Chapter 742 Great Victory
The Maxim machine gun has great destructive power, but the Indian troops seem to be "fearless" and launch continuous attacks, which is completely different from the performance of Indian soldiers at the Tugela River.
"No one is allowed to retreat!" The British supervision team in the rear played a big role.
In fact, in this situation, the British and Indians were also anxious, but just like when the stampede happened, the rear did not know the situation in the front and rushed forward, the errors in command and coordination led to the Indian soldiers in the front knowing the situation, but the Indian soldiers in the rear did not, and the British supervision team behind the Indians had no idea about it.
If it was a regular British division, the commander might have discovered the problem quickly, but the senior commander of the Indian division was British.
The plain terrain limited the British commanders' knowledge of what was happening on the front lines, and the Indian soldiers' retreat was actually a very common occurrence. After all, the British were well aware that the Indians had a weak will to fight. In other words, it would be abnormal if the Indians did not flee to the rear.
If you could look down from a high altitude at this time, you would find a very strange battlefield situation. East African machine gunners were slaughtering Indian soldiers on a large scale in the front, while the British supervision team was urging the Indian soldiers behind to keep filling up the front.
After more than twenty minutes of development, the British commander finally discovered the change in the situation on the battlefield. That is, the number of Indian troops had decreased sharply, and as the number of corpses increased, the brutality of the battle in the front could be vaguely seen in the rear of the battlefield.
It is no exaggeration to say that there were corpses everywhere. It was impossible for the Indian soldiers in the rear to move forward as the hill of corpses blocked their way.
As the truth spread, the fear that the Indian soldiers had already developed reached a critical point and then exploded.
This fear exceeded their fear of the British. They rushed to the rear desperately, trying to escape, even under the threat of bullets from the British supervision team, they fled to the rear regardless of everything.
The Indian troops went completely "crazy", causing the entire British front line to collapse directly, and the situation was quickly transmitted to the main British forces in the rear.
No one knew what the Indians had experienced that made them so terrified, and Rossiter ordered the British army to intercept the Indian soldiers, but with little success.
At this time, the East African artillery also began to fire at the rear of the British army, further deepening the fear of the Indian soldiers.
Now they had only one idea in their minds, and that was to escape from this hell. Rost was very annoyed. The Indian soldiers who retreated from the front line were like crazy, attacking the main formation of the British army, and now they couldn't figure out the reason.
Could it be that there was more than one brigade in East Africa, but there were more troops lying in ambush? This led to the great defeat of the Indian troops.
The two Indian divisions have four times the number of troops as the East Africans. Even if they cannot defeat an East African brigade, they should not have been defeated so badly.
At this time, after observing the chaos of the British army, the commander of the 9th East African Brigade, Alejandro D., decisively ordered his troops to retreat.
"The entire brigade will evacuate to the port city of New Hamburg. The artillery and the wounded will evacuate first. The 1st Battalion of the 2nd Regiment will be responsible for staying behind to continue blocking the enemy along the highway and slowing down the enemy's march."
There was no point in staying at this time. With this "waste", most of the 9th Brigade's ammunition had been emptied, and if the British army caught up with them, the 9th Brigade would inevitably face the risk of annihilation, as the enemy already had an absolute advantage in numbers.
Taking advantage of the chaos in the British army, the 9th East African Brigade began to flee. At this time, the British commander, Division Commander Rossiter, was still in a state of panic.
There were too many of these fleeing Indian soldiers, and it would take a lot of time to suppress them. At the same time, they had to guard against attacks from the East Africans. However, he did not expect that the 9th East African Brigade had no desire to fight at this time and had already started to run away.
As time went by, the British army finally "pacified" the defeated Indian troops under Rossiter's command. At the same time, due to the "sudden situation" of this war, Rossiter had to order the British army to rest in place, and the situation of the fighting between the two armies during the day was also compiled and reported.
"According to the description of the Indian soldiers, the East Africans were using a new type of machine gun. We did not seize anything, but from the description of the Indians and the characteristics of the machine gun, it should be the Maxim machine gun that appeared in Europe. I did not expect that the East African army was equipped with a large number of this new type of machine gun. This shows that the Maxim machine gun is very mature and can be used on the battlefield. Its performance far exceeds that of the Gatling gun."
Rost: "What about the results of the Maxim machine gun? The East Africans defeated our army, which was several times their size, with just machine guns. Isn't that a bit exaggerated?"
Rost had heard of the Maxim machine gun, but this type of machine gun had not been widely promoted in Europe, or had not been used in large-scale actual combat. Moreover, Rost could not believe that such a small machine gun could achieve such amazing results.
After all, the British army also had machine guns, although not the Maxim, but the Gatling had never achieved such a record, so Rossiter could not imagine that a machine gun could bring such an effect.
"According to our military statistics, more than 7,000 Indian soldiers were killed or wounded today, including more than 4,000 killed in action and more than 3,000 wounded." When he said this, the subordinates trembled a little.
Rost's face turned black. In just one battle in the afternoon, half of a division's troops were destroyed. Although all the dead were Indian soldiers, the number was far beyond Rost's psychological expectations.
At the same time, the great defeat of the Indian troops can also be explained. With such high casualties, it would be unreasonable not to have a great defeat.
Then Rossiter began to think about how to deal with the outcome of this war. More than 7,000 casualties was not a small number. Even though he was British, he could not shirk the responsibility for the failure of this war.
If there were only three or four thousand casualties, Rost would have a way to obscure it through his personal connections, but more than seven thousand was beyond his ability. What Rost is most thankful for now is that most of the dead were Indian soldiers. If his own division faced this situation, he would not have to do anything and could go directly to a military court.
Rost paced back and forth anxiously in the division headquarters, thinking about how to "beautify" the war situation.
It is impossible to conceal the fact that so many people were killed and wounded, because the number is too large, so we can only find a way to deal with it from the enemy.
First of all, as before, we must exaggerate the strength of the East African army. The calculation of East Africa's strength must be that the enemy has an advantage and our army is at a disadvantage, so that large casualties will not appear abrupt.
The second is the exaggeration of the enemy's use of weapons, especially the role of the Maxim machine gun. If the Maxim machine gun is not praised to the sky, then this incident is difficult to explain.
"Did we capture any prisoners this time?" Rost asked!
"We captured three East African soldiers alive, but they are all seriously injured and are still in a coma."
"Heal them quickly, send my personal doctor over, and make sure to find out the organization of the East African army on the opposite side." Rost said.
"Also, you need to start organizing a discussion about the analysis of the Maxim machine gun. This 'horrible' killing weapon, which our army does not have, is the main cause of casualties in the war. The Military Intelligence Department should bear a great responsibility."
"This fully demonstrates that the East Africans have increased their military investment, while 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)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
