The Big Switch: The War That Came Early, Book Three by Harry Turtledove

Author:Harry Turtledove [Turtledove, Harry]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
ISBN: 9780345526380
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2011-07-19T00:00:00+00:00

“WAFFENSTILLSTAND!” the French officer shouted across the lines. Willi Dernen supposed that was what he was shouting, anyhow. He had a horrendous accent. But the word for truce wasn’t easy to mistake for any other.

And the poilus around here seemed to think the war was over. The Germans had been shouting at them not to shoot, and they mostly hadn’t. Till now, though, they’d kept out of sight so the Germans couldn’t shoot at them. Willi understood that. He hadn’t shown himself, either. Trust a Frenchman? Not likely!

But it looked as if France and England really were going to join the German crusade against Russia. Willi was just glad he’d stayed on this front instead of getting sent east. Army rumor said the Reds might not be very skillful, but they were goddamn mean.

“Friends!” the French officer yelled. He did a little better with Freunde! Pointing east, he added, “To hell with the Communists!”

“Dip me in shit,” Corporal Baatz said reverently. “The Führer’s gone and done it again.”

Willi would have been happy to do just what Awful Arno suggested. He wasn’t so sure about the other part of what Baatz had to say. “I wonder what kind of deal we cut to make the enemy go for it,” he remarked.

“Know what I hear?” the corporal said.

“No, but you’re gonna tell me, aren’t you?” If Willi sounded resigned, it was only because he was.

The corporal nodded, not noticing the resignation. Awful Arno failed to notice all kinds of things. Doing his best to sound important, he said, “I heard Rudolf Hess flew to England all by himself to set up the deal, like.”

“Everybody’s heard that.” Willi rolled his eyes in disgust. “It’s been on the news, for crying out loud.”

“Ja, ja.” Awful Arno nodded again. “But I also heard he put the Englishmen up to finally giving Churchill what he deserved.”

“All right. That’s new, I guess.” Willi hated to admit it, but didn’t see that he had much choice.

“And now he’ll come back a hero, and the Führer will pin the fanciest medal in the world on him. The Knight’s Cross with oak leaves, swords, and diamonds.” Baatz sighed. “Can you imagine it? What could be better?”

“I’m not sure he was doing us a favor, you know,” Willi said.

“Huh? What d’you mean?” No, Awful Arno didn’t get it. Willi wasn’t much surprised. Baatz had a great head—for a cabbage.

“The Tommies and the froggies aren’t shooting at us any more, right?” Willi said, trying to see how long the corporal would need to work it out.

“You can see they aren’t,” Baatz answered. “They’re going to join with us against the goddamn Ivans instead.”

Willi made small, soundless clapping motions. “Very good. Very good.”

“You can’t talk to me that way, you pigdog.” Awful Arno turned dull red.

He was already pretty dull, all right, as far as Willi was concerned. “Well, then, take a hint,” Willi said. “They’re going to help us fight the Ivans—you just told me so yourself. That means we’ve got to go fight the fucking Ivans ourselves.

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