An Old Man Shuffling...

London, April 1987

If you know where to look, you can still find him. Sometimes he'll be down near Waterloo other times up by the Tower. He's old and doesn't move that well - he shuffles- and his teeth are bad.

Most days, you'll find him by one of the soup kitchens near the Bank - they make sure he has a hot meal and somewhere to sleep but his mind is gone and very few would now recognise him. There are a very few who stand by him and keep him safe.

This is his life now - just occasionally he'll tell you of his life, of the wars and the days of glory. He doesn't talk much about his recent past, since he was released from prison.

One of his cellmates looks after him as do a few of his former comrades not that there's any real threat now. It all happened so long ago and while the children and grandchildren of his victims might want him dead, most of the world believes he died in prison.

He didn't.

He's still there - living in the streets he once ruled, among the people he once led to glory and disaster, in the city he saw destroyed twice and now rebuilt. Would he recognise it now ?

Does he even care ?
 
Thanks..

Thanks for the comments...

In order...

Wrong, though he'll play a peripheral role in the timeline/scenario.

Wrong

Wrong

It's NOT an historical figure from OTL, more a composite. The POD is 1918.

The man is younger than Hitler by about a decade.

He is generally regarded as the 20th Century's greatest mass murderer - take Stalin, Hitler, Mao from OTL and multiply by three and you're somewhere near the truth.

For around 15 years or so, he was the most powerful person on the planet until he was betrayed by those around him.

I'll post another "teaser" in a day or two.
 
Teaser Two...

Extract from "A Diary of Defeat" by Captain Michael Rowlands, 40th Infantry Division (published Manchester 1925)

September 26th 1918:

Called to HQ for an important briefing. It seems we are resume our advance toward Ypres in the next two days. The mood at GHQ is tired but confident. There is a sense that the Germans are faltering - they have retreated constantly since August 8th.

The Americans are growing stronger to our south and GHQ believes the war can be won next spring or be carried back into Germany itself. That is not a prospect I relish. The Germans will doubtless fight like savages for every inch of our homeland as we would had the Germans landed at Dover.

Returned to the line - will brief the men in the morning.

September 27th 1918:

Awakened by Cpl Reid at 4am - a strange glow illuminating the skies to the west and north-west. Orange, like fire. No one knows what it can be.

Briefed the men after breakfast.

Some exchange of fire with the Germans mid-morning - no injuries.

The mood had changed by evening - rumours began to swirl around the trenches of a terrible attack by a new weapon.

Message arrived at last light - the attack has been postponed. The sky to the west and north-west glows again - it is clearly fire. There is another area closer to the south-west. The fire is less but it is clearly a huge fire in Paris or near Paris.

My sleep is troubled.

September 28th 1918:

No word, nothing, all day. Telephone calls to GHQ go unanswered. Something is very wrong.

September 30th 1918:

After two days of silence, we are summoned to GHQ. There is a deep sense of foreboding in the air. There are rumours the war is over...
 
Nuclear (or similar) weapons in WW1???

Now I´m REALLY intrigued!


Not possible for nukes then: neither the physics nor the chemical technology needed to produce fissionable materials had been developed (that would take roughly another twenty years or more). I'm guessing massive incendiary weapons: white phosphorus had been known for about 250 years or more by then, and refining, though not advanced by today's standards, was easily capable of producing combustibles/flammables in sufficient quantities.
 
Not possible for nukes then: neither the physics nor the chemical technology needed to produce fissionable materials had been developed (that would take roughly another twenty years or more). I'm guessing massive incendiary weapons: white phosphorus had been known for about 250 years or more by then, and refining, though not advanced by today's standards, was easily capable of producing combustibles/flammables in sufficient quantities.

The nukes comment was rather whimsical, I know this - after all, POD is 1918, not 1850 or so. A more plausible assumption would be that somehow (by sabotage, raid or just dumb luck) the Germans got to the main ammunition stockpiles of the Allies. That it was not in one but in several places suggests more than just luck. Incendiary weapons alone wouldn´t produce the effect described unless there is a whole trainload of white phosphorus going up; there must be a large amount of other combustible materials.
 
Top