Chapter 785: Even More Difficult
With the fall of Maputo, the Christmas Offensive in East Africa is coming to an end. Maputo is a very representative battle in this offensive.
In fact, major breakthroughs were made on many fronts in East Africa. The Eastern Military Region and the Northern Military Region also successfully crossed the Sawy River and pushed the front line to the Funialoru area. There were only a few important Portuguese towns left to the south, and the Limpopo River basin could be reached.
The results achieved by the Western Military Region and the Nile Military Region were even more brilliant. In addition to participating in the Battle of Maputo, the Western Military Region completed the division and encirclement of the main force of Portugal in the west and eliminated a large number of enemy forces.
Now only the enemies in Mapai and São Jorge in the upper reaches of the Limpopo River are still resisting stubbornly. However, with the siege of the East African army, the enemy forces in these two places can only passively take the beating.
The Southern Military Region and the Guards Division were the main forces in the Battle of Maputo. The results in these three areas basically eliminated most of Mozambique's main forces.
Now Earl Roberts has only about 70,000 troops under his command, concentrated in an area of less than 40,000 square kilometers centered on Shaoque, which is more than two-thirds less than before the war.
Apart from the enemy troops trapped in Mapai and São Jorge, the only garrisons in other places were the newest and most elite troops in Maputo, but after the fall of Maputo, this meant that Earl Roberts had no cards to play.
The only decisive battle in the end might be the defense of Chokwe, but Chokwe is still far inferior to the African city of Maputo, especially in terms of infrastructure and city defense fortifications, which is an extremely fatal flaw.
…
Shao Kui.
The new headquarters of the coalition forces and the temporary capital of Mozambique, Chokwe’s basic city defense has now been completed, with the original town of Chokwe as its core.
The coalition forces built two layers of defense here, inner and outer. The town of Chokwe itself was not bad, because it was located on the front line of confrontation between the former Mozambique and the Gaza Empire, an indigenous African kingdom, so the town of Chokwe was originally a military fortress.
The Gaza Kingdom was a very powerful indigenous kingdom, and its heyday was in the 1860s. Its territory covered most of the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers from north to south.
At that time, the Portuguese were mainly concentrated on the coast. In fact, the Portuguese had no way to deal with the Kingdom of Gaza. Just like maintaining a balance between the Boers and the Zulus, the military fortress that the Portuguese later built in Chokwe was quite solid.
The driving force behind Portugal's accelerated annexation of the Kingdom of Gaza was the threat from East Africa. In the 1970s, the Portuguese military strength in Mozambique continued to increase, and eventually in the 1980s they completely wiped out this indigenous kingdom.
As a result, Chokwe became a town in the interior of Mozambique. The coalition forces expanded and reinforced the original military fortress, turning Chokwe into a fortress suitable for modern warfare.
At the same time, on the periphery, Earl Roberts built a group of fortresses, trenches and walls based on the Limpopo River, and also established surface combat forces on the Limpopo River.
In this way, Chokwe's defense system was basically formed, but there were also many aspects that troubled the coalition forces. For example, the rainy season of the Limpopo River happened to be in the summer, that is, between December and March. The summer in the southern hemisphere is opposite to that in the northern hemisphere.
During the rainy season, the Limpopo River would flood, causing the river water to occupy part of the land originally along the Chokwe River, which caused a lot of trouble for the coalition forces.
Of course, the most troublesome thing is the unstoppable offensive in East Africa, which has made the Mozambique coalition forces unable to cope with it.
"This is the battle report from two days ago. Maputo has fallen. East Africa has besieged Maputo from four directions, but we have not yet figured out the specific reasons why Maputo fell." The subordinate reported to Earl Roberts.
"Davis! Davis, you have misled me!" Earl Roberts roared.
Although they evacuated from Maputo to Chokwe, Maputo was the important reason why Earl Roberts dared to do so.
Maputo is the most solid city in Africa, and only Cape Town can compare to it, so Earl Roberts positioned Maputo as the nail in the north that delays East Africa's northward movement.
Even if East Africa had spared no effort, Maputo should have at least held out for a few months. At worst, the troops should have broken out to the northwest to retain their manpower, but unfortunately Davis did not do so.
"The East African navy was dispatched and a landing operation was launched at the same time, so it is understandable that General Davis could not break out from the north. However, the fall of Maputo was completely unexpected. It is totally against common sense." Bougival said with a gloomy face.
The situation is becoming increasingly grim. The area under my jurisdiction as the Governor of Mozambique is getting smaller and smaller. I am afraid that the position of Governor of Mozambique will no longer exist in the Kingdom of Portugal in the future.
"East Africa must have taken some special measures to capture the city of Maputo. As for General Davis, he can still be trusted. After all, he has no motive to surrender to the enemy," Bougival continued.
Earl Roberts was certainly aware of this. As his most trusted subordinate, Davis was his confidant, and he certainly believed in Davis' character.
But now is not the time to discuss Davis' character. The fall of Maputo is a foregone conclusion, and the situation on the battlefield is rapidly deteriorating. Could it be worse than this? Facts have proved that there is.
"We have also lost contact with the western army. The East African army has appeared in the Masinger area, no more than 100 kilometers away from Chokwe. The main force in the north has also been defeated by the East Africans and is retreating towards the Limpopo River Basin. The East African army in Maputo may also move north."
The appearance of the East African army in Mahindi is a very dangerous signal, which can only mean two things: either the main force in the west was completely wiped out by the East Africans, or they were besieged.
You must know that from before the war until now, the troops in western Mozambique have been the main component of the coalition forces, and they are also the most elite and largest in number.
The East African Defense Force that appeared in Masingier was actually the 421st Cavalry Division of the Western Military Region, while the main force of Portugal in the west was compressed between São Jorge and Mapai by the four East African divisions.
Of course, even if the main force in the west was not trapped, the pressure faced by the coalition forces would not be reduced, because the enemies in the north and south were also close at hand, and there was basically no defense in the middle.
Chokwe is already in a precarious situation. Within three days, Earl Roberts will probably hear the news that the East African vanguard has appeared on the outskirts of Chokwe.
However, Earl Roberts did not have enough confidence in Chokwe. After all, Chokwe did not have the same conditions as Maputo, so how could it cope with the siege in East Africa?
If there is no reinforcement from Cape Town, then East Africa only needs to surround Chokwe and Earl Roberts will have to surrender within a month.
Due to time constraints, Shaokui's supplies had not yet been replenished, especially the conscription and grain collection work, which required a large number of manpower.
The coalition forces had consumed a great deal of manpower, material and financial resources just to build the Chokwe defense system, so Chokwe's coalition forces could only hope that the reinforcements from Cape Town could open up the situation, especially the British troops in the Natal colony, to break through the port city of New Hamburg, so as to reactivate the war in Mozambique.
However, Earl Roberts also knew that this situation was basically impossible to happen. It was still unknown whether the Natal colony had fallen into the hands of East Africa, because the troops of the Natal colony were basically second-line troops with weak combat effectiveness.
It was basically impossible for them to break through the heavy defenses in East Africa. Of course, Earl Roberts did not count on these "scraps", but instead hoped that heavy troops from the mainland could support the South African battlefield and change the situation.
(End of this chapter)
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