Lightning in the Night
| Author | Fred Allhoff |
|---|---|
| Genre | Speculative fiction |
| Published | 1940, 1979 |
| Publisher | Prentice-Hall |
| ISBN | 9780135365571 |
| OCLC | 4493849 |
| 813/.5/4 | |
| LC Class | 78023538 |
Lightning in the Night is a speculative fiction story about Nazi Germany invading the United States. First published in 13 installments in 1940, the story was a commission written by Fred Allhoff and published serially in the general interest magazine Liberty. The series was collected and republished in book form in 1979.
History[edit]
Lightning in the Night is described as a "sensational serial" about "Hitler's invasion of the United States".[1] The title is a fragment of a statement made by Adolf Hitler: "Unlike Mussolini, I would spring like lightning in the night and hurl myself on the enemy."[2]
The work was commissioned, and came about, while Liberty magazine was "sponsoring a national contest" to find what became the official Air Force song.[3] Cultural historian H. Bruce Franklin commented on Lightning in the Night in his 1988 book War Stars: The Superweapon and the American Imagination, noting that Liberty boasted that Allhoff had consulted with experts like Robert Lee Bullard, Yates Stirling Jr., and George Sokolsky on the piece.[4] Lightning in the Night appeared in 13 parts published between August 24, 1940, and November 16, 1940.[5]
The final product of Lightning in the Night almost entirely anticipated the then-forthcoming global air war of World War II, and attempt to beat the Nazis to the atomic bomb with the Manhattan Project, "Thus the millions of readers of Liberty in 1940 were confronted with a picture of the future that lies in wait for them if the United States does not build a separate air force capable of strategic bombardment and does not win a nuclear arms race with the Nazis. One wonders whether this effort to build popular support for financing the atomic weapons research that was already under way might have had some tacit semiofficial sponsorship."[4] Lightning in the Night was republished in book form in 1979.[6] Terry Miller wrote the introduction to the 1979 printing.[2]
Plot[edit]
The main characters of Lightning in the Night are a young U.S. Navy intelligence officer and his girlfriend.[7] In Allhoff's scenario, set five years in the future in an alternate 1945, the "Greater United German Reich which has consumed all Europe and its colonies and has established puppet governments in Latin America. Japan and Russia have split up the rest of the world, and the United States is desperately trying to develop adequate defenses for the attack which seems certain to come." The first attack on the U.S. comes at Pearl Harbor, anticipating by a year the day that would live in infamy in U.S. history.[8]
Reception[edit]
One 1979 reviewer said the magazine series "helped psychologically swing America away from a decade of pacifism that had unintentionally aided Hitler's war machine" but found the "flat characters, relentless plot and contrived denouement" tiresome.[9] Another found the romantic subplot "refreshingly typical 1940s vintage."[7]
See also[edit]
- Timeline of science fiction § 1940s
- Hypothetical Axis victory in World War II
- The Man in the High Castle – 1962 novel by Philip K. Dick
- SS-GB – 1978 alternative history by Len Deighton
References[edit]
- ^ Moskowitz, Sam (March 1994). "What Is Past". NIEKAS Science Fiction and Fantasy. No. 44. p. 26.
- ^ a b "Foreword". The Indianapolis Star. March 4, 1979. p. 96. Retrieved 2024-06-24.
- ^ Franklin (1988), p. 138.
- ^ a b Franklin (1988), p. 139.
- ^ "LC Catalog - Item Information (Full Record)". catalog.loc.gov. Retrieved 2024-06-24.
- ^ "BOOKS: What if Adolf Hitler had defeated the British?". The Morning News. March 25, 1979. p. 102. Retrieved 2024-06-22.
- ^ a b "1940s Novel Has War Going Differently". Lansing State Journal. May 20, 1979. p. 49. Retrieved 2024-06-24.
- ^ "Sunday Bookcase". The Tennessean. March 11, 1979. p. 104. Retrieved 2024-06-24.
- ^ "Book envisioning Nazi invasion of U.S. provides 1940s nostalgia". The Tampa Times. April 27, 1979. p. 45. Retrieved 2024-06-24.
Sources[edit]
- Franklin, H. Bruce (1988). "Don't worry it's only science fiction". War Stars: The Superweapon and the American Imagination. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-505295-4. LCCN 87034734. OCLC 276803031.