Chapter 741 Killing Machine "Maxin"
East Africa's past opponents, except for the students of the "Hechingen Military Academy" who participated in the Franco-Prussian War, basically never encountered the queuing to kill tactic.
The Portuguese do have this ability, but in the last Eastern-Portuguese War, Portugal wanted to use one soldier and two soldiers. The colonial troops were too few, and the black servant army did not have such ability.
The tactic of queuing to kill is not applicable to all armies. Firstly, the army must have strong compliance, and secondly, it must have extraordinary courage.
Neither of these two points was possessed by the black servant army hastily organized by Portugal. On the contrary, during the previous war between East Africa and the Ndebele Kingdom, the Ndebele people used the "half-finished" tactic of queuing to kill.
Although the Ndebele people have become history, it is undeniable that their organizational skills are still relatively strong. It is a pity that the Ndebele people were exposed to muskets for too short a time, otherwise they should be able to reproduce the tactic of queuing to kill.
......
Facing this "novel" tactic that the East African National Defense Force has basically never seen before, some soldiers of the Ninth Brigade are indeed a little confused, especially those recruits who immigrated from the Far East Empire , very incomprehensible.
"Why are these 'Englishmen' lined up so neatly? Are they ready to die directly?"
"Idiot, those are not British, but Indians from the British colonies. You Look at their black skin, which is a little lighter than that of East African blacks. Those white-skinned commanders are British. ”
"As for why they formed a neat queue, it's because you have little experience. This tactic is actually very common in Europe. If you have participated in foreign wars in the Far Eastern Empire, you might also have the opportunity to see how the British and French used it. This kind of tactic was only decades ago. Judging from your age, you must have never experienced it.”
The last time Britain and France jointly invaded the Far Eastern Empire was in 1856. At that time, there was not even East Africa. It existed, and it was more than thirty years ago. Therefore, except for a few early immigrants to East Africa, the immigrants from the Far Eastern Empire had never seen it at all.
"In that case, why haven't the Wehrmacht used this tactic? Isn't this a mainstream tactic in Europe?"
"The Wehrmacht has used it before, but it was not called the Wehrmacht at that time. It is a colonial army. We also have a colonial history. Later, after the establishment of the kingdom and the upgrade of firearms, this tactic was eliminated. As for the British, they have never been good at the army. I am afraid that Germany and France will also eliminate line tactics. , but we generally call this tactic the tactic of queuing to kill, so there is no problem if you say that this tactic is to kill someone. "
The official name of the tactic of queuing to kill is "line infantry tactics", but even for the Germans. I also like the term queue-to-kill tactics, because in the eyes of traditional German civilians, war is about dying.
If it had not been for Prussia's army reform, Prussia would still be the army with the most deserters in Europe, and it would be difficult to achieve the great achievement of unifying the small German region.
The desertion rate of the Prussian army before the military reform can also be seen that the queuing to kill tactics caused the Prussian civilians to fear war. After all, using this tactic, either the enemy will fall, or he will fall. It is more like " "Whoever redeems all his chess pieces first will lose the war first. Those officers don't take human life seriously, but ordinary soldiers cherish their lives very much."
So the tactic of queuing to kill is the biggest test of "people's hearts" for the soldiers at the bottom. Since many soldiers were forcibly recruited, they are naturally more likely to be defeated in one blow.
The Indian soldiers in front of me look very good, but I don’t know how much success they have learned from the British lobster soldiers. You must know that "lobster soldiers" is just a joking term, and the courage of the British soldiers in the face of battle is still It's commendable, otherwise Britain wouldn't have been able to gain such a large territory.
At this time, the Indian soldiers were actually even stranger than the East Africans. In their eyes, the British enemies were also "Europeans", but why were they so different from the British?
Some soldiers in East Africa did not understand, and there were veterans and knowledgeable soldiers to help them explain their doubts, but Indian soldiers did not have such an opportunity. After all, it was impossible to ask white officers! I'm afraid if I don't tell you the answer, I'll get a beating. I just need to obey the white man's orders honestly.
Just like now, this tactic of queuing to kill is what the British masters asked them to do. They line up in a neat queue and then shoot at the enemy. This tactic has been trained in India for a long time, so the Indian troops The performance is decent.
Rost was very satisfied with the performance of the Indian soldiers and said: "It seems that we wrongly blamed the Indians before. The Tugela River did hinder the army's attack, or is it more suitable for our battle on land?" "Yes. Yes, division commander, our training for these Indians was very strict when we were in India. It was completely in accordance with our military standards. It was just an accident like the Tugela River."
In the picture. On the front line of the Guela River, due to the existence of the Tugela River, there was no way to use the tactic of queuing to kill. After all, it was impossible to "queue" standing in the water. However, when they came to land, the British army could finally use the secret recipe passed down from their ancestors.
"Attack!" Rost ordered with great confidence.
The strength of the East Africans has been clarified. Whether it is a brigade or not, even with reinforcements, it cannot be more than their own strength. After all, this time the British army, the Portuguese army and the Transvaal people are much larger. To attack on all fronts, the East Africans will certainly not be able to mobilize many troops to support the East African army in front of them.
Even if there are surplus troops in East Africa, time is too late. Rossiter knew this after the British army crossed the river. After all, East Africa has surplus troops and cannot easily give up the advantage of the Tugela River. Terrain type.
In the majestic music of the military band, the Indian troops took sonorous and powerful steps and began to attack the "simple" positions in East Africa.
At this time, the machine gunners in East Africa were already ready.
Due to the "lateness" of the British army, the 9th East African Brigade was successfully assembled, so the number of machine guns was also fully replenished. The 9th Brigade had a total of 63 machine guns.
The late arrival of the British army was due to an "inertial" error in East Africa. The estimated British marching speed in East Africa was measured based on the marching speed in East Africa, which led the Ninth Brigade to estimate the arrival time of the British army "four hours" too early. .
In fact, so far, the British troops have not yet been assembled. The heavy artillery units are far away on the other side of the Tugela River. Those big guys are not easy to move, especially the temporary structures on the Tugela River. The pontoon simply cannot bear it.
So only the British army carried light artillery, and the number was not large. At this time, the British firepower was actually far inferior to that of East Africa.
The light artillery in East Africa has long been hidden on the so-called "highlands". At the same time, Aridoto gathered all the machine guns in the brigade, preparing to verify the power of the machine guns.
"Fire!" ordered Aridotos.
The machine gunners in East Africa began to fire at the array of British Indian troops in a line.
Bullets flew towards the British army like rain, and soon a large amount of white water vapor evaporated from the impact point of the exhaust port in front of the Maxim machine gun. This was a water-cooling structure that cooled the gun body.
The Indians on the opposite side fell in pieces like cornstalks under a harvester. Panic quickly spread among the Indians, but the machine guns in East Africa were like "devils", constantly harvesting their lives. .
The first large-scale actual combat of a weapon like the Maxim machine gun in the previous life was actually used by the British in 1893, against the Ndebele people. The British wiped out one of them at the cost of only four people. There were more than 1,500 indigenous people, and at that time the British army only had five Maxim machine guns.
The British who are now fighting against the East Africans are also equipped with machine guns, but they are still Gatling guns. Even in the original history, the British did not equip the first batch of Maxim machine guns until October 1888.
So this time the British army has actually fallen behind East Africa in terms of machine gun weapons, and this is still the situation of the British Army. Servant armies like the Indians may not even have the "temporarily backward" Gatling machine gun. equipment.
(End of this chapter)