Eastern Defense.

The Eastern Defence is the area of Matabele province in East Africa and part of the Heshingen province bordering Mozambique.

However, with the operation of the Eastern Military Region, the British and Portuguese armies in Mozambique have been compressed in North East Africa, and the loss of land in the north has made the eastern defense line continue to shorten.

After the collapse of Angola, the main forces of the Western Military Region in Angola and the Nile Military Region also successively supported the eastern defense line.

At present, the total strength of the entire eastern defense line has reached as many as 130,000, while the eastern defense line is nearly one-third shorter than before the war, and East Africa has begun to gain superiority in strength over the British and Portuguese forces in the eastern defense line.

Of course, the superiority in strength does not include absolute superiority in quantity, but in terms of quality, the combat effectiveness of the East African Defense Forces is naturally not comparable to the "weak chicken" of the Portuguese, so East Africa is more inclined to use the British army as a reference when calculating the strength of the coalition forces, while the Portuguese, blacks and Indians are all included in the bonus.

It's not that East Africa looks down on the Portuguese, it's mainly that the level of combat effectiveness of the Portuguese is very uneven, but on the whole it still belongs to the ranks of relatively poor, and it is only suitable for fighting a good fight.

It's just that compared to the Portuguese, Indian soldiers will even drag their allies back when fighting a good fight, which is comparable to the Italian version of World War II.

And it is similar to Italy in that the Indians are also "foodies" in the coalition army, and now most of the diet of the coalition army has been taken care of by Indian cooks, and the Indians are indeed much stronger than Portugal and Britain in the field of cooking.

As for the British, who are good at dark cuisine, they will not be at the bottom of the coalition army, although the British dark cuisine is unpalatable, but there are representative dishes such as fish and chips, and the indigenous Mozambican people do not have the concept of "food culture" at all, only the most basic roasting and boiling, if the indigenous cooking is basically a hodgepodge of rotten stew.

In addition to the "cooking" of the Indians, who were far ahead of the coalition forces, the greatest role of the Indian soldiers in the army now was to maintain the service, and as for the combat mission, Count Roberts was afraid that he would be.

The total number of British troops in Mozambique is now close to 100,000, so the strength of the Eastern Defence in East Africa is a numerical advantage for the British army.

This is not counting the Eastern and Southern Military Regions, which together have nearly 100,000 people, which is almost the majority of the East African Army.

With the exception of the Northern Military Region and the Nile Military Region, all the main forces in East Africa participated in the South African War, and the reason why the Nile Military Region and the Northern Military Region did not go all out was to prevent the British forces in Egypt and British Somaliland, and to prevent the British from invading the interior of East Africa from the northern seas.

……

Giani.

On the border of Heshingen Province, it is an important town on the eastern defense line of East Africa, on the right side of the Limpopo River, where the East African Defence Forces were previously mainly located in the province of Matabele, on the left bank of the Limpopo River.

However, as the Mozambican colony continued to encroach, the defenders of Matabele province in East Africa continued to move to the southern province of Hehingen.

The original Giani was nothing more than a wilderness, which was forcibly turned into a "military city" by the East African Defense Forces, and at the same time became the wartime headquarters of the Eastern Defense Line of the Western Military District.

While there are nearly 60,000 East African troops stationed in Giyani and the surrounding areas alone, Matabele province is now down to less than 30,000.

Opposite Matabele province is the southern part of the 221st Division's crossing point, that is, a large area of virgin grassland, which is too poorly developed and lacks water sources, so the coalition forces are not strong, and the corresponding East African troops deployed on the border are much smaller.

To the south of Giani is the Drakens, which is why Giyani has become the new center of the eastern defense line in East Africa, and it is not suitable for large armies to fight.

As the Eastern Military Region fired the first shot, the Western Military Region, which was the main force in the Mozambican war, was naturally not to be outdone, and also began to strike hard at the coalition forces at 8 p.m. on the 12th.

"The 331st and 421st Divisions were the main forces that participated in the Angolan War, and the 331st Division participated in the war against the Transvaal region. Commander-in-Chief of the Eastern Defense Line, Ledern, said to Kars, commander of the 331st Division.

As a mountain division, the 331st Division originally attacked the Boers and Zulus along the Drakensian Mountains to the south, and Gianni happened to be the place where the 331st Division participated in the battle.

The reason why Ledon attaches importance to the 331st Division, in addition to its "long" history and strong combat effectiveness, is also the reason why it belongs to the Nile Military Region, which belongs to the guest army, and the rest of the troops are the Western Military District.

Kars: "Your Excellency Commander-in-Chief, in this war, our division will definitely live up to expectations, especially in the former Kingdom of Eswatini, but where our division once fought, so I hope you will let our division participate in the Battle of Maputo." ”

Naturally, there is a little abacus of Karls, and everyone knows that Mozambique has sunset, so in order to reap the merits of the war, naturally there is no more worthy battle than the first capture of Maputo, and it would be better if the British supreme military commander could be captured alive, Count Roberts.

Ledren is not a cautious person, there is no prejudice, he said to Kars: "Of course there is no problem, but in this way, you will have to act together with the 411th Division, and now the main defender in Mbabane is the 411th Division, just like you took Luanda with the 421st Division before, this time I also hope that you can cooperate sincerely and be the first to break through Maputo." ”

The 411th Division is the main division of the Western Military District, and as for the 421st Division, the old partner of the 331st Division, Ledren has other plans, and the 421st Division is a cavalry unit, and naturally it is impossible to run to the mountains of Eswatini to cooperate with the 331st Division.

Ledder plans to let the 421st Division be in charge of the battlefield in the plains to the north, which is the home of the cavalry, and the 421st Division, as the only cavalry unit in the Western Military Region, is regarded by Rydne as the "big killer" of the Western Military Region.

At the beginning, Ledion put the 421st Division in Angola in order to interfere with the speed of the Portuguese eastward advance with the least number of troops, and then the 421st Division completed the task excellently, although the siege means were poor, but it was completely the death of the enemy on the plain, thinking of his own deployment, Delane thought in his heart, what did Merk compare with himself this time!

……

And the commander-in-chief of the Southern Military District, Merk, naturally did not know the thoughts of his old friend, and now he was thinking about how to capture Maputo.

The Southern Military Region has a very obvious geographical advantage, and is the closest to Maputo among the East African troops, but unfortunately, Maputo is the most fearful of the East African army in the port of New Hamburg and the surrounding East African troops.

"The terrain between the port of New Hamburg and Maputo is narrow, so if we break hard, we will definitely pay huge casualties, which is not something we can afford, in which case we have to take a detour from the mountains in the west, or through the navy to bypass the Maputo defenders in the middle."

Merk eventually planned to adopt a roundabout tactic, of course, the advantage of the port of New Hamburg is that there is a naval detachment deployed, but even if the navy cooperates, I am afraid that it will not be able to transport too many troops, so Merk intends to divide the troops into three parts, all the way from Eswatini, part from the sea, and finally a frontal attack force, and the three-pronged approach will definitely break through the Portuguese defense.

On December 12, various East African troops and military districts launched a large-scale military operation against Mozambique, which was called the Christmas offensive in the plan of the General Staff Shogunate to destroy the main Mozambican forces before Christmas.

(End of chapter)