SS-GB
Encyclopedia
SS-GB is an alternate history novel by Len Deighton
, set in a United Kingdom
fictionally conquered
and occupied by Germany
during World War II
. The novel's title refers to the branch of the Nazi SS
that controls Britain
.
Douglas Archer, a British homicide
detective
assigned to Scotland Yard
, is called in to investigate a murder of a well-dressed man in an apartment
in Shepherd Market
. Though the body has two gunshot wounds, Archer is puzzled by the condition of the body, in particular what appears to be a sunburn
on the body's arm. To his surprise, the case draws the attention of the highest levels of the German government, as an SS
Standartenführer
, Oskar Huth, arrives to supervise the investigation. Archer soon finds himself in the middle of a power struggle between Huth and Gruppenführer
Fritz Kellerman, Archer's boss and the head of police forces in Great Britain.
Archer soon discovers that the dead man was a British physicist
named William Spode and that Spode was involved with the Resistance movement
. This leads Archer to George Mayhew, a former colonel
in the British Army
who is organizing an operation designed to free the King
from his prison in the Tower of London
and spirit him away to neutral America
. Archer also develops a romantic relationship with Barbara Barga, an American reporter whom he first met at the Spode murder scene and who appears involved in the mystery. Huth also reveals to Archer the reason for the high-level interest in the murder: Spode was part of a German military team working on developing an atomic bomb
.
As his investigation proceeds, Archer finds the dangers increasing, as a subordinate is killed and Archer himself is nearly murdered by a member of the Resistance. Following a clue in the form of an elbow pivot for an artificial arm, Archer travels to a prisoner-of-war camp
in Berkshire
where inmates produce replacement limbs for war veterans. There he succeeds in capturing Spode's brother, John Spode, who lost his right arm while fighting the German invasion. Though Spode confesses readily to shooting his brother (who was dying of radiation poisoning
), he commits suicide by ingesting a cyanide
capsule before Archer can take him back to London. Learning that the German officer escorting him around the camp was a member of the Abwehr
, Archer follows him back to London, where he discovers Mayhew conspiring with top Abwehr officials to free the King, an act that would humiliate the SS as the organization in charge of guarding him.
The next day, a public exhumation of Karl Marx
from Highgate Cemetery
as part of "German-Soviet Friendship Week" is disrupted by a bomb which kills dozens of people. In response the German army
declares martial law
and arrests thousands of people, including Archer's partner, Detective Sergeant Harry Woods. Though Woods assures his friend that they will be able to avoid incarceration by bribing
one of the soldiers, Archer soon learns that Woods is wounded in an escape attempt. Kellerman secures Woods's release, but with a statement that compromises Archer in Kellerman's political manoeuvrings against Huth. Undeterred, Archer travels to an English manor house
to witness the arrival of an American agent
who arrives to negotiate with Mayhew over the King and the atomic bomb secrets. The two agree that the Americans will get the equations William Spode worked out (which his brother photographed before destroying) in return for taking the King out of Britain as well. Though Huth arrives with a force of men, Mayhew comes to a secret agreement with him and the Germans depart quietly.
The following day. Archer and Woods succeed in getting the King out of the Tower, only to find the King an invalid
as a result of an injury suffered during the invasion. They take him secretly to Bringle Sands, the site of the German atomic bomb research project in England, so that a force of United States Marines preparing to attack the facility can take the King out with them. Though the attack succeeds in destroying the facility and escaping with research material and key personnel, an ambush set by Huth (who was forewarned of the assault by Mayhew) results in the death of the King. Though arrested, Archer is freed by Kellerman, who has what he wants – evidence which he can use to convict Huth of aiding the resistance. In a final meeting before his execution, Huth laments to Archer that the Americans will develop the atomic bomb first and that Mayhew (whom Archer has deduced was Spode's real murderer) has also gotten what he wanted most: an honourable death for the King, and an incident that will bring about war between Nazi Germany
and the United States
.
Len Deighton
Leonard Cyril Deighton is a British military historian, cookery writer, and novelist. He is perhaps most famous for his spy novel The IPCRESS File, which was made into a film starring Michael Caine....
, set in a United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
fictionally conquered
Operation Sealion
Operation Sea Lion was Germany's plan to invade the United Kingdom during the Second World War, beginning in 1940. To have had any chance of success, however, the operation would have required air and naval supremacy over the English Channel...
and occupied by 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...
during 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...
