novelSusiti Does Chapter 17 count as Boy Scouts?
Does Chapter 17 count as Boy Scouts?
Thank you to "Book Friend 20221208131315533" for the donation, and thank you everyone for your monthly tickets and recommendation tickets!
---------
Thorne parked the car in a low-lying area and hid it. He then sent several men to erase the traces of the convoy turning off the road before leading his men up the sand dune.
Lying on the top of the sand dune, the ground beneath him was icy cold, causing Thorne to shiver involuntarily.
But he didn't care about that. He snatched the binoculars from Thea and found the water tanker's location in no time.
"Can you hit it?" Thorne asked Thea.
The target was about 200 meters away, within rifle range, but visibility was low due to the sandstorm and moonlight; only a blurry afterimage could be seen.
(Note: The United Kingdom uses imperial units of length and weight. For ease of reading, the following text will be uniformly converted to commonly used units.)
Ferguson paused for a moment: "We're maintenance soldiers, we don't get much shooting practice..."
"No, we can," Thea replied confidently.
She snatched the binoculars back from Thorne, her eyes filled with displeasure, as if she were angry that Thorne dared to take them from her, a captain.
She glanced at the target, then passed the binoculars down and coldly gave the order:
"Identify your target."
"Three magazines each, fire at full speed towards the target within one minute!"
(The image above shows the British Army's standard-issue Lee-Enfield rifle. This rifle is characterized by its large magazine capacity and high rate of fire; a skilled infantryman can fire 30 rounds per minute.)
Thorne nodded to himself.
Thea understood his meaning perfectly:
We don't expect you to be accurate. If each of the twenty-odd people fires 30 bullets, that's a total of over 600 bullets.
If a dozen or so out of more than 600 shots hit their mark, the water tanker will spray out a dozen or so fountains, and that's enough.
Thea then turned her gaze to Thorne, her tone tinged with confusion: "You used to be a soldier?"
Thorne paused for a moment, then replied, "Uh, do Boy Scouts count?"
After a moment of silence, a soft laugh suddenly broke out.
(Note: The British began the Boy Scouts movement in 1907 to cultivate children's independence and civic awareness.)
Thea rolled her eyes. "Now is not the time to show off your humor, Thorne."
As he said this, a smile unconsciously crept onto his lips, and his tense nerves relaxed a little.
Suddenly, Thea raised her hand, and the laughter immediately stopped.
The sound of a motor came from the highway, and two sidecar motorcycles appeared at the other end of the road.
They had no headlights, only two faint shadows cast by the moonlight.
He is German.
The tension that had just eased for everyone was raised again.
As they got closer to the target, the sidecar used its flashlight to observe the water tanker for a while before finally stopping next to the tank wreckage.
Thorne could even hear them talking in German, and their unrestrained laughter.
Thorne guessed they were mocking the cowardly British for leaving such good tanks lying around like trash.
Several German soldiers inspected the fuel tank and cheered for the fuel that remained inside.
Thea frowned. She realized she had made a mistake; she should have had her men set the fuel tank on fire instead of blowing it up with grenades.
Thorne remained noncommittal.
Since the German tanks were going to get stuck in the salt marshes anyway, what difference would it make if they got some fuel?
He even thought it was a good thing, because this would make the Germans more convinced that the British had abandoned the tanks in their haste to escape.
Then, several dark figures appeared at the other end of the road, their engines rumbling heavily and powerfully.
It was a tank. Everyone became even more nervous. Ferguson and several soldiers unconsciously raised their eyes to aim at the sights.
"No, no," Thea whispered, "They're a reconnaissance unit, don't fire!"
Thea was right. This group of German troops consisted of only one light tank and two vehicles carrying soldiers, along with several sidecar motorcycles. It should be a reconnaissance platoon.
They didn't stop, but shone their flashlights around to make sure the main force could pass smoothly. Then they left two sidecar motorcycles to guard the "spoils" and continued along the road.
Just a few minutes later, an even more intense roar of motors came from ahead, soon becoming a continuous rumble like thunder.
--------
The German 5th Panzer Regiment marched along the road in a grand procession, the air thick with the acrid smell of exhaust fumes and gasoline.
Colonel Gerhard Müller leaned out of his command tank and used binoculars to observe the area ahead.
However, his mind was not on the enemy situation at all, but on calculating the tanks and fuel.
The success of this surprise attack surprised him somewhat.
He assumed that his troops would be blocked by the enemy and slow down, allowing the rear and flank troops to follow.
But none of this happened; only the 5th Armored Regiment penetrated the British lines like an iron cone.
Colonel Muller frowned.
Could this be an enemy trap? Are they luring us in deep?
Or perhaps the British knew we were short of tanks and fuel, so they gave us this one-way ticket.
Colonel Muller had reason to think so.
The 5th Armored Regiment had few tanks and was short of fuel:
The entire regiment had only 42 tanks. In order to squeeze out more tanks for combat, Colonel Müller even gave up his own "ride," a Panzer III tank, and used an outdated Panzer II tank to command.
(The two images above show the German Panzer II and Panzer III tanks, respectively.)
Moreover, most of these 42 tanks had been repaired, and they all had some kind of malfunction, such as severely worn track rubber flanges or a lack of spare parts.
Even worse, the fuel supply is only enough for a day and a half.
Colonel Muller had calculated the distance; if the 5th Panzer Regiment reached its destination, Alexandria, and failed to win the battle, it would be unable to fight due to lack of fuel.
This forced Muller to take a straight route towards Alexandria, leaving him no choice but to proceed in a direct line.
"Colonel." Just as Muller was deeply troubled by these problems, a sidecar motorcycle pulled up from the side, and the scout sitting in the sidecar reported:
"Several British-abandoned tanks and a water tanker have been spotted ahead."
"Fortunately, both the water tank and the tank's fuel tank were full."
Muller's eyes lit up: "What model of tank?"
"American-made 'M3'," the scout replied.
Muller's furrowed brow instantly relaxed: "Remove their fuel, and make sure the surrounding area is safe!"
"Yes, Colonel."
After the scouts left, Muller breathed a sigh of relief.
He knew about the American-made "M3" tank, which had a huge fuel tank because of its heavy weight, large crew, and correspondingly high fuel consumption.
If the fuel tank is full, it will have 662 liters of fuel, twice that of the Panzer III tank.
This gave the 5th Armored Regiment time and space to maneuver.
Now, if he encounters enemy ambush on the road, he can bypass them instead of having to confront them head-on.
Colonel Muller's command vehicle continued along the highway.
Soon after, he arrived at the "scene of the incident":
Five tanks were blocking the road ahead, so the troops could only bypass them by going around through the open area on the right.
In the middle of the open field, there was a water tanker truck, and a dozen German soldiers were cheering as they filled their canteens.
Water in the desert is just as precious as fuel.