Day of Vengeance
Page 20
Who was Adolf Hitler?
Adolf Hitler (1889 to 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party – better known as the Nazi Party. He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945 and, after 1934, also head of state – as Führer (leader) – ruling Germany as a dictator. During this time he transformed Germany into a single-party dictatorship. Hitler wanted to reverse the outcome of the Treaty of Versailles, which ended the First World War, establish German dominance over continental Europe, reuniting all German people within the Reich, and to expand the Reich to the east to achieve ‘Lebensraum’ (‘living space’) for his people. His aggressive strategy culminated in the invasion of Poland in 1939, which triggered the United Kingdom and France to declare war against Germany, leading to the outbreak of the Second World War.
During this time, Hitler and the Nazis were responsible for the murder of millions of people. The ‘Holocaust’ – a programme to rid Germany and Europe of all elements considered by the Nazis to be ‘unworthy of life’ – saw the deaths of six million Jews, five million Russians, two million Poles, half a million gypsies and half a million other people.
In the final days of the war, during the Battle of Berlin in 1945, Hitler married his long-time mistress Eva Braun. The two committed suicide on 30th April 1945, less than two days later.
Who was Winston Churchill?
Winston Churchill (1874 to 1965) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom during the Second World War from 1940 to 1945 (and again after the war from 1951 to 1955). He is regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of all time. He was also a historian, journalist and writer (winning the Nobel Prize for Literature) and an artist. Churchill was an officer in the British army and went on to hold many positions of authority during his career, including First Lord of the Admiralty, Secretary of State for War and Chancellor of the Exchequer. After the resignation of Neville Chamberlain, Churchill became Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and led Britain to victory. A great speaker, Churchill made wartime speeches that galvanised Britain and its supporters against the Nazis. In his speech on 4th June 1940, following the evacuation from Dunkirk, he said:
We shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island whatever the cost may be, 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…
His state funeral was attended by one of the largest ever assemblies of statesmen from around the world.
Was Albrecht Altenberg a real person? (see page 114)
Albrecht Altenberg is a fictional character, but there were a number of physicists working in Germany at the time. The most famous was Werner Heisenberg, who made significant contributions to quantum mechanics and is best known for the ‘uncertainty principle’ of quantum theory. Heisenberg was awarded the 1932 Nobel Prize in Physics. In 1939, after the discovery of nuclear fission, the German nuclear energy project, also known as the Uranium Club, was begun and Heisenberg was engaged by the Nazis to support their research efforts.
In 1942, Heisenberg was summoned to report to Albert Speer, Germany’s Minister of Armaments (who also toured Paris with Hitler in 1940), on the prospects for converting the Uranium Club’s research towards developing nuclear weapons. During the meeting, Heisenberg told Speer that a nuclear bomb could not be built before 1945. There remains controversy about Heisenberg’s involvement in the Nazi’s nuclear programme, the level of his commitment and the extent of his political affiliations. There is also debate about why the programme had achieved relatively little by the end of the war. Although work continued on reactor design through the war, evidence shows that the Germans did not come close to building a working reactor that could be used to develop material for a nuclear weapon.
Did Hitler travel to Paris in 1940? (see page 119)
Yes. Hitler’s only visit to Paris took place at 6 a.m. on 28th June 1940 and original footage of his visit exists today. Hitler’s entourage stopped at a number of famous Paris landmarks: the Opéra, the Madeleine, the Eiffel Tower, Les Invalides and Sacré-Coeur. Albert Speer, Hitler’s chief architect, and Brekel, a sculptor, accompanied Hitler on the tour.
What was the SS? (see page 111)
The SS – an abbreviation of Schutzstaffel or ‘Protection Squadron’ – was an ‘army within an army’ devised by Adolf Hitler and commanded by Heinrich Himmler. It was formed in 1925 as a personal guard unit for Adolf Hitler and grew from a small paramilitary group to become one of the most powerful organisations in Nazi Germany. The SS was responsible for some of the most shocking crimes of the Nazi era. In Day of Vengeance, SS officer Axel Gottschalk is a fictional character.
Many thanks to Sara Newbery (fellow Soonhopian) for her help on the French scenes, Alison and David Stubley, Ann and Roger South, Amanda Wood, Ruth Huddleston, Anne Finnis, Ruth Martin, Helen Greathead, Will Steele, Ian Butterworth, Tom Sanderson, Phil Perry, Jayne Roscoe, Victoria Henderson, Richard Scrivener, Jonny Lambert, Caroline Knox and Pam Royds, and to Geoffrey Wellum for inspiration on the Battle of Britain scenes through his superb autobiography, First Light. Thanks too, as ever, to Sally, Peter, Tom, Annie and friends and family who continue to support Jack and Angus on their escapades through history.
by Johnny O’Brien
Jack is catapulted back to the start of the First World War, where the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand is about to throw the world into chaos. Should he intervene? Will he survive? The future of mankind is in Jack’s hands. The first dangerous mission in the Jack Christie Adventures sets the pace at full-throttle and the stakes as high as they go.
Paperback £5.99
ISBN 978–1–84877–091–1
ePub ISBN 978–1–84877–104–8
Mobi ISBN 978–1–84877–108–6
by Johnny O’Brien
In his second perilous mission, Jack travels back to an Elizabethan England riddled with treacherous plots. Amid sea battles, sword fights and subterfuge, Jack must defend the life of the queen, her kingdom, and the world as we know it. Dark dealings and deadly intrigue set the scene for the second thrilling journey in the Jack Christie Adventures.
Paperback £5.99
ISBN 978–1-84877–097–3
ePub ISBN 978–1–84877–107–9
Mobi ISBN 978–1–84877–115–4
A TEMPLAR BOOK
First published in the UK in 2011 by Templar Publishing,
an imprint of The Templar Company Limited,
The Granary, North Street, Dorking,
Surrey, RH4 1DN, UK
www.templarco.co.uk
This ebook edition first published in 2011 by Templar Publishing
All rights reserved
Copyright © 2011 by Johnny O’Brien
The right of Johnny O’Brien to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
www.jackchristieadventures.com
Cover design by www.the-parish.com
Eiffel tower artwork by Ian Andrew
Map design by Will Steele
Edited by Anne Finnis, Helen Greathead and Ruth Martin
Image credits: Hitler in Paris © CORBIS; Spitfires © Fox Photos/Stringer/Hulton Archive/Getty Images; V-2 Rocket © Bettman/CORBIS; Map of WW2 © Mary Evans/Retrograph Collection
This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights, and those responsible may be li
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Other than key historical figures, the characters in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to real people, alive or dead, is purely coincidental.
ISBN (ePub) 978-1-84877-120-8
ISBN (Mobi) 978-1-84877-121-5