Chapter 755: Attack and Defense Change
The main way to connect the east and west coasts of East Africa is still through railways. Of course, waterway connection is not impossible, but it is definitely not something that can be achieved in East Africa now.
That is to connect the Zambezi River Basin and the Congo River Basin, which requires the construction of a large number of water conservancy projects to improve the navigation conditions between the two basins.
This kind of project would be basically impossible to realize even in the 21st century. The Zambezi River basin alone is extremely difficult to control.
Of course, it would not be too difficult for East Africa to connect these intermittent inland river waterways with railways and roads.
However, these ideas are too far-fetched for East Africa today. Even after the nationwide water conservancy construction in East Africa in the 1970s and 1980s, there are still a large number of natural rivers in East Africa that have not been transformed. It will probably take hundreds of years to gradually conquer these rivers and waters.
…
August 4, 1888.
On the premise of ensuring that there were no unusual movements by the British Royal Navy in the east and north, the East African Navy dispatched a fleet of two battleships, six gunboats and ten auxiliary ships and marched towards the waters of Mozambique.
Faced with this "powerful" maritime force, the coalition's naval forces were simply unable to cope with it, and the coalition ships urgently withdrew to Durban and Maputo to preserve their strength.
The route from eastern East Africa to the port city of New Hamburg has been restored. Although the coalition navy still attacks and raids the route, it is basically unsuccessful.
At the same time, as one side gained strength while the other lost strength, the East African Navy retaliated against the previous coalition blockade of the port city of New Hamburg by imposing a military blockade on Maputo and Durban, and the offensive and defensive positions of the two sides changed.
At the same time, this naval operation also completely declared that the balance of war was developing in favor of East Africa. Whether on land or at sea, East Africa had already grasped the initiative in the war.
The role of the Comoros Islands as an East African naval base has also been fully activated, becoming a reliable strategic fulcrum for the East African Navy and playing a huge role in blockading the coalition forces.
At the same time, in response to the decision of the Naval Headquarters, the New Hamburg Port City Naval Squadron also switched from defense to offense and began to confront the Cape Town Navy in the Durban waters.
The premise of the fox borrowing the tiger's power is that there is a real tiger. Although Major General Bruce's strategy resulted in the East African Navy basically doing nothing in the Mozambique Channel in the early stage, it preserved its strength.
The strength of the navy of the New Hamburg Port is definitely not enough for the British army, but it is capable of fighting against the Portuguese navy in Mozambique.
With the loss of sea control, the coalition forces are now troubled. Currently, the only channel for transporting supplies to the coalition forces is the narrow area along the eastern coast of the Drakensberg Mountains.
However, as supplies resumed at the port city of New Hamburg, the two East African brigades in the area prepared to enter the counterattack phase.
At the same time, the Southern Military District will also send troops to support the garrison in the port of New Hamburg, launch an offensive, and regain control of the southern border province section of the Central Railway.
In this way, East Africa completely cut off the only external channel of the Mozambique coalition forces, forming a war situation of "closing the door to fight the dog".
However, based on the economic strength and industrial capacity of the Mozambique colony, it was obviously unable to supply the main material support for the Allied forces.
East Africa has invested a lot of industry in the port city of New Hamburg, which ensures that when the East African Defense Force is trapped here, although it is very difficult, it can still maintain its military presence in the area.
And it has the ability to launch multiple large-scale tit-for-tat tactical operations during the siege, which Mozambique clearly does not have.
Although Mozambique had been preparing for war for quite some time, all its energy was focused on the area around Maputo.
Maputo is like Paris, France. If Paris falls, France’s will to resist will basically plummet.
The same is true of Maputo's importance to Mozambique, but Maputo is more dangerous than Paris. After all, Paris is in the hinterland, while Maputo is on the coast.
Now the East African Navy can launch an artillery bombardment on Maputo, which is the same as the coalition's artillery bombardment on the port city of Nova Hamburgo.
It would be difficult for East Africa to break through this huge and solid military fortress in a short period of time, so siege was a prerequisite for resolving Maputo.
However, Maputo still has a relatively considerable hinterland, and resources from the entire southern Mozambique can still be transported to Maputo.
The East African Navy was certainly powerless to do anything about this and could only target Portuguese and British ships on the sea and cut off the supply of materials from the two countries to Mozambique.
The decisive battle still depends on the operation of the army, and the current idea of the army is to give priority to eliminating the Portuguese troops in Angola.
If you want to concentrate superior forces, you need to wait until the overall situation in Angola is settled. Of course, if the Southern Military District's operations against the Boer Republic can be ended as soon as possible, East Africa will also be able to carry out large-scale operations on two fronts.
This possibility exists. At present, the main war in the Boer Republic is the security war against Bloemfontein and some other areas.
Bloemfontein is the capital of the Boer Republic. It is the place where the last strength of the Boers is concentrated. It is also a difficult point in the military operations of the Southern Military Region.
Bloemfontein not only serves as a military fortress, but also connects the rear of the Boer Republic. In cooperation with other Boer armed forces and the British Army, it has now formed the prototype of the Boer Republic's second line of defense.
Looking at the map as a whole, the Boer forces penetrated into the southern battlefield in a triangular shape, and were compressed within the triangular area.
The British troops in the direction of Cape Town have tried their best to reinforce the area, and Kimberley, which was originally valued by the British army, has been abandoned.
Kimberley's location is not good. The main reason is that the local economic foundation is entirely based on the development of the diamond industry. In terms of comprehensive conditions, it is far inferior to naturally formed cities such as Bloemfontein.
Of course, from Cape Town's perspective, Kimberley is definitely more important than Bloemfontein, but Cape Town is not just a city, but a general term for Britain's colonies in South Africa.
The rear support for the front line is not actually the city of Cape Town, but the southeastern port cities of Port Elizabeth and East London in South Africa.
The British developed and built Port Elizabeth as early as 1820, and the Port of East London was built in 1847.
The two places are important economic centers in the southeast of the Cape Colony. Just from the names, you can see how much the British value these two places.
The city of Cape Town is located in the southwest corner of the Cape Colony, and the transportation conditions to the inland hinterland of the Cape Colony are not very convenient.
The distance from Port Elizabeth and East London to the Boer Republic is only more than 400 kilometers, while the straight-line distance from Cape Town to the Boer Republic is more than 700 kilometers.
Moreover, the climatic conditions to the north and east of Cape Town are harsh, far less than those in the southeast, which can be seen from the density of roads and settlements.
Therefore, the British could only choose to support Bloemfontein as the center for military defense of East Africa. Of course, support was just support.
The British army has begun to build a defense line on the north bank of the Orange River. They are not actually very optimistic about Bloemfontein and their main goal now is to buy time.
Once Bloemfontein is lost, the road to the south in East Africa will be basically flat, with only the Orange River having some use value.
However, the British population in Cape Town was a fatal weakness. At this time, the importance of the Boer Republic became even more important. Even in Cape Town, the Boer population had an advantage. If the Boers in the Boer Republic were added, the Boer population in South Africa as a whole would have an absolute advantage.
Therefore, uniting the Boers to fight against East Africa is almost the only option for the British. In this case, the Boer Republic government headed by the Bloemfontein government is currently the only option for the British.
(End of this chapter)
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