Forum: Author Hangout

Or PTSD, "shell shock" as it was referred to then and out on a section 8 (psychologically unfit).

That one.

And I now know that didn't happen in WW2. Screws up the premise of my story.

Probably not what you want, and maybe less relevant for you Americans, but desertions did happen. Sometimes, it was just circumstances, people get lost and left behind in chaos of retreat, were trapped behind enemy lines etc.

I vaguely remember hearing/reading about Australian guys that upon losing contact with command in south east Asia grabbed their port girlfriends, captured a merchant wessel and get lost somewhere in the islands to only resurface at the end of the war and still were, allegedly, welcomed into war veterans community afterwards. Could be a sea story; I admit less than minimal knowledge about that theater.

In Europe, eastern front...

My grandfather deserted twice and was proud that despite forced to wear both Soviet and German uniforms in turn he had made trough the world war without ever firing a shot in combat. He had a good reason for such attitude.

Let me tell a true story.

Once upon a time, five orphaned brothers rented a small farm in Latvia. Let's call them Alfred, Ben, Daniel, Fred and Gary. Their dad had been killed by Russian Cossacks during the Great War, not in battle, on the roadside, allegedly for no good reason, and mom died soon after, before Gary could even really remember her. They knew no relatives either, each of parents seemingly had a secret, but that's a different story.

Alfred, the oldest, eventually learned the craft of electrician and married a city girl Alice. Ben married Cindy, Daniel married Esther, Fred married Fiona, and Gary married Cindy's cousin Lily, the youngest of three daughters in rich farmer's house.

Lily's grandad had bought out the (possibly well over thousand year old) house out of the German mansion (established by the 13th century crusade) in 1888, with lots of land along, and thus Gary got a parcel of land in Lily's dowry, just like the middle daughter Lizbeth had already in hers. Both newlyweds were madly in love but only 16, and Gary worked for his father-in-law until and after he finished his service in Latvian Army (as a Corporal). It wasn't until 1939 when he felt ready to found his own house on his wife's land.

That same year Soviet Union issued an ultimatum to Latvia, and swift occupation followed without much outward resistance, because Latvian dictator (who took control in bloodless coup of 1934 and subsequently banned all political parties but his own national-socialist Peasants Union) had said: "remain in your places; I will remain in mine." Those words were delusional of course, he was much too soon buried in unmarked grave somewhere in deserts of Kazakhstan (that's thousands of miles southeast).

With four cows and a horse Gary was deemed already too wealthy for Communists' Russian peasant standards, two cows were confiscated and he had to pay a punishing tax.

All brothers were in army reserve, inherited by Red Army from Latvian Army upon Latvia's (involuntary) joining the Soviet Union, and when the war started for real were of course immediately mobilized, Gary along his horse and carriage. However, after The Year of Terror German troops were mostly welcomed as liberators by the people and there was only little chaotic fighting in Latvia (Old City of Riga got burned by artillery barrage anyway). Soviet forces routed and fled, Gary deserted and come home, so did Daniel. Alfred as Electrician in Riga central mall (with for some reason had come in Army's control under the dictatorship) just remained in his place, transferring from Soviet to German occupation management. Ben and Fred were missing, and so was Lizbeth' husband, all supposedly forced to retreat with the Red Army into Russia, possibly dead.

Law and order was restored, mostly. (Well, Germans hunted the Jews, but most Latvian Jews were poor and thought to be lazy, and lazy poor were often communists, and communists ought to be hunted, after what they did before the war, so... so it was sold.) As far Gary was considered, relatively normal and prosperous two years followed as he worked fields of both Lily and Lizbeth, practically merging the households of two neighboring houses. Fiona outright moved in with Daniel and Esther. Cindy, she didn't need support, she snatched a German officer. As an undoubtably testament to perceived stability the only child of Lily, my father, was born during German occupation, in 1943.

Tide of the war rolled back, however. Daniel joined Latvian Legion of Waffen SS, volunteering, and so did Alice's brother. Rumor had it that Fred was alive and had become tank commander in the Red Army. Alfred, he was ruled indispensable specialist at the mall and kept his job until he retired in early eighties, and while Germans retreated and Russians returned to Latvian capital again alike (the heroic and fantastic battle of Liberation of Riga allegedly involving amphibious tanks crossing the likes is pure fiction, in reality there rather was even short period of power vacuum between them, again).

