American History 105-The Great War

[Ricobirch]

Hello again, as you might remember a while ago I started a story called "The Great War- English Front". Well I've decided to tell this story in a diffrent format. The format of a college history class. I think this should be a nice change of pace from the usual first person formats.

So shut up and pay attention school is now in session!

American History 105-The Great War

The Phony Peace

It’s a cold October morning at Apolyton University. The students slowly fill the auditorium mumbling about the cold. As they shed their coats they go through the usual routine of asking god why they signed up for a class at 8:30 in the morning.

The chatter abruptly ends as the professor Brooks walks into the classroom. He is slightly chubby, in his late 20’s and wearing a backwards Denver Broncos cap. In his hands he carries a large stack of papers, a notebook, and a mug of coffee. He sets the papers on his desk and takes a sip from his coffee mug, “Welcome back everyone, I hope you all enjoyed your fall break. But now it’s time to get back into the swing of things.”

The students mumble in passive agreement as they take out their notebooks and flip to the first empty page.

“Ok we left off with the signing of the treaty of New York ending the war between America and India. If you by chance would like to know more about this theater of the Great War I recommend reading this book: The Great War - Northern Front. An excellent novel that examines the causes of the war along with a detailed recounting of the tactics used by both sides.”

“Although America was still technically at war with the Union of English Socialist States, and the French Kingdom, the treaty ended all fighting in the Eastern Hemisphere. With the Indians defeated and the Persians content with their new Egyptian lands the world seemed to be on the way to an era of peace and prosperity. Indeed most of the nation thought that peace with the English and French was a forgone conclusion. This notion was soon proved wrong when dispatch after dispatch to London and Paris went unanswered. As the summer of 1909 started the nation feared that this silence could only mean one thing; that an invasion was inevitable. The Navy agreed and transferred most of its forces to ocean patrol duty. This “Wall of Steel” as it was called provided an effective shield and did intercept a few English probes, and French raids. But the expected full scale invasion never materialized.”

Professor Brooks paused to let the students catch up with their notes.

“By Christmas word started to leak out of France that a massive civil war was ravaging the country. They would not be able to pose a treat for a long time. So with France effectively out of the picture all eyes gazed across the Pacific to England.”
“By spring 1910 President Roosevelt decided that nothing was going to happen anytime soon, and ordered the de-mobilization of most of the Army. This was a welcome move as most soldiers were getting bored guarding the new Indian border. And when you have a large number of heavily armed, battle hardened 20 something’s sitting around with nothing to do, bad things tend to happen.”

“Not all of the Army went back to civilian life however. President Roosevelt considered it wise to have a considerably large reserve force to call on just in case the English got, as he put it “frisky”. He also allocated more money to the Navy not wanting America to be caught with its pants down. These decisions were to prove vital to the conclusion of the war.”

“Ok that’s it for today everyone, get out of here and go back to sleep. Oh, and I have you midterms graded, don’t forget to pick them up on your way out.”

[dnassman]

I like this style. Always enjoy history stories at school. Keep this going.

[ChrisiusMaximus]

This a very clever concept,and a very good start.

[Ricobirch]

Thank you all. I wish I could claim credit for thinking of this idea but the truth is I'm blatantly stealing it from an AAR on the Europa Universalis II boards.

The Brilliant History of Ireland Series by Deaghaidh

Next class will be coming soon, so catch up on your reading.

[Ricobirch]

Bulls on Parade

The students stumble into the classroom, most of them barely conscious. Professor Brooks comes in and drains the last drops of coffee from his mug. He leans on his desk and proceeds to rub his eyes, “I see I’m not the only one who stayed up last night and watched all 14 innings of the World Series.”

The class mumble a chorus of agreement, as notebooks are flipped open.

“Well let’s get this over with so we can all get back to bed. The summer of 1910 was a quiet and peaceful one. Americans were feeling secure behind their “Wall of Steel”. The economy was booming as several new industries including civilian aviation were born. The new production of navel vessels kept the steel mills, coal, and iron mines humming. Several large oil deposits were found outside of Cambridge. People slowly forgot that technically their nation was at war.

But the government did not; more money was poured into military research. This effort bore results quickly; radio was commonplace in 1912, surprisingly advanced tanks designs entered service in as early as 1915, and construction on the aircraft carrier Enterprise started in 1917.”

A student raised his hand, after being recognized by Professor Brooks he asks, “Isn’t it true that not all those advances came domestically?”

“Ah a perceptive question, that’s a nice change of pace from what I’ve come to expect from you Mr. Schwartz. There may be hope for you yet.”

The class chuckled at the insult as Jason replied, “Glad to surprise you, but you haven’t answered my question.”

