The Military Observer Mission, composed of 15 members with the lowest rank of major, has to observe the southern African army from different aspects and comprehensively assess the combat effectiveness of the southern African army.

Not all of the southern African troops were sent to the front, and now four companies were left in Cairo as reserves, and George White came to the camp early the next morning to get to work, and before he even entered the door, he felt the strength of the southern African army.

In the days when other troops were still using sandbags to build fortifications, armies in southern Africa had begun to use armored vehicles, and soldiers had built a pergola on top of the armored vehicles to protect them from the scorching sun, which looked as nondescript as illegal buildings, but George White did not want to laugh, only felt heavy.

It turned out that unconsciously, the army of the British Empire was already so far behind the times.

Walking into the gate of the station, there are more than 20 trucks and armored vehicles neatly placed on the side of the wall at the door, the distance between the cars is as accurate as measuring with a ruler, the direction of the front of the car is the same, the naked eye looks at the past neatly, there is no unbearable smell of horse manure, there is no dirty and messy horse shed, and even the sanitary condition of the entire camp has been raised to a higher level.

In the past, George White thought that the cost of trucks would be higher than that of cavalry, but now George White knew that trucks were cheaper than war horses, a truck could transport twenty soldiers, and the price was only 1,500 pounds, and the price of twenty war horses was far more than 1,500 pounds, and the price of twenty war horses was far more than 1,500 pounds.

"Our drivers are highly trained, not only can drive but also can repair, so the army does not need to have additional maintenance personnel, the only bad thing about the car is that the requirements for road conditions are relatively high, but this is not a problem for Europe." Roque picked up the good words and said that the actual situation is definitely not so optimistic.

"So, with only seven trucks, you can meet the needs of a company." George White's understanding is still biased and cannot be calculated so simply.

"Actually, more is needed, about ten, after all, trucks are needed to transport logistics materials, but trucks can be reused, so the higher the degree of mechanization of the troops, the more an efficient staff is needed." Roque has all questions, and Britain now has a staff department, but the efficiency is a bit poor, and the War Department does not pay enough attention to it, and this problem is not something that Roque can solve.

Even if it was ten, George White calculated how much it would cost to equip all the British troops with trucks, and immediately abandoned this illusion.

Impossible, the army in southern Africa is only more than 30,000 people, even if it is fully equipped with trucks, it does not cost much money, the British army has now exceeded 400,000 people, in addition to the regular army of six infantry divisions and two cavalry divisions, there are more Homeland Defense Forces, the number of Homeland Defense Forces alone has reached 260,000, and it is impossible to change all of them.

Britain's native regular army is not large, but once war breaks out, Britain can also call up the reserve national army and the Dominion troops of the colonies at any time, Britain now has 1.2 million people who have received military training, the human resources of overseas colonies are even larger, India can call up more than one million troops at any time, and eight African divisions have been formed in southern Africa, ready to rush to the aid of the homeland.

Germany's standing army of 750,000 can be expanded to more than 2 million once a mobilization order is issued, and there are 5 million soldiers serving at its peak, and France's standing army is also 750,000, which can be expanded to more than 3 million once a mobilization order is issued.

Therefore, large-scale mechanization cannot be played by any country, and the elite model of southern Africa can be tried.

However, if the local is also partially redressed, it is still acceptable.

Anyway, this issue is put aside for now, and George White is most concerned with automatic weapons.

The most numerous automatic weapons in southern Africa are still general-purpose machine guns and grenade launchers, which can already be counted as heavy weapons in Africa, but they are obviously not enough for Europe, and both the Northern Rhodesian Division and the 1st Cavalry Division have only one battalion of heavy artillery units, equipped with twelve 120mm howitzers, which puzzles George White.

The southern African army is the same as the British army, there is no battalion and regiment, the southern African regular army is directly below the company, there is no battalion formation, but there is artillery, the infantry reserve national army has a battalion-level establishment, wartime will be expanded to the regimental level, but the previous name will not be changed, so some British regiment-level troops only have 15,600 people, and some battalion-level troops have two or three thousand people.

In the camp's arsenal, the Military Observer Mission was finally able to get up close and personal with the various types of automatic weapons equipped in southern Africa.

