Stupid Luck and Happenstance, Thread II

Chapter One Thousand Six Hundred Eighty-Nine



30th July 1965

It had not been until he had taken to time to think about it that Louis had realized that his life had come to a standstill while he had been in Antarctica. Everyone else had progressed in various ways. Presently he was enjoying the leave that had built up while he had been on duty for months on end and backpay that he had nothing really to spend on. Louis was completely at loose ends and he was starting to understand why Kiki had bought a boat when she had gotten back from Korea.
Buys VW Camper Van and drives to Goa overland via the Hindu Kush?

Even in signals, supply or the AG’s in the Rangers for example, you have to qualify just like anyone else. You still have to volunteer for the rangers just like an ordinary infantryman.
Triple V I think the phrase is.
Volunteered for the Army, Volunteered for Airborne, Volunteered for the Rangers.
 
He could just as easily wind up in a boring position, rotated to Korea, accidentally triggering a previously neglected piece of UXO (un-exploded Ordinance) and die without ever achieving anything.

Or he could get hit by a car tomorrow.

If you think PM would be unwilling to have such an undignified and unexpected ending to Mani's life, you haven't been paying attention.
 
He could just as easily wind up in a boring position, rotated to Korea, accidentally triggering a previously neglected piece of UXO (un-exploded Ordinance) and die without ever achieving anything.

Or he could get hit by a car tomorrow.

If you think PM would be unwilling to have such an undignified and unexpected ending to Mani's life, you haven't been paying attention.

Or a training accident. Even if not fatal, they have the potential to be life-changing: blinded, missing a limb, paralysis, an interesting/embarrassing scar... the possibilities are endless. Not to mention the resulting strain on Hans & Helene's relationship.
 
Manfred. Is. Doomed.
That feeling when DIs and being at (well, near) the bottom of the food chain while being The General's Son are the least of your problems.

Shooting and archery are Olympic sports. Sure it isn't a tank gun but they both require aiming.
Perhaps time for a new Olympic sport or two? Tank Gunnery for the more sedate, and Mechanized Biathalon for the more energetic.
Sorry, mentioning tank guns and olympics in the same sentence put warped imaged into my head.
This is some Girld und Panzer shit and I heartily approve.

Hans knew that he would never get a day of day of peace if Manny did that. Beyond his own worries as a father, he had Helene to consider. Picking up the phone, Hans made a call to Stefan, who still commanded the Administrative Services of the 4th Division and he would know just what slots were available for someone like Manny away from the front lines, the Quartermaster or Signals Battalion for example. As Hans considered it, it was the perfect solution. Manny would get this out of his system and would return to University after a couple years of counting beans or relaying messages in headquarters.
In other words, the 4th will be sent into action soon and Manny would somehow managed to be a Panzer Ace in a day.

The other side of things, Louis Junior will be an interesting story to follow, a young soldier with plenty of money and nothing better to do Is often a recipe for a disaster of varying paths. Been awhile since the royal family has had a scandal involving something nobles believing should happen only after marriage, but alas that is for the author to worry about and us to find out.
Would be quite a scandal (?) if Lou Jr. turned into an early-years Harry out of sheer boredom. That's some Hangover material right there.

Now where did Ian go/ Or rather what exactly did Kat do with him?
Still writing, I think, but Andrea Herzog is definitely Just A Partner (TM) in all of Commander Bond's missions.
He could just as easily wind up in a boring position, rotated to Korea, accidentally triggering a previously neglected piece of UXO (un-exploded Ordinance) and die without ever achieving anything.

Or he could get hit by a car tomorrow.

If you think PM would be unwilling to have such an undignified and unexpected ending to Mani's life, you haven't been paying attention.
Or a training accident. Even if not fatal, they have the potential to be life-changing: blinded, missing a limb, paralysis, an interesting/embarrassing scar... the possibilities are endless. Not to mention the resulting strain on Hans & Helene's relationship.
Damn both of you, sirrahs, now Suse Rosa is going to come after him in the afterlife because if you think death stops a von Wolvogle you've got another thing coming.

