Settling Accounts: Drive to the East
Encyclopedia
Drive to the East is the second book in Harry Turtledove's
Settling Accounts
series of alternate history
novels. It is set in an analog of World War II
in North America, fought between the United States
and Confederate States
. It was released in August 2005. It follows Return Engagement and precedes The Grapple in the tetralogy. It takes the Southern Victory Series Earth
from 1942 to 1943.
and the battle of Stalingrad with a Confederate push from occupied Ohio
into Pittsburgh, codenamed Operation Coalscuttle. It also involves analogues of the Battle of Midway
, the Manhattan Project
, and the Holocaust.
By the summer of 1942, the U.S. push under General Daniel MacArthur into northern Virginia
has stalled in the face of fierce opposition. This allows General George Patton to concentrate his forces in Ohio for a renewed push into western Pennsylvania
. Aided by improved armor and assault tactics, his troops quickly advance across eastern Ohio to Pittsburgh's outskirts. However Brigadier General Irving Morrell, who now commands the U.S. defense of the Ohio Front, prevents the CSA from enveloping Pittsburgh as planned and forces them into a street to street fight.
Meanwhile, Jeff Pinkard enjoys rapid advancement through the Freedom Party hierarchy as he begins to develop the machinery required to implement Jake Featherston
's Final Solution
to the Negro problem. His Camp Determination is now so efficient that it is able to swallow and extinguish the entire Negro population of Jackson, Mississippi
as reprisals against local insurgents. In Augusta
's now ghettoized
Negro district, Scipio, a former slave and communist rebel during the Great War
, manages for a time to skirt the ever increasing terror descending across the CSA's Negro population. Eventually, he too, is swallowed up and finds himself in a cattle car heading towards a bleak future. Elsewhere in Georgia
, captured U.S fighter pilot Jonathon Moss escapes from a POW camp and joins a small band of Negro rebels.
At sea, Lt. Sam Carsten's ship, USS Remembrance, is sunk by a Japanese carrier attack and the Sandwich Islands
(Hawaii
) are threatened with capture. Nevertheless, he finds himself promoted and placed in charge of a destroyer escort, where he spends time patrolling Atlantic sea lanes and engaging in special operations. George Enos' destroyer is nearly sunk in an engagement near Japanese-held Midway due to lack of sea-borne air power. However, when two escort carriers manage to reach Oahu
, the tide begins to turn. In a climactic battle, George's fleet sinks a Japanese carrier guarding Midway.
In this history, the Pacific War
against Japan is treated as essentially a sideshow, getting only a trickle of resources - since the US is facing a dangerous invasion of its industrial heartland. Strategic aims in the Pacific are confined to recapturing Midway
to remove the threat to the Sandwich Islands, and characters consider the idea of conducting an island-hopping war all the way to the Japanese home islands (as the US did in World War II) as an unrealistic fantasy. Also, in this history, the Philippines are a long-standing and recognized possession of the Japanese, which they had wrested from Spain
and to which the US lays no claim.
Under cover of an early November storm, General Morrell leads an armored breakthrough against poorly equipped Mexican troops protecting Patton's flank. Joining up with another salient coming out of West Virginia
, he traps the bulk of Patton's army, and drives deep into Ohio. Featherston, beginning an apparent descent into madness, gives the trapped army maniacal orders to hold its ground rather than attempt a breakout. When the promised resupply by air fails, Patton is ordered to escape by air and CSA resistance near Pittsburgh collapses. The sequence of events is similar to that which led to the destruction of the German Sixth Army in Stalingrad
during our timeline's World War II
.
Jonathan Moss spends most of the book as a frustrated POW held at Andersonville, Georgia
, under conditions unpleasant but far more tolerable than of the infamous Civil War
POW camp of the same location. He and others manage to escape after a tornado blows down the camp's fences. He and another escaped POW join a black guerrilla band whose capable leader took up the name nom de guerre Spartacus
. During a raid on Plains, Georgia
Moss kills Jimmy Carter
- here a young Confederate naval officer on leave trying to rally the townspeople against the raiding blacks.
General Abner Dowling is transferred from the Virginia front, to take up command of the 11th Army and open a new front by invading Texas
and preventing the Confederates from moving forces from there to reinforce the main front around Pittsburgh. By February 1943, his forces are approaching Lubbock, Texas
and - still unknown to himself, but highly alarming for Pinkard and the Freedom Party High Command - threatening to capture Camp Determination and expose its litany of horrors. Both sides are working desperately to develop an atomic weapon, although the US is slightly in the lead. Featherston's growing incapacity raises suspicions and leads Generals Clarence Potter and Nathan Bedford Forrest III
to consider a plot to overthrow him.
