Tropic Lightning, Byronic Thunder: An AK-47 blog series (special report!)

    As the Tropicañan "Guardia Presidenciale" takes form on the paint shelf, a new idea hit me. Whilst contemplating the Falklands War I suddenly got inspired to create a new "dictatorship" not on the Fascista model of Tropicaña, but on a decidedly British Feudal model, the Dominion of South Byron! I even purchased a WWII Achilles tank for the Byronic Levy as it shall be known.

The Dominion of South Byron, formerly the South Byron Islands:

 

(Flag of the Dominion)

       In the wake of the Second World War and with mounting independence movements across the British Empire in India and elsewhere, a curious collection of islands in the South Atlantic, not terribly far from the Argentine coast and yet no closer than the neighboring Falklands, the South Byron Islands (named so by British explorers after the legendary poet Lord Byron) declared their independence from the Empire. Such a turn of events went largely unnoticed by the British public what with the huge splash India's independence movement was making at the same time, but the War Office and Parliament did take notice of the deftly written Articles of Separation submitted in the House of Commons by representatives of the peculiar governor of these islands, Percival Thomas Adamstroud, Lord Waterdowne. A veteran of the recent War, Lord Waterdowne was appointed governor of the South Byron Islands towards the end after returning from North Africa having been an RAF pilot there. Upon his appointment as governor of the islands, Waterdowne took it upon himself to "free" the peoples of South Byron from their obligations to the Crown Government. Being a romantic, raised on Byron's poetry, Arthurian legends, and the history of Britain, Waterdowne fancied himself a reborn Arthur and with the dismantling of the Empire, he saw the best way to preserve British culture (as he thought) by becoming an independent "feudal" state. So after consulting with the leading men of the islands, both landowners (a few sheep farmers and one alpaca herder), and leading merchants (a few pub owners, the Mayor of Queensport, and the Chief Justice and barristers, along with the two shipping merchants) the Articles of Separation were drafted and sent to London to officiate the independence movement steadily growing upon the sleepy islanders. (Most of whom were quite confused on the subject of why, whom and what they were fighting for.)     

 

(Old flag of the Crown Colony of the South Byron Islands)

      Having a handful of second hand tanks, rifles, and other equipment sent by the War Office to allocate for the islander's defense against a possible German invasion, Lord Waterdowne prepared the islands to resist what would undoubtedly be a severe reprisal from the Mother Country. It took some months for Parliament to react to the "separation" as they were concerned with far larger problems at the time. When things finally did settle down though, they sent their own representative to South Byron to investigate and either bring Lord Waterdowne to account for his actions or to negotiate with the islanders if need be. The director of the War Office assumed Waterdowne was "barking mad", in his own words.

     Upon arriving at Byron Airport, Mr. Carsdale, the under-secretary of colonial management, was greeted by a booming cannon blast from one of Waterdowne's "knights", an Achilles tank painted with heraldic livery on the turret. (As per the regulations of the South Byron Office of Heraldry) Carsdale was quickly "captured" by Sir Harry Milford, the alpaca farmer turned feudal baron. 

 

     After several months on the island and a hefty land grant from Waterdowne, Mr. Carsdale has settled in nicely to his new post as Castellan of Shelly Home. After some months, the War Office had had enough of what was termed "utterly ridiculous lunacy" and dispatched a "task force" to recover the islands and bring Lord Waterdowne to justice. A company of Royal Marines and a single cruiser were deemed sufficient for the task. They couldn't have been more wrong.

 

(An abandoned fishing vessel off Coleridge Island.)

     The cruiser HMS Goliath dropped anchor on the north shore of South Byron deploying the marines before making ready to fire some preliminary shots inland as a show of force. Aside from killing a few sheep grazing near the impact zone, little damage was done til the marines reached Queensport. Upon reaching the outskirts of the town, they were met with a line of tanks (3 to be exact) charging towards them followed by a motley throng of villagers armed with everything from rifles to grenades to pitchforks. At their head rode Waterdowne in his personal tank. After accepting the marine's surrender, (To be fair, they were ordered not to inflict casualties at all costs as this would only embarrass Her Majesty's government.) Waterdowne had them swiftly escorted off the island with fishing vessels (the Byronic Navy) taking them back to the HMS Goliath and a thoroughly embarrassed War Office. The "War of Separation" lasted less than a day, as the Goliath sailed back to Blightey and the War Office, thoroughly disgusted by the whole affair, promptly put it behind them and got on with the real business of more pressing affairs, like the Cold War, which had just begun.

 

     Lord Waterdowne was quickly acclaimed the "Hero of Byron" and immediately drank himself along with all the other islanders into a stupor at the White Wyvern Pub. 

 

(Lord Waterdowne's personal tank, a refurbished WWII Achilles. Emblazoned on the flanks of the turret is the Waterdowne crest: A shield azure, a bend sinister argent, with three arrowheads purpure [representing the three islands of South Byron])

 

(Sir Harry Milford's tank with his newly achieved arms  emblazoned: A shield gules, a cross bleu celeste, with four arrows d'or quartered.)

     Today the Dominion of South Byron is a surprisingly pleasant, prosperous, and well run state. Though the Dominion has fought few wars since the "War of Separation", Lord Waterdowne and the Circle of Knights maintain a small, well drilled military with the Byronic Levy (a militia essentially) that can be called up in times of crisis. Along with this are the Byronic Knights themselves. Mostly old sheep farmers (and one alpaca farmer) their sons are quick to take their fathers' place in the armored company. Old WWII surplus British tanks are more than adequate defense for the islands and recently Waterdowne has deployed the knights (with Levy support of course) to the Caribbean Island of Tropicaña to counterattack the previous year's unprovoked invasion of South Byron by that island's Guardia Nacionale. Needless to say the Byronic Knights have wrought quite a bit of damage on Presidente O'Donnell's mega plantation and cost him a lot of revenue.

(Sir Harry Milford's tank after repelling Tropicañan forces near Giles, a small village on Coleridge Island.)

 

(Lord Waterdowne's tank on Victory Day, celebrated yearly on the anniversary of the Tropicañan Invasion.)