SS-GB (novel)

SS-GB is an alternative history novel by Len Deighton, set in a United Kingdom conquered and occupied by Germany during the Second World War. The novel's title refers to the branch of the Nazi SS that operates in Britain. It was first published in 1978.

Setting
SS-GB is set less than a year after the British surrender following a successful Operation Sea Lion. In 1940, the Germans landed near Ashford, Kent, and Canterbury was declared an open city. The German advance captured London but a British rear guard around Colchester slowed down the Germans for long enough to enable Royal Navy ships to escape from Harwich. King George VI and Prime Minister Winston Churchill became prisoners of the Germans. The UK's gold and foreign reserves were shipped to Canada.

In 1941, the British Armed Forces surrendered, Churchill was tried by court-martial in Berlin and executed and the King was held in the Tower of London. Queen Elizabeth and her daughters Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret escaped to New Zealand while the Duke of Windsor escaped to The Bahamas. Rear Admiral Conolly formed a British government in exile in Washington, DC, but struggles to gain diplomatic recognition. Conolly is also forced to fight off an attempt by the Germans to take over the British Embassy in Washington.

While the United Kingdom still has an unidentified puppet Prime Minister and Parliament, true power lies in the hands of the German Military Commander GB and the Military Administration Chief GB. Parliament has passed an "Emergency Powers (German Occupation) Act", giving the German authorities executive power over the occupied UK. There is also considerable interservice rivalry between the German Army, the Schutzstaffel, and the Gestapo. Hitler held a victory parade in London while Hermann Göring and Joseph Goebbels were on board the first non-stop Lufthansa flight from London to New York City.

The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact is still in force and the Soviet Red Fleet was given bases at Rosyth, Scapa Flow and Invergordon. While the German Propaganda Ministry claims that the Soviet-German friendship is genuine, cynics claim that Hitler is using the Soviets as a counter-balance against the Americans. As part of the German-Soviet Friendship Week, Karl Marx's body is to be repatriated from Highgate Cemetery to the Soviet Union.

Franklin D. Roosevelt is President of the United States and Joseph P. Kennedy is still United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom. While the United States is still officially neutral, the Roosevelt Administration is seeking to acquire German atomic research from the Bringle Sands Atomic Research Establishment. The US 1st Marine Division has launched an amphibious attack on the French colony of Martinique after the colony sided with the Vichy French regime. British personnel that have managed to escape the German invasion have also enlisted in the United States Armed Forces.

Plot[edit]
In November 1941, nine months after a German invasion led to the British surrender, Douglas Archer is a Detective Superintendent of the London's Metropolitan Police – CID (Criminal Investigation Department) at Scotland Yard who works on homicide crimes. His boss is SS Gruppenführer Fritz Kellermann, the German head of police forces in Great Britain. Having lost his wife Jill and home during the German invasion, Archer lives with his son "Douggie" at the home of Mrs Sheenan and her son Bob. Archer's colleagues are Detective-Sergeant Harry Woods and his secretary and lover Sylvia.

Archer is called to investigate the murder of a well-dressed man at a flat above an antiques shop in Shepherd Market. Although the body has two gunshot wounds, Archer is puzzled by its condition, in particular by what appears to be sunburn on the arm. Archer also finds a prosthetic arm and a return ticket to Brindle Sands, where the Germans have an atomic research facility. Despite stolen identification identifying the man as Peter Thomas, Archer discovers that the man's true identity is William Spode, a British atomic physicist in the German atomic program who is also secretly involved with the British Resistance movement.

Since this case is linked to the German atomic program, Berlin dispatches SS Standartenführer, Oskar Huth, arrives to supervise the investigation. Archer soon finds himself in the middle of a power struggle between Huth and Kellerman, which is complicated by interservice rivalry between the SS, German Army, Gestapo, and Abwehr. Archer becomes romantically involved with an attractive American journalist named Barbara Barga, who is connected to the British Resistance leader Colonel George Mayhew. He also learns that his colleagues Woods and Sylvia are also members of the British resistance.

During the course of the investigation, Archer foils a plot by William's brother and Resistance member John Spode to kidnap his son as part of an attempt to blackmail him. Archer travels to the British prisoner of war camp which produced the prosthetic limbs and captures John Spode. Spode signs a confession but claims William's death was suicide. He then commits suicide using cyanide provided by an Abwehr officer Captain Hesse, who is under orders from his superiors to prevent Spode from divulging the German Army's atomic program to the rival SS.

Archer accompanies Captain Hesse to a meeting with Mayhew and an Abwehr general. There he learns that the British resistance and German Army are conspiring to liberate King George VI from SS custody out of mutual interests. The British resistance plan to smuggle the King to the United States in order to shore up Rear-Admiral Conolly's Free British government in exile. Meanwhile, the Abwehr and German Army want to embarrass the SS and recover William's stolen atomic research. Archer later learns that the research is stored on a piece of film hidden in the prosthetic limb found at the flat.

Later, the British resistance bomb a "German-Soviet Friendship Week ceremony" to repatriate Karl Marx's remains from Highgate Cemetery. In response, the Germans impose martial law and detain thousands of Londoners including Woods and Sylvia. Sylvia is killed during an escape attempt while Woods is detained by the Gestapo. Kellerman uses his connections to secure Woods' release but forces him to sign a statement compromising Archer.

Archer passes the atomic research film to Colonel Mayhew. Together, they travel to an English countryside where they rendezvous with an American agent Daniel Barga, Barbara's husband. Barga and Mayhew negotiate a deal for the Americans to allow the King to enter the States in return for receiving the German atomic research. Huth arrives to arrest the group but Mayhew makes an agreement with him and he departs.

The following day, Archer and Woods receive the comatose George VI from their Germany Army co-conspirators. They attempt to evacuate the King to Bringle Sands in an ambulance but it breaks down. Archer and Woods turn to Barbara for help only to find that she has been killed by the Gestapo. With Mayhew's help, Archer and Woods manage to take the King to Bringle Sands in order to rendezvous with a landing party of US Marines led by Major Dodgson. Despite their efforts, the group is ambushed by Huth's SS forces and the King, Barga, and Dodgson are killed. However, the King's rescue is a diversion for a larger American force to attack the Bringle Sands atomic research facility. The Americans obtain the facility's atomic research, equipment, and several scientists during the raid, dealing a major blow to the German atomic research program.

Following the loss of Bringle Sands, Kellerman frames Huth for conspiring with Mayhew to rescue the King and allowing the Americans to attack Bringle Sands. Mayhew is pardoned in return for testifying against Huth at his trial. Archer is exonerated of any wrongdoing due to Huth and Woods' intervention. Prior to Huth's execution, Archer meets with Huth who reveals that Mayhew used the King's rescue attempt as a diversion for US forces to attack Bringle Sands. Mayhew's intention was for the King to die a martyr's death alongside Americans, bringing the US into war with Germany. With the loss of Bringle Sands, Huth believes that the US will win the atomic bomb race. In addition, Huth reveals that Woods was Kellerman's informant, that Kellerman arranged Barbara's murder, and that Mayhew struck a deal with Huth. Archer comes to realize that Mayhew killed William Spode in order to prevent the Americans from gaining access to his atomic research.