Gary was forcibly mobilized again, by Germans this time, and along with his own horse and carriage also, and had to witness the battle of Jelgava, in with the town was literally razed and burned (as legend has it, there was exactly one house left undamaged by the fighting in the whole city). Cut from home by the front line he had no choice but to retreat with Germans to Liepāja and was ordered onto a ship.

Baltic was stomy, it wasn't a pleasure ride. Late at night the ship stopped to "rescue" board and sink a refugee boat. Early next morning they come under air attack. Infantry soldiers were packed into the cargo hold of the transformed merchant ship, aircraft guns penetrated the thin deck, there were casualties, but the ship remained afloat, somehow.

From Danzig they were transferred to Czechoslovakia, for anti-tank infantry training. With was fun and on the bleeding edge of technology: panzerfausts, pazerschrecks, magnetic mines, grenades, you name it, even the Goliath tracked mine (would we call it drone now?) was covered, but the tactics they were tought and their intended mission were quite obviously suicidal. And remember, Gary's brother was riding a Russian tank. He had no intention to ever use the training in combat. However, it was like a vacation, they were given a lot of freedom and the environment was still peaceful and safe, and there was great amusement park nearby. Czech girls were rather ugly though, at least so Gary said later.

Much too soon they were deployed, marched somewhere, Poland close to German border? Who knows, they had said there's a day walking before the frontline when they merged with another infantry regiment to occupy a school building for the night. Gary with three other guys, another Latvian, a Lithuanian and a Czech were trailing behind a bit. When they come there was no good place to lay down left, or so they decided. The Lithuanian knew some Polish and so they found friendly reception at a nearby house, hot meal, a real bed and possibly even something a little more.

Russian tanks come roaring through the village at night, and someone stupid enough fired at them from the school building. Short but bloody battle ensued. Gary and his guys would have a good flanking position... if they were to reveal themselves, with they didn't. Smoldering ruins of the school surrendered. Russians were too much in a hurry to bother with prisoners, a line against the wall was ordered, machine guns talked. Tanks left to wherever they were sent to, well before dawn.

Gary and his guys left to, in another direction, after ripping off all insignia, with intention to eventually walk home. The Czech guy split the next day, the Lithuanian's home wasn't much out of the way, and he knew the area, supposedly. It was indeed already somewhere in Lithuania when they were stopped and arrested, surrendering without much fuss and demanding protection as prisoners of war.

Filtration camp... that was a long train ride, to Komsomolsk-on-Amur. Where's that? Northeast of China. Seriously, there's no much further east to go (without going tooo much north), only Sakhalin. First winter was harsh. Thanks to befriending some criminal convicts in the camp, who in turn knew the guards they didn't die, guards helpfully looked other way when they gathered grass on the side of the railroad.

Then a scheme to artfully inflate their perceived volume of lumber gathered was devised, the stacks on railcars were hollow, but their rations increased. Risky, but better bullet than slow death from hunger. Second year Gary managed to join construction team building officers homes; there was nothing there. That was almost normal work, even with tips, as they were. Then, one day he was told he is free to go. Just like that, go out the gates, and you're on your own in the Russian far east. All the Russia the long way is quite a walk, but he made it home, eventually. Siberian girls... he got the thousand yard stare, "eh, didn't I have wife with son at home... who knows would I make it back," he admitted.

Luckily, unlike the First World War, there had been no fighting in the immediate vicinity of our house. Russian aviation had bombed the area anyway, but the only major building hit was the Lily's father's great barn; the massive concrete walls stay empty to this day, 75 years later. Other than that Home was almost as Gary had left it. The materials gathered for his dream 'real' house were lost of course, but women had managed well on their own, he even had to pay the ridiculous "wealth" tax soon again.

Daniel with the Legion was in the Curland Pocket, where fierce battles were fought till the very last day of the war in Europe, and Daniel had died there, sometime just then. Fred, the brother red army tank commander, had died too, and right about there too, but we don't know when and where exactly. Did brothers met in battle? Unlikely it seems, but not impossible; the available records aren't good enough to either disprove or claim they did indeed.

We never learned what happened to Lizbeth's husband, and she never remarried. Cindy wrote home from Australia, she had made it to American occupation zone in Germany and then across the globe, with an American guy in tow, or so she claims. Alice's brother from the Legion married my future mom's aunt, in Canada; we only learned about this connection when they come visiting home for the first time, in 1989.

Ben come into Gary and Lily's kitchen one Saturday afternoon in 1957, kicked stool into the corner and sat down. It's said he had reasonably clean clothes and appeared well fed, but that was it, reportedly he had no luggage, and his eyes, the look in them was dead, haunted. He got a room in a nearby house and visited often, but lived his days as a hermit, never telling a word where he had been and what did through the war. We know nothing about him and those seventeen years, like he haven't existed. Sister claims I have met him, but I don't remember, was too young.

