Oh man, I'm first! I totally called Dan Brown returning from the (supposedly) dead! So what if I got several other things wrong? LOL
Thanks for bringing AoT back, JB. I can't wait for WW3.1!!!!!!

and Dan Brown can stay dead. It's Dan Black.

As shocking as it was to see Dan Black come back (it rhymes!), it was more shocking that Slim Jim was the means through which the Allies struck back. I want to know what the missed target was, and my guess is Stalin's bunker.

So good to have everyone back, Halabi, Kohlhammer, Davidson, but my heart as a reader goes to Pavel Ivanov. JB makes him into a hero of Dostoevskian proportions. The guy has to be the only uptime Russian left in the new universe. He has no one to relate to, not even the White Russian wife of his landlord. There is not much chance he will see his homeland free from Stalinist rule in his lifetime, probably some status quo. Yet he fights on, inch by inch, day by day. True, others have lost family in the uptime like Kohlhammer but this guy lost a country, a nation, a sense of belonging, reduced to an off the charts asset, plausible deniability.

Speaking of new universes, I like that Einstein said there is an infinite number of universes resulting from the Transition...which I am still convinced had something to do with the Disappearance :-)

So just two books in WW 3.1? I was hoping for a tetralogy.

JB, will you still do crowdfunding for them? I'd gladly cut into my retirement fund to get immortalized within the pages - or at least redshirted.

To steal a phrase, we'll always have Paris.

Mebbe Dan didn't come back. Mebbe it was an hallucination.
As for Slim Jim becoming a means of striking back you can thank Kolhammer for that. He didn't have his Roomy, O'Brien running Jim's investments for nothing. Be interesting to see how many supposedly partially built death stars he has which are really fully functional (and without annoying exhaust ports for nasty Skywalkers to exploit). For a character with SJ's street smarts, he's been well played by The Hammer.
I enjoyed the character development of Charlotte-Gracie. How she developed her sneaking skills and added others to them. I'm just wondering about how a new generation of characters will arise in the new book. The key ones will need similar backgrounding. I'm also wondering what happened to Ian Fleming. I can imagine a throw away line about the Sovs topping him.

It's a shame that the timeline didn't allow Slim Jim to play double or nothing with a loud mouthed Australian newspaper tycoon instead of the Texas oil man. That would have been the cherry.

I'm so embarrassed about saying "Dan Brown" instead of "Dan Black"!!!! I don't think it was a hallucination because she's seeing him aged about 15 years - not too far off of the actual time.

BTW, I liked that the Yankees and Red Sox are still apparently a big rivalry in the AoT world. (Hopefully they have more African-Americans by 1955 this time around though - in OTL they had one between them at this point.)

I'm surprised about the Ike-Hammer ticket winning - I can't remember anytime in the U.S. where both the President and VP were top military leaders.

Oh man oh man oh man Dan is back! He better be back, otherwise this is cruel and unnecessary teasing of your audience. I might even be persuaded to forgive you for killing Zach in The Dave if you bring Dan back, the original favourite, taken before his time.


I loved Paris, I think it's my favourite of the trilogy, mainly for that beautiful and disturbing prologue. Gracie-Charlotte is definitely a new favourite. She urgently needs a spin off series (I know I've said this before but it bears repeating).


Poor Harry looks like he's going to have competition in the Duffy stakes, and there's no worse competition than a ghost. It'll be fascinating to see that whole situation play out in the books to come. I loved Habibi and Kolhammer's return, and good 'ol Slim Jim was as ferociously despicable as ever. I have to applaud him owning half the world though.


The main thing this trilogy has done has set up a huge craving for a full length novel in the universe, and has even taken over my hankering for another novel in The Dave universe. You should totally use Einstein's theory of multiverses to link the Axis, Disappearance and Dave trilogies together. It would be epic.


I don't have a lot to contribute to spoilers beyond a semi coherent babble of joy about how much I enjoyed this mini trilogy and how much I'm looking forwarding to the new books. Stupid Amazon didn't post my first review of Paris so I had to do it again. And I had to write a whole new review because I couldn't remember what I wrote in the first one! Thank you for Paris JB, it was awesome :)

Personally, it was an honor to beta read Paris, what a fun experience. I have to agree with others here that Paris was the best of the three, although that is fitting with the end of a trilogy that does a remarkable job in setting up readers for a follow-on full length novel.

I had a lot of favorite scenes in this book. The beginning created an immediate emotional hold on the reader. "Everyone loves chocolate". Great stuff. Then there was the creepy menace of Skarov, Slim Jim's smiling bluff-calling, Halabi's polished grace, Kolhammer's blunt realism and Ivanov's fatalism.

I had many favorite scenes, but I think the best was when Kolhammer got frog-marched out of the hotel by the Secret Service. The tension was palpable, relentless, realistic. I felt I was there rushing out of the room and down the stairs, juggling with the agents and my cell phone. Solid writing, very, very good.

And then there was the twist with Dan Black. Need I say more? Holy crap, WW3.1 is going to be amazing.

I could be wrong, but did I hear somewhere that JB was going to bundle all the "Hammer" series and release them as a print-on-demand? That would be good. Love ebooks, but I have a special shelf at home for printed copies of my favorites. The "Hammer" trilogy can go on the shelf with books such as "The Forever War", "Dies the Fire" and "Old Man's War".

I'm gonna put the brakes on for a minute about Dan Black, because I'm still not sure he's not a figment of Julia's near-death experience. If he *is* alive and leading his own team that materialized on the ship in Egypt... it'd almost have to be an all-'temp squad, no? Pretty much impossible for Julia to not know he survived if he's still plugged into uptimer circles.

I really liked the exploration of the feelings of loss and dislocation in this one, and I hope that continues into WW3.1. Charlotte's going to be an incredible character if we get to hang out with her in any context other than Angel Of Death, because she's damn near a unicorn, as Julia grokked pretty quickly -- too young to be an actual uptimer but thoroughly acculturated, yet ten-plus years older than the post-Transition generation (I don't know if they're the Baby Boom here).

Dan Black back like the second coming. Only way this gets topped is if somehow Solo is ejected from the first stellar furnace that became of Star killer base. Hopefully played by Chris Pratt.

Solo died? How about a spoiler alert!!
Paris was a great read- can't wait for more,
Hopefully with a young IVA Richards deciding not to
Follow his destiny but instead his name sake into
The SAS....everyone fitted into their book roles so
Naturally- but really want to see Halabi back in the CiC

It is true, Sparty. Napoleon Solo did indeed die in The Man From Uncle.

So many good things to say about this book and what it does to my mind in terms of speculation of possibilities or connections for the next books. I have to re-read it before I'll get my brain to settle down and start to organise my thoughts in any sort of coherent manner.


In the meanwhile, a question that has been nagging me since SH: Rome:

Is the hammer itself based on the Project Thor / 'rods from God' stuff that Jerry Pournelle was involved in at Boeing in the late 1950s? I've always assumed it was, and have been looking for a sneaky mention of it somewhere.

I had thought the name Stalin's Hammer came from the nickname given to some of the Russian late-WW2 tanks - like the SU122 Tank Destroyer, etc... but that may be because I play WOT Blitz a bit too much.

I did like the Kinetic Energy Weapon as a choice of weapon for the Russians to build... Relatively cheap, and if your opponents have no real counter-strike, you would own the orbitals (and the planet).

Plus, I salute your choice to call it Stalin's Hammer, rather than Stalin's Rod

I loved the Stalin's Hammer novellas. Returning to this series again was like visiting old friends. I remember happening upon Dave and the Monsters in Dymocks last year and discovering that the first two Stalin's Hammer episodes were out. Man, busting with excitement.

Happened again earlier this week when I discovered Paris was out. I can't wait for 3.1.

One thing that's bugged me since I first picked up Weapons of Choice: you predicted Hillary Clinton's Presidency about twelve years beforehand. How, and can I get tonight's Powerball numbers?

Off topic. While I was swapping books between devices "Brave Ones" popped up as a recommendation for a couple of bucks. Just starting it and interested in the historical context of the Indo leadership's hubris and sheer brutality. Could be interesting in 3.1 to see Indo leadership being brutal against commie insurgents, having learned such stuff from the Japanese.
Anyway, back to East Timor.

Best bit for me - and admittedly - I am pretty slow, was that I never saw 3.1 coming until the final fifth of the book. And then it was like.... Damn! Why didn't I see that coming?
And somewhere down the line JB, do go Inside Sports Ball into story structure. Because the way these novellas fitted together, and escalated was bad-arse.

Loved it. I see the link with Disappearance a real possibility and who knows - if Dave needs explanation ever you can certainly blame the uptimers, But I also see an homage to Red Storm Rising if you want to nod to Tom C

For everyone that is expecting a Red Tide Rising redux ... Fuck that.

It isn't the 80's in our world.

What we are going to have is a 1950's world with whatever uptime shit that the powers that be determine can be weaponized in the their now ... per JB's imagination.

Did some nerd boy at the pentagon with access to future literature get all exciited about the mtorcycles killing tanks like I did when readindint RTR? Don't know. But I hope so.

What I do expect is that it is going to be uglier than anyone could think. I expect there will be chemicals, biological, and, yes, nukes. Plus, there will be orbital, kinetic strikes from orbit. It will be horrific.war as we haven't known.

I know JB wants to wrap it up in 2 books ... but I expect that it will expand beyond that. It will take on a life of its own. Fuck, the chapters with Rhino's Banshees with Havok doing the atrocities will take most of the second book. Just the descriptions of Havok carving the Southern Cross into the skins of ambushed Soviet scouts will take pages upon pages. Can you imagine? The combined tactical genius of Rhino combined with the ferocity of Havock? The mind boggles.

Besides that, you have the minor characters that Birmo has brought along. Halabi, Kolhammer, the return of Dan. Whatever. Sure, I wanna see them. OK. I'm dying for that but I'm not going to admit it.

RTR is a band or algal bloom

Slim Jim remains my favourite reprobate, albeit a gold-plated one.

Thoroughly enjoyed Paris and the two predecessors. However, I think think the short formats prevent JB from exploring the temporal conflict between the 1950s and the 2020s as well as was possible in the previous full length novels.

Really looking for ward to the new novels which will give him the space to go to town. The beauty of the original AoT trilogy was in the detail. The mutual incomprehension of the time travellers and the 'temps' was hugely entertaining and there's room for so much more. That's a hint BTW - I hope we get more than a mere two new books. This is a fascinating universe and I want to see much more of it.

Loved it, while the whole short story format is a draw back as it feels the good chewy stuff from a story is missing. Glad to hear its back to big books after this. These 3 hammers have got me some pumped for ww3

Something tells me old crazy uncle stalin is still not happy that the glorious USSR didnt survive in the Uptime Timeline. Reckon ww3 is just going to be a scorched earth conflict to cover his true intent. Redoing the wormhole experiment to send soviets back with plans and data to ensure soviets power is absolute.

