Fox at the Front
Encyclopedia
Fox at the Front is a 2003 alternate history novel written by Douglas Niles
and Michael Dobson
. It is a sequel to the 2000 novel Fox on the Rhine
.
, where Field Marshal Erwin Rommel has introduced himself to George Patton and offers to surrender Army Group B
to him. Both generals agree that the threat of the Soviet Union was greater than all German forces under Heinrich Himmler, who has considered him a traitor. Rommel instructs Hasso von Manteuffel's Fifth Panzer Army and Heinz Guderian
at the Sixth Panzer Army to surrender their units at the first Allied unit they encounter. However, given the large concentration of Waffen-SS
forces in the Sixth, Himmler orders Jochen Peiper to take over the unit at its headquarters in Namur and counterattack against the Allies, even it meant killing Guderian in the process. After a US infantry force sent to accept Guderian's surrender is ambushed, Peiper marshals a small kampfgruppe
from the Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler to attack Rommel's Dinant headquarters, but is forced to withdraw because of the heavy US and German resistance. He also collects wounded German forces along the way during the trip back to the Rhine. Patton's liberation of Bastogne and the cooperation of Rommel's forces allows Third Army to race to the Rhine faster than the rest of the Allied forces by early January 1945, capturing a bridge in Koblenz to try cutting off as many SS units as they can. Some SS forces, including Peiper, make it across the Rhine. After he arrives in Berlin, Himmler puts Peiper in charge of the Das Reich division.
Rommel is also facing tension on the German side, as he is being eyed to head the government-in-exile of the so-called German Democratic Republic (GDR), but decides to stay firm and command the Wehrmacht survivors from Army Group B, who have been called the German Republican Army (GRA). Having crossed the Rhine, the GRA and Third Army keeps pushing deep into the interior. All the while, Himmler orders Field Marshal Model to randomly reassign all Wehrmacht officers to prevent any conspiracies to defect, especially after US forces coordinate with General Karl Student in overseeing the surrender of Army Group H in Frankfurt
.
Meanwhile, on the Eastern Front, the Soviet Union resumes its assault across Poland as Stalin assigns political officer Alexis Krigoff to keep tabs on the attack. The zampolit also reports to the NKVD about generals who are too cautious in their attacks. Das Reich and the Sixth Panzer Army are sent to the Eastwall (a copycat of the Westwall) to help in the defense of the front.
On February 18, a reconnaissance team from the US 19th Armored Division ambushes a train going out of Ettersburg
. Upon derailing the train, the group discovers thousands of corpses and few survivors whom they provide medical assistance. Rommel is alerted and goes down to Ettersburg to see it personally. He discovers that the train came from the Buchenwald concentration camp
and organizes an assault under the cover of a snowstorm with German troops in the lead. The camp is liberated and the prisoners are taken care of by Allied medical units. Rommel is horrified at the depths the Nazi party have reached in Germany's name, nearly killing some camp guards in anger. Although he leads the way in the cleanup, the Allied and GDR leadership convinces Rommel to let the proper medical authorities handle the workload at Buchenwald and concentrate on capturing Berlin ahead of the Soviets, who have stumbled upon the Auschwitz camp as well.
On March 13, while Sixth Panzer Army tries to blunt the Soviet advance, the Allies execute Operation Eclipse - an airborne drop and ground assault on Berlin, where Sepp Dietrich
surrenders all German forces in the city. A US commando raid also captures Himmler as he tries to escape to Czechoslovakia in a convoy. Enraged at having been beaten to Berlin, Stalin orders Zhukov to encircle the capital by sending his forces to the Elbe and cut off Third Army and the GRA from the rest of the Allied forces still in the west. Zhukov also uses the opportunity to heavily cripple the GRA forces in the northern outskirts while the encirclement continues. The Allied troops in the city are ordered not to attack the Soviets lest they become provoked to unleash their firepower on Berlin. Peiper, who was cut off during the Das Reichs retreat from Kustrin
, is captured and sent to a re-education camp in Siberia.
Over the next few months, the Allies carry out a massive airlift operation into Berlin, providing reinforcements and supplies while evacuating civilians. The Soviets also use the period to bring more ground forces into the blockade.
