Reborn South Africa as a police officer

Chapter 904

The German defense line in this era is different from the in-depth defense line composed of three or four lines two years later, and it has not yet been perfected to that extent.

The defense line two years after the World War, the first line is the warning line composed of the avant-garde troops. The fourth line of defense consists of three lines of defense and supporting troops.

The defense line of this era, except for the defense line of the Southern African Expeditionary Force, the Anglo-French Allied Forces and the German Army have only one line, because all defenses are preparing for the attack, so the Anglo-French Allied Forces and the German Army are not used to civil work.

In the face of the attacks of the 101st and 102nd divisions, a line of defense is useless at all.

Like the British, French and German artillery units, the large-caliber artillery in southern Africa has a range of more than ten kilometers, so the artillery positions of the First Artillery Division are 6000 meters away from the front line, and they have retreated behind Ypres. In order to carry out effective strikes on the German positions, and there is no need to worry about the German counterfire.

The detection method is also different. Traditional artillery needs to use balloons or aircraft to correct the impact point to ensure the attack efficiency of artillery units.

Both of these methods have problems. The observation range of using balloons is relatively small, and it is easy to be attacked by enemies, so the efficiency is not high.

However, there is a telephone on the calibration balloon to communicate with the ground, which is more convenient and quick.

If you use the aircraft to calibrate the impact point, although you can fly high and fast, you can observe it more clearly, but there is no phone on the aircraft. The pilot can only write the information on a note and put it in a brightly colored tube to get in touch with the ground troops. The effect is In fact, it is not good.

The First Artillery Division did not use the traditional method to correct the point of impact. The large-caliber artillery was used as strategic artillery to carry out long-range strikes on the German positions. The precision shooting was carried out by the mortars attached to the frontline troops. In order to improve combat efficiency, the French sent A division was formed to cooperate with the 101st and 102nd divisions.

As a result, the reserve team did not play a role, and even the 102nd Division did not leave the starting position. The 101st Division gave Frenzi and Joffre a perfect performance of infantry coordination in a skirmish line.

This is too advanced. The field troops of this era have no such thing as infantry coordination. When fighting, the artillery units are far away from each other, and the infantry units line up in neat formations and dress up. Led by the handsome officers, they attacked the enemy's positions as if they were attending a banquet.

To put it in a futuristic sentence, the attack of troops in this era is very ceremonial.

When I arrived at the Southern African Expeditionary Force, all the sense of ritual was left behind.

In order to shorten as much as possible the dangerous time for the assault troops to be exposed to the enemy's intensive firepower, the 101st Division began tunneling operations the night before the offensive was launched, and dug the tunnels to less than 500 meters in front of the German positions.

This is to prevent accidental injury by the artillery unit, so the tunnel was dug to 500 meters before the German position. Otherwise, the 101st Division would really learn from the Japanese during the Russo-Japanese War and dig the tunnel directly to within 50 meters of the German position.

In fact, 500 meters is already very close.

Therefore, when the long-range artillery launched an attack on the German positions, the attacking troops sent by the 101st Division were already safely lurking in the starting position only 500 meters away from the German positions. , also began to attack the German defensive positions.

The machine gun position is the key target of attack.

Long-range large-caliber artillery combined with mortars that are easy to move and fast-firing, took the trouble to sort out the German positions with intensive firepower over and over again. Rock's request is to destroy all artificial buildings within sight, whether it is residential buildings, It was still the positions built by the German army, and all of them were destroyed. There is no need to worry about the shell problem. The Nyasaland Military Industry Group has established eleven shell factories in Walvis Bay, specializing in the production of various shells for the French battlefield.

What's interesting is that the workers in the shell factory are all Germans in Southwest Africa. They also know that the shells produced in the factory are used to fight the German army, but they have no choice but to destroy them.

The artillery shells of this period were relatively complicated. For example, the most commonly used shrapnel shells on the battlefield had completely different structures from high-explosive shells. The shells exploded tens of meters above the target, relying on the steel balls in the warhead to create lethality. Thousands of steel balls can cover areas with a diameter of less than 200 meters. All shells are shipped without fuzes when they leave the factory and are transported. Fuzes will not be installed until they are distributed to front-line troops for use.

The management of the Nyasaland Military Industry Group is very strict. The factories where the Germans work only produce parts for various parts, and the final assembly is completed by the factories where the southern Africans work. Will be polite.

When Germany ruled Southwest Africa, the way of ruling the Africans in the territory was very cruel, and there were all kinds of massacres at every turn. Now the Germans in Southwest Africa are very unlucky. When Germany ruled Southwest Africa before, how miserable the Africans in Southwest Africa are. Now Southwest Africa How miserable are the Germans in Africa.