. The novel's title refers to the branch of the Nazi SS
Schutzstaffel
The Schutzstaffel |Sig runes]]) was a major paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. Built upon the Nazi ideology, the SS under Heinrich Himmler's command was responsible for many of the crimes against humanity during World War II...
that controls Britain
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
.
Plot summary
It is November 1941, nine months after a German invasion led to the British surrender. Detective SuperintendentSuperintendent (police)
Superintendent , often shortened to "super", is a rank in British police services and in most English-speaking Commonwealth nations. In many Commonwealth countries the full version is superintendent of police...
Douglas Archer, a British homicide
Homicide
Homicide refers to the act of a human killing another human. Murder, for example, is a type of homicide. It can also describe a person who has committed such an act, though this use is rare in modern English...
detective
Detective
A detective is an investigator, either a member of a police agency or a private person. The latter may be known as private investigators or "private eyes"...
assigned to Scotland Yard
Scotland Yard
Scotland Yard is a metonym for the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police Service of London, UK. It derives from the location of the original Metropolitan Police headquarters at 4 Whitehall Place, which had a rear entrance on a street called Great Scotland Yard. The Scotland Yard entrance became...
, is called in to investigate a murder of a well-dressed man in an apartment
Apartment
An apartment or flat is a self-contained housing unit that occupies only part of a building...
in Shepherd Market
Shepherd Market
Shepherd Market is a small square in the Mayfair area of central London, England. It is located between Piccadilly and Curzon Street and has a village-like atmosphere.- History :...
. Though the body has two gunshot wounds, Archer is puzzled by the condition of the body, in particular what appears to be a sunburn
Sunburn
A sunburn is a burn to living tissue, such as skin, which is produced by overexposure to ultraviolet radiation, commonly from the sun's rays. Usual mild symptoms in humans and other animals include red or reddish skin that is hot to the touch, general fatigue, and mild dizziness. An excess of UV...
on the body's arm. To his surprise, the case draws the attention of the highest levels of the German government, as an SS
Schutzstaffel
The Schutzstaffel |Sig runes]]) was a major paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. Built upon the Nazi ideology, the SS under Heinrich Himmler's command was responsible for many of the crimes against humanity during World War II...
Standartenführer
Standartenführer
Standartenführer was a Nazi Party paramilitary rank that was used in the so-called Nazi combat-organisations: SA, SS, NSKK and the NSFK...
, Oskar Huth, arrives to supervise the investigation. Archer soon finds himself in the middle of a power struggle between Huth and Gruppenführer
Gruppenführer
Gruppenführer was an early paramilitary rank of the Nazi Party, first created in 1925 as a senior rank of the SA.-SS rank:...
Fritz Kellerman, Archer's boss and the head of police forces in Great Britain.
Archer soon discovers that the dead man was a British physicist
Physicist
A physicist is a scientist who studies or practices physics. Physicists study a wide range of physical phenomena in many branches of physics spanning all length scales: from sub-atomic particles of which all ordinary matter is made to the behavior of the material Universe as a whole...
named William Spode and that Spode was involved with the Resistance movement
Resistance movement
A resistance movement is a group or collection of individual groups, dedicated to opposing an invader in an occupied country or the government of a sovereign state. It may seek to achieve its objects through either the use of nonviolent resistance or the use of armed force...
. This leads Archer to George Mayhew, a former colonel
Colonel
Colonel , abbreviated Col or COL, is a military rank of a senior commissioned officer. It or a corresponding rank exists in most armies and in many air forces; the naval equivalent rank is generally "Captain". It is also used in some police forces and other paramilitary rank structures...
in the British Army
British Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...
who is organizing an operation designed to free the King
George VI of the United Kingdom
George VI was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 until his death...
from his prison in the Tower of London
Tower of London
Her Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress, more commonly known as the Tower of London, is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London, England. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, separated from the eastern edge of the City of London by the open space...
and spirit him away to neutral America
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. Archer also develops a romantic relationship with Barbara Barga, an American reporter whom he first met at the Spode murder scene and who appears involved in the mystery. Huth also reveals to Archer the reason for the high-level interest in the murder: Spode was part of a German military team working on developing an atomic bomb
Nuclear weapon
A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission or a combination of fission and fusion. Both reactions release vast quantities of energy from relatively small amounts of matter. The first fission bomb test released the same amount...
