Stupid Luck and Happenstance, Thread III

Cue the boys (and girls) in the protocol office as there is going to be a massive state funeral to plan.
Every nation with any thing that can be called a navy will send representatives to the funeral.
The first line in the obituaries around the world will start with " Not since Lord Horatio Nelson has there been..."
For the Kurfurst von Richthofen he will take a measure of some small pleasure of out lasting one his rivals while at the same time he is reminded his own mortality.

It seems that the circumstances of this timeline has given Otto von Hasburg a much different outlook on life.
By the way is Hungary a republic or a monarchy and if a monarchy who wears the Crown?
 
For the Kurfurst von Richthofen he will take a measure of some small pleasure of out lasting one his rivals while at the same time he is reminded his own mortality.
Don't forget Emil Holz, the first main character of this story and retired field marshal (no idea how to spell that in german) of the Luftwaffe.
 
Don't forget Emil Holz, the first main character of this story and retired field marshal (no idea how to spell that in german) of the Luftwaffe.
Emil has had some run ins with the Grand Admiral when Emil was the Chief of the OKW so there is going to be some conflicting thoughts and emotions when Emil breaks out his old uniform and medals to wear at the funeral.
 
Cue the boys (and girls) in the protocol office as there is going to be a massive state funeral to plan.
I get the feeling that the Admiral’s wishes were to die as he lived, slipping quietly away into the fog, with just a restrained funeral service for family only. The offer of a state funeral and a banner at the War Museum in Berlin is another question altogether that perhaps only Esther and their daughters could answer.

Finally, I recall that the Admiral had penned a memoir? That’ll be pretty hot stuff when it sees the light of day and probably the seminal naval companion piece to Manfred von Wovogle’s memoir for Germany’s 20th Century wars.
 
Last edited:
I had forgotten that Charlotte was a Hapsburg. And it sounds as if her brother is up to his neck in negotiations to form TTL's version of the EU. One that excludes the German Empire.
Also RIP Jacob von Schmidt. I suspect his family will insist upon the traditional Jewish burial of within 24 hours of death. That should keep some of the vultures away, if so.
As for his memoir... its probably still classified "Burn BEFORE reading".
 
I had forgotten that Charlotte was a Hapsburg. And it sounds as if her brother is up to his neck in negotiations to form TTL's version of the EU. One that excludes the German Empire.
Also RIP Jacob von Schmidt. I suspect his family will insist upon the traditional Jewish burial of within 24 hours of death. That should keep some of the vultures away, if so.
As for his memoir... its probably still classified "Burn BEFORE reading".
The only unredacted copies of Jacob's autobiography are not slated for release until 31st of May 2016. By then, anyone inclined to start a war will probably be dead.
 

ferdi254

Banned
A competent German admiral who is also excellent as an intelligence guy is irony galore already. Him being a jew was perfect.
 
Germany had basically four “Great Commanders” ITTL WW II von Wovgal on the European Front, von Schmidt in the Pacific War, von Richthofen for the Air War against the Soviet Union, and von Holtz on the Far Eastern Front and it is beginning to feel like it was IOTL when leaders like Eisenhower, Montgomery started to die off leaving basically Omar Bradley the last one alive.
As for a potential State Funeral it will be up to Esther and her daughters if there is going to be a state funeral because while Jacob may have wanted one it is the living that ultimately gets to decides.
 
Also RIP Jacob von Schmidt. I suspect his family will insist upon the traditional Jewish burial of within 24 hours of death. That should keep some of the vultures away, if so.
Just a thought: quiet family funeral at their usual synagogue.

A Service of Remembrance at the Imperial Museum with an unveiling of his personal banner can be held with full pomp and ceremony later.
The question is whether Freddy and Suga should attend given the way he finished the German Pacific War against Japan...
This could stir up some very raw emotion in Japan too. That could cause some "fun" for Freddy...
 
Grand Admiral Jacob von Schmidt is viewed in Japan as a “Honorable Enemy “ who earned the title “The Spider” by the IJN.
Plus Empress Suga was “ rescued” by Tilo and the MA and was a guest along with her family on the Kaiser’s yacht.
 
If the Germans, and the Grand Admiral himself would approve, bury an empty coffin with a note saying along the lines of “Elvis has left the building” and have people report seeing him around the world. Imagine the hilarity that the Abwer will have.
 
Nah, breaking into the U navies secure coms to play the german national anthem, right after the admirals have just finished a bitching session about what a shit show the Patagonia war has turned into.
 
