Chillin' and ... What's Ahead?

OAFS Photo

Those who've been around a while know that I spend a lot of time in Maryland. Kids and grandkids, dontcha know?

I'm there right now, the photo shows what a lovely day Wednesday was, a nice way to start October.

The story of the Fall of Berlin and the events preceding that are on hold for a bit. For there is a problem ...

Source

If I want my characters to survive, and trust me I do, I need to figure out how to get them roughly some 60 air miles from the vicinity of Seelow to the west of Berlin. There are a number of problems with getting that to happen in a realistic fashion.

The most direct path goes straight through the city, a city jam-packed with fanatics ready to die for Hitler, folks who won't look kindly upon a group heading west to avoid the Soviets. Hell, Hitler had his wife's brother-in-law executed for trying to flee Berlin.¹

So why not have them go around the city, some of you might be asking. Well, have a gander at this map ...

Source

As you can see above, what's north of them - Russians and Poles - what's south of them - more Russians. There aren't a whole lot of places for our characters to go, except perhaps due west and take their chances in the city.

So I need to come up with something that's realistic and possible. And in late April, early May 1945, there isn't a lot of wiggle room to get our folks to the west.

But I'm going to try. Heck, the story might just end in the ruins of Berlin. In real life a lot of stories did just that, but they weren't stories, they were real flesh and blood people.

While not all stories have happy endings, I like mine to.

We shall see, so bear with me.

¹ See the story of Hermann Fegelein here.

Research? Whazzat?

Source

So as I continue to dig into my Great-Grandfather's old outfit, I discover that government record keeping can be spotty at times.

I have the muster roll for the 22nd New York Infantry Regiment, a portion of this is shown below -

Source

My intent in this tale is to stay as close to the historical record as possible, without adhering in such detail as to render the research onerous and the story perhaps boring. In other words, I want to be accurate but not necessarily OCD about it.

I also ran across the 22nd's roster online, which is a bit different than the muster roll. This lists the men alphabetically and (drum roll please) doesn't necessarily match the muster roll.

My Great-Grandfather is on both lists, and the data matches, but there are guys on the muster roll who aren't on the roster. I have yet to determine when the roster was put together, the muster roll was compiled on the 6th of June, 1861. The roster was later. So men were added, removed, etc., no doubt.

Another interesting thing I noticed on the roster is that when a fellow transferred to the regimental band, he was listed as "transferred to band, and appointed musician; discharged, August 15, 1862, by act of Congress." I need to dig deeper there, were musicians not considered members of the armed forces of the United States? Odd that. Saw it more than a few times.

So that's where we're at at the moment, Your Humble Scribe busy digging through the historical record and trying to fill in the basic framework for the story. I did note that my Great-Grandfather's Company K mustered in with three officers, four sergeants, four corporals, two musicians (drummers no doubt), and 64 privates.

The roster lists 38 of those men mustering out with the regiment at the end of their service in 1862. That implies a loss of 39 men over the course of their two years with the Army of the Potomac.

The roster lists deserters, men discharged for disability (sickness perhaps), wounded, captured, and killed. But the record seems to be missing a lot of detail.

Now about those lists, they appear to be typewritten and typewriters weren't invented until after the Civil War. Of course, they probably sent these documents to be printed out much like a newspaper, but they must have started off as handwritten documents. So transcription errors are highly likely.

Still and all, a fascinating thing to dig into.

We'll get back to our story soon. I just finished sending in my taxes and it seems Uncle Sam is getting a big payday this year. I suppose when you're still working and start drawing Social Security, you make quite a bit. And I discovered, like in January, that they do not take taxes out of your Social Security payments. There's reasons for that, but surprise surprise, the government won't tell you squat, you have to ask.

And of course, I didn't know to ask.

Live and learn I suppose.

Jumping the Gun?

Source

Many of you might be saying, "Ah ha, the Muse is back, the story continues." And you wouldn't be wrong.

