The Great Patriotic War (Or Things to Come)

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To ignore the Eastern Front of WWII is to ignore the pivotal campaign of the European Theater. From the 22nd of June 1941 to the 9th of May (some would say 8th) of 1945, a titanic struggle was waged along an initial front stretching over a thousand miles involving millions of soldiers. The struggle eventually cost the lives of over 5,000,000 on the Axis side (Germany, Italy, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, and even a large contingent of Spaniards) and nearly 10,000,000 Soviet citizens.

So yes, our German characters will be serving on the Eastern Front, some of the Soviets we met in Finland will also reappear. As much as some of you have expressed a lack of interest in that front, it has to be covered. The mark it left on the souls of the men and women who fought there, and their descendants, cannot be ignored.

I also have to confess to actually liking the Russian people, they've had to put up with a lot in their history and the fight they put up on the Eastern Front was pretty impressive. 

We had our house done over with vinyl siding some years back and the guys who did it were three Russians, younger guys, late-20s, early-30s, and one older guy, a Kazakh who kinda kept to himself. I didn't get to interact with that guy, not even the Russians talked to him about anything not directly involving the job. I'm not even sure he spoke English.

This was the first time I'd ever met any real-life born-in-the-USSR folks. Of course, growing up they were the boogeyman, the monolithic Communists who were intent on conquering the world. They were the guys on the "other side" during the Cold War which occupied all of my childhood and most of my professional military career.

So meeting actual Russians was interesting. I liked them. Great sense of humor, strong work ethic, good folks to have your back in a bar fight.

When we had the siding done it was February, perhaps the coldest February I've experienced in Little Rhody. Daytime temps in the low teens (that's with the sun shining mind you) and here's these four guys out in the cold (and the wind, the wind never stops blowing in Little Rhody) working on our house.

The first day, the crew chief asked me where the nearest gas station was. I assumed they needed to gas up their truck, no, it was in case they had to use the bathroom. When I offered the use of our own, perfectly useful, bathroom, they were aghast. The Missus Herself convinced them that it wasn't a problem and it would save time as they wouldn't have to down tools and head out to use the facilities at the local Shell station.

It took some convincing but eventually they accepted.

The first day, when I returned home from work, The Missus Herself was trying to convince them that it was okay to use our microwave and eat at our kitchen table. Eventually she convinced them that that was okay.

We treated them pretty decently, the crew chief told me that most folks made them stay outside for the entire job. Maybe because they were Russians? I don't know. As to the cold I mentioned to the crew chief that he and his guys must be pretty used to working in the cold, his answer ...

"No, why do you think we left Russia? Too damned cold. But I think the Kazakh actually prefers the cold." (I don't recall them ever referring to the older guy by name, always as "the Kazakh.")

So after a long time of perceiving these guys as the enemy, I was almost shocked to realize that they were actually human, maybe not just like us but close enough. Different culture is all, and a very long history of being threatened, invaded, and kicked around. They always seem to survive though.

So yes, I like Russians, even in light of what's going on in Ukraine. It's their leaders I despise, but then again, I despise our leaders as well.

So we will get to Russia, Jürgen and the other Germans will go through that Hell. We'll meet Manfred Sauer there as well, not for the first time in a literary sense, but for the first time in an historical sense. He starts as a young frightened farm lad, waiting to cross the line in the early morning of the 22nd of June, 1941.

Yes, we'll get there.

Just not today.