Marc A
 
Still writing, I think, but Andrea Herzog is definitely Just A Partner (TM) in all of Commander Bond's missions.

That definitely has something to do with her interrogation technique, the one involving her karambit and a tiger...

Damn both of you, sirrahs, now Suse Rosa is going to come after him in the afterlife because if you think death stops a von Wolvogle you've got another thing coming.

I'm hoping for a long & fiery relationship for both of them. Herr & Frau Panzer Corps preferably.
 
Part 104, Chapter 1690
Chapter One Thousand Six Hundred Ninety



12th August 1965

Rural Württemberg

The training cadre had been broken up into several teams, they had been given a map and a compass then given a crash course in Orienteering. The Unteroffizer giving the lecture had told them that they would be timed and that he didn’t want to have to spend out search parties if they got lost. Judging by the reaction that Manfred had seen among the others, spending an afternoon “lost” in the countryside was exactly what they were planning on. The trouble for him was that he had been taught land navigation by his grandfather since he had been a child, men in his family didn’t get lost in the woods. It was simple as that and it was almost as obnoxious as how his connection with his father had played out over the prior weeks. It might not be the harsh realities that his father had warned him about that Manfred face at some point in the future, but the expectations he was confronted with on an almost hourly basis had been daunting. It was something that had not made him popular around the barracks as those standing nearest to him tended to get caught up in whatever crap the Drill Instructors wanted to dump on him. It was also well known that he would be an Oberfähnrich the instant he completed basic training.

That was why Manfred found himself running along a path on a hillside somewhere north of Tailfingen according to the map and they were looking for the next marker. The others with him were not thrill about the relentless pace that he was taking, but once again the expectation had to be met and Manfred didn’t care if he had to drag them across the finish line. Anything less would give the Drill Instructors the perfect excuse to kick the shit out of him. At least it couldn’t possibly be as bad as weapons instruction had been. Manfred had been one of the few men in the cadre who knew how shoot and maintain a G44 when he had arrived from his time in the Berlin Cadet Corps. That had gotten him accused of grandstanding, but if he came up less than that he obviously wasn’t putting in the effort. You volunteered for this, Manfred thought reminding himself of that like he had every few minutes for weeks.

Coming to a stop, Manfred sighted two of the landmarks that the map said they were supposed to use to triangulate on the location of the marker. One was a hilltop and the other was the highest tower of the castle that he had seen several times in the distance, but not close enough to see too many details until today. He noticed that a black, white and red Imperial flag flew atop the tower and a long blue pennant was just below it. Supposedly that meant that the owner was home. That was hardly a surprise, probably someone’s summer home.

“The Emperor lives there from time to time I’ve heard” One of the other men said, “Word it that it belongs to one of his girls these days.”

Manfred just shrugged. He was aware of who Princess Kristina was. Ina was one of the young women who interacted with her socially because of their connection with Aunt Katherine. He recalled a somewhat severe woman in her twenties who had coldly peered at him through the lenses of her glasses without ever saying a word the one time he had met her. Ina had said that Manfred had gotten her wrong, but he couldn’t figure out how.

“Everyone spread out and look for the marker” Manfred said changing the subject.

“Whatever you say” One of the others said. Manfred had been having to keep them on task all afternoon.

