Worldwar: Throwing the Balance

[xt828]

The Race united in the Atomic Age, not in their antiquity.

Do the books actually state this somewhere? It jars with my recollections, but I'd be happy to be proven wrong.

[spartasman]

As far as I can remember, that is what happened. I really do not have the patience to sift through all 4 Worlwar books looking for a quotation, but that is what I remember as being stated.

[Simon_Jester]

I think that for the sake of making this interesting, we can reasonably take a little artistic license with the Lizards. We've already got a very good Curbstomp War story on this forum; we don't need an imitation of the real thing.

Yeah, but once the ground forces casulties start piling up will he reconsider other methods? Last I checked, the USSR had about 2.8-5.3 million men in the Red Army during the height of the Cold War (estimated), that is without resorting to a draft.

...They did have a conscript military, you know. But yes, huge army.

[R. E. Lee]

The Race united in the Atomic Age, not in their antiquity.

Do the books actually state this somewhere? It jars with my recollections, but I'd be happy to be proven wrong.

I think the books say that after planetary unification, military technology stopped advancing: there was no need for further improvements, and their technology proved more than capable in the last two worlds they conquered. So the landcruisers, killercraft, and nuclear weapons used in Worldwar were the state-of-the-art when they unified.

[spartasman]

Gefreiter Karl Berger shifted uncomfortably in the hold of the Schutzenpanzer Lang, adjusting his G3 and pack so as to rest more naturally on the metal floor. The inside of the Schutzenpanzer rumbled lightly as the engine idled, lined up next to three others of its type.

"At least they picked a good day to do it, otherwise we'd be sweating our balls off in here!" Karl yelled over the sound of the engine.

"Ja". That was Wolfgang Schmidt. Wolfgang was not one for words, and used them sparingly if at all. Beside him, the three other members of the Schutzenpanzer's Grenadier complement nodded their heads in silent agreement. Their leader, Unteroffizier Wilhelm Adler, gave them all a gaze that reflected the meaning of his last name, that of an eagle.

Checking his wristwatch, Karl nervously counted down the minutes until zero-hour. The training exercises were supposed to begin at 9:00 A.M, and everyone in their unit was anxious to get it over with. The entire event itself was part of a larger set of drills that the Bundeswehr were currently holding, and all of the officers kept spouting off about how it was a prime chance to show off the resurgent German military.

Of course, they did not include the East German Nationale Volksarmee in their speeches, but that was to be expected. 'There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy', came to Karl's mind, a thought imprinted upon him by his sister Elsie's love of theatre. Karl's family had always had a flare for the dramatic, and his family tree was full of actors and actresses. Karl had even acted himself a few times before joining the Bundeswehr, but his sister's passion for it far outweighed his own.

Tearing himself away from his musings, Karl noticed that Herr Adler had been shouting something over the sound of the engines. Cupping his hands against his ear only made the Unteroffizier sigh heavily before repeating. "One minute left, make sure everything is secured" he shouted.

Karl gave a quick nod before checking over his equipment for the tenth time, making sure that nothing would bounce around when the Schutzenpanzer got moving. Almost as an afterthought, Karl checked his G3's safety to make sure it was on; they were using live rounds on this exercise.

At the very edge of his hearing, Karl heard the shrill report of a half-dozen whistles being blown over the sound of the engine. Almost immediately, the Schutzenpanzer Lang began to move, the engine noise growing significantly. Even though the engine was roaring louder than anything, Karl could still tell that the Lang was moving rather sluggishly. The 220 horsepower engine was simply not enough to move the 14 and a half ton armored vehicle very quickly, but it still got along at a respectable 58 km/h at top speed.

Shaking along with the armored chassis, Karl tried to listen over the engine as the rest of the armored brigade moved through its trials. Suddenly, the Lang slowed down, and almost as quickly, the 20mm cannon in the frontal turret barked, along with several others from other vehicles. After a few bursts, the Schutzenpanzer began to move again, though not at the same speed as before.