The Germans in South Persia Chen were also miserable. The newly formed 92nd Division of the German Army replaced the first regiment of guards guarding South Persia Chen. Adult school students, they dreamed of winning honors on the battlefield, so they came to Belgium from their hometown, but they didn't expect to encounter the 101st Division, which was almost completely wiped out when they arrived in Belgium, and had just been restored.

The officers and soldiers of the 101st Division were full of anger from top to bottom, and all their anger was vented on the recruits of the 92nd Division.

The ferocious firepower lasted for half an hour, and then the infantry unit left the starting position to attack South Persia Chen.

Instead of a neat "thin red line," the attacking force appeared to be a chaotic line of skirmishers with each soldier spaced far apart.

The soldiers didn't march forward with their backs straight and stepping on the beat of the snare drums. They kept their waists down almost the whole time, using the terrain to alternately cover their progress.

At this time, there are actually no obstacles on the ground, and there are only bomb craters one after another that can be used by the attacking troops. Fortunately, the battle in South Persia was very fierce some time ago, and there were bomb craters everywhere. Wang Yang, almost all craters contain water.

At this time, I certainly don't care whether there is water or mud under the bomb crater. Even if it is a cesspit, as long as it can avoid the heavy machine guns of the defending troops, they must jump into it resolutely. Soon after leaving the starting position, the iron-gray uniforms of the officers and soldiers of the 101st Division turned into mud. Instead, it became the protective color of the attacking troops. Rock, who was using binoculars to observe in the observation post, only noticed the problem of clothing at this time.

Although the iron gray uniforms look good, they are not enough for the protection of the troops. In the future, the troops in southern Africa can still keep the iron gray as the uniform color of officers and soldiers. When fighting, they still need to wear camouflage uniforms, so as to provide better protection for the frontline troops. good protection.

Joffre and Frenzi, who were also watching, didn't notice the problem. They didn't even take their eyes off the eyepiece, and they didn't say a word the whole time.

Now Joffre and Frenzi understand why Roque has been emphasizing adequate preparation. What Roque said about being fully prepared is not the same thing as Joffre and Frenzi understood. If the attacking force is not the 101st Division , but replaced by the infantry division of the British and French allied forces, then this battle will still be reduced to a flesh and blood mill with heavy losses for both warring parties.

Although Joffre and Frenzi didn't care about casualties, it was obvious that while winning, the casualties must be as low as possible.

The 101st Division had few casualties.

It is true that a few soldiers were carried down shortly after the attack, but they were obviously injured at the level of a sprained ankle, and they didn't even need a stretcher.

The officers and soldiers of the Ninth Division of the British Expeditionary Force were responsible for transferring the wounded.

Also observing were Rock's old friend Max Lloyd and French Ninth Army Commander-in-Chief Ferdinand Foch.

Marcos Lloyd didn't ask why the 101st Division didn't use the thin red line to attack such stupid questions. Before, Marcos Lloyd never thought about the problem with the "thin red line" tactics until he witnessed the 101st Division's attack with his own eyes. Marcos Lloyd Lloyd just started to think about why the commander who decided on the "thin red line" tactic was so stupid.

In fact, the general who invented the thin red line tactic was not stupid. In the era of muskets, the thin red line tactic was the most suitable tactic for attacking troops.

In the era of breech-loading magazine rifles, the thin red line tactics should indeed be improved.

The soldiers of the 101st Division are advancing very fast. It can be clearly seen from the binoculars that although the soldiers of the 101st Division seem to be attacking a bit chaotically, it is obvious that there are various coordination among the soldiers. Marcos Lloyd noticed this Question, casually asked about the establishment of the 101st Division.

"Different units have different formations. Each squad of the 101st Division has 12 people. The squad leader and deputy squad leader are paired with a sergeant or sergeant to lead the combat team. Each combat team has three people, plus precision shooters and Firemen, use the combat team as the basic unit when attacking—" Rock explained in detail that there is no need to hide this aspect. It is not difficult for the Commonwealth countries to obtain the "Infantry Manual" from Nyasaland Army Academy. After the World War, it is estimated that There will be many Commonwealth countries sending people to study at the Army Academy, and the countries outside the Commonwealth don’t care. Even if they pay for it, Nyasaland Army Academy doesn’t want it.

If the Commonwealth countries want to send people to study at the Nyasaland Army Academy, they will definitely have to pay, and the tuition fees will be very expensive.

The tuition fee of a foreign student can at least support an infantry battalion, whether you like it or not.

"Bayonets, grenades, shovels, pistols, your southern African army is really rich-" Marcus Lloyd envied and hated.

"The pistols were purchased by the soldiers themselves, and it has nothing to do with me—" Rock said that the British and French allied forces were not so rich.

(End of this chapter)