Somehow posting the last chapter reinvigorated me, so this is the longest chapter yet, and also the most action-y chapter created so far. Takes place on New Years' eve, a New Year just as bleak as the Christmas before it.

Enjoy!

Dec 31, 1945, eve of New Year,

Invasion day + 8

A few kilometers West of Poznan

0500

Private Vasili Denoskovich watched wide eyed with fascination from where he was leaning on an armored car at the column of flame that shot up into the air some distance away, a thunderous explosion sounded a few moments later, jolting all of them out of their stupor.

Another supply truck had just been lost.

As Vasili continued watching the plume of smoke rising up into the air, he was startled to hear his company commander Captain Sergei Borodin start barking orders.

"On your feet men! Those cowards could still be in the area, spread out and search the area for them!" Borodin shouted.

With their duty securing a crossing over the Vistula fulfilled, their new orders had them acting as a reserve force to the Belorussian front. At that point in time, the company had been trailing just behind the main advance of the Belorussian Front.

Now though, they were stuck in the area surrounding Poznan while the rest of the Belorussian Front had moved on the Oder, they were relegated to a security detail as Polish guerillas repeatedly raided supply convoys filled with fuel, food and ammunition. While such material supplies could easily be replaced, the time lost could not be so easily replaced.

Vasili grabbed his rifle leaning beside him and moved out, he saw his fellow squad mates do the same, the six of them moved at a five meter spread slowly through the trees, the deep snow made progress difficult anyhow, so it was useless to try and rush through in any case. Out of the corner of his eye, Vasili spied the other squads moving out through the woods as well.

As he took cover behind a tree to look around, a sharp crack sounded, and a part of the trunk right beside him was torn apart. Vasili was so taken by surprise that he fell backwards and onto his back as he heard the crack of another bullet flying by him.

"Enemy troops! Take cover!" Volodya shouted as gunfire erupted through the woods, Alexei hit the snow right beside Vasili.

"Are you alright comrade?" he asked as he shouldered his rifle and fired at something moving in the dark a distance away, he could not tell if he hit it though.

"I'm okay, damn that bastard surprised me!" Vasili grunted as he rolled onto his belly and shouldered his own rifle, checking through the sights for targets, he could not see much in the early morning darkness except for some shadows and outlines moving in the distance, and then he heard the distinct rapid fire of the company's machineguns as they laid down suppressing fire.

"We've got those bastards suppressed! Now move forward and clear them out!" Vasili heard Borodin shouting at the top of his voice, the captain always did have a loud voice.

"Move up move up, covering fire!" Volodya said as he rose from his prone position and darted forward before dropping back down into a prone position and firing his rifle. Vasili and Alexei followed suit quickly. As they did so however, they heard a cry, Vasili looked back just in time to see Dimitri fall over backwards into the snow.

"Dimitri got hit!" Vasili shouted.

"Forget him! We need to clear this out quickly before they escape!" Volodya shouted back. Vasili tore his eyes away from his fallen comrade and back to the battle, he fired at a shape moving in the dark, the shadow fell to the ground as another cry rang out, again he ran forward with his squad and dropped as more shots rang out around them, the process was repeated again and again. They were now only a hundred or so meters from where they could see some muzzle flashes.

Vasili turned his head as he heard a low rumble, an armored car burst onto the scene and opened fire from the road.

"Now! Assault squad sweep in and clear them out, rifle squads cover them, move it!" Borodin shouted again.

Vasili held his breath as he watched the assault team running forward firing their sub-machineguns from a hip position; he fired in the general direction where he knew the enemy was to cover his teammates. As the assault team raced into the enemy position he could hear the rapid fire of their automatic weapons and a few screams sounded.

And then an eerie silence descended on the area.

"All clear!" One of the members of the assault team shouted. Vasili let out a sigh of relief.

"You go on ahead, I'll check on Dimitri." He said to Alexei, who nodded in response, Vasili quickly jogged back to where Dimitri had fallen, he found him lying on his elbows and inching backwards.

"Dimitri! Where did they hit you?" Vasili quickly knelt beside his friend.

"Ugh…bastard got me in the thigh; I don't think I can walk…" Dimitri grimaced.

"C'mon, I'll get you to the medic station, hey medic!" Vasili shouted out, as he put one of Dimitri's arms around his shoulders and propped him up to limp on his other leg, just as they got moving though, a cry sounded out.

