Chapter 17: Striking the East
On January 3, 1917, Adrian was sitting in a specially built Benz car discussing something with Brauchitsch next to him, when the driver had already parked the car in front of a factory. The plant is one of the largest in the industrial park on the eastern outskirts of Dresden. The atmosphere was tense with patrols filled with heavily armed German soldiers in khaki uniforms.
After seeing Adrian's car appear, the soldiers on duty did not let them in directly, because even if Adrian was the owner of this factory, he could not enter if he wanted to.
After a very strict check, Adrian's driver came to a halt at the door of a warehouse at a very slow pace, escorted by a team of soldiers.
Adrian motioned for Brauchitsch and the others to stand in the doorway and wait, and he half-pushed the door sideways into the warehouse.
The inside of this warehouse is actually just an office space, but the security is tighter than the outside. Adrian walked down the middle hallway to the door of the room hidden by several oil drums, knocked, and stepped inside.
It was an open elevator platform, and the staff operated the equipment to send Adrian underground. This basement is so large that it can even be compared to the entire industrial park. Adrian looked at the big ones covered with canvas in front of him, and finally showed a hint of joy.
"If Churchill were standing here, he would have guessed what these were." Adrian said casually.
These are actually another type of transporter modified from the platform of a tracked transporter, but with the addition of some armed uses, such as some machine gun mounts and more suitable for armed use of the baffle shooting and the front of the vehicle.
Adrian wasn't here to help or oversee the work, he was just here to check in. I took the form handed by the staff, and there were some unexpected names written on it, just like yesterday, the person who signed in turned out to be Erich von Ludendorff, who had a life-and-death conflict with Adrian. Adrian checked the documents and signed his name, and then followed the introduction of the staff to start visiting the various novel weapons here.
"This is a relatively old-fashioned machine gun, the MG-16H model, the production is not much, mainly because the man-hours are too high, after improvement, the focus is on the production of the MG-16M model manufactured by stamping." When the staff introduced Adrian in a serious manner, Adrian smiled, can he not laugh? He was involved in the design of these weapons, not only these machine guns, but also those armed transports and so on. The MG16-H model is actually the MG-34 machine gun designed and produced after the war deliberately proposed by Adrian, and the MG-16M model is the machine gun that he let go of and let the designers transform and simplify the production, and the fame of later generations is even more resounding throughout World War II, MG-42 machine gun. There were also individual anti-tank weapons, and so on, and Adrian was not concerned with the performance of these weapons, but with the quantity. This is the key to whether the top-secret program can be carried out smoothly and achieve maximum results.
"How's the shipping going?" Adrian cares about this.
"We have used several methods of transportation, and we have also used armed transport vehicles, which can ensure the set goals in the early stage." The staff replied very affirmatively.
"That's good, you get me a G-16 rifle, and some more bullets." Adrian took the rifle and bullets handed by the staff and returned to the ground, and in the strange eyes of Brauchitsch and the others, Adrian said, "Take it, and then go to the shooting range to try." ”
This is a semi-automatic rifle, with a ten-round load, which is not a large number, and a total of less than 200,000 have been produced so far, mainly because other objects take up too much capacity.
Brauchitsch quickly became familiar with the operation under the guidance of the commissioner, and quickly poured the bullet into the air, giving him the feeling of pleasure. It's not that he hasn't used the MP14 submachine gun, but the feel is different, and the latter is more inclined to close combat in operation. The former, on the other hand, can quickly tilt the role of ammunition at medium and long distances, giving its own side an advantage in firepower.
"This is just one of them, more than 200,000 have been produced, and the bullet is universal because it is a 9mm Mauser rifle bullet." Adrian said with a smile. The operation, which had been in the works for almost a year, was already underway in secret, and Brauchitsch, one of the participants in the project, was able to know the core secrets of the operation.
Then Adrian told Brauchitsch about the rest of the things in an orderly manner, in exchange for Brauchitsch's surprise, because the beating of the old marshal was actually an act. He would love to say that it was necessary to do so. That's how old they are.
