A good analogy for this would be a fighter pilot on the Western Front in WW 1 in 1916/17. If you survive long enough you develop that inner sense to tell you when somethings wrong and when its right. Yes a whole lot got killed but once you learned the lessons you were the one doing the killing and surviving. This is the ultimate survival of the fittest and Tatiania is one of the fittest right now.
Keynes' Cruisers Volume 2
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A good analogy for this would be a fighter pilot on the Western Front in WW 1 in 1916/17. If you survive long enough you develop that inner sense to tell you when somethings wrong and when its right. Yes a whole lot got killed but once you learned the lessons you were the one doing the killing and surviving. This is the ultimate survival of the fittest and Tatiania is one of the fittest right now.
Top of my head there are under 50 Axis POV posts out of 2200 or so ( a German fighter pilot going through training, a German CI officer has a few in France, a u-boat scene or two, a few divisions in transit, some IJN in the DEI.)
I am not showing everything, I can not.
And the winning ship for that young man might be found just miles away ,docked at Navy Pier Chicago. Perhaps he will get to perfect his radar skills observing 60+ take offs and landings day in and day out on the carriers USS Sable or Wolverine!
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Did those ships even have radar? I can't find any references if any was ever installed. Though in a couple of photos there might appear to be a radar dish mounted on Sable, but I can't tell for sure
Story 2186
Rzhev, Russia August 15, 1943
The division commander smiled as he sipped his tea. He dunked his bread into the warm, dark water and allowed the flavors to mix for a moment like they had when he was a young boy. The German attack had never come. It had been stopped cold well short of the rail yards that his exhausted division had dug in to defend. Now his troops were labor units clearing tracks and repairing sabotage to the switching gear and repair shops. One of the trains that had left the yard this morning carried eight hundred new draftees from the district to training camps near Moscow. The new draftees were hungry and tired men as the Germans had worked them hard and barely fed them as their fields were frequently also critical defensive positions and training areas for the front line German infantry divisions that had to retreat during the summer offensive. It would not matter, they would be back at the front soon enough. Five hundred fresh replacements had arrived last night. Soon the division would be ready enough for offensive actions. Next week they would be back in the field for company and battalion training instead of labor duties. The rumors from on-high had another push scheduled before the fall rains. Every division would be needed, so he needed to give his boys as many chances to succeed first and then survive second.
The division commander smiled as he sipped his tea. He dunked his bread into the warm, dark water and allowed the flavors to mix for a moment like they had when he was a young boy. The German attack had never come. It had been stopped cold well short of the rail yards that his exhausted division had dug in to defend. Now his troops were labor units clearing tracks and repairing sabotage to the switching gear and repair shops. One of the trains that had left the yard this morning carried eight hundred new draftees from the district to training camps near Moscow. The new draftees were hungry and tired men as the Germans had worked them hard and barely fed them as their fields were frequently also critical defensive positions and training areas for the front line German infantry divisions that had to retreat during the summer offensive. It would not matter, they would be back at the front soon enough. Five hundred fresh replacements had arrived last night. Soon the division would be ready enough for offensive actions. Next week they would be back in the field for company and battalion training instead of labor duties. The rumors from on-high had another push scheduled before the fall rains. Every division would be needed, so he needed to give his boys as many chances to succeed first and then survive second.
I wonder if the destroyer Adrias (L67) of the Greek Royal Navy will have the same fate in TTL as in OTL. During the failed Allied intervention in Dodekanese in 1943, Adrias struck a mine and her bow torn off. But the ship made it to neutral Turkey and after some hasty repairs, she managed to get back to Alexandria despite not having her bow! https://nationalinterest.org/blog/b...30-miles-through-hostile-waters-her-bow-blown
Story 2187
East of Pella, Greece August 15, 1943
The anti-tank rifle section of two gunners and two assistants worked together as a team. Both gunners fired their heavy, strong slugs at the locomotive that was pulling a train carrying enough ammunition, food and fuel to keep a Panzergrenedier division on the defensive for three days. One shot missed and slammed into a thousand year old tree. The other punched through the piston head. The damage was not enough to stop the engine, but the back log of repairs to keep the northern Greek rail network mostly functional for the German occupiers just got a little longer.
