Chapter 700 Dragoon
South Prussia Province.
Nyeri City was a town in southwestern Kenya in its previous life, the capital of the Central Province of Kenya, and a regional distribution center for coffee, tea, sisal, grain, and livestock products. Like its previous life, Nyeri City was also a relatively developed agricultural region in East Africa.
The largest military horse farm in East Africa is built on the vast grassland 35 kilometers southeast of Nyeri City, breeding more than 30,000 horses.
Herman, the director of the Nyeri Military Horse Farm, meets with members of the East African military.
Major General Mars: "According to the order of the government, two new cavalry divisions were established on the spot, and we started military training here for half a year."
South Prussia Province has a convenient geographical location, with the largest one in East Africa to the north. An animal husbandry base, South Prussia is located on the northern edge of the suddenly rising East African Plateau. With Nairobi as the provincial capital, it also has the prosperous city of Kisumu on the bank of the big lake (Lake Victoria). The provincial economy is placed on the entire East Africa is also very developed. Together with the Eastern Province (the provincial capital Mombasa) in the east, it forms the core of the northern industrial belt.
Horses selected from northern pastures can be trained on the nearby plateau. After all, the climate of the plateau is somewhat different from that of the plains, so South Prussia has always been an excellent training place for East African cavalry.
In fact, South Prussia also has its own plateau military horse farm, but the plantation industry in South Prussia is more developed, so it is not as famous.
The tropical plateau terrain of South Prussia is very suitable for military horse breeding. The temperature here remains at around ten degrees all year round, which is relatively cool and is the environment that war horses prefer.
Just like in previous lives, Kenya has the best marathon training ground in the world. I don’t know whether this environment has any impact on the horses, but the various conditions at Nyeri Military Horse Farm are indeed much better than those in the northern pastures.
"The two newly established divisions are located in the Northern Military Region. The new designations are the 221st Division and the 222nd Division. They are mounted infantry imitating the European dragoons and are formed according to the infantry training method combined with the mobility of the cavalry. Mobile troops. "
In fact, the 221st Division and the 222nd Division are the European "dragon cavalry", and more generally speaking, they are mounted infantry.
There were four cavalry divisions in East Africa before, three in the Eastern Military District, one in the Western Military District, and the Guards Division also had a separate cavalry brigade. In fact, it was no different from a general cavalry division, so in 1887 Years ago, there were actually five cavalry divisions in East Africa.
The previous East African cavalry still belonged to the traditional cavalry category, but this time the 221st and 222nd Divisions were motorized infantry. There is a fundamental difference between the two.
Before this, the purpose of the existence of the East African Cavalry Division was to deal with the indigenous people in the era of cold weapons. Now the enemies of East Africa have changed from cold weapons to modern armies with hot weapons, so the East African military must also make adjustments.
There are also big differences in the weapons and equipment between the two. The most obvious one is that the East African Dragoons are equipped with engineer shovels. When they rush into a strategic location and switch to defense, they can use the engineer shovels to build fortifications.
The pickaxe is a traditional tool of European dragoons. It originated from the ancient Roman era and is still mainstream in Europe where tradition is more important.
The engineering shovel was taken seriously in 1869, when the Dane Mads Linamann invented an engineering shovel, which was then used on a large scale in the Tsarist Russian army.
Influenced by previous generations, the design of the East African engineer shovel is quite "bold". According to the needs of the army, various "improvements" have been made to adapt to the needs of different troops. The new battlefield environment requires every soldier to carry trenching tools with him. Only in this way can they quickly build bunkers to save their lives. However, this new way of fighting still requires an adaptation process, and among armies with long traditions, resistance to the construction of trenches is particularly strong.
The East African National Defense Force does not have this "conservative" concept. As a new army formed from the "bottom", it also actively absorbs the pragmatism of the Prussian Army. Therefore, East Africa also pays attention to practicality and convenience in weapons and equipment. sex.
Herman: "General, don't worry, we will definitely cooperate with your work, but we can only provide training venues, and the relevant infrastructure is not perfect, especially if we can provide life for two divisions at once. and training facilities, this is very difficult for us.”
“You don’t have to worry about this. We have enough manpower to handle these matters ourselves. We just need the cooperation and guidance of the people at the racecourse, otherwise we will make this place a mess. , it’s not easy for you to explain.” Major General Mars said.
Major General Mars brought more than 8,000 recruits, who are the main force of the labor force, and 2,000 veterans, who were drawn from the 123rd Division and the Guards Division. They will become the two new cavalry. The skeleton of the division led these recruits to grow rapidly.
With the cooperation of the Nyeri Army Horse Farm and the Nyeri Municipal Government, it took only one week to basically solve the housing problem. Because the northern part of Nyeri City is a forest area, it is convenient to obtain local materials. At the same time, through the Northern Railway, it can be supplemented Complete other missing supplies and equipment.
The "taming" of these recruits also began.
Major General Mars: "With the development of military science and technology, the improvement of rifle performance, and the vigorous development of machine guns and artillery, the role of traditional cavalry is actually being greatly weakened. The five existing cavalry units in our country are actually The previous one was a semi-transitional cavalry unit, and the two cavalry units formed this time have officially developed towards the European cavalry model."
"Although the dragoon is different from the traditional cavalry, its role is still the same. The European battlefield is becoming more and more prominent and can better adapt to the development of the times. This is an important reason why the five cavalry units are not built according to European cavalry standards. "
After all, the previous opponents in East Africa, except for the Translatera. The East African National Defense Force has never seen other cavalry units. In fact, the Boers' cavalry was irregular, and the Zulus they faced were also powerful infantry.
"So don't think that the status of dragoons is lower than that of traditional cavalry. At least that's not how it is arranged in East Africa. Of course, you should also take care of your horses and pay attention to hygiene like traditional cavalry troops.
War Horses They are your partners, life and death partners. Horse management must be strictly implemented in accordance with regulations and procedures. Stables should be cleaned on time every day, hay and water troughs should be filled, saddles should be regularly maintained and maintained, and the storage room should be kept dry and ventilated. The place where horses live should be kept clean and hygienic. To prevent the spread of diseases. Horse feces should be cleaned up in time to ensure the cleanliness of the horse farm. "
In Europe, the status of dragoons varies from country to country, but in mainstream European countries such as Germany and France, the status of dragoons is not as high as the chest. Armored cavalry, lancers, hussars, etc.
The status of dragoons in the UK has been greatly improved. They are in the category of heavy cavalry. However, it is easy to understand that Britain is an island country and is different from the European continent. The Swedish dragoons are also quite special. In actual use, the Swedish dragoons It is used according to the tactical purposes of light cavalry and musketeers.
Generally, the dragoons are in a rather awkward state, similar to when the paratroopers and marines were first formed.
However, at the end of the 19th century, dragoons finally began to receive attention from various countries and were vigorously developed. This situation would continue until after World War I.
However, the development of cavalry belongs to the "setting sun". In the future, with the development of vehicle technology, there will be various weapons, tactics, etc. to restrain cavalry, which will no longer be needed by the times, but this is not what countries in the current era want. The issues being considered are, for example, the East African National Defense Force, which wants to use cars to replace horses, but it is impossible to achieve this in terms of current technology, quality and output.
(End of this chapter)