Dark Earth: Handover Meeting

[Simon Darkshade]

Handover Meeting
“Good morning, Prime Minister.”

“And to you also, Mr. Barton.”

“I trust that your meeting with the others was…illuminating…” Barton gave a scintilla of a wry grin, something that would have been as unthinkable as Big Ben taking off like a rocket to the moons a dozen years ago.

“It certainly was. A number of measures you took make a deal more sense now, in the context of some of that.”

“I thought the same of Sir Anthony back when I was in your position, but with all the business of a new government, I did not think to find the time to sit down with him, like this, and to fill out the picture, as it were. I am glad, then, that you have agreed to this.”

“I believe it more than merely sensible, or some act of courtesy; we are all fighting for Britain, and now, the battles and struggles to come make that clearer. If there is a war or major crisis, I would be honoured to offer you and your party a place in a National Government.”

“And I to take it. For now, in this unsteady peace, I think it better that we provide Her Majesty with a strong and pragmatic Loyal Opposition; it will give you and your new coalition partners a proper run for your money. In any event, if you wanted to talk niceties all day, you’d be better off with Mr. Thorpe. Shall we get down to business?”

“I wouldn’t expect anything else.”

“Good. Right, you have the Crown Jewels of this nation’s secrets, and why we need to be strong and prepared with what is on the horizon and beyond it, as it were. We don’t have the luxury of short term thinking, or of changing our national strategy at the drop of a hat, and that is in itself a strength, not a weakness. You now have the wheel, even if the general direction of the ship of state is set. Sharpe will have outlined what we have, but more important is why we have it and to what end.

Firstly, we have our unique position. We cannot trust the Americans or the Europeans completely, not out of any incompatibility or profound separation, but because of our fundamental differences. Britain’s role, in the here and now, is to bridge them together, assuaging the natural tensions and even now the concerns in Washington about the spending disparity.”

Powell nodded. The Americans spent upwards of $250,000 million of its official defence budget of $360 billion on what could be termed NATO oriented purposes, or a bit more than double that of Britain and ahead of Germany’s $111,000 million and France’s $87,000 million. Canada stood in front of Italy and Austria, then there was a most substantive gap through to Spain with under a tenth of the American figure. Whilst the European allies still maintained an average of above 7.8%, that figure was distorted by the comparatively high budgets of France, Greece, Austria-Hungary and Ruritania, and the trend line was declining towards 6% by the early 1980s.

“He who holds the purse strings drives policy. Give the Americans too much control, and it isn’t likely they’ll relinquish it.”

“And that, Prime Minister, would be the apotheosis we’ve been working against these past thirty years.”

Powell thought it a nice touch that Barton was trying to throw in some Greek idioms, even if the image was a tad off; it was the thought that counted, and Stanley Barton had come a long, long way in this.

“In Europe but not of it, as Winston says.”

“In a way. In the first instance, we must keep with our kith and kin of the Empire and Commonwealth; it is our heart and main strength. But in the medium term and beyond, we can set a new goal as well as it, a culmination of the work of centuries. So long as France and Germany stand divided, so does the Continent; we can take advantage of this to be the effective leader of Europe, as the alliance and as the geographic bloc. That will be our strength and means of keeping the Americans in, the Germans down, the Russians out and the French frustrated.”

“As ever.”

“In the long run, we cannot put all our eggs in either basket - America or Europe. We can trust Washington to act in their own interests, and as we saw in 1956, those aren’t always the same as those of the Empire. Kennedy and Reagan have both been very good in their own ways, and we stand as their closest ally, but today and even tomorrow aren’t forever. The dislocation and uncertainty in the Empire’s grand strategy that came out of the Six Day War of 1956 continues to reverberate in some ways to this day, and that was a clear cut victory - imagine what things would be like if we had lost or worse, had the outcome of Lapcat!”

“Indeed. That degree of difference did seem less than immediately applicable, but I can see that there is some utility in mapping out the consequences of paths that we have not taken. They certainly do not seem to have been well served by the diminution in power that followed their war in Suez.”

“Whilst that is different from the road we travel upon, that source of intelligence has informed some of our policy decisions in an oblique fashion. The politics and conflicts of a different world are just that - different - but they’ve given some indication of potential problems. We are keeping an eye on the Americans and the various European governments through a variety of means and agents, which is simply common sense. We keep a watch on the Middle East, as the combination of oil, religion, geography and nationalism could turn small troubles into great ones. We have taken a policy that extends a hand to China, but also seeks to keep them well back in the pack and counters any dramatic growth in their industry or trade. The final indication that we have been able to develop from that source is to beware the potential for enemies within and infiltration.”

