VE Day

Victory in Europe Day (VE Day)

German General Alfred Jodl signed the unconditional surrender document that formally ended war in Europe on behalf of the armed forces of Nazi Germany in Reims (France) on Monday May 7, 1945, but the British Ministry of Information announced later that evening  that the next day would be the official VE Day:

“In accordance with arrangements between the three great powers, tomorrow, Tuesday, will be treated as Victory in Europe Day and will be regarded as a holiday.”

Around much of the Western world, people gathered in public places to celebrate the end of this phase of the war.

Massive crowds gathered in Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami and New York's Times Square. Moscow and London celebrated as well. Floodlights illuminated Buckingham Palace for the first time since the beginning of the war and giant searchlights formed an enormous ‘V’ in the night sky above St. Paul’s Cathedral.

But what if the war had gone differently? What if VE Day was celebrated not by the Western Allies, but by the Axis powers instead??

That is a question frequently posed in alternate history scenarios in fiction, film and fantasies ...

(There's 9 more clips in this series if you like this one:)

Fatherland

Fatherland is a murder/detective novel set in an alternate Berlin where the Greater German Reich is still very much in command in the week leading up to Adolf Hitler's 75th birthday on 20 April 1964.

Xavier March, an investigator working for the Kriminalpolizei (Kripo), investigates the  drowing death of a high-ranking Nazi.

"It was not quite seven and Berlin was alive with possibilities the day had yet to dull.

His uniform was laid out in the bedroom: the body armour of authority.

Brown shirt, with black leather buttons. Black tie. Black breeches. Black jackboots (the rich smell of polished leather).

Black tunic: four silver buttons; three parallel silvered threads on the shoulder tabs; on the left sleeve, a red-and-white-and-black swastika armband; on the right, a diamond enclosing the gothic letter 'K', for Kriminalpolizei.

Black Sam Browne belt. Black cap with silver death's head and Party eagle. Black leather gloves.

March stared at himself in the mirror, and a Sturnbannfuhrer of the Waffen-SS stared back. He picked up his service pistol, a 9 mm Luger, from the dressing table, checked the action, and slotted it into his holster.  Then he stepped out into the morning."

March discovers that someone is murdering senior Nazi party officials, and that someone turns out to be the Gestapo, which is killing off the remaining officials who planned the Holocaust to prevent any embarassment an upcoming meeting of Hitler and President Joseph P. Kennedy (John F. Kennedy's father) by ensuring that the crimes of the Nazi regime are kept secret.

Fatherland is a fun read, if somewhat dark - but then, how could it not be, given it's premise? The book is full of incidental detail, and enough 'real' history to make the imagined one believeable. The uniforms, gear and attitudes are just icing on the cake.


Fatherland's map of the "Greater German Reich' in 1964

Robert Harris, Fatherland; Hitchinson Press (London) 1992.

Let me know if you're interested in more reviews like this one. I'll only post reviews for books I've personally enjoyed, and only books with some kind of connection to life in uniform.