Heinrich Jäger

From Turtledove

Heinrich Jäger
Fictional Character
Worldwar
Appearance(s):	In the Balance through Striking the Balance (postumously discussed in subsequent volumes)
Nationality:	Germany, later Race-occupied Poland
Religion:	None
Date of Birth:	1899
Date of Death:	c. 1950
Cause of Death:	Exposure to poison gas which shortened his lifespan
Occupation:	Soldier, tank commander, spy
Spouse:	Ludmila Gorbunova
Affiliations:	Nazi Party

Heinrich Jäger (1899-c.1950) was a German tank commander during World War II. Jäger played an important behind-the-scenes role in the war against the Race, including the acquisition of plutonium for Germany and the United States, combat against Race forces, and saving the Polish city of Lodz from his own country.

Jäger had fought on the Western Front in World War I. He saw the first tanks in action, signalling the beginning of the end of the war. Jäger knew that tanks were the future of warfare. As soon Adolf Hitler started rearming Germany, he joined the armor division. When World War II broke out, Jäger was placed in command of his own company. When the Race invaded in 1942, Jäger was on the Eastern Front, advancing in the Soviet Union.

Jäger's first brush with the Race's Conquest Fleet was nearly a disaster. Indeed, Jäger initially believed that the company had entered mine field, as casualties piled up substantially. In fact, it was the Race's supersonic aircraft systematically destroying his tanks. After the raid, Jäger only had three tanks and a small infantry group left. Despite his badly depleted company, Jäger quickly realized that the Lizards' only tank tactic was direct assault at all visible targets. With his skeleton crew, he was able to destroy a Race Troopcarrier (although he had to crush a German infantryman with his Panzer III in the process). After a fierce battle with Race Landcruisers, his Panzer was destroyed. Jäger escaped back ino Germany.

Jäger met SS commando Otto Skorzeny. Skorzeny convinced Jäger to participate in a joint Russian-German mission to steal radioactive pieces from a downed Race starship. The material gathered from this raid advanced the atomic bomb programs of Russia, Germans and Americans. While on this raid he met his future wife, Soviet Air Force Lieutenant Ludmila Gorbunova. He was also confronted with the horrifying reality of Germany's final solution to the "Jewish question" when he met a survivor of the massacre of Baba Yar.

Jäger had to go through enemy territory on his way back to Germany and was forced to give up some of his radioactive pieces to Jewish partisan Mordechai Anielewicz. Anielewicz gave those pieces to the United States.

Upon returning to Germany, Jäger was sent to France and helped slow down the Race's advances there. He also joined Skorzeny on several other raids, helping to destroy one of the Race's bases in Croatia as well as a factory that made gas masks for the Lizards.

However, Jäger eventually discovered Germany's genocidal policy against the Jews and was horrified by it. In 1944, when the Race and the Big Five were meeting at the Peace of Cairo, Skorzeny tried to manually explode an atomic bomb in Lodz. Jäger, Mordechai Anielewicz and Ludmila Gorbunova stopped Skorzeny. Unfortunately, Skorzeny had released nerve gas during the attack. The gas Jäger breathed in eventually resulted in his death a few years later.

Quote

• "The Russians have better sense. They just motor along shooting at anything that happens to cross their path. They aren't even looking this way, though it's an obvious place for trouble. Stupid!"