Subject: [FIREFALL] Operational Planning
To: Operation FIREFALL Mailing List (firefall@sovietairforce.fen)
From: General Fnord (fnord@sovietairforce.fen)
Date: November 22, 2016
If you're receiving this message, then you are officially part of the General Staff of Operation FIREFALL. Congratulations. Standard rules of warfare apply, so don't blab.
This message will serve as a beginning primer to the situation that's fallen into our lap, and (hopefully) will serve us in figuring a way out of it that doesn't involve too much mass slaughter. It would've been nice if Dr. Turtledove was available to aid us, but since he was downstairs at the time of the Event that avenue is closed to us. Hopefully the old USGov is putting him to good use on the Other Side. But I digress.
First up, here's a capsule look at the primary target and the country that came along for the ride:
The Confederate States of America, in the books, is a pretty nasty piece of work. According to their history, they won the Slaver's Rebellion in 1862, fought and then defeated the United States in a second war in 1882, and then fought & lost a third war in 1914-16 (this corresponds roughly to our First World War). Since then they've been planning their revenge, and (assuming the books are correct in the particulars) will throw the first punch on June 22, 1941. This gives us a maximum seven months before all hell breaks loose.
Confederate territory consists of largely the "classic" Confederacy from our Civil War, plus Cuba and (our world's) Mexican states of Sonora and Chihuahua. And before anybody argues, we -have- checked; those did appear to come along for the ride. A few chunks of Confederate territory were peeled off by this USA during the last war, and it looks like they're full of unrest.
Militarily, expect lots of tanks, infantry, artillery and piston-engine bombers. Turtledove wrote this CSA as a direct analogue to Hitler's Reich, so they're equipped with mostly the same level of forces as 1939 Germany with one major exception: chemical weapons. Unlike Hitler, nobody in the Confederate leadership has had a bad enough experience with poison gas to outlaw its use by their forces. CS, blister and probably some fairly primitive nerve agents will most likely be in use should things go pear-shaped on a major level. FIREFALL forces should be buttoned for NBC warfare -at all times- should this occur.
CSA forces are led by their President, one Jacob "Jake" Featherston. He's charismatic, filled with rage and racist as all fuck. What is -not- however, is stupid. The man clawed himself up from nothing to achieve the highest political office available to him, so even if you consider him a buffoon, he's very dangerous. His chief adviser, one Ferdinand Koenig, is Attorney General and the man in charge of exterminating the CSA's black population.
And yeah, they are doing their level best to exterminate African-Americans within Confederate borders. The situation hasn't accelerated to the worst point of the Shoah just yet, but the camps -are- largely built and they -are- operating. I intend these camps to be the first target of FIREFALL military operations. "Never again" isn't just a phrase folks, it's our watchword. Never. Again.
***
Now, the United States of America is a more complex mess.
This isn't the US that we all know and love, nor is it the same US that our parents or grandparents grew up in and fought for in the Second World War. It's a deeply fucked up country that was humiliated by their mortal enemies within living memory, and they've channeled that humiliation into a militaristic society for a longassed time. It's all very Prussian, in fact. That society's opened up some between the last time they fought a war, however; the Socialist Party (and I know some of you are grumbling, but once in power they're not even as socialist as the New Deal in many respects) has demilitarized in the interbellum period and focused on domestic issues.
Those "domestic issues" unfortunately include ongoing occupations in Utah and the Dominion of Canada. Thankfully the Canadian occupation zone didn't come along for the ride (We've heard reports of US tanks crossing the border and getting very confused, FWIW. So far nobody's been shot; let's hope that luck holds.) but the Utah one -did.- This is going to require finesse. In the event that the Event can't be reversed, there're some possibilities, but we'll burn that bridge when we get there. They also have a significant problem with casual bigotry - it is the '40s technically, but it gets a little deeper than that. Otherwise assume the usual 1940s prejudices apply.
