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 was never the first choice in war.
Although there is only one brigade in East Africa across the river, there are many emergencies on the battlefield and the intelligence on both sides is very limited, so British commander Rost must be cautious about the situation.
No one is sure whether there will be reinforcements in East Africa in the future, when the reinforcements will arrive Tugela River, or how many reinforcements will come.
The isolation policy in East Africa played a great role at this time. In turn, it was difficult for East Africa to get information about the actions and plans of the Natal Colony British army. If it was Durban and other places behind Natal, intelligence personnel might be deployed. As for the Tugela River front line, there was no such opportunity, and it would be easy to be discovered if they broke into the war zone.
Under the dim light, British commander Rost was discussing the summary of today's battle with his subordinates.
Rost looked very ugly. He hit a wall in the first game when he first arrived in South Africa. This was completely different from what he had expected before coming to South Africa.
The subordinates looked at Rost's gloomy face and did not dare to breathe. Especially several commanders of the British army's Indians unit, who were afraid that Rost would take out his anger on themselves.
"Today's battle made me very dissatisfied with all the troops. Four attacks were all repelled by East Africans, and Tugela River is not an insurmountable natural hazard. In this case, East Africans cannot be defeated. Then if we are in the Drakensberg Mountains later, won't we be unable to move forward?"
"Both our army's fighting will and military capabilities have not been reflected. Instead, it has lost face in front of East Africa. If our army loses face, it will lose Great British Empire's face!"
The commander of the British Army's Indians unit retorted, "Division 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 reasonable. I have clearly seen the performance of the Indian soldiers. Is that poor performance? That is cowardice before fighting. I can forget about the last landing operation, but the first three failures were all because your subordinate Indians took the lead in escaping and had a bad impact."
Although the fourth river-crossing operation also failed, it did cause some damage to the East African Army, and the "entire army" of the landing combat troops was annihilated, so it was in line with Rost's psychological expectations. After all, we did not expect the troops to cross the Tugela River defense line and defeat East African National Defense Army in one go. However, it does not make sense that the first three operations failed, and there is no reason to evade responsibility.
"Division Commander, in my opinion, the most important problem is not a morale problem, but a hardware problem. 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. This is not in line with our previous colonial combat model.
The second is that our army is not fully prepared, especially the ships, which makes every landing operation ship seem to be stretched thin.
Therefore, if we want to overcome difficulties, we must think of ways from these two directions instead of blaming the lower-level troops. After all, Indians themselves are the ruled. They are inferior to us Anglo-Saxons in terms of thinking, quality, etc. This is a racial gap, and the inherent disadvantages cannot be made up for. "
In just two or three sentences, he threw away all his responsibilities. After all, this was also what British thought. If the Indian soldiers were bloody, then Britain would not be able to colonize India so easily.
"We won't discuss this issue now. We are the army. The army wants to win the war and achieve strategic goals. No matter what the reason is, I must find a way to break through East Africans's defense line. Now you come up with a feasible plan." Rost said.
"Division Commander, in my opinion, we were in the wrong direction before. Compared with East Africa, our biggest advantage is that we have sufficient troops. This can be seen from the number of artillery. Although the power of East African artillery is not weak, its density is far less than ours. Therefore, East Africa is in The troops on the Tugela River frontline are definitely smaller than ours, so to take advantage of our advantage, we should break through at multiple points instead of attacking in key directions. We should consider the entire Tugela River river basin to always find an ideal place to break through and open a hole."
"Very good, but this requires us to prepare more ships. It would be better if we could build a pontoon on the river, but it may delay the fighter plane. Today we have lost three-fifths of the ships in four attacks. If we build it now, it will probably take a lot of time."
"Commander, this issue may be considered flexibly. We can directly make a batch of simple rafts. Tugela River is not too wide. Ropes and tree trunks can be used to allow soldiers with good water properties to build pontoons. Of course, the biggest problem is There are too many crocodiles in the Tugela River, which may pose a certain threat, and building a pontoon in a large area may be noticed by East Africans, so it is best to operate at night, but operating on the river at night is definitely more difficult than during the day."
After discussion, British finally gave up their conservative play style. Spending time with East Africans at the Tugela River made them lose their patience.
Although this will help ensure the safety of our own personnel, after all, the Indian cannon fodder on the front line is not one of our own, and British will not feel sad if Indians bleeds dry. This is the same as using black troops in East Africa.
Of course, East African Army no longer exists as Black auxiliary troops, and even logistics are mainly based on citizens of the country.
The current use of black people in East Africa is mainly to maintain production, and military recruitment has had a great impact on East Africa, especially on the young labor force. This also further increased the labor intensity of East African Black people during the war.
This model in East Africa was actually very common in the early days. Boers was also like this in South Africa at the beginning. Boers acted as force, and black people created value as slaves.
Later, the needs of industrial and agricultural development in East Africa caused a large number of people in East Africa to engage in production activities, and the previous model of military activities was transformed. Now with the start of the war, it has returned to the right track again.
British plans to attack across the board, but Ninth Brigade on the other side of the river has no idea of holding on.
"The brigade commander and volunteers have all withdrawn to New Hamburg City. Now only soldiers exist on the entire Tugela River defense line."
Aristotle: "Very good, we also have to make plans to evacuate, but we can't let British have a good time. We must slow down the British army's speed and efficiency in the area leading to New Hamburg City and along the railway. And now I have a plan. As long as it is implemented in place, it is likely to bring us surprises."
"Brigadier, your plan..."
"There is no rush now. After we give British the final blow at the Tugela River, we will have time to arrange it. All in all, we must preserve our strength as much as possible. The military region has sent news that we may not be able to wait for reinforcements, and Starting from the day after tomorrow, they plan to cut off Central Railway. We can only rely on New Hamburg City to deal with the British army. Now our most important task is to cause trouble for British while ensuring our strength."