Chapter 767: Occupation of Angola
September 20, 1888.
The main force of the East African South Military District assembled in Falklands, began to launch an attack on the British troops in the eastern part of the South Frontier Province, relying on the strongholds and passes of the former 512th Division in the Drakensberg Mountains.
At the same time, under the dispatch of the General Staff, the defenders of the port of New Hamburg also began to attack the British troops outside the city.
With the reopening of navigation to the port of New Hamburg, the new mixed division had actually completed personnel expansion and equipment and material supply at this time.
The British army launched offensives from the east and west in East Africa, but the exhausted British army was unable to resist, and the worst thing was that they had no strategic location to defend.
The only city that could serve as a barrier, the Port of New Hamburg, had never been conquered, and the direction of the Drakensberg Mountains was also firmly blocked by East Africa.
At this time, unless the main force of the British army in Mozambique provides support, the entire Southern Frontier Province will probably return to the hands of the East Africans.
However, although the British army in the Southern Frontier Province received support from Earl Roberts, it was just a drop in the bucket and could not change the situation at all.
Because at the same time as the war to retake the southern frontier province began, East Africa also launched a new round of large-scale attacks from the north and west. Earl Roberts had to withstand the pressure to prevent the collapse of the entire defense line. In this situation, there was no extra troops to support the south.
This was even after the Mozambique coalition forces again retreated their defenses a month ago, reducing the defensive pressure on the British army.
The East African army continued to advance eastward from the Drakensberg Mountains. The more than 10,000 British troops in the west were unable to compete with the East African troops in terms of numbers or morale.
Coupled with the attack on the port of New Hamburg, the British army did not dare to separate part of the 20,000 British troops in the east to support the Western Front.
At this time, if the port city of New Hamburg was also completely liberated, the British army would really face the disadvantage of being attacked from both east and west in East Africa. After all, after several months of war, the British army's perception of the defenders of the port city of New Hamburg was that they were "tigers locked in a cage". Once a gap was opened, this powerful force would cause great trouble to the British army.
The Southern East African Military Region no longer cares about the British Army's ideas. In order to completely wipe out the British Army's remaining troops in the Southern Frontier Province, the 513th Division is advancing along the railway line towards the port of New Hamburg.
The 514th Division blocked the British Army's withdrawal to the Natal Colony along the Tugela River, while the 511th Division advanced from the plains and confronted the main force of the British Army on the Western Front head-on with the 512th Division.
With multiple measures in place, the British army was unable to fully resist the offensive in East Africa. What was worst was that the Western Military Region of East Africa seized the opportunity to send reinforcements from the northwest, delaying the British army that was coming south to support Mozambique.
The Western Military Region controls the southernmost tip of the Eastern Defense Line, which is the territory of the former Kingdom of Swaziland. It has a geographical advantage over the entire southeastern Africa. A regiment of the 412th Division directly penetrated from the northwest, a place that the reinforcements from Maputo must pass through.
Although it did not stop the British reinforcements from moving south, it greatly delayed the troops' marching speed, buying precious time for the Southern Military District to eliminate the local British troops.
Taking advantage of this gap, the 513th Division and the new mixed division of the New Hamburg Port City successfully joined together and launched a full-scale counterattack against the 20,000 British troops outside the New Hamburg Port City.
By September 27, 1888, when British reinforcements arrived, the crisis in the port city of New Hamburg had been completely resolved.
The British army heading south had more than 20,000 troops, which were already withdrawn from Mozambique by Earl Roberts through frugality.
However, they had to face 30,000 East African main forces who had just won the victory and were in high morale. What's worse, the British army now had no strategic location to defend and seeing that the situation was hopeless, the British commander decisively gave up the mission of rescuing the British troops in the Southern Frontier Province and fled towards Mozambique.
September 30th.
East formally recovered the entire Southern Frontier Province. In the two battles, more than 18,000 British troops were captured, including more than 3,000 Britons, and the rest were mainly Indians.
While East Africa was launching a war to retake the Southern Frontier Province, great changes also took place on the battlefield in the west. At this time, most of Angola's troops were basically completely defeated by East Africa.
The 414th Division and the remaining troops broke through the Portuguese defense line head-on, and then began to advance towards Angolan military towns such as Luanda.
After a series of military victories, a large number of Portuguese soldiers were captured, totaling more than 40,000. At the same time, a large number of black vassal troops were captured in East Africa or escaped.
However, these black people who fled with "advanced" weapons seemed quite dangerous in East Africa, so the entire Western Front began a nationwide campaign to encircle and suppress the black deserters.
After all, these weapons are very likely to become "trouble" for East Africa to develop the Angola region in the future. And it is indeed not an easy task to find tens of thousands of black deserters in the current Angolan colony of more than 300,000 square kilometers of land.
In addition to the collapse of the front battlefield, Cabinda, an important city in northern Angola, was also captured by East Africa. As a result, only Luanda and Benguela and several coastal military strongholds were left in the whole of Angola, still under the control of the Portuguese.
Luanda has persisted in this war until now because of the Portuguese and British governments' maritime advantage in the South Atlantic, which enables Luanda to obtain sufficient supplies and manpower.
A brigade from mainland Portugal had arrived in Luanda a week earlier, but morale in Luanda was failing.
East Africa has been increasing its military strength in Luanda, and various artillery pieces are also being sent here to reinforce. The fall of Luanda is only a matter of time.
Benguela also encountered the same problem, but Benguela was slightly luckier than Luanda. The Second Brigade of the 421st Division lacked siege equipment and heavy firepower, allowing the city to survive. However, the newly formed 419th Division of East Africa was heading towards Benguela. By the time the 419th Division was in place, it was basically certain that the defenders of Benguela would be powerless to turn the tide.
Now the main local resources are mainly tilted towards Luanda, so Benguela receives a very small share of supplies. The Second Brigade alone has already made Benguela's firepower stretched. When the 419th Division arrives, Benguela is simply unable to cope with the fire suppression of a reorganized division in East Africa.
October 7, 1888.
With the cooperation of the 419th and 421st Divisions, Benguela, the second largest city in Portugal, fell. The top leaders of Benguela fled to Luanda by sea, and the troops in the city who had no time to escape surrendered to East Africa.
At this time, the western battlefield was also coming to an end, and the entire Angola, except for the isolated island of Luanda, was controlled by East Africa.
The new East African army in the western battlefield has also grown rapidly after this period of war and has formed combat effectiveness.
End of October 1888.
After basically clearing Angola, East Africa began a full-scale attack on Luanda.
East Africa concentrated 103 artillery pieces and roared at Luanda, the coastal fortress in the South Atlantic second only to Cape Town.
The Portuguese would never have imagined that they would enjoy the treatment that they only received on the European battlefield in backward Africa. This was also the first time in sub-Saharan Africa that a single battle involved an artillery battle involving hundreds of artillery pieces.
Although Luanda was built by the Portuguese over hundreds of years, the Portuguese certainly never imagined that Luanda would one day be treated like this.
At four o'clock in the afternoon on the last day of October 1888, after more than an hour of artillery fire in East Africa, a white flag was raised in the ruins of Luanda, announcing the end of hundreds of years of Portuguese rule in Angola.
(End of this chapter)
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