The Union Forever: A TL

[FleetMac]

Name: Winchester M1902 General Machine Gun
Designer: Winchester Armament Company
Type: Short-recoil operated machine gun
Caliber: .30-45/.276 Light Rifle (converted in 1945-46)
Feed System: Non-disintegrating belt (converted to disintegrating in 1920)
Adopted: 1904
Notes: While the United States had recognized the value of machine guns early on, there was really only one design used by U.S. Armed Forces from the time of the Great War to the end of the South American War, the M1902 Machine Gun. Under a patent by Matthew S. Browning [1], the weapon was originally issued as a water-cooled recoil operated heavy machine gun by the time of the Great War (although mid- and post-war development led to a switch to an air-cooled design and disintegrating ammunition belts). A solid and dependable workhorse, its 550-rpm cyclic rate offered a steady stream of fire that, while not as impressive as other countries' works, accomplished its stated task of suppressing and denying ground to enemy infantry.

By the time of the South American War, an infantry support version was adopted with a bipod, lightening cuts in the receiver for easier carry, and a rifle stock for more accurate mid-range fire[2]. That being said, one negative of the weapon was that it still was a relatively cumbersome and awkward machine gun despite its "General" moniker. This version and the previous iterations would be replaced in the '70s by an actual attempt at a general purpose machine gun.

[1] The brother of OTL's John Browning, since IIRC he didn't get into the firearms business ITTL. And as for the disparity in time-frame for this weapon's adoption, apparently the patent in OTL was issued in 1900, but then not even touched for a decade. ITTL work started right away on the gun instead of being shelved, hence its earlier adoption.

[2] One heavy element of TTL's "Stinger" is a bog-standard bolt instead of the faster firing one used in OTL's T33, so the control issues of OTL don't exist.

 

[RyderWest]

Nice.

I will probably get something up regarding the SCR-25.

 

[Mac Gregor]

Great article FleetMac. I would change the name of the war to the Second Atacama War or more appropriately the South American War as the conflict is known in the U.S.

 

[Mac Gregor]

2013


Domestic and Foreign Developments

Flag of the Dominion of Gordonia​

On January 28, the Dominion of Gordonia achieved full independence inside of the Commonwealth of Nations. Bucking the trend of most new nations produced by decolonization, Gordonia opted to keep Queen Victoria II as head of state and the Union Jack in the canton of their flag. The fact that most Gordnonians chose to embrace their imperial heritage was viciously attacked by the Pan-African press in neighboring Abyssinia.

In February, Yu Qishan was ousted as Executive by the Central Committee of the Technate of China after 13 years in office. He was replaced by Yang Zhanshu a senior official in the Directorate of Economics. While China and the rest of the Technocratic Union had undoubtedly prospered under Yu, his embarrassing failure during the Ryukyu Island Crisis and bellicose brinkmanship undermined his ability to lead. In comparison, Yang Zhanshu favored what he termed the “long plan” of achieving geopolitical dominance. Less of a doctrinarian, Yang sought to strengthen China’s ties with nations in Africa and Asia even if they were not technocratic.

Over the course of the year, the French corporation Étendue became the largest distributor of audio books in the world. With an easy to use interface, customers were able to choose from a massive library of books on the globtrix and then listen on their computer or mobile phone.

After decades of debate, Congress approved the retrocession of a sizeable portion of Washington D.C. to the State of Maryland. By ceding most of the cities of Washington, Georgetown, and Anacostia to Maryland the citizens residing therein would finally have congressional representation and be able to vote in presidential elections. This mirrored the retrocession of Washington D.C.’s territory south of the Potomac River to Virginia in 1846. A reduced District of Columbia continued to exist but was limited to the area surrounding key federal buildings, the National Mall, and Mason’s Island.

German automobile manufacturer Reichwagen began experimenting with increased voltage for its electric and hybrid model autos dramatically increasing their range. Other automobile companies would soon follow suit including Japan’s Orikasa Motors which would overtake Reichwagen in the electric/hybrid market by the end of the decade.

The destabilization caused by the Umbangi Civil War continued to spread, with a West African backed insurgency infecting northern Nigeria. Sporadic engagements between Nigerian and All-African Alliance aircraft and naval vessels were threatening to turn the conflict into a full blown regional war.