"Grenade! Take cover!" Someone yelled just as an explosion sounded, Vasili was shocked by the sound and fell forward with Dimitri onto his face.

"What the hell…?" Vasili muttered as he picked Dimitri back up, someone was screaming in pain, just as that happened, he saw an ambulance pull up. Vasili handed Dimitri to the medic and went back to check what had happened.

It was a complete mess, one of the assault team lay on his side, his body shredded and bloody, another was missing his leg and was screaming his lungs out in a terrifying wail, the third lay face down on the ground, unmoving. Everyone else was stumbling around in a daze, some with bloody wounds, one was clutching an arm that was almost dangling from his shoulder by a thread; Vasili fought the urge to throw up while he caught a wobbling Alexei as he fell forward.

"Talk to me Alexei! What happened?" Vasili grabbed and tried to shake his comrade out of his stupor, he slowly let Alexei sit down on the snow.

"A bomb…a bomb, one of those bastards was still alive and he had several grenades strapped to him." Alexei was completely listless.


Outskirts of Berlin,

Hellersdorf district,

0900

Citizens and soldiers of Berlin! On the eve of a New Year, a ring of steel surrounds your wretched city; all who choose to surrender will be spared and allowed to return to their families, all who choose to resist us will be crushed beneath the iron treads of the Red Army! Abandon your posts! Abandon your homes! Abandon all hope! Hurrah!

Versail squeezed the trigger of his rifle, one more enemy soldier dropped to the ground with a pink mist, he could not stop to watch though, from his vantage point in the ruins of a building at an intersection, he and his platoon had a commanding view over the area. And more Red soldiers were pouring into the area; they kept their heads low as they ran about and across streets and alleyways, everywhere they went they were hemmed in with sniper and machinegun fire sweeping the streets.

A small tank burst through a wall on his right and onto the streets, it turned its turret, ready to fire straight into the building Versail was in, and was promptly exploded by one brave German who briefly exposed himself to fire his handheld Anti-tank rocket into the side of the tank, the German was immediately killed for his trouble when a Red soldier in the opposite building fired his rifle and struck him in the head. The Red soldier in turn was quickly sniped by one of Versail's platoon mates before he could take cover.

It was complete chaos, there was no frontline at all in the mazes of streets, alleyways, buildings and even the sewers through which explosive traps collapsed the streets above them. Gunfire sounded everywhere, artillery shells whistled overhead, the screams and moans of the dying mixed in with every other sound.

A mortar round hits the intersection in the middle, raining dirt and debris all over the area, another shot fired, another dead Red soldier who poked his head up. More appear from windows, Versail threw himself to the floor as bullets whistled through the window, a friendly machinegun next door opens up on the Soviets, Versail got up and took out another one as he attempted to move out from his room.

The Soviets were pushing hard, and the joint Polish-German defense made them pay for every inch of ground they took, snipers locked down the streets completely, forcing the Soviets to blow holes and move through booby-trapped buildings which were then collapsed on their heads, to the surprise of the defenders the Soviets often pushed together with armored vehicles, which only added served to add their twisted wreckage to the city when AT grenades or satchel charges were dropped on them from high perches or when Anti-tank rockets were fired at them from cellar windows.

The Soviets would counter with massed artillery and rocket barrages straight into the center of the city, spotters directed fire onto strongholds, the debris falling onto the streets adding to the carnage and the confusion, infantry and vehicles with flamethrowers were deployed to burn defenders out of the buildings. Grenades were thrown every which way in the fight to clear houses, when the defenders barricaded themselves in the upper floors, demolition explosives were brought in to bring the entire structure down.

Vicious hand-to-hand fighting took place when explosives could not be brought to bear. Soviet soldiers engaged Poles and Germans in face to face encounters with bayonets, spades and whatever could be found a midst choking clouds of dust and smoke.

The Germans had given a grim name to the fighting: rattenkrieg, the war of the rats as men scurried and scampered everywhere, finding cover from the hell of urban combat. The fighting had originally begun in the mid-afternoon just three days' before when minor skirmishes with Red Army scouting units broke out while the better part of three days had been spent clearing the numerous blockades and obstacles on the road to Berlin, Frankfurt and Fürstenwalde had been thoroughly mined and some buildings had been collapsed right onto roads to completely block them, engineers were set to work removing the debris, this coupled with the bridge at Frankfurt being blown-up, served to slow the Red Army, although they had come prepared with bridging and engineering equipment, it was still slow going even though neither town had been heavily defended as resources and manpower had been concentrated on Berlin, a few snipers and marksmen kept the heads of the Red Army down and harried them all the way from the river to Berlin.

