1920: America's Great War
| Author | Robert Conroy |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Kurt Miller |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | alternate history |
| Publisher | Baen Publishing Enterprises |
Publication date | December 3, 2013 |
| Media type | trade paperback |
| Pages | 490 |
| ISBN | 978-1-4767-8044-3 |
| OCLC | 857568231 |
1920: America's Great War is a 2013 alternate history novel written by Robert Conroy. The novel depicts a fictional world where Imperial Germany had emerged victorious early in World War 1, and launches a surprise invasion of the United States in the year 1920 from Mexico. The book's premise is based on an actual plan Germany had proposed to Mexico during the Great War.
Plot
The novel's prologue sets the point of divergence in early September 1914 where, at the First Battle of the Marne, the Imperial German Army was able to overwhelm the French Army and push on to capture Paris. With France forced to surrender and the British Expeditionary Force driven towards the Mediterranean Sea, the Allies sue for peace and sign the Treaty of Princeton, thus ending the War of 1914 (World War 1 in our timeline) with the Central Powers as the victors.
The novel then jumps to the summer of 1920 in the United States, where U.S. President Woodrow Wilson is running for a third term despite being bedridden. He has been praised for bringing peace to Europe as he acted as mediator for the Treaty of Princeton, and has since enacted strong isolationist policies in the U.S. and making budget cuts from the U.S. military, thinking that the world is finally at everlasting peace. However, the German Empire has greatly expanded its military influence almost unopposed across the world due to the reparations and military restrictions imposed on the Allies. German Emperor Kaiser Wilhelm II sees the United States as the only remaining nation that can threaten Germany, and has prepared a plan for war. By aiding the German-friendly revolutionary forces of Venustiano Carranza, Mexico's government is overthrown and becomes a German ally. Mexico is then to be used as a staging point to launch a joint German-Mexican surprise invasion into the Southwestern United States with the goal of the Germans to gain the vast natural resources the Empire needs while Mexico tries to re-annex territory lost to the United States.
When it is found that Woodrow Wilson has died in his sleep, Vice President Thomas R. Marshall is next in the chain of succession but formally steps down for not wanting the responsibility, and thus Secretary of State Robert Lansing is sworn in instead. President Lansing is fully aware of the threat of invasion from Mexico and has the U.S. military desperately scramble a defense, but comes too little to late as the German Army crosses the border into California and the Mexican Army crosses the Rio Grande into Texas.
Due to the military budget cuts during the extensive peacetime (since the U.S has not been at war since 1898), the U.S. Army is very poorly trained and poorly equipped, thus is easily overrun by the German Army and the German-equipped Mexican forces. Also compounding the difficulties for the American forces is that German saboteurs have cut vital railroad links and telegraph lines into and from the southwestern states, thus being mostly cut off from the rest of the country. Within days, San Diego and Los Angeles fall into German hands as the Mexican Army marches across southern Texas, burning Laredo and Brownsville. Ports on the West Coast are blockaded by the Imperial German Navy's Pacific Fleet consisting of the new Bayern-class battleships, bombarding coastal towns and trapping the U.S. Navy's fleet in San Francisco Bay and Puget Sound. Although being forced to retreat north, the Americans do have some successes as they destroy the refineries of the Los Angeles City Oil Field to starve the German Army's mechanized units and the German Navy's blockade fleet, forcing the entire invasion to continue north on foot. The Mexican Army in Texas encounters extremely stiff resistance from the Texas Rangers and the National Guard as they fight a brutal defensive trench war that significantly slows the invasion down with very heavy losses.
The main bulk of the U.S Army in California lead by General Dennis E. Nolan falls back to San Francisco and begin a massive fortification of the city while smaller forces nibble at the German advance through the Central Valley and California coast while the American public rallies together to help send troops and weapons to repel the invaders off of U.S. soil. In the meantime, Britain sends quiet help by smuggling weapons, equipment, and military advisors through Canada. Over the course of a few months from the fall of 1920 to the winter of 1921, the Germans slowly gain ground to San Francisco as the American forces in the city dig in and fight off air raids targeting civilians, assassination attempts on their commanders, and a belated flu epidemic that kills nearly a million people across the country. The Americans manage to strike back by using submarines hidden off Catalina to sink German freighters bringing much needed fuel and ammunition; and the Mexican advance towards San Antonio is halted and pushed back after a very bloody ″Second Battle of the Alamo″ when the Texas Rangers receive help from the United States Marine Corps. Eventually, the newly equipped U.S. Army arrives under the command of John J. Pershing in Texas and drives the Mexican invasion force back across the border, and even continuing on to capture Monterrey. With defeat inevitable, Carranza is assassinated by Pancho Villas and Mexico falls into chaos until Alvaro Obregon takes over and asks President Lansing for a status quo antebellum, which he agrees to on the condition that the U.S. Army has the right of passage through Mexican territory westwards so they can retake California from the Germans.
On the eve of battle for San Francisco, General Nolan is killed by German stormtroopers and a reluctant Ike Eisenhower is promoted to lead the defense of the city. The German Army finally reaches the outskirts of San Francisco and begins a long and brutal siege lead personally by Kaiser Wilhelm II's son, Crown Prince Wilhelm. Despite being outnumbered and outgunned, the defenses fight relentlessly and cause heavy losses for the Germans as they fight trench to trench. The German Navy blockade ships, lead by an impatient Admiral Franz von Hipper, sail into San Francisco Bay to add additional bombardment to the city defenses, but are caught by surprise as they are aerially bombed by U.S Army Air Corps biplanes led by Colonel Billy Mitchell and flown by civilian volunteers like Amelia Earhart. Several ships are sunk or set ablaze, and as the remaining ships flee the Bay, they are engaged in a fierce off-shore ship to ship battle with the remnants of the U.S. Navy's Pacific Fleet battleships, the USS Arizona, the USS Pennsylvania, and the USS Nevada. The battle ends in a stalemate as the German battleships Koenig and Thuringen are sunk, and the lead ship Bayern runs aground; while the Nevada is sunk, the Arizona is beached, and the Pennsylvania is badly damaged.
U.S. Army reinforcements lead by a rising Major Douglas MacArthur finally make it to San Francisco just as the city defenses are overrun, but before the Germans' new mass stormtrooper force can take the city, a surprising American counterattack lead by a young George S. Patton using smuggled British tanks literally crashes through the German troop formations as they scatter in terror at the new weapon. The German Army retreats as the U.S. forces press on, and Crown Prince Wilhelm is killed by a sniper. The German invasion force is eventually cornered in Monterey Bay by the advancing U.S. forces from San Francisco and from the Pershing's force from the south, where the Germans finally surrender.
Meanwhile, in Russia, Leon Trotsky leads a second revolution that causes the Tsar Nicholas II to flee to Imperial Germany without abdicating the throne. With the Russian population bend on capturing him and thinking Germany is aiding him, the new Soviet Union declares war on Germany and launches a massive invasion. Humiliated by the defeat at the hands of the United States, and morning the loss of his eldest son, Kaiser Wilhelm II steps down and his second son Prince Eitel Friedrich takes over, disbanding the monarchy and asks for peace from the United States so it could fight the Soviets. President Lansing agrees but forces Germany to pay for all the damage it has caused to the United States and to the world for its quest of world domination. As peace negotiations are discussed, the novel ends as Lansing and Winston Churchill discuss the possibilities of the new weapons that were used during the war.