Chapter 764 Plan Adjustment
On September 1, 1888, the 421st Division arrived in Luanda first, but faced with the well-prepared Luanda defenders, it was difficult for the 421st Division to break the situation.
However, on September 3, the 421st Division, which had gotten rid of the obstacles of local indigenous people, also arrived in Luanda. The two sides successfully joined forces in Luanda, which basically meant the shaking of Portugal's rule in Angola.
After considering the current situation, the 331st Division and the 421st Division reached a willingness to cooperate. The 331st Division was responsible for the main attack, while the 421st Division was responsible for intercepting the Portuguese troops who attempted to return to Luanda for reinforcement. Both sides fully utilized their own advantages to seek victory in Luanda.
The 331st Division had much more advantages than the 421st Division in terms of heavy weapons, which was one of the important reasons why the 331st Division arrived in Luanda later than the 421st Division.
The large number of cavalry units of the 421st Division can ambush and encircle the Portuguese troops returning to support, giving full play to their mobility advantage. Even if East Africa cannot capture Luanda in a short period of time, they can use Luanda to achieve the goal of "siege and attack the reinforcements."
Of course, the firepower of the 421st Division itself is still considerable, so after Helmond discussed with Custer, the artillery of the two armies were concentrated and used together, so that they could be compared with the firepower of Luanda.
At the same time, other East African forces were also putting pressure on the Portuguese troops on the front line. Now the main force of Portugal was actually "surrounded" by East Africa in reverse.
The important ports of Angola, Luanda, Benguela and Cabinda have been surrounded by East Africa, which means that the Portuguese army's retreat is blocked. With the East African army chasing closely behind, the current situation is difficult for Portugal to change.
The key point lies in Luanda. Luanda can also contact the outside world, including obtaining local material and personnel support, so Luanda is Portugal’s only hope now.
If Luanda fell, it would basically mean that Portugal's military defeat in Angola was inevitable, as Luanda was the political, military, economic and foreign trade center of the Angolan colony.
The besieged Luanda area is like a hostage with its neck strangled by a gangster. As long as the two East African troops can "twist" off Luanda's head, the rest of the Angolan troops will be at the mercy of East Africa.
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Everything is going smoothly on the Western Front, but it has not fully achieved the General Staff's goal. The main reason is that the time consumed by the Western Front is beyond East Africa's expectations.
The last time East Africa attacked Angola, it was lightly armed and each unit was able to move freely. At that time, Portugal's military strength in Angola was very weak, so it was easy to succeed.
But now the situation has changed. East Africa has made a qualitative improvement in terms of numbers and equipment, but the Portuguese have also made great progress. Although the Portuguese human wave tactics did not change the situation on the battlefield, they greatly delayed East Africa's time.
Siwei Te: "Although the implementation of the Western Front is going smoothly, too much time has been wasted. More troops have not played the advantage of our army's quick decision-making during the last East-Portuguese War. Instead, the entire war system has become more complicated. Of course, such tactics also have their advantages, mainly that they can more safely avoid the impact of the war on our inland areas."
East Africa's biggest concern about this war has actually been the coalition forces' invasion of East Africa's industrial areas. However, after a large number of troop reinforcements were received on the eastern and western battlefields, this problem has been temporarily solved.
Especially on the Eastern Front, East Africa, like the Western Front, received a large number of reinforcements, but the Eastern Front was facing the Anglo-Portuguese Allied Forces, so it was impossible to launch a full-scale counterattack against Mosanake like the Western Front.
Therefore, East Africa's industrial investment in the three central provinces headed by Matabele Province has become the reason why East Africa is cautious in this South African War.
Of course, even if he had to start all over again, Ernst would still choose to build an industrial system in the three central provinces, because the development of East Africa is too unbalanced.
Before the industrial development of Matabele Province, the economy of East Africa was dominated by the eastern region, and the only natural advantage of the east was the port.