With Berlin not even a hundred kilometers from the river, Kovalyov wasted as little time as possible in preparing and launching a full scale assault on the city, it took place on December 29 even as a new bridge was being constructed in Frankfurt across the Oder and debris was still being cleared from the two towns. Even though he was reluctant to waste time and men on such a costly endeavor, it had been by Stalin's orders rather than his own, so he resolved to get it over with as quickly as possible.

And now his men were paying the price, three days into the assault and they were still caught in the suburbs of Berlin, the defenders had been found to consist of both German and Polish soldiers who had escaped from the Red Army at the beginning. Casualties were already mounting in the hundreds as parts of the Belorussian Front moved to encircle Berlin completely, closing in the defenders on three sides.

Kovalyov grimaced; it was going to be a long, bloody fight, he had already given orders for the units on the most Northern and Southerly wings of the Front to continue moving forwards, although he was already getting reports of dogged resistance.

At the same time, his counterpart in the city Helmuth Weidling looked upon his maps with a grim face, he already knew that he would be going down with the city, just a few days ago he had sent out one last call to Guderian, his only regret being that he could not evacuate all of the civilians before the ring had been closed. He was already getting reports of the sheer intensity of the fighting; the hospital was kept busy with the wounded coming in. Against all odds he realized he was doing fairly well, he had successfully drawn the Red Army into a destructive grind through Berlin, now all that was left was for the other forces in Germany to marshal with the time he was buying them, he could only hope that his efforts would not be wasted.

An artillery shell exploding nearby reminded him he was still in a battle.


Lower Saxony,

Temporary headquarters of Generalmajor Erwin Rommel

He needn't have worried so much, as he coordinated the defense of Berlin, Rommel was trying to coordinate and marshal together a hodgepodge of armored, infantry and support units into a cohesive force. No official name had been given, although when Guderian had heard of it he had simply named it Kampfgruppe Rommel, although it was becoming quite large for just a "Kampfgruppe".

Somehow in the rush of the past few days, Rommel's secretary Joachim had be able to locate him and duly reported to the General in his temporary headquarters in a barracks in Lower Saxony. This was another small crumb of comfort to Rommel, whose hands were aching from the past several days of writing and signing orders on his own.

Communications had eventually been restored over several days, but he had been taken by surprise when the first news to reach him was when Guderian had told him of the Red Army's assault on the German capital of Berlin a few days prior. He was surprised that the Soviets would become embroiled in urban combat when he thought they would merely bypass the city and leave him with a bare division sized unit to hold central Germany against the dozens of divisions they had.

He resolved not to let the efforts of the defenders of Berlin go to waste, he could now count on at least a full strength division with most supporting elements, he had also heard reports of Polish army units managing a fighting retreat from all the way from Poland into Germany, he could gain a wealth of new intelligence and information if he could find and incorporate these units into his own.

In the meantime, the battle for Berlin raged on.


Pankow district, Berlin

1500

Aldrich held his breath as he watched the advancing column of Red Army troops, three tanks supported by numerous infantry; a brief lull in the fighting allowed both sides some small rest and comfort, now the Red Army was advancing again. Aldrich stared at the detonator in front of him; it was wired to several sets of explosives lining the tops of the sewers that were right below the streets in front of him, he contemplated what would happen when he pushed down the plunger, it would start the next round of chaos in Berlin.

He had had very little sleep since the fighting began, everyone was on edge since at any moment, at any given moment an enemy soldier could literally walk right into you. Aldrich had so far managed to escape the better part of the fierce urban combat; he could other Red infantry moving through the shadows on the houses across the road, and he had no doubt that there were probably others moving right towards his own position.

During the brief lull, the Poles had deliberately laid some debris and rubble in a line, haphazardly enough that someone might not notice it. It marked the limit of the effect the last set of charges would have, Aldrich would activate the detonator once another Polish squad across the street gave the signal.

