What If?

By Kev Richardson
Historical Fantasy, 311 pages
Cover art by Trisha FitzGerald
 
Excerpt:
January 1944
In Great Britain, Hitler made much of being filmed sightseeing London.

He issued firm warnings to his Volksaufklärung und Propaganda (Reich Minister of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda), Joseph Goebbels, that every inch of footage was  made available for every Briton to see.

One of Hitler’s closest adherents, a master orator and virulent disciple in the extermination of Jews, Goebbels was assigned considerable freedom in rewriting English language textbooks in German, as well as full control of censoring press and radio announcements throughout Great Britain and Ireland. One of his first dictates was the surrender of every English language dictionary in the land, in exchange for a German dictionary and an English to German translation guide. Retaining copies of English dictionaries was pronounced a crime—the penalty, death by firing squad.

In a private cabinet meeting with Göring, Goebbels, Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel, Chief High Commander of Armed Forces, his 2IC Alfred Jodl, Admiral Erich Raeder of the German Navy, and Admiral Karl Dönitz, U Boot Kommandant, Hitler outlined his plans to attack Russia.

“Maybe another year and early in the spring, gentlemen. How quickly we can rebuild our forces in each of your areas will dictate in which year. Stalin is driving his forces to the limit in his haste to wrap up the Middle East’s oil fields, and our intelligence chiefs report that he plans no rest period before attacking India. We need to have all our forces refreshed, re-equipped and ready by the time Russian forces are at their weakest.”

He pulled down one of the score of maps rolled up in the huge map bank mounted on the wall where every man present had a clear view. It showed the present border between their two countries from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea. His map had but a dotted line splitting Romania in two.

“Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria are remaining true to the Nazi doctrine and my expectation is that they will grant us every assistance if assured we will come to their assistance should Russia invade. Our secret preparations, however, will be for a Blitzkrieg attack along this present border in the old Poland. We can expect Finnish permission to attack Leningrad through their border come early summer when clear of snow. By that time, however, we will have won for you, naval gentlemen, the entire coastline of the Baltic States currently reeling under Russia’s poor treatment of them.”

He sat, leaving the map exposed on the wall behind him.

“I have assurances from Japan that, given two months’ notice, they will attack Siberia both from Manchuria-based land forces and Vladivostok by naval forces.”

“Can we trust the Japanese to keep such a promise? How secure will be our secrecy, with them knowing our plans?”

Hitler made a pyramid of his hands while raising eyebrows at Alfred Jodl.

“Do you see the smile on Erich’s face, Alfred? We have right now, on board one of his light cruisers in the South China Sea, supported by flanking destroyers, V5 rockets for Japan to begin raining on Hawaii from bases in the Aleutians. General Tojo has my personal promise that he shall have our V7s as soon as we have finished perfecting and testing them. They will reach even the most southern point on the USA west coast, and many kilometres inland of it. Japan has much to gain by maintaining our confidence in its security.”

He deliberately refrained from telling them all, which only Göring and Keitel so far knew, that the V7 was also intended for use by Germany, if necessary, on Canada and the United States’ eastern states, from Iceland.

Also, whenever he was ready to approach the United States for peace talks, he would ensure that American intelligence was aware that Jamaica and all other British islands in the Caribbean had been prepared for rocket launching into the Unites States.

Then with Russia subdued, Germany and Japan can carve up the entire rest of the world. Each will then control enough of the world’s raw materials to be able to bargain on where the world’s few borders will fall.