But it's going to be by fits and starts for a bit, it won't be twenty, or more, posts in a row developing and continuing the story I began way back in June of 2020 (wow, that was a while ago). I want to take this slowly and deliberately.

I was rereading some of the old book and realized that I really missed those characters I created in Almost a Lifetime and the new characters in the prequel, part one (yes, I really need a better title).

I will say this, reading Almost a Lifetime should be first, but it doesn't have to be.

I wanted to know more about those men (and the very few women in that book) so I started writing the prequel. Which introduced a number of new characters (even a couple of women central to the story). I like these new folks and want to do them justice.

That won't happen by rushing things. Slow and steady wins the race.

In other news ...

Yup, still retired, still enjoying life.

Celebrating 47 years of wedded bliss with The Missus Herself today. Didn't have a big ceremony on that day, in fact, there was no ceremony at all.

We went to Seoul, did a bunch of paperwork in a number of offices (American and Korean) and at one point our guide through the process turned to me and said, "Oh yeah, congratulations, you're married."

"Well shoot, did I miss something?"

"No, that last paper you both signed, that was it."

I rather wish we'd had some sort of ceremony, but after 47 years, still being married to the love of my life is enough for me. (Finding someone to tolerate me that long is probably a miracle of some sort.)

We went to dinner at Longhorn Saturday night (she has a baby shower to go to today), had a nice soup, excellent steak, and of course the company was incomparable.

That and the NFL playoffs beginning ...

Sorry, it's family tradition to go into the "Playoffs? Don't be talking about ... playoffs?" shtick everytime the playoffs are mentioned.

But yeah, the playoffs are on, so I'm watching. I do loves me some football.

The Sack of Rome in 1527

Sack of Rome of 1527
Johannes Lingelbach (PD)

The Reformation, Henry VIII of England, the Pope, the Medicis - I am learning that the early to mid-16th Century in Europe was busy indeed.

Italy was fragmented, the Pope and the Church controlling much of central Italy in the form of the Papal States. There was the Holy Roman Empire led by the Emperor, who was also the King of Spain. (Whose aunt was none other than Katherine of Aragon, the wife Henry VIII wished to be shed of.)

The French made an alliance with the Ottoman Empire, which led to the Sultan invading Europe and besieging Vienna in 1529 - which would happen again in 1683!

The Pope (it's worth noting that he was a Medici) made an alliance with the French, English, and some of the Italian states to fight against the Imperial Army (which was composed of  Spanish troops and many Germans, after all the Holy Roman Empire held most of the minor German States within its "borders"). So on one side mostly Catholics (which England was at the time) and the Empire on the other having a lot of Catholics and a lot of Protestants as well!

All this research keeps leading me down new paths and seeing things which left me saying, "I had no idea!" Fascinating times, but I'm really glad I didn't live back then.

The story is developing in my head for this new vignette, which will have characters on both sides, but there is so much to this period that it's going to take a while longer. The History Guy has a nice summary of the event which will be central to the new story, the Sack of Rome -

I highly recommend his channel, he has a lot of good stuff there.

Now, I'm back to the Interwebs, working hard to bring you all a new story for your education, enlightenment, and entertainment!

Ciao!

Oh yeah, Sabaton made a song about it ...

Backstage Pass

(Source)

So the past cuppla posts (of mine) have been spent reintroducing the characters from the first volume of the prequel. The prequel to Almost a Lifetime, of course, (newcomers can look here for what I'm talking about).

I'm not done yet, I still have the Brits and the Soviets (I say that rather than Russians as some of the characters are actually not Russian) to cover. Not to mention there are a couple of tank crews in North Africa waiting patiently to return to the story (one British, one German).

Some of these characters are in Almost a Lifetime, some are not. Let me explain ...

In war, as we've seen, people die. Characters in the two (?) prequels aren't going to make it to Almost a Lifetime, because they died. But their existence helped formed the storyline of the characters who do make it to Almost a Lifetime. At least that's the plan.