As he watched quietly from a corner of the window, Aldrich held his breath as his heart hammered against his chest, he watched out of the window intently at the approaching column, any minute now the entire place would descend back into the chaos of war, he could already hear heavy gunfire from other parts of the city.

Aldrich looked out across the street where the other Polish squad was, his own were all crouched low in the room with him, he saw the other use a piece of glass to flash light into his eyes and give him the thumbs up, Aldrich could see that the column was almost at the marker.

Now! Aldrich gritted his teeth as he pushed the plunger down on the detonator, an electrical charge was sent through the wire to the explosives planted in the sewers.

A thunderous explosion ripped through the streets, an entire section simply collapsed into the sewers, taking with it two of the tanks and everyone around them, the explosion was so powerful it knocked the wind out of Aldrich and his Polish squad and all fell backwards. Aldrich was surprised when the entire block right next to his own simply collapsed into the ground as well, tearing off the wall of the room he was in and exposing all of them.

A machinegun a few blocks away opened up on the Soviets scattering to find cover, Aldrich shouldered his rifle and picked off one attempting to hide in a ruined building across the street, he was about to get another when he was roughly shaken by Aleksander, the commander of the Polish squad, Aldrich watched as he ran out of the room and into the hallway, gesturing rapidly for Aldrich to follow.

Aldrich turned his head back for a brief second to see the last tank at the back turn its turret to face him directly.

Aldrich immediately ran and dove out of the room as it exploded behind him; the blast knocked the wind out of him, although Aleksander pulled him to his feet as pushed him forward so that he could keep running, they stopped at the end of the hallway as another explosion blew out the opposite end of the hallway.

There goes our hiding place, Aldrich thought grimly, already more gunfire was erupting. And then a tremendous explosion rocked the remains of the building, without further ado the group raced downstairs as more explosions rocked the area, the Soviets liberally employed artillery of all sorts to root out any particularly hard to get defenders.

As they got into the basement, Aldrich was about to enter the hole which led into the sewers when he literally ran head first into a Red Army soldier, both were so stunned by their encounter that neither moved for a moment, then an ear-splitting crack went off and the Red soldier dropped to the ground a bloody hole opened in his temple, his eyes wide and unblinking, one of the Poles had fired his rifle right by Aldrich's ear, Aldrich was completely deafened by the noise and had to be pulled along by the squad as they ran through the dimly lit sewers.

They went through another hole in the sewers and into another basement; they went up and joined up with the machinegun team laying down fire across the street.

"There's a panzerfaust! See if you can get that tank!" One of them pointed him at a small wooden box lying on a table; in it were a pair of the handheld AT weapons. Aldrich took one while one of the squad took another; they were weighty objects to be manipulated, but they served their purpose well as infantry AT weapons.

The group headed back to their original post, but instead this time with the street having been collapsed into the sewers, as they went along, Aldrich noticed one of the hatches of a collapsed tank opening and a man attempting to pull himself out, he quickly dropped the panzerfaust he was carrying, crouched on one knee and shot him with his rifle.

The man fell forward as he was shot, his body getting caught in the opening, as the group drew closer, two of the poles quickly climbed the tank, one fired straight into the tank as another dropped a grenade right down the hatch.

They jumped off and ran back just as the tank exploded, the group then headed up to street level, they found the last tank as it was trying to maneuver to get a shot on the machinegun team, exposing part of its side to Aldrich as it tried to move as close as it could to the opposite side of the road, Aldrich took aim with the panzerfaust at close range and squeezed the firing handle.

In an instant the odd-shaped warhead left the long tube, however Aldrich had aimed a little low and it impacted the tracks of the tank and blew it off. Now the tank had noticed them and began traversing its turret to face them. Aldrich was quickly handed the other panzerfaust and this time when he fired the warhead hit the rear of the tank, exploding and setting the tank on fire.

With their current position destroyed, the group joined up with the machinegun team, looking across the street Aldrich noticed that the other Polish squad had disappeared.

"Where did the other group go?" He asked the spotter of the team.

"I think they went deeper inside to root out a few stragglers." He replied, just as he said that, a Polish soldier ran out of the building where they had been, the group readied themselves as several of his comrades came charging after him, of the six members of the squad two were shot in the back as they crossed the street.

