Alternate Universe, the “What if?” This is something I wrote in 1985 and was intended to be a novel. I’ve recently decided to resurrect it as a short story. Here’s how it all begins . . .

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PROLOGUE

Time: August 15, 1946

The conflict that would be known in history as World War II was at an end. The United States stood alone, facing the indestructible forces of Nazis Germany and Imperialist Japan.

England, as the world had known it, was no more, annihilated by what Adolph Hitler had called the ultimate weapon. The Luftwaffe had dropped three of these bombs on England, completely removing London, Edinburg and Dublin from the face of the earth.

Hitler of Germany and General Tojo of Japan had sent an ultimatum to President Harrod and to the Congress of the United States, capitulate and surrender, or face the destruction of the entire country, beginning with New York City, Washington, D.C., Boston and the Norfolk Naval Installation.

After two days of deliberations, knowing of Germany’s newest plane, the Fokker 183, a just released four engine jet bomber capable of Trans-Atlantic flights along with the newly discovered atom bomb, perfected by German scientists, there was no choice but to surrender to the Axis powers. They could not justify causing the death of millions of Americans by prolonging the hostilities.

So, at 3:30 P.M. (EST), aboard the German Battleship Gren Spee, laying at anchor in the middle of Chesapeake Bay, a few miles down river from the Capitol of the United States, the unconditional surrender of all United States military forces was signed by General Dwayne D. Keller for the United States, and accepted by General Heindrich Stahl of Germany and General Matsu Yomahuta of Japan.

So began “THE HARVEST OF THE GRAIN.”

copyright 1985 RLM