The uneasy calm is broken on July 1 when a US transport crashing on the Soviet lines after a major dogfight is interpreted on the ground as an Allied attack. The Soviets attack at all points throughout the blockade with the main thrust directed against the 19th Armored Division at Potsdam. However, Zhukov discovers that Krigoff was behind the assumption, having convinced the commander of the 2nd Guards Tank Army to press the attack, with the intent of capturing Gatow
and Tempelhof airports. While the attack bogs down short of the airports because of Allied airstrikes, Patton believes that the next Soviet attack will break through the US lines. The determined Soviet assault forces the Manhattan Project
to bring the atomic bomb that was supposed to be used for the Trinity test
for deployment in Berlin.
On the morning of July 8, General Groves oversees the drop of the Fat Man bomb aboard the Enola Gay
with the Soviet artillery and armored concentration in Potsdam
as the target. Although doubts persisted about whether the bomb will work, the explosion erases them altogether as it obliterates Potsdam, where Zhukov and Marshal Konev's headquarters is located. The shock value from the event also forces the other Soviet attacks to stop.
In the aftermath of the bombing, Stalin agrees to withdraw all Red Army forces to the Polish side of the Oder River, but leaves behind a small force on the German side to fortify the area. British spy Kim Philby
, who spent the past few months digging for information on the atomic bomb, is killed by British Intelligence as he attempts to alert the Soviets that the Berlin bomb was the only working copy (having been tricked by a fake stockpile several days before). Krigoff, who was sent to Lubyanka prison after the siege, narrates his part of the story to Stalin before he is killed in his cell. The United Nations
also convenes a war crimes tribunal
to try all Nazis, but Himmler himself would not make it to the courtroom, as the US soldiers who discovered Buchenwald leave him to die in a camp with Jews and other inmates.
crewmember who crashed in Fox on the Rhine and his stay in Buchenwald alongside Rommel's personal driver, a teenage Volksgrenadier
soldier who is later fielded into the Hitlerjugend and Das Reich divisions, and the exploits of Fox on the Rhine character Gunther von Reinhardt as he negotiates for a peaceful solution with Himmler. Like in the previous novel, the fictional history book War's Final Fury by Professor Jared Gruenwald provides further insights into the events of the novel.
Allies:
Soviets:
Douglas Niles
Douglas Niles is a fantasy author and game designer. Niles was one of the creators of the Dragonlance world and the author of the first three Forgotten Realms novels, and the Top Secret S/I espionage role-playing game.-Early life:Niles was born in Brookfield, Wisconsin, a suburb of Milwaukee, and...
and Michael Dobson
Michael Dobson (author)
Michael S. Dobson is an American author in the fields of Business , Alternate History novels and Role-playing game adventures .-Early life:At a young age, Dobson's family moved from North Carolina to Germany; his father...
. It is a sequel to the 2000 novel Fox on the Rhine
Fox on the Rhine
Fox on the Rhine is a 2000 alternate history novel written by Douglas Niles and Michael Dobson. It details a course of events over late 1944 that resulted from Adolf Hitler's death in the July 20 plot and Field-Marshal Erwin Rommel's survival of the crackdown.-Plot summary:The book begins on July...
.
Plot summary
The story picks up on December 27, 1944, just minutes after the climax to Fox on the RhineFox on the Rhine
Fox on the Rhine is a 2000 alternate history novel written by Douglas Niles and Michael Dobson. It details a course of events over late 1944 that resulted from Adolf Hitler's death in the July 20 plot and Field-Marshal Erwin Rommel's survival of the crackdown.-Plot summary:The book begins on July...
