Chapter 741 Killing Machine
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 "semi-finished" queuing-to-kill tactic.
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.
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Faced with this "novel" tactic that the East African National Defense Force had basically never seen before, some soldiers of the Ninth Brigade were really at a loss, especially those recruits who immigrated from the Far East Empire, and they couldn't understand it.
"Why are these 'British people' lined up so neatly? Are they ready to die?"
"Idiot, those are not British, but Indians in the British colonies. Look at their black skin, which is just 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, and judging by your age, you must have never experienced it."
The last time Britain and France jointly invaded the Far Eastern Empire was in 1856. East Africa did not even exist at that time, and it was more than thirty years ago. Therefore, except for a few of the early immigrants to East Africa, the immigrants from the Far Eastern Empire later immigrated to East Africa. Haven't seen anyone at all.
"In this case, why haven't the National Defense Forces used this tactic? Isn't this a mainstream tactic in Europe?"
"The National Defense Force has used it before, but it was not called the National Defense Force at that time, but 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 Neither of them is good at the army, and countries like Germany and France may have eliminated line tactics again, but we generally call this tactic the queuing-to-kill tactic, so it’s okay if you say this tactic is a death penalty.”
The official name of the queuing-to-kill tactic is "line infantry tactics," but even the Germans like the name queuing-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 tactic caused the Prussian civilians' fear of war. After all, when using this tactic, either the enemy will fall, or they will fall themselves. It is more like "duizi", whose If the chess pieces are redeemed first, the war will be lost first. Those officers do not take human life seriously, but ordinary soldiers cherish their lives very much.
Therefore, the tactic of queuing to kill is the biggest test of "people's hearts" for low-level soldiers. Since many soldiers were originally recruited into the army, they are naturally more likely to be defeated in one blow.
The Indian soldiers in front of me looked pretty good, but I don’t know how much success they 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 commendable, otherwise It is impossible for Britain 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 performed well.
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, division commander, when we were in India, the training for these Indians was very strict. It was completely in accordance with our army's standards. It was just an accident like the Tugela River."
On the front line of the Tugela 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 figured out. 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 attacked from multiple fronts. The East Africans Certainly not many troops can be mobilized to support the East African army in front of them.
Even if there were surplus troops in East Africa, it would be too late. Rost knew this after the British army crossed the river. After all, East Africa had surplus troops and could not easily give up the advantageous terrain of the Tugela River.
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 prepared.
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 East African marching speed, 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. It is difficult for those big guys to move, especially the temporary pontoon bridge built on the Tugela River cannot bear it at all.
Therefore, 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 East African light artillery had long been hidden on the so-called "highlands". At the same time, Aridotus gathered all the machine guns in the brigade and prepared to verify the power of the machine guns.
"Fire!" ordered Aridotos.
East African machine gunners 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 the water-cooling structure cooling 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 East African machine guns were like "devils", constantly harvesting their lives.
The first large-scale actual combat of weapons such as the Maxim machine gun in the previous life was actually used by the British in 1893, against the Ndebele people. The British wiped out more than 15 million indigenous people at the cost of only four deaths. , 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.
Therefore, this time the British army has actually fallen behind East Africa in terms of machine gun weapons, and this is still the case of the British Army. Servant armies like the Indians may not even be equipped with the "temporarily backward" Gatling machine guns.