Editing SS-GB

{{Short description|1978 alternative history by Len Deighton}}
{{About|a novel|the TV adaptation|SS-GB (TV series)|the steamship|SS Great Britain}}
{{EngvarB|date=January 2023}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2023}}
{{Infobox book
| name          = SS-GB
| title_orig    =
| translator    =
| image         = Ss-gb cover.jpg
| caption       = First Edition
| author        = [[Len Deighton]]
| illustrator   =
| cover_artist  = [[Holly Macdonald]]<ref>[https://www.flickr.com/photos/13313279@N04/sets/72157625652290628/show/ Modern first editions – a set on Flickr]</ref>
| country       = [[United Kingdom]]
| language      = [[English language|English]]
| series        =
| subject       =
| genre         = [[Alternate history]]
| publisher     = [[Jonathan Cape]]
| release_date  = 24 August 1978
| english_release_date =
| media_type    = Hardcover
| pages         = 368
| isbn          = 978-0-224-01606-3
| preceded_by   =
| followed_by   =
}}

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

==Synopsis==
===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|Ashford]], 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 of the United Kingdom|Prime Minister]] [[Winston Churchill]] became prisoners of the Germans. The British gold and [[foreign reserves]] were shipped to [[Canada]].<ref name="Shimmin review">{{cite web|publisher=Graeme Shimmin|url=http://graemeshimmin.com/ss-gb-book-review/|title=SS-GB Book review|date=6 December 2013}}</ref>

In 1941, the [[British Armed Forces]] surrendered, Churchill was tried by court-martial in [[Berlin]] and executed while the King was imprisoned in the [[Tower of London]]. [[Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother|Queen Elizabeth]] and her daughters [[Queen Elizabeth II|Princess Elizabeth]] and [[Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon|Princess Margaret]] escaped to [[New Zealand]] while the [[Edward VIII|Duke of Windsor]] escaped to [[The Bahamas]]. A naval officer, Rear Admiral [[Conolly Abel Smith]], formed a British [[government-in-exile]] in [[Washington, DC]] but struggles to gain [[diplomatic recognition]].<ref name="Shimmin review" /> Conolly is also forced to fight off an attempt by the Germans to take over the [[embassy of the United Kingdom, Washington, D.C.|British embassy in Washington]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Deighton |first=Len |date=1978 |title=SS-GB |pages=118-19; Chapter 14}}</ref>

The United Kingdom still has an unidentified puppet Prime Minister and [[Parliament of the United Kingdom|Parliament]], but 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 occupied Britain.  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 nonstop [[Lufthansa]] flight from London to [[New York City]].<ref name="Shimmin review" />{{sfnp|Deighton|1978|pp=70-71|ps=; Chapter 9}}

The [[Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact]] is still in force and the [[Soviet Navy]] was given bases at [[Rosyth]], [[Scapa Flow]] and [[Invergordon]]. The [[Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda|German Propaganda Ministry]] claims that the Soviet-German friendship is genuine, but cynics claim that Hitler is using the Soviets to counterbalance the Americans. As part of the German-Soviet Friendship Week, [[Karl Marx]]'s body is to be taken from [[Highgate Cemetery]] to the Soviet Union.{{sfnp|Deighton|1978|pp=70|ps=; Chapter 9}} 
 
[[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] is still the US president and [[Joseph P. Kennedy]] the [[United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom|American ambassador]].{{sfnp|Deighton|1978|pp=216|ps=; Chapter 22}} The United States is still officially [[neutral country|neutral]], the Roosevelt administration is seeking to acquire German [[German nuclear weapons program|atomic research]] from the Bringle Sands Atomic Research Establishment. The United States had also launched an amphibious invasion of the French colony of [[Martinique]] after it sided with the regime of [[Vichy France]]. British personnel who managed to escape the German occupation have also enlisted in the US Armed Forces.{{sfnp|Deighton|1978|pp=326-330, 290-297|ps=; Chapters 37, 34}}

===Plot===
In November 1941, nine months after a German invasion led to the British surrender, Douglas Archer is a detective-superintendent of London's [[Metropolitan Police]] [[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 Britain. Having lost his wife, Jill, and his 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 Manning.

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, particularly by what appears to be sunburn on the arm. Archer also finds a prosthetic arm and a return ticket to Bringle 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 nuclear weapons program|German atomic program]] and secretly involved with the [[Auxiliary Units|British Resistance]].