I [pit off reading Stalins Hammer : Cairo and Stalins Hammer; Paris until I reread the Axis of Time trilogy and Stalins Hammer:Rome again.

Best idea ever, and man I loved the whole thing. Cairo built on Rome, and then Paris built on that, and all I can say is WOW!!!!!!!!.

Looking fowrad to the next book.........

Some questions I'd love to see answered with the new books—

So Alan Turing is in California based on previous threads. Grace Hopper is tenure-track at Vassar but hadn't applied for a commission before the Transition; what's she doing in 1955? How do the institutions in Massachusetts stay relevant when California seems to be getting a big leg up with the Zone?

On the Russian side, who is Leon Theremin working for now? (Or did Stalin decide to forget about the rehabilitation?)

Hi all
Thanks JB, thoroughly enjoyed it, thanks for the discount.
Just got to wait now.................

Thanks John. It really made my weekend.

All keyed up and drooling for the next paper based AoT novels when you drop them. I might be a tech head, but until high quality e-ink rolls out I still need a paper-back in my hands on the bus.

It was a very pleasant surprise to get that email Friday night John. Many thanks for that. Appropriate review already posted.

JB you magnificent bastard!

Sat down after my morning session and checked my email, downloaded, read, whilst not moving from my coffee. The coffee minions brought me a second one because I hadn't moved.

Had to go and train to calm down.

Appropriate review follows.

If anyone deems his or herself worthy of being a minion of The Burger ... they will click that link, procure the explodey goodness, leave an appropriate 5-star review, and ensure that they do not suffer the wrath of The Rhino.

It has been a few years since I've been forced to unleash furious and righteous anger on this here site ... so, I'm a little pent up.

Please, help me to help you.

Easiest 5 star I ever gave. On Amazon.de :p
I've read a lot of fiction, manly military kind. And JB writes the best soloist action especially when it comes to personal combat. Only Myke Cole comes close.

I mean: the best action. What this other word is doing there, I have absolutely no idea :)

Dropping the five star, 'back to the front' review was satisfying , but convincing a few blokes in the lunchroom to read the series was really satisfying.

I tried to resist, because I'm studying. But a bargain is a bargain.

Downloaded it the moment your email arrived, thanks. Will start on it as soon as possible.

Btw, you would've enjoyed Tim Winton in Sydney last night. An audience member asked him about his favourite reads and authors, and he said ... well, that's not important, but I reckon you would've enjoyed his talk anyway :-)

ok, review posted, brain exhausted from all the thinky

Enjoyed, partied at a wedding , posted review then enjoyed again. With visions of WW 3.1 dancing in my skull...

Finally posted the review after a beer reward.

Christ, I was wondering what all the spam email I receiving was about.

:)

I just read Paris in one sitting. Please open the discussion thread soon. I want to gloat over a prediction I correctly made several months back :)

JB, thanks for the discount and the freebie for Cairo - have a bit of catchup reading to do. From the comments so far (and past experience) am looking forward to it!

Aaargh, you mongrel!
Read it one sitting then reviewed it just now on Amazon.
Can't wait for 3.1.
Come on, pull your finger out!

John, loved the book so much and just couldn't put it done, Having the old characters back was brilliant and felt like I was reading about old friends.

I started reading your books ten years ago and they were my first foray into fiction after seven gruelling years of uni and promising myself I would never read again :)) Every book has been a delight and I am so excited about WW3.1.
Cheers,
Peter Laurence

How do I buy this. It says there are no options in my region.
Also I don't have a Kindle.

Thanks

Keith

I think what would happen is all the easy stuff would be invented. Meaning the crazes that we all thought, "Why didn't we think of that"

Reality TV. Some form of Facebook on a primitive internet.

Political Parties devoted to, "just cuz you say the future means we need to do this policy, screw you future progressives, we're keeping it going THIS way!" Instead of left wing right wing, it would be TEMP vs 21.

I've been thinking about the rise of religious fundamentalism.

Would post-emergence culture be more or less religious? Would they have the stark Christian vs Islam semi-divide that we have now? Would Israel exist in the form we have today?

I don't really have any answers to these questions... maybe someone else does?

Would they be transitioning to a carbonless economy? Maybe advanced solar panel are beyond their reach to start but wind and tidal are pretty much mechanical devices already in use. Would they say no to nuclear or go down the path of more than ever?
Given the Soviet Union is becoming China will capitalism just keep on going despite signs today that we should be doing something different? Will there be some sort of socialist capitalism model that doesn't end in the ever widening gap between rich and poor? Will there be a 1% or will that just be Slim Jim?
What happened to other wars that would have occurred already ie Korea, or starting soon ie Vietnam? Didn't happen or subsumed into WW3.

I expect that the English people will look at history and fear for their post world war 2 social welfare /national health model of economics as dead in the water. But this might only bring the left to ferment earlier than the Thatcher/neo con agenda of the 80s and 90s. They might actually do some fighting in the streets and Pete Townsend wont need to write 'wont get fooled again'.

Also pete townsend might get influenced by the likes of Millions of Dead cops and Black Flag and bring hardcore punk rock to the 60s, instead of RnB.

Crustie punks organising raves and house music in the 50s and 60s would be a fun idea too.

Corduroy might not make an appearance in the fashion world. (thank Christ for that)

Vaccines, birth control, anti-biotics, big pharma! Some of which leads us through to earlier women's lib, better management of superbugs, 3rd world population issues and designer drugs (cf Rob's 50s & 60s raves).

I'm seeing a rush for raw materials. I believe there are only three major lithium mines in the world, all in South America. I'd definitely be trying to own them to control the development of batteries and therefore portable devices. The battle for Australia's natural resources, including uranium, could get ugly with China on the doorstep and no big brother with a nuclear bomb to back us up.

I suspect there would be a big push from many sides of the political spectrum to make all uptime tech and ideas non patentable and non-copyrightable.

There endeth Slim Jim's empire.

I say that because any attempt to copyright/patent uptime tech invalidates itself by prior art. And there would be lots of vested interests that want that tech but don't want to have to pay for it.

So I'd imagine that for a while, it would be a free for all in which everything in a non copyrightable knock-off. Essentially it would be the 50s on steroids in the 50s.

And then you would start to see the glimmer of new 21C tech which would be the real gold.

It's got me wondering about the British Empire.

Would it break up the way it did? I think the British might have learned some uptime lessons and would have pushed for a more Federal form of the Commonwealth of Nations and hopefully have handled self-rule devolution better than in our timeline.

And Palestine/Israel is a whole 'nother level of septic mess. Not forgetting Lebanon, which in the 50's was a tourist hotspot. And with a divided France would North Africa even be a French concern?

And what has happened to the big C21 items by then? They wouldn't have been able to maintain the Havoc or Trident at a C21 level of capability, eventually something vital would go sprung that they could not repair/replace.


North Atlantic - the better sensors developed from C21 would make the G-I-UK gap a killing ground if the Sovs tried to force it. Especially with the leap the Havoc gave the sub designers, which the Sovs didn't get.

With that big a Soviet penetration post WW2.3 all the European continental and British governments would probably embrace a larger Reserve/Militia model than our timeline. Possible something along the lines of the Swiss model, but with a lot more man portable anti- armour.

Australia would be booming even more than it did in out timeline. They know where the major resources are. There would be even more post war European migration. Can't see the white Australia policy being repealed. If they're smart, massive constriction aid to Indonesia and assisting Damiri to consolidate his authority.

So many good ideas!

The thing about the British is our inate conservatism which combines with a surprising tolerance and liberalism. This is at our best, of course. Unfortunately we can do bigotry as well.

British history is a story of evolution rather than revolution. We change, but we do it at arelatively gentle pace. This is why we avoided the revolutionary excesses of France and the continent.

The interesting issue here is how the arrival of thousands of time travellers from the 21st Century would affect the evolutionary process.

Personally I think the pragmatists would realise that all was up withe the Empire as it stood - plenty of people realised this even at the time. The future would lie in forging partnerships with the USA, Australasia and other like minded countries, while offering the rest of the Empire independence, although trying to manage the process to maintain stability.

Britain would recognise that they were the one European power able to join America in forging the future. Germany was bombed and defeated, while France is partially occupied.

A world will emerge with the west dominated to a much greater extent by the "Anglosphere" than in OTL. It's the English speaking world against the communists.

Socialism as we knew it in the post war decades would have its credibility largely removed when people saw the record of what would have happened (stagnation, strikes, etc). Equally, the crusty Conservatism of the same period would be likely to give way much earlier to a Thatcherite free-market liberalism. Classless capitalism will emerge thirty years early, and the country would be much richer as a result, especially as continental European rivals would be less of a threat thanks to the new post-war map and Asian rivals occupied by the Russians.

Domestically we would see the rise of the teenager faster than happened in OTL. Also, the rise of (gasp) sex. The example of the uptimers would bring forward pressure to legalise homosexuality and abortion, the acceptance of pre-marital sex and loads of pornography circulating through the new technological platforms.

Evolution would come under strain as older people born in the reign of Queen Victoria come face to face with gay clubs and porn mags. A greatly exaggerated generation gap would be likely to develop.

Having said that, most of the rest of the world would happily swap their problems for those experienced by the British, Americans and Australians.

The social and religious effects could be really interesting to explore ... reaction to the Up-Timers could go in so many different ways.

Would Vatican II happen early? Or, happen at all? Could there be a schism within the Catholic Church over future events?

What would L. Ron Hubbard do, presented with future history concerning Scientology? What about all of the other aspiring prophets, gurus, etc. who have been handed blueprints on forming new religious movements?

Someone mentioned lithium mining, where a couple operations in South America currently dominate world supply due to cost of production. The Up-Timers would deliver information on *every* major mineral or oil discovery in the coming century, not to mention 21st century anti-submarine warfare technology that could be used to find other, previously undiscovered metallic ore deposits.

Industrial development is really difficult to predict ... entire industries might not develop as the UpTime information causes leap-frogging over intermediate stages ... from vacuum tubes to integrated circuits in one bound. Future information about health and environmental consequences might have an effect depending on social and economic pressures in particular countries. Asbestos might stay in the ground and electricity generation will look a lot different.

From a public health perspective, the late 1940's or 50's might be early enough to prevent or severely curtail the spread of HIV. Information about broad-spectrum antibiotics might curtail the development of antibiotic resistance, or advance widespread resistance a couple decades.

