Chapter 207 Training

The training started on the second day.

The instructor was a lieutenant who lost a leg... This is a major feature of the African Military School. Almost all the staff in the school came from the battlefield and were more or less disabled.

The reason is needless to say. The African Corps was short of troops, especially well-trained German officers and soldiers, so people with healthy limbs should be sent to the battlefield.

In fact, these wounded soldiers should be sent back to their country for recuperation, but this is not a good idea... The supply line was cut off, which not only meant that the supply could not be transported, but also the wounded could not be transported, or at least they had to risk being bombed by British fighter planes and sunk by mines during the transportation process.

So some of the wounded stayed and became instructors in the military school.

The instructor was called Erwin. He had a wooden prosthesis on his half-broken limb, just like the pirate captain in the movie, and the military uniform looked a bit weird.

"I know what you are thinking!" The instructor shouted at the students: "Look at me! If you don't want to be like me or worse than me, then cheer up and complete the next course!"

After a pause, he continued: "I think you have all discovered that those who can come here to train are the elites of the army. Everyone has a good record, and some people's experience is even legendary..."

At this point, the instructor glanced at Qin Chuan: "But when you walk into this school gate, you are nothing. There are only students and instructors here. Do you understand?"

"Understood, sir!" The soldiers answered loudly.

The training subjects were indeed as Qin Chuan guessed, all arms were passed, especially tanks.

That is, let the infantry learn the driving and tactics of tanks and let the tank soldiers learn the tactics of infantry.

This training method is obviously correct. As mentioned before, only when the infantry commander knows the performance and blind spots of the tank can he command the infantry to cooperate with the tank in combat.

On the contrary, only when the tank commander knows the tactics and weaknesses of the infantry can he better provide cover for the infantry or obtain the cover of the infantry.

Qin Chuan could easily master these things. After all, he had passed the driving test and had been driving for several years. He could handle steering, shifting gears, and braking without being taught.

The problem was that most tanks in World War II had no power assistance. Driving was a physical and technical job. Shifting gears and braking required considerable strength. He was exhausted before driving for a while. It was no wonder that some drivers fainted during the march.

So someone asked David how long he had driven the longest.

David replied: "About eight hours. You know, we were on the march!"

Everyone looked at David with wide eyes and asked: "How did you hold on?"

"It's very simple!" David said: "Imagine that the enemy's planes are chasing you overhead. If you stop, you will be bombed. You can do it!"

So it is said that human potential is unlimited. Although war is cruel, it is also a place to stimulate human potential.

Artillery training is not limited to mortars... Mortar training has been completed when they were recruits. As an officer, it is more required to command the coordination of infantry and artillery, so what is learned is the operation of large-caliber howitzers.

Of course, operating howitzers is not important, what is important is coordinate calculation... Infantry and artillery coordination often occurs when there are no professional artillery observers on the front line, and at this time, officers are required to guide artillery fire into the correct area.

So there is a reason why the German army always has extraordinary performance on the battlefield.

In this era, many countries only talk about multi-service coordination, or think that they can "coordinate" by mixing several services together for a few exercises, while the Germans have already started with officer training.

It is conceivable that if every grassroots officer has mastered a considerable amount of basic knowledge of other services, then there is no need for superior command and orders. They know how to cooperate in combat, and this is the combat effectiveness of the troops as a whole to defeat the enemy.

Compared with these, Qin Chuan's interest is still in sniping.

Sniper training includes many things, such as distance judgment and tactical terrain assessment, or shooting training... However, due to the difficulty in supply and the need to save ammunition, shooting training has been simplified to a considerable extent.

As a "newbie" who has not experienced systematic sniper training, Qin Chuan learned a lot from the training.

But there are also many things that confuse Qin Chuan.

The forest used by the soldiers for sniper training is called the "shooting garden".

The instructor taught camouflage techniques here, such as hollowing out a tree trunk and hiding inside, covering the body with bark to disguise as a tree, or using wood to make a dummy wearing a helmet and sticking its head out of the trench to attract enemy snipers to shoot...

The instructor said: "Never think these camouflages are troublesome, I mean if you have these resources around you, because they may save your life!"

"But instructor!" Qin Chuan said: "Most of the places where we fight are deserts, where trees are actually eye-catching things!"

"Of course!" The instructor replied: "These camouflage techniques are used under certain conditions, such as in Matruh or Alexandria!"

There is nothing wrong with what the instructor said, because the terrain in North Africa is not all deserts. But Qin Chuan always felt that there was something wrong.

Later, after thinking about it carefully, Qin Chuan believed that these techniques had great problems in practicality: these camouflages take too much time and are easily injured by stray bullets. For example, if a tree is covered with bark and camouflaged as a tree, a random shell fired by the enemy may kill the sniper. It can even be said that the result of such camouflage is that it is difficult for snipers to quickly raise their guns and shoot after finding the target.

Therefore, the best camouflage on the battlefield should be fast, effective, use the simplest materials available, and limit oneself as little as possible.

At first, Qin Chuan did not understand why the German sniper training had such a dull, traditional and impractical teaching material.

Later, after the instructor organized a sniper training movie that was regarded as a teaching material by the German army, Qin Chuan understood... It was a Russian-language movie shot in 1935 with German subtitles. The film introduced the high-level training of Soviet snipers. The German army learned the content of this movie and trained snipers in a targeted manner.

(Note: There is a 1944 German remake of this Soviet sniper training film online... "World War II German Sniper Training Film". This film was once used by the German army as a tutorial for various sniper schools and was publicly circulated in the United States in 1988.)