Dark Earth Timeline Discussion

[Simon Darkshade]

July
July 1: The world premiere of Richard Attenborough’s epic war film A Bridge to Victory takes place in London before Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and His Royal Highness Prince Phillip. The 219 minute film, which tells the tale of Operation Market Garden, the Allied invasion and liberation of the Netherlands by the Allied Airborne Army, the First Canadian Army and British Second Army, was filmed from September 1970 to November 1971 on location in Europe and, with a budget of almost $70 million, is comfortably the most expensive film made to date. The initial impression of the audience and critics at the premiere are that it is a masterpiece, with massive set piece battle scenes and aerial filming capturing the grand scale of the campaign most successfully.
July 2: President Ronald Reagan tops the list of the most admired Americans, followed by Reverend Billy Graham, former President John F. Kennedy, Chief Justice Richard Nixon, Dr. Martin Luther King, Neil Armstrong, General Dwight Eisenhower, Linus Pauling, Edward R. Murrow and General Creighton Abrams, the victor of Vietnam.
July 3: A joint Rhodesian and South African force of four reinforced brigades begins a sweeping offensive into the District of Manica and Sofala of Portuguese East Africa in conjunction with Portuguese Colonial Army troops and supported by RRAF and RSAF fighter-bombers. A decisive shift in the course of the Portuguese counter-insurgency is viewed as strategically vital by Cape Town and Salisbury and it is considered that the greatest opportunity for victory lies in the east.
July 4: The latest report on US economic data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis is released, showing that the markets and the country has well and truly transitioned into the recovery phase, with GDP growing by 1.2% in June alone. A positive side effect of the recovery is the restoration of a positive balance of payments, whilst the end of reduction of the once mountainous debt accrued during the Second World War is now in sight, and could be reached by 1975 or 1976.
July 5: A fire breaks out at a railyard in Kingman, Arizona whilst propane is being transferred from a railcar into a storage tank, threatening to cause a massive boiling liquid expanding vapour explosion. The surrounding firemen report hearing a sonic boom and seeing a red and blue flash before the railcar is hurled several thousand feet into the air mere seconds before it explodes into a fireball over two hundred feet across; the strange intervention is considered as saving the lives of dozens of firefighters and onlookers within the blast zone on the ground.
July 6: Filming begins for the first picture of a planned film trilogy adaption of Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian in Spain, directed by young John Milius and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger in the title role alongside Bruce Lee as his companion Subotai, Reb Brown, Sandahl Bergmann, Brian Blessed, Tomasz Wiseau, Max von Sydow, Chuck Norris, Geoffrey Bayldon, and Sean Connery as the wicked Thulsa Doom. Howard will later visit the film set and comment on the high quality and thematic veracity of the adaption.
July 7: The Ethiopian General Election sees voters across the empire select from over five thousand candidates for the 400 seats of the Chamber of Deputies. Longtime Prime Minister Mekonnen Endelkachew remains in office in a sign of continuing stability.
July 8: The Metropolitan Police Force begins the issuing of new L2A4 assault rifles for issue in patrol cars, replacing the earlier mix of carbines to complement the Sterling automatic shotgun and the general service sidearm .455 Webley automatic pistol. Scotland Yard has plans to issue new expandable truncheons and electrical stunguns to street patrols in the East End as part of the next phase of police armament modernisation in response to the London Outrage and Tower Bridge Incident of 1968; the last five years have also seen an increase in the strength of the Met from 64,378 to 75,924 to provide for more effective coverage of all shifts and locations.
July 9: Treasure hunters claim to have uncovered the sunken wreck of the 17th century Spanish treasure galleon Nuestra Señora de Atocha off the Marquesas Keys, with the fabulous treasure aboard worth $1 billion.
July 10: Wealthy American oil scion John Paul Getty III is kidnapped by a dastardly gang of Italian criminals in Rome, who demand a ransom of $25 million from his billionaire grandfather. Rather than cave into the ransom demand, J. Paul Getty immediately cables Memphis, Tennessee, summoning the aid of Reverend Elvis Presley.
July 11: After reports of an attempted heathen revival in Borgarfjörður, 30 Church of Iceland paladins and warrior priests descend upon the area to investigate, supported by a British team from the Office of the Witchfinder and determined to scour out the blasphemous wickedness with fire and sword.
July 12: The US National Personnel Records Center of the General Services Administration completes the task of fully computerising and indexing the service records of US Army personnel between 1912 and 1956, amounting to over 36 million individual files. The process allows not only for research of individual service records for family or historical purposes, but also shows up a number of anomalous cases, which are promptly handed over the FBI's 'Y-Files' office for further investigation.
July 13: Swedish driver Ronnie Peterson wins the British Grand Prix, over New Zealander Denny Hulme, Austro-Hungarian Niki Lauder, American Steve McQueen, Jackie Stewart and Graham Hill making up the rest of the top five finishers.
July 14: Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Mishima unveils a new ambitious ten year plan for the modernisation and expansion of the Imperial Japanese Armed Forces, with the Imperial Japanese Army to increase its regular and reserve strengths by a quarter and form a volunteer reserve component based upon the US Army National Guard and the British Territorial Army; the Imperial Japanese Air Force to increase its tactical fighter and interceptor force by 40% and field new strike fighters, long range interdiction aircraft and ground attack bombers; and the Imperial Japanese Navy to further develop capabilities for long range defence against submarine threats and kaiju attacks.
July 15: A massive mudslide threatens to devastate the Soviet Kazakh city of Alma-Ata before being halted by the new Medeo Dam and the intervention of a number of redclad flying heroes.
