Customer Reviews

Third Reich Victorious: Alternate Decisions of World War II

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Third Reich Victorious is a collection of alternate history stories (companion to Rising Sun Victorious) about World War 2. It contains ten stories of alternate outcomes, with either the Germans winning in Europe or else still losing, but having it take much longer to finish the war.

Most of the stories are thoughtful and interesting, although a few stretched belief. For instance, in the first one, Germany wins through sea power where a young Hitler becomes a naval officer rather than in the infantry. He also loses his racism against the Jews after a lecture by an admired NCO. Basically, it's not the same Nazi Germany here. Well that seems easy to write, when everything is different. I prefer alternate stories where you're basically dealing with the same personalities and they just happen to make a different choice than they did historically, or they excute better.

There are many well written stories here though and all stories are well footnoted, which the reader will appreciate greatly. Very nice.

Peter Tsouras is a good writer as proven by his earlier effort "Disaster at D-Day," an excellent story of what could have happened at Normandy in 1944. He took a few critical 'what ifs' and extrapolated on them to produce a sound alternative to actual history.

His work as an editor was not quite up to this level of excellence however. Most of the stories are chosen are interesting and some of them are real gems. Many military enthusaists have wondered about the what ifs like Turkeys entrance into the War on the Axis' side, if the Luftwaffe had continued to hit the battered RAF instead of going after the cities during the Blitz etc. Also the military aspects are well researched and small details show the attention paid to this aspect of the stories.

Other stories are real stretches, such as the before mentioned Hitler as a naval enthusaist. The Russian first strike into German occupied Europe is a good read but Zhukov was by no means the eminent Soviet leader then he would be by 43-44. No way at that time would he have led an invading Soviet force.

Most of these are simply quibbles, the book is a good read overall and worth purchasing. There is some very good stories here and even the less probable are well written. Enjoy!

A real eye opener.

This is real alternate history. Each of the selected articles could actually have happened. Though I do have my reservations on how the Germans might have reacted to a Soviet Invasion. Adolf Hitler had a habit of demanding Stand and Fight Regardless of situation, such as Stalingrad. More German soldiers probably died because of his lack of insight than allied military genius. And the sight of Rommel just exploding at the sights of Dachau, like his American counterparts did after the war. Dachau was not that bad yet. Auschwitz or Majdanek would have been a better place to put him in scene.

Over all, this is a great book on what could have been had chance gone a different direction.

The title is a tad misleading in that most of the scenarios the author offers do not include the Third Reich actually winning the war but merely delaying their defeat. I suppose there is something in our collective consciousness that prohibits us from contemplating a Nazi path to victory but isn't a book like this the platform for such an intellectual exercise?

In looking back at the war there were many opportunities for the Nazis to win the war or to at least hold onto their gains. In the book, "Lost Victories" by Field Marshal Erich von Manstein, many of these squandered opportunities are explored.

Frankly, buy THAT book and you'll have a better and more satisfying read than I did with this one. This is a nice pastime and I still recommend it, but it is not as good as it could be.

The main problem with this collection of stories/essays, as in the other volumes in this series edited by Mr. Tsouras, is that the format places too much a limitation on these stories; some of them really deserve to be expanded to book-length. I will say that my favorite chapter was the first entry, looking at what might have happened if Hitler had joined the High Seas Fleet instead of the Army at the beginning of the Great War. It's one of the ones that should have gotten the book treatment.

The book's title is a slight misnomer, as not all of the stories and essays actually depict a Nazi victory; the intent here is more to look at alternate outcomes of how the Third Reich might have conducted certain military operations. In several cases, the ultimate outcome isn't victory for Germany. (Specifically, this refers to the essay dealing with alternate air-war strategy and the examination of how Germany might have managed to get the atomic bomb.) One story deals not with Germany as such, but with an ally that might have been, Turkey; that particular story is another one that could have stood expansion, as its ending feels curiously cut-off, as if the author had been set a word count limit and had run up against it.

Best enjoyed by strong alternate-history fans, especially those who like looking at how World War II might have happened otherwise.

I thought the book was EXCELLENT it did give a outlook to What if? The German Airforce was one of the biggest advantages they had. In the book a General who Hitler admired (who died early in the war) convinced Hitler to get the jet program going and included long range bombers,also the ships did have a Advantage in a strike first operation that might have turned the tide......

This is a collection of 10 alternate history stories by accomplished military history writers and editors. Peter Tsouras writes the last story and edits the book. The cover and title are a bit misleading. "Ten Dynamic Scenarios in Which Hitler Wins the War". This is true of the early stories, but as the book goes on, a few stories end with Germany simply surviving the end of the war, and one in which they lose the war. Hitler is also killed in more than one scenario. That aside, I found all of the stories well written. The more enjoyable ones were those that only twisted history a little bit to show that things could have been very different very easily. Those stories felt much more realistic than the ones that took major liberties with the "what if" scenario. I liked the book and will be picking up the companion book, "Rising Sun Victorious" next.

Nothing really special here, folks. A standard series of scenarios on an alternate history topic that's been done to death. On the other hand, most of the scenarios are decently written, and some are actually quite original. If you enjoy this book, you should also enjoy its companion book, Rising Sun Victorious, by the same author.

For the most part, this was an enjoyable experience in reading some what ifs and alternative histories on Germany possible doing things different to win WWII.

Some minor gripes:

* In a few of the 10 essays, Germany still lost the war...so therefore, they were not truly victorious so a bit of a misleading title in that case, but maybe a few of the people that wrote their invidivual essays just did their own unique thing and did not adhere strictly to directions? So, I'm not going to crucify the book on a couple of those.
* Some of the essays were bogged down with tedious military details. I'm not in the military and not joining the military anytime soon, so all the numerous divisions, corps, regiments, etc, can hurt the eyes after a while and you find yourself going back a page to make sure the division on the next page is the one you remember from earlier, etc. For the most part I could handle this but a couple of the author's went a little excessive on that front.

That said, enjoyable read for the most part. Some great alternative scenarios explained very well by each author I thought. Very well written, the tedious military details in a few scenarios nonwithstanding. My favorite one had to be the first one, Little Admiral, I thought it was very well done and coincidentally my favorite scenario in the Japanese WWII alternative history by Tsouras was written by the same historian that wrote Little Admiral. Overall, this is a good book and for the price a good buy in my opinion.

This book is made up of ten scenarios that would have changed the outcome of WW2. Only the first is pure fantasy while the rest are based on actual battle preparations that could have gone either way depending on change of strategy or luck. One of the main failures of the book are the maps that are employed. Most don't cover all of the areas involved, and those that do, don't include all of the major military points (i.e. cities) involved.

Most of the writers are military men and not authors. Their stories tend to be ponderous and weighted down but unnecessary detail as to army designations and movements. Instead of describing the overall campaign envisioned they get wrapped-up in small inconsequential happenings. That said, those stories that are good, are really good and make up for those that are boring. Uneven but interesting.