OPERATION CHAOS, by Poul Andersen.

The original were story.The courageous werewolf Steve Matuchek and his red-headed witch girlfriend, the talented Virginia Graylock, push back the enemy during a sortie in World War II—the Caliph's War. Andersen's opening is delicious, as the enemy is in control of the weather and throwing the troops a week of cold punishing rain. “Meanwhile, we slogged ahead...the pride of the United States army, turned into a wet misery of men and dragons hunting through the Oregon hills for the invader.” Two sentences later Andersen provides another lively observation. “Our sentries were, of course, wearing Tarnkappen, but I could see their footprints form in the mud and hear the boots squelch and the tired monotonous cursing.” The ramifications of this alternative history are great fun. Magic exists, but follows normal physical laws. And humans are always the same.

The physics of this world is least as fascinating as the adventures. Matter and energy can neither be created or destroyed. Therefore, Steve weighs the same when werewolf or human, and when basilisks change men into stone, the carbon-to-silicon reaction gives off a radioactive isotope. In the second novella of this series, Steve chases away a fiery salamander with the water-burning properties of magnesium and thereby boosts the salary of the tiny physical sciences department. The third novella finds the Graylock-Matuchek family harrowing the skewed geometries of hell with a brilliant mathematician ally. This last novella is the most poignant, with a kidnapping and a soul to rescue. I have never seen the supernatural world handled more deftly.