Avenging Steel 3: The Final Solution

By Ian Hall

April 1941... German troops have taken over Britain.
Their King, Winston Churchill and all troops have retreated to Canada; the only front they are fighting is North Africa.
James Baird, a Philosophy student in Edinburgh University, fights the battle the only way he knows how. He is drawn into the depths of the British Resistance, his fate decided by the S.O.E., Britain's MI-6.
In book 3, James discovers a drain of men from his university, and is sent to investigate.
Where are the men going? It's an adventure where his life will hang in the balance more than once.
In long novella parts, we follow James's story as a nation begin to rebel against Nazi jackboots.
Thus continues, Avenging Steel, a new Alternative History series.
Get your teeth into a brand-new version of World War 2.

The series is;
Avenging Steel 1: The Fall of Edinburgh
Avenging Steel 2: The Nuclear Option
Avenging Steel 3: The Final Solution

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ian Hall
• Release date: Jul 21, 2016
• ISBN: 9781370811090

Ian Hall

Ian Hall is a former Commander Officer of No. 31 Squadron (1992-4), as well as being the editor and writer of the Squadron Association's three-times-a-year 32-page newsletter. He is the author of Upwards, an aviation-themed novel currently available as a Kindle download. This is his first full-length historical study, having previously penned a 80-page history of No 31 Squadron's early Tornado years.

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This book is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living, dead or undead, is purely coincidental.

Copyright © 2016. Ian Hall. Phantom Gavel Publishing. Smashwords Edition.

Published by Ian Hall at Smashwords

ISBN- 9781370811090

All rights reserved, and the author reserves the right to re-produce this book, or parts thereof, in any way whatsoever.

This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Avenging Steel

3: The Final Solution

Ian Hall

(From The Tree of Liberty)

By her inspired the new born race

Soon grew the Avenging Steel, man;

The hirelings ran — her foes gied chase

And banged the despot weel, man.

Robert Burns (1759 – 1796)

Cover Photo:

Also by Ian Hall, related to Avenging Steel…

Churchill’s Secret Armies

War without Rules:

Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare

A short history of the secret departments and Special Forces put together by Winston Churchill in World War 2.

WW2 Spy School:

The Complete 1943 S. O. E. Counter Espionage Manual

The complete SOE manual used in World War 2 to train Allied spies and counter-espionage agents.

Over 400 pages of authentic WW2 documentation.

The Ridiculously Comprehensive Dictionary of British Slang

A huge dictionary of British slang, regional slang and Cockney Rhyming Slang. Thousands of definitions, hundreds of pages.

With a slightly comic twist.

On 10th May, 1940, Germany attacked British and French troops in France and Belgium.

At that time, the British Army had more than half a million men in Continental Europe.

By 4th June 1940, Britain had rescued 330,000 men (British and French) from the defensive bubble around Dunkirk.

Between 15th and 25th June 1940, they rescued another 190,000 through Operation Ariel from French coasts and ports.

In the short Battle of France, Britain had left behind 70,000 men, 450 tanks, 2500 artillery pieces, 85,000 vehicles, and 600,000 tons of ammunition, fuel and stores.

The figures show Britain had 500,000 men for its defense… but with little arms, armor and ammunition to fight… Britain was ripe for invasion, and everyone knew it.

Churchill spoke…

… we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; We shall never surrender…

On 16 July 1940 Hitler issued Führer Directive No. 16, setting in motion preparations for a landing in Britain. He prefaced the order by stating…

"As England, in spite of her hopeless military situation, still shows no signs of willingness to come to terms, I have decided to prepare, and if necessary to carry out, a landing operation against her. The aim of this operation is to eliminate the English Motherland as a base from which the war against Germany can be continued, and, if necessary, to occupy the country completely."

On the 16th August the first waves of German paratroopers descended on rural England. The next day, under the cover of the Luftwaffe, tanks and armored vehicles drove ashore in numerous locations.

Within a month Germany had captured London, Birmingham and Manchester.

Four weeks later, Churchill’s much vaunted Battle of Britain was over.

Churchill spoke to the British people from a fleeting headquarters in Ireland…

… let us not consider this a retreat, not a farewell to our homeland, but as a gathering for a new offensive. And let me make this promise to Herr Hitler; we will return…

Thus begins a brand-new Alternative History series… Avenging Steel

An Introduction to the Characters…

James Baird…

James is our main character, our story’s hero and the book’s narrator. He is a 20-year old philosophy student at Edinburgh University, and has been recruited by the S.O.E. as an agent. His code-name is Biggles, and is used by the S.O.E. as a liaison between cells in Edinburgh. He also works at The Scotsman newspaper as a writer and copy-editor. His father, in the Scots Greys Regiment, is stationed in Palestine.

