Cupola Dreams: The Armored Fighting Vehicles of Hestia
- Thread starter NothingNow
- Start date
‘We in the Heavy Brigade were keen to put our Panteras to good effect and although we had been called upon during the advance through Paraquat and Rhaban the fighting had never amounted to much. Indeed, it wasn’t until we reached Orantain that things started to heat up. It was sometime in early Nov 924, I guess, that the inevitable eventually happened and we found ourselves in a full blown scrap with our opposite numbers – Vogonese Panteras against UNSR Saber Tands. It must have been galling for the UNSR to be fighting their own tanks. As it turned out this was just another of the UNSR’s delaying battles and consequently, it was they who eventually retired from the field of battle leaving us to claim the day. Perhaps it was just as well. They clearly knew the capabilities of their vehicles better than we did and they had more battle experience. We were left in absolutely no doubt that we had just taken a good thumping. I think we all realised at that point that the happy days of charging across the pampas were over and that things were going to get a lot harder from that point on.’ 1st Lt Afonso Vargas, 2nd Battalion, Heavy Armoured Brigade
Undeniably, as the Allied force pushed further east the resistance of both the UNSR and Scorpius Empire grew more tenacious. In the north the Celedonian Army’s advance had all but ground to a halt in the face of belt after belt of heavily defended fortifications in the narrows between the northern ocean and the Great Lake. Further south both the Commonwealth’s 25th and 1st Vogon Armies were bracing themselves for the push into Orantain when on the 10 Nov 924 the forward recce elements of both formations reported that the enemy had pulled out. Other than the, by now routine, destruction wrought by the retreating UNSR forces they had withdrawn with little more than a few token shots fired in anger. In a move mirroring the Scorpius Army, the UNSR had dug itself into a series of deep fortifications between the Great Lake and the southern ocean. With the advantages of shorter lines of communication, fighting on home ground and a friendly population both belligerents were clearly settled in for a major slug-fest.
As Southern Command considered its options in mid-Nov 924, actions several thousand miles away would take centre stage. By December, it was clear to all that something monstrous had happened on the Commonwealth’s home front. Feelings of shock, disbelief, and dismay were intermingled with horror and a growing sense of anger. A state of suspended animation fell over the whole front line as if Hestia collectively held its breath awaiting to see what would happen next.
The Burning Time
‘As the Bomb Aimer it was my task to confirm the designated target, align the aircraft and release the payload. I had been flying with Bomber Command for 4 years and was very experienced. We were all very experienced and that is why we had been selected for this particular mission. In the pre-flight briefing, it had been made extremely clear that there could be no room for error – I’ve always thought that a little ironic given the nature of what we were about to do. Anyway, we arrived over the target spot on schedule, all was well and we commenced our attack run. It ran like a drill and I released the weapon. None of us really knew what would happen next. We turned for home, making best speed as the bomb descended to its operational height. At 05:50 an extremely bright flash lit up the aircraft and, in that instant far below us, the city of Falkenberg ceased to exist. I can remember closing my eyes and thinking, oh my God…’ Flt Lt Gordon Williams, 622 Sqn, RAF
Between 05:50 and 06:20 on 14 Feb 925, three B15 Valiant Heavy Bombers of 622 Sqn, flying at a height of 31,000 ft, each delivered a single atomic bomb over the UNSR cities of Falkenberg, Jever and Neustadt. Each weapon, operated within design parameters and exploded with a yield roughly equivalent to 22 kilotons of TNT. It is estimated that the Commonwealth’s retaliatory strikes against the three cities claimed in excess of 326,000 lives; roughly half of the deaths in each city occurring on the first day.
The destruction of Falkenberg, Neustadt and Jever
In order to fully understand the events of the 14 Feb 925 and the profound effect they had on the new world order, one must first step back in time some 8 years to the early months of 917 and the burgeoning academic frontline that was theoretical physics.
