Tidal Effects (Gray Tide In The East Book 2) Read online

  Gray Tide II:

  Tidal Effects

  Andrew J Heller

  Copyright 2014 Andrew J. Heller

  Published by Strict Publishing International

  CONTENTS

  Introduction

  Foreword

  Book One

  High Tide

  Chapter 1

  Washington, D.C., April 12, 1923

  Chapter 2

  Wilhelmshaven, Martinique, April 19, 1923

  Chapter 3

  Washington, D.C., April 25, 1923

  Chapter 4

  Berlin, April 28, 1923

  Chapter 5

  Washington, D.C., May 1, 1923

  Chapter 6

  London, May 2, 1923

  Chapter 7

  Berlin, May 2, 1923

  Chapter 8

  Washington, D.C., May 4, 1923

  Chapter 9

  Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, May 6, 1923

  Chapter 10

  Off Martinique, May 16, 1923

  Chapter 11

  Berlin, May 18, 1923

  Chapter 12

  London, May 19, 1923

  Chapter 13

  Washington, D.C., May 22, 1923

  Chapter 14

  Off Martinique, June 8, 1923

  Chapter 15

  Berlin, June 10, 1923

  Chapter 16

  From The Philadelphia Inquirer, June 18, 1923

  Chapter 17

  September 23, 1923,Wilhelmshaven, Martinique

  Afterword

  including brief biographies

  Book Two

  Rip-Tide

  Chapter 1

  Vienna, July 16, 1923

  Chapter 2

  Philadelphia, July 19, 1923

  Chapter 3

  Berlin, July 29, 1923

  Chapter 4

  Budapest, August 14, 1923

  Chapter 5

  Vienna, August 16, 1923

  Chapter 6

  Budapest, August 18, 1923

  Chapter 7

  Vienna, August 19, 1923

  Chapter 8

  Budapest, August 23, 1923

  Chapter 9

  Paris, August 25, 1923

  Chapter 10

  Berlin, August 27, 1923

  Chapter 11

  Vienna, August 28, 1923

  Chapter 12

  Westerham, England, September 1, 1923

  Chapter 13

  Budapest, September 3, 1923

  Chapter 14

  Washington, D.C., September 12, 1923

  Chapter 15

  Vienna, October 11, 1923

  Chapter 16

  From the Philadelphia Inquirer, November 15, 1923

  Afterword

  including brief biographies

  List of Illustrations

  Map of Martinique

  U.S. Navy Intelligence Bulletin

  Chateau Dubuc, Martinique

  Kaiser Wilhelm II

  Office of The President of The United States c 1920

  Leonard Wood – Oil Painting by John Sargent

  Rupprecht, Crown Prince of Bavaria

  War Ensign of The German Empire

  President Coolidge addressing Congress 1923

  The Philadelphia Daily News Building

  USS St Louis

  USS Mahan

  Broadside from a battleship

  SMS Rheinland

  Postcard from Martinique

  William Sims

  Raymond Spruance

  Sumner Welles

  Frank Lowden

  Joseph M. McCormick

  Leonard Wood

  Gottlieb von Jagow

  Alfred von Tirpitz

  Rupprecht, Crown Prince of Bavaria

  Kaiser Wilhelm II

  Georg Michaelis

  Sir Edward Grey

  Reinhard Scheer

  Claude Block

  William Leahy

  Hugh Rodman

  Winston Churchill

  Raymond Gram Swing

  Map of The Austro-Hungarian Empire

  Schoenbrunn Palace, Vienna

  The Billiards Room, Schoenbrunn Palace

  The Walnut Room, Schoenbrunn Palace

  Franz von Papen

  The Throne Room at the Stadtschloss

  The Hungarian Parliament building

  Mihaly Karolyi

  Speed Graphic camera

  Interior of the Hungarian Parliament

  Paris Café in the 1920s

  Berlin Stadtschloss

  Chartwell House

  Washington in moonlight

  Imperial Coat of Arms of the Empire of Austria

  Prince Sixtus of Bourbon-Parma

  Emperor Charles I of Austria

  Franz von Papen

  Mihaly Karolyi

  Istvan Tizsa

  Adolf Hitler

  Mikilos Horthy

  Edouard Herriot

  Wilhelm Groener

  Introduction

  In Gray Tide in the East, I attempted to write a “scientific” alternate history, which is to say, one which was grounded as much as possible in the actual history of the period. It was as much a thought experiment in history as it was a novel, written for the purpose of exploring the consequences of one changed historical event in a rigorous way (but to do so in as entertaining a way as possible). I wanted to avoid as much as I could wild and wooly speculations, and stay with what could be reasonably supported by historical research.

