Chapter 347: The Railway Gun

“Rein!” Alice called out, climbing out of the tank and looking at Rein, who was leaning against the hatch of the tank’s turret. “How was my performance today?”

Ever since that day Rein, despite being wounded, had taken Alice to the front line to experience a real bloody battle, Alice’s growth had been witnessed by the entire tank battalion.

Rein had quickly returned to the tank crew with his wound. In the subsequent battles, this one and only Tiger tank on the German front line had often been sent to the front for support operations. A few days later, in an offensive operation, Alice’s hull machine gun had been put to use.

As a result, Alice had not disappointed everyone this time. Like a veteran soldier, she had calmly and coolly squeezed the trigger, riddling the French soldiers in front with holes one by one. After the battle was over, although Alice had missed lunch because she was feeling unwell, she had ultimately pulled through and had become a qualified radio operator for Rein’s crew.

But the side effect was clearly very fatal, which was that this Miss Alice would always, after a battle was over, come and ask Rein how her own performance was. At the beginning, Rein could still say a few words and offer his suggestions for improvement, but later, Bruce and Baumann had started to laugh at Rein, which had made him blush and have nowhere to hide.

The situation now was that Bruce, who had just climbed out of the tank for a breath of fresh air, and Baumann, who had poked his head out, had started to whistle and laugh loudly again. Rein had no choice but to pretend not to hear and, with a smile, encouraged Alice. “Very good! Next time, control the rhythm of your firing a little, save some ammunition, and it will be even more perfect.”

“Next time, control the rhythm of your firing a little, save some ammunition, and it will be even more perfect!” Bruce said to Andre on the side, imitating Rein’s voice.

“Bruce! Go and refuel the tank!” Rein commanded loudly, his face stern.

“Yes! Yes! Yes!” Bruce said, wiggling his butt as he jumped off the tank, still muttering with a laugh, “Otherwise, it would be me who goes to refuel. It’s a hard life! Bruce, go and refuel! Bruce, load the shells!”

Pretending to complain, he picked up two empty gasoline cans from a rack on the back of the Tiger tank. He then looked at Rein and Alice without any scruples and walked away, laughing heartily.

Not far in front, the grenadiers were building a defensive position. They were improving upon the French positions and then setting up several machine gun nests. In a foxhole next to Rein’s tank, they had set up a support mortar.

These grenadiers, having come all this way, could already be said to be battle-hardened veterans. Their gazes were firm and deep, their combat effectiveness was tenacious, and they had rich combat experience. The positions they set up were reasonable and tight. The French soldiers had suffered countless hardships at the hands of these grenadiers.

A grenadier company commander, with a cigarette dangling from his lips, walked to the side of Rein’s tank, knocked on the side skirt of this Tiger, and then said in a gruff voice, “Rein? We found two incredible big guys over there. The prisoners said they were loading ammunition for those two big guys. We were close to eating a ‘heavy one’.”

“Let’s go! Let’s go and take a look!” Just as someone had come to relieve the situation, Rein also took the opportunity to end his conversation with Alice. He picked up the MP-44 assault rifle that had been with him for a long time, then climbed out of the tank and jumped to the ground.

His shoulder was injured, so his movements were a bit deformed, not as graceful as usual, but his skills were still agile, and the sound he made when he landed was not loud. Alice also jumped off the tank and followed behind Rein—she was now almost Rein’s little shadow. Wherever Rein went, she had to follow.

The few of them went around several buildings of the small station and, not far away, saw a place that looked a bit like a construction site. There was a simple crane for lifting, as well as two intact French locomotives.

Of course, there was something even more amazing parked there. On a massive railway car lay a huge cannon barrel. Rein couldn’t estimate how big this barrel was, but he made a rough guess that one person could not even wrap his arms around this thick gun.

The two French railway guns were very well camouflaged. There was a lot of canvas around them, and some of the canvas was even painted with the roofs of civilian buildings. Beside them were also two anti-aircraft gun positions. It seemed that the French had been preparing to open fire here for more than a day or two.

“The French prisoners confessed that this is a type of French railway gun, with a caliber of 400 millimeters and a range of about 15 kilometers. They planned to use these two guys to shell our military facilities near Amiens,” the grenadier company commander said, taking a drag from his cigarette and then pointing to the side. “See the man-sized shells over there?”

Rein and Alice followed the direction the grenadier company commander was pointing and saw at least twenty shells piled up on one side. Many were still covered with canvas. Two shiny “super shells” were placed on the outermost side, as if they were already prepared for firing.

