Chapter 774 Relocation
“Boom boom boom…”
In the Indian Ocean, East African ironclad ships and gunboats began bombarding the city of Maputo. The shells left mottled marks on the fortress walls made of black boulders, showing the solidity of Maputo as a fortress.
"Maputo is no longer safe. Apart from the East African troops in the port city of New Hamburgo, the East African warships on the Indian Ocean have also become a serious threat to the city of Maputo." Bougival said to Earl Roberts with a heavy face.
In fact, the coalition forces had long anticipated that East Africa would attack Maputo from the sea, but when that day really came, the coalition forces still felt tremendous pressure.
"The sea is controlled by East Africa. Maputo has actually become an isolated city. Except for the north, Maputo is very close to other East African troops. So I suggest that the command post should be moved inland or to the north."
What Bougival said naturally also includes the Governor's Palace of Mozambique. Now Maputo can no longer bring a sense of security to everyone.
The south of Maputo is the South Frontier Province of East Africa, while the west is the former Kingdom of Swaziland, now part of the Hechingen Province. The Indian Ocean is also threatened by East African warships. In this way, East Africa has formed an advantageous military deployment that semi-encircles Maputo.
Within this semi-encirclement, each point is less than 200 kilometers away from Maputo. If East Africa were to cut off the north, Maputo would be completely surrounded.
Earl Roberts: "You are right. In fact, from the beginning, Maputo was more suitable as our headquarters. However, the war situation changed too quickly and was different from what we expected before the war, which led to the current predicament in Maputo."
At the beginning, the British army was quite arrogant. At that time, Earl Roberts's goal was to quickly penetrate the East African defense, open up the channel to the new port of Hamburg, and then occupy Swaziland, and then move eastward to the former Transvaal Republic, or directly advance into the Matabele Province in central East Africa with superior forces and firepower.
Due to the insufficient estimation of the combat effectiveness of the East African army and the war potential of East Africa, Earl Roberts' strategy was directly troubled by the small new port city of Hamburg at the first step and was delayed. The eastern defense line of East Africa was even more solid, with the support of South Salzburg Province and Matabele Province. Even if the German army came to East Africa, it had the confidence to deal with the British army.
The Southern Salzburg Province and the Matabele Province are centered in the cities of Mbeya and Harare respectively, concentrating the core strength of East Africa's heavy industry and military industry. They are two industrial bases in East Africa with heavy industry as the core.
At the same time, with the existence of the Central Railway, materials and personnel can be quickly transferred between the two provinces and then transported to the front line by road.
What's worse is that East Africa has a natural geographical advantage over Mozambique. East Africa has high terrain and is mainly composed of plateaus. In contrast, Mozambique is mainly composed of plains. This kind of attack from high to low is a natural advantage, especially in the era of hot weapons. Therefore, even if the British army continues to increase its troops, East Africa is still confident that it can hold the eastern defense line.
"If East Africa uses the Indian Ocean as a breakthrough point and lands north of Maputo, it is really possible to cut off the communication between our army and the northern troops. This is the most fatal point. Without the command of Maputo, the morale of the various troops that are already at a disadvantage will probably be further reduced, resulting in irreparable losses." Bougival expressed his views from the perspective of command.
During the British siege of the port of New Hamburg, the defenders of the port of New Hamburg in East Africa were able to communicate with East Africa through underground backup national defense telegraph lines as well as sea and land.
However, Mozambique does not have such conditions. Except for Maputo and several coastal cities, the telegraph penetration rate in Mozambique is very low and can only be used for internal regional communications. If it wants to connect with the mainland, it has to transit in Dar es Salaam in East Africa.
This is the advantage of industrial countries over agricultural countries in the industrial age. Of course, East Africa is also an agricultural country now, but this is compared with other powers. Mozambique, as a Portuguese colony, is obviously more backward than East Africa, especially after being blockaded by East Africa near the coast. Mozambique has even fallen into a state of backward development.
The tiny “industry” was also forced to stagnate due to the inability to import machinery parts and raw materials from the local area.
This is even more true in the military. Now the coalition's main weapons and ammunition all rely on pre-war stocks. Although there are occasional smuggling ships that can transport supplies, they are a drop in the bucket.
Shipping in the Western Indian Ocean did not completely stagnate. Although more ships chose to pay the Suez Canal to pass through due to the South African War, there were still many brave ships that chose the Cape Town route.
East Africa does not prohibit such behavior because it has its own difficulties. After all, East Africa also needs foreign trade, so it can only turn a blind eye to maritime trade. The same is true for the United Kingdom, but now the ships of both countries are disguised as merchant ships of various countries and sailing in the western Indian Ocean.
This situation has been very common in history. After all, the Indian Ocean route is an international shipping route, and neither East Africa nor the coastal countries of East Africa have the right to monopolize it, unless one country occupies both the East African mainland and the island of Madagascar.
Even so, East Africa has no reason to do so, as it may cause dissatisfaction from the international community. Just like in the Red Sea region, the Suez Canal is related to global trade. If any country cuts off the Red Sea route, it will definitely cause condemnation from the international community.
Of course, East Africa turning a blind eye does not mean they do nothing. They can still board the ship to inspect the cargo, as the British did.
However, most of East Africa’s military industry is self-sufficient, with only a small amount needing to be imported from other regions, which means that the British cannot find any “contraband”.
Naturally, Britain had no reason to cut off the free trade between Germany, France and other countries and East Africa. As fellow powers, they would not allow Britain to enforce the law violently, especially France, which had colonies on the island of Madagascar.
Unless Britain can offer benefits that attract France and other countries, France will naturally not easily offend countries in East Africa that are capable of militarily confronting Britain.
If the war in East Africa went badly, it would be fine, as France would definitely want to get a share of the spoils. However, East Africa is getting stronger and stronger and clearly possesses the military strength of a great power. So even if the British are willing to share some of the benefits, it will only be a blank check.
This is the benefit of East Africa's demonstrated military strength. If it is vulnerable, even Germany and Austria, which have friendly relations with it, will probably take advantage of the situation.
Of course, if Germany had come to power a few years after William II came to power, its attitude might not be the same. After all, William II's target was Britain, and to fight against Britain, it needed allies. Even a group of small and weak countries in Eastern Europe were targets of Britain and Germany. A powerful country like East Africa, even if it was militarily weak, also had great value in being won over.
After all, what Germany liked most in its previous life was to provide military assistance to its allies and support the strength of its younger brothers, including the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In the late period of World War I, the Austro-Hungarian Empire's military had already begun to obey the Germans.
“If we migrate northward, we must choose a military location that can sustain a long-term struggle with East Africa. The most important thing is to facilitate the command of various troops. We also cannot ignore the role of Maputo. Even if Maputo is no longer the headquarters, it still retains important military functions.” Earl Roberts said.
(End of this chapter)
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