  Gray Tide is, as many readers have noted, a short book. The main reason for its brevity is that I was constrained by the self-imposed rules set forth above. It is an elementary proposition of alternate history that the further one travels in time past the changed event (the “point of departure” or “POD,” to use alternate history jargon), the more one is forced to speculate, and the less one can rely on actual history. (This is known as the “Butterfly Effect” in AH circles.) The POD for Gray Tide occurs in 1914, and the book ends in 1916, because I did not wish to go beyond what I believed the historical sources could support. I also thought the book was fairly complete and reasonably self-contained.

  After Gray Tide was published, however, numerous reviewers assumed that it was only the first in a planned series, and that there was a sequel in the works. I had no plans for a sequel, as any such project could not be written with the rigor of the original, due to the afore-mentioned Butterfly Effect.

  In the end, I capitulated to the demands of my readers, and you are now reading the result. I have tried to apply the methods of the first book to the current one by using actual historical persons in the stories, and by doing my best to base the events herein on the historical record wherever and whenever possible.

  On the other hand, given that this book was not intended to be a counter-factual study like the preceding book, I was free to create more plot complications and to explore and develop the characters, in short: to concentrate more on fiction than history. I can only hope that the readers will find this book satisfactory as both fiction and history.

  Foreword

  This book is a sequel to my alternate history of the First World War, Gray Tide in the East. It is not necessary to read the earlier novel to follow the stories in this book, although this book does require a brief introduction.

  In Gray Tide in the East, the history of the Great War changes on August 1, 1914 when the Emperor of Germany, Kaiser Wilhelm II, calls off the long-planned German invasion of Belgium, and orders the right wing of the German Army, 750,000 men, to go East against the Russian Empire, instead of West against France. (The Kaiser actually did cancel the invasion at the last minute,
but the Chief of his General Staff, Helmuth von Moltke, persuaded him to reverse his decision).

  The Kaiser’s order has a profound effect on the course of the war. The first consequence is that Great Britain does not enter the war. In 1914, Britain had no treaty obligations to any nation in Europe… except Belgium. Under the 1839 Treaty of London, Britain, along with Germany (originally Prussia), France, Russia and Austria had all pledged to defend the perpetual neutrality of Belgium, and to declare war against any power violating that neutrality. It was because of the German violation of Belgian neutrality, and for that reason alone, that the British Empire entered the war.

  Great Britain had a very small army at the outset of the war, although it was later to swell into a mass army of millions. However, Britain did have the world’s biggest and best navy in 1914, and as soon as war was declared, the Royal Navy instituted a blockade of Germany. This blockade would by 1918 result in the near-strangulation of the German economy, but it had another, more immediate effect as well.

  In response to the British blockade by surface ships, which the German Navy could not duplicate or break, Germany attempted to starve Great Britain by the use of a relatively new weapon, the submarine. The German government declared the waters surrounding the British Isles to be a war zone, and warned that any vessel, whether Allied or neutral entering it would be sunk on sight by German submarines. As a result of this unrestricted submarine warfare, hundreds of Americans were drowned in ships that were torpedoed in the war zone, and dozens of American ships were sent to the bottom of the Atlantic. Eventually, unrestricted submarine warfare was the main reason for the entry of the United States into the war against Germany in 1917.

  In Gray Tide in the East, the Germans do not have to contend with the British blockade, the British Army, or the Americans, because of the cancellation of the invasion of Belgium at the outset. With the weight of its army in the East, Germany quickly smashes the Russian Army and forces Russia out of the war in 1915. In the peace treaty that follows, Germany detaches the Baltic States, Eastern Poland, the Ukraine, Belorussia and Finland from the Russian Empire, and subsequently absorbs all of them except Finland into a greatly expanded German Empire. Germany’s main ally, Austria -Hungary, receives portions of the Ukraine and Poland as its share of the spoils.

  France launches several futile attacks on Germany, which achieve nothing and incur heavy casualties. When Germany offers France a soft peace after the defeat of her ally Russia, she has no choice but to accept. Under the terms of the Treaty of Bryn Mawr, mediated by American President Woodrow Wilson, Germany allows France to escape from the war without any indemnities or loss of territory except the transfer of three French colonies to Germany: New Caledonia in the South Pacific, Morocco in North Africa and Martinique in the Caribbean. It is this last German acquisition, which comes perilously close to violating the Monroe Doctrine, that gives rise to the first story in this book set in 1923, eight years after the end of the Great European War.

  Book One

  High Tide

  Chapter One

  Washington, D.C., April 12, 1923

  Rear Admiral William Sims read the memorandum again as he waited for the officer he had summoned to arrive at his office. This, the ninth or possibly tenth review of the note was quite unnecessary, as Sims had memorized its contents, but he found that each re-reading stimulated further speculations about the future, a future which he strongly suspected would bring, in the words of the old Chinese curse, “interesting times”.

