After the outbreak of the European War, a war committee was established in southern Africa. As a member of the committee, Patton was promoted to general of the army.
Like southern Africa, after the outbreak of the European War, the Southern African Union countries also began to mobilize. The Kingdom of Congo alone mobilized 250,000 troops to form 15 divisions and accepted the command of the Southern African War Council.
Nearly half of the 15 divisions of the Kingdom of Congo are now stationed overseas. Among the three army divisions stationed in Cyprus, except for the 35th Division, the other two divisions are Congolese divisions.
In contrast, the Republic of Congo has been mobilizing more slowly and has so far mobilized only 160,000 troops. These troops are organized into ten divisions, half of which are undergoing training in Luanda.
De Gaulle's first stop was Luanda.
As the northernmost native port of Southern Africa on the Atlantic coast, Luanda has become the main port for European immigrants to move to Southern Africa.
Before arriving in Luanda, de Gaulle's impression of Luanda was still in the colonial era.
After arriving in Luanda, de Gaulle was surprised to find that Luanda was first-class in terms of city size and urban construction level. In many aspects, it even surpassed world-famous ports such as Marseille and Bordeaux in France.
This is also understandable.
Compared with southern Africa, France is indeed too small, so small that almost every inch of land is at a premium. Ports such as Marseille and Bordeaux each have thousands of years of history. Not to mention urban construction, the urban planning is just like Luanda.
There is a huge gap between ports that have only experienced rapid development in recent decades.
A congenital flaw.
Such as roads.
Not only Marseille and Bordeaux, but most cities in Europe have narrow streets and incomplete supporting facilities. Many buildings in the city have a lifespan of hundreds of years. The government euphemistically claims to protect historical buildings, but in fact they cannot be demolished.
There is no such thing as Luanda cannot be demolished.
No need to dismantle it either.
When Southern Africa leased Luanda, it renovated the old city of Luanda according to modern urban standards, almost tearing down the entire city and rebuilding it. There will be no need for large-scale renovation of Luanda in the next few decades.
Compared with Luanda, the cities in the French North African colonies had almost no fundamental changes over the past hundred years except for the cities getting bigger and the population increasing. This made De Gaulle full of expectations for southern Africa.
Luanda, which made de Gaulle extremely curious, was commonplace for Patton.
As mentioned before, Luanda’s ranking of cities does not even make it into the top ten in southern Africa.
So after Patton picked up De Gaulle at the airport, he took De Gaulle straight to the military camp on the outskirts of Luanda.
The total strength of Luanda as a whole, including the southern African garrison, now exceeds 100,000.
Needless to say, the garrison station must have the highest standards.
Even the camp for the troops of the Kingdom of Congo was beyond the standards for de Gaulle.
Before the outbreak of the world war, France had a larger standing army on reserves than in southern Africa.
Therefore, de Gaulle is still very experienced in this regard.
"There are a total of six divisions of troops undergoing training here in Luanda, three of which are not yet full. The alliance troops are smaller than the National Defense Forces. Each division has about 16,000 people. The soldiers are mainly light infantry." It is spacious and comfortable
In the armored command car, Patton took the initiative to introduce de Gaulle.
This is already the fifth generation armored command vehicle launched by Nyasaland Heavy Industries.
The original armored command vehicle was modified from an armored vehicle. The protection was definitely good, but the comfort was not enough.
With the advancement of technology, more and more electronic equipment is used in armored vehicles, including air conditioners, radios, and refrigerators.
"How is the equipment?" De Gaulle was concerned about costs.
After the fall of mainland France, it still had overseas colonies with an area of 12.347 million square kilometers and a population of nearly 70 million.
The French were very smart. After the mainland stopped resisting, the Vichy government was established, and the overseas colonies announced that they would accept the leadership of Free France, so the Allies lost the reason to attack France's overseas colonies.
Including the troops that were evacuated to the British mainland through the Dunkirk evacuation, de Gaulle now has less than 200,000 troops under his command.
However, as long as de Gaulle is willing, Free France can recruit up to millions of colonial servants at any time.
To recruit so many troops, they must be armed.
The British army had to outsource all its own equipment, and the British government certainly did not have the ability to arm the French army.
And the key is that after "Operation Ballista", De Gaulle has become more vigilant towards the British and will no longer easily accept British assistance.
The person holding it has short hands.
To accept British aid is to accept British command.
The French are not even willing to protect Paris, so why should they bleed for the British?
"Except for the relatively small number of heavy weapons, everything else is the same as the National Defense Forces." Patton understated that Southern Africa now has the ability to equip alliance troops with semi-automatic rifles, which is a huge improvement.
De Gaulle felt a little at ease.
What de Gaulle didn't know was that southern Africa's standards for heavy weapons were different from France's.
