alternatehistory.com

Introduction and Acknowledgements


The following counterfactual story and it’s outcome until the mid 30’s is one of the bases of ‘The Dark Colossus’ story that is also being posted on this board. In addition, it is also one of the bases of two other alternative history stories that I am currently developing under the working titles ‘Mangin’s World’ and ‘Hannussen’s World’ (The working title of ‘Dark Colossus’ was ‘Contasino’s World’).

First and foremost I would like to express my thanks to my daughters, the older one - though just a tiny child at the time - taught me the valuable lesson that in fact I didn’t need nearly as much sleep as I had previously thought, while the younger one has reinforced the message handily. Without this stimulus to my creativity it is highly unlikely I would ever get any writing done at all.

I have been tinkering with the notion of alternate Washington Treaties for nearly twenty years but the version of the treaty presented here was inspired by the Washington Treaty Renegotiation Exercise that was debated out on the Battleship vs Battleship message board of Warships1 in 2001 and in particular Richard Hawes appreciation of that exercise that he was good enough to share with many of the participants and spectators including myself. It will be noted that the treaty presented here is somewhat different from the final treaty agreed in WTRE.

Several of the passages in the sections on the RN, USN and the Italian Navy are adapted from Richard Hawes appreciation of WTRE and are credited accordingly. Please note that Mr. Hawes has asserted his moral right with regards to WTRE and they are copyright © material. The passages are used with the permission of Richard Hawes, P.Geol.,

One of the passages in the main body of the text is taken from a post by David Chessum made on the message board of Bob Henneman’s ‘All the World’s Battle Cruisers’ website in answer to a question and is credited accordingly.

A passage in the section on the Reichsmarine is adapted from a post by Joseph Czarnecki made on one of the message boards of Tony DeGuilan and Guy Derdal’s ‘Warships1’ website in answer to a question and is credited accordingly.

One of the passages in the section on the RN is taken from a post made by Stuart Slade on the message boards of the ‘History, Politics and Current Affairs’ discussion forum in answer to a question and is credited accordingly.

The intent and substance of what was written by these gentlemen has been changed by me to serve my story.

I would also like to express my gratitude to Joseph Czarnecki, Theodore Leverett, Paul Flower, Shane Rogers and a poster who prefers to be known only as ‘Nik AKA Speaker to Cats’ for their suggestions, comments and criticism of part of an early draft posted on both the Naval Fiction Board of Warships1 and the fiction board of History Politics and Current Affairs.

All errors are my own.
Top