Alice Howes…

Alice is James’s partner in spy-crime, girlfriend, and the head of the S.O.E. cell inside The Scotsman newspaper. She is from the border town of Selkirk, and speaks fluent German; her father having been a POW from the Great War who stayed in Scotland in 1918. She seems to take her orders from Lilith, but her actual bosses are unknown to James. Alice also works at The Scotsman newspaper as a copy-editor.

Leutnant Möller…

Gerhardt Möller is the German officer in charge of German bias/slanting for the Scotsman newspaper’s stories. James has to report their stories to Möller each day by one o’clock for his inspection. James suspects Möller has opened the hand of friendship to him, but cannot be certain.

Ivanhoe (Mr. Irvine)…

Ivanhoe is James’ contact within the S.O.E. in Edinburgh, and the man who recruited him. James only glimpses the level at which Ivanhoe works, but does harbor the suspicion that Ivanhoe might be the top S.O.E. man in Scotland.

Lilith…

Named after the character by George MacDonald, Lilith is a beautiful enigmatic S.O.E. contact, possibly working in conjunction with Ivanhoe, but definitely also operating outside his purview. Lilith introduced Alice to James, and is Alice’s main contact. Although James seems to be in love with Alice, Lilith’s face comes to him at the oddest times.

Balfour…

Code name Balfour, after the R. L. Stevenson character in Kidnapped, he is Ivanhoe’s right-hand man. He has accompanied Jamie on a few missions, and is stoic; very-straight forward.

The Baird Family in Edinburgh…

Veronica Baird is James’ mother. She lives for her family and rules with a slightly flexible iron rod. Frances is James’ fourteen-year-old younger sister. They live in a first floor apartment in Bruntsfield, on the edge of the Links and Meadows.

Chapter 1 The Fallen Circus Performer

Chapter 2 A Whole Lot of Something

Chapter 3 The Diminishing Labour Force

Chapter 4 The Scottish Auxiliaries

Chapter 5 Alone Again, With Benefits

Chapter 6 A New Position in Life

Chapter 7 Blowing Lids Off, Dust Settling

Chapter 8 Going to Hell in a Handbasket

Chapter 9 An Unexpected Friend

Chapter 10 The Beautiful Game

Chapter 11 From Memories, Into the Fire

Chapter 12 My Reluctant Return to Carstairs

Chapter 13 Ashes to Ashes

Chapter 14 The First Branch of the Tree

Chapter 15 The Pits of Hell Itself

The Fallen Circus Performer

So tell me, Herr Baird, how exactly did you achieve such an injury? Leutnant Möller had a strange expression for a fierce Nazi conqueror. His face showed a spark of humor, perhaps he even considered the question cheeky, impertinent. It was the first time I had seen any sign of humor from the German.

He referred, of course, to the bullet ricochet high above my temple, gained helping four nuclear scientists get onto a British submarine. The wound had six hastily construed stitches in it, a small patch of my hair shaved back for the nurse’s access. In the week since it had happened, the swelling and redness had died down, but my skull still looked pretty bad.

It was mother’s fault, I began, as I had so many times before, to the neighbors, to the workmates, my classmates, teachers; none of whom would ever know the real story. We live in a first floor apartment, you see, and when I came home from the Student’s Union last Friday, there she was, hanging out the window like some circus high-wire act.

Möller was swallowing every word. She was…?

Trying to wash the windows! I said in mock disdain, beginning the pantomime actions to illustrate my supposed mishap. You have to unfasten the bottom one, you see, then reach out, sit on the windowsill, and wash the top one from the outside. His head began to cock to one side, as if he weren’t hearing me properly. I ran upstairs, pulled mum from the window ledge, and began berating her for her act of pure terror. ‘Well, how, James Baird, my boy, am I going to get them clean?’ she said. I mimicked my mother’s matter-of-fact voice to a T.

And that, Leutnant Möller, is how I volunteered to save my mother’s life, and proceeded to try to wash the offending window, lost my grip and fell, hit my head on the wall below, and almost broke my neck on the pavement.

He clapped like I’d just barked, rolled over and played dead. I’ve never seen him looking so animated. Well told, well told!

I acted suitably abashed,