Mao Weiguo's first day of operation can be said to be a great success, successfully blasting four railway tracks and a bridge, and dealing a heavy blow to the railway line between Paris and Caen. However, he was not satisfied, because this was just the beginning, and he needed to build on it in the next few days.

Of course, then Mao Weiguo and his friends will not have a blasting task, because they are greedy and chew too much, when the Germans have raised their vigilance, they still want to attack the railway, the difficulty and risk are too great, anyway, the railway will not be able to resume traffic for a while and a half, for the rebel army in Paris, this is enough.

However, even without the demolition mission, Mao Weiguo and his friends could not rest, they were incorporated into the Paris Insurrectionary Army Engineer Corps, and the task of overcoming the enemy's fortified barricades in the future fell on their shoulders.

In order to enhance his ability to attack fortifications, Mao Weiguo not only tried every means to get more explosives, but also tried his best to collect heavy weapons. What heavy weapons? Don't think it's a cannon, it's really impossible to get it, and it's too difficult for ordinary people who haven't received any artillery training to fiddle with a cannon.

For Mao Weiguo, a machine gun and a bazooka are valuable heavy weapons, especially the latter, which is affectionately called a small cannon by the rebel army engineers, because it can not only work but also anti-armor, and is an "all-round" weapon.

However, the rebels obtained very few bazookas, and a considerable number of them were the crappy PIATs of the British, the so-called infantry anti-tank launchers. The structure of the PIAT is simple to the point of being somewhat crude, with a total weight of 14.4 kg and a total length of only 0.99 meters. Its launch tube is a thin-walled steel tube containing a spring with a force of about 0.88 kN and a trigger. The front end of the launch tube had a groove that accommodated the projectile. The large firing pin protrudes from the bottom to the center of the groove. The PIAT uses an armor-piercing projectile with a hollow tail rod behind the projectile body and a small propellant cartridge at the end of the tail rod. The PIAT attack tank has an effective range of 91 meters, and when used as a light mortar against houses and buildings, the effective range can reach 300 meters or more.

When the PIAT fires the first shot, the shooter first needs to press the spring to the ready position, and then push the bolt into front of the spring to jam; Subsequently, the projectile is inserted from the front of the launch canister, the firing pin is lassoed with the hollow tail rod of the projectile and is in place; Finally, the shooter aims at the target with an improvised sight and pulls the ridiculously large trigger of the PIAT with the force of four fingers. The trigger releases the spring, which pops forward, pushes the firing pin, firing the projectile primer. The projectile is propelled by the spring elastic force and gunpowder gases to the target. At the same time, the spring automatically returns to the recoil force and is again in standby state.

When firing at armored targets, the PIAT has an effective range of 91 meters, although its accuracy at this distance is not high, so British infantry usually fire at a distance of 45-57 meters. When firing at large stationary targets such as buildings or fortifications, the effective range is up to 320 meters. The 89 mm armor-piercing rounds fired by the PIAT can reach 100 mm in power.

The main feature of the PIAT, and also the main disadvantage, is its powerful springs. Theoretically, the shooter could depress the spring before going into battle, and the spring would automatically reset (recoil) with each shot, but due to the unreliability of the mechanism, the spring would not necessarily return automatically after the first launch. Very often, the shooter had to repeat the difficult squeezing spring maneuver again. This is not only very dangerous on the battlefield, but also physically demanding. In addition, the PIAT has a huge recoil and requires not only strong shooters, but also long-term training. Of course, PIAT also has an advantage that bazookas don't have - almost no tail flame. Therefore, it can be launched in confined spaces such as houses, and it is not easy to expose targets.

Interestingly, most of the PIATs obtained by the French Communist Party did not come from the United Kingdom, but from Northern Industries. The reason is this, in 1940, with the surrender of France, the defensive pressure on the British mainland increased sharply, and at that time, the British troops on the British mainland were in a state of lack of guns and ammunition, in order to quickly prepare for battle, the British sent orders to the major arms dealers in Europe, among which NORINCO "helped" Britain to produce a lot of PIAT.

Some comrades may be asking again, obviously NORINCO has a more advanced anti-tank rocket launcher RPG series, so why do you want to produce this not very good PIAT? The reason is that the British are arrogant and empty-sighted, they stubbornly believe that only the weapons they invent are the best, and of course, the simple and cheap production of PIAT is also a key reason.

Because NORINCO had produced PIATs and improved British armor-piercing shells, but the Red Army was not interested in them, so when a certain immortal was preparing to support the French Communist Party, it happened to be used. Since 1942, about 20,000 PIATs have flowed into the French Communist Party through the secret channels of the KGB. And the French Communist resistance also liked this rudimentary-looking weapon.

Why, you ask?

The reason is simple, because this weapon is very suitable for the combat environment of the French Communist Party. The PIAT may have comparable performance, but it is a lot of problems for the regular army to use. But for the partisans, the shortcomings of the PIAT were masked.

