Kirov (25)

The war continues on both land and sea as China invades Taiwan and North Korea joins to launch a devastating attack. Yet and the heart of the Red Banner Pacific Fleet has vanished, blown into the past by the massive wrath of the Demon Volcano. There Captain Karpov finds himself at the dying edge of the last great war, yet his own inner demons now wage war with his conscience as he contemplates another decisive intervention.

After secretly assisting the Soviet invasion of the Kuriles and engaging a small US scouting force in the region, Karpov has drawn the attention of Admiral Halsey’s powerful 3rd Fleet. Now Halsey sends one of the toughest fighting Admirals of the war north to investigate, the hero of the Battle off Samar, Ziggy Sprague, and fast and furious sea battles are the order of the day.

Meanwhile tensions rise in the Black Sea as the Russian mission to rescue Fedorov and Orlov has now been expanded to include a way to try and deliver new control rods to from the same batch and lot as the mysterious Rod-25. Will they work? Yet Admiral Volsky learns that the Russian Black Sea Fleet has engaged well escorted units of a British oil conveyor, Fairchild Inc., and the fires of war soon endanger his mission.

All efforts are now focused on a narrow stretch of coastline on the Caspian Sea, where men of war from the future and past are locked in a desperate struggle to decide the outcome of history itself. Naval combat, both future and past, combine with action and intrigue as Volsky’s mission is launched and the mystery of Rod-25 and Fedorov’s strange experience on the Trans-Siberian Rail deepens. Can they stop the nuclear holocaust of the Third World War in 2021 or will it begin off the coast of Japan in 1945?

The war foreshadowed in Kirov’s long voyage to the past has now begun and will escalate over 9 days as humanity begins its descent into oblivion. Now the officers and crew of hold the last straw of hope in the bottom of Pandora’s jar as they struggle to prevent the war from ever happening.

Join Admiral Leonid Volsky, Captain Vladimir Karpov and ex navigator Anton Fedorov, each one holding one piece of the confounding puzzle that might save the world from imminent destruction. As Karpov confronts the US 7th Fleet in the Pacific, Fedorov leads a daring mission to the past to search for Gennadi Orlov. Meanwhile Admiral Volsky is embroiled deeper in the web of mystery surrounding Rod-25, and forges an unexpected alliance with a powerful figure in the Russian Government.

As the war begins, a British company struggles to secure vital oil reserves and is led into the midst of the mystery of Kirov’s disappearance. Fedorov’s mission makes two startling discoveries, and Karpov finds much more than he bargained for when the Red Banner Pacific Fleet engages the Americans. The story takes an dramatic turn when catastrophe erupts amid the fury of all out conventional war at sea.

The hour and day that Fedorov and the crew of have long feared draws nigh, the moment of insoluble conflict, when their greatest enemy is not another hostile ship or plane, but their own selves—.

Yet before that moment comes, the ship finds itself in one of the greatest naval chases of all time. It is May, 1941, and a powerful German battlefleet has broken out into the Atlantic. Admiral Tovey is fast on the heels of Hindenburg, but must first run the gauntlet of Gibraltar to get into the hunt. With him are three of the most powerful ships in the world, , and the battlecruiser . Yet Admiral Lütjens will not fight alone. The Kriegsmarine sorties with all its might as Raeder throws the dice in a desperate bid to prove his navy’s worth and power. Soon the Royal Navy is reaching for every warship it can find to beat to quarters. One ship called to the action, HMS , harbors a secret—the long missing key revealed by Elena Fairchild. It is now at grave risk, and should it be lost, the secret it might unlock will die with it, and the doom Fairchild so darkly describes may then be unavoidable.

It is a race against time itself, and the shadow of doom that hangs over the world. Meanwhile, consumed by the fire of his own thirst for vengeance, one other man figures prominently in that fate—Vladimir Karpov—for he holds yet another key to the outcome of all these events, as he sets himself on chase of his own, desperate to find and cow his arch rival and enemy, Ivan Volkov.

The stunning conclusion of the eight book saga of the , also stands as a “bridge novel” leading to the third saga of the long running series. The alternate history of WWII careens into 1942 and 1943 with the premier of , coming in March 2015.

