Verse Zero
Senior Member
August 21st, 1941
Heeresgruppe Süd (Army Group South)
Unternehmen Barbarossa
Outskirts of Kiev
The dusty, brown dirt, poorly kept road bucked and jerked the occupants of the Opel Blitz transport truck as it throttled down the road. It's canvas covered back was down and open to the elements. The blazing August sun of the Ukrainian steppes a golden disc high in the sky. The occupants where a motley sort, and all had patches on their upper biceps in the form of a black wolf. A specialty badge of the Brandenburger Regiment. Indicating them as a specialist formation and differentiating them from regular troops.
The group sitting on the truck benches, facing each other in two rows of one on each side, where of different ages and dress. Symbolizing that they had been originated from different units and backgrounds. One, nestled up against the cab on the passenger side, had his helmet unbuckled and resting over his eyes like a visor. His collar lapels where folded up and his weapon resting vertical beside him. The truck bounced as it hit a pot hole, the driver cursed, the roads where so poor out here even near a city. A city which on the horizon was burning. Not literally burning, no, but dozens of smoke trails from aerial attacks formed black pillars in the distance. Across the wide sweeping plains and woodlands of Ukraine.
To left and right smoke could still be seen from burning vehicles, artillery strikes, and the occasional support attack from a Luftwaffe Stuka. The Wehrmacht had advanced through this country only days prior against increasingly solid Soviet resistance.
When Barbarossa began on June 22nd the German Armies obliterated all before them, throwing Soviet cohesion into the dirt, and fragmenting their leadership as the Reich progressed faster than the Soviets could organize and defend. But now, after hundreds of miles and increasingly far from home the Germans were beginning to discover more and more resistance to their advances.
Kiev was the main obstacle to be taken if Western Ukraine was to held in the Reich's grasp, and to allow a main supply route for actions East of the Dnieper River. Soviet armies under the command of Semyon Budyonny had dug in and so far been forced closer to the Western districts of Kiev only by overwhelming force. Delaying the Wehrmacht whom expected to be already well East of this very city by June timetables.
This called for increased measures. The 2nd Army and the armored forces of Army Group Center was pulled from the advance on Moscow to strike in a pincer from the North. While the armored forces of Army Group South would bypass Kiev and pincer from the South to for ma pocket. But this would still mean weeks of brutal fighting to collapse the pocket and possibly halt the entire offensive into Russia itself. Something the Germans could not afford to occur.
Another pot hole, followed by a string of more colorful curses, and the sounds of men, vehicles, and horses struck the ears of all the occupants of the truck. The Blitz wound through columns of traffic, marching infantry, mounted soldiers on horses, horse drawn buggies carrying supplies, motorized and regular cyclist troops, other trucks, and various other vehicles necessary for a modern military to possess. The boom of artillery sounded as German Artillery dueled their Soviet counterparts a couple miles East.
The truck pulled off the main road and onto a dirt patch which ironically was smoother than the main transit route. The wheels stopped turning and the engine was killed with the turn of a key. The sleeping soldier blinked the sleep from his eyes and pulled his shoulders back. Cracking his back and stretching. Standing up, fixing his helmet along with buckling it, and checking his weapon on acquired instinct. A knock on the cab back window signaled what was to happen next, "Off the truck, stretch, check gear and weapons. We have reached our operational area." Leopold von Hohengrinn had been stuck on that truck for 160 kilometers. No transport planes could have been requisitioned by the Regiment to bring them closer to the front, and so it was by truck they had to go. One hundred and sixty kilometers of pot holed roads not to mention the dust that kicked up. The equivalent of 100 miles had been crossed.
Jumping down from the bed of the truck Von Hohengrinn felt the blood surging through his sleeping legs. His first few steps where noticeably slow and stunted until the ache receded. Out from the truck cab was a pair of logistics drivers. They saluted before going off to get fuel to refuel their vehicle for the first leg on the return trip back. Leopold did not know how they could do it, driving supplies back and forth day in and day out, sitting for hours on end. The smell of petrol and diesel was nauseating.
Von Hohengrinn looked up at the sky as a pair of Messerchmidt Bf-109D's passed overhead. A familiar figure approached, it was the black haired, blue eyed, thirty year old Otto Kertz. Otto was from East Prussia, from Allenstein, and had been a part of the original Ebbinghaus Battailon before his transfer to V. Kompanie ZbV. Kertz was the second-in-command of the Kompanie behind Hauptmann Ludwig Schwartz. However, Ludwig was in a staff meeting with officers of the Heeresgruppe Süd and so would not be present.
Kertz was well, curt, and after a couple nods he pulled up his clipboard detailing the new orders for the group. "Elements of Regiment Brandenburger, that would be all of you here, is to perform long range reconnaissance behind Soviet lines in preparation of a general attack on Kiev slated to begin on August 23rd. Your objective is to report troop movements, and to destroy or capture a strategic radio tower in Kiev's Western districts being utilized by the Red Army as a communications link to their other forces in the area and beyond. Cutting that will severe communications in the expected pocket to be formed by our Panzer brethren."
Kertz moved the clipboard down to be tucked between his right arm and his side, "Gents, and lady (indicating Amelia), this mission will be very dangerous; but if successful may shorten the battle to come and save the lives of many comrades. You will be given a portable radio which one unfortunate soul here will be forced to lug around on their back. That radio will also need to be destroyed if capture or failure is imminent. Use it to report Soviet positions and to signal the destruction or capture of the Radio tower. You will also be given demolitions if you need to destroy the tower." As if on cue Leopold reached into the bed of the truck and pulled out a case that was slid under one of the benches. Opening the green case painted with Wehrmacht emblems it revealed neatly layered sticks of dynamite high explosive charges.
"Good luck, any questions please direct them to Feldwebel Von Hohengrinn, you move out when you're ready." At that Kertz saluted everyone present and walked off. Leopold lowered his hand in return salute and took out his notepad to jot down some information from Kertz little briefing.
V. Kompanie was rather small for a Company formation. A regular Company number 120 to 340 members. But V. Kompanie like the rest of the Regiment was an ad-hoc formation and operated rather irregularly. It very rarely worked together as a Regiment let alone deploying multiple companies to the same area. That and the availability of recruits was always rather small to begin with.
Von Hohengrinn spoke not waiting for a question, if someone had one they'd speak after he was finished, "Alright, we will cross our lines directly East of here in dense Woodlands to the North-West of Kiev proper. Using the cover of the trees to mask our movements and hopefully slip through Soviet defensive rings around the city. From there we will insert ourselves into the North-West of Kiev on the Western side of the Dnieper River. Make our way to the Radio tower and complete the mission. By then we will be either heading out of the city or holding tight as the main offensive is launched to capture Kiev."
Leopold put his small pad of notes away in a side pouch and adjusted his weapon straps as his MP40 hung around his neck. Waiting any inquiries on the mission ahead. Capture would probably end in death, or they get killed fighting, but if they succeed it's either be stuck in a city crawling with angry Russians or manage to escape without detection.
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