US military forces are roughly equivalent to the pre-war British and/or Soviet forces - much the same as the CSA's but not as many or as advanced guns. They'll also have no real problems using chemical weapons if they think it'll give them an advantage. Most of their major strength will be tied down in Virginia along their version of a Magniot Line. Similar emplacements of lesser strength will be found along the Ohio River.
The current leader of the US is President Al Smith (S-NY), a man who had a counterpart in our history, so look him up on the Wiki backup. Turtledove wrote him largely as a Chamberlain-analogue, but as of right now he hasn't yet turned over the Sudetenland. We can work this to our advantage, since Chamberlain became a demon when he found out he'd been had.
***
This is my advised game plan:
1) MAKE CONTACT
We -need- to get proper intelligence on the target before we strike. Operating just from the books will get us in trouble, because we can't assume that everything in the books is 100% accurate. So we need to send delegations (presumably friendly) to both USA and CSA and test the weather. What's more, elements of the "old" US government and military need to meet with the transposed US government in order to figure out what the hell -that- relationship is going to be and how it'll work.
(I would also suggest sending a delegate to the Mormon leadership in Utah as well - keeping them from rising against the US will prevent a lot of difficulty in the event things are inevitable.)
Our delegations should be, if not large in size, at least flashy and impressive. The VVS will pull a Gagarin-class off rotation for this job (probably Laika), and I would suggest other FIREFALL members picked for delegate duty do something similarly impressive, if you've got something landing-capable. A Peacemaker with a couple of Blackbird escorts would be good, for example.
We can draw straws on who goes where, of course. My honest reccommendation is to send Benjamin and Gina as the head of the delegation to the CSA. Benjamin's a proud (to say nothing of vocal) Texan, which means he has a better chance of getting through to Featherston. If we're lucky, Benjamin will rattle Featherston's cage and put him off his game. If we're very lucky, he'll give us an iron-clad casus belli. If we're unlucky Featherston'll shoot him, but even there we're still a little lucky because Gina will rip Featherston to shreds with her bare hands, so it's a win/lose/kinda-win situation.
2) PICK OUR TARGETS
Here we have an advantage; the books give us a rough idea of what and when, and our satelite-based intelligence can give us where with accuracy undreamed of by Featherston's people. Since we have the ability to pick and choose, and don't necessarily have the forces to take them all on at the same time, let's use this option wisely. Locate all the juicy targets, and plan out hit-and-run attacks on all of them.
3) MAKE OUR CASE
With appropriate intelligence, this shouldn't be too hard. We need to convince the United Nations to back us up since they have the Superior Firepower we don't (not even the remnant US forces, since all their main supply depots are on the Other Side). Thankfully, a little photorecon work plus Jake Featherston opening his mouth on all channels should all we need to accomplish that. The Security Council won't sit still for Cracker-Hitler.
4) HIT 'EM HARD
Institute a series of lightning raids on Confederate territory. First stop the extermination camps; drop special forces, kill every Reb on the grounds and liberate the prisoners. Next target would be airstrikes on Confederate military targets up and down the USA/CSA border. After that, well, we'll have to see.
This plan is bare-bones, since our actions in the next handful of days will alter the steps to follow. However the aim of the plan and Operation FIREFALL remains unchanged: the elimination of the Confederate States of America as a threat to global peace and stability. Should the Event reverse itself, I would like to be able to send back a chunk of North America that's a little cleaner than the one we got.
--
Mal Fnord, speaking for the Central Committee
Soviet Air Force-In-Exile
OOC: So who's on the FIREFALL listserv?
Well, Chris, Ben and Mal are the Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin of this little shindig, so they're on the list. Military SMOFs from the major factions will be there too, including at least one Named Senshi from HM's Government. Stephen Caldwell and Tom Dodge, as the top US officers "in charge of weird shit" are on the list and part of the planning party. Buckaroo and Noah may or may not be, since Buckaroo's not a big fan of war and Noah's too busy trying to figure out where the missing chunks of continent went. Oh, and Haruhi's on the list too; she's the closest thing Fenspace has to Jake Featherston (Xenu help us all), which means she'll be the Voice of Fen much like she was in the later phase of OGJ.