.
As his investigation proceeds, Archer finds the dangers increasing, as a subordinate is killed and Archer himself is nearly murdered by a member of the Resistance. Following a clue in the form of an elbow pivot for an artificial arm, Archer travels to a prisoner-of-war camp
Prisoner-of-war camp
A prisoner-of-war camp is a site for the containment of combatants captured by their enemy in time of war, and is similar to an internment camp which is used for civilian populations. A prisoner of war is generally a soldier, sailor, or airman who is imprisoned by an enemy power during or...
in Berkshire
Berkshire
Berkshire is a historic county in the South of England. It is also often referred to as the Royal County of Berkshire because of the presence of the royal residence of Windsor Castle in the county; this usage, which dates to the 19th century at least, was recognised by the Queen in 1957, and...
where inmates produce replacement limbs for war veterans. There he succeeds in capturing Spode's brother, John Spode, who lost his right arm while fighting the German invasion. Though Spode confesses readily to shooting his brother (who was dying of radiation poisoning
Radiation poisoning
Acute radiation syndrome also known as radiation poisoning, radiation sickness or radiation toxicity, is a constellation of health effects which occur within several months of exposure to high amounts of ionizing radiation...
), he commits suicide by ingesting a cyanide
Cyanide
A cyanide is a chemical compound that contains the cyano group, -C≡N, which consists of a carbon atom triple-bonded to a nitrogen atom. Cyanides most commonly refer to salts of the anion CN−. Most cyanides are highly toxic....
capsule before Archer can take him back to London. Learning that the German officer escorting him around the camp was a member of the Abwehr
Abwehr
The Abwehr was a German military intelligence organisation from 1921 to 1944. The term Abwehr was used as a concession to Allied demands that Germany's post-World War I intelligence activities be for "defensive" purposes only...
, Archer follows him back to London, where he discovers Mayhew conspiring with top Abwehr officials to free the King, an act that would humiliate the SS as the organization in charge of guarding him.
The next day, a public exhumation of Karl Marx
Karl Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx was a German philosopher, economist, sociologist, historian, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. His ideas played a significant role in the development of social science and the socialist political movement...
from Highgate Cemetery
Highgate Cemetery
Highgate Cemetery is a cemetery located in north London, England. It is designated Grade I on the English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England. It is divided into two parts, named the East and West cemetery....
as part of "German-Soviet Friendship Week" is disrupted by a bomb which kills dozens of people. In response the German army
German Army
The German Army is the land component of the armed forces of the Federal Republic of Germany. Following the disbanding of the Wehrmacht after World War II, it was re-established in 1955 as the Bundesheer, part of the newly formed West German Bundeswehr along with the Navy and the Air Force...
declares martial law
Martial law
Martial law is the imposition of military rule by military authorities over designated regions on an emergency basis— only temporary—when the civilian government or civilian authorities fail to function effectively , when there are extensive riots and protests, or when the disobedience of the law...
and arrests thousands of people, including Archer's partner, Detective Sergeant Harry Woods. Though Woods assures his friend that they will be able to avoid incarceration by bribing
Bribery
Bribery, a form of corruption, is an act implying money or gift giving that alters the behavior of the recipient. Bribery constitutes a crime and is defined by Black's Law Dictionary as the offering, giving, receiving, or soliciting of any item of value to influence the actions of an official or...
one of the soldiers, Archer soon learns that Woods is wounded in an escape attempt. Kellerman secures Woods's release, but with a statement that compromises Archer in Kellerman's political manoeuvrings against Huth. Undeterred, Archer travels to an English manor house
Manor house
A manor house is a country house that historically formed the administrative centre of a manor, the lowest unit of territorial organisation in the feudal system in Europe. The term is applied to country houses that belonged to the gentry and other grand stately homes...
to witness the arrival of an American agent
Espionage
Espionage or spying involves an individual obtaining information that is considered secret or confidential without the permission of the holder of the information. Espionage is inherently clandestine, lest the legitimate holder of the information change plans or take other countermeasures once it...
who arrives to negotiate with Mayhew over the King and the atomic bomb secrets. The two agree that the Americans will get the equations William Spode worked out (which his brother photographed before destroying) in return for taking the King out of Britain as well. Though Huth arrives with a force of men, Mayhew comes to a secret agreement with him and the Germans depart quietly.
