Fictionalization of the exploits of SMS EMDEN in WW I.This German light cruiser cut a swath from China to Africa and back, before finally getting trapped in the Indian Ocean by HMAS SYDNEY.

Warning do not read this unless you have read Book OneThis second book is set in the World War Three 1946 universe. A universe where Stalin Learns of “Operation Unthinkable”, Churchill’s ill-conceived plan to invade the USSR. He strikes first and attacks the West when it is at its weakest point and the Red Army is at its strongest. In Book Two we continue to explore one of the greatest “what ifs” in history. Who would have prevailed the Red Army or the forces of the Free World in an all out war, after the defeat of the Axis powers?As Book One World War Three 1946 — The Red Tide — Stalin Strikes First ends, we find the Red Army has smash the feeble western armies in Germany and then France. America’s atomic scientists have been incapacitated by a dirty bomb containing polonium, smuggled in and detonated by a real NKVD spy George Koval. Who in our reality had access to the world’s only supply of the deadliest substance on earth, when he worked on producing the Mark III atomic bomb. Sometimes facts are stranger than fiction.The Allies have temporarily stopped Stalin on the border of Spain and France where the Pyrenees Mountains makes a formidable barrier. As the Soviet version of the Blitzkrieg grinds to a temporary halt, Britain is given a chance to see the error of its wicked, capitalistic ways and to join the workers of the world. When this offer is rejected the Red Air Force prepares for an all-out attack with odds approaching five to one. Will the many, once again owe so much to the few of the RAF?And where are the Americans? Have they abandoned their greatest ally? Have they scrapped too many of their planes and can they retool their economy, an economy that has switched almost totally to consumer products. Can they once again become the arsenal of democracy? Will they be in time to save the Royal Air Force?Using a combination of their own skills and well-designed late war planes like the Tu 2S, the Yak 3, Yak 9 and the Lag 7 along with their newest jet fighters the MiG 9 Fargo and Yak 15 Feather, the Soviets will battle the Spitfires, Typhoons, Lincolns and Meteors of the RAF in a second battle for the skies over the British Isles.Stalin is convinced that the next war, against the capitalist Amerikosi, will be in the air over Europe and the Soviet industrial machine starts to concentrate on air to air and surface to air missiles. These missiles are improved versions of the German Wasserfal and X4 missile. These Nazi wonder weapons were not developed in time to save the Thousand Year Reich. Brought to fruition by the Soviet industrial complex under the guidance of Sergo Peskov, the missiles wreak early havoc to the bomber streams of the RAF and USAAF. The era of massed attacks, by the manned strategic bomber, appears to be over.WarningThese books are not written in any traditional style. They are a combination of historical facts, oral histories, third person and first person fictional accounts. They read more like an oral history or an entertaining history book complete with footnotes. I was inspired by “The Good War”: An Oral History of World War Two by Studs Terkel (1985 Pulitzer Prize for General Fiction) and Cornelius Ryan’s wonderful books “The Longest Day” and “A Bridge too Far”. I was especially captivated by Bill Bryson’s A Short History of Nearly Everything. Where the author explores the history of everyday objects and tells stories that captivate and educate all of us on the history of… well everything. Hopefully I have used their techniques of storytelling competently enough to entertain you for a few days.