In April of that year, the head of the theoretical physics department at the University of Orkadia, Professor Robert Openshaw, delivered a paper in which he described the process by which nuclear fission - either a nuclear reaction or a radioactive decay process in which the nucleus of an atom splits into smaller parts - would occur. He further postulated that the amount of free energy contained in nuclear fuel would be millions of times the amount of free energy contained in a similar mass of chemical fuel such as gasoline. In other words, nuclear fission represented a very dense source of energy. Whilst several other physicist were there or there about, it was Openshaw who was first to publicise and, therefore, it was he who took the credit and kudos.
Having proved the theory, it would prove much more difficult and illusive to put into practice. Openshaw initially approached Prime Minister Hatcher’s government for funding to develop a nuclear fission reactor, seeing the power of the atom as a long term solution to the county’s power generation needs. Uranium was the key and in particular one of its rarer isotopes, U-235. The problem was that U-235 was so rare that it only made up approximately 0-7% of natural uranium and the process by which it could be extracted was extremely expensive and convoluted. In a climate of austerity and a relative abundance of cheap fossil fuels, the Government showed little interested and whilst content for Openshaw to continue his theoretical study, were not willing to commit any funds beyond a meagre research grant.
With that change in government in late 917, Openshaw changed his tack and appealed to the new leadership in early 918 pointing out that an uncontrolled nuclear fission reaction would have the potential to be a hugely destructive force and consequently, the Commonwealth could not afford to let its competitors take the lead. Astutely, Prime Minister Grant appreciated the situation but in the face of a massive re-armaments programme, the country was not in a financial position to throw money at what was still only a theoretical possibility. Nevertheless, Openshaw’s research grant was dramatically increased, his team expanded and the University of Orkadia was tasked with producing as much U-235 as they could. At this stage it is worth remembering that the availability of Uranium was not a limiting factor for the Commonwealth. Three year previously, large deposits of ore had been discovered in Pittmachie by the Jupiter Mining Corporation and whilst not regarded as a strategic mineral, large quantities had already been shipped north.
Throughout 918 and the first half of 919, the University concentrated on purifying and extracting U-235 from the predominant U-238 of the basic ore. The process was, however, slow, expensive and fraught with technical difficulties. It was clear to all that producing enough fissile U-235 for any weapon’s application was going to take a very long time. Then in Sep 919, the situation changed dramatically; the Commonwealth was invaded by the combined forces of Drakonia and Spietato. But for the fact that hundreds of centrifuges had already been built, Openshaw’s work might well have withered on the vine such were the reverberations and panic that surrounded those dark days. As the home front stabilised in 920 and the Commonwealth girded itself for the long haul Openshaw and his team were surprised to have a personal visit from Prime Minister Grant and Chiefs of the General Staff who had developed a keen interest in the possibilities of Project ATHENA. Never one to pull his punches, Openshaw was frank and forthright about the project’s prospects, the limited resources at his disposal and the likelihood of ever producing a workable weapon in the near future. Grant listened to all that Openshaw had to say and departed. A week later General Jim Rhodes, Royal Engineers reported to the Orkadia site and informed Openshaw that the MoD were taking over the reins of the Project and that as of that day forward Project ATHENA would be the Commonwealth’s premier developmental programme. Although this development signalled a massive boost in funding and resourcing the rate of production of U-235, whilst increased, was still woefully slow.
As Project ATHENA grew Openshaw, who had continued his theoretical research was becoming more and more convinced that U-235 was not going to be the golden bullet he first thought it must be. The process of extracting the U-235 was just too slow and would only ever produce relatively small amounts of the needed isotope, perhaps only enough for one or two viable weapons in the next 5-6 years. His frustration was compounded by the knowledge that weaponising the U-235 would be a relatively simple and straight forward process. A basic gun system that fired a sub-critical mass into another sub-critical mass at the end of the barrel would produce the necessary self-initiating fissile mass that would result in a runaway chain reaction and the release of energy. Whilst not particularly efficient and very wasteful in the quantities of U-235 needed (only approximately 2% of the Uranium would undergo nuclear fission before the components were blown apart), it would function as advertised. Openshaw was now taken by what happened to Uranium when it underwent controlled nuclear fission. In particular, he realised that whilst U-235 was critical to the reaction process what happened to the more common U-238 was even more interesting. The long and the short of it was that during a controlled reaction quantities of the U-238 would be converted into a new element Plutonium-239 which, according to his calculations, should be fissile in its own right. Although not all of the U-238 would be converted to plutonium the process would certainly produce more potential weapons grade material than could ever be expected from U-235.
