Stupid Luck and Happenstance, Thread II

Do I get a feeling that some of the older vessels might used as blockships to protect damaged dykes whilst repairs are made! That would be a bold move by someone.
 
That would at least have the German and British Dreadnoughts doing something useful with their deaths assuming the British did the same thing.

Would probably give them something to laugh at the Americans about since they still have their battleships in service.
 
OTL HMS Centurion was 'bottomed' off Aramanche beach as part of the Mulberry harbour breakwater and later refloated. Si if using big heavy old battleships as temporary breakwaters I would expect them to be refloated afterwards.
 
I think that a person who knows how to operate a low draft harbor barge will come in almost as useful when it comes to rescuing people from roofs in flooded areas as medically trained personal who knows how to abseil from helicopters.

There might be a family reunion coming up.

As for the catastrophe itself; slightly more advanced technology for communication and coordination might help, the lack of British and American forces might hurt unless they are made up for by a much bigger and better native military response.
 
Part 94, Chapter 1467
Chapter One Thousand Four Hundred Sixty-seven


16th February 1962

In transit near Rendsburg, Schleswig-Holstein

After a hectic night and a good portion of the day in which Kiki had to use every means available to her short of keeping her team on task at gunpoint as they had prepared, they had finally taken off towards the advanced staging area. However, as she would quickly learn most of the FSR teams and helicopter crews were converging on Bremen where they intended to ride out the storm. In a rare fit of good sense, Wunsdorf had decided that putting all their eggs in one basket in the face of a natural disaster was not a great call and had ordered the FSR Company based in Rangsdorf, as well as another Company from a different Airfield, elsewhere. As Kiki learned once they were in the air, their destination was a moving target.

It seemed that the Naval Officer commanding the caretaker crews responsible for maintaining the German Battleship Fleet while it was stored in Kiel had realized that he was sitting on a massive amount of excess capacity that was suddenly needed elsewhere. He had ordered his crews to bring the big ships back to life so that they lead the Fleet on a mission that couldn’t have been more different from what their designers had envisioned. Because the improvised Fleet that had been thrown together in Kiel for the relief effort wouldn’t reach Brunsbüttel at the western end of the canal until after the storm was expected to have passed.

As the Dragonfly approached to land on the fantail Kiki leaned out the door, the SMS Brandenburg was leading a procession of ships of all sizes. The Brandenburg herself, her two sisters and a smaller ship built along the same lines all dwarfed the ships that followed. She had been told that they were the Brandenburg, Preussen, Rhineland and Baier. When the helicopter flared and landed, Kiki stepped out as the engines were being shut down. It wasn’t her concern, but she knew that the Dragonfly would have its main rotor folded up and it would be put into the Brandenburg’s hanger. She couldn’t help but noticing the sky to the north-west looked particularly ominous as the sun was setting. Most of the equipment that they had brought was to remain aboard the helicopter. The rest of it was in their rucksacks and it was only what they might personally need. Already, she could hear the next helicopter coming in even as a group of Sailors worked to push the helicopter into the hanger.

“Now you lot will come with me and I’ll show you to your quarters. Try to keep from getting lost” Another Sailor said, this one seemed to be an Aspirant like Kiki and had a voice that was full of the sort of condescension that Sailors had for the those in the Heer. She also knew exactly who he was.

“Get over yourself Lou” Kiki said only to watch his jaw drop. Knowing him, he had rehearsed that stupid line and it had clearly not gone to plan.

“Uh, I wasn’t expecting you to be here Kiki” Louis said with a nervous smile as he recognized her. Then he turned and started walking rapidly forward, for lack anything better to do Kiki followed along with her team. She managed to keep Louis in sight even as her team drew curious looks from the ship’s crew. Up staircases that were practically ladders and down the narrow corridors. Finally, they came to a room that seemed to be a mess hall of some kind. A man was seated at one of the tables with papers in front of him and a cup of coffee from the look of it.

“Captain Hase, Sir” Louis said as Kiki caught up with him. “We have a bit of a situation.”

“Sorry, Sir” Kiki said, “My brother overstates the matter, I am hardly a situation.”

Captain Hase looked like he was trying not to laugh. “Kristina, I take it?” He asked.

