Accompanied by Xia Shu, British Crown Prince Edward and his party visited along the Shannon River, enjoying the scenery they had missed while communicating with each other to enhance their understanding. Due to the stable situation in the near future, the atmosphere along the way is quite harmonious.

After arriving at the small town of Portamna, the middle reaches of the Shannon River, everyone got off the boat and took a bus, tasted the famous delicious food here, and inspected the water conservancy irrigation and power generation facilities under construction here. On the way back, he passed by a military camp and saw soldiers training. Prince Edward suddenly proposed to go in and visit one or two. Although this was not in the established itinerary, Xia Shu was prepared and agreed with peace of mind.

This barracks built on the edge of the woods have high stone walls and deep trenches, which look like a prison. During the British rule, its function was to garrison and hoard ammunition. Now, the 43rd Infantry Battalion of the Irish Army is stationed here. A very ordinary active infantry unit with a normal membership of 665, and the actual personnel in peacetime are usually 70% to 80% of the full membership. During this visit from the British senior officials, Xia Shu asked the Army Department to prepare in advance, so when they stepped into this barracks, the officers and soldiers who hurriedly lined up to greet reached 802, reaching the scale of the strengthening battalion.

The appearance of the barracks is basically the same as when the British army was stationed, but the decoration style has been adjusted accordingly. Compared with the barracks in big cities, the hardware facilities here are a bit simple, and the two communication motorcycles and a truck for supply supply are the only modern equipment. The officers and soldiers all looked red, their temples dripping sweat, and their uniforms and boots were stained with mud, but they were well-dressed and guns were all shown, showing the basic qualities that a professional army should have.

The temporary inspection did not have much fun. The soldiers showed their static military posture and marching queues. In terms of viewing, they were naturally much inferior to the battle formations at the military parade. However, the full spirit, high morale and confidence in their every move still attracted the praise of the British.

"Is there any German affairs consultant here?" Crown Prince Edward suddenly inquired into Xia Shu.

At the beginning of the founding of the Kingdom of Ireland, the Irish army was basically led by German consultants and so-called volunteers. Over time, Ireland's military academies trained batches of professional officers and non-commissioned officers, and used the German military education system to forge these local talents in the later stages. However, with the help of German consultants and volunteers, they gradually became the real backbone of the Irish army. To this day, there are less than 100 German consultants who stayed in the Irish army. Volunteers have either returned home or obtained Irish nationality and become German-born personnel in the Irish army.

Before coming here, Xia Shu learned about the personnel composition of the 43rd Infantry Battalion. Not the company that was temporarily transferred to make up the numbers, 90% of the officers and soldiers were native Irish people, and the other 10% were Germans. They had served in the German team before. Some of them had Irish blood, and some felt that there were greater opportunities for development in the Irish army. Because of their strong military qualities, rigorous and serious attitude, and the custom of the Irish army, they did get good rewards. 12 of the 20 officers were German personnel, and another 30% of the non-commissioned officers were among them.

Following the idea of ​​the plan, Xia Shu replied: "Now the division-level command may have moral consultants, and there are several general staff members. Are your highness interested in talking to them?"

Edward shook his head without a sad and joyful expression, indicating that he was just asking casually.

After the queue drill, the battalion commander walked to Xia Shu and Edward and reported again with a loud voice.

"Very good! Very good!" Edward said a few words of Irish Gaelic in some unexpected ways.

The Irish officer did not show his flattery, but responded appropriately: "Thank you for your appreciation, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince of England!"

"Can you see your gun?" Edward asked.

The officer turned to look at Xia Shu in surprise, and received a positive instruction from the eyes of the King of Ireland. He took out a pistol with a rough and hard line from the holster at his waist.

Edward and the British official standing nearby all showed surprise.

This is a US-made Browning M1911, a standard weapon of the US team.

It is powerful, high precision, reliable and durable, and moderately priced. With these advantages, the m1911 was very popular in the pre-war arms market. Because the US team failed to show its skills in the previous battle, people could not consider the battlefield performance of this semi-automatic pistol. Despite this, the m1911 still became the most manufactured pistol during the war. The US team ordered 50,000 units due to its significant expansion of scale. The British Army ordered 60,000 units in three batches. The sum of the two far exceeded the wartime output of the Ruger 08, Lebel revolver or Weberley revolver.

During the War of Independence, the guns used by the Irish armed forces were assisted by the Germans, seized from the British army, and French goods obtained through other channels. After the founding of the Kingdom of Ireland, its military forces were fully reorganized with the help of the Germans. The active troops quickly eliminated the British and French-made weapons and instead used weapons that matched the German standard equipment. In addition to the training methods and combat regulations of the Irish army were all under the German team. Except for language barriers, the two countries did not have any technical obstacles in mutual support and coordinated combat. Therefore, if the Irish officer took out a Ruger 08 or Mauser 1896, the British would never have any surprises, but before them it was an American, which immediately made them imagine.

