Engineer Advanced Training

[Maj. Gen. Aleksei Nikolov]

Europe is a continent dominated by rivers. That many rivers mean a lot of bridges, which will be key to our drive across Europe. The Nazis know this too, and they'll do their d**nedest to stop us from getting bridges. That means that we may need to build our own.

As an Engineer, you'll have three main responsibilities:
1. Destroy enemy obstacles, such as tank obstacles and bunkers;
2. Repair and build new bridges
3. Find and destroy enemy minefields.
After completing this training, you will be assigned to an engineering unit attached to your unit or desired unit.

Scenario 1: Destroying obstacles
The Germans have a number of tank obstacles on a road. We need them cleared so we can get our tanks across. Use C-2, thermite grenades, TNT, whatever you need to get those obstacles out of the way. Then blow up the abandoned German bunker.

Scenario 2: Bridges
We need to cross a large river, but the Germans damaged the bridge. Build a pontoon bridge so that men can continue to get across the river while you get the bridge operational again.

Scenario 3: Mines
One of our infantry squads "found" a minefield. Use a standard-issue metal detector to find the bounds of the minefield. Then coordinate with a tank to clear the mines.

[Mayór I. Molotov]

Ivan had, as part of his officers training, developed several specialty skills. One of them were the ability to use explosives. In fact, one evening when he was drunk, he had put an old rag on top of his vodka-bottle and lit up the rag, then thrown the bottle as far as he could. The result was a virtual bomb, and the officers that had seen it had been so impressed that they had adopted the new weapon and called it a "Molotov-cocktail". For that, Ivan was proud. Anyway, back to the task at hand. Ivan had been given a strange task. Blow up some old tank obsticales and a bunker, with virtually nothing. All he had was a TT-33 and two clips, against twelve large concrete structures.

Sitting down and scratching his head for a while, Ivan thought carefully over what he could do. Then he had an idea. There were some bombers from the Soviet Air Force in the air. Perhaps they could help!

"Tovarisj airmen, can you hear me?" he called into the radio.

"Da, who is this? Identify yourself!" a voice sparkled through the static in the radio.

"This is Leytenánt Molotov. I need your help tovarisj. Are you carrying live bombs?"

"What do you think idiot? That we're carrying barrels of water?"

"Well, you never know...." Ivan replied. And it was true that you never knew. They were just as ilkely to carry waterbarrels that they were, carrying real bombs.

"Well, we're carrying bombs according to Misja here. Where do you want them tovarisj?"

"On that road that's under you right now. There's some tank roadblocks there. Can you take them out?"

"Give me another pass to get a visual, then you'll see a big boom tovarisj. Out."

Ivan smiled, then remembered that he was standing in the middle of the road, so he started running into the birch forest and onto a small hill overlooking the road. There were the planes, and there something fell out, and it fell, and it fell... Ivan placed his fingers in his ears, awaiting the big boom the crazy airman had promised...


...but nothing happened. Ivan was a bit confused now, but a few soldiers had arrived at the scene now, watching. Ivan, being a officer, had to go forth by example, and therefore he walked down to the road again. When he got down, he detected something strange. The road was soaked! The goddamned pilots had been carrying waterbarrels after all!

"Damn you, you flea-infected toothless facist bastards!!!" he cried out to the road and planes flying overhead. Then he returned to the soldiers, thinking. Then something crazy flew through his mind.

"Soldier, which unit do you belong to?!?" he shouted straight into the face of one of them.

"737th Pioneer Regiment tovarisj Leytenánt!" the soldier answered, somewhat scared by the sudden outburst from the officer.

"Good. Give me twenty-four kilos of TNT and some fuses! Carry them down to that road there."

"Tovarisj, we can't do that."

Ivan drew his TT-33 and aimed it straight at the base of the soldiers scull and gave him a asking look.

"Take whatever you want sir," he answered quickly. "We'll help you carry it."

"Spasiba. As I said, take it down to the road there."

