Update II: Remember!
UPDATE II: REMEMBER!
As some of you may know, today is the 60th anniversary of Trentannia's invasion of Grand, which began on the 3rd of September, 1941, and was one of the major events in the years building up to the Great Adonian War. For this special update, we will be touring different areas of the capital that played an important role in the invasion and subsequent 10-year occupation, and will also take a look at some other areas of Grand that were central to the invasion.
A memorial service is currently being held in Saint Josephine's Cathedral for the approximately 70,000 Grandians who died in the war. For the first time, this service also is being held in memory of the 6,000 Belluterrans who died invading Grand.
Soon, this area will be crowded with people coming to pay their respects to the "Francistown Thirteen", who were leaders of one of the most notable resistance groups in the country, and were one of the main reasons that the Trentannian military in the area never got much farther north than Grand. They had all been captured by 1948, and were subsequently executed without trial, on this very spot. The large triumphal arch in the background, completed in 1956, was commissioned by King Francis V upon his return to Grand after the liberation, to commemorate the victory over Trentannia, and to remember those who gave their lives for freedom.
When Mousford, which was the national capital back then, fell to the Trentannians, Francis V, his wife Queen Jennifer of Puget, the rest of his immediate family, and the most prominent members of his Cabinet and the Senate, fled to Grenylzia, a small fortress in the south part of the country, where they successfully fought off Trentannian besiegers for 66 days—from 28 September to 2 December 1941—until a small fleet of Grandian vessels that had managed to break past the blockade arrived and escorted them to Athanos, the capital of Posillipo, where the they remained in exile until the liberation of Grand in 1951. In their absence, the Trentannians established a puppet government known as the Grand Republic, which in all but name functioned as a province of the Trentannian Empire.
During the enemy bombardments of the city, and later during the liberation by the Posilliponians, many of the old Posilliponian-style buildings were either destroyed or heavily damaged, resulting in numerous places thorought the city today where a wall-to-wall building suddenly drops off without another wall-to-wall building to continue the sequence, and often instead, a younger, more modern building taking its place. To this day about 18% of Francistown's residents either have a parent who could remember the Great Adonian War, or could remember the war himself or herself.
Once the Trentannians had complete control of Grand, they built a large defensive wall around much of the Grandian coast, as well as a secondary system consisting of large walls and embankments around every major or strategic Grandian settlement within 5 km of the coastline. This is an exceptionally-well preserved section of the primary wall, located in Francistown.
During the house-to-house fighting that followed the initial attack on Francistown, some of the fiercest fighting took place in and around Andrews' Market (now serving as an open-air concert hall, and renamed Andrews Square), shown here in a photo taken from a Trentannian aerial reconnaissance flight over the district.
The large building in the center of the image is especially notable for the fact that its defenders were able to hold off enemy assaults for over five weeks, long after the rest of the city had fallen. It was heavily damaged during the war, but has since been restored and returned to its original purpose of housing residents.
Khot hap ee ko!
3 Comments
Recommended Comments
Sign In or register to comment...
To comment in reply, you must be a community member
Sign In
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In NowCreate an Account
Sign up to join our friendly community. It's easy!
Register a New Account