For example, the recoil of the PIAT is too large and the spring is too hard, which leads to a lot of trouble in aiming and reloading, and even the British veteran directly said that this weapon is disposable, because "you won't have a second chance to shoot". But for the partisans, is this the problem? They usually press the springs before entering the battle, and the inherent form of guerrilla warfare is to run away as soon as they miss a blow, and for the guerrillas they rarely get entangled with the enemy, they usually hit and run. Heavy weapons like PIAT generally only have a chance to make a shot. Naturally, there is no need to risk a reload.

For example, the disadvantage of the effective range of the PIAT anti-tank is too close, the question is how much chance can the partisans meet the tank? They will not be foolish enough to fight the enemy's armored forces. Generally, PIAT is used as a cannon in their hands, and the main target is the enemy's locomotive or fixed building, and it is not easy to miss this kind of large target. There are even many partisans who use PIAT directly as a mortar.

Some of the advantages of PIAT are quite suitable for guerrilla warfare, such as its almost no tail flame is the biggest point. Other bazookas, whether they are Iron Fist or Bazooka or RPGs, have a very obvious tail flame, and generally there are no people or other obstructions within 45 degrees of the tail of the bazooka, unless you want to turn into a roast suckling pig and do so. Therefore, ordinary bazookas cannot be used in closed buildings such as rooms. Moreover, the tail flame is not only dangerous, but even worse it will expose the target, and the key to the survival of the guerrillas is concealment.

The PIAT does not have this problem, the main source of power for the advance of the ammunition is the very tight spring, so its tail flame is very small, in a sense its tail flame is more to reset the spring, rather than propulsion.

As a result, PIAT is not afraid of exposure and can be used in any confined space. This is the greatest boon for the partisans. Imagine a PIAT operator lying in ambush next to a window next to the street, aiming at a Nazi car or horse-drawn carriage outside the window, and then immediately moving away, fearing that the Nazi car would be destroyed and killed without knowing where the enemy was.

Anyway, Mao Weiguo likes PIAT, the only drawback of this weapon for him is that it is a little too heavy, the launcher alone weighs 14 kg, and the Soviet-style RPG-7 plus an armor-piercing bullet weighs 8.6 kg, PIAT is too heavy, especially for a small physique like him, it is really unbearable.

Of course, in a war, you can't care whether you can eat or not, and you have to fight hard if you can't bear it. As a glorious resistance engineer, the most important heavy weapon in his hand is PIAT, and it is all up to him to attack the fortifications, so Mao Weiguo gritted his teeth and insisted.

"Lao Mao, there is a new task for you!"

The night before the Paris uprising, his superiors found Mao Weiguo and gave him a new task: "You go to Bobigny, the comrades of the Soviet Union will drop a batch of heavy weapons to support us, and it is up to him whether the uprising will succeed tomorrow." Now the other comrades are nervously preparing, and there is really no time, so you can only let your comrades go on a trip. ”

Bobigny is in the northeast of Paris, not very far from Paris, of course, even if it is very far, Mao Weiguo will resolutely carry out the tasks of his superiors, didn't he hear his superiors say that these are heavy weapons? Isn't there a shortage of troops right now!

This is not the first time that Mao Weiguo has carried out a similar mission, but the airdrop weapons on the Soviet side are too rare, and the assistance of the big brother is generally entered into France through secret channels, and most of the airdrop methods are British and American dishes.

Of course, we all know that the so-called secret channel is that a certain immortal used a cornucopia to open the hanging, and the reason why it was not opened this time was that ****** issued an order to ask the Red Air Force to urgently aid a batch of weapons to the French class brothers before the Paris uprising, and the Red Air Force had no choice but to reluctantly go on the road.

The reason for this is that Paris is so far away from the Red Army that not many transports can fly even the nearest route. Anyway, only the more than 100 C-54s imported from the United States, that is, the Red Army's Li-3 transport planes, have this capability. For this operation, the Red Air Force specially dispatched ten Li-3s to carry out this mission.

At nine o'clock that night, after a long-distance flight, the Li-3 group finally arrived at the predetermined location, and at this time it was up to Mao Weiguo and his friends, Mao Weiguo's memories of the airdrop were quite detailed: "When we heard the roar of the large transport plane from afar, we would immediately turn on the red signal light we carried with us and flash it three times to the sky. Because only then will the pilot be able to determine if your location is suitable for the airdrop. As soon as the pilot spotted us, we would immediately turn on the white signal light and continue running, this time in an S shape, because we would guide the pilot to confirm the general location of the drop...... For example, if you want to drop 20 boxes this time, then all the boxes will be painted with the word 20, which is a reminder that we must find all these 20 boxes...... Our movements must be fast, because the Germans will also notice the roar of large transport aircraft. If you grind, you'll be caught by the German patrols that follow the story! ”

However, the situation on this night is a little different from the airdrops that Mao Weiguo has experienced before, not that the procedures are different, but the airdrops have just started, and one of the transport planes has a problem, even if it is not very real on the ground, but Mao Weiguo is sure that the transport plane in the air has failed, and it has become a bright and conspicuous fireball in the air, and then soon this fireball began to move irregularly in the air.

