Chapter 748 Second Phase
The Battle of Feit River broke the fragile balance between East Africa and the Boer Republic. The entire Boer Republic's southern defense line of Feit River was breached by East Africa overnight.
The next morning, after counting the results of the battle, a total of more than 20,000 Boer Republic troops were captured and killed in East Africa, and the Boer Republic frontline collapsed directly.
However, the number of Boer troops who evacuated from the front line was also large, estimated to be around 10,000 people. These Boer troops retreated rapidly towards Bloemfontein.
Merke: "After each unit has cleared the battlefield, it will continue to pursue southward. The west road will target Kimberley, the north road will target Bloemfontein, and the east will support the north road troops."
As long as Bloemfontein and Kimberley are captured, the war against the Boers will basically come to an end. Next, the war situation in the Southern Military District in the Boer Republic will transition from an offensive war to a security war.
Bloemfontein and Kimberley are the only two major cities in the Boer Republic. After conquering these two places, the Boer Republic has declared that it is undefendable.
Of course, the biggest headache in East Africa right now is dealing with the "legacy" left by the Boers on the Fete River front line. The first is the treatment of the wounded, the second is the cleanup of the corpses, and finally the large number of weapons left on the battlefield. equipment.
So many wounded and corpses require careful cleaning by the follow-up troops in East Africa. There is basically no winter in Africa, so these corpses left here may cause serious problems.
A total of fifty-three artillery pieces were captured in East Africa, which is estimated to be the majority of the artillery of the entire Boer Republic. The firepower gap between the two sides is obvious.
However, yesterday, most of the heavy artillery in East Africa was left on the north bank of the Fetter River and did not participate in the battle. Therefore, in terms of firepower advantage, the Boers had the advantage, but the advantage of effective artillery attack was not exerted.
The Boers couldn't take these heavy artillery with them, mainly because running at night is so fast. Who has the time to pull these big things and escape?
I'm afraid that I didn't walk long before I was captured by the pursuers behind, including their weapons and people.
......
The achievements of East Africa in the Boer Republic were quickly passed to Count Roberts' desk. It must be said that this was very bad news for the coalition forces.
However, at this time, Earl Roberts had no way to fight against the Boer people. While East Africa launched a counterattack against the Boer Republic, some troops from the East African Eastern Military Region and the Northern Military Region had already launched an offensive in northern Mozambique.
The coalition forces, which had been "in a great situation" before, immediately fell into a state of distress.
“A cavalry division and three infantry divisions from East Africa launched an attack from the north. They launched a fierce attack on our north from three directions: Kaya, Tambala and Malomeu. At present, in addition to Outside the Kaya area, the other two directions have been broken through by the East African Army."
"In this case, we can only abandon the Zambezi River line. Our troops are not sufficient, and the Zambezi River is too large. It is too long to prevent the East African army from crossing the river, so it is most appropriate to launch the Punggwe River defense line now as a place to withstand this round of counterattacks in East Africa.”
The Punggwe River originates from the Nyangani Mountains in western Mozambique. , Nyangani Mountain is an important dividing line between the Matabele Plateau and the Mozambique Plains, and is also the cutting point of military defense in Matabele Province, East Africa. This location is very dangerous, so it is not the focus of East African and coalition forces.
The most important thing is that the Nyangani Mountains are basically undeveloped. They are basically virgin forests and mountains. Except for a small number of indigenous people, there are basically no living people here, so there are no conditions for marching here.
Neither the East African nor the coalition forces will use this place as a breakthrough. If the army passes through here, it may not need to fight, and there is a risk of collapse on its own.
The lack of roads is only one of them. The second is that there are many forests and vegetation. Large areas of virgin forest cannot be traveled through. In Africa, forests represent huge risks. Various poisonous insect diseases and water sources are difficult to solve. Finally, There are many natural disasters such as flash floods and landslides in this area. If you are not careful, there is a risk of annihilation. It is the rainy season now, and Mozambique has very abundant rain. The Pungue River is also one of the important rivers in Mozambique, and its downstream has the former second largest port in Mozambique, Port of Beira.
However, the current Beira area is still a wasteland with little human habitation. In the previous life, Beira was founded in 1887.
Now, in order to deal with the military threat in East Africa, the Portuguese abandoned a lot of land on the north bank of the river in Mozambique, and instead built most of their strongholds on the south bank.
So there is no Beira Port on the north bank of the Punggui River estuary. Instead, Antonio on the south bank of the Punggui River estuary has been vigorously developed.
The so-called vigorous development certainly does not refer to the economy, but to military purposes. From the beginning, the Mozambique colony knew clearly that if there was a war with East Africa, it would definitely be with the north than the south.
As for the east and west directions, there is no danger to defend at all, so we can only take the initiative to attack from the west side and use offense instead of defense.
"Count Roberts, if we activate the Punggui River defense line, can we use this river to resist the offensive in East Africa? Now the various fronts in the west have not achieved results. Even in the south, we have only used the new Hamburg Port in East Africa. The city is isolated from the East African mainland and the defenders of the New Hamburg Port City are not eliminated. Now the war situation may become increasingly unfavorable to us.”
Faced with everyone's accusations, it was difficult for Earl Roberts to think of a way to break the situation, because the difficulty of the war with East Africa greatly exceeded the coalition's pre-war estimates.
When East Africa faced the first wave of coalition offensive, it directly withstood the pressure. This was something Earl Roberts did not expect. After all, the total strength of the coalition this time was close to 500,000, anywhere in the world. , is enough to start a war, even a war to destroy the country.
The number of troops that Earl Roberts can directly command has reached about 300,000, but now the 300,000 troops have not even been able to knock down the eastern defense line in East Africa. This is a serious blow to the morale of the coalition forces.
East Africa has only more than 70,000 troops on the eastern defense line, but it has withstood three times the strength of the coalition forces. Not to mention the superiority of the coalition forces, in fact, East Africa's ability to mobilize so many troops has exceeded Earl Roberts's expectations. outside.
After all, East Africa not only has the Eastern Defense Line, but also the Tugela River Defense Line, the Fete River Defense Line, the Orange River Defense Line, the Zambezi River Defense Line, and the West, which are the main war zones.
In these major battlefields, the number of troops currently invested in East Africa has reached 200,000. There are also other areas in East Africa where troops have not been mobilized, such as the city of Gezira in the north, which is an important military town in East Africa to resist the British army in Egypt. There are certainly troops to deal with British Somaliland in Dire Dawa, East Africa and Belgium, the Abyssinian Empire, and the Italian Red Sea colonies to prevent emergencies, so the military potential of East Africa is too underestimated.
Of course, in addition to the outstanding performance of East Africa in terms of military strength, what is even more unimaginable to Count Roberts is the combat effectiveness of the East African Defense Forces.
The tactical level of the East African National Defense Force is not inferior to that of the British army, and is even slightly stronger than the British army. This is very scary.
The British army is not the Portuguese, Indian, Boer or black army, but the real British Army. The number of British troops in the entire South African War has increased from 60,000 before the war to nearly 100,000. .
This is also a very big pressure on the British mainland, but it does not have much effect on the South African battlefield, especially the ally Portugal and other troops. The losses faced by the East African army are even more heavy, and their combat effectiveness The level is worrying.
If we could go back to before the war started, even if all the troops under Count Roberts were replaced by British, Count Roberts would not dare to say that he could defeat East Africa.
(End of this chapter)