Reborn South Africa as a police officer

Chapter 851 Historical Nouns

Purchasing rifles from southern Africa is only part of the UK's huge procurement plan. In addition to the most basic rifles, the UK also needs to purchase a huge amount of military supplies and living supplies. At the end of May, the UK sent a special procurement team to southern Africa. This time the leader was replaced by Douglas Haig.

Douglas Haig played an important role in the First World War. After Kitchener became Secretary of the War, the one million new recruits that Britain had just recruited were trained by Douglas Haig.

He had fought in the Second Boer War before, remember the 17th Lancer Regiment which was wiped out by the Boer coalition forces during the war?It was conducted by Douglas Haig.

Because of his poor performance during the Second Boer War, Douglas Haig followed Kitchener to India as the Attorney General after the war. Afterwards, he became the youngest major general of the British Army, and later became the director of the Military Training Bureau of the Ministry of War. , and then returned to India as Chief of Staff, and now returns to the Ministry of War with Kitchener.

After the outbreak of the First World War, Douglas Haig was in charge of commanding the First Army of the British Expeditionary Force. At that time, Douglas Haig's boss was Sir John French.

It is worth mentioning that Douglas Haig was Sir John French's Chief of Staff during the Second Boer War.

During the First World War, the First Army was active, and Douglas Haig was also promoted to general in the first year of the war. After that, Douglas Haig began to blacken. In all the battles he participated in, The British Expeditionary Force suffered heavy losses, earning Douglas Haig the nickname "The Butcher".

After knowing that the person in charge of the purchasing group was Douglas Haig, Rock was quite depressed.

Douglas Haig, like his old boss, Sir John French, was extremely conservative. He had a special preference for cavalry and was not interested in new weapons in the war. He once believed that "the machine gun is a superfluous weapon" , The attitude towards tanks is the same. It is definitely a tragedy for such a person to be in charge of arms purchases.

Even if it is a tragedy, the reception should still be received. On May 31, Douglas Haig led the procurement team to Pretoria. As the Minister of Defense, Rock was mainly responsible for the reception of the procurement team.

Like Roque’s trip to Egypt, on the night when the purchasing group arrived in Pretoria, Ade held a grand welcome dinner for the purchasing group in his manor, with ice cream made on the spot, and guests from Rod The western food chef of the West Asia Hotel happened to have a performance team from the United States in Pretoria recently, and was also invited to do live performances.

"Locke, you don't seem very interested—" Sidney Milner didn't care about Douglas Haig, and took the initiative to find Rock in the corner of the banquet hall.

Rock was chatting with Henry and Stoudemire. When the three of them were together, only a few people, such as Owen and Sidney Milner, dared to join in the fun.

"No, I'm very happy——" Rock's face was full of smiles, and he looked really happy, but he couldn't hide it from Sidney Milner.

"Cheer up Locke, no matter what, General Haig is now our God of Wealth. We must serve General Haig well so that we can get more orders." Grid, it is estimated that Stoudemire will be very happy.

"Don't get your hopes up, maybe this guy will end up buying a bunch of potatoes and go home. I just talked to his lieutenant. Guess what? He doesn't want to see the air show, he doesn't want to watch the confrontation exercise we arranged, he doesn't like the general machine gun The weight of the machine gun is too light, so I think the power of the general-purpose machine gun is not enough. This is the first time I have heard that the power of a machine gun is determined by the weight." Rock complained, although he had only been in contact with Douglas Haig for less than two hours, but Luo Ke C. had learned all too well about Douglas Haig's obstinacy.

There are several types of machine guns in use by British troops, the most common being the Lewis machine gun designed by the American Lieutenant Colonel Isaac Lewis.

The performance of the Lewis machine gun is not bad, but an aluminum sleeve for heat dissipation is placed outside the barrel, which greatly increases the weight of the Lewis machine gun, and the weight of the empty gun reaches 11.8 kg.

Later research showed that even if the aluminum sleeve was removed, the Lewis machine gun could still dissipate heat effectively. Therefore, many people believed that the reason why Lieutenant Colonel Lewis insisted on installing this aluminum sleeve on the Lewis light machine gun was mainly for the purpose of matching the previous Mike Lane's original design to distinguish.

You taste, you taste carefully, this is clearly another liar who uses other people's inventions to swindle money.

Compared with the Lewis machine gun, the general-purpose machine gun used in southern Africa is lighter in weight and more reliable in quality. The profit continuity of the 75-round magazine is also better than the 47-round drum of the Lewis machine gun, but Douglas Haig thinks that the Lewis machine gun Even better, this really made Rock very helpless.

