Chapter 1182: Chapter 191: Battlefield Inquiry
For the East African Defense Army, relatively speaking, it is quite fortunate, as the development of the East African Defense Army has progressed steadily.
At first, the enemies in East Africa were beasts and natives, then it became the relatively advanced Arabs, afterward the Portuguese Colony and Boers, and finally the two world powers, the United Kingdom and Portugal.
This is also Ernst’s prudent approach to colonizing Africa, after all, if the East African Colony had faced the Portuguese colonial government at the beginning, there would have been no chance for survival.
After all, the Portuguese have operated in Africa for hundreds of years and are quite skilled in their methods, whereas many other countries have suffered losses, and the East African Defense Army evolved from a colonial army, taking the easy targets first and the hard ones later.
However, the East African Defense Army also has its regrets, especially concerning the Army; at least the Navy has had engagements with the British Royal Navy, which is undoubtedly the strongest navy in the world.
In terms of world armies, there is no doubt that Germany and France are in the top tier; Germany established its reputation as a top army by defeating France in the Prussia-France War, and the French Army has always been considered Europe’s most powerful, even before World War I, they boasted of being Europe’s number one army.
The East African Defense Army’s army and the armies of Britain, the United States, and other great powers are naturally classified into the second tier.
Although East Africa has a record of defeating the British Army, Britain has never been known for its land forces, let alone during the South African War, where the British Army included many colonial troops and Indians.
Therefore, defeating the British Army is not something worth boasting about, at least not to the strongest great powers.
In fact, for some countries, being able to defeat British colonial troops is something to be proud of, but only a few countries can achieve this.
Take the United States, for example; it once challenged British colonial troops, and ended up being beaten by British Canadian forces, who even set fire to the White House.
The United States’ most notable recent achievement is defeating Spain, though Spain is a member of the great powers, its military strength is not comparable with the others; bluntly speaking, even the emerging Far East power Japan has military strength far surpassing Spain.
Calculating this way, East Africa’s defeat of the British Army falls short in achievement but exceeds many others, yet it still cannot escape the shackles of being a second-rate army, unless it can fight against the German and French armies.
Clearly, East Africa currently does not have this opportunity, so it can only seek to learn from the European battlefield, after all, the East African Army has taken a different development path from other countries’ armies and requires more references.
Major General Kuymann said, "Nowadays, our army’s development is quite different from that of other countries, and without opportunities for actual combat practice, it is especially important to observe the European battlefield to judge and discover our issues."
"Cabriel, you start by talking about the differences between current European military development and our army’s construction, and their correlations," Kuymann directly asked.
Facing the veteran’s questioning, Cabriel was slightly nervous, although Kuymann’s age for senior military command personnel is not really old, rather it is just the prime age.
After organizing his observations and experiences on the European battlefield, Cabriel said to General Kuymann, "Currently, the nature of warfare among European countries is undergoing transformation, thanks entirely to advances in industry and societal structures, which have considerably changed the battlefield dynamics."
"For our country, these changes instead demonstrate the correctness of our military construction approach; of course, there are some issues that cannot be discovered through the European battlefield."
"Such as?" Kuymann asked. Despite Kuymann being an old soldier, he never ceased learning, so he was not surprised by some of the current warfare changes.
Cabriel replied, "For example, the reconnaissance methods on the European battlefield; we have actually noticed that nowadays the French Army is already using airplanes for battlefield reconnaissance."
"This clearly demonstrates the correctness of our military’s adoption of airplanes as a war carrier; of course, our use of airplanes is evidently further advanced than those of the combatants, but with the development of the war, I believe the two major military alliances will continue to expand the application of military aircraft, hence we must focus on collecting relevant intelligence to accumulate extensive data for our military aircraft development, to avoid being surpassed by other countries."
Kuymann nodded and said, "Indeed, the application of aircraft on the battlefield is already quite frequent, as both major military alliances have prepared a considerable number of aircraft for reconnaissance and other military activities."
Regarding the Western Front, especially on the Marne River front, the frequency of aircraft deployed by the Allies and Allies is quite substantial, given that before the onset of the war, the number of aircraft among the belligerent countries was already about a thousand.
"This also demonstrates our foresight in the field of aircraft development; however, war is the best catalyst for military technology development, so you should always remain vigilant and pay attention to the iterations and updates in military technology worldwide, to provide more research materials for the future security of our national defense. Cabriel, continue," said Kuymann.
Cabriel said, "Other matters, such as the application of automobiles, artillery, machine guns, rifles on the battlefield are also quite prominent, whether it’s the Anglo-French or German forces, they all use new transportation tools like automobiles to quickly transport supplies, troops, weapons from the rear to the frontline, which indicates our military’s direction towards mobility is the right approach."
The mobility of the East African army can be said to be the best in the world at present, for the East African Army is equipped with a large number of mobile vehicles, even the German Army and the Anglo-French Allied Army, although they heavily use automobiles, many of their military vehicles were hastily imported from East Africa after the war started.
Such a piecing-together process naturally cannot immediately surpass the East African Army, as the East African Army has enough drivers, mechanics, spare parts, factories...
All in all, the military vehicle system is quite large and complex, which is something Germany, France, and other great powers cannot resolve in a short time.
Take gasoline for instance, currently, East Africa is the largest supplier of gasoline for both sides, Germany needless to say, lacks native oil and gas resources and has always been a customer of East African refined oil, and France has not made much progress in this regard; although it has many colonies, the exploration of oil fields and refining equipment are relatively scarce, it even falls short compared to Germany.
The French colonies include much of North Africa; Algeria, in particular, was historically an important oil-producing country, but if it were exploited now, France wouldn’t be reliant on East Africa and countries like the United States.
And even if the fuel and vehicle problems were resolved, Germany and France also lack enough drivers, which is quite a serious issue; thus, although automobiles shine brightly in battlefield transport, Germany and France find it difficult to work without resources, limiting the scale of automobile usage across the European battlefield.
Cabriel continued, "And now, the European battlefield is rapidly evolving towards trench warfare; take the Marne River battlefield for example, France has greatly delayed Germany’s advance speed through extensive fortifications, this is consistent with our pre-war predictions, so regarding trench warfare, we must pay attention to certain aspects, particularly the importance of heavy artillery on the battlefield, as I think our past emphasis was insufficient."
Germany’s heavy artillery can be said to have performed exceedingly well on the battlefield, playing a significant role in assisting the German Army’s assaults; naturally, this has caught the attention of East Africa’s military personnel, especially concerning the turtle-like tactics of trench warfare, the importance of artillery becomes increasingly apparent.
In short, given the limited differences in weapons between both sides, trench warfare tactics are enough to be a headache for both warring parties, so how to break through such tactics has become a focal point for Cabriel’s future research.
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