1943

Author’s Note:

Dear Readers,

Here we go into 1943, and with a book that will be exclusively devoted to action on the Pacific Front. If any of you happened to pick up the Roll of Thunder/Sea of Fire battle book duo, then with this book you will have the entire Pacific theater subplot in hand from Pearl Harbor to this action in January 1943.

We’ll begin here with the strategy the US devises to begin offensive operations, as they have been pushed as far as they can afford to go, and can yield no further territory to Japan. Now it is time to fight back, and so in this volume we will be returning to the major ground battles fought on Viti Levu in the Fiji Group, and the subsequent naval engagements fought to support that battle.

But the Americans have built up a great deal of strength through 1942, both with land forces and in the Navy. In this altered meridian, the arrival of each Essex Class carrier is accelerated by about 3 months, but as you will see, the Japanese also have a few tricks up their sleeve. I’ll also lay the groundwork here for a lot of new planes on both sides that will soon be entering the war.

The year ahead is going to be very busy, as we now have both Patton and Monty gearing up for a big push on Tunisia. That will be next, and then it will be followed by the Spring thaw in Russia, and the Germans once again transitioning to offensive operations on the East Front. While the Soviets staved off defeat with Zhukov’s stunning winter offensive of 1942-1943, the battles to be fought in 1943 will decide the fate of Sergei Kirov’s Soviet Union, and by extension, they could very well decide the outcome of the entire war.

I’m looking forward to writing it all for you, and as always, the major characters you have all come to know and love will play prominent roles in all this action. One last note… Somebody finally got the Kirov series in to Wikipedia! Halleluiah! You can check out the link here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirov_(novel_series), and I am very grateful to whoever it was out there who took the time to do this.

Thank you!