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Second Chance Rewrite

ChrisNuttall

Well-known member
I’ve been giving a lot of thought, recently, to rewriting the Second Chance series, an ISOT book based around Great Britain of ‘now’ being sent back in time to 1940 and finding itself at war with Nazi Germany. However, how would this go?

For starters, Britain is suddenly cut off from everything that came from overseas, from American weapons to European medicines. How badly are things going to be disrupted? How much can Britain produce on her own?

Obviously, man for man, the British military will be vastly superior to the Nazi War Machine. However, that won’t last. High-intensity war will drain the country’s reserves very quickly. (For example, Britain does not have a large supply of cruise missiles. The highest estimate I’ve seen of current stocks is 150. That’s 150 destroyed targets in Germany, but those are just the tip of the iceberg.) Britain could be in the same position as Atvar - superior tech, but very limited supplies.

I don’t see modern-day Britain dropping nukes, unless things are truly desperate.

Socially, there will be other problems. Britain (now) does not have an empire, nor many establishments outside the Home Islands. 1940s Britain does. What will happen when modern-day Britain realises it rules India? Will it just let India go? What about Palestine? Egypt? The Suez Canal? I had Saudi Arabia occupied during the original storyline, at least partly to head off Islamic Terrorism again. And how will the 1940s British react to modern-day Britain? Awe? Horror? Both?

How will the rest of the world react?

Chris
 
The sudden end of 2019 resources (and unless our satellites are coming with us, any satellite-based military or civilian tech is going to need reworking) means Britain's in real shit - not to mention there's a lot more mouths needing feeding than in 1940. Strategically, Britain's only option off the top of my head is to end the war NOW NOW NOW before the food and med shortages kick in.

So I could absolutely see a nuclear strike being on the cards ("we nuked the Nazis and prevented the Holocaust" will probably play well with enough 2019 voters). Probably first there'd be a big, splashy military attack that makes it clear we are far in advance we are of Germany and if that doesn't work, bye bye Ruhr Valley.

How this goes would also depend on when exactly in 1940 we land. Is this during the battle for Norway? Is it during the fall of the Low Countries? Is this when we're running to Dunkirk? The best time for Britain is probably the Low Countries (sorry, Holland!) because that means France is mobilising and we have a big military ally on the continent to do the ground combat for us while we bomb things.

But the biggest crisis after "we need to stop Germany" and "we need to eat" is going to be: all the Royal & Merchant Navy sailors and soldiers & airmen abroad are still around after their homes, friends, and families got replaced with some weird future land full of men older than them going "hi granddad!". Imagine the culture shock they'll feel, and the trauma of losing everyone they knew, and the problems of rehousing them; imagine everyone from 2019 finding out how their beloved dead elderly relatives were actually like as young guys; imagine the 90+ year old veterans meeting themselves.

(And the three million European immigrants - a number of them Germans and Austrians! Imagine the propaganda coup of the BBC broadcasting Germans talking about 2019 Berlin to 1940 Berlin)
 
Before France falls, with a combination of modern knowledge and the limited modern kit available you might be able to reprise pdf's Blunted Sickle, getting France supported by the modern Armed Forces to carry the load while the modern UK gets it's shit together.
After France falls, it's either Trident comes out to play (I think HMG deciding to use Trident on the literal Nazis is, at least, conceivable), or things are going to get very, very tough.
(Put it this way: how many cruise missiles do you need to take down the bridges the German spearhead is relying on and leave them logistically stranded for a bit?)
 
(Put it this way: how many cruise missiles do you need to take down the bridges the German spearhead is relying on and leave them logistically stranded for a bit?)

Four laser-guided bombs. Six if you want to wreck the Limburg bridge.

One Tornado/EF2000 could do it.

Best to wreck all the bridges over the Rhine to strangle the Wehrmacht offensive.
 
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