I can't guarantee a new episode everyday, excepting Monday of course, which belongs to Juvat. But I'm going to try and get this thing up and running, quick as I can, and as quick as the Muse allows.

 In other news ...

Air conditioning has decided to go south in my computer lab at work. Temperatures in the low 80s, surrounded by equipment which may or may not decide to fail depending on internal temperature.

They say they're working on it, why today they managed to actually choose a vendor. Well, sakes alive that sort of progress is just dizzying. Why, next thing you know they might actually sign a contract, then haggle over terms and conditions.

Hell, we might actually have a cool lab by the time Halloween rolls around. Wee doggies, as Jed Clampett was wont to say.

Grannie and Uncle Jed
(Source)

Apropos of nothing (but I do love the tune) ...

Well, that's all I got for today, y'all come back now, ya hear?

I Often Wonder ...

Bundesarchiv

... who were those guys?

I've been doing this historical fiction thing for well over a year now, I've used a lot of pictures to help not only tell the story, but to set the mood for the story. That mood-setting thing is kind of for me, the writer, not necessarily for you, the reader. It helps me visualize the story (time, place, and weather - sometimes) and often sets the direction for a particular story thread.

Every now and then something in a photo will hit me, usually it's a person in that photo. I wonder, "Who was this person, what was he¹ like

I used that opening photo above just the other day for The Eve of Barbarossa, the photo is early in that conflict (you can tell by the uniforms and the equipment), so it helped set the scene for me. It was only later that the photo really hit me.

There are 29 men visible in that photo, one (partially obscured see next photo) is the commander of the tank, the other 28 men are on foot. Add in the other four crewmembers of that tank and there are 33 men within 100 feet of the camera. Five in the tank, 28 on foot. Not long after posting that, I began wondering about the men in that photo, especially in light of Rob's observation on the post "I wonder how many who started there came back?"

I zoomed in on the tank commander, chilling in his hatch. Guy looks pretty relaxed!
Ibid

I wondered that as well.

But first off, what are we seeing in that photo?

The first thing that struck my eye were the men in the foreground carrying the long tubes. At first I thought "spare machine gun barrel container," then I realized that it was too big. Second thought was "mortar tube." Bingo!

Ibid

The yellow arrows point to the mortar tubes, the orange arrows are the tripods for the mortars, and finally the green arrows point to the mortar baseplates.

So Sarge, what kind of mortar is that?

Glad you asked, it's the 8cm Granatwerfer 34, or GrW 34 for short. And of course, it's an 81 mm mortar, not 80. For whatever reason the Germans called it an 8cm mortar. (Probably the same reason we refer to their rifle ammunition as 8mm, when it's actually 7.92mm. Technically speaking it's 7.92x57mm, often referred to as 7.92x57mm Mauser.)

Where did these mortars fall in the Table of Organization & Equipment of the German infantry battalion?

Glad you asked ...

German infantry battalions in the early part of the war came in two types. Both types consisted of a Battalion Headquarters, three Rifle Companies, and a Machine Gun Company. The difference between the two battalion types was the composition of their Machine Gun Companies.

For both battalions the Machine Gun Company had three Platoons, each of four weapons (the ubiquitous MG 34, later the MG 42). In the type "a" battalion, the Platoons all fielded machine guns, in the type "b" battalion, one of the Platoons had six mortars rather than four machine guns. (Source, Page 7). That mortar being the GrW 34 which those guys in the photo are carrying.

According to the Kriegsstärkenachweisung² (KStN) the crew of a GrW 34 consists of six men. Three of the men are equipped with pistols as their personal weapon, they get to schlepp the mortar tube, the tripod, and the baseplate. The others schlepped ammunition for the tube. No doubt the guy in charge of the mortar team didn't "have to" schlepp ammo, but probably did if he was smart.

