Chapter 690: Western Troop Deployment

There are countless "small conflicts" on the East African border, and the conflicts and contradictions with the Portuguese are the most numerous, which is particularly evident on the border between Mozambique and East Africa.

As for Angola, it is a secondary direction in East Africa's strategy. Although Angola occupies the fertile land and excellent ports on the Atlantic coast, which is what East Africa is "greedy", the Indian Ocean coast has always been the core of East Africa.

The area controlled by Mozambique is the focus of East Africa's attention. This conclusion can be drawn by looking at East Africa's implementation deployment. Mozambique is almost surrounded by East Africa on all sides.

Although the Indian Ocean is an ocean, there is also a naval base in the Comoros Islands in East Africa, so Mozambique is much more dangerous than Angola.

However, in contrast to East Africa, Portugal's strategy for Angola was clearly higher than that for Mozambique. The most obvious point was that three Portuguese brigades were deployed in Angola, while Mozambique had only one native brigade.

However, with the support of the British, and the fact that the last main battlefield was in Mozambique, Mozambique has formed an army with a size of about 20,000 people. These 20,000 people are organized into two divisions according to European military standards, or British standards.

In addition, there are more than 10,000 black servants. The number of black servants can actually be more, but they were organized into reserves by the Governor's Office of Mozambique. Therefore, the main military personnel of Mozambique are about 30,000. If the army is expanded in wartime, it should reach more than 100,000 people, and the source of soldiers is mainly black.

Angola's military strength is only strong, not weak, but it is more reflected in the direct leadership level of the kingdom, with the focus on two infantry brigades and one cavalry brigade in the country.

The Portuguese native troops in Angola alone reached more than 13,000 people. In addition, there were more than 40,000 people organized by the Angolan colony and under the leadership of the Portuguese army.

Therefore, there are great differences in the military models of Angola and Mozambique. Mozambique is obviously more autonomous, while the Angolan army is mainly under the jurisdiction of mainland Portugal, and is basically only in name.

So Brenzino said: "Don't clash with the East Africans. The blacks on our side are not trustworthy. The three of us alone are not enough to pose a threat to the East Africans on the other side, and we cannot bear the corresponding consequences. If the East Africans don't do anything too outrageous, we can only turn a blind eye."

What is out of the ordinary is illegal border crossing, or East Africa taking the initiative to attack. In this way, the initiative is completely in the hands of East Africa. When Brunzino thought of this, he felt depressed.

In fact, the situation in East Africa is also very depressing, especially the Western Military Region. The entire Western Military Region can currently only mobilize two divisions of troops. The remaining troops have been concentrated in the three central provinces and are on standby at any time.

As a result, the Western Military Region is under the greatest pressure in the country. The Western Military Region has a total of five divisions, two of which are in the central region, one division is deployed in Southwest Africa, and only the 414th and 412th Divisions are on the Angolan border.

Before the Portuguese-Eastern War, the total strength of these two divisions was only more than 13,000 people. After the expansion, it has reached more than 20,000 people, while there are more than 50,000 military personnel in Angola.

Moreover, the western border of East Africa is long and its development efforts are not as strong as those in the east. There is only the western section of the Central Railway, and it only goes to the city of Mongu.

As a result, East Africa does not actually have much advantage over Angola in terms of transportation and logistics. As for highways, there are several trunk roads in the entire west, which are the lifeline of transportation in the western region, but they are not necessarily much better than Angola.

This result was caused by the greater pressure faced by the Southern Military District, including the three forces of Transvaal, Britain and Portugal.

Therefore, in order to be able to support the southern battlefield at any time, four divisions of East Africa are deployed in the three central provinces. These four divisions will provide support in the east, west and south directions according to battlefield needs.

So Hans decided to stop while he was ahead and not to over-provoke the Portuguese. He said to his men, "We will continue patrolling. There is no need to just stand there and stare at these Portuguese. Carls, the three of you continue to stand guard here. If anything unexpected happens, fire warning shots."

"Yes, squad leader!"

Seeing the East African patrol disperse, Brunzino could only leave with a group of unlucky black soldiers and pretend nothing had happened.

It is worth mentioning that the military divisions in East Africa are very different from the administrative divisions in East Africa. Due to the expansion of East Africa's territory, or the development of the central and western regions, the original military divisions have become somewhat outdated.

For example, the three central provinces are now considered one of the core regions of East Africa in terms of economic strength and population size.

However, it still belongs to the scope of the Western Military Region, while in the western part of East Africa, the scope of military activities has expanded. For example, the Nile Military Region controls the northwest of East Africa, including Sudan and the Central African Republic in the previous life, and originally had only two divisions of troops.

Later, the scope of activities in East Africa expanded to the easternmost city of Bangui, and the main channel of the Congo River was also included in the East African military jurisdiction, thus greatly expanding the scope of the Nile Military Region.

The two divisions were not enough, so a new 312th Division was added to be responsible for the defense of the Ubangi River and Congo River basins.

In fact, this also means that the Nile Military District, in addition to being responsible for the defense of the north against Egypt (Sudan) and other forces, is also responsible for supporting the Western Military District at any time.

With the help of the Ubangi River and the Congo River, the 312th Division could quickly reach the city of Kinshasa, using it as a base to deter and attack the Portuguese sphere of influence in the lower reaches of the Congo River.

As for the 312th Division, it actually borders the Belgian colonies and Sigmaringen, and there is basically no conflict between the two, so temporarily borrowing the strength of the 312th Division is a feasible option.

The Western Military Region also expanded its area by nearly one million square kilometers due to the incorporation of Southwest Africa (including southern Angola).

Therefore, one of the main factors affecting the national defense of western East Africa is the large-scale development of the central and western regions, especially the construction of three industrial provinces in the central region and the development of the Hesse Province in the Congo River Basin.

One is the expansion of the western area, including the two major regions of the Congo rainforest and Southwest Africa, which were incorporated into the sphere of influence of East Africa.

Given the economic strength of several central provinces, they should actually be split from the Western Military Region to form a new Central Military Region, except that a central region already exists in East Africa.

If East Africa "moves its capital" in the future, the Central Military Region should move to the central region of East Africa, and the original Central Military Region will be changed to the "Eastern Military Region."

However, although the current military division is somewhat unreasonable, it is still usable and overall meets the needs of East Africa's national conditions. Because the original development efforts in the entire west were too low, there has not been much change in East Africa in recent years except for the construction of a few more roads.

Moreover, the development of transportation in East Africa has made military mobilization in East Africa more convenient, especially after the opening of the Hesse railway, the East African railway network centered on the city of New Frankfurt was basically formed.

In the future, the status of New Frankfurt as a national railway hub will not change, and the city of New Frankfurt will then be well connected.

According to the East African railway network, you can basically go anywhere in East Africa from New Frankfurt, and it is the most convenient route.

(End of this chapter)