jtucker: An Ausf. F will work perfectly. It never made the battlefield. Whether things would be different is up to you
TJ: that looks very interesting. Though I think the mounts for your hover system might be a bit more chunky than the images suggest.
If anyone is up for a novel with lots of cheesy deaths, here's my tidied up backstory:
On January 18th, Adolf Hitler is diagnosed with pneumonia after a visit eight days earlier to the troops who had successfully reached the port of Antwerp in a coup-de-main. Twelve days later, on January 30th , Reichsführer Adolf Hitler was found dead in his bed. Officially he died of pneumonia, but rumors abound that the true cause of death was poisoning. Some have even suggested that a form of biological warfare was responsible.
The Western Allies did not leave this chance lying. In quick succession, Heinrich Himmler, Joseph Goebbels, Hermann Göring and Josef Diettrich were assassinated by strike teams of both the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) and the Special Operations Executive (SOE). It was hoped that by eliminating the most prominent candidates for the post of Reichskansler there would be a power vacuum, which in turn would lead to the collapse of Nazi Germany. It proved not to be so.
In March 1945 Albert Speer takes the position of Reichskansler and, with backing of two-thirds of the Wehrmacht staff, initiated talks with the Western Allies to reach a ceasefire agreement. The Western Allies, in a bid to end the war as soon as possible, opened negotiations. A consequence of this was that the Soviet-Union became ever more abrasive about the ease with which the penitence of Germany was accepted. When Germany was granted Austria, the Sudetenland and a significant amount of Poland to become part of a new ˝Greater Germany˝, the Soviet Union broke off all relations with the Western Allies. In a direct response to what it considered to be ˝The Great Capitalist Treason˝, the USSR formed an alliance with the Baltic States, Romania and Bulgaria in the symbolic city of Stalingrad on June 24th, 1945. Dubbed the ˝Stalingrad Alliance of Socialist Republics in Defense of the Global Revolution of the Working Class˝ (Stalingrad Alliance in short), its main aim was to form a broad defensive line to protect the Russian heartland, but its language became increasingly aggressive and the factories kept turning out weapons of war.
These events led to the establishing of a Coalition of United Free Nations on September 11th, 1945. Its main aim was the protection of all peoples in Central- and Eastern-Europe. This was later to evolve into a cordon sanitaire policy with the nations involved effectively becoming autonomous regions, governed by the Coalition of United Free Nations.
Because of its position on the frontline, it was decided that Greater Germany would be exempt from reparations payments. Speer used this position to his advantage: Whatever was left of the Heer and Waffen SS was remolded as best as possible to resemble what it was before and with financial and material report the infrastructure was rebuilt.
However, political matters were not at the forefront of attention to the European citizen. On April 1st 1946, patrol units of both the Stalingrad Alliance and the CUFN clashed near the city of Krakow. Although the skirmish itself might eventually have been glossed over by diplomacy, the fact that the troops from the Stalingrad Alliance called in light artillery support would leave a more lasting mark. For reasons unclear (inexperience or poor performance under stress are assumed) the artillery overshot its target and destroyed part of a border post as well as a small farming community. Shortly after, American P47 Thunderbolts destroyed four border posts in retaliation. It was not long before clashes erupted along the length of the border and both factions were mobilizing forces. By April 14th the seeds of mistrust had come to germination and a state of war was officially declared, despite last-ditch diplomatic efforts. The Demarcation Conflict (known in the streets as World War III) lasted for thirteen blood-soaked years and saw the use of nuclear cannons on a limited scale, thus ensuring that the impact would be felt for generations to come. Officially there existed only a tense cease-fire agreement from 1959 on. The state of war was not lifted until four decades later, in 2000. This had major consequences for the rebuilding of economies, which had to remain geared to military production on a massive scale until the 90´s. The world was bled white by war for the bigger part of the 20th century and since the cease-fire included a return to prewar positions, the only thing gained by both sides were patches of irradiated soil.
In the autumn of 1947 the Coalition of United Free Nations launched an assault on the city of Warsaw and the area surrounding it. Codenamed ˝Outlaw˝, the operation was one of many envisioned to help establish a favorable defensive line for the winter of 1947-48. Tasked with securing the northern outskirts of the town were elements of the former Brigade Feldherrnhalle. Its depleted ranks were filled with a mix of convalescent veterans and mediocrely trained recruits, but it was not enough to bring it up to its full complement, with strength returns indicating that roughly 65% of the division was available. Of these, about 55% was sufficiently armed. The division was found lacking in heavy weapons and artillery support, but received a lot of new AFVs. Most notable among these deliveries were the new Sd.Kfz. 285/2 E10 ausf. B and Sd.Kfz. 284 E25 ausf. A, of which much was expected. In order to supply an adequate amount of infantry for operations, 5. Fallschirmjäger Regiment was organically attached. This more or less thrown together mix of Wehrmacht and Luftwaffe troops formed what would become known as Kampfgruppe Feldherrnhalle. On October 3rd, 1947, Kampfgruppe Feldherrnhalle –deemed to be as unfit for a full-scale assault as it had been at the signing of the 1945 ceasefire – began its assault on the northern districts of the city of Warsaw.
