Ideas for a military fiction story that i am writing?

M1Brams

Member
Update:
I've moved away from the vietnam genre to a WW2 and have started on writing the novel. It's a two part novel comprising of WW2 in book one and the modern near future period(2020-2050) in book 2.

The plot centres well about a time travel event that throws the protagonist, a student and the school back into the events of WW2 unfolding in singapore. What he has to do is to survive along with his friends until they can get back home to 2030, and possibly try not to change history, but that cannot be avoided one way or the other. And while they are back in 2030, a nasty surprise awaits them just as they think they've escaped from the time rift into a near future war of independence on a global scale.


I'm not sure of the weapons/ equipment used in either period but this time they will be using conventional weapons for ww2, but for 2030 onwards, im not really sure on what to include as i may have to speculate from there.

Thanks in advance!
 
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JohnDavy

New Member
writing fiction about the military

my top tip would be to do research and more research because most ideas and plots tend to come from some personal experience or something you’ll watch or hear. When writing fiction about the military, particularly if you had no personal experience to dip into, and that would include pretty much all of us when the story takes on an historical venue, get used to research and become comfortable at your local library.

Hope that helps
John
:lam
 

My2Cents

Active Member
Much like the movie, i would like to focus on a detachment of combined armed forces task force from the US army deploying to defend against a chinese invasion of north vietnam in 2020 While engaging targets in vietnam and is transported back to the 1960's vietnam war. Instead of holding back, i would like to go all out, defending South vietnam from the North Vietnam invasion and maybe even toying with the idea of an invasion of the North.
  1. So there we are shoulder to shoulder with our good ally Vietnam. <<POP>> Suddenly we are 60 years back in history and have an overwhelming urge to knife them in the back? If the commander had any integrity he would call the president and tell him how things came out, and that we are now best buddies.
  2. Where are we now? Fighting a Chinese invasion of Vietnam would probably mean up on the northern border. So the US troops are now at the wrong end of North Vietnam and need to fight their way to the coast. Question: How do you contact the US and convince them to send the Navy to save you when you get there?
What would be the most feasible units that could be used?
Going against China on land at one of their borders? That is the ‘big brawl’ for sure. You would need more than a few corps worth of armor to have any real impact. Add the rest of NATO and it probably wouldn’t even begin to be excessive.
I also have a possible problem regarding supplies.. Would there be a problem regarding supply replenishment in friendly bases(ammunition)?
Depends on:
  1. Where you are. If that is up in North Vietnam, there is nothing much except fuel, and not much of that.
  2. When you are:
  • Up until the late 60’s you can’t get 5.56mm ammo, only 7.62mm NATO.
  • Nothing with electronics is available -- Period.
    • Back then advanced computers used discrete transistors soldered to circuit boards. At least they were 10x more compact than those using vacuum tubes. 8-bit systems with 256 bytes of RAM in high end machines. Hard disk capacity was measure in kilobytes, rarely more than 8K, and is only used for virtual memory. Programs are stored on punch cards or tape. Large data storage is on magnetic tape.

      Want to double the computer capacity of the Pentagon + CIA + NSA? Walk in the door with an iPhone.
    • All the military communications equipment use vacuum tubes.
    • Except for single cell alkaline batteries (AAA thru D) all the batteries are the wrong size and voltage.
  • Artillery guns and mortars can probably use the available munitions, but the charges are different and is likely to cause problems with automatic loading system. MLRS, missiles, and most of the rest of your ammunition does not exist yet.
  • Your engines contain electronic control systems. See above.
What would be the most likely equipment list ?
Check the TOE for a mechanized division.
 

DR-L337

New Member
Hope this doesn't spoil your fun, but there's a trilogy of novels (the "Axis of Time" trilogy) by John Birmingham based on a very similar concept
 

M1Brams

Member
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #5
Hi guys! thanks for the time responding.

I've moved away from the vietnam genre to a WW2 and have started on writing the novel. It's a two part novel comprising of WW2 in book one and the modern near future period(2020-2050) in book 2.