Tyrenkov’s trip up the back stairway at Ilanskiy has led him to a most unexpected place, and now Karpov has a moment that could change all history within his grasp, and a means of getting his revenge on Ivan Volkov. Will he seize the day? Yet Tyrenkov has also brought something back with him that is of great importance, and Karpov soon learns more of the days ahead than any man alive could ever wish to know. Even so, Ivan Volkov has plans of his own, to take a massive airship fleet to Ilanskiy and seize the day himself. Can he succeed, or will Karpov become the ruin of all he had plotted and built in his long sojourn to the past.

Meanwhile, Anton Fedorov has a mind to become the next Lawrence of Arabia, and leads his mobile force to Raqqah to impede the German retreat, and in daring raids against the old Hejaz rail lines from Homs to Aleppo. As the battle for Syria continues, Erwin Rommel launches a sudden new offensive in North Africa, this time aimed at the vital port of Tobruk, and the Germans strive to crush the British defense in the Middle East in a mighty pincer attack. As these events play out, Hitler now plans to unleash his greatest attack of the war, Operation Barbarossa. The storm clouds of war darken the Russian border, and the thunder of the guns soon deafens the world, as the conflict rises in a dreadful Crescendo of Doom.

The saga continues in Volume III…

Admiral Tovey’s visit to Bletchley Park soon reaches an astounding conclusion when the battlecruiser vanishes once again to a desolate future. Reaching the Pacific the ship’s officers and crew soon learn that has once again moved in time. Now First Officer Anton Fedorov is shocked to finally learn the true source of the great variation in time that has led to the devastated future they have come from and the demise of civilization itself. They are soon discovered by a Japanese fleet and the ship now faces its most dangerous and determined challenge ever when they are stalked by the Japanese 5th Carrier Division and eventually confronted by a powerful enemy task force led by the battleship , and an admiral determined to sink this phantom ship, or die trying.

In this amazing continuation of the popular series, the most powerful ships ever conceived by two different eras clash in a titanic final battle that will decide the fate of nations and the world itself.

http://youtu.be/a9ey7xtVWIA

The saga continues…

Days after the shocking discovery of Halifax Harbor, battlecruiser heads east into the Atlantic, a lost ship in a forsaken and devastated world. Twelve days later they have entered the Mediterranean Sea finding nothing but blackened destruction on every shore. Disheartened and stricken with remorse, the ship turns west for the long voyage back to the Straits of Gibraltar when a sudden and unexpected attack leads them to the astounding conclusion that they have once again moved in time, not forward but back, returning to the cauldron of fire of the Second World War. Only this time a full year has passed and they now find themselves sailing the dangerous waters of the year 1942.

As the Royal Navy prepares for one of the largest naval operations of the war, Kirov becomes a renegade ship, trapped in the restricted waters of an inland sea with only three ways out. With enemies on every side, the one question her beleaguered captains and crew must now answer has been reduced to the simplest possible terms—survival!

At this crucial turning point in the war, forces on every side slowly begin to unravel the mystery of this phantom raider they have now come to call Geronimo. Naval combat rages in this exciting and fast paced sequel to the breakthrough military fiction novel , by John Schettler.

http://youtu.be/ZWLCmaa4UHM

The battlecruiser , is the most powerful surface combatant that ever put to sea. Built from the bones of all four prior battlecruisers, she is updated with Russia’s most lethal weapons, given back her old name, and commissioned in the year 2020. A year later, with tensions rising to the breaking point between Russia and the West, is completing her final missile trials in the Arctic Sea when a strange accident transports her to another time. With power no ship in the world can match, much less comprehend, she must decide the fate of nations in the most titanic conflict the world has ever seen—WWII.

The novel is an intensely focused naval saga, where the crew of the lost Russian battlecruiser must struggle to understand what has happened to them, and then make a choice that could be decisive in the outcome of the war—who’s side are they on? The course of all future history rides in the balance!

At this crucial time, finds herself just days and miles away from a secret summit at sea between Churchill and Roosevelt. On August 9, 1941, the two great leaders meet to plan cooperation in the war and lay down the Atlantic Charter, which decides the framework of post war power in the world and becomes the basis for the new United Nations and NATO.

