Chapter 785 It’s 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 have been made on many fronts in East Africa. The Eastern Military District and the Northern Military District have also successfully crossed the Savi River and advanced the front line to the Funa Loru area. There are only a few important Portuguese towns left in the south. Arrive at Limpopo River Basin.
The results of 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 in western Portugal and eliminated a large number of enemy effective forces.
At present, only the enemies in Mapai and Sao Jorge in the upper reaches of the Limpopo River are still resisting. However, with the siege of the East African army, the enemy forces in these two places can only be passively beaten.
The Southern Military District and the Guards Division were the main forces in the Battle of Maputo. The results in three aspects basically eliminated most of the main forces in Mozambique.
At present, Earl Roberts's troops are basically only more than 70,000 strong, concentrated on less than 40,000 square kilometers of land centered on Shaokui, which is more than two-thirds less than before the war.
Except for the enemy troops trapped in Mapai and São Jorge, the troops stationed elsewhere were Maputo's latest elites. However, after the fall of Maputo, this meant that Count Roberts had no cards to play.
The only decisive battle in the end is probably the defense of Shaokui. However, compared to major African cities like Maputo, Shaokui is still far behind, especially in terms of infrastructure and city defenses. This is an extremely fatal shortcoming.
…
Shaokui.
The Limpopo River floods during the rainy season, which causes the river to encroach on part of the original land beside the Shaokwe River, which adds a lot of trouble to the coalition forces.
In this way, Shaokwe's defense system has basically taken shape, but there are still many places that trouble the coalition forces. For example, the rainy season of the Limpopo River happens 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.
Of course, the most troublesome thing is the unstoppable offensive in East Africa, which has left the Mozambican coalition unable to respond.
As a result, Saukui became a town in the interior of Mozambique. The coalition army expanded and reinforced the original military fortress, turning Saukui into a fortress suitable for modern warfare.
At that time, the Portuguese were still mainly concentrated on the coast. In fact, the Portuguese had nothing to do with the Gaza Kingdom here, just like maintaining a balance between the Boers and the Zulus. Therefore, the Portuguese later built a military fortress in Saukwe. Pretty solid.
At the same time, on the periphery, Earl Roberts relied on the Limpopo River to build a group of fortresses, trenches and walls, and at the same time established a surface combat force on the Limpopo River.
The coalition forces have built an internal and external defense circle here. Saukui Town itself is quite good, because it is on the front line of confrontation between the original Mozambique and the African indigenous kingdom Gaza Empire, so Saukui Town was originally a military fortress.
The Kingdom of Gaza was a very powerful indigenous kingdom, and its heyday happened to be in the 1860s. Its territory covered most of the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers from north to south.
The location of the new coalition headquarters and the temporary capital of Mozambique. Currently, the prototype of the basic urban defense of Saukwe has been completed, with the original town of Saukwe as the core.
The driving force that accelerated Portugal's annexation of the Gaza Kingdom was the threat from East Africa. In the 1970s, the Portuguese's military strength in Mozambique continued to strengthen, and finally the indigenous kingdom was completely eliminated in the 1980s.
"Davis! Davis, you mistook me!" Earl Roberts roared angrily.
Although he evacuated from Maputo to Saukwe, Maputo was an important source of confidence for Earl Roberts to dare to do this. Maputo's solidity can be said to be second to none in Africa, and only Cape Town can compare with it. Therefore, Earl Roberts's positioning of Maputo is the nail in the north that delays East Africa's northward movement.
Even if East Africa spares no effort, Maputo should hold on for at least a few months. Even if it is worse, the troops should break out to the northwest to retain their effective strength, but unfortunately Davis did not do it.
"East Africa deployed the navy and launched a landing operation at the same time, so it was understandable that General Davis could not break out from the north, but the fall of Maputo can be said to be completely unexpected. This is so unreasonable." Bougival Said with a gloomy look on the side.
The situation is getting worse and worse now. The area under the jurisdiction of the Governor of Mozambique is getting smaller and smaller. I am afraid that there will be no such thing as the Governor of Mozambique in the Kingdom of Portugal in the future.
"East Africa must have adopted some special method to capture the city of Maputo. As for General Davis, he can still be trusted. After all, he had no motive to surrender to the enemy." Bougival continued.
Of course, Earl Roberts knew this. As his most valued subordinate, Davis was his confidant, and he certainly believed in Davis's character.
But now is not the time to discuss Davis’s character. The fall of Maputo is a foregone conclusion, and the situation on the battlefield is deteriorating rapidly. What could 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 Mahinger area, less than 100 kilometers away from Shaokwe in a straight line. The main force in the north has also been defeated by East Africa and is retreating towards the Limpopo River Basin. There are also Ma Putuo’s East African army may also go north.”
The appearance of the East African army in Mahinger is a very dangerous signal. This can only mean two situations, either the main force in the west is completely wiped out by East Africa, or it is besieged.
You must know that from before the war started until now, the troops in western Mozambique have been the main component of the coalition forces, and they are also the most elite and numerous.
The East African National Defense Force that appeared in Mahinger was actually the 421st Cavalry Division of the Western Military Region, and the main force in western Portugal was compressed between São Jorge and Mapai by the four East African divisions.
Of course, even if the main force in the west is not trapped, the pressure faced by the coalition forces will not be reduced, because the enemies in the north and south are also close at hand, and there is basically no danger in the middle.
Chau Kui is already in a critical situation. In less than three days, Earl Roberts will probably hear the news that the East African vanguard troops have appeared outside Sau Kui.
But Earl Roberts did not have enough confidence in Chaukwe. After all, Chaukwe did not have the conditions like Maputo, so how could he cope with the encirclement of East Africa.
If there are no reinforcements from the direction of Cape Town, then East Africa only needs to surround Chaukwe, and in less than a month, Earl Roberts will have no choice but to surrender.
Due to time constraints, Shaokui's supplies have not yet been fully replenished, especially the work of recruiting troops and grain, which require a large number of manpower.
The coalition forces spent a lot of manpower, material resources and financial resources just to build the defense system of Chaukwe. Therefore, the coalition forces of Chaukwe can only count on the reinforcements from Cape Town to open up the situation, especially the British army in the Natal colony, to break through the new situation. Port City of Hamburg, so that the war situation in Mozambique can be reactivated.
However, Earl Roberts also knew that this situation was basically impossible. Whether the Natal Colony fell into the hands of East Africa was still unknown, because the troops in the Natal Colony were basically second-line troops with weak combat effectiveness.
It is basically impossible for them to break through the heavy defenses in East Africa. Of course, Count Roberts did not count on these "leftovers", but hoped that the mainland could heavily support the South African battlefield to change the situation of the war.
(End of this chapter)