Chapter 891: Andrzej Lost.
Chapter 873 – Loss of Andkhoy
Gave up the plan to integrate the Afghan resistance, but what should be supported should still be supported, the Russian army still needs these people to cause trouble for the British now.
As for the possible future trouble, that is something that will happen after the war is won, and can’t be bothered in the short term.
Moreover, there are so many Afghan resistance organizations, there will always be a few two-fifths, divided and pulled together on the handle, in the deepest Admiral Oginets ruthless contempt for the British a hand.
With the support of the Russians, the Afghan resistance became more and more active.
Today destroy the road, tomorrow blow up the bridge, occasionally put cold shot, attack a wave of transportation, make the British army is suffering.
Andrzej, the city guarded by Colonel Makau now only want to cry. The Russians put the strategic location not to fight, but to break through from here, really makes him speechless.
In the command headquarters of the 9th Indian Colonial Division, Colonel Makau asked with a haggard face, “When will the reinforcements arrive?”
Not waiting for the young officer near the front to answer, the sound of artillery fire rang out again, and the Russian army began to attack the city again.
Hearing the sound of artillery fire, Colonel Makau’s face instantly grimaced. It had only been two days since the defense of Andrzej, and the 9th Division had already been reduced by more than a thousand men.
Colonel Makau did not care about the casualties of the soldiers, as a pure Englishman, he never took the Indian soldiers as his own, and did not feel any pain even if the losses were heavy.
But the problem is that the morale of the army can not afford to hurt ah, if replaced by the main force of the British army, the loss of 20% to 30% are able to bite the bullet.
Unfortunately, this is the Indian colonial division, only a few hundred casualties on the military instability.
If it is not based on the city to defend, the city fortifications give everyone a sense of security, as well as the supervision team is strong enough, the troops would have collapsed.
Sensing the division commander’s ugly face, the young officer replied apprehensively, “Division commander, we sent out a communication soldier for help, and it should be able to reach Mazar Sharif this afternoon.
Theoretically, reinforcements could arrive in five days at the earliest.
However, the General Command is in Kabul, and without orders from headquarters, the Fifth Division stationed in Mazar-e-Sharif may not send troops.
If the Fifth Division did not send troops, it would have to wait for an order from headquarters. The communication soldiers sent to the headquarters will not arrive in Kabul for another week, and I am afraid it will take half a month for the reinforcements to arrive.”
Without taking other factors into account, purely from a military point of view, there is still value in the Tsarist government starting the war early.
Before the war started, the British forces in Afghanistan had been busy exterminating guerrillas, and the British forces guarding the front line were seriously understrength.
Even the General Command was placed in Kabul, and in the event of an emergency, it was impossible to coordinate the British forces on the front line for joint operations.
According to the British army’s plan, the war broke out at the beginning of spring next year. With such a long preparation time, the temporary telegraph and telephone lines were laid, and the headquarters could be coordinated and commanded even if it was located at the rear.
Unfortunately, plans don’t change as fast as they should, and now the British army can only rely on communication soldiers to run for contact between their units.
As for flying pigeons, that only exists in fiction. Not to mention the pigeons will not encounter danger in the middle of the way, can find the place is a problem, the most critical is that the British army is not equipped with this thing.
Colonel Makau gave up the last trace of luck in his heart, not to mention waiting for half a month, even if it is five days time the ninth division may not be able to hold out.
Moreover, these are all theoretical figures. It had to be that if they received a letter of request for help, they would immediately send out reinforcements, and the reinforcements would only be able to arrive in five days.
In reality, this was impossible. According to the usual practice, when it came to this kind of thing, everyone’s first reaction was to verify the accuracy of the news, and then meet again to discuss it.
When a decision could be made depended on the commander’s bearing. If you encountered a timid and fearful one, you wouldn’t even go out without an order from the headquarters.
After hesitating for a few moments, Colonel Makau slowly said, “Order the troops to hold out until nightfall, then withdraw to the second line of defense.”
Colonel Makau had to be thankful that he was cautious enough to set up a few more lines of defense, and now he could still knuckle down and stall for time.
Unfortunately, there were too many enemies on the other side, and no amount of preparation could stop the absolute strength of the enemy.
Can not even retreat, according to the city and defend when the Indian soldiers are still able to play a certain fighting force, if out of the city and the enemy field battle, it is estimated that the Russian army a charge of the ninth division will be scattered.
Whether for the sake of the overall war situation, or for their own sake, Colonel Makau must continue to hold. Even if he couldn’t hold Andrzej in the end, he had to buy time for the main force.