With the hindsight of history as their guide, races south toward the secret meeting place at Argentia Bay in Newfoundland. Even as she cruises for the Denmark strait, both Roosevelt and Churchill prepare to embark for the sea journey as well. The Royal Navy soon discovers what they believe to be a fearsome new German raider in the Norwegian Sea, and they join with America’s Atlantic Fleet to bar the way and hunt down the most formidable surface action ship in the world.

Kirov

http://youtu.be/D1dp44xs-Tg

The Fairchild Group launches its mission to seek the key lost aboard Rodney, even as the Allies close the door on the war in North Africa with Operation Chariot. As the 5th Panzer Army dies in Tunisia, Hitler must now find a way to shore up Armeegruppe South while also finding divisions to guard the West. Both sides now plan operations for the late Spring and early Summer. The Allies must decide whether to strike at Sardinia or Sicily in an attempt to topple the regime of Mussolini and knock Italy out of the war, while the Germans must choose from several operations in the south, Habicht, Panther, and Zitadelle. The Soviets plan new offensives of their own that will prove, once and for all, that the tide of the war in the east is shifting. Meanwhile, the work of Lord Elgin is strangely mirrored by the action of his son, the 8th Earl of Elgin, and a seemingly small squabble on the China coast at Canton escalates into an event that has sinister implications for the quest Elena Fairchild has undertaken. Then, just as Fedorov and company begin to finalize their plans for the mission to 1908, Admiral Tovey makes a dramatic request. 36 Chapters, about 106,000 words

Season four continues with

Book 30 in the Series

The war continues in 1943, as Japan launches a bold new attack against the Fiji Islands that leads to a decisive battle off Yasawa. In Syria, Erwin Rommel unleashes a classic flanking attack towards Damascus with “Operation Eisenfall,” even as the Allies attack Kesselring in Tunisia with Eisenhower’s “Operation Hammer.”

Then, as the German 11th and 17th Armies slowly grind down the last of Soviet resistance in the Caucasus, tensions reach a breaking point when they meet Volkov’s forces dug in west of Maykop. The Führer has ordered his legions to take and occupy that place, and Ivan Volkov chooses to stand his ground. The war in the east now threatens to spiral out of control, with new fighting erupting on every frontier when General Zhukov opens his Spring offensive in a massive attack towards Kharkov that now threatens to reshape the entire front.

Meanwhile, Elena Fairchild finally learns the fate of the men she sent into the hidden passage beneath St. Michael’s Cave, and makes a discovery that will give her the means to find and retrieve the key lost on the Battleship . As she plans her mission, Fedorov and Karpov arrange a meeting with Volsky and Gromyko to discuss their new plan to shatter this altered meridian by traveling to 1908.

Maps:

Season four continues with

Book 29 in the Series

With the Allied forces closing on Tunisia from two sides, the Germans conceive a bold new plan that sends Rommel west to the heartland of Tunisia where he confronts the American Army under General Patton. The Axis forces launch (Stormtide) as the famous names etched in the original history  at Kasserine, Bou Aziz, Gafsa and El Guettar will again see the rising tide of war.

At the same time, Hitler presses his daring invasion of Iraq and Syria in , while launching the cream of his airborne troops against the British outpost on Crete with a much belated . As Guderian pushes into the heartland of Persia, Hitler sets his eyes on the richest prize in the world—all the oil the Reich will ever need to fuel the fires of war. Yet before Guderian can drive south, he must first secure his lines of communication. That necessity leads to a dramatic battle for the ancient capital city of Baghdad, with both sides risking all they have to rule the hour.

Events in Russia reach the boiling point when a scheme launched by Fedorov has a profound effect. Meanwhile, Fedorov and Karpov face the grim reality of their situation and come to a decisive conclusion about how they must proceed.