“I prefer Oberfähnrich von Preussen, Sir” Kiki replied, “I’m here with the FSR and…”

Hase just held up his hand until she trailed off. Kiki noticed that her team was watching this exchange uncomfortably.

“Enough. If I made up your family as fiction no publisher would touch it because it would all be too unbelievable” Hase said then he turned to Louis, “Take them to their quarters and keep them out of the way like you were told to.”

“But there is Kiki and one other girl with them” Louis said, earning him a slightly annoyed look from Hase.

“Put them in the Officer’s quarters that are unused and send the rest to the enlisted quarters midships” Hase said. As soon as he finished saying it Kiki knew that she would hear a bit of grumbling from the men of the team she led. As a Team Leader she had access to every inch of the barracks while the portion that she and Mitzi shared a room in was expressly forbidden to them. This was just more of that.

“And one more thing” Hase said.

“Sir” Louis replied.

“Once you get them settled make sure that they get a hot meal” Hase said, “There might not be a whole lot of time for that over the next few days.”

As Kiki followed her brother down into the ship, the Captain’s words kept rolling through her mind. Was her family really that unbelievable?
 
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This could turn out to be a full blown family reunion as Freddy could be called up as a reservist in the Pioneers Corps, Michael as part of a contingent from the Heer for transportation and support, Rea and Vicky being told to put on their "Princess Hats" and help out as volunteers at emergency shelters and of course the Emperor and Empress making visits to the affected area.
 
Part 94, Chapter 1468
Chapter One Thousand Four Hundred Sixty-Eight


17th February 1962

Pusan, Korea

Updates about what was going on in Hamburg was coming in as more became known. Cuxhaven had been hit hard by the storm, but the training and replacement base was already sending personnel to the city. The 2nd MID was on its way from Wilhelmshaven and it would be joined by mechanized units dispatched from throughout Northern Germany. As much as Tilo wanted the 2nd in Korea they were in the best place they could be at the moment. The 1st MID was to remain in Kiel. The 4th and 5th Marine Infantry Divisions remained reserve units based in Stettin and Danzig respectively. It would take war breaking out for those two Divisions to be reactivated and by the time they made it to Korea it would probably be a bit late for the 2nd MID.

Finding out that Joachim Peiper as somehow become the commander of the Sealion training detachment in Cuxhaven had been a much smaller bit of bad news for Tilo. Who the Hell put that lunatic in charge of anything? Tilo had heard that when it came to the concept of “King and Country” Peiper was an absolute fanatic with heaps brutality and absolute ruthlessness included. While he didn’t doubt that Peiper was an improvement over the man he had replaced, having to have the men Peiper trained closely watched to make sure that he had not passed on his worst habits would be an extra headache. There was also the aspect of someone able to keep Peiper under control, that someone would have to be even more ruthless and cunning than he was. Tilo suspected that he knew who that was, and it wasn’t exactly a surprise.

The real surprise was the situation that greeted Tilo when he came home that evening. A few men from the 3rd Marine Division’s Sealion were watching his house and the way they were acting was like a pack of dogs bristling at the sight of an intruder. A couple men were standing in front of the house and one of them was smoking a cigarette that smelled like it was made from the cheapest tobacco. Tilo had never encountered it in the field but he had been warned about that smell in particular, Russian soldiers.

“It’s an honor to meet you General Schultz” One of the Russians said with a smile that was anything but warm. The cavalier attitude that they had even though there were rough men nearby wanting to beat the tar out of them suggested that they were Special Forces themselves. No wonder the Sealions had reacted the way that they had.

“That’s nice” Tilo replied, “And what did you say your Outfit was?”

“I didn’t” The Russian said.

Tilo knew that pursuing this matter further would be fruitless. To get any answers he would need to beat it out of them and considering that they were Russians, they would probably get off on it.

Entering the house, Tilo saw the reason for the presence of the Russians. Jehane Alexandra Thomas-Romanova, Gia to her friends, was visiting with Nancy in the parlor.

“How are you Tilo?” Gia said, “I haven’t seen you in ages.”

“Good as can be expected” Tilo replied, “Who are the two cretins in front of the house?”

“Iosif and Luka aren’t causing trouble, are they?” Gia asked in reply.