The following day. Archer and Woods succeed in getting the King out of the Tower, only to find the King an invalid
Disability
A disability may be physical, cognitive, mental, sensory, emotional, developmental or some combination of these.Many people would rather be referred to as a person with a disability instead of handicapped...
as a result of an injury suffered during the invasion. They take him secretly to Bringle Sands, the site of the German atomic bomb research project in England, so that a force of United States Marines preparing to attack the facility can take the King out with them. Though the attack succeeds in destroying the facility and escaping with research material and key personnel, an ambush set by Huth (who was forewarned of the assault by Mayhew) results in the death of the King. Though arrested, Archer is freed by Kellerman, who has what he wants – evidence which he can use to convict Huth of aiding the resistance. In a final meeting before his execution, Huth laments to Archer that the Americans will develop the atomic bomb first and that Mayhew (whom Archer has deduced was Spode's real murderer) has also gotten what he wanted most: an honourable death for the King, and an incident that will bring about war between 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...
and the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
See also
- 19451945 (novel)1945 is an alternate history co-authored by Newt Gingrich and William R. Forstchen in 1995, describing the period immediately after World War II wherein the United States had fought only against Japan, allowing Nazi Germany to force a truce with the Soviet Union, after which the two victors...
- CollaboratorCollaborator (novel)Collaborator is an alternate history novel by Murray Davies, published as a hardcover on 19 September 2003 and released in paperback in the United Kingdom and the United States in September 2004. The novel is set in a Nazi-occupied Great Britain in 1940 and 1941...
- FatherlandFatherland (novel)Fatherland is a bestselling 1992 thriller by the English writer and journalist Robert Harris. It takes the form of a high concept alternative history set in a world in which Nazi Germany won World War II.The novel was an immediate bestseller in Britain...
- FarthingFarthing (novel)Farthing is an alternate history novel written by Jo Walton and published by Tor Books in August, 2006. A sequel, Ha'penny, was released in October 2007 by Tor Books. A third novel in the series, Half a Crown, was released in September 2008, also from Tor.-Background:The novel is set in the 1949...
- In the Presence of Mine EnemiesIn the Presence of Mine EnemiesIn the Presence of Mine Enemies is an alternate history novel by American author Harry Turtledove, expanded from the eponymous short story. The novel depicts a world where the United States remained isolationist and did not participate in the Second World War, thus allowing victory to the Axis...
- It Happened HereIt Happened HereIt Happened Here is a 1966 British film, directed by Kevin Brownlow and Andrew Mollo. It is set in an alternate history in which Nazi Germany successfully invades and occupies the United Kingdom during World War II.-Setting:...
- Making History
- The Man in the High CastleThe Man in the High CastleThe Man in the High Castle is a science fiction alternate history novel by American writer Philip K. Dick. It won a Hugo Award in 1963 and has since been translated into many languages....
- The Plot Against AmericaThe Plot Against AmericaThe Plot Against America is a novel by Philip Roth published in 2004. It is an alternate history in which Franklin Delano Roosevelt is defeated in the presidential election of 1940 by Charles Lindbergh.-Plot introduction:...
- The Sound of His HornThe Sound of His HornThe Sound of His Horn is a 1952 dystopian time travel/alternate history novel by the senior British diplomat John William Wall, written with the pseudonym Sarban. It relates the story of a British naval lieutenant, Alan Querdillon who, after becoming a POW during the Battle of Crete awakens in a...
- Swastika NightSwastika NightSwastika Night is a futuristic novel first published in 1937 and republished in 1940 by Katharine Burdekin, writing under the pseudonym Murray Constantine. Swastika Night was a Left Book Club selection in 1940....
- The Ultimate SolutionThe Ultimate SolutionThe Ultimate Solution is an 1973 alternate history by journalist and former Playboy interviewer Eric Norden, set in a world where the Axis forces won World War II and partitioned the world between them, and is noted for its particularly grim tone....
- Axis victory in World War IIAxis victory in World War IIAn Axis victory in World War II is a common concept in alternate history. World War II alternate histories are one of the two most popular points of divergence in the English language...