Reborn South Africa as a police officer

Chapter 1859 Sudden Fire

In addition to Lee Enfield, the samples Smollett brought to Bridges included a general-purpose machine gun and a 40mm grenade launcher produced in southern Africa.

Smollett is still very confident about the products of Nyasaland Military Industry. They are also Lee Enfield. The Lee Enfield produced in southern Africa has higher precision and power than the Lee Enfield produced in the UK. Bigger and more durable.

This is mainly because the material and production process are different. The Lee Enfield that can be used as a sniper rifle is no different from the ordinary Lee Enfield in structure, but because the parts have smaller errors and higher precision, the price will be lower. The difference is more than three times.

As for the life of the barrel, the main issue is wear resistance and corrosion resistance.

In and around southern Africa, there are several places known as "the world's raw material warehouses". All kinds of rare metals that the Japanese covet are like Chinese cabbage in southern Africa. Southern African companies do not hesitate to use high-manganese steel for helmets, guns, etc. The tube life is generally more than 30.00% higher than that of Lee Enfield produced in the UK.

As for general-purpose machine guns and 40mm grenade launchers, of course British domestic military enterprises can also produce them, but the quality is also far behind that of southern Africa, and the price is even higher.

"East Malaysia will form two infantry divisions in the next year, which will require tens of thousands of rifles, and hundreds of light and heavy machine guns and mortars—" Major Bridges is 35 years old this year. In the prime of life, but because of indulgence, his body was emptied prematurely, and his whole body seemed to be swollen.

Especially bags under the eyes.

"Goode Company has enough strength to meet all the requirements of East Malaysia." Smollett had a humble and flattering smile on his face. Goode Company is a new company established to win orders from the UK. It is located in Australia, so that it is eligible to participate Competition within the Commonwealth.

Therefore, to seize the Commonwealth market, it is really not as simple as directly expelling southern Africa from the Commonwealth. In the final analysis, it is necessary to have high-quality products.

While Smollett and Bridges were chatting, several soldiers in large turbans were unloading a train.

Smollett will certainly not be as bottomless as the British government, and all he brings to Bridges are brand new weapons.

These weapons are now packed in long wooden boxes. The wooden box looks quite big, but it is actually not heavy. It is filled with a lot of lightweight stuffing, and it is easy for two adults to lift it up.

But it was such a light wooden box. When two Indian soldiers lifted it up, one of them probably couldn't hold it firmly with his hand. The wooden box fell directly to the ground and fell to pieces. Brand new and unopened Lee Enfield was scattered all over the floor.

"Be careful, bastard, what the hell are you guys doing—" Bridges went berserk for a moment, rushing over to cover his head and face and twitching wildly.

Only then did Smollett notice that Bridges was holding a riding whip in his hand.

Originally, Smollett thought it was Bridges who liked to ride horses, but only now did he realize that the whip was for whipping people.

The two Indian soldiers squatted on the ground with their heads in their hands, neither talking nor resisting, and just hit them casually.

So what if you don’t make mistakes, otherwise you will still be beaten——

Smollett's eyes twitched wildly. The Indian army always gave people a very strange feeling, as if they were playing around, and they were too unprofessional.

After a flurry of nonsense, all the boxes were unloaded and opened, and Smollett began to introduce Bridges.

"What's the matter with your grenade launcher? Is it directly removed from the car or the boat?" Bridges picks and chooses. He actually has no right to decide, but the feedback from the frontline officers and soldiers will give The Department of Colonial Affairs brings important reference value.

"No, this is a special design of our Goode company. It can be installed on armored vehicles and warships. Of course, it can also be installed on a special base." Smollet smiled. The 40mm grenade launcher has been modified many times. , The structure has been greatly simplified, and now it weighs only 55 kg, which can be easily carried by two people.

"Armored vehicles? That's not okay, we don't think we will equip too many armored vehicles." Bridges resented, East Malaysia is not southern Africa, not to mention armored vehicles, there are not many cars.

It’s useless. The infrastructure in East Malaysia is backward. As the oldest and largest city in East Malaysia, Kuching doesn’t even have a decent road, let alone other areas.

Sometimes I have to sigh, compared with the ever-changing southern Africa, the time in many places around the world does not seem to have brought any changes, including many small towns in the UK. This was the case 100 years ago and 100 years later.

Of course, they will definitely not think that this is gradually falling behind the times, but that they are maintaining tradition.

Weird logic.

If we really want to maintain tradition, shouldn't we do slash-and-burn farming?

