User blog:SPARTAN 119/Hans von Zettour (Youjo Senki) VS Irving Morrel (Timeline 191)

Hans von Zettour, the general of who led an alternate Germany to victory in the First World War through innovative tactics

VS

Irving Morrel, the alternate American barrel commander whose led the US to victory in the Second Great War against the Confederacy.

WHO IS DEADLIEST!?

=Combatants=

Hans von Zettour
"Modern war measures the obvious gap between developed nations and developing ones──with corpses."

- Hans von Zettour Hans von Zettour is a brigadier general for the army of the Empire, an analogue to Imperial Germany in an alternate reality version of the First World War, where the supernatural exists and has been weaponized, with flying mages fighting alongside infantry, artillery, armor, and aircraft. As such, Zettour appears to be an analogue of real-world German General Hans von Seeckt. This is the world where a Japanese salaryman is revived as Tanya von Degurechaff by a vengeful god. Zettour becomes Degurechaff’s early supporters after he sees the brilliance of her thesis, which along with her magic power level, got her into the Imperial Officer Corps at only ten years old.

When Tanya proposes the creation of a battalion of elite mages for punching through the enemy lines and attacking the rear, Zettour enthusiastically supports this measure. Degurechaff’s battalion is highly successful, annihilating the forces of the small country of Dakia, putting down a revolt in Imperial-held territory in the Francois Republic (guess who they are supposed to be an analogue of!), and destroying Allied forces in Norden (Norway).

Zettour and Degurechaff come up with a strategy to break through the Francois Republic’s front lines. The Imperial Army were ordered to retreat to a position further to the east, allowing the Republic to march into a trap. Tanya and her mage battalion used rockets similar to the real-world V-1, albeit with a multi-stage design significantly superior to the real-world model, capable of travelling at supersonic speeds. The mage battallion bailed out of the rockets as they neared the Francois Republic rear area and flew the rest of the way, while the V-1s continued and impacted a number of hardened bunkers, destroying them and allowing the mage battalion to easily destroy the enemy rear area, eliminating much of their command structure.

After the attack on the rear, Imperial forces detonated a number of large mines under the Republic Army lines at Messines Ridge in a reversal of the real-world battle (where the British detonated mines under the German lines). The destruction of the lines allowed Imperial infantry and armored forces the advance through the Francois Republic lines, before flanking to the north and trapping the Republic forces between the Imperials and the sea, before surrounding and destroying them.

Zettour and Degurechaff’s strategy forced the Francois Republic to surrender, though a significant number of the Republic’s army and navy retreated to their holdings in North Africa and continued the fight.

Irving Morrel
"I heard you had balls. The guy who told me, though, he didn't know the half of it."

- Charlie Satcher, to Irving Morrell.

Irving Morrell started the First Great War as an infantry captain, serving with distinction until he received a leg wound. Even while in the hospital his mind was never idle, conceiving a helmet that would help soldiers survive on the front. After recovering, he continued to serve his country, rapidly making a name for himself as a resourceful and competent officer. He was transferred to the Canadian front after some time. While there, he displayed his talents as a field commander again, using the Canadian military's aggressiveness against them. His victory in that front saw him promoted to lieutenant colonel. Around this time, he moved from infantry to barrels.

He transferred to the front again, this time under George Custer on the Tennessee front. He was one of the masterminds behind the Barrel Roll Offensive. The offensive involved a massed attack of barrels, supported by infantry. It was wildly successful, pushing the Confederate forces back miles along a front whose advances were typically measured in feet. The smashing success saw him promoted to colonel, and quickly won the war. Afterwards he transferred into the Barrel Works, the US Army's R&D Department for Barrels.

While there, he tested and designed new models of barrels for the US Army, as well as getting married. The Socialist administration elected after the war ended closed down the Barrel Works, however, and he was transferred out to British Colombia to keep the conquered Canadians in line. After nine years of success, he was reinstated in the Barrel Works until General Daniel MacArthur required his services to repress riots in the state of Houston. Morrell did so, even resorting to canister shot to keep the hostile crowds at bay. After a plebiscite returned the state to the Confederacy, he was stationed in Ohio to try and stem the eventual Confederate tide.

When the Confederacy attacked, Morrell was sorely undersupplied and underequipped. Regardless, he beat a fighting retreat and managed to both delay and harass the Confederacy enough to make them take notice. In consequence of said skill, the Confederates hired a sniper to kill him. When he survived the blow, the Confederate General Staff went into a mass panic. This proved justified, as Morrell and his plans were instrumental in cutting off the Confederate army assaulting Pittsburgh and throwing them back along their original salient into Ohio. This victory was a turning point in the war, and lead to them cutting the salient in two.

