Worldwar
Encyclopedia
Worldwar is a series of novels by Harry Turtledove
whose premise is an alien invasion
of Earth in the middle of World War II
. The military invasion begins on or around May 30, 1942, but the aliens, who call themselves the Race
, reached Earth orbit in December 1941. Presumably, six months were spent making preparations for the attack.
Although the Race, a reptilian species, has the advantage of superior technology, their last information on humans was collected by a robot
ic probe
during the 12th century. Their technology is only marginally ahead of 20th century Earth technology, and much of their equipment relies on basic principles still in use. The "Lizards," as their human antagonists quickly dub them, are extremely surprised that humankind has progressed so far since their probe visited Earth. No species they have ever encountered has advanced so rapidly: they thought that the toughest military force on the planet would still be Crusader knight
s on horses. On finding the real situation, the commander of the alien fleet considers turning back and asking for fresh instructions but feels that he would lose face if he does.
The narrative follows the intersecting fortunes of a large number of human and alien characters. Most notably the series depicts how the Axis and Allied powers must cooperate to fight the alien menace. A follow-up trilogy, Colonization
, carries the story forward into a very different 1960s in which the Race and mankind share Earth. The timeline ends with the single book Homeward Bound, in which a faster-than-light ship invented and created by humans travels to the Race's homeworld.
The volumes are:
(historical): Anielewicz, together with other Polish Jews, is liberated from Nazi occupation by the Race, who subsequently capture and shut down Auschwitz. In the wake of salvation, Anielewicz and his fellow Jews are faced with the agonising dilemma between siding with the Race against Nazi Germany, which has postponed but not altogether forsaken the implementation of the Final Solution - and in effect becoming "traitors to humanity"; or fighting against the Race, an act which would make them Nazi allies. He is responsible for handing a portion of uranium to scientists working in America to create an atom bomb.
Flight Lieutenant
George Bagnall: A flight engineer in the Royal Air Force
serving aboard a Lancaster bomber. Bagnall is part of a 1,000 bomber flight returning from a run over Cologne
in Germany when the invasion begins. The armada of bombers is under attack from German anti-aircraft weapons and fighters when the Race's killercraft descend upon the unsuspecting humans. The resulting battle leaves dozens of German and British planes destroyed with no significant damage inflicted upon the Race. He flies a Lancaster bomber with a radar to the Russian town of Pskov, and when the Lizards destroy the bomber on the ground, he and the aircrew become unwilling members of the ground forces defending the town. They go on to serve as arbitrators between the Russian partisan forces and German Wehrmacht troops in the town; eventually Bagnall and the others are able to return to England. Bagnall's Lancaster is the site of one of Turtledove's rare inaccuracies: the author describes it as having a ball turret, which no Lancaster ever carried but was used on the American B-17 Flying Fortress.
David Goldfarb: A radar
operator in the Royal Air Force. When the Race carries out air reconnaissance in the months before their attack, Goldfarb and his fellow radar specialists are confused by readings indicating aircraft much faster and high-flying than anything known to humans: the RAF men nickname those echoes as "pixie
s". No one believes aircraft can fly as fast or as high as the readings indicate. He eventually takes part in the British attempt to mount radar in newly-developed jet fighters. When England is invaded by the Race's ground forces he is absorbed into an infantry unit and fights for several weeks against the Race on the ground in England. He takes part in decoding the Lizards' solid-state electronics (integrated circuits and microprocessors, which should be familiar to any 21st-century reader).
Lieutenant Ludmila Gorbunova: One of many female pilots in the Soviet Union
's Red Air Force. Stationed at an airfield near Kharkiv
in the Ukraine
when the invasion begins, Ludmilla witnesses the destruction of most human aircraft, both Soviet and German, at the hands of the alien invaders. She flies a Polikarpov Po-2
, a small wooden biplane
with a low ceiling. Its qualities render it practically invisible to radar, enabling her to survive the initial alien attack and give her the opportunity to make light ground attacks on unsuspecting Race encampments. She develops a relationship with Colonel Jäger after she finds him conversing with some farmers. While she is suspicious of this German officer at first, both of them come to realize that there are human beings on either side of the propaganda-heavy front. Nevertheless, she treads very carefully when developing their relationship, as his letters to her are monitored and recorded by the NKVD
. The character is inspired by members of the historical all-women Soviet unit known as Night Witches
, many of whom were decorated for their World War II service. The two flee to the city of Lodz after meeting in northwestern Poland (Jager is serving on Germany's border with Poland, and help foil Otto Skorzeny's plot to set off an atomic bomb in the city.
Colonel Leslie Groves
(historical): Head of America's atomic bomb development. His first task is to get a batch of captured alien Uranium
from Boston, Massachusetts to Denver, Colorado
where the Metallurgical Laboratory
developing the atom bomb has been relocated. He is very well aware that the Soviet Union and Germany are also working fervently to develop the first human atomic weapons and he is eager to win the race.
Colonel Heinrich Jäger: A tank commander in the German Sixth Army
advancing on Stalingrad when the alien invasion begins. Jäger fought in the trenches of World War I
as a teenager and saw firsthand the devastating effects of armored vehicles on infantry. After the Armistice
he stayed in the army, serving in the Reichswehr
of the Weimar Republic
. When Adolf Hitler
began rearming Germany in the 1930s, Jäger requested reassignment to the Panzer Corps. If he was going to see combat in another war, he wanted to fight from a tank cupola. The character has some similarities with Colonel Sabrino, a dragon-rider in Turtledove's The Darkness Series. His small knowledge of the Holocaust and German atrocities in Eastern Europe leaves him sickened; he is later arrested by the Gestapo for treating with the Jews of Lodz, and is rescued by members of his regiment. He is depicted as a good and somewhat charismatic officer; he and Ludmila Gorbunova are able to make a new life in Lodz.
Jens Larssen: A physicist at the University of Chicago
. When the Race begins its attack on Earth, they detonate several atomic bombs just above the Earth's atmosphere hoping to disrupt human electronics with the resulting electromagnetic radiation. This attempt at subterfuge fails since electronics of the 1940s use vacuum tubes rather than integrated circuits, making the effect of EM radiation minimal. However, Larssen is among the handful of human scientists to realize that the attack proves nuclear fission is feasible. This is important since Larssen is working alongside several other scientists to develop an atom bomb. He is sent on a cross-country trip to alert the US federal government of the importance of the atomic bomb project; while he is gone his wife, Barbara, begins an affair with Sam Yeager, and, when she is impregnated by him, she chooses to stay with Yeager. This is a major contributor to Larssen's eventual mental destabilization. He shoots two people and attempts to desert to the Lizards, intending to betray the US atomic bomb project to them, but is stopped by a cavalry company and gets himself killed.
Vyacheslav Molotov
(historical): Head of the Soviet Union's Foreign Ministry, Molotov is given the unenviable task of negotiating with Fleetlord Atvar. Possessing an icy and taciturn demeanor, he proves adept at reading the intentions of his adversaries, both human and alien. The only time Molotov reveals any sign of emotion is around Joseph Stalin
, who elicits a certain amount of fear in him. Along with Germany's Joachim von Ribbentrop
, Molotov is among the first humans to orbit the Earth. He is instrumental in negotiating the Peace of Cairo with the Race.
Moishe Russie: A student in medicine in Poland when the Germans invaded in 1939. Since he is Jewish, Moishe and his family are forced by the German authorities to live in the Warsaw Ghetto
. It is revealed later that plans were underway to ship most of the Jews in the ghetto to Auschwitz. When the alien invasion begins, Moishe advises his fellow Jews to greet the Race as liberators after one of their bombs inadvertently blows a hole in the ghetto wall, and they are treated as such even after the Race destroys Berlin with a nuclear device. (Despite objections by Anielewicz, Russie insists on praying for the souls of the civilians killed in the blast.) He becomes cruelly disillusioned as to the nature of their "liberators" when he is told by the new Race governor to make a radio propaganda broadcast praising the subsequent nuclear destruction of Washington, D.C.
. He is smuggled by Mordechai Anielewicz's Jewish underground to England, where he continues his radio propaganda broadcasts—although they are now anti-Race, rather than pro-Race. He takes part in the fighting during the Race's invasion of England as a medic, and is later transported to Palestine by the British in order to convince the Jews there to remain loyal to England. When the Race captures Palestine he continues his medical studies, becoming an adviser on human affairs to Atvar, the Race's fleetlord.
Otto Skorzeny
(historical): SS Hauptsturmführer
, Skorzeny is a Waffen-SS commando known for his unconventional thinking. He becomes a particularly feared human to the Race. He staged a major turnover for the Nazis in Croatia
, and bargained for a Race landcruiser with a backpack full of ginger
, which turns out to have narcotic
and possibly hallucinogenic effects on members of the Race. He is killed by Heinrich Jager and Mordechai Anielewicz in Lodz while trying to set off an atom bomb there.