July 16: Alan Turing is created a Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II for his services to the British Empire in the Second World War and subsequent pioneering work on the development of the modern computing engine.
July 17: KGB agents begin clandestine release of specially bred variants of Mongolian death worms, produced in Professor Lysenko's underground Biopreparat laboratories deep beneath the Urals, in the Sahara Desert as the first stage of experimental deployment of the results of the Iskusstvennoye Sushchestvo programme.
July 18: The Times features a story on the postwar rise of English wine, with the improved weather conditions allowing for the expansion of vineyards beyond the traditional viticulture heartlands of Kent, Sussex and the West Country (where some monastic vineyards have a heritage stretching back before the Norman Conquest) further up into the Home Counties and East Anglia, whilst newer strains of blue wine promise to return the popular type of yore to the forefront of the vinter's consideration along with the Continental reds and whites, the green win of Ireland and the golden wine of the Lyonnesse mountains.
July 19: King Mohammed Zahir Shah of Afghanistan celebrates the 40th anniversary of his accession to the throne in a joyous ceremony in Kabul. The ongoing modernisation of Afghanistan over the last twelve years of his reign has been widely labelled as the 'Afghan Renaissance', with a new constitution, free elections and universal suffrage, the liberalisation of women's rights and a number of great national infrastructure projects pushing the Anglo-Indian protectorate well and truly into the 20th century. The occasion is made doubly auspicious by the completion of the new railway between Kabul and Peshawar through the Khyber Pass
July 20: Negotiations between the central Congolese government and the provincial administrations of Katanga and Kisu break down over intractable differences regarding power sharing and security. The latter provinces have a greater prevalence of mercenary units of the Armee Nationale Congolese under their command, with their issues and demands being a quite significant driver of the general restiveness, after the concerns of foreign mining companies. The United States, France and the British Empire have expressed concern at the development, given that it could potentially drive the Leopoldville government further towards the orbit of other external powers.
July 21: France conducts a further semi-atmospheric thermonuclear test at Mururoa Atoll in French Polynesia, on top of a successful firing of the prototype Matra ASLP missile carrying a dummy TN72 warhead at a target ship.
July 22: Orion 7 astronauts conduct simultaneous landings on Oberon and Umbriel, further showcasing the impressive capabilities of NASA and the USSF. Both landing teams remark on the even more alien landscapes and the strange manifestations of apparent mineral structures reminiscent in some ways of vegetation.
July 23: The Home Office reports that murders across the British Isles in 1972/73 fell to 96, with the drop being severally ascribed to ever more efficient police investigation and swift punishment acting as a deterrent, increased community links and relative affluence, religious revival and the completion of the economic readjustment process following the demobilisation of additional forces required for deployment to the Far East during the Vietnam War.
July 24: Former President John F. Kennedy opens an exhibition of the photographs taken for the 'Documerica' project of the US Environmental Protection Agency in New York City. Over 5000 photographs showcase a range of human and natural landscapes and environments from across the United States.
July 25: BBC’s Panorama programme feature an investigation of the Isle of Man Railway and the running of its curious enchanted locomotives, particularly in light of the new undersea tunnel connections with mainland England. Isle of Man Railway Controller Sir Topham Hatt, who cut a svelte figure, proudly displayed the new locomotives purchased for the new 'Kipper Express' service to the mainland.
July 26: At the direction of the King, strong elements of the Royal Guard of Chile preemptively surround and assault a number of Chilean Army bases in the immediate surrounds of Santiago, with the move bought on by indications of an imminent coup against the Chilean government. The Chilean High Command is summoned to the Palace for a series of frank conversations on the King’s view of extra-constitutional action by any party or group.
July 27: The BBC begins broadcast of a fifth national radio station, the Sports Programme, joining the BBC Home Service, the Light Programme, the Third Programme and the Children's Programme, and intended to provide 24 hours of sports coverage from around the world, particularly for evening and night shift workers; the sixth station slot remains occupied by regional BBC services across the British Isles. The Light Programme also introduces a daily folk music programme in response to its increasing popularity.
July 28: Emperor Maximilian II of Mexico, whilst visiting the neighbouring state of Yucatan to examine a newly discovered underground Maya ruined city, gives a speech on the importance of Mexico's relations with not just the Yucatan, but the rest of 'independent Central America', stating that the strategic value of the region, particularly the potential of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, is among the true treasures of the 20th century.
July 29: Reverend Elvis Presley and his loyal posse storm a cave complex in Calabria, rescuing the kidnapped John Paul Getty III; the Italian gangsters have no response to the surprise attack of the laser sword wielding Presley, the overwhelming power of Lucky the wise-cracking allosaur and the mesmerising enchanted guitar playing of James Hendrix.
July 30: Famed illustrator and author Frank Tinsley is presented with a special Lifetime Achievement Award by Mechanix Illustrated for his innovative work over the past five decades in 'visualising the future that has now come', particularly through his 'Let's Build...' advocacy articles during the Second World War and the Korean War.
July 31: Commonwealth troops in Uganda officially hand over their occupation and reconstruction mission to a brigade sized field force of the King's African Rifles, who are to remain in support of the reconstituting Ugandan authorities under the oversight of Imperial authorities and Governor-General Sir Thomas Acton. The presence of the Imperial garrison in adjacent Kenya is considered sufficient force to respond to any further civil strife, with certain special forces elements to remain operational within Uganda for now.

