Pages from the journal of Oberleutnant Wilhelm Schröder.
The world lay at our feet, we only needed to seize the oppertunities. After France we felt like we were immortal, country after country had fallen to our Blitzkrieg, there was nothing that could stop us. The Soviet Union was nothing more then a rotten shed, you only had to kick in the door and the whole structure would have come crashing down. But we would soon know better, this would be a war unlike any before.

Advancing is a pleasure, the speed is intoxicating, further and further and further. The boundlessness of the land, countryside like none we had ever seen before, fields stretching to the horizon. Skies so big and blue that it looked as if god wanted to dazzle us. We all believed that we would be home before Christmas, we were taking tens of thousands of prisoners, hunderds of thousands even. Yet with amazement and disappointment, we discovered in late October and early November that the beaten Russians seemed quite unaware that as a military force they had almost ceased to exist. In late December the whole situation made it increasingly plain that we had underestimated the Russian colossus, their divisions weren't armed and equipped according to our standards, and their tactical leadership was often poor. But there they were, and as we smashed a dozen of them, the Russians simply put up another dozen. The time factor favoured them, as they were near their own resources, while we were moving further and further away from ours. And so, our troops, sprawled over the immense front line, without depth, are subject to the incessant attacks of the enemy. Forced to dig themselves into the rock-hard ground, as deep as possible like animals in holes, scared of freezing to death.

They treated us like liberators, and in return they were treated like they were below us, as if they were inferior. Our reprisals against the civilian population only increased their resistance, that sparked their sudden patriotism for their country, not the love for the Bolshevik regime. Stalingrad was a disaster, soldiers were send into the city like pigs to a slaughter house, even panzer crews were forced on their feet, to abandon their tanks and fight as infantry. You can’t say that the Russian soldiers at Stalingrad only held on because of the brutal discipline. There was a very genuine idealism and a very genuine determination to fight on, and an astonishing level of self-sacrifice. I don’t think any Western army, be it British, French, or American would ever have survived at Stalingrad or have held on to the west bank of the Volga there, unlike the Red Army, which did. You cannot stop an army which has done Stalingrad, was what they said. The lands which we had destined for our living space would become our dying space. Only the dead see the end of war.

Stalingrad was the end of the beginning, but the Battle of Kursk was the beginning of the end. Now the frontline has come to the outskirts of Kharkov, and we are destined to defend it, or to die trying.

The Roleplay.
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 Kharkov.

it should be noted that this roleplay is heavily focused on character development, aside from the fighting aspect. It is about the mindset of your character and how he develops or has been developing since the start of the war. You can be a veteran or a new recruit, pressed into service whether you are fit for combat or not. I aim to play this out to the end of the war, our fate shall be kept a secret though. We could all find our final resting place in the middle of nowhere, burried deep in the snow, decayed and forgotten. But while we're still standing, think of writing letters to your loved ones, having emotional breakdowns, doubting the regime or finding renewed confidence in the regime to cope with the situation. I will maintain the rank of Oberleutnant and lead our platoon as Wilhelm Schröder. 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.

Character sheet:
Name: (Our platoon would be purely German, so make sure you use a German name.)
Age: (Obviously you can not be under 18, but having just turned 18 was enough to be drafted at this period in time so it is acceptable.)
Appearance: (Description or an image works fine.)
Personality: (Tell us how you have developed, has you character ever shot a jew or civilians? Do you still believe in a thousand year reich or are you starting to see the cracks?)
Rank: (Make sure to keep it under Oberleutnant.)
Background: (Can be as long as you like, just include your life before the war and how you ended up where you are now.)
Equipment: (Keep it realistic for this time in the war, having certain pieces of Russian equipment is possible though.)
Other information: (Drafting standards were getting lower and lower for the Wehrmacht, do you have an illness or any allergies? Do you have any fears or certain skills that may come in handy?)

Name: Wilhelm Schröder
Age: 25
Appearance:

Personality: Wilhelm firmly believes he is bound by honour to fight as a soldier for his home country. Subsequently he is determined to do what he considers his duty as a Wehrmacht officer commanding an infantry platoon. As the war raged on the hope for a quick victory evaporated and so did his naive idealism. Despite that, he continously tries to protect the civilian population, believing that as non combatants they fall under the laws of the Geneva convention. Even though the Russians didn't sign it, he believes that the civilian population shouldn't have to suffer under the mistakes of their Bolshevik regime.

