The Moscow Option: An Alternative Second World War

What would have happened if the German Army HAD conquered Moscow at the end of 1941? This is the question that David Downing is trying to answer in this book.<br /><br />This book is not a dry, theoretical essay about the possible consequences. Instead, the author has tried to write a history of the Second World War that both might and could have occured. Do not expect a work of speculative fiction (such as <a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/216363.The_Man_in_the_High_Castle" title="The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick" rel="noopener">The Man in the High Castle</a>), but a history book that would be written by historians after the end of the Second World War - with the difference that in this war Moscow was captured.<br /><br />It is of course difficult to write a review about a progress of a war that never happened. David Downing brings in two deux et machina's. The first is an incident where Hitler is temporarily disabled, giving the German generals a free hand in capturing Moscow, the other one is the discovery of the Japanese that their naval codes are being read by the Americans, enabling them to fool their enemy and destroying the American carrier fleet. This sets off a whole turn of events which in the end will allow the Germans to conquer Egypt and the Japanese to take Midway.<br /><br />The way David Downing is telling the story is like any other non-fiction work regarding World War Two. It gives detailed accounts of fictional battles, illustrated by maps showing the main operations in such theathers as Egypt, Palestine and the Caucasus. This book therefore is a welcome distraction if you are used of reading non-fiction about World War Two, but not more than that.

A nice little excursion into the realm of alternate/speculative history. Essentially, what if - shortly after naming Goering as his successor - Hitler was rendered unconscious due to a plane crash for a few months, and the war was continued in his stead, and the Nazis went on to take Moscow instead of pushing through the Ukraine.<br /><br />The war is carried into the Middle East - and Japan is able to launch raids against the West Coast of the USA and Panama - but ultimately they lose the war just as they did in our own history. It's not too bad a read. The end of the last chapter is the best:<br /><br />"The attempt to apply blitzkrieg on a trans-continental scale had failed. It was bound to do so. For just as National Socialism was a stop-gap solution to the problems of Thirties capitalism, so blitzkrieg was never more than a stop-gap answer to the military problems of continental war. It could only work over a limited period of time; it could only be sustained, as was now obvious, over a limited area of space. A panzer company has to keep moving in order to survive; this was basic tactics. The same was true of a panzer Wehrmacht. Once stopped it was doomed, vulnerable at every point of the territory it had traversed with such apparent ease.<br /><br />Nazi Germany was the supreme example of economic realities being being to the political will. But however strong the restraining hand, economic realities cannot be indefinitely denied. Such a society lives on expansionism, on consuming the lands, the work, and the lives of others. It lives on its own momentum, until the momentum dies, and then it begins to consume itself. Such a society has nowhere to go.<br /><br />The peculiarities of Nazism also played their part. The feudal character of the leadership - short-sighted, competitive, inhuman - hindered the full development of the armament industry which fueled the expansionist impulse. It was also destined, sooner or later, to stifle the initiative of its only potential opponents, the generals in the field. The virulent racism which festered at the heart of Hitler's weltanschauung made it inevitable that Nazi Germany would only win "friends" through the exercise of overwhelming force. Germany could offer other nations nothing, and this was eventually realized even by those who either welcomed or wished to welcome the Wehrmacht as an agent of their own liberation."<br /><br />Let those of the Reich-Wing Party in the United States learn this lesson before it's too late.

I start this review with the fact that I'm not a great fan of alternative histories. That said, David Downing's "The Moscow Option" was a really, really good read. Very few books a real "page turners" but this one is.<br /><br />Downing covers an alternative version of the Second World War from early 1941 to the end of 1942. He includes the Russian front, the North African campaign and the War in the Pacific from the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour. From these points of real history is story begins to deviate.<br /><br />I will leave it to you to see how Downing's "history" tracks differently from reality but what I can say is that because of the breadth of the theatres of war covered the book moves along at a blistering pace.<br /><br />Quite often alternative "histories" have plots that, given our knowledge of actual events,, seem far fetched at worst or merely improbable at best. Downing's fiction is not in this league. From my understanding of Second World War history and politics any of the scenarios that are outlines in this book could have happened; they are quite believable.<br /><br />This is one of the BEST alternative histories I have ever read. I strongly recommend it!<br /><br />Regards,<br />Peter

Published in 1980 this has got to be one of the granddaddy's of alternative historic fiction. A really good read. Presented as history of the war at the grand strategic level, the author had just about every bit of luck and little twist of fate go to the Axis and they still lose, rightfully so IMO. It was if you are playing Axis&amp;Allies and need a die roll of six for a good result and the Axis roll 50 six's in a row. They still lose due to their terrible logistics vis-a-vis the Allies. This old tome gets it right. Very enjoyable.

