First:
Organize the townspeople and forces available.
As the saying goes, everyone who can carry a rifle is to carry one.
Break the people available into the following groups:
Combatives: Every man and woman who is between 16 and 65 and phsyicaly able. Break them into units. The regulars will remain the core of the defense force for the moment.
Those who had prior military training will have to spend more than 1 day a week. Incorporate some form of training EVERYDAY!!! I would suggest class room training to relearn skills and tactics lost, and some form of active training, fireteam rushes, bayonet assaults an obstacle course or something similiar. And of course a debreif at the end.
And then we form squads, teams and sections and areas of responsibility or zones within the defensive perimeter of the town. With the more recent and able personel forming either a reaction force to reinforce areas and a manuver force to attack any attackers from their flanks and rear. We also form a scouting or patrol platoon, sending out teams of scouts to see who is going and comming so the town has some advance warning. You could also make an ambush platoon, teams of men whose missing is to harass and delay the enemy by ambushing them as they advance on the town thus they preform economy of forces operations. And also this manuver or ambush platoon can persue the enemy as they withdraw and idealing attacking key vehicles, weapons and personel as the enemy advances and withdraws from the town. I am talking basic guerilla tactics a team of four men or so openign up an ambush, mechanical, automatic weapons, explosive or even a pile of rocks or logs set to roll down on the enemy. The purpose is to delay the enemy, block the aproach, force them to stop and deploy and persue the ambushers who will fire or attack and then they will withdraw, manuvering to hit them further down the road or from another flank or rear.
The way to the ZSUs will be cleared, but only a path, not completely. The system will be repaired. A battery, are we talking 1 system or a "BATTERY" meaning multiple systems? Those will be brought online. And if parts can be fabricated in town they will be to repair and bring as many on line as possible. They will then be placed in preplanned hardened positions covering the likely aproach, along with at least two alternate positons. And fabricated carriages will be made so that they can be wheeled into position and brought into battery as fast as possible. <I am thinking taking one or two of the multi gunned systems apart and doing that with the guns> 1 system can be mounted on a flatbed truck and given armored sides. This will be the mobile system going with the flying unit to beef up the perimeter that is under attack or needing reinforcement.
Adding several dummy mine fields. It may work. At least it will delay the enemy or give them pause. Troops don't like to go into mined areas and they often are a bit more cautious. Toss in some burried metal boxes or simething similiar so if the enemy gets engineers up they will find something.
Snipers,
The best hunters and shots with the better rifles and better skills will have freedom to sudy their areas of operation, the same will go for the members of the defense forces of that sector, thus they get a lay of the land, dead zones, cover, concealment and fields of fire and ranges. And also to clear lanes of fire. Snipers will also get freedom to set up hides and even high perches from the hill where the ZSU was and the roofs of buildings and church steeples and such.
Further, EVERYONE in the town will be put to work. The following improvments will be done:
Open fields will be prepared
Punji sticks will be places and hidden, a poor man mine field.
Fences will be prepared. A low fence of knee high will force someone to break stride as well as vault over them, exposing themselves and again slowing them down, it will also break them up so they are not online, and it will force some to hunker down, again breaking up the line of the advance and making comand and control and consolidation harder.
Anti Tank Ditches
Tank Traps, hiddden
A ditch will be dug across the road and a wooden bridge built. One strong enough for the towns vehicles, wagons etc, but not strong enough to support tanks or other armored vehicles.
Logs and Boulders places to be rolled down from high places on the road
Telephone poles and trees rigged to fall or be blown blocking the road
The munitions factory will be salvaged and brought online even on a small scale it will be a benefit.
Camoflauge will be made of all key positions, tactical and infrastructure.
A ruble wall built around the town and a second ruble wall as well to protect the town from observation and from direct fire. And the key buildings of the town as well to protect them as best as possible.
Also,
Feilds will be cleared for farming, parks will be planted and each house will have the following:
gardens front and backyard
Window sill planters
Rooftop gardens for buildings with flat roofs
Also, all other roofs and buildings in the community will have gardens in the front and back and roofs.
The gardening can be done by the young, the elderly and those who are not able to remove ruble, dig defensive fortifications or fight directly. And lots of root crops as they last the longest in a root cellar. Other things like peas and beans are high yeild and easily preserved and prepared. Grain can be grown in other areas although I would go with corn as it is primative and again high yeild and it can be grown anywhere, a few stalks is enough to make a meal for a family <in T2K times at least>
Other things to be done by those who are non combatants:
Chickens and Ducks raised
Rabbits
Farming carp or catfish from ponds adjacent to the river
Thus the town can have a supply of meat as well.