Sam Yeager: A minor league ball player with the Decatur Commodores
when the invasion takes place. Like many young men, he tried to enlist in the Army in the wake of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor
at the end of 1941. However, he was rejected because he must wear a full plate of dentures after losing his teeth during the 1918 flu pandemic. His train was strafed south of Dixon, Illinois
during the opening hours of the invasion. Not long afterward, he was drafted by a desperate US Army to defend Chicago from the invading Race. His passion for science fiction during his long stint as a minor league player makes him a choice pick as "Lizard liaison;" he becomes one of the most valued interpreters for the United States' interrogations of Race prisoners. He falls in love with Barbara Larssen, Jens Larssen's former wife, while she believes Larssen to be dead. He impregnates her on their wedding night, leading to her decision to remain married to him when the pair discover Larssen is alive after all. He becomes an authority on the Race, eventually becoming the most renowned human expert on the species.
Liu Han: A Chinese
housewife whose innocuous village was raided by the Race and Japanese forces almost simultaneously. Her family was killed when her house (and that of the local magistrate's) was immolated in a Japanese bomb attack. She was abducted by the Race along with apothecary Yi Min, and after a bit of interesting conversation between an initially scared Yi Min and some officers of the Race, she is subjected to what are literally sexual experiments devised by the Race to study human mating habits. (The Race reproduce only when females go into season.) She is subsequently forced to have sex with several different men, eventually ending up going steady with Bobby Fiore, one of Yeager's teammates. Ironically, these experiments are not done for the reptilian humanoid Race's perverted enjoyment, rather it is a dramatic species reversal as humans often observe the mating habits of animals. She later becomes pregnant by Fiore, and finds her impressions of foreign human "devils" are dispelled (albeit replaced by that of the "scaly devils"). She becomes connected with the Communist guerrillas in China, and eventually joins the Party, rising through the ranks to become a leader in the revolutionary movement.
Yi Min: A Chinese apothecary
abducted with Liu Han when the Race raided his village. Thanks to some negotiation, he finds his stay aboard the Race's ship rather entertaining as he is subjected to "experiments" which effectively give him a harem
of women to mate with. Later, he is found back on Earth in a Race prison camp, dealing in ginger
. It is implied that he is the one who introduced the Race to this highly addictive spice, and he is more than eager to trade it for rather technologically advanced Race items, though he intends to sell these items off for even more prestige. As a result, his dwelling in the camp is more lavish than the ones the other Chinese prisoners are forced to stay in. He is killed by Drefsab, a Race security officer, in a vain attempt to stem the flow of ginger to Race soldiers.
.
Flight Leader Teerts: A killercraft pilot from the Conquest Fleet. His is among the jet fighters that rapidly neutralize human air power in the opening days of the invasion. By the end of the first few weeks, the Race achieves air supremacy over most of the planet, forcing human pilots to engage in small limited attacks upon isolated targets or risk nearly certain death. However he is unfortunate enough to be shot down when Japanese bullets lodge themselves in the engines of his fighter plane, and is captured by the Japanese. While he is somewhat curious (and rather condescending) of Japanese imperial customs, he is even more afraid of their officers, who seem all too happy to want to extract as many Race secrets as they can from him, by cruel physical torture if need be. He is also unpleasantly surprised to find out firsthand that these "Nippon-ese" soldiers are also very proficient at martial arts. The Japanese addict him to ginger while he is captive; he later escapes and goes on to fly repeated missions against the Tosevites. He takes part in the atomic bombing of Munich, retaliation for the German bomb outside of Breslau, and is killed by the blast of the bomb the Americans set off outside Denver.
Straha: Shiplord (that is, ship captain) who vocally opposes Atvar's strategies. He asks for a vote of confidence in Atvar's leadership, which fails to obtain the 75% super-majority necessary for Atvar's removal. In anticipation of Atvar's reprisal against him, Straha exiles himself (in shame) among the humans. He lands in the United States, where he is kept as a prisoner of war, and intensely questioned on Race technology. He becomes a propagandist for the US. Despite being well cared-for, he misses the companionship of fellow members of the Race.
Ussmak: A driver for the crew of a landcruiser in the Conquest Fleet. He is one of the Lizard "Everyman" viewpoint characters. At first, Ussmak and his crewmates revel at the ease with which they manage to destroy T-34
s and Panzer IV
s, the most advanced armored fighting vehicles available to the Soviets and Germans, respectively. However, they soon grow disillusioned when the humans continue to resist the invasion despite their clear military inferiority, compounded by the weather conditions of the planet, which are more suited to human than Race machinery. Ussmak eventually finds himself wondering if this is a fight worth waging. He is a ginger taster, dealing with the herb's effects better than most of his fellow soldiers. He takes part in the failed campaign against Britain, where his commander is wounded. After recovering, the crew is transferred to Siberia, where they are killed by Soviet raiders. High on ginger, he shoots the commandant of the Race's forward base to which he had been assigned and leads the first mutiny the Race has ever known. He surrenders the base to the USSR, and after endless interrogations is sent to a Karelian gulag
, where he dies of starvation, over-exhaustion, and malnourishment.
, to give an historical feel to the story:
In the Balance
Tadeusz Bór-Komorowski
: General, Polish Home Army. In reality he became commander of Home Army in second half of 1943, after previous commander Stefan Grot-Rowecki was arrested by gestapo.
Winston Churchill
: Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
Adolf Hitler
: German Führer
Cordell Hull
: U.S. Secretary of State
George Marshall
: U.S. Army Chief of Staff
Vyacheslav Molotov
: Soviet foreign minister (a main character in Aftershocks)
George S. Patton
: U.S. Army Major General
Joachim von Ribbentrop
: German foreign minister
Leó Szilárd
: Nuclear physicist, University of Chicago Metallurgical Laboratory
Hans Thomsen
: German ambassador to the United States
Shigenori Tōgō
: Japanese foreign minister
Walter Henry Zinn
: Nuclear physicist, University of Chicago Metallurgical Laboratory
Tilting the Balance
Mordechai Anielewicz
: leader of Jewish fighters in Poland
Eric Blair
: BBC
talks producer, Indian Section, London. Better know by pen name George Orwell.
Kurt Chill
: Wehrmacht
general and interpreter in Pskov
Arthur Compton
: Nuclear physicist with the Metallurgical Laboratory
Kurt Diebner
: Nuclear physicist, Hechingen
, Germany
Enrico Fermi
: Nuclear physicist with the Metallurgical Laboratory
Laura Fermi
: Enrico Fermi's wife
Georgy Flyorov
: Soviet nuclear physicist
Aleksandr German: Commander of Second Partisan Brigade in Pskov
Winston Churchill
: Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
Werner Heisenberg
: Nuclear physicist, Hechingen
, Germany
Nieh Ho-T'ing: Chinese Communist guerrilla officer
Cordell Hull
: U.S. secretary of state
Ivan Konev
: Red Army
general
Igor Kurchatov
: Soviet nuclear physicist
Edward R. Murrow
: Radio news broadcaster
Yoshio Nishina
: Japanese nuclear physicist
Joachim von Ribbentrop
: German foreign minister
Franklin D. Roosevelt
: President of the United States
Mordechai Chaim Rumkowski
: Eldest of the Jews in the Łódź ghetto
Iosef Stalin
: General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
Leó Szilárd
: Nuclear physicist with the Metallurgical Laboratory
Shigenori Tōgō
: Japanese foreign minister
Nikolai Vasilyev: Commander, First Partisan Brigade in Pskov
Georgy Zhukov
: Marshal of the Soviet Union
Upsetting the Balance
Mordechai Anielewicz
: Jewish partisan, eastern Poland
Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook
: British Minister of Supply
Kurt Chill
: Wehrmacht
Lieutenant General
Kurt Diebner
: Nuclear physicist, Tübingen
, Germany
Albert Einstein
: Physicist, Couch, Missouri
Dwight D. Eisenhower
: U.S. Army General, Couch, Missouri
Enrico Fermi
: Nuclear physicist, Denver, Colorado
Aleksandr German: Partisan Brigadier, Pskov
, USSR
Robert H. Goddard
: Rocket expert, Couch, Missouri
Lord Halifax
: British ambassador to the United States
Cordell Hull
: U.S. Secretary of State
Nieh Ho-'Ting: People's Liberation Army officer, China
Benito Mussolini
: Il Duce (Italian Dictator)
Joachim von Ribbentrop
: German foreign minister
Iosef Stalin
: General Secretary, Communist Party of the USSR
Leó Szilárd
: Nuclear physicist, Denver, Colorado
Nikolai Vasilyev: Partisan brigadier, Pskov
, USSR
Striking the Balance
Mordechai Anielewicz
: Jewish fighting leader, Łódź, Poland
Menachem Begin
: Jewish guerrilla, Haifa
, Palestine
Omar Bradley
: U.S. Army lieutenant general, outside Denver
Walter von Brockdorff-Ahlefeldt
: Wehrmacht
lieutenant general, Riga
, Latvia
Kurt Chill
: Wehrmacht
lieutenant general, Pskov
, USSR]
William Joseph Donovan
: U.S. Army major general, Hot Springs, Arkansas
Anthony Eden
: British foreign secretary
Aleksandr German: Partisan brigadier, Pskov
, USSR
Robert H. Goddard
: Rocket scientist, Hot Springs, Arkansas
Cordell Hull
: President of the United States
Igor Kurchatov
: Nuclear physicist, north of Moscow
Mao Zedong
: Communist Party leader, Peking
George Marshall
: U.S. Secretary of State
Joachim von Ribbentrop
: German foreign minister
Iosef Stalin
: General Secretary, Communist Party, USSR
Stern: Jewish guerrilla leader, Jerusalem (Note: identity uncertain, best possible match is Avraham Stern
)
Shigenori Tōgō
: Japanese foreign minister
Nikolai Vasilyev: Partisan brigadier, Pskov
, USSR
Turtledove approaches the novels' science fiction scenario with less of a focus on the technological and fantasy elements typically associated with the genre and shows greater concern for the role of more mundane affairs such as the political repercussions of an alliance between the Allied and Axis powers, the impact the presence of alien creatures has on human society, and the ways in which warfare is paradoxically a hindrance to civilization and simultaneously a catalyst for the progress of civilization.
