Lincoln Laut, Rottenführer-SS, began his day in October 1943 and ended it in August 1863.
A tall, thin man with snowy white hair and hard blue eyes, Lincoln had been a section leader on the Eastern Front fighting against the Red Army. There, he proved himself on multiple occasions and was awarded an Iron Cross by Hitler himself. That was the proudest day of his life. The second proudest was July 13, 1943, when he was whisked away from the fighting in the east and sent to Berlin on a special mission. There, he and fifty other officers were assigned to the Reich Academy of Special Services. Lincoln assumed that he was going to become a spy, but the truth was far, far stranger.
At the beginning of the year, as the fortunes of the Reich were beginning to change for the worst, government scientists cracked the secrets of time and space and were able to send a man back in time.
Thus Operation Südlicher Schild was born. In order to weaken the United States, the Reich would send military aid across an incalculable gulf of spacetime to the Confederate States of America. The high command's goal was to assist the CSA in gaining its independence from the Union, which would, they reckoned, lead to a smaller and weaker America that would not declare war on Germany in 1941, or would not have the power to present a serious threat to Germany if it did.
In June, several SS officers made the trip to 1863 and established contact with Confederate general Robert E, Lee and his Army of Northern Virginia days before it began its march to disaster at Gettysburg. They successfully equipped the army with several dozen rifles and machine guns. The battle, which resulted in a resounding Confederate defeat in this timeline, ended with the Union army being routed. German manned machine gun nests chopped wave after wave of federal troops to pieces and sent the survivors into a panicked retreat. The Confederates fared better than they had in our timeline but there were not enough rifles to go around and many men were forced to use muskets. Their losses were not inconsiderable and following the battle, there was not enough ammunition for the modern rifles that were on the ground, necessitating a pause for resupplying.
In perhaps the greatest upset in the history of war, a convoy of trucks carrying arms across the rutted roads of Pennsylvania after a rainstorm became bogged down in the mud and were ambushed by Union soldiers. They overran the beleaguered Germans and captured the entire load: Five thousand rifles, two thousand pistols, five hundred machine guns, and several hundred mortars and grenades. One of the Germans apparently cooperated with his captors and told everything he knew. Armed with this information - and German weaponry - General Meade's Army of the Potomac attacked Lee's forces in the Second Battle of Gettysburg. Thousands of Confederates were killed and Lee was compelled to withdraw back into Virginia.
Following the Army of Northern Virginia's defeat at Gettysburg, German support was sent to the South in mass. Advisors and weapons flooded into the Confederacy, turning the tide of several battles. Confederates under German command stormed into Vicksburg in mid-July and retook it from Union forces, but despite being outgunned, the Union had cannons placed at strategic points on the high ground and rained hell on the invaders. The death toll on both sides was high, and the commander, SS-Hauptsturmführer Von Marsten, was gravely wounded and then captured. The Union soldiers who took him prisoner dragged him into a field and hanged him from a tree as revenge for "stickin' his nose where it don't belong."
This monstrous act sent shockwaves through the German command, and led to swift reprisals. A hastily raised SS Einsatzgruppen death squad stole into Maryland and attacked a passenger train, executing all on board, women and children included. Another squad attacked a riverboat from the shore with mortar fire and then machine gunned the survivors.
Perhaps inspired by this, the Army of the Potomac mounted a major offense, pushing deep into Virginia. SS detachments supported by Confederate troops with modern day rifles pushed them back in the Battle of King George, and then took most of the territory the Union had occupied in Northern Virginia. Elsewhere, Union forces were being pushed out of the Deep South. The Mississippi Campaign was the bloodiest theater of the whole war. After what had happened to Von Marsten, the SS refused to take prisoners. Captured men were forced to kneel and then executed. These killings didn't sit well with the Confederates and the Germans were ordered by high command to refrain from excesses in the field.
The stage was set for a joint German-Confederate offensive on Washington. Lincoln and the others were to take command of various units across the south for the final drive to victory.
On October 12, 1943, Lincoln and the others filed into a portal in a secure bunker and came out in a large converted factory crammed with boxes of supplies, motorcycles, Panzers, armored cars, and German military personnel. Swastika flags hung proudly from the rafters. Lincoln was under orders to meet with SS-Oberführer Reinhardt, the senior most German commander in the Army of Northern Virginia and second in rank only to General Lee himself.
Lincoln was loaded into the back of an armored car and driven to the main Confederate camp at Bealeton, Virginia, a tiny rail depot on the Orange and Alexandria Railroad some 60 miles south of Washington, DC. The supply depot through which Lincoln came into the past was located in the town of Fredericksburg, a collection of antiquated buildings serviced by a maze of brick and cobblestone streets. The people were all dressed in simple, homespun clothes and horse drawn carts plodded along. Everyone turned to gawk in awe at the fleet of German vehicles passing by. Lincoln watched them with a mixture of amusement and disgust. As a German, Lincoln respected the English, but not Americans. Americans were a stateless and stewing cesspit of inferior flesh and culture.
