Interactive History VI: Warrior's Ambition

An SS armored reconnaissance battalion sounds like a totally awesome job in terms of the combat opportunities that would be offered. However, it would morally be made of suck and fail. Being a commander in a Wehrmacht reconnaissance battalion would sound like a better job, especially since that involves less anti-partisan work, and still offers the opportunity for us to be bold and decisive, traits that Mr. Schleizinger has in spades.

Another job for somebody brave would be these guys:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandenburgers

German special forces sabotaging the Russians would be awesome, and again, would involve less random anti-civilian brutality.

Chapter 2: Meassuring the Scales

The black clad officer was gently rocking back and forth on his feet, obviously waiting for Walter to speak, and equally obvious, quite impatient. This made Walter think it over a bit.
So the SS was approaching him now, while he was still very much unfit for combat. Walter, though yearning for battle again, had no delusions about his own state of health, he was in no shape to go off fighting now. They were also in a hurry, as seen in the impatient manner of their representative, and his face for that matter, as his lips were but a tense line and his eyes flickering about, but also from the information he had directly given Walter. The SS knew he couldn't fight now, yet they still wanted an answer right away, and the excuse had been weak at best. Walter knew they were extremely proficient at making last minute changes to their units without costing them any combat efficiency. And there was the letter from Himmler... From Himmler himself. Short, cordial and to the point. While fairly much in his style from what Walter knew of him, it just felt unusual for him to not only try to recruit himself, but then not be very eloquent and determined about it as well. If Walter was so important to the SS that Himmler decided he must do his to get him, why didn't he spend more than a minute's worth of his time to write the letter?
"So, what do you think?" The impatient face spoke and his body responded with a shudder, perhaps due to the cold, it was after all pretty cold out in the snow, but perhaps it was a nervous reaction to the situation... Walter decided it was better to not just accept the offer right away until he knew more, however great it sounded to him.
"Obviously it is just the break I need to get my career going. It seems to have been on hold a bit, dunno why though."
The SS officer smiled. "Trust me, the Waffen SS values merit more than politics, actions more than an old track record and initiative more than 'by the book'."
Walter grunted in approval. "Heh... Politics... But you are a political body. Swearing to protect and serve the Führer ect. ect."
The smile vanished. "Yes, but we can't afford to throw people away because of it. In the majority of cases it has little to no meaning on the battlefield. Besides you perform a similar vow."
Walter had to agree. The Heer was performing much the same political vows. One or the other was irrelevant really, at least as far as Walter thought. But this was only a way to give him more time to think over the oddities of the offer, better keep it up a bit. "That's true enough, but the Heer doesn't have the same political background, nor the personal patronage of the Führer. That does lend a fair bit more weight to the vow of the SS than that of the Heer. What is your name by the way, you didn't give me one when you approached me."
Suddenly the SS officer's face changed from hard but cordial, into a most sincere and actually very youthful visage. "I didn't? I'm terribly sorry, I guess I'm a bit stressed, I have a lot of work waiting for me. My name is Michael Wittmann." There it was again, he was under quite some pressure, or this kind of work was unusual to him. Both things that are not in tune with Walter's current physical situation. It quite simply didn't add up, but Walter couldn't blurt out a direct question unless he had something firm to hinge it on, and he didn't... So far.
"That's alright, we can all make mistakes. But really, you don't do this kind of work often do you?"
Michael's reaction wasn't one of outrage, or even shock, rather he was somewhat relieved. "To be honest, no. I'm not much of a recruiter, I'm currently training for Panzer duty at Paderborn."
"So you have no contact with the official recruitment of the SS, nor with Heinrich Himmler?"
"Dear God, no. I'm just serving my country as best I can, and in this case I was supposed to ease your entry into the SS. I still hope you will join. The Reichführer just provided me with the letter." That was when Walter figured it out. He nodded to the young officer with a friendly smile.
"Mmm... It is all good and well that the SS wants me and it is certainly an intriguing offer." Walter paused for a second, then brought the letter up again and skimmed down the page. "And I must commend you. You nearly fooled me. It is a very good forgery of an official letter from Himmler."
Michael was stunned, then he burst out. "You can't be serious! This is a letter from Himmler... To you!"
Walter didn't back down, it was all or nothing if he wanted a career anywhere. "No, it is not. It is a forgery, a good one as far as I can see, but also a work of amateurs. I'm no specialist by far, but I know one thing, or rather I realized one thing, and that is that you forgot Himmler always use his title of Reichführer. He is in love with it, he is always presented with it on the radio, when people speak of him and in bulletins. You can't avoid it, yet You guys managed to botch it up. But I nearly didn't get it, so kudos for that. Now it is time to level with me."
Michael was looking at the ground in silence, obviously contemplating if he should tell Walter. Then he looked up. "You are right, it isn't a letter from Himmler, in fact he has nothing to do with this, and those who planned this really didn't want to involve him at all."
"Very interesting, but you still haven't told me what it is." Walter said while beginning to walk, forcing Michael to haste to his side.
"I'm not privy to the details, but I do know that it is Paul Hausser who wants you, and he doesn't want the Heer to know about his project. Thus he wanted you 'stolen' from the Heer in a more usual fashion. And no, I have no idea what this is about, I'm but an underling getting orders."
Walter was stunned. Gruppenführer Paul Hausser, the commander of the SS-Panzerkorps, was trying to dupe him and the entire Heer, and meanwhile thought it important enough to impersonate Reichführer Himmler. This was definitely beyond Walter's scope. "I'm surprised you told me this... This could be damning to you all if I ever let it slip. There would be plenty of offended parties in this case."
Michael didn't smile, or did he flinch, he just stared Walter in the eyes, his gaze was like that of an eagle, firm, sure and very determined. He struck Walter as a good prospect for a leader or commander. "You had it figured out. No point in trying to hide it. Hausser and I can easily deny it, the letter is obviously fairly bad because of the mistake, bad enough to make for a bad piece of evidence for your case should to try to turn us in. But most importantly, I simply wasn't very sure this was the right thing to do, but I didn't have a say."

