Next day was scheduled by Erika as the heavy weapons training. She planned to start training the troops with the machine guns and mortars though not the 75mm guns In the morning after breakfast, she went to the training camp. Emil and Bauer were with her. Bauer carried the two telephone wire coiled reels. Once in the camp she put them down by the armory. The officers and troops were also present in the camp for regular training. After Erika entered the camp, they stood straight and administered the traditional Wehrmacht salute. She spoke to the troops, "Good morning, I hope you are all in good shape." She stopped for a while and looked at the soldiers. They remained silent and stood in their positions without slightest hesitation. "Today you will be trained in new weapons." Erika continued to speak. "These new weapons will change the future of warfare as you will notice today. So prepare yourselves." She said all of these while walking in front of the troops. Her hands were behind her back and she was wearing the field grey uniform with the rank badge of a major. She looked just like a world war 2 Wehrmacht major ordering his troops except for the fact that she was a 10 year old girl rather than some experienced Wehrmacht officer. She looked at Bauer who was standing behind her and said, "Bring the mortars and the machine guns. take two soldiers with you." Erika pointed at two soldiers in the first row, "You and you go with her." With this order, Bauer and the soldiers rushed to the armory with the key to its door. It was a mid sized wooden hut to keep the weapons safe from rain, snow and heat. She pointed at the things that the soldiers needed to carry. The soldiers couldn't understand the things. One looked like a larger version of the guns they were using while the other was a tube with a plate at the end and some mechanism attached to it. Both of them had two legs. Though they were doubtful and oblivious about what the things were, they were fairly confident that these must be something powerful. They were now acquainted with the all-destroying panzerfaust and the guns they used so they were excited about these as well. However, the mortar was heavy and was hard for the soldier to carry. The other soldier held the machine with one hand and helped Bauer to carry the crate of mortar shells. They brought a mortar and a machine-gun while Bauer carried the ammunitions. She had a wooden crate of mortar shells. She held it with her right hand while a soldier in front of her held the other half of the crate with his left hand and a belt of machine gun ammo around her neck. The two soldiers also carried a belt around their necks. First Erika introduced the machine gun to the troops. She pointed at it and said, "This is the MG42 machine gun. It is like the MP40 but can fire more powerful bullets at a higher rate." She clarified the use of this weapon and that 27 troops will be allocated to operate it. Which means 9 guns for the company and 3 men per gun. "One will be the main gunner who will fire the gun an Assistant gunner or loader who will load the gun and finally an ammo bearer who will have extra ammo, optical equipments and barrels for the machine gun." She specified the roles of the three crew. Then she picked up machine gun and then took it to the firing range. "Emil, Bauer, you will act as my assistant gunner and ammo bearer." She said as she brought the gun to the firing area. "Bauer bring some additional barrels with you please." She said as she lay down in the shooting position. "Emil bring me the ammo belt." All of the soldiers gathered around the machine gun to see how this new invention worked. Bauer brought the extra barrels in the meantime. "Okay look closely, how to load the gun." She took a belt from Emil and loaded the belt on the machine gun. "Emil keep holding the belt. Don't let it fall on the ground." She instructed and placed the bipod of the gun on the ground. She lied down flat on her chest and held the gun with her right hand on the grip and left hand keeping the gun's butt in position of her shoulder muscles to keep the force of recoil in control. She looked through the iron sight of the gun, set her sights to one of the targets and then fired. Brrrrrr the machine gun made a weird noise and blew off the target. Once the target was completely destroyed, she stopped and changed her target. She continued to do so until the barrel turned red. "Look now my barrel is overheated so it can't be used anymore." The soldiers who were mesmerised by the power of the gun and kept looking at the gun and the targets it blew off, suddenly got their senses back. They silently listened to what she said. "Once the barrel turns red you will have to change it." She pushed a hook on the gun. The hook was in a center position and once she pulled it the red barrel came out. "Its extremely hot so don't touch it." She warned them. Then she held the front portion of the gun and held it up a bit so the hot barrel fell down. The soldiers observed the situation with excitement and curiosity. Their gazes fixated on the gun and the actions Erika was taking. "Bauer give me a barrel." Bauer went forward and handed over a new barrel to Erika. She put it inside the hook slightly coned with the gun and then pushed the hook along with the barrel in. She also showed how a loader should instead of entering a new belt stick another belt to the almost exhausted belt. After completing the demonstration, she stood up from her position and said, "I hope you liked the demo and understand how to handle this thing." "Jawohl kommandant." The soldiers shouted in unison. She looked at Emil, "You know the soldiers best. Choose 27 men you think would be suitable for operating the 9 machine guns." Emil noded. He went in front of the troops and started choosing. Everyone was excited. They all wanted to become the operators of this wonder weapon. However, Emil chose 27 men he thought most suitable for the job. "Emil you will be needed for the test of the next weapon. So assign an officer to train the troops." Erika said. Emil chose Wilhelm. He used the MP40 during the dark forest operation with great success. He was also good at observations and could understand things easily. He was charged to command the machine gun teams along with an NCO as assistant. The rest of the troops moved on along with Erika. She went to the mortar and asked a soldier to pick it up and another the ammo crate. She took them out of the camp in an empty area.
Once in the open area outside the camp Erika put the mortar down. It faced at the vast open stretch of land that people dare not traverse. She asked one of the troops to place a red flag on over a kilometer away and asked another one to bring a binocular. The soldiers were shocked. They couldn't understand if a weapon could fire that far away. It took half an hour for the soldier to place the flag while another brought the binocular. It was not really a binocular but rather a brass spyglass though a little better than the medieval spy glasses used on Earth. Erika explained the use of mortars to the troops. "It is called a kurzer 8cm Granatwerfer 42. And it can fire upto that range. It requires three men to operate as well. One as gunner, one ammo bearer and finally an observer who will ensure the firing is as accurate as possible." Erika knew that without any optical devices to rely on, the firing will never be accurate. But still using a spyglass was better than nothing. This time she bent on her knee sit near the mortar tube and took a shell on her hand. She put out her thumb and faced it towards the flag to determine the range. She put the shell inside the tube and immediately put her head down and covered up her ears and with a loud bang the shell was fired. All the soldiers could see the blast near the flag with a smoke rising. The soldiers were all surprised. It was even more powerful than the machine gun. Erika looked at the soldier with the spyglass and said, "Check where the shell hit and help me adjust."
Erika moved the screw to adjust the range as directed, took another shell from Bauer and shoved it inside the tube. She immediately lowered her head and covered her ears. The mortar fired, this time blowing up the flag.
"Wow milady, with this the enemy won't even know what hit them." The soldier who was observing said. "We can even attack the royal capital without worry." He was very excited to see the power of this weapon.
The other soldiers were excited as well. "Emil chose 9 soldiers for the three mortars." She stood up and said. "Continue with the training as I showed."
Emil chose the Men he thought would be suitable for the task. Meanwhile Erika after entrusting The weapons, showed them the usage of the telephones. She decided at first two telephone operators will suffice. One will remain at the camp while other will carry the wheel with the wire and have the other phone set. He will go with the troops while laying wires along the way.
Erika's task for the day was over with the assignment of the telephones. She continued to observe the training and occasionally advising troops and helping the craftsmen with various weapons throughout the day before leaving for lunch.