Stormtide Rising

Author’s Note:

Dear Readers,

After the shock and surprise of finding that Takami was not the only warship from 2021 to challenge Karpov’s reign of terror, Kirov narrowly averts disaster. Once again, Karpov resorts to the last extreme to repel the dangerous attack by stealth jets that his helicopters have been unable to see and track. The string of glide bombs unleashed by Admiral Kita’s F-35’s seemed, at first, to be much less of a threat than the fast moving missiles Kirov might fling at its enemies, yet they prove to be very accurate, capable of delivering a saturation attack that simply puts too many weapons on target for the ship to defend itself. As Karpov himself grimly admits, something always gets through.

His resort to the use of one of his three precious nuclear warheads to blast one wave of the glide bomb attack out of the sky, was still barely enough to save the ship. Friedrich Nietzsche wrote that: “One must still have chaos in oneself to give birth to a dancing star.” Karpov, though sobered and wizened by his experience, still has that chaos within, which is why he does not hesitate to manifest it in the world about him. He unleashed his star, and saved the ship, and yet his final resort to speed and endurance remains unspoken testimony to the danger he now perceives, not only to the ship and crew, but to the soaring artifice of his ambitions; his lofty position as head of the Free Siberian State, and his aspirations to restore Russia’s lost territories, seized by Japan so long ago after his failed sortie to 1908. He has unfinished business there, as we shall see at the end of this volume.

In the meantime Ivan Gromyko has taken Kazan north to go carrier hunting, though he risks detection in a dangerous environment where his enemies can launch helicopters from nearly every ship in their task force, each one capable of finding and killing his sub.

We will return briefly to naval matters at the outset of this volume, to the admirals on every side as they assess their current situation, Tovey, Karpov, Kita, and Raeder. But Adolf Hitler also makes a number of appearances here that will have a dramatic effect on the course of events, both at sea and in Operation Phoenix. Regarding that, our hero Anton Fedorov, has been quietly at work behind the scenes, leaking information to German intelligence that has a most dramatic effect.

As Admiral Raeder sees the very existence of his surface fleet now at stake, he gets a new and most unexpected mission, a last dance for his warriors at sea to prove their worth. Then we return to the Tunisian Front where Erwin Rommel will also strive to regain lost glory with Operation Sturmflut, (Stormtide.) There he jousts with a most capable opponent in George Patton, and the outcome weighs heavily on the career tracks of both men.

Vladimir Karpov is not the only man with chaos in his soul, and the will to unleash the full measure of every weapon at his command. The Führer makes a most surprising attack in this volume, and then we return to Heinz Guderian’s invasion of Iraq. It will lead him inevitably to the heart of that country, the sprawling, steamy city of Baghdad, which he must take to have any hope of continuing on to the south. Reluctant to fight that battle of attrition, he has no choice, and a detailed presentation of that struggle sits at the heart of this volume.

The action at Baghdad was simulated at company level on a scale of 125 meters per hex. To do so I had to obtain a map of the city as it was in the 1940s, and I will post a number of battle maps for all that action here on the web site. (But be advised that they can be spoilers for that action. I note which map depicts the events within the narrative to make for safer viewing at the appropriate time). For the fighting in Tunisia, I’ve just placed a general reference map online so you can find the towns mentioned and get to know the geography that so influenced that battle.

As Stormtide Rising concludes, I again reserve the last segments for Karpov, Kirov and the situation in the Pacific as both sides take a hard look at what may lie in store for them, and make a startling decision. Enjoy!