Chapter 491: Tunnel Warfare
Strictly speaking, this should be "tunnel warfare" rather than "tunnel warfare".
The two are very similar in form, both of which involve digging pits underground, but there are actually differences.
The biggest difference is that the tunnels in "tunnel warfare" are built on high ground, and there is only one tunnel entrance exposed to the outside. The main body of the tunnel is inside the high ground. Due to the nature of the high ground, it is difficult to dig the tunnel from the outside.
"Tunnel warfare" is generally built on flat ground or high ground with low terrain. If you know the direction of the tunnel, it is easier to find the tunnel from the outside.
Therefore, their combat methods are very different. For example, "tunnel warfare" uses tunnel entrances to cover each other, uses high ground to achieve "hiding troops" and "mobility", and combines with reverse slope positions to fight.
"Tunnel warfare" is to use surface buildings to hide tunnel entrances for mobile warfare.
Of course, Qin Chuan used the "tunnel warfare" tactic here not to rely on this tactic to fight the Soviet army, but was forced to do nothing by the Soviet army and the cold.
After the chimney was completed and proved to be effective, the morale of the troops was quickly improved.
Originally, everyone, including the soldiers of the First Infantry Regiment, had a negative attitude towards the war... This could not be blamed on them. Thousands of people occupied a small hill and were surrounded by the Soviet army outside. Moreover, the Soviet army had tanks and artillery, while the German army had nothing.
The huge disparity between the enemy and us was obvious, especially at night, we could not make a fire, the food we ate was cold, and we could not sleep... If this continued, we would be frozen or tired in a few days, not to mention fighting.
But now, once the chimney was completed, we could warm ourselves up by fire, and the cellar was as warm as a greenhouse, making it a good place to rest and sleep. With a pot, we could of course eat hot food.
The soldiers' requirements were actually very simple... If the problem of food and clothing was solved, and the problem of sleep was also solved, then even if we died on the battlefield, we would die comfortably.
On this basis, it was of course no problem to let the soldiers carry out tunnel transformation.
On the surface, tunnel reconstruction does not seem difficult. The houses in the town are not far from each other, with a distance of more than ten meters. In other words, as long as the direction is right, a tunnel more than ten meters deep can be dug from the side to connect them.
But it is not so simple to dig.
First of all, there is the problem of collapse... The cellar is very close to the ground, and most of them are made of cement concrete, so there is no worry about collapse, but if the tunnel is dug directly from the side wall, the thickness of the soil layer on the tunnel may not even be one meter. If a few shells vibrate or hit, it will cause the tunnel to collapse in pieces.
In order to avoid this problem, the tunnel is not dug directly from the side wall, but first dig down, and then extend in the direction of another cellar.
"Be careful not to extend in a straight line!" This is Qin Chuan's requirement for the tunnel.
Colonel Slaine asked in confusion: "Why can't it be a straight line? Our tunnels seem to be straight lines, but with a few corners!"
"Tunnels are different from underground tunnels!" Qin Chuan replied: "Tunnels are easier to defend, and it is basically impossible for tunnels to be occupied by the enemy! But underground tunnels... if it is built in a straight line, once the enemy occupies one of the cellars, they only need to set up a machine gun to threaten everyone in the other cellar!"
Colonel Slaine nodded in agreement with an "oh".
So, the tunnel was built in an arc, like an arch bridge from one cellar to another, and then from another cellar to more cellars, and some tunnels led to trenches, hospitals or other possible locations in wartime, making it look like an underground city.
On the other hand, the promised supplies from the army headquarters also arrived as scheduled that afternoon...First, two fighters and four fighters bombarded the Soviet artillery and anti-aircraft firepower, and then six transport planes "rumbled" to Holm.
The Soviets realized at the first moment that these transport planes wanted to drop supplies, so they fired at them with light and heavy machine guns and anti-aircraft fire.
One transport plane's engine was hit and black smoke came out... But as mentioned before, the nickname of "Junkers 52" in the German army was "Iron Annie". As long as the engine did not catch fire and spread to other places, it was a trivial matter for one of its three engines to break down.
So 6 transport planes dropped 18 boxes of supplies over Holm smoothly... But 6 of them were dropped to the enemy-controlled west of the river, 2 were dropped to the open space between the enemy and us and could not be retrieved, and 3 of the remaining 10 boxes dropped to the east of the river were smashed because the parachutes did not open. Fortunately, there were bags of flour inside, so it did not affect the use.
A box of supplies fell near the second company's station. Qin Chuan and Kuhn, who were stationed in the trench, looked around and saw that no one else was paying attention. Without saying a word, they rushed up and each carried a bag of flour and ran to the cellar. Yakop followed behind and carried a few cans and ran very fast...
These supplies should be handed over to the logistics department for distribution after statistics, but the soldiers who were already starving due to insufficient supplies would not care about this.
When several people ran into the cellar with flour and cans, they found that Werner had moved a bathtub into the cellar at some point. At this time, he had taken off all his clothes and was singing and taking a hot bath in it...
"Sergeant!" Qin Chuan put the bread on the shell box and said to Werner: "Aren't you worried about the Soviet attack?"
"Then let them wait!" Werner replied: "What a treat, Captain, to take a hot bath after almost being frozen into an ice sculpture..."
As he spoke, Werner stretched out his long furry legs from the bathtub and struck an ecstatic pose, which made the soldiers laugh.
"You'd better get this thing out!" Qin Chuan said: "It makes the cellar full of water vapor, and if the Soviets really attack... you will know that you will be naked and running with water all over your body. What will happen if you go out!"
"Then the sergeant will really turn into an ice sculpture!" Dominic said: "I just want to know if the sergeant's bird will be frozen and fly away!"
There was another burst of laughter in the cellar.
"Captain!" After laughing for a while, the baker looked blankly at the two bags of flour carried by Qin Chuan and Kuen, and asked, "Why are you carrying these things?"
"Can't we get something to eat?"
"But we don't have yeast!" said the baker, "and we don't have an oven!"
"God!" Qin Chuan rolled his eyes. Foreigners seemed to only have bread in their eyes.