Conquer Europe from the West

Chapter 161 Supplies
north.

Unlike their homeland on another planet, on this planet called Easis, the empire's northern border is a land bordering several countries and with a considerable coastline.

The northern border, located at the westernmost edge, is a fertile land with abundant rainfall, while the easternmost edge is a territory that could be considered barren by the standards of that era.

The 502nd Airborne Infantry Regiment is no longer stationed in the capital, but has been moved to Ostend, the area where the 502nd Airborne Infantry Regiment first fought.

The warm winds blowing from Britain allow this land to maintain temperatures above freezing even in the depths of winter, while the equipment transported from the Empire's homeland (hereinafter referred to as the Empire) is somewhat belated.

"These are all clothes that are too thick."

In front of the station's warehouse, Ryan threw his cigarette butt into a basin of water on the ground. The hissing sound of the cigarette being extinguished was mixed with the last wisp of smoke before it disappeared without a trace.

Their gaze shifted to the other side.

A large group of soldiers and civilian officials were gathered at the entrance of the hazardous materials warehouse. They looked at the barrels of fuel, engine oil and antifreeze in their hands with delight, clearly having obtained a lot of good stuff.

Renn didn't know much about the supplies needed for vehicles and trains in this era, but he knew very well that the -20 markings on those antifreezes definitely didn't indicate the batch number of the antifreeze.

With this question in mind, Ryan looked at a gray knitted wool military overcoat and asked, "Did the logistics guys deliver the rations for the Eighth Army to us?"

Brinkman, who was standing nearby, immediately opened the inventory of supplies and, after checking the annotations on each page, replied: "Yes, it seems that the logistics department got the transportation time wrong. The supplies that were supposed to be sent to the capital and the Northeast have only just arrived in our hands."

Despite saying that, her tone was much more relaxed than when she was in Insterburg.

Firstly, the sea breeze seemed to carry a unique scent that only existed in early spring in their homeland, which made Brinkman feel somewhat at ease. Secondly, no one would find it unacceptable to send frigid-standard supplies to a warmer region; after all, as long as it's not summer, people never complain about wearing too many clothes.

However, her words still made Ryan subconsciously look over, his left hand, which was clasped to his chest, clutching the document from before, which was now somewhat deformed from being pressed down.

Brinkman's cast was removed last week, but the long period of restraint still made her subconsciously cross her arms across her chest, which always looked a bit strange.

"How are the other supplies? For example, the 40mm grenades that we haven't been able to get before, and the heavy machine gun bullets, etc."

Putting aside the issue of clothing, the main reason why Renn personally came to inspect the supplies was because of the ammunition.

The ammunition supply of the 502nd Regiment differs significantly from that of ordinary troops. This is mainly reflected in the fact that the 502nd Regiment possesses a large number of fully automatic weapons, while in contrast, it only has two battalions of GW.98 rifles.

This is mainly because Bergmann recently expanded its production lines.

After Ryan placed a large order for MP-14 submachine guns with Bergmann before the Battle of Verdun, Bergmann immediately added two MP-14 production lines and shut down all previous pistol production lines so that experienced workers could immediately be put into MP-14 production.

Therefore, before the troops from Rennes went to East Prussia in October, Bergmann had worked day and night to handcraft more than 300 MP-14s. Of the first batch of 160, 85 percent of the products passed the reliability test and were delivered to the troops before the assault company left.

The rest of them set off for East Prussia with the Second Battalion.

By November, the new production line had been fully completed. Some of the recovered P-08 carbines were sent to Bergmann for dismantling to supply parts for the MP-14. As a result, the 502nd Regiment alone received more than 500 MP-14 rifles in November. Combined with the previous number, this was enough to equip everyone in the 2nd Battalion, from the battalion commander and staff officers to the grooms and cooks, with one.

Given that Bergmann typically delivers equipment between the 10th and 12th of each month, the supplies for Rennes this time also included the weapons supply for December.

