Steel Reign

Author’s Note:

Dear Readers,

We begin this volume with a visit to an old friend, yes, still out there in the ether somewhere, and Kirov also returns to the narrative, which will bring several of the ship’s characters into light again. Something is happening at both ends of the strange, attenuated rope that seems to connect the two ships, the one we first steamed into history with, and its doppelganger at large now in the Sea of Okhotsk. How it resolves will be very important.

Meanwhile, we finished Turning Point at Hill 498, where Rommel finds once again that he simply cannot prevail in the desert as long as Kinlan’s 7th Brigade is on the scene. The first “Battle Book” in the series was released Feb 1st, all 58 chapters of the saga in the desert with Rommel, presenting that entire narrative as extracted from seven series novels in one continuous 500 page file. I hope you like the concept of seeing these major subplots from the series concentrated in a single volume like this. We will have another doing the same for all material in the war on the eastern front, and Sergei Kirov’s struggle for survival, and then another for the entire war in the Pacific.

Readers suggested that other major subplots get this treatment too, and one is the long vendetta between the two great villains in the series, Vladimir Karpov and Ivan Volkov. That would capture all the intrigue and fighting for control of Ilanskiy in one continuous narrative, and the great Zeppelin duels between Orenburg and the Siberians. This is material that would not be presented in the East Front Battle book, so look for that soon as my time permits.

In this volume, however, we continue with the thickening clouds of war in the Pacific. The unexpected eruption of Krakatoa brought us DDG-180, and now Takami joins the IJN as it embarks on campaigns that take us through the fateful months of April through June, 1942. In Fedorov’s history, those months saw the Battles of the Coral Sea and Midway. I present here the equivalent of both those engagements, though they take place as a result of a bold new offensive undertaken by the Japanese—Operation FS.

As he did in Pacific Storm (Book III in the series), Yamamoto makes some very different choices here, largely because of the radical changes that occur due to the fact that the Japanese and France now control the New Hebrides. Rather than operating from Espiritu Santo, Efate and Noumea, the Allies must now operate from Fiji and Samoa. Operation FS (Fiji-Samoa) was a real plan conceived by the Japanese military in our history, which was summarily cancelled after their disaster at Midway. That battle is presented here, while in the north, the ice finally thins enough in the Sea of Okhotsk for one Vladimir Karpov, and his shadow self, to renew his Plan 7 operation. This time Sakhalin Island is the object of his desire, but he soon discovers that there is an unseen challenger at large, a new piece on the board, and Kirov finds itself on a collision course with a powerful new adversary.

My thanks to all of you who bought the first Battle Book to support the cause. As you read this, I will launch myself into Book 24, Second Front, which will take us from the conclusion of Steel Reign and into the later months of 1942. As that title might reveal, it will focus on the plan and operation in the Atlantic to open a second front in a desperate effort to relieve the pressure on Soviet Russia. The action there with Germany’s summer offensive will also be presented, operations that capture events akin to Germany’s “Operation Blue” and the drive on Stalingrad.

For now, I hope you enjoy Steel Reign.