Where Are We Going?

(Source)

So the Germans in the story are getting ready to invade the Soviet Union, well, some of them. Von Lüttwitz's unit is still in France on occupation duty and won't be transferred to the Eastern Front until November of 1941.

Not a season I would pick to go East.

But the German tankers are there, these guys -

Unteroffizier Willi Hoffmeister (commander/gunner)

Gefreiter Fritz Weber (driver)

Panzerschütze Horst Krebs (loader)

Panzerschütze Ulrich Neuhäuser (bow gunner/radioman)

Willi was in the first book, Almost a Lifetime, and did survive the war, though badly burned on the face and hands (The Last Tiger - Final Stand). Not all of his crew made it to the very end. Willi did, but as a POW.

Right now they're waiting on the border of the Soviet Union, waiting for the order to attack. We'll get there very soon. But not today.

When we get there we'll see Jan Kołodziej again, remember him? He was also in the first book. He's still in the German Army, though somewhat reluctantly. His estranged girlfriend, Elżbieta Chlebek, is still alive, still in Warsaw. We'll catch up with both of them when we turn our attention to the Russian Front.

Our British tankers are now safely ashore in Egypt, getting ready to be assigned a new tank and a new crewman to replace Walsh

Commander, Sergeant Theodore O'Connell

Gunner, Corporal Fred McTavish

Driver, Private James Fitzhugh

Loader, Private William O'Shea

Bow MG Gunner, Private Herbert Walsh    KIA on Crete

Fitzhugh is in the first book as well, but when we first met him he was commanding a Sherman Firefly, so we're working through how he got there. The North African campaign is where he really came into his own as a member of Montgomery's 8th Army.

One of my favorite characters from the first book was Billy Wallace of the Royal Scots Fusiliers. I had envisioned him having "adventures" in North Africa but ...

His battalion came home from France and pretty much stayed in Great Britain until shortly after D-Day. So for this book his story may be done. As I still need to cover the British campaign in Northwest Europe from Market Garden onwards, we'll meet Billy and his lads again.

The original intent of this book was to cover the early war and what the characters from the first book were doing during that time period.

But I've gone and introduced a bunch of new characters as well, and I do need to sort them all out and figure out where they're going next - 

Remember the Norwegians?

Premierløitnant Morten Henriksen

Sersjant Magnus Belland KIA

Menig Lars Torvik KIA

Menig Martin Sundheim

Hildur Tonnesdottir "Bestemor"

Åsmund Baardson

Bjørn Mikkelsen Hunter

Sander Stohl

Sten Rike Fisherman

We're not done with them yet, and speaking of Norway ...

The Commandos will be back as well!

 

The commandos

Sergeant Bartosz Podbielski

Private Damian Krempa

Private Klaudiusz Mierzejewski

Private Mariusz Perzan

Private Juliusz Dziadosz

Private Jan-Iwo Cahun

Lieutenant Oswald Mosier

Private John Bickford

Corporal William (Bill) Winston

Private Max Field

Private Scott Mansfield

Private Kurt Osterberg

Private Agnar Ellingsen

These lads will be joining them in the field - 

Sergent Bartosz Podbielski

Soldat Damian Krempa

Soldat Klaudiusz Mierzejewski

Soldat Mariusz Perzan

Soldat Juliusz Dziadosz

Soldat Jean-Yves Cahun

LCpl Billy Wallace's squad -

Private Robert McLaren

Private Malcolm Bain

Private Alfie Morris

Private Teddy Fraser

Private Jock McMillan

Private Connor McGuire

3rd Platoon, 2nd Squad

Fahnenjunker-Unterfeldwebel Jürgen von Lüttwitz, Squad Leader

Obergefreiter Sepp Wittman, Assistant Squad Leader

Oberschütze Leon Schwarz, Machine Gunner

Schütze Bodo Hermann

Schütze Michael Offenbach

Schütze Karl Wachsmuth

Schütze Hans Warstadt

Schütze Walter Schnabel

Schütze Christian Möller, Assistant Machine Gunner

Schütze Martin Busch

Schütze Helmut Schneider

Casualties -

Gefreiter Johannes Grüner KIA

Schütze Christoph Groß KIA

Schütze Wolf Gessler KIA

Oberleutnant Ferdinand Busch - von Lüttwitz's company commander

Fahnenjunker-Unterfeldwebel Jürgen von Lüttwitz

Major Kurt Hassel - von Lüttwitz's battalion commander

I haven't forgotten the bomber crewmen  of  Kampfgeschwader 54 -

Oberleutnant Johannes Boden (pilot)

Gefreiter Alois Holweck (radio operator/rear gunner)

Feldwebel Leo Habicht (navigator/ventral gunner)

Leutnant Philip Scholl (bombardier/front gunner) WIA, blinded

replaced by Oberfeldwebel Max Jürgens

Nor have I forgotten the Russian survivors of the Winter War -

Krasnoarmeyets Ustin Rodionovich Kazankov from the 44th

Vitaliy Afanasievich Kolobkov

Gavrila Fyodorovich Bezrodny

Kusma Zakharovich Beriya

Vladimir Antonovich Dudin

Valerian Dmitrievich Berezhnoy

Kapitan Ivan Filippovich Telitsyn, his orderly Krasnoarmeyets Maxim Romanovich Grushanin

So I'm organizing and thinking about the next steps in the book, after the debacle in Greece and Crete I need a breather. Shouldn't be more than a day or two. Stand by ...

Editor's Note -

For those of you who were selected to be editors for the first book, thanks for all the comments and corrections so far. I will begin incorporating all of that when everything is in. I'll try and at least acknowledge your latest edits with a return email of at least, "Thanks, I got it."

Say, any of you know any literary agents?

Be seeing you ...

Update:

After re-reading the link I gave you above vis-à-vis Hoffmeister's surviving the war - he and his crew WILL NOT be there for the opening of Operation Barbarossa. They're actually in Africa. With Rommel. (I need to come up with a better way of keeping track of the characters in these books!)