Chapter 388： Change divisions

Chapter 388 Changing Divisions

Without heavy fire cover, the 514th Division could only advance forward at a leisurely pace, looking for bunkers while firing back. The East African Army and the Pretoria garrison entered garbage time.

This made Wiggins very proud. He said to the "Young Patriot Army": "I just say that the Germans are not good. Who do they think their opponents are this time? Primitive people like the Ndebele people!"

The patriotic young people in Pretoria have also changed from nervousness to calmness. After all, they are facing the Germans. The German region is the site of the Four Wars in Europe. With the image blessing of Prussia and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, no one doubts the Germans. The fighting power, and the opponent's strength was large. We only had more than 2,000 people on our side (not counting the natives). It was unavoidable that I was a little nervous before the war started. But now I feel better. Seeing that the strength of the 514th Division is only this, I suddenly feel that I can do it again.

Ernst concluded from the rear: "Units like the 514th Division are better at bullying the natives who use cold weapons in the open areas of the grassland. They don't look like an army at all when dealing with fortifications, fortresses and cities. Fortunately, the Boers helped us test our The Army’s shortcomings!”

Of course, the natives are not incompetent in building cities, but their cities are quite primitive. Apart from the Ndebele people who gave up their choice of cities and fought in the fields in East Africa, and the Sultanate of Zanzibar, which gave East Africa a bargain due to internal strife, the East African kingdom has never been encountered in Africa. The most difficult thing to defeat is the original city wall built by several indigenous kingdoms in the Great Lakes region.

To put it bluntly, these cities are just randomly piled up with stones, without any sense of beauty. It is possible to use them to defend against wild beasts and surrounding tribes, but it is impossible to deal with slightly civilized forces. The entire Black Africa (Sub-Saharan Africa) The only large-scale city building built independently by black people is the ruins of Great Zimbabwe.

The city wall of Pretoria was temporarily built before the war. Wiggins used a wall made of bricks and soil to connect the houses and buildings on the periphery of Pretoria. Fortunately, Pretoria these days It hadn't rained, otherwise this temporary city wall would have likely collapsed. Although it was a temporary structure, it had shooting holes, forts, and machine gun fortresses, and was thick enough to withstand two or three rounds of shelling.

However, so far, Wiggins has not used advanced weapons such as artillery and machine guns, because he knows that the East Africans also have artillery. The small-caliber artillery of the East Africans played a big role during the last Ndebele uprising.

The Boers' artillery is not large in number, but its caliber and power are much larger than the small-caliber artillery in East Africa. The only drawback is that it has poor mobility and cannot be moved at will. It can only be used for defense and siege.

It stands to reason that the Boers would not be able to use this kind of weapon against the Boers. It is self-evident what the Boers have to deal with when purchasing this kind of artillery, and that is the British Cape Town Colony.

“Commander, let’s give the Germans below the city a few shells to try!” a Boer soldier suggested.

Wiggins waved his hand and said: "You don't understand. The Germans are only attacking tentatively now. Although there are many troops in front of them, they are not their main force. They have not used artillery yet, which means they did not pay attention to us from the beginning. Now that their forward troops cannot make progress, the troops behind them will certainly not be able to stay idle, and that is when our artillery will show its power."

“Commander, since the enemy also has artillery, how powerful is their artillery?”

Wiggins: "Don't worry, the artillery equipped by the Germans in East Africa is very powerful and not many in number."

This is normal. In the past, except for the emphasis on coastal defense artillery in East Africa, the artillery equipped by the army was more like a symbolic weapon. Rifles were enough to deal with the indigenous people, while artillery could only deal with the kind of African indigenous people who were not afraid of death. It is used to undermine its morale, so the number of artillery equipped by the East African Army is not large. All the units of the entire Southern Route Army only have a dozen artillery pieces combined. The bottom troops such as the 514th and 514th Division do not even have one. Only the 511th Division and Only the 512th Division is equipped with artillery.

The 514th Division without artillery was naturally unable to bombard Pretoria and open up the situation. Of course, the war does not mean that it will win with stronger firepower. The 514th Division was obviously not adapted to siege operations, so it faced the enemy for the first time. We were so poorly prepared for the city that we were at a loss.

So Ernst ordered: "Let the 514th Division withdraw, and it's time to test the capabilities of the new 111th Division."

As Ernst's order was issued, the 514th Division began to retreat, which made the Boers very happy. Some people even ridiculed that the Germans were nothing more than that. Only Wiggins felt a little heavy, and the East African Kingdom did not even conduct a large-scale After attacking, he withdrew his troops. Although Pretoria has been transformed by himself and can be fought, it is not at all as indestructible as he said in order to stabilize the morale of the army. Instead, it has flaws everywhere. After all, what was the quality of the defenses built in just a few days? Wiggins knew clearly that as long as the East African army just charged regardless of the cost, they would definitely be able to break through and reach Biji with the loss of at most a hundred people. Edge of Pretoria. . Obviously the East African army doesn't even want to pay such a small price, which shows that they have better means and ways to attack.

The newly formed 111th Division, one of the main forces in East Africa, was formed after being formed by students from the Hechingen Military Academy who participated in the Franco-Prussian War as officers. These officers are typical academics and are not trained in the crash course like before. Hechingen students are comparable.

For example, Sweet, the Chief of General Staff of the East African Army, came from a crash course. It would be incomparable for him to compete in theory with these Hechingen students who had studied for three years.

The most valuable thing is that these students have seen blood. They fought against the French Army, the world's number one army, more than a year ago, and won the victory. They have a record of success, so when they reorganized the 111th Division in the Tanganyika area, The confidence is also sufficient.

The equipment of the 111th Division has also been greatly improved. Except for the artillery, which is far behind the Prussian army, there are almost no shortcomings.

As the 111th Division came on stage, the commander of the 111th Division, Chris, began to direct the operations of the troops. Compared with the 514th Division, the 111th Division's command was significantly smoother. After each unit divided their respective areas of responsibility, they began to operate in an orderly manner.

The 111th Division did not use artillery as soon as they came up. Instead, they used a small force to advance into the Pretoria defenses after estimating a safe distance. The distance was about 450 meters because the Boer weapons were mixed and had a limited range. One, but the 111th Division calculated based on the Dresser rifle it used that it would have almost no impact at about 450 meters.

After establishing a preliminary defensive position at a position of 450 meters, the engineers began work. They used engineering shovels and hoes to dig tunnels and move forward.

Standing on the wall of Pretoria, Wiggins also saw the movements of the East African Army. As dust was thrown from both sides of the tunnel, the East African engineers soon disappeared.

“The Germans want to use trenches to push forward!”

At this time, Wiggins was a little hesitant. At this distance, the rifle would definitely not be able to attack the East African Army. If artillery was used, it could bomb the forward positions in East Africa. However, the East African artillery had not yet come on stage. Wiggins still had to use the limited artillery shells. If you stay and restrain the East African Army, you can only send people out of their positions to proactively attack the forward positions in East Africa!

“Pass my order, the third battalion will leave the trenches and take the initiative to attack the East African positions and interrupt their construction work! We cannot let East Africa’s conspiracy succeed.”

Subsequently, the 90% black Transvaal army was forced by the Boer chiefs to get out of the trenches and launch an attack on East Africa.

“Charge, charge me, you bastard, why are you standing still? Do you want to die?” The Boer officer kicked the hesitant black man in the butt, and the black man had to pick up his rifle and charge towards the East African position.

Although the blacks had weapons, they did not dare to resist the Boers because before the war, Wiggins deliberately concealed their Gatling-like shock, and the black machine gun muzzles were pointed at them.

(End of this chapter)