Red Inferno: 1945
Encyclopedia
Red Inferno: 1945 is a 2010 novel written by Robert Conroy
, the author of other alternate history novels.
had attempted to take all of Germany towards the end of World War II
, and attacked American forces in the process, thus beginning World War III. The novel follows various historical figures and fictional characters as they battle the new enemy and deal with now defeated Germany, Japanese forces in the Pacific, and the newly created atomic bomb. The novel mostly centers around the survival of the entrapped American soldiers and German civilians in the besieged cities of Germany, the stories of Allied operations behind enemy lines to sabotage the Soviet forces, the intelligence divisions involved in deciphering Stalin's motives, and America's efforts to both hold off the Russians and defeat Japan in the Pacific
simultaneously.
The novel first introduces with what actual historical events happened in our timeline and then tells of the point of divergence of historical events before it tells its story; that in April 1945, the Allied forces in Europe under the command of Dwight Eisenhower halted all further advance into Nazi Germany
at the Elbe River, all the while the Soviet Army
battles whats left of the German forces on its way to Berlin
.
However in this timeline, instead of halting the Allied advance into Germany, the then-new US president Harry S. Truman
authorizes the US Army to continue across the Elbe and head for Berlin to bring a quick end to the war, and thus guarantee the western nations' share of the to-be divided German capitol with their forces in the city. However, Soviet premier Joseph Stalin
, despite the agreed terms of dividing Berlin and Germany amongst his mutual allies, wants to take Berlin for himself on the grounds that the Soviet Union best deserved to conquer its arch-enemy's capitol after the unparalleled brutality of the Eastern front
. He even goes as far as to order the Soviet Army to attack any American forces on sight should they ever get near Berlin in order to intimidate the west into leaving Berlin to Russia.
Eventually, the lead divisions of the US Army just 60 miles from Berlin encounter Soviet Armour and, as ordered, they open fire on the Americans and began to drive the US forces back across the Elbe.
Word of the exchange between the American advance to Berlin and the Soviet forces reaches Moscow and Washington D.C., and 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 now technically meant that the United States and Soviet Union are de facto enemies. Combined with his paranoia of that the west wants to take Russia's chance of revenge on Germany from him and refuses to allow it, and with the invalidated post-war divide and already ensuing hostilities, he decides to conquer and occupy Germany and then all of Europe
while Russia still has the chance, thus starting another World War.
Eisenhower and the US Army gets pushed back across the Elbe while losing thousands of troops and a whole US armored division, along with fleeing German civilians and POWs are cut off from the main force and holed up in Potsdam
, which the Soviets lay siege to throughout the duration of the war. Over the course of a few months from late April to August, the Soviet Army wages a war of attrition as their overwhelming numbers slowly force the Allies west across of Germany to the Weser, while the Soviets also try to divide the Allies by spreading communist influence to surrounding nations hoping to spark revolutions within the allied nations to hinder the Americans' efforts to hold the Soviets east of the Rhine.
Part of the efforts to start in-fighting do work with Churchill's loss of position as Prime Minister to Clement Attlee
and the Labour Party
in the UK when the people of England
violently protest that they are too tired to stay in the ensuing conflict; France and Italy are also plunged into the brink of civil war among their governments and their communist sympathizers, but the unrest is put down when the sympathizers are unwilling to kill their own countrymen, in fear of betrayal.
The plans to hinder the American war effort eventually do back-fire on the Soviets as Switzerland and Finland cease their neutrality
and allow Allied armies to cross their borders to the front lines, thus ensuring a continuous flow of troops and supplies to the Allied forces. The US Air Force also conducts long-range strategic bombing sorties into the Soviet Union with the introduction of the B-29 Superfortress
from the Pacific campaign (diverted from its initial targets at Hiroshima, Nagasaki and the Kure and Yokosuka naval districts, which left them relatively intact), and target Soviet fuel and oil production, starving the Soviet Army of any means to conduct further offenses. Things also take a drastic turn when the remaining forces and government of former Nazi Germany sign an armistice with the Allies and agree to fight along side them against the Russians.
Eventually the Russians cross the Weser but instead head for the Rhine, they turn north towards Dortmund
, where it stores all of the American forces' weapons and supplies for the front line. It becomes apparent that if the Russians do capture it, they will have all the weapons needed to defeat the Allies in Europe (since the Russians have more men to fight then they do with weapons to arm them). It is later revealed that the massive storage depot of Dortmund is a lie and has thus lurred the bulk of the Soviet Army into one place, and then history in this timeline takes a turn when it is revealed that Eisenhower masterminded the ruse to lure the Russians into one place in order to have it wiped out by the atomic bomb that is ready to be used as a tactical weapon
, and thus, he gives the command to drop on the main Russian assault.
The bomb is dropped and explodes over the Soviet Army's central divisions command center on the west side of the Weser to Dortmund on August 6, 1945, killing almost half a million Soviet soldiers instantly, including Georgy Zhukov
and Vasily Chuikov
. Thus it's devastating destruction on the now leaderless, scattered, and traumatized army, and after another bomb dropped on Soviet forces in southern Germany, the Soviets are too demoralized to continue their advance and retreat in fear of more American nuclear attacks.
