African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 1169 Battlefield Inquiry
The East African National Defense Force is relatively happy. After all, the East African National Defense Force has developed to where it is today almost step by step.

At first, East Africa’s enemies were wild beasts and natives, then they became relatively advanced Arabs, then Portuguese colonies and Boers, and finally the two world powers, Britain and Portugal.

This was also Ernst's prudent idea for colonizing Africa. After all, if he had to face the Portuguese colonial government right from the start, the East African colonies would have had no chance of survival.

After all, the Portuguese have been operating in Africa for hundreds of years and are quite resourceful. At least many other countries have suffered setbacks. The East African Defense Force was developed from a colonial army, and it has been easy at first and then difficult along the way.

However, the East African Defense Force is not without regrets, especially for the army. The navy has at least fought against the British Royal Navy, and the British Royal Navy is undoubtedly the strongest navy in the world.

Among the world's armies, there is no doubt that Germany and France are in the first echelon. Germany defeated France in the Franco-Prussian War and established its reputation as a top army. The French Army has always been regarded as the most powerful army in Europe. Even before the outbreak of World War I, the French Army was promoted as the best army in Europe.

The East African Defense Force, the British Army, the United States Army and other powers were naturally classified as the second echelon.

Although there was a record of defeating the British Army in East Africa, Britain has never been strong in the army. Moreover, during the South African War, there were a large number of colonial troops and Indians in the British army.

So defeating the British Army is nothing to brag about. Of course, this is only limited to a few of the most powerful countries.

In fact, some countries could be proud of being able to defeat the British colonial army, but there were only a few countries that could do that.

Take the United States for example. It once challenged the British colonial army, but was beaten badly by the British Canadian colonies and the White House was burned down.

The most outstanding achievement of the United States in recent years is defeating Spain. Although Spain is one of the great powers, its military strength is simply not comparable to that of other powers. To put it bluntly, the military strength of the Far Eastern newcomer Japan is far greater than that of Spain.

By this calculation, the East African Army defeated the British Army. Its record was not as good as the best, but it was more than enough compared to the worst. Unfortunately, it still could not get rid of the shackles of a second-rate army unless it fought a battle with the German and French armies.

Obviously, East Africa does not have this opportunity now, so it can only go to the European battlefield to "learn from experience". After all, the East African Army has actually embarked on a different development path from the armies of other countries and needs more references.

Major General Kuinman said: "The development of our army is very different from that of other countries in the world, and there is no opportunity for actual combat exercises, so it is particularly important to judge and discover our problems by observing the situation on the European battlefield."

"Kabril, please first tell me about the differences between the current development of the war in Europe and the construction of our country's army, as well as the correlation between the two." Kuinman asked directly.

Faced with the veteran's questioning, Gabriel was still a little nervous, although Kuynmann's age was not considered old for senior military commanders. On the contrary, he was at his best age.

After summarizing what he had seen and heard on the European battlefield, Gabriel said to General Kuhnmann: "The war situation in European countries is now changing. This is all due to the development of industry and social forms, which has led to major changes in the battlefield situation."

"For our country, these changes actually demonstrate the correctness of our military construction ideas. Of course, there are definitely some problems that cannot be discovered through the European battlefield." "For example?" Kuinman asked. Although Kuinman is a veteran, he has never stopped learning, so he is not surprised by some changes in the current war.

"For example, in the European battlefield, we have noticed that the French army has begun to use aircraft as a means of battlefield reconnaissance," said Gabriel.

"This also fully demonstrates that our military is correct in using aircraft as a means of warfare. Of course, our use of aircraft has obviously gone further than the warring parties. However, as the war progresses, I think the two major military groups will continue to expand their use of military aircraft. Therefore, we should focus on collecting relevant intelligence, so as to accumulate a large amount of relevant data for the development of our military aircraft and avoid being surpassed by other countries."

Kuinman nodded and said, "Yes, nowadays, aircraft are frequently used on the battlefield. Both major military groups have prepared a considerable number of aircraft for reconnaissance and other military activities."

At least on the Western Front, especially the Marne River front, the number of aircraft sorties dispatched between the Allies and the Central Powers was quite large. After all, before the war began, the number of aircraft among the warring countries was already around a thousand.

"This also demonstrates our country's foresight in the field of aircraft research and development. However, war is the best catalyst for the development of military technology. You must always be vigilant and pay attention to the updates and iterations of military technology in countries around the world, and provide more reference materials for our country's future national defense security. Gabriel, go on," said Kuinman.

Cabrill said: "Other aspects, such as the application of cars, artillery, machine guns, rifles, etc. on the battlefield are also very eye-catching. Whether it is Britain, France or Germany, they all use new means of transportation such as cars to quickly transport supplies, troops, weapons, etc. from the rear to the front line. This shows that our army's construction in terms of mobility is the right idea."

The mobility of the East African army can be said to be the best in the world. After all, the East African Army is equipped with a large number of mobile vehicles. Even though the German army and the British and French forces currently fighting each other have used a large number of cars, many of their military vehicles were hastily imported to East Africa after the war broke out.

This kind of forced process naturally cannot surpass the East African Army all at once. After all, the East African Army still has enough drivers, maintenance personnel, spare parts, factories...

All in all, the military vehicle system is quite large and complex, and these are things that the great powers such as Germany and France cannot solve in a short period of time.

Take the simplest example of gasoline. East Africa is now the largest supplier of gasoline to vehicles on both sides. Germany, needless to say, lacks oil and gas resources at home and has always been a customer of East African refined oil. France has not made much progress in this regard. Although France has many colonies, it lacks oil field exploration and refining equipment, even worse than Germany.

French colonies include many areas in North Africa. Among them, Algeria, which is the most important to France, was an important oil producer in the past. If it could be developed and utilized, France would not have to rely on countries such as East Africa and the United States.

Moreover, even if the fuel and vehicle problems could be solved, Germany and France lacked enough drivers, which was very fatal. Therefore, although cars played an important role in battlefield transportation, Germany and France were powerless without the necessary resources, and the scale of automobile application on the entire European battlefield was limited.

Cabrill went on to say: "Now the European battlefield is rapidly evolving towards trench warfare. As for the Marne battlefield, France has greatly delayed the German offensive through a large number of fortifications. This is similar to our pre-war prediction. Therefore, we must pay attention to trench warfare, especially the importance of some heavy artillery to the battlefield. I think we have not paid enough attention to it in the past."

Germany's heavy artillery was extremely powerful on the battlefield and played a huge role in the German army's offensive. This naturally attracted the attention of East African military personnel, especially for trench warfare, where the importance of artillery became increasingly important.

It can be said that when there is not much difference in weapons between the two sides, the tactics of trench warfare are enough to cause headaches for both sides of the war, so how to break through this tactic has become a focus of future research for Gabriel.

(End of this chapter)