[jemhouston]

I wouldn't mind seeing Market Garden.

[Simon Darkshade]

I wouldn't mind making it.

The original idea had been percolating around for years and was finally polinated by the lovely 'From the Schelde to the Rhine' by our own Bernard Woolley.

The basic situation on the Western Front in September 1944 see two British Empire army groups (21st Army Group with First Canadian, British Second, British Third and the Polish Army in the West attached; and 25th Army Group with British Fourth, British First and Commonwealth Fifth (formerly British Fifth)) poised along a line from the Scheldt through to Maastricht, whilst two US Army Groups (12th AG under Bradley with First, Ninth and Third and 6th AG under Clark with Second, Fourth and Seventh) and the French 1st AG under de Gaulle (1er, 2e and 3e Armee) are pushing towards the Rhine from Liege to the Swiss border and the US Twelfth and Fifteenth Armies are forming up in France (+ Fourteenth and Sixteenth in the pipeline from CONUS).

The broader picture of Dark Earth Market Garden consists of:
- A preliminary clearing of the Scheldt and capture of Walcheren by Royal Marines
- At the same time as Market, Canadian First Army launches an attack preliminarily aimed at Breda and thence to Rotterdam, whilst British Third Army begins a very steady holding attack towards Tilburg,
- The airborne 'carpet' being laid from the Dutch border to Arnhem consists of the US 101st, 17th and 82nd Airborne Divisions at Eindhoven, Grave and Nijmegen, and the British 1st and 6th Airborne Divisions plus the Polish Independent Parachute Brigade at Arnhem. On D+1, the 52nd (Lowland) Infantry Division is airlanded at Deelen and the Canadian Airborne Division is dropped at Oosterbeek
- All of the Market operations occur under the umbrella of very heavy tactical air support and very long range railway artillery
- Garden sees the reinforced British XXX Corps (Guards Armoured, 7th Armoured, 25th Infantry (Mechanised), 43rd (Wessex) Infantry and 50th (Northumbrian) plus additional brigades, including Polish armour/cavalry) push up the road at a steady clip, immediately flanked on both sides by cavalry, commandos and 'mobile infantry', and with XII Corps pushing up on the west, VIII Corps on the east and XXI Corps in immediate reserve as support
- 23rd Army Group's British Fourth Army launches a supporting attack towards Roermond and Venlo, which pins down some German forces

XXX Corps makes it to Arnhem in a bit over three days, but it takes another two weeks of fighting to firmly establish the nominal bridgehead, with the broader scope of the push cutting into supplies.

Incidentally, the first XXX Corps unit into Arnhem relieving the airborne pocket are the Polish Winged Hussars, followed by the rest of the 16th Independent Armoured Brigade.

The Allies didn't push across the Rhine into Germany in 1944 due to the bottleneck of supplies, but rather develop and expand their pocket and bring up a lot more forces; meanwhile, the the Canadians liberated the rest of the Netherlands by mid-late October.

Market Garden was not a failure, but did not succeed in ending the war by Christmas.

Hitler, as ever, was a bit miffed, and launched his last major offensive in the Ardennes in November 1944. The main southern arm is caught up by the US Army in a massive bulge, then reduced and ground back, whilst the streaky northern push manages to skirt through the 'gap' between armies until it smacks into a hammer and anvil of American troops and a British army commanded in the field by His Majesty King George VI. But that is a story for another day...

[jemhouston]

When was the last time a British Monarch commanded in the field?


Today's trivia, name the only US President to witness a battle firsthand?

[Bernard Woolley]

In @ it was George II at the The Battle of Dettingen on 27 June 1743.

In DE I wonder if the British Army is wondering why it has had a former naval and air force officer put in command of it.

[Simon Darkshade]

Well, he isn’t totally bereft of Army rank, being a Field Marshal and all that. His command isn’t a permanent fact, but rather, a function of him visiting at the precise right time when Fourth Army had its commander laid low with illness.

At that point, First Canadian Army is under Sir Guy Simmonds, British Second Army is Sir Miles Dempsey, British Third Army is Sir John Campbell, British Fourth Army would usually have been Sir John Hawkesworth and Commonwealth Fifth Army is Sir Richard O’Connor.

Elsewhere, we have:
British Sixth Army: Sir Richard McCreery (Greece)
British Seventh Army: Sir Adrian Carton de Wiart (Norway)
British Eighth Army: Sir Oliver Leese (Italy)
British Ninth Army: Sir William Gott (Spain)
British Tenth Army: Sir Kenneth Anderson (Middle East)
British Eleventh Army: Sir Douglas Gracey (India)
British Twelfth Army: Sir William Slim (Indochina)
British Fourteenth Army: Sir Brian Robertson (Burma)

[Simon Darkshade]

In any event, after the exigencies of 1944 have sated readers, I draw your attention to the other film described in July, Conan the Barbarian, starring a rather different cast with a particular Easter Egg actor.

[Jotun]

Mist be the guy wo made The Room.
Otherwise, BRIAN BLESSED!

(Him chewing the scenery in a Conan movie is a glorious thought).

[Simon Darkshade]

Correct on Wiseau.

I see Blessed as Conan’s slave master/mentor, absolutely chewing scenery after the quote of “What is best in life.”

Norris and Bruce Lee have some interesting potential, with Geoffrey Bayldon/Catweazle as the old sorcerer ( Mako in the @ 1982 film), Reb Brown as a barbarian type and Wiseau as an insane pagan priest.

