Iron Crucible

The year is 1992. Over twenty years have passed since Soviet General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev was assassinated by a crazed gunman. Since that time, the Soviet Union has been put on a course toward economic success-and war. In the Balkans, Yugoslavia's collapse into ethnic violence draws NATO and the Warsaw Pact to the brink of Armageddon. Armies deploy and fleets maneuver. Political intrigue engulfs Moscow and Washington, and paranoia radiates from the Iron Curtain. In the zero-sum game of Cold War, neither side can afford to blink or back down. A conflict nearly fifty years in the making spills from boardrooms and back alleys and explodes into open battle on land, air, and sea. The showdown of the century is here: East versus West with the future of mankind at stake.

The year is 1992. The unthinkable has happened. East and West are on a crash course for war, and the battlefield will be Germany. Peace is no longer an option, and all bets are off as the Free World and the Communist Bloc descend into war. NATO forces scramble to grapple with the Soviet juggernaut, as the Reds pull out all the stops, and engineer a secret plan, to crush them in a single mighty blow. The future of humanity tilts in the balance. Welcome to World War III.

The year is 1992. The Soviet Blitzkrieg in Germany has been beaten to a bloody halt along the Rhine River. The Reds rush masses of teenage conscripts and rusty reservists to the front, while NATO scrambles to mount a killing blow against their reeling nemesis. The flames of war spread north to Scandinavia, embroiling Sweden and threatening Norway. In this grinding war of attrition, both sides endure, and the death toll mounts. Is a breakthrough at hand or has the carnage only begun?

The year is 1992. Europe is in flames. Scandinavia is under siege. Only Norway holds out against the Soviet war machine. And now the pride of the Soviet Navy, the Red Banner Northern Fleet, sallies out to finish the job. With their armies facing annihilation, and World War III at a tipping point, the combined navies of NATO stand ready to receive their enemy. Europe's greatest naval battle since Jutland, the first carrier battle since World War II, is about to begin.

The year is 1992. The Third World War rages. With Central Europe locked in a bloody stalemate, the chaos boils over into Greece and Turkey, with NATO holding on by a thread against the Soviet onslaught. But the greatest twists of fate unfold behind the scenes. The United States Presidential election may upend the balance altogether, as America's citizens choose who will lead them into the maelstrom. But in Moscow, hidden forces within the Soviet Union finally make their bid for power. The decisive battles of the war are being waged not for Europe, but for the White House . . . and the Kremlin. Who will stand victorious, and who will vanish into the dustbin of history?

It's September 1992. The Yugoslav Crisis is over, but tensions are rising along the Iron Curtain in Germany. Forty-eight hours before a surprise Soviet invasion, hardened airborne commandos of the Warsaw Pact launch a daring raid. Their mission: the covert seizure of NATO's Rhein-Main Air Base. The only thing in their way is a small band of US Air Force personnel. Heroic last stands abound in a desperate hour-by-hour struggle for the runways, as the "Gateway to Europe" becomes the Alamo on the Rhine . . . Set during the events of Red Front, Alamo on the Rhine is a novella covering a small but crucial slice of the great East-West confrontation. The actions of a few men and women in a few short hours will determine the fate of nations.