This roleplay will be played from the German perspective, it will take place in the later stages of the Battle of Kurks, on the 12th of August 1943, after the initial German offensive and four weeks and three days into the Soviet counter-offensive. Every participant of the roleplay will be in the same platoon, the size of which is hard to determine this point in the war, reserves were running low and the heavy fighting was costly. Therefor it is logical that we would be between 60% or 70% of our former strength, if we would go between those two figures on 65% our platoon strength would be 21 men. Our platoon will start in Kurchatov, which is 43 kilometers to Kursk.

it should be noted that this roleplay is heavily focused on character development, and not so much on the real fighting, all though it will take place. It is about the mindset that the soldiers around us and in our platoon have. At this point in the war the memory of Stalingrad is still strong, our offensive at Kursk has been stalled and we are defending against a Soviet offensive which is cracking our lines. Supplies are running low, there is little tank or air support available to the regular platoon commander and morale is debatable at best. Everyone is fully aware that the Wehrmacht has given up on Sicily and that a second front has been opened. How you perceive things however, is totally up to you, I don't mind characters that still believe in the final victory or those that have fully given up. But to summarize, character development through the war is key to this roleplay. Think writing letters to your loved ones, realising you may not come back, having an emotional breakdown when things get bleaker and bleaker, your best friends getting killed beside you, those tempting Soviet broadcasts you might hear when you find yourself alone, that urge you to surrender, promising safe return to your family, proper treatment and three meals a day. But, can they really be trusted?

Personally I thought that this would be a lot of fun to experience. I will keep character submission open, even when we're already started. So, it is possible that if your current character can't take it anymore and either surrenders, kills himself or gets killed, that you can make a new character. I was aiming for us to play it out untill the end of the war though, whether we will all die or taking captive, I will not specify yet. I however, will maintain the rank of Oberleutnant and lead our platoon. I am not quite sure how to distribute ranks yet but any rank of your soldier should be below Oberleutnant, if you'd wish to have a leading role of sorts then I will decide by your character application whether or not you are suitable for that position.



I will develop this idea further if enough people have expressed interest.

Name: Karl von Güno
Age: 45

Personality:
Karl never really identified with the whole Nazi idea and with those that like him forfeit the ideals of Hitler, he loves to make the joke that when an Austrian fails to enter the arts he takes the easy route and becomes a military strongman in the north. Of course, he has a dislike of the Jews for the same reasons as Hitler, the fact that they are bankers above all, but still his opinion on the subject is that they should just be bared to enter education, politics and banking as to prevent their influence. Above all however, he is staunchly catholic in saying that 'Jewish bankers wouldn't be a problem if Germans didn't meddle with usury in the first place'.

Otherwise some consider him as a weirdo with some issue due to his habit of trying to make himself feel at home where he is. He calls it an habit from the trenches and so he likes to give the floor a broom sweep, find a rug, a few chairs and a good book, a tidy little living room in the middle of the ruins of the battlefield, even add a potted plant or two if possible. He looks at the civilians more like neighbors rather than enemies, considering that this isn't a war between Germans and Russians, but rather between National Socialists and Communists, the people around them only incidentally being on the communist side. Still, on the same logic he doesn't hesitate to put a bullet in the head of Russian Commissars as even if he doesn't consider himself a Nazi, he'd rather live under a Fascist rather than a Communist state.

Background:
Son of a minor Freiherr (Baron) in Austria-Hungary, he enlisted as soon as he could in the Austrian army to fight for Emperor and Country. At first he still had some kind of romanticized view of war but was quickly brought back to reality as the fight against Russia went on. He found himself in a low combat environment with a lot of waiting going on and he was, he admits it, unworthy of the rank his nobility gave him as a sergeant. In early 1917 he was captured by the Tsarist forces and had the luck to be in one of the best prisoner camp around rather than in Siberia building railways. He also had the luck to find himself in the custody of an officer who like him, was of noble birth and had a very chivalrous view of the war, although one who had never seen enough fighting to remove this delusions.