But Adrian smiled mysteriously and said in his heart, will I tell you that this is a bitter trick? It's just that the old marshal is not going to rebel next, but to secretly cross Chen Cang, and only this method can really hide people's eyes.
In fact, this is also what Wilhelm II was very worried about at the beginning, because every link is so real, if it turns out to be true, it will be a bit of a stone to hit one's own feet.
February 4, 1917. After a month, Adrian took the trouble to travel in a low-key manner every day for a whole month, and then went to Dresden through the tunnel, and then rushed back to Berlin while it was dark. When Adrian, who held the transfer letter in his hand, was really nervous, the critical moment of victory or defeat came.
On February 8, 1917, Adrian returned to the Eastern Front in a high-profile manner, and there were many high-profile people like him, Hindenburg, Moltke Jr., Ludendorff, Falkingham, etc., and Adrian was not so conspicuous in it. Moltke Jr. served as Chief of the General Staff, Tirpitz returned to the Navy after class, Hindenburg as Quartermaster General, Ludendorff as Chief of the General Staff of the Western Front, and Falkingham as Commander-in-Chief of the Western Front. Adrian became commander-in-chief of the Eastern Front, while former commander-in-chief Falkenson served as the army's Eastern Front quartermaster and Hoffman served as chief of the Eastern Front's General Staff.
This series of personnel transfers is very high-profile, and the spread of news is also very rapid, not to mention that Britain, France, Russia, the United States and other countries cannot understand it, and even the people in China are inexplicable.
While everyone was still wondering what was going on, the first to feel the consequences of this personnel transfer were the British and French soldiers.
"Hey, Jack, did you hear all that news from the squad leader?" An earth-colored soldier rubbed his faded rifle as he asked his equally dirty companion opposite.
"Hear me, what?"
"Aren't you curious about what's going on?"
"What's the matter with us? But every time they move, they can cease fire for a few days, which is actually quite good. ”
Boom Boom –
The soldier who was wiping his gun suddenly felt the whole ground shake.
"Hey, Jack, do you feel it?"
Jack inexplicably looked at the companion in front of him, who was basically invisible, and asked, "What does it feel?" Inexplicable..." Before he finished speaking, he felt his whole body tremble slightly, and hurriedly got up and carefully poked his head out to see what was happening, because he didn't feel like a vibration like a shelling.
But before his head could be fully poked out, he heard a dense whistling sound, a sound that was all too familiar to him.
"Shelling! Hide! Without saying anything Jack said, everyone who noticed it was already lying on their own ground against the wall. Just as everyone prayed for their artillery to return fire quickly, the shelling quickly stopped.
"What's going on?" Jack said to himself. Then he felt the frequency and movement of the shaking getting bigger and closer. Jack was emboldened, and quickly lay down on the dirt slope and moved to it, staring at the scene in front of him, and was stunned.
A black patch, like a car, more like a farm harvester, was roaring and rushing towards them. Immediately afterward, a barrage of bullets struck the dirt slope where he stretched out his head, causing him to shrink in fright. Jack is also a veteran, and if you want to talk about shelling, he is used to it, but if you ask what he is most afraid of, of course it is a machine gun. But he could never have imagined that the machine gun could be used on a car. Just when Jack was still wondering, the squad leader appeared.
"Fight back! Hurry up and get in position to fight back! What are you doing in a daze? The squad leader bent down and kicked up the soldiers who were still hiding in the tunnel one by one. For a while, the sound of gunfire was incessant.
But no matter how the British and French soldiers fought back, these monsters didn't have the slightest intention of stopping, and they had little effect. On the other hand, the artillery, which had no effect before, played a role, and the monsters that were hit by the shells were directly blown into the sky, followed by people and scattered parts. Some were tossed to the ground by the shockwave, but a larger number of monsters were already approaching. The barbed wire fences that had done great things were not blocked, and neither were the huge craters.
Jack saw this scene in front of him and was in deep despair, he had already guessed what was going to happen next.