“Third Reich Victorious: Alternate Decisions of World War II”, edited by Peter G. Tsouras

 

256 pages, Greenhill Books, ISBN-13: 978-1853674921

I reviewed Peter G. Tsouras’ alternative history collection, Rising Sun Victorious: The Alternative History of How the Japanese Won the Pacific War, on July 27^th, 2019, so, I might as well review his other alternative history collection, Third Reich Victorious: Alternate Decisions of World War II, as well. Both books are a stimulating and entirely plausible (frightening) insight into how Hitler and his generals might have defeated the Allies and won the war, and over-all serves as a convincing sideways look at how the Third Reich’s bid at world domination in World War II could have plausibly gone the other way. First things first: Third Reich Victorious is a work of fiction rather than a history of the greatest of wars and contains 11 unrelated chapters, each of which presents a series of hypothetical events (some quite fanciful) that each results in Adolf Hitler’s Germany winning World War II (the authors have even gone to the trouble to invent footnotes as a means of increasing the verisimilitude of these fantasy scenarios). And what, pray, are these scenarios?

• What if the Germans captured the whole of the BEF at Dunkirk?
• What if the RAF had been defeated in the Battle of Britain?
• What if the U-Boats had strangled Britain with an impregnable blockade?
• What if Rommel had been triumphant in North Africa?
• What if the Germans had beaten the Red Army at Kursk?
• What if Goebbels killed Hitler and took over Germany?
• What if Hitler had opted for an assault on Gibraltar in February 1941?
• What if Malta had surrendered to the Axis?
• What if Fascist Italy, like Fascist Spain, had remained neutral in the war?
• What if Sixth Army had broken out of Stalingrad?
• What if Germany had captured the Caucasian oil fields in the fall of 1941?

The authors, writing as if these and other world-changing events had really happened, project realistic scenarios based on the true capabilities and circumstances of the opposing forces and going so far as referencing books that have never been written (Fallschirmjäger Over Moscow: The Daring German Airborne Assault That Captured Moscow by the fictitious Colonel David Glasshouse, or Panzers to the Pacific: The March Across Asia by the very real Heinz Guderian). One problem with this collection is that the authors are not particularly skilled at writing fiction; some of the writing, especially the invented conversations, is simply cringe-worthy (I won’t emphasize one author over another). In the introduction, editor Peter G. Tsouras refers to The Man in the High Castle, the1962 novel by Philip K. Dick (and current miniseries) set in a variant future in which the Axis had won the war; Dick was a brilliant and prolific writer, but evoking his memory is unfortunate because it emphasizes the lower literary quality of so much of the writing in Third Reich Victorious. That said, there is still a great deal to recommend here, for Tsouras has assembled an A-Team of well-known historians and military analysts who have given a great deal of thought to the various turning points in World War II. Third Reich Victorious, like Rising Sun Victorious, is a thoughtful, well-edited and very well-chosen selection of essays.