Red Gambit (5)

It is the 1st November 1945 and, once again, the soil of Europe is being soaked in blood and tears.

Soviet armies have crossed the Rhine and now occupy the larger part of Germany.

The Red Army has experienced its first major defeat, hand in hand with Pyrrhic victories, bought with high losses in materiel and extreme casualties.

Zhukov has been replaced by Konev, paying the price for falling too far behind the schedule of war.

Soviet forces open a new front, striking south from Bavaria and Austria, aiming at the plains of Northern Italy.

Winter approaches and brings with it the harshest conditions in living memory. However, the war stops for nothing and, even as snow falls on snow, plans are laid on both sides of the divide.

^{[The ‘Red Gambit Series’ novels are works of fiction, and deal with fictional events. Most of the characters therein are a figment of the author’s imagination. Without exception, those characters that are historical figures of fact or based upon historical figures of fact are used fictitiously, and their actions, demeanour, conversations, and characters are similarly all figments of the author’s imagination.]}

The third in the ‘Red Gambit’ series, Stalemate deals with the events of the Third World War, up to 25th October 1945. Relating the experiences from both sides of the divide, and from all levels. ‘Stalemate’ deals with the man in the trench, through the pilot in his fighter, through to the Generals who direct the war from their command centres. ‘Stalemate’ brings the first stages of WW3 to a climax on the Alsatian plain, a sleepy town in Holland, and an insignificant town in Germany, whose name is now synonymous with death on a grand scale.

^{[The ‘Red Gambit Series’ novels are works of fiction, and deal with fictional events. Most of the characters therein are a figment of the author’s imagination. Without exception, those characters that are historical figures of fact or based upon historical figures of fact are used fictitiously, and their actions, demeanour, conversations, and characters are similarly all figments of the author’s imagination.]}

The second book in the Red Gambit Series. Starting on the 13th August 1945, ‘Breakthrough’ follows the soldiers, sailors, and airmen of both sides in the struggle for supremacy in Europe. From Irish waters to the freezing Barents Sea, a hotel in Spain to a school house in Germany, a gutter fight in Eggenthal to true horror on the banks of the Veerse River, and from Mongolia to Nova Scotia, and into the Parliament of the United Kingdom, ‘Breakthrough’ will continue the journey through the events that became known as World War Three.

^{[The ‘Red Gambit Series’ novels are works of fiction, and deal with fictional events. Most of the characters therein are a figment of the author’s imagination. Without exception, those characters that are historical figures of fact or based upon historical figures of fact are used fictitiously, and their actions, demeanour, conversations, and characters are similarly all figments of the author’s imagination.]}

The sixth in a series of books that cover World War Three, from July 1945 through to its close in September 1947.

1946 has moved out of its suspended state, and violence has blossomed once again.

In the Pacific, the war reaches a peak of horror previously undreamt of in the history of man.

The severe European winter is a fading memory, but its after effects still resonate, particularly with the Red Army, deprived of the chattels of war. The fighting drags on, with little to show for the plans and devices of the politicians and generals.

Each side has its new efforts; each side experiences new disappointments.

Germany is strengthening and starts to shoulder more of the Allied burden, filling gaps left by the weakening of Britain and the United States.

Logistically bankrupt, the Red Army strives for one more struggle, one focussed effort against one of the Allies, in an effort to knock that nation out of the war, knowing that failure could spell the end, but that success could pluck victory from the jaws of defeat.

^{[The ‘Red Gambit Series’ novels are works of fiction, and deal with fictional events. Most of the characters therein are a figment of the author’s imagination. Without exception, those characters that are historical figures of fact or based upon historical figures of fact are used fictitiously, and their actions, demeanour, conversations, and characters are similarly all figments of the author’s imagination.]}

Sacrifice

As the bloody days of 1945 give way to the incoming New Year, Europe finds itself in the grips of the most severe winter since records began.

Temperatures plunge, incapacitating the armies of both sides, but not enough to stop the dying. The war descends into a frozen stalemate, marked by aggressive patrolling, death from the air, and the simple struggle to stay alive in record low temperatures.

As the soldiers shiver in their foxholes, spies ply their trade, gathering information, deceiving the enemy, and obtaining knowledge that feeds the planners of both sides, who wait for the time that the snows have gone, and when they can let loose the dogs of war once more.

^{[The ‘Red Gambit Series’ novels are works of fiction, and deal with fictional events. Most of the characters therein are a figment of the author’s imagination. Without exception, those characters that are historical figures of fact or based upon historical figures of fact are used fictitiously, and their actions, demeanour, conversations, and characters are similarly all figments of the author’s imagination.]}

^{[This book contain a table.]}