Review: Take issue with German easy victory
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 07 31, 2012
I read the book and enjoyed it, but.  I kind of like alternate history books to depart from actual history at some point where some event, that could have gone either way, changes. I can think of many things down through history that swung on lucky chance going one way when it could have easily gone another. There were several attempts on Hitlers life for instance that could have easily succeeded except for a lucky break. But, having said that, this book reinvents a whole lot of history to arrive at the conclusion the author wants. Some of the reviewers comments seem to think that the author researched the facts, but I'm afraid the he fudged the facts a lot to fit the plot.Lets start with the strength of the British Navy versus the German Navy in 1940 (the time of Hitlers collapse).  The British with 15 Battleships and Heavy Cruisers, 7 Carriers, 62 Cruisers, 184 Destroyers, 60 Submarines and 45 Escort vessels dwarfed the German Navy except for U_Boats. In 1940 the Germans had a total of 54 U_Boats of which most were the small Type II boat. The Type VII, which would be the main boat throughout the balance of the war were just coming on line. The battle of the Mediterranean did not take place for over a year later where the U-Boats did significant damage to the British.  But, it should be mentioned that not a single German submarine survived to return to base. The British learned quickly and started to employ the convoy system to moving goods.  A method that, once perfected, destroyed the U-Boat fleet.The idea that the USA was sitting on it's hands this entire time is not supported by the facts. Roosevelt was very supportive of the British and was doing every thing he could, some of questionable legality, to aid them. By 1940 America was already started on an program to build the weapons of war,  And no matter how you cut it, Germany and Japan put together could not begin to approach the industrial might of the United States once it was engaged.  Roosevelt would likely have accelerated actions he took very soon after the novels jump off point and instituted the Lend Lease Program and started providing American escorts for convoys to England.The Germans had no long range fighters or bombers. The air arm was built around the lightning war concept of close air support and to spearhead the panzers thrust into the battle field. They had no way to bomb any further into England than the southern southeastern part. They could not cripple the British war effort with their limited range. The best they could do was to defeat the RAF in (I Think it was called) Area 11. They could not reach RAF manufacturing facilities out of that area nor attack airfields and other essential installations. In June of 1940 there were something like 310 Spitfires in the RAF, but they had got over their early problems by that time and soon were producing over 600 Spites a month. The Germans would never have got air superiority over the Channel and England. The English on the other were developing long range bombers and, after a learning experience did rain bombs over German occupied territory.The jet aircraft being developed by Germany would have provided a temporary superiority for air defense but, they were short ranged and not a real threat to have an effect in the battle of Britain. And it should be realized that both the British and Americans were developing Jet aircraft. The British, in fact, were very advanced in the science. It is likely that British intelligence would have got wind of any large movement of the Germans to start full scale Jet aircraft production and would have ramped up their own program.The German Bund in the United States was never an influential organization. In fact there was a much larger Jewish influence that was vehemently opposed to the Nazis. Their rain of terror in occupied Poland and Russia would have horrified Americans and made the whole nation largely anti Nazi.The book had to kill off Churchill of course on the assumption that the British would end up surrendering as a result without the leadership he provided.  Not likely.  They may have agreed to a peace pact giving Germany free reign in Europe, but they never would have surrendered. The more realistic outcome of such an event would mean that the Germans would not have to worry about England and could turn all their might against the Soviets.  Even then it's not clear that they could have won that war. Without long range bombers and fighters they could not have stopped war production of the Soviets, and the production the the awesome T34 tanks and other war material would have gone unchecked.  It should be noted that what the Soviets made might not have been pretty but, they could turn out material at a fantastic rate. I have serious doubts that the Germans could have beat the Soviets, at least without a long and bloody war.The book is based on the presumption that everything the Germans did was successful and the Allies were a bunch of idiots that couldn't foresee what was going to happen and fell into the traps set for them.In summary I found the book a pretty good read, in spite of the editorial mishaps, but not all that credible. Just too much departure from the way things really were in 1940.