My 2-bits for modern utopia:
If you take research on what drives society, you will get a few parameters that have huge impacts.
1. Education/information
2. Power generation/consumption
3. Sanitation and Healthcare
4. Infrastructure & Housing
5. Political, Religious and economic organization
6. The ratio of primary (agriculture/mining), secondary (manufacturing) and tertiary (services) sectors in an economy
7. Technical advancements/science
8. Specific local factors & world politics

Ok maybe it's good to start with a baseline.
Let's meet Jan Modaal, your average European male in general, your average dutch male in particular. Born in 1910, Jan was 28 in 1938. As 80% of the population he was a christian, would have had 8 years of education between 6-14 (only 10% would have had a high-school degree or higher) and started to work as an apprentice at 15. After his two years of national service in 1928-1930, he married Truus, a local girl from more or less the same background he was.
He would be:
working for around 48 hours a week (mo-sa),
do some repairing chores at home or tend to his livestock in the evening,
Maybe after getting his week's wages on Friday go to the local watering hole (about one in 5 males were what we would describe as alcoholics), which could lead him to going fifty shades on Truus with his belt when he came home (domestic abuse was around 10%),
listen to the wireless, read a paper, or more rarely read a book from the local library, if it was not the bible he was into. Reading a book was rare. Mostly the doctor, the reverent/pastor, the notarial/real estate lawyer, your odd local nobleman/landowner or one or two local business tycoons did that. They were the only learned men in the community.
have three meals a day,
go to bed by 10 and fuck Truus three times a week, creating in his livespan on average 3-6 kids.
In the meantime, Truus would raise the kids, do the washing, cleaning, sowing, cooking, a little gardening, the shopping at the local butcher, baker and grocer (supermarkets were not invented yet over here), look after their parents who would be living on walking distance and be dead tired in the evening. But she was dependent so divorce was not an option. Also the social pressure of the time would keep her down. Before they were married, she had worked as a shop assistant, but was kicked out when she said "I do".
Weren't it not for the war Jan would have statistically lived to be around 64 (Truus to 66).
In September 1939 Jan was called up as an reservist, and was bored senseless in the Phoney war until April/May 1940. After a few days (in Holland)/weeks (rest of western Europe) of fighting he was a POW for a few weeks and send home afterwards. The Modaal family survived the war not being either in the resistance (about 1% was roughly 90.000 people in the Netherlands) or in some form of extreme right wing activity (also around 1%). Out of a population of around 9 million, around in our timeline around 205.000 didn't. For the most part those casualties were Jews (around 105.000), political prisoners (25.000 either shot or worked to death in camps), service men dying in action (15.000), bombingvictims or civilians caught in the crossfire (20.000) and those who starved in the Hungerwinter of 1944-45 (40.000).
Here the first change kicks in: being liberated totally in September 1944 without the destruction of for example Zealand and Arnhem instead of may 1945, would have resulted in around 50.000 less fatalities and even more wounded. Also Dutch infrastructure (Rotterdam harbor, dykes in the southwest) and factories wouldn't have been that hard hit.
So let's say we are in January 1945 and the following things happen:
1. Education/information
Disclosure of the Holocaust. This will lead to a more positive stance towards Israel.
Disclosure of abuse in clergy. This led to an accelerated loss of faith in the church and falling numbers of believers.
Shortening the workweek from 48 to 40 hours, highering the compulsory age of education from 15 to 18, with only a nominal tuition fee and introducing free but compulsory courses for the 18+ generation. Re-education keeps your workers-class occupied, gives them a chance to better themselves, and increases your international competitive edge.
2. Power generation/consumption
The Netherlands now knows 15 years early, it's sitting on the largest bubble of natural gas in Western Europe. So it will invest in harnessing that first, but at the same time renewing it's infrastructure and housing-stock to be prepared for the "Green Revolution". So the new burroughs in Holland, will be built for installing solar paneling by having roofs facing south, so that in 20-30 years time (around the 1970's oil crisis) you can upgrade very fast and cheaply. Infrastructural ducts built in the new streets and upgraded to those parts of the country worth saving, would make a fast outroling of natural gas piping (or block heating) and telecommunication also very cheap and fast for the future. Further gains would be made by building up an National electricity grid with a lot of spare capacity, and going from 110V to 220Volts 20 years ahead of time. This to make electricity production and distribution more efficient and less prone to malfunction.
3. Sanitation and Healthcare & 4. Infrastructure & Housing
Apart from the housing issue, the Dutch quickly improve their road (connecting them to the German Autobahns in the east, and similar schemes in Belgium in the south), rail and waterway infrastructure. Rotterdam, Vlissingen, Amsterdam en Delfzijl harbors are expanded en made ready for container shipping and for Reforger type troop movements. Extra land is created in the former Zuiderzee, by making not only the Flevopolders but also the Markerwaard ready for population and agriculture. The Flevopolders were ready in 1954, the Markerwaard will be in the early sixties. And that extra real estate is needed too with the baby-boom and migration.
Running water, the introduction of a National health insurance and a (abide watered down) National Pension Scheme did the rest to boost life expectancy from 64 before the war to well over 70 in the early fifties.
With the decline of the clergy, anti conception came available in 1950. Abortion, pornography and euthanasia were legalized in 1952, followed by prostitution and canabis in 1954. The growth of the latter was strictly state controlled but highly lucrative.
5. Political, Religious and economic organization and 6. The ratio of primary (agriculture/mining), secondary (manufacturing) and tertiary (services) sectors in an economy
In 1940 the ratio would have been 30% primary, 40% secondary, 30 percent tertiary.
With new technical insights and Marshall aid, production in agriculture increased 5 fold in only a couple of years. Secondary sectors were increased by buying up interesting parts of the German economy (shipbuilding and some aircraft production, Belgium beating them by buying up Mauser/Heckler&Koch for merger with Fabrique National and the Brits and to a lesser extant the French concentrating on buying strategic stakes in the nascent German auto industry).
This leading to full employment in 1948, the Dutch started to import cheap German, Spanish and displaced Italian and French workers. Moroccan, Turkish, Surinamese and Antillian migrants were no longer an option.
7. Technical advancements/science
With the liberation in 1944 a lot of patents and designs came available for the likes of Philips (electronics), Hollandse Signaal (radar), ASML (computing), Stork (enginering), Werkspoor/Holec (diesel and electric engines), DAF (cars and trucks), Fokker (airplanes), Organon (pharma), DSM and AKZO (chemicals) and Rijn-Schelde-Verolme shipping.
Futher investment in education and science helped to harness those patents and create the Dutch Wirtschaftswunder, surpassing even that of the German one.
The Soviets dumping household appliances (toasters, vacuum-cleaners, washing-machines) had a couple of effects though. Phillips would have gotten overrun by those cheap stuff and would more concentrating on electronics and medical systems, boosting research in those fields. And women's rights with a lightening of their workload would be springloaded too. Was Stalin a secret feminist, did he saw this as a way to destabilize the west or was this just lucky?
8. Specific local factors & world politics
8a. Indonesia:
The Dutch are furious about the loss of Indonesia. In an intricate game of good cop (Kollhammer and the Australian government) vs. bad cop (Prince Bernhard and foreign ministers Stikker and Luns) Moertopo got a choice: pay silver in the form of
a. only partial nationalization of Dutch assets in Indonesia (for ex. Royal Dutch (oil), Biliton (mining), and cash crops and spices) and getting Dutch assistance/know-how to build up infrastructure and production capacity. Indonesian markets would stay open for Dutch imports to, the Dutch taking care also for distribution of Indonesian products in Europe.
b. paying out a billion dollars a year to the Dutch government for a period of 25 years.
c. being rearmed and trained by the Dutch government at Indonesia's expense with surplus WW2 weaponry at first and watered down modern equipment in the early fifties
d. granting independence to the Mollucas, Eastern Timor (Portugese) and Papua (the latter as a whole would become an Australian dependency).
or face an full scale invasion like that in 1946, which would have cost Indonesia at least a 100.000 casualties.
Moertopo, the pragmatist, chose to pay. As extra insurance the Dutch found and captured 2 out of the 3 main rivals to Moertopo, namely Soekarno and Hatta. They are put on trail for their role in the Japanese occupation and given life sentences at her majesties pleasure and shipped of to a penal colony in Surinam. Every time Moertopo complains about the silver, he's asked if he thinks amnesty for those two would make for an nice Christmas gift ...
8b. Supplying Israel
Ever the trading nation, but feeling having a debt to Israel for having aided in the deportation and killing of over a 100.000 of their kin, the Dutch decided to help build up the place. Making a small profit on the side wasn't frowned upon either.
Dutch agents all over the world scowered up surplus German, US and UK made arms, shipped them home, refurbished them and send them with ammo and spare parts straight to Tel Aviv and Eilat harbors. Israeli military personnel was also trained in the Netherlands and the Israeli arms and electronic industries given a shot in the arm by Dutch investment.
8.c Europe
Seeing it could not go back to its neutral past, the Netherlands became one of the founding members of NATO in 1945. A breakthrough was the formation of the combined Benelux navy in 1949 latter also incorporating the German North Sea squadron. The Dutch, Belgian and nascent Luxembourgian Air Force also work closely together especially on training issues. And the Dutch arms-, shipping and aviation industry with the lack of German, Italian and partly French competition is booming.
It also was part of the first group of European Community of Coal and Steel in 1946 and the subsequent European Free trade zone of 1947. The Dutch are in favor of even bigger steps, proposing a European Union in 1960. Though in favor of it, Churchill and to an lesser extant De Gaulle are dragging their feet about it, fearing a loss of influence.

Hmmm did I leave some stuff out?

Came to post the same thing about resorces in Aust. There'd be a minerals rush on all over Oz, and then hangover when state governments say "use it or lose it". Big money lost/made.
Plus all the o&g fields would be slated for development, but probably in a more orderly fashion due to technical difficulties in getting NW shelf & other offshore deposits up.
What about Aust/Nz troops in sth Japan? ANZAC - Honushu Plain?

It's perhaps only a small thing, but I'd really like to see Alan Turing NOT being hounded to an early death by the British authorities on account of his homosexuality. Maybe the more liberal attitudes the Uptimers bring with them could alter the Establishment's behaviour sufficiently such that this doesn't happen? He could then go on to found an ARM-equivalent a few decades earlier than happened in our time.

There are many, many places in the 40's/50's US that are not going to welcome these godless, immoral uptimers with open arms. i would expect that there would be a tremendous amount of backlash against a lot of the societal changes ... so much so, that the riots of the 60's will look like play time in comparison.

The children of the 60's were raised by parents born after the depression. They saw the birth of the juggernaut of the American Dream and lived much easier lives than those of their parents and were probably more open to the next level of evolution in society in the 60's. Since all of these societal changes are moved forward by a decade and a half, AND, exponentially disruptive as they are not arising organically, PLUS the young adults of the WW3.1 world were raised by adults whose formative years were spent during the great depression EQUALS massive cultural frisson.

I could see a very real threat to the cohesion of the union.

I think Hollywood will at first have a field day with the movie possibilities that can be made, but then will balloon and oversaturate the market quickly. Stalin, of course, will not be outdone and will try to export movies of his own (remember, he hated John Wayne with a vengeance). Something along the lines of East German cowboy movies that portrayed the Native Americans in a more positive light vis-a-vis imperialism.