After throwing the Confederates out of the United States, he then went on to formulate a plan to invade the Confederacy. He replicated the real world's Sherman's March to the Sea, using armor, air power, and infantry to cut the Confederacy's eastern section in half. After successfully doing so, he coordinated strikes deeper into the Confederate heartland from the General Staff in Philadelphia. He was nearly caught in a nuclear, but was outside the blast radius and survived. At the end of the war, now a full General, he was chosen to receive the Confederacy's unconditional surrender and return to the United States. Afterwards, he was appointed the military governor of the Confederacy's east coast, essentially everything he had conquered; while there, he was a leading figure in creating racial equality. =Weapons=

Luger P08 (Zettour)
The Pistole Parabellum 1908 or Parabellum-Pistole (Pistol Parabellum) — popularly known as the Luger — is a toggle-locked recoil-operated semi-automatic pistol. The design was patented by Georg J. Luger in 1898 and produced by German arms manufacturer Deutsche Waffen- und Munitionsfabriken (DWM) starting in 1900; it was an evolution of the 1893 Hugo Borchardt designed C-93. The first Parabellum pistol was adopted by the Swiss army in May 1900. In German army service it was succeeded and partly replaced by the Walther P38 in caliber 9x19mm, seeing use in both World Wars. The Luger fired a 9mm Parabellum round from a eight round magazine, with an effective range of up to 50 meters. As you might expect from an alternate Germany, the Empire also uses the Luger.

.45 Pistol (Morrel)
Turtledove mentions a US .45 caliber pistol and the .45 ACP caliber Thompson, several times in his books, presumably similar, if not identical to the M1911. The M1911 is a semi-automatic pistol that fires the .45 ACP. The weapon is single-action and is recoil-operated. The famous firearms designer produced the pistol to be used as the standard sidearm for the United States military. The weapon was used through countless conflicts like World War II and the Vietnam War. Production for the weapon came through the United States' need to modernize its arsenal. It is still being used by American law-enforcement and military forces in limited amounts. The M1911 has a range of about 70 meters, firing from a seven-round magazine.

119’s Edge
Morrel’s .45 Pistol for its superior stopping power and range.

Mauser Gewehr 98 (Zettour)
The Gewehr 98 (abbreviated G98, Gew 98 or M98) is a German bolt action Mauser rifle firing cartridges from a 5 round internal clip-loaded magazine that was the German service rifle from 1898 to 1935, when it was replaced by the Karabiner 98k. It was hence the main rifle of the German infantry during World War I. The Gewehr 98 replaced the earlier Gewehr 1888 rifle as the German service rifle. The weapon had a range of up to 500 meters, and a muzzle velocity of 878 m/s.

Springfield M1903 (Morrel)
The M1903 Springfield, formally the United States Rifle, Caliber .30-06, Model 1903, is an American clip-loaded, 5-shot, bolt-action service rifle used primarily during the first half of the 20th century. The weapon also had variants produced for the civilian market as a hunting rifle. The M1903 had an effective range of 600 meters. In Turtledove’s alternate timeline, the M1 Garand was never developed (as John Garand was a Canadian and the US invaded and occupied Canada in WWI), meaning that the M1903 remained the standard-issue service rifle of the US army into the Second Great War. While it was a reliable weapon, it was outclassed by the selective fire Tredegar Automatic Rifle, to the point that many US soldiers used captured Tredegars instead of Springfields.

119’s Edge
The two weapons are similar enough to be called Even.

MG-08 (Zettour)
The Maschinengewehr 08, or MG 08, was the German Army's standard machine gun in World War I and is an adaptation of Hiram S. Maxim's original 1884 Maxim gun. It was produced in a number of variants during the war. The gun used 250-round fabric belts of 7.92×57mm ammunition, firing at between 500 and 600 rounds per minute It was water-cooled, using a jacket around the barrel that held approximately one gallon of water. Like most heavy machine guns of the First World War, the weapon could be fired both directly or even in indirect fire, with an effective range of 2000 meters, though in direct fire, it was often used at much shorter ranges- often less than 500 meters.

US Machine Gun (Morrel)
The US military uses multiple types of machine guns in Timeline 191, none of which are mentioned specifically by name. The machine gun that will appear in this match will be a Maxim-type machine gun similar to the M1917 Browning, a larger water-cooled machine gun firing from a 250-round cloth ammo belt, with a rate of fire of 600 rpm and an effective range of between 1500 and 5000 meters depending on the ammunition used.

119's Edge
As the exact details of the US machine gun are unknown, it is hard to give an edge, but given that both are Maxim-style weapons, they can be assumed to be roughly even.

