Worldwar

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Worldwar is a series of four alternate history science fiction novels by Harry Turtledove.

The premise of the series is an alien invasion of Earth in the middle of World War II. The military invasion begins on or around May 30, 1942, but the aliens, who call themselves the Race, reached Earth orbit in December of 1941. Presumably, six months were spent making preparations for the attack.

Although the Race, a reptilian species, has the advantage of superior technology, their last information on humans was collected by a robotic probe during the 12th century. Their technology is only slightly ahead of what we have today: hydrogen based engines, holographic projectors, and cold sleep being among the technologies not in common use at the start of the 21st century. The "Lizards," as their human antagonists quickly dub them, are extremely surprised that mankind has progressed so far since their probe visited Earth. No species they heve ever encountered has advanced so rapidly: they thought the toughest military force on the planet would still be Crusader knights on horses.

The narrative follows the intersecting fortunes of a large number of human and alien characters. Most notably the series depicts how the Axis and Allied powers must cooperate to fight the alien menace. A follow-up trilogy, Colonization, carries the story forward into a very different 1960s. The timeline ends with Homeward Bound.

The volumes are:

• Worldwar: In the Balance (1994)
• Worldwar: Tilting the Balance (1995)
• Worldwar: Upsetting the Balance (1996)
• Worldwar: Striking the Balance (1996)

Dramatis Personae

The following is a list of some major characters from the series.

Humans

Flight-Lieutenant George Bagnall: A flight engineer in the Royal Air Force serving aboard a Lancaster bomber. Bagnall is part of a 1,000 bomber flight returning from a run over Cologne in Germany when the invasion begins. The armada of bombers is under attack from German AA and fighters when the Race's killercraft descend upon the unsuspecting humans. The resulting battle leaves several German and British planes destroyed while no significant damage is inflicted upon the Race.

David Goldfarb: A radar operator in the Royal Air Force. When the Race carries out air reconnaissance in the months before their attack, Goldfarb and his fellow radar specialists are confused by readings indicating aircraft much faster and high-flying than anything known to humans: the RAF men nickname those echoes as "pixies". No one believes aircraft can fly as fast or as high as the readings indicate.

Lieutenant Ludmilla Gorbunova: One of many female pilots in the Soviet Union's Red Air Force. Stationed at an airfield near Kharkov in the Ukraine when the invasion begins, Ludmilla witnesses the destruction of most human aircraft, both Soviet and German, at the hands of the alien invaders. Since she flies a small wooden biplane with a low ceiling, qualities that render it practically invisible to radar, she is one of the few pilots to survive the initial alien attack.

Colonel Leslie Groves (historical): Head of America's atomic bomb development. His first task is to get a batch of captured alien Uranium from Boston, Massachusetts to Denver, Colorado where the "metallurgical laboratory" developing the atom bomb has been relocated. He is very well aware that the Soviet Union and Germany are also working fervently to develop the first human atomic weapons and he is eager to win the race.

Colonel Heinrich Jaeger: A tank commander in the German Sixth Army advancing on Stalingrad when the alien invasion begins. Jaeger fought in the trenches of World War I as a teenager and saw firsthand the devastating effects of armored vehicles on infantry. After the Armistice he stayed in the army, serving in the Reichswehr of the Weimar Republic. When Hitler began rearming Germany in the 1930s, Jaeger requested reassignment to the Panzer Corps. If he was going to see combat in another war, he wanted to fight from a tank cupola.

Jens Larssen: A physicist at the University of Chicago. When the Race begins its attack on Earth, they detonate several atomic bombs just above the Earth's atmosphere hoping to disrupt human electronics with the resulting electromagnetic radiation. This attempt at subterfuge fails since electronics of the 1940s use vacuum tubes rather than integrated circuits, making the effect of EM radiation minimal. However, Larssen is among the handful of human scientists to realize that the attack proves nuclear fission is feasible. This is important since Larssen is working alongside several other scientists to develop an atom bomb.

Vyacheslav Molotov (historical): Head of the Soviet Union's Foreign Ministry, Molotov is given the unenviable task of negotiating with Fleetlord Atvar. Possessing an icy and taciturn demeanor, he proves adept at reading the intentions of his adversaries, both human and alien. The only time Molotov reveals any sign of emotion is around Stalin, who elicits a certain amount of fear in him. Along with Germany's Joachim von Ribbentrop and America's Cordell Hull, Molotov is among the first humans to orbit the Earth.