"That's okay, we've taken this into consideration, so our 40mm grenade launcher weighs only 55 kilograms after removing the ammunition box, and three people can easily move it." Smollett kept smiling, not afraid of being picky, as long as it wasn't It's fine to deliberately find faults. You must know that Smollett has done a lot of preliminary work for this meeting.

When it comes to simplification, Southern Africa is doing really well here.

The 40mm grenade launcher is actually an improved version of Maxim's 37mm "boom gun" during the Second Boer War.

During the World War, Britain also produced a lot of Maxim 37mm rapid-fire guns to make up for the lack of short-range firepower.

However, unlike the improved grenade launcher, the British "Bang Bang Cannon" has a complex structure, and is equipped with steel wheels and ammunition vehicles, with a total weight of more than 500 kilograms. If it is to be moved, it needs to be pulled by a motor vehicle or a horse. .

The grenade launcher in southern Africa is about the same size as a general-purpose machine gun with a tripod. It is more concealed, has better survivability, has a faster rate of fire, is more powerful, and is easy to move and operate. Smollett is really looking for it. There is no reason why the "Boom Pao" can defeat the grenade launcher.

Of course, for this level of procurement, off-site factors are the decisive key factors, and performance is not important.

"Why didn't I see mortars? Can't you produce mortars?" Bridges asked a lot. Kuching is limited by the terrain and there is no need to equip heavy artillery.

It is said that no matter how powerful heavy artillery is, it cannot be compared with naval guns with a range of tens of kilometers.

Therefore, medium and short-range weapons are the main attack method of the East Malay troops, and they have high requirements for maneuverability.

"Of course, but we mainly produce 80mm and 100mm mortars now, and 60mm mortars are not in our production schedule." Smollett said gently, what 60mm, 80mm or 100mm? Millimeters are king.

There are two types of heavy artillery in the Southern African Army, one with a caliber of 120 mm and one with a caliber of 150 mm. Both types of artillery are all added howitzers. The Rhodesian Northern Division and the First Armored Division are each equipped with an artillery brigade .

As for medium and near firepower, southern Africa uses mortars and grenade launchers, and the effect is not bad.

The equipment of the British army has lagged far behind that of southern Africa. Leaving aside the gap between Lee Enfield and semi-automatic rifles, the way of using artillery is also different. Strike has been basically eliminated now. Infantry-tank coordination and infantry-artillery coordination are more efficient. The infantry in southern Africa can now step on the landing point of the artillery shells and advance without giving the defensive troops time to enter the position. Cooperating with tanks and armored vehicles Use, if you still use the tactics during the First World War to fight with the southern African troops, you will suffer a big loss.

Bridges wasn't too satisfied with Smollett's answer, but it didn't matter, as long as the weapon was good enough to carry it to the shooting range to try it out.

So off to the shooting range.

Before the test firing, some arrangements must be made on the shooting range.

Bridges was very interested in general-purpose machine guns. The general-purpose machine gun brought by Smollett was still the 7.7mm caliber used by the British Army, which was a requirement of the British Army.

"I remember that during the World Wars, the troops I served in used this general-purpose machine gun. This machine gun is indeed better than the Maxim machine gun and the Lewis machine gun." Bridges had a complicated expression, obviously recalling those eventful years .

The 35-year-old Bridges was in his early 20s when the First World War broke out. As long as Bridges had fought in France, it meant that Bridges had served under Rock.

During the World War, southern Africa was the "logistics base" of the Allied Powers. The weapons ordered by the British army from southern Africa were enough to arm millions of troops, so it is normal for Bridges to have used a general-purpose machine gun.

Compared with the general-purpose machine guns during the World Wars, the current general-purpose machine guns are lighter in weight, faster in rate of fire, stable in trajectory, and powerful. Anyway, they have almost no weaknesses. Bridges is very satisfied.

Then there's the 40mm grenade launcher.

Originally, Smollett was going to let the entourage operate the 40mm grenade launcher.

However, Bridges probably wanted to check whether the soldiers under his command had the ability to operate the grenade launcher, and strongly demanded that the soldiers under his command operate it.

Smollett didn't insist. In Smollett's view, Indian soldiers are also soldiers. Since they have received corresponding military training, they shouldn't make mistakes.

However, just to be on the safe side, Smollett asked his entourage to conduct some training for the Indian soldiers operating the grenade launcher.

At this time, on the distant shooting range, dozens of Indian soldiers were placing targets to test the power of the grenade launcher.

It may be that the Indian soldiers receiving training were too excited. The Indian soldiers who had placed the targets had not yet withdrawn from the shooting range. The Indian soldiers who had just learned how to use the grenade launcher suddenly opened fire.

This - this damn -

(End of this chapter)