Sports will become a great industry. Jerseys will sell like hotcakes. Will there be a Champions League? There must. The Soviets may have a Fraternal Nations League as well. Will basketball go worldwide?

Video games? World at War type of stuff? Flight emulation? Sports simulation? Massive online RPGs?

Literature? More sci-fi. More alt-history even in mainstream books. Books dealing with the aftermath of the war and the Transition. Probably less Tolkien-esque stuff.

One has to wonder what would happen with the Civil Rights Movement.

It is all too easy to see a contemporary like Martin Luther King Junior reading about what happened after his death and perhaps coming to a different conclusion about how the Jim Crow South should be handled. Or if he doesn't, someone else might.

Feminism, what happens there? Do Second Generation and Third Generation Feminists take one look at 2021 hastag Victim Culture and have a great, "What the Fuck?" moment?

Gender identity. They'll have a hard enough time dealing with the acceptance of a homosexual male or female. How will they handle transgendered?

Apparently we do not have the ability to build paragraphs anymore at the Burger. Separate posts it is then. Suburban Sprawl, something Kansas City suffers from. Does it pick up pace as a result of the realization that things like school desegregation are going to become a fact of life? Do city's sprawl outwards even faster, leaving the central cores a wasteland of the impoverished? How do city planners and managers handle that issue?

In short, I see far less cultural and national unity in a post-Transition United States circa mid 1950s than was originally the case in our own timeline. It will also be far more difficult to paperover such issues with propaganda as was possible in the original timeline.

One final point, and relevant to the present day. Do Americans trust their government? In the original timeline there was a reasonable amount of trust for the Federal Government. After they learn about Nixon, McNamara, and a host of other issues, will that trust remain?

I think the leaders of the United States are going to have a very chaotic, hot mess on their hands stateside. Their military woes will be the least of their concerns.

I wonder if there might not be an earlier space race, but this time based on grabbing lunar and asteroid resources we now know exist but didn't back in the original timeline instead of science and national prestige.

In daily life and in culture:

In music: maybe to early for a miniMoog, but some instruments will have hit the market: peddle steel guitar, the Les Paul would go into production in 1961, but that could be advanced, as would the ES-355TD (yep that's Lucille). Elvis started taking off in 55, but he could use a fitness regime. Does Gina de Marco still have room for extra curricular activities? I think it would be to early for either Booker T. Jones & the MG's, the Beatles or the Stones (middle teens). Cash was just out off the service in Germany, so he could be starting, as would Muddy Waters. The BeeGees started their first group in 55 (and at ages 9 they could reach the notes in Staying Alive quite nicely I think).

Books: Ernest Hemingway should stay out of bushplanes this time around, and have some psycho treatment. Jim Henson made his first Kermit the Frog: @Havoc fast track the Muppets?

On stuff: shame Turin is Russian now; it's the home of espresso machines. 55 was the year Macdonalds started, I would go for a chain of Starbucks or a kindred brand of coffee shop. And a more healthy drivethru

FKN CAPS LOCK will come in FKN FASTER TOO! I reckon!

well given the events of Stalin's Hammer is suspect Space is well and truly raced -and sadly given conflict on earth i suspect will be at the back for resources -having said that someone will be trying to replicate the wormhole experiment (however misguided) and I'm assuming it does spatial as well as temporal displacement - it may have been a MacGuffin for the books but for the people of AoT its really and needs to be explored. I always fancied the idea of a boomer ending up in orbit- sub would make an excellent deep space craft once engines and a few things were added.

Hollywood wise would cue on Capture Von Braun! People want flesh and blood movie stars - so what if Clooney was a great draw uptime, he don't exist here- and alot of the movies / media the uptimers brought back would play like fantasy - "the wire" is no longer a drama about real life social decay but a fantest about a world that might never exist. Where as "The Rise and Rise of thin James" starring Humprey Bogart as the worlds biggest entrepreneur opposite Lana Turner would be far more real. (and I'd love to hear bogey narrate the slim jim like V.O. about BJ's ).

hate to say it... but the PORN Industry will go FKN NUTS

On Human Sexuality: The up-timers bring a lot of things with them to the past the directly and indirectly impact this area.

The big tangibles are Birth Control, The massive porn collections that would have come back on the personal devices, and the medical solutions to many STD’s.

The big intangibles are The philosophies that women now hold about being in charge of their own sexuality and pleasure, the mindsets that result from exposure to the internets 24/7 hot and cold running porn, all the social inclusionary thinking that evolved regarding homosexuality, transgender, and so forth perspectives.

And there are multitudes of small tangibles and intangibles also.

All of these would have an effect on the past.

I’ll pull one example: The effect of the existence of the web on sexual development.

The internet solved one of the core issues that most humans feel about their sexuality “Am I the only person who feels this way?” Very early on fetish communities spawned and people who once grew up isolated and having to work out how they felt alone (taking years and decades sometimes) suddenly had a tribe of like minded folks to share and learn from. This ‘normalized’ a huge number of fetish (really paraphilia but the bastardized meaning of fetish is what everyone uses now) behaviors and allowed many people to just be more comfortable in their own likes. These stable communities in turn became the first stop for young teens just exploring their own starting sexualities, and finding there are others with feeling that match that came before and gaining a normalized perspective earlier and thus advancing their own sexual wellness by years. They start having GOOD sex lives sooner, and that in turn gives them more room to explore, and the liberalization of sexual outlooks builds. The porn archives brought back will be massive. Odds are just one person with an unusual fetish will have hundreds of media about it on a personal device will be common. These collections will form the center of dozens of sexual communities on the new internet of the 50’s.

The internet tends to destroy some sexual taboos: Let’s say a nude polaroid of a female classmate got loose in 1983. The trauma of it would be massive to the young lady. Life changing. It would be a BIG DEAL, and be the scandal of the school for months. Flash forward to now, and while a young woman might be embarrassed horridly if a nude was pictured on line, it also sinks into “There are a trillion other nudes on the web, who cares?” too. Heck, many young women post such images of themselves without a thought. The nudity taboo in America is being slow degraded by the web.

Just the fact that there is a boatload of porn that shows people enjoying themselves doing X, Y, and Z will lead people to ‘try’ that. When the Joy of Sex was published in the 70’s it introduced people to ideas they had never encountered, or thought were too taboo to ever discuss with a partner. And emboldened them to try. The future porn and other media will do the same.

The fact that birth control that is safe and effective and that drugs exist to deal with any 50’s STD cannot be underestimated as these two things were the foundation stones of the 60’s and 70’s sexual revolutions. Availability will be the key issue here, as laws restricting sales of contraceptives were (from todays perspective) backwards to an amazing degree in the US of the 50’s. But some company is gonna want that sweet birth control market.

The impact on the culture will be massive and very much a flash point. The huge majority of the population will quietly absorb the lessons and impact and become more liberal as they see how that line of thinking works for them surrounding their own sexuality. But cultural power nodes (The Church, Government institutions, so forth)will be threatened on the public levels as they will see how all this undercuts them in the future and will try to stop it now. Morality police will be recruiting big time. Slut Shaming in the new 50’s will make todays version look like kindergarten,and so forth. The war on sex will polarize into Us vs Them much faster, and be in of those core questions that people have to answer as to where they come down on. (Most will say ‘Us’ in public, but be a ‘Them’ in private)

Our sexual revolution was not the smoothest one, but it was somewhat orderly and managed to absorb each new thing as it came and move forward. Dumping the entire load on a culture at once males it… difficult. It’s not a sexual revolution but a sexual civil war.

Hef and Playboy will never happen. Playboy was a happy accident that grew out of Hef’s ability to exploit that first nude of Miss Monroe and mate his progressive outlook of lifestyle to it and grow with the changing (slowly) climate of America. The climate will be totally different, and the field will be crowded. Playboy was just one of dozens of mens magazines of it’s day. It won. But in the New 50’s How many of those others might snag a nude of a major female celebrity? With a lot of uptime tech loose, someone would use it to get such shots. And of course people being people would make their own for private use and they would get loose (see the ‘fappening’ from a few years back) (New 50’s hacking culture would be a weird and fun thing to see, but we digress) Playboy would face long odds. Though Hef might see a path.

This has gotten too long. But sexuality and culture are in my wheelhouse of knowledge. I can say much more.

I prob can't add anything useful but it's bloody interesting reading. If i could put my hand up to push little markers around a table with a long stick i'll be happy.
i can't remember in the books (and haven't read the latest one - soz! Should refresh my memory and fix up the current situation) if recreational drug cartels around the world were mentioned. Drugs played a bit part in the sixties. All that stuff from its part in the revolution to how to make it (or its constituent parts) - including all the information about south america/afganistan etc would be there for the picking. Do the US try and crack down on it straight away, try and fix any mistakes or just make the same ones as before? Does someone just go straight into production knowing the greed for it? Does everyone just go into production! Due to the schism of uptimers/downtimers drugs would seem to be a desirable commodity - probably by everyone. Uptimers still depressed about dislocation and downtimers needing escape from current events

Love it JB, like the old days where we battered ideas around till the moved through silly, past counterintuitive into Hmmm.

Wouldn't there be a run on keeping colonization of African nations a thing? You will need a lot of resources like rare earth metals, so the powers that be would want to hold on to territories like of, oh, say South African (hello diamonds).

It's a continent with major resources and little opposition... Maybee the proxy wars will be fought there instead of Korea/Vietnam/etc.

I think Joe makes a good point about Los Angeles, London and Sydney being islands of 21st Century tolerance (or vice, depending on your point of view). Even today there's a noticeable gap between liberal London and many other parts of the UK. It would likely to much greater in the 1950s following the arrival of the Uptimers, and greater still between a hip and happening LA and small town America, where the local preachers would no doubt be calling for a Crusade.

I think Joe makes a good point about Los Angeles, London and Sydney being islands of 21st Century tolerance (or vice, depending on your point of view). Even today there's a noticeable gap between liberal London and many other parts of the UK. It would likely to much greater in the 1950s following the arrival of the Uptimers, and greater still between a hip and happening LA and small town America, where the local preachers would no doubt be calling for a Crusade.

I see a 1950's America where a lot of big shocks and little changes add up to a world of difference.

First, though, let me try out this paragraph code thing to see if it works.

Alright, have the paragraph code thing under control.

Yes, I certainly think there will be a large conservative backlash by people who are not exactly enamored with some of the cultural changes that the future brings (some fears would be reasonable, some not). However, some things (like effective contraception) will not be able to be withstood- with all the changes that will flow from that. Also, people in small town America are not necessarily the cultural cro-magnons some portray us to be, and people will roll with the changes with more equanimity than might otherwise be perceived as the case- especially with a yearly crop of conscripts processing into the newly integrated US military who will bring home the idea that minorities and women are not as inferior, etc. as some of their elders say.

