Guest Post: A Timeline of the Great Undead War
After a surprise attack on London and New York, the Germans introduced a new type of gas���corpse gas���a revolutionary weapon that resurrected the bodies of the dead.
For those who survived the killing fields of France, the danger has only just begun. Veteran Major Michael ���Madman��� Burke and his company have just been assigned a daring new mission by the president himself: rescue the members of the British royal family. But Manfred von Richthofen, the undead Red Baron and newly self-appointed leader of Germany, is also determined to find the family.
In the devastated, zombie-infested city of London, Burke and his men will face off in an unholy battle with their most formidable opponent yet: a team of infected super soldiers���shredders���who have greater speed and strength than their shambler predecessors. If they don���t succeed, all of Britain will fall into undead enemy hands.
A TIMELINE OF THE GREAT UNDEAD WAR
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��June 1914
Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria at the hands of a Serbian national.
July 1914
Austria declares war on Serbia.
August 1914
Germany declares war on Russia, then France. German troops pour into Belgium. Britain declares war on Germany. Russians defeated at Tannenburg.
October 1914
Turkey declares neutrality and refuses to enter the war while Japan enters the war on the side of its British allies.
November 1914
Germans stopped at the Marne. Stalemate settles into the Western Front. Hopes that the war will be over by Christmas quickly fade.
December 1914
Germans use zeppelins to begin bombing Great Britain.
April 1915
Second battle of Ypres. Poison gas used for the first time in the war.
May 1915
Lusitania sunk. America contemplates joining the war.
June 1916
First large���scale naval engagement at Jutland. British losses are heavy, but Germany withdraws.
February ��� November 1916
Battle of Verdun. Inconclusive result after nine months of fighting and nearly 1 million casualties.
July ��� November 1916
Battle of the Somme. Allies win thin stretch of ground (25 miles) at a cost of 920,000 casualties.
April 1917
America declares war on Germany. American Expeditionary Force sent to Europe to stop the German advance.
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July ��� November 1917
Third Battle of Ypres. Germans deploy T-Lieche – corpse gas – for the first time.
January 1918
Allied forces face shambler brigades for the first time at the Second Battle of the Marne. Allies quickly routed as corpse gas bombardment brings their own casualties back to life to fight against them.
March 1918
First American aero squadron, the 94th, activated at Villeneuve. Eddie Rickenbacker in command.
April 1918
Manfred von Richthofen, the Red Baron, shot down by Allied forces but rises anew as a revenant. Takes command of the Flying Circus.
May 1918 ��� November 1919
Allied forces lose ground in the face of repeated German assaults. Retreat to within a few dozen miles of Paris.
December 1919
President Harper gives his now���famous ���World Belongs to the Living��� speech. Allies rally in Europe while the Kaiser is occupied with the East.
April 1920
First use of tanks in support of infantry at the Battle of Cambrai. British troops roll over German machine gun positions.
June 1920
Champagne Offensive begins. Allies push Germans back to the Somme, but just barely. Richthofen shot down for a second time, walks away from the wreckage unscathed.
October 1920
Under Richthofen���s orders, Dr. Eisenberg begins the Geheime Volks project, attempting to create a legion of undead supersoldiers with a unique blend of alchemy, science, and occult arts.
March 1921
American ace Jack Freeman ��� illegitimate son of President Harper ��� shot down and captured by the enemy. Captain Michael ���Madman��� Burke and his Marauders ordered to rescue him from behind enemy lines.
Geheime Volks put into mass production.
April 1921
London and New York rendered uninhabitable when the Germans successfully release a new strain of corpse gas over each city, turning the living into zombie-like creatures with a taste for human flesh. These new creatures are quickly nicknamed Shredders for the speed and savagery of their attacks.
On Her Majesty���s Behalf begins…
Joseph Nassise is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of more than twenty novels, including the internationally bestselling Templar Chronicles series, the Jeremiah Hunt series, and several books in the Rogue Angel action/adventure series from Gold Eagle. He’s a former president of the Horror Writers Association, the world’s largest organization of professional horror writers, and a multiple Bram Stoker Award and International Horror Guild Award nominee.