"Maybe General Haig thinks that the machine gun is heavier, so the machine gunner is more powerful when he uses it to hit the enemy when the bullets are exhausted." Henry laughed loudly. He is also a soldier. This is the first time he said this. It is said that.

"You should arrange a performance for him." Stoudemire actively thought of a way.

"I just said that he doesn't want to watch it." Rock really tried, but it didn't work.

"Lock, you have met your opponent this time." Sidney Milner also laughed, not only did not help to find a solution, but also gloated.

"It doesn't matter, time will give the best answer." Rock is not too anxious. Now that the world war has not yet broken out, Douglas Haig can still decide. When the world war breaks out, Haig will beg Rock to buy a general-purpose machine gun. .

"Send a telegram to Winston." Stoudemire found another way, and tried another trick if one failed.

"No, I said it, when he begs us." Rock can't rely on Winston for everything, and Winston's life is not easy now, because of the aircraft carrier, Winston is also being questioned by Congress.

It is really that the cost of an aircraft carrier is a bit high, and it is now higher than the latest Queen Elizabeth-class battleship launched in the UK. The key is that the role of an aircraft carrier has not been verified by war, so Congress thinks that Winston will come up with such a tight economy. Such a large amount of money to buy an aircraft carrier is too wasteful.

And it's not one ship, that's a waste multiplied by two.

Of course, Winston is not easy to bully. Winston has the final say in the navy now. Winston has already issued a military order in the Congress, almost exaggerating the role of the aircraft carrier. Although the Congress is dissatisfied, there is nothing Winston can do. pause.

"Come with me Locke, you can't hide here all the time, my lord told me to come find you." Sidney Milner has a mission, and Locke, the Minister of Defense, must accompany him all the way.

Rock followed Sidney Milner to the center of the venue, and Douglas Haig was talking loudly among the crowd.

"The Germans are at the end of the road. Their troops don't even have the most basic weapons. The navy can't compete with our Royal Navy. Those poor people don't dare to start a war. As long as the war breaks out, we will be able to fight within three months." You can capture Berlin, and then hold a military parade in front of the City Palace." Douglas Haig was spitting, and he didn't seem to notice that the expressions of the people around him were not very good.

It's okay to say "German", but using an adjective like "poor ghost" is not allowed in southern Africa, which is racism of Hongguoguo.

"I had a conversation with Marshal Kitchener a few months ago. The Germans' combat effectiveness must be confirmed. Marshal Kitchener said at the time that if a war breaks out, it may not end within two or three years. We must prepare for a long-term battle. Be prepared, any form of slack will make us fail." Rock pulled the banner as a tiger's skin, and then Douglas Haig's expression became a little stiff.

"It is indeed important to pay attention. The Germans should not be underestimated. They just won the Franco-Prussian War and their morale is high. We are always a sea power country, and we are not skilled in land battles." Ade is no stranger to the military. For the United States, decades are indeed a snap of the fingers. In the Boer War that just ended ten years ago, the performance of the British troops is really not reassuring.

"That's why we want to change the current army tactics. There is no need to add new weapons at all, but to strengthen the role of cavalry. Numerous wars have proved that cavalry is the decisive force to change the shape of the battlefield." Douglas Haig wrote a book "Cavalry Research" has some experience on cavalry, but the level is not very good. The 17th Cavalry Regiment was the only unit that was wiped out by the Boer Allied Forces during the Boer War. I don’t know why Douglas Haig, the chief officer. Did not fight to the end with the troops.

"Four legs can't run on four wheels." Rock couldn't help but be stubborn. The British army now has more than 100 million troops. Where can we get more than 100 million army horses?Even counting the draft horses and plow horses is not enough.

"You mean cars? Don't be ridiculous. Think about the poor performance of cars and the traffic requirements. The advantages of cavalry are irreplaceable. Just a small river can make cars helpless, while cavalry can easily cross." Douglas Black Ge retorted, the current car does have a relatively high failure rate, and is relatively restricted by the terrain.

"Well, you're right." Rock didn't argue with that, and if there was a chance, Rock would still like to let Douglas Haig understand how far the world has developed. Compared with cars, cavalry may indeed be There are some advantages, but compared with armored vehicles and tanks, the advantage of cavalry is not worth mentioning.

The cavalry is estimated to disappear after the First World War. Think about the Cossacks who were once invincible in Europe, and now they have almost become a historical term.

(End of this chapter)