(The first speech by the President of the European Union during the Great War)

Yesterday, July 7th, 216, a date which will live in infamy, the European Union was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Holy Britannian Empire.

It is obvious that planning the attack began many months ago. During the intervening time, the Britannian government had deliberately sought to deceive the EU with false statements and expressions of hope for a continued peace.

The attack yesterday on the Siberian City of Vladivostok and the South African city of Cape Town has caused significant damage to European military forces. I regret to tell you that over 20,000 European lives, both military and civilian, have been lost.

No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the European people in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory. Because of this unprovoked dastardly attack by the Holy Britannian Empire, I ask that the Congress declare a state of war.

Though he would unfortunately not live to see our forces triumph over the Britannian invader, the citizens of the Reich must never forget that Winston Churchill was perhaps the only European President that rightly suspected the ill intentions of the Empire, and would undoubtedly be proud to see how far we have come since the early days of the war.

Looking back on the events that had led to the outbreak of the Great War, it is clear that there must have been something seriously wrong with our elected leaders as their actions suggest that they fully believed that peace could be maintained with the war mongering empire.

Reconnaissance flights into restricted air space, overturning previously agreed upon trade agreements, a heightening pitch of Anti-European propaganda. All these things pointed to an eventual outbreak of war, and yet apart from a small minority, few politicians saw this as anything more than simple posturing of an ego inflated despot.

But in truth, the Britannian government was in fact secretly preparing for war, and it is these opening blows against our beloved nation that planted the very seeds for Europe's glorious renewal.

Since it was correctly assumed that our best forces would be stationed in Western Europe, the Britannian military decided to launch a two pronged offensive against targets that were as far removed from the European heartland as to be completely isolated. This would not only ensure a large numerical superiority over local European forces, but would also allow them to advance deep into a largely undefended interior, thereby complicating any attempt by our forces to mount an effective counter attack.

The vast distance between our primary bases and the main theatres of war would also help to increase the rate of survival for the Britannian Merchant Marine. From the Brazilian and Argentinian coastlines in the Atlantic, and the coasts of California, naval convoys would be able to transport Imperial forces to the African and Siberian Fronts without having to overly worry about interference from our own fleet, though our U-boats would do their best to slow down the flood of men and material. And apart from a few naval skirmishes in the mid-Atlantic, the early to mid-years of the Great War would see very little naval combat between European and Britannian forces.

The attacks on Vladivostok and Cape Town where as treacherous as they were brilliant. Not bothering to wait for an official declaration of war between our two countries, and knowing that a surprise attack would cause the most damage, the Britannian navy began hostilities by utilizing their entire carrier strike force (6 carriers and 540 aircraft for Cape Town, 4 carriers and 360 aircraft for Vladivostok) to attack European naval and air base facilities before the commencement of their sea bourne invasion.

While highlighting the backstabbing nature of the Empire, it has to be said that their opening salvo was indeed effective.

In Cape Town, Imperial forces managed to sink or heavily damage during the course of 2 aerial strikes: 3 cruisers, 8 destroyers, 8 U-boats, and dozens of smaller craft, leaving only 3 destroyers, 2 U-boats, and a dozen torpedo boats to try and oppose the Britannian landings. The attack also destroyed over 70 aircraft on the ground (with another 23 heavily damaged), 25 artillery pieces, 13 of the 40 Panzers that consisted of the garrison's primary mobile ability, and nearly 20,000 casualties, with 14,000 of these being civilians.

At Vladivostok the attack was somewhat more effective than that of the African operation, even though our losses were somewhat fewer in number than what we suffered at the attack on Cape Town. 1 cruiser, 3 destroyers, 2 U-Boats and 9 torpedo boats where sunk, but apart from some minor damage to an additional destroyer and a mine sweeper, the Siberian Squadron still possessed 2 cruisers, 6 destroyers, 7 U-Boats and 6 torpedo boats that were still ready to challenge the approaching Britannian armada. However since the attack had destroyed or heavily damaged 53 of the 67 aircraft stationed at the airfields surrounding the Siberian city, the strongest component of the Pacific Fleet would lack the luxury of air cover if they moved to attack the approaching enemy fleet.

The attack also destroyed 12 Panzers, 15 artillery pieces, and killed or wounded 3000 of the city's garrison, leaving 21 Panzers, 28 artillery, and 13,000 troops ready to oppose the invasion, but their ability to counter the approaching Britannians were hampered by a number of factors. Dangling at the end of an extremely long supply line with little in the way of local industry, our forces were dependent on whatever supplies could be shipped to them from the more developed regions of the EU. But this of course took time, and time was something the garrison of Vladivostok did not have.