In fact, it is not much ahead, the prototype of the 40mm grenade launcher is the "Woo Gang Cannon" equipped by the Boer Coalition Army during the Boer War, and the "Woo Gang Cannon" is an enlarged version of the Maxim heavy machine gun, these weapons are not unfamiliar to George White and other soldiers.

The general-purpose machine gun is refreshing for George White, for the concept of the general-purpose machine gun, George White is very sure, but he is not satisfied with the caliber, in order to unify logistics, the caliber of the general-purpose machine gun is also 7.7 mm, which makes George White very dissatisfied, in George White's view, the caliber also represents the power, the caliber is relatively small, the power is definitely insufficient.

Fortunately, all the weapons are well maintained, and they are not as careless about the maintenance of weapons as many colonial troops do, and the attitude towards weapons can reflect the professional level of the soldiers in southern Africa, which is worthy of recognition in southern Africa.

"The 120-mm howitzer was just equipped last year, and this is still the request of Minister Churchill, for Southern Africa, a 40-mm grenade launcher is sufficient, there is no need to equip a large-caliber howitzer at all." It is important that Roque does not want large-caliber howitzers, and without them, he is powerless to compete with European armies armed with large-caliber howitzers.

Sure enough, as soon as Roque finished speaking, George White exchanged a look of relief with a thin old man with eyes.

The shriveled and thin old man was Clark Bell, chief of the Third Operations Division of the War Department.

There are some things that Roque will not explain, Southern Africa now has a powerful four-shot bomber, which is more efficient than large-caliber heavy artillery, so the importance of heavy artillery is declining, Britain is actually playing a small-scale elite army, a division has 18,000 people, although there are not many automatic weapons now, but once the wealthy Britain really pays attention to this problem, the energy that bursts out is still very terrifying.

In another time and space, in 1914, shortly after the war was reported, a British division was only equipped with 24 machine guns, and soon this number rose to 280, this firepower density can refer to the United States, the United States Army Division is large, a division is almost 28,000 people, and it is only equipped with 260 machine guns.

The British placed more emphasis on artillery than on machine guns, with each British division equipped with 54 18-pounder field guns, 18 4.5-inch (114 mm) howitzers, and four 60-pounder heavy field guns, which were the main firepower output of British troops.

"Your current armament is very unreasonable, you should fully understand the role of artillery, compared with machine guns, artillery is the god of war." George White sincerely pointed out that once the war broke out, the army of southern Africa would also become a strong supplement to the British mainland, and George White hoped that the army of southern Africa would have a stronger fighting force.

Unlike infantry, which can be called up at any time, artillery requires long periods of rigorous training to become combat-effective, and in this regard, George White had the same starting point as Winston.

"We have artillery, 40-mm grenade launchers are enough." Roque insisted that Roque would not send the Northern Rhodesia Division and the 1st Cavalry Division to Europe anyway.

"You are now in the same misunderstanding as the French, the power of artillery is definitely not how fast it is fired, but how far it can be hit and how powerful it is." George White is still level, otherwise he would not have been reactivated by the War Department.

"No, no, no, I think what is suitable is the best, rather than blindly pursuing a larger caliber and greater power, the situation in southern Africa is different from Europe, and our potential enemies are not equipped with large-caliber artillery, so we don't need that kind of 203, 254 caliber artillery, 120 is already a surplus for southern Africa." Roque was resolute, the caliber of the scoop cannon equipped by the army of some European countries has exceeded 300 mm, which is actually a disaster for the current army, if it is a fortress gun, it is understandable, and the field gun does not need such a large caliber at all.

"Why don't you use the imperial system?" George White finally noticed the problem.

Roque wanted to complain too much on this issue, the British system was an absolute disaster for countries other than the United Kingdom, of course, this must not be said in front of George White, so Roque still emphasized the national conditions of southern Africa.

"Southern Africans generally don't have a high level of education, including many government employees, and it is very difficult for them to understand complex weights and measures, and the same unit of weight, it is very difficult for them to understand the quintal, pound, ounce, gren, and taran, and it is also a ton, and the weight of the British ton and the US ton is different, and the same is the same for the quintal, so we use a more simplified way, which is also to increase the efficiency of the work." Roque was adamant not to use the imperial system, and even Britain had begun to use the metric system in the twenty-first century, so there was nothing to dwell on on this issue.