The War That Came Early
| Author | Harry Turtledove |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Alternate history |
| Publisher | Del Rey Books |
|
Publication date
|
August 4, 2009 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover & Paperback) |
| Pages | 512 |
| ISBN |
| Author | Harry Turtledove |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Alternate history |
| Publisher | Del Rey Books |
|
Publication date
|
July 27, 2010 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover) |
| Pages | 448 |
| ISBN |
| Author | Harry Turtledove |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Alternate history |
| Publisher | Del Rey Books |
|
Publication date
|
July 19, 2011 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover) |
| Pages | 480 |
| ISBN |
| Author | Harry Turtledove |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Alternate history |
| Publisher | Del Rey Books |
|
Publication date
|
July 31, 2012 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover) |
| Pages | 432 |
| ISBN |
| Author | Harry Turtledove |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Alternate history |
| Publisher | Del Rey Books |
|
Publication date
|
July 23, 2013 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover) |
| ISBN |
The War That Came Early is a six-volumealternate history series by Harry Turtledove, in which World War II begins in 1938 over Czechoslovakia. The first volume, Hitler's War, was released in hardcover in 2009 without a series title. Subsequently, the paperback edition was announced as The War That Came Early: Hitler's War.
The series is six volumes:
In this series the initial point of divergence occurs on July 20, 1936 with Spanish Nationalist leader José Sanjurjo listening to his pilot's advice and changing the conditions of his flight back to Spain – thus averting the crash that caused his death in our timeline. However, in the following two years the course of the Spanish Civil War remains virtually the same as Sanjurjo makes identical military and political decisions that Francisco Franco did in real history; only the name of the Nationalist leader has changed. Only in 1939 does Sanjurjo make a significantly different decision, aiding the Axis conquest of Gibraltar, while in real history Franco carefully maintained cordial relations with the British. This, however, comes after the series' main point of divergence.
The timeline again — and far more significantly — diverges from history in September 1938. UK Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and French Prime Minister Édouard Daladier meet German Führer Adolf Hitler at Munich, ready to appease Hitler and force Czechoslovakia into surrender. However, their supine attitude and manifest wish to avoid war at any price arouse Hitler's predatory instinct. While his generals want to gain time for further building up Germany's armed forces, Hitler feels that the time to strike is now while his opponents are so obviously unprepared. With the extensive British and French concessions, Hitler has no pretext to launch a war; however, news of the assassination of Sudeten German leader Konrad Henlein by a Czech nationalist suddenly gives him a casus belli (in actual history, Henlein lived until 1945). Hitler jubilantly declares that there is no further room for negotiations and that his army will attack Czechoslovakia immediately. Chamberlain and Daladier erroneously believe that Hitler himself had Henlein assassinated and — much against their will — are forced to declare war in fulfilment of their treaty obligations to Czechoslovakia.
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Wikipedia