Happy and Glorious.

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usertron2020

Donor
Devolved said:
Happy and Glorious

continued

February 10th 1947

In Europe morale was already collapsing among many Allied units and there was no stomach for war. The Soviets were in the same position with many of their troops deserting too. (1) The morale problem was even being acknowledged by Patton who sent a message to Washington urging that the Atom Bomb be used in Western Europe.

"My men are asking why they are fighting and dying in the snow when Washington has the weapons that could stop the enemy advance in its tracks without a single GI having to get hurt" he said.

Ernest Bevin the new British Prime Minister had come to a similar conclusion. (2)
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1) Does this mean that circumstances have become so dire for the Soviets that they are running out of penal brigades and barrage battalions?

2) :eek: If by "Western Europe" this means Germany.:( IIRC (tho I admit its been a long time:eek:) the USA at its current rate of usage is actually going to be growing its stockpile of atomic weapons (slowly). We shall see.
 

jonnic123

Hi Devolved great news on the book will it be print or ebook? as you might remember I joined this forum on the back of this story and I have been anticipating the book for a while. I have a couple more questions is it in one volume or are you going to tease us some more and have you done a complete rewrite of the thread?
thanks for the entertainment
john.
 

Devolved

jonnic123 said:
Hi Devolved great news on the book will it be print or ebook? as you might remember I joined this forum on the back of this story and I have been anticipating the book for a while. I have a couple more questions is it in one volume or are you going to tease us some more and have you done a complete rewrite of the thread?
thanks for the entertainment
john.
Click to expand...

Thank you John.

The thread has been mostly rewritten although the central idea of the Glorious surviving and changing history remains.

In the new version the Glorious is more active and sinks more ships.

Book One ends with the surrender in North Africa.

Unfortunately things have taken longer than expeced because of work schedules and general laziness. I will post a snippet soon.
 

Devolved

Happy and Glorious

continued

February 10th 1947

The news of Churchill's death stunned all who listened and for many years people remembered where they were and what they were doing when they first heard it. On the frontline the reaction was to boost morale as soldiers became more determined to fight. There was little clear thinking in Britain over the next few days as the bitter cold, a Third World War and the death of Churchill led many to feel that the world had truly ended.

Ernest Bevin made his own broadcast in the afternoon. He said that the policy of the government remained the same and that British bulldog would still savage the Russian bear etc....

Adriatic

HMS Glorious spent the day launching air strikes on targets in Yugoslavia with two Fireflies lost.

Moscow

Stalin smiled when he heard of Churchill's death but there was no gloating. Later in the day he said that it made things worse because Churchill was a man he felt he could do business with. Bevin, despite being a socialist despised communism even more than Churchill did and was far less forgiving.

He then recieved a phone call that made him forget everything else he had been told. Beria was still alive and was in the Caucasus.

TBC
 
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usertron2020

Donor
Oh to be a fly on the wall when Beria walks into Zhukov's HQ. Assuming he gets that far...

When did the blizzards of that year break in Europe?
 

Devolved

Happy and Glorious

continued

February 11th 1947

Tiblisi

Zhukov let out a huge laugh as he saw a bedraggled Beria enter his makeshift HQ. He had been beaten and robbed by one of his own guards on his long joureny from Moscow and seemed to be a shadow of the man everyone knew.

Zhukov waited for him to sit and poured himself a drink. He didn't offer one to Beria.
"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't cut off your head and send it to comrade Stalin" he said as he looked at Beria with scarcely concealed contempt.
"Because you wouldn't want to make him so happy" he replied.
"Maybe I want to make myself happy" he continued and downed a glass of vodka and then let out a loud belch.
"So..are you going to listen to what I have to offer or are you going to just kill me?"
"Perhaps both"

Amsterdam

"Is everything prepared?" asked Vatutin to an NKVD officer.
"Yes comrade but I expect the weather will nullify the effects"
"That's not important. It's the message that matters".

TBC
 

usertron2020

Donor
The Retreating Blizzard said:
The last major blizzards to hit the UK were at the beginning of March, and then it started to rain. :(
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So according to wiki after the Great Blizzard comes the Great Flood. Jeez they can't get a break. OTOH even the Soviets had no magic wand in answer to what they called 'spuznitsa' (sp?), the Mud Season. Even on the Russian Front in OTL WWII it stopped all offensive operations, except right on the front lines. It was hell on logistics too.

Evolved said:
Happy and Glorious

continued

February 11th 1947

Tiblisi

<snip>
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The fly drops dead laughing.:p

Amsterdam

"Is everything prepared?" asked Vatutin to an NKVD officer.
"Yes comrade but I expect the weather will nullify the effects"
"That's not important. It's the message that matters".

TBC
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Very good points both ways. A solid recognition of the realities of trying for gas warfare in a blizzard (long discussed on this thread since the start of this ATL's WWIII), and Stalin's interest more in political messages over military ones. I wonder? Is Stalin so completely gone that he doesn't care if Moscow goes? Would Leningrad declare itself to be an Open City to prevent itself from being nuked?:confused:
 

Devolved

Happy and Glorious the movie....sorry the book is out now.

At the moment it's available on Barnes and Noble, Nook book. Other websites and formats will follow soon.

Book One is from April 1940 to February 1943.

It's 155,000 words so it should kill a lot of time if you are commuter!
 

usertron2020

Donor
Devolved said:
Happy and Glorious the movie....sorry the book is out now.

At the moment it's available on Barnes and Noble, Nook book. Other websites and formats will follow soon.

Book One is from April 1940 to February 1943.

It's 155,000 words so it should kill a lot of time if you are commuter!
Click to expand...

Why is Barnes & Noble Book Nook being such a pain in the ass!?:mad: After getting as far as the Battle of the Coral Sea, now it keeps kicking me out! Use AMAZON next time!:mad: Astrodragon did, and I've never had any problems with his books.:(
 

Astrodragon

Smashwords has the advantage of covering all formats, and it distributes to B&N, Apple, etc for you. Given that some of them are weird about non-US people, this is a bonus.

It also has the advantage that its checker is a bit more stringent than Amazon, so if it passes that its only a couple of lines change to put it up on Amazon.

I'm giving a talk on how to do all of this at this years Eastercon in Glasgow...
 

Astrodragon

usertron2020 said:
Why is Barnes & Noble Book Nook being such a pain in the ass!?:mad: After getting as far as the Battle of the Coral Sea, now it keeps kicking me out! Use AMAZON next time!:mad: Astrodragon did, and I've never had any problems with his books.:(
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Its a US company, it doesn't like BritWanks...:D:p:D
 

Devolved

usertron2020 said:
Why is Barnes & Noble Book Nook being such a pain in the ass!?:mad: After getting as far as the Battle of the Coral Sea, now it keeps kicking me out! Use AMAZON next time!:mad: Astrodragon did, and I've never had any problems with his books.:(
Click to expand...

You read pretty fast to get to the Coral Sea.

Smashwords and Amazon are on their way.
 
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