In the summer of 921, General Rhodes reported Openshaw’s concerns to the Select Committee and after much debate the critical decision was taken to change tack on Project ATHENA. Two full-scale nuclear reactors would be built and utilise what stock of U-235 was already available to produce the Highly Enriched Uranium fuel needed in order to produce Plutonium-239. Having already worked out the basics of a viable gun-type weapon design, it was assumed that a plutonium bomb would be much the same. Unfortunately, this was not to be the case.
The initial production of Plutonium-239 showed an unexpectedly high concentration of contaminant in the form of Plutonium-240, an unstable isotope of Plutonium prone to spontaneous fission. It was quickly realised that in a simple gun-type weapon, the presence of the Plutonium-240 would initiate nuclear fission so quickly that the bulk of the fissile material would be dispersed before any meaningful release of energy had occurred resulting in a fizzle rather than a bang. Furthermore, increasing the impact speed of the plutonium slugs in order to achieve any meaningful detonation would require increasing the device’s barrel length to such an extent that the resulting weapon would not fit within any existing bomber aircraft.
Fortunately, an alternative solution was at hand. Many in the Project Athena team were not satisfied with the inefficiency of the gun-type weapon design and had put forward a more complex but more efficient and elegant proposal. The new design was based around the concept of explosively imploding a sub-critical mass of fissile material to achieve a critical density. The design not only required less Plutonium, but because the reaction happened under pressure it resulted in a much higher percentage of said Plutonium undergoing nuclear fission. The new headache, however, was trying to produce a co-ordinated implosion that would not just result in the device ripping itself apart before any nuclear reaction could take place.
By the end of 924, the intricacies of the implosion technique has been solved and enough Plutonium produced to build 4 weapons each with an estimated yield of between 20-25 kilotons of TNT. It is fair to say that with zero scope for error, each bomb was massively over-engineered and consequently, were probably much larger than they needed to be. At 10’ 8” in length, 5’ in diameter and 10,300 lbs in weight, the bomb would only just fit within the bomb bay of the Air Force’s newest heavy bomber – the B15 Valiant.
With so much riding on the potential of the new weapon and its cutting edge technology, it was decided that nothing could be left to change and therefore a trial detonation would be require as a final proof of concept. Although this would effectively use up 25% of the available arsenal, it was deemed a necessary sacrifice in order to give the assurance that the devices would work and not just fall harmlessly into the hands of the enemy with the consequent loss of years’ of work and treasure. At midday on 10 Jan 925, under the strictest of security, bomb number one (codename Gizmo) was detonated on the remote island of Yorvik 620 miles directly north of Orkadia. For those watching and waiting, the test of Gizmo exceeded all expectations and confirmed both the viability of the weapon and the considerable investment in Project ATHENA.
Gizmo Bomb and the test detonation on Yorvik Island
Following the successful test, planning rapidly accelerated for the employment of the three remaining weapons. Whilst, the decision to release the atomic demon did not come easily for Prime Minister Grant who baulked at the destruction an suffering it would cause, the need to both deliver retribution upon the UNSR for its heinous biological attacks and to bring about a swift end to the war was pressing. The UNSR were not to know that the Commonwealth’s entire nuclear stockpile consisted of only 3 weapons and consequently, the decision was taken to use everything in a single display of force and intent. The targets chosen would also, hopefully, send a clear message to the UNSR’s High Command. So it was that the cities of Falkenberg, Jever and Neustadt were singled out. Falkenberg was a large coastal city with a port facilities and a sizeable naval presence and which was relatively close to the capital. The selection of Falkenberg would be a fitting response to the UNSR’s attacks on Deemouth, Newfort and Dhabbu. Jever was selected as a key military communications node and logistics hub in the ongoing battle on the Pfalz/Strella front and would be the counterpart of the UNSR’s attack on Fettuccine. Lastly Nuestadt was chosen specifically for its connection with Special Facility 666 which was located on its outskirts.
