African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 1210 Three Fleets
1916 1 Month 3 Day.

Lomé City.

Under the leadership of Colonel Brand, the slave fleet organized by the East African Navy set out from the port of Falta in Benguela City, headed north along the Benguela Current, passed the west coast of Africa, turned a large bay in Guinea, and finally arrived at the city of Lomé in the colony of Togoland in East Africa.

"It is worthy of being a strategic location on the Atlantic coast. Judging from the construction standards of Lomé Port, it is obviously designed to participate in the construction of important local military ports such as Pemba Port." Looking at the Lomé Military Port, which is already quite large but has not yet been completed, Colonel Brand could not help but sigh.

It is no wonder that Brand exclaimed that although the Port of Lomé holds a very prominent position among the naval ports in East Africa, this is the first time that Colonel Brand has come to the Port of Lomé.

Because Colonel Brand has served in the Indian Ocean Fleet for many years, if the East African Navy was not currently short of manpower and ships, it would be impossible for Brand to take several antique sailing ships from Pemba Island, pass the Cape of Good Hope to the Atlantic Ocean to complete this escort mission.

"Ever since the Empire acquired the Port of Lomé from Germany, it has received attention from the central government and the navy's top brass. Therefore, the construction of the Port of Lomé is also built in accordance with the standards of a first-class military port." Colonel Brand's deputy Tara said on the side.

During this period, the renovation and expansion of the Port of Lomé had not yet been fully completed. After all, East Africa had only acquired the Port of Lomé for two years, but the East African Navy was already eager to move in.

Several warships of the East African Navy can be clearly seen in the port of Lomé. In addition to cruisers and destroyers, the East African battleship Pelican is also docked here for rest, which shows its importance.

After all, battleships are the main combat ships of various countries in the world. Except for ocean-going missions, they can only be seen in domestic waters most of the time.

Brand said: "It is obvious that the Atlantic Fleet regards the Port of Lomé as an important strategic fulcrum. Although it is as far away from the mainland as the Port of Pontianak, its treatment is even higher than that of the Port of Pontianak."

Pontianak Port is the home port of the East African Pacific Fleet, but the Pacific Fleet is the weakest among the East African navies, and because East Africa's colonies in the Pacific are very scattered, the combat capability of the Pacific Fleet is further weakened.

In comparison, neither the Indian Ocean Fleet nor the Atlantic Fleet can be underestimated by any country. To put it bluntly, the two fleets can single-handedly challenge any country except the great powers.

The Pacific Fleet in East Africa is quite different. Among its main combat ships, there is not even a battleship. That is why Brand said with such certainty that the treatment in Lome Port is much higher than that in Pontianak Port.

In fact, in addition to the three major naval fleets in East Africa, there is also a regional Alaska Fleet. However, compared with the unworthy Pacific Fleet, the strength of the Alaska Fleet is negligible. To be honest, given the location of Alaska, no matter which country, Canada, Russia, the United States, Japan, or the Far East Empire, has an idea, East Africa will not be able to defend it.

Of course, given the current international situation, these countries are certainly unwilling to offend East Africa for the sake of Alaska.

Although Alaska is at the very edge of East Africa's military deployment, the local strength of East Africa is too strong, so it is not worth it to offend East Africa for Alaska.

The same treatment as Alaska also included the colonies of the South Ryukyu Islands in East Africa, the colonies of the Kingdom of North Hawaii, and many colonies in Oceania.

As for the Lan Fang overseas provinces, East Kalimantan, and Mindanao in the Nanyang region, although they are also far away from the East African mainland, the military strength of other powers in Nanyang is also relatively weak, and the East African Indian Ocean Fleet can support the Pacific Fleet in the Nanyang region at any time.

The situation of the Atlantic Fleet's Lomé Naval Base is different. Although Togoland is also located overseas, it is actually not too far away from the East African mainland, especially after East Africa controls Gabon and Cameroon.

