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 One Week War
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 War, now stands at
about three billion people.
The Ruum Campaign
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 Ruum Campaign.
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.
The Antarctic Treaty
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.