The plot centres well about a time travel event that throws the protagonist, a student and the school back into the events of WW2 unfolding in singapore. What he has to do is to survive along with his friends until they can get back home to 2030, and possibly try not to change history, but that cannot be avoided one way or the other. And while they are back in 2030, a nasty surprise awaits them just as they think they've escaped from the time rift into a near future war of independence on a global scale.


I'm not sure of the weapons/ equipment used in either period but this time they will be using conventional weapons for ww2, but for 2030 onwards, im not really sure on what to include as i may have to speculate from there.

Thanks in advance!
 

Bonza

Super Moderator
Staff member
So what, now you're just copy pasting your original post so you can bump your thread? I don't think so. Don't do that again.

You've already gotten advice from those willing to give it to you - my suggestion would be to now take it to a forum (or even better, a formal course) specialising in fiction so you can work on developing your writing abilities.
 

fortion

New Member
Update:
I've moved away from the vietnam genre to a WW2 and have started on writing the novel. It's a two part novel comprising of WW2 in book one and the modern near future period(2020-2050) in book 2.

The plot centres well about a time travel event that throws the protagonist, a student and the school back into the events of WW2 unfolding in singapore. What he has to do is to survive along with his friends until they can get back home to 2030, and possibly try not to change history, but that cannot be avoided one way or the other. And while they are back in 2030, a nasty surprise awaits them just as they think they've escaped from the time rift into a near future war of independence on a global scale.


I'm not sure of the weapons/ equipment used in either period but this time they will be using conventional weapons for ww2, but for 2030 onwards, im not really sure on what to include as i may have to speculate from there.

Thanks in advance!
well having read a large no of military novels , i would suggest reading a bit of history for the WW2 era . for 2030 era , i would suggest that when the student gets to the future the world went into a full scale nuclear war and people are not fighting with swords etc . kind of a post apocalyptic ending :rolleyes:
 

t68

Well-Known Member
A bit like Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome or perhaps the final countdown where present day USN carrier goes back just before December 7 1941 but then why go back in time why not forward?

File:Mad max beyond thunderdome.jpg - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

File:Final countdown 1980.jpg - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

File:philadelphia experiment.jpg - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

As said before research is the key. it had taken J.K Rowling seven years till she finished her first book, do it right and you never know.
 

RobWilliams

Super Moderator
Staff member
Funny you should mention the Final Countdown, his first idea for the plot was incredibly similar.

A land based unit thrown back to in time to WW2 just before a pivotal conflict in the SEA region and they have to decide if they should or shouldn't change the course of history.
 

fortion

New Member
Funny you should mention the Final Countdown, his first idea for the plot was incredibly similar.

A land based unit thrown back to in time to WW2 just before a pivotal conflict in the SEA region and they have to decide if they should or shouldn't change the course of history.
building on your suggestion, i would suggest that they do decide change the course of history, and when they are transported back to the future they find that their actions cost the allies the war and now germany is the new super power and the only thing standing between it and total world dominance is china and both of them are on the verge of war . will make one hell of a read if written correctly :dance2
 

My2Cents

Active Member
The plot centres well about a time travel event that throws the protagonist, a student and the school back into the events of WW2 unfolding in singapore. What he has to do is to survive along with his friends until they can get back home to 2030, and possibly try not to change history, but that cannot be avoided one way or the other.
Might want to look at the time covered, that is about 90 years. If the students are 18 at the beginning of the story they will have to survive until they are 108 years old to make it back to 2030!

Not likely.
 

fortion

New Member
Might want to look at the time covered, that is about 90 years. If the students are 18 at the beginning of the story they will have to survive until they are 108 years old to make it back to 2030!

Not likely.
what he means to say that the students will get back to 2030 the same way they were thrown back to the past i.e time travel . they don't have to survive till they are 108 they just have to find a way to get back to future
 

RobWilliams

Super Moderator
Staff member
building on your suggestion, i would suggest that they do decide change the course of history, and when they are transported back to the future they find that their actions cost the allies the war and now germany is the new super power and the only thing standing between it and total world dominance is china and both of them are on the verge of war . will make one hell of a read if written correctly :dance2
Nah, I thought the OP should try something more original than following a story which has already been done.

Bit like doing "Barry Potter" and saying at the end "Oh no! The bad guy wins, so it's completely different".
 

fortion

New Member
Nah, I thought the OP should try something more original than following a story which has already been done.

