The bear and the swastika: Book 1 of the Axis Alternate series - Max Lamirande

The year is 1939.

The World rocks with the news of the signing of the Germano-Soviet pact. A dark veil soon falls on Europe as Poland is invaded and destroyed by the overwhelming forces of the Wehrmacht and the Red Army.

France and the United Kingdom can only sit by and watch the two military juggernauts obliterate the Polish state. No one believes the two totalitarian regimes can agree in the long term as their ideologies completely contradict each other.

Russia wants influence in the Balkans, has eyes on Finland, and wants an opening to the Mediterranean. Germany needs Romanian oil to keep its war machine operational, and Hitler is adamant about not letting the Bolsheviks gain another inch of ground in Europe. At least not more than he has already given out in the treaty of non-aggression signed before the Polish campaign.

The year is 1940.

The French campaign unfolds with a disaster for the Allies, and the Germans win an incredible victory over the combined forces of the United Kingdom and France. British forces narrowly escape to their island with the remnants of their armies, and France surrenders. The Germans occupy half of the country. It seems that the swastika will conquer the world, especially with the Russian bear watching its back.

All the while, the Battle of England rages between the Luftwaffe and the Royal Air Force. The fate of the last free nation of Europe hangs in the balance. Will the courageous Brits and their new Prime Minister Winston Churchill prevail?

And then something happens in Asia. Russo-Japanese again attack each other at Khalkin Gol, as they did a year earlier. Only this time, Stalin feels quite secure with his German alliance and decides that he has had enough of Imperial Japan in Manchuria. Red Army troops are sent east while Japanese Imperial forces mobilize throughout the Empire. War is all but unavoidable between the two powers.

Germano-Soviet talks are organized in August 1940. The subject is nothing less than the Soviet Union's potential entry as a third Axis Power during World War II. The negotiations include a two-day conference in Berlin between Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov, Adolf Hitler, and German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop. The two powers will try to agree on a formal alliance to divide the world.

All the while, Great Britain fights for its very survival, and America does nothing.

The fate of liberty hangs in the balance.