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TRIUMPH
OF THE THIRD REICH
Alternative History
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By A. Edward Cooper
List Price: $11.95
Soft Cover 6 x 9 300p
Agreka™ Books ISBN 1-888106-99-9 LC 99-60980 June 1999
About
Edward Cooper Table of Contents Chapter 1
Excerpt
For more alternative history books: www.uchronia.net
What would have been the
outcome of World War II
if Germany had succeeded in developing their Vengeance
Weapons earlier in the war and had been able to mass produce them? This novel
provides the answer in an action-packed story. One that came uncomfortably close
to actually occurring. It was June 1944, a day that was to be the beginning of
the end for the Third Reich-but Nazi Vengeance Weapons turn the tide of the war
forcing the Allies to negotiate for peace. Suddenly Hitler is assassinated and
Field Marshall Rommel becomes chancellor of Germany. Stunning events that follow
change the entire post-war history as we know it. Joseph Kennedy becomes
president of the US, Japan invades Russia and Molotov assassinates Stalin.
Double click back cover for full image.
A. Edward Cooper was born in Provo, Utah, in 1934. With
a degree in Aeronautical Engineering from Northrup Institute of Technology in
Los Angeles, he spent the next forty years worked in the Aerospace Industry.
Always a history buff, he became interested in Alternate History books. Triumph
of the Third Reich contains a number of actual events that occurred during
the Second World War to family and friends. He is now retired and lives with his
wife, Louise, on a small farm in Utah.
ENGLAND, 5 JUNE 1944; 0900, 5 JUNE, BERCHTESGADEN,
GERMANY, 0330, 6 JUNE 1944, NORMANDY; BERCHTESGADEN; LONDON/WASHINGTON; FOGGIA,
ITALY;
NORMANDY BEACHHEAD; MOSCOW; NUMBER 10 DOWNING STREET;
THE WHITE HOUSE; PARLIAMENT, LONDON; RUSSIAN FRONT;
OVER THE MID ATLANTIC; RUSSIAN FRONT; INDIAN OCEAN;
SOUTHERN ENGLAND; NUMBER 10 DOWNING STREET; HYANNIS PORT,
MASSACHUSETTS; SHANGRI-LA, CATOCTIN MOUNTAINS,
MARYLAND; LONDON; ATLANTIS, EAST INDIAN OCEAN;
WASHINGTON, EAST INDIAN OCEAN; LONDON; NORWEGIAN
COAST
MOSCOW; ALAMOGORDO, NEW MEXICO; THE ANDAMAN SEA;
ALGIERS, NORTH AFRICA; SOUTH WESTERN INDIAN OCEAN;
THE WHITE HOUSE; PEACE
BERLIN; SIBERIA; GULF OF SUEZ; EASTERN SIBERIA;
OCCUPIED EUROPE; KARINHALL; POST NAZI GERMANY;
BERLIN; STUTTGART; BERLIN; POST
WAR EVENTS; EPILOGUE
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On Monday the 11th of November, 1918, the Great War
ended with the signing of the Treaty of Versailles. However, the War to End all
Wars, was soon to prove to be just the forerunner of another longer and more
terrible war.
In 1931 Japan seized and occupied Eastern Manchuria
turning it into the puppet state of Manchukuo. The next year Japanese troops
crossed into China. Despite United States condemnation, the Japanese advanced
swiftly, deep into China.
Realizing the League of Nations was not willing to take
action against the Japanese aggression, Germany repudiated the Versailles Treaty
in 1935 and reincorporated the Saarland back into Germany. In the same year
Mussolini invaded helpless Abyssinia (Ethiopia) whose troops attacked tanks with
spears. Despite Emperor Haile Selassie's personal appeal to the League of
Nations, only sanctions were imposed on Italy, and Abyssinia became an Italian
Colony.
In 1936 Hitler occupied the Rhineland, unopposed,
although facing a much larger French Army which did nothing to oppose the
occupation.
By 1937 Japan had occupied the major Chinese cities of
Peking, Tientsin, Shanghai, Nanking and Hangchow. Seeing the success of the
Japanese, Hitler occupied Austria in March of 1938, and seven months later moved
into the Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia.