As for the 9th Division, which was supposed to be cannon fodder, it was natural to play the role of cannon fodder, and now was the time to sacrifice.
In this respect, Lt. Gen. Patrick’s decision to split the main force to act as a supervisory unit was undoubtedly correct.
Had it not been for the pressure of a main British regiment, Colonel Makau would not have had the means to make the Indians fight for their lives.
……
Kabul British command, Lieutenant General Patrick’s mood is very bad, the Anglo-Russian war has broken out, he, the commander is actually the last to know.
Both the troops on the front line and the government in London, which was miles away, received the news before he did.
Major General Howell proposed, “Your Excellency the Commander, the Russians are coming in strong, I’m afraid the troops we have deployed to the front line are not enough, send reinforcements to reinforce the front line!”
Although he had not received any specific battle report from the front line, he knew with his toes that the situation would not be optimistic.
Major General Lawrence, who was directly opposite, objected, “It’s not that simple, now the battle situation is unknown, we simply don’t know where the enemy’s main attack direction is, we can’t send reinforcements in all directions at the same time, right?
We don’t have that many troops in hand, the reinforcements promised by the country have not yet departed, by the time they arrive it will be two months from now.
Although the reinforcements from the Indian region have come, the elite troops from the Indian colonies have been brought over by us, and most of the current reinforcements are newly-formed troops, with no expectation of combat power at all.
Besides, the siege of the guerrillas has reached a critical moment. The enemy has been exchanging fire with us significantly more frequently in recent times, and a withdrawal now would be all for naught.
If we miss this opportunity, we’ll be facing the double threat of the Russians and the Afghan guerrillas next, and the future war will only be more unfavorable to us.”
Because of the siege of the guerrillas, nearly half of the British troops in the Afghan region were drilling ravines. The front line is understrength in all but a few strategic areas.
Such a deployment of troops can not be considered wrong, after all, the Afghan guerrillas are also a very big threat to the British army. The most rampant period every day are able to bring hundreds of casualties to the British army, do not encircle can not.
Can only say that the British army bad luck, in the siege of the guerrillas, encountered the Russian army attack, make the head and tail can not take care of each other.
Howell shook his head: “Now can not care so much, guerrillas can only disgust us, but the Russians have the ability to take away the Afghan region from us.
Splitting the troops to reinforce is not the best choice, but right now we have no choice, once we let the Russians kill in, it will be difficult to drive them out again.
I propose to leave a division of troops to keep an eye on the guerrillas and keep them from making a big mess, and the rest of the troops will reinforce the front line immediately.
Since we’re not sure of the enemy’s main direction of attack, I think we can split up a few enemy front commands to coordinate the troops fighting on the front, preferably with a few of us personally going down to the troops.
Until the communication problem is solved, it’s an anachronism for the command to be placed in Kabul, and we won’t even be able to make it to the front line to collect the corpses when we receive the news.”
……
The two deputies argued, and Lt. Gen. Patrick felt a growing headache. Everyone had a point, compounding the problem.
Deep down, he still wanted to eliminate the partisans before engaging in a showdown with the Russians. Unfortunately, reality left him with no choice, as great as the threat of the guerrillas was, he had to make sure that the front line didn’t collapse first.
After further consideration, Lt. Gen. Patrick made a decision: “Howell is right, the command in Kabul is just a decoration, it can’t work at all.
From now on, set up three enemy front commands, left center and right, with the three of us as commanders.
The left army consists of the 1st, 3rd, 4th, and 6th Infantry Divisions, the 5th, 6th, and 7th Artillery Regiments, and the 1st Cavalry Division, which I myself will command, and will go to reinforce the Hetla area.
The Middle Army consisted of the 1st ……”
Plans don’t change fast enough, and just as the British abandoned the siege of the guerrillas and divided their forces to reinforce the front, the battlefield of André Huey came to a critical moment.
After a week of bitter support, the 9th Infantry Division defending Andhoui still collapsed, and the reinforcements from the 5th Division that Colonel Makau was expecting never appeared to the end.
It wasn’t that the 5th Division commander didn’t have a sense of the big picture, the problem was that the Russians had appeared in the Mazar Sharif area and the battle was imminent.
How could the Fifth Division dare to pull out troops to reinforce Andrzej when the outlook was so uncertain?
With the last line of defense broken, the Russians had breached all of Andrzej’s city fortifications, and continuing to hold out would have to be a street battle.
Colonel Makau was not crazy enough to expect the demoralized Indian Colonial Division to fight the Russians in a street battle.
Looking at the hundreds of men converging around him, Colonel Makau knew that the tide had turned and helplessly ordered, “Withdraw!”
……
(End of chapter)