"eastern cowboy"|worldwarII crimea ostfront|workingtitleold&unfinishedstoryideas

Untitled Part 1

(a gentle & happy "myth"-tale; of a bad & bloody time)

a fictional story about my mother's long-lost cousin (uncle?) who disappeared on the eastern front in ww 2 (german).  (boots up, frozen in a glacier, dead shot capture - s/d camp pow  or etc. irl most likley :( - <3 )

a redemption story?  

in the story, he is a draFTED/conscript farmboy; horse-handler in the german army

who loved the kArl may - winnetou/wild west stories, growing up

instead of dying, he does the most sensible & intelligent thing, in this freezing sea of slaughter (i.e.; he fucks off & runs away; possibly after/once/while/during getting lost in-or-post some -chaos/chaotic events, etc....? how deliberately, awol - dessertion concerns, etc....?)); he pisses off & ends up hiding with crimean(?) tatars (they help him, bonds are formed, etc....?), who are being deported east by the soviets; he helps to save their horses (plus others; ex-german &/or soviet armies horses?), rides on a drive through the wilderness to take them far east,

& ends up settling in someplace far away in the "wild east", with these ppl; possibly in mongolia?

he is "rediscovered" by a persistent-researcher relative ("me"?) in the post-cold war, fall of the soviet empire era circa 1889-91 -ish ? or slightly after?  (or the present?  2019+? he'd be quite old by now... could add something to the story after his re-connecting in the end-of-the-cold-war era)

ends with him as an old man, in full, proper cowboy gear, riding off, into the sunrise, in the wild eaST :)

the ww2 part of the story:  

rheinland farmboy. age-_? - drafted into the wehrmacht heer german aRmy. eastern front. farmer/farming background (should i make it specifically a horse-farm? not sure), knows horses, so assigned duty with german army horses, etc.  

when & how long is he @ the ostfront?    combat experiences before crimea? yes, i think; seen (& done? or not) lots of bad things... 

ends up in crimea (for some time? connects with the locals?) deserts (or gets lost?) ends up hiding with crimean tatars (any remnants linguistically of crimean gothic-germanic? real/fake/nazi/etc.? how did the nazis regards the crimean goths, for that matter, etc....?  ), farm/village.  their hardships, soviet & german.  soviet offensive to retake the crimea in april - may 1944. rescues some german horses (going to be killed?) with & for the tatars?  then the soviet deportation of the crimean tatars...  (soviet / red army? horses? the crimean's horses, being taken away? they'd have already lost some already to the soviets & then the nazis? have to work out the scenario for accuracy/plausibility/and-or/etc.? ) ?  

runs, & hides with them,  a group, they take some surviving herds (horses, some of them old crimean breeding stock, other livestock too?  any cattle? etc....?  where would they go?  west to romania?  originally maybe that was the idea?  but they end up go/moving east to reconnect with the deportees. route(s)/map(s)/etc.? ? 

they'd have to get out of crimea (how?), & move through the empty/wilderness areas heading east... (to one of the regions the tatars were sent to?)  do they stay there, or then maybe keep going east, to mongolia, (perhaps planning to go to) china, or etc.?    ends up setting in the deep east?, siberia-mongolia maybe?    somewhere out in the wilderness, empty open plains, on the margins of soviet society...  & stay there (wife, family, etc.?), hiding his past, until the end of the cold war era...?