Bit like doing "Barry Potter" and saying at the end "Oh no! The bad guy wins, so it's completely different".
well when it comes to ww2 and time travel the subject has been covered in every way possible in movies and novels and biographies. however here is an idea if Brams is willing to change his game plan a little bit and make it a historical fictional novel . how about when the student goes back in time to find himself in WW2 era , he is forced to serve in the armed forces and instead of trying to change history , he relives WW2 . write it like it is a fictional novel but it is totally based on history . type of telling WW2 story from a soldiers point of view . the difference b/w an ordinary biography and this will be that it will be a fictional story so you can create a lot of smaller events on your own
 

M1Brams

Member
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #15
So what, now you're just copy pasting your original post so you can bump your thread? I don't think so. Don't do that again.

You've already gotten advice from those willing to give it to you - my suggestion would be to now take it to a forum (or even better, a formal course) specialising in fiction so you can work on developing your writing abilities.
Hi Bonza, first of all i wish to regretfully convey my apologies for double posting. I will take that in mind in the future.

Im not very well versed in military hardware and tactics as i have never dabbled much in it .It's just that i would like to keep things as realistic whenever possible when writing but i have no or little knowledge about what military hardware and what alternative tactics could have been used back in WW2 and in the alternative reality future for example.

It's not the writing part aspect that im having trouble with, but researching about military affairs and tactics, what ifs, what could be possibly be employed and what could work, hence the reason why i posted here so i could learn about what was employed back then and what would work theoretically.



Thanks!
 
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M1Brams

Member
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #16
Nah, I thought the OP should try something more original than following a story which has already been done.

Bit like doing "Barry Potter" and saying at the end "Oh no! The bad guy wins, so it's completely different".
Hi Rob. Nope, im not going into that area actually, more like exploring Churchill's Operation Unthinkable in terms of the alternate universe. Had it proceeded and what would have happened

Basically, a summary of book 1 would have been Percival extracting information about the future from the protagonist through a torture/ hostage situation, sparking a technological arms race in secret. Not only do they extract information about the hardware and passing it to the Allies to work on them, Percival also passes information to the US that the Manhattan project has been compromised, rooting out the Soviet spies in that project, hence denying the Soviets a chance at creating the nuclear bomb.

The US then drop the two atomic bombs as planned and station personnel over the korean peninsula and in Japan to oversee the surrender. Before the Yalta and Potsdam conference, the Allied Powers agree to draw up a plan to invade the Soviet Union, intending to make full use of the nuclear weaponry at thier disposal to counteract the massive forces of the SU.

Once the Soviet Union falls, there are only two great powers left, the British Empire(with co partitioned SU lands mostly on the Western front and the US, which also takes up on the eastern front of SU (as they are close to Jpn and ROK which have stationed US bases.)

Well.. the only thing i can hint for book 2 is that once the students go back to the future, they find themselves caught up in a bit of a jam. Not hard to figure out why.

The questions i would like to ask is that.. Could the operation unthinkable be theoretically pulled off if the SU had no nuclear weapons and if the US and GBR used theirs to devastating results and better military hardware from the secret information to counter the T-34? Which would probably mean earlier than usual adoptions of tanks.. such as probably the M40/M60 Patton or even the M1 abrams during the 40-50s timeframe of the supposed date of the operation unthinkable?
 

Bonza

Super Moderator
Staff member
Understood. Mostly it's a matter of doing research - and by that I mean books and so forth, not forum posts. That would be the best advice I can give you, if you want your military content to be realistic. Also bear in mind that this book you're writing also features time travel - so is the need for realism really so great? I understand you wanting to make it so but I wouldn't think people reading a time travel novel are going to pick apart your portrayal of military tactics and training. By all means use as much info as you can gather, but only do so in a manner that is necessary for the narrative to function. You don't need hyper-realism in what is essentially a sci fi novel.

That's my opinion anyway. Researching specifics on military capabilities and training will take up a lot of time, whether the return is valuable enough to justify it is your call. And remember if you're writing about a hypothetical military from the 2030s you might find your imagination to be of more assistance than anything else.

Good luck with it.
 
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