  The Chief of Naval Intelligence stroked the neatly trimmed white fringe of beard that decorated his narrow chin as he considered the implications of the State Department memorandum. Leaving aside the whole issue of the Monroe Doctrine, he considered it extremely likely that the British would go berserk if they suspected that Imperial Germany was…

  His train of thought was interrupted by a buzz from his intercom. “Lieutenant Commander Spruance is here, but I don’t see his name in the appointment book. Shall I send him away?” the tinny-sounding voice of his secretary asked as it emerged from the speaker.

  Not for the first time, Sims considered firing his old harridan of a secretary-receptionist. If it were not for the fact that Hilda Davies was the fastest typist and most efficient shorthand scribe in the Navy Department, he would have sacked her long before. He thought about reminding Hilda that she had personally placed Sims’ call ordering Spruance to report to his office immediately, and asking her if that did not imply he wanted to see the man right away, and then he shook his head. Trying to get such a woman to understand that there were times to vary from routine was as pointless as trying to teach a mule to dance the Tennessee Waltz. Both were simply unsuited to the task by Nature.

  Sims was not aware of the low growling noise he was making as he pushed the intercom button and barked, “No, Miss Davies, send him in to me.”

  A moment later the door to the inner office opened, and Lieutenant Commander Raymond Spruance entered, his hat tucked under his left arm. He was of unexceptional appearance, with a medium build and height, dark brown hair and brown eyes. But there was something about him, a certain air that suggested there were hidden qualities, not the least of which was a profound intelligence. Sims believed him to be one of the most promising officers in the entire Navy.

  “Have a seat, Ray,” Sims said, returning the other man’s salute and motioning him to a chair. “How is the work coming in your section?” Spruance was assigned to analyzing new weapons being developed by potential rival navies.

  After giving the Admiral’s question due consideration, Spruance answered, “We’re not getting either the quality or quantity of information we need, sir. For example, I would like to have more hard numbers on the range of the new Japanese torpedo, instead of rumors. Also, we still don’t know if that new hull the Germans are laying down is intended to be a battle-cruiser or an aircraft carrier, and…”

  Sims nodded. “You’re going to have to turn those problems over to somebody else for a while. I have a new assignment for you, if you’re interested.”

  Spruance sat up a little straighter at the words “new assignment.” Ever since he had begun his tour of duty at Intelligence, he had made no secret of his desire to return to a shipboard assignment. His stint as C.O. of two destroyers, first Dale and later Osborne, had been high points of his career, and he would have gladly exchanged his desk in Washington to command a fighting ship again. He would have cheerfully settled for a billet as the executive officer on a cruiser, or better still on the new aircraft carrier Langley.

  “If you’re looking for a new ship, Ray, I’m afraid I’ll have to disappoint you,” Sims said. “We need you for intelligence work. You told me you aren’t satisfied with the information coming in from our agents; well, neither am I. Today, I was handed this memorandum under the endorsement of the Secretary of the Navy, but which came over from State.” He tapped the sheet that lay before him on his desk. “The State Department wants to borrow a naval officer for an investigation.”

  Spruance raised an eyebrow. The request was unusual, to say the least. The State Department surely had its own sources of information, and he had never heard of them asking for help from Naval Intelligence before.

  “It’s a small matter, really,” Sims continued. “Secretary of State Wood wants somebody to take a trip down to Martinique to have a look around. That somebody should be intelligent, discreet, and a Navy man. Depending on what we find out, it may just mean war with the German Empire. So, are you interested?”

  “War?” repeated the startled Spruance. “Is the situation really that serious, sir?”

  Sims’ expression was stern. “You tell me,” he said. He produced a cardboard tube from which he slid a map, which he unrolled on his desk, placing a paperweight on one end and a stapler on the other to keep it flat.

  “Our consul down in Wilhelmshaven… that’s the capital of Martinique – used to be called Fort-de-France before the Germans took over the island …
heard some rumors about a big new port facility being built at a little town called La Trinitie across the island from the capital.” Sims jabbed the map with a finger to indicate the locations of the various places named. “Now, the main harbor at Wilhelmshaven handles all the blue-water traffic for the island with ease. In fact, it has a lot more capacity than Martinique needs, because the French built it up a few years before the war with the idea of making it the major trans-shipment port for their Caribbean trade. So what reason would anybody have to develop another deep water port on Martinique, when the one already there can already handle twice the volume of shipping it actually receives?”

  Spruance considered the question, his eyes narrowing slightly. “Well, it doesn’t sound like a commercial proposition, anyway,” he said.