As mentioned above, one of the key themes explored in the novel is the complexity of international alliances. During World War II
, there was often a great deal of friction between allies on both sides of the war. The United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union
had very different reasons for fighting the war and often had conflicting views of what the postwar world should look like. For their part, Nazi Germany
, Italy, and the Empire of Japan
rarely saw eye-to-eye on several key issues and found it difficult to coordinate their policies. Turtledove reexamines this idea by postulating a need for all the major powers to work together against the even greater threat of an alien menace.
This idea is most emphatically explored in the novel through the diplomatic relations between the Soviet Union
and Nazi Germany
. Invaded by the Nazis
in 1941, two years after having signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop Nonaggression Pact of 1939, the Soviets
are reluctant to enter into yet another alliance with Hitler
even in the face of an alien invasion. Indeed, there are allusions in the novel to the possibility that Nazi Germany
still plans to settle its conflict with the Soviet Union
even as they work together against the Race. Yet both sides manage to, at least temporarily, set aside their differences, launching a joint raid to capture alien Uranium and also arranging a meeting between Adolf Hitler
and Vyacheslav Molotov
, the Foreign Minister of the Soviet Union
.
The impact that the Race has on human society is also a central theme of the novel. Since the Race is biologically reptilian and evolved on a world where mammals never moved beyond a rodent-like stage, the idea of a race of sentient mammals is in of itself bizarre to them. The social structures humans have created as a result of their physiology, primarily families and the social institutions associated with them, are literally beyond the understanding of the Race. For their part, humans are generally shocked and disgusted that the Race has no concept of family and engages in sexual activity only during biologically specified mating seasons. Through the character of Liu Han, Turtledove explores how the different biological interactions of the two species, primarily sexual intercourse, lead to the development of a much more rapid and adaptive human approach to technological change.
Turtledove also makes connections between the negative traits of humanity and the Race. Members of the Race are not only interstellar imperialists, they are also extremely proud and boastful of that fact. In this way, Turtledove draws parallels between the Race and nineteenth century European imperialists. Like the European imperialists, the Race has an ideological conception akin to the White Man's Burden
, in which they feel the need to conquer other species and "civilize" them by teaching them their language, their customs, and their social mores. The Chinese apothecary Yi Min implicitly expresses this parallel. Yi Min sees little or no difference between accommodating himself to the political desires of the Race or, for example, the British or Japanese who had also tried to subdue China. Indeed, Yi Min lumps the Race along with other human imperialists together as "foreign devils." Human or alien, the goals of imperialists remain universal.
The central theme of the novel may be the way in which human nature, perhaps because of its very propensity for violence and war rather than in spite of it, provides the best hope human beings have at defeating the alien enemy. Though the Race is an expansionist imperial power, the Race itself is a relatively peaceful society, having overcome internal wars and maintained a politically stable interstellar empire for nearly 50,000 human years. Indeed, the Race has no standing military force and only raises an army during the few times it seeks to conquer other worlds. Since the Race has only conquered two other species, the Rabotev and Halessi, they have only engaged in war two times during their 50,000 year history. Yet their very political stability and inability to cope with rapid changes makes them stagnant and gives them difficulty in responding to dynamic human responses. However, although they are easily caught off-guard by human tricks and deviousness, they are merely naive, not stupid, and will devise effective countermeasures to these efforts.
Harry Turtledove
Harry Norman Turtledove is an American novelist, who has produced works in several genres including alternate history, historical fiction, fantasy and science fiction.- Life :...
whose premise is an alien invasion
Alien invasion
The alien invasion is a common theme in science fiction stories and film, in which extraterrestrial life invades Earth either to exterminate and supplant human life, enslave it under a colonial system, harvest humans for food, steal the planet's resources, or destroy the planet altogether.The...
of Earth in the middle 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...
. The military invasion begins on or around May 30, 1942, but the aliens, who call themselves the Race
The Race (Worldwar)
The Race refers to the fictional alien invaders of Harry Turtledove's Worldwar tetralogy, Colonization trilogy and Homeward Bound...
, reached Earth orbit in December 1941. Presumably, six months were spent making preparations for the attack.
Although the Race, a reptilian species, has the advantage of superior technology, their last information on humans was collected by a robot
Robot
A robot is a mechanical or virtual intelligent agent that can perform tasks automatically or with guidance, typically by remote control. In practice a robot is usually an electro-mechanical machine that is guided by computer and electronic programming. Robots can be autonomous, semi-autonomous or...
ic probe
Space probe
A robotic spacecraft is a spacecraft with no humans on board, that is usually under telerobotic control. A robotic spacecraft designed to make scientific research measurements is often called a space probe. Many space missions are more suited to telerobotic rather than crewed operation, due to...
during the 12th century. Their technology is only marginally ahead of 20th century Earth technology, and much of their equipment relies on basic principles still in use. The "Lizards," as their human antagonists quickly dub them, are extremely surprised that humankind has progressed so far since their probe visited Earth. No species they have ever encountered has advanced so rapidly: they thought that the toughest military force on the planet would still be Crusader knight
Knight
A knight was a member of a class of lower nobility in the High Middle Ages.By the Late Middle Ages, the rank had become associated with the ideals of chivalry, a code of conduct for the perfect courtly Christian warrior....
s on horses. On finding the real situation, the commander of the alien fleet considers turning back and asking for fresh instructions but feels that he would lose face if he does.
The narrative follows the intersecting fortunes of a large number of human and alien characters. Most notably the series depicts how the Axis and Allied powers must cooperate to fight the alien menace. A follow-up trilogy, Colonization
Colonization (series)
Colonization is a trilogy of books written by Harry Turtledove. It is a continuation of the situation set up in the Worldwar four-book series, projecting the situation between humanity and the Race nearly twenty years forward into the mid-1960s.The Race has settled and plans to colonize nearly...
, carries the story forward into a very different 1960s in which the Race and mankind share Earth. The timeline ends with the single book Homeward Bound, in which a faster-than-light ship invented and created by humans travels to the Race's homeworld.
The volumes are:
- Worldwar: In the BalanceWorldwar: In the BalanceWorldwar: In the Balance is an alternate history and science fiction novel by Harry Turtledove. It is the first novel of the Worldwar tetraology, as well as the first installment in the extended Worldwar series that includes the Colonization trilogy and the novel Homeward Bound. The plot begins in...
(1994) - Worldwar: Tilting the BalanceWorldwar: Tilting the BalanceWorldwar: Tilting the Balance is an alternate history and science fiction novel of the Worldwar tetraology, as well as the extended Worldwar series that includes the Colonization trilogy and the novel Homeward Bound.-Plot introduction:...
(1995) - Worldwar: Upsetting the BalanceWorldwar: Upsetting the BalanceWorldwar: Upsetting the Balance is an alternate history and science fiction novel by Harry Turtledove. It is the third novel of the Worldwar tetraology, as well as the third installment in the extended Worldwar series that includes the Colonization trilogy and the novel Homeward Bound.-Plot...
(1996) - Worldwar: Striking the BalanceWorldwar: Striking the BalanceWorldwar: Striking the Balance is an alternate history and science fiction novel by Harry Turtledove. It is the fourth and final novel of the Worldwar tetraology, as well as the fourth installment in the extended Worldwar series that includes the Colonization trilogy and the novel Homeward...
(1996)
Humans
Mordechai AnielewiczMordechaj Anielewicz
Mordechaj Anielewicz was the leader of Żydowska Organizacja Bojowa , also known as ŻOB, during the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising from January to May 1943.-Biography:Anielewicz was born into a poor family in the small town of Wyszków near Warsaw...
(historical): Anielewicz, together with other Polish Jews, is liberated from Nazi occupation by the Race, who subsequently capture and shut down Auschwitz. In the wake of salvation, Anielewicz and his fellow Jews are faced with the agonising dilemma between siding with the Race against Nazi Germany, which has postponed but not altogether forsaken the implementation of the Final Solution - and in effect becoming "traitors to humanity"; or fighting against the Race, an act which would make them Nazi allies. He is responsible for handing a portion of uranium to scientists working in America to create an atom bomb.
