Review
History has many turning points, some so subtle as to be unnoticeable, others so clear as to be signposts around which the march through time pivots. The Battle of Dunkirk is one of these points. Had it gone another way, the Allies would have never coalesced into an anti-Axis alliance, and World War II would have been over – and had a very different outcome – before it really even started. By exploring the pivots of history, works of alternate history impress upon us how important past events have been. They allow us to see such events in a new light, and help us to understand that there are times and places upon which the course of history really does depend.
In
The Afrika Reich, by Guy Saville, Burton Cole is one of the few survivors of what, in this alternate history novel, is called the "Dunkirk Massacre". He, along with his crew, are dispatched to...
Beyond the Book
In
The Afrika Reich, author Guy Saville sets his story in a world in which the "miracle of Dunkirk" is reimagined as the "massacre of Dunkirk". In this book, Britain failed in their mass evacuation of troops from the European mainland. Burton Cole, the protagonist, is a survivor of the "Dunkirk Massacre" and a former prisoner of the Germans.
The stage for the real Dunkirk Miracle was set on the night of May 9, 1940. German troops attacked Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Northern France (bypassing the much-vaunted Maginot Line). Though British troops...