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery
FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information
"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"
To: Operation FIREFALL Mailing List (firefall@sovietairforce.fen)
From: General Fnord (fnord@sovietairforce.fen)
Date: November 22, 2016
If you're receiving this message, then you are officially part of the General Staff of Operation FIREFALL. Congratulations. Standard rules of warfare apply, so don't blab.
This message will serve as a beginning primer to the situation that's fallen into our lap, and (hopefully) will serve us in figuring a way out of it that doesn't involve too much mass slaughter. It would've been nice if Dr. Turtledove was available to aid us, but since he was downstairs at the time of the Event that avenue is closed to us. Hopefully the old USGov is putting him to good use on the Other Side. But I digress.
First up, here's a capsule look at the primary target and the country that came along for the ride:
The Confederate States of America, in the books, is a pretty nasty piece of work. According to their history, they won the Slaver's Rebellion in 1862, fought and then defeated the United States in a second war in 1882, and then fought & lost a third war in 1914-16 (this corresponds roughly to our First World War). Since then they've been planning their revenge, and (assuming the books are correct in the particulars) will throw the first punch on June 22, 1941. This gives us a maximum seven months before all hell breaks loose.
Confederate territory consists of largely the "classic" Confederacy from our Civil War, plus Cuba and (our world's) Mexican states of Sonora and Chihuahua. And before anybody argues, we -have- checked; those did appear to come along for the ride. A few chunks of Confederate territory were peeled off by this USA during the last war, and it looks like they're full of unrest.
Militarily, expect lots of tanks, infantry, artillery and piston-engine bombers. Turtledove wrote this CSA as a direct analogue to Hitler's Reich, so they're equipped with mostly the same level of forces as 1939 Germany with one major exception: chemical weapons. Unlike Hitler, nobody in the Confederate leadership has had a bad enough experience with poison gas to outlaw its use by their forces. CS, blister and probably some fairly primitive nerve agents will most likely be in use should things go pear-shaped on a major level. FIREFALL forces should be buttoned for NBC warfare -at all times- should this occur.
CSA forces are led by their President, one Jacob "Jake" Featherston. He's charismatic, filled with rage and racist as all fuck. What is -not- however, is stupid. The man clawed himself up from nothing to achieve the highest political office available to him, so even if you consider him a buffoon, he's very dangerous. His chief adviser, one Ferdinand Koenig, is Attorney General and the man in charge of exterminating the CSA's black population.
And yeah, they are doing their level best to exterminate African-Americans within Confederate borders. The situation hasn't accelerated to the worst point of the Shoah just yet, but the camps -are- largely built and they -are- operating. I intend these camps to be the first target of FIREFALL military operations. "Never again" isn't just a phrase folks, it's our watchword. Never. Again.
***
Now, the United States of America is a more complex mess.
This isn't the US that we all know and love, nor is it the same US that our parents or grandparents grew up in and fought for in the Second World War. It's a deeply fucked up country that was humiliated by their mortal enemies within living memory, and they've channeled that humiliation into a militaristic society for a longassed time. It's all very Prussian, in fact. That society's opened up some between the last time they fought a war, however; the Socialist Party (and I know some of you are grumbling, but once in power they're not even as socialist as the New Deal in many respects) has demilitarized in the interbellum period and focused on domestic issues.
Those "domestic issues" unfortunately include ongoing occupations in Utah and the Dominion of Canada. Thankfully the Canadian occupation zone didn't come along for the ride (We've heard reports of US tanks crossing the border and getting very confused, FWIW. So far nobody's been shot; let's hope that luck holds.) but the Utah one -did.- This is going to require finesse. In the event that the Event can't be reversed, there're some possibilities, but we'll burn that bridge when we get there. They also have a significant problem with casual bigotry - it is the '40s technically, but it gets a little deeper than that. Otherwise assume the usual 1940s prejudices apply.
US military forces are roughly equivalent to the pre-war British and/or Soviet forces - much the same as the CSA's but not as many or as advanced guns. They'll also have no real problems using chemical weapons if they think it'll give them an advantage. Most of their major strength will be tied down in Virginia along their version of a Magniot Line. Similar emplacements of lesser strength will be found along the Ohio River.