Moreover, the earlier you invest, the earlier the results will be. If you wait until the East African industry is fully established before developing the central region, it may be too late to make up for the loss. Historical experience tells Ernst that the greater the first-mover advantage, the more difficult it will be for latecomers to catch up and surpass.
And according to Ernst's overall idea, he still hopes that all parts of East Africa will develop in a balanced way. Of course, according to the national conditions of East Africa, this overall idea mainly refers to all the plateau areas in East Africa.
As a tropical country, the plateau is more livable, which is something East Africa cannot change. The plateaus in East Africa are distributed relatively evenly, from south to north and from east to west, which is conducive to risk sharing in East Africa.
"Chief of General Staff, the western battlefield has disrupted our deployment, but our army's results in the southern battlefield are quite good. On the 20th of last month, our army captured Bloemfontein. Now the southern battlefield has completely entered a security war state, mainly dealing with small-scale attacks by the Boers."
Siweitt asked, "Has the Orange River line been completely taken?"
"According to the front-line battle report, five days ago, the Southern Military District had already approached the north bank of the Orange River. Now the Boer and British troops are evacuating to the East Cape."
Siwei Te: "Send a telegram to the Southern Military District and ask them to control the north bank of the Orange River as soon as possible. I will only give them one week."
The changes on the southern battlefield made Siweite realize that this was an opportunity, which was to send the main force of the Southern Military District eastward in advance, retake the eastern part of the Southern Frontier Province, and cooperate with the defenders of the New Hamburg Port to restore the Central Railway.
The combat effectiveness of the Southern Military Region is relatively strong among all the military regions in East Africa. Because it has been confronting the Transvaal people, an enemy who has the hatred of destroying its country, it has to maintain a state of armament all year round.
The Southern Military District's war against the Boers also shows that in this battle, the Southern Military District's knife is still very sharp. After all, the Boers' fighting will is stronger than that of the British army.
The combat effectiveness of individual soldiers can be said to be second only to the Gurkha mercenaries in the coalition forces. The only difference is that their foundation is too weak. Not to mention compared with the British army, even the Portuguese army is wealthier than the Boers.
No matter how bad Portugal's finances were, it still had some industries, while the Boers could only make a living from agriculture and animal husbandry. The conditions of the former Orange Free State were actually far worse than those of the former Transvaal Republic, and it had squeezed in so many people and had experienced a civil war.
Therefore, the Boers fought against East Africa purely out of "passion", but unfortunately, due to the absolute advantage in military strength and weapons and equipment in East Africa, the Boers failed to complete the task of "defending the country".
East Africa's vigilance against the Boers has never dissipated. After all, the people of the Transvaal Republic have always shouted the slogan of "restoration of the country". This is also the reason why the per capita military expenditure of the Southern East African Military District has been maintained at the highest level except for the Guards Division.
Although the Boers still choose to resist, we only need to drive their main force to the south bank of the Orange River.
The Boers in the Orange Free State would have no choice but to be at the mercy of East Africa, so that the Southern Military District could withdraw troops to retake the Southern Frontier Province.
Of course, to be on the safe side, Siwei Te's goal is only to recapture the entire southern border province first, and the decisive battle against the main force of the coalition forces still needs to be considered in the long run.
After all, the border between East Africa and Cape Town is too long, and the Southern Military Region must maintain a certain amount of troops to prevent the British troops in Cape Town from rushing to the eastern battlefield.
Although the defense pressure in East Africa was greatly reduced after the capture of the Orange River, it did not mean that they could sit back and relax. According to the predictions of the East African military before the war, even if they relied on the Orange River, East Africa would need to retain at least 20,000 troops to defend Cape Town.
The annexation of the Orange Free State does not mean the end of the war in the region. At least 10,000 troops must be reserved to deal with the Boer guerrillas. Together with other areas, the entire southern military region must retain at least 40,000 troops to deal with emergencies.
(End of this chapter)
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