Walter didn't respond, how could he? This affair was decidedly unusual, but Paul Hausser, Papa, was involved, so there were obviously a lot of things at stake for him to do it. Untersturmführer Wittmann indicated that it involved something at the frontlines since the Heer was to be kept out, and it was no secret he didn't trust the Heer's capacity for something special. If he had, he wouldn't have left it for the Waffen-SS. And interestingly he was a Prussian from a military family, much like Walter's. He had a burning ambition much like Walter as well, so Walter figured that a conservative like him could make it in the Waffen-SS. But then again, he had already known that. It was just that the Heer seemed to present more secure options.
Walter rubbed his eyes with his thumb and middle finger, this all was way beyond him, but what could he do? What should he do? He didn't know.

Time to deal with Walter's findings.

1) Simply refuse Wittmann's offer. It is risky to say the least, to join in a clandestine operation you know nothing of, that might piss off both the Heer and Himmler and the SS in general.
2) If Hausser wants Walter for something special there is a great chance it is important. And important is equal to great chances of promotions, not to speak of the personal relationship with Hausser. Who says it will ever be discovered what took place to get it off?
3) Do whatever it takes to get rid of Wittmann, then contact the Heer. They might get angry at Hausser and the SS for this, but they might also be intrigued. But the benefits for Walter himself would be less obvious.
4) Similar, just contact the SS instead. More certainly they would get furious about Hausser's forgery. Beign a loyal German would likely earn Walter considerable gratitude with the SS, perhaps even Himmler himself.

I'd say, hastily, option 4. Benefits are more or less obvious: gratitude, rank, command, etc.
Of course, it depends what we want to do afterwards.

The first thing to do is ask what the dilly-o is going on here.

The second thing is to accept, because there's no denying the awesomeness of Michael Wittmann.

Michael Wittmann

He wants me in a Recon Btn. in the II SS PzKorps? I'll do it.

SS panzerkorps sounds tempting, but its SS nevertheless. This is our chance to get in good graces of Heer. We should not betray those we have swore loyalty to. So option 3.:smash:

It really sounds like Hausser wants Walter and I'm definately curious what he has in mind for us. So option 2 for me.

Originally Posted by :
Do whatever it takes to get rid of Wittmann

Does it mean Wittman will be killed?

Option 3

Army > SS

Hausser and the tank ace want us huh? So does anyone know of what the former did after the war? As far as I can tell he's clean. Also he went against hitler's orders at Karkov.

Vote: Option 2 since I have confidence in this general Hausser. Manstein thought well of him in an earlier interactive afterall.

Option 2

Originally Posted by Tran:
Does it mean Wittman will be killed?

Obviously not... Killing SS officers would be problematic at best. No it was intended to mean that Walter would ditch him at the earliest possible time, to be able to blow the whistle on this little operation.

Option 3! 4 would be suicidal, to get into an internal conflict of the SS. What is this special operation? Something dirty, I guess. No way!! Let`s stay at the Heer. There will be more than enough Soviets to fight there, too.

Unfortunately, Herr Hitler is losing a rather large amount of faith in the Heer right now, so if you want to be where the action and supplies are, you should be in the Waffen SS. All that will happen with you in a Heer unit will be that you'll run out of fuel and get encircled by the Russians, who will then blow you away with heavy artillery. Also, the Waffen SS would give you more leverage with that idiot Fuhrer of yours, and when the time comes, easier access so you can kill both Hitler and Himmler and put a stop to this whole bloody mess.

I'm torn between 2 and 3.
Doing 1 without back up is too risky. Option 4 is playing politics outside our man's competence and puts us way out of our depth.

Working with someone from a similar background such as Wittman is appealing, no doubt that's why he was chosen to deliver the invitation. And why not take the chance to make a difference that never came to our great-uncle the admiral? I guess that's the clincher - carpe diem - so I go for option 2.

