The War That Came Early

The War That Came Early is a six-volumealternate history series by Harry Turtledove, in which World War II begins in 1938 over Czechoslovakia. The first volume, Hitler's War, was released in hardcover in 2009 without a series title. Subsequently, the paperback edition was announced as The War That Came Early: Hitler's War.

List

The series is six volumes:

Points of divergence

In this series the initial point of divergence occurs on July 20, 1936 with Spanish Nationalist leader José Sanjurjo listening to his pilot's advice and changing the conditions of his flight back to Spain - thus averting the crash that caused his death in our timeline. However, in the following two years the course of the Spanish Civil War remains virtually the same as Sanjurjo makes identical military and political decisions that Francisco Franco did in real history; only the name of the Nationalist leader has changed. Only in 1939 does Sanjurjo make a significantly different decision, aiding the Axis conquest of Gibraltar, while in real history Franco carefully maintained cordial relations with the British. This, however, comes after the series' main point of divergence.