Silverbird

Captain Gordon Connel fruitlessly tried to stuff his parachute back under him as the crew chief viciously pulled down on the leather straps. Not that it would probably do him any good, but at least it was more comfortable than the wire-frame chair. The endless tests and practices, culminating with Jack's single-stage flight to the far north last month, had their effect, and this flight seemed perfectly routine. Just a little jaunt to the sky and back again. And if the damn krauts have their way, it will be, thought Gordon ruefully. The chief finally crawled out of the tiny hatch, and closed it with a latch that suddenly seemed far too flimsy. The krauts were on the radio now, checking off each system individually. All "ja"s so far, no "nein"s. Gordon wasn't sure whether to be thrilled or horrified. When the Flight Manager (an Australian) eventually got around to saying "pwi-let", he gave his most refined "yes", and flicked the cover off the launch relay. After a final check of the weather, Gordon received the command to launch, and closed the relay almost subconsciously. The experience of being thrust far back into his seat, however, was entirely new, and quite exhilarating. Very briefly, a small part of Cold Lake became hot.

....

September 23, 1944 (a few hours later), Sakhalin, USSR

In an action attributed to counter-revolutionary sabotage, an oil refinery suffers an explosion and catches fire. The pair of KGB investigators at the scene quietly collect a few bomb fragments and debate who will tell their superior the news. Meanwhile, a fisherman writes to “his dearest cousin” in neutral Sweden about the recent act of dastardly sabotage…

Simon ;)
 
Part 1: The Escape

From Moonshot: The Long Journey, Doubleday 1983

The final days of the Weimer republic were marked by confusion and desperation. As the economy collapsed, politics became increasingly radical. After the death of Chancellor Stresemann and financial collapse in 1929, both communist and nationalist parties began to gain sizable parts of the Reichstag, though in similar amounts. The NSDAP (national socialist) briefly seemed to be gaining fastest, only to be decapitated when a KPD (communist) gunman shot the effective leader of the party, Adolf Hitler, during a speech in Munich. Though this was followed by massive riots of NSDAP strongmen, it had its intended effect, and the political battle for Germany was now between the center-socialists and the communists...

... After the dual communist victory in 1933, many German and Austrian intellectuals who were wary of Stalin’s motives (and had the means) moved west, to France, Great Britain, or the United States. Among them were several members of the Verein für Raumschiffahrt (VfR, Society for Rocketflight), including Herman Oberth, Werner von Braun, and most famously, Eugen Sanger...

Simon ;)
 
So the Sibervogels going to be an Anglo-American project?!

Anyway this looks good don't think I've ever seen a Silverbird TL outside Nazi wanks and My Tank is Fight.
 
So the Sibervogels going to be an Anglo-American project?!

Who said anything about the Americans giving up their splendiforus isolation? :)

As of 1944, the USA is still officially neutral in the War Against World Communism (need to think of a better name). That said, if the Communists weren't exactly popular in the US before 1933, they're exactly not going to be hot stuff eleven years later. I'm not going to get too too much into the politics, as this is primarily a technology TL, but suffice to say, it's Britain, France, and Italy (with US material support) versus the Soviets and Communist Germany/Austria.

The Silverbird is essentially the TTL Allied version of the Manhattan Project, though it will engender vastly different consequences...

Simon ;)
 
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