I think for the average Joe that life will be an array of new consumer choices, medical advancements, and sometimes confusing juxtapositions of cultural and gender roles. Some things will happen slowly (like Alice maybe being a little less willing to accept the fact that her husband is lord and master of the house), other things will be fast (Little Louise saves up her allowance to buy a Soviet Workingman's Friend CD player and gets the most awesome recording of Back in Black).

What will be interesting is the acceleration of some trends (race relations and the tech society), and possibly the retardation of others (urban decay, reliance on the House of Saud)

As previously stated by others, the world will be awash in data pertaining to mineral resources- countries like the US, Holland, etc. will know they are sitting on oceans of hydrocarbons. At the same time, the technology to maximize the efficient use of said resources will be there, as well as solar, wind, etc. Who knows, maybe we would blaze a better path being forewarned and forearmed. People being people, though, it's much more likely that a path somewhere between wild incompetence, greed, and genius will be walked down.

That is, if the Soviets and their head maniac in chief doesn't destroy the world first. For that problem, we need to remember the most important fact- without security, there can be no liberty.

And oh yes, very important, people know that wormhole manipulation and time travel are possible! Think about what the Soviets could do with that- with all of old Joe's ravings about "history reversing itself, the dialectic setting things right" etc, they surely have their best minds and resources working on the issue. Imagine a Soviet FTL ship, or Spetsnaz time travelers. Holy crap.

I've been giving this too much thought (once again) and I am wondering about the psychological effect the time travellers and the glimpse into the future would have had. I can't help thinking about monstrous death cults emerging to avoid some of, what would be seen as, abominations happening on thr future. One look at the future of sport would probably set the KKK on a mission to destroy the planet.

Keep in mind the parable about the frog -- the one that boils to death because it doesn't notice the gradual increase in the heat of the water.

People not only get a glimpse of the future, but they now know that -time can be changed-.

In other words, they know what's coming... but they also know there's no reason they shouldn't change the outcome if they don't want it.

And in 1942, there would be a lot of people besides Stalin who wouldn't want it.

I would think, in order for Kolhammer and crew to get the future they'd prefer, they would have to use The Quiet Room and other assets to engineer that future. That would mean having what is essentially a military organization meddling in social engineering in the civilian world.


Does that mean that Kolhammer ends up funneling money, resources, and assets into civil rights organizations? And does he have The Quiet Room running smear ops and targeted hits on folks like George Wallace? I'd think things would get pretty bloody pretty fast.

I would think, in order for Kolhammer and crew to get the future they'd prefer, they would have to use The Quiet Room and other assets to engineer that future. That would mean having what is essentially a military organization meddling in social engineering in the civilian world.


Does that mean that Kolhammer ends up funneling money, resources, and assets into civil rights organizations? And does he have The Quiet Room running smear ops and targeted hits on folks like George Wallace? I'd think things would get pretty bloody pretty fast.

Okay JB, I've been patient and played nice and I understand the need to produce quality work but...

I am leaving for New York on Monday and I have planned to work through Rome Cairo and Paris during the wonderfully long flight. You can see the bug in the plan I am sure.

Would Kohlhammer and the Uptimers, having the knowledge of the US gov't doing studies and experiments without consent on soldiers and citizens, allow that? Yes, it would help fight the Sovs, but at what human cost?


I am talking specifically about stuff like Operation Top Hat, MKUltra, Operation Sea-Spray and the likes.

Brought this yesterday, and am looking forward to reading it, but first rereading the whole series again, just about finished Final Impact.(AOT great series and every time I read it I pick up more detail.)

As godfather and main culpret of this let me kick off then:
Lets start with the West German Army of as they call it Das Heer der Bundeswehr

"... By March 1954 the Blank Office had finished plans for a new German army. Plans foresaw the formation of six infantry, four armoured, and two mechanised infantry divisions, as the German contribution to the defense of Western Europe in the framework of a European Defence Community." quote from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_Army

As every good book needs colorful characters, let me propose this guy as one of the corps commanders: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyacinth_Graf_Strachwitz . Okay JB: It's a guy with kinda lot of letters in his name but his nickname was "Der Panzergraf - the tank count"

Here's an interesting guy who could be written in as a German character: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joachim_Boosfeld. I'll give this some more thought later, gotta go to work.

Need to know:

1. What year is the invasion?
2. What are the available forces, conventional and nuclear, to both sides?
3. What are the available tactical nuke forces, if any, to either or both sides.
4. How great is the West's edge in armor and air tech?

It's a fun challenge but there are a lot of moving parts.

Also, we need to know how the Ruskies were able to penetrate the alps with such apparent ease. Anyone familiar with norther Italy and the southwestern French border will know that it is not armor friendly country by any stretch. Any stretch at all.

God, U.S. Army Doctrine was such a tangled mess during the 1950s and 1960s. Ike's thinking was to cut back on conventional forces, relying instead on the nuclear deterrent to dissuade the Soviets. This change led to the end of Regimental Combat Teams, replacing them with these weird battalion sized Battle Groups. Colonel David Hackworth wrote about those in his memoirs.

I think someone would have to stop all of that before it happened, since we reinvented RCTs with the Brigade Combat Teams of the last decade.

Thus, first and foremost, you'd need tanks. The Abrams is a battle proven design that would be limited only by the availability of turbine engines. Tanks like the Leopard II and the South Korean K-2 get around that with fairly powerful diesel tanks generating equivalent power.

So, toss the Abrams into the tool kit. It should be easy enough to build a rudimentary M-1A1 model given what the uptimers bring with them.

Go Bradley or not? The Bradley is a good IFV but it has proven to be too heavy for a lot of situations. It'd probably be better to go with something like a Stryker/ASLAV unit. I'd start building those in their infinite variations, that'll give Ike some of the savings he is looking for by creating a common family of vehicles.

We had AH-1 Cobras, UH-1 Hueys, and a rudimentary CH-47 for Final Impact. Upgrade those as well.

Thus a typical building block would probably consist of a Regimental or Brigade Combat Team. Since we're in Europe that needs to be Armor Heavy, two armor battalions for every one infantry battalion. Three brigades per armored or infantry division, slap in at least two artillery battalions (tube 155, towed or not, tracked or wheeled). A cavalry squadron on the ground, plus an aviation brigade. Throw in a Main Support Battalion, a Chemical Company, an MI battalion, an MP company, and a Signal Battalion.

How many divisions? Depends on what you want American Foreign and Military policy to reflect. Want to save money for domestic needs and rely on nukes? Let us say maybe two U.S. Army Divisions. There are plenty to pick from. Want to be more robust and not repeat the mistakes of the previous timeline? Maybe ten divisions in two Corps sized elements forming Third U.S. Army.

You'd need special assets. I'd ramp up the creation of a U.S. Army Ranger Regiment much sooner, plus moving forward with the creation of SOCOM. Then you could start pipelining those from the 82nd Airborne and 101st Airborne into those schools for more commandos/special operators.

I'd dump vertical envelopment doctrine and instead focus on heliborne troop movement doctrine instead.

As for the individual soldier himself? I have a feeling a lot of folks are going to study up on the M-16/M-4 and decide they don't want to go down that road. They may instead go for an updated M-14 with composite components replacing the wood stock. A rail system to mount all of the usual goodies on it would be a good way to go as well.

Body armor, helmet, smart googles of some type, radio comms pushed down to the individual level, and multicam style fatigues.

Those are a few suggestions for the U.S. Army.

I put paragraphs into my above post but I guess they got whisked out.

Drool .. teasers like this are going to kill some of us John.

A good place to start would be seeing a map of JB's vision for the division of post-war Germany. Remember in Final Impact how the Reds were mostly held out of Germany by a concerted chemical warfare effort by the SS? How much of Germany does the Red Army hold? How big is the "dead zone" that was impacted by the weaponized anthrax, radiation, etc.?

i can't remember if anything like this is included anywhere in the canon:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CrJtw0kXgAAhVy6.jpg
the Canadian representative signing on the wrong line making everyone subsequently sign below. Resulting in crossing out etc. Man, what a mess for such an important document. . .

Better clarify a few things. 3.1 are you talking EUROPE, and Centcom, Northcom and southcom ( ItalY) etc?

I need to check but where is NATO at this point ion time.

Also guys remember we are talking AoT WW3.1 NOT the normal time line.

As for the M1A1 its a piece of shit! thats a fkn log nightmare does not do SMOKE and has a poxy wading depth too. Drive a fkn gas turbine into water a see what happens. Its got a fkn IR heat bloom the size of fkn KNNSAS from the rear BTW. JET EXHAUSTS DO THAT!

Id be thinking maybe tech has allowed the M60 to be present, perhaps with a 120mm or 105mm, Rhinementanl unit??. ( me typing is shit but I am also trying to work) or perhaps they have integrated the Chiefton into current tech... MORE LATER!


MLRS....would they have adopted Strike Deep, second echelon attacks etc. I think ATGMs will be FKN RIFE! for the Allies! massive defensive capabilities and mobile. remember that supression tech will not be as advanced as Offensive tech for their type I think!...fkn could be wrong too!

I'm perched in the back row of a school play. Not the best place to ponder these important questions.

Could always write in David Hackworth as a young up n coming officer...... he started his career stationed in Italy just after ww2

TLAMS with Cluster munitions and SKEET type Anti tank forged penetrator bomblets. Maybe from Arsenal type battery ships off the coast line. Nato or what ever its going to be called will not have its space to trade for time and REFORGER will not be fast enough. I see the UK as being the primary stocking base. t SOSUS and the GIUK GAP..SOv subs. Europe and Britan will need to be resup.

Orbat for Russia will be in the order of the following:

Western theatre: 70+ Divisions
20K Tanks or more
A/Craft 5K
Mortars / Arty 20K plus pieces

Strategic reserves: well thats gunna be BIG 20 plus Divisions

Think at least 20 Divisions
Nth west ( Sweden etc. 15 Div or more
Ship and surface fleet numbers...not so sure. I think the Sovs will go for Naval Aviation BIG TIME. Backfires and Blinders and look for early versions of the MIG 25 Foxbat and Fox Hound too. Maybe a low level job like the Fencer Su 24.

Expect that Scotland will be turned into a Fortress, same for Iceland too....is that still in the Allies hands. I have a feeling it was lost?

the thing is i suspect that a lot of aviation assets will look really "soviet" on both sides - ie big engines, clunky and lots of rough bolts (spent afternoon once walking round a Latvian aviation museum - hard to believe a MIG 25 Foxbat could actually go mach 3 with its rough edges) any how I degress. I'd be interested to see how the pacific war goes - Stalin could use it as a spoiler op to stretch the US. So much so that maybe they have to sortie the Clinton in whatever state she's in...
it will prob have a very early seventies feel to the war (which tends not to be very much "wargamed" )with what i'd call semi precision munitions.