“Well Mr. Schwartz you are correct. With the flurry of peace treaties that marked the end of the continental fighting, both pre-war alliances were left in ruins. We tend to forget that we were not the only nation to suffer a “Great Betrayal”. The Prussians dropping out of the war early hurt the Indians much more then the Russian betrayal hurt us. The only relationship that survived was the Anglo-French alliance, which of course continues to this day. But I digress; the point is that nations were looking for new friends. So when President Roosevelt made overtures to Persia he found them receptive. Several trade agreements followed resulting in the rapid technological advancement in both nations. These agreements were of course the foundation for the American-Persian alliance of 1922.”

That seemed to satisfy Jason as he started to scribble in his notebook.

“This economic development continued through Roosevelt’s reelection in 1912. But when the 1916 campaign started people began to grow tired of this phony war. There have been several theories on why popular opinion turned against containment. The most recent one states that the Great War was such a scar on the national consciousness that the nation collectively needed closure in order to move on.”

“Whatever the case may be the fact was that when Democrat Eric Coleman ran on a platform of ending the war with the English at any cost the voters decided to give him a shot.”
“But President Coleman couldn’t load up the troops as soon as he took office in March. A little more diplomatic still had to be done. “

Ok we’ve reached a good stopping point here next class we will discuss events leading up to that fateful day in August.

[DemonSlayer]

well the teachers about 10 min late so i guess we can go.

[Ricobirch]

DemonSlayer: Nope sorry it's a 15 minute rule in my class

Once More Into the Breach

The students shut up quickly as Professor brooks walks into the room, looks over his pupils and begins the lecture.

“The first days of President Coleman’s administration were marked by a flurry of diplomatic activity. There was a renewed effort to try and get any response out of London. But the Foreign Commissar’s office still remained silent. Not surprised the Coleman administration started to lay the groundwork for the invasion of England.”

“Over the next couple of years America put pressure on India and Persia to break all treaties and trade agreements they had with the English. Different tactics were used with each nation. With the Indians the demands were presented under the veiled threat of breaking the treaty of New York and starting up the war again. This was of course a gigantic bluff, and Ambassador Myers deserves enormous amounts of credit for pulling it off.”

“The Persians didn’t need much convincing; since they were earning more off of trade with the Americans then they ever did with the English. A renegotiation of some trade deals was enough to guarantee Persian neutrality.”

“So with Persia and India cutting off any ties left England could only turn to France for support. And by this point France was in shambles.”

“The French Revolution had been tearing the country apart for 8 years. Thanks to heavy English support, the French Monarchy was still holding onto the reigns of power. The rebellion was quite literally dying down. After almost a decade of constant fighting very little of the rebellion’s supporters were left alive. The peasantry was tired of the conflict and just wanted thing to return to some form of normalcy. But even with the war winding down it had already left much of France’s infrastructure in ruins. France was not able to launch a navel raiding expedition, let alone an invasion.”
“With the diplomatic work completed the military began to remobilize. Transport construction was stepped up as the Army reserves were called back into active service. Theses veterans of the Indian campaign had to be re-trained with the new weapons and tactics that had been developed over the last decade. All these preparations took time but the Joint Chiefs told the president that they would be ready in the fall of 1920.”

“President Coleman was not satisfied with this date, he wanted the invasion to coincide with his re-election campaign in the summer of 1920. Accomplishing this however would require leaving with the new aircraft carrier Enterprise in the final phases of construction. Coleman made the decision to go in the summer of 1920 without the carrier. Instead it would sail with a second wave sometime in November. The Joint Chiefs didn’t make a big fuss over this as they all thought that the minute American marines hit the beaches, the English would fall over themselves running to the peace table.”

“This assumption was of course horribly wrong, but hindsight is 20/20. On July 4th 1920 the fleet left Miami without the Enterprise. It was still an impressive force 12 divisions; 5 armor, 4 infantry, and 2 artillery. Supported by 4 battleships, a dozen destroyers, and 6 brand new submarines.”

“The force made its way across the pacific un-noticed, a feat that still amazes historians. The English High Seas Fleet might not have been as advanced as the American Navy, but it was still considered a force to be reckoned with. Admiral Henry’s brilliant use of his submarines as a screening force made it possible. Any English vessel in the way was sunk days before they could ever hope of sighting the American ships.”

“On August 1st the fleet arrived northwest of Warwick unannounced. The Invasion started without a hitch. If only the following campaign had gone so easily.”

[civman2000]

great! This is a great way to tell a story, and even though you stole it you're doing a good job with it!

[DemonSlayer]

Hey teach you do know i was just joking right?
I can't wait for you to teach of more about the English Front.

[Ricobirch]

DemonSlayer: Sucking up will get you nowhere, bribery however will get you everywhere.



The Beginning of the End

The classroom is unusually quiet as professor Brooks enters the room. He surveys the crowd and notices more empty seats then normal. Most of the students look like they got about 15 minutes of sleep last night.

