Chapter 9: Transforming Roadside Bombs

  The mountain road was rugged and seemed to be the same everywhere, but the guerrilla fighters walked very easily, if not for the heavy shells on their shoulders, they could almost run like flying.

  At last, after walking for an hour in the bare mountain, Khwaja said: "We're here."

  In front of them, a cave appeared. The entrance to the cave was almost vertical and there were mountains opposite blocking it, making it nearly impossible to discover from the air. This natural cave was the natural base for this guerrilla team.

  "Herman, go to the back hill and fetch some water for dinner," Khwaja said to a guerrilla fighter.

  "Yes." Herman took a large iron bucket from the cave and ran towards the back mountain.

  The terrain here is hidden, and even if the Soviet Union wanted to come and sweep it away, the road was too rugged for armored troops to enter, and there was a water source in the back mountain. The choice of this base was very good.

  Muhammad couldn't help but admire in his heart, if the guerrilla team he was originally on had such a base, it wouldn't have been completely destroyed, and only he and Duranni would have escaped.

  "Take all these shells inside," Khwaja said, then turned to Muhammad and said, "Sir, we have now transported all these shells to the base, but we don't have any tank cannons, so these shells are also unusable. Do you have any ideas?"

  Muhammad's achievements, Khwaja didn't believe until he saw them with his own eyes. Otherwise, he wouldn't have let his subordinates move so many cannonballs back. In his opinion, these cannonballs were useless.

  "Captain Khwaja, please don't call me 'sir' anymore, just call me Muhammad." Muhammad said: "Believe me, these shells are our latest treasures."

  After finishing speaking, Muhammad unfolded a map he had brought with him and looked at it carefully. He said: "Twenty kilometers west of here, there is a sentry post, you all know that?"

  They knew that after the Soviets took Jalalabad, they began to build outposts gradually with the city as the center in order to deal with guerrillas.

  This sentry post was just built at the mountain pass, and when the guerrilla troops entered or left the mountains, they had to take a detour on small roads, walking tens of kilometers more in mountain roads before returning here.

  If that sentry post were removed, it would be much more convenient.

  And each outpost stores a certain amount of weapons, ammunition, food and fuel, which is convenient for the Soviet guerrillas to use.

  Up to now, the Soviets firmly believed that they would win an easy victory over the besieged guerrilla fighters, but little did they know that Afghanistan was becoming a quagmire that would deeply entrap the Soviet army and thoroughly bury the Soviet Empire.

  That sentry post has a squad of soldiers guarding it, although there are not many people, but the machine guns form intersecting firepower, making it very difficult to launch a strong attack on it.

  Guerrilla troops are good at guerrilla warfare, but strong attacks are not their strong point.

  As soon as Muhammad mentioned it, he seemed to want to go and blow the whistle, suddenly, Khwaja became interested.

  "Mahmoud, how are we going to take down this outpost?" Khwaja asked.

  Actually, Muhammad naturally also knew that the difficulty of blowing this whistle was very high. However, he came here and wanted to gain leadership of this guerrilla team, so he had to fight a few brilliant battles to make these people believe in him.

  No doubt, blowing this whistle is very attractive.

  "I have a plan," Muhammad said.

  When he finished speaking, Khwaja's eyes lit up and he couldn't wait to set out immediately, but first they had to get a clear understanding of the situation there.

  The aroma of rice wafted over quickly, especially today's battle, captured several cans of Soviet tank soldiers' caviar, spread the caviar on a large pancake and then put it in mouth, simply delicious.

  Muhammad finished eating and began his own practical action.

  A large crowd gathered around, watching as Muhammad carried that one shell out.

  For these guerrillas, this shell was still a novelty, but Muhammad was very familiar with the structure of this shell.

  In front is the warhead and fuze, behind is the propellant and igniter. First, remove the fuze and igniter to make it absolutely safe.

  These things are actually very simple.

  As Muhammad began to defuse the bomb, the guerrilla fighters who had just gathered around immediately retreated subconsciously. They knew that thing was extremely powerful once it exploded.

  "You're getting too close," Muhammad said. "This is a grenade, and if it explodes, it will bring down the entire cave. You need to retreat, go back to the rear mountain."

  Upon hearing Muhammad's words, two guerrilla fighters immediately turned around and walked away, taking two steps before realizing no one was responding. They turned back to see the others closing in again, their faces suddenly flushing red as they too pushed forward.

