Chapter 736 Ninth Brigade
The East African Defense Forces built many bunkers on the banks of the Turkana River. Some bunkers were built directly near the river beach, with machine gun ports set up to intercept the river, especially at the bends of the river.
South Africa has not yet entered the rainy season in April, so the water in the Tugela River is not rich, but it will not dry up. Because the west is affected by the Drakensberg Mountains, the terrain has more rain, and the dry season is not like other parts of East Africa. The area is so obvious, which makes the amount of water in the Tugela River very considerable.
This is also an important reason why Lesotho became the "water tower" of South Africa in the previous life. The water diversion project of the Republic of South Africa in the previous life was to buy water from Lesotho and then supplement the water demand in the northern industrial zone.
Generally speaking, the time chosen by the British army to cross the river was good. It was the dry season of the Tugela River, but it was also difficult. However, for East Africa, the defense of the Tugela River was not easy to do.
Affected by the terrain, the Tugela River is very tortuous and has many large river bends, which elongates the river channel and the defense line must be designed to be very long.
The total number of the ninth brigade in East Africa is more than 5,700. This number was previously larger than some divisions in East Africa. This is the result of the expansion of the East African army.
However, the defense area of the 9th Brigade is directly over 200 kilometers, with less than 6,000 troops, but it has to defend such a long border. Therefore, to deal with the British army in the Natal Colony, the 9th East African Brigade must Can't hold on for long.
As long as the British continue to attack, they can always find a suitable place to cross the river. The main problem for the British army now is that the number of boats crossing the river is limited.
After all, the development of the entire East African region is very weak. So far, East Africa, as the only infrastructure powerhouse in Africa, is still building various infrastructure projects across the country, but roads, canals, bridges, etc. are all far away from Asia and Europe. The gap between mainland countries is obvious, and overall they are stronger than those in South America.
However, large-scale projects in South America are not strong, and regional small-scale infrastructure should be built in East Africa, especially in Argentina and Brazil, where conditions are good in areas with concentrated populations.
Especially in Argentina, the railway growth rate is not slower than that in East Africa. With the blessing of British capital, Argentina is developing rapidly.
The level of infrastructure in East Africa ranks first in Africa, but one can only imagine the level of other colonies or African countries.
As far as the Tugela River Basin is concerned, the Zulu people lived here before. The Zulu people were "de facto" barbarians, and their development of the Tugela River Basin was basically zero.
The Tugela River Basin in East Africa and the British took over has not changed much. The main reason is that East Africa has built a large number of military facilities in the region.
The UK has no such demands. As the world's most powerful country, the UK is often on the offensive side and does not need to put much effort into defense.
After all, no country has the courage to take the initiative to conflict with Britain. As for Germany, its national strength has not yet reached the capital that can compete with Britain, and the United States is excluded from the center of the world by Europe and can only compete in the Americas. Show off your power.
And the Tugela River is the border area between Britain and East Africa, with zero commercial exchanges. Neither side develops the Tugela River Basin. Naturally, the shipping industry cannot develop, and it makes sense that the number of ships is insufficient. among.
Of course, the Tugela River itself has no potential to develop the shipping industry. The Tugela Falls alone is enough to cut off local shipping conditions.
The current situation facing East Africa is that the coalition forces are attacking at the same time from three major directions, and countless smaller directions. At the same time, they must beware of the British Egyptian army in the north.
Therefore, the East African troops in each battlefield are relatively evenly distributed, so the strength seems to be somewhat stretched. The only one with superior strength is the Eastern Military Region. The Eastern Military Region is actually divided into two components, namely the Guards Division and the Eastern Military Region. Although the Guards Division The division belongs to the Eastern Military District sequence, but is actually an independent force.
All in all, the Ninth Brigade endured tremendous pressure that it should not have endured. Being able to block the British army's three river crossings was beyond its capabilities. In this regard, the Ninth Brigade would like to thank the British commander for his command, and his eagerness for success has created the current situation.
This has a lot to do with the fact that the British commander underestimated the enemy. After all, the main force of the British army this time came from the British Royal Indian Army. There were too many downwind battles, which meant that the configuration was like Africa or South Asia. , but the current military strength of East Africa has surpassed that of small and medium-sized European countries, and it can be ranked first even in Europe.
Ninth Brigade Frontline Headquarters.
"Brigade Commander, we have observed that the enemy is about to launch a new round of offensive, and their river-crossing troops have regrouped again!"
Brigade Commander Aridotus did not give instructions immediately, but asked : "What time is it now?"
"It is already 5:23 in the afternoon, and there is still more than an hour until dark."
Alidotus The analysis said: "Now the British commanders only know how to act recklessly. During the day, they have organized and launched three large-scale landing operations, but they were all repelled by our army with superior firepower. However, our ammunition consumption is huge, especially machine guns. For It is very effective to attack such small river-crossing ships, and even directly smash the hull, so that the British army's entire river-crossing assault force is directly scrapped."
"Oh, it's a pity. Although the Maxim machine gun is useful, it is useless for us in East Africa. The production capacity is very limited, and one-fifth of the inventory was consumed in less than one day.”
"The Maxim machine gun is very useful for the enemy's small landing ships. The British troops on the river have become living targets. It only takes one round of strafing to directly exhaust the opponent's war patience and cause a serious blow to the enemy's morale."
The frontline troops of the 9th Brigade have received very good feedback on the machine gun experience, but the consumption of ammunition by the machine gun is also alarming.
This made Brigadier Aridotus think about the use mode of machine guns. Machine guns are very powerful. If they are gathered together, what effect will they have in dealing with a large-scale enemy attack?
The most important thing is that the efficiency of the use of machine guns has not met Aristotle's expectations. This demand for mass destruction should be applied to large-scale land frontal battlefields.
It was a bit excessive and wasteful to use it to intercept the British troops crossing the river. Many soldiers enjoyed fighting, but it was easy to ignore the use of ammunition.
So Aridotus said: "If we use machine guns as firepower output points, we can effectively intercept the British crossing troops. But if we organize the machine guns and arrange them as a shooting belt, what will be the lethality to the enemy?" ”
After all, the British army’s combat mode is mainly based on queuing to kill tactics. If East Africa can organize machine guns at the same time to shoot at the enemy, then the picture may be very efficient.
Now the Ninth Brigade uses machine guns as defensive weapons, but it cannot maximize the effect of machine guns on enemy landing operations. After all, the British troops in landing operations are scattered.
Alidotus's idea triggered the thinking of everyone in the brigade. This approach seemed very feasible, but before seeing the actual combat effect, everyone was not completely sure of its feasibility.
Seeing that no one made meaningful suggestions, Aridotus had to keep this idea in his heart. The most important thing now is to repel the enemy's fourth river crossing operation and win for the entire New Hamburg Port City. More time.
Therefore, Aridotus ordered: "Before dark, repel the enemy's fourth attack. When dark, it will be much more difficult for the British army to cross the river. Now the volunteers from the New Hamburg Port City supported by the front line are evacuated. We have to hold off the British troops for at least two days before evacuating to the New Hamburg Port City. During this time, we must save bullets, especially machine gun ammunition, and reserve at least half of them."
(End of this chapter)