Re: Blood and Iron - Chapter 902: The Royal Tyrolean Landwehr

Chapter 902: The Royal Tyrolean Landwehr

Konrad von Zehntner had retired from the German Marine Corps after the war had come to an end. But, like many veterans of the German Reich and its wars, he found himself having difficulty adjusting to civilian life after the bullets had stopped flying.

For some, the appeal of the Werwolf Group led them to distant lands, planting a black and white banner on foreign soil. Fighting for fortune, not glory or fatherland.

Others, however, like Konrad ended up drifting to the Royal Tyrolean Landwehr. Mass mobilization, and widespread veteran displacement had created a problem. One that Bruno found an effective solution to.

What was the point of discarding men who had survived years of combat, and that the Reich had spent years and untold resources training and sustaining during battlefield operations?

Could these men be incorporated, despite returning to civilian life, into an organized network of defense outside of active service?

As always, the answer lied in Bruno’s past life. The Royal Tyrolean Landwehr was enacted during the early years of Bruno’s reign over his dynastic lands, not at a federal level, but at a regional level.

It essentially allowed for the organization and financing of a state level militia for the purposes of national defense, disaster relief, and in terms of crisis, internal civil defense.

Men who enlisted gathered once a month and conducted continued training under the authority of the Tyrolean crown.

Service in the Royal Tyrolean Landwehr was voluntary, but contractual. The men were expected to regularly meet standards and to show up when called upon.

They were equipped to Feldgendarmerie standards and were expected to assist in Feldgendarmerie operations if called upon.

The Landwehr were also expected to maintain compliance with arms within their own personal homes, and to meet certain security standards.

It was a form of private firearm ownership mixed with regulated chain of command that more closely resembled the Swiss model from Bruno’s past life than the frontier style regulation of the United States.

Each individual Landwehr was subject to the authority not of the Reich itself, but the Grand Principality of Tyrol, and the von Zehntner Dynasty which ruled it.

Bruno had established the Royal Tyrolean Landwehr for two reasons. Though he had not informed anyone else yet of his intentions, Bruno had already arranged to relinquish dynastic control over the Werwolf Group and the New-Hanseatic League before his death, and to properly integrate both structures into proper military chains of command and oversight.

Naturally, there were contingencies in place, if he were to suddenly die before he could finish his work, the paperwork and legislation was already drafted, and his signature had long since dried upon its page.

It was simply waiting for the Kaiser to co-sign in order to ratify. Which would be immediately enacted in the event of Bruno’s untimely demise.

This allowed Tyrol to maintain some degree of private control over force, without actually being capable of openly contesting the Kaiser and the Federal State. It was Dynastic Insurance, not insurrection.

The second reason Bruno felt was far more important than simply insurance. To the men of the Landwehr it was a continuation of the lines of brotherhood and martial culture that they had forged and experienced during their first years of adulthood.

And to Konrad in particular, it imposed discipline that civilian life simply did not afford him in the same way he had grown accustomed to.

As a Marine Corps officer during the Second World War, and a member of one of the many Cadet Branches of the von Zehntner family stemming from one of Bruno’s eight older brothers, much of his training was not suited towards alpine defense, and internal security.

This new and intensive training gave Konrad a level of purpose that his life seemed to be lacking after retiring from the Reichscheer. And currently he was going through a course on mountain warfare.

He had to admit, as he marched through the mountains in full combat gear and a large ruck on his back, that he severely missed his time in the Marine Corps.

The Royal Tyorlean Landwehr were Gebirgsjäger units, light infantry that focused on mountain warfare. And they were particularly divorced from modern mechanized or motorized transport.

The purpose being that Bruno felt their ability to operate without armored vehicles, and within austere terrain with only the functional support of pack animals and the local population forced the Royal Tyrolean Landwehr to adopt asymmetric warfare tactics.

Konrad who was accustomed to storming beaches in infantry fighting vehicles and commanding mechanized marine battalions on expeditionary operations was completely out of his element.

As a man in the ranks beside him effortlessly passed him, carrying the same degree of weight on his body.

It was apparent immediately who was accustomed to operating in mountains, and who wasn’t.

Many of Tyrol’s sons had actively fought in the Reichsheer’s Gebirgsjäger units, or in Special Operations units that trained and operated in such environments.

But Konrad was one of the few who had opted for a role in the war that was outside Tyrol’s specialty.

And because of this, the training regiment was clearly split between the men who felt like they were naturally at home with the brutal environment, and those who struggled to keep pace.

Konrad felt like his lungs were being skinned alive as the air became thinner and thinner with his advance. But luckily for him, the Regiment stopped on a plateau that appeared shielded from the elements.

Where the training staff quickly halted them.

“We’ll make camp here to get accustomed to the elevation before continuing further. You have all done well, some of you seem more accustomed to your homeland than others. And that is to be expected. But none of you quit, and that’s what matters. Tomorrow we’ll advance to the summit, and from there we will begin conducting our first course on asymmetric warfare. Make sure to set up your tents properly and to get lights out early. We’ll start marching at the crack of dawn. Dismissed!”

Konrad slumped onto a nearby rock, exhausted, as one of the men in the unit stepped beside him. He was the guy who had passed him in line earlier. The man handed Konrad a piece of chocolate while patting him on the back.

“Eat this… trust me, it’ll help.”

Konrad didn’t question the man’s suggestion, he ate the chocolate and then washed it down with his canteen.

He looked over at the man who had helped him and realized just now the patches on his biceps.

Airborne, Jäger, Kommando….

Konrad stared in disbelief for several moments, while the man didn’t seem remotely inclined to touch his own water supply.

It wasn’t until Konrad stared too long that the man noticed what had caught his eye.

“Oh these? Yeah, the Landwehr said I was allowed to keep them. I take it you weren’t a Gebirgsjäger, right? So what were you? Infantry? Airborne?”

Konrad scoffed and shook his head, whispering between exhaustion.

“Marine….”

The Jagdkommando broke out into laughter, he seemed almost a bit too casual and friendly for Konrad’s preference.

“I should have noticed that.. No wonder you’re so out of your depth, you’re used to fighting at sea level. Well, get used to it, this is our home, and we don’t have any beaches to defend, now do we?”

The Jagdkommando then got up and left, leaving Konrad to himself. He quietly muttered under his breath.

“I should have joined the fucking Army….”