 | |
| Author | Robert Conroy |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Christopher Sergio |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Alternate history |
| Publisher | Ballantine Books |
Publication date | February 23, 2010 |
| Media type | trade paperback |
| Pages | 353 |
| ISBN | 978-0-345-50606-1 |
| 813'.54--dc22 | |
| LC Class | PS3553.O51986R43 2010 |
Red Inferno: 1945 is a 2010 novel written by Robert Conroy, the author of other alternate history novels. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]
The novel introduces actual historical events that happened in our timeline and then tells of the point of divergence before its story begins.
In our timeline, the Allied forces in Europe, under the command of General Dwight Eisenhower, halted all further advance into Nazi Germany in April 1945 at the Elbe River while the Red Army battled the surviving German divisions on its way to Berlin.
However, in the alternative timeline, instead of halting the Allied advance into Germany, US President Harry S. Truman authorizes the US Army to continue across the Elbe and to head for Berlin to bring a quick end to the war to guarantee the West's share of the to-be-divided German capital with their forces in the city. However, Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin, despite the agreed terms of dividing Berlin and Germany with the Western Allies, wants to take Berlin for himself on the grounds that the Soviet Union deserves the most to conquer its archenemy's capital after the unparalleled brutality of the Eastern Front. He even goes as far as to order the Red Army to attack any US forces on sight if they ever get near Berlin to intimidate the West into leaving Berlin to the Soviets.
Word of the exchange between the American advance to Berlin and the Soviet forces reaches Moscow and Washington, DC. It was confirmed that the US had crossed the agreed occupation boundaries. Stalin believes that both he and the US had voided the Yalta Agreements and so now the United States and Soviet Union are de facto enemies. Combined with his paranoia that the West wants to take the Soviets' chance of revenge on Germany from him, he refuses to allow it. With the invalidated postwar divide already causing hostilities, he decides to conquer and occupy Germany and all of the rest of Europe while the Soviet Union still has the chance and so he starts another world war.
Eisenhower and the US Army get pushed back across the Elbe and lose thousands of troops. A whole US armored division, along with fleeing German civilians and prisoners-of-war, are cut off from the main force and holed up in Potsdam to which the Soviets lay siege throughout the whole war. Over the course of a few months from late April to August, the Red Army wages a war of attrition as its overwhelming numbers slowly force the Western Allies westward across Germany to the Weser. The Soviets also try to divide the Western Allies by spreading communist influence to the surrounding nations, and they hope to spark revolutions in the Allied to hinder US efforts to hold the Soviets east of the Rhine.
The plans to hinder the US war effort eventually backfire on the Soviets, as Switzerland and Finland cease their neutrality and allow Allied armies to cross their borders to the front lines, which ensures a continuous flow of troops and supplies to the Allied forces. The US Army Air Force also conducts long-range strategic bombing sorties into the Soviet Union, with the introduction of the B-29 Superfortress from the Pacific Theater, which is diverted from its initial targets at Hiroshima, Nagasaki and the Kure and Yokosuka naval districts, which has left them relatively intact. They target Soviet fuel and oil production and deprive the Red Army of any means to conduct further offenses. Things also take a drastic turn when the remaining Wehrmacht forces and the former government of Nazi Germany sign an armistice with the Western Allies and agree to fight with them against the Soviets.
The novel ends in the early winter of 1946, with communism collapsing and the other Soviet republics breaking away from the Soviet Union to form their own sovereign nations, similar to today's Commonwealth of Independent States. China suffers from a civil war, as a new communist government seizes power, and America becomes the world's sole nuclear superpower.
All of Europe and Asia is in ruin as the exhausted troops, politicians, prisoners, and civilians of all nations involved in the conflict return home at last. They begin to rebuild their world as they look forward to an uncertain but hopeful future.
The European theatre of World War II was one of the two main theatres of combat during World War II. It saw heavy fighting across Europe for almost six years, starting with Germany's invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939 and ending with the Western Allies conquering most of Western Europe, the Soviet Union conquering most of Eastern Europe including the German capital Berlin, and Germany's unconditional surrender on 8 May 1945 although fighting continued elsewhere in Europe until 25 May. On 5 June 1945, the Berlin Declaration proclaiming the unconditional surrender of Germany to the four victorious powers was signed. The Allied powers fought the Axis powers on two major fronts, but there were other fronts varying in scale from the Italian campaign, to the Polish Campaign, as well as in a strategic bombing offensive and in the adjoining Mediterranean and Middle East theatre.
The final battles of the European theatre of World War II continued after the definitive surrender of Nazi Germany to the Allies, signed by Field marshal Wilhelm Keitel on 8 May 1945 in Karlshorst, Berlin. After German leader Adolf Hitler's suicide and handing over of power to grand admiral Karl Dönitz on the last day of April 1945, Soviet troops conquered Berlin and accepted surrender of the Dönitz-led government. The last battles were fought on the Eastern Front which ended in the total surrender of all of Nazi Germany’s remaining armed forces such as in the Courland Pocket in western Latvia from Army Group Courland in the Baltics surrendering on 10 May 1945 and in Czechoslovakia during the Prague offensive on 11 May 1945.
The Eastern Front or the Russian Front was a theatre of World War II fought between the European Axis powers and Allies, including the Soviet Union (USSR) and Poland. It encompassed Central Europe, Eastern Europe, Northeast Europe (Baltics), and Southeast Europe (Balkans), and lasted from 22 June 1941 to 9 May 1945. Of the estimated 70–85 million deaths attributed to World War II, around 30 million occurred on the Eastern Front, including 9 million children. The Eastern Front was decisive in determining the outcome in the European theatre of operations in World War II, eventually serving as the main reason for the defeat of Nazi Germany and the Axis nations. It is noted by historian Geoffrey Roberts that "More than 80 percent of all combat during the Second World War took place on the Eastern Front".
