Chapter 781: Big Ring Enclosing Small Ring
When Howell finally made the decision, Schwall had already led his men out of the forest. The forest was indeed not suitable for marching, or else Schwall felt that he would definitely be blocked here.
Looking at the familiar grassland, Schwarz finally let go of his worries. However, the crisis was far from over at this time. After all, he was alone in the deep enemy territory, so it would be better to find a safe place first.
"Captain, which direction are we going?"
Schwar: "To the west, but we must find a place to stay today. We don't have time to dawdle here. The enemy has discovered our tracks, so we can only get through the current difficulties first."
Schwaldt had no time to think at this time. After all, East Africa was not very familiar with this area. Although there was a map provided by the Military Intelligence Department, it was not very detailed.
Whether going south or north, there is a possibility of encountering the main force of the coalition forces, so Schwall thinks only the west is the safest.
Of course, Schwall also had the idea of meeting the main force of this flanking operation. This time, there were a total of two troops in East Africa that went deep into the enemy's rear. In addition to his own regiment, there was also a brigade that entered the enemy's rear from the western mountains.
However, their speed is definitely much slower than that of the Schwalbe's troops traveling by land and sea, so the Schwalbe's troops will have to find a way to survive these few days.
The most important thing is to solve the problem of material supply, which is the biggest problem for the Schwalbe's troops to survive. After advancing alone into the deep, the East African Defense Force completely lost its logistics and could only think of ways to deal with the enemy.
However, Schwall believed that this problem should not be too big. After all, the amount of supplies needed by the British and Portuguese on the front line must be huge, and these supplies could only be sent to the front line from Maputo.
In other words, the location where Schwal's troops are now located is exactly the enemy's supply line. As long as they find a good hideout, Schwal's troops can attack from all sides and rob the enemy's transport convoys.
At the same time, they also face the risk of being encircled by the enemy, but Schwall is not afraid of this because the main force on the East African front should be able to hold back most of the enemy's forces.
Therefore, there is a 70% chance that the troops the enemy can send will be garrisons in the direction of Maputo.
However, he only needs to wait two or three days, and the situation will change drastically. By then, the enemy will have to face interference from a main brigade of East Africa in the west, and the East African troops on the front line will continue to put pressure on the coalition forces.
In this way, Schwal's pressure will be greatly reduced and there will be more room for maneuver. Of course, cleaning up the enemy's supply lines is only a secondary part of this combat mission.
More importantly, stabbing the enemy on the front line from behind will cause great chaos in the morale of the coalition forces on the front line, and the main combat tasks must be completed by other troops.
Thinking of this, Schwar said, "We have to march westward at least thirty kilometers before dark to shake off the tail behind us."
It was almost dark now. Marching at night was safer and easier to escape from the enemy's danger. This was a compulsory course for the East African army.
Moreover, based on Schwall's many years of experience, the British and Portuguese certainly had no way to continue pursuing Schwall's troops.
It takes a lot of time to reach the landing point in East Africa, and it will take even longer if we pursue the East African army.
This can be more clearly reflected from the fact that no large enemy forces have appeared yet, which means that the enemy's nearest troops are not close to the place where Schwall's troops landed. Two hours have passed now, so even if the enemy's speed reaches 40 kilometers per hour, they should have walked 80 kilometers.
Of course, the enemy's speed could not possibly reach that fast. According to the marching speed of most Portuguese troops, they could reach 30 to 40 kilometers a day, and they were the elite among the elite. The Indian army was even more slow, marching at most 10 to 20 kilometers a day.
The most normal British people in the coalition forces did not have much problem with this point, but Britain was unable to withdraw troops now, and Earl Roberts adhered to the principle of using the best steel where it is needed most.
The troops were divided into four major groups. The British Army was the absolute main force in the war, so it must be deployed in places where the war was most intense, such as the front line or important cities like Maputo, strongholds, fortresses, etc.
The second are the Portuguese. The purely Portuguese army is mainly responsible for supporting the British military operations. They are generally deployed on the two wings of the British army to assist the main force of the British army in combat.
Then there are the blacks. Black troops are generally used as cannon fodder, which has been found to be very useful by the Allied Forces. The black troops are braver than the Indian and even part of the Portuguese army.
Finally, there are the Indians. They are mainly responsible for logistics and other tasks. Because Indians are not good at fighting, it is easy for them to cause bad consequences on the front line, leading to bigger loopholes.
After receiving several "educations" in the early stages of the war, Earl Roberts and the British military leaders no longer dared to challenge the Indians' "bottom line". Facts proved that they had no bottom line at all.
This also means that if the Schwalbe troops set their sights on the coalition logistics, it would be very easy to succeed because the Indians are in charge of this area.
It’s just that the coalition forces did not think that East Africa would go deep into the enemy’s rear and attack their logistics lines, but this was actually something they had considered.
It’s just that East Africa had been fighting the coalition forces for more than half a year, but they had almost never invaded deep behind enemy lines alone, so this made the coalition forces relax their vigilance.
In addition, the coalition forces deployed "heavy troops" on the coastline, which seemed "foolproof" to Roberts. However, Earl Roberts miscalculated again.
The troops in charge of the coastline are mainly "Portuguese". Although the Portuguese do not often break the "rules" like Indian soldiers, they will definitely bring "surprises" to everyone.
Just like Schwall's troops were able to enter the rear of Mozambique, it was entirely due to the slackness of the Portuguese army, but the Portuguese army did not do nothing.
At least they are still maintaining daily patrols. If Indians were allowed to guard the coastline, they would most likely not be able to find any trace of the East Africans.
After all, patrolling the coastline can be "falsely reported", just like signing in. As long as the superiors are not watching, who knows whether the mission has been completed seriously outside the barracks? In any case, it is still according to one's own ideas.
…
When Schwal's troops successfully landed and penetrated into the enemy's rear, an even larger fleet was heading towards Maputo in the night on the Indian Ocean.
This joint force is the East African Navy and the Guards Division. The Guards Division also has its own small navy and is also the main force on land. This time their target is the north of Maputo.
In this way, East Africa's division and encirclement of the enemy around Maputo is being completed, and now the outline of a small encirclement has taken shape.
The large encirclement will be completed by the Guards Division in cooperation with the Western and Southern Military Regions. The Guards Division carries a large number of heavy weapons. At the same time, the Navy and the Guards Division's small navy will also cooperate to launch a new round of attacks on Maputo.
In this way, the troops in Maputo and its surrounding areas will be divided into two parts, forming a strategic pattern of a big ring within a small ring.
In this way, Maputo might really become an isolated city, thus cutting off the communication and command between the coalition forces and the forces in other regions.
However, what the East African side did not expect was that half a month ago, the British Commander-in-Chief Earl Roberts and the Governor of Mozambique Bougival had already moved the coalition headquarters to Chokwe in the Limpopo River Basin in the north, which was considered to be an early escape.
(End of this chapter)
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