, where Field Marshal Erwin Rommel has introduced himself to George Patton and offers to surrender Army Group B
Army Group B
Army Group B was the name of three different German Army Groups that saw action during World War II.-Battle for France:The first was involved in the Western Campaign in 1940 in Belgium and the Netherlands which was to be aimed to conquer the Maas bridges after the German airborne actions in Rotterdam...
to him. Both generals agree that the threat of the Soviet Union was greater than all German forces under Heinrich Himmler, who has considered him a traitor. Rommel instructs Hasso von Manteuffel's Fifth Panzer Army and Heinz Guderian
Heinz Guderian
Heinz Wilhelm Guderian was a German general during World War II. He was a pioneer in the development of armored warfare, and was the leading proponent of tanks and mechanization in the Wehrmacht . Germany's panzer forces were raised and organized under his direction as Chief of Mobile Forces...
at the Sixth Panzer Army to surrender their units at the first Allied unit they encounter. However, given the large concentration of Waffen-SS
Waffen-SS
The Waffen-SS was a multi-ethnic and multi-national military force of the Third Reich. It constituted the armed wing of the Schutzstaffel or SS, an organ of the Nazi Party. The Waffen-SS saw action throughout World War II and grew from three regiments to over 38 divisions, and served alongside...
forces in the Sixth, Himmler orders Jochen Peiper to take over the unit at its headquarters in Namur and counterattack against the Allies, even it meant killing Guderian in the process. After a US infantry force sent to accept Guderian's surrender is ambushed, Peiper marshals a small kampfgruppe
Kampfgruppe
In military history and military slang, the German term Kampfgruppe can refer to a combat formation of any kind, but most usually to that employed by the German Wehrmacht and its allies during World War II and, to a lesser extent, in World War I...
from the Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler to attack Rommel's Dinant headquarters, but is forced to withdraw because of the heavy US and German resistance. He also collects wounded German forces along the way during the trip back to the Rhine. Patton's liberation of Bastogne and the cooperation of Rommel's forces allows Third Army to race to the Rhine faster than the rest of the Allied forces by early January 1945, capturing a bridge in Koblenz to try cutting off as many SS units as they can. Some SS forces, including Peiper, make it across the Rhine. After he arrives in Berlin, Himmler puts Peiper in charge of the Das Reich division.
Rommel is also facing tension on the German side, as he is being eyed to head the government-in-exile of the so-called German Democratic Republic (GDR), but decides to stay firm and command the Wehrmacht survivors from Army Group B, who have been called the German Republican Army (GRA). Having crossed the Rhine, the GRA and Third Army keeps pushing deep into the interior. All the while, Himmler orders Field Marshal Model to randomly reassign all Wehrmacht officers to prevent any conspiracies to defect, especially after US forces coordinate with General Karl Student in overseeing the surrender of Army Group H in Frankfurt
Frankfurt
Frankfurt am Main , commonly known simply as Frankfurt, is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2010 population of 688,249. The urban area had an estimated population of 2,300,000 in 2010...
.
Meanwhile, on the Eastern Front, the Soviet Union resumes its assault across Poland as Stalin assigns political officer Alexis Krigoff to keep tabs on the attack. The zampolit also reports to the NKVD about generals who are too cautious in their attacks. Das Reich and the Sixth Panzer Army are sent to the Eastwall (a copycat of the Westwall) to help in the defense of the front.
On February 18, a reconnaissance team from the US 19th Armored Division ambushes a train going out of Ettersburg
Ettersburg
Ettersburg is a municipality in the Weimarer Land district of Thuringia, Germany....
. Upon derailing the train, the group discovers thousands of corpses and few survivors whom they provide medical assistance. Rommel is alerted and goes down to Ettersburg to see it personally. He discovers that the train came from the Buchenwald concentration camp
Buchenwald concentration camp
Buchenwald concentration camp was a German Nazi concentration camp established on the Ettersberg near Weimar, Germany, in July 1937, one of the first and the largest of the concentration camps on German soil.Camp prisoners from all over Europe and Russia—Jews, non-Jewish Poles and Slovenes,...
and organizes an assault under the cover of a snowstorm with German troops in the lead. The camp is liberated and the prisoners are taken care of by Allied medical units. Rommel is horrified at the depths the Nazi party have reached in Germany's name, nearly killing some camp guards in anger. Although he leads the way in the cleanup, the Allied and GDR leadership convinces Rommel to let the proper medical authorities handle the workload at Buchenwald and concentrate on capturing Berlin ahead of the Soviets, who have stumbled upon the Auschwitz camp as well.
