New Port of Hamburg.

With the retreat of the East African Defence Forces (EDF), East Africa set up several defensive lines centered on the city to counter the combined forces of the Natal colony and Mozambique.

"At present, with the material reserves of the new Hamburg port city, we can still hold on for more than two months, and at the same time maintain the production of the new Hamburg port city is the main problem facing our army at present, especially the lack of steel reserves, now the only thing that is not lacking in the new Hamburg port is coal, before the British army blockaded the new Hamburg port city, the new Hamburg port city is one of the export centers of East African coal, and a large amount of coal is stored in the docks and the city."

"But coal alone can only keep the city's factories and electricity running, and the lack of iron ore and other raw materials makes it impossible for the arsenal to maintain the production of weapons, and now our weapons and equipment can only be maintained by a small number of parts."

In layman's terms, it is to tinker and barely maintain the wear and tear in the war, but the city of New Hamburg is not a key area in East Africa for the deployment of military industries, so the production capacity is very limited.

Moreover, the city of New Hamburg is under more military pressure than any other city in East Africa, and the war has not stopped, so even the supply of spare parts is already stretched.

"Now we can get some supplies from the enemy by capturing, but it is also a drop in the bucket, and the raw materials of the arsenal have even begun to dismantle some equipment to obtain raw materials, and this kind of attrition may not be able to support even half a month, unless we only rely on rifles as weapons, and we have to endure the shortage of ammunition."

This is something that has never been encountered by the East African Defence Forces, which are accustomed to fighting rich wars.

"But there is also good news, the General Staff has decided to open up the sea transportation channel, it depends on the performance of the Navy, about this Rear Admiral Bruce what your Navy is going to do?"

Up to now, the Navy of the Port of New Hamburg has not made any major moves during the war, and Rear Admiral Bruce, the supreme military commander of the fleet of the Port of New Hamburg, has adopted the strategy of "avoiding the war and not leaving it."

"The Navy has indeed received a message from the headquarters that the Navy will strike at the coalition navy in the Mozambique Strait next week, and when the time comes, our fleet in the port of New Hamburg will definitely have to cooperate, and if nothing else, the sea lanes between the port of New Hamburg and the east will soon be reopened." Major General Bruce said to Aristot.

Major General Bruce's words eased the pressure on the Army, which before the war relied heavily on the rail and road system, but now the Coalition has cut off all rail and road connections to the outside world in the Port of New Hamburg.

As a port city, the Port of New Hamburg has some of the best shipping conditions in East Africa, and it is also the easiest point to break through the enemy blockade.

Although the East African Navy is under great pressure on defense, it is also the strongest in the western Indian Ocean, and it only needs to disperse its forces a little, and it will definitely solve the problem quickly.

In the final analysis, East Africa currently lacks a solid military base in the Indian Ocean, so it has fallen into this characteristic of being more powerful, but there is nowhere to exert force.

The islands in the Indian Ocean are mainly concentrated in the east, and the available islands in the center and east are very scarce, among which the most critical islands for East Africa are the Seychelles and Socotra.

Both islands were under British control, which put the East African Navy under direct pressure from the north and east.

Using these two islands as a starting point, both can be directly approached the coast of East Africa, which is very similar to the United States, but the United States is far away from other continents and is not suitable for military intervention.

However, the location of East Africa is very close to those traditional powers in Eurasia, and if the military level of various countries is ignored, then there is actually no security in the waters of East Africa.

Of course, as a late-developing country, East Africa's current maritime strategy is already very advanced, but it is a pity that East Africa was founded too late and has not had time to control the few islands closest to East Africa.

For example, Socotra controls the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden, and also curbs the East African shipping routes, and the British intervened in the local regime as early as the mid-18th century, and in the 70s they included Socotra Island in its protection.

There is even less to say about Seychelles, which was the spoils of war that Britain received from the French, and at the same time one of the important pillars of British security in the Indian Ocean.

The only strategically supported island in East Africa is the Comoros archipelago, but the main role of the Comoros archipelago is to contain the Mozambique Strait and the island of Madagascar.

But there are no major powers in East Africa that pose a serious threat to the south, unless there are regional powers in South Africa and Madagascar.

This is basically impossible, and Madagascar is an isolated island in the middle of nowhere, with little value to covet other than its mineral richness.

Only Britain and France, countries with global naval strategies, had some interest in the island of Madagascar, and South Africa, which is now Cape Town, is famous for its control of the Cape of Good Hope.

However, since the opening of the Suez Canal, its strategic position in the world has been seriously weakened, and in the previous life, Cape Town occupied an important position in world shipping, mainly because some large ocean-going vessels, mainly oil tankers, could not pass through the narrow Suez Canal.

But in the 19th century, when the oil industry was just getting started, there wasn't a big guy to support Cape Town's economic value.

Of course, the British will definitely not let go of Cape Town, after all, the Suez Canal is only the best option, but not the only option, the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea and even the Indian Ocean forces may threaten the security of the Red Sea route, at this time, the value of Cape Town's spare tire is reflected.

Of course, this shipping value is for maritime transport between Europe and Asia, and if the perspective is translated into the east and west coasts of the African continent, then Cape Town's strategic positioning is different.

In the early days, there was only one sea passage between the two sides of the African continent, and that was Cape Town, and after the opening of the Suez Canal, there were two.

However, the shape of the African continent is wide at the top and narrow at the bottom, not to mention the others, the East African coast alone is gradually extending from south to north, which can be intuitively reflected from the Somali topography, the Somali coastline is a straight line extending to the northeast, so even from East Africa to the port of Trieste in Austria-Hungary, the distance is actually very far, almost the same as the western coast of India.

So from the north bypass, you can go by sea, but the cost is too great, and the mileage will be directly doubled or tripled.

The importance of Cape Town to African shipping is well exemplified in the south, for example, from the port of New Hamburg to Orangemond in East Africa, which is just over 2,000 kilometres.

More than 2,000 kilometers seems like a lot, but in the north it is only the distance from the city of Mogadishu to Djibouti, the Red Sea itself is more than 2,000 kilometers, and to Austria-Hungary it is 6,000 kilometers up.

But Mogadishu is also a northerly port for East Africa, and it is even farther to reach Austria-Hungary from Mombasa or Dar es Salaam.

And that's just the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and the detour is even more exaggerated if you go further afield, and Cape Town's status on the continent itself is evident.

Of course, the situation may be very different if East Africa were to build a "road and bridge" connecting the east and west in the future, the only pity is that the water transport conditions in East Africa are too poor, otherwise it can completely replace most of Cape Town's economic value through the interconnection of inland rivers.

(End of chapter)