Maps:

In Book 28, , the war moves back to North Africa, where Eisenhower, Montgomery, Patton and the Air Marshalls plan their drive on Tunis. General Patton has ideas of his own, and they do not involve waiting for Monty to fight his way along the Algerian coast. His plan presents a major crisis for Kesselring and Von Arnim when Hitler orders the withdrawal of all Germany’s elite paratroop units. The Führer has eyes on a new prize in the Middle East, and devises a daring return to that theater in Operation Phoenix. Meanwhile, General O’Connor’s British 8th Army begins its big push to capture Tripoli, but he meets a determined and skillful defense by the Desert Fox, Erwin Rommel.

An exploration of St. Michael’s Cave at Gibraltar by Fairchild & Company leads to a hidden mystery beneath the Rock, and far to the east, the isolated atoll at Eniwetok receives some very unexpected visitors. The surprising developments set the destroyer on a dangerous collision course with Vladimir Karpov and Ivan Gromyko, when the Russians set out to cleanse the timeline of all contamination, including their own! Events lead to a dramatic battle at sea that neither side ever expected.

The crew of returns to the South Pacific to meet with Yamamoto, and now they must undertake a new operation. A daring raid into the Indian Ocean is planned, as the Japanese aim to capture the last British outposts on Ceylon.

Lost in time, Anton Fedorov now confronts his moment of destiny in the lonesome village of Ilanskiy, and the decision he makes will decide the fate of the world he hopes to return to.

Meanwhile, the Germans now drive to the city of Volgograd, cutting it off as their troops reach the Volga in the north. There, a vital bridge links Hitler’s legions to those of Ivan Volkov, and the Germans mass their toughest Pioneers to attempt to break through at Rynok. Steiner is determined to storm this last Soviet bastion in the south, but Chuikov and Shumilov plot the stalwart Soviet defense that made this place an anvil of doom for Germany’s fortunes in the war. As the elite German divisions strike one by one to hammer upon that anvil, General Zhukov unleashes his long awaited winter counteroffensive aimed at Kursk.

Vladimir Karpov orders Fedorov to abort his mission to Ilanskiy, but Fedorov has other ideas. With the odds against him growing ever higher, the sudden appearance of a most unexpected visitor changes everything.

While Patton leads the fledgling US Army against Kesselring in Algeria, a major engagement at sea north of Algiers decides the fate of the Western Med. The Allies must command those seas if they are to move units to Oran for the campaign against Algiers. Meanwhile, far to the east, Erwin Rommel awakens from his gloom at Mersa Brega and hatches a plan for a new offensive to stop O’Connor’s drive into Tripolitania. He must first persuade Hitler to relinquish his stand fast order in North Africa, and then choose ground where his vaunted Afrika Korps can make one last dance in a desperate battle of maneuver.

Meanwhile, the Germans make a dramatic breakthrough at Voronezh, following the original intent of Operation Blue. Rundstedt orders Model and Hoth to drive east and then turn south to threaten the Russian line on the Don. As Sergei Kirov and his generals struggle to respond, Manstein’s attack towards the Volga secures the vital bridgehead at Kalach on the Don. Now the Russians launch a daring series of counterattacks from their Don bridgeheads in a desperate effort to unhinge the German offensive and prevent Steiner’s SS from storming the city. Manstein then calls on one of Germany’s finest division commanders with the elite 11th Panzer Division, Hermann Balck.

Germany’s newest heavy tanks lead the attacks as the Tigers head east on two exciting fronts!

Vladimir Karpov has already opened a Second Front in the north against Japan with his bold invasion of Sakhalin Island. Now the battlecruiser Kirov has come upon a most unexpected challenger in the Pacific as the crew of join Admiral Kurita in a daring attempt to sink the Siberian raider. The fast paced naval combat extends through the first six chapters here as two modern day warriors at sea duel in the waters of 1942.

Then the action moves to the frigid Norwegian Sea where Britain launches one of its biggest relief convoys ever bound for Murmansk, PQ-17. The combined British and American covering forces are soon challenged by a powerful German battlegroup centered on the battleship and the newly commissioned carrier .