[Simon Darkshade]

July Notes

- A Bridge to Victory is a different film to A Bridge Too Far, not simply on account of the differing circumstances and outcome of the battle, but of the much greater available stores of WW2 equipment and its combination with visual illusions, which can produce a product on a par with the best CGI from @ 2024. There are even more iconic 'big picture shots', showing the scale of the air and land forces deployed in a manner reminiscent, in a certain way of the 2011 South Korean picture My Way, which portrayed D-Day as more than just a bloody tactical fight far better than multiple more acclaimed Western films. Thus, rather than Brigadier J.O.E. Vandeleur being pictured with several dozen tanks and halftracks, hundreds of Centurions, tracked APCs and other assorted vehicles are shown, including some aerial wide shots to give scale; as well as the excellent take-off, flight and paradrop scenes of the aerial armada, there is also a wide angle 'illusorily modified' image of the hundreds of Dakotas and Victorias (and Skymasters and Hastings) flying over the Channel, and several comparable scenes of the supporting bombers and fighter-bombers; rather than a single 25pdr battery providing a brief preliminary barrage to the Guards Armoured Division advance, there is an 'illusorily modified' depiction of 8 field, 4 medium, 2 heavy, 2 superheavy and 4 rocket regiments providing the kick-off. It also features the first major heliborne assault, with a battalion of US Army Rangers directly hitting the Son Bridge
- This isn't a veiled criticism of the @ ABTF, which did what it did very well, but simply an illustration of *how* applied magi-tech, among other capacities, can make a radical difference in every facet of everyday life, including the motion picture trade
- The 'Most Admired American' list was and is a real list, with the array of names here based on the type of men historically cited. It allows for a bit of a display of who is still around (Eisenhower, JFK and MLK) and an image of a respected Nixon who has never quite got the opportunity to show his less admirable traits
- Rhodesian and South African intervention in Mozambique, as well as Angola, shows that there is a joint determination and realisation that the flanks of Southern Africa are more important than the 'frontline' up on the Congo border
- The US economy begins bouncing back from the recession, with very solid fundamentals. The reference to WW2 debt refers to the $394 billion of the total DE WW2 cost that the USG funded through debt/bonds; US DE GDP in 1945 was £108,974,358,974.36 or $435,897,435,897.46 in 1945 DE USD, putting the total at below 100% of GDP and less than @, but still eye-wateringly high by DE/in-universe standards. It was reduced by some of the federal primary surpluses of 1946-1949, before Korea and the Cold War changed priorities, and then further reduced by the surpluses of the second half of the 1950s. Most of all, it has shrunk dramatically as a percentage of GDP given the very large growth of the United States in 1945-1973. Symbolically paying off the wartime debt and bonds is seen as an attractive path by some; note that there distinctly isn't mention of the debt accrued by Korea, the Cold War and Vietnam, which is a whole different basket of cash
- No Kingman BLEVE tragedy, due to *someone* intervening and chucking the railcar far up into the air
- Conan the Barbarian is a longer, higher quality picture compared to the @ one, but still maintaining the parts that were good, great and awesome in @; no James Earl Jones casually turning into a snake during a weird orgy, for example
- Ethiopia is much more stable and not about to experience the Derg
- The Metropolitan Police are not only larger, and have never moved away from their armed period, but are now reacting to previously signposted developments, debates and policy shifts that have occurred over 6-10 years. The increasing wave of terrorist incidents begats a reaction, which in this case is an armament level not reached until US police forces in the 1990s
- John Paul Getty III's kidnapping is handed over to Reverend Elvis Presley, who has an excellent track record in such matters...
- The @ heathen revival in Iceland lead by Sveinbjörn Beinteinsson and which became Asatru comes up against different circumstances here
- No fire destroys the US National Personnel Records Center, which in turn shows up some strange things that should not be there...(start whistling the X-Files theme tune)
- Japanese rearmament kicks up a pace, with the excuse of Godzilla being quite useful in a certain fashion
- Behind the Iron Curtain, there dwell Red superheroes
- Alan Turing gets further recognition
- The KGB are up to something in the Sahara, but the release of modified lifeforms or 'artifical creatures' into the wild can surely, surely not go wrong in any way, can't it?
- English wine returning is another manifestation of a different climate, not due to global warming here, but rather localised climate control through the Sunstone since 1947
- Afghan railways are a sign of a country heading on a different trajectory, as well as a continuation of the King's modernising policies
- The Congo starts to hit something like the @ mercenary revolts of 1967, that little bit later (adjusting for the later independence of the Congo from Belgium) and without a Mobutu in charge
- French nuclear tests are hitting the grey area of 'semi-atmospheric', but aren't quite yet going out and breaking the moratorium
- Orion 7 discovers strange marvels on the Uranian moons
- The murder rate drops in Britain; there are a number of reasons cited there by in-universe experts, but the most important of them is the relative affluence and its flow-on effects on communities
- The Isle of Man Railway is very much based upon Reverend Wilbert Awdry's Railway Series, which was adapted as Thomas and Friends
- Rather than Chile being a case of the Chilean Army & Ors vs the Allende government & Ors, this shows that there is a third faction at play that doesn't want either side to cross the event horizon of a coup or other extra-constitutional action. The outcome here won't be the @ one, but will be based in a certain way on another @ series of events, in a different country
- BBC radio stations did not change their names in 1967 in an attempt at modernisation, nor has there been a distinct move to follow the golden calf of youth oriented pop music and pop culture, either on the wireless or on television. In the absence of rock and roll, 'pop' music is very different in some ways, but there are some elements that are similar - songs such as 'You'll Never Walk Alone' and 'Downtown' are around, reflecting their different origins and style, but guitar bands don't really register outside of country music. An exception to this, in a certain way, is the rise of folk music as a popular youth niche, which will manifest itself in something like the historically influenced folk rock bands of @, such as Steeleye Span, Pentangle and Spriguns of Tolgus
- Frank Tinsley, rather than dying mostly unremembered, gets some recognition here for his quite zany and funny ideas; this is a universe that regards them more seriously
- A pullback of sorts from Uganda, but not one that leaves a vacuum for 'Generic Strongman Dictator' to try and take over. The British approach has been to set very clear red lines to the circumstances of independence of her former African colonies and, whilst such an approach can be afforded both financially and diplomatically, there is not a great deal of appetite for abandoning it and creating a vacuum for other powers to enter; the result is 'a very British Franc-afrique'