Operation JUST CAUSE was officially sanctioned on 1 Feb 925 and 622 Sqn were given the go ahead. The Sqn’s B15 Valiants had already been modified to accept the outsized bombs and stripped of all unnecessary equipment in order to maximise their speed and endurance. The aircraft were already forward deployed to bases in Konos and Spietato and each raid would consist of 3 aircraft flying independently to their designated targets. The first aircraft would, on arrival at the target, report back on the met conditions, the second aircraft would deliver the bomb whist the third aircraft would carry out an immediate photographic battle damage assessment (BDA). On the forward airfields 9 additional aircraft sat ready to replace any of the operational aircraft should last minutes problems occur.
History records that on the 14 Feb 925, Falkenberk was attacked at 05:50 by B15 Valiant (Doon the Hatch) carrying bomb #2 (Fat Bob); Neustadt was attacked at 06:00 by B15 Valiant (Wha’s Like Us) carrying bomb #3 (Fat Albert); and Jever was attacked at 06:20 by B15 Valiant (Say Whit?) carrying bomb #4 (Fat Joe).
'Doon the Hatch' with 'Fat Bob'
'Wha's Like Us' with 'Fat Albert'
'Say Whit?' with 'Fat Joe'
Whilst the attacks on Falkenberg and Neustadt were carried out without a hitch, the met aircraft on the Jever run developed a technical fault half way into the mission and had to turn back. This left ‘Say Whit?’ to press on alone and into an unexpected head wind that delayed her by 20 minutes. As planned, the BDA aircraft overflew the targets and captured the now famous series of photographs that highlighted the infamous characteristic mushroom clouds (in the case of the Jever attack the BDA aircraft had almost caught up with 'Say Whit?' and thus was able to take photos of the actual detonation.
the detonations over Falkenberg, Neustadt and Jever
The debate over the efficacy, morality and legality of the decision to use atomic weapons against the UNSR has raged for many years and no doubt will continue to do so but it remains an undeniable fact that two days after the nuclear attacks the UNSR approached the Government of Libon to act as an intermediary with the Commonwealth in order to instigate an immediate cease fire on all fronts. The armistice came into effect a week later at midday on 23 Feb 925 and although it would take several more months of negotiations before the new lines were drawn in the sands of time, the Great War had effectively come to an end.
‘As the Bomb Aimer it was my task to confirm the designated target, align the aircraft and release the payload. I had been flying with Bomber Command for 4 years and was very experienced. We were all very experienced and that is why we had been selected for this particular mission. In the pre-flight briefing, it had been made extremely clear that there could be no room for error – I’ve always thought that a little ironic given the nature of what we were about to do. Anyway, we arrived over the target spot on schedule, all was well and we commenced our attack run. It ran like a drill and I released the weapon. None of us really knew what would happen next. We turned for home, making best speed as the bomb descended to its operational height. At 05:50 an extremely bright flash lit up the aircraft and, in that instant far below us, the city of Falkenberg ceased to exist. I can remember closing my eyes and thinking, oh my God…’ Flt Lt Gordon Williams, 622 Sqn, RAF
Between 05:50 and 06:20 on 14 Feb 925, three B15 Valiant Heavy Bombers of 622 Sqn, flying at a height of 31,000 ft, each delivered a single atomic bomb over the UNSR cities of Falkenberg, Jever and Neustadt. Each weapon, operated within design parameters and exploded with a yield roughly equivalent to 22 kilotons of TNT. It is estimated that the Commonwealth’s retaliatory strikes against the three cities claimed in excess of 326,000 lives; roughly half of the deaths in each city occurring on the first day.