The soldiers did as ordered, and carried the 24 kilos (48 pounds) of TNT down the road and placed it where Ivan told them to. Then, Ivan started distributing the TNT. 2 kilos (4 pounds) of TNT went to each obsticale, and the fuse was set. Then Ivan took a good sip of his vodka before he lit the fuze and ran like the crazy Ivan he was!

"BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

The TNT exploded virutally simultaniously, blowing the obsticales to kingdom come, along with the majority of the road. Still, he had cleared the obsticales. Then he remembered the bunker, and he called over the now shell-shocked soldiers again.

"Now what do you want us to do, crazy Leytenánt?" a soldier asked.

"I don't want you to do anything. I'm ordering you to take whatever TNT you have left and place inside that bunker there. Got it?"

The soldiers looked like they were going to complain, but at the look of Ivans nearly empty vodka bottle and the TT-33 in his right hand, they changed their minds and started doing as Ivan had ordered them. Ten kilos were placed at the door opening, and another ten kilos were placed deep inside the bunker, combined to a ten-minute fuze. Ivan set the last charges and fuzes himself, then he lit them up and ran again back to his vehicle and opened another bottle of vodka.

Seven minutes later, a resounding OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM sounded, and Ivan waited till the dust had cleared before he wandered, or rather tried as he was pretty drunk by now, over to the bunker and checked it. The entire thing had collapsed, so Ivan assumed that it was destroyed, and called up the superiors.

"*hick* Tovarisji? *hick* The road's cleared and *hick* the bunker is destroyed. *hick* What do you want me to *hick* do now? *hick*"

OOC: And kids, that's how you destroy a bunker!

[Maj. Gen. Evgenii Vostrikov]

Pass. Drunken Bastard.

[Mayór I. Molotov]

Scenario 2

Ivan looked at the bridge before him. It was filled with holes from both bullets, mortars, tankshells and artillery, and completely useless. Then he looked to the shores next to the bridge, and then back to the fifty Pioneers that were assigned to him. They needed to build a pontoon bridge, and quickly if the advance was to continue. He took a good, long sip from the vodka and then called over the men.

"Start building that pontoon bridge down there. The infantry'll keep us covered while we work, so don't worry about that. Just get the bridge done before our tsjekist-comrades start asking why we haven't built the bridge." Ivan said.

"Yes comrade! For the Soviet Union!" the Pioneer said before he ran off and started shouting out orders. Soon, the first elements were getting on the water, and the infantry covered the bridge builders with the Maxim MGs and mortars, as well as the few snipers and sharpshooters. Meanwhile, Ivan walked up to the old ridge and looked at it. Loads of holes that had to be filled...

He walked over to a infantry officer and commandered two hundred infantrymen and gave them shovels.

"Start filling the carts with gravel and rocks, and bring them over to the bridge."

"Why?"

"Because I told you to soldier! Now move, or I'll shoot you for treason against the Motherland!"

As if to emphasize, he pulled out his PPSch-41 and cocked it, then aimed at the soldier who spoke up against him. The soldiers decided that the drunken officer was crazy enough to shoot them, so they put down their Mosins and stated shuffeling sand, gravel and rocks onto the wheel-barrels and carts, then taking them over to Ivan.

Meanwhile, the Pioneers had placed the first few sections in the water, and were busy putting the last pieces in place. Ivan ran down and helped assemble the bridge, then he and the other Pioneers pushed it on the water. Soon, they were across the river, and the first infantry units pushed on and took the fight once again to the Germans. Meanwhile, Ivan would be busy repairing the bridge enough for vehicles and tanks to pass over.

The holes were filled with rocks and gravel, as well as a little metal, then boiling asphalt was placed on top of it. The supportive foundations were reinforced with timber. Thanks to the fifty Pioneers and two hundred "volunteers", the repairs went quickly by, and within twelve hours, the bridge was ready for the vehicles and tanks to pass over. In that timespan, Ivan had been so busy that he had only drunken two bottles of vodka! A new record indeed! Anyway, the bridge-repairs were completed now, and the continued push towards Berlin could continue!

[Maj. Gen. Evgenii Vostrikov]

Pass. Go ahead and skip the third one, unless you really want to do it.