African Entrepreneurship Record-Chapter 780 - 84 Occupying Angola

September 20, 1888.

The main force of the Southern Military District of East Africa, assembled at Vorster, began attacking the British Army in the eastern part of the Southern Border Province, leveraging the strongholds and passes of the 512th Division in the Drakensberg Mountains.

At the same time, under the coordination of the General Staff, the defenders of New Hamburg Port City also started attacking the British Army outside the city.

With the reopening of navigation at New Hamburg Port City, the newly mixed-division had already completed personnel expansion and equipment supplies by this time.

East Africa launched an offensive against the British Army from both the eastern and western directions, while the exhausted British Army was completely unable to resist, and the worst part was that they had no defensive positions to hold.

The only city that could serve as a barrier, New Hamburg Port, had remained unconquered, and the direction of the Drakensberg Mountains was also firmly locked by East Africa.

At this time, unless the main force of the British Army in Mozambique provided support, the entire Southern Border Province was likely to fall back into the hands of East Africa. 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

However, although the British Army in the Southern Border Province received support from Count Roberts, it was merely a drop in the bucket and could not change the situation.

Because at the same time the campaign to recapture the Southern Border Province began, East Africa also launched a new round of large-scale attacks from the north and west directions, forcing Count Roberts to withstand the pressure to prevent the collapse of the entire defense line, and under such circumstances, there were no extra troops to support the south.

This was still under the situation a month ago when the Allied forces in Mozambique had further contracted their defense line, somewhat reducing the defensive pressure on the British Army.

Moreover, East African troops were advancing continuously from the Drakensberg Mountains towards the east, and the western British Army with tens of thousands of troops, in terms of numbers and morale, could not compete with East Africa.

In addition, due to the attack on New Hamburg Port City, the British Army did not dare to divert part of the twenty thousand British troops from the east to support the western line.

At this time, if New Hamburg Port City was also completely liberated, then the British Army would truly face the disadvantage of being attacked from both the east and west by East Africa. After months of warfare, the British perception of the defenders of New Hamburg Port City was as if they were caged tigers; once a breach was opened, this formidable fighting force could cause enormous trouble for the British Army.

The Southern Military District of East Africa disregarded the British Army's thoughts and to completely annihilate the remaining British troops in the Southern Border Province, the 513th Division advanced towards New Hamburg Port City along the railway line.

The 514th Division blocked the route for the British Army's retreat to the Natal colony along the Tugela River, and the 511th Division advanced from the plains to engage the main British forces on the western line head-on with the 512th Division.

With several approaches, the British Army was completely unable to fully resist the East African offensive, and the worst part was that the Western Military District of East Africa seized the opportunity to reinforcements from the northwest, dragging the British Army in Mozambique from moving south to provide support.

Meanwhile, the Western Military District controlled the southernmost point of the eastern defense line, which was the territory of the former Swaziland kingdom. This location held a geographical advantage over the entire southeastern Africa, with a regiment from the 412th Division directly cutting diagonally into the path of reinforcements heading to Maputo from the northwest direction.

Although they failed to stop the British reinforcements from moving south, they significantly delayed the marching speed of the troops, obtaining valuable time for the Southern Military District to eliminate the local British troops.

Taking advantage of this gap, the 513th Division successfully joined forces with the newly mixed-division in New Hamburg Port City to launch a comprehensive counterattack against the twenty thousand British troops surrounding New Hamburg Port City.

On September 27, 1888, by the time British reinforcements arrived, New Hamburg Port City had already completely relieved the crisis.

The British forces moving south numbered more than twenty thousand, which was already Count Roberts scrimping and saving, forcibly allocating from Mozambique.

However, they had to face the thirty thousand strong East African main force, freshly victorious and high in morale, and the worst part was that the British Army had no strongholds to defend. Seeing the situation as untenable, the British commander resolutely abandoned the task of rescuing the British Army in the Southern Border Province and fled towards Mozambique.

September 30.

East Africa officially regained control of the entire Southern Border Province, with more than eighteen thousand British troops captured in total, including more than three thousand British individuals, the rest mainly Indians.

As East Africa launched the campaign to recapture the Southern Border Province, the western battlefield underwent significant changes as well, where most of the Angolan forces were utterly defeated by East Africa during this time.

The 414th Division and other forces broke through the Portuguese lines head-on and then began advancing towards Luanda and other military strongholds in Angola.

Following a series of military victories, a large number of Portuguese soldiers were captured, totaling over forty thousand, along with many black auxiliary troops either captured by East Africa or scattered.

However, these blacks armed with "advanced" weapons seemed quite dangerous to East Africa, so the entire western front began a comprehensive campaign to hunt down the black deserters.

After all, these weapons were likely to become a "trouble" for East Africa's expansion into the Angola region in the future, and it was indeed challenging to find tens of thousands of black deserters in the current Angolan colony, which covered an area of over three hundred thousand square kilometers.

Aside from the collapse on the front lines, Angola's important northern city, Cabinda, was also seized by East Africa. Subsequently, the entire Angola was left with only Luanda, Benguela, and a few coastal military outposts still under Portuguese control.

Luanda had persisted throughout this war because both the Portuguese and British governments had a naval advantage in the South Atlantic, allowing Luanda to receive ample material and troop supplies.

A Portuguese homeland brigade had already arrived in Luanda a week ago, but Luanda's morale was steadily declining.

The East African forces in Luanda were continuously increasing, and various artillery was reinforcing here as well, indicating that the fall of Luanda was only a matter of time.

The situation was similar in Benguela, only Benguela had slightly better luck compared to Luanda. The second brigade of the 421st Division lacked siege equipment and heavy firepower, allowing the city to narrowly hang on, but the newly reorganized 419th Division of East Africa was on its way to Benguela, and once the 419th Division was in position, it was basically certain that the Benguela garrison could not turn the tide.

Currently, the main resources were concentrated towards Luanda, so Benguela received a very small share of materials, with just the second brigade already stretching Benguela's firepower thin, and once the 419th Division arrived, Benguela would be utterly unable to withstand the firepower suppression of an entire reorganized division from East Africa.

October 7, 1888.

With the cooperation of the 419th and 421st Divisions, Portugal's second largest city, Benguela, fell. The high-ranking officials of Benguela fled to Luanda by sea, and the troops that didn't manage to escape surrendered to East Africa.

By this time, the western battlefield was also approaching its conclusion, with the entire Angola, except for the isolated area of Luanda, completely under East African control.

The new army of East Africa on the western battlefield quickly matured during this period of warfare and had already formed combat capability.

At the end of October 1888.

After effectively clearing Angola's interior, East Africa began a full-scale attack on Luanda.

East Africa concentrated one hundred and three artillery pieces to roar at Luanda, the South Atlantic's coastal fortress second only to Cape Town.

The Portuguese would never have imagined they would experience the treatment only seen on the European battlefield in underdeveloped Africa, marking the first time in sub-Saharan Africa a single battle reached a scale of over a hundred artillery pieces.

Even though the Portuguese had constructed Luanda for hundreds of years, they certainly hadn't envisioned Luanda would ever encounter such a scenario.

On the last day of October 1888, at four in the afternoon, after over an hour of artillery barrage from East Africa, a white flag rose over the ruins of Luanda, declaring the end of centuries of Portuguese rule in Angola.