1945
Gary Ruddell (Cover Art) Riverdale, NY: Baen Publishing Enterprises, 1995. First Printing [Stated]. Hardcover. [16], 282, [2] pages. Maps. The dust jacket has some edge wear and soiling. Portrays an alternate world in which Hitler has not made his fatal error in prematurely declaring war on the United States and America is the only significant military presence against a triumphant Third Reich and its devastating weapons. Good reviews were noted in the National Review, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Asimov's Science Fiction. Newton Leroy Gingrich (born June 17, 1943) is an American politician and author who served as the 50th speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 1995 to 1999. A member of the Republican Party, he was the U.S. representative for Georgia's 6th congressional district serving north Atlanta and nearby areas from 1979 until his resignation in 1999. In 2012, Gingrich unsuccessfully ran for the Republican nomination for president of the United States. In the 1970s, Gingrich was a professor of history and geography at the University of West Georgia. William R. Forstchen (born October 11, 1950) is an American historian and author. A Professor of History and Faculty Fellow at Montreal College, in Montreal, North Carolina, he received his doctorate from Purdue University. He has published numerous popular novels and works about military and alternative history, thrillers, and speculative events. His three alternate novels of the Civil War were co-written with politician Newt Gingrich. He and Gingrich have also written three novels about General George Washington during the American Revolutionary War, and a WWII novel titled 1945. 1945 is an alternate history novel written by Newt Gingrich and William R. Forstchen in 1995 that described the period immediately after World War II in which the United States had fought only against Japan, which allowed Nazi Germany to force a truce with the Soviet Union, and the two victors confront each other in a Cold War, which swiftly turns hot. At the start of the novel, the United States, having defeated the Empire of Japan, is in no mood to enter a new war, and Americans accept the fait accompli of German domination over most of Europe. A Cold War seems in the offing, and even the British, with a German-dominated Europe at their doorstep, squander much of their resources on a colonial war in the former French Indochina. US President Andrew Harrison (a fictional character) has a summit with Adolf Hitler in Reykjavík, Iceland. The meeting goes badly, both leaders sharply confront each other, and Hitler secretly decides to accelerate preparations for a surprise attack on both the United States and the United Kingdom. As part of the preparations, a beautiful German spy seduces and suborns the White House Chief of Staff and makes him a key German spy. The book's protagonist, Lieutenant Commander James Martel, at the incipient Head of Naval Intelligence at the American embassy in Berlin, is one of the few who suspects the gathering storm by watching the new weapons displayed at the parade commemorating Germany's victory over the Soviet Union and encountering the well-known commando Otto Skorzeny, who is his main opponent throughout the book. Skorzeny makes meticulous secret preparations for raids to destroy the American atomic bomb programs at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Los Alamos National Laboratory. (During the book's war with Japan, the Manhattan Project was put on the back burner, making the 1945 United States far from already possessing a nuclear bomb.) The bulk of the book is devoted to Martel, who was back in the United States, getting a glimmer of the threatened attack and unsuccessfully trying to sound a warning. The German raid takes place, and though the Germans are eventually beaten back – Tennessee's Alvin York shows up, and, despite being no longer young, gives a good account of himself – the raid causes great damage by killing key scientists and setting the American nuclear program behind Germany's. The Germans also seize the uranium mines in the Congo region while they launch an all-out war against the United Kingdom. The book ends with a cliffhanger. Erwin Rommel invades Scotland, the British face a desperate fight, and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill implores the Americans to "come quickly, this is much worse than 1940." A forecast sequel has failed to appear as of 2025. Condition: Very good / Good.
Keywords: Second World War, Alternate History, Speculative History, Armistice, Military Technology, Commando Raids, Atomic Bomb, Alvin York, Oak Ridge, Los Alamos, Indochina, James Martel, Erwin Rommel
ISBN: 0671876767
[Book #90344]
Price: $45.00