Moishe Russie: A doctor in Poland when the Germans invaded in 1939. Since he is Jewish, Moishe and his family are forced by the German authorities to live in the Warsaw ghetto. It is revealed later that plans were underway to ship most of the Jews in the ghetto to a place called Auschwitz. When the alien invasion begins, Moishe advises his fellow Jews to greet the Race as liberators since one of their bombs inadvertently blows a hole in the ghetto wall. The Jews of Poland are cruelly disillusioned as to the nature of their "liberators."

Otto Skorzeny (historical): SS Hauptstürmfuhrer, Skorzeny is known for his "outside-the-box" thinking and his commando missons. He becomes a particularly feared human to the Race. He staged a major turnover for the Nazis in Croatia, and bargained for a Race landcruiser with a backpack full of ginger.

Sam Yeager: A minor league ball player with the Decatur Commodores when the invasion takes place. Like many young men, he tried to enlist in the Army in the wake of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor at the end of 1941. However, he was rejected because he must wear a full plate of dentures after losing his teeth during the Influenza epidemic of 1918. His train is strafed south of Dixon, Illinois during the opening hours of the invasion. Not long afterward, he is drafted by a desperate US Army.

The Race

Fleetlord Atvar: The commander of the Race's Conquest Fleet. He is apparently related to the Emperor and owes his position partly due to that fact. In the course of the series it is revealed that aptitude tests back on Home indicated Atvar would be either a proficient architect or military officer. He chose a military career believing it would be more exciting.

Flight Leader Teerts: A killercraft pilot from the Conquest Fleet. His is among the jet fighters that rapidly neutralize human air power in the opening days of the invasion. By the end of the first few weeks, the Race achieves air supremacy over most of the planet, forcing human pilots to engage in small limited attacks upon isolated targets or risk nearly certain death.

Straha: Shiplord who vocally opposes Atvar's strategies. He will ask for a confidence vote which Atvar wins, forcing Straha to exile (in shame) among the humans. He lands in the United States, where he is kept as a prisoner of war, and intensely questioned on Race technology.

Ussmak: A driver for the crew of a landcruiser in the Conquest Fleet. Essentially, the Lizard "Everyman" viewpoint character. At first, Ussmak and his crewmates revel at the ease with which they manage to destroy Soviet T-34s and German Panthers, the most advanced armored vehicles of the human armies. However, they soon grow disillusioned when the humans continue to resist the invasion despite their clear military inferiority. Ussmak eventually finds himself wondering if this is a fight worth waging.

Cameos

Some historical characters also appear for brief cameos, to give a historical feel to the story:

