Happycat

August of 1918 now, and things look grim for the Entente in East Africa. The fighting at Ujiji has drained Belgian morale to the point where they must be withdrawn from the front lines. The map below shows a quick view of other aspects of the East African campaign, but overall not much is happening with Entente forces now. With only five turns left, we're not making any plans for a victory parade in Nairobi, and will be fortunate to not lose Blantyre, which would be severe blow to British pride.

About the only opportunity on this front is an attack on the levy at Mkalinzo. Even that paltry unit manages to hold out against two regiments of British troops. All in all, when looking at the current situation it's difficult for us to remember that we actually DID have a strategy for East Africa. It has proven to be a bankrupt one. Cutting the Central Railway did nothing for our cause, and the mobility of the Germans, coupled with a superb plan, has been our undoing. The best we can do now is try to hold on at Ujiji---while we are deployed for attack, in truth we are very much on the defensive. At Neu Langenburg, the Germans have some options, but probably not enough troops to capture Fife. The terrain is in our favour here. The Portuguese are in serious difficulty, and their territory will soon be split in two, we fear. But with British troops and an HQ backing them up, they should be able to hang on to their coastal cities (those they still control, that is). Fort Maguire is an unmitigated disaster, and there is little we can do about it except swallow hard and take our lumps. The prediction is that this war will not go into another winter, and if that is true, then major parts of East Africa will have changed hands. It will be a mess for the negotiating teams to work out at some future date. We simply need to do what we can to ensure that our losses do not put our dear General Smuts in too bad of a light when compared to his colleagues, who have performed rather better on the Western Front.

Very little movement by Entente forces this turn. The German offensive at Fort Maguire is forcing us to use new units that were supposed to go elsewhere. The flanking move at the Neu Langenburg front was a complete surprise. However, I think we can manage that problem more easily than the problem at the Fort Maguire front.

AT NEU LANGENBURG, BRITISH TEN POUNDER ARTILLERY BEING PREPARED FOR ACTION! Operations in most sectors were confined to maneuver, but there was a brief artillery bombardment of Neu Langenburg, followed by another attack. Although the defender was not destroyed this time, the losses to the Germans were quite significant and a follow-on attack certainly seems warranted. The first British units are trickling into Portuguese territory now, and at Ujiji we are feeling confident that we will eventually eliminate the German presence. In hindsight, more artillery would have been a good idea.

The Entente strategy in East Africa is in tatters, and the war cabinet back in London has no idea how to fix it. Instead of trapping the Germans and cutting them off from the sea, all that has been accomplished is to scatter the Entente forces all over the map, fighting everywhere, and winning nowhere. There was little in the way of combat and so all that there is to report is that the supply of propaganda posters is in good shape, unlike the morale of our men in the field. In all likelihood, a pullback will be required, and some R&R time to bring morale up to snuff.

The Portuguese lure of seemingly empty cities along the coast line (notably Palma) has convinced the Germans to move south. Will the rest of them follow? De Palma hopes to see the easternmost German force cross the river, hopefully allowing him to pin them with their backs to the sea. While the Portuguese ground forces are weak, with the support of naval gunfire, they can make up for their lack of artillery. As will be seen, the victorious British forces at Dar-es-Salaam are now flush with replacements, and will soon move---well, they will move. Let's just leave it at that for now. But suffice it to say, Smuts has a plan. Part of it depended upon the Germans fragmenting their forces all over the theatre, which now seems to be the case. If we can cut their lines of transport and communication, they have a big problem. And even if we don't succeed in that, we would be equally happy to see them spending scarce resources on transporting their units from one place to another, rather than on replacements. We'll see how that works out The following map shows the options for the British at Dar-es-Salaam. Move south? West? Both?

Something appears to be happening around Dar-es_Salaam, as well as further to the west around Kikumi but the handouts to the journalists (see below) are heavily censored!

It was a nasty surprise that was sprung upon our cavalry near Dodoma. German strength in the area is much more than anticipated, which may yet translate into opportunity elsewhere for the Entente. Other than the action at Neu Langenburg, which actually did not accomplish anything, the Entente forces took a bit of a breather. Morale and fatigue still hinder some units, especially those near Dodoma and the Portuguese troops in the south.