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Alptraum (Nightmare)
An Alternative History Affair
By TekcoR


Vengeance be thy Name

After the death of my former commanding officer, I felt a sense….an emotion that was explainable at that time. I was a young. I thought of myself as a man, but I was seven months past 17 years of age. It was October 3rd, 1918. The trees around us had ceased their function, similar to how we had ceased to be victors. I was new to the place. I was new to the unit, only had been transferred to the front less than two weeks ago.

I first met Einswald after getting to the headquarters. Him and I were both young. At the age of 22, he found himself captain of company that had been decimated over previous weeks by the American offensive. I was the company’s third second lieutenant in as many weeks. Upon hearing that, my gut sank quite low. I had an eerie feeling that I would not survive my time in the forest. The veterans of the unit took to calling me the weekly special.

My time in the Argonne Forest forever changed my perception of war. I had thought of war as fun. My grandfather said I was naïve, war is nothing to desire. My father reinforced those thoughts, but he had never seen combat like grandpa at Sedan. My eldest brother Anton had nearly been killed multiple times in the same war I was fighting, though every time escaping with just an injury. He’s been hurt four times, one for every year I jokingly tease him in my letters. My other brother, Josef has also seen war but has escaped unscathed from serious harm. Their words of warning did not heed my ambition to willingly serve the Kaiser.

On my first day, I survived as an artillery shell landed right next to me; luckily it was a dud, though my trousers were a bit soaked. On the second day, I distinctly heard two bullets whiz past my boyish blonde covered head. The third morning consisted of our own artillery waking us up at three in the morning, a rather ungodly time. On the fourth day, nothing much happened except four of the veterans reminded me I still had three days to meet my expiration. On the fifth day, one of the patrols I led overnight brought back five American prisoners. I recollect firing my rifle, but I don’t remember hitting anything.

The sixth day was silent, and the majority of the day talking to Captain Einswald. I vividly remember those hours, but unbeknownst to us, they would be his last. We talked of home, of our plans within the army after the inevitable defeat. Einswald wanted to continue on his military career, while…I’m not sure what I wanted to do after that point. On the seventh day we awoke to another artillery bombardment. I was halfway between the front line and the headquarters at the time I was forced to the ground by the cry of artillery. I watched helplessly as three shells landed close to company headquarters.

I collected myself, unconcerned about my personal safety as I ran towards headquarters. I…I…could not enter when I arrived. There simply was no building, but rather a pile of rubble with corpses strewn around. Hustling through the debris and corpses, I found a ghostly Einswald. Deep down my brain told me he was dead, but my emotions screamed out hoping against all hope to bring him back to life. I kneeled over him for what felt like hours, crying loudly. It was the first time I had loss somebody that had I truly grown attached to in such a short time.

What really felt like hours was not more than five minutes before other soldiers from the rear gathered around company headquarters. As the crowd began to climb in numbers I was brought back to reality – the enemy had to be attacking the trenches. The bombardment today was larger than the previous one. I raced with my rifle towards the front, almost forgetting my helmet at the scene. I ran. I ran faster than I ever thought possible.

I arrived at the frontline trench, and noticed the Americans were already in retreat. There was no hesitation in me, I ran forward, leaping over the barricades and into no man’s land. I spotted a retreating soldier and slid feet first into a firing position. Within seconds the victim fell face first into the ground. While pulling the bolt I spotted my second target and felled another. Followed by another, then a fourth, and a fifth. I put in another clip and fired off another five shots, hitting three of my targets. I reached for another clip, my third. Then my fourth and while reaching for my fifth I felt a terrible force against my helmet.

I woke up the next morning at a newly established company headquarters, my head hurt like hell, though I could not feel any blood with my hands. I later learned that one of the veterans who had called me the weekly special raced out to my position, dancing and darting through incoming fire to drag me to safety. I ran into him after the war and he said that under normal circumstances he wouldn’t have saved an officer, but I had shown behavior worthy of being saved.

With Hausser’s death, I tried to repress my thoughts about vengeance. But over the past few days they have grown too much. I demand retribution, even if it is not against those who have directly caused the death. I will not be taking a rifle to the fight, for I doubt I could fell eleven men again. Aboard one of the trains that carried us to our stationing ground in southern France was a new design of panzer, a more standardized version compared to our long list of variants. This new tank design was a replacement for the magnificent Panther and Tiger that had been valiantly holding the line against the Soviets and Allies.

To avenge Hausser’s death, I planned to commandeer one of the thirteen E-50 Standardpanzer’s that were scheduled to spearhead our offensive.

 
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The E-50! Wow, that's a big cat!

Poor Allies, they're going to have a hard day.
 
ok! a new update!

Second new update, third one might be this week or sometime next week. I got a lot of training to do before Memorial Day!

Edit:

In your opinion, what available image (throughout the web) does Herr Tristan Schnack best resemble? Post your images or links to them as I'm intrigued in what the readers think. After a few days, I'll post the image(s) I've based him off.
 
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sorry about the wrong Luftwaffe uniform, but this will always be my favorite German tv-villain: major Brand from the '70s BBC series Secret Army: a man with a sense of duty, conscience and a thorough dislike of the Nazis.

majorbrandt.png
 
A great guess misterbean.

The next update is a little delayed. I am physically exhausted from two hard physical training sessions this weekend. I'll update when I can.
 
Welcome back Tekcor. Been a long time. Looking foward to reading more. You wanted us to guess at who we think our hero might look like? My vote goes to the two main characters in the great movie, "The Eagle has Landed", with either Michael Caine or Robert Duvall's character with the eyepatch.

KLorberauthumbnail.jpgthumbnailCAOWXLSW.jpg
 
I, for once, support KLorberau's proposal :p
 
Michael Caine for sure
 
Caine is Fallschirmager....but a great character....but ya gotta love that eye patch on Duvall!!