“I would need to examine the reports in much more extensive detail before being able to reply to the last in any substantive manner, but for now, it seems that absence of certain traditional ties and behaviours may potentially exacerbate those type of indications. Insofar as the foreign issues are concerned, they would seem quite common sense measures for our position.”

“Moving back to our here and now, the principal question is how we push our way to our optimal position. One such way is through the provision of assets and capacity which other states do not have. We have the fleet and the RAF’s bombers, which stand apart from any of the Continental powers, even the French, but we also have our space based assets and satellites, the industrial base built up in the Commonwealth, the special forces and the mightiest array of missiles between America and Russia. These augment our general power, but it is in that where the devil of the detail lies - the central economic problem of the Cold War.

Even as weapons and ‘systems’ - how the generals and boffins alike love that word, ‘systems’ - increase markedly in cost every 10 years, we still have the necessity of also investing in mass and manpower. We have the men, but they are growing ever more expensive and valuable, and they are spread not just across the three theatres of Europe, but in the increasingly unstable Middle East, the danger zone of South America, the war-weary Far East, and the enigma that is Africa. We are spread thin.”

“Like butter over too much bread, as the Professor might put it. We shan’t be making any alterations to the current position of National Service; even before the revelations of earlier, my mind and that of Sir Charles was set on what has worked since the War of the Worlds. The manpower issue isn't one we can solve quickly, but the generation of the 1960s should at least ameliorate it."

"Indeed. Beyond the exigencies of our position, there is the growing cost of new technical and technological programmes that fall under the category of general defence. The new radio systems for all of our services and the Commonwealth is set to cost £2000 million for the 5000 terminals, the computerised training systems and pocket planes and the satellite navigation infrastructure will be similar, whilst the 'digitalised' combat systems, night-fighting capacity and the computerised logistical coordination system are likely to come in at £1000 million, based on current projections. That substantially exceeds what has previously been allocated towards that area of general national defence, which also has to cover the Ministry of Munitions. For their new facilities, railways and storage dumps in England, France, the Low Countries and Germany; maintenance of 9 months of weapons and ammunition stocks and 18 months of POL; and construction of new ROFs and transport networks, the annualised cost will likely be over £2500 million for the next decade just on that front. Finally, many of the capacities previously catered for by the Royal Space Force and its peculiar funding situation are now outgrowing that arrangement, and the Ministry of Space is seeing its budget pulled in a different direction

"An increase in the general budget would certainly seem to be in order." Powell glanced through the briefing booklet, trying to control his surprise at the cumulative cost of the various projects. "If there were a level where the three main armed forces could be satisfied, that would be something that could be accomodated, initially through the use of the supplementary defence estimates."

"The good news is that the Army, Navy and Air Force are almost at that point, according to service submissions and the studies I had my colleagues commission. £25,000 million apiece, or double the current ordinary budget, but just a quarter more than our adjusted spending estimates. With growth, it should be achievable within 3-4 years. However, it will be a very close run thing, given the costs that each of the services anticipate over the next decade. The Army has their vehicle modernisation programme, the new missile stocks, air defence, war machines and robots, and development of the next main battle tank, as well as whatever decisions are made on the new divisions. The RAF has the new bomber, the Multirole Fighter, the Strategic Fighter and the Joint Strike Fighter/Bomber projects, along with new guided bombs and missiles, the next generation of refueling tankers, the tactical transports and an entirely new type of aircraft in the VSTOL gunship. Both are fairly straightforward in the scope of their vision."

"Implying of course that the Royal Navy is not."

"Quite. The naval challenge has several components. The carrier question, and the recently mooted conventional partial answer, is going to be the largest single area of expense, closely followed by the strategic ballistic missile submarine replacements. We have been fortunate in cruisers for a long time, but now we will need a new class of 24 new ships to replace the warbuilt fleet, and they won't come cheaply either. Of the escort fleet, we have the DLGs, the 136 newest destroyers and the Type 21 and 22 frigates as the basis for our long term fleet, augmented by the Whitby class when they enter service, the proposed destroyer escorts and of course the future destroyer and frigate programmes. Our goal of 480 escorts, as agreed with the rest of the Empire in '65, should be achieved, at least insofar as fully modern vessels go, by 1979."

