WesWorld

The Foresight War by A. G. Williams

I purchased it as an ebook as it was far cheaper. Its an excellent read with a good storyline. The pretext is a historian being sent back in time to 1934, then realising that he can change the course of WWII. Theres lots of detail about the alternative weapons introduced but a compelling storyline holding everything together as well. There are little asides as well giving a human factor, e.g. an Avro Manchester on a mission over Germany. The ending is unexpected but on reflection probably the best ending the book could have.

There have been a few spinoffs on Tony William's forum as well;

ForeSight America by Paul Adkins

This one is free but isn't quite the same as the above. It was done as part of National Novel Writing Month. In this the throwback is a black American history professor. It focusses mainly around him but interacts with characters in TFW as well. It emerges that there are many throwbacks, American, Japanese, Italian, German, British and Russian. This makes things extremely interesting, but it focusses mainly on the US side. The story doesn't really end, it just stops. This is acknowledged by the author at the end along with a few other points. Its still a good read though.

Foresight Italy by Luciano M. Trentadue

This one is an actual novel in progress being written in Italian for Italian consumption. It uses the same pretext of a throwback to 1934. It has developed into two separate stories, one that deals with the Spanish Civil War, and one that will deal with WWII. The throwback is an engineer rather than a historian which leads to interesting developments but his knowledge of events is poorer which means he can't help with strategic decisions as much in the other scenarios. It has a different focus than the other two but isn't likely to be around soon to read. A few points of what I do know; Libyan oil, a different Civil war with considerably advanced Italian forces leading to a different postwar split, Italy building the bomb in an effort to stop post-WWII communism, gas turbine powered destroyers, jet aircraft, antagonism with Germany....The hard part for Luciano in writing is trying not to get too advanced, only in some applications boosting technology to Korean War levels etc. He seems to have been relatively successful.

Have the Foresight War and am now reading ForeSight America. Any serious World War 2 Alternate History buff should seriously consider getting these books. Great fun to read and really get you thinking about how you would change things if you woke up in 1935......

Thank you for your kind words about my Foresight America 'book.' I am very pleased you enjoyed it.

OK, so I am going to finish the thing.

The main discussion of this project is at:

http://forums.delphiforums.com/autogun/messages/?msg=2968.1

your comments are always welcome.

I look forward to reading the ending.

The first part was good to read. Its interesting to see what someone else would do in that situation.

Does anyone know if Foresight Italy will ever by translated into English (Long shot I know)?. Cant wait to see the end of Foresight America.

I think Luciano will do that eventually but the book is primarily for the Italian market.

Luciano has been doing some illustrations for his book. Looks pretty good but probably a bit light on the weight.

Some interesting drawings.

Interesting drawings but i am somewhat surprised by the angular design if its inspired by someone going back in time.

The square designs were used in the Leo 2 etc to use chobnam/composite armor since this design is using RHA it would make much more sense to design it with sloped armor à la T-34/Panther/M-47

The tank turrets are not too dissimilar to the British cruiser tanks of the period. The Mk IV's, Covenater's and Crusaders had sloped armour, and later the Cromwells had slightly sloped armour on their turrets.

The Germans adopted sloped armour later than the British and Russians when they introduced the Panthers,Tiger II's and Hetzers, a couple of years after the Crusaders, T-34's and T-70's in the 1941ish period.

My point is that someone going back in time would choose a better design

I'm sure Bismarcks turret designers surely would, they have even more angles.

Quoted

Originally posted by Vukovlad
My point is that someone going back in time would choose a better design

The reasoning behind the decision was to have a tank available quickly and in numbers to kick ass in the Spanish Civil War with only around 2-3 years development time. For that purpose, its a good design, being pretty much invulnerable to everything else, mounting a good gun itself and still fairly mobile. The person sent back in time is an engineer rather than a historian as well, which sets up some differences, most notably with gas turbine engines but it seems that the political situation is what will change the most.