In the Balance

Mordechai Anielewicz: Guerrilla leader in the Warsaw ghetto

Tadeusz Bor-Komorowski: General, Polish Home Army

Winston Churchill: Prime Minister of Great Britain

Enrico Fermi: Nuclear physicist, University of Chicago Metallurgical Laboratory

Adolf Hitler: German Führer

Cordell Hull: U.S. secretary of state

George Marshall: U.S. Army Chief of Staff

George Patton: U.S. Army major general

Joachim von Ribbentrop: German foreign minister

Leo Szilard: Nuclear physicist, University of Chicago Metallurgical Laboratory

Hans Thomsen: German ambassador to the United States

Shigenori Togo: Japanese foreign minister

Walt Zinn: Nuclear physicist, University of Chicago Metallurgical Laboratory

Tilting the Balance

Mordechai Anielewicz: leader of Jewish fighters in Poland

Eric Blair: BBC talks producer, Indian Section, London

Kurt Chill: Wehrmacht general and interpreter in Pskov

Winston Churchill: Prime Minister of Great Britain

Arthur Compton: Nuclear physicist with the Metallurgical Laboratory

Kurt Diebner: Nuclear physicist, Hechingen, Germany

Enrico Fermi: Nuclear physicist with the Metallurgical Laboratory

Laura Fermi: Enrico Fermi's wife

Georgi Flerov: Soviet nuclear physicist

Aleksandr German: Commander of Second Partisan Brigade in Pskov

Werner Heisenberg: Nuclear physicist, Hechingen, Germany

Nieh Ho-T'ing: Chinese Communist guerrilla officer

Cordell Hull: U.S. secretary of state

Ivan Koniev: Red Army general

Igor Kurchatov: Soviet nuclear physicist

Edward R. Murrow: Radio news broadcaster

Yoshio Nishina: Japanese nuclear physicist

Joachim von Ribbentrop: German foreign minister

Franklin D. Roosevelt: President of the United States

Mordechai Chaim Rumkowski: Eldest of the Jews in the Lodz ghetto

Iosef Stalin: General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union

Leo Szilard: Nuclear physicist with the Metallurgical Laboratory

Shigenori Togo: Japanese foreign minister

Nikolai Vasiliev: Commander, First Partisan Brigade in Pskov

Georgi Zhukov: Marshal of the Soviet Union

Upsetting the Balance

Mordechai Anielewicz: Jewish partisan, eastern Poland

Lord Beaverbrook: British Minister of Supply

Kurt Chill: Wehrmacht Lieutenant General

Kurt Diebner: Nuclear physicist, Tübingen, Germany

Albert Einstein: Physicist, Couch, Missouri

Dwight Eisenhower: U.S. Army General, Couch, Missouri

Enrico Fermi: Nuclear physicist, Denver, Colorado

Aleksandr German: Partisan Brigadier, Pskov, USSR

Robert Goddard: Rocket expert, , Couch, Missouri

Lord Halifax: British ambassador to the United States

Cordell Hull: U.S. Secretary of State

Nieh Ho-'Ting: People's Liberation Army officer, China

Joachim von Ribbentrop: German foreign minister

Iosef Stalin: General Secretary, Communist Party of the USSR

Leo Szilard: Nuclear physicist, Denver, Colorado

Nikolai Vasiliev: Partisan brigadier, Pskov, USSR

Striking the Balance

Mordechai Anielewicz: Jewish fighting leader, Lodz, Poland

Menachem Begin: Jewish guerrilla, Haifa, Palestine

Omar Bradley: U.S. Army lieutenant general, outside Denver

Walter von Brockdorff-Ahlefeldt: Wehrmacht lieutenant general, Riga, Latvia

Kurt Chill: Wehrmacht lieutenant general, Pskov, USSR

William Donovan: U.S. Army major general, Hot Springs, Arkansas

Anthony Eden: British foreign secretary

Aleksandr German: Partisan brigadier, Pskov, USSR

Robert Goddard: Rocket scientist, Hot Springs, Arkansas

Cordell Hull: President of the United States

Igor Kurchatov: Nuclear physicist, north of Moscow

Mao Tse-Tung: Communist Party leader, Peking

George Marshall: U.S. Secretary of State

Joachim von Ribbentrop: German foreign minister

Iosef Stalin: General Secretary, Communist Party, USSR

Stern: Jewish guerrilla leader, Jerusalem (Note: identity uncertain, best possible match is Abraham Stern)

Shigenori Togo: Japanese foreign minister

Nikolai Vasiliev: Partisan brigadier, Pskov, USSR

Worldwar: In the Balance

After arriving in the Earth's solar system, the Conquest Fleet's essential personnel are awakened from cold sleep after a twenty year journey originating from Tau Ceti II. Fleetlord Atvar is busy making final preparations for the invasion of Earth, expecting a rapid victory over the primitive beings that populate the planet. He is interrupted by a communications officer who reports that radio emissions are emanating from Earth. Atvar refuses to believe the report since the most recent intelligence, gathered from a probe that visited Earth in the 12th century, indicates that the inhabitants are a pre-industrial species.

The Conquest Fleet reaches Earth orbit in December of 1941 and begins surveying the planet. They are shocked to find that in the course of only 800 years the inhabitants have moved from a primitive agricultural society to an industrial civilization. The Race's technology has hardly changed in the space of more than 50,000 years and other known intelligent species are similarly slow to evolve.