With the war virtually lost and Stalin seen as their destructor than savior for so much death and destruct upon his people and the people of Europe, a coup erupts in the Soviet government as they have Stalin ousted from the Kremlin and executed as a new politiburo seizes control and signs an armistice with the allies, withdrawing all their forces from Europe in peace. With the Soviet Union's conquest of Europe stopped and after the surrender of Japan (with only the bombing of Hiroshima and not Nagasaki) World War II and III were finally over.
The novel ends in the early winter of 1946, with communism collapsing and the Soviet republics breaking away from Russia to form their own sovereign nations parallel to the Commonwealth of Independent States
today. China suffers from a civil war
as a new communist government seizes power just like today, 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 alike of all nations involved in the conflict return home at last and begin to rebuild their world as they look forward to an uncertain but hopeful future.
Robert Conroy
-Writing career:*His first novel, 1901, deals with a German invasion of Long Island.*His second novel, 1862, is based on what might have happened had the United Kingdom entered into the American Civil War on the side of the Confederacy....
, the author of other alternate history novels.
Plot summary
Red Inferno: 1945 is a speculative fictional novel that depicts what could have happened if the Soviet UnionSoviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
had attempted to take all of Germany towards the end of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, and attacked American forces in the process, thus beginning World War III. The novel follows various historical figures and fictional characters as they battle the new enemy and deal with now defeated Germany, Japanese forces in the Pacific, and the newly created atomic bomb. The novel mostly centers around the survival of the entrapped American soldiers and German civilians in the besieged cities of Germany, the stories of Allied operations behind enemy lines to sabotage the Soviet forces, the intelligence divisions involved in deciphering Stalin's motives, and America's efforts to both hold off the Russians and defeat Japan in the Pacific
Pacific War
The Pacific War, also sometimes called the Asia-Pacific War refers broadly to the parts of World War II that took place in the Pacific Ocean, its islands, and in East Asia, then called the Far East...
simultaneously.
The novel first introduces with what actual historical events happened in our timeline and then tells of the point of divergence of historical events before it tells its story; that in April 1945, the Allied forces in Europe under the command of Dwight Eisenhower halted all further advance into Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
at the Elbe River, all the while the Soviet Army
Soviet Army
The Soviet Army is the name given to the main part of the Armed Forces of the Soviet Union between 1946 and 1992. Previously, it had been known as the Red Army. Informally, Армия referred to all the MOD armed forces, except, in some cases, the Soviet Navy.This article covers the Soviet Ground...
battles whats left of the German forces on its way to Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
.
However in this timeline, instead of halting the Allied advance into Germany, the then-new US president Harry S. Truman
Harry S. Truman
Harry S. Truman was the 33rd President of the United States . As President Franklin D. Roosevelt's third vice president and the 34th Vice President of the United States , he succeeded to the presidency on April 12, 1945, when President Roosevelt died less than three months after beginning his...
authorizes the US Army to continue across the Elbe and head for Berlin to bring a quick end to the war, and thus guarantee the western nations' share of the to-be divided German capitol with their forces in the city. However, Soviet premier Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
, despite the agreed terms of dividing Berlin and Germany amongst his mutual allies, wants to take Berlin for himself on the grounds that the Soviet Union best deserved to conquer its arch-enemy's capitol after the unparalleled brutality of the Eastern front
Eastern Front
Eastern Front may refer to one of the following:* Eastern Front * Eastern Front * Eastern Front * Eastern Front * Eastern Front * 1635: The Eastern Front...
. He even goes as far as to order the Soviet Army to attack any American forces on sight should they ever get near Berlin in order to intimidate the west into leaving Berlin to Russia.
Eventually, the lead divisions of the US Army just 60 miles from Berlin encounter Soviet Armour and, as ordered, they open fire on the Americans and began to drive the US forces back across the Elbe.
Word of the exchange between the American advance to Berlin and the Soviet forces reaches Moscow and Washington D.C., and 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 now technically meant that the United States and Soviet Union are de facto enemies. Combined with his paranoia of that the west wants to take Russia's chance of revenge on Germany from him and refuses to allow it, and with the invalidated post-war divide and already ensuing hostilities, he decides to conquer and occupy Germany and then all of Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
while Russia still has the chance, thus starting another World War.
Eisenhower and the US Army gets pushed back across the Elbe while losing thousands of troops and a whole US armored division, along with fleeing German civilians and POWs are cut off from the main force and holed up in Potsdam
Potsdam
Potsdam is the capital city of the German federal state of Brandenburg and part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. It is situated on the River Havel, southwest of Berlin city centre....
, which the Soviets lay siege to throughout the duration of the war. Over the course of a few months from late April to August, the Soviet Army wages a war of attrition as their overwhelming numbers slowly force the Allies west across of Germany to the Weser, while the Soviets also try to divide the Allies by spreading communist influence to surrounding nations hoping to spark revolutions within the allied nations to hinder the Americans' efforts to hold the Soviets east of the Rhine.
