The Chosen is the sixth book in David Drake's "Raj Whitehall" series.
Co-written with S. M. Stirling. "The Chosen" has a very Draka-like
nation as a villain. Those of you who love to hate the Draka will like
this book.
The action takes place on a regressed colony world. After millenia
technology has recovered to pre-WWI levels. A emissary from an
emerging space-faring empire finds two step-brothers to use as its
instrument in restoring civilization. The non-coporeal entity can
only provide information and advice. The planet will rise or fall by
the brother's efforts.
There's a free sample of The Chosen available
online here.
It has more military references than I can get, and I got a *lot* of references.
The all-big-gun ship was an innovation of Jackie(?) Fisher, First Sea
Lord of Great Britain before and during WWI. It revolutionized
battleship design.
Cowpens is a not-so well known but still important battle from the American revolutionary war. Naming an aircraft carrier Cowpens is a direct reference to the real-world WWII aircraft carrier Bunker Hill.
The aircraft carriers of the Chosen flee the battle. They've run out
of airplanes. This refers to an actual problem faced by the U.S in the
Pacific theater in WWII.
The main plot point of _The Guns of Navarone_ (TGoN) is worked into the
story. It's done so well that the realization isn't jarring. It also
shows how such a mission would be accomplished in real life. (This is
not criticism of TGoN. BTW, if you liked TGoN try _HMS Ulysses_ by
Alistair Maclean.)
The Gut is an actual term used to describe the straits of Gibralter
(especially when entering the Mediteranean(?)).
Franco's troops were airlifted by Nazi airplanes into Spain. This
started the Spanish Civil War.
After an extended meeting with Franco, Adolf Hitler said he would
rather have three teeth extracted than go through that again.
Kneally on a torpedo boat getting run down by a destroyer = John F.
Kennedy on PT-109.
The German invasion of Norway in WWII succeeded. The invasion
fleet of destroyers was trapped in a fjord by a superior naval British
force and utterly destroyed.
Sea forts defending themselves by firing torpedoes is real(?).
The mishmash of competing bureaurcracies staffing different portions
of the Chosen aircraft carriers - Imperial Germany did exactly the same
thing with tanks in WWI.
The amphibious landing that cut off the Chosen expeditionary from
supplies parallels the Allied landing in North Africa.
The destruction of the railroad by resistance fighters exactly
parallels similar actions by the Soviets in the destruction of the
German Army Group Center in WWII. Right down to using ties and rails
from one of the double tracks to repair the other.
Destroying a major force by cutting its lines of communications has
several parallels in WWII. Stalingrad and the Destruction of Army
Group Center are two examples.
The giant tank built by the Chosen parallels Hitlers obsession with
giant tanks. Two prototypes were designed and built(?) by Germany in
WWII. Code named
Maus
it weighed 100 tons.
Porschesmidt is Professor Porsche in Nazi Germany in WWII.
"Brilliant stupidity." E.g. Porsche's version of the Panther tank did
not have an integral machine gun. When they fought infantry they had
"go quail shooting with cannon," in Guderian's memorable phrase.
The dangers of landing almost exactly parallel German bomber losses
during night bombing of London in WWII. (The Gotha air heavy bomber
might have been real German WWI bomber used for the bombing of London.)
The used of dirigibles by The Chosen reflects German use of the same
in WWI and in peacetime. See the Hindenburg disaster. What's less
well known is that blimps were used to great effect by the Allies in
WWII. They were used to escort supply convoys across the Atlantic.
They could spot surfaced submarines at great distances.
The tangle of inefficient bureaucracies is an exact picture of Nazi
Germany in WWII. Production efficiency was incredibly low. See _Why
the Allies Won the War_.
All the Best,
Joe Bednorz