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This was not how Kiki had imagined how she would spend her holiday. Looking out the open window from her desk that was buried under a mass of papers, Kiki’s mind wandered to all the thousands of things she would rather be doing rather than feeling like a prisoner here. Rauchbier was sleeping contentedly on the floor in the sunlight that was streaming through the window. She had been so busy that she had been unable to take him for his daily runs, it was with considerable guilt that she let the castle’s Kennel Master take care of it for her. She had been surprised to learn that the castle even had a Kennel Master. He was a middle-aged man who seemed to like dogs more than people and normally bred hunting dogs in Hechingen, the title was more of a formality since there had been no dogs in the kennel since Kiki’s grandfather had vacationed here decades earlier. He was more than happy to help with Rauchbier who he considered a good sport. His encouragement of the Whippet’s hunting prowess was something that Kiki looked at with mixed emotions. This was especially because Rauchbier had caught a few rabbits in the fields below the castle that the Kennel Master had happily put into his own stewpot.

Beyond the paperwork that Kiki was trying to tackle, she had several guests in the castle at any time as well. There were several Japanese businessmen from Sony, Honda and Fujifilm who thought that staying in a real German Castle was an incredible lark and understood that Kiki was major investor in Japanese corporations in Germany. Then there were the Americans, Executive Officers from various technology companies who understood that the Princess of the Hohenzollern Province would at least listen to their proposals. The most touching moment of this summer so far had been with the arrival of Robert Noyce and his family. Sure, he was here because he hoped that Kiki would invest in the company that he was starting that would make a new form of integrated circuits. Kiki had seen how his daughters had looked around in awe at the castle and the real-life Princess who lived there.

Not that it was all fun. Kiki was having to spend a great deal of time getting the estate’s books straightened out and smoothing the ruffled feathers of the various City Mayors and local councils who were not exactly thrilled with the changes she was pushing. So far, none of her guests seemed to be aware of the not so subtle insult that they were getting subjected to in the seating arrangement in the Castle’s Great Hall. Traditionally, merchants were seated about the level of the salt and that tradition was problematic if Kiki was to convince them to invest in this community if they ever figured out what that meant. Finally, Ben had been informed that his application to join the Space Program had been approved if he was interested in being the Third Alternate Science Officer in an upcoming mission. Kiki had told him that training to be a Raumfahrer was too important to just let slide even if it meant that she wouldn’t see him at all over the Summer Holiday.
 
The training cadre had been broken up into several teams, they had been given a map and a compass then given a crash course in Orienteering.
Ah, orienteering. Got some fun stories from a bud in the British Army, used to be you could just call out map coords and not have to move, because well, nobody's out there. Then you realize that he's at the last one, and might find it odd if you aren't ,leading to a rather quick march.

Or in one instance, went outside the area and got driven back in a classic car by a pair of ex-nationals in Cyprus.

Apologies for bad grammar and spelling (Apparently when blitzed he's totally fine, but otherwise).....

Did 3 e and e exercises where I did exactly that not fancying being waterboared fucked off outside exercise area and didn’t come back to the whole thing was over:naughty:.

Claimed I’d got lost :) Last time really got lost as I successfully evaded a hunter team with dogs and kept going ran out of water this being a Cypriot summer things were
Looking a bit bleak for are hero.
Fortunately knocked on the door of a lovely couple of elderly ex colonials who drove me back to camp half cut in a 50s convertible rolls Royce:lol: I wasn’t late I was just arriving in style`;).
senior NCO’s weren’t even mad at this point
 
Manfred just shrugged. He was aware of who Princess Kristina was. Ina was one of the young women who interacted with her socially because of their connection with Aunt Katherine. He recalled a somewhat severe woman in her twenties who had coldly peered at him through the lenses of her glasses without ever saying a word the one time he had met her. Ina had said that Manfred had gotten her wrong, but he couldn’t figure out how.

Manfred, continuing the (mostly) male tradition of completely failing to understand women.
 
I could see the Drill Instructors screwing with Young Manfred by sticking him with all of the foul ups in his training unit and making him responsible for their mistakes.
 
I could see the Drill Instructors screwing with Young Manfred by sticking him with all of the foul ups in his training unit and making him responsible for their mistakes.
That would be interesting. Especially if he asks his Father about it. Even if he doesn't, he's bright enough to know why it's being done and there is, as is the traditions, a strong possibility that he'll find his "Reier" who will follow his career as his NCO equivalent. It's these kinds of situations where these kinds of bonds are formed.
 