The Western Front was a military theatre of World War II encompassing Denmark, Norway, Luxembourg, Belgium, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, France, and Germany. The Italian front is considered a separate but related theatre. The Western Front's 1944–1945 phase was officially deemed the European Theater by the United States, whereas Italy fell under the Mediterranean Theater along with North Africa. The Western Front was marked by two phases of large-scale combat operations. The first phase saw the capitulation of Luxembourg, Netherlands, Belgium, and France during May and June 1940 after their defeat in the Low Countries and the northern half of France, and continued into an air war between Germany and Britain that climaxed with the Battle of Britain. The second phase consisted of large-scale ground combat, which began in June 1944 with the Allied landings in Normandy and continued until the defeat of Germany in May 1945 with its invasion.
The German Instrument of Surrender was a legal document effecting the unconditional surrender of the remaining German armed forces to the Allies, which ended World War II in Europe, with the surrender taking effect at 23:01 CET on the same day.
The Prague offensive was the last major military operation of World War II in Europe. The offensive was fought on the Eastern Front from 6 May to 11 May 1945. Fought concurrently with the Prague uprising, the offensive significantly helped the liberation of Czechoslovakia in 1945. The offensive was one of the last engagements of World War II in Europe and continued after Nazi Germany's unconditional capitulation on 8/9 May.
The Race to Berlin was a competition between Soviet Marshals Georgy Zhukov and Ivan Konev to be the first to enter Berlin during the final months of World War II in Europe.
The Flensburg Government, also known as the Flensburg Cabinet, the Dönitz Government, or the Schwerin von Krosigk Cabinet, was the rump government of Nazi Germany during a period of three weeks around the end of World War II in Europe. The government was formed following the suicide of Adolf Hitler on 30 April 1945 during the Battle of Berlin. It was headed by Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz as Reichspräsident and Lutz Graf Schwerin von Krosigk as the Leading Minister. The administration was referred to as the "Flensburg Government" because Dönitz's command relocated to Flensburg in northern Germany near the Danish border on 3 May 1945. The sports school at the Mürwik naval academy was used as the government headquarters.
Final Impact is a science fiction novel by Australian writer John Birmingham, the last volume of his alternate history Axis of Time trilogy.
The Western Allied invasion of Germany was coordinated by the Western Allies during the final months of hostilities in the European theatre of World War II. In preparation for the Allied invasion of Germany east of the Rhine, a series of offensive operations were designed to seize and capture its east and west banks: Operation Veritable and Operation Grenade in February 1945, and Operation Lumberjack and Operation Undertone in March 1945; these are considered separate from the main invasion operation. The Allied invasion of Germany east of the Rhine started with the Western Allies crossing the river on 22 March 1945 before fanning out and overrunning all of western Germany from the Baltic in the north to the Alpine passes in the south, where they linked up with troops of the U.S. Fifth Army in Italy. Combined with the capture of Berchtesgaden, any hope of Nazi leadership continuing to wage war from a so-called "national redoubt" or escape through the Alps was crushed, shortly followed by unconditional German surrender on 8 May 1945. This is known as the Central Europe Campaign in United States military histories.
Joseph Robert Conroy was an author of alternate history novels.
The Line of Contact marked the farthest advance of American, British, French, and Soviet armies into German controlled territory at the end of World War II in Europe. In general a "line of contact" refers to the demarcation between two or more given armies, whether they are allied or belligerent.
1945 is an alternate history novel by Michigan economics professor Robert Conroy, an author of alternate history novels, such as 1901 and 1862. It was first published in trade paperback and ebook form by Ballantine Books in May 2007. In the novel's point of divergence, the Kyūjō coup overthrew Japanese Emperor Hirohito and so World War II resumed until 1946.
This is a timeline of events that occurred during World War II in 1943.
This is a timeline of events that occurred during 1944 in World War II.
This is a timeline of the events that stretched over the period of late World War II, its conclusion, legal aftermath, with the inclusion of the Cold War, from January 1945 to December 1991.
After the Munich Agreement, the Soviet Union pursued a rapprochement with Nazi Germany. On 23 August 1939 the Soviet Union signed a non-aggression pact with Germany which included a secret protocol that divided Eastern Europe into German and Soviet "spheres of influence", anticipating potential "territorial and political rearrangements" of these countries. Germany invaded Poland on 1 September 1939, starting World War II. The Soviets invaded eastern Poland on 17 September. Following the Winter War with Finland, the Soviets were ceded territories by Finland. This was followed by annexations of the Baltic states and parts of Romania.
Fox at the Front is a 2003 alternate history novel written by Douglas Niles and Michael Dobson. It is a sequel to the 2000 novel Fox on the Rhine.
The Berlin Victory Parade of 1945 was held by the Allies of World War II on 7 September 1945 in Berlin, the capital of the defeated Germany, shortly after the end of World War II. The four participating countries were the Soviet Union, the United States, the United Kingdom, and France.
1920: America's Great War is an alternate history novel by the Michigan economics professor Robert Conroy. It was first published as an ebook by Baen Books in November 2013. A hardcover edition followed in December of the same year and then a paperback edition in March 2015. The novel depicts a fictional world in which Imperial Germany had emerged victorious early in World War I and launches a surprise invasion of the United States in 1920 from Mexico. The book's premise is based on an actual plan that Germany had proposed to Mexico during the war.
{{cite news}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)