Even without these two regions, it is still possible to depart from Cabinda on the west coast of East Africa and arrive at the Port of Lomé in the same day.

The strategic value of the Port of Lomé itself is also extremely prominent. It can be said to be the most important strategic fulcrum of East Africa on the northern coast of the Gulf of Guinea. Although the East African Atlantic Fleet was powerful in the past, it lacked a strategic fulcrum in the Atlantic region, and the existence of Togoland made up for this disadvantage.

With Togoland as a strategic fulcrum, it can be said that the entire sub-Saharan African waters have basically become a paradise for the East African Navy, and no country can challenge the East African Navy in sub-Saharan Africa.

At the same time, with the Togoland colony as a strategic pillar, the radiation range of the East African Atlantic Fleet was further expanded. From here, East Africa could calmly deal with invading enemies from the entire west coast of Africa.

In terms of military presence, there is almost no difference between the Gulf of Guinea and the inland sea of ​​East Africa today. Even though there are many colonies of European countries in West Africa, even if they are combined, they are no match for East Africa.

Brand sighed, "When the expansion of Lomé Port is officially completed, the Empire's voice in the entire West African region will be further enhanced. It can be seen that the Atlantic Fleet has already gone ahead of us in terms of strategic initiative."

Although the Indian Ocean Fleet in East Africa is also not to be underestimated, it is not as calm in the Indian Ocean as the Atlantic Fleet in the South Atlantic.

The main reason is that Britain can exert a restraining effect on East Africa in the Indian Ocean. With India as the core, Britain has too many colonies in the Indian Ocean region and a very deep foundation, which cannot be easily controlled by East Africa.

On the other hand, it is frankly true that, except for East Africa, the South Atlantic Ocean is full of "rotten fish and shrimp". West Africa is a region of colonies, and its status and value are not prominent among the colonies of European and American countries.

The South American countries across the South Atlantic have not yet developed and cannot pose a threat to the East African navy.

However, having said that, the East African Atlantic Fleet's enterprising spirit will not be weakened because of this. After all, there is also the North Atlantic region in the Atlantic Ocean. The North Atlantic region is where the world's powerful navies are hiding, and the East African Navy does not have any reliable strongholds in the North Atlantic.

This is extremely disadvantageous for the East African Navy to safeguard its national interests, but there is no way around it. The great achievements that East Africa has made in the Indian Ocean and the South Atlantic are enough to make most countries in the world envious.

"Having said that, the speed of construction of Lomé Port should be the fastest among the Empire's overseas bases in recent years. After all, it has only been two years since we acquired Lomé Port. Even though it was once the capital of the German Togoland colony, Lomé was certainly not large in scale before." Tara said.

Before the 1920s, Lomé was just a small fishing village in West Africa. Later, when the colonists arrived, they built a city here. In the 1980s, it became a German colony, and Lomé became the political center of Togoland.

It is worth mentioning that this place was originally a Portuguese colony. This shows that Portugal is naturally in conflict with the Germans. However, this is inevitable. In the era of imperialist colonial expansion, latecomer countries will inevitably choose to pick on the weak in their overseas colonial expansion, and Portugal is obviously such a weak target.

In the past, the capitals of many African countries were located in coastal areas. These were basically political relics of the colonial era. After all, colonization itself was a process of exploration and development from the coast to the inland.

After inheriting this excellent deep-water port, the East African Navy could not wait to build it into one of the most important Atlantic naval bases in East Africa, making it a veritable military port. As for the civilian port, it was moved to the newly developed Port of Peme.

The Port of Peme was the second largest port in Togo in the past, mainly exporting phosphates. Phosphate ore exports were one of the three major economic pillars of Togo in the past, accounting for about half of Togo's total exports.

The Port of Lomé is even more remarkable. After all, Lomé is the only natural deep-water port in the entire West African region. This is one of the main reasons why it was chosen by the East African Navy.

(End of this chapter)