The ready ammunition for the tubes were stored in metal boxes like these -

Ammunition box for the GrW 34
(Source)

In the photo below you can see two of these cases (orange arrows), no doubt there are more that you can't see. More ammunition would be carried in the munitions wagons, see the image below the next one for the complete TO&E for the 3rd Platoon of the type "b" Machine Gun Company.

Ibid

Click to embiggen, but you get the idea, the German Army of WWII had a lot of horses.
(Source)

Now the three guys who had to haul around the heavy pieces of gear also got to load and fire that bad boy.

For lots of good info on this weapon and its use, chase the link.
(Source)

The guys schlepping the ammunition also carried rifles, once the mortar was set up and firing, they would provide security for their comrades firing the mortar. The guy in charge would do guy in charge type things: observe fall of shot, adjust fire, etc.

Back to the photo. It looks to me that there are two mortar teams in the picture, which makes sense, often the mortar platoon would be broken into three sections, one being assigned to each of the three Rifle Companies in the battalion. So here we have one section from the mortar platoon along with some other chaps that I'm betting are infantry. Might even be part of the company headquarters behind the tank.

Ibid

Those guys inside the yellow box in the photo, gotta be an infantry squad. There is an MG 34 in the bunch, not on a tripod so it's a squad-level asset. Also there's nine of them (the tenth guy is no doubt outside the camera's field of vision - or he could be a casualty). Inside the green box is what could be a command element, I say that because one of the men has something on his back which looks a lot like a German backpack radio . (See below.)

(Source)

Okay, that covers the men on foot, now the tank.

My guess is that's a Panzerkampfwagen III, I can't tell which Ausführung³ but fit has to be a III as they were much more common than the Panzerkampfwagen IV which looked very similar from astern.

Why just the one tank?

Glad you asked. German tank platoons typically had five tanks at this stage of the war, normally all of the same type for logistical reasons. Unlike Hollywood, these vehicles tended to keep a lot of space between each other, 50 yards or more when deployed. Of course in restricted terrain they'd be closer together for mutual support. As you can see in the photo, the terrain is pretty open.

So the other tanks, like the rest of the infantry company, are not within the camera's field of vision. Or it could indeed be a Panzerkampfwagen IV assigned to support the infantry surrounding it. The early versions of that vehicle carried a short-barreled 7.5cm gun meant for infantry support.

Panzerkampfwagen IV, Ausf. C
Bundesarchiv

Now that I've bored you with all the minutiae in the photo ...

The area looks like the steppes of southern Russia, you can see other vehicles in the distance climbing a slight rise in the open terrain. Is that smoke or a low-hanging rain cloud above that rise? I'm thinking it's a combination of both, to the left of the photo I can see what appears to be a smoke plume, from something burning in the far distance.

But imagine this (I did) those men are about to advance, across open fields. Sure they have tank support, but when the bullets start flying, unless you're directly behind the tank, there's really nowhere to hide in that terrain.

You can only see two men's faces in that group in the foreground.

The guy in the yellow circle looks like a sergeant, he has that sergeant look about him. He's got his eyes on his men, the look says "do your jobs, don't think of anything else."

The guy in the blue circle, carrying the mortar tube, looks rather apprehensive. The look of a man about to go into combat. He either knows what to expect, and it terrifies him, or he's not quite sure what to expect, and that terrifies him as well.

An interesting photo, it has set the stage for the chapters in the parts of our story set on the Eastern Front. It inspired me in many ways.

One thing I can't stop thinking about - How many of the men in that photo survived the war? Of those men, for how many of them was the last photo ever taken of them? Knowing the Hell that was the war in Russia, my bet is that not many of those men survived to old age. 

War sucks.

¹ Invariably it's a "he," in the days of which I write, very few women served in combat. Russia was definitely an exception so perhaps the ladies will be better represented in the days to come.

² The Kriegsstärkenachweisung (KstN) is a chart which shows the theoretical organization and composition of a certain unit in the German Army.

³ Make of model. For instance, Willi Hoffmeister commands a PzKw II Ausf H, the H model of that tank.

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!)