Over the Top: Alternate Histories of the First World War

Although separated from the modern reader by a full century, the First World War continues to generate controversy and interest as the great event upon which modern history pivoted. Not only did the war cull the European peoples of some of their best and brightest, it also led to the destruction of the Austro-Hungarian, German, Ottoman and Russian empires, and paved the way for the Second World War. This thought-provoking book explores ten alternate scenarios in which the course of the war is changed forever. How would the war have changed had the Germans not attacked France but turned their main thrust against Russia; had the Greeks joined the allies at Gallipoli; or had the British severed the communications of the Ottoman Empire at Alexandretta? What if there was a more decisive outcome at Jutland; if the alternative plans for the Battle of the Somme in 1916 had been put into effect; or if the Americans intervened in 1915, rather 1917? Expertly written by leading military historians, this is a compelling and credible look at what might have been. AUTHORS: Peter G. Tsouras is a retired Army officer and is a leading author of military alternative history including Disaster at D-Day and Disaster at Stalingrad: An Alternate History.
Spencer Jones is a Research Fellow in War Studies at the University of Wolverhampton and the author of Stemming the Tide: Officers and Leadership in the British Expeditionary Force 1914 and The Great Retreat 1914: From Mons to the Marne with the Old Contemptibles.