Since the case is linked to the German atomic program, Berlin dispatches SS ''[[Standartenführer]]'' Oskar Huth, who arrives to supervise the investigation. Archer soon finds himself in the middle of a power struggle between Huth and Kellerman that is complicated by [[interservice rivalry]] between the SS, [[German Army (1935–1945)|German Army]], [[Gestapo]] and [[Abwehr]]. Archer becomes romantically involved with an attractive American journalist, 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 Spode'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 that produced the prosthetic limbs and captures John, who signs a confession but claims that William's death was a suicide. John then commits suicide with cyanide provided by an Abwehr officer Captain Hesse, who is under orders from his superiors to prevent him from divulging the German Army's atomic program to the rival SS.

Archer accompanies Hesse to a meeting with Mayhew and an Abwehr general, where he learns that the British Resistance and the German Army are conspiring to liberate King George VI from SS custody out of mutual interests. The British Resistance plan to smuggle him to the United States to shore up Rear-Admiral [[Conolly Abel Smith]]'s Free British [[government in exile]]. Meanwhile, the Abwehr and the German Army want to embarrass the SS and to 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 Manning. Woods is detained by the Gestapo, and Sylvia is killed during an escape attempt. Kellerman uses his connections to secure Woods's release but forces him to sign a statement compromising Archer.

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

The following day, Archer and Woods receive the comatose George VI from their German Army co-conspirators. They attempt to evacuate him 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 to meet 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 because of Huth and Woods's intervention. Prior to Huth's execution, Archer meets with him, who reveals that Mayhew used the King's rescue attempt as a diversion for US forces to attack Bringle Sands. With the loss of Bringle Sands, Huth believes that the US will win the [[nuclear arms 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 realise that Mayhew killed Spode to prevent the Americans from gaining access to his atomic research. He also considers Mayhew as "playing God and writing the future history books". Rather than presenting the outside world with a pathetic and infirm exile King George, Mayhew deliberately arranged for the King to die a martyr's death alongside Americans, eventually bringing the US into war with Germany. Meanwhile, the 15-year-old [[Elizabeth II|Princess Elizabeth]] will be crowned in exile and travel to [[Washington, DC]], to arouse sympathy for the British Resistance.

==Characters==
* Douglas Archer. A 30-year-old [[Detective Superintendent#Metropolitan Police|Detective Superintendent]] in the [[Metropolitan Police]], Archer is a widower with a young son named Douggie. Archer's wife, Jill, perished during [[The Blitz]] in London. A graduate of [[Oxford University]], Archer is among a new generation of university-educated detectives who prefers scientific methods like [[forensic science]]. A highly respected detective, Archer is credited with solving several high-profile murder cases in London. Archer struggles to balance his detective work with the brutal realities of the Nazi occupation. 
* Dr Oskar Huth. A {{lang|de|[[Standartenführer]]}} from the {{lang|de|[[Sicherheitsdienst]]}} (Security Service), the SS intelligence service. He speaks fluent English and studied at Oxford University. Huth has an antagonistic relationship with SS {{lang|de|[[Gruppenführer]]}} Fritz Kellerman, whom he resents as an opportunistic political appointee, and his own father, a respected German professor. Huth is also privy to the German atomic research program, which is codenamed "Apocalypse". Huth takes charge of the investigation into William Spode's murder because of the physicist's involvement with the German atomic research establishment at Bringle Sands, near [[Devon]]. Huth strikes a deal with the British Resistance leader George Mayhew, who reveals the resistance plot to smuggle the King to the US, but it turns out to be a diversionary for a US raid on Bringle Sands.{{sfnp|Deighton|1978|pp=43-52; 33-349|ps=; Chapters 5-6, 40}}  
* Fritz Kellerman. An SS {{lang|de|Gruppenführer}} who serves as the head of all British police forces, he seeks to bring it in line with the German police system. A plump man in his late fifties with a thick thatch of white hair who has a taste for good food and drink, Kellerman rose through the ranks of the [[Nazi Party]] as a political appointee. Kellerman likes his subordinates to refer to him as {{lang|de|[[wikt:Vater|Vater]]}} (or father). Kellerman tries to ingratiate himself with Archer by offering his son, Douggie, gifts and securing a place at the German School in [[Highgate]] for the children of German officers and bureaucrats. A ruthless political player, Kellerman frames Huth for colluding with the British Resistance to free King George VI and destroy the Bringle Sands atomic research facility.{{sfnp|Deighton|1978|pp=15, 346-347|ps=; Chapter 1, Chapter 40}}  
* Barbara Barga. An American syndicated journalist who writes for 42 US magazines and newspapers, she is the wife of Daniel Barga, a [[lieutenant commander]] in the [[US Navy]]. Barbara travelled to London on the inaugural [[Lufthansa]] flight from New York to London. While working on a story about Americans living in German-occupied London, Barbara secretly works with the British Resistance to obtain German atomic secrets for the Americans. She befriends Archer, and they develop a romantic relationship. Later in the novel, she is killed by the Gestapo under Kellerman's orders.{{sfnp|Deighton|1978|pp=29, 348-349|ps=; Chapters 2, 40}} 
* Harry Woods. A detective sergeant in the Metropolitan Police. An "old school" policeman, Woods is scornful of paperwork, filing systems and microscopes. A [[First World War]] veteran, Woods is older than Archer, who looks up to him as a professional mentor. Woods and Archer first met in 1920 when Woods was a young police constable, and Archer was a nine-year-old boy. Woods has a wife, Joan Woods, but is secretly in love with the police secretary Sylvia Manning. Woods and Manning are involved with the British Resistance. Following a botched escape attempt, Woods strikes a deal with Kellerman and divulges the resistance's plot to rescue King George VI and smuggle him to the US.{{sfnp|Deighton|1978|pp=10, 348-349|ps=; Chapters 2, 40}}  
* Jimmy Dunn. A young aspiring police constable in the Metropolitan Police. Archer tasks Dunn with investigating the itinerant music teacher John Spode. The investigation uncovers Spode's connection to the murdered atomic physicist William Spode, who was travelling under the pseudonym Peter Thomas, and both brothers' involvement in atomic research. Dunn is later murdered by the British Resistance, which strings up his body in Archer's former home as a warning.{{sfnp|Deighton|1978|pp=69-76|ps=; Chapters 9}}  
* Sylvia Manning. A secretary working for the Metropolitan Police. Her parents perished during the German invasion, and she entered into a romantic relationship with Archer, who also lost his wife. Manning becomes involved with the British Resistance and steals several German identity documents from Scotland Yard. Manning and Woods are later arrested after the British Resistance bombs the German-Soviet Friendship Week ceremony to take Karl Marx's remains to the Soviet Union. Manning is later killed during a botched escape attempt from the [[Metropolitan Cattle Market|Caledonian Market]] detention camp.{{sfnp|Deighton|1978|pp=35-41, 249-50, 256|ps=; Chapters 5, 27, 29}}   
* Dr John Spode
* Colonel George Mayhew

