Chapter 738: Both Sides’ Plans
As night fell, both sides of the Tugela River defense line fell into silence. As for crossing the river in the dark, it was not within the British army's consideration. Night fighting has never been the first choice in war.
Although there was only one brigade of troops from East Africa on the other side of the river, there were many emergencies on the battlefield and the intelligence of both sides was very limited, so the British commander Rossiter had to be cautious of the situation.
No one is sure whether there will be reinforcements from East Africa, when they will arrive at the Tugela River, and how many reinforcements will come.
East Africa's policy of isolation played a huge role at this time. In turn, it was difficult for East Africa to obtain information about the actions and plans of the British army in the Natal colony. If it was in Durban and other places behind Natal, it might be possible to station intelligence personnel, but as for the Tugela River front, there was no such opportunity at all, and it was easy to be discovered if you broke into the war zone.
Under the dim light, the British commander, Division Commander Rossiter, was discussing the day's battle summary with his subordinates.
Rost looked very unhappy. He encountered setback in the first battle after arriving in South Africa. This was completely different from what he had expected before coming to South Africa.
The subordinates looked at Rossiter's gloomy face and dared not breathe, especially the commanders of the British Indian troops, who were afraid that Rossiter would vent his anger on them.
"Today's battle made me very dissatisfied with all the troops. All four attacks were repelled by the East Africans. The Tugela River is not an insurmountable natural barrier. If we can't defeat the East Africans under such circumstances, then won't we be unable to move forward in the Drakensberg Mountains?"
"Neither our army's fighting spirit nor its military capabilities have been demonstrated. Instead, we have lost face in front of East Africa. If our army loses face, it means the British Empire has lost face!"
The commander of the British Indian troops retorted: "Divisional Commander, it's not that we don't want to work hard, but the quality of Indian soldiers is too poor. Although these attacks have not been effective, our troops have also suffered huge casualties."
Rost: "Humph, you are right. I saw clearly the performance of the Indian soldiers. Was it a poor performance? It was cowardice before the battle. I can forgive the last landing operation, but the first three failures were all because your Indians took the lead in escaping, which caused a bad impact."
Although the fourth river crossing operation also failed, it did cause some damage to the East African army, and the landing combat troops were "completely" wiped out, so it still met Rossiter's psychological expectations. After all, he did not expect the troops to cross the Tugela River defense line and defeat the East African Defense Force in one go. However, the failure of the first three operations did not make sense, and there was no reason to evade responsibility.
"Commander, in my opinion, the main problem is not morale, but hardware. I think there are two points that are beyond the capabilities of our army. The first is that East Africa is equipped with a large number of heavy weapons, and the level is not bad, which does not conform to our previous colonial combat mode.
The second reason is that our army was not fully prepared, especially the ships were not well prepared, which made the ships seem to be stretched inadequately for every landing operation.
Therefore, if we want to overcome difficulties, we must think of ways from these two directions, rather than blaming the lower-level troops. After all, Indians are the ruled. They are not as good as us Anglo-Saxons in terms of thinking and quality. This is a racial gap, and the inherent inferiority cannot make up for it. "
With just two or three sentences, they completely threw away their responsibilities. After all, this was also the British idea. If the Indian soldiers had some courage, it would not have been so easy for Britain to colonize India.
"Let's not discuss this issue now. We are the army. The army is to win battles and achieve strategic goals. No matter what the reason is, we must find a way to break through the East Africans' defense line. Now you have to come up with a feasible plan." Rost said.
"Division Commander, in my opinion, we were heading in the wrong direction before. Compared with East Africa, our biggest advantage is that we have sufficient manpower, which can be seen from the number of artillery pieces. Although East Africa's artillery is powerful, its density is far less than ours, so East Africa's manpower along the Tugela River must be less than ours. So to play to our strengths, we should make breakthroughs at multiple points instead of attacking a key direction. We should consider the entire Tugela River basin and we will always be able to find an ideal place to break through and then tear open a gap."
"Very good, but this will require us to prepare more boats. It would be even better if we could build a floating bridge on the river, but it might delay the battle. We lost three-fifths of our boats in four attacks today. If we build one now, it will probably take a lot of time."
"Division Commander, this problem may be flexible. We can directly make a batch of simple rafts. The Tugela River is not too wide. We can use ropes and tree trunks and let soldiers who are good at swimming build floating bridges. Of course, the biggest problem is that there are too many crocodiles in the Tugela River, which may pose a certain threat. In addition, building floating bridges over a large area may be noticed by East Africans, so it is best to act at night. However, it is definitely more difficult to operate on the river at night than during the day."
After discussion, the British finally gave up their conservative strategy. They had lost their patience with the East Africans in the Tugela River.
Although this is helpful in ensuring the safety of their own personnel, after all, the Indian cannon fodder rushing to the front line is not considered their own people, and the British will not feel any pity even if the Indians bleed to death. This is the same as using black troops in East Africa.
Of course, there are no black vassal troops in the East African army now, and even the logistics are mainly based on the country's own citizens.
The current use of blacks in East Africa is mainly to maintain production and military conscription, which still has a great impact on East Africa, especially on the young labor force. This also further increases the labor intensity of blacks in East Africa during the war.
This model in East Africa was actually very common in the early days. It was the same with the Boers in South Africa. The Boers acted as military force, while the blacks created value as slaves.
Later, due to the need for industrial and agricultural development in East Africa, a large number of people in East Africa engaged in production activities, changing the previous mode of mainly military activities. Now, with the outbreak of the war, things are back on track.
…
The British planned to attack on all fronts, but the 9th Brigade on the other side of the river had no intention of holding out.
"Commander, the volunteers have all retreated to the port city of New Hamburg. Now only soldiers remain on the entire Tugela River defense line."
Aristotle: "Very good, we also need to make plans for evacuation, but we can't let the British have it too easy. We must slow down the British army's speed and efficiency in the areas leading to the port of New Hamburg and along the railway. And now I have a plan. As long as it is implemented in place, it is very likely to bring us surprises."
"Brigade Commander, your plan..."
"There's no rush now. After we deal the final blow to the British at the Tugela River, we'll have time to make arrangements. In short, we must preserve our strength as much as possible. The military district has sent a message that we may not be able to wait for reinforcements, and starting the day after tomorrow, they plan to cut off the Central Railway. We can only rely on the New Hamburg Port City to deal with the British Army. Now our most important task is to create trouble for the British while ensuring our manpower."
(End of this chapter)
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