African Entrepreneurship Record-Chapter 749 - 53 Journey 9

The East African Defense Army has constructed many bunkers along the banks of the Turkana River, some directly built near the river beach, with machine gun openings to intercept the river surface, especially at bends in the river.

In April, South Africa has not yet entered the rainy season, so the Tugela River's water is not abundant, but it is not dry either, because the west is influenced by the Drakensberg Mountains, making the terrain rainfall relatively rich, and the dry season is not as pronounced as in other areas of East Africa, giving the Tugela River a considerable amount of water.

This was also an important reason why Lesotho became the "water tower" of South Africa in the previous life, as the South African Republic's water diversion project was to buy water from Lesotho and then supplement the industrial water needs of the northern regions.

Overall, the British Army chose a good time to cross the river, as it was the Tugela River's low-water season, though it also posed certain difficulties. However, for East Africa, defending the Tugela River was not easy.

The Tugela River is very winding due to the terrain impact, with many large river bends, lengthening the river channel and necessitating a very long defense line design.

The East African Ninth Brigade totals more than 5,700 people, a number that previously exceeded some East African divisions, resulting from East Africa's military expansion.

However, the Ninth Brigade's defense area directly exceeds 200 kilometers, with fewer than 6,000 troops needing to defend such a long border, making prolonged resistance against the British troops from the Natal colony impossible for East Africa's Ninth Brigade.

As long as the British continue attacking persistently, they will eventually find suitable locations to cross the river, but the main trouble now is the limited number of river-crossing vessels for the British Army.

After all, development throughout the East African region is very weak. To date, East Africa, as Africa's only strong infrastructure nation, is still building various basic projects nationwide. However, roads, canals, bridges, etc., are visibly different from Eurasian countries, and on the whole, are only somewhat stronger than South America.

However, South America's large-scale projects are weak, but small-scale infrastructure within regions should be above East Africa's, especially Argentina and Brazil, where conditions are good in areas with concentrated populations.

Especially Argentina, whose railway growth rate is no slower than East Africa's, backed by British capital, allowing Argentina to develop rapidly.

East Africa's infrastructure level can rank first in Africa, which speaks volumes about other colonies or African countries' levels.

As for the Tugela River basin, previously the Zulu people lived here, who were "factually" the savages, with zero development of the Tugela River basin.

After East Africa and the British took over, the Tugela River basin hasn't undergone much change, mainly with East Africa constructing a lot of military facilities in the area.

The British have no such demands, as the world's foremost power, the British tend to be the attacker and do not need to invest much in defense.

After all, no country dares take the initiative to conflict with Britain, and Germany's national power has not yet reached the capital to contend with Britain, while the U.S. is excluded from the world center by Europe, only able to flex its muscles in the Americas.

Moreover, the Tugela River marks the boundary between Britain and East Africa, with no commercial exchanges; neither side develops the Tugela River basin, so the shipping industry naturally doesn't thrive, making a lack of vessels understandable.

Of course, the Tugela River itself lacks the potential for developing the shipping industry; just the Tugela waterfall group is enough to interrupt local shipping conditions.

East Africa is facing a situation where the Allies are attacking on three large fronts simultaneously, with many more minor directions to consider, while still guarding against the Egyptian British troops in the northern area.

So East African troops are distributed quite evenly across each battlefield, which makes the troop pressure somewhat tight. The only region with advantageous forces is the Eastern Military District, effectively divided into two parts: the Guard Division and the Eastern Military District. Though the Guard Division belongs to the Eastern Military District sequence, it is actually an independent unit.

In summary, the Ninth Brigade is bearing huge pressure it shouldn't have, should it manage to fend off the British Army's three river-crossing attempts, it'll have exceeded its capability.

In this regard, the Ninth Brigade should thank the British Army commander; their eagerness has caused the current situation.

This is largely related to the British commander's underestimating the enemy because this time the British Army's main force comes from the British Indian Army, accustomed as they are to winning with ease, thinking they can deploy in Africa like in South Asia. However, East Africa's military strength now exceeds that of Europe's medium and small countries, and can even be ranked within Europe.

Ninth Brigade's Frontline Command.

"Brigadier, we have observed that the enemy is about to launch a new wave of offensive, their river-crossing forces have regrouped completely!"

Brigadier Alydot did not immediately give instructions but instead asked, "What time is it now?"

"It is already five twenty-three in the afternoon, with about an hour left until dark."

Alydot analyzed, "Currently the British commander only knows brute force, having organized three large-scale landing operations during the day, all repelled by our advantageous firepower, but our ammunition consumption is intense, particularly for machine guns. They're very effective against small river-crossing vessels, even directly destroying the ship structure, causing the British entire river-crossing assault force to be scrapped."

"Alas, the Maxim machine gun is easy to use but our East African production capacity is very limited, and in less than a day we've consumed a fifth of our inventory."

"The Maxim machine gun is very effective against enemy small landing ships, making the British Army on the river sitting ducks, just a round of sweep fires exhaust their battle patience entirely, severely impacting the enemy's morale."

Frontline units of the Ninth Brigade have given very positive feedback about the machine guns, but the ammunition consumption situation is also alarming.

This made Brigadier Alydot ponder the usage mode of machine guns, given their immense power. Concentrating them to counter enemy large-scale assaults, what effect would ensue?

Most importantly, the machine gun efficiency has not met Alydot's expectations; this kind of large-scale destructive demand should be applied to a large-scale frontal land battlefield.

Using them to intercept British troops crossing the river is somewhat extravagant; many soldiers fight zealously but tend to overlook ammunition usage.

Therefore Alydot said, "If we use machine guns as fire output points, we can effectively intercept British river-crossing troops. But if we organize machine guns into a shooting belt, what effect will it cause on enemy casualties?"

After all, the British combat mode mainly relies on line-up execution tactics. If East Africa can simultaneously organize machine guns to sweep the enemy, imagine the scene, it would be very efficient.

Currently, the Ninth Brigade uses machine guns as defensive weapons targeting enemy landing operations, but this doesn't maximize the machine guns' effectiveness, since the British landing forces are scattered.

Alydot's thought provoked everyone's thoughts within the brigade, this approach seems very feasible, but before seeing practical effects, everyone couldn't be entirely sure of its feasibility.

Seeing no meaningful suggestions raised, Alydot had to keep this thought in mind, and now the main thing is to repel the enemy's fourth river crossing attempt and buy more time for the entire New Hamburg Port City.

So Alydot ordered, "Before dark, repel the enemy's fourth attack. Once it's dark, it will be harder for the British to cross the river. The volunteers supporting us from New Hamburg Port City will withdraw; we need to block the British for at least two days before retreating to New Hamburg Port City. During this time we must conserve bullets, especially machine-gun ammunition, at least pre-store more than half."