In November, China, Germany, and the United States utilized the low energy Lasswitz transfer orbit window to launch equipment and supplies to Mars. These shipments were to be used later by astronauts when they arrived on the Red Planet. Unfortunately for China, their spacecraft would fail to successfully decelerate after its eight and half month journey. This was a huge blow to the Chinese Martian program as another launch window would not occur until 2016.

On December 12, a team of French, Italian, and Spanish scientists announced the first detection of gravitational waves after years of exhaustive study. The waves were traced back to a collision of two massive black holes occurring 1.3 billion years ago.

 

[Jim Smitty]

Gordonia is where again? And honestly I was hoping for a technocratic US war. But a war in this day in age would be deadly.

 

[RyderWest]

Gordonia is where again? And honestly I was hoping for a technocratic US war. But a war in this day in age would be deadly.

Despite the change in leadership, I reckon China would be planning something.

 

[Jim Smitty]

Despite the change in leadership, I reckon China would be planning something.

Honestly that's the way I read it. What that something is I don't know. But its going to be bad what ever it is.

 

[FleetMac]

You had me at "reduced District of Columbia". Seriously, loving the retrocession of Maryland's portion from DC (but then again, anything that may keep Virginia decoupled from the Northeastern US, to include breaking up the DC metro, gives me a real joy-gasm ).

Also, loving the bit paid to the notion of interstellar travel and use of special orbits, something I'm not sure gets covered all that much in pre-1900 TLs. And yay for discovery of gravitational waves!

Boo to Technocratic China getting cagier internationally speaking under Zhanshu's administration though. Great update!

 

[Pokemon Master]

Gordonia is where again?

It's roughly OTL South Sudan.

 

[Novelty]

Do we have a list of countries in the ComNat? And do they have a flag like they do iotl?

 

[Mac Gregor]

Do we have a list of countries in the ComNat? And do they have a flag like they do iotl?

I will push out the list in a bit and there is a flag.

 

[FleetMac]

Got another American weapon post to put out, sorry if it seems a bit light on details;

Name: Puch-Springfield M1977 General Machine Gun
Designer: Dreyse-Mauser, Turin Division
Type: Roller-delayed blowback general-purpose machine gun
Caliber: .276 Light Rifle[1]
Feed System: Disintegrating belt
Adopted: 1978
Notes: The M1902 was a good design, but also not one suited for infantry use in the modern era. To remedy this, President MacArthur initiated a weapons inventory overhaul that would ostensibly replace light and medium machine guns in current use with one light-weight design. While many domestic designs would be tested, the chosen model would be a Springfield-licensed variant of a German-Italian design called the SP-55 by Dreyse-Mauser engineer Theodor Puch, and titled the M1977 GMG in American use.

The M1977 used a roller-delayed blowback action similar to the German MG49, with a 900 RPM cyclic rate (as opposed to the MG49's 1200+ rate). This was felt to be an acceptable measure for both infantry support and defensive position purposes, but a heavier bolt would often be issued with infantry outfits to drop said ROF by about a hundred rounds per minute. Being lighter weight (12 lbs. clean, less than 20 with bipod and ammunition), better balanced and more ergonomic than the M1902, the M1977 was a success during America's combat role in the Asia-Pacific War, being far more handy to use in the fast-paced fight against Japanese troops while also being capable as a heavy machine gun if needed (due to its quick-change barrel design), although this typically would fall to the M1910 HMG[2]. Like the "Sully Gun", the M1977 "Puke"[3] continues to be the primary infantry machine gun to this day for the U.S. Armed Forces.

[1] Retained by LAR member countries for machine gun and sniper duties, which the .243 Liberty is somewhat underpowered to perform. Just picture a slightly stretched and bulked receiver/feeding assembly to accommodate the slightly longer cartridge compared to OTL's design.
[2] A light-weight machine gun isn't really optimal for sustained or final-protective fires. Enter the realm of the .50....
[3] Derived from the allophonic "Puch" in American usage.

 

[Jim Smitty]

I wonder what the state of American Gun Laws are ITL.

 

[FleetMac]

I wonder what the state of American Gun Laws are ITL.

Didn't you already ask this about three pages back?

In any case, I imagine not too different from OTL, based on the discussion summed up on Pg. 186, with MacGregor's summation at the bottom of the page.

 

[Jim Smitty]

Didn't you already ask this about three pages back?

In any case, I imagine not too different from OTL, based on the discussion summed up on Pg. 186, with MacGregor's summation at the bottom of the page.

I couldn't remember if I did or not. So I decided to ask again just to be sure. Anyways I didn't know that one. I will go take a look at it here in a sec.

