Dark Earth: A New Jerusalem

Only the conclusion to come. I’m going to do the CID meeting up as a separate standalone piece dealing with the how all the British + Commonwealth pieces come together in the ‘grand plan’.

For the conclusion, I’m going to be taking more of an overall view rather than focusing on a specific topic, but will certainly try to incorporate any questions or points that come up in the interim or that people are interested in having explored.

Before that point, I’ll slap together some notes for Parts 18 and 19. Something of the flow of ANJ got disrupted slightly by the Charlottesville story and also the ‘backfill’, but hopefully it still comes together nicely.

Notes on Part 18:

- The real basis of the paper is how to accelerate rearmament in the most efficient and effective manner. It tries to hit both boxes and partially succeeds, particularly when we take what we know of 1965-1968.
- The Chieftain doesn’t need an upgrade in the short term, beyond nominally increasing speed from 36mph to 40mph through improved engines.
- Most significant in that section was the use of Sovietised tanks in the British Army Training Units, of which there are four rather than just one at Suffield in Canada.
- I squeezed in mention of reserve stocks and prepositioning, which make sense, to partly conceal the Mobilisation Cadre Regiments. This reflects the British Army having that built in capacity to expand upon mobilisation using trained reserves, a small cadre of regulars and stocks of equipment to field new units. The plan is for 25 such regiments to be formable, depending on funding or changing policy.
- The overcapacity issue is addressed, as, from 1964, there won’t be a new MBT to build until 1967 in the form of the Vickers Valiant and the replacement Crusader won’t be ready until the 1970s. Building for spares, reserves and attrition stocks only goes so far, on top of exports, so there needs to be something to fill the slack. The answer is specialist vehicles, which isn’t the worst idea.
- Super Conqueror, at 96t, is not a tank that fits the philosophy of @, but in DE has a role as a heavy breakthrough tank or a long range defensive fire support vehicle. The plan for 1240 of them is based roughly on 8/regiment plus spares; beyond that, there is the option for dedicated regiments and replacement of the older heavies in the TA. The older Conquerors are to be transferred to India as they are replaced.
- The Champion assault gun is designed mainly for urban combat and is a developmental cul de sac of sorts, but one reflecting the sense of panic over perceived Soviet ‘supertanks’.
- The Coronet tank destroyer has the purpose of long range overwatch, hitting Soviet/enemy tanks from beyond 5500 yards with a shell still powerful enough to immobilise them at that range.
- The 6”/152mm SP-70 Archbishop is a brute of an SPG and is being used as the primary test gun for the range of AT artillery weapons. The mines are fully operational, the DP ICM/ACM continue development with some basic versions in service (nowhere close to the SADARM end point yet) and the HEAT projectile is progressing towards something like Copperhead.
- The later fate of the 175mm and 25pdrs has been touched upon elsewhere.
- Prodigal is a game changer for the airborne divisions.
- Barton wants to get something like a British M114 to support the FV432/M113 equivalent, but this runs into the funding problem caused by Vietnam.
- Centaur = A British BTR-70 equivalent mixed with the role of the Ratel.

Notes on Part 19:

- Cleopatra’s Emerald and the Lionheart’s Amethyst are famed jewels in addition to the Crown Jewels of @.
- The water analogy, as well as referring to Bruce Lee’s well known quote, represents a policy that seeks to bend and move in order to conquer.
- There are two stages to the evolutionary path from colony to Dominion, totalling up to 20 years in some cases.
- Barton’s Empire Socialism is somewhat similar to that of Orwell in The Lion and the Unicorn is some ways, whilst different in others.
- Most of the ‘carrots’ are self explanatory, with the Churchill Plan being a mixture of the Colombo and Marshall Plans.
- Britain prefers the federal solution as individual countries are far more easily seduced by Moscow or Washington from their perspective.
- A loose EAF is likely to be all that can be achieved, as the Kenyan question is intractable.
- West Africa is too separate and different to be anything more than a regional pact rather than a federation.
- Barton is leaning towards an Egyptian Sudan with separate Darfur and Equatoria. An interesting approach.
- The call back to CREED shows how they are already trying to use him for different purposes.
- Cyprus simmers, but not in a manner that can’t be handled.
- Some details of the Falklands defences will follow; it is seen as an out of the way place to test some new systems…
- The final image indicated that this is a Britain not cruising towards decolonisation and managed decline, but one that is looking for new expansion elsewhere.

That is a strong defense of the islands, is somebody next door peaceful.

I do not hope the German Nazis are still there.