Minor Fictional Characters in The Hot War

This article lists the various minor fictional characters who appear in The Hot War series. These characters play at best a peripheral role in the series. Most were simply mentioned once, or had a very brief, unimportant speaking role that did not impact the plot, and never appeared again. Most are identified by a name, but not all of them are. As the series is ongoing as of this writing, certain characters may suddenly gain importance.

Bartender in Meiningen
(Bombs Away)

An East German bartender served Soviet tank commander Konstantin Morozov in January, 1951. When Morozov asked him where he'd served during World War II in Russian, the bartender didn't understand until Morozov asked again in German. The bartender admitted he'd fought in France and the Low Countries, and then in North Africa, where he'd lost his right eye. He then showed Morozov his glass eye.

Bartender in Schmalkalden
(BA)

On February 15, 1951, Tibor Nagy had a night pass in Schmalkalden. He conversed with a bartender who'd served in World War II and lost his left leg below the knee to shell fragment near Kiev. The bartender called Nagy's Sgt. Gergely a "sock person", since he was the type of person who could "fit on either foot" easily, that is to say, his political allegiance was flexible.

Tom Baxter
(BA)

Tom Baxter (c. 1923-1945) was the late husband of Daisy Baxter. He was killed in March, 1945, when his tank was hit by a Panzerfaust. His widow continued to run his family's pub, the Owl and Unicorn for years after his death.

Captain Guarding Norwich
(BA)

A British Army captain assigned to guard the remains of Norwich was patrolling with a soldier names Simpkins when they caught Daisy Baxter who'd got too close to the city. When she gave the two the impression she resided nearby, the captain ordered Simpkins to take Daisy to nearby Bawdeswell.

Doyarenko
(BA)

Doyarenko was a Ukrainian colonel in the Soviet Red Air Force. He commanded a base at Provideniya in the early 1950s. In 1951, a number of planes were transferred to his command in response to rising tensions between the USSR and the United States over the course of the Korean War.

On March 2, flyers under Doyarenko's command, including Captain Boris Gribkov, launched a series of atom bombing raids on the West Coast of the United States. In response, the U.S. destroyed a number of strategic Soviet points, including Provideniya.

Anatoly Edzhubov
(BA)

Commander Anatoly Edzhubov was the skipper of the destroyer Stalin. He was responsible for picking up Catapin Boris Gribkov and his bomber crew after they atom bombed the Seattle area on March 2, 1951.

Edzhubov carried Gribkov and his crew to Korf. They had originally been headed for Petropavlovsk, but that city, along with other key ports, had been destroyed by the U.S.. Edzhubov also told Gribkov that Provideniya, Gribkov's original base, had been among the cities destroyed.

Gribkov was frequently seasick on the voyage. Edzhubov gave Gribkov vodka to help; Gribkov found it helped him sleep, anyway.

Ferenc
(BA)

Ferenc was a private in Tibor Nagy's squad. He came from Szekesfehervar‎‎. When he found out that the United States had destroyed his home town with an atomic bomb on February 15, 1951, he was livid, and made several attempts to cross from Schmalkalden, East Germany in to West Germany to kill Americans. He was stopped by the men in his squad. Tibor Nagy and Isztvan Szolovits had the best luck in calming Ferenc.

Fred
(BA)

Fred was an aide to Presiden Harry Truman. After Truman's plane landed in Honolulu on December 18, 1950, Fred told Truman his car was ready. Truman sarcastically replied that he was sure that it was, then apologized, suggesting he was tired, and that maybe the weather would be nice outside and he would be, too. By the look on Fred's face, he didn't believe it.

Fursenko
(BA)

Colonel Fursenko was the air-defense commander at the Red Air Force base in Provideniya in the days leading up to World War III. When Boris Gribkov learned that the Tu-4s that had bombed Elmendorf Air Force Base had been painted to look like B-29s, he suggested to his immediate commander, Colonel Doyarenko, that the U.S could paint its B-29s to look like Tu-4s.

Gennady Gamarnik
(BA)

Gennady Gamarnik was the engineer in Boris Gribkov's Tu-4. He checked over the bomber before the crew dropped an atomic bomb on Seattle.

Johnson
(BA)

Johnson was an American soldier during the Korean War before it became part of World War III. He was part of the failed evacuation to Hungnam. On November 23, when the troops were suddenly attacked by Red Chinese forces, Lt. Cade Curtis ordered Johnson and another soldier, Masters, to man an LMG and cover the retreat of the remaining troops, ordering them to hang on to the position as long as they had to. When Masters asked how long that was, Curtis answered again for as long as they had to. All three knew that meant that Johnson and Masters had to stay until the Chinese killed them.

Lefty
(BA)

Lefty was a GI during the Korean War before it became part of World War III. He was part of the failed evacuation to Hungnam. On November 23, he asked Lt. Cade Curtis for reassurance that they would make it to the port.

Lefty was from one of the smaller industrial cities in Ohio. Curtis could not remember which one.

Orest Mahkno
(BA)

Orest Mahkno was a farmer on kolkohz 127. He was one of several people from the collective farm who went to Kiev to see the city after it was destroyed by an American atomic bomb. Unlike others who went to Kiev, Mahkno did not return. While some hoped that he'd found a stash of gold and struck out on his own, he most likely ran into an MGB agent and was summarily executed.

Volodymyr Marchenko
(BA)

Volodymyr Marchenko resided on the same kolkohz (collective farm) as Ihor and Anya Shevchenko. At a feast on February 15, 1951, as World War III was about to erupt, Marchenko toasted Joseph Stalin and to victory.