World War Three 1946 — Book One — The Red Tide — Stalin Strikes First — Illustrated, Revised and Annotated edition.An almost total re-write, including end notes that assist the reader down the path of a convincing, alternate history. An alternate history based on facts and logic.• On the border of West Germany; Stalin has 60 mechanized divisions, composed of the battle hardened veterans.• The US and Britain have demobilized their armies.• Britain is bankrupt and rationing bread. Its empire is crumbling and its colonies are in revolt.• Tens of thousands of USAAF and RAF planes have been dumped into the ocean, pushed into piles, crushed and left rotting in jungles around the world.• Gangs of deserters roam the European country side.• The US has entered a period of isolationism.• The people of Europe are starving.• The Germans are being brutally punished for their part in the war.• The Soviet Union has acquired the major secrets of every strategic weapons system that the West has developed since 1935, including the atomic bomb. They have prototypes of every major German Wonder Weapon system produced since 1943.• Greece, Italy and even France are in danger of turning Communist.• The US and Britain have large Communist parties with thousands of sympathizers• 90% of the industry in the US and Britain has been transformed from producing weapons, to consumer goods.• Europe is in chaos and Capitalism has failed in the eyes of many.These are facts, and this was the state of the world in May 1946. This alternate history proposes that this was the opportune time for Stalin to strike. This was his best chance of furthering the cause of Communism. This was his moment.The Red Tide is the first in this series of fictional books. Alternate history explores the great “what ifs” of time. This is one of those great what ifs. The ribbons of time start to unravel and diverge from ours in 1943. Slowly at first and then faster and faster until a fateful day in May 1946. The Soviets have stopped the production of the US atomic bomb by incapacitating the majority of the American program’s scientists. This systematic crippling of the US atomic program convinces Stalin that the time is right to fulfill his deepest ambitions and once and for all rid Western Europe of Capitalism. We were able to obtain copies of many of the actual post war strategic plans of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff. Many of the strategies proposed in these works, were developed from these actual plans, and would have been in effect for much of the 1946-1948 era. What if German designed jet fighters, jet bombers, rocket powered interceptors, super tanks, undetectable submarines, guided air to air and ground to air missiles were all in the hands of Joseph Stalin. The Wasserfall and the X4 missiles will sweep the skies clear. The V2 will strike without warning. A guided V1 will unerringly strike unsuspecting targets The Seehund will make the oceans unsafe once again. The Me 262, Me 163, He 162 and the AR 234 along with the MiG-9 and Yak-15 will duel with the Meteor and Shooting Star.Over 800,000 hits on the AlternativeHistory.com website.These books are not written in any traditional style but is a combination of historical facts, oral histories, third person and first person accounts. I was inspired by “The Good War” An Oral History of World War Two (1984 in literature1984) by Studs Terkel and Cornelius Ryan’s wonderful books “The Longest Day” and “A Bridge too Far.” There is no hero or character development. The story is the story and not the characters. We hear from those who felt, saw, ran, lost and won as well as from officials and historians. The story is told using the techniques of reporters, oral historians, historians and politicians. Although told in a short stories, vignettes and in an episodic manner, the novel builds on what has gone before.

A catastrophic earthquake ravages Afghanistan, and American troops rush to deliver aid, among them Afghan Air Force adviser Lieutenant Colonel Michael Parson, and his interpreter, Sergeant Major Sophia Gold. The devastation facing them is like nothing they’ve ever seen, however—and it’s about to get worse.A Taliban splinter group, Black Crescent, is conducting its own campaign—shooting medical workers, downing helicopters, slaughtering anyone who dares to accept aid. With the U.S. drawing down and coalition forces spread thin, it is up to Parson, Gold, and Parson’s Afghan aircrews to try to figure out how to strike back. But they’re short of supplies, men, experience, and information—and meanwhile the terrorists seem to be nowhere… and everywhere.

A NEW NOVEL OF ALTERNATE HISTORY FROM MASTER OF MILITARY SF TOM KRATMAN, JUSTIN WATSON, AND KACEY EZELL.

As WWI comes to a close a German general, an escaped prisoner of war, and the crew of an airship converge to effect THE ROMANOV RESCUE. Can there be a world without communism?

Mankind’s history is bound up in the fabric of fate, a strong cloth, tough and closely woven.

It is the beginning of 1918, the last year of the greatest war in human history, to date. All the belligerents stagger on their feet. Starvation is an ever present reality, while disease waits in the wings. In Russia, no longer a belligerent but, instead, rapidly descending into civil war and chaos, a lone family—Father, Mother, four beautiful young girls, and a brave but sickly boy—await their own fate, shivering and hungry in the dark, hoping and praying for salvation.

Their relatives in England have turned their backs. The guards set over them do little but torment them. They look Heavenward, but God doesn’t answer. They know they’re a threat to the new regime, a threat that will, in time, be eliminated.