The four men paid no attention to the statistics of war. Instead they had already run ten yards up the hill before the first machine gun from the German security detail spat a string of bullets in their general direction. They could only pay attention to their steps and to the little bits of cover that the hill offered them.
The anti-tank rifle section of two gunners and two assistants worked together as a team. Both gunners fired their heavy, strong slugs at the locomotive that was pulling a train carrying enough ammunition, food and fuel to keep a Panzergrenedier division on the defensive for three days. One shot missed and slammed into a thousand year old tree. The other punched through the piston head. The damage was not enough to stop the engine, but the back log of repairs to keep the northern Greek rail network mostly functional for the German occupiers just got a little longer.
The four men paid no attention to the statistics of war. Instead they had already run ten yards up the hill before the first machine gun from the German security detail spat a string of bullets in their general direction. They could only pay attention to their steps and to the little bits of cover that the hill offered them.
I did not know this. Let me see if I can do anything interesting for her story.
Fairly sure there has been mention of a hunt by Tatiana aborted by her sixth sense telling her something was wrong, and it was- German counter sniper teams were looking for her.
Also the idea that because the Germans are doing better all snipers must die is absurd. They are doing better primarily in logistics and overall manpower, this doesn’t directly translate into being able to kill even the best, luckiest snipers.
Also the idea that because the Germans are doing better all snipers must die is absurd. They are doing better primarily in logistics and overall manpower, this doesn’t directly translate into being able to kill even the best, luckiest snipers.
My problem with Tatiana is that in a timeline where everyone else screws up in some form or fashion she doesn't. Even Jaroseck, himself no slouch, screws up when he engages the Japanese at Pearl Harbor before confirming that base received his message about the attacking planes. Several viewpoint characters have died. Several more have been wounded to some degree, many significantly. We've clearly seen there's no plot armor for main characters (nor should there be) but that immunity extends to her despite the very real dangers her job entails.
She's flawless so far which makes her boring and her flawlessness is a stark contrast to other characters we've met so far, who are humanized by their failures and setbacks - just like people in real life. Tatiana is a video game character in a world populated by real-world characters.
She's flawless so far which makes her boring and her flawlessness is a stark contrast to other characters we've met so far, who are humanized by their failures and setbacks - just like people in real life. Tatiana is a video game character in a world populated by real-world characters.
The issue is, I think, is that if Tatiana screws up, even in a small way, she dies. There's no failure because there's no room for failure.
In addition to what @diestormlie said, OP you do not need to address the newest complaint about Tatiana. This story has many POV characters and you don't need to detail every aspect of their service. Not every character has to be complex when they're not a main character, and this story doesn't really have any. Her POVs show the bleakness of the Eastern Front pretty well.
It's very hard to show the POV of a sniper that has things go bad--though some do survive, like the White Death. There have been some successful snipers that survived the wars they were in.
I see no problem with the way Tatiana is portrayed. Just because it's a war does not mean every person dies. Even in the Soviet Union. Generally speaking the longer a combatant survives the better their ability to actually survive through experience. Of course if your in a no win situation like being a German at Stalingrad no amount of skill outside of plot armour in a Hollywood army will save you.
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The photos I have seen appear to have a dish on Sable, probably for detecting aircraft, and training pilots to operate in a radar controlled enviorment. There is however Pathe newsreel of the Wolverine during flight operations, and in a shot from an SNJ, there is a visible radar antenna in the mast.
I can see that as a writer that she is mostly a 2-D placeholder as I felt like I needed someone's eyes to look through at Leningrad.
Part of this is that any mistake is likely to be a fatal mistake and it is hard to tell a story through dead eyes (not impossible, but hard)
And some of it is that the character has not spoken deeply to me unlike some of the other characters so I use her merely as an illustration.
I can see what you're saying.
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