A-Z Fallout lore

O is for Operation Anchorage

According to historical accounts, Operation Anchorage or the Anchorage Reclamation was a major military operation and turning point of the Sino-American War, part of a worldwide series of conflicts known as the Resource Wars. Most information on the years before the War is now irretrievably lost. The only witnesses to this forgotten conflict are the hidden caches or remains of Chinese forces a lucky scavenger occasionally unearths, and the war memorials that survived the devastation and can still be seen in the desolate wasteland. While most care little for ancient history, certain scholars of the pre-War period try puzzling together the disparate sources that still remain. As the world’s natural reserves dwindled, the European Commonwealth dissolved and the Middle East was reduced to ruins, relations between the United States and China deteriorated over the last oil deposits in the Pacific Ocean. Fearing an invasion across the Bering Strait, the United States established a strong military presence in Alaska to prevent such a possibility and safeguard the Trans-Alaska Pipeline. During the winter of 2066 Alaska became a true battleground as Chinese forces invaded and took control of the oil pipeline and reserves. A long, drawn-out conflict ensued, during which the United States eventually annexed Canada and gained the decisive edge over the Chinese with the deployment of experimental Power Armor units. At the beginning of 2077, the Chinese supply lines were severely weakened by incessant bombardments and trench warfare, and finally broken in the siege of Anchorage. The liberation of the city meant the end of the Chinese presence on United States soil. The theater of war then moved on to mainland China, where American forces began to beat back the Chinese army in the Gobi and Yangtze campaigns, until in a span of two hours the Great War began and ended, and the world plummeted into a nuclear holocaust.