Looking over to Herr Adler, Karl, saw him check his own watch, nodding after a few seconds. Raising his head, the under officer shouted loudly to be heard, "up, up!".

Almost as one, the five Grenadiers lifted open the hatches on the top of the Schutzenpanzer. Karl knew that most other light armored vehicles used rear-entry doors to allow their troop complements access, but the Schutzenpanzer Lang lacked such a thing, and the only way in or out was from the top. Popping up out of the Lang, Karl could see the same thing happening all around him on the other vehicles. Bringing his rifle up, Karl scanned the field for the round targets that he was supposed to shoot, and spotted them coming up. The 'Lang slowed down a bit more, and the front gunner began to fire his MG3 in short bursts, hitting his designated targets.

Karl brought up his own rifle, and drew a bead on the round target that was designated for infantrymen. Pulling the trigger as fast as he could without losing his target, Karl quickly emptied his 20-round clip. Loading another one in as fast as he could, Karl took aim at the next target as the first one passed him. Later, when the exercise was over, the officers would either praise their soldier's marksmanship with some bullshit speech, or show their disappointment by ordering extra shooting practice. None of that mattered to Karl as he emptied his second clip, or his third.

Before he knew it, Karl was standing at attention with the rest of his squad next to the now-quiet Schutzenpanzer, Herr Adler giving them a little speech of his own.

"Alright, you didn't do too bad out there. Berger, try not waste all of your ammo next time, eh? The Army likes to keep SOME ammo in reserve. As for the rest of you, try showering every once in a while, its bad enough being cramped up in there without it smelling like a pig-pen too."

That made Karl's cheeks burn red, but he laughed it off with the rest of his squad all the same. When they were dismissed, Karl and his squad made their way over to the small rest area next to the motor pool. Sitting down on a crate, Karl pulled a pack of Collies out of his shirt pocket, doling them out to his squad-mates.

Next to Karl, Wolfgang was smoking away happily, staring up into the clouds as he laid back in a metal folding chair. Andrei Kruger was next to Wolfgang, and gave a small chuckle before setting back into his own chair, "I think that all went pretty well, eh Karl?" he said.

Nodding, Karl took the cigarette out of his mouth before saying, "Not too bad, I think you may have even hit your target once or twice."

Andrei chuckled again before jabbing back, "Well, somebody had to, I don't know what you were aiming at, but you hit just about everything else".

Karl laughed back at that, taking another drag from his cigarette. Before he could puff out, though, Karl noticed that everyone around him was beginning to stare back at the training field. Curious as to why, Karl twisted his head to see what was going on, and what he saw nearly made the cigarette fall out of his mouth.

It was an absolute beast, roaring, belching exhaust, and traveling faster than Karl had ever seen a tank move. Unnoticed, Wolfgang had sat up to watch the armored monstrosity himself, he pulled the cigarette from his mouth before commenting, "that's the one we were supposed to be making with the Frenchies a while ago. I heard that they were going to be testing them with the regular army today, but I didn't believe it."

"And why is that" Andrei asked, not taking his eyes off of the tank that that was tearing across the field faster than their own IFV.

Taking another puff from the Collie, Wolfgang answered "We just started getting them last year, that's why. It will be a few years before we have enough of them to box the Pattons."

Karl silently nodded in agreement while still watching the Leopard 1 tank as it fired its main gun. Feeling the need to add his observation, Karl said "doesn't look all that different from the Pattons, faster though, and that gun sure is nice."

Seeing the tank fire another round, tearing a wrecked target truck apart, Wolfgang nodded. The American tanks were not bad, but they would be inadequate at best and a liability at worst to the Bundeswehr if tasked against their Soviet counterparts. Now that they had their own, superior tanks, Germany could truly begin to reclaim its prowess on the battlefield.

Slowly, his attention was drawn back to his squad mates, and Karl was soon talking about what rumors they had heard about the new addition to their force.

[Night_stalker]

Are these Leopards the 1A3s by chance? Nice job, and can't wait to see how the Race fares against humanity's armed forces!