This was where he met his future wife in the form of the daughter of this noble officer. As we know however that year was where Russia would turn communist and the commander of the PoW camp Karl was in was wary of a mutiny and so decided to allow Karl freedom if he would escort the younger or female members of his family in a monarchist territory until things calmed down. They never did. Still, he found himself back in Austria and without much concern, placed the family of his benefactor under 'House arrest' in his own home, going back to the front with a medal for his 'Valiant escape' (He still considers himself worthy of that honor, if only for the fact that he actually went back to the army after he was freed.) but not for long, the armistice ending the war less than a year later. Still, he had a taste of the real war on the Western front and became an advocate for Austrian neutrality immediately after.

Still things were not perfect, the Austrian Empire was dismembered and it wasn't good to be an Austrian in Yugoslavia, so he moved to Vienna and joined the monarchist faction immediately when the Republic was proclaimed. His reactionary fervor however died down with the years as he married and had many children with his dear Veronika. He manages to weather the economical crisis quite well with the old Swiss bank accounts of his and his wife's family. When the war began, he actually managed to shield himself and his children (Well, most, his eldest was really in the whole Reich thing and got himself killed in Africa) for quite some time by playing the 'Race Traitor' card on himself and his child who were no pure Aryan due to their mother being a Slavic Mongrel (Something he finds hilarious since he rarely sees anyone with more Aryan and blonde features such as her).

Still, this only went so far as to protect his Children, he himself was still 100% Germanic and was called to arms. He made arrangements for his family to move in the house of one of his cousins in the Austrian Alps to protect them from the constant bombardments in Vienna and joined without trying to dodge the draft, not wanting to attract more attention than needed on himself and his family.

Rank: Feldwebel / Sergeant First Class

Equipment:
-PPSh-41 (x3 Magazines)
-Model 24 Stielhandgranate (x1)
-Jackboots (Custom Made)
-Helmet
-Socks (x5 pairs (2 of them Russian))
-Entrenching Tool
-Canteen
-Russian Rations (x2)
-German Ration (x1)
-A large warm white scarf with K.v.G. embroiled in yellow on it.
-Pocket Watch

Other information:
-He is perfectly fluent in Russian and familiar with the culture.
-He was a white collar bureaucrat working on low level statue and memorial maintenance across Austria before being drafted.
-Sleeps 9h a day and really needs his sleep to be functional, is also a light sleeper.

Definitely interested, gonna brew up a character.

@Wernher: I would assume that by the British rations you mean the rations the Soviet Army received from the lend-lease program. It looks a little odd though, it may confuse other players. I suggest you change it to Russian rations to avoid confusion.

As for your backstory, I find the fact that the Russian officer just released you and entrusted you with escorting the young female members of his family a bit odd, I myself could not see that happening.

As for your experience in the P.O.W camp: ''Life in the camps was extremely rough for the men who resided in them. The Tsarist government could not provided adequate supplies for the men living in their POW camps. The living and working environments for POWs was bleak. There was a shortage of food, clean drinking water, and proper medical care.'' I am aware that you just state that you were in one of the better camps but your experience should have been, more troublesome to say the least.

But your story overal isn't bad, it just has some minor inaccuracies. If you could alter your story a little bit then everything would be okay for me. :)

"The Russian governments inability to supply the POWs in their camp with supplies was due to inadequate resources and bureaucratic rivalries. However, the condition in the POW camps varied, some condition were more bearable then others."

As it said varying from one to the other, I assumed that some would be better. Overall, I'd say it was luck to find an officer sympathetic to the conventions of war and like I said, who was still chivalrous.

And yes, British rations through the Lease

Odd yes, but life is full of little odd things no? It's not like it would have been a generalized thing, it's the whole Russian civil war thing and this coupled with the fact that as stated before hand, said officer would have been generous to the PoW would make for a likely Mutiny. The imperial family captured, St-Petersbourg falling to the Bolsheviks and so forth. Of course it's a stupid decision but what's best? Now that the man's family is with him on the south-west Russian front, should he make them escape through an hostile turkey? Send them through Siberia in the far east? Make them go north to try and find a convoy that could somehow go to Britain pass Germany? I agree this is an almost silly decision, but between this, an even more hazardous journey or waiting for the Revolution to spread to his men, it was the choice between a bad and worst decision. If you want me to change, I can, no problem (Marry after the war and have a legitimate escape, etc.), but while Romantic, I think it makes for a good conversation around a beer, and justifies someone speaking Russian.

