Chapter 83: Smoking

General Guis was commanding the troops at the front.

Rather than commanding the battle, it was more like acting, camouflaging, and setting up a trap. The plan used was what Charles said, pretending that Fort Wavre was blown up.

This plan sounds simple, but it is still difficult to implement. Last night, several people, including Albert I, discussed it until eleven o'clock.

"How can we deceive the Germans?" General Guis frowned and said, "The Germans have three observation balloons. They arranged observers to use telescopes to stare at Fort Wavre. They know clearly whether Fort Wavre has been blown up!"

The observer's task is to observe the landing point of the shells, whether they are to the left or right, or hit too close or too far, and then use signal flags to notify the artillery below to correct the trajectory so that the next shell can get closer to the target.

When saying this, General Guis had some self-blame in his eyes. If the vegetation and trees around the fortress were still there, this might not be a problem. The enemy's observers could not see the fortress clearly and of course could not see through the camouflage.

"This is easy to solve!" Charles replied: "We can set up smoke around the fortress!"

"Set up smoke?" General Guise looked up at Charles in surprise.

"Yes!" Charles nodded: "Set up a few fires around, throw some rubber products or waste tires in the fire, they will make the smoke black and thick and gather at low altitude, which can block the sight of enemy observers, but the disadvantage is that it smells a bit bad!"

General Guise was surprised and happy. For the first time, he praised sincerely: "It's a good idea, Lieutenant!"

This is very good news for General Guise.

If smoke can solve this problem, then his mistake of clearing vegetation and trees does not exist or cannot be considered a big mistake? !

General Guise became more and more excited as he thought about it. The crime that had been pressing on his back and making him breathless suddenly disappeared, and this was just a sentence and a thought for Charles. How did this little guy do it!

General Winter and Albert were also surprised by this. This is indeed feasible and even easy to do, but no one has ever thought of doing it.

Charles just smiled easily, this has long been commonplace in modern wars.

Air force is at a disadvantage, pull smoke!

The logistics convoy wants to avoid enemy aircraft bombing, pull smoke!

Firepower is inferior to the enemy and hopes to fight close combat and hand-to-hand combat, pull smoke!

The reason why people of this era did not think of this may be because there is no air threat at all.

...

General Gis was the most active in this regard. He called on the whole city to collect rubber products overnight. Whether it was motorcycles or cars, all tires were removed and handed in, even military vehicles were no exception.

Some officers and soldiers protested: "General, what if we want to transport ammunition and supplies?"

General Gis asked loudly: "How many bullets have you fired?"

The officers and soldiers were silent in an instant.

Most of the time, the Germans were bombing with heavy artillery outside the range of the army, and many fortresses were blown up without firing a single shot.

Besides, the farthest end of Antwerp was only more than ten kilometers, and the front-line transportation could be solved by horses or even manpower.

As soon as the sky brightened, General Gis ordered the troops to light fires around the fort to burn rubber. The effect was immediate, and the area around the fort was instantly covered by black smoke.

The side effect was "a bit smelly" as Charles said.

This was a torture for the soldiers hiding in the fort. The air in the fort was originally very turbid. The soldiers had originally hoped that the ventilation holes would bring some fresh air, but what came in was "rubber air" with a burnt smell.

Immediately, the fortress soldiers called the headquarters to protest, including Colonel Eden stationed at Fort Wavre.

Colonel Eden complained while coughing: "General, if this continues, we will be choked to death by the smoke before the enemy attacks!"

General Giss answered concisely: "You make the decision, Colonel! Continue to release smoke or let the fortress be exposed to the enemy's artillery fire, choose one!"

Colonel Eden didn't expect General Giss to kick the ball to him. He thought about it for a while and finally chose the former: "Continue to release smoke, so there is at least hope of survival!"

Compared to releasing smoke, the German bombing is more terrifying, especially the shells are not coming at once, one every half an hour, like waiting for the death penalty, no one knows whether they can survive the next half an hour.

General Giss complained after hanging up the phone: "These guys always want to find excuses to complain!"

...

The German commander Bessler was in a bad mood.

As soon as it was light, he found that the target was shrouded in black smoke and he couldn't see anything clearly. He turned his eyes to the balloon in the air, where the observers were waving signal flags frantically, indicating that they were the same.

"General!" The signalman came to convey the artillery's question: "Major Frakes said that the artillery is ready. Should we fire now?"

Bessler hesitated. In this situation, firing almost had no chance of hitting the target, and it was undoubtedly a waste of shells.

But...

"Keep firing!" Bessler gritted his teeth and ordered: "Fire at the center of the smoke!"

"Yes, General!"

If it was any other time, Bessler would definitely not order to fire, but now is an extraordinary period, Charles is in front, and he needs to continue to put pressure on the Belgians to force them to hand over Charles.

Therefore, even if you can't hit the target, you have to fire!

Soon, there was a loud "bang", and the shells flew into the smoke with a whistling sound.

The moment before the shell landed, the smoke sank like a flattened balloon, and then suddenly a cloud of dust exploded in a loud bang.

Bessler found that the situation was worse. The smoke from the shell explosion mixed with the dust raised into the air and the smoke from the burning enemy. They tightly wrapped the fortress like a ball of gray-black cotton, and even the center could not be determined.

The staff all turned their heads to look at Bessler, as if asking, continue?

Bessler gritted his teeth, but still ordered: "Keep firing!"

As a result, luck came. It should be the fifth round. This time the shell exploded obviously differently from the past. After a deafening roar, thick smoke and flames billowed in the direction of the fortress, and it didn't stop for a while.

The observer on the balloon signaled, and the staff excitedly translated the flag: "The surviving enemy is running away, and we see their wounded!"

The German officers and soldiers cheered, and Bessler was also excited.

This is Wavre Castle. Blowing it up means that the German army can cut off the fresh water supply to Antwerp, and it is only a matter of time before the Belgians surrender.

What Bessler didn't know was that he thought the fire and smoke were the explosion of Wavre Castle, but in fact General Guise had people ignite the accumulated gasoline and gunpowder...