Flight Lieutenant
Flight Lieutenant
Flight lieutenant is a junior commissioned rank in the Royal Air Force and the air forces of many Commonwealth countries. It ranks above flying officer and immediately below squadron leader. The name of the rank is the complete phrase; it is never shortened to "lieutenant"...
George Bagnall: A flight engineer in the Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...
serving aboard a Lancaster bomber. Bagnall is part of a 1,000 bomber flight returning from a run over Cologne
Cologne
Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...
in Germany when the invasion begins. The armada of bombers is under attack from German anti-aircraft weapons and fighters when the Race's killercraft descend upon the unsuspecting humans. The resulting battle leaves dozens of German and British planes destroyed with no significant damage inflicted upon the Race. He flies a Lancaster bomber with a radar to the Russian town of Pskov, and when the Lizards destroy the bomber on the ground, he and the aircrew become unwilling members of the ground forces defending the town. They go on to serve as arbitrators between the Russian partisan forces and German Wehrmacht troops in the town; eventually Bagnall and the others are able to return to England. Bagnall's Lancaster is the site of one of Turtledove's rare inaccuracies: the author describes it as having a ball turret, which no Lancaster ever carried but was used on the American B-17 Flying Fortress.
David Goldfarb: A radar
Radar
Radar is an object-detection system which uses radio waves to determine the range, altitude, direction, or speed of objects. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain. The radar dish or antenna transmits pulses of radio...
operator in the Royal Air Force. When the Race carries out air reconnaissance in the months before their attack, Goldfarb and his fellow radar specialists are confused by readings indicating aircraft much faster and high-flying than anything known to humans: the RAF men nickname those echoes as "pixie
Pixie
Pixies are mythical creatures of folklore, considered to be particularly concentrated in the areas around Devon and Cornwall, suggesting some Celtic origin for the belief and name.They are usually depicted with pointed ears, and often wearing a green outfit and pointed...
s". No one believes aircraft can fly as fast or as high as the readings indicate. He eventually takes part in the British attempt to mount radar in newly-developed jet fighters. When England is invaded by the Race's ground forces he is absorbed into an infantry unit and fights for several weeks against the Race on the ground in England. He takes part in decoding the Lizards' solid-state electronics (integrated circuits and microprocessors, which should be familiar to any 21st-century reader).
Lieutenant Ludmila Gorbunova: One of many female pilots in the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
's Red Air Force. Stationed at an airfield near Kharkiv
Kharkiv
Kharkiv or Kharkov is the second-largest city in Ukraine.The city was founded in 1654 and was a major centre of Ukrainian culture in the Russian Empire. Kharkiv became the first city in Ukraine where the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic was proclaimed in December 1917 and Soviet government was...
in the Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
when the invasion begins, Ludmilla witnesses the destruction of most human aircraft, both Soviet and German, at the hands of the alien invaders. She flies a Polikarpov Po-2
Polikarpov Po-2
The Polikarpov Po-2 served as a general-purpose Soviet biplane, nicknamed Kukuruznik for maize; thus, 'maize duster' or 'crop duster'), NATO reporting name "Mule"...
, a small wooden biplane
Biplane
A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two superimposed main wings. The Wright brothers' Wright Flyer used a biplane design, as did most aircraft in the early years of aviation. While a biplane wing structure has a structural advantage, it produces more drag than a similar monoplane wing...
with a low ceiling. Its qualities render it practically invisible to radar, enabling her to survive the initial alien attack and give her the opportunity to make light ground attacks on unsuspecting Race encampments. She develops a relationship with Colonel Jäger after she finds him conversing with some farmers. While she is suspicious of this German officer at first, both of them come to realize that there are human beings on either side of the propaganda-heavy front. Nevertheless, she treads very carefully when developing their relationship, as his letters to her are monitored and recorded by the NKVD
NKVD
The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs was the public and secret police organization of the Soviet Union that directly executed the rule of power of the Soviets, including political repression, during the era of Joseph Stalin....
. The character is inspired by members of the historical all-women Soviet unit known as Night Witches
Night Witches
"Night Witches" is the English translation of Nachthexen, a World War II German nickname , for the female military aviators of the 588th Night Bomber Regiment, known later as the 46th "Taman" Guards Night Bomber Aviation Regiment, of the Soviet Air Forces...
, many of whom were decorated for their World War II service. The two flee to the city of Lodz after meeting in northwestern Poland (Jager is serving on Germany's border with Poland, and help foil Otto Skorzeny's plot to set off an atomic bomb in the city.
Colonel Leslie Groves
Leslie Groves
Lieutenant General Leslie Richard Groves, Jr. was a United States Army Corps of Engineers officer who oversaw the construction of the Pentagon and directed the Manhattan Project that developed the atomic bomb during World War II. As the son of a United States Army chaplain, Groves lived at a...
(historical): Head of America's atomic bomb development. His first task is to get a batch of captured alien Uranium
Uranium
Uranium is a silvery-white metallic chemical element in the actinide series of the periodic table, with atomic number 92. It is assigned the chemical symbol U. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons...
from Boston, Massachusetts to Denver, Colorado
Denver, Colorado
The City and County of Denver is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Denver is a consolidated city-county, located in the South Platte River Valley on the western edge of the High Plains just east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains...
where the Metallurgical Laboratory
Metallurgical Laboratory
The Metallurgical Laboratory or "Met Lab" at the University of Chicago was part of the World War II–era Manhattan Project, created by the United States to develop an atomic bomb...
developing the atom bomb has been relocated. He is very well aware that the Soviet Union and Germany are also working fervently to develop the first human atomic weapons and he is eager to win the race.
Colonel Heinrich Jäger: A tank commander in the German Sixth Army
German Sixth Army
The 6th Army was a designation for German field armies which saw action in World War I and World War II. The 6th Army is best known for fighting in the Battle of Stalingrad, during which it became the first entire German field army to be completely destroyed...
advancing on Stalingrad when the alien invasion begins. Jäger fought in the trenches of World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
as a teenager and saw firsthand the devastating effects of armored vehicles on infantry. After the Armistice
Armistice
An armistice is a situation in a war where the warring parties agree to stop fighting. It is not necessarily the end of a war, but may be just a cessation of hostilities while an attempt is made to negotiate a lasting peace...
he stayed in the army, serving in the Reichswehr
Reichswehr
The Reichswehr formed the military organisation of Germany from 1919 until 1935, when it was renamed the Wehrmacht ....
of the Weimar Republic
Weimar Republic
The Weimar Republic is the name given by historians to the parliamentary republic established in 1919 in Germany to replace the imperial form of government...
. When Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
began rearming Germany in the 1930s, Jäger requested reassignment to the Panzer Corps. If he was going to see combat in another war, he wanted to fight from a tank cupola. The character has some similarities with Colonel Sabrino, a dragon-rider in Turtledove's The Darkness Series. His small knowledge of the Holocaust and German atrocities in Eastern Europe leaves him sickened; he is later arrested by the Gestapo for treating with the Jews of Lodz, and is rescued by members of his regiment. He is depicted as a good and somewhat charismatic officer; he and Ludmila Gorbunova are able to make a new life in Lodz.
Jens Larssen: A physicist at the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
. When the Race begins its attack on Earth, they detonate several atomic bombs just above the Earth's atmosphere hoping to disrupt human electronics with the resulting electromagnetic radiation. This attempt at subterfuge fails since electronics of the 1940s use vacuum tubes rather than integrated circuits, making the effect of EM radiation minimal. However, Larssen is among the handful of human scientists to realize that the attack proves nuclear fission is feasible. This is important since Larssen is working alongside several other scientists to develop an atom bomb. He is sent on a cross-country trip to alert the US federal government of the importance of the atomic bomb project; while he is gone his wife, Barbara, begins an affair with Sam Yeager, and, when she is impregnated by him, she chooses to stay with Yeager. This is a major contributor to Larssen's eventual mental destabilization. He shoots two people and attempts to desert to the Lizards, intending to betray the US atomic bomb project to them, but is stopped by a cavalry company and gets himself killed.
Vyacheslav Molotov
Vyacheslav Molotov
Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov was a Soviet politician and diplomat, an Old Bolshevik and a leading figure in the Soviet government from the 1920s, when he rose to power as a protégé of Joseph Stalin, to 1957, when he was dismissed from the Presidium of the Central Committee by Nikita Khrushchev...
(historical): Head of the Soviet Union's Foreign Ministry, Molotov is given the unenviable task of negotiating with Fleetlord Atvar. Possessing an icy and taciturn demeanor, he proves adept at reading the intentions of his adversaries, both human and alien. The only time Molotov reveals any sign of emotion is around 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...
, who elicits a certain amount of fear in him. Along with Germany's Joachim von Ribbentrop
Joachim von Ribbentrop
Ulrich Friedrich Wilhelm Joachim von Ribbentrop was Foreign Minister of Germany from 1938 until 1945. He was later hanged for war crimes after the Nuremberg Trials.-Early life:...
, Molotov is among the first humans to orbit the Earth. He is instrumental in negotiating the Peace of Cairo with the Race.