Having joined the Wehrmacht to fight for his country rather then for the believe that the Jews and Russians are sub-humans, in need of extermination, causes him difficulties in obeying certain orders from superiors. As the war progressed however, he learned to tune out certain emotions, and even allowed the execution of prisoners in accordance with the Commissar Order. And approved the use of captured partisans to be used for the clearing of a minefield to speed up the advance of his platoon. He justifies those decisions by reminding himself that both the partisans and the commissars were actively trying to kill him and the soldiers around him.

The years of war have changed him, causing him to do things that he normally wouldn't do. He hasn't changed completely though, not allowing the execution of normal prisoners of war for example, no matter the circumstances. He continously tries to keep the soldiers from his platoon from being part in firing squads, and to prefend them from mistreating civilians, often reminding them of their honour as a soldier.

Rank: Oberleutnant.

Background: Wilhelm grew up during the unstable interwar years in the Weimar Republic. His family was fortunate enough to have work, so even though things were harsh, his family never suffered from hunger. His father was a soldier in the Reichswehr, and before that he had served on the western front in World War, from it's very start in 1914, to its end in early November 1918. Because of his service his father was a respected figure, the Reichswehr could only have a standing force of a hunderd thousand soldiers, so only the best of the best were accepted. His mother was also closely related with the war effort, having spend her time during the war as a nurse, nursing wounded soldiers back to health, including his own father. That is how they met, and after the war they decided to stay together and raise a family.

Wilhelm experienced a normal childhood, atleast back then it was considered a normal childhood. The economy wasn't so good and people were clearly worried about the future of Germany, but at the time he was to young to understand what was going on. His family didn't have it as bad as some of the others so he counted himself lucky, he preformed well at school and was even fortunate enough to be able to afford joining one of the many youth organisations. He recalls his time there as fun and enjoyable, having learned many useful skills. As he grew older and entered his early teens, school got more difficult and time consuming so he left the organisation to focus on his academics. Eventually all youth organisations were banned and replaced with the Hitler Youth, which he never joined, primarely because of the time it would take up.

Eventually, as he grew into a young adult, his father encouraged him to go to military school, which he did. Upholding the tradition of his family to serve in the military, his father was still in the military at the time, having been accepted into the new Wehrmacht formed by the Nazi government. Military school and the influence of his father prepared him for honourable warfare, molding him into a capable commander that showed admiration and respect for his enemies. Firmly believing that prisoners of war should be treated properly, civilians should be spared and protected, both sides of the conflict should have the right to remove their wounded from the field and medical personnel, no matter their origin should not be harmed.

He finished military school in time to join the military, receive additional training and to be assigned an unit right before the invasion of Poland. His experienced in Poland were debatable, many of the soldiers in his unit treated the Polish soldiers and the Polish civilians as inferior and treated them harshly, he disliked such behaviour and tried to stay away from the soldiers that had commited such actions, expecting them to face military court for their behaviour. The overall military operation was a success though, he learned a lot and remembers the Poles he fought as worthy opponents. Fortunately for him he was re-located shortly after the victory to prepare for the invasion of France, being spared from seeing the horrible things that would develop in Poland, and from discovering the things that had already happened.

At the start of the invasion of France he had received a promotion and was now in charge of a small unit of soldiers. Invading France had been a personal issue as well, not out of hatred but out of pride, there had been many border clashes with France and his father had always spoken that the war had ended unfairly for them. The war with France was the honourable style of warfare he had been prepared for, nobody was treated as inferior and he never witnissed any mistreatment against the civilian population. He recalls the French fighting bravely but ultimately losing to superior strategy. After the war had ended he stayed behind as the occupation force and even spend some time learning the language, eventually getting caught up in a romance with a local French girl. He stayed in France for a few months, eventually getting called back to Germany to train and pepare for a military operation against a people he had only a year ago considerd their allies, the Russians.