After six months of reconnaissance and intelligence gathering, in May of 1942 Atvar consults with the Shiplords of the Conquest Fleet. The troops have been awakened from cold sleep and are prepared to commence with military operations. However, it is within Atvar's power to cancel the invasion. Unwilling to call off the attack and face the Emperor back on Home, Atvar orders the assault to begin. Shortly thereafter the Race detonates several atom bombs above the Earth's atmosphere in an attempt to disrupt human communications. The attack begins.

On the night of May 30, only hours after detonating the atomics, the Race's forces attack human aircraft and ground vehicles in and around designated landing zones. Once the sites are secured, troop ships begin landing and disgorging ground forces. The Race simultaneously establishes bases on every continent except Antarctica.

South America and Africa are overrun almost immediately. Landing bases in Florida, Illinois, Idaho, and New York cause widespread panic and chaos in the United States. The Race's forces establish bases in Poland, cutting Germany off from the bulk of its forces in the Soviet Union and resulting in a massive German retreat westward. England's air forces are battered from alien bases in Spain and France. The Soviet Union must deal with enemy strongholds in the Ukraine, Outer Mongolia, and Siberia. Everywhere, humankind falls back in the face of a seemingly unstoppable nemesis.

While hostilities between the Axis and Allied powers end almost immediately, this is the result of military expediency rather than a sign of genuine cooperation. With the Race's forces battering the human armies into submission, no resources can be expended on human rivalries. The unsettling reality of the new balance of power is emphasized by the fact that, in the early days of the fighting, only Germany is able to battle the aliens with any measure of success. Since Germany has been at war longer than the other major powers and because its economy has been specifically geared toward war, this is only natural. But Americans are nauseated by the idea of fighting on the same side as Hitler while the Soviets are not quite so sure that the Germans can be trusted even in the face of an alien invasion.

After the initial assault, the Race's troops come to a virtual standstill. It is not so much human resistance that keeps them from advancing as much as their tendency to deliberate their options before acting. Mankind takes advantage of the respite provided to wage localized counterattacks, nearly all of which fail. In the process they find that the Race lacks tactical combat initiative and can be easily lured into traps. However, their advanced technology makes it difficult to exploit this weakness. The Race also discovers that their orbital atomic detonations had little if any effect on the human militaries; they had thought that the resulting electro-magnetic pulse would short out any advanced technology the humans had, but soon discover that humans in the 1940's do not yet possess silicon computer chips; most of their technology like radios is based on vacuum tubes.

Hitler takes advantage of the brief lull in the fighting to order an artillery unit in the Ukraine to attack an alien base. The German battery manages to destroy two of the Race's ships (the 67th Emperor Sohrreb and the 56th Emperor Jossano), including the one which carries the bulk of the Conquest Fleet's atomic stockpile. The resulting explosion sends chunks of Uranium flying across several acres. Soviet partisans take notice of the care with which the Race goes about collecting the strange metal.

Elsewhere in the Ukraine, Major Heinreich Jaeger manages to destroy one of the Race's landcruisers, but at the cost of his entire panzer company. Narrowly escaping from the battle he is found by Lieutenant Gorbunova who flies him back to the airfield where she is stationed. From there, Jaeger is sent to Moscow where he spends several weeks as a guest of the Soviet government---not an official prisoner of war nor an ally. Finally, he is asked to take part in a joint German-Soviet operation in the Ukraine aimed at recovering some of the Uranium.

The ad hoc band of Soviet partisans and displaced German soldiers charged with the assignment manages to hijack a shipment of Uranium. In accordance with negotiated arrangements, they divide the load in half and go their separate ways. Jaeger is given a horse and is forced to ride across the Ukrainian steppe and through enemy occupied Poland to reach Germany with the precious metal. Along the way, he is ambushed by Jewish partisans. Though they are nominally allies of the Race, they recognize the threat the aliens pose to mankind. They take half the Uranium in Jaeger's possession and let him return to Germany. The Jewish partisans send their commandeered Uranium to England where it is subsequently shipped to the United States.

Upon his arrival in Germany, Jaeger is promoted to the rank of colonel and awarded the Knight's Cross in Gold at a ceremony held in Berchtesgaden, Hitler's Bavarian resort. While Jaeger enjoys a well deserved furlough there, Molotov arrives to consult with Hitler on the conduct of the war. The Soviet ambassador is flown to Bavaria by Lieutenant Gorbunova, to Jaeger's surprise. Heinreich and Ludmilla grow close during their short time together.