Moishe Russie: A student in medicine in Poland when the Germans invaded in 1939. Since he is Jewish, Moishe and his family are forced by the German authorities to live in the Warsaw Ghetto
Warsaw Ghetto
The Warsaw Ghetto was the largest of all Jewish Ghettos in Nazi-occupied Europe during World War II. It was established in the Polish capital between October and November 15, 1940, in the territory of General Government of the German-occupied Poland, with over 400,000 Jews from the vicinity...
. It is revealed later that plans were underway to ship most of the Jews in the ghetto to Auschwitz. When the alien invasion begins, Moishe advises his fellow Jews to greet the Race as liberators after one of their bombs inadvertently blows a hole in the ghetto wall, and they are treated as such even after the Race destroys Berlin with a nuclear device. (Despite objections by Anielewicz, Russie insists on praying for the souls of the civilians killed in the blast.) He becomes cruelly disillusioned as to the nature of their "liberators" when he is told by the new Race governor to make a radio propaganda broadcast praising the subsequent nuclear destruction of Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
. He is smuggled by Mordechai Anielewicz's Jewish underground to England, where he continues his radio propaganda broadcasts—although they are now anti-Race, rather than pro-Race. He takes part in the fighting during the Race's invasion of England as a medic, and is later transported to Palestine by the British in order to convince the Jews there to remain loyal to England. When the Race captures Palestine he continues his medical studies, becoming an adviser on human affairs to Atvar, the Race's fleetlord.
Otto Skorzeny
Otto Skorzeny
Otto Skorzeny was an SS-Obersturmbannführer in the German Waffen-SS during World War II. After fighting on the Eastern Front, he was chosen as the field commander to carry out the rescue mission that freed the deposed Italian dictator Benito Mussolini from captivity...
(historical): SS Hauptsturmführer
Hauptsturmführer
Hauptsturmführer was a Nazi rank of the SS which was used between the years of 1934 and 1945. The rank of Hauptsturmführer was a mid-grade company level officer and was the equivalent of a Captain in the German Army and also the equivalent of captain in foreign armies...
, Skorzeny is a Waffen-SS commando known for his unconventional thinking. He becomes a particularly feared human to the Race. He staged a major turnover for the Nazis in Croatia
Independent State of Croatia
The Independent State of Croatia was a World War II puppet state of Nazi Germany, established on a part of Axis-occupied Yugoslavia. The NDH was founded on 10 April 1941, after the invasion of Yugoslavia by the Axis powers. All of Bosnia and Herzegovina was annexed to NDH, together with some parts...
, and bargained for a Race landcruiser with a backpack full of ginger
Ginger
Ginger is the rhizome of the plant Zingiber officinale, consumed as a delicacy, medicine, or spice. It lends its name to its genus and family . Other notable members of this plant family are turmeric, cardamom, and galangal....
, which turns out to have narcotic
Narcotic
The term narcotic originally referred medically to any psychoactive compound with any sleep-inducing properties. In the United States of America it has since become associated with opioids, commonly morphine and heroin and their derivatives, such as hydrocodone. The term is, today, imprecisely...
and possibly hallucinogenic effects on members of the Race. He is killed by Heinrich Jager and Mordechai Anielewicz in Lodz while trying to set off an atom bomb there.
Sam Yeager: A minor league ball player with the Decatur Commodores
Decatur Commodores
The Decatur Commodores were a professional minor league baseball team based in Decatur, Illinois. They played, with sporadic interruptions, from 1900 to 1974 in a variety of minor leagues, but spent the majority of their existence in the Illinois-Indiana-Iowa League , later joining the...
when the invasion takes place. Like many young men, he tried to enlist in the Army in the wake of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor, known to Hawaiians as Puuloa, is a lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. Much of the harbor and surrounding lands is a United States Navy deep-water naval base. It is also the headquarters of the U.S. Pacific Fleet...
at the end of 1941. However, he was rejected because he must wear a full plate of dentures after losing his teeth during the 1918 flu pandemic. His train was strafed south of Dixon, Illinois
Dixon, Illinois
Dixon is a city in Lee County, Illinois, United States. The population was 15,733 as of the 2010 census, down from 15,941 at the 2000 census. Named for its founder, John Dixon , it is the county seat of Lee County. Located on the Rock River, Dixon was the boyhood home of former U.S...
during the opening hours of the invasion. Not long afterward, he was drafted by a desperate US Army to defend Chicago from the invading Race. His passion for science fiction during his long stint as a minor league player makes him a choice pick as "Lizard liaison;" he becomes one of the most valued interpreters for the United States' interrogations of Race prisoners. He falls in love with Barbara Larssen, Jens Larssen's former wife, while she believes Larssen to be dead. He impregnates her on their wedding night, leading to her decision to remain married to him when the pair discover Larssen is alive after all. He becomes an authority on the Race, eventually becoming the most renowned human expert on the species.
Liu Han: A Chinese
Chinese people
The term Chinese people may refer to any of the following:*People with Han Chinese ethnicity ....
housewife whose innocuous village was raided by the Race and Japanese forces almost simultaneously. Her family was killed when her house (and that of the local magistrate's) was immolated in a Japanese bomb attack. She was abducted by the Race along with apothecary Yi Min, and after a bit of interesting conversation between an initially scared Yi Min and some officers of the Race, she is subjected to what are literally sexual experiments devised by the Race to study human mating habits. (The Race reproduce only when females go into season.) She is subsequently forced to have sex with several different men, eventually ending up going steady with Bobby Fiore, one of Yeager's teammates. Ironically, these experiments are not done for the reptilian humanoid Race's perverted enjoyment, rather it is a dramatic species reversal as humans often observe the mating habits of animals. She later becomes pregnant by Fiore, and finds her impressions of foreign human "devils" are dispelled (albeit replaced by that of the "scaly devils"). She becomes connected with the Communist guerrillas in China, and eventually joins the Party, rising through the ranks to become a leader in the revolutionary movement.
Yi Min: A Chinese apothecary
Apothecary
Apothecary is a historical name for a medical professional who formulates and dispenses materia medica to physicians, surgeons and patients — a role now served by a pharmacist and some caregivers....
abducted with Liu Han when the Race raided his village. Thanks to some negotiation, he finds his stay aboard the Race's ship rather entertaining as he is subjected to "experiments" which effectively give him a harem
Harem
Harem refers to the sphere of women in what is usually a polygynous household and their enclosed quarters which are forbidden to men...
of women to mate with. Later, he is found back on Earth in a Race prison camp, dealing in ginger
Ginger
Ginger is the rhizome of the plant Zingiber officinale, consumed as a delicacy, medicine, or spice. It lends its name to its genus and family . Other notable members of this plant family are turmeric, cardamom, and galangal....
. It is implied that he is the one who introduced the Race to this highly addictive spice, and he is more than eager to trade it for rather technologically advanced Race items, though he intends to sell these items off for even more prestige. As a result, his dwelling in the camp is more lavish than the ones the other Chinese prisoners are forced to stay in. He is killed by Drefsab, a Race security officer, in a vain attempt to stem the flow of ginger to Race soldiers.
The Race
Fleetlord Atvar: The commander of the Race's Conquest Fleet. He is apparently related to the Emperor and owes his position partly due to that fact. (However, after the initial mention of this relationship early in the series, no further reference is ever again made to it.) In the course of the series it is revealed that aptitude tests back on Home indicated Atvar would be either a proficient architect or military officer. He chose a military career believing it would be more exciting. At the beginning of the conflict he is faced with the decision to invade Earth or return home to ask for directions (the latter apparently having a humiliating and degrading connotation.) However, he starts to grow discouraged as he is faced with a significantly more technologically advanced species than initial reports suggested: The most recent intelligence on Earth (Tosev-3 as labeled by the Race) dated back to the Middle AgesMiddle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
.
Flight Leader Teerts: A killercraft pilot from the Conquest Fleet. His is among the jet fighters that rapidly neutralize human air power in the opening days of the invasion. By the end of the first few weeks, the Race achieves air supremacy over most of the planet, forcing human pilots to engage in small limited attacks upon isolated targets or risk nearly certain death. However he is unfortunate enough to be shot down when Japanese bullets lodge themselves in the engines of his fighter plane, and is captured by the Japanese. While he is somewhat curious (and rather condescending) of Japanese imperial customs, he is even more afraid of their officers, who seem all too happy to want to extract as many Race secrets as they can from him, by cruel physical torture if need be. He is also unpleasantly surprised to find out firsthand that these "Nippon-ese" soldiers are also very proficient at martial arts. The Japanese addict him to ginger while he is captive; he later escapes and goes on to fly repeated missions against the Tosevites. He takes part in the atomic bombing of Munich, retaliation for the German bomb outside of Breslau, and is killed by the blast of the bomb the Americans set off outside Denver.
Straha: Shiplord (that is, ship captain) who vocally opposes Atvar's strategies. He asks for a vote of confidence in Atvar's leadership, which fails to obtain the 75% super-majority necessary for Atvar's removal. In anticipation of Atvar's reprisal against him, Straha exiles himself (in shame) among the humans. He lands in the United States, where he is kept as a prisoner of war, and intensely questioned on Race technology. He becomes a propagandist for the US. Despite being well cared-for, he misses the companionship of fellow members of the Race.
