Chapter 239 Training

There is one detail that Rommel did not tell Hitler the truth. The fuel of the German and Italian armies was not as bad as he said... It was indeed difficult to transport the fuel, especially the fuel was easy to burn and explode, and it was difficult to escape when attacked by British fighter planes.

But when the German army captured Tobruk, Matruh and Alexandria, they seized a large amount of fuel in the warehouses of the port, which was enough for the German and Italian armies to use for several months. Of course, the German army did not have many tanks, so the low fuel consumption was also one of the reasons.

This made it possible for transport planes to land in North Africa and conduct training.

What surprised Qin Chuan was that the First Infantry Regiment also participated in this training, and as an airborne soldier... Rommel did not believe the Italians.

"Considering the importance of this airborne operation!" Rommel said: "We must put the best troops into parachute training and airdrop them to the battlefield as soon as possible!"

On the battlefield, "excellent" also means the troops with the most military exploits and the greatest results, so the First Infantry Regiment where Qin Chuan was was the first to take the lead.

The training location was near the Alexandria Airport. It was originally an airport warehouse, but because the amount of materials transported by aircraft decreased, many warehouses were empty and could not be used, so they were converted into training camps.

There, the soldiers of the First Infantry Regiment received two new uniforms, including a paratrooper suit, better boots and helmets of different styles... These were German paratrooper equipment transported from Italy with the transport plane.

There was nothing to complain about the rest, because the soldiers' uniforms were tattered in the desert battle and should have been replaced long ago, but the helmet looked too ugly, round without edges, like half a watermelon rind upside down on the head.

"Uh..." Yakop complained while holding the helmet: "I don't know what you think, wearing this thing makes me feel like fighting!"

"I think this is great!" Werner said as he put the helmet on his head: "Because our enemies will probably laugh at our funny looks and forget to pull the trigger!"

The German soldiers couldn't help laughing.

"Do you think this is necessary?" Yakop said, "I mean... when supplies are so difficult, they still have to send us this extremely ugly equipment. I would rather they send us some chocolate!"

"Of course it is necessary, Sergeant!" Qin Chuan said, "Because we are going to conduct paratrooper training, the helmets with rear edges we used to wear..."

Qin Chuan raised his head towards the pile of tattered helmets that had just been replaced and said, "They can't protect us when parachuting, and the protrusions on the edges will seriously injure your neck or other parts when you fall to the ground!"

"Oh!" The soldiers suddenly realized it, and then put on the paratrooper helmets one by one... Although it was ugly, the rule of the battlefield was that everything was for survival, and the soldiers all knew this.

Sure enough, the first sentence of the instructor during the class was: "You must never wear a standard steel helmet when parachuting, unless you want your neck to be broken!"

The instructor was German and was urgently airlifted from Berlin.

This surprised Qin Chuan a little, because Italy has a paratrooper division, and this paratrooper division is in Tripoli. The Italians even have a paratrooper school in Tripoli... The Italian 185th Paratrooper Division was studied, trained and formed in Tripoli.

Since North Africa has such good resources, and the German army will fight with the 185th Paratrooper Division in the near future, why not let Italian instructors train the German army?

The reason is that Rommel does not trust the Italians.

Not only because of this, Rommel also considered one point: German soldiers also do not trust Italians.

Not trusting is the second, and what is worse is that German soldiers look down on Italians.

In fact, objectively speaking, Italian instructors are fully capable of teaching German soldiers parachute subjects... This training is a short-term crash course. It only requires German soldiers to learn how to parachute and be successfully delivered to the target airport. The rest is still the same as the infantry.

The problem is that German soldiers generally look down on Italians, so how can Italian instructors suppress German soldiers and make them study seriously!

In this respect, Rommel's consideration is indeed correct.

Parachute training is carried out step by step. First, the parachute action essentials are learned step by step. After becoming familiar with it, the instructor will use a homemade pulley device to hang the soldiers in the air one by one, and then lower them at a certain speed, so that the soldiers can make landing actions one second before landing.

The action is not difficult, but the difficulty lies in that it is often impossible to judge the landing time. Doing the action faster or slower may cause different degrees of damage to the body.

At this time, the instructor will yell at the side: "Hey, the guy who landed on his butt, you can never get up because of a broken spine. Do we still want to rely on a fool like you to fight? You'd better wait for the enemy to deal with you!"

"The sergeant who tilted his head to one side... your neck is broken!"

...

In the instructor's scolding, the soldiers gradually realized the danger of parachuting.

In fact, the dangers of parachuting are far more than these. Actual combat is much more terrifying than training, especially when you are suspended in the air and have no ability to resist ground fire and can only watch them point their guns and cannons at you.

Due to time constraints, the first parachuting training was carried out a week later.

When it was Qin Chuan's turn to jump, Qin Chuan hesitated for a moment and looked at the land thousands of meters below... It was a void, and no one knew what would happen if he jumped down.

"Jump down!" The instructor shouted from behind: "Remember: the enemy's anti-aircraft machine guns and anti-aircraft guns are aiming at you, any hesitation may kill the people behind you!"

Qin Chuan could only jump down, because he couldn't be the one who dragged down the troops, especially since he was still a second lieutenant.

The moment he jumped out of the cabin, Qin Chuan fell down like a stone. He was dizzy and couldn't control his direction when he was weightless. Then the nine-meter-long forced parachute pull rope opened the parachute...

This process is very scary and a bit thrilling, because you seem to have completely handed your life over to a few ropes and a piece of cloth.

But this process is also beautiful, because the sky is empty, and besides the blue, there are parachutes like dandelions.

However, Qin Chuan knew that he could not enjoy these, because the real battlefield was not like this. He had to add the smoke from the anti-aircraft artillery explosions and the bullets from the anti-aircraft machine guns, as well as the blood spurting out of the soldiers' bodies.