Sinking of the Queen Mary and SS United States

The Sinking of the SS United States and Queen Mary was an event that according to some is the official cause of World War 3. The two ships were targeted as carrying "nukes" and were sunk as a result. The result of the attacks led to international outrage, mainly in the U.S as they were owned by a U.S shipping line.

The U.S cut relations with Russia, or as it was called the 2nd Union of Soviet Socialist Republic, which had just condemned the U.S gas attacks in Syria. After the relations were cut, the USSR government invaded the West coast of the U.S starting World War 3

Before the 1st Attack
The SS United States and Queen Mary were retired ships from the late 50's-60's with the United States threaten with scraping in 2011. But a new shipping company, known for making ships similar to historical ships, i.e. the Titanic II. The company bought the SS United States for a whooping 100 Million dollars, and was returned to service and made its first voyage in 2015.

In 2016, the City of Long Beach which owned the Queen Mary began to go bankrupt. With a similar fate looming, the Queen Mary was bought for the same price, avoiding an economic crash in the city. The Queen Mary was to do its first voyage on May 27th, the same day it was on its first voyage 81 years ago and returned to service 50 years since retirement. The two ships had huge safety improvements. including modern lifeboats, radar, improved information about the ship. i.e. list if sinking or which lifeboats can be launched by color of light. One difference from the two was that the Queen Mary had a strange engine issue, in which, if hit too hard, the engine might fall off its stand, but the engine monitor made this issue seemingly safe.

With the gas attack in Syria, the government feared terrorist attacks and ground air travel for 90 days. This made multiple shipping lines get a boom in money due to it, but the boom wouldn't last for long.

Sinking of the SS United States
On May 16th, the SS United States departed Port 15 in New York on its trip to Southampton with nearly 4,300 people on board. It was 4 days in its journey when it came within 50 miles from the British Isles when it came in the sights of a Soviet submarine. Having been falsely reported to hold a nuke (The Petrov administration was anti West and Anti American. And wanted war, but made it seem like the U.S was the aggressor to its civilians) and went and followed it on the right (starboard) side. when the British Isles came into view, the submarine fired a single torpedo into the United States right side engine compartment, immediately cutting the power, stalling the ship 13 miles from Ireland. Mayhem had erupted from the attack, was its newly installed auto beacon malfunctioned, leaving it in alone in the dark.

nearby the Irish coast, British Coast Guard ships were patrolling the area, having encountered rough waves that drowned 15 people, when a lookout saw a column of smoke in the distance and went to investigate. After it had arrived, the United States was listing at 5 degrees to starboard. This made launching portside lifeboats hard to. The coast guard ship sent out a rescue call to nearby ships, but many were too far to get in time as the United States had only an hour and a half afloat.

By the time an hour passed, only 18 of its 60 lifeboats were lowered, many half full, and water had just flooded around the first smokestack. When the list got to 21 degrees, the weather got rough, and suddenly, a bunch of waves hit the ship, making it tip over, knocking everyone on it to fall and sink below the waves. The amount of fatalities has been debated. Some sources state that 3,000 died while most say 2,000.

International reactions
When word of the sinking got to D.C, the president, along with the American public, was outraged about the attack, and demanded the U.N sanction the USSR. The USSR government countered by saying that the ship was carrying a nuclear weapon. But, during the war, and on cargo manifests, there was no nuke on the ship. This however didn't change the Russian civilians, who felt that the U.S was responsible for the sinking.

NATO and the pre-PAT countries condemned the attack, stating that the USSR is invoking a war with the U.S by false flag. In other countries, mainly Asian, also condemned the attack. Even the USSR's biggest ally, China, knew it was a false flag, and agreed with the sanctions on them.

= Sinking of the Queen Mary = Despite the attack, the U.S government felt like this was a one off incident and kept letting ships head toward the U.K. On May, 27th, 2017. The Queen Mary left the same port as the United States, port 15 on a similar route, only this time, the ship stops at Ireland, then France to end its trip in the U.K, with nearly 4,000 people on board.

The ship was 2 days in its trip when it encountered a storm in the dead of the night at 11pm. The waves crashed on the side of the ship, rocking the engine off its stand, automatically shutting all engines down, slowing the ship down. nearby, another soviet submarine was heading towards the shore of Portugal when an unknown spy on the ship claimed there was a nuke on it too. the submarine captain immediately went towards the stalled ship.

On the bridge, the captain asked how long it would take to fix the engine, and it was determined to be 3 hours, too long to escape from the submarine. By the time the captain realized this, the submarine had fired 2 torpedoes at the ship, punching a huge hole under the bridge. The impact shook the ship, moving the displaced engine, killing the repairmen fixing it. The ship began to list at 5 degrees starboard, as passengers and crew attempt to lower the lifeboats. At first, this shouldn't be an issue, with the lifeboat monitor, just like the SS United States, most of the lifeboats should be useable. But the impact not only destroyed the main screen at the bridge, but most of the lifeboats, mainly on the portside, were jammed, making them useless.

Soviets try to hide the attack
Having sat near the ship, the submarine realizes it isn't sinking quickly, another safety improving to try to prevent another similar incident to the Lusitania, and radioed in a nearby undercover Soviet destroyer do make it sink quicker. The captain ordered an attack helicopter be sent to the ship in an attempt to split it in two, making it sink at a faster rate. Unaware to the soviet ship and helicopter, was that the USS Ross was coming to the aid of the Queen Mary, at nearly 21 knots, meaning an imminent course between the helicopter and ship.

When the helicopter arrived, the water was just 2 decks below the bridge, as many starboard lifeboats were being overloaded. Many passengers saw the helicopter and thought it was to scout out the situation. But, a few caught of a glimpse of the Soviet logo on the side and fled. Then the helicopter began firing, when the USS Ross fired a AA missile, which struck the rear rudder on the helicopter, sending down into the ocean, as the Queen Mary was set ablaze. After the attack, the ship sank quicker, and the bridge, with the captain inside, flooded only 5 minutes after the initial attack, and grew to a 15 degree list as passengers and crew fall or jump off the ship into the freezing Atlantic ocean. But the Soviet destroyer wasn't safe when the Ross fired several rockets at the unsuspecting ship, splitting in to, as an Irish cargo ship arrived to the scene.

By 3:50am, only the very back of the Queen Mary, as people fell into the ocean as the ship was nearly vertical, when a sudden explosion rocked the ship, capsizing the entire stern, then sliding under the waves. after the mayhem, nearly 2,761 people perished in the disaster.

Aftermath of the attack
The U.S government got a call from the British government reported the incident and outrage heated up even more as it was the second attack within a week, and the Soviets tried to make attack even worse, and cut relations with the country. In other nations, mainly in Italy, as most of the passengers were Italian, got to a similar amount of outrage, as the U.N kicked the Soviet Union out of the U.N, despite being a permeant member.

This set of actions would lead to the greatest war man had ever seen, as it would it turn out that these ships were mere puppets of war by the Soviet Union to evoke a war against its biggest enemy but would be the biggest error a politician ever did in Russian history