But even the strongest fabric has flaws. An escaped prisoner of war, caught, injured, and punished, but still highly capable, might be one. An airship, returned and at loose ends after a failed mission to Africa might be another. A German general, taking a wrong turn on his nightly walk and suddenly coming face to face with the reality of the monster rising in the east, would be a third.

Follow, then, as the general gives the orders, the prisoner of war raises the men from among his fellows, and the airship launches itself forward, to contest fate, to tear the fabric of time, and to effect The Romanov Rescue.

About the Carrera series:

“[I]nterplanetary warfare with … [a] visceral story of bravery and sacrifice … fans of the military SF of John Ringo and David Weber should enjoy this SF action adventure.”—Library Journal

“Kratman’s dystopia is a brisk page turner full of startling twists … [Kratman is] a professional military man … up to speed on military and geopolitical conceits.”—Best-selling author of America Alone Mark Steyn on Tom Kratman’s uncompromising military SF thriller Caliphate

“Kratman raises disquieting questions on what it might take to win the war on terror … realistic action sequences, strong characterizations, and thoughts on the philosophy of war.”—Publishers Weekly

About Tom Kratman:

“[Baen publisher] Toni [Weisskopf] and I disagree about everything except about how good his books are.”—John Birmingham

On Christmas Eve 1957, alone in the cockpit of his Vampire, an RAF pilot is returning from Germany to Lakenheath on leave—66 minutes of trouble-free, routine flying. Then, out over the North Sea, the fog begins to close in, radio contact ceases, and the compass goes haywire.

The Short-Timers is a 1979 semi-autobiographical novel by American U.S. Marine Corps veteran Gustav Hasford, about his experience in the Vietnam War. It was later adapted into the 1987 film Full Metal Jacket by Hasford, Michael Herr, and Stanley Kubrick.

It is 1944, and vast armies drive each other back and forth over blood-drenched Europe.In the midst of it, two radically different women meet, one a Russian speaking American on a failed diplomatic mission and the other a Soviet sniper. The American, fleeing a sordid past worthy of Dostoyevsky, has murder in her heart but has injured no man. The other, a once-saintly believer, has killed a hundred of them for Stalin. Their politics are worlds apart, but a reckless drunken kiss has tied them together, through church and trench, incense and the smoke of battle. If they survive the war, can they survive the peace?

Bao Ninh, a former North Vietnamese soldier, provides a strikingly honest look at how the Vietnam War forever changed his life, his country, and the people who live there. Originaly published against government wishes in Vietnam because of its nonheroic, non-ideological tone, The Sorrow of War has won worldwide acclaim and become an international bestseller.Kien’s job is to search the Jungle of Screaming Souls for corpses. He knows the area well – this was where, in the dry season of 1969, his battalion was obliterated by American napalm and helicopter gunfire. Kien was one of only ten survivors. This book is his attempt to understand the eleven years of his life he gave to a senseless war.Based on true experiences of Bao Ninh and banned by the communist party, this novel is revered as the ‘All Quiet on the Western Front for our era’.

Life aboard the WW II destroyer AJAX whose routine is flawed by an officer-enlisted man gulf, autocratic actions, fatal accidents, and men going "Asiatic," even psychotic.THE sick bay of the destroyer Ajax on her shakedown cruise, the war seemed remote to Tyler Williams. A civilian in the uniform of a pharmacist's mate, Williams was a member of the crew; yet by the special nature of his duties he was a man apart. To whom then did he belong? To his superior, that strange and perhaps dangerous man, Chief Bullitt? To himself? To the men of the crew, so vulnerably dependent upon one another? By the time the shakedown was over and the Ajax was ready for war, Tyler Williams would find his answer.This is a story of the rigorous training, raucous shore leaves and dramatic emergencies that mold men into a fighting crew. With humor, zest and compassion, The Steel Cocoon looks deep into the special world that is life on a Navy ship.

The incredible story of the Auschwitz-Birkenau tattooist and the woman he loved.

Lale Sokolov is well-dressed, a charmer, a ladies’ man. He is also a Jew. On the first transport from Slovakia to Auschwitz in 1942, Lale immediately stands out to his fellow prisoners. In the camp, he is looked up to, looked out for, and put to work in the privileged position of Tätowierer – the tattooist – to mark his fellow prisoners, forever. One of them is a young woman, Gita, who steals his heart at first glance.

