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. Works of alternate history explore these world events and impress upon us how important they have been. They allow us to see such turning points in a new light, and help us 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 is called the "Dunkirk Massacre." He, along with his crew, are dispatched to Nazi-dominated Africa in order to kill Walter Hochburg, the...