Honing the Blade, Part 2

by Nick Lorance | Apr 9, 2018

Second and Third Platoons of First Company supported by the heavy weapons squad marched west along the road toward the village of Erxleben. Though all of the officers of the battalion had gone through these exercises, Honeker was sure the colonel had ordered and...

Honing the Blade, Part 1

by Nick Lorance | Feb 20, 2018

I   January, 1635   As he did every Sunday, Hartmann went to do some shooting. He opened the door of the gun shop, nodding to Herr Schönebeck. The shop owner grinned. “Greetings sergeant!” “Morning, Franz. I came to use the range again.” “Ah, yes.”...

A Little Help From His Friends

by Nick Lorance | Feb 13, 2017

Near Magdeburg November, 1634   “Hey, Linus! Where is the sergeant?” Becker sighed. The party had gone on until around two in the morning, and somewhere in that time, Hartmann had vanished. “Josef, does it look like I have been assigned to keep track of him?” He...

The Long Road Home, Part 2

by Nick Lorance | Dec 18, 2016

Hartmann escorted the shaken Kirsten to the MP tents, telling her to wait while he went inside. However, things looked to be getting worse. “Murder?” Hartmann asked in a chilly voice. “Yes.” Captain Hess from the MP Company told him from his seat at his desk. “You...

The Long Road Home, Part 1

by Nick Lorance | Oct 17, 2016

The Battle of Ahrensbök Early May, 1634   From where the French command group stood, what had been a glorious struggle became tragedy. With the cavalry along with their commanding general in flight, Charles de la Porte threw his men into the attack hoping they...

It’s the Little Things

by Nick Lorance | Aug 18, 2016

Grantville August, 1632   To one of the up-timers, it was just a ten-foot by ten-foot storage shed behind a house on one of the hills that surrounded the town of Grantville. It was now the home of Richard Hartmann, a sergeant in what they called their New United...

Transplanted Seed

by Nick Lorance | Jun 18, 2016

November 8, 1620 Bohemia   Richard ran back toward the line of tents, holding in his arms a precious treasure—two lengths of sausage and a whole cabbage. It had been hard in the last week; ripped from their home by the advancing army of Count Tilly, mother dying...

Birthday Blues

by Nick Lorance | Apr 15, 2016

Magdeburg, 30 October 1634   Hartmann looked at the sign in Fraktur: He had heard of the shop from Linus Becker, his assistant at the training facility. They had come up to Magdeburg from Suhl and opened their shop here less than a mile from the Army base outside...

Sergeant Whatsisname

by Nick Lorance | Oct 19, 2015

It was not a Duke nor Earl, nor yet a Viscount—      It was not a big brass General that came;    But a man in khaki kit who could handle men a bit,      With his bedding labelled Sergeant Whatsisname.   Magdeburg, May 20, 1631   The lieutenant had decided...