Wilhelm was part of the second wave of troops entering the Soviet Union, their panzer divisions had been advancing and advancing infront of him, he only had to follow in their tracks and eliminate any remnants of resistance left in their wake. Unfortunately this would change very soon and he would become part of a brutal conflict spanning over several years in which he changed drastically, much like the people around him.

Equipment: Luger P08 with two spare magazines, Nagant M1895 revolver with five rounds left in the cylinder, PPSh-41 with three spare drum magazines. Binoculars, NR-40 combat knife, two Model 43 Stielhandgranate, pack of cigarettes, canteen, thick winter coat, Russian made boots.

Other information: Wilhelm speaks French fluently and has also taken an interest in the Russian language, a keen investigator may notice that his vocabulary in Russian seems to be focused on romantic and normal conversation aspects. Hinting at a possible relationship with a Russian woman or girl, whether this was ever the truth and whether he may or may not be involved with anyone as of now remains a mystery.

Name: Albin Drexel

Age: 39

Appearance: Albin in a shaggy looking individual, with his field-grey uniform often creased and appearing a size too big for him. He keeps his hair shaven, to lessen the effects of the Eastern Front's notorious lice. His jack boots and other equipment are well worn (most of it is second-hand), and the pale blue of his eyes are lifeless. He stands little of 5'8, and has the slim build of a pencil pusher.

Personality: Albin has no faith in Hitler, no faith in the idea of a Thousand Year Reich, and no fair in his ability to survive the Kursk offensive. He is terribly jaded by his experiences, though they have been brief, and speaks with a stutter. He drifts in and out of lucidity, but operates with inhuman efficiency when it comes to "killing or being killed".
Rank: Grenadier

Background: Albin is a lawyer by trade, and prior to Hitler's rise to power, he was very much a believer in human rights, and his work was often based around such things. Needless to say, when Germany's Jewish population started to face discrimination, he was one of the first, though one of the few, to voice his concern at the situation.

This landed him in prison, where he was given an indefinite sentence pending his "political re-education". Germany's need for manpower in 1943 however, earned him an early release from his purgatory. Given a rifle, a week or two of training, and dispatched with all haste to the Eastern Front along with a whole host of other minor undesirables, Albin is not pleased or enthused by his situation.

Prior to the opening days of the Kursk Offensive, Albin had never fired a rifle at a living person. Fast forward to August the 12th, and he is a broken man. War is not his thing, it is not his life. He was never supposed to die in a ditch, unloved and unknown, killed by an enemy who could not - would not - understand his situation. He is propelled now by basic human survival instinct. It is a matter of killing, or being killed. Of following orders, or being condemned for failing to rise to the impossible expectations given to him and his peers.

The romantic notions of chivalry, human rights, freedom, compassion, honour and love have no place in him now. Too many close calls, too many throttled throats and bayoneted rib cages have seen to that. He exists now, purely because he must, and he is driven by his basic animal natures to survive the war.

Equipment: Karabiner 98 Kurz, with a few pre-loaded clips. He's already used his grenades, and lost his bayonet inside some poor Russian girl he mistook for a soldier the previous week.

Other information: Inexperienced, shell shocked.

@Sturmgeschutz, I would prefer it if you were just a regular member of the platoon. Your history can be that of the artillery wing though, but perhaps you received an injury that made you unfit for your tank duties. I figured that you could have been relocated and assigned to our platoon as a radio operator.

Righty'o buddy, no problem. I'll re-roll as a fanatical unteroffizier if that's cool.

How's that?

@Sturmgeschutz. It will be interesting to see how your character will develop, consider it approved.

Edit: You seemed to have served on a lot of fronts, i'm a little unsure on when you actually got to the Eastern Front. I do get the idea that it was quite recent though.

SvenO100 said
@Sturmgeschutz. It will be interesting to see how your character will develop, consider it approved.Edit: You seemed to have served on a lot of fronts, i'm a little unsure on when you actually got to the Eastern Front. I do get the idea that it was quite recent though.