Part 123, Chapter 2075
Chapter Two Thousand Seventy-Five



23rd July 1971

Wahlstatt, Silesia

The end of the term was just hours away and it was so close that they could taste it. The Institution wasn’t about to let them go on their Summer Holiday without one last reminder as to exactly who was in charge here by announcing once their final exams were complete that a white glove inspection was going to be conducted on their dormitory. That meant that everything would need to be cleaned until it sparkled. Because it had seemed like the Staff had been easing up a bit as the end of the term had approached, there were portions of the dormitory that had not been cleaned properly in weeks.

As a Cadet Sergeant and Dorm Leader, it was Niko’s job to get everyone moving at a time when no one wanted to do anything. It was only now that they were starting to feel the heat as the time had been running out and word had reached them that they would not be dismissed on their holiday until the headmaster was satisfied with the state of their dormitory. They were faced with a task that was far bigger than it should have been. For once, Bas’ complaints about how things like this were totally contrived were dead on, not that Niko would tell him that, of course. Niko also suspected that no matter how hard they worked, the headmaster was bound to find something even if he had to put there himself. Again, that was not something which he was going to tell anyone else, much less Bas.

With the acrid smell of disinfectant filling his nose, Niko followed Oberstlieutenant Gruber, the school’s headmaster, and Staber Arbeit as they went through the dormitory. Every few seconds the two older men was say something quiet to each other and Arbeit would check something on the clipboard he was carrying. Niko realized that he was flinching every time something else was checked off. He was certain that they were dinging the dorm with every check and when they inevitably failed the first inspection the others who were waiting by their beds were going to take their frustrations out on him.

“I expect that you will have this up to my standard by the time I come back later this afternoon Nikolaus” Gruber said as Arbeit handed him the checklist. Then Gruber, Arbeit, and an aide who Niko didn’t know, went down the hallway to the next dormitory, leaving him to go back and break the news to the others.

As Niko looked over the list of items that had failed the inspection, he saw that it was even worse than he had feared. They were basically going to have to redo most of what they had already done that morning. Reluctantly, he walked back into the dorm. He hoped that the others would understand that this entire thing had been coming for weeks. Did they really think that the school would just let them go without doing something like this?



Potsdam

Looking out the windows at the Summer Residence seemed like it was about as close to enjoying the semi-rural surroundings as he could ever have. Later that afternoon, Freddy was going to have tea with Suga in the pagoda in the Zen Garden that had been a wedding present to them from his father. Just the fact that spending time with his wife and children was something that had of to be scheduled ahead of time spoke volumes.

In theory, Freddy’s position was largely symbolic, so he really could spend his days doing as little as possible. There were certain powers that his Office retained in regard to the Government, but everyone was happier if he only exercised those in conjunction with the Chancellor and he was supposed to be above politics as it were. He was also considered the Head of the Military, which again was largely symbolic. The High Command would probably lose the message if he tried to do anything in that capacity that the Generals disagreed with.

Instead, there were tasks that it was felt that he alone had the authority to carry out in service to the greater needs of the Empire. So, Freddy found himself on the phone arguing with Bureaucrats and Officials at various levels from a wide variety of other countries in the service of the German Empire and pounding out the latest draft agreements before those got dropped into the shredder. They were trying to nail down a final agreement regarding a treaty that would join all the nations of Europe into what would become the world’s largest customs union. There was an open question though as to who was a bigger pain in the ass, the French, or the Austrians? And the entire time England was egging them on. It was an almost exact repeat of the Common Defense Treaty from years earlier except then it had been the Italians, the French and the British causing the trouble. The Greeks had rather steadfastly refused to join that particular treaty, throwing in with the Russians instead. It wasn’t until years later that everyone figured out why, the Greeks had been planning on exterminating their neighbors and didn’t want any outside interference. Freddy’s father had once observed that things may have been different if bombs had been falling on London or Paris during the Soviet War along with Berlin but that hadn’t happened, so they needed to learn to live with them.

Into this had come news a week earlier that Grand Admiral von Schmidt had died. Freddy knew that Jacob von Schmidt had a problematic legacy as being the source of much of the distrust that the world felt towards the German Empire. He had been entitled to a State Funeral, but his family had opted for a simple ceremony that reflected his religious background. As far as Freddy was concerned that was a bullet dodged.
 