Harry Turtledove
Harry Norman Turtledove is an American novelist, who has produced works in several genres including alternate history, historical fiction, fantasy and science fiction.- Life :...
Settling Accounts
Settling Accounts (Harry Turtledove)
The Settling Accounts tetralogy is an alternate history setting of World War II by Harry Turtledove in North America, presupposing that the Confederate States of America won the U.S. Civil War. It is part of the Southern Victory Series, following How Few Remain and trilogies Great War and...
series of alternate history
Alternate history (fiction)
Alternate history or alternative history is a genre of fiction consisting of stories that are set in worlds in which history has diverged from the actual history of the world. It can be variously seen as a sub-genre of literary fiction, science fiction, and historical fiction; different alternate...
novels. It is set in an analog of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
in North America, fought between the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and Confederate States
Confederate States of America
The Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...
. It was released in August 2005. It follows Return Engagement and precedes The Grapple in the tetralogy. It takes the Southern Victory Series Earth
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...
from 1942 to 1943.
Plot summary
As the title suggests, it involves that world's version of the invasion of RussiaRussia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
and the battle of Stalingrad with a Confederate push from occupied Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
into Pittsburgh, codenamed Operation Coalscuttle. It also involves analogues of the Battle of Midway
Battle of Midway
The Battle of Midway is widely regarded as the most important naval battle of the Pacific Campaign of World War II. Between 4 and 7 June 1942, approximately one month after the Battle of the Coral Sea and six months after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States Navy decisively defeated...
, 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...
, and the Holocaust.
By the summer of 1942, the U.S. push under General Daniel MacArthur into northern Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
has stalled in the face of fierce opposition. This allows General George Patton to concentrate his forces in Ohio for a renewed push into western Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
. Aided by improved armor and assault tactics, his troops quickly advance across eastern Ohio to Pittsburgh's outskirts. However Brigadier General Irving Morrell, who now commands the U.S. defense of the Ohio Front, prevents the CSA from enveloping Pittsburgh as planned and forces them into a street to street fight.
Meanwhile, Jeff Pinkard enjoys rapid advancement through the Freedom Party hierarchy as he begins to develop the machinery required to implement Jake Featherston
Jake Featherston
Jacob "Jake" Featherston is a fictional character inthe Southern Victory Series novel series by Harry Turtledove. He is the fictional timeline's equivalent of Adolf Hitler.-Character introduction:...
's Final Solution
Final Solution
The Final Solution was Nazi Germany's plan and execution of the systematic genocide of European Jews during World War II, resulting in the most deadly phase of the Holocaust...
to the Negro problem. His Camp Determination is now so efficient that it is able to swallow and extinguish the entire Negro population of Jackson, Mississippi
Jackson, Mississippi
Jackson is the capital and the most populous city of the US state of Mississippi. It is one of two county seats of Hinds County ,. The population of the city declined from 184,256 at the 2000 census to 173,514 at the 2010 census...
as reprisals against local insurgents. In Augusta
Augusta, Georgia
Augusta is a consolidated city in the U.S. state of Georgia, located along the Savannah River. As of the 2010 census, the Augusta–Richmond County population was 195,844 not counting the unconsolidated cities of Hephzibah and Blythe.Augusta is the principal city of the Augusta-Richmond County...
's now ghettoized
Warsaw Ghetto
The Warsaw Ghetto was the largest of all Jewish Ghettos in Nazi-occupied Europe during World War II. It was established in the Polish capital between October and November 15, 1940, in the territory of General Government of the German-occupied Poland, with over 400,000 Jews from the vicinity...
Negro district, Scipio, a former slave and communist rebel during the Great War
Great War (Harry Turtledove)
Great War is an alternate history trilogy by Harry Turtledove, which follows How Few Remain. It is part of Turtledove's Southern Victory Series series of novels...
, manages for a time to skirt the ever increasing terror descending across the CSA's Negro population. Eventually, he too, is swallowed up and finds himself in a cattle car heading towards a bleak future. Elsewhere in Georgia
Georgia (U.S. state)
Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...
, captured U.S fighter pilot Jonathon Moss escapes from a POW camp and joins a small band of Negro rebels.
At sea, Lt. Sam Carsten's ship, USS Remembrance, is sunk by a Japanese carrier attack and the Sandwich Islands
Hawaiian Islands
The Hawaiian Islands are an archipelago of eight major islands, several atolls, numerous smaller islets, and undersea seamounts in the North Pacific Ocean, extending some 1,500 miles from the island of Hawaii in the south to northernmost Kure Atoll...
