Chapter 1305 The winner (Third update, please subscribe)
Author: Xiaoyu’s Destiny
Chapter 1305 The winner (Third update, please subscribe)
In the dusk, the 4.7-inch rapid-fire naval gun on the train's flatbed truck was roaring continuously. The flames from the muzzle lit up the night sky. Artillery shells weighing forty or fifty pounds continued to fall on the Boer army's defense line like raindrops.
superior.
Although the British army has not yet properly dismantled field artillery, the British responded very quickly to the war. They were not as conservative as the legend said. They quickly took out the navy's 4.7-inch rapid-fire cannon.
, although it is very bulky compared to ordinary field guns, the weight of it is not affected much when mounted on a train, and its rate of fire is faster and more powerful.
Under the fierce shelling, plumes of smoke from shells continued to rise from the Boer positions.
At the same time, the British field artillery and mortars were also shelling the Boer positions, but the shells fell in the soft soil, and the semi-sand soil absorbed most of the shock waves and shrapnel caused by the shell explosion.
The damage was not great, but black smoke pillars continued to explode.
In order to prevent the British attack, the Boers also set up barbed wire in front of the trenches. The barbed wire and machine guns successfully blocked the British attack. Under the suppression of the machine guns, both sides could only shoot with rifles through the barbed wire.
From midnight until half past five in the morning, the battle continued. When the sky was about to break, the Boer artillery, which had been silent during the battle, also entered the battle, and mortar shells fell like raindrops on the British army.
Because the British army's position was on a gravel area, after the artillery shell exploded, the stone fragments and artillery shell fragments caused greater casualties to the British army.
When groups of mortar shells were raining down on the British positions, General Cronje, standing at the commanding heights, immediately ordered after carefully examining the battlefield situation.
"Concentrate your firepower first and attack the British army's western position where the terrain is relatively flat."
With an order, 64 cannons under his command fired continuously at the British position at the highest rate of fire for half an hour. The hail-like shells erupted into countless smoke and dust pillars, completely covering the enemy position.
As the artillery fire extended deeper into the enemy's position, the two infantry regiments under General Cronje jumped out of the trenches one after another, and used multiple waves of skirmishing lines to face the British western position from the west, southeast, and south.
The British army launched an attack, and soon formed a spectacular situation full of mountains and plains. The two to three hundred meters between the parallel trenches with the enemy and the enemy's position were filled with Boers.
Major Cheng Guotao, who was next to General Cronz, wrote in his diary that day:
"...Although I had expected it before, the so-called group charge should be nothing more than this. The five thousand Boer troops were not afraid of the shrapnel and machine gun fire, and they attacked the enemy's position with lightning speed.
We couldn't help but exclaim in amazement, thinking that protecting the homeland and the country, which is the most absolute justice in the world, can inspire the supreme will to fight, and nothing else seems to be able to do so..."
The attack of the infantry regiment was just a feint, and the real winner was the cavalry. When the British resisted the attack of the Boer infantry with all their strength, they did not notice that the Boer cavalry of the two regiments had already forced the attack from the other direction.
British military position.
The bright cavalry sword was pointing forward, and more than a thousand cavalry were galloping on the battlefield like a whirlwind. The cavalry on horseback did not hold sabers like European cavalry. These Boer cavalry, without exception, all held sabers.
Pistol or rifle.
This cavalry unit is more like a group of armed Boer herdsmen than cavalry. They are gathered together under the mission of protecting their homeland and country. Although they are not able to use sabers skillfully, they are all good soldiers.
Riders, when the cavalry attacked, the leading cavalry pinched the horse's belly with his legs, and the spurs on the heels of his boots made the war horse scream painfully, and the horse's speed became faster.
The two regiments of cavalry were like tigers descending from the mountain, sweeping the earth with the force of autumn wind blowing fallen leaves. The cavalry who suddenly joined them became the last straw that crushed the British defense.
When the cavalry that broke into the battlefield were galloping, they kept shooting at the fleeing British soldiers with rifles. These Boers had been shooting on horseback on the vast South African plateau since they were children. Almost every shot would knock down a British soldier. Faced with a sudden attack,
The British troops were unable to organize an effective defense against the Boer cavalry in the position. After the defense line collapsed, there were British troops abandoning their guns and fleeing everywhere, and even more surrendered with their hands raised.
"The British want to retreat..."
Seeing that the entire army was in danger of being annihilated if they did not retreat, General Payne Simmons ordered the entire army to retreat. Although the Boers had the advantage on the battlefield, they relied on more than a dozen 4.7-inch naval guns and machine guns on the armored trains to fire fiercely.
Despite the heavy firepower, the British troops successfully evacuated the battlefield by train.
At the end of the battle, the defeated British army abandoned thousands of corpses and a large number of weapons, and retreated along the road they came from.
"Cunning Boers..."
On the speeding armored train, when General Payne Simmons complained about the Boers, what he didn't know was that another army had been waiting for a long time on the way.
With a "boom" and a loud noise, while the railway track was blown into the sky, the armored train packed with British troops suddenly rushed out of the track and fell to the ground hard, flying everywhere in the dust.
The injured British soldiers were screaming there. Before those British soldiers who had just escaped could figure out what was going on, intensive gunfire rang out again.
It was not the Boer army that ambushed the armored train, but the Irish Brigade.
Different from the enthusiasm of the Boers to defend their country, facing the British and the Irish, they were enemies of the country and their family. Of course, their attack was also very brave. The British who were beaten were still unable to recover.
Soldiers, there is the Irish rival.
The British who were resisting tenaciously around the armored train did not even organize an effective defense, and were blown up into the sky by the Irish with mortars. In the distance, a man holding a 12-year-old sniper rifle
The Irish soldier lay down behind the rocks and saw through the telescopic sight a British officer pointing at the side of the carriage, which seemed to be directing the troops to organize a defense. He aimed directly at the enemy and pulled the trigger.
When the gunshots fell, the Irish sniper saw through the scope that the officer fell. After the officer fell, the surrounding British troops were in chaos.
Even the sniper himself didn't know that the person he shot was General Payne Simmons. This guy who had a lot of blood on his hands from the Irish Fenian Brotherhood died silently.
under the muzzle of a sniper rifle.
(End of chapter)
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