March 11, 1938
13th Military District, Nuremberg Sector, Southern Germany, Regensburg (near the German-Austrian border)
I'd barely slept, forcing my eyes shut on a train that felt like it would burst with people. I dragged my exhausted body to Regensburg, only to find even greater Chaos waiting for me.
“30th Infantry Regiment! Where is the 30th Infantry Regiment!?”
“Out of the way! We need to unload the tanks!”
“Hey, how are we supposed to move in this mess!”
What is this… It's worse than a fish market.
The Urban Area of Regensburg, a small, beautiful, old, and quiet city in southern Germany, was overrun with swarming German Military and all sorts of Equipment being hastily unloaded.
“By order of Lieutenant General Heinz Guderian, this car is being requisitioned for the 1st Panzer Division!”
“Hey, you rascals! I just bought that car!”
“Sorry, gramps, but we're just following orders! We're not stealing it! You'll get it back later, so take any complaints to the high-ranking people!”
Meanwhile, every single Vehicle in the Urban Area was being requisitioned. Hey, seriously.
…A Motorized Unit requisitioning Civilian Vehicles? Is this for real?…
I let out a hollow laugh, then grabbed one of the soldiers shouting in the Outcry next to me.
“What's your unit?”
“Hey, who do you think you… Gasp.
My apologies, Captain! 46th Division, sir!”
The 46th Division, where did that belong… Was it part of the 4th Army Corps?
“Do you happen to know where the 11th Army Corps is?”
“S-Sorry, sir! This is the 14th Army Corps! I don't know about the 11th Army Corps! …B-By any chance, do you know where the 4th Army Corps is?”
“Hmm… Sorry, I just got here myself, so I don't know. My apologies, carry on.
Private First Class.”
Seriously, the Operation Start Date is tomorrow… Is this really okay?
This Great Chaos is already exhausting, and I can't help but sigh.
“You there, Captain! Do you know where the 11th Army Corps is?”
Just then, a Lieutenant Colonel grabbed me and asked.
Hey, I don't know either.
Is that a General Staff shoulder insignia? I'm jealous. Ah, wait.
11th Army Corps?
I immediately snapped to Salute and answered him.
“My apologies, Lieutenant Colonel! I'm also with the 11th Army Corps but haven't located it yet! Captain Dietrich Schacht, sir!”
The lieutenant colonel gave a hollow laugh at my words and returned my salute.
“Well, what Pandemonium. Lieutenant Colonel Henning von Tresckow.”
Henning von Tresckow. A name I knew.
No, a name I couldn't possibly not know.
Before Colonel Stauffenberg, he was a Core Member of the Anti-Hitler Faction who attempted to assassinate Hitler several times!
“It's an honor to meet you, Lieutenant Colonel.
I'm assigned to the 18th Division, but…”
“Oh, excellent. I'm also with the 18th Division.
It's been a while since I've had a Field Position after being at the General Staff Headquarters. I'll be in your care, Captain Schacht.”
Ah, so he was part of Beck's Faction and got demoted… I didn't know that.
Then again, he was part of the Operation Valkyrie Conspiracy with Beck and Stauffenberg, so it's not surprising.
“The pleasure is all mine, Lieutenant Colonel! …First, we need to find our unit.”
“That we do.”
Lieutenant Colonel Tresckow and I wandered through the Urban Area of Regensburg for a long time before finally managing to find the 11th Army Corps.
Along the way, we also picked up Second Lieutenant Winrich Behr, assigned to the same division.
My god, what a mess.
“Reporting for Transfer to the unit, Division Commander! Lieutenant Colonel Henning von Tresckow!”
“Captain Dietrich Schacht!”
“Second Lieutenant Winrich Behr!”
The Major General receiving our salutes returned them with a half-bitter laugh.
“Welcome, all of you. Now… hmm.
13 more to go. I am Major General Friedrich Karl Cranz.
In my entire Military Life, I've never seen such a chaotic Operation.”
At the major general's words, we couldn't help but let out a bitter laugh ourselves.
Yes, honestly, it would be hard to be this much of a Chaos.
“Tresckow, you're the Regiment Commander of the 30th Infantry Regiment, right? Head over immediately.
