Morale Was Still High

Fett River Defense Line.

As East Africa's longest-built and most impregnable defensive line, it had withstood more than a dozen Boer and British assaults since the war began.

In truth, using East Africa's Fett River Defense Line against the Boers felt like using a butcher's knife to kill a chicken—like the Macedonian Line being meant not to resist Germany, but Belgium instead.

Merke had already begun personally commanding the Battle of the Fett River, preparing to bring an end to three months of passive defense.

"At midnight tonight, we cross the river. We must wipe out the Transvaalers on the opposite bank in the shortest possible time. Our army will attack from three directions and completely remove the Boer Republic, this nail embedded in our territory," Merke said at headquarters.

Hutzeendorf asked, "General Merke, why launch a night battle? You hold an absolute advantage in both troop strength and firepower. There is no need to launch a counterattack at night. The darkness may instead interfere with your operations and make mistakes more likely."

"Night is indeed no good time for battle, especially when the enemy is thoroughly prepared on the other side of the river. You will have to deal with all kinds of problems, including unfamiliarity with the terrain and the enemy's defensive positions," Pletz added from the side.

Merke explained, "There is no need to worry about that. We have long since mapped out the enemy's defensive deployment. Although the Boers have built fortifications on the opposite bank, their engineering is utterly incomparable to ours. Do not be fooled by how impregnable our Fett River Defense Line appears—it was built with a massive investment of manpower, a resource the Boers across the river simply cannot muster."

The Boers' greatest weakness was their sparse population. Historically, there should have