In an attempt to reduce human resistance, Atvar orders the use of atomic weapons on Washington DC and Berlin, hoping that this will persuade the Americans and the Germans to surrender. Berlin is hit first, primarily in retaliation for the destruction of the Race's ships in the Ukraine. While Atvar regrets the need to atomize human territory, mostly because Earth has so little land relative to sea, he sees the display of power as necessary since Germany fields the strongest human army. The Race is less dismayed by the attack on Washington DC since it is an administrative and communications center with few industrial and commercial resources. Furthermore, Atvar rationalizes that most of the radioactive fallout will drift harmlessly out into the Atlantic. Instead of the attacks breaking the humans, both nations are simply compelled to fight harder and to hasten research into production of their own atomic weapons.

Meanwhile, in the United States, Jens Larssen is forced to travel to White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia where the U.S. government has set up a temporary capital after losing Washington DC. Larssen warns the Army Chief of Staff, General George C. Marshall, that the U.S. Army must defend Chicago at all costs since the metallurgical laboratory stationed at the University is working feverishly to develop atomic power, which might be the only chance humanity has to defeat the Race. Marshall assures Larssen that holding Chicago is a key component of the Army's strategy. Satisfied, Larssen makes his way back to the University of Chicago.

On his way back, Larssen finds that the Race has captured most of Ohio and Indiana. He carefully makes his way through and around enemy lines until he is found by U.S. troops. Larssen explains that he is a physicist on important government business. After several interrogations, Larssen is granted an audience with General George S. Patton who explains that a major military operation is currently being planned to keep the Race out of Chicago. Since he is so valuable to the war effort and because of the dangers involved, Patton refuses to allow Larssen to proceed to Chicago until the Americans have secured the city.

As the winter of 1942 begins, the Race's attacks begin to lose momentum. They are completely unprepared for the kind of winter weather they find on Earth. On their home planet, snow is extraordinarily rare outside the laboratory and much of their land is sandy desert. As soon as the first blizzard hits Illinois, a handful of American fighters and bombers, hoarded for this last desperate strike, move against the Race's positions in western Indiana and southern Wisconsin. Massive artillery barrages follow. Finally, American infantry and tank units under Patton in the east and General Omar Bradley in the north move toward their objective: Bloomington, Illinois. Although human Sherman tanks and P-51 Mustangs are no match for the Race's landcruisers and killercraft, the alien forces are so badly outnumbered and the weather so inhospitable that they are compelled to retreat. The U.S. troops move rapidly and manage to encircle some of the Race's slower formations in a ring of armor and destroy them in detail. Mankind scores its first major success against the nemesis from the stars.

As the human counteroffensive succeeds in liberating most of northern Illinois, Fleetlord Atvar and the Conquest Fleet's Shiplords begin to grow worried about the war's progress. When the invasion began they were confident that their technological superiority would guarantee a rapid victory even in the face of expansive human industrial power. While they have managed to subdue South America, Africa, and Australia, the Race still faces stiff resistance in North America, Europe, and Asia six months after their attack started. As the fighting continues, the Race's more advanced weaponry, such as guided missiles, anti-armor rockets, landcruisers, killercraft, and helicopters, is being destroyed in ever greater numbers. While simple weapons, such as rifles, bullets, artillery shells, and mortars, can be produced in captured human factories, the longer the war continues the more the technological gap between the Race and mankind will shrink. Atvar is informed by his intelligence officers that human vehicles are dependent upon petroleum for fuel and that striking at refineries processing oil might reduce the combat effectiveness of humanity's armies. Atvar orders an airborne attack upon the Romanian oilfields at Ploesti, but the bombing raid meets with limited success and costs the Race valuable killercraft.

As 1942 nears its end and Patton and Bradley march their forces into Bloomington, Jens Larssen arrives in Chicago to find the city in ruins. He makes his way through the rubble, encountering a civilian populace in severe disarray, and toward the University of Chicago. There, Larssen is informed by a custodian that the metallurgical laboratory has evacuated the campus and is relocating to Denver. Like the war, Larssen's journey has a long way to go.

