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"You should have told us about this when they first arrived. You should have warned us before we launched a counterattack that cost the lives of hundreds of American pilots!
There was no way that we could have known that our fighters would have been that ineffective against their attackers."
General Grey and Albert Nimziki

The July 3 1996 counterattack was a planet-wide retaliatory response by Earth's military forces against the alien invaders immediately following their initial attacks in the War of 1996. Compared to the attack the following day, the assaults were not globally coordinated and were launched individually, though it did occur nearly simultaneously.

Prelude[]

Following the day after the devastating first wave attack, which included the destruction of national capitals such as Washington, D.C., London, Berlin, Jerusalem, and Tokyo, individual countries immediately began to deploy their forces for a counterattack.

In the United States, three attacks were prepared against the ships still over the ruins of Washington, New York, and Los Angeles, the latter of which was led by the U.S. Marine Black Knights squadron. Some of the attacks were not full assaults, but probing strikes to assess the aliens' defenses.[2]

Battle[]

In Los Angeles, the Black Knights launched AMRAAM missiles at the City Destroyer. However, in what would repeat itself all over the world, the missiles explode against the City Destroyers' impenetrable energy shields. Soon after, the City Destroyer deployed thousands of Attackers that, equipped with similar shields, began a very one-sided dogfight against human forces. Only one Attacker was brought downed by Captain Steven Hiller through skills and trickery.

The counterattacks in Los Angeles, New York, Washington, Jerusalem, London, and every other destroyed city quickly turned into a complete rout.[1][3] The Attackers did not stop merely with the forces in the air; they proceeded towards their bases of origin and lay waste to them. This occurred before additional attacks that began to systematically destroy humanity's military forces. With the counterattacks a resounding failure, the City Destroyers began to move towards their next targets.

References[]

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