Timeline-191

Timeline-191 is a fan name given to a series of Harry Turtledove alternate history novels.

Settling Accounts

• The Settling Accounts Tetralogy
• Return Engagement (2004)
• Drive to the East (2005)
• The Grapple (due for 2006)
• In at the Death (due for 2007)

1941-1942: From Columbus to Kiev

At 3:30 am on June 22, 1941, the North American war kicked off with massive bombing raids on Philadelphia and military installations all over Ohio. In an immediate joint session of Congress, President Smith called for - and received - a unanimous declaration of war against the Confederate States. Soon afterwards Churchill and the rest of the Entente announced hostilities against the USA.

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Philadelphia had expected Featherston to strike in the east as the CS Army had done in the last war. Though Brig. General Abner Dowling and Colonel Irving Morrell knew better and had prepared for the coming strike as best they could, US forces in Ohio simply did not have the equipment or manpower that were needed to halt the Confederate army under George Patton. Within two months Sandusky on Lake Erie fell to CS soldiers, preventing raw materials in the west from reaching the factories of the east (See Operation Blackbeard for a detailed description of the campaign). Just before Sandusky fell, radical Mormons armed with Confederate weapons began a new drive for independence in Utah, capturing the settlement belt from Ogden in the north to Provo in the south (see Utah Troubles).

Related Topics:
Abner Dowling - Irving Morrell - George Patton - Sandusky - Lake Erie - Operation Blackbeard - Utah Troubles

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At sea the US fared little better although neither side won control of the sea lanes. In July the Royal Navy lured the carriers USS Remembrance and Sandwich Islands away from Bermuda. The island, a strategically valuable submarine and air base, fell to a joint Anglo-CS task force as a result. The Bahamas soon followed, the US Marines fighting island by island before surrendering. Stalemate characterised the war in the Pacific, until December 1941. At the Battle of Midway the Remembrance, sent around the Horn earlier that year, was sunk and the island itself taken. Although Japan also lost a carrier and had another one damaged, the US Pacific Fleet was left devoid of carriers and reliant upon land-based air cover.

Related Topics:
USS Remembrance - Battle of Midway

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The war in Europe spawned less triumph for the Entente. In the Ukraine, the local soldiers and population welcomed the arriving Russians as liberators, ensuring that most of the German satellite was lost. But elsewhere the manpower-swarming tactics of the Russians, unchanged from the last war, ensured that they suffered heavy losses for small gains. The Kaiser's army, particularly its panzers and 88 mm gun flak cannons, proved instrumental in preventing the loss of East Prussia and Poland.

Related Topics:
Panzer - 88 mm gun

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In the West the French Army swiftly recaptured Alsace-Lorraine and stood on the Rhine. Ireland was overrun by the British, while the Anglo-French thrust through the Low Countries succeeded beyond anyone's expectations. The Belgians welcomed the Entente as liberators. The Dutch, though more pro-German, were brushed aside, and some of the North German Plain was overrun.

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Yet victory did not follow. The British end-run through Norway, made for unclear reasons (Swedish iron-ore through Narvik? Naval bases? Both?) failed spectacularly. Churchill's bright idea did nothing more than drive the furious Norwegians into the Central Powers' camp. France proved unable to cross the Rhine and the Germans on that front soon rallied. Austria-Hungary, despite its clear weakness, remained united, and though Bulgaria wavered as a German ally she never abandoned Berlin entirely. Only the Low Countries campaign still showed promise by the end of 1941, but Hamburg still remained unconquered. By February 1942 the German Army felt confident enough to launch counter-offensives against the British outside Hamburg and the Russians in the Ukraine.

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In North America the post-Blackbeard season proved uninspiring for both sides. Shortly after Sandusky fell, Jake Featherston declared that he would make peace with the US if his 'reasonable' demands were met. All the 'unredeemed territory' was to be handed back, the post-WWI reparations that had destroyed the CS economy were to be repaid and the Northern (but not Southern) side of the border was to be demilitarized. Smith replied that night with the heaviest air raid on Richmond yet, before announcing on the wireless "I have not yet begun to fight!".