His life given new purpose, Lale does his best through the struggle and suffering to use his position for good.

This story, full of beauty and hope, is based on years of interviews author Heather Morris conducted with real-life Holocaust survivor and Auschwitz-Birkenau tattooist Ludwig (Lale) Sokolov. It is heart-wrenching, illuminating, and unforgettable.

The book represents a unique collection of «Afghan» stories based on the events that occurred during the Afghanistan War (1979-1989). The authors of these true stories — soldiers and officers, who later were classified in Russian literature as “Afghan authors”, directly participated in the military actions in different parts of Afghanistan. Their memoirs became a stepping stone for the emergence of a new kind of Russian literature — “Afghan prose”. This book is a pilot project for the first translation into English of a collection of an anthology of Afghan prose — “The Torn Souls”.

Уникальный сборник военной прозы о войне в Афганистане 1979–1989 годов: первый в истории проект подобного рода — ни в СССР ни в постсоветское время не издавалось столь представительной подборки «афганских» авторов. Также сборник уникален собранными под одной обложкой писателями, в своей молодости бывшими реальными участниками Афганской войны — солдатами и офицерами Советской армии.

«Союз писателей Луганской Народной Республики совместно с Горловским институтом иностранных языков, совместно с сайтом современной военной литературы Оkopka.ru и его литературным редактором Владимиром Олейником (город Курган), совместно с профессором философии университета штата Виктория (Мельбурн, Австралия) и совместно с представителями (писательских организаций) Москвы реализовал за полтора года вот такой вот уникальный проект».— председатель правления Союза писателей ЛНР Глеб Бобров

Desperate to escape the Eastern front, Peter Faber, an ordinary German soldier, marries Katharina Spinell, a woman he has never met; it is a marriage of convenience that promises ‘honeymoon’ leave for him and a pension for her should he die on the front. With ten days’ leave secured, Peter visits his new wife in Berlin; both are surprised by the attraction that develops between them.When Peter returns to the horror of the front, it is only the dream of Katharina that sustains him as he approaches Stalingrad. Back in Berlin, Katharina, goaded on by her desperate and delusional parents, ruthlessly works her way into the Nazi party hierarchy, wedding herself, her young husband and their unborn child to the regime. But when the tide of war turns and Berlin falls, Peter and Katharina, ordinary people stained with their small share of an extraordinary guilt, find their simple dream of family increasingly hard to hold on to…Longlisted for the 2015 Walter Scott Prize for Historical FictionA Finalist for the 2014 Baileys Women’s Prize for Fictionhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOJquB4TgCQ

A soldier on the Russian Front marries a photograph of a woman he has never met. Hundreds of miles away in Berlin, the woman marries a photograph of the soldier. It is a contract of business rather than love. When the newlywed strangers finally meet, however, passion blossoms and they begin to imagine a life together under the bright promise of Nazi Germany. But as the tide of war turns and Allied enemies come ever closer, the couple find themselves facing the terrible consequences of being ordinary people stained with their small share of an extraordinary guilt…Longlisted for the 2015 Walter Scott Prize for Historical FictionA Finalist for the 2014 Baileys Women’s Prize for Fictionhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOJquB4TgCQ

In the winter of 1941–1942, Leningrad is under siege, and Karen Hamilton, a seventeen-year-old American musician, finds herself trapped and struggling to survive. Throughout the city, people are dying of starvation and frostbite, and Karen knows that if she doesn’t escape immediately, she will share their fate. If she has any hope of leaving Russia and reuniting with her fiancé, Bobby, in New York, she must do the impossible: cross enemy lines and then stow away.

On her harrowing journey, Karen encounters Petr, a young conscripted Russian soldier. She isn’t sure she can trust him—he is equally wary of her. But as the two join forces in order to stay alive, an unexpected romance takes root.

Now, as Karen gets closer to the reality of escape, she has a choice to make: Will she return to a safe life in America with Bobby, or remain in war-torn Russia with Petr?

