Freedom Party guards (Harry Turtledove)

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The Freedom Party guards are the SS analog in the Freedom Party in Harry Turtledove's fictional American Empire and Settling Accounts series of trilogies. Instead of the white and butternut semi-uniform of the stalwarts (or the infamous black of the SS), the guards start out wearing near-identical Confederate States Army butternut uniform. By the outbreak of World War II, the FP Guards have switched to gray uniforms to distinguish themselves from the CS military (ala the SS switching from black to gray).

The Guards' primary function in the Freedom Party is to protect Jake Featherston and other important Party bigwigs, and also to help run the big political machine the Freedom Party runs across the CSA: correctional camp guards, political commissars, etc. They don't seem to be as sinister as the SS was in real-life Germany, although the inmates at Camp Dependable and other Featherstonian camps might beg to differ.

One interesting aspect of the Freedom Party guards is that they do share the SS dislike for Army ranks, and have created a system for their own use. For example, an Assault Troop Leader in the Freedom Party is a sergeant in the Army, while a Chief Assault Troop Leader is the equivalent of an Army captain.

After the outbreak of war in June 1941, Jake Featherston orders the creation of formations of Army veterans who are also Party members into the Confederate Veterans Brigades, ostensibly to release younger men for duty on the front lines but also to provide extra manpower for guarding and executing black prisoners in "population reductions" at the new Camp Determination in Texas.

As the war started turning against the CSA in the winter of 1943, Attorney General Ferdinand Koenig asked Featherston for permission to send Party Guards into battle. The first guard actions took place near Lubbock, Texas and halted the U.S. advance. The Party Guards quickly gained a reputation for fighting to the end as the regular Army falls back all around them, but even they can't hold off the irresistible U.S. advance.

[edit] Freedom Party Guard Ranking System

  • Guard -- Private
  • Assistant Troop Leader -- Corporal
  • Troop Leader -- Sergeant
  • Assault Troop Leader -- Lieutenant
  • Chief Assault Troop Leader -- Captain
  • Assault Band Leader -- Major
  • Chief Assault Band Leader -- Lieutenant Colonel
  • Standard Leader -- Colonel
  • Brigade Leader -- Brigadier General
  • Group Leader -- Major General
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