The decisive battle against the Third Reich - Chapter 959

c956 Delay fuze (please vote for me)

Colonel Slain and Colonel Becker were stunned.

The next second, Colonel Slain agreed: “This method seems feasible. We are located upstream of the middle section of the river. If we drop the shells from here, they will reach the middle section of the river in a few minutes…”

Colonel Slain turned to Colonel Becker and asked: “Do we have time-delay fuses?”

“Of course!” Colonel Becker replied: “We have many anti-aircraft artillery shells, and of course we have time-delay fuses! In addition, we have time bombs, and fuses are also OK, as long as we calculate the length!”

Then, several people got out of the command center without saying a word and entered a high-altitude artillery platform for easy observation.

Raising the telescope and looking through the observation hole at the middle section of the river, I saw that the US military was using amphibious landing ships to transport ammunition back and forth.

Colonel Slain ordered: “Measure the flow rate of the river!”

“Yes, sir!” Colonel Becker responded and went down with his adjutant.

Not long after, Colonel Becker came back and reported: “The river flow rate is 5 meters per second, and it will take about six minutes to reach the middle section of the river!”

“Test it with a few shells!” Colonel Slain ordered.

“Yes, sir!” Of course, Colonel Becker was responsible for this matter again.

The method is very simple, just install a delayed fuse on the shell and set the estimated time, then tie the shell to a piece of wood so that it can float in the water, and then slide it into the more turbulent area of ​​the river through a slide rail to let it go downstream.

It took Colonel Becker and his men less than ten minutes to make five such shells and slide them from the gun platform into the river.

Several staff officers around him were timing with stopwatches, while Qin Chuan and Colonel Slain were holding binoculars and watching the wooden piles drifting downstream… Since the shells were heavier and the wooden piles were lighter, the shells were perfectly submerged in the water, with only the upper ends of the wooden piles exposed. There was no danger at all from the surface, except that occasionally when the water flow was faster, the shells would roll over and expose part of the shells.

But who would pay attention to these wooden piles? More importantly, even if they knew about it, they couldn’t do anything about it… Because by then, “wooden piles” like this would flow downstream in large numbers, and no one could stop them.

Two minutes later, the “shell wooden piles” disappeared from sight as the river turned a corner, but several people continued to observe with binoculars.

Colonel Becker asked anxiously in a low voice:

“Where is it? I can’t see it!”

“How many minutes are left?”

…

Finally, the staff officer looked at the stopwatch and began to count down: “Ten, nine, eight…”

When he counted to 1, he heard two “booms”, followed by several explosions. The shells exploded near the middle section of the river, but the water flow speed was inconsistent, some were close and some were far away, and only one shell exploded at the exact location.

The American troops who were transporting supplies back and forth were still a little puzzled, because they didn’t hear the whistling sound of the shells but there were explosions.

But this was a battlefield, so after a small commotion, no one took it seriously.

“The hit rate seems a bit low!” Colonel Becker was a little frustrated: “We didn’t hit a single amphibious landing ship!”

“Stupid!” Colonel Slain said: “That’s because we only have five shells floating down. What if there are 100, 200 or even more?”

Colonel Becker couldn’t help but say “Oh”, and then answered excitedly: “I’ll arrange it right away!”

“Wait!” Qin Chuan stopped Colonel Becker who was about to leave: “We should set the time in sequence!”

“Set in sequence?” Colonel Becker didn’t quite understand what this meant.

“Yes!” Qin Chuan explained, “Set one or two seconds more in the front and one or two seconds less in the back, so that they can cover an area!”

Colonel Becker quickly understood this truth and nodded, “I understand, Lieutenant Colonel, a good idea!”

After Colonel Becker left, Colonel Slaine exclaimed, “It is indeed a good idea, Lieutenant Colonel. In this way, it will be difficult for the Americans to transport ammunition and fuel to the Moselle River, which means… the armored forces deep into our hinterland will not only fail to capture Chambre Island, but will be surrounded by us due to insufficient ammunition!”

Colonel Slaine shook his head and smiled, “Patton is unlucky to meet you!”

“Colonel!” Qin Chuan said, “We may not succeed!”

“Come on, Lieutenant Colonel!” Colonel Slaine said, “This is not a place to be modest, the Americans are in trouble!”

Colonel Slaine is right, the Americans are indeed in trouble.

Because this kind of “wooden stake shell” is very easy to make, the materials needed are everywhere, even ammunition boxes can be used as raw materials, and a group of cadets can be called to make hundreds of shells in less than half an hour.

Then the first batch of 100 shells were successfully “launched” and flowed downstream along the river… Just like Qin Chuan said, they were set at different times.

The specific time is calculated, and the calculation method is very simple, that is, the speed of the water flow and the distance of the river.

Because the delay time is different, some shells will drift farther and explode, while others will explode at a closer position. In addition, the water flow speed is also different, so it can form a section of the river surface instead of just concentrating in one place.

As the staff countdown began, the atmosphere became tense again. Only Qin Chuan felt that it didn’t matter, because he felt that it was just a matter of another attempt… If the detonation time is early or late, only the delay time of the shell is needed Just make adjustments.

Then, there were just a few “boom” explosions… These were a few exceptions. Obviously someone did not adjust the delay time correctly during operation. It was a full seven seconds earlier than the fastest detonation time.

The American soldiers who were busy transporting on the river also discovered wooden piles floating from the river… Pieces of wooden piles, which itself is very eye-catching.

“What is that?” asked an American soldier.

A U.S. military officer leaned out and pulled out the wooden stake, and found that the weight was wrong. Then he turned it over, and then discovered the cannonball tied underneath.

The officer couldn’t help but widen his eyes, and the next second he shouted: “They are artillery shells, get out of here, get out of here quickly!”

But then it was obviously too late to realize this.

“Five, four, three…”

The countdown seconds quickly came to an end, so shells exploded in the water. When they raised water columns, they also blasted amphibious landing ships loaded with ammunition and fuel into the sky.

Some of them even exploded, bursting into flames on the river, and the leaked fuel quickly burned the entire river into a sea of ​​flames.