Meanwhile, General Dwight D. Eisenhower puts the finishing touches on the first joint US/British offensive of the war, Operation Torch, only this time, with the Straits of Gibraltar closed, there can be no landings at Oran and Algiers. Instead the British come ashore at Lisbon when Portugal joins the Allied cause, and Patton leads the entire US Torch order of battle in a much bigger landing at Casablanca. The objective of both forces is the long lost bastion of Gibraltar, where a dangerous secret lurks in the unexplored depths of St. Michael’s Cave.

The invasion is well underway when Fedorov is alarmed to discover what he believes is an insoluble paradox looming on the near horizon. As the history of 1942 is re-written, how could Sergei Kirov ever come to power if Fedorov fails to warn him of his fate at the hands of Staliln? A mission to Ilanskiy is launched to attempt to shore up the history… But Karpov has other ideas….

The Steel Reign of the Japanese offensive reaches its high water mark as Yamamoto launches in a bold attempt to storm the Islands of Fiji and Samoa and isolate Australia. He is opposed by a determined stand made by Admirals Fletcher and Halsey in the desperate battles of the Coral Sea and Koro Sea to decide the fate of Empires.

Meanwhile Vladimir Karpov continues his long planned invasion of Sakhalin Island, but Japan now has a powerful new champion as the Destroyer Takami is detached north to join Admiral Kurita’s task force. Now Captain Harada and the crew of Takami plot how to find and confront the dark, unseen enemy of the north that the Japanese have come to call Mizuchi, the mighty battlecruiser Kirov.

In the Atlantic, Admiral Raeder discovers the strange ship and cargo taken as a prize of war by Kaiser Wilhelm. Now he orders the Hindenburg north to Saint Nazaire to complete repairs in the only dry dock that can hold the massive battleship. But Admiral Tovey leads a plan to launch a surprise raid to destroy those facilities, and to do so he calls on the able services of the Argos Fire.

Warriors from a future time now launch themselves into the fires of WWII in a daring attempt to halt the enemy advance and end the Steel Reign of the Axis powers.

Steel Reign

Learn more about the series, and what segment of the history each volume covers at

Battlecruiser and the light carrier have stumbled upon a prize of great value deep in the South Atlantic. As they move north, the hunt for the German raiders is taken up by a pair of new British cruisers, and neither side knows how much may be at stake in the outcome.

Half a world away, the Soviets launch their winter counteroffensive in a desperate attempt to stem the German tide, and force a turning point in the bitterly contested struggle on the frozen east front of early 1942.

In the Pacific, Montgomery has stopped the Japanese and saved the embattled island of Singapore, but for how long? The rising tide of the Japanese offensive now sweeps around the Rock of the East to threaten Sumatra and Java, forcing Churchill to make the most difficult decision of the war. The battle begins with a brave challenge by Admiral Doorman in the Java Sea, yet soon both Axis and Allied forces will find their plans rudely interrupted by a force and power no one ever expected. Something has emerged from the ashes of a great disaster that now threatens to weigh heavily in the balance of the Pacific War.

Meanwhile, Generals Wavell, O’Connor, and Kinlan launch a new offensive in ‘Operation Supercharge.’ Holding nothing back, they hope to engage and defeat Rommel’s Afrika Korps once and for all, to decide the contest in Libya and pave the way for the great campaign against French North Africa.

The continuing alternate history of WWII in the amazing Kirov Saga!

As Fedorov and Karpov struggle with missing men, the Western forces go on the offensive in Iraq. The invasion begins with a bold thrust across the deserts from Jordan, with two columns marching on Baghdad, where they will soon fight battles at Ramadi and Karbala. In the south, the US 1st Infantry joins a brigade of 1st Armored Cav for a sweeping move around Iraqi forces defending the valuable oil fields near Basra, while 1st USMC rolls inexorably forward towards that city. The oil war is in full swing, prompting Beijing to consider ordering a dangerous intervention that could bring the West and East into an even more deadly conflict on the ground.

At sea in the Gulf of Oman, Admiral Sun Wei sorties once again, but receives surprising new orders when the defeat of Wu Jinlong in the Celebs Sea shakes the confidence of the General Staff. Now Karpov takes , and into the Indian Ocean, where they are suddenly confronted by the appearance of strange unknown contacts, above, below, and on the seas around them, as the hunters become the hunted.