According to his previous phone call with the person in charge of Bergman, a total of 600 MP-14s were delivered this month!
This quantity is enough to meet the needs of most of the battalion.

But whether it was Ryan or the others, they all knew one thing very well—more guns weren't necessarily better.

Especially these kinds of automatic weapons.

In order to learn how to maintain and use the MP-14, the newly issued soldiers would consume an average of two large magazines per day, totaling sixty-four 9mm bullets.

If these 600 guns were distributed, the daily ammunition alone would be enough to make some divisions or even armies blush with shame.

Not to mention that the Empire's current mainstream bullet is not 9mm, but 7.92mm.

Rein's decision to leave East Prussia was partly due to the fact that his two attacks in Insterburg had nearly exhausted all of the Eighth Army's 9mm ammunition.

The 502nd Regiment's ability to win battles lies in the absolute suppression of conventional bolt-action rifles by automatic firepower.

没有弹药的502团打起仗来甚至还不如一般的部队——他们手里全是P-08和MP-14这种用9mm子弹的枪，GW.98的配置只占了全人数的百分之二十。

Of course, the above are only things that infantry units need to consider.

The real problem lies with the airship force.

As mentioned before, the modernization and refitting of Z331 to Z334 began after the Battle of Verdun.

Furthermore, the modifications to Z331 were completed by the beginning of October, which was remarkably swift.

However, this is because the scope of modification for Z331 is the smallest.

During the refitting of Z332 and Z333, researchers from the Imperial Equipment Development Department proposed a solution to improve the airship's carrying capacity by utilizing the characteristic of the airship's buoyancy unit to offset the weight of rigidly connected equipment.

As a result of the above scheme, the three gun turrets of Z334 were changed from the previous suspended baskets to completely fixed rings. Only one gun in the entire turret could move through the trunnions and gun carriages, and the firing arc was also reduced from the original 360 degrees to only 60 degrees in each direction.

This was actually a good thing, but in order to ensure the density of firepower, the designers made emergency modifications to the other three that had already been modified, and added an additional fixed 40mm cannon to counter airships that might appear in the air.

To ensure that these 16 40mm howitzers have sufficient ammunition reserves to meet training needs, more than 200 rounds of ammunition are fired every day...

Even if the total number of rounds of training per month does not exceed 2000, it is still a significant expense.

Unfortunately, the only people in the entire unit who understood this were Rein, Brinkman, the second battalion commander, and the captains of the four Wave-class airships.

Upon hearing Ryan's question, Brinkman, whose expression had been quite good before, immediately changed completely, a change that even the best actors would find difficult to achieve.

"The ammunition supply is not bad..."

She took a nearly dried-out document from her briefcase, which was damp from the morning drizzle and was placed at her feet, and handed it to Ryan.

"The ammunition approved by the General Staff is calculated at 1.5 times the average amount required for a single operation. On this basis, daily consumption during non-combat periods has been taken into account. Therefore, this supply includes enough ammunition for two large-scale operations, which is 100,000 rounds..." "Is this a month's worth?" Although the number is large, Rein was still somewhat taken aback by the amount.

Brinkman shook his head: "No, it's a two-week supply."

"In a place like this?" Renn's eyelid twitched, and he turned to look at the surrounding environment, which had absolutely no frontline atmosphere.

Then he heard the words that made his vision go black: "This is the ammunition reserve, including machine guns."

Nothing to say.

I really have nothing to say.

Ryan had run out of words to use to describe the guys in the logistics department.

His infantry regiment is now an overstretched regiment, with 3000 men even after accounting for a fraction of its original size.

What are we going to do with 100,000 rounds of ammunition over half a month? Keep in mind that there are already over a thousand soldiers undergoing automatic weapons training.

Just to meet their needs, 1000 x 64 = 64000 rounds of ammunition need to be fired every day.

This doesn't even include the machine gun's routine training and maintenance.

