LEWISTON – Hundreds of Maine National Guard soldiers plan to help remake a piece of Iraq in an area better-known for its nutcrackers and beer.

Companies of the 133rd Engineer Battalion – including soldiers from armories in Lewiston, Norway and Portland – are scheduled to spend weeks in southern Germany this July and August.

Their mission: to expand a make-believe Iraqi village used for training by NATO-member forces.

The village is used by soldiers to practice all sorts of wartime skills, such as operating convoys, talking with Iraqi people, and avoiding homemade bombs and ambushes. Signs are in Arabic and the village includes an outdoor market.

Yet, it is located in Bavaria near the ancient town of Hohenfels. The base there serves as home to the 7th U.S. Army Multi-National Training Command.

For the visiting Mainers, days will be spent building roads and cinder-block buildings, said Lt. Col. Dwaine Drummond, who commands the 133rd.

Nights and weekends will be spent preparing for war.

The battalion is preparing for deployment early next year, said Capt. Shanon Cotta, spokesman for the Maine National Guard. Plans call for a return to Iraq, where the unit served in 2004 and 2005.

In Iraq, the engineers will likely be split into small groups and given a variety of jobs, Drummond said.

The Mainers will be divided into two waves of workers. Each will spend three weeks on the job, more than the regular two weeks of annual duty served by most guard soldiers.

“We trying to position ourselves for success,” Drummond said. “We have a lot to do.”

The first priority will be construction, said Drummond, who has visited Hohenfels twice in the past year.

The Mainers will build a road that stretches about half a mile over a rolling field, he said. They will also be pouring foundations and creating walls with concrete blocks, the kinds of jobs they did in Iraq and may do again.

Further details of the engineers’ work in Germany are still being decided.

Before the bulk of Maine soldiers arrive – more than 400 people – three three-person teams of designers plan to go to Hohenfels to finish plans.

The construction is expected to take most of the work day, ending around supper time. Nights will likely be scheduled with a variety of medical exams and pre-deployment training.

One of the base’s features is a device that simulates a rollover in a Humvee. Drummond wants each of his soldiers certified in the contraption. Too many Americans have died in Iraq in Humvee crashes.

Drummond also hopes to send many of his soldiers into Munich, about an hour away. The reason: Lots of younger soldiers have never been far away from home.

“They need to learn how to interact with another culture, to learn a set of rules and stick to them,” he said.

They might also have a little fun.