Chapter 742 Great Victory
The Maxim machine gun has a huge lethality, but the Indian troops seem to be "fearless" and continue to launch offensives. This is completely different from the performance of the Indian soldiers at the Tugela River.
“No one is allowed to retreat!” The British supervising the battle team in the rear played a big role.
In fact, in this case, the British and Indians were anxious, but just like when a stampede occurred, the rear did not know the situation ahead and rushed forward, a mistake in command and coordination caused the Indian soldiers in the front to know the situation, but the rear The Indian soldiers did not know, and the British supervising team behind the Indians had no way of knowing.
If it were a regular British division, the commander might quickly discover the problem, but the top commander of the Indian division is British.
The plain terrain limited the British commanders' ability to respond to the frontline battles, and the backflow of Indian soldiers was actually a very common situation. After all, the British knew very well that the Indians were weak in fighting will. In other words, the Indians did not go to the front line. It's abnormal to run away from the rear.
At this time, if you can look down from a high altitude, you will find a very strange battlefield situation. East African machine gunners massacre Indian soldiers in the front, while the British supervisory team is urging the Indian soldiers behind to continue to fill the front.
After more than 20 minutes of development, the British commander finally discovered a change in the battlefield situation, that is, the number of Indian troops decreased sharply, and with the increase in corpses, the tragedy of the battle ahead could be vaguely detected at the rear of the battlefield.
It is not an exaggeration to say that corpses were scattered all over the field. It was impossible for the Indian soldiers in the rear to move forward. The hill with piled corpses blocked the way.
As the truth spread, the fear that the Indian soldiers had generated was approaching the critical point, and then exploded.
This fear exceeded the fear of the British. They rushed to the rear desperately and tried to escape. Even under the deterrence of the bullets of the British army supervisors, they fled to the rear desperately.
Is it because there is more than one brigade in East Africa on the opposite side, but more troops are ambushed! This resulted in a major rout of the Indian troops.
At this time, the East African artillery also began to exert force, shelling the rear of the British army, further deepening the fear of the Indian soldiers.
Now there is only one thought in their minds, and that is to escape from this hell. Rost is very upset. The Indian soldiers who have withdrawn from the front line are like crazy, attacking the main formation of the British army, and now they can't figure out the reason.
There is no point in staying at this time. With this "squandering", most of the ammunition of the 9th Brigade has been emptied. And if it is bitten by the British army, the 9th Brigade will inevitably face the risk of annihilation. The number of enemies has already been Occupy an absolute advantage.
“The entire brigade evacuated towards the port city of New Hamburg. The artillery and wounded were evacuated first. The 1st Battalion of the 2nd Regiment was responsible for remaining along the highway to continue blocking the enemy and slowing down the enemy’s march.”
At this time, Aridotus, the commander of the 9th East African Brigade, after observing the chaotic situation of the British army, decisively ordered the troops to retreat.
The Indian troops were completely "crazy", causing the entire British front to collapse directly, and this was quickly transmitted to the main British troops in the rear.
Two Indian divisions are more than four times the strength of East Africa. Even if so many people cannot defeat an East African brigade, they should not be defeated so miserably.
No one knew what the Indians had experienced that made them so frightened, and Rost ordered the British army to intercept the Indian soldiers, but with little effect.
The number of these scattered Indian soldiers was too large, and it would take a lot of time to suppress them. At the same time, they had to be wary of attacks by the East Africans. However, he did not expect that at this time, the 9th East African Brigade was not willing to fight at all and had already begun to run away.
As time passed, the British army finally "pacified" the defeated Indian troops under the command of Rost. At the same time, due to the "emergency" of the war, Rost had to order the British army to rest and recuperate in place. During the day, the two armies The fighting situation was also compiled and reported. "According to the description of the Indian soldiers, the East Africans used a new type of machine gun. We did not capture the thing. However, based on the description of the Indians and the characteristics of the machine gun, it should be a new Maxim machine gun in Europe. I did not expect the East African army to A large number of these new machine guns are equipped, which shows that the Maxim machine gun is very mature and can be applied on the battlefield, and its performance far exceeds that of Gatling."
Rost: "What about the results of the Maxim machine gun? With only machine guns, the East Africans defeated several times our army's strength. Isn't it a bit exaggerated!"
I have heard about the Maxim machine gun Rost, but this kind of machine gun has not been widely promoted in Europe, or it has not been used in large-scale actual combat, and it has achieved amazing results with a small machine gun. Rost dare not Mutually.
After all, the British army also had machine guns. Although it was not Maxim, Gatling had not achieved such a record, so Rost could not imagine that machine guns could bring such an effect.
“According to statistics from our army, more than 7,000 Indian soldiers were killed or injured today, of which more than 4,000 were killed and more than 3,000 were wounded.” At this point, the subordinates were trembling.
And Rost's face turned dark. In one battle in the afternoon, half of the division's troops were directly scrapped. Although the dead were all Indian soldiers, this number far exceeded Rost's psychological expectations.
At the same time, the great rout of the Indian troops is also explained. With such high casualties, it is unreasonable not to have a great rout.
Then Rost began to think about how to deal with the results of this war. More than 7,000 casualties were not a small number. Even if he was a British man, he could not shirk the responsibility for the defeat of this war.
If there were three or four thousand casualties, Rost could have dealt with them vaguely through personal connections, but more than seven thousand was beyond his ability. And what Rost was most fortunate about now was that most of the dead this time were Indian soldiers. If When his division faced this situation, he didn't have to do anything and could go directly to the military court.
Rost walked back and forth restlessly in the division headquarters, thinking about how to "beautify" the situation of this war.
It is impossible to hide so many casualties, because the number is too large, so we can only find a solution from the enemy.
First of all, as before, the strength of the East African army must be exaggerated, and the calculation of the strength of East Africa must be based on the enemy's advantage and our army's disadvantage, so that such large casualties will not appear abrupt.
Secondly, there is an exaggeration of the weapons used by the enemy, especially the role of the Maxim machine gun. If the Maxim machine gun is not blown up to the sky, it will be difficult to explain this.
“Are there any prisoners captured this time?” Rost asked!
“We captured three East African soldiers alive, but they were all seriously injured and are still in coma.”
“Treat them quickly and send my personal doctor there. We must understand the organization of the East African army on the other side.” Rost said.
“Also, regarding the analysis of the Maxim machine gun, you must start organizing discussions now. This ‘terrorist’ killing weapon, which our army is not equipped with, is the main cause of war casualties, and the Military Intelligence Department must bear a great responsibility.”
“This fully shows that the East Africans have increased their military investment, and our army’s insufficient military expenditure has led to a disadvantage in weapons and equipment, so the casualties of our army in this battle are reasonable.”
(End of this chapter)