On March 13, while Sixth Panzer Army tries to blunt the Soviet advance, the Allies execute Operation Eclipse - an airborne drop and ground assault on Berlin, where Sepp Dietrich
Sepp Dietrich
Josef "Sepp" Dietrich was a German SS General. He was one of Nazi Germany's most decorated soldiers and commanded formations up to Army level during World War II. Prior to 1929 he was Adolf Hitler's chauffeur and bodyguard but received rapid promotion after his participation in the murder of...
surrenders all German forces in the city. A US commando raid also captures Himmler as he tries to escape to Czechoslovakia in a convoy. Enraged at having been beaten to Berlin, Stalin orders Zhukov to encircle the capital by sending his forces to the Elbe and cut off Third Army and the GRA from the rest of the Allied forces still in the west. Zhukov also uses the opportunity to heavily cripple the GRA forces in the northern outskirts while the encirclement continues. The Allied troops in the city are ordered not to attack the Soviets lest they become provoked to unleash their firepower on Berlin. Peiper, who was cut off during the Das Reichs retreat from Kustrin
Küstrin
Before 1945 Küstrin was a town in the former Prussian province of Brandenburg in Germany, situated on both sides of the Oder river...
, is captured and sent to a re-education camp in Siberia.
Over the next few months, the Allies carry out a massive airlift operation into Berlin, providing reinforcements and supplies while evacuating civilians. The Soviets also use the period to bring more ground forces into the blockade.
The uneasy calm is broken on July 1 when a US transport crashing on the Soviet lines after a major dogfight is interpreted on the ground as an Allied attack. The Soviets attack at all points throughout the blockade with the main thrust directed against the 19th Armored Division at Potsdam. However, Zhukov discovers that Krigoff was behind the assumption, having convinced the commander of the 2nd Guards Tank Army to press the attack, with the intent of capturing Gatow
RAF Gatow
Known for most of its operational life as Royal Air Force Station Gatow, or more commonly RAF Gatow, this former British Royal Air Force military airbase is in the district of Gatow in south-western Berlin, west of the Havel river, in the borough of Spandau...
and Tempelhof airports. While the attack bogs down short of the airports because of Allied airstrikes, Patton believes that the next Soviet attack will break through the US lines. The determined Soviet assault forces the Manhattan Project
Manhattan Project
The Manhattan Project was a research and development program, led by the United States with participation from the United Kingdom and Canada, that produced the first atomic bomb during World War II. From 1942 to 1946, the project was under the direction of Major General Leslie Groves of the US Army...
to bring the atomic bomb that was supposed to be used for the Trinity test
Trinity test
Trinity was the code name of the first test of a nuclear weapon. This test was conducted by the United States Army on July 16, 1945, in the Jornada del Muerto desert about 35 miles southeast of Socorro, New Mexico, at the new White Sands Proving Ground, which incorporated the Alamogordo Bombing...
for deployment in Berlin.
On the morning of July 8, General Groves oversees the drop of the Fat Man bomb aboard the Enola Gay
Enola Gay
Enola Gay is a Boeing B-29 Superfortress bomber, named after Enola Gay Tibbets, mother of the pilot, then-Colonel Paul Tibbets. On August 6, 1945, during the final stages of World War II, it became the first aircraft to drop an atomic bomb as a weapon of war...
with the Soviet artillery and armored concentration in Potsdam
Potsdam
Potsdam is the capital city of the German federal state of Brandenburg and part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. It is situated on the River Havel, southwest of Berlin city centre....
as the target. Although doubts persisted about whether the bomb will work, the explosion erases them altogether as it obliterates Potsdam, where Zhukov and Marshal Konev's headquarters is located. The shock value from the event also forces the other Soviet attacks to stop.
In the aftermath of the bombing, Stalin agrees to withdraw all Red Army forces to the Polish side of the Oder River, but leaves behind a small force on the German side to fortify the area. British spy Kim Philby
Kim Philby
Harold Adrian Russell "Kim" Philby was a high-ranking member of British intelligence who worked as a spy for and later defected to the Soviet Union...