"There they are, suppressing fire!" The spotter yelled as a Red soldier appeared right in the doorway of the building; he was cut to pieces by the gunner as his comrades returned fire from the windows, the others shouldered their rifles and returned fire from their own positions, the escaping Polish squads took position on the ground floor and returned fire, with the machinegun pinning the soviets down, one of the Polish squad ran right out into the middle of the road and hurled what looked like a glass bottle with liquid in it and a rag hanging out of the opening.

The bottle went through the window and screams erupted from the building as fire spread through the room, the Polish soldier was shot as he tried to run back to his position, the shooter was in turn shot by Aleksander. Two men on fire ran out of the building screaming, the machinegunner put both out of their misery. And then a whistle sounded, and an artillery shell exploded in a small grassy field to their right, then another shell landed on their left where the column had been.

"They're bracketing us, let's get out of here!" The spotter shouted, as he said so the gunner was shot through his left arm and fell to the floor with a cry, two of the Polish squad fired on the shooter to suppress him, the spotter proceeded to grab the gun from the tripod while the loader grabbed a case of ammunition under each arm.

The gunner stood up shakily clutching his arm and looked at Aldrich, "Take the tripod; I'll use your rifle for you." Aldrich handed the man his rifle and cradled the heavy tripod in his arms, they met up with the remnants of the other Polish squad downstairs, the group of thirteen had just made it into the basement when the roof and top floor were blown out by an artillery barrage.

At that moment, the radio that had been placed in the basement crackled to life.

"Any allied forces on this frequency…need help immediately, heavy attack coming through the center of Pankow! Requesting reinforcements!"

"That came from the command post." The loader noted.

With the area now locked under artillery fire, the group made their way through the sewers to a nearby command post in another building some distance away, lights had been placed along some sections before the battle so that they could navigate better. They moved past with bare acknowledgement given by the guards, the command post had been moved from the top floor to the basement as the Soviets intensified their shelling. As the group entered the command post the entire place reverberated with the explosion of a nearby rocket.

They saw a man with a patch indicating his rank as Oberst at a telescope watching the outside while a radio operator spoke the same words they had heard earlier into the phone.

"Stabsunteroffizier Berger reporting for duty, we heard your distress call sir." Aldrich said as he walked up to the man.

The man turned to him quickly and looked the dirty and worn group over, he gave a grim smile and said, "Just in time, we beat off the first wave but another is on the way, take the machinegun up to the second floor, don't go up to the top the Reds are shelling the whole fucking place, the rest of you either get into the trenches outside, or take up position in the buildings to the left and right!" He ordered.

As Aldrich saluted, the wounded gunner walked up to him and said, "You go with Erhard and Hans, I'll go with the Polish to the trenches." Aldrich nodded.

"Alright let's go." Aldrich went with the machinegun team up some stairs while the gunner led the Poles out the front door, reaching the second floor Erhard the spotter checked the view from the windows.

"Here is just fine." He gestured to a spot right by a window, as Aldrich began setting up the tripod amidst gunfire he was able to see the situation outside.

The building they were in commanded a view of an open area of about a hundred meters right in front of them pockmarked by craters, on the other side were numerous ruined buildings, when he squinted he could see figures moving. Right in front of him was the position he currently held, a mass of barbed wire, anti-tank ditches, trenches and three anti-tank gun emplacements with crud wood and concrete structures built around to protect from artillery fire.

"My god, they are swarming like ants over there…" Erhard growled.

"Then we will cut them down as they come." Hans the loader said simply.

"I assume you know how to operate this?" Erhard asked Aldrich, gesturing to the machinegun, Aldrich nodded.

"If they come straight at us it will be simple, but-" he was cut off when several whistling noises could be heard, instead of explosions however instead there were small bursting sounds, and then the whole area in front filled with thick white smoke.

"The bastards, they're using smoke to cover their attack, get ready." Erhard tried to squint through the smoke; in the distance they could hear the rumbling of engines as they got louder.

"Burst fire through the smoke! Give them something else to think about." Erhard ordered, Aldrich set the machinegun to his soldier and squeezed the trigger several times while pivoting left and right.

A tank burst through the smoke right into the center of the defense, this one seemed much more bulky and boxy than the one Aldrich had seen earlier, with a smaller gun to boot. An AT emplacement on the right side fired into the Tank's side, sending it up in flames. Another tank of the same appearance moved right out of the smoke and rammed into the AT emplacement on the right side, the AT emplacement on the left shifted and opened fire, sending the tanks turret into the air as infantry raced out of the smoke and attempted to get into the trenches.

