Chapter 788 The
On the same day that the Southern East African Military District launched an attack on Cape Town and Natal, the British commander, Earl Roberts, also launched a round of military operations against East Africa.
Earl Roberts concentrated nearly 50,000 troops from four divisions and launched an attack on the southeastern Guards Division and the 512th Division, trying to reopen the southeastern passage.
At this time, Earl Roberts was fighting with the Limpopo River as the boundary, so he only needed a small number of troops to delay the offensive of the northern East African army. The remaining troops were mainly concentrated in the west, blocking the support of the Western East African Military District to the Guards Division and the 512th Division.
Count Roberts' plan is feasible, or it is the optimal solution under the current environment. The East African troops in the west and north are large and strong, and only the southeast has few troops deployed. However, Count Roberts underestimated the combat effectiveness of the Guards Division.
Cristiano, the commander of the 1st Brigade of the Guards Division, concentrated more than 70 heavy artillery pieces and hundreds of other types of artillery pieces to provide all-round fire coverage to the Mozambican coalition forces approaching from the front.
At the same time, with the cooperation of machine guns, grenades and other weapons, they not only firmly held the position, but also caused huge casualties to the coalition forces. Later, with the cooperation of the cavalry, the Guards Division cooperated with the 512th Division to launch a comprehensive counterattack, and the battle was basically ended in just one hour.
After this battle, more than 5,000 enemy troops were killed or injured, and more than 6,000 prisoners were captured, mainly Indians. It completely destroyed the coalition's ability to proactively attack, and at the same time captured several enemy artillery, firearms and other weapons.
At the same time, various troops in the Western Military Region also dealt a devastating blow to the blocking force sent by Earl Roberts, with losses exceeding one-third.
Earl Roberts could only shrink the remaining troops and stick to the hinterland of Saukwe Town. He was unable to confront East Africa anymore. At the same time, he gave up some peripheral areas. The defeated more than 50,000 remaining troops would continue to stick to a narrow area of less than 30 square kilometers.
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"The enemy's firepower of one division is almost equal to that of our entire army. This is a new situation that has almost never been encountered in British history. More than 50,000 people were suppressed and beaten by more than 20,000 East African troops. This is simply unprecedented in the history of the British Empire. One of the greatest shames!”
Earl Roberts was quite indignant. At the same time, he realized for the first time the combat effectiveness of the East African Guards Division. As a garrison, the Guards Division protects the security of the first towns and cities and the central province. Its equipment level is unmatched in East Africa, if the number of people is not considered. It can be compared with a military region in East Africa.
Not to mention big words, according to the equipment level of the Guards Division, it is fully capable of competing with the elite troops of Germany and France. However, this time the First Brigade of the Guards Division actually did not have everything in place.
Because of the cross-sea operation, many of the larger caliber artillery pieces of the Second Brigade were not brought, otherwise Earl Roberts would feel even more desperate.
Moreover, there are other troops in the same situation as the Guards Division. Because the front line advanced too fast during the counterattack, many of the heavy weapons of other troops failed to keep up with the large troops.
Therefore, the situation that Earl Roberts will face will only become more difficult, and even Earl Roberts may not be able to hold on until the follow-up artillery from East Africa arrives.
At this time, the Guards Division was troubled by a large number of British prisoners and wounded. They captured so many at once that the rations alone were enough.
Cristiano: "These prisoners, first identify their identities. The officers are kept in isolation, and the injured and injured are given priority for rescue. As for the soldiers, the British and Portuguese soldiers are treated according to our treatment, and the Indians and blacks are also treated the same. However, They can’t eat for free, let them build fortifications and find some physical work. In short, they can’t be idle. The standard of food will be according to the standard of the former East African servant army.”
The East African Servant Army is also a black army, but until now, no black troops have been recruited to participate in the war in East Africa.
The first is that the military strength in East Africa is not that tense. The second is that the East African military is afraid that the black troops will hold them back. Just like this time, the British army was completely fooled by India. With this lesson learned, the British army will incorporate Indians into the army next time. The threshold for combat troops may be greatly increased.
Of course, black people in East Africa also made important contributions to the war, mainly by maintaining the stability of domestic production in East Africa. This was the greatest guarantee for the war.
However, Cristiano obviously underestimated the moral integrity of the enemy. The Indians and blacks who were holding rice buckets and fighting for food almost came to blows. Even the food standard of the servant army was much higher than that of the lowest-level soldiers of the coalition forces.
Cristiano believes that if the food in East Africa were not a bit "hot", these Indians could just reach into the bowl and eat it.
Of course, Indians eat with their hands, so they couldn't use the tableware provided by the East African troops. And because there were too many prisoners this time, the tableware was simply not enough, so they had to make do with sharing among a few people.
This was also the reason why the coalition prisoners had disputes. After sharing tableware, several people would eat around the same pot. If you eat more, he would eat less, and conflicts would arise.
The cooking soldiers in East Africa were also very annoyed. They already had enough troubles, but these "unqualified" coalition soldiers were adding to the trouble.
The sturdy cooking soldiers started to maintain order with big rice spoons. They used "a spoon" to the disruptive coalition soldiers. The nearly one-meter-long spoon stem was equipped with a metal "spoon head", and they hit each other without making a sound.
These Indians and blacks were also frightened by the East African cooking soldiers, which made them realize again that they were captives and regained the feeling of being dominated by the "British and Portuguese armies".
Unlike these "diners" who snatch food, the treatment of British and Portuguese soldiers is much better. They all have separate cutlery. This is also related to their small number, plus some of them carry portable lunch boxes, so East Africa You can also use it more evenly for them.
Like East Africa, the meal boxes in East Africa are of a unified standard, and British and Portuguese soldiers also have equipment, but a lot of it was damaged in this war, or they were not brought with them before the war.
It can be said that the Portuguese took advantage of the "Europeans" and were classified as the "second echelon" of prisoners. As for their weapons, equipment and clothing, only individual armies in Eastern Europe can compare with them in Europe, and even better than the British army. The Indian soldiers were poorly dressed.
As the world's most powerful country, Britain is considered "rich" even if it raises "dogs". In addition to wearing big turbans, even Indian soldiers look more energetic than ordinary Portuguese soldiers, but they are a little too energetic. There is no consciousness of being a prisoner at all, and he looks very "bad".
In contrast, the British and Portuguese soldiers were much "quieter". Although the food of the East African soldiers did not meet their taste and the reissued tableware was not used to them, it still tasted good, especially compared with the recent supplies of the coalition forces. In case of frequent shortages.
These grassroots soldiers were very satisfied with their life as prisoners. After the meal, they were even more satisfied after watching Indians and black people being forced to labor. After all, there were people who were worse off than themselves, and they were much happier in comparison.
Compared with these easy-to-satisfy soldiers, the British and Portuguese officers are the "hard-to-serve" targets. They are used to being "big men" in the coalition forces, and the "preferential treatment" in East Africa seems very "shabby". Of course, some The officer was very resentful, so he deliberately showed his face to the soldiers of the East African Guards Division.
East African soldiers dared not speak out in anger towards these "uncle" enemy officer prisoners, mainly because their superiors had repeatedly emphasized before that "these are treasures and cannot be beaten or scolded. Apart from treating them to death, they do not violate principles or conditions." All situations can be satisfied.”