Conquer Europe from the West

Chapter 38 Modular Trenches, fun, right?

The meeting at the Imperial Army's front-line command post ended in a not very pleasant atmosphere.

Ryan's words, "Times have changed," clearly struck a chord with all the officers, including Brian.

But only Brian knew that what Ryan said was absolutely right.

However, this does not mean that the Imperial Army's General Staff and front-line headquarters in Mulhouse disagreed with the tactics proposed by Ryan.

On the contrary, they even strongly agreed with the tactical plan proposed by Ryan.

the reason is simple.

The distance between Mulhouse and Belfort is too close.

It is so close that you can see the whole of Belfort just by standing on the steeple of the church in Mulhouse.

Although the artillery of both sides is currently unable to directly cover the other side's front line and urban area due to the caliber, as long as it passes the end of this month, the Empire and Farlan will definitely have the ability to directly bombard the other side's urban area from their rear.

This is unacceptable to both the Empire and Farlan.

Therefore, the Empire urgently needed a victory to force the Farlanders to abandon their idea of ​​advancing eastward along the eastern side of the Vosges Mountains and along the Rhine Valley.

This would provide great security for the Sixth Army stationed in the northern city of Metz, which was also the friendly force of the Bavarian Army - they no longer had to worry about the Falgers moving north from Strasbourg to Saarburg and surrounding the Sixth Army's headquarters in Saarbrücken.

And the other side.

In the second hour after the battle plan was reported to Strasbourg, the second batch of Esco explosion-proof walls produced by the rear factory had completed the final canvas binding work in Strasbourg, and were delivered to Ryan by train along with four loaders rented from the civilian sector.

At this point, Ryan already has a total of 0.75 units of ESCO explosion-proof walls and a total of seven loaders that can move cubic meters of sand at a time.

All that's left is to wait.

At this moment, in the suburbs southwest of Mulhouse city, about five kilometers away from the front line.

A horse-drawn carriage used to transport wheat was swaying through the path between the fields. The carriage was loaded with thirty neatly folded ESCO explosion-proof walls. Behind it were five sidecar motorcycles and a small passenger car packed with people.

There were thirteen similar convoys outside the suburbs of Mulhouse, but no one knew what they were doing or where they were going. Everyone who saw them was kindly invited back to Mulhouse by the gendarmerie, and some were even taken to Colmar, further east.

Due west of Mulhouse, on the slopes of the Vosges Mountains.

Ryan led two convoys to a very hidden place behind a hillside.

Every man in these convoys was a senior NCO from the infantry battalion assigned to him by the Seventh Army, as well as from the assault battalion of the Fourth Army.

They will be the commanders of the teams that will carry out operations later. They were gathered here by Ryan to learn how to quickly set up the Esco explosion-proof wall on the battlefield.

The non-commissioned officers from the 2nd and 4th Battalions of the Seventh Army sat together, while the men from the Morris Commando Battalion of the Fourth Army stood next to Ryan.

They looked curiously at the cloth bag made of barbed wire and canvas in front of them being stretched open, and then witnessed the birth of a small fortress made up of ten Esco explosion-proof walls in amazement.

Ryan waved his hand to let the loader step aside, and stood next to a temporary bunker with two floors and a tower-like structure. It was built with six explosion-proof walls as the foundation and four explosion-proof walls on top.

"The blast-proof wall can be used flexibly," he said. "All you have to do is make full use of the advantages of your position and cooperate with the loader to fill each unit as quickly as possible and complete the establishment of the machine gun fire point."

"Unless the enemy uses 90mm or larger artillery to directly attack you, ordinary attacks cannot pose a threat to those behind the blast wall."

Ryan took a grenade from McIver, stood behind the blast wall, and threw it on the other side. The next moment, accompanied by the unique explosion of a wooden-handled grenade, a large amount of soil was blown into the sky, covering Ryan.

"Of course," he added, "you might be concerned about whether such equipment can withstand machine gun fire."

Looking to the side, Ryan gave Wolf an instruction to fire.

next moment.

Wolfe led his men and pushed a heavy machine gun to the other side of the explosion-proof wall, and fired half of its ammunition belt without saying a word.

Everyone, including those in Morris Company, saw clearly that no bullet could penetrate the one-meter-thick soil.

Even though Wolfe accurately shot all his bullets at the same explosion-proof wall, not much dirt fell from the broken side.

The entire explosion-proof wall still maintains its original appearance - a one-cubic-meter-sized volume filled with earth by a loader.

This made the non-commissioned officers of the second and fourth battalions jump up from the ground.

The leading non-commissioned officers raised their hands cautiously. "Captain, can we personally verify this... blast wall?"

"No problem, feel free to confirm."

Ryan nodded and stepped aside.

The next moment, all the senior non-commissioned officers of the machine gun squads of the Second and Fourth Battalions gathered around. They circled around the two-meter-high and two-meter-thick fortification, which looked like a small castle. Some of them knocked and kicked it to see if it was strong enough. Others even reached in to try to pull out the bullets that Wolf had shot into the ground.

Curiosity, joy, and a hint of exclamation immediately echoed on the hillside facing the Rhine River.

However, just as these non-commissioned officers were happily checking their new toy, a young corporal ran up to Ryan.

"Sir, I have a question!"

he said.

"Go on." Ryan nodded.

The corporal glanced at the small fortress beside him, then looked at Ryan: "If we retreat, what should we do with this so-called blast-proof wall?"

“Good question.”

Ryan looked at the corporal in surprise, but he didn't answer directly.

Instead, he picked up a large pair of pliers used to remove barbed wire, walked to the outermost explosion-proof wall, and directly cut off the rotating shaft at the contact position with another explosion-proof wall.

Seeing this, Brinkman, who had been motionless, came up. Less than 1.6 meters tall, she used a dagger to scrape around the opening of the cloth bag, and then with a force, she removed the three exposed barbed wires.

Wolf and others who had already learned demolition work also joined in. Within a few minutes, all the visible barbed wire on the first and second floors were removed.

The corporal was stunned by this set of procedures, and then Ryan said.

"As for the rest, just put some explosives in it and blow it up."

(End of this chapter)