[Simon Darkshade]

Coming in August-December 1973:

- The Defence Policy of the Reagan Administration takes shape, with a different balance coming from a shift to a 'peacetime budget', but one of a noticeably increased share even compared to the pre-Vietnam JFK Administration, who were absolutely no shirkers in terms of defence. This will need a bit of a discussion and note in its own right, but there will be some signposted events
- Rapprochement attempts between Indonesia and the British Empire in the Far East
- The origin of Stockholm Syndrome
- Events come to a head in Chile
- Indochina continues to slowly rebuild from the war
- A fair bit of sporting news
- Instead of a Food Pyramid, we will see a somewhat different 'Food Circle', or 'Daily Plate'
- The Middle East simmering down; the presence of outside forces makes it a bit more difficult for various 'sides' or regional powers/states to tear at each other
- Some interesting cultural developments
- A boy in Lambton catches a queer looking worm
- A Royal wedding, Egyptian tombs, a special 99th birthday, assorted tax cuts and other legislation, and a significant arrest of an international threat

Looking ahead from 1973, the overall situation in a number of continents is on a different trajectory, as it were:

Asia:
- SE Asia is simmering down in the aftermath of the Vietnam War, without the scope for the dreadful coda which was the @ situation in Cambodia or the waves of Vietnamese 'boat people' refugees. Indeed, in the absence of a fall of South Vietnam, there will be a markedly smaller Vietnamese diaspora, and not nearly so widely spread
- China isn't positioned to come in from the cold, but hasn't really been in it in the same fashion; rather, they have been sitting rather separately like the third circle of a Venn diagram since the end of the Korean War put paid to their (rather disastrous) dalliance with the Soviets. Thus, there is unlikely to be the same type of Chinese economic rise starting in the l980s, as there hasn't been the same Maoist nadir to rise up from
- Japan is the country most on a familiar trajectory, but it is angled even higher than @ in economic terms and is under very different leadership in the form of PM Yukio Mishima. A rearming Japan will alter the balance of power in the North Pacific and NE Asia in some unexpected fashions
- Korea and Taiwan are ahead of their @ positions at this point, both in terms of economic growth and general democratic normalisation. They also each have rather secret programmes for developing some certain, ahem, capacities
- Indonesia is on a different (and not particularly 100% successful) path as part of the Soviet bloc, but Sukarno's grip is starting to get a bit shaky, and his health (although enhanced by being in power vs under house arrest) isn't in the best shape
- India is a vast country and noticeably different in its 'trajectory', alignment and capacity. After a few years of relative political introspection, there are drivers for some change. Aside from a not insignificant faction amongst the nationalists and socialists, there isn't quite the same coalition preferring non-alignment/Soviet alignment over being a player at the top table of the Western bloc

Africa
- The continent with the most differences
- Independent states: South Africa, Rhodesia, Egypt, Liberia, Ethiopia, Madagascar Somalia, Orungu (Swedish Congo), Kenya, Tanganyika, Uganda, Upper Volta, Senegal, Mali, Niger, Dahomey, Congo, Guinea, Cameroon, Ashante Federation (Gold Coast and Ivory Coast), Togoland, Nigeria, Sudan, Equatoria, Azania (Southern Tanganyika/Nthn Mozambique), Ubangi-Shari, Libya, Chad, Morocco, Tunisia, Senegambia, Rwanda-Burundi, Darfur
- Colonies/protectorates: Portuguese West Africa, Portuguese East Africa, Spanish Sahara, Mauritania
- The 'independent' states include a lot of former British and French colonies whose independence effectively comes with an asterisk. As said earlier, rather than a quick severance of ties, like a divorce, their pathways has been a multi-stage process, like a child growing from a wee bairn to a young adult forging out into the world; the paternalist overtones of the imagery are deliberate, as they encapsulate where the thinking of the DE British and French governments leans at this time. Domestic self government came by the mid 1960s, followed by quasi-independence, in the form of Dominion status, which many states achieved between 1965 and 1970 on a more accelerate timeframe 'suggested' by HM QE2 in late 1964. The third stage, of removal of some of the 'ties that bind' and transference of control of armed forces and external relations, is now coming for some states; others, such as Uganda after the recent intervention, are further back. The final stage of 'independence within the Commonwealth' reached directly in @ won't be on the cards until the 1980s under current thinking in London and Paris, with the residual control and influence (Francafrique with teeth) remaining following this
- There simply hasn't been the cases of a rapid shift from a nominal parliamentary democracy to a presidential republic and thence to a dictatorship, as in quite a few African states during the 1960s in @, nor of a relative rush to jump into bed with the Soviets in the form of arms and advisors. That type of embrace of the Reds is one of the 'red lines' that would result in London or Paris moving to pull the nascent African state back into what they view as a more acceptable position
- In contrast to @, both London and Paris have the combination of wealth, will and force to work such measures, so long as the other side is of a manageable size. This has been assisted by the greater focus upon Vietnam from 1965 to 1970 for the USA and the USSR, as well as the latter not even having the same 'entrepots' to the Middle East and Africa that it had in the @ 1960s and the dubious example of the ongoing chaos in the Congo; this has arguably not been the best outcome for many Africans
- Like a teenager growing up and bucking the rules and restrictions set at home, this state of affairs can't last forever, however much the paternalistic entities might wish it to do so. This has been signposted on a couple of occasions
- Africa thus hasn't quite developed the same growing Third World voice in the LoN
- - Another factor not present in @ is a reaction to this state of the affairs in the form of the African Liberation Front, a continental grouping of associated independence and resistance groups. Watch this space
- Due to an earlier cure (assisted by Tarzan and detailed in a 1950s or early 1960s event), HIV/AIDS will be an extremely minor epidemiological historical footnote in an obscure future textbook under another name
- The tsetse fly is on its way out
- Africa really has the potential to be the next major 'Cold War' theatre, with the inherent limitations of the Soviets not being next door (North Korea) or able to directly ship support (North Vietnam)