Everyone is overlooking the obvious. I'm naturally assuming there will be a Sgt Rhino and his Banshee Commandos wreaking havoc.

Stalin might be well served by sitting down with his Admirals and coming up with a better Navy. It doesn't have to be as good as the U.S. Navy, just better than it was originally, with an aim toward cutting off the sea bridge between CONUS and Europe. If he times things right, before Europe fully recovers their economy, then he could move ahead with an invasion, depriving Europe of reinforcements from the US and resupply as well.

For that I'd invest in some good, quiet, reliable diesel submarines.

Think Inglorious Basterds ... but sexier.

I feel as though there is a bit of dilemma here - do nations go for tried & tested designs that did well in the original Cold War or push for hybrid systems that mix 1950s & 2020s tech.

It looks like other posters have covered plenty of areas well but (conveniently for me) haven't said much about possible NATO airpower. I personally think the following would feature in the AoT version of the Cold War:

F-4 Phantom - I feel as though the American "teen" series of fighters & comparable aircraft like the Tornado, Viggen, Mirage 2000 etc are too far in the future to really feature.
The next best thing to those has to be the F-4; it can be used as a fighter, interceptor, strike bomber & even to be used for suppression of hostile air defences. Although the Phantom initially struggled in Vietnam, this was mostly down to the lack of a cannon & very little pilot training that focused on dogfighting. If you fix those two issues then you've got an aircraft that will more than match most Soviet aircraft until they create a MiG-29, Su-27 or something else of that calibre (the F-15 was actually created to counter the perception of what the Americans thought the MiG-25 to be but it turned out that the Foxbat was an interceptor than a fighter).
If the US focused fully on developing an F-4 after the end of the Second World War then I certainly think they'd have them ready for the mid-50s. This would give NATO an aircraft that can be used both from land bases & carriers.

A-10 Thunderbolt - To stop Soviet armour, the "Warthog" is definitely my number one choice. Although it's a 1970s aircraft, it isn't what you'd call all that technically advanced. I reckon that the US could field some A-10s in the 50s although there may have to be some compromises; maybe the Avenger cannon isn't quite a powerful as its uptime counterpart.

F-5 Freedom Fighter/Tiger - I'm sure I remember reading something about the F-5 in the second AoT novel but nothing seemed to come of it. I feel like the F-5 would be a perfect fit for nations that can't afford aircraft like the F-4. It can be used in multiple roles, including as a trainer & may help to prevent more expensive NATO fighters from being overwhelmed by cheaper & more numerous Soviet jets.

Harrier Jump Jet - Due to the fact that the AoT version of the Warsaw Pact has a far greater reach into Western Europe, I believe that NATO airbases are certainly a prime target for the Soviets. The Harrier gives NATO the option to use roads as runways so that, even if NATO's airfields are taken out, NATO can still field jet aircraft. As the Falklands war showed, the Harrier is capable of dogfighting against aircraft that are supposedly superior to it. An earlier model of Harrier, such as the GR.1 or GR.3 should be obtainable, especially if the UK aerospace industry focuses on it. It would also provide the Royal Navy with a VTOL carrier aircraft.

Vulcan bomber - The Vulcan would definitely be obtainable during the 1950s & it could also have some other advanced tech installed that only later variants have. It could be used for both conventional & nuclear armed missions at either high or low level.
In applying a 21st Century to a 1950s problem, an experimental Vulcan that can carry air to air missiles could be used to intercept Soviet bombers over the North Sea (in the same way the American Next Generation Bomber could be used to take down Chinese aircraft over Taiwan in the not too distant future).

TSR.2/Avro Arrow hybrid - Perhaps the UK & Canada do a joint aircraft program to succeed where both nations failed in the original timeline. The outcome could be similar to that of the Tornado; two variants are created - a strike version which is developed for the RAF while the RCAF get the interceptor version. This would probably be at the cutting edge of 50s tech so there probably wouldn't be much time to outfit many squadrons before WW3 breaks out.

Mirage fighter - This could be a joint French, Italian and/or Spanish project. As both the French & Italians have had their nations divided, it's possible that neither of them have the ability to build an aircraft that can match the Soviet jets & those of other NATO nations, without cooperating with each other.


What private companies do in the 50s could have a big impact too: it's possible that enterprises like Slim Jim's try to combine 21st Century aerodynamics with 1950/60s technology only to find it usually ends up crashing. So, for example, you could have aircraft that may look similar to an F-22 or F-35 but just don't have the fly by wire controls & other modern systems to ensure they fly.

Many aircraft you've already entered into the AoT series would be important too: B-52s, A-4 Skyhawks & perhaps even some upgraded F-86s in the hands of poorer nations or in the American National Guard squadrons.

As well as aircraft, NATO should ensure they have a game changing air to air missile. They need AIM-7 Sparrows that are more reliable than their counterparts were over Vietnam in order to counter the superior Soviet numbers. An all aspect model of the AIM-9 Sidewinder (so something like the AIM-9L) would massively help the NATO air forces in WW3.

These are some of my ideas; feel free to critique them & hopefully they're somewhat useful (and hopefully the paragraphs don't disappear).

In today's "Next Draft" I saw this - this story needs these! (sorry buzzfeed link didn't come over, copied below):

"A very, very small quadcopter, one inch in diameter can carry a one- or two-gram shaped charge. You can order them from a drone manufacturer in China. You can program the code to say: "Here are thousands of photographs of the kinds of things I want to target." A one-gram shaped charge can punch a hole in nine millimeters of steel, so presumably you can also punch a hole in someone's head." It turns out we don't need many new technological advances to make small, weaponized, autonomous drones a widespread reality. From Buzzfeed: Can a small group of optimists stop the proliferation of killer robots and, just maybe, save humanity from itself?


https://www.buzzfeed.com/sarahatopol/how-to-save-mankind-from-the-new-breed-of-killer-robots?utm_source=nextdraft&utm_medium=email&utm_term=.aiz1WNroQm#.purjJnPz5X

Murph, I though that Stalin might go the poath of Naval Air power for a couple of reasons, more so than building vast fleets.

1 The USN at the end of WW2- WAS A FKN BEAST. the number of units and carries especially was vast. I think that the Soviets trying to take on the US Fleets! and all else is a bit of a non starter, they might form some battle groups I guess and try, but I would focus on the backfire. Its more deploy able, greater reach and cheaper. If you tripled the number of Backfire regiments and remember they have greater access to shipping routes this time aroudn, the number of locations that you could strike at a surface fleet has more than trippled and that goes for convpoys too.

Put air to air missiles on back fires and REFORGER is gunna get one in the Keeeester.

The other item which the backfires will do, is deplete the flet of AMs, this being a result of Multi regiment atttack of the whol transition across the water. The ships can RAS for sure, but even RAS ships run out. If you could sustain the attacks...then you might catch the convoys with their pants down.

The US counted on "stay-behind" agents in Alaska in case the Soviets decided to re-create the Great Bering Strait Walkathon of 12,000 BC.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/early-cold-war-years-us-prepped-possible-invasion-alaska/

Obviously Operation Gladio also comes to mind - it wasn't just based in Italy but in a bunch of NATO countries.

And this time, will the invasion of Europe go through the soft underbelly of the Balkans or will it be through Rome?

Didn't anyone hear me say, "Like Inglorious Basterds. But sexier?"

What the hell has happened to you people?

hey guys, just thought i'd jump in the conversation:
i have a feeling that NATO should a MASSIVE advantage over the Sovs in the air, given the fact that the US kept a few missiles and aircrafts in Area 51 during the war for reverse engeneering purposes:
Harms are there; Mavericks and hellfires, next generation Fox 3's and Fox 2's (Amraam and Sidewinders); LGBs, scramjet hypersonic missiles, INS driven bombs... the list goes on and on, at least one weapon from every kind that is loaded on an aircraft carrier HAS to have been saved for this; so they will/should definetly have an advantage in the air compared to the Russians.

the F4 was a good fighter bomber, but had major problems in the way it was used, as said above: no cannons, faulty AIM 7 SPARROWS that reaaaally took a long time for ignition (2 seconds press on the trigger and 1.5 second to ignite after drop off: long time when in combat) the way it was used was Boom and Zoom, it's turn radius sucked and i do mean sucked hard. AIM 9's were already introduced by the end of the war (in the book), so that could be something they greatly improve upon (they would have AIM 9 X's remaining from the war brought back from 2021, so they would dodge the entire failure that were the AIM9's in they're early versions.)

it's ability to carry massive amount of payload though... that was a massive plus for it, even it lost agility; as the saying goes: The Phantom is a living proof that with enough power, even a brick can fly. (18 Mk 82/GBU 12s or CBUs to the face is nothing to laugh at)

though for the same result and better speed i might go for the F 111 in it's stead, packs a wallup and allows for deep strike capabilities.

to be honest though, given the fact that by the end of the war they have F5's in dev already, i'd go for the F16 as soon as i could if i were them multi role and agile af, the thing is just that amazing. A10 is a no brainer in Europe, it was litterally thought for THAT scenario (just didn't expect it to survive long though i think estimates were around 15 minutes survivability over the battlefield ).

apaches could pop their heads, as they already had Cobras and it was a natural successor to it IRL, i'd imagine by the end of the war that it would/should definetly show it's head in this AOB

though the amount of sexy sexy things that could pop up (oh TOMMY KITTY how i love thee xD) on both sides (Dat FLANKER though... love the SU 27!!! lets not forget the bomb chariot that is SU25....) i'm going to be in heaveeeen when i'm going to read this book!!! (not even looking at a preview, i want my surprise to be total reading this ;) ) where the F22/F35 could come in i'm not sure that's realistic at least not in they're "true" form; between the composite materials necessary; the special paint and other things... i don't know... might be going too far there.

the list here is the things i can see being there and the ones i don't think could be:

AWACS E3s, and E2s: yes
JSTAR (airborne ground traking plane): maybe

Harriers: yes
F14s: very likely
F15s: yes
F16s: yes if the US went straight for that plane from the end of the war.
F18s: maybe but very early version
F22: no (requires fly by wire and computer to be able be handled and not be a death trap for the pilots)
F35s: same as above

F117s "cheap" version: maybe
B1s: possible to very likely as it was thought IRL as the successor to the B52 and you already have those.
F111s (as an australian yourself, i don't think i need to introduce that one to you: remember those awesome dump&burns during national day? that's the one): yes
Intruder: yes
Prowler (EW/refueling plane for the Navy): yes
B2: probable, not likely (too modern i think)

it actually depends what type of OOB you want: highly specialized or multi role. in the Cold War Era Nato for highly specialized aircrafts:

for instance, the Navy had:
F14s for long range fleet defense with F18s covering the dog-fighting range/escort duties, Intruders for deep strike missions and SAM suppression (SEAD/DEAD missions), prowlers were Intruders repurposed primarily for Electronic warfare operations and secondarily to perform SEAD strikes. now the US only has the Superhornet for Fleet defense, deep strikes, SEAD/DEAD strikes, refueling and even a replacement for the Prowler which is called the Growler (still experimental though). it also has a variant in testing to replace the E2 (don't know if it's operational though) etc etc... the new navy CAN perform all missions, just not in the same way as it used to (jack of all trades, master of none?)