@Wernher: I'd say that you briefly being part of the White Movement in Russia would give you enough justification to both know the culture and having learned Russian, that and being able to have met your Russian wife there too. It matches well with your hate for Communism. But that is just my idea.

Edit: Slightly more bearable doesn't make it much better, the conditions were pretty bad, even if you were in the best camp available. I am aware you never stated that you had it easy or hard though, but i'd figure you may have had some rough times is all.

A quick bump for my own benefit, before I head to bed and all.

SvenO100 said
@Wernher: I'd say that you briefly being part of the White Movement in Russia would give you enough justification to both know the culture and having learned Russian, that and being able to have met your Russian wife there too. It matches well with your hate for Communism. But that is just my idea.

Edit: Slightly more bearable doesn't make it much better, the conditions were pretty bad, even if you were in the best camp available. I am aware you never stated that you had it easy or hard though, but i'd figure you may have had some rough times is all.

Of course. it's all reasonable and I'll make edits once this reach the OOC stage.

Name: Peter Von Derberg
Age: 28
Personality: 
Background: Before the start of the war he use to live with his parents and disabled cousin, in a little village south of Saarbrücken by 20 miles or so. His family originated from another little village in the Bavarian alps, though had migrated to the western region at the end of the first world war, in case Germany ever became too unstable and they had to pack up and head France side. He had spent his childhood working fields and mines with his father, never having time for a formal education, only ever learning to read, write and count from his mother, who had been a shop clerk before marrying his father. At the start of the first world war, around the time he was 9, his father was drafted into the army, after a few days of him being at the front the family received a letter. Apparently his father had been killed on the front, the discription of how he died was vague, claiming that he was shot in the stomach (a pain Peter wouldn't realize until later). At the point the family got the letter, he found himself unable to cry, he had shed his tears when his father had left and now realized he had to be the man of the house, he had to provide. By the time he was 13, as the war was winding down, he was already in full time work, working jobs where ever he could find them, alongside men who had returned from the front and women who had taken the place of men during the war. 

During the 1920s as he started to mature into manhood, he found himself becoming more and more attached to his cousin, until the point he recognized it as love. His cousin, Lotte, a second cousin of Austrian origin, was a sufferer of  learning difficulties, otherwise summed up as: she was slow. Doctors claimed it was because she was born with only half a brain, though Peter really didn't see how this was possible because everyone, to his knowledge, had a whole brain. 

At the start of the World War 2 he managed to escape the first wave of drafts by claiming he had Scarlet fever but his block leader knew he was lying and so had him shipped off in December of '39. His first posting was in North Africa, he'd been there for one and a half years before receiving a discharge due to injuries, having been completely deafned in the left ear because of a shell explosion.

Rank: 
Equipment: 
- Kar 98 rifle.
- Browning Hi-power 9mm (looted off a dead Brit during his time in north Africa).
- Model 24 grenade x2.
- Bedouin Dagger (traded his standard issue combat knife with a Bedouin for his knife).
- Standard Helmet.
- Standard Uniform (jacket removed and in bag, has rolled up sleeves).
- Mess Kit.
- Canteen.
- Bolt Cutters.
- Old Teddy bear. 
Other: 

A little bump. I'm happy that you two are interested, things I have tried before have always ended in failure. Maybe it's just how I write or what I write. I don't know. But i'll keep positive and hope that more people will show interest. :)

Do we really need a whole bunch of people to start with? Why not begin with 3 and have the unit separated, if more people join then we find our other men later a sole survivor joins up with us, another unit is merged with ours to reform the company and so forth. I do think it is futile to try to have such a large RP anyways with the current state of the guild. If they like what they see, the players will join naturally, etc.

True, I suppose it is possible for me to start it with us three, if Voltus is interested in that.

Quick bump now i'm heading to bed.

Yeah man.

Interested.

I'll get some things ready tomorrow, if I have time. (Should have.)

http://www.roleplayerguild.com/topics/75002/posts/ooc (Link to the ooc, i'll put up my character tomorrow.)