Chapter 696
The amphibious tank was a temporary solution that Charles came up with.
When Charles drew the sketch and placed it in front of Tijani and Brownie, they were stunned by his idea.
"This is crazy." Tijani exclaimed with wide eyes, "You plan to do such a simple modification and throw the tank into the water? And still hope that it can cross the river? You forget that it weighs 7 tons, General!"
Ciel raised an eyebrow.
What’s the big deal about 7 tons? When the Americans used this plan, they used a 33.65-ton Sherman tank.
Major General Brownie had already developed a habit of trusting Charles unconditionally, but he still couldn't believe this plan:
"Are you sure this is feasible, General?"
"Or, let's wait for Colonel Estiny's troops!"
"I mean, if we're pinning our hopes on 'amphibious tanks', we might as well attack with Colonel Estiny."
…
There is some truth to this statement.
The "amphibious tank" is a raid, Colonel Estiny's troops are also raids, and the mechanized regiment led by Colonel Estiny is also equipped with tanks.
Compared with the two, the latter is obviously safer.
But Charles shook his head and rejected this suggestion:
"We don't have time, Major General."
"The chances of Colonel Estiny arriving and engaging in battle by tomorrow morning are slim."
"If we lose this offensive node tomorrow morning, we may never have another chance."
Tijani agreed:
"The lieutenant general is right. The German troops withdrawing are gathering in large numbers on the other side of the river."
"It's night time now and the speed of assembly and deployment is slow. Once daybreak comes, troops will arrive in a steady stream and strengthen the riverbank defense."
"So, there is only one chance tomorrow morning."
Brownie was silent.
He had just contacted Astinhos, and he didn't even dare to march easily in the dark because it was easy to get lost again.
So what Charles said was right. The possibility of the mechanized regiment arriving in the early morning was almost zero. Not only that, it was even a question whether they could arrive tomorrow.
"We have no other choice." Tijani picked up the sketch drawn by Charles from the table and raised it, with helplessness in his eyes: "We can only try this thing, although it looks..."
The words "not so reliable" were not mentioned.
Tijani knew that morale was important to the troops. If even the commander had no confidence in the equipment, how could he make the soldiers believe in it and use it to win battles?
So from this moment on, Tijani made up his mind to trust this equipment without reservation.
Major General Browne thought about it for a while and finally nodded in agreement.
However, he took out his pocket watch and looked at it, his tone filled with worry: "It's already past eight o'clock, and there are only about 10 hours until dawn tomorrow morning. Is it in time?"
Tijani laughed. "You forget that this is Mezières, Major General. There's even a shipyard here."
(The picture above shows the Meuse River, most of which is navigable and is one of the more important waterways in Europe.)
The shipyard that Tijani knew was the Charles Shipyard, which had had technical exchanges with the Brest Shipyard, and Wells even owned a 10% stake in it.
The difference is that Charles Shipyard focuses on building ships for inland rivers, such as small cargo ships, yachts, rubber boats, cruise ships, etc.
And this just meets the needs of the Shire.
Charles gave Tijani the responsibility for this matter.
Tijani may not have considered how much of a shock military equipment would have on civilians. When he went to find Charles, he directly drove to the shipyard with a hundred tanks that needed to be modified.
Charles, the owner of the shipyard, was terrified. He thought it was because he provided ship services to the German army when the Germans occupied Mezieres that he fled out the back door with his wife and children without even having time to pack his luggage.
But he failed, as the buildings destroyed by the German artillery bombardment blocked his way.
Eventually Tijani sent guards to chase Charles back.
Charles was so frightened that his face turned pale and he was trembling, and he almost knelt down to Tijani.
"I didn't want to do this." Charles kept explaining to the guards, "They forced me to do this. I didn't want to build ships for them, and I didn't want them to use these ships to transport arms..."
The Meuse River connects to Verdun, and many arms and military supplies were transported upstream from Mézières to Verdun.
"Mr. Charles." Tijani walked up to him and called out.
Perhaps because he was too panicked, or perhaps because the lights in the factory were dim, Charles did not recognize Tijani. He continued to explain, speaking at a rapid speed with the sound of his teeth chattering:
"This has nothing to do with me, General."
"Please believe me, I'm just doing what I should do..."
"No, no, I mean, I'm just doing business, that's all!"
…
"Charles!" Tijani raised his voice. "I'm Tijani, remember? We met in Paris!"
Charles was stunned for a moment. He stared at Tijani for a while, then shook hands with Tijani enthusiastically as if he had grabbed a life-saving straw:
"It's you, Mr. Tijani, of course I remember you!"
"No, it's the general, General Tijani. Look, you are already a general!"
"Your father, Mr. Wells, is he all right?"
…
"Yes." Tijani nodded: "He's fine!"
"If it were you, it would be much easier." Charles forced a smile and glanced at the hundreds of tanks parked in the factory and the soldiers armed with live ammunition and murderous intent: "Look, I'm willing to cooperate with everything. You don't need to bring so many people..."
Tijani handed over the blueprints that Charles had drawn, lit the flashlight and shone it upwards: "Can these modifications be completed? How long will it take?"
Charles was stunned, and then he understood the purpose of Tijani bringing the tank here.
He held his chest and took a few breaths, staring at Tijani, cursing in his heart: This reckless guy almost scared me to death. Couldn't you make a phone call before coming?
But of course he didn't dare to say these words out loud. He looked at the sketch and answered confidently: "Yes, General. If everything goes well, it can be completed in two or three hours!"
…
The remodel went smoothly.
The material of the tent is the same rubber as that of a rubber boat. It is inflatable and has partitions.
The disadvantage of having a partition is that it inflates more slowly, but the advantage is that it is practical: once the rubber is pierced by an enemy bullet, there will be no leakage of air all over the rubber, and it can last for a considerable period of time, just like a hot air balloon.
By installing two propellers below, you can directly use the yacht's external propellers.
The reason for using two is to simplify the operation. When turning, one is slow and the other is fast, and almost no additional training is required.
Then use rubber and electric welding to fill the gaps in the tank chassis to prevent water leakage.
Finally, a small water pump is added to pump out the water that has seeped into the tank and the tent.
However, in actual combat, it was found that the water pump was useless because the crossing time was too short, less than twenty minutes.
(End of this chapter)
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