"If we count the corvettes, it is already well in hand, but shifting definitions for the sake of comfort is a false economy. The Admiralty wants new conventional submarines as well, replacing the Oberons, along with this new Mine Countermeasures Vessel and the replacement helicopter programme. Quite a lot. Is it ever enough?"

"That's the question I've asked myself every night for the last dozen years. We will only know for sure if a real war comes, with all that entails, but it has been successful in deterring the enemies of the Crown to date. The last time we tried to set such levels and be satisfied with them was that brief moment in the early 20s."

"Even then, we did have the 10 Year Rule acting to protect our interests; wise policy then and now."

"The task of balancing the various programmes will be difficult, but not impossible within the scope of the £8000 million average annual procurement budget, if that can be reached and maintained."

"There still must be some scope for economies where possible. The African forces, for example, are of less utility even in the circumstances of a general war and mobilisation, and our study in opposition identified a potential saving of £375 million if they were reduced to a rump of two divisions and separate Zulu brigades, or even smaller. With the independent African armies now more advanced, our residual presence can be covered by a combination of our garrison brigades and Home based quick reaction forces."

"That might certainly be possible, Prime Minister. Following that logic through to its natural conclusion, there will be a day not too far off where we may not have African troops at all, then a removal of our own residual garrisons, with all that entails.

"Reduction does not need to lead to complete removal. We currently exert effective control and influence over the entirety of East Africa and the southern part of West Africa, where the majority of the useful resources lie, Southern Africa, through the Dominions and Portugal, and half of North Africa, through our influence over Libya and Egypt. If we can maintain that control through more economic means, so much the better; a smaller, more flexible African component to the Army could also be of potential utility around the world with appropriate re-equipment and supporting assets."

"Very good; it is your prerogative now. Moving beyond more conventional forces, we have what I'd characterise as our more secret efforts, albeit within the scope of the military rather than what M will have outlined to you earlier. 'Black projects', to use the somewhat dark American term, is not sufficient for them. These are Midnight. Not even the service ministers know about these, as I had the officers responsible report directly to me, with the secret sealed behind a triple layer life geas. Only they, I, Sir Richard Pendragon and Sir Obo are aware of it."

"That does seem somewhat unwieldy. Did you have reason to suspect your own ministers?"

"Not at all; rather, it is the nature of their departments and modern government that would make a secret blacker than midnight more likely to leak. This method, although very unwieldy as you say, simply allows for complete secrecy and for funding to be channeled through multiple bureaucratic channels."

"Such as?"

"Did you really believe that the Ministry of Administrative Affairs served no purpose other than to govern and collate the bureaucrats?"

"That was one of the several most significant lines of attack that we utilised against you in the campaign just past. You did not respond and simply took it."

"Keeping programmes like these secret is worth the loss of an election, particularly to an opponent who was and is trustworthy."

"Admirable, but you could have spoken to me during the campaign in that case, or before it."

"That, Prime Minister Powell, is simply one of my failings - pride, and the planning around pride, and the loneliness of pride. One ends up believing that all burdens have to be shouldered alone. You'll need to watch for it, if you spend long enough in Number 10. I never properly realised the hubris of which Sir Anthony spoke to me would envelop me as well."

"I see. It is honest of you, Mr. Barton, perhaps a tad too brutally so; we shall have to find a better way to do things for the future. Now, what of these programmes for which you may have done too much?"

"There are two each from each of the four services - air, land, sea and space. Firstly, the RAF has a new type of experimental aircraft under development which promises to be functionally immune to current and projected enemy radars, utilising both active measures, such as 'cloaking devices', and passive ones, such as new materials, innovative shapes and more obscure means. When applied to fighters, this could revolutionise air defences and penetration alike; when applied to bombers, we'd be in possession of a distinct strategic advantage not seen since the early 1950s. This is something we have been working on since 1961, and the first experimental planes have been flying since early last year."

"Do the Americans or Soviets have something similar?"

"The Americans do have a quite advanced programme, albeit not quite with the same 'feline' advantages as ourselves, whilst the Soviets are somewhat further back, but seem to be aware of its potential utility, that the Americans have a black project focused on the technology, and have begun testing how it might be applied to their own aviation. Neither of them are aware as to the status of our own efforts."

"How did we manage that?"

"I had them shift the programme to Mars in 1964."

"Yes, I can imagine that would help."

