The decisive battle against the Third Reich

Sicily means "three heads" in Greek, referring to the triangular topography of Sicily.

The land here is rich, the climate is warm and the scenery is beautiful... Generally, the land in areas with volcanoes is relatively fertile, because volcanic ash is the best fertilizer.

The island is rich in citrus, lemon and olive oil. It is also called the "Golden Basin" due to its good natural environment for the development of agriculture and forestry.

But Qin Chuan and others could not appreciate the beauty of this scenery at all, because when they arrived here, Sicily had been bombed by the Allies for three weeks...

During these three weeks, the US military conducted extensive and extensive raids on Sicily's ports, airports, roads, railways (Sicily has two railways, one around the island and the other across the central railway), troop assembly areas, and radar stations. Heavy air strikes.

Qin Chuan and others realized this just a few hours after they landed on the island... As soon as it gets dark, the roar of aircraft can be heard in the sky. Sometimes you can't even see the shadow of the aircraft because they are at an altitude of 10,000 meters. Above the clouds, all you can see are rows of bombs falling from the clouds, and then making big craters on the island.

"I can almost smell the bomb!" Werner said. "And the dust it kicked up!"

"Come on!" Alfredo laughed: "That's the smell of volcanoes!"

"Is there a volcano here?" Werner's eyes were full of surprise.

"Of course, Mount Etna!" Alfredo looked at Werner with a puzzled face: "It is the largest active volcano in Europe, and you don't even know about its existence?"

"He just knows where the baseball diamond is!" said the baker.

"So... can we see it?" Werner asked Alfredo: "I forgot that you are Italian!"

"Of course!" Alfredo nodded: "It is also the highest mountain in Italy, with an altitude of 3323 meters. You only need to..."

As Alfredo walked around, he pointed to a high place in the east and said, "Climb there and look to the east and you can see it! It's best to see it at night!"

"Why?"

"Because it often spits out smoke and fire, and you can see it very clearly at night!"

"God!" Werner's eyes widened: "It's actually an active volcano!

Alfredo looked at Werner with incredible eyes: "Please, Sergeant, of course it is an active volcano, otherwise why would there be volcanic ash everywhere!"

"What if it erupts?"

"That way we don't have to hide here and dig tunnels!" Dominic said: "It's best that the rocks erupted from the volcano can sink the British warships!"

"And we will also be burned to ashes by the lava!" said the baker.

"Can you not discuss some useless things?" Kuhn couldn't help interrupting their discussion: "Think about how to deal with these springs!"

Kuhn is right. Rich underground water may be a good thing for soldiers coming from the desert, but it is a troublesome thing for building tunnel fortifications. Not to mention that the difficulty of constructing the tunnel has increased a lot. The fragile parts need to be supported by more wood. The humidity in the tunnel is also unbearable. Hiding in it is like hiding in a smelly ditch.

Qin Chuan also recognized this problem...and there didn't seem to be any good solution. The only thing that could be done was reinforcement and drainage.

"Captain!" At this time, Colonel Slain called Qin Chuan from more than ten meters away.

Qin Chuan turned around and understood what he wanted when he saw Major General Neumann next to Colonel Slaine.

Sure enough, when Qin Chuan came up to greet him, Major General Neumann shook Qin Chuan's hand enthusiastically: "Captain, I didn't expect us to meet so soon!"

"General!" Qin Chuan said, "You are here for the tunnels, right?"

"Yes!" Major General Neumann nodded: "The soil quality here is different from the Gabes defense line. In some places, as long as you dig deeper, spring water will flow out, and it will start to collapse before you dig too deep!"

"It's not impossible to build it!" Qin Chuan said: "It requires a lot of wood support, and drainage measures must be taken. For example, the tunnel should be slightly tilted and dug upward, so that the tunnel can drain the water on its own without accumulating water!"

"What a great idea!" Major Nomanyi nodded: "I'll let them try it right away!"

"General!" Qin Chuan stopped Major General Neumann and said, "I'm worried that the workload of continuing to build fortifications like this will be too much. The enemy will already be in front of us before we build enough fortifications! In addition...such fortifications Even if it is well constructed, it may not be able to protect against artillery fire!”

Major General Neumann nodded. Tunnel fortifications mainly rely on thick soil layers to prevent artillery fire. But if the soil layer itself is prone to collapse due to too much groundwater, let alone artillery protection, even if there is no artillery fire, people can hide. There is a possibility of being buried alive inside.

"Captain!" After a pause, Major General Neumann asked with a puzzled expression: "Do you have other ways to build fortifications?"

Qin Chuan nodded: "We need stronger fortifications, but because of limited time, it may be a little simpler, but anti-gun... I believe it is still possible!"

Then Qin Chuan chose a relatively flat slope and asked the soldiers to dig a trench horizontally...

Major General Neumann and the soldiers looked a little puzzled. The tunnel fortifications were all built vertically, but Qin Chuan asked them to dig a horizontal trench. What was the use? !

However, the soldiers still did what Qin Chuan said. Since the soil was soft and the soldiers were experienced in building trenches... they all came from digging trenches, so it didn't take long for a trench to appear in front of everyone.

The next step was to reinforce the inner wall of the trench with logs. After that, they used logs to lay a layer of soil on the top of the trench and then lay a layer of soil on it, and then lay a layer of soil horizontally and compact it, and then lay another layer and finally add camouflage.

In this way, everyone understood that this was actually a tunnel... and it was obviously much stronger than the vertical tunnel, because its structure was basically made of logs.

It seemed that the workload was not small on the surface, because a lot of logs were needed to be laid up layer by layer, but in fact it was simpler and faster.

The vertical tunnel had only one opening, and when digging in, at most one or two people were digging inside, and the rest were transporting soil out.

The horizontal tunnel was dug by everyone together, and the logs could be made locally, so the total workload was much less.

Major General Neumann crawled inside and hid for a while. When he came out, he said in surprise and joy: "Captain, you are simply a genius. How did you know this method of building a tunnel? This tunnel is simply designed for this soft geology!"