Weekly Update #209! Baby Hitler, The Rewind Files and Treating Your Girlfriend Like A Princess in the Real World.

Editor's Note

Well I got a lot of work done this weekend. I recorded two videos for the channels and I wrote several posts for the blog. Feeling pretty pleased with myself. Almost a shame to have to admit that I will most likely not be posting anything on Monday due to the Halloween weekend. Sorry guys, but with the holidays coming up I'm not going to be as prolific as I used to be. If you would like to help keep the content flowing, please consider submitting a guest post. You can reach me at ahwupdate at gmail dot com.

By the way, I updated one of my milestone goals on Patreon. Instead of doing a vlog series on Amazon's The Man in the High Castle, I am going to do a review of HBO's Fatherland in its place. I just couldn't keep my opinion of the new show secret for long, so prepare yourselves this November as my special guest host and I discuss what we liked and didn't like about Amazon's adaptation of Dick's famous and influential alternate history novel.

And now the news...

Would you kill Baby Hitler?

The venerable New York Times caused quite a stir the other day when they asked the question: would you kill baby Hitler? People on Twitter were less than pleased about the question for a variety of reasons. Many argued no one, not even Hitler, is born evil, so changing how he was raised is more appropriate then killing him as a baby. Additionally, explaining to the authorities that you had to kill the baby because he was evil is not going to be an effective defense in a court of law. Finally, we also had the common time travel argument that if you went back in time to kill baby Hitler, then he would never grow up to commit his crimes, thus you would have no reason to go back in time to kill Hitler, thus Hitler grows up to commit all his crimes, thus you go back in time to kill him as a baby, thus Hitler never commits all his crimes...and I just gave myself a migraine.

I have spoken about this on many occasions (most recently on my Trope Talk: No Hitler video) so I won't bore you with reiterating my thoughts again. I will share Gavriel Rosenfeld's, the counterfactual historian and the mind behind The Counterfactual History Review blog, thoughts on the subject. He did an interview with Mother Jones on this very question. Gavriel breaks down the popular hypotehtical and shows how different people from different countries can answer it. I found the whole exchange fascinating and recommend that you check it out.

In the meantime, if you do get your hands on a time machine, try to think of something better to do with it rather than baby killing.

Book of the Week: The Rewind Files by Claire Willett

This week's book of the week goes to The Rewind Files by Claire Willett. Here is the description from Amazon:

WASHINGTON, D.C. 2112 
United States Time Travel Bureau

Chronologist Regina Bellows is great at her job. As a junior agent at the U.S. Time Travel Bureau she finds dangerous time anomalies caused by reckless time-travelers (basically cleaning up other people’s messes) from the comfort and safety of her desk. She knows her lack of social graces and verbal filter would make her a liability in the field.

When she accidentally uncovers a massive "chronomaly" in 1972 about a far-reaching plot to start World War III, she embarks alone on her first field mission ever - as an undercover secretary at the Nixon White House - where the race is on to find the conspirators before they find her.

She’s undertrained, inexperienced, all alone, and World War III is hanging in the balance.

What could possibly go wrong?

The people on Twitter loved this book and so did John DeNardo of SF Signal who called The Rewind Files "[a] fast-moving, first-rate time travel adventure with unexpected twists and surprises." Sounds like a good enough review to add this to my "Want to Read" pile...which never really stops growing.

Picture of the Week

Hey guys, does your significant other ever ask to be treated like a princess? Well make sure to show her this meme:

Ah, history jokes. The most nerdiest of jokes. By the way, if you want more alternate history pictures, go check out this steampunk cafe in Romania and this flying Soviet aircraft carrier.

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Matt Mitrovich is the founder and editor of Alternate History Weekly Update, a blogger on Amazing Stories and a Sidewise Awards for Alternate History judge. When not writing he works as an attorney, enjoys life with his beautiful wife Alana and prepares for the day when travel between parallel universes becomes a reality. You can follow him on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Learn how you can support his alternate history projects on Patreon.

Op-Ed: History Without Hitler?

Hitler is seated at the far right.

William Weber (author of Neither Victor nor Vanquished: America in the War of 1812) was kind enough to point out an op-ed piece in The New York Times by Timothy W. Ryback titled "History Without Hitler?" Here are a few key paragraphs:

We can never know how different history may have looked had Hitler been felled by bullets that early morning a hundred years — whether the Weimar Republic could have survived the postwar political and economic turmoil, whether President Hindenburg would have successfully navigated his country back into monarchy, or whether Europe would have been spared a sequel to the Great War.