"There! Open fire!" Erhard shouted, Aldrich did not need an order, he aimed through the machinegun's sights and fired at the Soviet troops, they were only about seventy-five meters from his own position. While he could not see any of the Polish soldiers, he assumed that they were in the buildings to his right and left firing out.

Several Soviet troops were able to duck the fire and enter the trenches, Aldrich saw his fellow Germans engage them in close range, one bayonetted a Soviet as he jumped into the trench, and another bashed another out with his rifle butt. Aldrich continued firing on a few dozen or so more that appeared out of the smoke, some were shot with rifles from the other buildings or gunned down with sub-machineguns.

But they were gaining ground, Aldrich now had to switch fire into the trenches as the Soviets gained the first line, he was wary of accidentally shooting friendlies, but Erhard calmly pointed out his targets and he moved back and forth accordingly while Hans kept a steady stream of ammo going. The smoke was also beginning to lift, and Aldrich could hear mortar bombs exploding in the distance, he assumed they were their own since they were not falling on his position.

The attack faltered, and eventually petered out after a short time; the Soviets had gained the first line completely and killed all fifteen who had been in the first line. One of the gun crew on the right had been killed by shrapnel when the tank exploded; eight others from the second line had died to the Soviets who breached the first. The Soviets paid dearly in turn, none of the assault had survived, estimated to have been a full platoon of about forty to fifty.

Aldrich was completely exhausted, he had been fighting nearly nonstop even before the small column had entered his area when in the morning, the Soviets had tried to force through what must have been an entire company with flamethrowers in support. The Soviets were crafty enough to conceal their flamethrowers in the shape of ordinary looking rifle with the fuel tank in the back; only the rather strange attachment at the end of the "rifle" gave them away, a friendly sniper who knew this was able to take the flamethrowers out before they could get close.

As the day ended and the sun began to set, after the bodies had been cleared from the area, Aldrich found his Polish companions, two had died, one when a stray shot hit him in head and the other had been riddled with bullets by one of the assaulting Soviets. The wounded gunner survived though, he was being worked on by a medic when Aldrich found him, his left arm in a sling.

For the combined German-Polish defense, they placed a heavy reliance on small teams of scouts and recon units patrolling far ahead of the frontline to gather intelligence and report on enemy movements, enabling forces to be kept in reserve and sent to where they were needed most. Some teams had even been courageous enough to stay behind as the Red Army pushed through the outskirts and suburbs, continuously transmitting information to the central command post under the Reichstag in the heart of Berlin.

For their part, the Soviets had learned the basics of urban warfare quickly, within a day they started using smoke to cover their advances which enabled them to get right into the thick of defenses. Reports were coming in of snipers being deployed in direct support of advancing infantry, bulldozers frequently led advances to clear rubble and debris from the street, engineers placed breaching charges on walls so that infantry could move between buildings without going into the open. Assault guns that could fire large caliber shells right into fortified positions were often deployed.


Celle air base, Lower Saxony,

2000

An exhausted Erich Hartmann dropped onto his cot in the hangar, he had just flown two sorties one in the morning and one in the afternoon, a luxury considering he had flown four sorties at one point, one in the morning to intercept a daytime raid, two in the afternoon against fighter squadrons ranging over Germany from Poland, and a night sortie against another bombing raid.

At least the Soviets did not seem to enjoy fighting in the dark, that gave time for the battered Luftwaffe to rest, he rarely bothered with his count of victories anymore, by now JG 52 had been whittled down some from twenty-six at the beginning of the invasion to just twelve. Even as new squadrons came online it did not seem to do anything against the Soviets, who almost certainly outnumbered them by a very high ratio, and could as a result, rotate damaged squadrons out for new ones. The Luftwaffe did not have that luxury.

At the moment everyone was concentrating on the battle of Berlin, almost all of the squadron's sorties were flown in support of the battle, relieving pressure by ensuring that attack planes and bombers could not drop their payloads into the city.

Phew! Five thousand and a half words, even I am surprised by how far I got. And yes, the speech was paraphrased from Call of Duty: World at War, I just thought it was awesome hearing it the first time.

All reviews are welcome and appreciated!