(Hawaii
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
) are threatened with capture. Nevertheless, he finds himself promoted and placed in charge of a destroyer escort, where he spends time patrolling Atlantic sea lanes and engaging in special operations. George Enos' destroyer is nearly sunk in an engagement near Japanese-held Midway due to lack of sea-borne air power. However, when two escort carriers manage to reach Oahu
Oahu
Oahu or Oahu , known as "The Gathering Place", is the third largest of the Hawaiian Islands and most populous of the islands in the U.S. state of Hawaii. The state capital Honolulu is located on the southeast coast...
, the tide begins to turn. In a climactic battle, George's fleet sinks a Japanese carrier guarding Midway.
In this history, the Pacific War
Pacific War
The Pacific War, also sometimes called the Asia-Pacific War refers broadly to the parts of World War II that took place in the Pacific Ocean, its islands, and in East Asia, then called the Far East...
against Japan is treated as essentially a sideshow, getting only a trickle of resources - since the US is facing a dangerous invasion of its industrial heartland. Strategic aims in the Pacific are confined to recapturing Midway
Midway Atoll
Midway Atoll is a atoll in the North Pacific Ocean, near the northwestern end of the Hawaiian archipelago, about one-third of the way between Honolulu, Hawaii, and Tokyo, Japan. Unique among the Hawaiian islands, Midway observes UTC-11 , eleven hours behind Coordinated Universal Time and one hour...
to remove the threat to the Sandwich Islands, and characters consider the idea of conducting an island-hopping war all the way to the Japanese home islands (as the US did in World War II) as an unrealistic fantasy. Also, in this history, the Philippines are a long-standing and recognized possession of the Japanese, which they had wrested from Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
and to which the US lays no claim.
Under cover of an early November storm, General Morrell leads an armored breakthrough against poorly equipped Mexican troops protecting Patton's flank. Joining up with another salient coming out of West Virginia
West Virginia
West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian and Southeastern regions of the United States, bordered by Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Ohio to the northwest, Pennsylvania to the northeast and Maryland to the east...
, he traps the bulk of Patton's army, and drives deep into Ohio. Featherston, beginning an apparent descent into madness, gives the trapped army maniacal orders to hold its ground rather than attempt a breakout. When the promised resupply by air fails, Patton is ordered to escape by air and CSA resistance near Pittsburgh collapses. The sequence of events is similar to that which led to the destruction of the German Sixth Army in Stalingrad
Battle of Stalingrad
The Battle of Stalingrad was a major battle of World War II in which Nazi Germany and its allies fought the Soviet Union for control of the city of Stalingrad in southwestern Russia. The battle took place between 23 August 1942 and 2 February 1943...
during our timeline's World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.
Jonathan Moss spends most of the book as a frustrated POW held at Andersonville, Georgia
Andersonville prison
The Andersonville prison, officially known as Camp Sumter, served as a Confederate Prisoner-of-war camp during the American Civil War. The site of the prison is now Andersonville National Historic Site in Andersonville, Georgia. Most of the site actually lies in extreme southwestern Macon County,...
, under conditions unpleasant but far more tolerable than of the infamous Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
POW camp of the same location. He and others manage to escape after a tornado blows down the camp's fences. He and another escaped POW join a black guerrilla band whose capable leader took up the name nom de guerre Spartacus
Spartacus
Spartacus was a famous leader of the slaves in the Third Servile War, a major slave uprising against the Roman Republic. Little is known about Spartacus beyond the events of the war, and surviving historical accounts are sometimes contradictory and may not always be reliable...
. During a raid on Plains, Georgia
Plains, Georgia
Plains is a city in Sumter County, Georgia, United States. The population was 776 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Americus Micropolitan Statistical Area.-Notable people:...
Moss kills Jimmy Carter
Jimmy Carter
James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office...
- here a young Confederate naval officer on leave trying to rally the townspeople against the raiding blacks.
General Abner Dowling is transferred from the Virginia front, to take up command of the 11th Army and open a new front by invading Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
and preventing the Confederates from moving forces from there to reinforce the main front around Pittsburgh. By February 1943, his forces are approaching Lubbock, Texas
Lubbock, Texas
Lubbock is a city in and the county seat of Lubbock County, Texas, United States. The city is located in the northwestern part of the state, a region known historically as the Llano Estacado, and the home of Texas Tech University and Lubbock Christian University...
and - still unknown to himself, but highly alarming for Pinkard and the Freedom Party High Command - threatening to capture Camp Determination and expose its litany of horrors. Both sides are working desperately to develop an atomic weapon, although the US is slightly in the lead. Featherston's growing incapacity raises suspicions and leads Generals Clarence Potter and Nathan Bedford Forrest III
Nathan Bedford Forrest III
Nathan Bedford Forrest III was a Brigadier General of the United States Army Air Forces, and a great-grandson of Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest....
to consider a plot to overthrow him.