KLorberau
 
Still a tough choice.

I have made some choices on other characters within the Schnack family. I'm still up in the air on who I'm going to choose to best portray Tristan. I've been watching a lot of Inglorious Bastards and just might choose a character there, but none of them really fit the "mold" of Tristan.

Rhiley Schnack (nephew):


Philip Schnack (eldest son):


Sebastian Schnack (second son)
 
Depends what you're looking for. The first photo I've seen before, and is actually of a member of the POA. The second photo is a German Unteroffizer (Sergeant). The 3rd photo is an officer (can't tell rank, but probably a Leutnant or Oberleutnant since the shoulder boards don't look twisted).
 
:neutral: Those three look believeable
 
The photo of Sebastian looks like a fine young Wehrmacht officer...

KLorberau
 
Depends what you're looking for. The first photo I've seen before, and is actually of a member of the POA. The second photo is a German Unteroffizer (Sergeant). The 3rd photo is an officer (can't tell rank, but probably a Leutnant or Oberleutnant since the shoulder boards don't look twisted).

We do have to use some imagination here on some of the photos. I couldn't find a photo I liked of another German officer that best describes Philip Schnack the way he is described in my character word document. P. Schnack is actually based on his father's previous writings an Oberleutnant in Copenhagen. Sebastian Schnack is stationed within the capital of Berlin.

The photograph that falls for Rhiley is kind of what I imagine for a teenager who is thrown into the war, he's obviously young, excited, nervous and well...just a teenager.

I am open to more suggestions about photographs for any of the characters but please remember we do have to use our imagination -- mostly because I don't have the time (or the money) to afford an artist to draw descriptions.
 
I think that we do't need to have their faces fixed and written in stone, so to speak, to enjoy the narration. After all, all we have our own images in our minds.
 
I think that we do't need to have their faces fixed and written in stone, so to speak, to enjoy the narration. After all, all we have our own images in our minds.

That we do, we all have our own interpretations and thanks for reminding me of that.

I also forgot another thing... (waking up at 0500 and getting a lot physically accomplished before 0700)....

In my mind Christoph Waltz is Tristian Schnack.
 
Alptraum (Nightmare)
An Alternative History Affair
By TekcoR


Prototype Destruction

I had been in a tank before. I wasn’t as experienced as a lot of the panzer soldiers that I was accompanying. Realistically, I’m not qualified enough to be in command of a obsolete tank, but using privileges bestowed upon me by rank, I find myself in command of one of our latest prototypes, the E-50 Standardpanzer. I am ready along with this crew I’m accompanying to avenge the death of Hausser. The men with me have their own reason. I have my own reason. But both of our reasons are intertwined – as the enemy as killed a man we both desperately respected and needed.

This beast is magnificent. She is currently armed with 75mm Kwk 45 L/100, a powerful weapon capable of destroying of any Allied tank from hundreds if not a thousand meters away. The estimated top speed approaches 60 kilometers an hour, faster than the Panther and Tiger it looks to replace. The hull’s protection included 120mm frontal armor, with 80mm on the sides and rear, with the turret having 120 frontal and 60mm respectively. Beautiful. A prototype made for destruction and revenge.

Heinz had invited me to several discussions about the E-Series of panzers as they became known. It was no surprise that our production of fighting vehicles was tedious. A Panther cost close to 113,000 Reichsmarks to make, and thousands of hours of man hours to produce because of its complicated design. Both of our heavier panzers, the Tiger and King Tiger were much not better in the terms of ease of production. We had estimated that for every one tank we built, the Allies had easily produced twenty. We were clearly outnumbered and the reports we received from frontline soldiers always confirmed this.

Thus, we went around with leading manufactures and sought to design a tank that would meet the needs of both the frontline soldiers and manufacturing ease. The design we had concluded was relatively simple. The complexities of Panther would be eliminated or reduced. A prime example of the design simplicity was eliminating the 32 wheels of the Panther. The E-50 would have 12 wheels, that were steel rimmed that saved rubber which was in short supply. Captured Sherman tanks also helped influence the design of the insides of the tank, making it more maneuverable and greatly easing the production and replacement of parts. Initial reports of construction indicated several key highlights: 39% less material was needed, and 32% less man hours were needed to construct an E-50 compared to a Panther.


Panzerkampfwagen E-50 "Wildkatze"​

I had known this information before departing on the train with the later Hausser. However it was now just all crossing my mind as I readied myself for revenge. In my days of learning to know Papa, he praised the beasts we had manufactured but was always saddened that he never had enough to carry the field. Our beasts were in such lack of numbers that for the most part, that most of the divisions were under their authorized panzer strength. This offensive to reclaim southern France from the Allied forces literally is a great example of the nightmare our tanks face. We have twenty five Panzer divisions. Twenty of the divisions have been assigned to the Western Front; leaving only a precarious five divisions to attempt to stall a Soviet thrust.

All of us can only hope that these new improvements in design can help ease the trouble we face. Hitler has been a delaying factor in their production, but his orders have largely been ignored. He sits within his bunker below the Reichstag all day. Stauffenberg writes frequently of his meetings and says the day approaches that he will carry out the plan. I’m careful with my correspondence back. I urge caution, for we have not planned a proper downfall of Hitler, but perhaps his untimely death could help our cause.

Enough. I cannot continue thinking, I crave vengeance. I crave destruction. I must satisfy the urge. I reach for the hatch, pulling it down snuggly and securing it. “Let’s go boys!”


 
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Nice hangar :D
 
A great shot from inside the World of Tanks garage....The E50 (and E75 and E100's) are real beasts....One shot wonders (if you know what I mean). I am ready to read about "Payback Time"

KLorberau