Not to be outdone, Mussolini sent his troops into
Albania on the 7th of April 1939 and still the Western Democracies failed to
act.
In August 1939 Russia and Germany signed a
nonaggression pact, freeing Germany to invade Poland on September 1, 1939. Now
at the worst possible time under the worst possible circumstances, unprepared
France and England were committed to come to the aid of Poland. The Second World
War had begun.
In 1940, Germany invades Russia in violation of their
nonaggression pact and swiftly advanced deep into Russia.
On December 7th, 1941, the United States entered the
war, when Japanese Naval forces attacked Pearl Harbor and the Philippines, and
began their sweep through the Far East.
In 1942 the German advance in Russian was finally
stopped at the gates of Moscow and at Stalingrad, while in North Africa Rommel's
advance is stopped at El Alamein. Prime Minister Churchill in referring to these
successes, stated in a speech. "Now, this is not the end. It is not even
the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps the end of the beginning."
By the spring of 1944, the Allies had completely
regained the initiative. The Japanese were being driven island by island back
towards the Home Islands. The Germans and Italians had been cleared out of
Africa and American and English troops were advancing up the Italian Peninsula.
In the East the Russians were driving the Germans back along the entire twelve
hundred mile front. It was now time to strike the blow that would be "The
beginning of the end."
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CHAPTER 1
ENGLAND, 5 JUNE 1944
The wind drove the rain in horizontal sheets against
Southwick House in southern England, the headquarters of Admiral Sir Bertham H.
Ramsey, the Commander of the Allied Naval Expeditionary Force. Group Captain
John Stagg, chief meteorologist of operations, was slowly and intently reviewing
the latest weather maps.
The wind whipped to a new fury, more like a storm
expected in mid winter, than in early June. The storm broke twenty four hours
before, causing General Eisenhower to postpone the scheduled June 5, 1944
invasion of France, Operation OVERLORD.
The wind rattled the windows, causing several to look
up from the table; Captain Stagg with an air of confidence, explained that the
worst was nearly over. Reports from as far away as Greenland and from convoys in
the mid-Atlantic reported the storm had passed. From the northern Shetland
Islands came reports that the barometric pressure was rapidly rising.
Starting tomorrow morning, the 6th of June, Captain
Stagg predicted fair weather for at least two days, with an early morning
overcast of 1000 feet and two to four foot waves off the coast of Normandy but
conditions improving throughout the day.
Eisenhower solicited opinions from around the table.
Admiral Ramsey responded, "General, I think we had better go. The troops
have been cooped up on the ships for at least twenty-four hours and some for
many more. The wait is consuming great quantities of food and fuel for the
ships."
"Marshall Mallory?" Ike asked.
Sir Trafford Leigh-Mallory, commander of the Allied Air
Forces, responded, " I agree with Admiral Ramsey. Although the ceiling is
somewhat low most of the initial air support will be from low level fighter
aircraft anyway and heavy gun fire from our ships will fill the gap until our
heavy bombers can be used against targets farther inland."
Turning to Field Marshall Sir Bernard Montgomery, Ike
knew what the Field Marshall's opinion would be. Commander of all of the Allied
ground forces, Montgomery had been the only one eager to proceed with the
invasion as scheduled this morning in spite of the storm. To the thinking of
Montgomery the surprise of an invasion in such weather would outweigh the lack
of full air support for his ground troops.
"Yes! Of course, by all means!" exclaimed
Monty, "Let's go!"
Glancing around the room at the other senior officers,
Ike received a nod from each one. "O.K. We'll go," he said.
The room quickly emptied as the officers left for their
respective offices to get the largest invasion in the history of the world
underway.
Ike looked at his watch it was 0415, June 5, 1944, and
he had just made the most momentous decision of his life and perhaps one of the
greatest in the annuals of war.
Turning to an aide, Eisenhower said, "Please see
the President is notified by encrypted message."
"Yes sir."
Picking up Admiral Ramsay's white phone, Ike placed a
call to the Prime Minister. As the phone rang, Ike suddenly realized what the
hour was, but on the second ring the familiar gravelly voice came on.
"Yes?"
"I am sorry to trouble you at this hour, Mr. Prime
Minister, but we have just decided to initiate Operation Overlord in
the morning."