The roads between Fredericksburg and Bealeton were dirt and riddled with potholes, forcing the convoy to move slowly. The Panzers were taking a different route and wouldn't arrive until the following day.
General Lee's army was camped on the south bank of a narrow river near the Bealeton rail station. The terrain was flat and open save for stands of forest here and there, mainly along the river itself. In the west, gentle hills sloped away like green, frozen waves. Among them was a stately white plantation house. Ranks of slaves toiled in the fields surrounding it, and Lincoln nodded his approval.
When he saw the army's encampment, however, his approval turned to horror. Bearded and unkempt men in dirty clothes sat around drinking and laughing like lazy Jews while others danced about and drunkenly sang along to a group of musicians playing banjos and flutes. Big cast iron cauldrons sat over low, smoky fires and a line of canvas tents watched over the madness , their flaps rustling in the breeze. A number of flags snapped and rippled from splintered poles. The so-called Stars and Bars - a blue X filled with stars on a red background - and the official battle flag of the Konföderierte Kampfgruppe, which sported the same basic design but with a swastika instead of an X.
A Waffen-SS officer manned the approach to the camp and waved them in. Lincoln spotted groups of Germans sitting to themselves. Their uniforms were clean and neatly pressed and their behavior was befitting their station as Master Race. The Confederates all turned to look at the cars with the wonderment of children, and that's how Linxoln would always see them - as children. These men, rural, backwards, and uneducated, were little better than the Slavs Lincoln had massacred on the Eastern Front.
The car rolled to a stop and Lincoln was ushered into one of the tents. Inside, SS-Oberführer Reinhardt sat at a table studying maps. He wore a gray uniform with his lightning bolts on the collar and an Iron Cross around his neck. A tall man with a white beard bent over his shoulder. He wore a gray uniform and muddy black boots. Reinhardt sat back in his chair and glanced at the man, who left.
Was that Robert E. Lee? Lincoln had heard many great things about him, but he didn't seem that great up close.
"Sit down," Reinhardt said and nodded to a chair.
Lincoln sat.
"Tomorrow, we begin our push on Washington," Reinhardt said. "I expect to take it no later than the day after tomorrow."
His plan was for a frontal assault straight into the city with the Panzers leading the way. The infantry would come in behind and mop up. It seemed a sloppy plan to Lincoln, but Reinhardt explained himself. "I want to relish this," he said. "I want to see once and for all how muskets fare against machine guns and how the most inferior army Germany has ever faced reacts to total superiority."
Reinhardt wanted to wipe Washington from the face of the earth "the old way." He wanted to burn the White House, the Capitol, and all of the other important buildings. "The Union must behold the might of the Reich. We must grind their spirits under our boot heels."
Next, he told Lincoln about Operation Südliches Schwert.
After securing Confederate independence, the German army was to march on Richmond and overthrow the Confederate government. A new government, one administered directly by him and indirectly by the Führer, would be installed. The South would be settled by German citizens and turned into a thoroughly German state. By the time the war started in 1939, it would be a powerful ally and would dissuade America from joining the fight.
The plans were subject to change, of course, depending on the outcome of the war in Europe. As it stood, Germany did not have enough men or materials to take the entire United States. In the future, they might be able to, but…
No, Lincoln wouldn't think about it; the workings of time travel already made his head spin. If he tried to figure it all out, he would go mad.
Lincoln was placed in command of the 5th Mechanized Unit which would be the lead unit. He was to spare civilians and to refrain from executing captured soldiers.
After his meeting with Reinhardt, Lincoln met with his unit, which consisted of a German Panzer crew, five Waffen-SS riflemen, and two dozen Confederate soldiers in suspenders and torn breeches and toting German rifles. The Rebels and riflemen would keep pace with the Panzer in support vehicles and engage in action where necessary.
As dusk drew on, Lincoln sat by a fire and studied maps of the area. The main thrust of the advance would go through the town of Warrenton and then north, crossing into Washington via one of the several bridges spanning the Potomac River. He was worried that the bridges would not be able to support the weight of an armored column; if not, his troops would be forced to cross on foot. When he first went to the Eastern Front, he believed - as did German high command - that the Russians were weak and racially inferior and that they would rapidly collapse under German assault. That was not the case. The sane could be true here, He could not afford, then, to underestimate the Union army. They would lose, of course, but an army entrenched in an urban center can cause a lot of damage even with muskets and cannons.