Some Germans were already speaking of a “second world war” within a year of the armistice that was to have ended “the war to end all wars.” We can say with certainty that no other political leader of the era would have harnessed national passions or driven an anti-Semitic, pure-race agenda with such ferocity or tragic consequence, resulting in the deaths of millions of European Jews as well as gypsies, homosexuals, the weak and disabled.

So what is the lesson of this particular counterfactual moment for us today? Beyond the fact that the Weimar Republic might well be celebrating the 95th anniversary of its Constitution this autumn, a history without Hitler underscores both the potential and pitfalls of transitioning societies. It shows us that these processes require time, sometimes generations, and how different German history may have been had Hitler fallen with his regiment in Flanders fields 100 years ago this week.

What do you think about Ryback's theory that no other leader could have done what Hitler did? While there are a majority of people who wouldn't hesitate to go back in time and kill Hitler, there are still many who don't believe it would change anything. They presume another "Hitler" would arise if the real Hitler was dead. That being said I have also seen scenarios ranging from a successful Weimar Republic, to a Hohenzollern restoration and even a communist takeover. Which scenario do you think is most likely? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

You can read the full article here and check out Ryback's new book Hitler's First Victims: The Quest for Justice. You can also read another interpretation of Ryback's article at The Counterfactual History Review.

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Matt Mitrovich is the founder and editor of Alternate History Weekly Update and a blogger on Amazing Stories. Check out his short fiction. When not writing he works as an attorney, enjoys life with his beautiful wife Alana and prepares for the inevitable zombie apocalypse. You can follow him on Facebook or Twitter.

Review: Hitler Has Won by Frederic Mullally

Guest post by Chris Nuttall.

There aren’t many good memories from my schooling to revisit, but one of them concerned a teacher who cared enough to suggest books for me.  Hitler Has Won was part of his collection, one of my first forays into alternate history.  It’s dated and out of print, but it is still well worth a read.

It is 1942/43.  Hitler has effectively won the war in Europe, mainly by convincing the Japanese to strike north rather than south.  Accordingly, Moscow fell, Stalin fled east and the Nazis were able to start their grand plans for reconstructing Europe.  In the meantime, Britain fights a seemingly hopeless war in the Middle East, the USA is isolationist and things look pretty damn bad for democracy.

The story revolves around Kurt Armbrecht, a maimed German Army officer who has been given a rather unusual task.  Flushed by victory, Adolf Hitler has embarked upon a final historic task, the completion of volume two of Mein Kampf, the legacy of his victory to the Thousand Year Reich—Mein Sieg!  Hitler intends to establish his literary reputation in the Third Reich, even as his megalomania rises to new heights.  Armbrecht starts out as an unashamed admirer of the Fuhrer, but close contact with Hitler’s court starts him wondering just what is going to happen to Germany in the future.

Mullally deserves credit for one of the better evocations of a victorious Germany, even though the Third Reich is still comparatively young.  Berlin seems normal, but it isn’t long before we see the horrors lurking behind the facade.  German women have slave girls from the east to work for them, some treated worse than animals.  There is an atmosphere of fear hanging over the city, with certain subjects resulting in immediate arrest and imprisonment without trial.  And there are certain rumours that no one looks at too closely.

Armbrecht finds himself an unwilling observer as Hitler slowly becomes obsessed with a whole new target – the Catholic Church, his ambitions fed by a rogue priest.  In the meantime, his sister becomes the target of an SS officer with wandering hands, who takes Armbrecht to visit one of the concentration camps.  Slowly, Armbrecht finds himself wandering into the midst of a plot to force Hitler to finally reach for the Church and have himself declared Pope, intended to finally push Europe into outright rebellion.

Looking back at the book, it is easy to see that much of the endgame is contrived.  Hitler’s position in this alternate world is much stronger than it ever was in reality – even if his power base is shaken, there are few enemies who can take advantage of it.  Britain doesn’t have the military strength to intervene and America isn't immediately in the war (and will need time to build up if she does enter the war.)  Even so, removing Hitler may just lead to civil war – but will it really bring down the Third Reich?

It is possible to see this book as a commentary on the Vatican’s failures in World War Two, because the Vatican failed badly.  While individuals did what they could to help refugees from Hitler’s mass slaughters, the Pope didn’t speak out against the Holocaust, either out of fear of Hitler’s reprisals or...call me a cynic, but is it possible that some in the Vatican might have regarded the Holocaust as a good thing?