"Wonderful! Is there anything I can do for
you?"
Ike was about to say yes, but decided against it.
"No sir, but should something develop I will call."
"Please do, and God be with you".
"Thank you sir, and goodnight."
"Get some sleep General, you are going to need
it."
Ike had wanted to ask if Churchill was still planning
on accompanying the invasion fleet as he said he was, in spite of objections
from all of his military advisors and cabinet members. Ike wondered if the Prime
Minister actually realized his value to the war effort and what a boost it would
be to the Axis if he were to be killed during the invasion.
It had worried Ike so much that he had sent a personal
letter to the King requesting his assistance in keeping Winston at home until
the invasion forces had at least secured the beachhead. The King had written
back that he would take care of the problem. But there had been no conformation
from the King and Ike knew that the King could not technically order Winston to
stay home. He, too, could only recommend and hope that Winston's loyalty to his
sovereign would overcome his desire to be in the thick of it.
Riding back to his quarters, Ike couldn't help but
notice that the rain seemed to be slacking off. He also thought back to the 27th
of March 1942, when the Allies were still being pushed back, and yet military
planners had presented to President Roosevelt an outline of a plan to invade
Europe in the spring of 1943. At the time the English had been very hesitant to
invade Europe across the English Channel. They had, of course, made their own
plans on how to repulse a German invasion from across the channel, which they
had expected in 1940, and had felt confident that they would succeed in crushing
the German plan, Operation Sea Lion. If the Germans were as well equipped and
determined in defending Western France, the cost of the Allied invasion would be
exceedingly high as well.
For that reason the invasion had been put off and
instead Italy had been invaded to provide a second but limited front. Churchill,
always suspicious of the intentions of the Soviet Union, also saw an advantage
to an invasion through Greece and into the Balkans to cut off the Russian
onslaught before they could sweep into the heart of Europe. He, in fact, still
believed deep down that that was the most prudent thing to do. But that was all
behind them now.
The success of the next few days was now essentially
out of Ike's hands and in the hands of the various on-site commanders at the
front. With that thought, he undressed and climbed into bed and drifted off into
a restless sleep.
H-hour was 0130 on the sixth of June for the
approximately thirteen thousand paratroops to be dropped behind the German lines
to seize certain key positions. Consequently at 2215 on June fifth over nine
hundred transport planes began to take off from some twenty-five different
airfields in southern and eastern England.
By 0230 over five thousand large ships and four
thousand landing craft weighed anchor and fell into long columns following the
mine sweepers across the channel, while at airfields all over the British Island
air crews were making their final inspections on the more than eleven thousand
aircraft scheduled to support the troop landings.
Top
On board the Rodney, the radio operator also
had picked up Hitler's orders to his army.
"Can you believe this?" he asked handing a
copy to the courier, who glanced at the message and then offered, "I guess
they have had enough." With that he dashed towards the bridge where the
King and Prime Minister were still watching both the gunfire from their
battleship and the long boats as they approached the disabled E-boat.
"Mr. Prime Minister," blurted out the
courier, forgetting the proper protocol, "look at this message."
Churchill frowned at the intruder, but grabbed the message from his hand.
"I can't believe it," he responded as he handed the slip of paper to
the King.
"Nor can I. It is almost too good to be
true," agreed the King. "What do you think, Admiral?"
Glancing at the brief message, Ramsey replied, "It
is the best news we have had in almost five years, if it is really
happening."
"I must get in touch with General Eisenhower
immediately so we can reach a general agreement on how to handle this unexpected
turn of events!" exclaimed Churchill.
As the Prime Minister turned to leave the bridge, he
glanced once more at the E-boat. The others turned to follow his gaze.
"Strange, there is no one on the deck save the
wounded."
The first longboat was pulling along side of the
E-boat, when four men were seen emerging from the cabin. All were dressed in the
officer dress uniform of the SS.
"What is this?" exclaimed Churchill.
The corpsmen aboard the longboat were all unarmed, but
as the Ensign in charge of the longboat started to draw his side arm, the four
SS Officers faced the Rodney and gave the Nazi salute.
It was the last image formed in Churchill's, or any
of the other men's eyes. The E-boat vanished in a brilliant flash, far brighter
than the sun itself.
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