I really wouldn't go with the F-4. If you have the tech at hand, I'd move up to an F-15. I suspect F-16 type fighters are going to have to wait for advanced computer tech to come along.

I posted a reply to Darren above 3 times said "You Have Posted" but nothing there?

Ok let's make the mix:

Airforce:
Heavy Bomber:
B-52 - evolution of the wartime model, with wet wing, cruise missile tech and crude smart weapons. Let's call it the B-52D.
operators: USAF, RAF

Strike aircraft:
TSR2
Operators: USAF (as B-54 Cyclone), RAF (as Cyclone GSR1), France (B-54 Cyclone), Australia (Cyclone mark 1), Canada (CB-54 Cyclone)
* The B-54 was a still born 3rd generation update of the B-29.

Fighter
F-15A/B Eagle (USAF, RAF - Eagle F1, France, Luftwaffe, RNLAF, RBAF, Spanish Airforce, Turkish Airforce, Swiss Airforce, Swedish Airforce, Free Italian Airforce, Israeli Airforce).

Fighter Bomber:
F-5C/D Tiger: either the 2nd generation F-5 or something akin to the F-20 Tigershark (single engined etc.) (USAF, RAF - Tiger F1, France, Luftwaffe, RNLAF, RBAF, Spanish Airforce, Turkish Airforce, Swiss Airforce, Swedish Airforce, Free Italian Airforce, Israeli Airforce, RDAF, RNoAF, Austrian Airforce).

CAS:
A-10 Warthog: (USAF, RAF - Warthog G1, France, Luftwaffe, RNLAF, RBAF, Spanish Airforce, Turkish Airforce, Swedish Airforce, Free Italian Airforce, Israeli Airforce, RNoAF).

though during the cold war before the Etendards IVM (Marine version) in 61, we had the US Crusaders in the Navy, for our Air Force, France did have its own planes. *French Pride :D*

you could also try some fun things, for instance, Dassault could be on the wrong side of the border at the end of the war and gets forced to work for the Sovs on a few planes that he would have made for France: Mirage F1, 2000 N and C;the Jaguar, Etendars and Super Etendards, the Rafale could be in the works too. there is no reason France would not have it's own air force other than him being either dead or on the wrong side.


to be honest if Dassault is on the other side of the border or dead, France would turn to US or Britain, but damm that just hurt my pride :D

all those beautiful planes not ever existing... that's just sad...very sad.

for NATO side, let's not forget the TORNADO GR1 (at least) too.

i'm going to eat a baguette and drink some wine pondering weather they will ever be in this book...

We shouldn't assume allies have an unlimited budget to try every possible upgrade on the menu. I Think there would be planes and tanks that would be inspired by future versions but import other features or perhaps a scaled down version of.

I agree with Murph ref the B52, its really how you would employ it. Its simply not going to survive in a high threat environment without MASSIVE support. But in a lower threat region or as I love them for, launching FKN LOADS of HARPOONS or ALCMS then hell yes. I think given the tech, you would see the US use the F111 in perhaps its final ardvark config, although if they are smart it would be the final Aus config. Much better unit. Plus they have the EW versions for radar suppression. I think that Jamming will be in advance of freq hopping gear, that take processing power, jamming not so much. I can see Europe and the rest opting for the Tornado. Its Gr, ADV ( F) series for interceptor and does all.

You could really start to narrow it down.

EUROPE:
F15's (some) but mainly Tornados in F3 air interceptor role. GR for ground attack.
AH series choppers or Lynx either or. The Cobra ( super) versiuon might well be a better option all round and cheaper too.

Forward basing..hmm, not so sure. I would think that SOME interceptors would be forward in EU / France. But given transit times I'd be looking to UK.

Get the feeling SAM's will be like fkn fleis on a dead carcas, so low level its gunna be for strike. You know the KRAUTs will opt for the Tornado too. Plus it can double up for Maritime strike as well


Really not sure anbout the F15 for ground attack unless the timeline allows for the E Model, but hey, you would make do.

US:
F15 as the doominate Fighter for Air intercept and some ground attack dsuties perhaps.

Close Air: A10 for sure
Strike and nuke strike its the FB 111 ( SAC) and F11 Ardvark, plus the EW Raven unit. Talk with the skips about the best version, we operated them longer and modded them more.

LAND:
Well tats a fkn complete shit fight I guess. You know they will want the M1, not sure if the tech will be there. if it is then thats what will be built, remeber also the Aussies had a modified versiuon of it too in AoT so they can reverse engineer it. IF..IF they can convince the EU to go for it, then mass the one unit type only. MAKES fkn Sense. If not then its gunna be a slug fest between a modded leo 2 and Challenger 2. I like the latter a bit more.

Murph mentioned the Bradley, but noted its heavy. again its a preference thing. I like the new gear out thats 30MM, not 25mm but thats just up gunning. The bonus of the Brad is the TOW launcher which i like. But not sold on the rest.

The B52 will excel at Maritime strike and stand off launches, thats a kicker.

Naval. And here is the big question, can you set up an F15, say an e version of sorts to take a cat shot and carrier landing, if so, the BAM, its a bonus. If not we have to have another airframe and not a carrier.

I think there is an opportunity for plot in that the allies face a dilemma of too many options, budget and political pressures et al. The soviets although not as advanced have always been ruthlessly practical so might drive for more doable and less upper edge. It worked in ww2 re armour forces and I remember himmler in woc2 ruminating on why the allies were arguing over producing weapons when certain choices seemed seemed obvious .

jesus JB. Lota data out there.

spring of 1944 Russia had in excess of 460 Divisions at a nominal strength of 5K per division.

Given the LARGER establishment in the AoT series, larger ground gained, it ould be well north of 500 Divisions but at more like 700K per Div within 3 years of WW2 end I would think.

Disposition...who knos at this point. Need to work that some. Composition, they would have moved to the Cold war combination as a minimum. But think about this. Given they had Gaurds, Rifle and Tank ( shock armies). What would they be like as a combined arms Army. But down to battalion level- Batle Groups, more like the German model. That ould prove interesting to Defend against.

it wouldgive the SOv defense in depth, multi layered. Not sure if they could pul it off, but I think so.

I go up against NATO, Ive got organic arty, ATGM's RPGS, Inf, APC, IFV's MBT's tied in together. I guess Frontal aviation is sep to this, but with more CAS available for the Unit commander, say down to Battalion level.

Thinking about Italy some, I see Airborne units and massive air support for that op from the Sov perspective. Fighting UP the peninsula wasa bitch for the Allies oroginally and it lends itself to Defense. Same I guess for a downward thrutst. Thus Airborne drops, massive though, and a mech focus?. not sold on that, certainly they would have looked at the amphib ops and how they went.

Stage one might be massive strikes by A/C against Med assets to enable amphib operations, follow up Airborne drops. I would use Airborn drops even as a throw away assset to tie down Allies troops/ block them, to allow consolidation.

For all his weird personal political beliefs, Andrew Roberts' The Storm of War: a new history of the second world war is a pretty well researched critique of the the political failings of the dictatorships versus the democracies, If his thesis can extend to JBs world, 'our way' is better set out to win over Uncle Joe's

Workhorces: the C-130 Hercules, the S-2 Tracker/CS-2 Trader/ES-2 Tracer/KS-2 Tanker would be no brainers too I think. Fitting them with the same T55 powerpacks (4 in C-130, 2 in S-2) could also power newer versions of the CH-47, and be used als ACU's for for ex. electricity and to power electronics aboard ships and aircraft.

combining the M-4 Sherman chassis with the M-2 or M-114 155mm howitzer would make a good self propelled gun, without hurting the bottom line. The surplus hulls and turrets could be used in fixed defenses on choke point in for example the Swiss and Austrian alps, on the Danish, Swedish, Dutch and Norwegian coasts and at choke points. You could do the same with surplus Panthers and Tigers.

Trucks: the M-35 and the Deuce and a half with a diesel engine would fit. You can build them up as DUKW (Duck) also.
Jeeps would be around plenty too, as would "nato green" versions of for ex the 2CV, the Renault 4 and the Beetle.

Pick a moment too for the humble mine. You want to have some modern types for killing tanks. You can do dirty tricks with them. for starters a mine (for ex the Barmine) that send a single when it's been traversed, and blows up after the second or third vehicle. Claymores and trip wire or other wise activated anti tank grenades (and rpg/m-72 or alike with a trip wire for ex.) And this baby https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M86_Pursuit_Deterrent_Munition

@havoc: Arsenals ships are fine and good, but why not go flexibel: http://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/why-boeings-design-for-a-747-full-of-cruise-missiles-ma-1605150371 You can use this baby also is a long range hauler.

and a nice mix between Tomahawk and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ADM-160_MALD would make for nasty surprise too ...

Might not be a bad idea to ponder what toys the Sovs are bringing.

Numbers do provide strength however there is the weakness inherent in the need to upgrade the equipment for those numbers. That costs money and even the Sovs still have to spend something for what they get. The present day Russian Army has learned that the very hard way.

JB: Concerning Final Impact, I don't remember any chips falling at the end of it, but there was lots of nuclear fallout from the seven atomic bombs :P

Given the parameters JB has outlined, it's hard not to think that the US Army as a field force in Europe will be seriously degraded. I made an OOB for the Army that I shot to JB, and looking at it, it's obvious that it will be a matter of weeks before significant US forces can be brought to bear in the European Theater. (Some forces, like the XVIII Corps, could be there in days. However, if you commit forces piecemeal then you are begging for defeat in detail, especially against the numbers the Red Army will be bringing.) Not being really familiar with the Allied forces available in theater in the Fifties, what is left? The British and French Armies will surely have robust forces available, and a reformed Bundeswehr with good equipment will be a must. What forces do the Dutch and Belgians have? How many of these forces are going to be "fixed" or tied down responding to airborne operations? The local European forces are going to have to soak up the first waves of attacks, so we have to get a good grasp on the numbers.

Jl,
I think the Allies might look very closely at the German models used on the Eastern Front, in terms of defensive equipment. If you can keep air-cover or at least keep it neutral, your ground forces have a shot.Now having said that, they must be defensively strong and able to withstand saruration rocket attacks, Chem weapons as well.
Which gives me a hankering for the Merkva style tank, Inf and armour buttoned up initially. Strong SAM presence too. Maybe a lot of SAM coverage from the channel. What about specialty ships in Port in UK , have your pre positioned equipment there, then if you can maintain air coverage over the channel the ability for a strike against them is a lot lower.
2 -You could far more easily block both ends of the channel with a High Density field of underwater mines ( captor type), Subs and mobile ASW Forces. That ASW screen also adds to the SAM screen as well.
Stop Gaps.
Add reactive armour onto tanks and UP GUN tanks. Increase top armour as well. Your initial defensive Forces in Europe do not need to be Rapidly Mobile.

