Yellow Empire

The Yellow Empire is a nation that features in

History

The Yellow Empire

It was an expansionist power with the strongest army and most advanced weapons in the world, including a nuclear arsenal "capable of destroying the world in a few hours". At the opening of the novel, the Yellow Empire has been fighting a cold war against the free world for three years; in the first few pages, it launches a massive surprise attack against its enemies. Within a few days, the world is overrun, leaving Basam Damdu ruler of a global empire. Through military occupation, and with the help of fifth columnists in every country, the Yellow take all necessary measures to bring the world completely under their boot. They also organize a system of concentration camps in the Himalayas, where foreign scientists, political prisoners and others are imprisoned and forced to work for them.

However, this victory is not entirely complete; pockets of resistance survive all over the world, and remain ready to continue the fight. At the heart of the resistance movement is a secret Royal Navy base in the Straits of Hormuz, where the British are working around the clock to produce the Swordfish, a new superweapon that will turn the tide of the war. The Yellow are aware of the weapon's existence; most of the novels follow their attempts to capture the Swordfish blueprints. Though they do not succeed, they do learn the location of the British base, and put together a task force to destroy it. The battle is almost a success, but the British finish their first two prototypes just before the base is overrun, and they turn the tide of battle; the Yellow task force is destroyed.

When news of this spreads, the resistance cells all over the world are put into action, resulting in a string of Yellow defeats (Paris, Madrid, Rome, New York, Buenos Aires and Shanghai are all mentioned as having been retaken by the rebels). Enraged, Basam Damdu decides to launch his nuclear arsenal against the world in revenge. Before he can do so, however, an entire squadron of Swordfish appears above Lhassa and nukes it; the Emperor is killed, and the Yellow Empire ends.

Overview

The Yellow Empire is a totalitarian regime under the absolute control of Emperor Basam Damdu (in the tradition of Adolf Hitler's Germany, Benito Mussolini's Italy and Joseph Stalin's Russia). The official ideology is never specified, but it seems to be a form of Asian supremacism, like Imperial Japan's propaganda during World War II. A later novel reveals that Basam Damdu was a "great admirer" of Nazi ideology, and signed a secret accord with Adolf Hitler at some point during his reign; whether the Yellow played any role in World War II within the Blake and Mortimer universe, however, is unknown.

Among the governments included:

• High Council : a body of military, scientific, political and other leaders who advise the Emperor in matters of governance.
• 13th Bureau : the organ in charge of state security. Like the SS and KGB, is serves both as an intelligence agency and a secret police. Despite its important position, it is not actually commanded by a Yellow but by a European, Colonel Olrik, who betrayed his country to Basam Damdu and is the main villain of the comics.

Their doctrine rests on defeating their enemy quickly through the use of surprise and overwhelming force, similar to German blitzkrieg tactics in World War II. After the initial victory, their military turns into an army of occupation; this leaves them vulnerable to guerrilla warfare from local partisans, who have more success against them than conventional armies have had.

The Yellow Army's technology is world-class. Jet propulsion and atomic weaponry, in particular, have been extended throughout the entire Yellow military, even though both technologies were very new at the time the books were published.

Within the arsenal of the Yellow Empire included:

• Shark : a jet-driven fighter, which can fly as high up as the stratosphere, it is the workhorse of the Yellow Air Force and is well represented in all three episodes.
• Red Wing : Colonel Olrik's personal aircraft, a jet-driven version of the American Flying wing. The Yellow appear to have an affinity for the flying wing design, as bomber and carrier variants of the Red Wing also appear intermittently throughout the comics.
• Super bazooka : a rocket launcher that fires five hundred rockets per minute; similar to Soviet Katyusha launchers. Featured at the Lhassa arsenal during the opening pages of the book, it is later used at the battle of the Straits of Hormuz.
• Dragon : a flame-throwing tank, weighing a hundred tons and strong enough to flatten a bunker. Appears in the opening pages of the book, but is never seen in battle.
• ICBM : years before this happened in real life, the Yellow Empire has developed an arsenal of nuclear-tipped rockets with global reach, enough to destroy the world if launched. Basam Damdu nearly fires the rockets at the end of the books, but they are nuked by British Swordfish before they can be launched.
• GX3 : a green-colored chemical gas, deployed by the Yellow at the battle of the Straits of Hormuz, almost bringing them victory. The filters in gas masks are useless against it; when Yellow forces go into a combat zone infected with GX3, they carry oxygen masks instead.

Inhabitants

• Basam Damdu :

Notes

• The Yellow Empire was created by Edgar P. Jacobs where it made its first appearance in The Secret of the Swordfish as part of the Blake and Mortimer trilogy.

Appearances

• The Secret of the Swordfish:

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