Olga Marchenkova
(BA)

Olga Marchenkova was the wife of Volodymyr Marchenko. At a feast on February 15, 1951, as World War III was about to erupt, Olga turned on the radio for Radio Moscow.

Masters
(BA)

Masters was an American soldier during the Korean War before it became part of World War III. He was part of the failed evacuation to Hungnam. On November 23, when the troops were suddenly attacked by Red Chinese forces, Lt. Cade Curtis ordered Johnson and another soldier, Johnson, to man an LMG and cover the retreat of the remaining troops, ordering them to hang on to the position as long as they had to. When Masters asked how long that was, Curtis answered again for as long as they had to. All three knew that meant that Johnson and Masters had to stay until the Chinese killed them.

Moishe
Moishe was a Jewish resident of Everett, Washington. He was a Belarussian, and survived World War II and the Holocaust. He survived the Soviet atomic bombing of the Everett-Seattle area on March 2, 1951. He was reunited with friends Fayvl Tabakman and Yitzkhak in a refugee camp some weeks after the bombing. All three had definite opinions of Stalin. Moishe remembered that, as a young man, he'd seen Stalin in Minsk, and he was lucky that Stalin had not seen him.

Gyula Pusztai
(BA)

Gyula Pusztai (d. 1951) was part of the same unit of the Hungarian People's Army as Tibor Nagy and Isztvan Szolovits. When they were first moved west on February 1, 1951, he asked Nagy to confirm that their sergeant, Gergely, had announced that they were on the verge of fighting the United States. When Nagy did confirm it, Pusztai announced that the Americans would slaughter them. Sgt. Gergely, instead of disciplining Pusztai, gave him cold comfort, first by reminding Pusztai the he, Gergely, had survived World War II, but then also pointing out that many of the men he'd served with had been slaughtered.

Pusztai was killed in April, 1951.

Pyotr
(BA)

Pyotr resided on the same kolkohz (collective farm) as Ihor and Anya Shevchenko. He was a Russian, but no one held that against him. At a feast on February 15, 1951, as World War III was about to erupt, Pyotr toasted the soldier's hundred grams.

Del Shanahan
Lt. Colonel Del Shanahan was with United States Air Force Intelligence during World War III. Shanahan met with Aaron Finch a few days after the Soviets successfully atom bombed several U.S. cities, including Los Angeles. Shanahan clarified a few points about Finch's capture of Lt. Yuri Svechin, one of the flyers who'd bombed L.A., including how they communicated (Finch's Yiddish was close enough to German, which Svechin spoke), and that Svechin was willing to surrender when he saw Finch wasn't going to hurt him. The two discussed the fact that other Soviets who had parachuted into the L.A. area had been killed by angry mobs, and some of the international legal issues those deaths had raised. Once Shanahan was convinced Finch was merely a "chaste passerby" rather than a spy, he sent Finch home.

Simpkins
(BA)

Simpkins was a soldier in the British Army during World War III. He was a "Geordie", probably hailing from north England. He was part of the detail that cordoned off and patrolled Norwich after the Soviets dropped an atomic bomb on February 1, 1951. Towards the end of February, he and a captain caught Daisy Baxter near the edge of Norwich proper. When she gave the two with the impression she resided nearby, the captain ordered Simpkins to take Daisy to nearby Bawdeswell. During the drive, Daisy was able to get Simpkins' impression of what the center of Norwich looked like now. He said that spots of the road were fused to glass, and most of the buildings had been leveled. She told him that her husband had been killed in the last war, he shared this his own cousin had been as well. When they reached Bawdeswell, Daisy got on her bike and returned home.

Willi Stoiber
(BA)

Willi Stoiber was the Burgomeister of Fulda just prior to the outbreak of World War III. He was a fat blowhard. Fulda resident Gustav Hozzel wondered how Stoiber had gotten past the denazification process.

Yuri Svechin
(BA)

Lt. Yuri Svechin was part of one of the Soviet bomber crews that atom bombed Los Angeles on March 2, 1951. The crew parachuted after the attack. Several members went missing, others were attacked and killed by angry civilians. Svechin landed near Glendale, where he was promptly captured by appliance deliveryman Aaron Finch, and taken to the Glendale police station.

Vitya Trubetskoi
(BA)

Corporal Vitya Trubetskoi was the rear gunner in Boris Gribkov's Tu-4. He survived the water landing in the Pacific after the crew dropped an atomic bomb on Seattle. Gribkov was pleased; he was sure that Trubetskoi would drown as the plane had landed tail first.

Comrade Wang
(BA)

Comrade Wang was a Chinese communist commissar from Peking. He and his wife were sent to Harbin to help rebuild after it the U.S. used an atomic bomb on the city. His wife approached Vasili Yasevich about getting her husband something to perk him up. Yasevich provided her with ma huang.

Comrade Wang's Wife
(BA)

The wife of Comrade Wang approached Vasili Yasevich about getting something to perk her husband up. Yasevich provided her with ma huang, after some harsh haggling between them. Despite her status as the wife of a communist official, she didn't demonstrate nany egalitarian qualities. She did recommend Yasevich to other women she know.

Yitzkhak
(BA)

Yitzkhak was a Jewish resident of Everett, Washington. He'd been born in Eastern Europe, and survived World War II and the Holocaust. He survived the Soviet atomic bombing of the Everett-Seattle area on March 2, 1951. He was reunited with friends Fayvl Tabakman and Moishe in a refugee camp some weeks after the bombing. All three had definite opinions of Stalin.