MINE FIELDS…lots, bleed the first waves! Assuming holes are not punched in lines with Nukes.
Airbases will be in England and on the west coast!, make attackers transit across England through SAM fields and defensive fighters to get them.
Again, cruise Missiles with cluster munitions and anti tank bomblets…….. LOT OF THEM.
ICELAND. Big base, BIG B52 base for saturation attacks.
Refit a lot of US W2 Carriers out with defensive weapons and perhaps if its opted for Jump Jets or Choppers. AMPHIB Groups and large.
Med, islands. Fortify!!!

@murphy @ jl @havoc I ve send JB a draft OrBat for NATO 3 days ago. I think we should compare notes. If you contact me with an email adress via the facebook, twitters or http://www.dirkdejager73.nl/contact/ , i'll send you a copy.


Been reading up in Final Impact: there are already a few nice toys in play. The ASM-1, the Hercules and the Hawaii class flattops for example.


On the Red Army: In FI they are fielding the T-55 in large numbers. Russians tend to stick to their toys and if they are smart upgrade them too. A first strike weapon in their arsenal would be GRU assassination squads for taking out the political and military leaders of NATO. Decapitation by terror. At least that was the theory in the cold war. Operation RYAN it was called.


Further look up Operational Maneuver Groups: after a break through had been achieved, these formations were intended to exploit it. A modern day cavalry so to say.

For mining apart from captor style mines (which nowadays are single shot: how many mk 46 or 48's can you fit in a 20/40ft shipping container?? ) you could employ quickstrike. It's a mk80 bomb with a magnetic, or accoustic triggerd fuse. A b-52 could drop 80 in one run.

Man. This is going to be EPIC.

@Darren: to use the words of Mike Judge: Yo momma! :)

Gotta say I am in a quandary. Are the German people sick of WAR and the Military or Are they ready to fight more Russian hordes. I think the Latter.
At the end of WW2 there were approx. 450K troops of Germany deployed across NORWAY I believe. All vets, plus whats left at home. Add ten years and a new age group or two, ranks leavened with Vets that were young. You could field 10 Divisions for Germany of Mechanised Infantry, add to that 5 Divisions of Armour and I mean heavy Armour. Arty plus attachments will take up another 6 Divisions.

Found some archived docs on NATO and or more relevance, the integration and building of the German army in latter 1950’s, The Bundeswehr near the end of that period were fielding approx. 10 divisions. It was noted by British and American observers of an exercise, that not only were the German Ranks a mix of young conscripts, but veterans, their combined arms efficiency was through the roof and motivation was as well. Given the Aot Differences, you could push that 10 up to 15 divisions for the Germans. I would suggest a 6/4 ration of Inf and Armour, plus Arty, log, ADef units and ancillary ones to.

Should check, but OTH a German Div is heavier in numbers than the Soviets. And the Defensive bent would be too, then in terms of outright fire power it could be as much as a third if you do not factor in Soviet TUBE systems….thats a fkn whole new level of hurt, but not controllable at the Brigade/ Battalion level for the soviets..

As some know I write me own scribble and Ill list below one of the new weapons systems, the other Ill post to you JB, cos I think its a fkn cracker and might be very interesting in the next series. Here one of trhe systems.

FROM the HAVOC R & D DESIGN LABS:

Long Range anti ship Strike torpedo. LRASST
Ramjet propelled carry platform. Holds 4-6 liquid nitrogen propelled underwater semi acoustic torpedos with armour piercing heads.
Ramjet range is 300 kilometres, terminal phase ejection of torpedos can be pre-set or based on threat detection levels.
Max range of torpedos is 30 kilometres. Max speed is 80 knots or 148 kilometres per hour. Covering 30 kilometres in a little over 12 minutes.

Weight- 500 kilos
Length 2M
Diameter is 500mm
Range 30 kilometres at 90 knots ( 12 minute intercept time)

Warhead. Armour piercing 50kgs. Incendiary

Same size as a Tomahawk TASM/ TLAM and able to be fired from the VLS systems of Burke DDGS and similar ships such as the AWD.
Brief:
The LORASST VLS launched Anti-ship surface attack missile is designed to penetrate high threat sea warfare environment. The LRAT as the weapon system is known consists of a primary launch vehicle for transit to the area of attack. The Vehicle is a highly modified tomahawk surface attack missile system with significant modifications to allow it to carry its new payload. Additionally THE MISSILE HOUSES AN ENHANCED EW AND SURFACE SEARCH / ATTACK SYSTEM. The advent of advanced surface to air defensive missile systems, CIWs systems and Cap aircraft have made the chances of missiles penetrating the AAW screen that much slimmer, only with large scale saturation attacks can ASM’s hope to penetrate and sink enemy surface vessels. It was with this in mind that the DSTO looked at conducting attacks against the surface fleets in an environment where defensive counter measures are minimal and the advantage lies with the attacker. It was this drive that prompted the creation of a multiple missile carrying platform that could then deliver high speed ASuW missiles against the surface fleet from a standoff distance that would deliver greater survival rates of the delivery platform.


Carriage.
4 independent configurable surface vessel attack torpedoes are carried per launcher. The launcher can be carried by all aircraft certified to carry the tomahawk cruise missile delivery system, all surface and sub-surface vessels inclusive.
The LRAT ASuW missile system carrying within its nose cone and additional sensors throughout the missiles main transport body, Electronic warfare sensors. The sensors are slaved to the on-board microprocessors which computes when either the final IP has been reached and to deploy the units 4 independent high speed anti-ship torpedoes, or the threat detection threshold reach a sufficient intensity requiring deployment of the torpedoes before the main body unit is engaged and destroyed.
Post launch of the 4 independent attack torpedo, the main body unit goes into terminal attack profile with a rapid series of jinks and if programmed a final pop up manoeuvre before attacking the target set.
Current LRAT units are equipped with enhanced Link17 communications for two way data and coms, enabling the camera feed from the nose to be observed and additional targets selected if required.
The high speed torpedoes of the LRAT whilst having a armoured nose cone, have behind the seeker head a millimetre wave radar and passive sonar sensors on the front canards,

How far into southern France did the ruskies make it, did they get to the bay of Biscay or not?

All of this extraneous detail, blah, blah, blah is taking the focus away from what is really important, in re: "LIKE INGLORIOUS BASTERDS, ONLY SEXIER."

Will the notorious KGB Directorate S covert agents play a role in WW3.1??? I can't imagine they won't.

For some reason my comments won't stick. Would live to see what modding of existing weapons could happen for lower tier or civilian units (or even civilians who don't trust peace treaty). Building all these fancy toys costs money, especially the hammer. I always liked that example of the modded Ak 47 in Elysium

Besides hardware, what impact would uptime war fighting doctrine have?

Concur Murph.

The Air land Battle and the strike deep whilst attacking the first echelon will be something they will blend. The Sov's will probable know this and try to Counter too

Dirk, JB , shot you an e/mail. I have completed the Soviet ORBAT for 1955 ( actual) for Central EU and am fleshing that out now. Trying to include Southern France and Italy as well. Maps to follow, I have them for mark up , but determining finish lines for soviets advance is a BITCH!

Nice one JB.

The counter strike should take place like the US planned in the 80's.

Air-Land battle to stop the invasion, REFORGER to reclaim Germany. And an amphibious invasion of central Russia using LCACs and the Rivers. That was to penetrate into the heartland behind Moscow and destroy all the factories and industrial heartland.

So we get to mess 'round with the Beastorithms again. Okey doke.

Done

Done also

fkn done!...review shortly!.....oh yes!

Reviewed, blued, and tattooed. Done deal. Waiting eagerly on next installment.

Many thanks, gentlemen. We move on the Bezos Stash immediately.

Done.

I have slathered your offering in glowing praise. Here's hoping it reaches the stratospheric heights of popularity it deserves, and drains the Bank of Bezos dry in royalties. Good luck my master.

that's me in.

I have also posted a review of Charles Stross's new laundry Files Novel the Nightmare Stacks that gives a recommendation for Dave
"Another excellent chapter in the forever genre mashing Laundry files- this time its urban fantasy. The change in point of view from previous books of Bob Howard to Alex Schwartz has provided a refreshing boost, with plenty of the old gang popping in and out to make loyal readers feel at home. The books have always shifted between horror genres: Nameless terrors from beyond space, deep sea monsters, vampires, government bureaucracies, paper work, IT, zombies, and the ever present end of the world as we know it. This book rides the recent meta narrative zeitgeist of ancient medieval like monsters invading earth through the portals. I you enjoyed John Birmingham's recent monster smashing Dave trilogy and want more -I whole heartily suggest reading The Nightmare Stacks.

His new story did remind me a lot of the Dave's narrative when it came to the cross dimension invasion force.

Done burger.

Add another to the burger reviewer list.

Been hanging around that Anderle fellow I see. When you described cadaver you had to have met my brother. You described him down those wife. He claims she is a soul sucking demon. As we say in mississippi, ain't got no dog in that fight. But he may be right. I don're mind paying for a good read but I like a book not a short story. I also want to read more about Dave. Now stop p
issing about and get to it.

I wonder if the beast has a filter for sycophantism.

Done.
I also received an email with downloady links to "Protocol" and "Soul".
Cheers guv.

Done as well.

Done! Does this mean I have two masters now?

I devoured his other three books (it was during one of JB's 'fallow periods'), I'd be happy to spend $ on this. I just don't have enough soul to spare.

Done here also. Free 'splosions are good.

Yeah, I got hooked at the prologue, so now I'm 1% less soulful. Or 1% more soulless.

It seems weird to me that someone would release free ePub but require a Kindle or iDevice for paid content. Maybe the assumption is that people like me don't buy books (which in this case is probably true, since I'm not coughing up for an otherwise-useless Kindle just to read one author). Yeah, it's my hobby-horse and I'm gunna ride it 'til it's dead. Then I'll flog it.

Cool, so it's probably safe to start reading book one in a month or so, safe in the knowledge that I'll be able to get the rest of the books by then (I have all the patience of a chicken, I know).

Quick thanks to everyone who's given Fireplay a go. The soul-o-meter is positively bulging.

Doneski, shall give it a berl? whirl? read?

BTW, belatedly finally extracted the keyboard pressing things to review Cairo. Not much on any in-depth analysis type stuff but i think i got the star thingo to give you several thumbs up?

You may regret taking a piece of this particular soul but thems the breaks fella.