"It is somewhat further along the developmental path than their other effort - use of a special 'interface' between a pilot's brain and a computing engine to control his aircraft much more quickly and literally instinctively. We have again been trying to work on this for 15 years, but the process has been very slow, with all that we have to show for it being a number of experimental helmets linked by electrodes to the brain. The scientists involved with it believe that they will be able to reduce this to a coin-sized arcano-surgical implant in the next ten years."

"That will be of some use, but as you say, is sufficiently far off as to not be something to factor into immediate calculations. What of the Army?"

"Non-magic plasma force fields for vehicles, generated by 'teslaphoresis'. In combination with the Ministry of Magic's arcane mobile shield generators, we can have the ability to protect our tanks from twelve direct hits in total, or six if the latter are nullified by anti-magic. There is something of an issue, though."

"Cost?"

"The plasma field device would cost £80,000 for each tank, on top of £70,000 for the arcane shield generators. Considering that each Crusader costs us £400,000, it is something of an expense that necessarily has needed to be spread out over time. It should be completed by 1979 for the Regular Army. Their other secret endeavour has been the rebirth of the anti-armour heavy rifle, or rather, an electromagnetic kinetic projectile firing heavy rifle. This has been the most successful of any of the Midnight projects, with a very experimental 87lb weapon that can fire a 1" depleted uranium projectile capable of penetrating the side and rear armour of a large number of Soviet bloc tanks, and the frontal armour of the T-55 at short battlefield ranges."

"A very heavy rifle at that rate."

"Not for troops in power armour. The aim is to field at least one weapon in each power armour heavy infantry section by 1984."

"Would it be worth it, compared with some of the other weapons systems outlined here?" Powell held up the briefing booklet "This LOSAT, for example?"

"That will be for you and Sir Charles to decide, during this term, at least. There is some advantage to having many strings to your bow, as ever. Now, for the Royal Navy, we have remotely controlled unmanned motor torpedo boats being tested in some remote New Zealand archipelagos, ostensibly for the Ministry of Space. They have had some reasonable success to date, being able to operate up to five miles away from their mothership, but the end goal is far more ambitious - completely unmanned surface vessels the size of gunboats, not mere MTBs, bristling with missiles and rockets, and capable of operating 50 miles away from ships or offshore platforms as remote defence assets. There are many problems involved with this endeavour, but it shows promise. The second naval programme is more familiar - railguns. The experimental 2.5" railgun is being designed to fire a half pound projectile at Mach 8 at a rate of 12 rounds per minute, out to perhaps 150 nautical miles."

"What would be the gun's intended purpose? Missile interception?"

"Primarily, although if the targeting problem can be resolved, there may be some applications for other purposes. The catch for both are time and money - at least a decade of the first and £250 million a year for each."

"That does seem to be a consistent pattern to all of them."

"Precisely, Prime Minister. In the final instance, the Royal Space Force is working on an ion cannon, which when fired would destroy electronics, computing engines, shields and systems needed to operate a spacecraft, whilst also being capable of disabling incoming nuclear missiles. The utility of this programme has been quite apparent from the start, and in concert with the second programme, would complete the circle of our missile defences such that the capacity of the Soviets to launch a successful attack upon the British Isles would be, at an absolute minimum, degraded to an acceptable level of risk."

"Acceptable levels of risk and hydrogen bombs would not seem to be the most natural bedmates."

"They are not. The only acceptable level of risk is a proper defensive shield that is over 98% impervious. The second RSF programme offers improvement upon that - they plan to put up a new orbital battle station at a geosynchronous orbit equipped with a range of particle beam weapons and a very powerful nuclear 'super laser'. The latter is to be capable of striking targets in space and in the Earth's atmosphere, including on the surface."

"Both quite powerful weapons, much aiding our defences, yet in their own ways, destablising. Presumably the Americans and the Soviets would be capable of such programmes."

"We know that both of them are working on the area."

"Then the Chinese and goodness knows who else. Yet for all that, the prospect of an effective defence is more than logical. These eight programmes or systems all have a certain degree of sense to them, Mr. Barton. I will make no guarantees at this point, but my initial instinct is to continue on the the Midnight projects, based on what you've outlined. I will discuss it further with Sir Charles."

"That's fair. The very last thing today is something even more secret than all of those. It concerns a prophecy handed down to King Alfred the Great some one thousand and seventy five years ago."

[Belushi TD]

OOOOOOO!!!! I like this.

I can't wait to find out what was handed down to King Alfred the Great.

Belushi TD

[Simon Darkshade]

Well, that might be a very, very long wait; it is intended as a little tidbit of mystery and a sign that there are secrets many, many centuries old at play in Dark Earth. By that nature, it isn't something that would get revealed openly, and this is a standalone single installment piece.

