Turning Point

Coming 1 FEB 2016…

As fans of John Schettler’s Kirov Series already know, the author is presenting a detailed alternate history of WWII, with the course of events strongly influenced by the presence of the battlecruiser Kirov, and other war fighting forces from the year 2021, which have been displaced to the cauldron of WWII.

Now, in response to reader requests, we are presenting a series of “Battle Books” for all the major campaigns featured in Kirov Series. Often times the action depicting these battles is spread over four, five or more volumes of the series. Here we will extract all that exciting battle action from the many volumes, gathering all the disparate story threads pertaining just to that campaign, and presenting it as one continuous file, reviewed and edited by the series author. In effect, it’s just the battles please, nothing more.

This first volume will present the great action presented for the Western Theater, starting with the dramatic and unexpected German attack on Gibraltar in Operation Felix. The alternate history ‘point of departure’ is presented in a brief prelude. The story then moves to the Western Desert for O’Connor’s Raid and the battle of Beda Fomm, followed immediately by the coming of Erwin Rommel and his stunning first counteroffensive launched from Mersa Brega, Operation Sonnenblume. The fall of Malta is covered and, as the arrival of Brigadier Kinlan’s 7th Brigade is so vital to the understanding of the story that follows, segments of that are presented as a prelude to Rommel’s fateful alternate history encounter at the Battle of Bir El Khamsa. Soon the Desert Fox begins to rethink his tactics while awaiting strong reserves promised by Hitler.

Yes, we loved Kirov, the characters, and all the intrigue surrounding Ilanskiy and time travel, but the battle books are presented for the hard core WWII aficionado who is primarily interested in the history, and how it is changed and altered over the course of the war. As such, they will focus mainly on the historical characters and the campaigns and battles they waged in this ongoing alternate history of WWII.

Battle Book II will present the action in the Middle East, with the British Operation Scimitar, German Operation Anvil, and the intervention in Iraq that led Fedorov and his Marines to the famous ruins of Palmyra. Then it is back to the desert again, as Rommel faces down the British Operation Crusader. After that we will present this ongoing desert campaign through 1942 and beyond, (after John writes all that!), but for now, Battle Book I, War in the West, covers all the exciting battles from June of 1940 through June of 1941, the first year when Britain faced the might of Germany alone. It’s all here, extracted from scenes presented over seven Kirov Series novels, and concentrated in one continuous, uninterrupted narrative.

The Battle Books Series will do the same thing for all the fighting on the Eastern Front, covering all the material for Operation Barbarossa, the Battle at Mtsensk, Operation Typhoon, the fighting at Tula and Serpukhov, the dramatic Fall of Moscow and the desperate Russian Winter Counteroffensive. Later, after the series takes us deeper into the Pacific, we’ll create a battle book for all that action too. If you are a WWII history buff, you will find here the concentrated juice of all the great WWII action presented in the amazing Kirov Series.

Kirov Series: Battle Book I

War in the West

Gibraltar, Malta & the War in North Africa

Jun 1940 ~ Jun 1941