Battle of the Tors Tvillinger

The **Battle of the Tors Tvillinger**, or **Battle over Thor's Twins**, was a major naval confrontation of the Century War fought from 18 June to 23 June 1972 in the region above the Tors Twilinger Ridge (Thor's Twins) off the coasts of Iceland between the Directorate of Eight Great Nations and the "Pagan Coalition" of Norse Fylkirate, White Tsardom of Russia and small assistance of the single battleship of Union Rebellions. The significance of this battle is considered one of the crucial moments of the Century War, as both sides lost considerable portion of their combat vessels operating in the Atlantic Ocean, but most importantly prevented the Directorate to take control of the most important naval routes of the war with the loss of the *Knighthammer*-class super battle carrier *Overlord*, new headquarters of Directorate's Atlantic operations and its commander and aspirant for British First Lord of the Admiralty, Lord Admiral Sir Arthur S. Meadows, the man who was able to on several occassions fight on equal terms and defeat some of the best Fylkirate's fleet commanders. This battle is among the most fierce and devastating for all sides that it was dubbed "the greatest naval battle in the history of mankind".

## Background

The conflict waged in the Atlantic Ocean during Century War was as heated as were the battles on the ground. Norse Fylkirate maintained massive naval force, but it was spread too thin across all of its colonies and the homelands of Scandinavia and Eriksonia to put its numerical superiority to good use. On the contrary, Directorate had most of its naval capacity in this part of the world, with four members having direct access into the Atlantic, and two could easily get in there. However, becuase of the direct involvement of the ruling families and leaders the command structure was very stiff and ineffectual to put this power into good use. Directorate Navy had to do with what they got. Even the large number of *Monarch*-class dreadnoughts, with its large load of heavy caliber guns couldnt be put into good use.

The tide has turned when Britannia commissioned *HMS Knighthammer*, the first super battle carrier of its class and the largest vessel ever constructed. Its sheer size enabled even large bombers and gunships to land on its deck, and the sheer amount of fighters it could carry equalled a whole carrier group. Combined with the best communications and detection arrays and large command center the *Knighthammer* became Britannia's Royal Navy's flagship and mobile headquarters for Directorate Atlatnic forces. With this new asset, Directorate could bring whole air armies to attack Fylkirate's lands of Iceland and Greenland, or form a blockade between Sweden and Eriksonia. Few months later a sister ship of *Knighthammer*-class, *HMS Overlord*, was launched.

By sheer luck, Nords soon after managed to disable *Knighthammer* with a massive submarine attack combined with aerial attack, costing them not an immaterial resources, but after a downed Nidhoggr Bomber hit the bridge tower of the supercarrier, killing the commanding officers and disabling the flight deck. *Knighthammer* had to be quickly moved back into the port, so the role of the mobile command center had to be moved to its sister ship *Overlord* and its flag officer, Lord Admiral Sir Arthur Sebastian Meadows. Lord Admiral Meadows prepared a strategy of air assault on the Iceland and its defenses, borrowing for the task a portion of British navy as well as escort carriers from Roman, Spanish, French and Kaiserreich forces. The success of the Iceland operation and the threat both super battle carriers posed to the pagan nations, Fylkirate, Tzardom and even the only ship of the American Unionists joined to an operation to put an end to the assembled "Overlord Armada".

The confrontation happened not too far away from Iceland's shores, above an oceanic ridge called Tors Tvillinger, and neither side considered failure an option, as that was a literate fight for own lives for both sides.

## Force Composition

### Directorate Forces

Lord Admiral Meadows assembled a massive fleet force for his initial Iceland operation. The *HMS Overlord* was the largest warship across the seas at the time, forming the center of its own Overlord Armada, that was originally composed of twelve *Monarch*-class dreadnoughts and eight *Coventry*-class heavy cruisers with an escort of four dozens of *Frontier*-class frigates, all under Britannia's flag. Than, specifically for this operation, Meadows borrowed six *Spartan*-class escort carriers from other navies to support *Overlord's* own air forces. These ships were British *HMS Arrowhead*, *Aquila*, *Sparviero* and *Vittorio Veneto* of the Italian navy, *BFI Joffre* of the French navy and German *SMS Weser*. Their combined fighter wings accounted to 288 Howell Seagull fighters, which was double of the aircraft carried by *Overlord*, only that the super battle carrier had in its capacity Seagull's sibling designs, Albatross interceptors and Pelican bombers. Oddly, Lord Admiral also requsitioned on board of his flagship an unusual asset, a VTOL aircraft gunship, Harrower Mk.IV, employed strictly by the ground forces. This force of naval vessels was the stronges concentration of military might ever assembled across the seven seas.

When Overlord Armada finished their attack on the Iceland, they were intercepted by Nordic fleets. Soon after Russian navy joined the pursuit, and Lord Admiral Meadows realized that he cannot escape them for the sheer size of the *Overlord*. Thus he started preparing for the engagement, and send a distrss call to the European and American continent. The call was heeded by the France, Iberia and Confederate States. Iberian Synarchy send Spanish Fourth Fleet commanded by Admiral Lady Lucia Arias, comprised of two Monarch-class dreadnoughts *Argonauta* and *Brilante*, one Coventry-class heavy cruiser *Victorioso* and nine *San Martin*-class lgith cruisers.

## Behind the Scenes

The battle itself is inspired by the Battle for Endor from Star Wars: Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, following the Directorate's theme of the Galactic Empire. *Overlord* takes the role of *Executor*, super star destroyer and Darth Vader's flagship. Only major difference is that the role of the Death Star II is taken by *Overlord* too, as "Directorate's superweapon in Atlantic Ocean". Some parallel can be seen with the events of the Star Wars: Episode VIII: The Last Jedi as well, with the loss of Snoke's flagship *Supremacy* being a serious blow to the First Order, same as the loss of *Overlord* to the Directorate.

The name **Thor's Twins**/ **Tors Tvillinger** is a fictional geographical location near Iceland created for the film *The Hunt for Red October*, based on the Tom Clancy's book of the same name. In Concordiatverse it is an existing location.