Overall, this is a remarkable book that deserves a wider readership.  One may quibble with the outcome, or parts of the plot, but it is a good representation of Nazi Germany and just what being part of such a nation means for its people.

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Chris Nuttall blogs at The Chrishanger and has a website by the same name. His books can be found on Amazon Kindle. Check out his new book The Empire's Corps.

Review: The Kronos Interference by Edward Miller and J.B. Manas

Grade: D+

Whether or not to use your time machine to kill Hitler is a question that plagues everyone, not just alternate historians. The Kronos Interference by Edward Miller and J.B. Manas provides adds its two cents to the discussion. It is another installment in the classic time travel genre where our hero travels back in time to prevent something horrible from happening.

Physicist Jacob Newman is pulled from his family and his job when he gets a call about a strange vessel discovered at the bottom of the South Pacific. Seemingly alien in design, Newman and the team of researchers quickly find evidence of time travel by some unknown force that has been studying violent episodes of human history.  Some believe whoever created the vessel has been building a case against humanity and a judgment day is imminent. To forestall the end of the world and to save his own family, Newman travels back in time 1924 to kill Adolf Hitler when he is still locked in prison. There is a specific reason he chose this date: his grandfather was part of an abandoned plot to kill Hitler and now Jacob is going to convince him to go through with his original place. As can be expected from time travelers with good intentions (see 11/22/63 and The Company of the Dead) the resulting outcome does not go as expected and paradoxes abound.

The plot was solid, but my greatest issue with the story is with the characters. I found them to be unrealistic in their depictions. First, they took everything in stride, whether it was murder or being stuck on the bottom of the ocean inside an alien vessel. The character were limited in their abilities to express shock, fear or awe in situations when they should have been freaking out. There was also too much tell instead of show in the novel. I only knew that the character Beeze was the comic relief because I was told he was funny by Newman. Finally, and this is always a big annoyance of mine, there were just too many instances of dialogue with a character saying "as you know". People generally do not use that phrase when stating the obvious, and even if they do, they do not use that phrase exclusively.

I really wanted to like this novel, especially after seeing how many 5 star reviews it got on Amazon and Goodreads. I did find Newman's interview with Hitler to be one of the more intriguing moments of the books, so there are pros to the novel that prevented me from giving it a lower rating. I would check out some of those other reviews as well before you make your final decision, but in my opinion the The Kronos Interference is a story with potential, but poorly executed.

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Matt Mitrovich is the founder and editor of Alternate History Weekly Update, a volunteer editor for Alt Hist and a contributor to Just Below the Law. His fiction can be found at Echelon Press, Jake's Monthly and his own writing blog. When not writing he works as an attorney and enjoys life with his beautiful wife Alana.

Review: SecondWorld by Jeremy Robinson

Grade: B+

I am always hesitant to review books outside of the genre.  I worry that I will drive away readers who came for alternate history, but were instead presented with something different.  Nevertheless, I still enjoy reading and reviewing novels which could be enjoyed by alternate historians.  Novels like World War Z or Fitzpatrick's War transcend the definition of alternate history and get the term "honorary alternate history" bestowed on them by their fans.  The common denominator for these non-genre books, however, is that they have to be good.  I believe the techno-thriller SecondWorld by Jeremy Robinson could be one of those books.

Our protagonist, Lincoln Miller, is an ex-Navy SEAL, NCIS Special Agent of Jewish and Italian descent.  He is stationed at Aquarius, the world’s only sub-oceanic research facility located off the Florida Keys, to investigate reports of ocean dumping, but in reality it is a vacation for the hard working government agent. He is interrupted when red flakes descend from the surface killing the fish that eat them.  At first Miller believes someone is actually dumping poisons into the water, but when he discovers that he cannot breath on the surface he begins to suspect something much worse has happened.

Someone has attacked Miami, Tel Aviv and Tokyo with a strange weapon that rids the lower atmosphere of oxygen.  Millions are dead and a group called "SecondWorld", with ties to Nazi Germany, has claimed responsibility for the attacks.  Miller is more concerned with getting out of southern Florida alive after a dead blue whale collides with Aquarius.  Collecting what oxygen tanks he can find, he finds a drifting boat and sails it to Miami where he discovers a survivor and some armed SecondWorlders who want him dead.  Though he manages to survive, he wakes up and finds the situation is getting worse.  The United States is in a state of civil war as soldiers go AWOL and entire towns disappear.  Whoever is behind these attacks has completely infiltrated American society and international organizations like Internpol.  Not knowing who to trust, the President of the United States (not named, but modeled after Obama) sends Miller on a mission across the globe to find out who their enemy is and to stop them before they strike again.