, who spent the past few months digging for information on the atomic bomb, is killed by British Intelligence as he attempts to alert the Soviets that the Berlin bomb was the only working copy (having been tricked by a fake stockpile several days before). Krigoff, who was sent to Lubyanka prison after the siege, narrates his part of the story to Stalin before he is killed in his cell. The United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
also convenes a war crimes tribunal
Tribunal
A tribunal in the general sense is any person or institution with the authority to judge, adjudicate on, or determine claims or disputes—whether or not it is called a tribunal in its title....
to try all Nazis, but Himmler himself would not make it to the courtroom, as the US soldiers who discovered Buchenwald leave him to die in a camp with Jews and other inmates.
Subplots
Other subplots in Fox at the Front include the struggle of a B-24 LiberatorB-24 Liberator
The Consolidated B-24 Liberator was an American heavy bomber, designed by Consolidated Aircraft of San Diego, California. It was known within the company as the Model 32, and a small number of early models were sold under the name LB-30, for Land Bomber...
crewmember who crashed in Fox on the Rhine and his stay in Buchenwald alongside Rommel's personal driver, a teenage Volksgrenadier
Volksgrenadier
Volksgrenadier was the name given to a type of German Army division formed in the Autumn of 1944 after the double loss of Army Group Center to the Soviets in Operation Bagration and the Fifth Panzer Army to the Allies in Normandy. The name itself was intended to build morale, appealing at once to...
soldier who is later fielded into the Hitlerjugend and Das Reich divisions, and the exploits of Fox on the Rhine character Gunther von Reinhardt as he negotiates for a peaceful solution with Himmler. Like in the previous novel, the fictional history book War's Final Fury by Professor Jared Gruenwald provides further insights into the events of the novel.
Historical Characters
Germans:- Heinrich HimmlerHeinrich HimmlerHeinrich Luitpold Himmler was Reichsführer of the SS, a military commander, and a leading member of the Nazi Party. As Chief of the German Police and the Minister of the Interior from 1943, Himmler oversaw all internal and external police and security forces, including the Gestapo...
-SS and GestapoGestapoThe Gestapo was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Beginning on 20 April 1934, it was under the administration of the SS leader Heinrich Himmler in his position as Chief of German Police...
leader, FührerFührerFührer , alternatively spelled Fuehrer in both English and German when the umlaut is not available, is a German title meaning leader or guide now most associated with Adolf Hitler, who modelled it on Benito Mussolini's title il Duce, as well as with Georg von Schönerer, whose followers also... - Erwin RommelErwin RommelErwin Johannes Eugen Rommel , popularly known as the Desert Fox , was a German Field Marshal of World War II. He won the respect of both his own troops and the enemies he fought....
-WehrmachtWehrmachtThe Wehrmacht – from , to defend and , the might/power) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the Heer , the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe .-Origin and use of the term:...
field marshal, commander of German Republican Army - Joachim PeiperJoachim PeiperJoachim Peiper , more often known as Jochen Peiper, was a field officer in the Waffen-SS during World War II, convicted of war crimes in Belgium and accused of war crimes in Italy. He was Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler's personal adjutant . In 1945, he was an SS-Standartenführer, the Waffen-SS's...
- Waffen-SSWaffen-SSThe Waffen-SS was a multi-ethnic and multi-national military force of the Third Reich. It constituted the armed wing of the Schutzstaffel or SS, an organ of the Nazi Party. The Waffen-SS saw action throughout World War II and grew from three regiments to over 38 divisions, and served alongside...
officer - Sepp DietrichSepp DietrichJosef "Sepp" Dietrich was a German SS General. He was one of Nazi Germany's most decorated soldiers and commanded formations up to Army level during World War II. Prior to 1929 he was Adolf Hitler's chauffeur and bodyguard but received rapid promotion after his participation in the murder of...
- Waffen-SS general - Hans SpeidelHans SpeidelHans Speidel: Born in Metzingen, was a German general during World War II and the first German NATO Commander during the Cold War.- 1914–1945 :...