Part 123, Chapter 2076
Chapter Two Thousand Seventy-Six



24th July 1971

Off Puerto San Julián, Argentina

Louis Ferdinand Junior watched the shore through his binoculars as the ship he was on rounded the headlands. The main guns of SMS Z66 “Schwertwal” opened up. The 12.8-centimeter guns were capable of firing once every three seconds and the Schwertwal was just one of a dozen ships in the Destroyer flotilla, so a vast amount of earth was getting churned up and the town of Puerto San Julián itself was getting pulverized.

The Sealions had scouted the town a few days earlier, somehow entering and leaving without being detected. What they had found was that the civilian population had either fled or been removed by the Chileans, at least it was Louis’ hope that was true. This was due to the perceived importance of San Julián as a deep-water port, close proximity to a major road junction, and how any anticipated landings were likely to occur here because of that. Instead, there was what was believed to be a token “tripwire” force left in the town while the vast majority of the Chilean Army was further inland so that they could respond to the landings wherever they might be happening. Civilians would just have gotten in the way.

Trailing the Destroyers was a number of Landing Craft Tenders and a pair of Guided Missile Frigates in case any airplanes from the FACh decided to join the party this morning. Aboard the Tenders were the German 3rd and 4th Marine Infantry Divisions, a contingent from the Japanese Special Naval Landing Forces equivalent to a Division and a Battalion of Marines from the Argentine Navy. Louis could see that the Landing Craft, dozens of them, were already being lowered into the water from the Tenders. He remembered his own time commanding LB932 during the landings at Andong during the Sino-Korean War, having to make repeated trips up and down the Yalu River to deliver Marines and supplies to the fight as the Chinese had shot at him the entire time from their side of the river. That was an experience he was pleased not to have to repeat even if he had been decorated for bravery afterwards.

----------------------------------------------------------------

Of all the men on this tub, it seemed like only Karl Dunkel and Nicolaus Nguyen had any experience in this sort of thing. Had Korea really been that long ago? It didn’t seem like it could have been.

“What you said before we boarded Spear?” One of the men, this one didn’t even look old enough to shave asked. It was a stupid question, and it was a reminder that Karl had been appointed to Hauptfeldwebel just before they had left Cuxhaven.

“Get to the top of the beach, find cover, and try not to piss yourself” Karl replied. It wasn’t the quite same thing he had said before but as they were getting ready to go into a fight, he didn’t have time to repeat himself. Niko just smiled, he knew what the score was having made the landing at Andong with Karl, he had taken over Karl’s Squad when Karl had been appointed the be the “Company Mother” much to Karl’s annoyance. That was also why he made a point of being here as opposed to anywhere near the Officers. If any of them asked him to take note of something irrelevant he would be strongly tempted to shove the reporting pouch up their ass.

Ahead of them, they could see that shells from the Destroyers were blasting the town. Anyone watching who was uninformed would think that no one could survive that. The truth was that either they were in a relatively deep shelter of some kind or somehow were not where the shells were falling in the first place. The truth was that shelling like this seemed to be to improve the morale of those about to run up the beach. It wouldn’t be until they got a radio man ashore to direct the fire when that would change. They would also be directly engaged by that point, so taking shelter would no longer be an option. Karl had been on both sides of that equation in Korea and knew which one he preferred to be on, at least until the shelling stopped as they drew near the beach.

As the Landing Craft ran itself aground on the beach just north of the town, Karl could feel it through his feet before the ramp dropped. Fortunately, fire didn’t from the shattered buildings, at least not yet. He remembered his Drill Instructor had been a veteran of the Pacific War, he had spoken of how the Japanese would let them come ashore. Then the Japanese would wait until they let their guard down before opening up with everything that they had from concealed positions with idea of catching them flatfooted. All that would have needed to happen was for a Chilean Officer to have been able to stay awake during History Class for that same tactic to see use here.

“Keep low!” Karl yelled over his shoulder as he realized that the buildings above the beach were the only cover visible.

Running towards the town, Karl heard the sound of a machinegun open up and hoped that it was one of theirs being fired by someone who had gotten nervous. Otherwise, it was going to be a long day.
 
Last edited:
Grand Admiral Jacob von Schmidt is viewed in Japan as a “Honorable Enemy “ who earned the title “The Spider” by the IJN.
Plus Empress Suga was “ rescued” by Tilo and the MA and was a guest along with her family on the Kaiser’s yacht.
Let’s not forget Jacob’s connection to the Russian royal family - his rescue of one of the Grand Duchesses (correct me if i‘m wrong, but was she Gia’s mother?) from the pitching, icy deck of a warship as the Romanovs were being smuggled out after the end of WW1 that earned him a Lifesaving Medal.
 
Top