The One Year War
This account of the One Year War serves as a prologue of sorts to
the original Gundam series. Though the early days of the war have
never been portrayed on-screen, they have great repercussions
throughout Gundam history.
The cataclysmic conflict later known as the One Year War begins
on January 3, UC 0079. Three seconds after declaring a war of
independence against the Earth
Federation, the upstart Principality
of Zeon launches massive attacks on the space colonies at Sides
1, 2 and 4. Zeon forces bombard the Federation fleets stationed at
these Sides with nuclear weapons and pump poison gas into the
colonies, routing the unprepared Federal Forces and killing 2.8
billion people with their destructive tactics.
Attempting to bring the war to a
swift conclusion, Zeon then launches Operation British.
Zeon forces attach engines to one of the now-depopulated colonies
and force it out of orbit, intending to drop the 20-mile-long
cylinder onto the Federation's headquarters at Jaburo
in South America. The Earth Federal Forces intercept the falling
colony, but are repulsed by the Zeon mobile suits guarding it.
Though the falling colony does impact on Earth, it breaks up into
several pieces during its entry into the atmosphere and consequently
misses its target. Colony fragments rain down upon North America,
while the largest chunk lands on Sydney, Australia, where it creates
an impact equivalent to a 60,000 megaton blast. The Sydney impact
creates destroys one-sixth of the Australian continent, creating a
500-kilometer crater and killing 200 million people. The casualty
toll for the first days of the conflict, referred to as the One Week
Battle, now stands at about three billion people.
On January 15, the Principality of Zeon makes a second attempt to
carry out Operation British. Entering Side 5, Zeon forces begin
attaching engines to another colony in order to take a second shot
at Jaburo. This time the Earth Federal Forces are ready for them,
dispatching an armada three times the size of Zeon's to prevent the
colony drop. The Zeon forces quickly abandon their mission and
instead launch an all-out attack on the Federation fleet. The two
sides begin lobbing nuclear missiles back and forth, laying waste to
Side 5 and killing 2.5 billion people. From the colloquial name for
Side 5, this conflict is known as the Battle of Loum.
Zeon's mobile suits prove to be devastatingly effective in this
unprecedented space battle. A lone Zeon pilot, Char Aznable,
destroys five Federation battleships. Although the Federal Forces
prevent the activation of the engines, the Federation armada is
wiped out and its commander, General Revil, is captured by Zeon's
elite Black Trinary pilot team. Both sides withdraw, having turned
Side 5 into a "shoal zone" of debris and colony fragments.
Less than two weeks into the war, the indiscriminate use of
nuclear weapons and chemical warfare have killed half the human
race. Earth's climate has also been ravaged by the effects of
Operation British, and a small-scale "nuclear winter" is under way.
Shocked by the carnage, the Earth Federation and the Principality of
Zeon meet for negotiations in Antarctica.
During the negotiations, the battered Federation comes close to
surrendering outright, until General Revil escapes captivity and
gives a rousing speech claiming that Zeon is exhausted. With many of
Zeon's best pilots killed during Operation British and the Battle of
Loum, and its limited resources stretched to the breaking point,
Revil declares that the enemy is bluffing.
On January 31, the warring parties sign the Antarctic Treaty.
Though there is no Federation surrender and no peace settlement, the
treaty establishes certain rules of warfare that both parties are to
abide by. Nuclear and chemical weapons are banned, as are colony
drops; nations that declare themselves neutral, like Side 6 and the
lunar cities, are to be left unmolested; prisoners are to be treated
humanely; and attacks on the energy fleets that supply both sides
with vital fuel are prohibited.
The Principality of Zeon may be exhausted, but the Earth
Federation is itself in dire straits. The destruction of the
Federation's space fleet and the environmental disruption caused by
the colony impact gives Zeon an opening to attack Earth itself.
Quickly organizing an Earth
Attack Force, Zeon carries out a series of drop operations
throughout the month of March, ultimately seizing half Earth's
surface and capturing several key Federation bases.
In the first drop operation, on March 1, Zeon's 1st Terrestrial
Mobile Division lands in Asia and captures the Federation's Baikonur
spaceport. It then heads around the west shore of the Caspian Sea
into Europe, and around the east shore into the Middle East. A
resource mining unit commanded by Colonel M'quve is then dispatched
to the north shore of the Caspian Sea, where it begins extracting
mineral resources to feed Zeon's war machine.
The second drop operation, on March 11, targets North America.
The 2nd and 3rd Terrestrial Mobile Divisions land on the west and
east coasts, respectively. Within two days the 2nd Terrestrial
Mobile Division has captured the Federation's sprawling California
Base, which soon becomes Zeon's major terrestrial stronghold.
The third drop operation takes place on March 18, when the 4th
Terrestrial Mobile Division lands at several key points in Southeast
Asia and Australia. A couple of weeks later, the 5th Terrestrial
Mobile Division is dispatched to reinforce Zeon's forces in North
Africa and the Middle East.
Interlude
A period of uneasy peace ensues, as both sides begin rebuilding
their forces. While it reconstructs its lost fleet at Jaburo and the
asteroid base Luna
II, the Earth Federation begins work on its own mobile suits and
other advanced weapons. Meanwhile, the Principality of Zeon
completes the asteroid fortresses Solomon
and A Baoa
Qu, forming an unbreachable line of defense around its home
colonies at Side 3. With its captured resources, Zeon rebuilds its
forces and develops new mobile suits designed for land and sea
combat.
After several months, the Federation and Zeon are again
approaching full strength, and both sides are drawing up plans to
bring the war to a speedy and triumphant conclusion... | 
