ASLComp LANDSER EVERYMAN EDITION: YOU CRANE 44

The German 78th Sturm (Assault) Division was one of the best equipped divisions in Army Group Center. Deployed along the Minsk Smolensk highway, it blocked the most direct route for a Soviet assault. Supported by assault guns and artillery, the German Infantry waited for the hammer to fall. On the morning of June 23rd, it did. After a bombardment of the front line positions, the 11th Guards Army started the attack with T-34’s equipped with the newly deployed PT mine roller. These tanks were followed by heavy tanks, assault engineers, assault guns, flame thrower tanks, and finally Guards Infantry. As these waves crashed against the thin held German line, the men of the 78th held. But their gallant efforts were futile, as the weaker German units in the woods to the north were crushed under the weight of the Soviet attack. The stressed 78th Division was flooded in a sea of Red Army tanks and destroyed. The spearhead of the 11th Guards Army was on the way to liberate Minsk, and the destruction of army group center had begun.

The term Landser derives from the term Landsmann, and goes back to the form of address between German soldiers from the years of the Franco-Prussian War, non officers. In English, "compatriot", might fit the bill, not that many outside of academia might find themselves using that term.

The title of choice, LANDSER relates to the men that the burden of war fell on during the summer of 1944, in the Ukraine -- on the German side. Further, Landser relates to combat infantrymen, not supply, behind the lines, or that ilk.

>> supersedes Brody 2