The destruction of Falkenberg, Neustadt and Jever
In order to fully understand the events of the 14 Feb 925 and the profound effect they had on the new world order, one must first step back in time some 8 years to the early months of 917 and the burgeoning academic frontline that was theoretical physics.
In April of that year, the head of the theoretical physics department at the University of Orkadia, Professor Robert Openshaw, delivered a paper in which he described the process by which nuclear fission - either a nuclear reaction or a radioactive decay process in which the nucleus of an atom splits into smaller parts - would occur. He further postulated that the amount of free energy contained in nuclear fuel would be millions of times the amount of free energy contained in a similar mass of chemical fuel such as gasoline. In other words, nuclear fission represented a very dense source of energy. Whilst several other physicist were there or there about, it was Openshaw who was first to publicise and, therefore, it was he who took the credit and kudos.
Having proved the theory, it would prove much more difficult and illusive to put into practice. Openshaw initially approached Prime Minister Hatcher’s government for funding to develop a nuclear fission reactor, seeing the power of the atom as a long term solution to the county’s power generation needs. Uranium was the key and in particular one of its rarer isotopes, U-235. The problem was that U-235 was so rare that it only made up approximately 0-7% of natural uranium and the process by which it could be extracted was extremely expensive and convoluted. In a climate of austerity and a relative abundance of cheap fossil fuels, the Government showed little interested and whilst content for Openshaw to continue his theoretical study, were not willing to commit any funds beyond a meagre research grant.
With that change in government in late 917, Openshaw changed his tack and appealed to the new leadership in early 918 pointing out that an uncontrolled nuclear fission reaction would have the potential to be a hugely destructive force and consequently, the Commonwealth could not afford to let its competitors take the lead. Astutely, Prime Minister Grant appreciated the situation but in the face of a massive re-armaments programme, the country was not in a financial position to throw money at what was still only a theoretical possibility. Nevertheless, Openshaw’s research grant was dramatically increased, his team expanded and the University of Orkadia was tasked with producing as much U-235 as they could. At this stage it is worth remembering that the availability of Uranium was not a limiting factor for the Commonwealth. Three year previously, large deposits of ore had been discovered in Pittmachie by the Jupiter Mining Corporation and whilst not regarded as a strategic mineral, large quantities had already been shipped north.
Throughout 918 and the first half of 919, the University concentrated on purifying and extracting U-235 from the predominant U-238 of the basic ore. The process was, however, slow, expensive and fraught with technical difficulties. It was clear to all that producing enough fissile U-235 for any weapon’s application was going to take a very long time. Then in Sep 919, the situation changed dramatically; the Commonwealth was invaded by the combined forces of Drakonia and Spietato. But for the fact that hundreds of centrifuges had already been built, Openshaw’s work might well have withered on the vine such were the reverberations and panic that surrounded those dark days. As the home front stabilised in 920 and the Commonwealth girded itself for the long haul Openshaw and his team were surprised to have a personal visit from Prime Minister Grant and Chiefs of the General Staff who had developed a keen interest in the possibilities of Project ATHENA. Never one to pull his punches, Openshaw was frank and forthright about the project’s prospects, the limited resources at his disposal and the likelihood of ever producing a workable weapon in the near future. Grant listened to all that Openshaw had to say and departed. A week later General Jim Rhodes, Royal Engineers reported to the Orkadia site and informed Openshaw that the MoD were taking over the reins of the Project and that as of that day forward Project ATHENA would be the Commonwealth’s premier developmental programme. Although this development signalled a massive boost in funding and resourcing the rate of production of U-235, whilst increased, was still woefully slow.