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Yet despite his bravado, the situation for the US seemed bleak into February 1942. The counter-attack in northern Virginia under Daniel MacArthur soon bogged down. With too many men sandwiched between the Appalachians and the Atlantic, the US Army crossed the Rappahannock River but were held at the Rapidan line. A subsequent Confederate counter-attack under Patton failed to dislodge the Americans, and both sides settled in for the winter. Featherston realised that another knock-out blow was needed, and began planning for a drive eastwards for the spring of 1942. Ohio remained quiet, with nothing more than local offensives. The revolt in Utah showed no signs of ending; by Christmas American forces were stalled within Provo.

Related Topics:
Daniel MacArthur - Provo

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Neither side achieved a decisive advantage in the air war. Characterized by Clarence Potter as a "duel with machine guns at a pace and a half", both air forces soon resorted to night attacks only on the east coast, as flak and fighters made daylight raids too costly. Farther west, daytime raids still went on. On a tactical level, dive bombers proved damned effective at hitting ground targets and hideously vulnerable to fighters and flak; Confederate 'Asskickers' suffered enormously from both. Neither American Wright-27's nor Confederate 'Hound Dog' fighters had any great advantage over the other.

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It was during this time that the 'population reductions' in the South began in earnest. Any black man whose passbook was out of order was immediately arrested and shipped out to a camp; in the cities Negroes were used as war plant labor while suffering reprisals for black car bombs and other terrorist acts. In the Lousisiana camps the slaughter had begun with submachine guns, a method that proved inefficient. The camps simmered at the edge of rebellion, while most guards couldn't stomach the job and some committed suicide. Soon gas was found to be easier, both for the guards' minds and for order in camps. Sealed trucks were ostensibly used to transfer blacks between camps; in practice the fumes would leave them dead and ready for disposal in mass graves.

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Despite the Freedom Party's best efforts, news of the killings reached Philadelphia. Congresswoman Flora Blackford announced to the world Confederate crimes...only to receive scathing comparisons with Utah from the Entente and sympathetic but indifferent reactions from US citizens.

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In February 1942, Confederate bombers, bombarding Philadelphia since the war's beginning, managed to hit the Powell House. Al Smith at the time was in the building and was killed. His vice president Charles La Follette was sworn in as president. La Follette vowed to continue the war and win it for the United States.

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1942: Under the Heel

The American determination to keep fighting after the Ohio campaign ended with the United States cut in two was a major setback to Confederate plans which had counted on a short war and quick victory. The Confederates decide to concentrate troops in Ohio for an attack into western Pennsylvania to capture Pittsburgh, a major industrial center for the United States. To find these troops, the CSA is forced to pull troops off of other fronts and to bring in under-equipped allied forces from the Empire of Mexico.

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The campaign succeeds in reaching Pittsburgh but is unable to fully occupy the city. General Forrest, the head of the Confederate military, advises that the fighting in Pittsburgh has achieved its strategic aim of destroying the city's industrial capacity and recommends pulling the Confederate troops out. President Featherston refuses to allow any withdrawal. American forces under General Morrell attack and surround Pittsburgh. Featherston refuses to allow the encircled forces to attempt a breakout and eventually they are forced to surrender. As a result of this defeat, General Forrest begins to discuss with Clarence Potter the possibility of overthrowing Featherston.

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In other plotlines, Flora Blackford becomes more hawkish on the war, opposing the administration's attempt to negotiate a settlement in Utah. She finds herself frequently agreeing with Robert Taft, the Democratic Senator from Ohio.

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The Utah uprising continues. When it becomes clear to the Mormons that they cannot achieve a military victory, they begin a series of suicide bombings throughout the United States - first with car bombs and then with humans strapped with explosives. Blacks in the CSA soon begin imitating these attacks.

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The extermination campaign against the CSA's black population continues and is expanded with Jefferson Pinkard remaining a pivotal figure. However the Confederates worry when a diversionary attack launched at the same time as the Pittsburgh campaign and led by General Dowling, threatens to capture the main extermination camp in Texas and expose its operations to the world.

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There are no dramatic actions in the naval war. The Americans beat off a Japanese attack against the Sandwich Islands and achieve an advantage in the Pacific. In the Atlantic, the main activity is preventing British convoys from bringing supplies to the Canadian underground.

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Both the United States and the Confederacy, along with other countries, have initiated programs to develop atomic weapons. While no power has developed a weapon yet, it appears that the American and German programs are ahead of the Confederate one. The British and the French are also rumored to be working on atomic weapons.

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