In France, heavy machine guns and artillery are considered heavy weapons.
In southern Africa, in addition to tanks and helicopters, only heavy artillery with a caliber of more than 120 mm is considered a heavy weapon. Heavy machine guns and mortars, as well as artillery with a caliber of less than 120 mm, are not considered heavy weapons.
So de Gaulle was extremely surprised when he saw the wide variety of "heavy weapons" in the Allied forces.
The equipment of the Southern African Union troops seemed luxurious to de Gaulle.
Like the Southern African Defense Force, the coalition's light machine guns and grenade launchers are also assigned to the squad level, tripod-mounted heavy machine guns and small-caliber mortars are assigned to the company level, and battalion-level troops are equipped with professional fire support companies.
, the heavy artillery regiment directly under the division headquarters is equipped with 24 120 mm caliber artillery pieces and 12 155 mm heavy artillery pieces, plus 20 mm high-level and flat dual-purpose machine guns. This firepower configuration is brutal.
So when he saw the 155mm heavy artillery, de Gaulle's eyes were confused.
The Southern African Union troops have such ferocious firepower.
So according to Patton, how luxurious would the Southern African Defense Force be with more heavy weapons?
"The educational level of the Alliance troops is not high, but fortunately they are brave in combat, highly obedient, and capable of performing simple combat tasks." Patton mistook De Gaulle's confusion for De Gaulle's distrust of the combat effectiveness of the Alliance troops.
France also has troops composed entirely of Africans.
So de Gaulle was no stranger to colonial servant armies.
In de Gaulle's view, the Southern African Union troops were colonial servants in southern Africa.
However, the colonial servant army in front of me was completely different from the colonial servant army in de Gaulle's impression.
The colonial servants in front of me are neatly dressed, well-trained, energetic and physically strong.
In front of Patton and de Gaulle, thousands of Union troops were undergoing training.
There were African-American soldiers on duty around the training ground. De Gaulle observed carefully that the posture of an African-American soldier on duty did not change at all for ten minutes.
Only a few of France's colonial servants could do this.
Not far away from de Gaulle and Patton, an alliance unit was undergoing weapons maintenance training. The company commander with the rank of lieutenant held a Nyasaland rifle and was explaining: "Weapons are your life. You must take care of your own eyes."
, take good care of your weapons and take the initiative to maintain them after training every day. You must always keep this in mind."
Weapon maintenance!
Within the French army, not to mention the colonial servant army, many French regular army soldiers have no habit of maintaining their weapons.
There is also a Union troop undergoing formation training next to it.
Never underestimate formation training.
When filming "Armageddon" in another time and space, several real troops were mobilized to participate. After watching the marching process, some veterans lamented: If we had this level of training, the Anti-Japanese War would not have lasted so long.
Union troops train not only marching formations, but also charge formations during combat.
In southern Africa, skirmishers were used in combat, and the distance between soldiers was wide. The standard was that one grenade could not knock down two people.
The infantry squad in Southern Africa generally consists of 12 people. In addition to the machine gunner, deputy shooter and precision shooter, it is divided into three combat groups, led by the squad leader, deputy squad leader and another staff sergeant, or sergeant major. Each battle group
One group formed a triangle formation, and three groups formed another triangle formation.
Some units with more precision shooters are not restricted.
The Northern Rhodesian Division once had a company with more than 120 people, all of whom were precision shooters.
Even the cooks and medics.
Further away at the training ground, soldiers from an alliance unit were undergoing psychological training.
The content of this training is equally important. When the soldiers are crawling under the barbed wire, the heavy machine guns above the barbed wire are firing. If someone cannot bear the huge pressure and gets up and runs away, all the casualties caused will be borne by the individual.
The instructors in charge of the training are all veterans with rich practical combat experience. In order to simulate battlefield conditions more realistically, they will even throw animal entrails dripping with blood onto the barbed wire fence.
Sometimes the instructor would even drive the tank over, ask the soldiers to lie down, and drive the tank over the soldiers.
When the two tracks ran over both sides of his body, the ground beneath his body was shaking. As long as he could survive this level, he would be fearless on the battlefield.
"How do you ensure the strong fighting spirit of the soldiers?" De Gaulle had more and more questions.
Training is easy.
Weapons and equipment are also easy to handle.
Morale is a big problem.
"What?" Patton was confused. The fighting spirit of the troops had never been a problem in southern Africa.
Southern Africans have never lacked the will to fight. They have received patriotism education since childhood. As long as the country needs it, most southern Africans can go to the battlefield.
The Southern African Union countries also do not lack the will to fight. Those African-American soldiers know very well that if they dare to escape during the charge, the law enforcement teams will not show mercy.