 

[Jim Smitty]

Time for a bit of American Armor History,

Mk I Light Catsphracts, Ocelot

Weight: 3.1 Tons
Crew: 2 (Driver, Commander)
Armor: up to ¼ of an inch
Armament: .30-45 Winchester M1902 General Machine Gun
Engine: 2 x 4 cylinder inline engines
Operational Range: 35 miles
Speed: 8.5 mph
In Service: 1909-1913


The Mk I Light Catsphract known as the Ocelot to its crews was the first catsphract fielded by the United States Army. The order to start work on the Ocelot came from then Secretary of War Theodore Roosevelt in 1908 after watching reports from the then on going war in Europe. Fearful of what France’s aims might be he ordered the army to build its own catsphract. In record time the Army had three prototype catsphracts from the Conestoga, Studebaker, and Liberty. With no background with working catsphract and the publication of the Bonaparte-Hanotaux Letters the army selected the Conestoga’s design as it was the cheapest and easiest to make and ordered 500.


Once the US joined the war in March 1909 only 18 of the Ocelots had been delivered to the army. Rushing them into a single unit the famed 1st Catsphract Battalion, they were thrown together in training and saw combat during the Battle of Guadeloupe. It was the only combat the Ocelot would ever see in the Great War. The Battle of Guadeloupe quickly showed that the Ocelot had a number of major flaws and would be unsuited for use in Europe. With only 3 Ocelots still working at the end of the battle it was decided to withdraw the Ocelot from front line service and use them as a training catsphract and scaled the order back to 300 units total. In total, just a total of 240 Ocelots were made before the army cancelled the remaining contact.


With the poor performance of the Ocelots and the surplus of the Mk II Lynx catsphract the army quickly withdrew the Ocelots from service in the post war years. Some were offered to state militias only to have these offers be turned down as if they were going to buy catsphract they wanted the much more able Mk IIs instead of the Ocelots. Only three Ocelots survived to the present day. They are at the Robert Todd Lincoln Presidential Museum, the US Army Catsphract Museum in Fort Grant, and lastly as a monument on Guadeloupe.

 

[JonKenobi]

It only took since January; but I am finally caught up with this timeline! Amazing work Mac Gregor! I do have a few questions.

1) What is the fate of the LDS church (Mormons) are they still a worldwide organization in this timeline? Are they still headquartered in Salt Lake City?

2) What is the worldwide total population? Random curiosity there.

3) This might push the timeline into ASB territory but; with space travel advanced is there any chance of alien contact of some kind?

 

[Mac Gregor]

Do we have a list of countries in the ComNat? And do they have a flag like they do iotl?

For the Commonwealth of Nations there are essentially three tiers of memberships; independent nations, dominions with domestic autonomy but foreign policy and defense are controlled by London, and colonies. The ComNat is still using the flag of the old British Commonwealth although calls for a new flag without the Union Jack have increased.

Independent Nations

UK
Ireland
Canada
Australia
New Zealand
South Africa
Zambezia
East Africa
Madras
Malaya
Ceylon
Nigeria
Somalia
Madagascar
Burma
Sarawak
Brunei
Jamaica
Puntland
Katanga
Tonga
Gordonia

Dominions

Bahamas
British Honduras
British Guyana
Malta
Cyprus
West Indies Confederation
Trinidad

Former Members

West Africa
Union of Gulf Emirates
South Arabia
Chad
Umbangi
Aksum

 

[Mac Gregor]

Got another American weapon post to put out, sorry if it seems a bit light on details;


.

Time for a bit of American Armor History,

Mk I Light Catsphracts, Ocelot

FleetMac and Jim Smitty thanks for the excellent articles! Can't wait to see more of your work. Cheers!

 

[Mac Gregor]

It only took since January; but I am finally caught up with this timeline! Amazing work Mac Gregor! I do have a few questions.

1) What is the fate of the LDS church (Mormons) are they still a worldwide organization in this timeline? Are they still headquartered in Salt Lake City?

2) What is the worldwide total population? Random curiosity there.

3) This might push the timeline into ASB territory but; with space travel advanced is there any chance of alien contact of some kind?

Glad you liked it and thanks so much for the support!

1) LDS is still around and going strong. As in OTL it has branched out to become a worldwide organization and is till headquartered in Salt Lake City.

2) By the end of 2013 world population had reached 7.3 billion.

3) Interesting question. We will have to wait and see!