Ussmak: A driver for the crew of a landcruiser in the Conquest Fleet. He is one of the Lizard "Everyman" viewpoint characters. At first, Ussmak and his crewmates revel at the ease with which they manage to destroy T-34
T-34
The T-34 was a Soviet medium tank produced from 1940 to 1958. Although its armour and armament were surpassed by later tanks of the era, it has been often credited as the most effective, efficient and influential design of World War II...
s and Panzer IV
Panzer IV
The Panzerkampfwagen IV , commonly known as the Panzer IV, was a medium tank developed in Nazi Germany in the late 1930s and used extensively during the Second World War. Its ordnance inventory designation was Sd.Kfz...
s, the most advanced armored fighting vehicles available to the Soviets and Germans, respectively. However, they soon grow disillusioned when the humans continue to resist the invasion despite their clear military inferiority, compounded by the weather conditions of the planet, which are more suited to human than Race machinery. Ussmak eventually finds himself wondering if this is a fight worth waging. He is a ginger taster, dealing with the herb's effects better than most of his fellow soldiers. He takes part in the failed campaign against Britain, where his commander is wounded. After recovering, the crew is transferred to Siberia, where they are killed by Soviet raiders. High on ginger, he shoots the commandant of the Race's forward base to which he had been assigned and leads the first mutiny the Race has ever known. He surrenders the base to the USSR, and after endless interrogations is sent to a Karelian gulag
Gulag
The Gulag was the government agency that administered the main Soviet forced labor camp systems. While the camps housed a wide range of convicts, from petty criminals to political prisoners, large numbers were convicted by simplified procedures, such as NKVD troikas and other instruments of...
, where he dies of starvation, over-exhaustion, and malnourishment.
Historical characters
Some historical characters also appear for brief cameosCameo appearance
A cameo role or cameo appearance is a brief appearance of a known person in a work of the performing arts, such as plays, films, video games and television...
, to give an historical feel to the story:
In the Balance
Tadeusz Bór-Komorowski
Tadeusz Bór-Komorowski
General Count Tadeusz Komorowski , better known by the name Bór-Komorowski was a Polish military leader....
: General, Polish Home Army. In reality he became commander of Home Army in second half of 1943, after previous commander Stefan Grot-Rowecki was arrested by gestapo.
Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
: Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
: German Führer
Cordell Hull
Cordell Hull
Cordell Hull was an American politician from the U.S. state of Tennessee. He is best known as the longest-serving Secretary of State, holding the position for 11 years in the administration of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt during much of World War II...
: U.S. Secretary of State
Secretary of State
Secretary of State or State Secretary is a commonly used title for a senior or mid-level post in governments around the world. The role varies between countries, and in some cases there are multiple Secretaries of State in the Government....
George Marshall
George Marshall
George Catlett Marshall was an American military leader, Chief of Staff of the Army, Secretary of State, and the third Secretary of Defense...
: U.S. Army Chief of Staff
Chief of Staff of the United States Army
The Chief of Staff of the Army is a statutory office held by a four-star general in the United States Army, and is the most senior uniformed officer assigned to serve in the Department of the Army, and as such is the principal military advisor and a deputy to the Secretary of the Army; and is in...
Vyacheslav Molotov
Vyacheslav Molotov
Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov was a Soviet politician and diplomat, an Old Bolshevik and a leading figure in the Soviet government from the 1920s, when he rose to power as a protégé of Joseph Stalin, to 1957, when he was dismissed from the Presidium of the Central Committee by Nikita Khrushchev...
: Soviet foreign minister (a main character in Aftershocks)
George S. Patton
George S. Patton
George Smith Patton, Jr. was a United States Army officer best known for his leadership while commanding corps and armies as a general during World War II. He was also well known for his eccentricity and controversial outspokenness.Patton was commissioned in the U.S. Army after his graduation from...
: U.S. Army Major General
Major General
Major general or major-general is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. A major general is a high-ranking officer, normally subordinate to the rank of lieutenant general and senior to the ranks of brigadier and brigadier general...
Joachim von Ribbentrop
Joachim von Ribbentrop
Ulrich Friedrich Wilhelm Joachim von Ribbentrop was Foreign Minister of Germany from 1938 until 1945. He was later hanged for war crimes after the Nuremberg Trials.-Early life:...
: German foreign minister
Leó Szilárd
Leó Szilárd
Leó Szilárd was an Austro-Hungarian physicist and inventor who conceived the nuclear chain reaction in 1933, patented the idea of a nuclear reactor with Enrico Fermi, and in late 1939 wrote the letter for Albert Einstein's signature that resulted in the Manhattan Project that built the atomic bomb...
: Nuclear physicist, University of Chicago Metallurgical Laboratory
Hans Thomsen
Hans Thomsen
Hans Thomsen was a German diplomat for the Third Reich. He served as Chargé d'Affaires at the Embassy of Germany in Washington, representing the German government from November 1938 to December 11, 1941...
: German ambassador to the United States
Shigenori Tōgō
Shigenori Togo
was Minister of Foreign Affairs for the Empire of Japan at both the start and the end of the Japanese-American conflict during World War II...
: Japanese foreign minister
Walter Henry Zinn
Walter Henry Zinn
Walter Henry Zinn was a nuclear physicist at the University of Chicago Metallurgical Laboratory.- Life and work :...
: Nuclear physicist, University of Chicago Metallurgical Laboratory
Tilting the Balance
Mordechai Anielewicz
Mordechaj Anielewicz
Mordechaj Anielewicz was the leader of Żydowska Organizacja Bojowa , also known as ŻOB, during the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising from January to May 1943.-Biography:Anielewicz was born into a poor family in the small town of Wyszków near Warsaw...
: leader of Jewish fighters in Poland
Eric Blair
George Orwell
Eric Arthur Blair , better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English author and journalist...
: BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
talks producer, Indian Section, London. Better know by pen name George Orwell.
Kurt Chill
Kurt Chill
Kurt Chill was a highly decorated Generalleutnant in the Wehrmacht during World War II who commanded the LV. Armeekorps. He was also a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross. The Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross was awarded to recognise extreme battlefield bravery or successful...
: Wehrmacht
Wehrmacht
The Wehrmacht – from , to defend and , the might/power) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the Heer , the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe .-Origin and use of the term:...
general and interpreter in Pskov
Pskov
Pskov is an ancient city and the administrative center of Pskov Oblast, Russia, located in the northwest of Russia about east from the Estonian border, on the Velikaya River. Population: -Early history:...
Arthur Compton
Arthur Compton
Arthur Holly Compton was an American physicist and Nobel laureate in physics for his discovery of the Compton effect. He served as Chancellor of Washington University in St. Louis from 1945 to 1953.-Early years:...
: Nuclear physicist with the Metallurgical Laboratory
Kurt Diebner
Kurt Diebner
Kurt Diebner was a German nuclear physicist who is well known for directing and administrating the German nuclear energy project, a secretive program aiming to built weapon of mass destruction for the Nazi Germany during the course of World War II...
: Nuclear physicist, Hechingen
Hechingen
Hechingen is a town in central Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated about south of the state capital of Stuttgart and north of Lake Constance and the Swiss border.- City districts :...
, Germany
Enrico Fermi
Enrico Fermi
Enrico Fermi was an Italian-born, naturalized American physicist particularly known for his work on the development of the first nuclear reactor, Chicago Pile-1, and for his contributions to the development of quantum theory, nuclear and particle physics, and statistical mechanics...
: Nuclear physicist with the Metallurgical Laboratory
Laura Fermi
Laura Fermi
Laura Capon Fermi was an Italian-born writer and political activist, and the wife of Nobel Prize physicist Enrico Fermi.Laura Capon was born in Rome in 1907. Capon met Enrico Fermi while she was a student in general science at the University of Rome...
: Enrico Fermi's wife
Georgy Flyorov
Georgy Flyorov
Georgy Nikolayevich Flyorov was a prominent Soviet nuclear physicist.-Biography:Flyorov was born in Rostov-on-Don and attended the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute Georgy Nikolayevich Flyorov (March 2, 1913 – November 19, 1990) was a prominent Soviet nuclear physicist.-Biography:Flyorov was born...
: Soviet nuclear physicist
Aleksandr German: Commander of Second Partisan Brigade in Pskov
Pskov
Pskov is an ancient city and the administrative center of Pskov Oblast, Russia, located in the northwest of Russia about east from the Estonian border, on the Velikaya River. Population: -Early history:...
Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
: Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
Werner Heisenberg
Werner Heisenberg
Werner Karl Heisenberg was a German theoretical physicist who made foundational contributions to quantum mechanics and is best known for asserting the uncertainty principle of quantum theory...
: Nuclear physicist, Hechingen
Hechingen
Hechingen is a town in central Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated about south of the state capital of Stuttgart and north of Lake Constance and the Swiss border.- City districts :...
, Germany
Nieh Ho-T'ing: Chinese Communist guerrilla officer
Cordell Hull
Cordell Hull
Cordell Hull was an American politician from the U.S. state of Tennessee. He is best known as the longest-serving Secretary of State, holding the position for 11 years in the administration of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt during much of World War II...
