8.  Bombing Along...

Col Miska Eduardovich was pleased, the Soviet plan for 3^rd Shock Army to advance in Winter was advantageous for many reasons but overall it suited the hardy Russians. All were well used to fighting in the cold & snow and a certain French Emperor and a German Fascist had learned this to their cost. The Red Armies greatest strength is the Winter. The weak and pampered capitalist pigs of NATO could not endure the cold nor could their supposed High tech fragile systems. The Soviet System of War was better, it elevated the system above the individual, it made allowances for the fact that men were imperfect and would make mistakes, it minimised the Human factors in the system to minimise mistakes and failure. The individual no matter how high or important is subservient and expendable to the aim, which is exactly as war should be, no sacred calves or taboos. On the subject of Taboo's he was reminded of the remnants of that PzGren Unit that surrendered back in Lubeck. Those bastards had cost him 5 hours from his schedule as all the damn Bridges had been blown; He hadn't even recoiled from the order to execute them, infact he felt entirely justified. 

He laughed to himself, if NATO cannot execute a few enemy prisoners how do they expect to be able to stop the mighty Red Army, they were fools who fought wars with rules and decorum. Did they not realise the Hyper-level of violence that would be unleashed and the only way to survive and emerge victorious is to use overwhelming violence? This was a war of conflicting Idealogy, not some Imperialist conflict to fight over the 3^rd World and dominion over Europe.  

He was making better than rapid progress, it was amazing the West Germans despite their bourgeois ways made very good roads. The Autobahns were a gift to any invader and a stupid mistake that mother Russia would never make, but would more than happily take advantage of. His orders were to by pass any resistance and not get embroiled in fights. He was to seek the weakspots and smash through at speed. This wasn’t War this was surreal, he raced through town after town of shocked looking locals who had no idea what was happening.  Admittedly, he had lost individual vehicles to stupid incidents, such as sliding off roads, but the advance continued regardless. On the plus side he was not suffering from vehicles being bogged down in fields due to the Frozen Ground and so was make decent time even across country in spite of the snow.

His Motor-Rifle Regiment was a good unit, staffed by Russian Officers with Russian NCO’s and above all Russian Soldiers. This was a premier post in the Red Army, a fully equipped, manned and supplied Regiment. No language problems, no stupid peasants from the east or Moslems from the South east, this was pure blue blood Soviet Regiment with heritage going back to the Great Patriotic War. He felt a surge of pride in his Regiment, and the blatant hatred of their Yankee enemy. He had happily overlooked several infractions of wanton destruction especially against symbols of American Capitalism including one their Fast food chains, so long as the momentum was maintained, the odd souvenir of their Assault was tolerated as the boost to morale was considerable. 

However deep down in his stomach he had a small, niggling knot of apprehension, having travelled 60km and not met resistance or even seen one of the fabled NATO Main Battle Tanks. He wanted to believe this race forward could continue indefinitely but he knew it was a matter of time before contact with the Enemy was made. He was eagerly looking forward to combat and kept scanning to the West, waiting for his chance to bloody NATO’s units. He looked down at his map, he was approaching a small town called Elmenhorst . He and his units should have been scanning to the East, behind them and they might have spotted the pair of A10’s racing in ready to maul the Soviet Armoured thrust.