Chapter 777 Christmas Offensive
Eastern Front.
The Eastern Front is the area of Matabele Province in East Africa and part of Hechingen Province bordering Mozambique.
However, with the actions of the Eastern Military District, the space for activities of the British and Portuguese troops in Mozambique has been compressed in northern East Africa. The loss of land in the north has also made the eastern defense line shorter and shorter.
The forces of the Western Military Region of East Africa were also concentrated in the Hechingen Province. After the fall of Angola, the main forces of the Western Military Region in Angola and the Nile Military Region also successively provided support to the eastern defense line.
At present, the total strength of the entire Eastern Defense Line has reached 130,000, but the Eastern Defense Line has been shortened by nearly one-third compared to before the war. East Africa has begun to gain a strength advantage over the British and Portuguese coalition forces on the Eastern Defense Line.
Of course, military strength advantage does not include absolute advantage in quantity, but in quality. The combat effectiveness of the East African Defense Force is naturally not comparable to that of the "weak chicken" Portuguese. Therefore, when East Africa calculates the strength of the coalition forces, it is more inclined to use the British army as a reference, while the Portuguese, blacks and Indians are just extras.
It’s not that East Africa looks down on the Portuguese. It’s mainly because the Portuguese’s combat effectiveness levels are very uneven. However, overall they are still among the relatively poor and are only suitable for fighting favorable battles.
However, compared with the Portuguese, Indian soldiers would always hold back their allies even when the battle was going their way, which was almost like a replica of Italy during World War II.
What is more similar to Italy is that Indians are also "foodies" in the coalition forces. Now most of the coalition forces' meals are prepared by Indian chefs. In the field of cooking, Indians are indeed much better than the Portuguese and British.
As for the British who are good at dark cuisine, they are not at the bottom of the coalition. Although British dark cuisine is unpalatable, there are still representative dishes such as fish and chips. The natives of Mozambique have no concept of "food culture" at all. They only know the most basic baking and boiling. If the natives cook, it is basically a pot of hodgepodge.
Apart from the Indians' cooking skills, which are far ahead of the rest of the coalition forces, the biggest role of Indian soldiers in the army now is to maintain service work. As for combat missions, Earl Roberts is afraid that he will be angered to death.
Currently, the total number of British troops in Mozambique is close to 100,000, so the British army has a numerical advantage in the eastern defense line of East Africa.
This does not include the Eastern and Southern Military Regions. The Eastern and Southern Military Regions and other troops together have nearly 100,000 people, which is almost the majority of the East African Army.
Except for the Northern Military Region and the Nile Military Region, all the main forces in East Africa participated in the South African War. The reason why the Nile Military Region and the Northern Military Region did not go all out was to prevent British troops from Egypt and British Somaliland, and to prevent the British from invading the interior of East Africa from the northern waters.
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Gianni.
On the border of Hechingen Province, it is an important town on the eastern defense line of East Africa, on the right side of the Limpopo River. In the past, the East African National Defense Force was mainly located in Matabele Province on the left bank of the Limpopo River.
However, as the Mozambique colony was continuously eroded, the garrison of the Matabele Province in East Africa continued to move to the southern Hechingen Province.
Originally, Giyani was just a wilderness, but it was forcibly transformed into a "military city" by the East African National Defense Force and became the wartime command center of the Eastern Defense Line of the Western Military Region.
There are nearly 60,000 East African troops stationed in Giyani and surrounding areas alone, while the current strength of the Matabele Province has dropped to less than 30,000.
Opposite Matabele Province is the southern part of the 221st Division's crossing point, which is a large area of pristine grassland. It is poorly developed and lacks water resources, so the coalition forces are not numerous, and correspondingly, the number of East African troops deployed on the border is much smaller.
To the south of Giani is the Drakensberg Mountains, which is why Giani has become the new center of the eastern defense line of East Africa. The south is not suitable for large-scale troop operations.
As the Eastern Military Region fired the first shot, the Western Military Region, as the main force in the Mozambique War, naturally did not want to be outdone and also began to launch a heavy attack on the coalition forces at 8 pm on the 12th.
"The 331st Division and the 421st Division were the main forces that participated in the Angolan War. The 331st Division once participated in the war in the Transvaal region. This return to South Africa can be said to be a revisit to an old place." Commander-in-Chief of the Eastern Front, Ledeen, said to the commander of the 331st Division, Carls.
As a mountain division, the 331st Division originally attacked the Boers and Zulus southward along the Drakensberg Mountains. Giani happened to be the place where the 331st Division had participated in the battle. If you are an old member of the 331st Division, you will certainly feel some familiarity with this place.
The reason why Ledeen attaches importance to the 331st Division is not only because of its "long" history and strong combat effectiveness, but also because it belongs to the Nile Military Region. The Nile Military Region belongs to the guest army, and the rest of the troops belong to the Western Military Region.
Karls: "Your Excellency the Commander-in-Chief, our division will definitely live up to everyone's expectations in this war, especially in the former Kingdom of Swaziland, where our division has fought before, so I hope you can allow our division to participate in the Battle of Maputo."
Carls naturally had his own plans here. Everyone knew that Mozambique was already on the decline, so in order to gain military merit, there was naturally no battle more valuable than the first capture of Maputo. It would be even better if he could capture the British highest military commander, Earl Roberts, alive.
Ledeen was not a petty person and had no prejudice. He said to Carls: "Of course, no problem. But in this case, you will have to work together with the 411th Division. The main defenders in Mbabane are the 411th Division. Just like you and the 421st Division took Luanda together before, I also hope that you can cooperate sincerely this time and be the first to break through Maputo."
The 411th Division is the main force of the Western Military Region. As for the 421st Division, the old partner of the 331st Division, Ledeen had other plans. The 421st Division is a cavalry unit, so it is naturally impossible for it to run to the mountainous areas of Swaziland to cooperate with the 331st Division.
Ledden planned to let the 421st Division be responsible for the battlefield in the northern plains, which was the cavalry's home ground. Moreover, as the only cavalry unit in the Western Military Region, the 421st Division was regarded by Ledden as the "big killer" of the Western Military Region.
Initially, Delain placed the 421st Division in Angola in order to disrupt the Portuguese eastward advance to the maximum extent with the least amount of troops. Later, the 421st Division completed the task brilliantly. Although its siege methods were a bit poor, it was a complete killer of the enemy on the plains. Thinking of his own deployment, Delain wondered in his heart, what could Merk do to compare with him this time!
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The commander-in-chief of the Southern Military Region, Merk, naturally had no idea what his old friend was thinking. He was now thinking about how to capture Maputo.
The Southern Military Region has an obvious geographical advantage. It is the closest to Maputo among all the East African troops. But unfortunately, Maputo is most wary of the New Hamburg port city and the surrounding East African troops.
"The terrain between New Hamburg Port and Maputo is narrow, so if we force our way through, we will suffer huge casualties, which is something we cannot afford. In this case, we can only take a detour through the mountains in the west, or use the navy to bypass the Maputo defenders in the middle."
Merk finally planned to adopt a roundabout tactic. Of course, the advantage of the New Hamburg Port City is that it has a naval squadron deployed, but even with the cooperation of the navy, it may not be able to transport too many troops. So Merk planned to divide the troops into three parts, one way to detour from the Swaziland area, one part to detour from the sea, and the last part to attack head-on. A three-pronged approach would definitely break through the Portuguese defense line.
On December 12, various East African troops and military regions launched a large-scale military operation against Mozambique. According to the plan of the General Staff, this battle was to eliminate the main force of Mozambique before Christmas, so it was called the Christmas Offensive.
(End of this chapter)
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