As Project ATHENA grew Openshaw, who had continued his theoretical research was becoming more and more convinced that U-235 was not going to be the golden bullet he first thought it must be. The process of extracting the U-235 was just too slow and would only ever produce relatively small amounts of the needed isotope, perhaps only enough for one or two viable weapons in the next 5-6 years. His frustration was compounded by the knowledge that weaponising the U-235 would be a relatively simple and straight forward process. A basic gun system that fired a sub-critical mass into another sub-critical mass at the end of the barrel would produce the necessary self-initiating fissile mass that would result in a runaway chain reaction and the release of energy. Whilst not particularly efficient and very wasteful in the quantities of U-235 needed (only approximately 2% of the Uranium would undergo nuclear fission before the components were blown apart), it would function as advertised. Openshaw was now taken by what happened to Uranium when it underwent controlled nuclear fission. In particular, he realised that whilst U-235 was critical to the reaction process what happened to the more common U-238 was even more interesting. The long and the short of it was that during a controlled reaction quantities of the U-238 would be converted into a new element Plutonium-239 which, according to his calculations, should be fissile in its own right. Although not all of the U-238 would be converted to plutonium the process would certainly produce more potential weapons grade material than could ever be expected from U-235.
In the summer of 921, General Rhodes reported Openshaw’s concerns to the Select Committee and after much debate the critical decision was taken to change tack on Project ATHENA. Two full-scale nuclear reactors would be built and utilise what stock of U-235 was already available to produce the Highly Enriched Uranium fuel needed in order to produce Plutonium-239. Having already worked out the basics of a viable gun-type weapon design, it was assumed that a plutonium bomb would be much the same. Unfortunately, this was not to be the case.
The initial production of Plutonium-239 showed an unexpectedly high concentration of contaminant in the form of Plutonium-240, an unstable isotope of Plutonium prone to spontaneous fission. It was quickly realised that in a simple gun-type weapon, the presence of the Plutonium-240 would initiate nuclear fission so quickly that the bulk of the fissile material would be dispersed before any meaningful release of energy had occurred resulting in a fizzle rather than a bang. Furthermore, increasing the impact speed of the plutonium slugs in order to achieve any meaningful detonation would require increasing the device’s barrel length to such an extent that the resulting weapon would not fit within any existing bomber aircraft.
Fortunately, an alternative solution was at hand. Many in the Project Athena team were not satisfied with the inefficiency of the gun-type weapon design and had put forward a more complex but more efficient and elegant proposal. The new design was based around the concept of explosively imploding a sub-critical mass of fissile material to achieve a critical density. The design not only required less Plutonium, but because the reaction happened under pressure it resulted in a much higher percentage of said Plutonium undergoing nuclear fission. The new headache, however, was trying to produce a co-ordinated implosion that would not just result in the device ripping itself apart before any nuclear reaction could take place.
By the end of 924, the intricacies of the implosion technique has been solved and enough Plutonium produced to build 4 weapons each with an estimated yield of between 20-25 kilotons of TNT. It is fair to say that with zero scope for error, each bomb was massively over-engineered and consequently, were probably much larger than they needed to be. At 10’ 8” in length, 5’ in diameter and 10,300 lbs in weight, the bomb would only just fit within the bomb bay of the Air Force’s newest heavy bomber – the B15 Valiant.
With so much riding on the potential of the new weapon and its cutting edge technology, it was decided that nothing could be left to change and therefore a trial detonation would be require as a final proof of concept. Although this would effectively use up 25% of the available arsenal, it was deemed a necessary sacrifice in order to give the assurance that the devices would work and not just fall harmlessly into the hands of the enemy with the consequent loss of years’ of work and treasure. At midday on 10 Jan 925, under the strictest of security, bomb number one (codename Gizmo) was detonated on the remote island of Yorvik 620 miles directly north of Orkadia. For those watching and waiting, the test of Gizmo exceeded all expectations and confirmed both the viability of the weapon and the considerable investment in Project ATHENA.