Yeah, I don't think that's too fantastical. A lot of German units saw a lot of action on a lot of fronts. It was my way of saying he's experienced, decorated and not daunted by the horrors of war. It also adds an extra layer of character for him, because he's seen first hand the Reich's defeat in Africa, and the bloody battle for Crete - he has been shown that the Wehrmacht is far from invincible, and now with America's entry, is at a serious, possibly fatal disadvantage - yet he's still committed to the idea of a final victory.

He would have arrived on the Eastern Front immediately after the defeat of Rommel's Afrika Korps, (13 May 1943). So he's been there for a few months, doing nothing much inparticular leading up to the battle of Kursk.

WIP

Name: Peter Von Derberg
Age: 28
Personality: 
Peter is a person who will do as he is told, most of the times being completely obedient to his superiors, except in times of emotional turmoil. However when a superior acts uppity towards him he doesn't react well, he believes that he is better then them, that he has given more then them and therefore when he carries out orders that his superiors wouldn't do, he is reluctant.
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 and partially in the right because of a shell explosion. However his time with his mother and beloved Lotte in Germany was short, he was almost immediately re-deployed with a platoon and he remains there to this day.
Rank: 
Obersoldat
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: 
- Before any large confrontations he takes heavy painkillers, the disadvantage of being almost deaf is you don't know where the danger is coming from and if you get hit, you still need to concentrate.
- When ever he receives letters from his beloved Lotte, he folds them neatly and stuffs them into the old Teddy bear that once belonged to her. If it were taken from him, he'd probably destroy the man who did.

@Sturmgeschutz. Oh, yes. I was aware of what you ment. But what I ment was that the Eastern Front was much different then the Western Front, the fighting in the east was brutal. So I was just wondering how long you were there. (To see how your character might break down.)

Also, sorry for late responses. I've been trying to finish up my character but i've rarely been able to find time where the guild isn't down and unacessable.

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 as a hussar in the Cavalry. 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. In early 1917 he was captured by the Tsarist forces and had the luck to be in one of the better prisoner camp around rather than in Siberia building railways. Still, things were bleak but as the communist rebellion became more and more generalized through the Russian ranks, he managed to leave with a group of fellow Austrians and go back to the Australian lines after 3 days of marching without anyone even trying to stop them. He went back to the front with a medal for his Valiant escape 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. At this point his mother died and his father had become a monarchist reactionary crusader. Without money of his own or the possibility to have a real job, he joined the counter-revolutionary white movement in Russia. This was where he met his wife, Veronika Tolstoi, eldest daughter of a family of nobles trying to flee communism. At this point the campaign was failing as the foreign allies of the Tsarists were less and less willing to spend energy on this after a costly world war and so he suggested, and his step family reluctantly accepted, to flee. Most the family moved to Great Britain but having proposed to Veronika, she followed him to Austria where his father had gotten killed by the police. With all his brothers dead in the War, this left him as the sole inheritor. He had no land but still received a hefty amount of money held in Swiss Bank accounts. Trying to look toward the future with his wife, he had many children, followed up on studies in architecture and managed to find stable employment, thanks a lot to some friends he had made in the war.

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)
-Luger P08 (x2 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.
-Knows basic english.
-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.
-Expert horse rider.

SvenO100 said
@Sturmgeschutz. Oh, yes. I was aware of what you ment. But what I ment was that the Eastern Front was much different then the Western Front, the fighting in the east was brutal. So I was just wondering how long you were there. (To see how your character might break down.)Also, sorry for late responses. I've been trying to finish up my character but i've rarely been able to find time where the guild isn't down and unacessable.

Tell me about it. It's unusable some times, but I struggle through it.

He's not been there long, again it would have been late May, early June since his arrival. His first real Eastern Front engagement is Kursk. By this point in the battle, he's obviously taken part in the initial offensive operations.

I will expand his back story to include how different he has found the Eastern Front compared with the rest of the theatres he's seen.

And um, I can re-roll again into a nameless grunt if it makes you more comfortable. I was just trying to come up with a character that didn't fit the usual hash of non-Nazis and professional old school German soldiers that people tend to go for.

@Sturmgeschutz. No, don't worry. I like your character as is, we can use a couple people that believe in the nazi ideolgy. But make your character on you like, you have to portray him not us. :)