Chapter 788: The Captives’ “Awakening”

On the same day that the Southern East African Command launched an attack on Cape Town and Natal, the British commander-in-chief, Earl Roberts, also launched a round of military operations against East Africa.

Earl Roberts concentrated nearly 50,000 troops from four divisions and launched an attack on the Guards Division and the 512th Division's base in the southeast, trying to reopen the southeast passage.

At this time, Earl Roberts was fighting a desperate battle. With the Limpopo River as the boundary, he only needed a small number of troops to delay the offensive of the East African Army in the north. The remaining troops were mainly concentrated in the west to obstruct the support of the Western Military Region of East Africa to the Guards Division and the 512th Division.

Earl Roberts' plan is feasible, or it is the optimal solution under the current circumstances. The troops in the west and north of East Africa are numerous and strong, and only the southeast direction has few troops deployed. However, Earl Roberts underestimated the combat effectiveness of the Guards Division.

Cristiano, commander of the 1st Brigade of the Guards Division, concentrated more than 70 heavy artillery pieces and hundreds of other types of artillery pieces of the entire army to provide all-round firepower coverage to the Mozambique coalition forces coming head-on.

At the same time, with the cooperation of machine guns, grenades and other weapons, they not only firmly held their positions, but also caused huge casualties to the coalition forces. Later, with the cooperation of the cavalry, the Guards Division and the 512th Division launched a full-scale counterattack, and the battle was basically over in just one hour.

After this battle, more than 5,000 enemy troops were killed or wounded, and more than 6,000 were captured, mainly Indians. The coalition forces' proactive offensive capability was completely destroyed, and a number of enemy artillery, firearms and other types of weapons were seized.

At the same time, the various troops of the Western Military District also dealt a devastating blow to the blocking troops sent by Earl Roberts, with losses exceeding one-third.

Earl Roberts could only withdraw his remaining troops and hold the hinterland of Chokwe Town. He was unable to confront East Africa anymore and at the same time gave up some peripheral areas. More than 50,000 defeated soldiers would continue to hold on to a narrow area of ​​less than 30 square kilometers.

…

"The firepower of one enemy division is almost equal to that of our entire army. This is a new situation that has never been encountered in British history. More than 50,000 people were suppressed by more than 20,000 East African troops. This is simply one of the greatest humiliations in the history of the British Empire!"

Earl Roberts was quite indignant, and it was also the first time that he realized the combat effectiveness of the East African Guards Division. As a garrison force, the Guards Division protected the security of the First Town and the Central Province. Its equipment level was unparalleled in East Africa. If the number of people was not taken into account, it could be compared with a military region in East Africa.

Without exaggerating, based on the equipment level of the Guards Division, it is fully capable of competing with the elite troops of Germany and France. However, this time the First Brigade of the Guards Division has not even brought all its equipment.

Because of the cross-sea battle, many of the larger caliber artillery of the Second Brigade were not brought along, otherwise Earl Roberts would have felt even more desperate.

Moreover, there were other troops in the same situation as the Guards Division. Because the front line advanced too quickly during the counterattack, many of the heavy weapons of other troops could not keep up with the pace of the main force.

Therefore, the situation that Earl Roberts will face next will only become more difficult, and Earl Roberts may not even be able to hold on until the follow-up artillery from East Africa arrives.

At this time, the Guards Division was troubled by a large number of British prisoners and wounded. Capturing so many at once, the rations alone were enough to make it difficult for them to survive.

Cristiano: "First, identify the prisoners. Officers will be held separately, and the injured will be given priority. As for the soldiers, the British and Portuguese soldiers will be treated as we treat them. Indians and blacks will also be treated as we treat them. However, they cannot eat for free. Let them repair fortifications and find some physical work. In short, they cannot be idle. The food standard is the same as the previous East African vassal army standard."

The East African vassal army is a black army, but until now, East Africa has not recruited black troops to participate in the war.

First of all, the military strength in East Africa is not that tight. Secondly, the East African military is afraid that the black troops will fall behind. Just like the British army this time, they were completely tricked by India. With this lesson, the threshold for the British army to incorporate Indians into combat troops next time will probably be greatly raised.

Of course, East African blacks also made important contributions to the war, mainly by maintaining the stability of domestic production in East Africa, which was the greatest guarantee for the war.

However, Cristiano obviously underestimated the enemy's moral integrity. The Indians and blacks who were grabbing food with rice buckets were almost fighting. Even the food standards of the vassal army were much higher than those of the lowest-level soldiers of the coalition forces.

Cristiano believes that if the food in East Africa was not a little "hot", these Indians would be able to reach directly into the bowl and eat it.

Of course, Indians eat with their hands, so they have no use for the East African troops' tableware. Also, because there were so many prisoners this time, there were not enough tableware, so they could only make do with what was shared by a few people.

This is also the reason why the Allied prisoners quarreled. After sharing tableware, several people ate around one pot. If you ate more, he would eat less, and thus conflicts arose.

The cooks in East Africa were also very annoyed. They already had enough troubles, and these "uneducated" coalition soldiers added to the chaos.

The burly cooks, holding large rice spoons, began to maintain order, and hit the disruptive Allied soldiers with a "spoon". The nearly one-meter-long spoon handle with a metal "spoon head" was used, and none of them made a sound.

These Indians and blacks were also frightened by the East African cooks, which made them realize again that they were prisoners and regained the feeling of being dominated by the "British and Portuguese armies."

Unlike these "gluttons" who scrambled for food, the British and Portuguese soldiers were treated much better. They all had separate tableware. This was also related to their small number. In addition, some of them already brought portable lunch boxes, so East Africa could share some of the food among them.

Like East Africa, the lunch boxes in East Africa are of uniform standard, and British and Portuguese soldiers are also equipped with them, but many of them were damaged in this war, or they were not carried with them before the war.

It can be said that the Portuguese benefited from being "Europeans" and were classified as the "second echelon" of prisoners. As for their weapons, equipment and clothing, only some Eastern European armies could compare with them in Europe, and they were even slightly worse than what the Indian soldiers in the British Army wore.

As the world's number one superpower, Britain can be considered to have "richly raised" "dogs". Apart from wearing large turbans, the Indian soldiers even looked more spirited than ordinary Portuguese soldiers. It's just that they were a little too spirited and had no awareness of being prisoners, appearing to be very "silly".

In comparison, the British and Portuguese soldiers were much more "gentle". Although the food for the East African soldiers was not to their taste and they were not used to the reissued tableware, it still tasted good, especially when compared with the recent shortage of supplies for the Allied forces.

These grassroots soldiers felt very satisfied with their life as prisoners of war. After the meal, they became even more satisfied when they saw the Indians and blacks being forced to do labor. After all, there were people who were worse off than themselves, and they were much happier in comparison.

Compared with these easily satisfied soldiers, the British and Portuguese officers were the "difficult to serve" ones. Accustomed to being the "bosses" in the coalition forces, the "preferential treatment" from East Africa seemed very "shabby". Of course, some officers were extremely resentful, so they deliberately showed bad looks to the soldiers of the East African Guards Division.

The East African soldiers dared not speak out against these "big boss" enemy officers, mainly because their superiors had repeatedly stressed that "these are treasures, they cannot be beaten or scolded, and other than watching them to death, anything that does not violate principles or conditions can be done."

(End of this chapter)