Armored Trains and Recoilless Rifles

In preparation for war with the Ireland, just before the war began, the British Parliament temporarily recalled Governor-General Duke of Norfolk, to consult him on the current situation in Ireland.

"Gentlemen," the Duke of Norfolk said bluntly to the members of the House of Commons, "First of all, please abandon any delusion that the Ireland question can be completely resolved in a few months. Unless you are willing to give me an army of more than 500,000, don't even think about resolving the Ireland question in a few months!"

"Governor, have the Ireland rebels become this powerful now?" a member of parliament asked.

"Their so-called Irish Independence Army now numbers at least 100,000 men, and their equipment and training are no less advanced than ours. With our current forces in Ireland, let alone going out to quell the rebels, even defending our existing territory will be extremely difficult. If I cannot be given some reinforcements immediately, I may have to abandon some less important outposts to ensure the safety of several key cities," the Duke of Norfolk replied.

"Your Grace, I would like to know why, under your rule, the Ireland rebels have grown to such a dangerous extent?" asked a Whig Party. The accusation in his question was quite clear.

"I've been held hostage by the armistice you Whig Party have been upholding," Duke Norfolk retorted angrily. "Over the years, I've warned you countless times. When the ceasefire was first signed, I warned you that it would give the Ireland rebels a valuable respite and allow them to grow stronger. Since then, I've reminded you almost every two months that if you don't stop the France smuggling of weapons to the Ireland will become increasingly powerful. But what have you done? For the sake of small orders and money, you haven't dared to seriously block the Ireland from acquiring weapons. Everyone knows what those agricultural supplies the France export to Ireland every year are! Rifles called bird deterrents, directional mines called wild boar deterrents, and all sorts of other random things—it's all because of your indulgence that they've ended up in the hands of the Ireland rebels."

As the Governor-General of Ireland, I am willing to bear some responsibility for the current out-of-control situation in Ireland, but the primary responsibility lies not with me, but with you! I have said before that Ireland is a volcano about to erupt, but you won't even allow me to pour a cup of water on its crater. I have asked you to ease your plunder of Ireland, and if necessary, to show some appeasement, but what have you done? You've been collecting taxes in Ireland for the next century! You've tied my hands and feet; do you think that by placing me on the crater and relying on my weight, you can hold back the surging lava below? I have offered to resign more than once, but who among you is willing to take my place?

Now, you actually have the nerve to ask me how the Ireland rebels got to this point? Isn't it all your doing? How dare you ask me what happened?!

The Duke of Norfolk seized the opportunity to launch a scathing attack on the entire government and parliament, which can be summarized into the following points:

First, the situation in Ireland is extremely bad, absolutely terrible. It's no longer a question of how to eliminate the rebels, but rather how to avoid being eliminated by them. To maintain the situation, you need to give me money and manpower. If you give me nothing, you can expect Ireland to collapse!

Secondly, the deterioration of the situation in Ireland is entirely your responsibility. If it weren't for me, Ireland would have been finished long ago. I only deserve credit; the blame lies entirely with you. If you don't take the blame, I'm quitting! You'd better find someone else!

Third, I've been suffering all these years with no one to talk to. I need to vent now, so please listen carefully!

In short, after a heated and verbally charged consultation, the Duke of Norfolk got what he wanted.

Of course, only partially. Parliament certainly wouldn't give him 500,000 troops, because that would cost too much money. And Britain was then facing the threat of the France warship race; where would it find so much money for that?

Therefore, the Duke of Norfolk only received one-tenth of the 500,000 men—50,000 men. However, most of them were relatively elite troops. Parliament also changed its objective in Ireland to maintaining the situation rather than eliminating the rebels.

In addition, Parliament passed a resolution to blockade the Irish Sea and sabotage Ireland -controlled ports. While this was unlikely to completely cut off France support to the Ireland, it would reduce the effectiveness of France aid to the Ireland.

In fact, when the Britain and Ireland rebels reached a temporary truce a few years earlier, the Duke of Norfolk knew that the future of Ireland was uncertain. Since then, he has been preparing for the current situation.

The Duke of Norfolk made several efforts. First, he tried to hand over the position of Lieutenant-General of Ireland to anyone else; however, this effort failed. Because others weren't fools, everyone could see that Ireland was a difficult place to manage. Therefore, the Duke of Norfolk's effort failed shamefully.

Therefore, the Duke of Norfolk had no choice but to find ways to strengthen the defenses.

The advent of railways at this time provided considerable assistance to the Duke of Norfolk of Duke of Norfolk. With his support, railways were built between several important cities in Ireland. The most important of these was the railway between Dublin on the east coast and Galway on the west coast. This railway divided Ireland into northern and southern halves, making its strategic position extremely important.

The Britain could quickly mobilize their troops using this railway, while the Irish Independence Army's movements were subject to various restrictions. Of course, the Duke of Norfolk did everything he could to protect the railway.

Athlone, located in the center of this railway, became the most important military stronghold in all of Ireland. After carefully studying the French Army defenses at Verdun, the Duke of Norfolk used similar methods to build it into the most fortified stronghold, where more than 6,000 regular British Army were stationed.

Meanwhile, along the railway line, there was a heavily fortified small outpost at regular intervals. A little further away, there was a stronghold capable of garrisoning a regiment. Relying on the railway, they could quickly support each other.

