Egypt's efficiency is such that the colonial officials responsible for building the camp probably did not expect that the troops from southern Africa would arrive so quickly. Under normal circumstances, it is normal for this series of procedures to be completed within half a year from the transfer order to the arrival of the troops in Egypt.
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Mallory was also angry and could complain. Returning to Alexandria would be disobeying military orders. No one can bear this responsibility.
"Please wait a moment. I'll ask Richard. Maybe we haven't arrived at Alamein yet, so there must be some misunderstanding." Franklin didn't understand the situation either. Richard was the person in charge here.
The result was shocking. This was indeed Alamein, but Richard was not here, but at his residence in Alexandria. It is said that Richard only came to Alamein once after the construction started, and never came again after that.
Mallory and Dalton finally had a personal experience of Egypt's administrative efficiency. If this happened in southern Africa, the person responsible would go to jail.
"We have no choice, the difficulties are beyond imagination, funds are seriously insufficient, our workers do not have enough food, and the number of workers is also seriously insufficient. The weather has been hot recently, and construction can only be done in the morning and evening, and the working hours cannot exceed four hours a day.
Hours, otherwise someone will suffer from heatstroke——" The temporary person in charge expressed his bitterness. It was getting late in the evening, and a few hundred workers finally walked out of the stone house in twos and threes amidst the scoldings of the supervisors. They were in ragged clothes and had sallow faces. At first glance,
There is severe malnutrition, and some people's bodies are so shaky that they feel like they could be blown away by a gust of wind. It's no wonder that such workers can be so efficient.
"Sorry, I didn't know it would be like this. I will report to Mr. Colonel and the person in charge here will definitely be punished." Franklin was also helpless. Egypt is not southern Africa, and people here are accustomed to such efficiency.
"We'll talk about accountability later. The question now is where do we live? You can't let my soldiers sleep in the wilderness. That will seriously affect the combat effectiveness of the troops." No matter how Dalton handles the person in charge, the key is how to solve the current problem.
question.
"Let the workers vacate their rooms and let them live outside." Franklin had no choice but to sacrifice the workers.
The workers' rooms are those stone rooms. These rooms are low and low, and there are no windows. On the surface, they look very low, but in fact they are very spacious after entering.
The crux of the problem is that the sanitary conditions inside the room are very poor. There is no basic living furniture, not even a camp bed. The workers have no awareness of hygiene at all. Some people even defecate anywhere in the room. The situation is appalling.
, Dalton randomly found a house to check out the situation, and then immediately came out holding his nose. He would rather live in the wilderness than live in a house like this.
"Cheng, let the soldiers set up tents in the open space outside. The houses here are not inhabitable at all!" Dalton gave up communicating with Franklin and had to rely on his own efforts after all.
"You can let the workers pick it up--" Franklin wanted to help.
Dalton looked at the numb eyes and expressions of the workers around him, and then looked at their indistinguishable colors of clothes and dark skin. He didn't want them to help at all. He felt that they would tire themselves out even if they smashed a nail. They were so squeezed.
People who do this will not feel any sense of accomplishment. It is estimated that the soldiers will not live in the tents they have touched.
According to the epidemic prevention standards required by the Ministry of Defense of Southern Africa, such hygienic conditions require complete isolation. Miners in Southern Africa have to take a shower before eating even after a day's work. Judging from the appearance of these workers, they must have been there for a long time.
No shower.
"Let's do it ourselves, drive all these people to the beach, clean ourselves first, and then clean all the rooms. All the work must be completed before dawn tomorrow." Dalton said seriously, if he dares to delay again
Procrastination, Dalton can kill people.
"It's impossible before dawn tomorrow -" Franklin was not optimistic. In his eyes, the Egyptian workers were also hopeless.
"Haha, nothing is impossible. There is no word 'impossible' in our southern African dictionary." Dalton was decisive and had no hope for these supervisors. He turned around and asked a sergeant major to come over.
The sergeant major is responsible for execution.
Only senior soldiers who have served for a long time, have excellent personal qualities, and have strong individual combat effectiveness, but do not have the qualifications to become officers, can serve as sergeants. Majors in the Southern African Army have at least ten years of service. Their qualifications are
The salary is similar to that of an officer at the second lieutenant level. The company commander at the grassroots level must seek the opinion of the sergeant major when making decisions.
The sergeant major was familiar with handling this kind of thing. He randomly called a platoon of soldiers and led the translator like a duck, driving the workers watching the excitement around to take a shower.
