Random Mutterings

Having survived the outrageous antics of certain people traveling upon the thoroughfares betwixt Little Rhody and the Old Line State, I arrived safe and no less sound than usual upon the shores of the Chesapeake on or around 1715 hours local on the 8th of September in the Year of Our Lord Twenty and Twenty. That is, Tuesday.

Greeted by my middle daughter and her hounds, the latter two of which were growling at me until they caught my scent (who thereupon became deliriously ecstatic as only a canine can), I was once again at Chez Tuttle et Nuke. I should note that The Nuke continued to growl at me, even though I was recognized and allowed entry. Perhaps I should have arrived bearing gifts?

That being said, this trip to Maryland is a little shorter than the last. Instead of a full week, with a travel day on either end, it's only four days, two of them being travel days. As my supply of PTO is not endless, I need to preserve some for later trips. Of which, I'm told there will be a few. After all, Maryland is "only" 400 miles from Chez Sarge in Little Rhody.

Haven't worked much on the book as it was kind of a quiet spell in Europe in late summer of 1944. The Germans were nearly finished retreating into the West Wall. (What many referred to, and still refer to, as the Siegfried Line, auf Deutsch it was known as die Westwand, not "Westwall," which, as near as I can determine, is just a bad translation. In English it would be known as the West Wall. I guess Siegfried Line just sounds cool.)

At any rate, the Germans were retreating in spots and were trying to reconstitute what units they could. Including two Waffen SS divisions in the vicinity of a Dutch town named Arnhem. Which Monty didn't see because he didn't want to, it stood in the way of his "pencil like" thrust into Germany.

Speaking of which, there are no units in the book which actually participated directly in Operation Market Garden (started 17 September) the British 11th Armoured Division provided flank support. So it's possible I'll touch upon that. But not this week.

Since Sgt Brandt's wounding (and Ollie's death) you might notice a refocus from Brandt's squad to the entire platoon. 2Lt Paddock is a character I intend to explore further, his relationship with his troops, especially his platoon sergeant, and his company commander.

At first I wanted to make Captain Josephson a screaming prick, then decided against it, sort of. What makes a man be a jerk? So I plan on exploring his character more as well. I rather regret having Bill and Ollie get gunned down on the street of a Belgian village but that happens in war. If it doesn't happen in the book, makes the book a little less authentic, to me at any rate. But what do I know? I've never written a book before, and there are days when it really shows. Those of you who spot the errors and let me know, I really appreciate it.

Oh one last thing, when you take a "selfie" with your cat, don't be surprised if she looks at you like you're an idiot. Which isn't far from the truth...

Or so I've been told.

Cats can be pretty judgmental at times.

DAMHIK...