The suggestion is that it was handed down, after the various ruptures of the Early Middle Ages, from king to king, and then eventually shared by the monarch with their prime ministers, as the nature of government changed over the centuries. There is a bit of a feel that it is one of the factors which has motivated very long term policies.

[jemhouston]

Fine work

[Belushi TD]

Well, that might be a very, very long wait; it is intended as a little tidbit of mystery and a sign that there are secrets many, many centuries old at play in Dark Earth. By that nature, it isn't something that would get revealed openly, and this is a standalone single installment piece.

The suggestion is that it was handed down, after the various ruptures of the Early Middle Ages, from king to king, and then eventually shared by the monarch with their prime ministers, as the nature of government changed over the centuries. There is a bit of a feel that it is one of the factors which has motivated very long term policies.

Well, poop.

And with the above description of the secrets, you don't need to strain your brain right now to come up with something earthshaking!

Belushi TD

[Simon Darkshade]

To think of it another way: If I were to reveal 1000 year old ultra state secrets and prophecies of incredibly dire portent, it would kind of give the game away for any future developments, as well as definitely locking in certain futures and laying all cards on the table decades before they came to fruition.

In a way, it would be like our Bernard providing a little note to Chapter 2 of The Last War back in 2005 saying "By the way, the winner of WW3 will be X, and it will take this amount of time, and finish in this particular way." That would almost take a little something away from the exercise.

Expressly telegraphing the ending does lock authors in to certain pathways, and in doing so, take away a bit of the mystery and willing suspension of disbelief that comes with this little subgenre of fiction. Way back in caveman days, there was a little mini-universe of fictional pieces on here by a Reece134 (I may have the name wrong, but it has been 20+ years) about a World War 3 in 1948. It had a certain charm for its time, and was never finished to my knowledge, either here or elsewhere on what was a very different Internet, but in the stories and little factfiles, he already gave away his intended ending of a Soviet defeat and war crimes trials in Edinburgh, as I recall. If both ends of a story are 'nailed down', then it ups the ante for the middle quite a lot. This works for WW2 based stories, as there is enough room in that conflict to do a lot, but the broad outline is still known.

For a completely different universe, such as Dark Earth, ruling things in or out conclusively can constrain some of the things I'd like to do, when I finally get the time. This incidentally is one, among many, reasons why I haven't been able to make headway in The Red Shadow for the past 6-7 years, as by 2019, I'd overlapped the time of the novel in publicly released timeline entries; if there is knowledge that the world survives a crisis, then it shifts how you can tell that story. As matters stand, I've really got to have a fulsome rewrite from the start, altering some plotlines, dropping extraneous characters, fixing on a consistent tone (and style), extending some sequences and really hammering out a climax and resolution that, whilst necessarily risky and thrilling, don't jump the shark of silliness. I feel my writing has developed and evolved over the two decades I've been writing Dark Earth material, and part of that is tending more towards more open bits.

It might be of interest that I added that last line as a last minute addition; I have had the idea of the prophecy, and what it regards, for many a year, but putting it on paper does lock in a few things. I chose the oblique ending, as I did in A New Jerusalem's Prime Ministerial briefing by M, to lay a long lasting plot idea.

In addition to the last line, there are 3800 odd other words that are a little bit lonely. Jokes aside, this started as some dot points that would be a little coda to the PM's intelligence briefing, but I've already effectively done that very scene twice - once in From Sea to Shining Sea in 2018/1960, and once in A New Jerusalem in 2020/1964. There has been a bit of change in the overall balance of forces and all that, but rehashing the "These are the Crown Jewel secrets of the Realm, Prime Minister" just didn't end up working. As this turned into more of a short standalone piece, albeit of a meeting with two men talking and no description of them or their environs or anything much else, I did want to inject a note of magic into proceedings.

If there is a theme to come out of this piece, it is the slow realisation by both politicians that the war machine will never stop being hungry, but also that, should it not be fed, then it rapidly declines. The 'price of admiralty', as it were, is giving up on the majority of one's other hopes and plans. They not only have the case study of the historical Britain of Earth to consider, but the decline and fall of the Soviet Union into the ruin of 1990s Russia to boot.

The little line in the end isn't the largest or most important part of the piece, but rather, providing a snippet both of programmes and of the mindset and intent behind them. There simply isn't a comparable acceptance of the decline of power, but rather, a plan for its resurgence.

