Different world War II

Small changes - screwing an extra knot out of a warship's engines or a petty functionary insisting a family sell a wedding clock before they can get unemployment benefit - small changes which can nevertheless lead to a different world war than the one we know explored from the viewpoint of Republican Spaniards, committed Nazis, British parliamentarians and Royal Naval officers to name but a few in this stunning fictional alternative history.

A stunning alternative history of World War II continues to depart from the record as Jorge battles for Asturias, Pulver sails on HMS Hood, The Bismarck nears completion and the Germans contemplate the invasion of Spain.

Churchill is trying to persuade the Americans to commit to the war but Rommel has the task of pushing an army deep into the Basque heartlands and is facing a new form of war - barbaric, subtle and bloody guerilla resistance. And meanwhile The Hood and her sisters are loose on the high seas...

From Gibraltar to Crete; the tangled lives of naval officers and their men, Pulver and Stebbings, of marines like O'Flynn, Maori warriors like Lieutenant Ngarimu, the healer 'Ronnie' Prasad and many more, following the orders of their political masters, intent on stabilising the newly-liberated Spain and smashing the German war machine on land, on seas patrolled by HMS Hood and her sisters, and in skies overflown by the RAF and the Luftwaffe. This is war. But not as the history books tell it.

Two missions are afoot. The Asturian, Sergeant Massu must seek out a princess in hiding who may hold the key to bringing down the Italian Fascists while Sergeant Dodd and Georgiou are determined to kill the German General Bräuer. On the grander stage the way must be cleared for an allied invasion of Greece, the enemy must at all costs believe that the target is really Sicily and the master of deception remains Commandante O'Neill. Meanwhile a refitted HMS Hood is preparing to sail again...and this time towards the rising sun...and a shell-shocked Bombardier Milligan is in acute need of assistance.

The battle for Greece is well underway after Allied landings on the mainland and Dodds has the heavy burden of safeguarding all the inhabitants of his bride-to-be's village. Meanwhile in London politicians are turning their minds to creating a post-war Britain fit for heroes, in the Pacific the Hood is taking the war to the Japanese and Massu's quest to get the Princess to Rome meets unforseen human obstacles...

The war is far from over and the atrocities continue perpetrated by the SS and their Basque, Asturian, Scots and Gurkha opponents on the French borders with German defeat imminent. Meanwhile under Sergeant Massu's protection his royal charge is endeavouring to unite Italy while the Hood is doing what she does best - making war on the waves of the vast Pacific Ocean.