Chapter 766 Assembly
Falkslust.
This rather awkward name was inherited by East Africa from the Boers; strictly speaking, Folkestone was not part of the former Transvaal Republic.
It is the intersection of the Boers and the Zulu Kingdom, or the "battlefield" where the two fought, which is firmly controlled by East Africa.
At the same time, Folkestone is the transportation hub of the region and an important passage to the port city of New Hamburg. The Central Railway of East Africa passes through here.
With the military mobilization of the Southern Military District, a total of more than 27,000 troops are ready to cooperate with the defenders of the port city of New Hamburg to recapture the Southern Frontier Province.
This also made the Folkestone Station busy, as the troops of the Southern Military District had to gather here first and then pass through the various passes of the Drakensberg Mountains.
East Africa controlled many large and small passages. Although the British army would occasionally burst out and open up the road to the west, East Africa would quickly be recaptured.
Of course, although the Drakensberg Mountains have certain defensive functions, they cannot guarantee foolproofness. As long as the British army exerts all its strength, there is still a chance to break through the natural barrier of the Drakensberg Mountains.
However, even so, it was a difficult task for the British army, first of all because of the lack of detailed knowledge of the Drakensberg Mountains.
After all, the British came too late. By the time they wanted to show their power in South Africa, the Transvaal Republic and the Zulu Kingdom had already been destroyed by East Africa.
East Africa does not open up to foreign trade and even restricts people from entering and leaving the country, so it is very difficult to obtain intelligence in East Africa.
Most of the intelligence that the British army could obtain came from expeditions. "Explorer" could be said to be the most notorious existence in the 19th century. The corresponding term to this term is "navigator", both of whom were pioneers of colonialism.
Of course, there had been similar official organizations in East Africa before, but now they had simply been replaced by various types of scientific expedition teams or professional external spy agencies.
The Drakensberg Mountains are so large, and East Africa is sparsely populated, so even if East Africa wants to "close the country to the outside world", it cannot completely prevent "explorers" from all over the world from entering East Africa. Generally speaking, as long as they do not accidentally enter East African towns and villages, it is difficult for East Africa to discover them.
This is especially true for several provinces in southern East Africa. The combined area of these provinces is over one million square kilometers, and the population, including the military, is less than one million. Under this circumstance, the population density in southern East Africa is actually not much different from that of the Boer Republic and the Cape Colony, both of which are typical areas with vast land and sparse population.
The only difference is that the number of troops in the south of East Africa is almost one-eighth of the population of the Boer Republic.
Of course, with the outbreak of the South African War, the number of Allied troops in South Africa also increased rapidly and surpassed the number of troops in East Africa, but most of the contribution to the advantage in contact numbers came from Indian soldiers.
If we only consider the original population of the Boer Republic and Cape Town, even if we add the two Portuguese colonies in the east and west, it would be no problem for us to take on four in East Africa without local support, and we could even win easily.
…
In Fulksrest, the military commanders of the 511th, 513th, and 514th Divisions, who had just ended the war in the Boer Republic, met to discuss how to recover the lost territory in the Southern Frontier Province.
In addition to these three troops, there is also the 512th Division, which is now the garrison of the port of New Hamburg. The main force of the 512th Division is besieged in the port of New Hamburg, but the headquarters of the 512th Division is in the Deyal area near the Drankens Mountains.
Therefore, there are a total of four troops participating in the war in East Africa this time, which basically represents most of the Southern Military Region’s assets.
"The total number of British troops outside New Hamburg Port is now more than 20,000, twice the number of New Hamburg Port. The number of allied troops in the entire Southern Frontier Province should be more than 40,000. Most of the remaining troops are confronting us on the east side of the Drakensberg Mountains." Kelar said to the friendly commanders who came to support
The commander of the 511th Division, Pripyat, said: "So the British troops in the Southern Frontier Province are not the main force?"
Kelar: "The main force of the British army is now in the north, that is, in Mozambique. As for the British troops in the Southern Frontier Province, they did try to break through our division's deployment in the Drakens Mountains in the first month of the war, but they were all repelled by our army. Later, the enemy and our side were involved in a tug-of-war near the Drakens Mountains, which has been delayed until now."
As the highest military commander in the eastern part of the former Southern Frontier Province, the 512th Division led by Kelar fought many major battles with the British army, which was several times their size. In the past few months, including the very famous Battle of Tugela River in the early stage of the war.
However, the 512th Division has now been divided into two parts by the enemy, and the troops in the east centered on the port city of New Hamburg are now mainly under the command of Aristotle.
Aristotle was the commander of the Tugela River Battle in East Africa. He was previously a subordinate of Kelar. Later, after the siege of the port of New Hamburg, in order to unify the command of the defenders of the port of New Hamburg, the Southern Military Region temporarily reorganized Aristotle's 9th Brigade and the 3rd Brigade withdrawn from the northern line into the New Hamburg Mixed Division.
Therefore, the force that Kelar can actually command now is only one-third of the original 512th Division. However, even so, the strength of East Africa's four and a half divisions in the eastern battlefield of the Southern Frontier Province can reach more than 40,000, which is more than twice that of the British Army.
Kelar went on to say: "The railway between us and the port city of New Hamburg has been completely cut off, as has the telegraph line. The communication with the new mixed division can only be transferred through the General Staff."
This is the important reason why Aristotle obtained independent command. Although Aristotle’s troops are nominally affiliated with the Southern Military Region, they are actually directly under the command of the General Staff.
Of course, the one who suffered the most was Kelar. His former subordinates had now gotten ahead of him and were commanding a larger army than his own. How could he justify this?
Of course, this was a special situation under the war. Facing the British army that was several times larger than the 512th Division, even other East African troops could not be said to have done better than Keral under such circumstances.
Although Aristotle played a brilliant role in the war, it cannot be denied that Kelar was the commander of the entire Southern Frontier Province's military deployment and command in the early stages of the war.
Therefore, after the war, Kelar’s contribution is indispensable, but the fact that he has shared it with his colleagues makes people even more enviable.
Several other main forces of the Southern Frontier Province all participated in the war against the Boer Republic. Although there was suspicion of using the majority to bully the minority in East Africa, after the war was over, the war against the Boer Republic was definitely a war of annihilation.
Kelar was quite envious of this. Although the Boer Republic was small in area, small in population, and weak in national strength, the war of annihilation sounded impressive.
Of course, Kelar had actually participated in a war of annihilation like this, when the Transvaal Republic was destroyed in East Africa.
In addition to the Transvaal Republic, there are countless countries that have perished in East Africa, but except for Zanzibar, most of them are of little value.
After all, the African chiefs who dominated Africa with backward weapons were not worth mentioning in the history of wars in East Africa. At least hundreds of such kingdoms were destroyed in East Africa, and if large tribes were counted, there were probably thousands.
The commanders of other divisions had no feelings about Kelar's little trick. Although the 512th Division was now divided into two units, there was no difference in their eyes. After all, whether the strength of the mixed division had increased out of thin air or not, it was still the original 512th Division's old team.
As for bullying the "Boers", it may not be more exciting than confronting the British army head-on. Unlike Ernst, who valued the Boers, the target of most officers in East Africa was definitely not the "mere" Boers, but one of the "most" powerful armies in the world - the British Army.
(End of this chapter)
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