South America
- There really is enough material here for an article in and of itself
- Unlike @, there are both South American and external alliance blocs that give the potential for any conflict to erupt into something much bigger...

[Eaglenine2]

Taiwan is in world ROC?

[Simon Darkshade]

Yes, close enough to as an equivalent. Post WW2, the Chinese Republicans lost out to the Imperials in a multi-way brawl and hoofed it to the American occupied Formosa. The main difference is that no one holds them out to be China Proper.

[Simon Darkshade]

August
August 1: The League of Nations Commission on Cambodian Reconstruction reports that the Indochinese nation continues to recover from the effects of the recent war ahead of anticipated schedule, with no deaths from either violence or unexploded ordnance and mines over the last two months.
August 2: Opening of the Imperial Conference in Colombo, with the main items scheduled for discussion being economic modernisation, diversification of technology, regular consideration of internal non-tariff barriers and internal migration between Commonwealth states.
August 3: CIA agents in La Paz conclude that the ELN and IRA are building up their strength for a concerted offensive action in Bolivia and recommend that US air and land forces be prepared to reinforce the current presence of one battalion of Green Berets from the 13th Special Forces Group.
August 4: A 13 year old Milwaukee boy is committed to indefinite detention at the Central State Hospital for the Criminally Insane in Waupun after investigations into juvenile delinquency and animal cruelty lead to reasonable grounds for the administration of the controversial Jekyll Test for latent criminal potential.
August 5: Indonesian diplomats in Switzerland pass a proposal through the French to the British Embassy for the winding down of active operations in Borneo and an eventual cessation of the Confrontation between Indonesia and the British Empire.
August 6: Dreadnought begins to slow down its initial acceleration phase on her journey from Mars to Saturn, remaining on schedule to arrive in January 1974 with the aim of using Saturn for a gravity assist for the subsequent two year voyage out to Neptune. NASA plans for the Grand Tour of the Solar System are scheduled to launch Orion 11 in 1976, following on the three Orion missions scheduled for the intervening three years.
August 7: A radio call for help from a boy trapped in an overturned truck with his deceased father in the vicinity of Albuquerque leads to one of the largest peacetime search and rescue missions in U.S. history. 'Lost Boy Larry' Ehrhardt is eventually located three days later by local 15 year old Boy Scout Walter White and makes a full recovery, with his grateful grandfather establishing a special trust fund for his intrepid rescuer.
August 8: Opening of the Royal Air Force Exposition 73 at RAF Farnborough, displaying the full range of combat aircraft operated by the RAF and a number of prototype warplanes, including the BAC P.96 fighter, the Hawker-Siddeley HS.1236, the de Havilland DH.187 and the Gloster Gladiator battlefield ground attack fighter. The exposition also makes pointed note of the increased production capacity of adjacent Royal Aircraft Factory after the completion of the expansion project of the last five years.
August 9: Nazi death camp guard Hermine Braunsteiner is formally extradited from the United States to Austria-Hungary after an investigation initiated by famed Nazi-hunter Simon Wiesenthal.
August 10: A 12000t granite boulder known locally as the 'Nantua Pillar' is arcanely ‘caught’ and fixed in place overhanging the town after seeming to be on the brink of falling on the French Alpine town of Nantua following the intervention of a holidaying German wizard.
August 11: The defence policy of the Reagan Administration continues to take shape, with projections for shipbuilding in 1974/75 calling for a a total of six SSN nuclear attack submarines and increased orders for guided missile cruisers and destroyers. Design of a new class of large nuclear powered guided missile super cruisers, a guided missile ocean escort to complement the Knox class Joint Anti-Submarine Frigate and a new type of light surface combatant are underway at various stages of completion, with a requirement for a new SSBN to carry the Undersea Long-range Missile System also featuring high on the list of naval priorities. The USAF has indicated that it would regard the retention rather than the replacement of the B-52 Stratofortress favourably, as the Advanced Global Strategic Bomber programme continues to make steady if unspectacular progress, with the B-52's payload and range having proved its mettle time and again in the Far East and Africa
August 12: Deutsche Reichsbahn institutes a new series of reforms aimed at improving punctuality from its current low level 83% through the use of special computing engines for coordination of regional and national timetables and a 'real time' arcane model showing the position, speed and progress of every DR train currently in service. The two 5000mm lines of the former Breitspurbahn between Cottbus and Aachen and Hamburg and Munich, often regarded as the Rothaariges Stiefkind of the German rail network, are ironically markedly more punctual at at average of 92%
August 13: Completion of Kryal Castle, a replica medieval keep near Ballarat in country Victoria, replete with drawbridge, complex hedge maze, feasting hall, grim dungeons and a moat with Bazza, the resident (friendly) bunyip. It is to prove a popular event location and attraction for young and old alike.
August 14: British Mediterranean Command stages Exercise Gyrfalcon, a joint exercise in the Eastern Mediterranean, consisting of amphibious forces operating from Cyprus, covered by the Victorious carrier group, conducting landing operations on Crete, contested by a force based around HMS Formidable operating from Malta. The RAF contingents of both sides demonstrate the long range capabilities of the Avro Arrow and newly acquired F-111s.