Gizmo Bomb and the test detonation on Yorvik Island
Following the successful test, planning rapidly accelerated for the employment of the three remaining weapons. Whilst, the decision to release the atomic demon did not come easily for Prime Minister Grant who baulked at the destruction an suffering it would cause, the need to both deliver retribution upon the UNSR for its heinous biological attacks and to bring about a swift end to the war was pressing. The UNSR were not to know that the Commonwealth’s entire nuclear stockpile consisted of only 3 weapons and consequently, the decision was taken to use everything in a single display of force and intent. The targets chosen would also, hopefully, send a clear message to the UNSR’s High Command. So it was that the cities of Falkenberg, Jever and Neustadt were singled out. Falkenberg was a large coastal city with a port facilities and a sizeable naval presence and which was relatively close to the capital. The selection of Falkenberg would be a fitting response to the UNSR’s attacks on Deemouth, Newfort and Dhabbu. Jever was selected as a key military communications node and logistics hub in the ongoing battle on the Pfalz/Strella front and would be the counterpart of the UNSR’s attack on Fettuccine. Lastly Nuestadt was chosen specifically for its connection with Special Facility 666 which was located on its outskirts.
Operation JUST CAUSE was officially sanctioned on 1 Feb 925 and 622 Sqn were given the go ahead. The Sqn’s B15 Valiants had already been modified to accept the outsized bombs and stripped of all unnecessary equipment in order to maximise their speed and endurance. The aircraft were already forward deployed to bases in Konos and Spietato and each raid would consist of 3 aircraft flying independently to their designated targets. The first aircraft would, on arrival at the target, report back on the met conditions, the second aircraft would deliver the bomb whist the third aircraft would carry out an immediate photographic battle damage assessment (BDA). On the forward airfields 9 additional aircraft sat ready to replace any of the operational aircraft should last minutes problems occur.
History records that on the 14 Feb 925, Falkenberk was attacked at 05:50 by B15 Valiant (Doon the Hatch) carrying bomb #2 (Fat Bob); Neustadt was attacked at 06:00 by B15 Valiant (Wha’s Like Us) carrying bomb #3 (Fat Albert); and Jever was attacked at 06:20 by B15 Valiant (Say Whit?) carrying bomb #4 (Fat Joe).
'Doon the Hatch' with 'Fat Bob'
'Wha's Like Us' with 'Fat Albert'
'Say Whit?' with 'Fat Joe'
Whilst the attacks on Falkenberg and Neustadt were carried out without a hitch, the met aircraft on the Jever run developed a technical fault half way into the mission and had to turn back. This left ‘Say Whit?’ to press on alone and into an unexpected head wind that delayed her by 20 minutes. As planned, the BDA aircraft overflew the targets and captured the now famous series of photographs that highlighted the infamous characteristic mushroom clouds (in the case of the Jever attack the BDA aircraft had almost caught up with 'Say Whit?' and thus was able to take photos of the actual detonation.
the detonations over Falkenberg, Neustadt and Jever
The debate over the efficacy, morality and legality of the decision to use atomic weapons against the UNSR has raged for many years and no doubt will continue to do so but it remains an undeniable fact that two days after the nuclear attacks the UNSR approached the Government of Libon to act as an intermediary with the Commonwealth in order to instigate an immediate cease fire on all fronts. The armistice came into effect a week later at midday on 23 Feb 925 and although it would take several more months of negotiations before the new lines were drawn in the sands of time, the Great War had effectively come to an end.
---oOo---
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Well yeah so far.Well yes, yes I did... but at least there are no damned monkeys!
Liked your choice of aircraft for operation JUST CAUSE.
I wanted something a little different an it fitted in as a believable natural progression of the Commonwealth's earlier medium/long range bomber - the B12 Viking.
Very cool. You should post it on the Air and Space Photos from Alternate Worlds thread.I wanted something a little different an it fitted in as a believable natural progression of the Commonwealth's earlier medium/long range bomber - the B12 Viking.
I wanted something a little different an it fitted in as a believable natural progression of the Commonwealth's earlier medium/long range bomber - the B12 Viking.
That looks like a German design the He 177.
Long enough for some resemblance of order to return to Hestia but old wounds will be re-opened as a Cold War develops.
Thank you. The nuclear option always seems like a bit of a cop out but in this case it was the obvious way to bring things to a close and it was always going to have to come up at some point.
The B12 is indeed an He-177 and the B15 is a cross between the actual He-274 and the proposed He-277.