United States Army

The United States Army is the ground defence force of the United States.

The 19th Century
The American Army failed to cover itself with glory during the latter half of the 19th Century; losing both the War of Secession and the Second Mexican War to the breakaway Confederate States and its European allies. Its defeat in both conflicts was a combination of overstretch (due to the lack of prewar preparations) and the incompetance of its generals.

The Great War (1914-17)
After the latter defeat in 1881, the Americans sought to learn new lessons from the victorious forces of Germany. By the outbreak of the Great War in 1914, the US Army was a massive beast; conscription enabled the Americans to draw on their larger population and easily sustain a two-front war against the CSA and Canada. Despite the heavier losses suffered due to the nature of trench warfare, the US Army was able to retake ground lost early in the war, drive the Confederates from Kentucky, Houston and some border chunks, and seize the vital areas of Canada. By the end of the war in 1917, the American Army was the unchallenged military force in North America.

During the war US soldiers wore green-gray uniforms based on the German feldgrau model, and adopted 'coalscuttle' helmets during 1915. The bolt-action Springfield rifle was the standard personal weapon, with flamethrowers, light machine guns, and barrels being introduced during the war.

The Interwar Years (1918-41)
The Socialist presidencies of the 1920s saw the US Army gutted by funding cuts, leaving enough men to garrison Utah and Canada and patrol the CS border. Research and development into barrels was slashed, to the point where US barrel forces lost any possible leads over their CS counterparts.

The Pacific War and the presidency of Herbert Hoover saw some funding restored to the armed forces. With Jake Featherston preaching fire and hate down south, Al Smith continued to quietly prepare the US Army for a new war, including the much-delayed mass production of Mk II barrels. Alas, American strategy lagged behind technology, and the General Staff believed that the new war would be a repeat of the last.

The Second Great War (1941- )
From the opening shots of Operation Blackbeard, the US Army was caught badly out of position, and its CS counterparts easily cut through to Lake Erie during the summer of 1941. America's abysmal record was not improved during the autumn and following spring, when General Daniel MacArthur's stubborn frontal assaults in northern Virginia resulted in massive casualties for paltry gains. As if this wasn't enough, Utah erupted in violence following the success of Blackbeard, diverting more US soldiers to the west.

The litany of US defeats continued into the summer of 1942, when Operation Coalscuttle saw Confederate troops reach Pittsburgh and the Canadians join Utah in revolt. Thereafter the Americans displayed much-improved performance, cutting off the CS spearhead in Pittsburgh and grinding it into dust. At the same time, the growing US Army mounted attacks into Arkansas and west Texas, while keeping the pressure up in north Virginia. Individually, these offensives accomplished little; together they tied down possible CS reinforcements.

During 1943 US soldiers cleaned up the final CS pockets in Pittsburgh, forced a cease-fire in Utah, and contained the Canadian rebellion. Not only did they drive the Confederates from Ohio, but they succeeded, in a mere six months, in taking Kentucky, Houston and Tennessee. By the end of year, the Americans were poised to strike at Georgia.

During this war the American uniform and small arms were unchanged from the last conflict; the Springfield proved an inferior weapon to the submachine guns and automatic rifles of Confederacy. Because of the War Department's tardiness in manufacturing automatic weapons for its own soldiers, US troops took to wielding captured Confederate arms.

American barrel crews proved the equal of their CS counterparts, and managed a number of technical improvements throughout the war that kept their machines from being totally outclassed.