On 10th May, 1940, Germany attacked British and French troops in France and Belgium.
At that time, the British Army had more than half a million men in Continental Europe.
By 4th June 1940, Britain had rescued 330,000 men (British and French) from the defensive bubble around Dunkirk.
Between 15th and 25th June 1940, they rescued another 190,000 through Operation Ariel from French coasts and ports.
In the short Battle of France, Britain had left behind 70,000 men, 450 tanks, 2500 artillery pieces, 85,000 vehicles, and 600,000 tons of ammunition, fuel and stores.
The figures show Britain had 500,000 men for its defense… but with little arms, armor and ammunition to fight… Britain was ripe for invasion, and everyone knew it.
Churchill spoke…
… we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; We shall never surrender…
On 16 July 1940 Hitler issued Führer Directive No. 16, setting in motion preparations for a landing in Britain. He prefaced the order by stating…
"As England, in spite of her hopeless military situation, still shows no signs of willingness to come to terms, I have decided to prepare, and if necessary to carry out, a landing operation against her. The aim of this operation is to eliminate the English Motherland as a base from which the war against Germany can be continued, and, if necessary, to occupy the country completely."
On the 16th August the first waves of German paratroopers descended on rural England. The next day, under the cover of the Luftwaffe, tanks and armored vehicles drove ashore in numerous locations.
Within a month Germany had captured London, Birmingham and Manchester.
Four weeks later, Churchill’s much vaunted Battle of Britain was over.
Churchill spoke to the British people from a fleeting headquarters in Ireland…
… let us not consider this a retreat, not a farewell to our homeland, but as a gathering for a new offensive. And let me make this promise to Herr Hitler; we will return…
Thus begins a brand-new Alternative History series… Avenging Steel
An Introduction to the Characters…
James is our main character, our story’s hero and the book’s narrator. He was a 20-year old philosophy student at Edinburgh University, and has been recruited by the S.O.E. as an agent. His code-name is Biggles, and is used by the S.O.E. as a liaison between cells in Edinburgh. He works at The Scotsman newspaper as a writer and copy-editor. His father was in the Scots Greys Regiment, stationed in Palestine. After being ‘diverted’ from a training course in Canada, James is trying to make his way home.
Alice is James’s partner in spy-crime, wife, and the head of the S.O.E. cell inside The Scotsman newspaper. She is from the border town of Selkirk, and speaks fluent German; her father having been a POW from the Great War who stayed in Scotland in 1918. She seems to take her orders from Lilith, but her actual bosses are unknown to James. Alice also works at The Scotsman newspaper as a copy-editor.
Gerhardt Möller is the German officer in charge of German bias/slanting for the Scotsman newspaper’s stories. James has to report their stories to Möller each day by one o’clock for his inspection. James suspects Möller has opened the hand of friendship to him, but cannot be certain. Lilith’s organization has compromising photos of him.
Ivanhoe is James’ contact within the S.O.E. in Edinburgh, and the man who recruited him. James only glimpses the level at which Ivanhoe works, but does harbor the suspicion that Ivanhoe might be the top S.O.E. man in Scotland.
Named after the character by George MacDonald, Lilith is a beautiful enigmatic S.O.E. contact, possibly working in conjunction with Ivanhoe, but definitely also operating outside his purview. Lilith introduced Alice to James, and is Alice’s main contact. Although James seems to be in love with Alice, Lilith’s face comes to him at the oddest times.
Veronica Baird is James’ mother. She lives for her family and rules with a slightly flexible iron rod. Frances is James’ fifteen-year-old younger sister. They live in a first floor apartment in Bruntsfield, on the edge of the Links and Meadows.