August 15: An article in The New York Times notes that the 'country music bubble' looks to have burst, or at least started deflating, with fewer country groups climbing the record sales charts in June and July in comparison to adult contemporary pop music, easy listening and new swing artists. In response, Arkansas quintet Hogface Murphy and the Squidling Jeroboams release a satiric answer song (Just Because My Bubble's Bursting) It Doesn't Mean I Don't Love You.
August 16: Publication of The Gulag Archipelago, dissident Soviet author Alexsandr Solzhenitsyn's stinging account of life as a zek, or prisoner, in the Soviet labour camp system and the bloody purges of Stalin Senior, in Paris, having been secretly smuggled out to the West from behind the Iron Wall.
August 17: US Navy carrier deployment from the Seventh Fleet on ‘Yankee Station’ off the coast of North Vietnam is phased back to two carrier battle groups operating out of Subic Bay, with a separate battleship battle group at Cam Ranh Bay; this reduction comes as the 7th Marine Division begins redeployment from South Vietnam to the Philippines.
August 18: The All American Soap Box Derby in Akron results in scandal, as the winning boy is subsequently found to have an electromagnet secreted in the front of his purportedly unpowered car and disqualified, forfeiting his prestigious college scholarship.
August 19: The Indian national soccer team qualifies for 1974 World Cup, sensationally defeating Peru in Calcutta 3-2, with the winning goal by speedy forward Inder Singh coming with barely 10 seconds left to play. The Peruvian Football Federation and the government in Lima are, to put it mildly, displeased by this course of events.
August 20: Uruguay signs a trade agreement with Britain raising the annual British purchase of beef to 500,000 tons and facilitating expansion of the industrial packing facilities at Fray Bentos; the beef is to be allocated to Home Office civil defence reserve stocks and the Ministries of Health and Education.
August 21: An outbreak of cholera in Naples, suspected to be caused by shellfish imported from Tunisia, leads to the water supply being chlorinated, the streets sprayed down with formaldehyde and an emergency vaccination programme initiated within days, which vaccinates over 1.3 million people in a week. The USN Sixth Fleet steps on to vaccinate 50,000 people using fast action pistol syringes at its southern fleet base.
August 22: A private member's bill for the abolition of capital punishment is defeated in the House of Commons 624-158, with Government Chief Whip Reg Prentice noting that, "in the midst of a national recovery from recession and with a multitude of serious issues facing the country, it does speak volumes of the priorities of some of those opposite."
August 23: Jan-Erik Olsson attempts to rob the Kreditbanken on Normmalstorg Square in Stockholm in an effort to secure the release of his criminal mentor, seizing four hostages and exchanging fire with the police. They respond with firegas and, whilst subsequently storming the bank, accidentally combine the effects of two experimental arcane wands of command and paralysis, their own police protective cloaks and a small basket of seafood. The resulting impacts wears off the hostages after two days, but the captive Olsson remains unable to stop vomiting elvers for the better part of a fortnight; research wizards will later dub the accidental effect as ‘Stockholm Syndrome’.
August 24: The Chilean Chamber of Deputies narrowly passes a watered down vote of censure against Premier Salvador Allende, with the acquiescence of several independent members being bought through the dilution of the language and sentiment contained in the motion, so as to make it a mere gesture.
August 25: A middle-aged ne'erdowell is arrested for the attempted abduction of two girls, aged 11 and 5, at a SANFL football match at Adelaide Oval, with a quick-thinking off-duty police constable stopping the man as he attempted to carry off the distressed younger girl. He is charged with two counts of aggravated kidnapping and subsequently sentenced to death by hanging.
August 26: The Royal Navy's East Africa Station establishes a new patrol off the coast of Somalia in response to rising incidences of suspected pirate activity, suspected slaving ships and low level Somali provocations along the Kenyan border. The light aircraft carrier HMS Justinian, the frigate HMS Ambuscade, the sloop HMS Skylark and the corvettes Pansy, Dunvegan Castle and Osborne Bay are assigned, in conjunction with HMKS Kenya of the Royal East African Navy and HMIS Nilgiri and a RNAS Buccaneer squadron operating out of St George's Island.
August 27: An underwater expedition sponsored by the National Geographical Society locates the sunken wreck of the US Civil War era ironclad monitor USS Monitor off the coast of Cape Hatteras. Debate on the question of raising her begins, with key issues including her deteriorating condition, her position with regard to the territorial waters of North Carolina and her legal status as an article of federal property.
August 28: The Mexican states of Puebla and Veracruz are struck by an earthquake measuring 7.5 on the Richter scale, killing over 600 people, including 120 in the collapse of a larger apartment building in the city of Orizaba. The new guided missile battleship Montezuma, fitting out at Veracruz, suffers no damage.
August 29: Britain's strong economic recovery from the recession continues to gather pace, as unemployment falls further with the recovery of business and industry, the progress of Royal Highway construction, the expansion of oilfield development and offshore platform manufacture for the booming North Sea oil and gas sector and the flow-on effects of initial work on the expansive 'New Cities' program.
August 30: First flight of the Sikorsky Vertibird quad tiltrotor VTOL aircraft, an ambitious multirole assault transport/gunship equipped with an integrated 37mm autocannon and a number of other cutting edge classified capabilities. It is designed for a combat range of 750 miles with a maximum speed of 350mph and can carry a reinforced platoon of troops or 64,000lb of equipment and supplies.
August 31: The world heavyweight title fight between American George Foreman and Briton 'Little John' Smith at White City Stadium results in a majority draw after 15 rounds, with neither boxer able to land a a conclusive knockout blow.