This is fucking ridiculous!
However, Brinkman didn't understand what Rain was thinking, so she continued with her report: "Then it's about the shells."

"The air force's artillery shells couldn't be delivered today because the refitting of three Zeppelin-class ships is almost complete. Currently, all the 40mm shells have been transferred to the Ruhr industrial area to facilitate their artillery test firing and adjustments."

"Our four airships will receive a total of 10,000 40mm high-explosive shells and 2,000 40mm high-velocity armor-piercing shells with the next supply shipment a week from now."

"The 77mm artillery shells for each infantry battalion were supplied in this resupply. The supply standard is three times the usual imperial standard, 600 rounds per gun, which is a total of 15,000 rounds after rounding."

Unlike before, what Brinkman said now actually made Renn feel much more at ease.

After all, although the name of the infantry regiment is that of an infantry regiment, the main combat operations of the infantry only begin after the airships have completed their front-line suppression missions. The real main force—the airships and the artillery—are the main force.

The logistics department isn't stupid; the fact that they can transport such a large amount of ammunition to the front lines on a weekly basis clearly indicates that they have taken into account the special characteristics of the Rein troops.

This is obviously a good thing for Rennes.

At least he doesn't have to worry about the infantry lacking artillery cover during combat.

just.

Just as Renn was listening to Brinkman's report and confirming the supplies of meat, vegetables, dairy products, coffee, cigarettes, and other general necessities on the documents, a loud ship horn sounded outside the port dock not far away.

At the same time, the train, which had just finished unloading, emitted the characteristic whirring sound of a steam engine, and thick black smoke quickly billowed out, turning into wisps of white mist that enveloped the entire station in a thick layer of moisture.

Ryan turned his head to look at the dock in the distance and found that two masts had suddenly appeared on the top of the building.

Meanwhile, the foreman of the station porters nearby began shouting in broken Imperial language, "The grain fleet is here! Everyone make way! We need to load flour and rice onto the ship!!"

"Imperial soldiers, please do not stand on the platform! The train is about to depart, and there will be no compensation if you are accidentally caught in it!"

Amidst the continuous shouts and chaotic footsteps, the train whistle finally fell silent after being sounded several times. Accompanied by the tremors of the ground, the train, with its more than one hundred freight cars, slowly began to leave the station. After making a sharp turn, it headed towards the distant dock.

"This is the sixth humanitarian aid mission this month, isn't it?" Ryan remembered seeing the same thing several times before, and after counting on his fingers in his head, he realized he couldn't count it all on one hand.

"This is the tenth time, Colonel."

Brinkman sighed: "We've already done this seven times since we arrived in Ostend, and three more times before this month. Including supplies from other regions, the Empire sends 10,000 tons of grain to Farland each time..."

Her voice was quite loud, which startled many soldiers.

Because that's a full 100,000 tons of grain, enough to feed at least several million people.

Even for the empire itself, it took a lot of effort to gather such a large amount of food.

"What did they say over there in the United Kingdom?"

Raine knew that the Empire had spent a lot on food and other support to stabilize Farland, but this obviously couldn't be the only thing the Empire was paying for.

Brinkman said, "The United Kingdom produces 20,000 tons per month, since they don't produce that much domestically and have to collect it all from their colonies."

"But this volume has been going on for three months..."

360,000 tons of grain.

It is enough to meet the empire's normal food consumption for about a month.

Even using wartime standards, it should last at least 20 days.

Farran's population is only two-thirds that of the Empire, so this is enough for them to get through the New Year.

However, the previous truce agreement stipulated that it would be held once every three months.

If the Empire runs out of food this month, but Farland does not renew the contract, the Empire may have to go to war with Farland again in the event of a temporary and sudden food shortage.

This is not a good thing.

"Don't think about it too much, it's useless."

Ryan raised his hand and placed it on Brinkman's head: "At least now we don't have to kill anyone."

(End of this chapter)