The training cadre had been broken up into several teams, they had been given a map and a compass then given a crash course in Orienteering. The Unteroffizer giving the lecture had told them that they would be timed and that he didn’t want to have to spend out search parties if they got lost.

Ah, orienteering. It's been at least a decade since I did any of that. Fun times in my early teens, though.

He was more than happy to help with Rauchbier who he considered a good sport. His encouragement of the Whippet’s hunting prowess was something that Kiki looked at with mixed emotions. This was especially because Rauchbier had caught a few rabbits in the fields below the castle that the Kennel Master had happily put into his own stewpot.

The animals really do like it, despite what some think. My lab mix generally loves chasing birds. Though she discovered some birds don't chase.
 
The animals really do like it, despite what some think. My lab mix generally loves chasing birds. Though she discovered some birds don't chase.
Most people have a hard time reconciling how the goof on the couch was bred to chase down game, or retrieve waterfowl like your lab is . There are videos online showing how efficient Whippets like Rauchbier are in that regard.
 
Most people have a hard time reconciling how the goof on the couch was bred to chase down game, or retrieve waterfowl like your lab is . There are videos online showing how efficient Whippets like Rauchbier are in that regard.

Fair enough on that. My lab learned that live, healthy geese are not to be trifled with, though. She charged into the middle of a small flock in the yard. They opened to let her into the middle, then closed back up behind her...anyone who knows geese knows what happened next.
 

ferdi254

Banned
A group of cadets I knew managed to really screw up orienteering. They were split out into 4 groups which all managed to get to nightcamp 3-5 hours later than planned (leading to thus reduced sleep) got killed at least twice each by the enemy (in the end I decided to let them even get away a couple of times) but the cake got to one group who finally had to give up bc they could not walk anymore. Following radio dialogue ensued:

Group 1: Cannot walk anymore pls pick us up.
OIC: Ok where are you?
G1: Coordinates xxyx

10 min later
OIC: Where are you?
G1: coordinates xxyx
OIC: This is just where I am so where (expletive deleted) are you?

Turned out they were 5 km away from where they thought they were. And to top it all up it was in northwestern Germany basically 35 km Southwest of the market place of Hamburg.
 
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Not quite on the same level, but knew a guy in school who was joining a frat. Rush week came and the older guys dragged four pledges and piled them in a station wagon blindfolded. Drove them from Madison, WI to Chicago, made them strip to their skivies and dumped them out of the car after removing the blindfolds. Turns out they were two blocks from one of the guys Uncle's house. The Uncle thought it great fun and got them some clothes, drove them back to Madison (at a high rate of speed) and even picked up some Pizza and Beer for them and dropped them off back at the Frat 15 minutes before the Kidnappers returned.
 
Part 104, Chapter 1691
Chapter One Thousand Six Hundred Ninety-One



29th August 1965

Potsdam

At least it was a nice day for an outdoor reception. They had lucked out in that regard. Kat had also taken advantage of the fact that she was here in her capacity as Chief Court Mistress, as opposed to the Generallieutenant commanding the KSK. So, she was wearing a sundress as opposed to a heavy wool uniform that all the men seemed to be wearing.

The arrival of a Presidential delegation for a State visit at the Summer Residence basically put everything on hold. Louis had been talking with Architects about the design of a new Winter Residence somewhere near the center of Berlin now that the House of Hohenzollern’s finances were back in order. That and things of far more importance had been shelved for now. The money that Kat had loaned him was getting paid back directly or in the form of land grants in southern Germany. So, everything had worked out, sort of. Long experience had taught Kat to be suspicious of when things seemed to be going well. Because when it all ended it tended to come as a surprise.

Enter Nelson Rockefeller.