"A gun is definitely a good gun." Natsuki told Crown Prince Edward in English, "You don't have to worry about falling behind for half a century."

The British crown prince said wisely: "I didn't expect that His Majesty would be so confident in an American pistol. If it were me, I would definitely buy it's production license."

Xia Shu understood the other party's intention and deliberately made an indifferent expression: "Its production license is too expensive, we only purchased an ammunition production line."

The British crown prince took the pistol and handed it to the officer beside him, asking for verification: "Is it the original dot 45-inch caliber?"

The officer looked at it for a moment: "Yes, yes, dot 45 inches."

While returning the pistol to the Irish officer, Crown Prince Edward said to Natsuki in a professional tone: "The penetration of the pistol with this caliber is enough, but the logistics supply on the battlefield will be a headache."

Xia Shu smiled. German rifles and machine guns are 7.92 mm caliber, and most of them are 9 mm caliber. The length and specifications of rifle bullets and pistol bullets are different, so they cannot be used in nature. Before submachine guns are generally equipped with the army, the logistical needs of Ruger 08 or Browning M1911 are the same. The Browning M1911 and Ruger 08 have their own advantages and are equal, but the cost of the former is less than half of the latter. The economic pressure of large-scale equipment is relatively small, and it is suitable for various combat environments such as mountains, woods, and trenches. The more important point is that American fire merchants are very happy to sell bulk weapons and supporting ammunition production lines to Ireland. The reasons may not even be able to guess even the British.

Except for the newly issued Browning M1911 by the officer, the British had no other novel discoveries in the 43rd Infantry Battalion of Ireland. Everything was just like the rumors and intelligence described by outsiders. This was a mediocre but well-quality army, with the national imprint of the Irish people's resolute and unyielding nation, and was hard-working and fighting spirit. In this regard, Crown Edward could not hide his envy. In Britain, unlike the navy that has been traversing hundreds of years, the army has neither a glorious royal title nor a tenacity.

The quality of the war, they suffered much more defeats than the navy. In modern times, the British army was beaten by American independents in North America, ravaged by Napoleon's French army in continental China, and even suffered from the Boers in South Africa and were ruined by the Boers. During the war, although they had one or two commendable flashes, they were finally driven back to Britain by the German team. In order to prevent the possible cross-sea attack by the Germans, they dug countless beautiful coasts beyond recognition, and then had to fill them again...

After the defeat of the war, the British royal family and government decided to reorganize their arms and regain their strengths accumulated over generations and turn their disadvantages. Naval construction was the first priority. The main ships built in the United States to bypass the constraints of the London Armistice Agreement soared from 2.4 million pounds of Queen Elizabeth-class battleships to 3.3 million pounds. The British government invested nearly 80 million pounds in the first two years after the war, which was equivalent to half of the total cost of the local fleet before the war. Two years after the war, the British government's tax revenue shrank significantly compared with the pre-war period, and the proportion of naval funds to the total government expenditure reached an astonishing 40%, far exceeding the fiscal proportion of German expenses at the same time. The heavy financial burden forced the British government to compress other expenses, and the army construction was the first to be affected.

Under the leadership of Kitchener, the size of the British Army expanded to more than 1.4 million at the end of the war. With the Commonwealth troops drawn from various places, the small British Isle actually hoarded nearly 2 million professional and semi-professional soldiers. The indisputable hard power provided support for Britain to obtain favorable conditions in the armistice negotiations. After the war, Britain basically followed the terms of the London Armistice Treaty, transported all Commonwealth troops back home, and cut the size of the local army to 300,000. However, millions of young and middle-aged people who have recently retired and demobilized were still a trick to come and fight.

According to Kitchener's proposal, the UK should establish a military reserve system in imitating Germany, and incorporate these nationals who have received regular military training, age and physical conditions into the reserve force, and regularly assemble training to maintain the status of quasi-militaries and reserve sufficient weapons and ammunition for them to use. Although this suggestion can maximize the scale and combat effectiveness of the British army, it requires huge military expenditures. The British government finally took a compromise method to form 300,000 local militias with veterans, assemble twice a quarter, and conduct a certain intensity of military training and live-fire exercise.

Although the reserve force had only 30% of the expected strength, with the efforts of Kitchener, the material conditions of the British active troops were still as guaranteed as possible, but the morale of the military did not seem to have fully recovered from the defeat of the war. Moreover, the various new weapons and new tactical strategies that emerged during the war shattered the original training and command system. Officers and theoretical experts at all levels of the British Army participated in the exploration and research of this military change, which resulted in a variety of views and schools. The negative impact was that it was difficult to form a complete and unified training.
Chapter completed!