“Not yet, but the Sealions don’t like them” Tilo said.

“I’m not surprised” Gia said, “Georgy insists that I have some sort of protection detail and I am the honorary Colonel of their Regiment, so they like to travel with me.”

Something about that tickled the back of Tilo’s mind. Nancy had mentioned the outfit that had welcomed Gia in that role and then he remembered.

“You brought two of them onto this base?” Tilo asked in disbelief.

“For my safety” Gia replied, “And they said that for them it would be fun.”


Hamburg, Germany

Mitzi had two younger sisters, but she had never thought of them as competitors. The relationship between Kiki and her brother Louis was very different. By dawn the scope of the disaster in Hamburg was clear and it was absolutely overwhelming. They had been among the first personnel on the scene when the Brandenburg steamed up the Elbe River once the storm had passed. Kiki had been driving the team from the instant they could be ferried into the flooded districts of the city. They had been searching houses and buildings, wading through hip deep water. Whenever they found someone alive, they guided those people out to waiting boats or helicopters to take them to either higher ground or one of the ships on the river.

Whenever Kiki saw her brother ferrying another boatful of people out to the Brandenburg, she would spur the rest of them forward. It had been midmorning when Mitzi had realized that Kiki was not going to allow her brother to upstage her. The result was Mitzi had lost count of the number of buildings that she had been in. Every time they cleared a building, they radioed it in and continued on. As Mitzi watched Rolf spray paint the marks on the front of the latest house, to let others know it had been searched and cleared. It had been growing more difficult as it had gotten dark and they were using flashlights.

Then Anton got a call on the radio. They were being ordered to return to the Brandenburg to get some rest. Mitzi was happy to get that order. She was tired, cold, hungry and soaked to the skin like the rest of team, but she saw the look of dismay on Kiki’s face. Mitzi knew in that instant that Kiki would keep doing this until she collapsed if allowed to.
 
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Okay, those Russian Spetznaz might think it funny, but this is why there are bold soldiers and old soldiers, and the first category is generally a self-correcting state.
 
“You brought two of them onto this base?” Tilo asked in disbelief.

“For my safety” Gia replied, “And they said that for them it would be fun.”

Well I mean, yes, it would be.

It would be like, to use some OTL examples, two SAS member escorting Prince Harry into the middle of the Russian army encampment on the Crimea, with the full permission of all governments involved.

Or two particularly large and shaggy wolves escorting a terrier among a flock of sheep, and the sheepdogs having to let it...
 
I think that Gia is giving some shade to Tilo. Kat will go ballistic when she finds out that that Gia's two pets accompanied her to Tilo and Nancy's house, but somewhere I think Kat is responsible for her being able to bring them with her without any problems. This also might be a way for Gia to finally have something to one up on Kat.
 
I don't understand what's so special about Gia's bodyguards. She is after all a Grand Duchess of Russia, in position to inherit the throne if two or three people die (how many children does the Czar have, anyway?). She most likely doesn't go anywhere without bodyguards, especially not to foreign countries. And it's not like special forces soldiers are brilliant spies or anything like that. They are just soldiers who received a special training. If Kiki were to venture to foreign countries like Korea I would be shocked if she wouldn't be accompanied by soldiers of the First Foot.
 

ferdi254

Banned
Yes go for the canal to provide help. IOTL 1962 had been a perfect staging ground for Helmut Schmidt to become a national hero.

And it was not only Hamburg that was hit it was the whole of Schleswig Holstein on the west coast.

Google „Hallig Sturmflut“ to get an impression. Those who have not seen it Hurricanes like Katherine in NO have more wind force but the North Sea is killingly colder.
 
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A major difference ITTL there is not going to be any hesitations about using the armed forces for relief work as that restriction was in effect until IOTL 1968.
IOTL the American and British helicopters were called Flying Angels by the German people and I can see that name and images being incorporated by the FSR ITTL.
 

ferdi254

Banned
The German Grundgesetz forbids the use of the Bundeswehr for internal reasons until today and is extremely strict on that matter.

Schmidt in 1962 once did say (below 12 translation): „I do not care about your restrictions just get the job done and report back accordingly“ For those with some imagination the language he used was much more ... graphical.

ITTL all those restrictions would not exist.
 
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