Option 2! Only an idiot would draw non-valour related attention to himself in Nazi Germany!

Option 2

1!

Guys! It's the SS! Don't get in if you don't know how to get out!

After some thought, I think the best choice is option 2. Two main reasons - from the point of view of the story - and let's not forget this is a story - it looks the most interesting option. The second reason is that this option offers the best route for promotion in comparisson to the other 3. Our hero is frustrated at his lack of progress and seems overlooked within the Herr - perhaps it is being related to a mad admiral!! - so this offers a rapid path to promotion, Also, by intonation at least, these guys do not seem your typical SS thugs.

I'm convinced. Option 2's the most interesting.

Option 2 lets see what this General Hausser has in mind for us, shall we?

Hmm...hard one. I'm torn; will I fall to the temptation? But it's the SS! Oh dear...

Option 1 is not worth it. I don't think a game of waiting and waiting and waiting is what Kraxis is looking for. It'd merely extend our wait for the Heer's potential offer of which there are no signs.

Option 4 is the obvious "Are you an idiot!?" The last thing we need is direct contact with Himmler, on political reasons.

2 and 3 are the real contenders here. Will we join the SS -- apparently, though I'm not sure if it's a trap or not, the better side of SS -- or will we stay in the Heer, betraying Wittmann in the process?

In the end I'll say Option 2 if only because DA's link shows that our friend the tank ace is badass and I want some badass action alongside him. :clown:

Originally Posted by linkie about MW:
It wasn't long before he was recruited into the military arm of the SS and assigned to the 1st SS Panzer Division - the elite of the German elite and a military unit so incredibly badass that every Avalon Hill tabletop wargame ever created lists it as a fucking 12-6 unit. Just for the record, a combat-ready regiment of motherfucking fifty foot tall robot Godzillas that shoot heat-seeking missles out of their crotches probably wouldn't be listed as a 12-power unit.

Option 2 because Michael sounds awsome.

Edit: if you haven't read that link already then you have to. MW is ridiculously awsome.

Option 2

It may be the S.S. but it sounds like we're in an opposition group. Ethier that or some of their nastier sides of thing. Those are the only to things I can think of that can demand that level of secercy. It's more likely that it won't be the latter though and it will give us a faster track to promotion. Plus we can always use the letter as collateral if we don't like the mission.

Because of our collective ambition, i can already see us executing prisoners of war or something nasty like that.:sweatdrop: I wonder what happens then. Atleast our ambition gives Kraxis sama, great building blocks for the story.:smash:

Originally Posted by :
Because of our collective ambition, i can already see us executing prisoners of war or something nasty like that.

Well, the title is "Warrior's Ambition" not "Warrior's Careful and Prudent Decision-making." :clown:

Originally Posted by Brave_Sir_Robin:
Well, the title is "Warrior's Ambition" not "Warrior's Careful and Prudent Decision-making." :clown:

That doesn't mean we can't play this like Duel of the Sea, be careful and yet daring when need be and come out on top in the end. Hell you could argue that it runs in the family....

But unfortunately, I want more plot.
To get more plot, I must have advancement!!!!

The Heer is not a Sally Army. There will be enough opportunity to fight and win. There will be even enough dieing and even the threat of being forced to do some crimes.

The SS is evil. It is late 1942. The SS will be increased soon, with forced recruitments and volunteers from satelite states. The skill of the Waffen-SS as well as the moral will decrease soon and significantly.

The Waffen-SS is a bunch of murderers. Do not make any illusions. Any straight warrior looks at them with disgust. There will be killing of POW, there will be partisan fighting, retaliations. Don't forget that the Waffen-SS is also carrying on the KZ. Do you want to end as a guard of Ausschwitz?

Yes, they might be a bunch of murderers, but the uniform. Man, that Hugo Boss uniform is stylish. And guess what? It wasn't like the Heer didn't commit reprisals or fight against partisans. And I highly doubt that we'll end up in guarding a concentration camp. After all, we are Waffen SS.

Besides, I want to retake Kharkov from the Russkies.

Originally Posted by DemonArchangel:
Yes, they might be a bunch of murderers, but the uniform. Man, that Hugo Boss uniform is stylish. And guess what? It wasn't like the Heer didn't commit reprisals or fight against partisans. And I highly doubt that we'll end up in guarding a concentration camp. After all, we are Waffen SS.

Besides, I want to retake Kharkov from the Russkies.

Well SS Totenkopf Panzer Division had large amount of concentration camp guards. It was originally composed of these guys:

http://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS-Totenkopfverb%C3%A4nde

We should really think what we are getting into. I think there were lots of young men who were fascinated about the handsome SS uniforms etc. These people were turned into murderers. If you guys want glory, in war there is none, but we have swore military oath to Heer and we should respect that oath. Im sure there would be lots of action coming towards us, without joining a organization of murderers and fanatics like SS.