americans and New Karachi.
That night Joe, and Sam were sitting around a campfire trying to figure out what happened.
“What in God’s name could have done that?”
“I don’t know Sam, in my ten years of armed service I have never seen anything like that. An entire square mile of land just flattened, nothing left. Whatever it was accomplished what we had been trying for a year in just 15 minutes.”
“It sounded like the biggest artillery barrage in history, but we didn’t hear the shells traveling overhead. We just heard that low drone, and then all hell broke loose.”
“It’s that drone that’s the key, Sam. It was like a group of large airplanes.”
“But you said it was too far off, they can’t fly that high.”
“Well can you think of anything else?”
“Maybe we snuck a hell of a lot of people over there and they planted tons of TNT?”
“Please Sam, if you believe that then I got some swamp land in Cedar Springs to sell you. No the only logical explanation is a new heavy type of plane that carries a modified artillery shell.”
“Well if that is the truth then this war is as good as over. The Indians can’t even shoot down our low flying fighters, how can they possibly combat this new weapon?”
Joe nodded, “Yep, but it won’t be won on the battlefield, this was a bargaining ploy. Now then Indians will be so scared that we can do this that they will sign the peace that we want. This war could be over very soon.”
“Watch out Joe I think I might have heard a little bit of hope in your voice there.”
Joe smiled, “Well a lot of things have changed in the last 12 hours. Maybe there is room for a little hope now.”

January 30th, 1909
2 miles south of New Karachi
The last week had been one of complete chaos, the Americans had rapidly moved north overtaking countless Indian artillery and support troops. Resistance was light; apparently the Indians had abandoned any hopes of stopping the Americans before New Karachi. They hastily set up defenses in the city and waited for the attack.
The negotiations had been making progress but stalled again over the issue of reparations. So the American high command thought that another show of force would finally convince the Indians to end this now pointless war.
Joe looked through his binoculars; the city lay in front of him. It was a small town but still large enough to present a hell of a lot of problems to anyone who tried to attack. He could see the Indians had already thrown up roadblocks at just about every intersection. Nothing a little well paced artillery couldn’t take care off though.
He put down the glasses and turned to Sam, “Well there it is, what we have been working toward for the past year. You’re looking at a city about to be pummeled into oblivion. If you ask me we shouldn’t even waste the ammo, the Indians are in bad shape. If we were to just sit here I’m positive that internal pressure would force them to sign that treaty by spring.”
“You’ll get no argument from me, unfortunately, things back home are not that great either. I’ve heard rumors about ration riots in several cities. Of course the high command violently dismisses these rumors.”
“Well you know the old saying, “The more a rumor is denied, the more likely it is to be true.”
Sam nodded, “That’s what I’m afraid of, the army might be so anxious to end this war they might do something stupid.”
“Like attacking a city that hadn’t been properly…”
Joe searched for the right word, “…um, prepared?”
“Exactly.”
The 2 men stared at the setting sun, contemplating the consequences of such an attack. Both were silent as the watched the sun slowly sink behind the city.
Immediately after the sun had disappeared, their deep thinking was interrupted by the sound of hundreds of artillery pieces opening fire. The ground rumbled as the shells traveled to their destinations.
The massive crashes subsided long enough for Joe to get in a sentence, “Well my good friend all we can do now is hope.”
Sam smiled.