Turtledove
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American Front  
AmericanFront
Author Harry Turtledove
Cover artist George Pratt
Language English
Series Southern Victory
Genre(s) Alternate History
Publisher Del Rey
Publication date May 12, 1998
Preceded by How Few Remain
Followed by Walk in Hell

Great War: American Front is a novel written by Harry Turtledove and published by Del Rey in 1998. The first volume of The Great War trilogy, and the second volume of the overall Southern Victory series. It deals with a war analogous to World War I.


POV Characters[]

Story[]

This book continued the story that began in How Few Remain. The Great War begins between the countries of the Quadruple Alliance and the Quadruple Entente. The countries of the Quadruple Alliance are the United States, Germany, Italy and Austria-Hungary. Though Italy does not join the war effort. The countries of the Quadruple Entente are the Confederate States, England, France, and Russia. All countries of each alliance agree to fight. The United States, led by President Theodore Roosevelt have been preparing for such a fight ever since the end of the Second Mexican War. The Confederate States, under President Woodrow Wilson, have also been preparing for a war such as this one. Both sides came into the war optimistically and they both expected the war would be quick and easy, but they were both disappointed.

The United States, fighting both the CSA and Canada were conducting slow offensives on most fronts, but they were paying dearly for every piece of land they took. They had several early successes in Canada, easily capturing land along the northern bank of the St. Lawrence river and some land in southern Manitoba, but little else came easily. The Confederate Army put the brunt of their men along the Eastern Front, attacking from Virginia and capturing Washington, DC in their drive north. In the Pacific the US Navy was able to take the Sandwich Islands in a successful surprise attack against the British. However most of the attention was drawn to the major action along the Eastern Front. There the US Army was attempting to take the town of important iron-making town of Big Lick, but the Army was stuck along the Roanoke Valley.

Also along the Eastern front the Confederates continued their drive north to Philadelphia. The attacking forces moved through Maryland, but they bypassed Baltimore, not wishing to risk fighting in prolonged city fighting. The Confederates were able to reach Pennsylvania up to the Susquehanna River, but their supply lines were not able to go as fast as the attackers and the US forces in Baltimore began to break out, threatening the CS Army's flank so they began a forced retreat. In Kentucky US First Army troops under General George Armstrong Custer had crossed the Ohio river and had also begun to advance, but when in early 1915 Utah began another rebellion, two divisions were taken from the First Army and sent to attempt to quell the rebellion. The First Army still advanced, but at a much slower pace. Also on that front was the introduction of gas warfare, which was used quite effectively the first time, but as time went on it became less useful. In the state of Sequoyah CS and Creek Nation Army troops attempted to hold back the US soldiers, but they had little success. In Utah US troops also advanced at a slow pace as the Mormon rebels fought for every inch of ground, but they were not able to hold onto Salt Lake City and later Ogden. In the CSA another rebellion began to brew. The abused blacks in the country began to plot a Socialist rebellion against the government. The Red Rebellion began and the CSA was thrown into disarray.

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