Thank you Ajrimmer! Considering the views this thread has gotten, I hope you are all liking it so far, please, feel free to comment!
The 140th Special Arctic Warfare Division was created as a result of lessons learned from the fighting on Planet 116. The fighting units of Germania were dropped into the frozen, hostile territory on the planet completely unprepared. The panzertruppe suffered heavy losses as soon as the tanks left the dropships. Cut down by the well entrenched and warm defenders of the planet, very few men survived what was to be known as "The Slaughter of 116." Kurt knew this story well, for his grandfather was a survivor. According to his grandfather, who was the gunner of one of the last tanks dropped, the enemy appeared from nowhere and sunk back into the snow after knocking out his fellow comrades. He survived by laying on the floor of the tank "like a coward," he said through tears to a young Kurt Tomzak, until the enemies decided that the platoon was wiped out. Only then did he sit up and fire off a burst transmission to an orbiting dropship above. His entire tank was collected, the hatch was forced open, and Kurt's grandfather was dug out, bloodstains from his fellow tankers covering every bit of exposed skin. A short funeral was held orbiting Planet 116, where upon the tank was released to burn up into the cold, unforgiving atmosphere. Afterwards, the supreme leader of Germania, a man by the name of Heinz Stuppe, ordered an elite division of the best tankers Germania had to be formed and trained in the art of extreme-cold-environment warfare. Of course, the division's use went far beyond the harsh, cold planets Germania was to occupy. It was also deployed in many other minor conflicts, using their tanks and reputations to deter any further fighting. Only once did the 140th have to fire their weapons in total anger. The result was a boldfaced victory for the SAWD, with only one casualty, a soldier who was hospitalized with a dangerous bug bite.
The 140th was comprised of mostly tanks, which, in the last millenia, had become the mainstay in warfare on land. Infantry was mainly obsolete, a ghost of a time when the threat of biological weapons, nuclear attack, satellite guided ballistic missiles, and large, impervious tanks were few or nonexistent. The division carried only a small group of infantry, who were mainly for guarding and parades. The Division's tanks were modified heavily for cold weather combat, the engines insulated, the gun barrels were tempered to withstand the rapid heating and cooling of fighting in beyond subzero temperatures. The outsides of the tanks were also covered in more armor, which kept heat and provided further resistance against cracking. The commander's position on the rear left hand side of the turret was bulked up, the cupola was heightened so less of the commander's body was exposed. within the heightened walls were small screens replacing the vision blocks of older tanks, with voice command or the flip of a switch, these could show the view from any one of the tanks small cameras mounted on the hull. They could also show the gunner's view, or the driver's view.
Along with the tanks was a battery of artillery, numbering three groups of five pieces each, and a battery of assault guns, whose first heyday was over 700 years ago, in World war Two on planet Earth. The designs mirrored the best of the assault gun designs, the Jagdpanther. Mainly a more mobile artillery battery, the assault guns could join the tanks in rushing assaults and were almost as fearsome as the Leopards.
Germania isn't a government. It's a clan comprised of what was left of America, Germany, Israel, and the United Kingdom on Earth. After the invention of the warp drive, and the discovery of habitable planets outside of the Solar System, The Alliance of NATO and the Warsaw Pact went to war with each other, and nuclear weapons bared their ugly teeth again. By the time the fighting calmed down, Earth was unlivable. The groups, having reached a stalemate, secretly built themselves so-called "arks" and prepared to leave Earth for good, while detonating enough weapons to destroy the planet, and, with any luck, their enemies. Of course, history has taught that there will always be a traitor, and even though NATO was prepared to leave long before the Pact was, the Pact's turncoat warned the alliance of the impending doom, and the Pact hurried the completion of their Ark and left Earth at nearly the same time as the NATO Ark. What resulted was the ultimate irony, both sides went to opposite corners of the Milky Way, having destroyed Earth, and inhabited planets familiar to the regions from which they came. That was almost 650 years before Kurt was born, and basically ancient history....