When Dawn Dies Down

1913, The Ranhbniz Wall

From west of the town came loud banging sounds, which were there non-stop since the spring of 1913, breaking the silence of the morning. Town mayor Ray was already awake, rushing to the west of the town.
When he got there, all the workers were working diligently. The wall had exceeded half of the planned height, looking hard and steady.
Ray was really proud. Everything's looking good.
"Hi, sir." A young builder around 18 years old lifted his head and asked. "I'm sorry, this might be a little bit stupid, but umm, what exactly are we building this wall for?"
"A war is coming." Ray replied, "Tensions are high in Europe. They all sayin' a war is coming soon. And I think we US will join the war too, sooner or later. Under such circumstances we can only protect ourselves. To keep the..." Ray stopped and seemed to have thought of something, something serious and devastating. "umm...bad guys out of our town. We ain't gonna let no one destroy our peace." He stopped again and then added, "But don't get me wrong, I'm definitely not targeting someone particularly."
"But, umm, how exactly will this wall help? If they really want to attack us they can just bomb it down. Just saying. No offense."
Ray suddenly couldn't think of a reply. After a while he said, "One ma- I mean, this wall is our only way to assert our dominance without losing anyone. They'll retreat when they see such a high wall. They won't target us, since ammo and bombs are so valuable, they ain't gonna waste them on attacking a useless small town."
The builder nodded and got back to work. Ray was relieved. He didn't want anyone to find out the true reason for building this wall—to prevent a specific person from getting into the town, and even more, to let no one inside get out of the town.
"What's your name, young gentleman?" He turned back to the builder who asked him the question.
"William, sir. Halbert William." He answered with respect.
"Great, Halbert. Keep up the good work." He said and walked away.
Halbert was left sitting there, staring at the shrinking shadow of Ray. He knew that he's hiding something, but he' too afraid to ask. Besides, Ray is a good mayor, he wouldn't do anything bad to the town, right?
Ray, on the other hand, was satisfied with everything. The building of the wall was going great, the future seemed bright, and no one had questioned his morals. Ranhbniz would be kept safe and sound, away from any bad intruders. Its peace would be long lived.
However, at that time, Ray Wisconsin didn't know that what he had spent decades to build would be torn down in 1946 after the end of World War Two. The people thought the world was rid of war, and thus there was no need for this wall anymore. Ranhbniz didn't need no wall to keep itself safe from harm. Or did it?