Lincoln stretched out by the fire and waited for sleep to take him. The camp had fallen largely silently save the distant sound of banjos playing Dixie.
The Panzers arrived after midnight - five total - and in the morning, the troops massed, standing in many ranks with German assault rifles cradled against their shoulders. Lee inspected his men on horseback and Reinhardt met with the commanders of each German unit, ending the conference with a salute. "Heil Hitler."
Lincoln climbed onto the Panzer and slipped into the hatch. Motorcycles and armored cars flanked it on either side. Across camp, the Confederates waited to move out, their flagbearers holding aloft the Stars and Bars and their drummers playing music to entertain their comrades. "For the Führer!" Reinhardt shouted.
The Panzer began to move and the Rebels gave a mighty cheer. Lincoln stayed where he was to observe, unafraid of enemy fire this far south of the Union lines.
From Bealeton, the road was straight and dusty, the Panzer's tracks tearing into the dirt and kicking up thick clouds of brown. The cars and motorcycles fell behind and maintained a steady speed, and far to the rear, the infantry followed.
The Union lines were north of Warrenton. After passing through, Lincoln's division met up with another one. Two Panzers, five armored cars, and four motorcycles rolled across lumpy grass lands surrounded by sloping hills. The sun was bright, the sky piercing blue. Lincoln was reminded of the Eastern Front with its vast expanses of land and couldn't suppress a shudder. The Eastern Front was a meat grinder. This front would be easy.
At noon, the union lines came into sight, marked by zig-zagging wooden fences. Lincoln spotted American flags flapping in the breeze and cannons pointing south. A thousand rifles came to arms and aimed over the fence as one. Drums beat, flutes blew. Lincoln directed his unit to the left and the other to the right with a gap in-between.
Lincoln ordered his crew to fire, and the Panzer's big gun spoke. The round landed on the left flank, exploding part of the fence and throwing blue clad men into the air. The soliderfs fired a volley and one of the cannons went off. The ball spun through the air and struck one of the motorcycles; the rider was knocked to the ground, dead. The second Panzer fired and the cannon was swallowed in a puff of earth and debris.
The armored units bore down on the lines and the Union soldiers held out as long as they could, firing volley after volley from their muskets. Smoke and the smell of gun powder hung in the air. The Panzers finally reached the line and smashed through, shattering the defenses like so many matchsticks and crushing screaming men beneath their tracks.. The defenders gave up and fled. The armored cars came to a halt and dozens of German troops flooded the battlefield. Since there were no Confederates present to object, Lincoln didn't see the harm in waging total war. The Germans fired on the retreating Unionists, shooting many in the back.
Part of Lincoln wanted to pause the advance to clean up, but his orders were to push into Washington as quickly as possible.
Now they were in enemy territory. The units kept close together and moved with lightning speed. Union soldiers sniped at them from the brush along the road but Lincoln ignored their ineffectual attacks. He kept in radio contact with the other Panzer units, who even now were closing in on Washington from the west and southwest.
Fifteen miles south of Washington, Lincoln popped his head out of the hatch and watched the road. He was so lost in his own thoughts that he barely noticed the low whine growing louder and louder. Finally, he registered it and looked instinctively at the sky,
His jaw dropped.
Two planes approached from the north, soaring high above the treetops. He recognized the at once.
British.
Impossible.
The planes banked downward and opened fire. Bullets struck the road and pinged off the Panzer's armor plating. Lincoln ducked into the tank and pulled the hatch closed behind him. The planes screamed overhead, raking the exposed cars with fire. "What the hell is happening?" he screamed into the radio.
"I don't know!" came the reply.
Without warning, the Panzer jumped and Lincoln was jostled. "We hit a mine!" the operator yelled.
Through the viewport, British soldiers poured out of the woods. One of them tossed a grenade into the Panzer's turret, and Lincoln panicked. Throwing open the hatch, he scrambled out. The grenade exploded and the men still trapped in the Panzer were presumably ripped to shreds. Lincoln leapt off of the tank and went for his Lugar, but he was surrounded. One of the Brits hit him with the stock of his rifle and he fell to the ground.
The Brits immediately handed him over to a group of Union soldiers. They marched him into a clearing and Lincoln's heartbeat sped up. A noose hung from a tree branch. "For crimes against humanity and the United States," the regiment captain proclaimed, "you are hereby sentenced to death."
They tied Lincoln's hands behind his back and fitted the noose around his neck. He remained calm and stoic, displaying Germanic dignity to the last. "I pity you," he said right before he swung, "for you have condemned yourselves to the same fate as the Slavs and English. This is not the end but only the beginning."
The noose tightened and Lincoln's air supply cut off. He closed his eyes and strangled.
It took him a long, long time to die.