Kinshasa.

The 331st Division of the East African Defence Force is responsible for military operations in the region, and the 331st Division of the East African Defense Force is subordinate to the Nile Military Region and is the ace unit of the Military Region, and the 331st Division was one of the elite units in East Africa in the early years.

The 331st Division focuses on training in various treacherous environments such as rainforests and mountains, and is stationed in the western part of the Nile Military Region.

The division headquarters is located in Bangui, the capital of Azander province, so the division went south to support Kinshasa mainly through the Ubangi River, and then turned to the main road of the Congo River, which was very convenient in terms of transportation.

The northern part of the 331st Division is the royal territory of Sigmaringen, while the western part is the Belgian Congo colony, and the current relationship between the two countries and East Africa is good, so the military pressure is relatively small, which provides conditions for the 331st Division to go south to support the Angolan battlefield.

With the beginning of the counteroffensive on the Western Front, the 331st Division had successfully routed the Portuguese army on the outskirts of Kinshasa and had taken over the city defense of Kinshasa.

With the resolution of the Kinshasa crisis, the 331st Division also intends to make greater achievements in the war, and attacking the hinterland of the Angolan colony, that is, the Atlantic coast of western Angola, is undoubtedly the key to ending the war as soon as possible.

Subsequently, the city of Kinshasa became a temporary command post for the headquarters of the 331st Division.

The commander of the 331st Division, Lieutenant General Custer, was formulating a strategy against Portugal, and with the expansion of the army, although the 331st Division was not as large as other troops, it also reached more than 13,000 men.

With the support of this powerful military force, Castel's ambitions were also even greater, and although the Portuguese had nearly 200,000 troops in Angola, they probably had less than 10,000 in the north.

At this time, it can be said that in the north the 331st Division was in absolute superiority.

This led Castor to develop a more radical plan to end the war quickly.

Custer took a pencil and marked on the map on the desktop, while marking, and said to the senior officers of the 331st Division: "This is Cabinda, that is, the area controlled by the Kingdom of Portugal on the north bank of the Congo River, one of the important strongholds in Angola, and across the Congo River to the south is Soyo, these two places control the mouth of the Congo River, so if we want to master the Congo River basin in East Africa in the future, these two regions are indispensable." ”

"Of course, this has little to do with our war, the initial goal of our army is to take the Portuguese city of Cabinda directly along the river, as well as Soyo, and then go south along the coastline to threaten Luanda, the capital of Angola, Portugal, and finally, if possible, to control Benguela at the top."

"In this way, the main ports of Angola will be largely controlled by our army, and the Portuguese army fighting against our army in the interior will collapse without a fight without having access to external resources."

Caster's strategy was to cut off the link between Angola and the Portuguese mainland, and the East African Navy was weak in the South Atlantic, so this could only be done by the army.

According to Custer's vision, most of Angola's supplies come from the mainland, and the good ports that Angola can use are Cabinda, Luanda, and Benguela.

As long as these three ports are cut off, the supply of the Portuguese army will inevitably have a big problem, and the food may still be solved by local products, but the supplies such as medicines, guns and cannons will basically be cut off.

Staff Officer Hans Griffin agreed with Custer's idea of war, but he also directly raised the difficulty of this strategy.

"After the lower Congo River passes through the Kinshasa section, it is not navigable due to the waterfalls and the terrain difference, which means that we can only rely on our feet for the rest of the journey, and it is difficult for our heavy weapons to be sent to the front line to support the battlefield," Hans Griffin said, pointing to the waterfalls marked by the red line in the downstream area. ”

As the elite unit of the East African Defense Force, the 331st Division is equipped with a large number of light and heavy weapons, although compared with other main divisions, the 331st Division is more focused on mountain and jungle operations, so it is no worse than ordinary troops in heavy weapons.

Therefore, if you want to attack the core area of Angola, it is still very challenging for the 331st Division.

Hans Griffin continued: "The road situation in Angola in Portugal can be described as a mess, the south may be better, but the north is the original indigenous country - the Kingdom of Congo, according to the degree of black civilization we have seen, the Swahili region and the Somali region, and the Great Lakes region are the most civilized, but even these three civilizations, in terms of infrastructure construction, are very poor, so don't have too much hope for the Kingdom of Congo, an indigenous country." ”

In fact, the most civilized indigenous civilization that East Africa has encountered in Africa so far is the Abyssinian Empire, but the Abyssinian Empire, like Madagascar, is a semi-mixed race, so it cannot be compared with the pure Bantu blacks.

Custer: "What you say makes a lot of sense, but no matter what the road conditions in the former Congo Kingdom are, it can't hinder our path, so let's organize sappers and deal with all the factors that may be unfavorable to the advance of the troops." ”

Speaking of which, Castel suddenly wondered how the Portuguese had solved this problem!

He asked: "How did the Portuguese attack Kinshasa in the first place?" ”

"Although the Portuguese brought a lot of people, they were basically rifles and had no heavy fire support, so they besieged Kinshasa for three months without success, and their troops were obviously inefficient, otherwise Kinshasa would not have been in the hands of our army now." The military governor of the city of Kinshasa, Coles, explained directly.

"In other words, we probably don't need to think too much about heavy weapons, after all, the level of equipment of the Portuguese is also very poor." Hans Griffin thought as he pinched his chin.

Castel denied: "It's still different, if it's the areas of Cabinda and Soyo, the Portuguese haven't built any decent fortifications, maybe they can easily seize local control without artillery support, but Luanda is different, Luanda has strong military fortresses and fortresses, and the Portuguese have been operating for hundreds of years, I'm afraid it's not worse than some fortresses in Europe, so if you want to pull out the nail of Luanda, you must have heavy fire support."

Moreover, Luanda, as the capital of the Portuguese colony of Angola, may not be comparable to the kind of miscellaneous troops we have encountered before in terms of weaponry and personnel composition, so we should not take it lightly. ”

A lot of Caster's intelligence came from public sources, and of course, the East African Defence Forces' MI didn't actually make much of the effort in Angola, and basically obtained most of the information about the Portuguese.

Because the Portuguese in Angola have a very poor sense of secrecy and the army is concentrated in a few fixed coastal locations, this is an open-book examination for MI.

Therefore, the confidence of East Africa to dare to solve the Angolan colony first also comes from the victory of intelligence, that is, the more it understands the current situation of the Portuguese army, the higher the confidence of the East African side in victory.

And so far, the Portuguese have not disappointed East Africa, their performance is only a little stronger than the blacks and Indians in the coalition army, behind the British and the Boers, as for the Indian troops to grind the work of the foreign army is indeed the strongest coalition army.

(End of chapter)