: U.S. secretary of state
Ivan Konev
Ivan Konev
Ivan Stepanovich Konev , was a Soviet military commander, who led Red Army forces on the Eastern Front during World War II, retook much of Eastern Europe from occupation by the Axis Powers, and helped in the capture of Germany's capital, Berlin....
: Red Army
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
general
Igor Kurchatov
Igor Kurchatov
Igor Vasilyevich Kurchatov , was a Soviet nuclear physicist who is widely known as the director of the Soviet atomic bomb project. Along with Georgy Flyorov and Andrei Sakharov, Kurchatov is widely remembered and dubbed as the "father of the Soviet atomic bomb" for his directorial role in the...
: Soviet nuclear physicist
Edward R. Murrow
Edward R. Murrow
Edward Roscoe Murrow, KBE was an American broadcast journalist. He first came to prominence with a series of radio news broadcasts during World War II, which were followed by millions of listeners in the United States and Canada.Fellow journalists Eric Sevareid, Ed Bliss, and Alexander Kendrick...
: Radio news broadcaster
Yoshio Nishina
Yoshio Nishina
was the founding father of modern physics research in Japan. He co-authored the well-known Klein–Nishina formula. He was a principal investigator of RIKEN and mentored generations...
: Japanese nuclear physicist
Joachim von Ribbentrop
Joachim von Ribbentrop
Ulrich Friedrich Wilhelm Joachim von Ribbentrop was Foreign Minister of Germany from 1938 until 1945. He was later hanged for war crimes after the Nuremberg Trials.-Early life:...
: German foreign minister
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
: President of the United States
Mordechai Chaim Rumkowski
Mordechai Chaim Rumkowski
Mordechai Chaim Rumkowski was a Polish Jew and functioned as the German Nazi-nominated head of the Ältestenrat , or Jewish authorities in the Łódź Ghetto....
: Eldest of the Jews in the Łódź ghetto
Iosef 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...
: General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
Leó Szilárd
Leó Szilárd
Leó Szilárd was an Austro-Hungarian physicist and inventor who conceived the nuclear chain reaction in 1933, patented the idea of a nuclear reactor with Enrico Fermi, and in late 1939 wrote the letter for Albert Einstein's signature that resulted in the Manhattan Project that built the atomic bomb...
: Nuclear physicist with the Metallurgical Laboratory
Shigenori Tōgō
Shigenori Togo
was Minister of Foreign Affairs for the Empire of Japan at both the start and the end of the Japanese-American conflict during World War II...
: Japanese foreign minister
Nikolai Vasilyev: Commander, First Partisan Brigade in Pskov
Pskov
Pskov is an ancient city and the administrative center of Pskov Oblast, Russia, located in the northwest of Russia about east from the Estonian border, on the Velikaya River. Population: -Early history:...
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...
: Marshal of the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
Upsetting the Balance
Mordechai Anielewicz
Mordechaj Anielewicz
Mordechaj Anielewicz was the leader of Żydowska Organizacja Bojowa , also known as ŻOB, during the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising from January to May 1943.-Biography:Anielewicz was born into a poor family in the small town of Wyszków near Warsaw...
: Jewish partisan, eastern Poland
Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook
Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook
William Maxwell "Max" Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook, Bt, PC, was a Canadian-British business tycoon, politician, and writer.-Early career in Canada:...
: British Minister of Supply
Kurt Chill
Kurt Chill
Kurt Chill was a highly decorated Generalleutnant in the Wehrmacht during World War II who commanded the LV. Armeekorps. He was also a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross. The Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross was awarded to recognise extreme battlefield bravery or successful...
: Wehrmacht
Wehrmacht
The Wehrmacht – from , to defend and , the might/power) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the Heer , the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe .-Origin and use of the term:...
Lieutenant General
Kurt Diebner
Kurt Diebner
Kurt Diebner was a German nuclear physicist who is well known for directing and administrating the German nuclear energy project, a secretive program aiming to built weapon of mass destruction for the Nazi Germany during the course of World War II...
: Nuclear physicist, Tübingen
Tübingen
Tübingen is a traditional university town in central Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated south of the state capital, Stuttgart, on a ridge between the Neckar and Ammer rivers.-Geography:...
, Germany
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein was a German-born theoretical physicist who developed the theory of general relativity, effecting a revolution in physics. For this achievement, Einstein is often regarded as the father of modern physics and one of the most prolific intellects in human history...
: Physicist, Couch, Missouri
Missouri
Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower was the 34th President of the United States, from 1953 until 1961. He was a five-star general in the United States Army...
: U.S. Army General, Couch, Missouri
Missouri
Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...
Enrico Fermi
Enrico Fermi
Enrico Fermi was an Italian-born, naturalized American physicist particularly known for his work on the development of the first nuclear reactor, Chicago Pile-1, and for his contributions to the development of quantum theory, nuclear and particle physics, and statistical mechanics...
: Nuclear physicist, Denver, Colorado
Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...
Aleksandr German: Partisan Brigadier, Pskov
Pskov
Pskov is an ancient city and the administrative center of Pskov Oblast, Russia, located in the northwest of Russia about east from the Estonian border, on the Velikaya River. Population: -Early history:...
, USSR
Robert H. Goddard
Robert H. Goddard
Robert Hutchings Goddard was an American professor, physicist and inventor who is credited with creating and building the world's first liquid-fueled rocket, which he successfully launched on March 16, 1926...
: Rocket expert, Couch, Missouri
Missouri
Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...
Lord Halifax
E. F. L. Wood, 1st Earl of Halifax
Edward Frederick Lindley Wood, 1st Earl of Halifax, , known as The Lord Irwin from 1925 until 1934 and as The Viscount Halifax from 1934 until 1944, was one of the most senior British Conservative politicians of the 1930s, during which he held several senior ministerial posts, most notably as...
: British ambassador to the United States
Cordell Hull
Cordell Hull
Cordell Hull was an American politician from the U.S. state of Tennessee. He is best known as the longest-serving Secretary of State, holding the position for 11 years in the administration of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt during much of World War II...
: U.S. Secretary of State
Nieh Ho-'Ting: People's Liberation Army officer, China
Benito Mussolini
Benito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism....
: Il Duce (Italian Dictator)
Joachim von Ribbentrop
Joachim von Ribbentrop
Ulrich Friedrich Wilhelm Joachim von Ribbentrop was Foreign Minister of Germany from 1938 until 1945. He was later hanged for war crimes after the Nuremberg Trials.-Early life:...
: German foreign minister
Iosef 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...
: General Secretary, Communist Party of the USSR
Leó Szilárd
Leó Szilárd
Leó Szilárd was an Austro-Hungarian physicist and inventor who conceived the nuclear chain reaction in 1933, patented the idea of a nuclear reactor with Enrico Fermi, and in late 1939 wrote the letter for Albert Einstein's signature that resulted in the Manhattan Project that built the atomic bomb...
: Nuclear physicist, Denver, Colorado
Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...
Nikolai Vasilyev: Partisan brigadier, Pskov
Pskov
Pskov is an ancient city and the administrative center of Pskov Oblast, Russia, located in the northwest of Russia about east from the Estonian border, on the Velikaya River. Population: -Early history:...
, USSR
Striking the Balance
Mordechai Anielewicz
Mordechaj Anielewicz
Mordechaj Anielewicz was the leader of Żydowska Organizacja Bojowa , also known as ŻOB, during the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising from January to May 1943.-Biography:Anielewicz was born into a poor family in the small town of Wyszków near Warsaw...
: Jewish fighting leader, Łódź, Poland
Menachem Begin
Menachem Begin
' was a politician, founder of Likud and the sixth Prime Minister of the State of Israel. Before independence, he was the leader of the Zionist militant group Irgun, the Revisionist breakaway from the larger Jewish paramilitary organization Haganah. He proclaimed a revolt, on 1 February 1944,...
: Jewish guerrilla, Haifa
Haifa
Haifa is the largest city in northern Israel, and the third-largest city in the country, with a population of over 268,000. Another 300,000 people live in towns directly adjacent to the city including the cities of the Krayot, as well as, Tirat Carmel, Daliyat al-Karmel and Nesher...
, Palestine
Palestine
Palestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....
Omar Bradley
Omar Bradley
Omar Nelson Bradley was a senior U.S. Army field commander in North Africa and Europe during World War II, and a General of the Army in the United States Army...
: U.S. Army lieutenant general, outside Denver
Walter von Brockdorff-Ahlefeldt
Walter von Brockdorff-Ahlefeldt
Walter Graf von Brockdorff-Ahlefeldt was a German general of the Infantry, serving during World War II....
: Wehrmacht
Wehrmacht
The Wehrmacht – from , to defend and , the might/power) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the Heer , the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe .-Origin and use of the term:...
lieutenant general, Riga
Riga
Riga is the capital and largest city of Latvia. With 702,891 inhabitants Riga is the largest city of the Baltic states, one of the largest cities in Northern Europe and home to more than one third of Latvia's population. The city is an important seaport and a major industrial, commercial,...