**"Superbly written and breathtakingly researched, The Volunteer smuggles us into Auschwitz and shows us --as if watching a movie--the story of a Polish agent who infiltrated the infamous camp, organized a rebellion, and then snuck back out. We are squarely confronted with the other human truth: ordinary people will happily risk their lives to help others. Fairweather has dug up a story of incalculable value and delivered it to us in the most compelling prose I have read in a long time." --Sebastian Junger, bestselling author of The Perfect Storm and Tribe** The incredible true story of a Polish resistance fighter's infiltration of Auschwitz to sabotage the camp from within, and his daring escape to warn the Allies about the Nazis' true plans for a "Final Solution." To uncover the fate of the thousands being interred at a mysterious Nazi camp on the border of the Reich, a young Polish resistance fighter named Witold Pilecki volunteered for...

When Grace married the handsome and worldly Captain Leo Waterhouse in Australia during the middle of the Second World War, she never doubted that she had married a hero and he would come back to her unscathed. But Leo never returns from a commando raid on Japanese ships in the Singapore Harbour, leaving Grace a widow, like so many, to shoulder the pain and regret of losing her husband.

Sixty years later, Grace is still bitter and perplexed by the tragic death of the love of her life when the true story of the abortive mission comes to light. As Leo’s diary during captivity, scrawled on toilet paper, and new fragments of the events emerge, Grace must confront her doubts about her hero and his ultimate betrayal.

Dorothy L. Sayers published "The Wimsey Papers" in The Spectator in 1939 and 1940, purporting to be between characters from the Wimsey novels. Aside from their interest to fans of Sayers, who would like to know more about her characters and about her views on the war, they're also interesting pieces of social history — these must be one of the last few pieces of writing where the word 'propaganda' is used in a neutral meaning, for example.

November 30th, 1939, the peace of the frigid forests of Karelia Finland is shattered by an invading horde. Numbering four hundred thousand strong, soldiers of the Red Army pour across the borders of the Soviet Union’s small neighbor.

Outnumbered and outclassed the world expected Finland to quickly succumb to the Communist juggernaut.

Hale grew up farming, and hunting the frozen forest of his northern home. Taught from a young age by his father to hunt and trap, Hale has grown into master woodsman. Not yet twenty summers in age, he is most at home in the wilderness. Utilizing his gifts, especially his uncanny aim with a rifle, he has helped put food on the table and to earn a living by selling valuable pelts.

When invasion threatened, he put his growing love for Nea on hold, and answered his nation’s desperate call to stem the Soviet tide. Now alone in Finland’s vast southern forest, he hunts prey of a different kind. Will his skills and the rifle his father gave him be enough against the countless numbers, tanks, and air craft of the Soviet Union?

The year is 1917.After three years, the outcome of the Great War is poised on a knife-edge. One man believes he can make a difference. David Cochrane Smith, the captain of the armoured cruiser HMS Thunder, is patrolling off the coast of South America. He has attacked and sunk the Gerda, a neutral ship in a neutral port. He is labelled as mad man. Smith already has a reputation as a maverick. Now he faces professional ruin as he is called to account for the sinking. But he is certain he was right. He is sure the Gerda was one of two ships masquerading under neutral flags that are in fact supply ships for the German warships, Kondor and Wolf. These two superbly equipped German warships threaten to annihilate British shipping on the Pacific seaboard. Only an outdated cruiser and a young captain who is prepared to break all the rules stand in their way… As the battle draws to a climax, the battered HMS Thunder will be facing trials fiercer and more terrifying than any yet witnessed at sea.‘Thunder At Dawn’ is an edge-of-the-seat WWI naval adventure that combines thrilling story-telling with meticulous research.“I think a 21 gun salute is required… Alan Evans has produced a cracking thriller”The Daily Mirror“Evans provides a different sea story, sustained suspense and vivid battle scenes”Publishers WeeklyAlan Evans is a thriller writer known for vividly recreating the atmosphere of the First World War. His other titles include ‘Ship of Force’, ‘Sword at Sunrise’ and ‘Orphans of the Storm’.Endeavour Press is the UK's leading independent publisher of digital books.