Chapter 704 Confidence
Winburg.
The most important military fortress in southern East Africa, it is also the front line against the Transvaal in East Africa. It is not that the Boers have done nothing in recent years. Before the civil war, the Boers started to build the south bank of the Fetter River. defense projects.
So now there is a large military fortress built by the Boers opposite Wenbao, and with the technical support of the British, the construction is very professional. Even with the heavy artillery currently produced in East Africa, it may be difficult to conquer, unless Transfer imported super-large-caliber shore defense artillery from the coast to the front line.
After the civil war, the Transvaal talents were able to continue to build the southern line of defense along the Feit River, which echoed the North Feit River defense line in East Africa.
Therefore, it was not easy for the Transvaal to attack East Africa. In turn, East Africa had to face the fortresses built by the Boers, so it was destined from the beginning that the war in the south would not be easy.
In the previous wars in East Africa, the only enemies that had encountered fortifications were the Sultanate of Zanzibar and several indigenous countries on the shores of the Great Lakes.
As for Portugal's two colonies, because they are too large in area, they are unable to build systematic fortifications. Once a war breaks out in East Africa, they can only deal with East Africa with isolated strongholds.
But the strength of East Africa is the large number of people, so it is difficult to conquer a place. You can choose to leave some troops to surround and not attack, and then the main force will continue to penetrate the rear. The Portuguese, who are tired of dealing with it, can only watch helplessly. Watching East Africa run rampant across the land.
Walspieger, General of the Transvaal Restoration Army: "The Fetter River defense line we built is more than 200 kilometers long. We have built a total of 137 large bunkers and more than 300 small bunkers. At the same time, hundreds of kilometers of roads were built to allow materials from the rear to quickly support the front lines. The total construction time was as long as seven years, and more than 70,000 black workers participated in the construction. Each fort could respond quickly without giving up. An opportunity for East Africans to take advantage of!”
The "South" Fetter River Defense Line was the brainchild of Valspeig and was the backbone of the Transvaal's fight against the East Africans.
“To summarize the East Africans’ last war against the Transvaal Republic, one word stands out: the Limpopo River is full of loopholes, and at that time we did not have a clear understanding of East Africa’s wolf ambitions, which resulted in The main force was unable to return to defense when fighting the Zulus.
The East African troops were divided into three groups, quickly dividing the entire Transvaal Republic into three parts along the Drakensberg Mountains, and there were still more in East Africa. The cavalry troops can quickly support various battlefields and are quite familiar with mountain warfare. They have clearly planned it for a long time, so the fall of the Transvaal Republic is also reasonable. "
For the last time in the Transvaal. The situation of the war between the Republic and East Africa is still vivid in Pretorius' mind.
It can be said that the Transvaal people at that time were beaten east, west, north and south by East Africa. Pretoria directly lost contact with various regions. In the end, it was trapped in an isolated city and was defeated by East Africa. At that time, he fled in embarrassment. Therefore, little Pretorius hated East Africa the most.
In order to deal with the threat in East Africa, the Transvaal people can be said to have fully absorbed the lessons of the last war.
The most important point is to slow down the marching speed of the East Africans, and cannot engage in field battles with the East Africans, and must have heavy fire support.
An important reason why Pretoria fell was that the Boers lacked the means to counter East African artillery. It can be said that the firepower of East African troops was comparable to that of the garrisons in Cape Town, Natal and Maputo in the entire sub-Saharan Africa.
“Also, we must closely monitor the ferry crossings for East Africans. Back then, we neglected the importance of crossings along the Limpopo River, so that East Africans could easily land on the south bank of the Limpopo River. Therefore, we must not repeat the same mistake this time, especially at night, and deploy more searchlights so that the enemy cannot cross the Feit River in the dark.”
The defense line built by the Boers on the south bank of the Fetter River was naturally under the surveillance of East Africa. It can be said that it was built step by step under the witness of East Africa. It was affected during the Civil War of the Orange Free State in the middle, but the losses were not significant. Large, mainly because the Orangemen lacked heavy weapons at the beginning, so they could only allow the Transvaal and British coalition forces to break through the defense line.
Of course, this is also related to the Orange people's weak sense of resistance. Although the Transvaal people are unkind, they are the same nation after all. The upper class fights to the death, which does not prevent the lower class from switching camps.
In fact, one of the main reasons for the failure of the Orangemen was that the lower class Orangemen surrendered to the Transvaal government. Especially after the Orange coalition showed signs of decline, the number of deserters increased every day. .
“With the South Fetter River Defense Line, if the East Africans want to go south, it is basically impossible to repeat the situation of conquering the Transvaal Republic last time. We only need to rely on the defense line and East African consumption, and the British will follow If we and the Portuguese attack East Africa in other areas, the East Africans will be exhausted. If we take the initiative after the war enters a stalemate, we should be able to gain an advantage." Valspig optimistically told Pretorius the younger. introduced.
"What if East Africa continuously sends its rear troops to support here? You must know that most of the garrisons in East Africa are concentrated along the Feite River, and they have been deployed for many years. It is obvious that their plans are very big. How can you be sure? After the British and Portuguese took action, the East Africans focused their attention on other areas. If they could break through the Feite River defense line first, it would be of great significance to the entire South African battlefield. After all, the Orange Free State penetrates deep into the territory of East Africa!" Pretorius asked rhetorically.
"Your Excellency, this depends on the deployment of the Portuguese and British. The first is the Portuguese colony of Mozambique. In my opinion, its threat to East Africa is far greater than ours. After all, the capital and economic center of East Africa are in Swarovski." The city of Dar es Salaam on the Shili coast should be the most economically developed city in East Africa, so East Africa must deploy heavy troops to guard against the Portuguese."
"And Portugal has the strategic initiative, first of all. Their colony is divided into two parts, one on the left and one on the right of East Africa. This situation is naturally unfavorable to East Africa. East Africa must also know this, so the Portuguese are probably the primary target of the East Africans. Angola and Mozambique, East Africa must be To solve one of them, to realize their own strategic security problem."
"As for our Transvaal, is it as important as East Africa? And the reason why East Africa deploys so many troops in the south is I'm afraid it's not because of how important we are, but because of our military threat. After all, East Africans also know that our hatred for them is difficult to resolve. This is the same as when France and France stationed troops on the border. Our Transvaal Strong military power is the reason why East Africa maintains so many garrisons. "
Walspeigel is right. East Africa does have this concern. Compared with Portugal, the Transvaal's military strength is actually stronger. It can make East Africa take a high look.
The morale of the Transvaal people is much higher than that of Portugal. This is an unchangeable fact. After all, the two territories of Portugal are only very different between the colony and the mainland.
Colonies can be lost at any time. Although it is uncomfortable, it is not a matter of life and death. After all, Portugal has lost too many colonies. Without a big heart, the Portuguese would have died suddenly.
(End of this chapter)