When I recieved <a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/391168.Moscow_Option_An_Alternative_Second_World_War" title="Moscow Option An Alternative Second World War by David Downing" rel="noopener">Moscow Option: An Alternative Second World War</a> as a Christmas present, I was a little bit dubious as to how good it would be, and how interesting a non-fiction title could be. As it was surrounding my area of interest, Modern History, I must say I found it an extremely riveting read. I would recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in History.

This is so well written. The goodies do win, of course (and that is almost too predictable... or is it just the reality of the situation?). Downing looks at all the theatres of War (USSR, North Africa and the Pacific) and at what could have gone wrong for the allies yet also how thing would have very likely turned out. Very interesting...

Book is basically “what would have happened in World War Two if every single roll of the dice or lucky brake went to the axis.” It’s not speculative fiction so much as contrarian, and while it gives more flexibility to some historical figures, fails to consider much more than operational battle related changes this would create.

This is a "What If" history that posits a Nazi victory in Operation Barbarossa - Moscow is occupied and the Russians are pushed back to the Urals. It's been years since I've read it but as I recall, the Allies still defeat the Axis, it's just at a much greater cost.

Oh dear. I'm not sure if my expectations were misplaced. But I was expecting am Alternate History Novel here. Instead, what I got was just page after page of incredibly dull minutiae listing various troop movements. I got five chapters in before the matchsticks holding my eyelids open finally splintered and I gave up. <br /><br />This book has no 'characters' at all [at least not in the five chapters I read]. Instead, historical figures are mentioned in passing with no attempt made to give them any kind of personality or allow them to speak. they're just cardboard cutouts, wheeled in at the beginning of the book to set the scene [Hitler incapacitated, Germans push on to Moscow] in preparation for the aforementioned avalanche of "troop movement bulletins". Here's arandom sample from about 3 or 4 chapters in:<br /><br /><blockquote>As the sun rose slowly above the pines on 23 August, the strengthened 56th Panzer Corps moved forward from its starting line south of Lake Ilmen. There were no roads to speak of, and 8th Panzer struck east along the railway line towards Lychkovo. Some ten miles to the north 6th Panzer and 3rd Motorised Division were directed along marshy forest tracks towards Kresttsy on the main Leningrad-Moscow road. A similar distance to the south the motorised SS division ‘Totenkopf’ covered the Corps’ southern flank against the strong enemy formations in the Demyansk-Lake Seliger area. Progress was slow but steady, the terrain offering considerably more opposition than the enemy, who was still struggling to fill the gap left by Thirty-fourth Army’s recent destruction.</blockquote><br /><br />Now that might not seem too bad in isolation. But imagine that kind of thing, for page after page, chapter after chapter. It's made all the more dense by the fact that --unless you have an encyclopaedic knowledge of unheard of Russian villages and rivers-- in order to "follow along" you'd pretty much need one of those big tables with a map of Russia and a team of WAAFs at hand to push flags about on it for you.<br /><br />Now, I'm sure the author has put in a lot of detailed research and worked this all out logistically to create a plausible narrative here. But, sometimes you can have too much detail. I can imagine this book appealing to those of a military historian bent. But, for someone like me, who was just after a good <em>"What if...?"</em> alternative history novel, it was just too boring to bother with.

This is a re-read of an old favourite- I mean old. I read this when I was in Grade 7 or 8 and then, once, or twice a year for a decade after it. But, then, not for the last twenty years. And, yes, I'm dating myself. <br /><br />This is an interesting alternative World War II novel, written very much in the style of a grand strategy military history. The basic premise is that, in summer of 1941, Adolf Hitler is seriously injured in a plane crash- an injury which basically takes him out of commission for a key six months of the war. In his convalescence, the German military takes charge of the war and conducts it the way that it intends to- namely, directing German military strength against the central sector of the Russian front, right at Moscow. There are a few other key changes- an invasion of Malta and the diversion of a Panzer Corp to Africa and a change in the Japanese plan at Midway. Nothing outlandish, but Downing takes the rest of the novel to work out the consequences of these alterations. <br /><br />The result is a highly readable novel and a plausible scenario for an alternative war. Downing carefully works out the consequences of his changes and comes up with reasonable reconstructions of what the major figures in the war would be likely to do. At the risk of giving a spoiler, the result is still the same- defeat for the Axis, but they get further in territory and much closer to victory. Downing also gives tantalizing hints about how the war would end, but ends the novel at the turning points in the war- outside Jerusalem, on the Azerbajani-Iranian border, in northern Russia and off Panama. <br /><br />This is still worth a read for a highly plausible alternative World War II with engaging writing and a clever plot. If you are a WWII geeks, this is a book you'll like to read.