Though I try to avoid spoilers in my reviews, from the cover page and my own brief synopsis, you can probably guess that the genesis of the antagonists in SecondWorld reaches back to the last years of World War II, where Nazi Germany is desperately searching for a weapon that will win the war, even if it means postponing their final victory.  In that sense the book has similarities with the Turtledove novel The Man With the Iron Heart and the film Iron Sky.  Though Robinson plays around with history for the sake of the story, he is correct when he references German scientists working for NASA and Nazis hiding in other countries to avoid arrest and execution.  Nevertheless, you can't call this novel an alternate history.  Secret history would be a better term since Robinson does make use of several conspiracy theories (Dulce Base, foo fighters, Nazi UFOs and Die Glocke).  While conspiracy theories make for poor history, in the hands of a good fiction writer they become entertaining stories and in my humble opinion that is the only thing conspiracy theories are good for.

The book was written well, though some characters spoke awfully formal as they were shot at, while the fate of the world hung in the balance.  There were only a few instances of such dialogue, so it was only a minor annoyance, but the technology featured in the novel was a major source of concern for me.  As a techno-thriller, you expect novels like SecondWorld to feature advanced, secret or hypothetical weapons in action.  Yet some of the technology described in the novel sounded so unbelievable that it make the novel a soft SF.  Robinson mentions in the book that the technologies are based on sound scientific principal and while I freely admit I do not have a engineering/scientific background, the implausibility of it made it hard sometimes to maintain the suspension of disbelief.  Perhaps if I get a chance to interview Robinson he can clear up some of the issues with the technology.

Still the book was an entertaining techno-thriller that in some ways made me feel like I was enjoying an intense FPS.  Alternate historians willing to brave other genres should enjoy how Robinson warps our understand of history to dredge up an enemy from the past and unleash him on modern society.  If you do read the novel, ponder Miller's choice in the epilogue and ask whether you would do the same.

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Matt Mitrovich is the founder and editor of Alternate History Weekly Update, a volunteer editor for Alt Hist and a contributor to Just Below the Law. His fiction can be found at Echelon Press, Jake's Monthly and his own writing blog. When not writing he works as an attorney and enjoys life with his beautiful wife Alana.

Consider SEALION

Guest post by Sebastian P. Breit.

Operation SEALION is one of the great red rags of alternate history. It's been tried many times and at different places, but it's been generally agreed that executing the plan at the time (fall of 1940), in that particular strategic situation and with the means at hand was a very bad idea. With that in mind I've tried to come up with a few basic ways to make the idea slightly less bad.

The purpose of this list isn't to be exhaustive, and I'm aware that there are most likely a myriad of other, more specific factors that play a role. It's not about operational details and specifics but more about the general line of approach to make a German victory more plausible (FYI, plausible does not mean likely or guaranteed). This list is in no way exhaustive, and I'm more than aware that some points hinge on a lot of factors out of direct control working exactly as hoped for. As such, consider this more an approach to minimize risks and maximize the chance of a potentially successful outcome. So, with this out of the way, let's consider SEALION.

1. Preparation

This one is self-explanatory. An operation as massive as an amphibious invasion of another country demands the creation not only of the necessary transport capacity but also the establishment of supply stocks & channels as well as working out routines to support the troops over that very specific gap once they are in the field. That means dedicated landing craft in significant quantities PLUS backup landing craft (for example converted barges for calm seas) PLUS aerial transport capacities PLUS supply stashes in northern France & open railroad connections into Germany.