The American President had recently signed a law that guaranteed that every American had the right to vote and had immediately faced a massive backlash from his own political party. It was hardly a surprise that the honeymoon was over. President Rockefeller was to the left of his own party these days and was probably one of the few men who could have gotten nominated and then go on to win the election. His signing of the laws that had languished during the prior Administration had revived the prospects for the Democratic Party, who oddly stood to gain the most from them. Kat had followed American politics since the 1940 Presidential election and still found it absurd theater at best.

The consequence of that was that Rockefeller was in Potsdam trying to get a foreign policy victory by talking up a strategic arms limitation treaty. As if either the Emperor or Chancellor would be disagreeable with such a thing. Louis had been writing editorial columns under his various pseudonyms again about that exact topic. Comparing nuclear arms to battleships in the last century. How the arms race between the German Empire and the UK had needlessly raised tensions, becoming just one of the many causes of the First World War. Like always though, the Devil was in the details. International treaties were a matter of give and take, frequently with all parties coming away not particularly happy with the result being the best outcome.

Kat was also aware that those who drafted the treaties either lacked imagination or wrote gaping holes within them. Her own people had gotten copies of the draft treaty and discovered that there were dozens of holes in the language that both nations could easily exploit. The favorite example was the series of drone aircraft that Fieseler had built going back to the Fi 103 which had been used to great effect against Moscow during the Second World War. Since then there had been substantial developments in that program had taken place over the last twenty years with the latest versions being turbojet powered and certainly nuclear capable by design. Not one word was said about them.

If Kat had to guess, she would assume that it was just how the game was played. As she got older, Kat was starting to realize that she didn’t have a whole lot of patience for those sorts of games.

“Deep thoughts?” Kat heard a voice ask and she saw Louis Junior approaching her. He was wearing the white summer uniform of the Navy with a shiny new Polar Service Medal pinned to it. A couple days earlier he had told Kat about how he had found it hard to reconcile what people said about him serving in a far-flung place like Wilhelm Station versus what he had in fact done there. If he had worked logistics in Kiel no one would be impressed, doing in Antarctica made it completely different somehow. Kat told him that was just how life worked, it frequently didn’t make a whole lot of sense.

“Just about what they are trying to do here” Kat said motioning to Louis Senior and President Rockefeller as they answered questions from the gathered press pool.

“The treaty” Louis said.

“Peace is always a worthwhile goal” Kat replied.

“I understand that” Louis said, “But the show, is it needed.”

“Actually yes” Kat said, “Visibility, public support, political accountability.”

Kat saw Louis frown. He didn’t have a whole lot of use for politics. Neither did Kat, though she was in a better position to tell people to go sod off these days. Louis Junior was still working his way up the ladder and it was obvious to everyone that since he had returned to Potsdam he had been at loose ends. He couldn’t afford to tell people what he thought of them the way that Kat regularly got away with doing.

“Perhaps you should sail a yacht around South America, go to Hollywood and date an actress or something” Kat said, “That is the sort of thing that younger princes do.”

Louis smiled at that. It was what his father had done in the thirties before the untimely death of his brother Wilhelm, who had been the Crown Prince at the time, had put him next in line for the throne.

“Perhaps I ought to go to Stuttgart and work on an assembly line like he did with Ford in Detroit then” Louis replied.

“Do you also secretly wish you were a mechanic?” Kat asked. It was an aspect of Louis Senior that few knew about, he was happiest when he was tinkering with engines in his workshop. Like everyone else Louis Junior found that amusing.

Minutes later the press conference ended, Louis Senior and Rockefeller eventually passed where Kat and Louis Junior were watching.

“I would like to introduce you to Fürstin Katherine of Berlin” Louis Ferdinand said, and Rockefeller gave her a quizzical look. It was nice to know that she still had the right sort of bad reputation. “And my son Louis.”

“The Antarctic explorer?” Rockefeller asked and Kat noticed that Louis’ smile became fixed as he shook the President’s hand.
 
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