On top of the railway gun, two German soldiers were riding, striking various poses for photos. The few war photographers below were constantly pressing their shutters at this big guy. Of course, many soldiers were gathered around these two giant cannons, pointing and marveling at France’s ability to manufacture such a huge piece of artillery.

Of course, if Akado were here, he would definitely have scoffed, because in the other timeline, the Germans had built an even bigger one—the historically famous war behemoth, the Gustav railway gun.

That super railway gun, nicknamed “Dora,” was still the largest caliber cannon ever developed in human history as of 2015. It is certain that if orbital vehicles are not launched using electromagnetic gun technology in the future, this 800mm Gustav super cannon will also be “the last of its kind” in human history.

But it was a pity that, also due to Akado’s intervention, there was no more Cannon King Dora in this world, no more of that giant cannon named Gustav, no more “King of Cannons” with a barrel length of 32 meters, a total length in combat state of 53 meters, a height of 12 meters, and a total weight of 1,488 tons.

So this French cannon was undoubtedly the largest-volume cannon that the ordinary German soldiers had ever seen. The fast-moving German units mostly used 60mm, 80mm, and 120mm mortars, as well as 75mm and 105mm towed artillery. The largest caliber support weapons they had were only the rocket launchers and the 150mm heavy artillery.

But compared to this 400mm big guy in front of them, Germany’s 150mm “heavy artillery” seemed to be only a pitiful “little guy.”

“Is this a French cannon?” Alice exclaimed, staring at the behemoth in front of her. “It’s so big. If this thing were to fire on us, a lot of us would die, right?”

“This thing should have been deployed behind the Maginot Line,” Rein said, analyzing with a frown. “Because using this kind of large cannon to fight a constantly fast-moving field army is not a good deal. This thing can only deal with fixed targets, and extremely sturdy fixed targets.”

“For hitting the Siegfried Line?” the grenadier company commander grinned. Ever since the French army had attacked the Siegfried Line, the joke of the non-existent German defensive line scaring away a million French troops had been spreading among the German soldiers. Almost as soon as the Maginot Line was mentioned, everyone would always think of the corresponding non-existent “Siegfried Line.”

“In fact, our Siegfried Line did not exist, so this large cannon was secretly transported over to cause us trouble,” Rein said, pointing to the huge cannon nearby. “Report the situation here. It seems the French government is not just waiting to die. They have withdrawn a portion of their forces from the Maginot Line, hoping to slow our steps.”

“It seems they didn’t succeed…” the grenadier company commander said with a chuckle. “We’ve captured two railway guns, one tank, and nearly 100 French soldiers. This time, we can at least get a few Iron Crosses.”

“I’m not counting on it. It’s not so easy to get another upgrade,” Rein said with a bitter smile, pointing to the Knight’s Cross with Oak Leaves on his collar. “You write the report. I estimate you can at least get two.”

“I wonder if the division headquarters can approve two boxes of canned food for us,” the company commander said, taking another drag from his cigarette. He looked at the scene of a dozen or so German soldiers cheering on the barrel of the railway gun in the distance, narrowed his eyes, and smiled. “This bunch of little rascals.”

“Hey, beautiful! Can we take a picture of you?” a war correspondent asked, seeing Rein and Alice here and walking over with a smile. The military uniform on his body was much cleaner, and he was also carrying a beautiful Luger pistol—the frontline combat personnel, that is, the grunts in the traditional sense, generally used the P-38 pistol. Only the rear personnel who never participated in combat were equipped with the Luger, which had been phased out because of its high price.

“Of course! If you don’t mind, I would like to take a picture alone with my commander,” Alice said with a sweet smile. She had two shallow dimples on her face when she smiled, which made her look even more lovely and charming.

“Your commander?” The young photographer, who had originally been fantasizing about getting close to the beautiful woman and then spending an unforgettable night, was clearly a little unhappy when he heard the beautiful woman speak like this. When he turned his head to look at Rein, he immediately put away his little thoughts.

“Heil Führer, sir!” The photographer stood at attention, raised his arm in a German salute, and only then did he dare to continue speaking. “May I take a picture of you and your soldier?”

“Alright,” Rein said helplessly, standing on the side of the French railway gun. Alice smiled shyly and stood beside Rein. The two were about a fist’s distance apart, and standing in the sunlight, a group photo of the two of them was taken.