Don't worry about whether the sea water can be used for bathing. It's not that particular at this time. A few soldiers even brought hair clippers, obviously preparing to clean these workers thoroughly.
When the workers went to take a shower, the soldiers were already busy.
At this time, you can see the role of profession. Hundreds of soldiers worked together to build a camp. It was actually very simple. As long as the nails were driven deep enough, the tent would not be blown away by the wind. The armored vehicle played a huge role. The lights were turned on.
After that, it was as bright as day. A dozen oil barrels were set up in the middle of the tent. After the firewood was poured with gasoline, the bonfire was immediately lit. While it provided lighting, the cooking team also started working.
The main task is to boil water, and dinner will be cooked later.
"Cheng, find some of our clothes and send them to Wolfe. We will change them for the workers later, and bring them some cans. Let them eat before they work. Wearing my clothes, eating my clothes
If you don't work hard for me, I will kill someone." Dalton was full of murderous intent, but he was very considerate. He must give it to him before he wants to get it. This thinking is very southern African.
Franklin looked at Dalton and Mallory who were busy and said nothing. While Dalton led his people to set up a temporary camp, Mallory was busy setting up defensive positions.
It is easy to set up defensive positions in the desert. Sandbags are piled up and machine guns are set up to form the positions. The top is reinforced with steel plates, and a layer of sandbags is also covered on the steel plates. Such simple fortifications are difficult to destroy unless they are directly hit by large-caliber artillery shells.
There are also fixed sentries and sniper points set up in the sand dunes not far from the camp. The light machine guns are of great use. Two shooters work in a group, carrying guns, holding blankets and backpacks, and then disappear into the darkness. These sentries are equivalent to the ancient night soldiers.
If you don't take them in, you don't have to worry about them if you let them out. They have all received strict wilderness survival training and are familiar with desert areas.
There is also a desert in southern Africa. Although it is not the desert in North Africa, it can also play a role in training.
Franklin randomly found a fortification and took a look. The seemingly large fortification was actually very small inside, with only one shooting hole on the front. The fortification could only accommodate two people, a shooter, an assistant shooter, and two shooters.
They were busy assembling the heavy machine gun. Although the lighting conditions were not good, their movements were very skillful. The assembly was successfully completed in a while, and then the two shooters entered combat mode and looked at Franklin with a rather unkind look.
I guess I don't like the feeling of being observed.
Franklin looked around and saw at least ten similar fortifications intertwined with each other. These fortifications were not in a line, and the openings of the shooting holes were not in fixed directions. Although Franklin did not know that this was to create crossfire, Franklin was still smart enough not to ask.
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To Franklin's surprise, a fully functional temporary camp was completed in less than an hour. At this time, the workers who went to take a bath had not even returned. This efficiency almost frightened Franklin, who was used to a slow-paced life.
There are said to be 100,000 such troops in southern Africa——
"Mr. Franklin, the captain invites you to have dinner." Dalton's orderly came over and informed Franklin that eating together is a good opportunity to enhance feelings.
On the way to Dalton's tent, Franklin still paid attention to the dinner of the southern African officers and soldiers.
It can be seen that the treatment of the southern African army is very good. Even if it is a hasty dinner, each soldier has an average of two cans, one is beans and the other is unknown meat. I don’t know how it tastes. Smell
It still smells pretty good.
It probably didn't taste very good, because when the cook distributed the cans, many soldiers complained. Some soldiers would rather have two cans of vegetables than canned meat.
"Don't be so picky. We are in Egypt, not Nyasaland. You can eat it or not. Now we only have this -" The cook had a bad temper. The box was full of cans and the tin bucket was full of hot food.
A cup of coffee was not enough for many soldiers, so they filled up the water bottles they carried with them.
Southern Africa is indeed very wealthy. The number of cans is limited, so there is enough coffee. You can get as much as you want!
You must know that the price of coffee is not cheap, but it seems that East India, which is rich in coffee, has a very good relationship with southern Africa. This made Franklin thoughtful, and then felt lost.
As officers, Dalton and Mallory's dinners were richer, and the staple food was definitely canned food, but there was also ham and bacon, which were still rare in the desert.
In fact, canned food is already hard to come by.
"Please sit down, Mr. Franklin. I'm sorry that our dinner is a bit simple. If you have a chance, you can go to Nyasaland. Then I will treat you to a real feast. Mysterious delicacies from the Far East, I guarantee you will be full of praise."
Dalton smiled enthusiastically. Combined with Dalton's impression on Franklin along the way, Franklin suddenly had a bad feeling.
Showing courtesy for nothing is either cheating or stealing.