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In Animal Farm, how do the animals plan to protect the second windmill?
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To protect the second windmill, the animals plan to build its walls three feet thick, instead of the original eighteen inches. This decision comes after the first windmill is destroyed in a storm, which Napoleon blames on Snowball's sabotage. Despite the increased wall thickness, the second windmill is eventually destroyed by explosives set by Mr. Frederick and his men, highlighting the futility of the animals' efforts.
Towards the end of chapter 6, a terrible gale destroys the windmill, which took the animals so long to build. When the animals discover that their windmill has been destroyed, they are devastated and look to Napoleon for answers. Napoleon cleverly uses Snowball as a scapegoat to hide their engineering mistakes and announces that Snowball is responsible for the destruction of the windmill. Napoleon mentions that Snowball had trespassed onto the farm undetected and destroyed the windmill before fleeing to Foxwood Farm. He then announces that the animals will begin rebuilding the windmill immediately to prove to their enemies that they will not be defeated. While Napoleon and the other pigs are careful not to mention their engineering mistakes, they instruct the animals to build the walls three feet thick instead of eighteen inches, in order to prevent the windmill from being destroyed a second time. Despite the fact...
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that the animals significantly increase the thickness of the walls to prevent it from being destroyed, Mr. Frederick and his men successfully blow up the windmill using explosives.
In spite of Napoleon attempting to blame the destruction of the first windmill, we are told that the humans believe it occurred because the animals did not build the walls thick enough. Thus, although the "myth" of Napoleon's treachery continues and his supposed destruction of the windmill is held as proof of his treachery, the animals are instructed to build the windmill with thicker walls to prevent any other acts of "treachery" occurring to destroy the windmill. When they finish the second windmill in Chapter 8, they are understandably proud of themselves:
Tired out but proud, the animals walked round and round their masterpiece, which appeared even more beautiful in their eyes than when it had been built the first time. Moreover the walls were twice as thick as before. Nothing short of explosives would lay them low this time!
Of course, this last sentence is ironic because that is precisely how the walls will be destroyed the second time the poor animals have to face the destruction of all their labour and toil.