The road to town will be changed. Include dips and speed bumps for any vehicles that aproach they will have to slow and will have their top or bottom exposed to fire. A berm of sorts would be good around the town, more of a circular berm but not so steep that it can't be planted with grain thus it will be hidden and a vehicle will hit it without slowing down possibly damaging it, but also again exposing it to fire in its more vulnerable spots. And if you have several smaller rings like that again not high enough to make it impossible to farm. But enough to cause a vehicle to suffer damage or get rattled if they hit it at speed. Also, a few rocks here and there in a cultivated field so troops running or vehicles speeding hit them and do damage. And when the field is harvested, its done by hand so there is no fear of damaging your equipment. And if the townsfolks want to use vehicles to harvest, they know where these obstables are so they can avoid them and not damage their own gear.
Further, change the road. Make it a zig zag and make it sunken with one side dug lower than the other at the turns so any vehicle must go at a slow speed or risk tipping. Sunken denies them manuverability and then the last 200m of road is dip and speed bumps but a straight shot again forcing a slow speed but also making it a kill zone.
Start the manufacture of Blackpowder! And this can be used for comand detonated mines or improvised claymores. these can be placed in key positions, like dead spaces and likely avenues of aproach. And of course heavier charges where armor is likey to come through.
I would also train an anti tank force. Satchel charges on a pole <using the blackpowder mentioned> And ones on cord between two points to adjust the charge so it gets under the tank when you blow it.
Back to the personel:
Have a couple of trench networks with multiple firing points. So, no man fires from the same position twice. This will disguise your numbers and not give the attackers a place to zero in on.
Also, form civil defense tasks should they get bombed by mortars or even WP.
Set up a clinic in a bunker. And have multiple bunkers for non combatants.
Establish a system of comand and control, horns, whistles, sirens, bells are the ones I would go with.
Establish an SOP of action, to go with the above signals.
Establish SOP in equipment. Having people with the same caliber weapon in sector A or B makes it easier for universality. Establish a basic kit, weapon, 60 rounds, knife/bayonet or hatchet, e-tool or pick, canteen, blanket, forage bag or pack and coat, and helmet if you have it. Also a basic uniform, a CAP and jacket or blouse.
Have some basic supplies at each sectors forward area, I am talking, water supply, medical gear, flashlights, stretcher and shovels to repair positions.
Manufacture weapons: Pikes from a pole and a metal tip, simple.
Crossbows from a wooden stock and car leafsprings
Manufacture Tools: For use and trade, axes, picks and shovels, maybe a horse drawn plow.
Those able bodied personel who do not have weapons for defense will be put to work as damage control, putting out fires, repairing damaged fortifications, rescuing persons in burning or damaged buildings, observing via binoculars, telescopes or whatever else is available. And acting as stretcher bearers and delivering ammo. They will be used as reinforcements when casualties mount and firearms become available.
For the town:
Store a supple of wood or other fuel for winter and a siege.
Store Water everywhere! Potable water, as well as water for firefighting should the enemy want to go into a siege, or the water upriver become contaminated.
All of this can be done in addition to regular work, which I am guessing will be related to food and fuel production. But it is doable, they will just put in some long days is all. The townsfolk can be broken into groups and the tasks broken into what is most important.
Fortifications will be constant!
Food will be constant
And thus teams will be doing those as their sole task.
Defenses will be constant again a team doing this, but some projects will take longer than others. Go local first, the dead spaces, and the fortified area where the ZSU's will be are imediate.
Training is constant.
Patrols is also constant these personel will be dedicated to it. As they will be the towns first line of defense and giving them some advance warning.
Blackpowder manufacture again constant but specialized thus a small group will do this.
Weapons manufacture, same as above.
Surplus personel who will be the ones who will prepare the gardens on free spaces in the town. Prepping the rings, ditches and rocks in the outer perimeter of the town will be first. Then, they will go to work cultivating the fields. Corn, potatoes, peas and beans and oh yeah, cabbage.
Some smaller groups will go to work making the tank traps and anti tank ditches, and modifing the road and making a wooden bridge.
I would also include towers around the towns fields for observing the area as well as the fields for vermin. Further, the kids of the town can roam the fields or areas between the fields with slingshots or crossbows to deal with whatever may threaten the crops. And let loose fowl that specificaly eat bugs so you can eat the fowl and reduce insect damage to your crops.
Figure about 1000 people of fighting ability who will do the most work.
then the elderly and children who can still plant, remove ruble and some can use a shovel. So, I am figuring about 2000 people who can do work of one kind or another. That is one heck of a labor force, and I think that would get alot of the things done in short order. All of the home and public gardens could be done in a day easily. A couple days and the trenches and bunkers would be built. A couple days to have the field cleared. And then we break into the munitions factory and the multiple projects of anti tank trenches and ditches, these will take about a week or two. And these can be done over time, same for the road making it zig,zag and sunken, and the circular mount around each field is a longer task but can be done as the field is preper for planting.
Anyhow, that is my idea of defending the town as well as improving the lot of the people. And they all revolve around defense and food.
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