Hitler's War

Hitler's War
Author	Harry Turtledove
Language	English
Series	The War That Came Early
Genre(s)	Alternate History
Publisher	Del Rey
Publication date	August 4, 2009
Followed by	West and East

Hitler's War (Published as The War That Came Early: Hitler's War in paperback, Del Rey, 2009) is an alternate history novel by Harry Turtledove. It is the first volume in The War That Came Early, an alternate history of World War II. The Point of Divergence has José Sanjurjo making a different decision than in OTL, therefore averting a plane crash that killed him in 1936. Subsequently, during the Munich Conference in 1938, Konrad Henlein, a political leader of Sudetenland Germans, is assassinated. Adolf Hitler uses this act as a pretext for war with Czechoslovakia, knowing that the Spanish Nationalists will side with him. Great Britain, France, and the Soviet Union declare war on Germany. Poland, despite previous ties with France, sides with Germany against the USSR. Further, Japan, which has been expanding into the Asian mainland, begins skirmishes with the USSR in Mongolia, eventually launching a full war against the USSR on 1 April 1939. The United States is on the sidelines, although it has troops in China, and volunteers participate in the Spanish Civil War.

The novel was originally announced in early 2008 as Appeasement at amazon.co.uk, but Turtledove denied writing or contracting such a project at the time.

Trivia

• Hitler has a brief scene as a point of view character during the first chapter. Turtledove has used Hitler as the primary POV in "Uncle Alf" and "Christmas Truce".