Schacht, you'll be in charge of the 3rd Company of the 30th Infantry Regiment. Behr, you're the 3rd Company's Adjutant.”
Huh? The 3rd Company? That's not what my Written orders said.
“With all due respect, Division Commander, the Written orders I received stated…”
The Major General scoffed and cut me off.
“Ha! The Superiors are screaming at us to move according to the Offensive plan, but who knows when the other officers will arrive? We have to get the units running, one by one.”
“…Yes, sir!”
…So, deploying units for the offensive according to plan is already a lost cause, meaning they're just using the Haphazard Method to assign us as we gather and ordering us to Advance forward.
It's a good thing the German Military has a Tradition of Mission-type tactics; otherwise, with this kind of Haphazard Method and Improvisation, starting the offensive within three days would have been impossible…
“Then get going, Gentlemen. Well… you probably got to know each other on the way here, so it'll work out somehow, won't it? Dismissed.”
“Yes, sir!”
Leaving the Tent set up as a Temporary Division Headquarters, we moved immediately to the Regiment, and before I could even properly introduce myself to the Company members I was seeing for the first time, I was bombarded with all sorts of Grievances.
“Company Commander! Our Platoon's rifles aren't even standardized!”
“The Gewehr 98 and Karabiner 98 are similar enough and use the same Ammunition, so just hand out what we have!”
“Company Commander! We don't have enough tents for shelter!”
“Second Lieutenant Behr, send a Messenger to Headquarters with a request.
No, go yourself! All the other units are bound to be in Chaos too, so go in person and get whatever you can!”
“Y-Yes, sir!”
“Company Commander…!”
Ah, damn it! I don't know either! I just got here myself!
If I were in a position to magically whip up Supplies, do you think I'd be here?
I wanted to cry.
-
March 12, 1938
13th Military District, Nuremberg Sector, Southern Germany, Regensburg (near the German-Austrian border)
Unable to tolerate the Riots by the Austrian Nazi Party, the Austrian Chancellor Schuschnigg had announced that a Referendum on Unification with Germany would be held on March 13th.
Moreover, he tried to use a Loophole by granting Voting Rights only to older people, excluding the youth in their teens and early twenties who had high support for the Nazi Party. Enraged, Hitler ordered the Invasion of Austria by the 12th as soon as he heard the news.
A panicked Austria tried to appease Hitler, with Schuschnigg even resigning after a broadcast that was essentially a Surrender, but Hitler, having already found a Pretext, secured a 'Request for Troop Dispatch' from the Austrian Minister of the Interior, Arthur Seyss-Inquart, and ordered the Advance into Austria to proceed.
That was the reason for our Hellish hardship.
We set out early in the morning with a unit that was somehow patched together with a Haphazard Method, but…
In the end, from my 11th Army Corps, only Major General Karl Cranz's 18th Division managed to depart on time.
The 19th Division, led by Lieutenant General Schwantes, was reportedly not ready and would set out as soon as possible.
Meanwhile, the 18th Artillery Regiment, part of the 18th Division, couldn't depart because its equipment hadn't finished unloading.
So, to put it simply.
Most of the Heavy equipment isn't ready, so they're telling the Plain infantry to just go and plant the flag.
Our target was Linz, Hitler's Hometown.
Thankfully, since it was located north of the Danube River, our Attack target didn't overlap with any other corps.
After crossing the Danube via the historic Steinerne Brücke, a bridge built in the Middle Ages, we marched along the Riverside, and the Great Chaos across the river came into full view.
The roads were filled with requisitioned Civilian Vehicles and tanks, but broken-down tanks were blocking the roads everywhere, causing severe Traffic Congestion. The long, single-file column of Plain infantry stretched all the way back to Regensburg.
Seriously… Can they even all depart today? We're the lucky ones.
My company had begged local Private Houses to put up some men, but even then, there weren't enough tents, and the condition of the Troopers who had to squeeze in and sleep wherever they could looked terrible.
Thank God it's spring!
“Captain Schacht, how is it? There are surely… problems, but is the March possible?”
“Yes, Lieutenant Colonel. Well, it'll work out somehow.”
To Regiment Commander Tresckow, who was inspecting the Regiment by car, I saluted and replied with a Bitter smile.
Lieutenant Colonel Tresckow looked as if he had aged five years overnight.