Some rough comparative numbers:

1.) In 1976, the RN had 3 carriers, 2 cruisers, 9 SSNs, 18 SSKs, 4 SSBNs, 9 amphibious warships, 54 destroyers and frigates; and 4 destroyers, 7 frigates and 4 SSNs on order or building. The DE equivalent is 21 carriers, 12 CVSLs, 21 battleships, 5 battlecruisers, 48 cruisers, 66 SSNs, 56 SSKs, 20 SSBNs, 97 amphibious warships, 428 destroyers and frigates, 304 smaller escorts; and 10 carriers, 5 battleships, 3 battlecruisers, 32 destroyers, 32 frigates and 12 SSNs under construction. The historical USN had 15 carriers, 27 cruisers, 102 destroyers, 64 frigates, 67 SSNs, 8 SSKs, 41 SSBNs, 64 amphibious warships and 14 patrol craft, plus 2 CVNs, 4 CGNs, 18 DDs, 1 FFG and 10 SSN up the spout; this comes with the caveat that the US force posture is closer to its 1968 level of 1 BB, 23 carriers, 35 cruisers, 219 destroyers, 50 frigates, 73 SSNs, 32 SSKs, 41 SSBNs, 157 amphibs and 6 patrol craft.

2.) The British Army of 1976 had 170,000 men and deployed 4 armoured divisions and 1200 tanks; the DE one has just over 1,600,000 men, 26 divisions (14 infantry, 8 armoured, 4 airborne) and 15000 tanks (including the 3260 reserve vehicles, but not counting the 15000 MBTs of the TA and AR).

3.) The 1976 RAF had ~ 750+ aircraft (~ 100 Harriers, ~ 20 Jaguars, 150 Phantoms, 36-40 Vulcans, ~ 60 Lightnings, ~60 Buccs, ~60 Hercules, 40 Nimrods, 12 Shackleton AEW, ~ 20 VC10s, 28 Victor tankers and ~ 160 trainers) and around 96,000 men. The DE RAF has over 12,000 aircraft and 923,487 men, not to mention 1128 ICBMs.

4.) It isn’t just a numbers game, but the quality of equipment and men, and the sheer bulk of reserves of both which back it up.

[Belushi TD]

My apologies if I came off either dismissive or insulting with the last line of my previous post. I meant it as a joke, rather than trying to be a jerk about it.

However, thanks for the detailed reply. I have been very interested in DE ever since you started showing us tidbits way back in.... Wow, its been a long time, hasn't it?

Belushi TD

[Simon Darkshade]

Oh, I knew that you didn't mean it in any way in the same galaxy as insulting or dismissive! Rest assured that your bona fides are most definitively fide-d.

It first came out on here in early 2008, with it branching out beyond The Red Shadow in 2015 when I started to hit a rich vein of creative form and absolutely frenetic writing. That makes it 11 years of the 'second wind' of Dark Earth, after I got a bit stuck between 2011ish and 2014 on some of the chapters of TRS. A useful tip for posterity's sake - Don't start off trying to write a grand magnum opus on your first attempt, but rather, start off with smaller bites first.

As can be seen from the reply above, I do like to wax lyrical and go into detail about all manner of bits and pieces in the world and its world building. It helps to get it written up and then recorded here and on other sites to ensure that I wouldn't lose everything in the event of something awful like a simultaneous housefire and my own website getting hack-destroyed in the manner of TBOverse.org; kind of the writing equivalent of not being a one planet species.

The side benefit of it all is an enormous amount of both general and specific historical research and learning. Since I started the timeline in 2016, I've done more reading on the day to day events of 'general knowledge' level events and the procedural flow of world history 1946-1976 (so far) than probably the average Joe on the streets; developed an appreciation on how the type of events and news were reported, and particularly the changes in the language, style and complexity employed in written records; and become even more interested in economic data and stats, which can provide a very interesting flipside to many tales.

At the same time of 'living in the present' of 1976, I've also got several eyes and thoughts on the near and distant futures; multiple storylines on the go in the past, including 1947, 1951 Korea, two in 1940 and one in 1914, not to mention my separate project in 1794; and still more planned at various points in the 19th and 20th centuries. I do feel a bit like Billy Pilgrim at times, in a jocular sense!

The other benefit of a big reply that gets some of the details and numbers out from my head onto websites is that occasionally it gets a bit of a detail reaction or response from the brains trust around the place, and that is always a welcome boon.