German Stick Grenade (Zettour)
The Model 24 grenade was the standard hand grenade of the German Army from 1915-1945, from the end of World War I to the end of World War II (and also by the Empire in Youjo Senki). The grenade was activating by unscrewing a cap and pulling a cord, which lit the fuse. It was not a fragmentation grenade because it relied on the blast to kill, giving it a much smaller lethal radius. Because of its design, the stick could act as a lever which greatly improved throwing distance, up to 40 yards, where as the British grenades of the time could only be thrown up to 15 yards.

American Stick Grenade (Morrel)
In Turtledove’s Timeline 191, the Americans are aligned with the Germans, so they copy the German stick grenade, while the Confederates used the British “pineapple” design. The two weapons are basically the same thing as the German variant, presumably with a similar explosive charge and throwing range.

119’s Edge
The two weapons are the same thing, Even.

Wechselaparat/Wex (Zettour)
The Wechsellapparat, or “Wex” was an early flamethrower design employed by the Germans in the First World War. The weapon consisted of a round, "donut-shaped" fuel tank with a propellant canister in the middle. The weapon could be carried by one man, wearing the fuel tank on his back, and could project a stream of burning fuel up to about 20 meters, proving terrifyingly lethal in close-range trench assaults, however, it required the user to wear a tank of highly flammable fuel, which could ignite and explode if hit.

Captured “Stovepipe” Rocket (Morrel)
The Stovepipe was a Confederate-made "anti-barrel" (barrel- alternate name for tanks) rocket introduced in 1942. The weapon had a range of a few hundred yards, and fired a shaped charge warhead. For the purposes of this match, it will fire the same 2.36 inch rocket as the real-life M9A1 Bazooka.

119’s Edge
Morrel’s Stovepipe for its superior range and firepower.

Panzer III (Zettour)
While mostly based on World War I, for some reason, the Empire in Youjo Senki have access to a bunch of Panzer IIIs. The Panzer III was the common name of a medium tank that was developed in the 1930s by Germany and was used extensively in World War II. The official German designation was Panzerkampfwagen III Sd Kfz. 141 (abbreviated PzKpfw III) translating as "armoured fighting vehicle". It was intended to fight other armoured fighting vehicles and serve alongside the infantry-supporting Panzer IV; however, as the Germans faced the formidable T-34, stronger anti-tank guns were needed. Since the Panzer IV had a bigger turret ring, the role was reversed. For the purposes of this match, the Panzer III will be an Ausf H. variant armed with a 50mm main gun and two MG-34 7.92mm machine guns. The tank had between five and 70mm of armor, with the most heavily armored areas being the turret and hull front. The tank had a 296 horsepower Maybach V12 diesel engine with a top speed of 40 kph/25 mph.

Mark 2.5 Barrel (Morrel)
The Mark 2.5 barrel (alternate tank) was a US barrel designed stopgap measure early in the Second Great War to counter the more heavily armed Confederate barrels during the early stages of Operation Blackbeard, the invasion of Ohio. The Mark 2.5 carried an improved turret with a 60mm main gun, which, while still inferior to the Confederate 75mm, stood a greater chance at destroying the heavier vehicles. Apart from this, the Mark 2.5 had the same hull as the Mark 2, which, from the descriptions, is similar to a real-world M3 Stuart, meaning it was likely comparable in armor and speed to the Stuart. The vehicle thus will have a top speed of 35 mph/58kph and 9.5-63mm.

119’s Edge
The Panzer III may be slightly better armored, however, the Mark 2.5 is faster and a has a larger main gun. Even

=X-Factors=

Explanations
In terms of tactics, both commanders made innovative use of new military technologies to make a breakthrough against their enemies, proving to be highly tactically proficient. In terms of Logistics, both of them are commanding the army of a wealthy and powerful nation, albeit one at war, however, I have to give a slight edge to Morrell simply due to the massive industrial capacity of the US as of the Second Great War. In terms of command experience, Zettour may be a bit older than Morrell, but Morrell commanded in two World Wars, while Zettour only did in one, giving him the advantage. In terms of technology, the alternate Germany of Youjo Senki seems to be more advanced in terms of tank development in comparison to its real-world counterpart, but Morrell still has some technologies that Zettour does not, like anti-tank rockets. =Scenario= The Battle will take place on a battlefield consisting gently rolling terrain of farmers fields, forests, and a few scattered small towns. The combatants will have three tanks and 30 infantry. Neither side will have any air support, so no mages for Zettour or Me-262 clones and/or "superbombs"/ atomic bombs for Morrell!