[Simon_Jester]

Are these Leopards the 1A3s by chance? Nice job, and can't wait to see how the Race fares against humanity's armed forces!

Can't be 'A3s; the A3 series didn't come out until the Leopard 1 had been around for nearly ten years. These are Leopard 1-A-nothings, though they may not be exactly identical to the ones that the West Germans fielded historically.

[Night_stalker]

hey, the military might've priortized the production of certain items like 1A3s, given that they know about the Race's invasion forces that will be coming.

[spartasman]

No, the Germans have no idea what is coming. The U.S. and Soviet Union, yes, as well as a few of their proxies, but not the Germans.

[Night_stalker]

Yeah, and you honestly think that the Bundesnachrichtendienst couldn't find out that sort of thing, then pass it on to the rest of NATO?

[spartasman]

For the sake of the story, maybe. Either way, West Germany is not in any particular position to do anything with the info other than prepare what they already have, which would happen at the behest of the USA regardless if an invasion were to occur.

[Simon_Jester]

I question whether the '1A3s could have been prepared as early as the mid-1960s. A lot of the improvements to them were the product of experience or advances in electronics, no?

[Zaune]

EDIT: Accidentally double-posted, sorry.

[Zaune]

Speaking of electronics, the Race's opening salvo of high-altitude nuclear detonations would be a lot more effective this time around. (It would have worked a good deal better than Turtledove implied, come to that.) Did the near-Earth-orbit nuclear tests in 1962 go ahead as per 'our' history? Since the major governments of Earth are apparently aware that a large number of alien spacecraft are orbiting Mars, and it must surely have occurred to someone that they might be waiting for reinforcements, they might be wary of tipping their hand about having nuclear surface-to-orbit capability.
That would mean that the effects of EMP are poorly-understood, and countermeasures are even more primitive than they were in 'our' mid-1960s. High-altitude detonations would therefore play merry hell with our C3I systems and take a bite out of our inventories of interceptors and guided missiles.

Not that the Race will have an easy time aiming their nukes; their intelligence must be pretty lousy compared to the original stories.

[spartasman]

The Governments of Earth saw the Colonization Fleet arriving to be the Races reinforcements. The EMP tests did go ahead as usual in this universe, so the American and Soviet systems are not as horribly unprepared as they might be. Still, knowledge of the Race fleet is held by only a few top officials and special units, so expect general surprise from everyone from Joe on the street to Henry Kissinger. There's more on those points, but I would prefer to incorporate it into my next chapters and answer questions then.

I don't know why you would think Race intelligence is lousy? Even in the original books, Drefsab did a pretty good job of chasing down Skorzeny (even if he got shot in the end), and his work in rooting out the ginger trade was nothing to balk at.

[Zaune]

The limits on their ability to conduct reconnaissance or collect SIGINT without getting their UAVs blown out of the sky, for a start. Electro-optical and radar mapping of the surface from orbit around Mars is sub-optimal at best, and they can't have a massive library of radio intercepts given how much they've had to curtail recce operations in Earth's atmosphere. Unless they have a few satellites in orbit?
Also, advances in cryptanalysis will have made acquiring useful military intelligence rather a lot harder, not so much because of the increased sophistication of human encryption techniques but because we're aware of their limitations and work around them.
Lastly, the Race have very limited knowledge of the human order of battle. They might have a pretty good estimate on how many men under arms, armoured fighting vehicles and aircraft humanity has at its disposal, but much less idea of their full capabilities or where they're located; they'll be doing well if a killercraft's Threat Warning Receiver can tell it's under attack. They could have got away with this -barely- if they'd pressed home the attack immediately on arrival, but with a dramatically narrowed technology gap and the element of surprise lost...

Well, if I were Straha, I'd be having a quiet word with my Fleetlord about how "Worldfleer" had to be better than "Fleetwrecker" or "WarWeCan'tWinstarter" or something.

[TimothyC]

I could see the XF8U-3 going forward in this timeline - nothing like alien ships to make a carrier-based mach-3 interceptor worthwhile. I'd also guess that the F-12 force was built (and Strange would have been sidelined at that point if he tried harder to kill it).

