Preparations

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Hauptmann von Tetz and Leutnant von Zitzewitz were standing to the side of a knocked out assault gun. Von Tetz was looking at the vehicle, bogged in the mud, with a certain professional interest. While he knew the vehicle wasn't going anywhere, he wondered if there was anything onboard which could prove useful.

One of his tank crewmen was inside the vehicle at the moment, eventually his head popped out of the commander's hatch.

"Nichts, Herr Hauptmann, there's nothing of any use in here. The crew did a good job of damaging anything useful or took it with them. No ammunition, maps, anything. The machine gun is gone, as you can see," he gestured to the gun shield next to him, "they even took the spare ammo pouches."

Leutnant von Zitzewitz spoke up, "We could mount one of our MG 42s here, couple of men to crew it. Pretty good protection, it would break up a Russian attack coming up the road."

Von Tetz shook his head, "Out of the question. Yes, it would break up an attack and give Ivan a nasty surprise. But if he brings up his Panzers, one of the first things they'll do is hit this StuG¹ with a few antitank rounds just to make sure it's actually dead. We do it, so do they."

The young infantry officer shrugged, "I hadn't thought of that."

"You just lack experience, von Zitzewitz. If you live long enough you'll learn."

"If the war lasts long enough you mean ..."

"Sure, whatever helps you through the night Leutnant. I have no illusions that I'll ever see home again." von Tetz said with an audible sigh.

Waving at his man in the wrecked vehicle, von Tetz and the men started to walk back to town. Von Zitzewitz spoke again.

"Surely you don't think the war will last much longer."

"Two things my dear boy, the war will probably end within a month or two. For us it will probably end in the next day or so. We'll either be dead or marching to Siberia to become Communist slaves. At any rate, I will never see home again even if I live through this nightmare."

A look of understanding washed over von Zitzewitz's face, "You're Prussian, aren't you?"

"My home is south of Königsberg, a little place called Schonewese. I'm sure Stalin will seize all of East Prussia or give most of it to the Poles. Bottom line is, I won't go back, not and live under the Reds. So, basically, my home is gone."

Von Zitzewitz was startled by that thought. His people lived in Brandenburg, not far from Berlin. What if the Ivans, and their Allies in the west, decided to dismantle Germany? Perhaps Germany would cease to exist as a nation. Maybe it made no difference whether he survived the war or not.²

A sobering thought.

Having had time to better study the surrounding terrain, Krafft thought they had a good position here in Vietz. The forest to the east would tend to canalize movement along the single track running through the trees. The forest extended around the village to the north, blocking that approach. To the south, some four kilometers away, was the Warthe River, which the Poles called the Warta.

They had clear fields of fire to the east and to the south, he doubted that Ivan would try to flank them through the woods to the north. In his experience the Russians lacked a certain amount of tactical subtlety and Ivan liked to put his head down and charge straight in. Not to say they wouldn't drench the landscape with artillery fire first. Ivan loved his guns.

But the Soviets now had a tank heavy army, seems they had swarms of the things. T-34s, KVs, and now these new monsters he'd heard of, named after Stalin himself. Tanks that even a German Tiger might fear.

They were as ready as they could be. Berlin wanted to delay the Ivans getting across the Oder River as long as possible. Defensive works were being constructed on the Seelow Heights to the east of the capital, time was needed, so he was told, to finish those defenses.

Fortunately the new infantry lieutenant, what was his name, oh yes Schultz, was experienced. He'd come up through the ranks over the past two years. He had the two lower grades of the Iron Cross, and even more impressive, two awards of the Panzervernichtungsabzeichen³ he'd won in Russia.

Tank Destruction Badge
Source

The officers had been busy positioning the men and machines around the village. The two Panzers had been camouflaged between buildings and had excellent fields of fire to the east. He had asked what if the Ivans went along the river.

"Then we let them pass, then we slip off over the ridge and head to Küstrin and hope we still have a bridgehead this side of the Oder. Can't defend everything, just the most likely path."

"Won't the Ivans think of that as well?"

Schultz chuckled, "Of course they will, but the forest runs all the way down to the Warthe. They either follow the track through the forest and land on our doorstep, or they pass well to the north. I believe they'll come this way. It's the shortest distance to Küstrin and being able to get across the Oder."

"Lucky us." Krafft had grumbled.

"Come on, Stabsfeldwebel, do you want to live forever?"

With that Schultz had stomped off to position the machine guns at his disposal. He didn't hear Krafft when that man had murmured, "Not forever, but a few more years might be nice."

Night was falling, von Tetz had sent Krafft, Lang, and Müller back up to the ridge to watch the open ground stretching down to the forest. From there they'd be able to warn of any approach. To signal they had a flare gun.

"What color should they fire?" von Zitzewitz had asked.

"Any color, a flare goes up, it means Ivan is coming. No other reason to fire a flare, is there?" Leutnant Schultz didn't care for von Zitzewitz, he considered the young officer to be wet behind the ears and like many junior officers, not much use in a fight. At least the man had a good sergeant to watch over him in Krafft.

"All right, break a leg, Dieter." von Zitzewitz said as Krafft and his men moved off.

"Break a leg?" Müller asked.

"Something the Luftwaffe says, they say it's bad luck to wish someone luck." Lang explained.

"Besides which," Krafft chimed in, "we'll need more than luck to survive the next day or so."

"More men, more Panzers, and maybe Berlin coming to their senses and surrendering. Any of those would improve our luck" Lang added.

Krafft snorted, "Wenn Schweine Flügel hätten, wäre alles möglich.⁴"

Lang laughed, Müller looked confused. It was going to be a long night.

¹ Sturmgeschütz, assault gun.

² United States Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau Jr. had proposed a plan to break Germany into several smaller states and destroy all heavy industry. Needless to say, Hitler's Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels made much of this plan to encourage the Germans to keep fighting.

³ Tank Destruction Badge, awarded to men who destroyed an enemy tank by themselves using a hand held weapon, such as a Panzerfaust. It came in two grades, silver, as depicted, for destroying a single tank and gold, for destroying five enemy tanks. Yes, there were multiple awards of both in the German military.

⁴ If pigs had wings, everything would be possible. Equivalent to the English phrase, "when pigs fly."