Old General Takes the Field

On October 7, 1928, the Australasian Army, having rested for some time, advanced east from Oregon, its spearhead pointed straight at Idaho.

Geographically speaking, Idaho was still a highly important location.

Although it was not a coastal state and its population was not particularly large, its western neighbors were Washington and Oregon, both coastal states, while to the east lay Montana State and Wyoming State, where agriculture and animal husbandry were relatively well developed. Nevada and Utah State lay to the south as well, making Idaho one of the more central and pivotal regions in the western United States.

If Idaho were lost, Montana State and Wyoming State would become fish on the chopping block, left entirely at the mercy of the Australasian Army.

More importantly, farther east lay North and South Dakota, and beyond Minnesota was the Great Lakes region.

Although the US Government had also formulated a plan to abandon the West and hold the East, what would be the point of holding the East if the Australasian Army advanced as far as the Great Lakes region?

Therefore, the US Army Command had drawn a bottom line for the West: hold the line in Idaho, Utah State, and Arizona State.

However, the United States Army had seriously overestimated the combat strength of the National Guard. Although the National Guard units of the various states could be considered reasonably capable compared with the United States Army, before the Australasian elite forces, they were no more than paper tigers.

This could hardly be blamed on the United States. Apart from World War I, the last large-scale war the United States had experienced was the Spanish-American War more than thirty years earlier.

Thirty years was enough time to replace several generations of soldiers, and the National Guard was no exception.

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