Chapter 744: Mentality Adjustment
In fact, under the current circumstances, East Africa’s war potential has not been fully tapped. For example, East Africa has sufficient reserve forces ready to support the battlefield at any time.
The mentality of the East African government can be understood as that it must maintain the country's normal production activities and social order while ensuring the final victory of the war.
As long as the situation on the front line is not unfavorable to East Africa, the East African government does not need to expand the scale of the war. Of course, if the war can be ended as soon as possible, it will definitely be the result that East Africa wants, but now East Africa is on the defensive, with the aim of consuming the enemy's time, energy, manpower, morale, ammunition, equipment, etc.
The fundamental reason that prompted the General Staff to act in this way is that East Africa is actually in an advantageous position in the war. At present, the war seems to be progressing rapidly and even gaining huge advantages on some fronts.
However, these surrounding areas were colonies rather than mainland China. The Boer Republic was an exception, but not only was it small in size, it was also an agricultural and pastoral country through and through.
Therefore, the weapons and equipment of the coalition forces need to be transported from the mainland to the colonies and then supplied to the local troops. In contrast, in East Africa, the defense industry is in the rear and can provide effective support to the front line at any time.
Once the coalition's offensive momentum weakens, East Africa will enter a counterattack state. The occurrence of this situation must be that the coalition has encountered serious problems in personnel and supplies.
Ernst said: "As long as we withstand the first wave of pressure, it means that we have gained an advantage in this war. Of course, this advantage is not a reason for our army to be proud. Don't underestimate the British war capabilities. As the world's number one power, how the South African War will turn out actually depends on the investment of the British government."
"At present, it seems that the enemy still has great potential for war. The enemy troops on the front line are still very active in attacking. At the same time, after years of preparation for war, the enemy's material reserves are also relatively rich. Therefore, we can see that the enemy is far from being weak. Therefore, our overall strategy is still based on consumption and continuing to bleed the coalition forces."
…
The British, Portuguese and the Boers had all suffered losses in East Africa, so they did not take the war lightly. Instead, they made sufficient preparations. Of course, they also underestimated East Africa's war capabilities.
The current situation of the war in East Africa is far from meeting the psychological expectations of the Allied countries, especially the British Army.
The commander-in-chief of the Allied Forces, Earl Roberts, looked at the battle report with a frown on his face. He was very dissatisfied with the performance of the Allied Forces.
"The results reported by various troops are all "victories", but except for the direction of the Natal colony, none of them have achieved my strategic goal. Even though there are various victories, why hasn't the enemy's defense line changed so far!"
Except for the Natal colonial garrison under the command of Rossiter, which broke through the Tugela River defense line, there were basically no major changes in other areas, which made Earl Roberts very dissatisfied.
Of course, Portugal's Angola colony achieved good results and had broken through into East Africa, but the garrison in the Angola colony was completely under the command of Portugal and not under the command of Earl Roberts, the commander-in-chief of the Allied Forces.
In response to Roberts' confusion, his subordinates replied, "The East Africans have built strong fortifications on the border, and their weapons and equipment are beyond our estimation. Based on the current firepower of the East Africans, they would not be outdated even if they were placed in Europe. Therefore, the reason why this war did not meet expectations is that we did not obtain enough intelligence on East Africa."
Earl Roberts said: "We must be clear that we did not come to South Africa to fight a war of attrition. Once we get into a war of attrition, it means that our country's goal has failed from the beginning."
"East Africa is a fairly closed country, which is the real reason for the conflict between our country and East Africa. Just looking at the area of East Africa, it is a large country with an area of nearly 10 million. The mineral resources, population, industry, agriculture, and market of this huge country have excluded Britain. In the final analysis, it is a struggle for interests. However, the closed nature of East Africa has made it difficult for us to carry out intelligence work in East Africa. War can be said to be the final test of East Africa's national strength, but now it seems that East Africans are extremely capable of responding to war."
Earl Roberts pointed out one of the main reasons for this war. War is actually not a good choice for any country. It is often the last resort when all other means have failed.
But now East Africa has withstood the pressure of war, which shows that the comprehensive national strength of East Africa is far beyond the estimation of other countries. Judging from the scale of the current war, if it were to be dealt with by Brazil, I am afraid Brazil would have collapsed long ago.
However, once the war starts, it will not be easy to end, especially for the British Army. Such a large-scale war is rare, so the Army must continue the war, even if it is not in the interests of Britain.
Moreover, although the direction of the war is beyond Earl Roberts's expectations, it is generally within his control. He simply treats East Africa as an opponent like Tsarist Russia and adjusts his mentality.
Before coming to South Africa, Earl Roberts was dismissive. After all, the world didn't know much about East Africa. Even though East Africa was an independent country, people still subconsciously classified East Africa as a "colony".
Just like Brazil, although it is independent in name, its economy is controlled by foreign capital, and this is also the effect that Britain wants to achieve in East Africa. Even if it is not good, it should be in the same state as Tsarist Russia.
Tsarist Russia was an industrial power, but it was also extremely dependent on Western capital, and many of its economic lifelines were controlled by foreign capital. Of course, compared with countries like Brazil, Tsarist Russia had much greater autonomy, and although some of its national economies were not very developed, they were under its control.
Compared with the other two, East Africa is definitely an outlier. It has a high degree of nationalization and has built the overall framework of the national economy in a short period of time. Although there are many problems, the total amount has increased rapidly, which is essentially in line with the development trend of monopoly enterprises in the world today.
Therefore, to deal with such a tough nut as East Africa, Earl Roberts must adjust his mentality, which is also what the British and Portuguese armies need. He said: "Now we need more troops, more weapons and equipment, and the war cannot be ended hastily. I don't believe that East Africa, a country with only a few decades of history, can withstand the military pressure of two major powers at the same time with its own national strength."
"Of course, we should also pay attention to East Africa. Its performance has shown us that this country is completely different from the opponents we have fought before. We don't know enough about this opponent."
"East Africa's military strength should not be underestimated. Their military industry should be closely related to the German region. The various new equipment that appeared on the battlefield and their firepower that is not behind that of Europe show that East Africans are also good at learning. They are not just a closed country in Africa, but have a broad vision, which is particularly evident in the military."
"This means that we must adjust our war strategy in East Africa. We should not treat East Africa as a colonial country, but as an opponent that is comparable to the European military powers."
(End of this chapter)
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