CHAPTER 692: REVISED: CHAPTER 692

The amphibious tank was a makeshift solution Charles came up with.

When Charles put the sketch in front of Tijani and Brownie, they were both stunned by the idea.

"This is insane," Tijani exclaimed, eyes wide open. "You plan to make such a simple modification and throw the tank in the water? And hope it can cross the river? You forget it’s 7 tons, General!"

Charles raised his eyebrows.

What was 7 tons? When the Americans used this method, they used the 33.65-ton "Sherman" tank.

Major General Brownie had long developed the habit of unconditionally trusting Charles, but still found this plan hard to believe:

"Are you sure this is feasible, General?"

"Or, should we wait for Colonel Estiny’s troops?"

"What I mean is, if we are betting on the ’amphibious tank,’ it might be better to attack with Colonel Estiny."

...

There was some sense in this.

The ’amphibious tank’ was a surprise attack, and so was Colonel Estiny’s unit. Moreover, Colonel Estiny’s mechanized regiment was also equipped with tanks.

Comparing the two, the latter was obviously safer.

But Charles shook his head to deny this suggestion:

"We don’t have time, Major General."

"The possibility of Colonel Estiny arriving and joining the battle by dawn is nearly nonexistent."

"And if we miss this dawn attack window, we may never get another chance."

Tijani agreed:

"The Vice Admiral is right, the German units are gathering in large numbers on the other side of the river."

"Now, at night, the assembly and deployment are slower. Once daylight comes, troops will continuously arrive and strengthen the riverbank defenses."

"So, we only have a chance at dawn."

Brownie was silent.

He had just contacted Estiny, and Estiny didn’t dare to march easily at night for fear of getting lost again.

So Charles was right; the chance of the mechanized regiment arriving by dawn was almost zero, and even making it by tomorrow was uncertain.

"We have no other choice." Tijani picked up Charles’s sketch from the table, eyes filled with helplessness. "We can only try this thing, although it seems..."

He didn’t finish saying, "Not so reliable."

Tijani knew that morale was very important to the troops; if even the commanders didn’t have confidence in this equipment, how could the soldiers believe in it and use it to win the battle?

So, from this moment, Tijani decided to trust this equipment unreservedly.

Major General Brownie thought for a while and finally nodded in agreement.

But he took out his pocket watch and looked at it, his tone filled with worry: "It’s already past eight, and there are only about 10 hours until dawn. Is that enough time?"

Tijani laughed: "You forget this is Mezieres, Major General. There is even a shipyard here."

(The image above shows the Meuse River, most of which is navigable, making it one of Europe’s significant waterways.)

Tijani knew of the Charles Shipyard, which had previously exchanged technology with the Brest Shipyard, and Wells even held a 10% stake.

The difference was that the Charles Shipyard focused on building inland river ships, such as small cargo ships, yachts, inflatable boats, and pleasure boats.

And this happened to meet Charles’s needs.

Charles entrusted this task to Tijani.

Tijani might not have considered the impact of military equipment on civilians when he led a hundred tanks directly to the shipyard for modification.

The owner, Charles, was terrified. He thought it was due to his providing boats to the Germans during their occupation of Mezieres and attempted to escape with his family through the back door without packing his luggage.

But he didn’t succeed. The building destroyed by the German bombardment blocked his path.

Ultimately, Tijani’s guards captured Charles and brought him back.

Charles was pale and trembling, almost kneeling before Tijani.

"This wasn’t my choice," Charles kept explaining to the guards on the way, "They forced me to do it. I didn’t want to build boats for them or let them use the boats to transport munitions..."

The Meuse River connected with Verdun, and many munitions and military supplies were transported upstream from Mezieres to Verdun.

"Mr. Charles," Tijani called to him upon approaching.

Perhaps due to panic or the dim factory lights, Charles did not recognize Tijani. He continued to explain rapidly, his teeth chattering: "This has nothing to do with me, General."

"Please believe me, I was only doing what I was supposed to do..."

"No, no, I mean, I was only doing business, that’s all!"

...

"Charles!" Tijani raised his voice, "I am Tijani, remember? We met in Paris!"

Charles was stunned for a moment. He stared at Tijani for a while and then shook hands enthusiastically as if holding onto a lifeline: "Oh, it’s you, Mr. Tijani! Of course I remember you!"

"No, it’s General, General Tijani. Look, you’re a General now!"

"How’s your father, Mr. Wells?"

...

"He’s doing well," Tijani nodded. "He’s quite well!"

"If it’s you, things will be much easier," Charles squeezed out a weak smile, glancing at the hundreds of tanks and fully-armed, intimidating soldiers, "You know, I’ll do anything you want. You didn’t need to bring so many people..."

Tijani handed over Charles’s sketches, turning on a flashlight to show them, "Can these modifications be completed? How long will it take?"

Charles was stunned, finally understanding why Tijani brought the tanks here.

He placed his hand on his chest, took a few deep breaths, and silently cursed: This reckless guy almost scared me to death, couldn’t you have called first?

But of course, he didn’t dare say any of that out loud. Instead, he looked at the sketches and confidently replied, "It can be done, General. If everything goes smoothly, it will take two to three hours!"

...

The modifications went very smoothly.

The material for the inflatable compartments was the same rubber used for inflatable boats, which could be inflated and had compartments.

The disadvantage of compartments was slower inflation; the advantage was practicality: If an enemy bullet pierced the rubber, it wouldn’t entirely deflate immediately. It could still hold for a significant amount of time, like a hot air balloon.

Two propellers were installed underneath, using external yacht propellers.

The reason for using two was simple operation; one propeller would slow and the other would speed up during turns, requiring minimal extra training.

Rubber and welding were then used to fill any gaps in the tank’s chassis to prevent water leakage.

Finally, a small pump was added to remove water seeping into the tank and the inflatable compartment.

However, it was found that the pump wasn’t much needed during actual combat, as the river crossing took less than twenty minutes.