Chapter 708 Incendiary Bomb
There is only one update today, I will make it up tomorrow, sorry!
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In Truk Forest, Major General Erwin hid in the grass and carefully observed the French troops with a telescope. A spider was crawling slowly on his face, but he stood still like a statue.
French tanks rumbled towards them. Although they were several hundred meters away, Major General Erwin still felt inexplicable pressure.
This is not only because of the gap in tank performance between the two sides, but also because of the determination, confidence and murderousness on the faces of the French soldiers, as if declaring to the enemy that this is a well-trained and experienced force.
They are indeed the elite troops trained by Charles, Major General Erwin thought, but now, this unit is about to become his own achievement.
Although the German army's tanks and quality were inferior to the French army, and their manpower was also comparable, the German army had the advantage of being well prepared and attacking the unprepared, and the French army was exhausted after a long journey.
Therefore, even Charles could not change anything, and this would be his first defeat.
Major General Erwin still hoped to capture Charles alive, but if that was not possible he should be shot dead.
Because Charles is too dangerous, he is a threat that "should be destroyed if you can't get him", and no morality or treaty is of any use.
At this moment, Charles' troops suddenly stopped, and Major General Erwin's heart was hanging in the air.
Did Charles discover something?
It's impossible. Erwin checked it himself. He led the engineers to smooth out every trace of tank tracks and even covered them with old soil. The town was also carefully camouflaged and cleared of suspicious discarded items. Erwin believed that there were no loopholes left.
After waiting for a while, there was no movement. The staff officer lying next to him became impatient. He turned his head cautiously to look at Erwin and asked with his eyes: Attack, General, we may have been discovered by them.
But Erwin shook his head slightly, signaling his staff not to act rashly.
Charles didn't notice.
Otherwise, they would not have stood still, but would have deployed the "Saint Salmon" and fired waves of shells into the forest.
Erwin was very patient. Charles' troops rested there for more than half an hour, and he waited for more than half an hour.
Finally, Charles's troops moved.
The first batch was a standard reconnaissance unit of the French armored forces: each tank was followed by two armored vehicles, and the tanks were all equipped with 37MM short-barreled guns.
This is the characteristic of the Charr armored forces.
Since the mass-production of the M1 armored vehicle, the weapons of the "Char A1" tank have almost all been replaced with 37mm guns.
Charles believed that machine gun firepower could be provided by armored vehicles, and it would be a waste to equip the tank with machine guns. It should be equipped with a 37mm gun that could attack fortifications, infantry, and anti-tank.
Erwin waited quietly, wanting to let the French vanguard pass and attack the vulnerable middle section.
However, at this moment, a rumbling sound of an engine was heard in the sky.
Erwin looked up suddenly, but his sight was blocked by the shadow of the tree and he could not see anything.
French reconnaissance plane?
Or is it a plane passing through here on some other mission?
The rumbling sound was getting closer and louder.
Erwin thought to himself that something was wrong; the fleet of planes seemed to be heading straight for the forest where he was.
Turning around to look at the French troops on the road, Erwin was shocked to find that the tanks and armored vehicles had stopped and were turning their guns towards the forest.
"Damn it, they found us!" Erwin turned around and shouted, "Attack, attack now, get out of here!"
However……
The bombs were falling from the sky with a whistling sound.
Erwin immediately dropped to the ground, bracing himself for the loud noise and vibration, but as the explosion passed overhead was followed by a wave of heat and howling.
Erwin looked up and exclaimed, "Oh my God, it's napalm. They loaded the plane with napalm!"
…
The napalm bomb was developed by Charles after he infiltrated Antwerp and was handed over to the Saint-Etienne Arsenal.
It didn't have much technical difficulty, so Charles didn't interfere too much.
The combustible material is gasoline added with white phosphorus, which will spontaneously ignite once it comes into contact with air, thus eliminating the step of ignition.
The front end of the shell is still a fuse. Unlike ordinary bombs, it only has a small amount of explosives. Its function is to blow up the shell body and spread the burning liquid to form a secondary explosion.
Charles just gave Steed a reminder:
"Using gasoline directly may not be very effective. We all know that it is not easy to adhere to people or targets after splashing."
“To fix that, we can try to make it sticky.”
"For example, adding natural rubber to gasoline in a certain proportion."
(Note: Before the invention of napalm, gasoline bombs with natural rubber added were used, which had a similar effect to napalm and were called "jelly napalm bombs" at the time. The disadvantage was that natural rubber was expensive, and was later replaced by cheap palmitic acid and cycloalkanes)
Steed was overjoyed after trying it. He excitedly telegraphed to Charles:
"This is another exciting invention, General!"
"It kills much more effectively than gasoline, it can fly farther, and its burning time is doubled!"
"There is only one drawback. Natural rubber is not cheap. This kind of incendiary bomb is three to five times the price of an ordinary bomb."
"Do you really think it's practical on the battlefield?"
Steed: This is a question of cost-effectiveness.
He couldn't understand: if the price of an incendiary bomb was three to five times that of an ordinary bomb, then why not just use three or five bombs to destroy the target? Isn't it redundant to use incendiary bombs?
Charles gave him a positive answer and told him to go into labor without worry.
What Steed didn't know was that under certain circumstances, a single incendiary bomb could cause far more damage and harm than three or even five ordinary bombs.
Just like now, the German tank troops are hiding in the woods, and ordinary bombs will not have much impact on them, and artillery shells are no exception.
Incendiary bombs are completely different.
They exploded one by one in the forest, bursting out red and black flames, like the tongue of a poisonous snake or the fangs of a devil, tearing the green forest into fiery red wounds.
The trees were like burning torches, being devoured one after another.
The flames were leaping as if in a carnival; even the air seemed to be burning; there were whistling sounds of the wind and the soldiers' miserable shouts and cries for help everywhere.
Tanks rushed out of the fire scene with flames on their backs, trying to break out of this purgatory and get a moment of respite.
But before they could react, shell after shell had penetrated their armor and turned them into piles of scrap metal.
Soon, the open ground was littered with tank wreckage, with flames burning on the armor. Even some that were not hit were emitting black smoke due to overheated engines.
Behind them, many tanks tried to escape, but were blocked by the wreckage of tanks in front.
(End of this chapter)
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