[jemhouston]

I know I should know this, but I don't

August 4: A 13 year old Milwaukee boy is committed to indefinite detention at the Central State Hospital for the Criminally Insane in Waupun after investigations into juvenile delinquency and animal cruelty lead to reasonable grounds for the administration of the controversial Jekyll Test for latent criminal potential.

Walter White has another chance.

[Simon Darkshade]

The 13 year old is Jeffrey Dahmer.

[jemhouston]

The 13 year old is Jeffrey Dahmer.

I'd like to blame demonic possession, but we're quite capable of evil without outside help.

[Simon Darkshade]

Quite. There was enough material and evidence of some strange conduct as a youngster to raise flags in this case. After the death of Ted Bundy at the hands (well, fangs) of a female vampire hitchhiker and John Gacey getting nicked very early, quite a few notable serial killers don’t quite have the same ‘careers’.

[Simon Darkshade]

August Notes:

- Cambodia, far from being on the cusp of the hell of the Khmer Rouge, is recovering slowly but surely. The absence of land mine injuries, given their later particular scourge there in our Earth, is a bit of a clear indicator of difference
- Some of the issues being raised at Colombo are important sticking points in further Commonwealth economic integration efforts
- Bolivia is starting to heat up, but this is perhaps the wrong US President to really see any ELN success. Watch this space, and South America in general
- Jeffrey Dahmer gets noticed and looked into in his formative years, and doesn’t get to go down the path he did. To some extent, the 1970s were the heyday of the serial killer in @, but on DE, that window is already almost closed; this can be expanded upon if there is interest
- Indonesian olive branches come after the end of Vietnam and the interruption of the dominoes
- Dreadnought has a long way to go, as space is really rather big, even for a relatively fast atomic powered ship
- Lost Boy Larry turns out not to be a hoax, and, in the process, becomes the making of young Walter White. His scholarship and trust fund sets him up nicely, and he has some success with discoveries after college, after some inadvertent help from his cousin Halifax Wilkerson
- Further details of the new planes mentioned at Farnborough will follow in an aviation round up; the Royal Aircraft Factory being used as an actual production facility, after a long overhaul + investment + reconstruction of facilities dormant since WW2 will add a bit more national capacity
- Braunsteiner’s extradition is to AH, which has some very severe views of its former Nazis and Kronists…
- The Nantua Pillar being preserved, and with the aid of a German, no less, is a different event
- Plenty to chew on with the Reagan Administration’s defence plans. The FFGs will be more than the OHPs, and have some parts reminiscent of some of the FF21 designs. The cruisers will end up being CSGNs crossed with Kirovs crossed with Long Beach with a sprinkling of guns and MSG for taste, whilst the new ship type is likely to be something corvette-like (certainly not LCS!). The B-52 replacement is to serve in tandem with the B-70 and the atomic powered bomber and now with the B-52 as well; the cruise missile offers the Buffs an extended life
- DB running on time will be a bit fantastical to some, so I deployed mention of Hilter’s over-compensating super railway to make things a bit more realistic
- Kryal Castle is a real place, visited by lil ol’ me in 1991; Bazza the Bunyip was an early 1990s environmental cartoon mascot, urging Australians not to ‘muck up the Murray’ with litter
- Mediterranean Command’s exercise, coming when Britain in @ was recoiling from any Med role, shows a bit of a stronger (and quieter) southern flank
- Lyrics to Hogface Murphy and the Squidling Jeroboams’ (Just Because My Bubble's Bursting) It Doesn’t Mean I Don’t Love You are available upon request, with a warning for the sanity of any readers thus tempted
- Yankee Station continues, keeping an eye on the increasing peace between the two Vietnams. Should that state of affairs continue, it is likely to be wound down as a standing deployment by 1975
- Shenanigans at the Soap Box Derby are the stuff of an afterschool special!
- India making the soccer World Cup will have some consequences
- Historically, Uruguay banned domestic beef sales to boost exports, after Britain joining the EEC had ramifications on their trade. Here, it is going strong; the Government purchased beef goes to tinned rations for ‘just in case’ and also to NHS hospitals and to school meals and to prisons
- The Naples events are largely historical
- There really isn’t much of a break in positions on capital punishment, with the two largest parties firmly in favour
- Stockholm Syndrome turns out to be very, very different
- A different result in the censure vote against Allende, but trouble is brewing…
- August 25th’s event means nothing to folk outside of South Australia, but refers to a notorious disappearance of two little girls that is still unsolved to this day, and marked an ‘end of innocence’ moment for the city in many ways, along with the earlier Beaumont children kidnapping (also averted in DE)
- This isn’t quite modern Somali piracy, but the RN reaction just gives a bit of a picture of the force that is applied to even small issues
- British economic recovery is well and truly on track
- Vertibirds…I’ve heard that somewhere before…

[Jotun]

The vertibirds read like a cross between the glass cannons from Fallout and the troop transports from "Edge of Tomorrow".