• Otto threw himself down into a waterlogged foxhole, just before the ground behind him was launched into the air. With bullets flying barely inches over his head and shell after shell landing all along the lines Otto curled up tight as he could as the rest of the German advance carried on around him. He could have sworn he could hear the screams of every one of the hundreds of republican volunteers throwing themselves towards the murderous British. Behind his position came the mix of cries of wounded men crawling home whilst on either side NCOs chastised the men onwards. Above this came the noise of the British machine guns, the hollow rattling sound as they violently spat death at the approaching Germans whilst overhead rolled the thunder of British and German artillery-fire duelling for dominance of the trenches.

    Ok so technically it wasn't just British and German, however the French who had been holding the trench in the previous month had lost several batteries to British air support, so German and Austrian support had been drafted in, which included Otto’s regiment, the 3rd Bavarian Light Infantry. Otto remembered arriving on that first day, seeing the haggard looks of those valiant French the regiment had relieved; their haunting eyes and skittish nature. At the time he hadn't understood why, after all didn't the reports always say how successful republican forces were? Now, half buried in mud and surrounded by death, Otto fully understood the looks of the French ‘Hollowsoldieren’

    It hadn't always been this way though, not that long ago the continent had known peace, not since the Allied defeat of Napoleon had there been any multinational conflict upon its soil. Obviously smaller conflict such as the Hanover-Prussian war and the Austrian expansions continued to take place, however it was only when the British turned their greedy eyes to the European scene that the conflicts began in earnest. Only 30 years after the conquest of North Africa, the great Transports of the British armoured core, began to make their way to the South of France. By 1912 the pieces were set, and on 7th June that year the first of the Imperial British forces landed on French soil, the initial waves of infantry and tracked ‘Ironsides’ creating the necessary foothold for more powerful units to come ashore. Oh certainly by themselves the ‘Ironsides’ (rhomboids of grey and green metal carrying twin 6 pounder field guns) were fearsome opponents, but ever since the developments in the ‘United States’ rebellions the British had a much more dangerous weapon up their sleeves.

    It wasn’t long into the campaigning in early 1913 that the first sightings of a British Landship occurred, at first nothing more than a shape and some shots in the early morning mist. After that first sighting however, the numbers soon began to grow. Indeed in March 1913, on the second day of the Rhone offensive, a full French company was destroyed under the combined fire-power of the HMS Westmoreland and the British 4th Motorised Battalion. By July 1913 3 more landships were also known to have entered the fray, the HMS Swallow, HMS Washington and the feared Dreadnought HMS Black Prince. Whilst these ships were powerful, often sporting upwards of 9 naval strength artillery pieces and numerous smaller guns, they were not indestructible – as shown with the destruction of HMS Swallow in September 1913, thanks to the combined armoured, artillery and air support of the 6th Dutch Panzer-Jaegers. Luckily for the Otto’s regiment, none of those behemoths had so far been seen near the Belgian border, where the stoic Allies had begun their counter-attack on the British forces, so far to achieve nothing more than a grinding stalemate.

    Steering back to the present, Otto began to notice a new noise over the usual cacophony of battle, a low pitched rumble like a far off thunder storm. Ever so slowly the sound had become louder over the past few minutes, as if even the weather had joined the allied assault on the British. Eager to see the sight of what he presumed to be armoured support, Otto was bemused to see almost empty mud stretching back to the German trenches. As a sudden realisation appeared in his head, Otto slowly turned around to face the British lines...