==In other media==
===Television===
{{main|SS-GB (TV series)}}
In November 2014, the [[BBC]] announced a five-episode miniseries, ''[[SS-GB (TV series)|SS-GB]]'', adapted from the novel by [[James Bond]] screenwriters [[Neal Purvis and Robert Wade]].<ref>{{cite web|publisher=BBC|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2014/drama-announces-new-commissions|title=BBC Drama Controller announces 43.5 hours of new commissions|date=19 November 2014}}</ref> It was broadcast on [[BBC One]] between 19 February 2017 and 19 March 2017.

===Mentions===
[[Gavriel David Rosenfeld]], a professor of history at [[Fairfield University]], cited ''SS-GB'' in his book ''The World Hitler Never Made''.<ref>{{cite book |title=The World Hitler Never Made |last= Rosenfeld|first=Gavriel |author-link=Gavriel David Rosenfeld |year=2005 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=0-521-84706-0 |pages=524 |url=http://www.cambridge.org/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=0-521-84706-0&ss=ind}}</ref>

==See also==
{{portal|Novels}}
* [[Hypothetical Axis victory in World War II]] — includes an extensive list of other Wikipedia articles regarding works of Nazi Germany/Axis/World War II [[alternate history]].
<!-- note: believe it may be easier to state the above rather than try to replicate the changing list of 51 (as of this Aug 2012 writing) other works of WWII alternative histories, shown at the 'Axis victory of WWII' page, on every one of the 51 other pages, such as the page you are currently visiting -->

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{Len Deighton}}

[[Category:1978 British novels]]
[[Category:British alternative history novels]]
[[Category:British thriller novels]]
[[Category:Novels by Len Deighton]]
[[Category:Fiction set in 1941]]
[[Category:Novels set in the 1940s]]
[[Category:Jonathan Cape books]]
[[Category:Cultural depictions of George VI]]
[[Category:Alternate Nazi Germany novels]]
[[Category:British novels adapted into television shows]]
[[Category:Bureaucracy in fiction]]
[[Category:Fictional invasions of England]]
[[Category:Crime and thriller fiction set in alternate histories]]
[[Category:Cultural depictions of Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson]]
[[Category:Novels set during World War II|alternative]]
[[Category:World War II alternate histories| ]]