, Latvia
Latvia
Latvia , officially the Republic of Latvia , is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by Estonia , to the south by Lithuania , to the east by the Russian Federation , to the southeast by Belarus and shares maritime borders to the west with Sweden...
Kurt Chill
Kurt Chill
Kurt Chill was a highly decorated Generalleutnant in the Wehrmacht during World War II who commanded the LV. Armeekorps. He was also a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross. The Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross was awarded to recognise extreme battlefield bravery or successful...
: Wehrmacht
Wehrmacht
The Wehrmacht – from , to defend and , the might/power) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the Heer , the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe .-Origin and use of the term:...
lieutenant general, Pskov
Pskov
Pskov is an ancient city and the administrative center of Pskov Oblast, Russia, located in the northwest of Russia about east from the Estonian border, on the Velikaya River. Population: -Early history:...
, USSR]
William Joseph Donovan
William Joseph Donovan
William Joseph Donovan was a United States soldier, lawyer and intelligence officer, best remembered as the wartime head of the Office of Strategic Services...
: U.S. Army major general, Hot Springs, Arkansas
Hot Springs, Arkansas
Hot Springs is the 10th most populous city in the U.S. state of Arkansas, the county seat of Garland County, and the principal city of the Hot Springs Metropolitan Statistical Area encompassing all of Garland County...
Anthony Eden
Anthony Eden
Robert Anthony Eden, 1st Earl of Avon, KG, MC, PC was a British Conservative politician, who was Prime Minister from 1955 to 1957...
: British foreign secretary
Aleksandr German: Partisan brigadier, Pskov
Pskov
Pskov is an ancient city and the administrative center of Pskov Oblast, Russia, located in the northwest of Russia about east from the Estonian border, on the Velikaya River. Population: -Early history:...
, USSR
Robert H. Goddard
Robert H. Goddard
Robert Hutchings Goddard was an American professor, physicist and inventor who is credited with creating and building the world's first liquid-fueled rocket, which he successfully launched on March 16, 1926...
: Rocket scientist, Hot Springs, Arkansas
Hot Springs, Arkansas
Hot Springs is the 10th most populous city in the U.S. state of Arkansas, the county seat of Garland County, and the principal city of the Hot Springs Metropolitan Statistical Area encompassing all of Garland County...
Cordell Hull
Cordell Hull
Cordell Hull was an American politician from the U.S. state of Tennessee. He is best known as the longest-serving Secretary of State, holding the position for 11 years in the administration of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt during much of World War II...
: President of the United States
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
Igor Kurchatov
Igor Kurchatov
Igor Vasilyevich Kurchatov , was a Soviet nuclear physicist who is widely known as the director of the Soviet atomic bomb project. Along with Georgy Flyorov and Andrei Sakharov, Kurchatov is widely remembered and dubbed as the "father of the Soviet atomic bomb" for his directorial role in the...
: Nuclear physicist, north of Moscow
Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong, also transliterated as Mao Tse-tung , and commonly referred to as Chairman Mao , was a Chinese Communist revolutionary, guerrilla warfare strategist, Marxist political philosopher, and leader of the Chinese Revolution...
: Communist Party leader, Peking
George Marshall
George Marshall
George Catlett Marshall was an American military leader, Chief of Staff of the Army, Secretary of State, and the third Secretary of Defense...
: U.S. Secretary of State
Joachim von Ribbentrop
Joachim von Ribbentrop
Ulrich Friedrich Wilhelm Joachim von Ribbentrop was Foreign Minister of Germany from 1938 until 1945. He was later hanged for war crimes after the Nuremberg Trials.-Early life:...
: German foreign minister
Iosef 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...
: General Secretary, Communist Party, USSR
Stern: Jewish guerrilla leader, Jerusalem (Note: identity uncertain, best possible match is Avraham Stern
Avraham Stern
Avraham Stern , alias Yair was a Jewish paramilitary leader who founded and led the militant Zionist organization later known as Lehi .-Early life:Stern was born in Suwałki, Poland...
)
Shigenori Tōgō
Shigenori Togo
was Minister of Foreign Affairs for the Empire of Japan at both the start and the end of the Japanese-American conflict during World War II...
: Japanese foreign minister
Nikolai Vasilyev: Partisan brigadier, Pskov
Pskov
Pskov is an ancient city and the administrative center of Pskov Oblast, Russia, located in the northwest of Russia about east from the Estonian border, on the Velikaya River. Population: -Early history:...
, USSR
Major themes
The novels apply the major themes of World War II to what can be considered a typical science fiction cliché, namely an alien invasion of earth. At one point the character Sam Yeager, himself a fan of early twentieth century pulp fiction, recognizes the similarity of the world's predicament to that of sci-fi tales out of Amazing Stories and similar magazines. However, Yeager also recognizes that the standard plot resolution to such stories, usually that some brilliant scientists develop a secret superweapon that drives out the aliens, is hopelessly unrealistic.Turtledove approaches the novels' science fiction scenario with less of a focus on the technological and fantasy elements typically associated with the genre and shows greater concern for the role of more mundane affairs such as the political repercussions of an alliance between the Allied and Axis powers, the impact the presence of alien creatures has on human society, and the ways in which warfare is paradoxically a hindrance to civilization and simultaneously a catalyst for the progress of civilization.
As mentioned above, one of the key themes explored in the novel is the complexity of international alliances. 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...
, there was often a great deal of friction between allies on both sides of the war. The United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union
Soviet 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 very different reasons for fighting the war and often had conflicting views of what the postwar world should look like. For their part, 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...
, Italy, and the Empire of Japan
Empire of Japan
The Empire of Japan is the name of the state of Japan that existed from the Meiji Restoration on 3 January 1868 to the enactment of the post-World War II Constitution of...
rarely saw eye-to-eye on several key issues and found it difficult to coordinate their policies. Turtledove reexamines this idea by postulating a need for all the major powers to work together against the even greater threat of an alien menace.
This idea is most emphatically explored in the novel through the diplomatic relations between the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
and 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...
. Invaded by the Nazis
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
in 1941, two years after having signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop Nonaggression Pact of 1939, the Soviets
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
are reluctant to enter into yet another alliance with Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
even in the face of an alien invasion. Indeed, there are allusions in the novel to the possibility that 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...
still plans to settle its conflict with the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
even as they work together against the Race. Yet both sides manage to, at least temporarily, set aside their differences, launching a joint raid to capture alien Uranium and also arranging a meeting between Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
and Vyacheslav Molotov
Vyacheslav Molotov
Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov was a Soviet politician and diplomat, an Old Bolshevik and a leading figure in the Soviet government from the 1920s, when he rose to power as a protégé of Joseph Stalin, to 1957, when he was dismissed from the Presidium of the Central Committee by Nikita Khrushchev...
, the Foreign Minister of the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
.
The impact that the Race has on human society is also a central theme of the novel. Since the Race is biologically reptilian and evolved on a world where mammals never moved beyond a rodent-like stage, the idea of a race of sentient mammals is in of itself bizarre to them. The social structures humans have created as a result of their physiology, primarily families and the social institutions associated with them, are literally beyond the understanding of the Race. For their part, humans are generally shocked and disgusted that the Race has no concept of family and engages in sexual activity only during biologically specified mating seasons. Through the character of Liu Han, Turtledove explores how the different biological interactions of the two species, primarily sexual intercourse, lead to the development of a much more rapid and adaptive human approach to technological change.
Turtledove also makes connections between the negative traits of humanity and the Race. Members of the Race are not only interstellar imperialists, they are also extremely proud and boastful of that fact. In this way, Turtledove draws parallels between the Race and nineteenth century European imperialists. Like the European imperialists, the Race has an ideological conception akin to the White Man's Burden
The White Man's Burden
"The White Man's Burden" is a poem by the English poet Rudyard Kipling. It was originally published in the popular magazine McClure's in 1899, with the subtitle The United States and the Philippine Islands...
, in which they feel the need to conquer other species and "civilize" them by teaching them their language, their customs, and their social mores. The Chinese apothecary Yi Min implicitly expresses this parallel. Yi Min sees little or no difference between accommodating himself to the political desires of the Race or, for example, the British or Japanese who had also tried to subdue China. Indeed, Yi Min lumps the Race along with other human imperialists together as "foreign devils." Human or alien, the goals of imperialists remain universal.
The central theme of the novel may be the way in which human nature, perhaps because of its very propensity for violence and war rather than in spite of it, provides the best hope human beings have at defeating the alien enemy. Though the Race is an expansionist imperial power, the Race itself is a relatively peaceful society, having overcome internal wars and maintained a politically stable interstellar empire for nearly 50,000 human years. Indeed, the Race has no standing military force and only raises an army during the few times it seeks to conquer other worlds. Since the Race has only conquered two other species, the Rabotev and Halessi, they have only engaged in war two times during their 50,000 year history. Yet their very political stability and inability to cope with rapid changes makes them stagnant and gives them difficulty in responding to dynamic human responses. However, although they are easily caught off-guard by human tricks and deviousness, they are merely naive, not stupid, and will devise effective countermeasures to these efforts.