"Damn, the plane had an accident!"

When he said this, Mao Weiguo really felt uncomfortable, because he knew how difficult and dangerous it was for these transport planes to fly thousands of miles from the Soviet Union, and it was a life and death to cross Germany's airspace. And now in the event of an accident with the plane, these good comrades from the Soviet Union will be more than lucky.

On the one hand, Mao Weiguo instructed his comrades to hurry up to collect the airdrop supplies, and on the other hand, he also paid attention to the movement of the fireball, and after flying irregularly for dozens of seconds, the small fireball exploded in the air and burst out with dazzling light.

Obviously, the transport plane exploded in the air, and the crew members were probably unlucky. For Mao Weiguo, who is accustomed to seeing life and death, although he is really not happy in his heart, he knows that there is no way to do it, so he can only silently mourn for the pilot who died just now in his heart, and then prepare to do what he should do.

But just as he lowered his head and was about to leave, a white parachute appeared in his sight, it was obvious that this was not the batch of supplies that had been airdropped just now, it seemed to be a big living person!

Mao Weiguo immediately realized that this should be the pilot on the transport plane just now, and I am afraid that he jumped out of the cabin at the last moment. Mao Weiguo immediately whistled and ordered eagerly: "Comrade Antoine, you command the transfer of supplies." Comrade Anthony, grab your weapons and come with me! ”

Antoine asked inexplicably, "Old Mao, where are you going?" ”

"Pilot!" Mao Weiguo jumped and pointed to the parachute in the air and said, "We must go and save him!" ”

All the members of the Resistance were enthusiastic about saving the Allied pilots, because they knew that without these risky pilots to drop supplies, they would simply not be able to hold out and resist without these loveliest people.

Mao Weiguo took Anthony to trot all the way to the direction of the parachute, just as the so-called Wangshan ran a dead horse, this rickety parachute was blown farther and farther away by the wind, so tired that Mao Weiguo and Anthony were really choked.

"This damn wind!" Anthony cursed, just now seeing that the parachute was about to fall, and he didn't know where a crooked wind suddenly blew from nowhere. The pilots were scraped off with their parachutes, which forced them to run a few hundred meters more.

"Damn it!" Mao Weiguo also cursed, but he didn't complain about running away, but he saw a German convoy at the end of the field in the distance.

"Move fast!" Mao Weiguo tightened the belt of his gun, and at the same time used all his strength to rush forward, they must rescue the pilot before the Germans.

Running all the way, Mao Weiguo felt like his lungs were about to burn, and he didn't dare to breathe in the last part of the encouragement, for fear that he would spread on the ground as soon as this breath was discharged. Rushing all the way, when Mao Weiguo and Anthony arrived at the scene, the unfortunate lucky man was freeing his parachute, and the crooked wind made him very embarrassed, and his pants seemed to be worn out.

"We are members of the French Communist Resistance Army!"

Mao Weiguo loudly announced his identity on the one hand, and on the other hand, he also hurriedly reminded the pilot: "The German patrol is coming, please come with us quickly!" ”

Mao Weiguo said these words in broken Russian, which was the result of his more than a year of surprise study, but what surprised him was that this Russian comrade's Russian was also so inauthentic, with a lame feeling of plastic Russian.

"I'm a pilot of the Soviet Red Army, thank you for coming to help me!" The pilot stammered.

However, Mao Weiguo didn't think so much at the time, he thought that maybe the Russian comrades had just escaped from the death line, and they might be more nervous, so they stammered when they spoke. He and Anthony hurriedly stepped forward, helped the pilot comrade who was wrapped in a parachute to break free, and then pulled him to run headless into the woods. And on the road, about three hundred meters behind them, German armored vehicles have already appeared!

After entering the establishment, the three of them did not dare to breathe, they walked into the depths of the dense forest with one foot high and one foot low, the Germans were too close, they would definitely expand the search after they got out of the car, and they had to hurry up and run farther.

In the summer suburbs of Paris, the chirping of insects and frogs resounded, and then through the moonlight of the leaves, the three of them stumbled forward. After walking for half an hour, whether it was Mao Weiguo, Anthony or the pilot, they were all panting like dogs.

"Take a five-minute break!" Mao Weiguo gasped and said.

As he spoke, he leaned over his waist and looked at the pilot next to him, when the moon was at its highest, and the trees were shining brightly. With the help of moonlight, Mao Weiguo finally saw the appearance of the Soviet pilot clearly, and for a moment, he was stunned.

He knows this face! It's too familiar, I've seen it countless times since I was a child, living mud together, climbing trees and digging birds' eggs, going to school together, and the two solemnly shook hands before studying abroad and vowed to serve the motherland.

"Zhang Huangxin, is that you?"

This shout stunned the pilot, who was panting for breath, and he never expected to hear the dialect of his homeland in this strange country...... (To be continued.) )