The following events took place June 12th, 1942, Berdychiv, Ukraine (Occupied by Pact Forces)
The plains stretching from berdychiv to Kiev had become fields of slaughter: Filled with the burned out wrecks of tanks and abandoned trenches, it had been the site of two weeks of bitter fighting between the Russian defenders and the Wehrmacht. The entire offensive was led out of the small town of Berdychiv, where Field Marshall van Geyte himself had his headquarters, in an abandoned warehouse.
The Field Marshall was restless. Only six hours left until the final offensive was launched and he hadn’t heard anything of the much-needed reserves that had been promised to him. He took a field phone and called Berlin, observed by his second-in-command Artur. Too much coffee and many a restless night had not done well for the man’s famous short temper and hotheadedness.
“I don’t give shit about Adolf his bloody ‘doctrine’! We’re out here having our heads shelled off by the Soviet while he’s sitting in a warm office in the Reichstag, how’s that for environmental doctrine?”
The phone mumbled and a scary looking vein on the man’s forehead grew ever thicker
“Let me make this real- real simple for you: If I don’t have those men within three hours a lot of people are going to be dead before nightfall. A lot of people.”
More mumbling
“What the hell are you talking about? How should I kno…”
Artur sighed as he walked out the warehouse now branded as Armeegruppe Mittel ObernHQ. His friend, Arndt was sitting outside drinking coffee, on his usual guard duty. Within six hours he would be detached and sent into Kiev with the rest of the men. That fact made him rather moody.
“Cheers from a dead man. Here, have a drink”
Artur sat down on the rugged bench as a squadron of British Lancasters flew over Berdychiv headed for Kiev. Not marked with the usual British colours, the British Expeditionary forces fighting in Russia beared the mark of the Channel Pact. Artur pondered as they flew over
“I still think it’s odd though”
“What?”
“The British. Fighting with us”
“Doesn’t surprise me one bit if you ask me” Arndt took a sip off his coffee
“Why?”
“It all started with the Great War you see. England and France don’t have a history of being best friends, years of wars do that to you, so England refused to support the French in their war with Germany. No, in fact they did things a bit different than the French suspected”
“What do you mean?”
Arndt laughed and tapped his friend on the back
“Haha, old fool. Panzer I’s? We didn’t invent that stuff. Prime british imports. Half our weapons actually. Of course, the French found out later on, making them very very pissed off. Unfortunately, the Tsars of Russia their last act was also the act of taking them down with us. Steamrolled us good, we lost the war and then sunk into revolution. Those were the years of Deutschkrieg, and how our good friend Van geyte over there got his power”
“Explain”
“They called it the Weimar Republic, supposedly installed with French blessing. Wasn’t much of a Republic. Hell, it wasn’t even much of a country back then. French forces quickly retreated from peacekeeping duties and sent to the Nile where the British and the French fought war after war over useless pieces of desert. The Colonial Wars. In the end, T’was an unseasy peace, but peace anyhow.
In the meanwhile a lot of parties were attempting to seize power in Germany. The Weimar Democrats, who were quickly rooted and forced to flee to Poland. The old Kaiser supporters were there aswell, but driven out by the Communists. Only one of them remained in germany”
“Van Geyte?”
“Vice President of the Kaiser Party Van Geyte, yes. But he sortof disappeared after his party crumbled, just, gone for about six months. Nobody knows where he was in that period.
Anyhow, in our beloved “Republic” the Communists were fighting a civil war with the new rising star, Hitler’s NSDAP. Hell, Berlin was a battleground back then. Things sortof stalemated, there were talks of splitting up the nation into a Communist and a National-Socialist part, but that’s when Van Geyte returned. Leading a new party, the Reichsfront”
“Reichsfront? You’re kidding me?”
“No, it was quite ironic actually. But, he was the Field Marshall, who fought in Verdun and the battlefields at Calais, famous for his cunning. The people ate him up. Gained allies fast. Enemies too. Before you knew it he was marching his reinstated Reichswehr into the other Parties’ territory.
The Communists fell quickly. The NSDAP resisted longer, but after storming Berlin Hitler was captured and Van Geyte assumed command. Nobody really knows what really happened after that. The people loved Hitler, and started revolting against Van Geyte. Next thing you know, Hitler was back in office and Van Geyte had assumed his old Field marshall position. You know how the story continues”
“Amazing”
Arndt lit up a smoke
“And now I’m here stuck in some damn Russian hellhole marching off to Kiev in four hours. Life couldn’t be better” He coughed
“You shouldn’t smoke, it’ll kill you”
Arndt grinned
“Gotta die of something”
Four hours later
Van Geyte stared upon his Wehrmacht as they drove over what was left of the main roads towards Kiev. His reserves had arrived and everything was ready for the assault. After two weeks of stalemate he would drive the blasted soviets back over the river and claim victory. After Kiev had fallen, he would head North. To Moscow. He mumbled an old veteran’s song as the 12th Panzerdivision rolled past.
“Und ist dann die große Schlacht zuende
ist vorüber erst das Ringen
reichen wir zum Abschied uns die Hände
wollen wir nocheinmal singen"