The current leader of the US is President Al Smith (S-NY), a man who had a counterpart in our history, so look him up on the Wiki backup. Turtledove wrote him largely as a Chamberlain-analogue, but as of right now he hasn't yet turned over the Sudetenland. We can work this to our advantage, since Chamberlain became a demon when he found out he'd been had.
***
This is my advised game plan:
1) MAKE CONTACT
We -need- to get proper intelligence on the target before we strike. Operating just from the books will get us in trouble, because we can't assume that everything in the books is 100% accurate. So we need to send delegations (presumably friendly) to both USA and CSA and test the weather. What's more, elements of the "old" US government and military need to meet with the transposed US government in order to figure out what the hell -that- relationship is going to be and how it'll work.
(I would also suggest sending a delegate to the Mormon leadership in Utah as well - keeping them from rising against the US will prevent a lot of difficulty in the event things are inevitable.)
Our delegations should be, if not large in size, at least flashy and impressive. The VVS will pull a Gagarin-class off rotation for this job (probably Laika), and I would suggest other FIREFALL members picked for delegate duty do something similarly impressive, if you've got something landing-capable. A Peacemaker with a couple of Blackbird escorts would be good, for example.
We can draw straws on who goes where, of course. My honest reccommendation is to send Benjamin and Gina as the head of the delegation to the CSA. Benjamin's a proud (to say nothing of vocal) Texan, which means he has a better chance of getting through to Featherston. If we're lucky, Benjamin will rattle Featherston's cage and put him off his game. If we're very lucky, he'll give us an iron-clad casus belli. If we're unlucky Featherston'll shoot him, but even there we're still a little lucky because Gina will rip Featherston to shreds with her bare hands, so it's a win/lose/kinda-win situation.
2) PICK OUR TARGETS
Here we have an advantage; the books give us a rough idea of what and when, and our satelite-based intelligence can give us where with accuracy undreamed of by Featherston's people. Since we have the ability to pick and choose, and don't necessarily have the forces to take them all on at the same time, let's use this option wisely. Locate all the juicy targets, and plan out hit-and-run attacks on all of them.
3) MAKE OUR CASE
With appropriate intelligence, this shouldn't be too hard. We need to convince the United Nations to back us up since they have the Superior Firepower we don't (not even the remnant US forces, since all their main supply depots are on the Other Side). Thankfully, a little photorecon work plus Jake Featherston opening his mouth on all channels should all we need to accomplish that. The Security Council won't sit still for Cracker-Hitler.
4) HIT 'EM HARD
Institute a series of lightning raids on Confederate territory. First stop the extermination camps; drop special forces, kill every Reb on the grounds and liberate the prisoners. Next target would be airstrikes on Confederate military targets up and down the USA/CSA border. After that, well, we'll have to see.
This plan is bare-bones, since our actions in the next handful of days will alter the steps to follow. However the aim of the plan and Operation FIREFALL remains unchanged: the elimination of the Confederate States of America as a threat to global peace and stability. Should the Event reverse itself, I would like to be able to send back a chunk of North America that's a little cleaner than the one we got.
--
Mal Fnord, speaking for the Central Committee
Soviet Air Force-In-Exile
OOC: So who's on the FIREFALL listserv?
Well, Chris, Ben and Mal are the Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin of this little shindig, so they're on the list. Military SMOFs from the major factions will be there too, including at least one Named Senshi from HM's Government. Stephen Caldwell and Tom Dodge, as the top US officers "in charge of weird shit" are on the list and part of the planning party. Buckaroo and Noah may or may not be, since Buckaroo's not a big fan of war and Noah's too busy trying to figure out where the missing chunks of continent went. Oh, and Haruhi's on the list too; she's the closest thing Fenspace has to Jake Featherston (Xenu help us all), which means she'll be the Voice of Fen much like she was in the later phase of OGJ.
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery
FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information
"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"