After their carrier based attacks had heavily lowered the effectiveness of our forces, the Britannians, having achieved near total air and naval supremacy, began the 2nd phase of their operation by landing troops on our sovereign soil.

With only 15,000 troops, 13 Panzers, of which only 3 of them were the newer Panther IV models, the rest being early model Leopards and Tiger IIIs, 9 artillery pieces, and 12 aircraft to challenge a Britannian landing force of 35,000 men, 93 Tanks, 540 aircraft, supported by a naval bombardment force of at least 7 cruisers and 14 destroyers, the final outcome was never in doubt.

But despite the overwhelming odds, the Cape Town Garrison nevertheless remained unflinching in their duty, and did their best to incur as much damage on the enemy before they were completely overrun.

For a loss of over 13,000 men, (6600 dead, 4100 wounded, and 2500 taken prisoner) and all of their available equipment, our forces where able to inflict in the 48 hours of urban combat inflict 17,000 casualties on the Britannian Invader. But as enemy troops continued to stream across the beaches, our soldiers where constantly hard pressed to contain the Imperials, until sheer weight of numbers forced them out of range of the heavily congested landing zones.

Unfortunately, as was to become the norm during other campaigns during the course of the Great War, civilian casualties were also extremely heavy during the Battle for Cape Town. With heavy shelling, overburdened medical and emergency services, civilian losses ranged from 12,000 to 18,000. And despite the efforts of our forces to evacuate as much as the population as possible, only 20,000 civilians were able to leave the city before it fell.

At the end of the battle, only 1,300 men remained anywhere close to combat readiness, and recognizing that this force would be needed to defend the fleeing columns of refugees, the commander of the much depleted garrison, Colonel Eugene Morteau, ordered his remaining troops to abandon the city. But knowing that he would be blamed for his failure to keep the city from falling into enemy hands, and having no desire to end up as a Prisoner of War, the French Commander waited until Imperial forces had overrun his command center, and then detonated the 20 tons of ammunition that had been forced to be left behind during the evacuation of the city.

Despite his failure, and the fact that Parliament immediately began to blame him for being unprepared to drive the enemy back into the see, upon Chancellor Krueger's ascension to power, Colonel Morteau was posthumously awarded full military honors as it was decreed that he had loyally done his duty as an officer.

The Battle of Vladivostok however, while resulting in yet another defeat, nevertheless proved to be far more important in determining the final outcome of the war.

It wasn't that our forces managed to inflict heavy casualties on the Imperial invader, though the sinking of 5 heavy tank transports, each loaded with 23 tanks, and 13 troop assault craft, each loaded with 250 troops, before they could reach the beaches helped our forces to retain their defensive positions far longer than predicted. It wasn't even the ability for our remaining naval assets to escape the battle and disperse to other smaller ports from where they were able to prey upon Britannian convoys until they were eventually hunted down and sunk.

It was the fact that among the 12,000 causalities (7000 civilian, 5000 military of which 3400 were in the army while the rest where in the navy) that we endured to inflict 23,000 losses on the enemy's forces (6,000 of those losses having occurred on densely packed transports and landing craft before they had a chance to off load), there were 2 specific individuals whose loss would start the process of turning the corpulent EU into a nation that could proudly defy the ambitions of the Britannian Emperor. The first casualty happened to be a proud lieutenant of the city's outnumbered garrison, whose unit sadly had been overrun after the Britannian's had assembled enough power to break out of the hotly contested bridgehead. The other causality had been a visiting medical practioneer from the German city of Essen, who had been invited to attend a conference on how the Siberian city could modernize its existing medical services.

The names of these individuals were Klaus Richter, 2nd Lieutenant of the 6th European Regiment, and Doctor Eva Krueger.

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And I think I'll end it here for now :P

Funny how much easier this is to write instead of writing character actions and speech XD.

The opening speech was MY edited version of the FDR speech from the film Pearl Harbor, which of course is in itself an edited version of what was spoken in history. Not sure if Churchill would still be a European citizen in the Code Geass Universe, or if his family moved to the colonies with the Britannian royal family after Napoleon's victory at Trafalgar...but I think if he WAS a European, then he would do something like this.

Will delve a bit into the history of European government in next chapter since it will help shape the direction of the story, but I think canon wise, their must have been a heavy amount of appeasement on the part of Europe. I mean just look at that party in Code Akito...they all act like they are either at peace or like Russian nobility right before the Civil War. So I have a lot of options to choose from. Of course cant have EVERY politician portrayed as a corrupt bastard, but I CAN show how that influence affects the decisions who are selflessly serving their country.

Hopefully you all enjoyed this, KEEP THE REVIEWS coming, and will begin writing the next chapter as soon as possible. :)