Worldwar: Tilting the Balance

As the year 1943 begins, the Race attempts to consolidate its hold over Latin America, Africa, and Australia while engaged in a fierce struggle with the free nations of the world: the United States, England, the Soviet Union, Japan, and the Greater German Reich. While capable of resisting the invaders, mankind has been dealt a heavy blow by the nemesis from the stars. The Race maintains unquestioned air supremacy over the entire world as humans are reduced to moving their ground forces by night and using their own aircraft only in the most dire emergencies. With supplies of petroleum severely limited, people have taken to using horse driven carriages rather than automobiles and kerosene lamps instead of electric lights. But even as the human race huddles in the darkness, physicists and engineers work desperately to develop the first human atom bombs as they represent what might be the only hope of driving the Race off Earth.

After a rapid conquest of Spain and the capitulation of Italy, the Race focuses on driving its forces in France eastward, toward the heart of the German Reich. Among the officers of the Wehrmacht struggling desperately to hold back the tide of the alien forces is Colonel Heinreich Jaeger. Fresh from his stay in Hitler's Berchtesgaden retreat, Jaeger is puzzled by the relationship he has formed with Lieutenant Ludmilla Gorbunova, the Ukrainian pilot who flew Soviet Foreign Minister Molotov to Bavaria for a conference with the Fuehrer. He is much enamored with her but wonders if love can develop between two former enemies.

Jaeger is given command of a panzer regiment near Belfort and is charged with keeping the Race from reaching the Rhine. Although the latest panzer models, the Panther and the Tiger, give the Germans a fighting chance, they're still woefully inferior to the Race's landcruisers. While the Race's landcruisers remain superior, the aliens are stunned that humans are capable of designing and deploying new tank models within such a short space of time, as the Race's rate of technological development is centuries slower. Jaeger is abruptly pulled out of frontline service and ordered to assist the German atomic bomb program in Wittelsbach.

In the United States, Jens Larssen, a physicist, leaves Chicago in search of the metallurgical laboratory which has relocated to Denver. After crossing the Great Lakes, he moves swiftly across Minnesota and the Dakotas. Larssen is not so much driven by the need to hasten atomic bomb development as he is by a desire to be reunited with his wife, Barbara. Unfortunately for Jens, under the impression that he is dead, Barbara has started a relationship with Corporal Sam Yeager, a soldier responsible for guarding captured alien POWs. Yeager serves as a translator for the metallurgical lab since he has learned the rudiments of the Race's language. Jens arrives in Denver before the lab and sends a courier out to find Barbara with a message that he remains alive. Barbara learns that her husband lives just after revealing to Yeager that she is pregnant.

In Illinois, after the successful drive by General Patton that liberated much of the state, the Race begins to advance upon Chicago once more. U.S. soldiers fight valiantly but the flat, open country gives the alien landcruisers a decisive advantage. Slowly but surely the Race draws closer and closer toward Lake Michigan.

Heinreich Jaeger manages to return to the frontlines in Belfort after an unproductive stay with German physicists working on atomic research in Wittelsbach. Not long afterward, Wittelsbach is destroyed as the result of an unstable nuclear reaction produced by Nazi scientists. The atomic explosion alerts the Race to the virtual certainty that Germany is engaged in nuclear research.

They aren't the only ones. On Stalin's behalf, Foreign Minister Molotov visits a secret research laboratory several miles north of Moscow where Soviet researchers are struggling to turn the sample of Uranium captured by German-Russian forces in the Ukraine the year before into an atomic device. They are meeting with minimal success and Molotov attempts to encourage them with threats of torture and death if they fail. His pep talk produces no marked improvement in the advances made by Soviet engineers.

In Japan, a captured killercraft pilot of the Race named Teerts is interrogated by Japanese researchers attempting to understand the dynamics of nuclear fission. As a pilot, Teerts has a limited knowledge of atomic weapons. His job is merely to drop them not build them. The Japanese refuse to believe him and use torture to make Teerts more cooperative.

