Colin Gee - Breakthrough

Thompson: .45 calibre US submachine-gun, normally issued with a 20 or 30 round magazine [although a drum was available.]

Tiger I: German heavy battle tank armed with the first 88mm gun, capable of ruling any battlefield when it was introduced in 1942.

Tokarev: Soviet 7.62mm automatic handgun [also known as TT30] with an 8 round magazine.

Trimbach: Quality Alsatian wine.

TU-2, Tupolev: Soviet twin-engined medium bomber. Extrememly successful design that peformed well in a variety of roles, the TU-2 is considered one of the best combat aircraft of WW2.

Type 97 Chi-Ha: Japanese main battle tank, armed with a 57mm gun.

Type XXI submarine: The most technologically advanced submarine of the era, produced in small numbers by the Germans and unable to affect the outcome of the war.

Typhoon, Hawker: RAF’s most successful single seater ground attack aircraft of World War Two, which could carry anything from bombs through to rockets.

U-Boat Type XX: 30 such U-Boats were planned, but none produced during WW2. They were intended as pure supply boats, shorter than the Type XB but with a wider beam.

U-Boat Type XXI: Advanced U-Boat design capable of extended underwater cruising at high speed.

UHU: German 251 halftrack mounting an infra-red searchlight, designed for close use with infra-red equipped Panther units.

Unicorn , HMS: British light aircraft carrier and aircraft repair ship, seeing service throughout WW2. Scrapped in 1959.

USAAF: United States Army Air Force.

Ushanka: Fur hat with adjustable sides.

Vampir: German term for the ST44 equipped with an infra-red sight, also used to refer to the operators of such weapons.

Venona Project: Joint US-UK operation to analyse Soviet message traffic.

Vichy: Name of the collaborationist government of defeated France.

Vickers Machine-Gun: British designed machine-gun of WW1 vintage. Extremely reliable .303 calibre weapon, standard issue as a heavy machine-gun.

Vitruvian man: Da Vinci’s sketch of a man with legs and arms splayed.

Wacht am Rhein: Literally, ‘Watch on the Rhine’, a codename used to mask the real purpose of the German build-up that became the Ardennes Offensive in December 1944.

Waffen-SS: There will always be much debate over these troops. Ideologically driven, politically inspired, pathological killers with an unshakable faith in the superiority of the Aryan race or highly motivated troops with an incredible ‘esprit de corps’? Whatever your point of view, the military achievements of the SS Soldiers were without parallel in WW2. That others wore the same uniform as they tended the camps and satisfied the despicable agendas of the Nazi party has, in many ways, tarnished the Waffen-SS. None the less, they have their own crimes to pay for, as do all who wore a uniform in WW2, for no side came away with clean hands.

Walther P38: German 9mm semi-automatic pistol with an eight round magazine.

Wanderer W23 Cabriolet: German vehicle designed for civilian use, sometimes pressed into military service, particularly as a staff car.

Wehrmacht: The German Army

Yakolev-9: Soviet single-seater fighter aircraft that was highly respected by the Luftwaffe.

Yakolev-9U: Soviet single-engined fighter aircraft, probably the best Soviet high-altitude fighter.

Zilant: Legendary creature in Russian folklore somewhat like a dragon

ZIS3: 76.2mm anti-tank gun in Soviet use.

ZSU-37: Soviet light self-propelled anti-aircraft vehicle, mounting a 37mm gun.

Zuikaku : Japanese fleet aircraft carrier of the Shokaku class. Present at Pearl Harbor, she succumbed to air attack during the Battle of Leyte Gulf, sinking on 25th October 1944.

Colin Gee was born on 18th May 1957 in Haslar Naval Hospital, Gosport, UK, spending the first two years of his life at the naval base in Malta.

His parents divorced when he was approaching three years of age, and he went to live with his grandparents in Berkshire, who brought him up.

On 9th June 1975 he joined the Fire Service and, after a colourful career, retired on 19th May 2007, having achieved the rank of Sub-Officer, Watch Commander, or to be politically correct for the ego-tripping harridans in HR, Watch Manager ‘A’.

After thirty-two years in the Fire Service, reality suddenly hit, and Colin found himself in need of a proper job!

As of today, Colin is permanently employed doing night shifts for NHS Out of Hours service.

At this moment in time Colin has a wife, two daughters, one step-daughter, two step-sons and two grandsons, called Lucas and Mason, who are avid Manchester United fans, although neither know it yet.

Four cats complete the home ensemble.

He has been a wargamer for most of his life, hence the future plans for a Red Gambit wargaming series.

In 1992 Colin joined the magistracy, having wandered in from the street to ask how someone becomes a beak. He served until 2005. The experience taught him the true difference between justice and the law, the former being what he would have preferred to administer.

Red Gambit was first researched over ten years ago, but work and life changes prevented it from blossoming.

Now it has become six books, instead of one, as more research is done and more lines of writing open themselves up.

Though the books are fiction, fact is a constant companion, particularly within the biographies, where real-life events are often built into the lives of fictitious characters.

Colin writes for the pleasure it brings him and, hopefully, the reader. The books are not intended to be modern day ‘Wuthering Heights’ or ‘War and Peace’. They contain a story that Colin thinks is worth the telling, and to which task he set his inexperienced hand. The biographies are part of the whole experience that he hopes to bring the reader.

Enjoy them all, and thank you for reading.

Extras available on the website www.redgambitseries.comand also on www.facebook.com – group name ‘Red Gambit’.

https://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/167182160020751/

Please register and join the group or the forums.

If on the website, remember only to visit the areas relevant to your book or you may pick up spoilers.

Colonel-General Malinin consumed the GRU report dealing with the dishonoured British peace negotiations.

“Your thoughts, Comrade?”

Zhukov sat peeling an apple, having already read the document.

“I see no reason to doubt her report, Comrade Marshall. Even though it is hard to imagine such an act without a mandate, our Nazarbayeva sets out the reasons quite clearly, and the reinstatement of Churchill seems to bear out all she states.”

“So, we lost many men for no good reason, Malinin. Bagramyan is hopping mad and threatens our lives, so I’m told.”

Whilst Zhukov delivered that with humour, both men understood that the old Armenian Marshall was extremely upset at having lost so many good men for something that, in the end, produced no tangible advantage.

In actual fact, it had produced some advantages, in that the Britsh and Dominion formations had been given a very hard time and, by all accounts, were exhausted beyond measure.

That at least three times as many casualties had been suffered by the attacking forces was of no comfort to the British, but they had not folded under the pressure and now, with the return of Churchill, they seemed almost inspired to higher things.