Chapter 388: Change of Teacher
Without heavy firepower cover, the 514th Division could only advance slowly, at a snail's pace, searching for cover while firing back. The East African Army and the Pretoria defenders entered garbage time.
This made Wiggins very proud. He said to the "Young Patriots": "I said the Germans were no match. Who do they think they are facing this time? Primitive people like the Ndebele people!"
The patriotic young people in Pretoria also became calm from being nervous. After all, they were facing the Germans, and the German region was a place of war in Europe. With the image of Prussia and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, no one doubted the fighting power of the Germans. Moreover, the enemy had a large number of people, while their side had only more than 2,000 people (not counting the natives). It was inevitable that they were a little nervous before the war. But now, seeing that the strength of the 514th Division was just so-so, they suddenly felt that they were fine again.
Ernst concluded in the rear: "Troops 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 the shortcomings of our army!"
The natives are certainly not incapable of building cities, but their cities are quite primitive. Apart from the Ndebele people who gave up their cities and chose to fight in the wild with East Africa, and the Sultanate of Zanzibar which allowed East Africa to take advantage of its internal strife, the most difficult walls the East African Kingdom has ever encountered in Africa are the primitive city walls built by several indigenous kingdoms in the Great Lakes region.
To put it bluntly, these cities were built randomly with stones and have no aesthetic appeal. They might be used to defend against wild beasts and surrounding tribes, but they are impossible to deal with any slightly civilized forces. The only large city building independently built by black people in the whole of black Africa (sub-Saharan Africa) is the Great Zimbabwe ruins.
The wall of Pretoria was temporarily built before the war. Wiggins used a mixture of bricks, stones and soil to connect the houses and buildings outside the city of Pretoria. Fortunately, it did not rain in Pretoria these days, otherwise this temporary wall would likely collapse. Although it was a temporary structure, it had shooting holes, gun emplacements, machine gun forts, and was thick enough to withstand two or three rounds of artillery fire.
However, so far, Wiggins has not used advanced weapons such as artillery and machine guns, because he knows that East Africans also have artillery. The small-caliber artillery of the East Africans played a big role during the last Ndebele uprising.
The Boers did not have many artillery pieces, but their caliber and power were much larger than the small-caliber artillery pieces in East Africa. Their only drawback was their poor mobility and inability to move around at will, so they could only be used for defense and siege.
Logically speaking, the Boers would not use this kind of weapon against the Boers, so it goes without saying what the Boers purchased this kind of artillery to deal with, and that was the British Cape Town colony.
"Commander, let's fire a few artillery shells at the Germans outside the city!" suggested a Boer soldier.
Wiggins waved his hand and said, "You don't understand. The Germans are only conducting a tentative attack. Although there are many troops in front of us, they are not their main force. They haven't used artillery yet, which means they didn't take us seriously from the beginning. Now their vanguard troops can't make any progress, and the troops behind them must be busy. That's when our artillery will be able to show its power."
"Commander, since the enemy also has artillery, how powerful is their artillery?"
Wiggins: "Don't worry. The artillery the Germans in East Africa are equipped with is very weak and there are not many of them."
This is normal. In the past, apart from the coastal defense artillery that East Africa paid more attention to, the artillery equipped by the army was more like a symbolic weapon. Rifles were enough to deal with the natives, and artillery was only used to deal with those fearless African natives and to undermine their morale. Therefore, the number of artillery equipped by the East African Army was not large. For example, all the troops of the entire Southern Route Army had only a dozen artillery pieces combined, and the bottom-ranked troops such as the 514th Division did not even have one. Only the 511th and 512th Divisions were equipped with artillery.
The 514th Division, without artillery, naturally could not bombard Pretoria and break the situation. Of course, war does not necessarily mean victory with stronger firepower. The 514th Division was obviously not adapted to siege warfare, so it was unprepared when facing the city for the first time and was at a loss.
Ernst then ordered: "Let the 514th Division withdraw. It's time to test the capabilities of the newly formed 111th Division."
As Ernst's order was issued, the 514th Division began to retreat, which made the Boers very happy. Some people even mocked that the Germans were nothing special. Only Wiggins felt heavy in his heart. The East African Kingdom withdrew its troops without even launching a large-scale attack. Although Pretoria had been transformed by himself and could fight, it was not as unbreakable as he said in order to stabilize the morale of the army. Instead, it was full of loopholes.
After all, the fortifications were built in just a few days, so how good was the quality? Wiggins knew clearly that as long as the East African army charged at all costs, they would definitely be able to break through, and at most they would lose a hundred or so people to reach the edge of Pretoria. Obviously, the East African army did not want to pay such a small price, which meant that they had better means and methods to attack.
The newly formed 111th Division, one of the main forces in East Africa, was reformed with officers composed of students of the Hechingen Military Academy who had participated in the Franco-Prussian War. These officers were typical academicians and could not be compared with the Hechingen students who were trained in crash courses before.
For example, the Chief of Staff of the East African Army, General Siwete, was a graduate of a crash course. He would not be able to compete in theory with the Hexingen students who had only studied for three years.
The most commendable thing is that these students have seen blood. They had fought against the world's number one army, the French Army, more than a year ago and won. They have a record of combat experience, so they are confident when reorganizing the 111th Division in the Tanganyika region.
The equipment of the 111th Division was also greatly improved. Except for the artillery which was far inferior to that of the Prussian army, it had almost no shortcomings.
As the 111th Division came on the field, its commander Chris began to command the troops. Compared with the 514th Division, the 111th Division's command was obviously smoother. After dividing their respective areas of responsibility, each unit began to work in an orderly manner.
The 111th Division did not use artillery right away. Instead, it estimated the safe distance and used small forces to advance into the Pretoria fortifications. This distance was about 450 meters. Because the Boers' weapons were more mixed and their ranges varied, the 111th Division calculated based on the Dreiser rifles they used that there was almost no impact at about 450 meters.
After building a preliminary defensive position at a position of 450 meters, the engineers began to work. They used engineering shovels and hoes to dig tunnels and move forward.
Wiggins, standing on the wall of Pretoria, also saw the actions 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 advance!"
At this time Wiggins was a little hesitant. The rifles certainly could not attack the East African Army at this distance. If artillery was used, the East African frontier positions could be bombarded, but the East African artillery had not yet come on the field. Wiggins still had to keep the limited artillery shells to restrain the East African Army. He could only send people out of the position to actively attack the East African frontier positions!
"Pass on my order. The Third Battalion will leave the trenches and attack the East African positions to disrupt their construction work! We cannot let the East African conspiracy succeed."
Subsequently, the Transvaal Army, which was 90% black, was forced by the Boer commanders to step out of the trenches and launch an attack on East Africa.
"Charge, charge, you bastards, what are you still standing there for? 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 had deliberately concealed the Gatling-style shock for them, and the black machine gun muzzle was now pointing at them.
(End of this chapter)
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