In the United States, the metallurgical laboratory finally reaches Denver and begins working on atomic research. Their work is helped by a small shipment of Uranium Colonel Leslie Groves brings from Boston, where a British submarine had been entrusted with delivering it to the U.S. government. The Uranium is one-fourth of the material stolen from the Race during the Nazi-Soviet operation in the Ukraine. It had come into the possession of the English by way of Jewish partisans who had commandeered a portion of the Uranium consigned to Germany when they briefly held Colonel Jaeger in captivity in Poland the previous winter. Unfortunately, the Uranium in question is not a sufficient amount from which to build an atom bomb. The metallurgical lab must produce a substantial amount of the precious metal before Americans can hope to wield a nuclear device in the war against the Race.

Jens Larssen meets with his wife upon her arrival in Denver and learns that she has married and become impregnated by Corporal Sam Yeager. In a difficult decision that leaves everyone emotionally upset, she decides to keep the baby and remain with Yeager. Jens takes the news hard and his work on the atomic bomb project suffers. In order to keep him out of trouble, Colonel Groves orders Larssen to travel to Seattle and consider the possibility of transferring the metallurgical lab there to facilitate the production of Uranium. With a rifle on his back and trepidation in his heart, Jens heads off to Washington state on a bicycle never to be seen again. (His story arch actually continues into Upsetting the Balance but it is more of an epilogue and many fans of the character consider it to be obscure, unsympathetic, and contrary to Larssen's character.)

As the summer of 1943 begins, the Race creeps closer to Germany and reaches the outskirts of Chicago while Moscow appears to be on the brink of capture. The Race advances on Moscow only to be abruptly stopped by the detonation of a human made atomic bomb planted at Kaluga. The story ends with the balance of power in the scope of the conflict dramatically redefined.

Worldwar: Upsetting the Balance

The United States and Germany develop atomic weapons of their own and, alongside the Soviets, engage in a nuclear exchange with the Race. The Soviets may have detonated the first atomic bomb, but it was only because their original sample of plutonium (captured from the Race) was larger than the samples given to the USA and Germany; the Soviets actually lag far behind either of these two countries in their efforts to make their own plutonium, and they used all they had in the atomic bomb they used south of Moscow to stop the Race's main thrust against the city.

Regardless, the Race is in a full state of panic that humans have been able to detonate an atomic weapon, and many commanders are shocked at the number of the Race's soldiers that died in the blast. Straha, third in command of the Conquest Fleet, demands a vote of no confidence in Fleetlord Atvar by the captains of each ship in the Fleet. Such a vote would require a 75% majority to depose Atvar, but the vote falls just short at 68%. Atvar remains in control, but he recognizes that most of the shiplords no longer actively support him.

Soon, the Race launches an invasion of the British home islands, and occupy an area in the north and and an area in the south. They ignore warnings from Churchill that such an attack will meet with terrible consequences. When the Race's forces attempt to invade the British Isles, they are subjected to another human weapon they did not anticipate: mustard gas. Totally unprepared for a chemical attack by the humans, the Race's invasion force is devastated by the British and thrown back. The Lizards' northern pocket is obliterated and their southern pocket evacuates in a hurry. As a result, the British gain access to a considerable amount of intact Lizard technology that was abandoned in the retreat. The story does not say much about strategic details, except that at one time Market Harborough is human-held and near the front line.

China's Communist guerillas also escalate the conflict against the Race.

In one of the Race's bases in Siberia, morale is at an all time low. The weather is a truly miserable condition from the hot one the Lizards are used to, and the Race's soldiers feel they're constantly being sent to their deaths by incompetent commanders. Many have fallen into abusing ginger, even though it has been outlawed by Atvar's orders (such disobedience would have been considered unthinkable before they came to Earth). The Race's soldiers are pushed to the breaking point, and when the base commander starts berating the garrison yet again, landcruiser driver Ussmak shoots him in the head to silence him and an inssurection starts; the entire Race base mutinies and makes Ussmak their de facto leader.

Worldwar: Striking the Balance

The Race agrees to meet with human diplomats for the purpose of negotiating an armistice. However, the chances for peace are severely endagered when Hitler secretly plans to resume hostilities by launching a surprise attack against the Race in Poland.

When the armistice came the Lizards were probably near collapse and badly needed time to rebuild supplies, because they surrendered back to the humans all Lizard-held areas in the USA and Europe, except Spain and Portugal, and an area around their base area in and near Poland and Belarus which the humans let the Lizards keep as a buffer zone between Germany and the Soviet Union.