For a man who had worked for a long time in the relatively comfortable Rear area at the General Staff Headquarters, yesterday's Great Chaos must have been exhausting.
I only had to worry about my company, but it was obvious how much the newly appointed Regiment Commander had been tormented by this chaotic situation.
“…Trench Warfare in the last great war was a nightmare, but this is a nightmare in a different sense.”
“Hahahaha…”
“Well then, keep up the good work.”
“Yes, sir!”
After seeing Lieutenant Colonel Tresckow off, I sighed as I looked at my troopers, who were walking in a Complete Mess, with no formation to speak of.
Back in Modern Times, I'd read that the Italian Military Attachés had mocked the German Military for being a mess during the Anschluss, and I had thought, 'Look who's talking.
'
I admit it, this is a total mess.
To think this Ragtag mob is the same German Military that wrote the Myth of Invincibility in the early days of World War II, my goodness!
At this point, instead of considering overthrowing the regime through an Anti-Hitler Conspiracy, wouldn't it have been easier to wage a media war for Anti-Nazi public opinion in Austria and cause a Defeat in war against them to topple the regime?
Of course, the Austrian Nazi Party's power was too strong for that to be possible, and even if it had been, Germany would have descended into an uncontrollable Great Chaos, a veritable Hellgate…
It was a moment that made me miss the Condor Legion.
-
March 15, 1938
Linz, on the banks of the Danube River in Northern Austria Contrary to Regiment Commander Tresckow's worries, we succeeded in our Triumphant Entry into Linz without firing a single shot.
The Austrian Army, far from blocking our way, cheered for us as we marched and cleared a path.
In the Urban Area of Linz, already adorned with Hakenkreuz flags, the Residents threw flowers and welcomed us enthusiastically.
The soldiers, exhausted from the chaotic March, called this scene the War of Flowers (Blumenkrieg) and were simply overjoyed.
Even I, who knew history, found my mood lifted by such an enthusiastic welcome, so for the other German soldiers, it was a given.
These Austrians, who are so fervently welcoming the Nazi German Army now, will get thoroughly burned after being dragged into World War II, and then in modern times, they will engage in mental victory, blaming everything on Germany and the Nazis.
The Residents of Austria welcomed the Nazi German Army so enthusiastically that even Hitler and Göring, who stopped by on their way to Vienna, calling it their hometown, were surprised and passed through with broad smiles at the fervent welcome.
We were in the garrisoning city of Linz, listening to Hitler's Speech being broadcast throughout Austria.
[As the Führer of the German Nation and Reich, I now declare with a joyful heart that my Homeland has entered the German Empire! The oldest Eastern March (Österreich) of The German People has now, at this moment, become the newest Fortress of the German Empire!]
As the joyous Residents and we German soldiers listened intently to Hitler's speech in the Urban Area, the Brand of 'Jude' (Jewish people) could be seen painted in blood-red paint on the doors and windows of several houses.
[Some in the Foreign Press may have thought that the Nazis would annex Austria through brutal means! But the Austrians would have said that Reunification with Germany was only natural, even if it meant death!]
In the midst of an Era where no one felt any doubt and only praised the Führer's decisiveness and greatness at that chilling statement, my eyes met with a family looking anxiously out of a branded window.
[My political Struggle was won through the love of the People! The moment I crossed the border, I could feel that love firsthand! We have not come to rule, but as Liberators!]
In front of that girl's house, Nazi Party members had paused to listen to the speech of their beloved Führer.
[Now, no one will dare deny that Austria is German! Germany shall reign over the world! (Deutschland über Alles!)]
““Deutschland über Alles!””
As the Residents of Linz, the German Military, and all of Austria, now one, roared their unwavering belief that Germany would reign over the world and shouted the greatness of Germany, the Nazi Party members, who shared the same belief, began to destroy the houses branded as Jewish and lynch them.
While everyone cheered fanatically and shouted 'Long live Germany and the Führer', I quietly approached the Regiment Commander, Henning von Tresckow, who couldn't take his eyes off the Jewish family being dragged out into the street, Covered in Blood, by the Nazi Party members.
“…Our great Fatherland can be a Disaster for some.
Isn't that right, Lieutenant Colonel?”
Now, it was time to move.