[Simon_Jester]

They could have got away with this -barely- if they'd pressed home the attack immediately on arrival, but with a dramatically narrowed technology gap and the element of surprise lost...

"Historically," they attacked on arrival and managed to conquer much of the planet, but were unable to subdue the main industrial powers... in WWII.

So yeah, this time they're fucked. The real question is how fucked, and how much damage they'll do in the process.

Well, if I were Straha, I'd be having a quiet word with my Fleetlord about how "Worldfleer" had to be better than "Fleetwrecker" or "WarWeCan'tWinstarter" or something.

Ha.

[Madzcat]

I can't remember from the books, but does the Race have any kind of orbital factories?

[Simon_Jester]

They have some production capacity for certain electronics on the ships, but I suspect they need to land the ships. The Lizards did not come prepared to colonize open space.
*

[Slacker]

That was actually a semi-major plot element of the second or third book, the Race needed to adapt human factories to produce ammo they were already running very short on.

[Night_stalker]

Hmm, I wonder how they'll fare to the "scorched earth" tactics that will be used against them?

[Simon_Jester]

The limits on their ability to conduct reconnaissance or collect SIGINT without getting their UAVs blown out of the sky, for a start. Electro-optical and radar mapping of the surface from orbit around Mars is sub-optimal at best, and they can't have a massive library of radio intercepts given how much they've had to curtail recce operations in Earth's atmosphere. Unless they have a few satellites in orbit?

They can put stuff into Earth orbit at will, and probably did. Their probes entered the atmosphere during the late '40s, and since it sounds like spartasman's using the Lizard probes as analogous to real-life UFOs, I see no reason to assume they aren't still sending them in. At some point the air defenses in the US, USSR, and Europe would have gotten good enough to make sending probes impractical, but by all appearances a Lizard killercraft can at least match the SR-71 in terms of high speed and high altitude performance (recall their ability to rendevous with starships in low orbit; the ships may have to brake to suborbital speeds, but being capable of even a limited suborbital hop has immense implications for their speed and altitude).

So I honestly doubt anyone's going to be all that effective at engaging Lizard recon flights, any more than the Soviets were at engaging the Blackbird. At least, assuming their probes are roughly as capable as their killercraft.

[Madzcat]

I don't recall the killercrafts ever going to starships in low orbit. I remember the killercraft as being the same as a 90's fighter not anything more.

[Simon_Jester]

One of the early scenes of In the Balance, where Flight Leader Teerts is part of an air attack on the RAF's "Thousand Bomber Raid" over Cologne. The Race has not yet secured airfields on the ground, so his flight engages the British bombers with air to air missiles, then with guns.

Capabilities shown by killercraft in this scene:
- Armament of six air to air missiles and radar-controlled autocannon; missile speeds are around Mach 4 to 5.
- Swing-wing configuration- the wings change sweep as Teerts' killercraft moves to lower altitude and (presumably) speed for his first pass with guns.

And the kicker:
"Teerts raked the stampeding herd of aircraft twice more before his ammunition ran low. Rolvar and Gefron had also done all the damage they could. They streaked for low orbital pickup; soon enough, the Race would have landing strips on the ground..."

Now, this is an extraordinary capability, one that no contemporary fighter can come close to matching. However, it is at least possible that such a design could exist- especially if "low orbital pickup" means having rocket boosters attached to the airframe that can kick it up onto a suborbital flight path, where a larger shuttle or ship docks and accelerates it to full orbital speed.

In all other respects, Lizard aircraft are roughly on par with human military technology of the mid-1990s. Normal flying speeds are within that range, the aircraft are definitely not stealthy, and so on. In other words, I think we're looking at fourth-generation jet fighters with the option of some kind of rocket booster attachment. However, this proves that the Race can build aerospace craft that operate at extremely high speeds in the upper atmosphere without being destroyed by friction heating; if they use the same technology in their automated probes, they may very well be able to keep up the equivalent of Blackbird overflights of the USSR clear into the 1960s.