In Steel Reign, the Japanese offensive reaches its high water mark as Yamamoto launches Operation FS in a bold attempt to storm the Islands of Fiji and Samoa and isolate Australia. He is opposed by a determined stand made by Admirals Fletcher and Halsey in the desperate battles of the Coral Sea and Koro Sea to decide the fate of Empires. Meanwhile Vladimir Karpov continues his long planned invasion of Sakhalin Island, but Japan now has a powerful new champion as the Destroyer Takami is detached north to join Admiral Kurita’s task force. The showdown is resolved in the season finale, Second Front, as the Allies storm ashore at Casablanca and Lisbon in September of 1942.
The series continues in the premiere of Season Four: Tigers East, where Rommel regains his lost glory in the deserts of Libya while Patton drives east in an attempt to enfilade Von Arnim’s defense in Algeria. Manstein takes his hammer east as well to Volgograd, where the grueling fight for the city begins in Thor’s Anvil. As the new year of 1943 dawns, the Allies now begin their war in earnest, and the outcome of the battles looming ahead will decide the course of the war.
Book 27, 1943 starts the critical middle year of the war as the action moves to the Pacific. The U.S. goes on the offensive, mounting a major push on Fiji, and amphibious landing by Halsey at Efate and MacArthur at Noumea. Carriers clash and the Japanese rush new hybrid ships into battle as the first of the new Essex Class carriers arrive to redress the balance on the US side. Then Japan’s secret weapon, the destroyer Takami, receives an unexpected order to return to Yokohama, but the journey there will open a door to new opportunities.
In Book 28, Lions at Dawn, the war moves back to North Africa, where Eisenhower, Montgomery, Patton and the Air Marshalls plan their drive on Tunis. General Patton has ideas of his own, and they do not involve waiting for Monty to fight his way along the Algerian coast. His plan presents a major crisis for Kesselring and Von Arnim when Hitler orders the withdrawal of all Germany’s elite paratroop units. The Führer has eyes on a new prize in the Middle East, and devises a daring return to that theater in Operation Phoenix. Meanwhile, General O’Connor’s British 8th Army begins its big push to capture Tripoli, but he meets a determined and skillful defense by the Desert Fox, Erwin Rommel.
An exploration of St. Michael’s Cave at Gibraltar by Fairchild & Company leads to a hidden mystery beneath the Rock, and far to the east, the isolated atoll at Eniwetok receives some very unexpected visitors. The surprising developments set the destroyer Takami on a dangerous collision course with Vladimir Karpov and Ivan Gromyko, when the Russians set out to cleanse the timeline of all contamination, including their own! Events lead to a dramatic battle at sea that neither side ever expected.
More to come!
Detailed information on the battles covered in each book, including battle maps, is available at www.writingshop.ws.
1) Kirov
2) Cauldron of Fire
3) Pacific Storm
4) Men of War
5) Nine Days Falling
6) Fallen Angels
7) Devil’s Garden
8) Armageddon – Season 1 Finale
9) Altered States
10) Darkest Hour
11) Hinge of Fate
12) Three Kings
13) Grand Alliance
14) Hammer of God
15) Crescendo of Doom
16) Paradox Hour – Season 2 Finale
17) Doppelganger
18) Nemesis
19) Winter Storm
20) Tide of Fortune
21) Knight’s Move
22) Turning Point
23) Steel Reign
24) Second Front – Season 3 Finale
25) Tigers East
26) Thor’s Anvil
27) 1943
28) Lions at Dawn
29) Stormtide Rising
Discover other titles by John Schettler:
Award Winning Science Fiction:
Meridian — Meridian Series — Volume I
Nexus Point — Meridian Series — Volume II
Touchstone — Meridian Series — Volume III
Anvil of Fate — Meridian Series — Volume IV
Golem 7 — Meridian Series — Volume V
The Meridian series merges with the Kirov Series, beginning with Book 16, Paradox Hour, when the Meridian team discovers the catastrophic damage to the continuum created by the battlecruiser’s unexpected shift into the cauldron of WWII.
Classic Science Fiction:
Wild Zone — Dharman Series — Volume I
Mother Heart — Dharman Series — Volume II
Historical Fiction:
Taklamakan — Silk Road Series — Volume I
Khan Tengri — Silk Road Series — Volume II
Copyright
A publication of: The Writing Shop Press
Lions at Dawn, Copyright©2016, John A. Schettler