He is not carrying his customary mug of coffee but rather a glass of water. He sets down the cup and produces a packet of Alka-Seltzer from his coat pocket. After dropping the tablets into the water he proceeds to drain the glass in one gulp.

“Ahh, much better. Glad to see I’m not the only one here that enjoyed last night’s Halloween festivities.” (Author’s note: This is an actual quote from a history professor I had)

The class’s laughs are drowned out by the sound of notebooks flipping open.

“Ok when we last saw each other the tanks were rolling off the landing craft and onto the beaches. Before we go on I would like you to turn to page 137 of your textbook. On this page you will find a map of northeastern England. I suggest you familiarize yourself with this map. It will make the following lectures easier to follow. Also pay attention to the world map in the lower left-hand corner. It might be also be prudent to remember what the world looked like in 1920.”

“Anyway, the invasion started without incident. In the pre dawn hours of Sunday, August 1st the four beaches were overrun with almost no English resistance. The surprise was so total that some coastal defenders were captured in their bunks. They were quite literally caught with their pants down.”

“By the end of the first day American troops were poised to strike at their first objective; Warwick.”

“The capture of seizure of Warwick and its port was essential to the success of the invasion. Without a deep water harbor the supplies and re-enforcements would have to be inefficiently unloaded right on the beaches. General Michaels knew this and threw just about everything he had into the assault.”

“The defending garrison had very little time to prepare. The modern American armored divisions cut through the English defenders like a knife through hot butter. 3 days later the last pockets of resistance had capitulated.”

“While the invasion got under way the diplomatic corps launched an offensive of it’s own. Using captured soldiers as messengers they sent numerous communiqués to London stating the intentions of the invasion. The reply; Commissar Churchill’s famous "Fight Speech" astonished everybody in the state department. It had been assumed that the English would make a peace deal as soon as humanly possible. The speech made President Coleman begin to realize that this campaign might not end as quickly as he anticipated.”

[civman2000]

great!

[DemonSlayer]

how much for an A+. I would like this to help my GPA. Actually keep up the great work.

[Metaliturtle]

way to take my idea

[Ricobirch]

Grades in my class are equal to the number of cases of Corona that are "lost" in my classroom.

10 cases=A
8 cases=B
6 cases=C
4 cases=D

anything less and you all fail!

[Ricobirch]

Update is coming, there isn't alot of millitary action but I decided to throw in a little political intrigue to set the stage for what will follow.

[Ricobirch]

Coleman’s Gamble

The professor walks into the room and performs his usual routine before starting up the days lecture.

“Churchill’s speech as it was intended to, galvanized the English proletariat behind the war effort. But it also had several other unexpected effects. General Michaels and Admiral Henry both assumed correctly that a counter-attack was imminent. This foresight was of course to prove vital in the coming month, but well cover that in another lecture. It also started a course of events that would eventually lead to the destruction of the Democratic Party.”

“As we discussed in the last lecture, President Coleman’s advisors had told him that the English would be eager to end the war as soon as possible. Churchill’s speech made Coleman began to think of this invasion not as the hit and run operation as was originally planned. Instead he informed General Michaels to quote “Get comfortable, we could be here for a while.””

“Why the sudden change of heart? Well the commencement of the invasion installed a new confidence of their president’s abilities into the American people. Coleman was finally making good on his 1916 promises to “End the great war using any means necessary”. His reelection campaign, which up to this point he was in serious danger of losing, had been literally revived overnight. In some states there were lead swings large as 15 points. The earlier decision to launch a summer operation instead of a fall one was indeed paying political dividends.”

“This unprecedented change of events delighted Coleman, and he decided to milk it for all that it was worth. So when a message offering peace arrived from London he was afraid that if the war ended too soon he might lose his advantage by the time November rolled around. So he made the fateful decision to ignore the peace proposal and needlessly prolong the war a month or two. At least that was the plan.”

“This information was of course not to leave the White House. Previous administrations had used the media to manipulate public opinion before and the current president was no different. Information was leaked to several papers that London was still silent and the Army was prepared to force the issue. And in an amazing show of loyalty, not one member of the administration said otherwise. The reason behind this was part self-preservation and part that most everyone in the know thought the dated English Army was no match for the modern mechanized American forces. This was true as far as the English; this time without Persian support could not compete technologically. Unknown to the joint chiefs however was the fact that they more then made up for this through massive numbers. But again I’m getting ahead of myself here.”

“The public and congress had no reason to question the stories and bought them hook, line, and sinker. Support for the president swelled and congress allocated more money to the military budget. These extra funds were used to rush the preparation of the next wave of the invasion. With the extra money the second wave including the carrier Enterprise, would be ready to sail in Early October; a full month and a half earlier then originally scheduled.”

Ok class it seems we have ran out of time. For our next class be we will switch our focus from New York back to Warwick just in time for the English counterattack, or as I like to call it “The Human Tsunami of 1920”.

[civman2000]

great! Keep up the good work!