  Why be afraid when others are not? Besides, just look at the instructor's demeanor and you can tell he has a plan.

  Really - God bless, nothing unexpected will happen, the two of them plucked up their courage and also came forward.

  Muhammad was confident, he knew that this shell would never explode.

  Of course, in order to be on the safe side, Muhamed still had to remove the detonator first. Besides, to turn it into a roadside bomb, the detonator must be modified.

  Here is the translation:

  In here so openly dismantling artillery shells, Muhammad was also intentional, he wanted to teach these guerrilla fighters how to do it, after all, he was an instructor.

  Muhammad exerted force with both hands, and amidst the creaking sounds, a conical object was twisted out from the top of the bolt.

  "This thing is the fuse, without it, the shell won't explode." Muhammad showed the unscrewed fuse to others, and instantly, everyone's eyes widened. Fuse? The explosion of the shell relies on it?

  Then, turning the shell over, Muhammad again unscrewed the rear fuse.

  "This is the primer, similar to a bullet. The firing pin strikes the primer, which ignites the propellant and pushes the projectile out." Muhammad shows them the extracted primer again.

  Admiring eyes everywhere.

  "Instructor, I really didn't expect you to even disassemble this shell." Dulaney said from the side.

  "Durrani, take another one apart in the same way," Muhammad said.

  Disassemble the bomb? Hearing Muhammad say this, Durrani was suddenly startled: "I, I..."

  In front of so many people, I couldn't say that I'm afraid, but if this thing explodes, no one here will survive.

  "Don't worry, I'll guide you, nothing will go wrong. Our shells are going to turn into controlled bombs." Muhamed said: "We let them explode when the Soviet convoy passes by."

  These shells, Muhammad must get them, because he knows the use of these shells, although they can't be used for launching, but as roadside bombs, are also the best choice.

  The tank's shells were mostly armor-piercing, and the warhead was purely made to hit armored targets and could not explode. So, Muhammad did not intend to take out the armor-piercing shells at first, but later on a whim, when laying mines, he used them all up. Although the warhead couldn't be used, the propellant in the shell casing could also produce tremendous power, and those dozen or so armor-piercing shells were enough for the Soviets to drink a pot of.

  Good things should be left to use slowly, this kind of grenade is a kind of ammunition that relies on explosion to destroy the enemy. These thirty grenades will become thirty powerful roadside bombs.

  The modification is also very simple. Although Muhamed does not have a suitable timing fuse now, nor the mobile phone fuse commonly used in later generations, the mobile phone rings and explodes. However, even the most primitive way of detonating with electric wires and then detonating grenades is simple and effective.

  Of course, this requires disassembling the detonator and taking out the ** and battery.

  Although disassembling a bomb sounds very dangerous, in fact, as long as there is no mechanical failure, disassembling a bomb has not the slightest danger.

  The fuse of the shell is very safe, and only when it is fired in the barrel, after withstanding a large acceleration, will the insurance be lifted. In peacetime, even if it is accidentally dropped from a vehicle during transportation, it will not explode.

  Dulani finally accepted the instructor's command and carefully disassembled another shell.

  Originally thought it would be difficult, but when the fuse and propellant of this shell were easily twisted off by Duranni, Duranni had a great sense of accomplishment.

  It's so simple!

  "Everyone has seen it, right? As long as they are similar shells, from small mortar shells to large aircraft bombs, they all have this structure. From now on, if we encounter these shells, we must bring them back. We don't have heavy weapons, and these shells will be our gift to the Soviet people." Muhammad said.

  "What are we going to do to detonate these shells?" a voice asked, and Muhammad looked over to see that it was Herman.

  Herman finally got to the point, which was also of great concern to other guerrillas, and even the leader of the guerrilla, Khwaja, was watching with rapt attention.

  "What everyone will learn next is to disassemble this detonator, take out the ** and battery, and lengthen the wires. This way, we only need to be far away, see the opponent enter our bomb ambush range, connect the wire to the battery, and we can detonate our bomb." Muhammad said.

  Now, in the absence of other materials, this method of explosion is the simplest.

  As everyone watched with bated breath, Muhammad felt a sense of accomplishment as he carefully opened the letter, which was more dangerous than defusing a bomb, but under his skilled hands, nothing was impossible.

  That night, many people were sleepless, recalling every step they would take the next day to modify the remaining shells. From then on, they had a new trick to deal with the Soviets: even tanks that couldn't be penetrated by powerful bullets could be eliminated in this way!