This is imminently possible for Germany to achieve within a comparably short period of time (less than a year). It has the industrial backbone and - due to probably the biggest inland navigation in Europe sans Russia - the necessary manufacturing infrastructure. The main problem here is that the necessary interference into these "civilian" sectors in the time frame during which a German attack against the British mainland was plausible is not a given due to the "short war" vision the Nazi regime still propagated at the time. But the technological and administrative know-how certainly does exist.

a) The railway connections between northern France and the industrial heartland of Germany are adequate to support forward operations, being able to use the well-developed Dutch, Belgian and French networks to build up stocks and quickly bring in supplies from the home front.

b) Germany's large number of river ports and its established use of its main rivers for commercial purposes give it a wide range of inland shipping berths capable of producing vehicles in the <1,000 ton range. A dedicated building program of seaworthy landing crafts would be able to provide a large number of crafts within a comparably short window of time.

c) The Wehrmacht's super-heavy and railroad artillery available in the envisioned window of opportunity consists of at least 60 pieces greater than 20.3 cm with a range of more than 25,000 meters. German radar on the Channel coast can track ships. Use both to prepare a "safe" corridor for the invasion fleet (the move would naturally mean a change away from the originally intended wide front approach). This represents an qualitative and quantitative increase of what Germany planned and did do historically.

2. Concentration of Forces

No wide-front approach (as envisioned by the original SEALION plans) will ever be feasible with the resources even a well-prepared Germany might have. It's just not possible to land forces between Lyme Regis in the west and Ramsgate in the east and expect not to lose significant portions of them already on the voyage. The wider the front the longer the journey the greater the risk of premature detection and interception. Attacking on such a wide front is like sending the RAF, RN and Royal Army a written invitation. It favors the logistics of the defender in every conceivable way. Secondly, such a wide dispersal of forces makes it very difficult to

a) overwhelm local, dug-in defenders and

b) form a Schwerpunkt to counteract British efforts to bolster defenses at the landing zones and strike deeper into south-east England proper.

In essence that means for the Germans to attack on a limited front, ideally beneath the umbrella of CAS and coastal artillery and within a zone where the Luftwaffe in general can claim and extensive operational duration. Landing zones proper should be in an area between Dungeness and Dover, at a maximum between Ramsgate and Eastbourne.

It also means that the invasion force would form an army of its own, meaning it wouldn't consist of elements of several armies (three in the historic case - 6th, 9th and 16th), thus making it easier from a command and control point.

3. Dispersal of Enemy Forces & 4. Deceit

Now we're getting into more troubled waters. Everything mentioned so far was ultimately hinging on the Germans simply doing something. Meaning, no specific reaction on the side of the British was needed to get it underway. Any "Sealion" that is prepared and conducted simply as a military operation is doomed to fail. To even have a plausible chance a large number of factors have to act in concert, with diplomatic and covert operations starting weeks and months before the act.

Points 3 and 4 are closely related. German behavior, German actions elsewhere, German INaction, even matters Germany may have no control over whatsoever have a part in this. Some openings might be these:
- Put the focus on the Mediterranean, drawing in additional Royal Navy and British Army units. The enemy has to be occupied enough to believe he is dealing with a significant part of your overall strength.
- Act militarily passive against Britain (the island) itself: take a purely defensive stance, limit raids and submarine warfare.
- Due to a passive stance allow for RN vessels to be withdrawn prematurely to deter the Japanese.
- Convey the lasting (i.e. for at least several months) impression of desperately wanting to seek peace by using non-aligned and not yet hostile nations to approach the Empire's embassies.
- (20/20 hindsight) Order your spy network to feel out the mood for war/peace in Great Britain. Since 99% of your spies are actually double agents turned by MI5 Britain will have to assume you're seriously interested in a cessation of hostilities.
- Pre-invasion (app. one week): launch surface raid into the Atlantic to draw away some of the RN's capital ships. Give them a necessary incentive to follow you in strength.

Or put simpler: concentrate your enemy's aerial and land strength elsewhere, encourage him to disperse his naval strength as much as possible.

5. The Element of Surprise

This is really just the Schlieffenplan dynamic all over again. German transportation and mobilization has to be fast enough to outpace the British response. Troops and equipment need to be carried to the harbors fast enough to avoid British detection as long as possible, and they have to get there while British forces on land, sea and air are largely engaged elsewhere. Additionally to much of points 1 to 4 having to function this also means that during the time of preparing the whole operation the Germans will have to optimize their logistics network between Germany, the Low Countries and Northern France.

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Well, and that's that. Tell me what you think. As I said at the start, this list is far from exhaustive so don't get all mad because I didn't mention that one specific point you had in mind. If you like, add to the list yourself.

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Sebastian P. Breit is the author of the alternate history novel Wolf Hunt. You can find news, reviews, and commentary on all matters regarding WW2 on his blog, The War Blog, and follow his writing progress on his personal website.