Just about then Gary along with bunch of like-minded guys decided not to wait for what wouldn't happen and founded a communal farm like the Soviets wanted, before they would be forced to do the same under foreigner management. Eventually it became one of top five communal farms in the republic. Himself, he took mechanization training and became manager of the machine shop.

Grandpa lived long enough to see the declaration of independence and get his land back in private property.

That initiated the sole survivor policy which after the war, became law.

Of course, no exception for an only child.

Street fighting can be more arduous than standard combat. In one form, there are arms and other weapons, along with supporting medics and supply lines. Support of any kind in street fighting is sketchy at best.

A knee injury of the type you describe, would put the person in an extreme disadvantage. They will have to build their style around the injury, something an observant fighter will be able to pick up on.

If you're going for believability, you'll have to account for that.

but not disable him so he could still fight (like a street fight) when healed.

I tool that statement to mean something else then. My mistake.

I tool that statement to mean something else then. My mistake.

I didn't read that as MMA style fighting.

my understanding is that very few people who aren't trained in martial arts will actively use their feet offensively in a real street brawl type fight beyond kicking or stomping on someone who's already down.

If your attacker isn't using their feet as weapons, as long as everyone is upright the knees aren't all that viable of a target.

No, but your mobility is limited.

True, but to me, Remus2's original "extreme disadvantage" objection implies the opponent deliberately targeting the bad leg.

A knee injury of the type you describe, would put the person in an extreme disadvantage. They will have to build their style around the injury, something an observant fighter will be able to pick up on.

Yeah, with trained fighters that could be an issue.

But to me "street fight" says bikers, gang-bangers, and other assorted thugs with little to no actual combat training.

Mostly bare knuckle boxing, a little wrestling, maybe a few knives, or improvised weapons.

I don't immediately think of something like the "Street Fighter" video game.

But to me "street fight" says bikers, gang-bangers, and other assorted thugs with little to no actual combat training.

You are confusing formal training with life experience. MMA fighters train formally, but against an experienced street fighter, they are likely to have their asses handed to them.

Those assorted thugs usually either die or go to jail young. For those that survive, they learn, and learn fast. Otherwise they end up in the previous sentence.

Look around you. Every single thing you see is a potential weapon. Every weakness will be exploited with no mercy or second thoughts. That is how such people survive.

Look around you. Every single thing you see is a potential weapon.

Also, the terrain is a weapon. So is your opponent. Some make the mistake of believing only 'things' (ie: movable objects) are weapons. EVERYTHING is a weapon.

Every single thing you see is a potential weapon.

Not sure how much more explicit I could make that statement. Yes, even the terrain can be.

Sitting here thinking about it though, there are some things that can be added. Sounds and voice, smells, they can be used as well. Anything and everything with the potential for masking, distraction, intimidation, or any other means to give your opponent even a micro pause in reaction.

Oh, I knew what you were saying. But I've seen enough people not understand the totality of it...people who realize that, yes, that length of chain on the ground is indeed useful and certainly lethal enough when used properly, but don't realize that that plate glass window is a much superior weapon, both for the blunt force trauma when one's opponent slams into it as well as cutting value when that impact produces shards. (Also, at the proper time of day and angles, it can effectively blind the opponent with intense reflected light.)

Not really a law, it's a policy.

https://www.history.com/news/saving-private-ryan-real-life-dday-back-story

Since it was enacted during World War II, the sole-survivor policy has evolved. Passed by Congress in 1948 into law, the directive exempted the lone remaining son where one or more sons or daughters had died as a result of military service. However, the policy didn't exempt surviving sons from registering for military duty. If there was a draft, these men could be called up, but would receive a deferment.

This word, "law", it does not mean what you think it does.

The word policy doesn't mean what you think it means.

As mere policy, the military and or President could change it at any time. Having been enacted into law by Congress, they can't.

And that article as most others also missed key things. Like it does not apply during a time of war. Or that it is not automatic, the individual has to request such a status.

Actually the article is quite clear.

You say it doesn't apply during a time of war. This is only half true.

There's something the Wikipedia article doesn't cover one way or the other.

Yes, in terms of separation of personnel already in the military it does not apply in a time of war.

However, there is another provision in the 1948 law that applies to the draft. If requested by the individual it's an guaranteed draft deferral. The draft deferral provision would still apply in a time of war.