The Moscow Option: An Alternative Second World War

[Thande]

Of course, typically, because all the players knew the actual history, at the time if you played a historical wargame, you would very quickly go off into an alternate history scenario, but that was one I remember particularly which had been set up from the start with a non-historical scenario in place alongside ones that at least started historically accurate.

The latter is also the strategy @Meadow 's theatrical company used for their recent wargame-based interactive play; you're on a Royal Navy ship in the Med and WW2 has just broken out, but references to King Edward and so on are a hint that this TL diverged a few years ago and you can't rely on your encyclopaedic knowledge of the OTL outbreak of war to game the system.

 

[Charles EP M.]

Reading through this now (as bought it back when the review dropped). Reached the brilliant line, "The fate of Egypt was of interest not only to Germans, Italians and British but also, surprisingly enough, to the Egyptians"

 

[Omund the Wooden-Leg]

I was gifted this book for Christmas (as well as Macksey's "Invasion!" on the "Unmentionable Sea Mammal"). I found very engaging. the campaign in Russia was riveting. Very pleased to read the Soviets fought the Germans to the last man in the factories of Moscow.

I do not doubt along with other readers I was wondering if the Presidium and the Politburo would have to retreat further east, but it never did.

After Russia, my attention was caught in the desert. others must have grinded their teeth at British incompetent planning and strategy, but later, valiant attempts to halt the Afrikakorps and Panzerarmee Azien.

The great question of the book; will Rommel and Guderian et al. be able to join hands in Iraq? An artfully treated climax to this question.

A great pity that the book does not follow up with the rest of the war from 1943 onwards. Downing does know how to tease with the S.S. - Army Civil War and we can only imagine how bloody that must have been.

Does anyone know if anyone has treated with finishing this alternative war in their own stories or threads?

 

[ChrisNuttall]

I recently read 'The Last Article' by Harry Turtledove in his collection Kaleidoscope (1990) which features the German occupiers of India dealing with Mahatma Gandhi. In that story there was a sense that the Germans felt they had to chase down the British wherever they were across the world. We know Hitler admired British rule in India.

To be fair, the only major problem facing the Nazis in that timeline - UK invaded, US nutral - would be time and logistics and they could both be overcome. The Nazis would have been able to ally (for certain value of 'ally') with Turkey, Saudi and Iran, which would have made it easier to get spearheads to india. It would be harder to maintain control in the long-term, but getting there would be hardly impossible.

Chris