- Rommel's chief of staffChief of StaffThe title, chief of staff, identifies the leader of a complex organization, institution, or body of persons and it also may identify a Principal Staff Officer , who is the coordinator of the supporting staff or a primary aide to an important individual, such as a president.In general, a chief of...
who is appointed as the German government-in-exile's defense minister - Heinz GuderianHeinz GuderianHeinz Wilhelm Guderian was a German general during World War II. He was a pioneer in the development of armored warfare, and was the leading proponent of tanks and mechanization in the Wehrmacht . Germany's panzer forces were raised and organized under his direction as Chief of Mobile Forces...
- Wehrmacht general - Carl Goerdeler- German government-in-exile chancellor
Allies:
- Franklin D. RooseveltFranklin D. RooseveltFranklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
- US president - Lewis BreretonLewis H. BreretonLewis Hyde Brereton was a military aviation pioneer and lieutenant general in the United States Air Force...
- commander, First Allied Airborne ArmyFirst Allied Airborne ArmyThe First Allied Airborne Army was an Allied formation formed on 2 August 1944 by the order of General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Supreme Allied Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force. The formation was part of the Allied Expeditionary Force and controlled all Allied airborne forces in Western... - Leslie GrovesLeslie GrovesLieutenant General Leslie Richard Groves, Jr. was a United States Army Corps of Engineers officer who oversaw the construction of the Pentagon and directed the Manhattan Project that developed the atomic bomb during World War II. As the son of a United States Army chaplain, Groves lived at a...
- US general in charge of Manhattan Project - George Patton- commander, US Third Army
- Courtney HodgesCourtney HodgesGeneral Courtney Hicks Hodges was an American military officer, most prominent for his role in World War II, in which he commanded the First United States Army in Northwest Europe.-Early life and military career:...
- commander, US First Army - Dwight D. EisenhowerDwight D. EisenhowerDwight David "Ike" Eisenhower was the 34th President of the United States, from 1953 until 1961. He was a five-star general in the United States Army...
-Supreme Commander of the Allied forces in Europe - Averell Harriman - US Ambassador to the Soviet Union
- Paul TibbetsPaul TibbetsPaul Warfield Tibbets, Jr. was a brigadier general in the United States Air Force, best known for being the pilot of the Enola Gay, the first aircraft to drop an atomic bomb in the history of warfare. The bomb, code-named Little Boy, was dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima...
- captain of the B-29 Enola Gay (renamed Mickey Mouse Express by Groves)
Soviets:
- Joseph StalinJoseph StalinJoseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
- dictator - Georgy ZhukovGeorgy ZhukovMarshal of the Soviet Union Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov , was a Russian career officer in the Red Army who, in the course of World War II, played a pivotal role in leading the Red Army through much of Eastern Europe to liberate the Soviet Union and other nations from the Axis Powers' occupation...
- marshal and commander 1st Belorussian Front1st Belorussian FrontThe 1st Belorussian Front was a Front of the Soviet Army during World War II... - Nikolai BulganinNikolai BulganinNikolai Alexandrovich Bulganin was a prominent Soviet politician, who served as Minister of Defense and Premier of the Soviet Union . The Bulganin beard is named after him.-Early career:...
- politician - Lavrentiy BeriaLavrentiy BeriaLavrentiy Pavlovich Beria was a Georgian Soviet politician and state security administrator, chief of the Soviet security and secret police apparatus under Joseph Stalin during World War II, and Deputy Premier in the postwar years ....
- chief of NKVDNKVDThe People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs was the public and secret police organization of the Soviet Union that directly executed the rule of power of the Soviets, including political repression, during the era of Joseph Stalin....
External links
- Fox on the Rhine on Barnes and Noble.http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Fox-at-the-Front/Douglas-Niles/e/9780765343994/?itm=1
- Fox on the Rhine on Google Book SearchGoogle Book SearchGoogle Books is a service from Google that searches the full text of books that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical character recognition, and stored in its digital database. The service was formerly known as Google Print when it was introduced at the Frankfurt Book Fair in October...
. http://books.google.com/books?id=XFadOdnZcLUC&dq=fox+at+the+front&cd=1