Chapter 3

An assignment to the Russian Front was not considered to be a sought-after posting even in the early months after the German-Russian Non-Aggression pact fell apart. Karl never really understood the reason for the dissolution of the agreement other than it had to do more with politics than with military logic. For some reason, the Russians began to back-pedal as fast as they could to protect their forward elements from the power of the Luftwaffe. He thought it was a mistake because the German forces were stretched far too thin on a thousand mile front. Then again, he was not a strategic planner but a front-line soldier. There was no doubt that the Russians were not happy about the divorce because they were not as prepared for global warfare as the Wehrmacht. The German military expansion went into high gear and new units churned out of the training schools faster than the piles of explosives being placed into underground bunkers. Karl looked at the young men and he saw mostly "cannon fodder" being herded into one-way trips to the front line.

His special unit was being tasked with making the paths of the Armor units easier to traverse by infiltrating the enemy's rear areas and using sniper traps to make movement difficult. It was a role he particularly enjoyed because it made the enemy operations less effective and totally chaotic.

His thought was to visit his home town one last time before he departed to the East but his plans were thwarted by the destruction of his home in a night bombing mission that must have flown off-course because there was nothing of any military importance within miles of his parent's home. So, he stayed in Berlin and secured the services of a cabaret girl to warm his bed the last week before what might be a one way trip to the Russian Front.

Her name was Heidi Marie but she told him everyone just called her Heidi. Heidi was extremely money conscious and tried to point out to him where he was wasting his money on inferior goods. She was really quite good at that and he was impressed enough to change his attitude when dealing with the merchants in the local area. She was a package deal for the full seven days. He had the opportunity of changing girls daily but decided to stick with her because he loved the way she showed her appreciation for his love-making efforts by making the most exciting sounds he had ever heard coming from the lips of a female. His only complaint was that she was the type that never swallowed anything and carefully spit it all out into a clean cloth like it was some kind of poison. It tended to make him feel a little unwanted but she laughed and told him,

"It would ruin my appetite, darling boy!"

He got used to that and he did like the way she never refused his anal advances even in the middle of the night waking up from a sound sleep. In fact, he was so happy with her physical assets and her thrifty ways that he proposed to her two days before his departure. He was pleasantly surprised when she accepted without hesitation and they were in the courthouse the very next day.

Now that there was a Mrs. Steiner, he began to think there might even be a chance for a future after the war if he were to survive. Of course, that seemed less and less likely with each passing day. He knew with his "soldier's gut instinct" that their campaign in the East was doomed to failure and the likelihood of an allied invasion into the continent was sure to come within the next couple of years. America only recently had entered the war and brought with it vast reserves of logistical strength that threatened to overwhelm the faltering German Industrial base.

The night before he left, he mounted Heidi a number of times telling her he hoped to impregnate her with his child so there would be a "Steiner" left to carry on the name after the war. He had to admit it was more pleasure than duty despite his good intentions. Heidi had his ration cards and the military funds that would be sent to her each month he was on duty. Unfortunately, if he were to be killed it was likely she would lose all that because the emphasis was on helping the living and not the dead.

They parted on the train platform and he looked at her shrinking figure holding her hand over her eyes to shield them from the sun rising in the East.

Most of his men were on this train and they would join another train further East that would have the rest of the snipers from the Bavarian territories. He had instructed his men to wear the nondescript plain brown jackets to hide their insignia and the dreaded "death's-head". They kept their scopes hidden inside their packs so that they could mingle easily with the other troops heading for the dangerous combat zone.

The Steiner snipers were just like the other troops on the train with the exception that they didn't enter into conversation other than a single "yes" or "no" when spoken to. The other men recognized the "thousand meter stare" in their eyes and left them to their own business. Because of logistical constraints, Karl had decided to temporarily suspend the "Two-man Team" concept and went with single man units. All of the spotters were fully trained snipers and that presented no difficulty at all. Suddenly his limited force of 150 teams doubled to 300 units which he could disperse over a much wider area. The vast scope of the operation in front of him was mind-boggling because the High Command in their infinite wisdom had elected to strike across the three kilometer wide front instead of gobbling up the enemy terrain piecemeal.

Steiner decided to send only fifty units down into the Ukraine because the fighting there was anticipated to be much more manageable than in the Central Region. He did send a substantial force up into the Northern Region because he still had grave doubts about the feasibility of a move all the way to Moscow in the Central area. The lessons of Napoleon should have warned them of the impossibility of such arrogant planning, but he knew his superiors considered the Russian Officer Corps totally incompetent and corrupted with political boot-lickers.

Karl did not disagree with that conclusion but he felt Generals were overlooking the fact that the Russian foot-soldiers were determined and had a brave fighting spirit that surpassed even the Wehrmacht training.

Major Steiner elected to stay with the largest element of his forces and went with the Armored units right up the middle into the Russian heartland. He had divided his men into two basic attack modes. Almost three quarters of the trained snipers were given orders to accompany the forward elements of the "Blitzkrieg" and seek out officers and radiomen as targets. The concept was to deprive the enemy of the ability to "control" his forces on the battlefield and it had worked well in the European sector. This was the safest technique and he was able to conserve his numbers with much success.

The other attack mode was the elite snipers who were skilled in the art of infiltrating behind the enemy lines and sowing seeds of destruction by eliminating all targets that appeared to be issuing orders or directing troops into fighting positions. Wherever they went, confusion and chaos soon followed.