Part of the efforts to start in-fighting do work with Churchill's loss of position as Prime Minister to Clement Attlee
Clement Attlee
Clement Richard Attlee, 1st Earl Attlee, KG, OM, CH, PC, FRS was a British Labour politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1945 to 1951, and as the Leader of the Labour Party from 1935 to 1955...
and the Labour Party
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
in the UK when the people of England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
violently protest that they are too tired to stay in the ensuing conflict; France and Italy are also plunged into the brink of civil war among their governments and their communist sympathizers, but the unrest is put down when the sympathizers are unwilling to kill their own countrymen, in fear of betrayal.
The plans to hinder the American war effort eventually do back-fire on the Soviets as Switzerland and Finland cease their neutrality
Neutrality (international relations)
A neutral power in a particular war is a sovereign state which declares itself to be neutral towards the belligerents. A non-belligerent state does not need to be neutral. The rights and duties of a neutral power are defined in Sections 5 and 13 of the Hague Convention of 1907...
and allow Allied armies to cross their borders to the front lines, thus ensuring a continuous flow of troops and supplies to the Allied forces. The US Air Force also conducts long-range strategic bombing sorties into the Soviet Union with the introduction of the B-29 Superfortress
B-29 Superfortress
The B-29 Superfortress is a four-engine propeller-driven heavy bomber designed by Boeing that was flown primarily by the United States Air Forces in late-World War II and through the Korean War. The B-29 was one of the largest aircraft to see service during World War II...
from the Pacific campaign (diverted from its initial targets at Hiroshima, Nagasaki and the Kure and Yokosuka naval districts, which left them relatively intact), and target Soviet fuel and oil production, starving the Soviet Army of any means to conduct further offenses. Things also take a drastic turn when the remaining forces and government of former Nazi Germany sign an armistice with the Allies and agree to fight along side them against the Russians.
Eventually the Russians cross the Weser but instead head for the Rhine, they turn north towards Dortmund
Dortmund
Dortmund is a city in Germany. It is located in the Bundesland of North Rhine-Westphalia, in the Ruhr area. Its population of 585,045 makes it the 7th largest city in Germany and the 34th largest in the European Union....
, where it stores all of the American forces' weapons and supplies for the front line. It becomes apparent that if the Russians do capture it, they will have all the weapons needed to defeat the Allies in Europe (since the Russians have more men to fight then they do with weapons to arm them). It is later revealed that the massive storage depot of Dortmund is a lie and has thus lurred the bulk of the Soviet Army into one place, and then history in this timeline takes a turn when it is revealed that Eisenhower masterminded the ruse to lure the Russians into one place in order to have it wiped out by the atomic bomb that is ready to be used as a tactical weapon
Tactical nuclear weapon
A tactical nuclear weapon refers to a nuclear weapon which is designed to be used on a battlefield in military situations. This is as opposed to strategic nuclear weapons which are designed to menace large populations, to damage the enemy's ability to wage war, or for general deterrence...
, and thus, he gives the command to drop on the main Russian assault.
The bomb is dropped and explodes over the Soviet Army's central divisions command center on the west side of the Weser to Dortmund on August 6, 1945, killing almost half a million Soviet soldiers instantly, including Georgy Zhukov
Georgy Zhukov
Marshal of the Soviet Union Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov , was a Russian career officer in the Red Army who, in the course of World War II, played a pivotal role in leading the Red Army through much of Eastern Europe to liberate the Soviet Union and other nations from the Axis Powers' occupation...
and Vasily Chuikov
Vasily Chuikov
Vasily Ivanovich Chuikov was a Russian lieutenant general in the Red Army during World War II, twice Hero of the Soviet Union , who after the war became a Marshal of the Soviet Union.-Early life and career:Born into a peasant family in the village of Serebryanye Prudy, he joined the Red Army during...
. Thus it's devastating destruction on the now leaderless, scattered, and traumatized army, and after another bomb dropped on Soviet forces in southern Germany, the Soviets are too demoralized to continue their advance and retreat in fear of more American nuclear attacks.
With the war virtually lost and Stalin seen as their destructor than savior for so much death and destruct upon his people and the people of Europe, a coup erupts in the Soviet government as they have Stalin ousted from the Kremlin and executed as a new politiburo seizes control and signs an armistice with the allies, withdrawing all their forces from Europe in peace. With the Soviet Union's conquest of Europe stopped and after the surrender of Japan (with only the bombing of Hiroshima and not Nagasaki) World War II and III were finally over.
The novel ends in the early winter of 1946, with communism collapsing and the Soviet republics breaking away from Russia to form their own sovereign nations parallel to the Commonwealth of Independent States
Commonwealth of Independent States
The Commonwealth of Independent States is a regional organization whose participating countries are former Soviet Republics, formed during the breakup of the Soviet Union....
today. China suffers from a civil war
Chinese Civil War
The Chinese Civil War was a civil war fought between the Kuomintang , the governing party of the Republic of China, and the Communist Party of China , for the control of China which eventually led to China's division into two Chinas, Republic of China and People's Republic of...
as a new communist government seizes power just like today, 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 alike of all nations involved in the conflict return home at last and begin to rebuild their world as they look forward to an uncertain but hopeful future.