In addition, the Duke of Norfolk had prepared four special armored trains for this railway. These armored trains were like battleships running on the railway line. As long as more troops could be quickly reinforced in Britain, the Duke of Norfolk felt that he could hold out for a while. Of course, this was on the premise that the France wouldn't come up with any more dirty tricks.

In addition to this railway, railways were also built between Dublin and several surrounding outposts to enhance the Britain army's rapid response capabilities. As a result, subsequent ground battles in Ireland were largely fought around the railways.

The Irish Independence Army dared to issue an ultimatum to the Britain at this time, which naturally indicated that they had a certain degree of confidence in attacking the Britain railway lines. The Ireland army has always had a weakness: a lack of heavy firepower. As a result, they have performed poorly in attacking fortified positions.

Although the Ireland imported explosive charges, demolition charges, and even Flying Thunder Cannon and grenade launchers from the France, these items were actually not very effective in assaults. Explosive charges and demolition charges could only be used at point-blank range, and charging forward often required enormous sacrifices.

The Flying Thunder Cannon had a rather limited range, its accuracy was also problematic, and the preparation time was too long. Especially after the France developed electric lights, the Britain imported a lot of high-powered searchlights from France, which made it very difficult for the Ireland to deploy Flying Thunder Cannon at close range at night.

As for grenade launchers, they were too weak and had virtually no penetrating power, making them almost useless against bunkers. Conventional artillery, on the other hand, was too heavy, had poor mobility, and was inconvenient for counter-offensive operations requiring frequent movement. Furthermore, they were expensive, and the France couldn't afford to provide much aid. Therefore, until the start of the war, the Independence Army possessed very few proper artillery pieces.

But this doesn't mean the Independence Army lacked artillery. The France always liked to give the Ireland new concept weapons to experiment with. This time was no exception. Not long ago, a brand-new "infantry cannon" was delivered to the Ireland.

This is a metal cylinder with a relatively slender tripod, and its structure looks very simple. The France gave it a name: "Gustav Infantry Gun".

Military advisor Mr. Noardier de Villefort introduced this "cannon" to the soldiers of the Independence Army in the following way:

"The Gustav Infantry Gun was the world's first recoilless cannon and the world's first true infantry gun, because a few infantrymen could carry it around. It could be mounted on a tripod to ensure accuracy, but in an emergency, it could even be carried directly on one's shoulder and fired."

Its 84mm shells are very effective against various fortifications. Of course, its range is relatively short, with a direct fire range of only about 400 meters. So when you use it, you'll already be within range of the enemy's rifles.

"At 400 meters, even if you put an elephant there, the Britain wouldn't be able to hit it," a soldier said dismissively.

"This cannon has no recoil? How is that possible? It doesn't conform to Newton's third law of motion!" Company Commander Bob asked.

"It's not completely without recoil, just quite a bit," Noardier replied. "This cannon has a nozzle at the rear. When firing a shell, some of the propellant gases are expelled from the rear, creating a counter-recoil that cancels out the main recoil from the original shell, so there's practically no recoil. Of course, this also means that no one can be behind this cannon when it's firing, otherwise, they'll be roasted. Also, this cannon can't be fired in an enclosed space. There can't be walls or steep slopes behind it when it's firing, otherwise, the ricocheting flames will turn the gunner into a roasted goose."

Compared to the authentic Gustav Recoilless Rifle of later generations, the French recoilless rifles of this era were far inferior in performance. The later Gustav Recoilless Rifle used titanium alloy barrels and carbon fiber winding technology, which made the gun weigh only 6.6 kilograms when unloaded.

However, these kinds of things didn't exist in that era, so the France "Gustav" gun barrel was made of solid steel. And because the quality of the steel couldn't compare to later models, it had to be slightly thicker. Furthermore, the manufacturing technology for the nozzle was significantly different from later models, making the nozzle much heavier. In the end, the entire gun barrel alone weighed over thirty kilograms. So, although theoretically this gun could be shoulder-fired, unless you were a very strong man, you really couldn't lift it. Whenever possible, it was best to use a tripod.

Therefore, this cannon requires a considerable number of personnel: two people to carry the barrel in shifts, one person to carry the tripod, three people to carry the shells, and four people to protect it, making up a squad. It also redefines the squad weapon.

However, to people of that era, this was hardly a drawback—such a light cannon, even if its direct fire range was only 400 meters, was still a dream weapon. As for having a whole squad of men for one cannon, wasn't that the norm?

What truly troubled the Ireland was the exorbitant price of the cannon shells. Although, considering the Ireland lack of funds and the strategic importance of supporting the Ireland liberation cause, the Irish Independence Army could obtain weapons from the France at prices even lower than what the France army could get for their own purchases, the cost of these impact-fused shells remained prohibitively high. Even Chairman Russell, upon learning the price of these cannon shells, exclaimed:

"This cannonball is really more expensive than a carriage with four horses. Just imagine, one shot and both of those carriages would be gone. And if it missed, it would be a real heartache."

Russell had already expressed such sentiments, let alone the combat troops. They even stipulated that if a gunner missed their target during combat, they would be disciplined. It is said that some commanders, upon learning the price of this thing, even exclaimed, "This thing is so precious; whenever possible, use explosive charges and demolition tubes."