"THE KNIGHT'S GAMBIT" is the alternate history novel of the German battleship Tirpitz, Allied convoy PQ17 and the Battle of Bear Island. In Book 1 of the Malta Fulcrum Alternate History Series, "OPERATION HERKULES", the Axis powers have seized the Mediterranean island of Malta in a daring airborne operation, mauling the British Royal Navy in the process. With his supply lines secured, Field Marshall Rommel and his famed Afrika Korp set their sights on Cairo and the Suez Canal in Egypt. Now the western Allies are determined to avenge the Malta defeat and recapture the strategic initiative by delivering desperately needed Lend-Lease supplies to the Soviet Union with convoy PQ17. The Germans are just as determined to stop them. Tirpitz sails to destroy the convoy. But the Allied battleships HMS Duke of York and USS Washington have set a trap for Tirpitz, and the men and ships of PQ17 are the bait! The chessboard is set for the largest fleet action of the European war!.