I Became a Plutocrat in World War I: Starting with Saving France
Chapter 146: Revised - 146 Shire’s Tank is the Real Tank

Chapter 146: Revised: Chapter 146 Shire’s Tank is the Real Tank

Lafox, another gloomy evening arrived at the German defense line.

Autumn wind carried icy rain and struck Colonel Juergen Halil, he tightened his coat and continued trudging through the water with difficulty.

A team of German soldiers was arduously bailing out water with their spiked helmets. Seeing Colonel Halil approaching, they quickly stopped and stood at attention.

"Don’t stop, lads!" Colonel Halil said expressionlessly, "Bailing water is more important than saluting me. It could kill you, whereas I won’t!"

The soldiers laughed.

A few rats, as big as cats, scurried past. After being together for some time, they were no longer afraid of humans. Sometimes, bodies left untouched overnight would be found gnawed to pieces by these rats by morning.

But Colonel Halil had no way to deal with them.

He murmured, "I would rather face the attack from the French than deal with these creatures!"

"Hey!" Colonel Halil shouted at two soldiers who were slacking off below the machine gun position, "If you don’t want to eat bullets, make your parapets thicker. They’re almost washed away by the rain!"

The weary soldiers responded, hurriedly grabbing their entrenching tools and climbing into the muddy trench.

Colonel Halil warned them a few more times before turning into the communication trench, walking deeper until he reached the command post of the Second Infantry Regiment.

Sopping wet, Colonel Halil stooped and entered. He had no intention of sitting; he worried about wetting the last bit of dry space, though it was only a matter of time before it got wet.

"Colonel!" As Colonel Halil stood at the entrance, nervously shaking his body, an adjutant carefully handed him a document.

Colonel Halil took the document, realizing immediately it was a newspaper.

"What is this?" Colonel Halil asked, puzzled, looking at the adjutant.

The adjutant replied, "A spy brought this newspaper from France; he thought it might be useful to you!"

Halil set the newspaper aside, took off his raincoat and helmet, dried his hands, then picked up the newspaper again and moved to the dim light.

With just one glance, Halil raised his head in surprise at the adjutant, "Shire’s tank?"

"Yes, Colonel!" the adjutant replied, "Our spy said Shire realized he had blurted it out after speaking, left the scene in panic, and was later scolded by Gallieni!"

Colonel Halil nodded, turning his gaze back to the newspaper. After reading a bit, he laughed, "He’s right, those tanks attacking us these days do have such issues. They wander around aimlessly in front of us like blind men, firing randomly without seeing the targets, while we can easily destroy them!"

"That’s not the important part, Colonel!" the adjutant reminded.

Colonel Halil paused, then thoughtfully nodded, "You’re right, Wolf. If Shire knew this, he wouldn’t have made this mistake, so..."

The adjutant continued, "So his tank must be faster, which will make it difficult for our artillery to hit it. It might also have stronger defenses, even our K shells might not penetrate it!"

"Hmm," Halil muttered, "This means his tank will rush towards us, firing machine guns wildly!"

"We should be thankful France has a foolish parliament, Colonel!" the adjutant said, "They rejected Shire’s tank and bought two overpriced imposters instead. Otherwise, we would have been cold corpses long ago!"

"You’re right, Wolf!" Halil smiled, "French Parliament saved us, though I regret not being able to send them a thank-you letter!"

The adjutant and several officers in the command post burst out laughing.

"Now!" Colonel Halil waved the newspaper at the officers, "We need to think about how to deal with this tank, Shire’s tank, the real tank!"

After a brief silence, Wolf was the first to suggest an idea, "Though we need to increase our K shell inventory, it might not be very effective!"

"Indeed!" Colonel Halil agreed, tracing his finger in the air, "Shire will reinforce the armor thickness on the front. Our K shells might not penetrate it. Maybe the sides, but by the time we see the sides, the enemy infantry is already upon us!"

Colonel Halil nodded at the recorder, "Take note of it, Koenig. We can’t overlook any detail!"

The recorder replied and swiftly wrote down the point.

"Then we only have the artillery left!" the adjutant continued analyzing, "But if Shire’s tank is also faster..."

Silence fell over the command post.

They were unsure of the tank’s speed, and its irregular movement made it difficult for artillery to destroy such a rapidly moving target.

After pondering for a while, Colonel Halil said, "Perhaps we can implement a wider area of attack or staggered firing at the target!"

Staggered firing is an artillery tactic, similar to modern coordinate mapping.

A battery would set up and test fire before the battle, establishing a known area where shells would land and standby.

During combat, when the target entered or approached this area, a simple command, "Fire!" over the phone would launch the shells, turning the zone into a sea of fire.

This tactic significantly reduced firing time and improved accuracy by skipping intermediate steps.

The drawback is the battery must remain in set coordinates and not fire elsewhere, or the attack loses its purpose.

Therefore, multiple batteries implementing static map targeting are needed to cover the wide battlefield front.

Colonel Halil murmured, "We need more artillery and plenty of shells!"

Someone worriedly said, "Everywhere lacks artillery and shells, Colonel! They won’t give them to us!"

The defense line was stable, with the entire several hundred kilometers in combat. Plus, the rainy season made transportation difficult. Artillery and shells, scarce resources, couldn’t be easily obtained!

The adjutant quietly picked up the newspaper from the desk, waving it at the crowd, "Or, we can report this intelligence to General Waldock and hear his thoughts?"

Colonel Halil understood the adjutant’s meaning. If General Waldock realized Shire’s tank was about to attack the Lafox defense line, he would surely be willing to dispatch artillery!

(In the picture, the second from the left is a K shell, usually each soldier is allocated 5 rounds, machine gunners get an ammo belt with 250 rounds)