African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 1324 Premeditation
After all, the East African Navy is not a global navy. From the distribution of the East African Navy, it can be seen that its permanent and main activity areas are limited to the Atlantic Ocean, Indian Ocean, and Pacific Ocean.

It accounts for three of the four oceans, but except the Indian Ocean, the other two are not worthy of the name.

Take the Pacific Fleet for example. The area it is responsible for seems to be quite large, covering the entire Pacific Ocean, but this has no practical significance. From a practical point of view, if disputes and conflicts occur in the Pacific direction, the Pacific Fleet can only play a role in the South China Sea region.

After all, in the Pacific, the only ones who can threaten East Africa are the US and Japanese navies, and the two countries are much stronger in the Pacific than in East Africa.

The same is true in the Atlantic Ocean. The East African Navy's sphere of activity is mainly in the South Atlantic Ocean. Not only that, even in the South Atlantic Ocean, East Africa only has military bases in the east for support.

The Indian Ocean Fleet is the only true regional fleet in the East African Navy. In the Indian Ocean, East Africa’s only competitor is Britain, and the strength of the British Navy in the Indian Ocean is not as good as that of the East African Indian Ocean Fleet.

In addition, over the years, East Africa has acquired a large number of colonies in the Indian Ocean and its coasts, and built military bases covering the entire Indian Ocean.

However, this also dispersed the deployment of the Indian Ocean Fleet. After the areas of responsibility of the three fleets under the Indian Ocean Fleet, especially the Fourth Fleet, were moved to the eastern Indian Ocean, the areas originally responsible for were taken over by the First Fleet. However, the area under the charge of the First Fleet was too large, which made it difficult for them to provide effective support to the Third Fleet.

Although Britain's naval strength in the Indian Ocean is not as strong as that in East Africa, its overall strength should not be underestimated. This is also the main reason why Commander Lomage of the Third Fleet has concerns.

Vice Admiral Prato of the Third Fleet of the East African Navy said: "Today, the focus of the British Navy in the Indian Ocean is clearly on continuing to strengthen the India-Middle East-Red Sea coast, a route related to the southern battlefield, while we in East Africa had no influence in the Red Sea in the past."

"The country is now waging a war against the Horn of Africa, and the First Fleet will also have to start construction work in the Socotra Islands and northern Somalia."

"This means that it will be difficult for us to expect others to share the pressure in the North Indian Ocean."

Lomachi swallowed a puff of smoke and said, "In the final analysis, it is because our Third Fleet is not strong enough, especially because we lack as many military bases as other fleets to help us control the situation in the Middle East."

In terms of the number and size of warships, the Third Fleet ranks in the middle among the seven fleets in East Africa, but it is at the bottom within the Indian Ocean Fleet.

Obviously, how could Ernst not know the importance of the Middle East, especially the Persian Gulf region? So why didn't Ernst increase his support for the Third Fleet?

Part of the answer, as Lomage said, is that East Africa lacks military bases in the Middle East, especially along the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea. A navy without the support of overseas military bases is like duckweed on the water.

Before the United Kingdom gave up the Gwadar Port, the only naval military base in East Africa on the coast of the North Indian Ocean was the Dubai Port in the Beibu Gulf Territory. Even if the Fujairah and Khor Fakkan Ports under construction are included, there are only three in total.

Not only are there few of them, the conditions of these three ports are also very poor. The Persian Gulf region today is no longer the rich area it was in the past due to oil and gas development. Oil tycoons have spared no expense in artificially transforming the coastal ports. Today, many ports in the Persian Gulf, especially on the Arabian Peninsula side, can only accommodate sailing ships with shallow draft.

The shipping conditions in the Persian Gulf itself are relatively poor, similar to those in the Bohai Sea of ​​the Far Eastern Empire. Rivers such as the Euphrates and Tigris carry a large amount of silt, making the Persian Gulf shallower and shallower.

Moreover, the coastline of the Beibu Gulf Territory in East Africa is relatively flat, far inferior to other areas of the Persian Gulf, such as the British Bahrain Naval Base or the Persian coast. As for areas such as Basra along the coast of the Ottoman Empire, although they face many problems, their natural conditions are the best in the region. They are backed by the Mesopotamian Plain, which is rich in resources, has sufficient water resources, and a relatively dense population.

This is one of the important reasons why the Third Fleet placed its command center in Fujairah, on the coast of the Gulf of Oman. From a practical point of view, this place has little to do with the Persian Gulf and is outside the Strait of Hormuz. The Third Fleet chose this place as its command center because, on the one hand, Fujairah is backed by the West Jahar Mountains, so that some water vapor from the Indian Ocean can be intercepted to produce precipitation and meet water needs. Secondly, the water depth conditions in the Gulf of Oman are much better than those in the Persian Gulf. After the renovation of the two ports is completed, large warships with a relatively deep draft can be moored.

The West Jhar Mountains are mainly distributed in Oman, corresponding to the East Jhar Mountains in Oman. The Omani capital Muscat is at the foot of the East Jhar Mountains.

It can be said that most of Oman’s population is concentrated on both sides of the Hajar Mountains. Just like the East African Third Fleet has its command center in Fujairah, the existence of the Hajar Mountains has brought abundant precipitation resources to Oman.

In the Middle East, a place with extremely scarce rainfall, civilization basically relies on mountains for its development. Even the Euphrates and Tigris rivers in the Mesopotamian Plain derive their water from the mountainous areas upstream of the Ottoman Empire.

Therefore, Fujairah is a coastal oasis formed by precipitation from the Jahar Mountains, and its natural conditions are much better than those along the Persian Gulf coast.

However, the conditions here can only be said to be relatively good, especially the ports of Fujairah and Khorfakkan are too small, so the Third Fleet is not satisfied with this.

Therefore, Vice Admiral Prato said: "So, if we want to change the plight of the Third Fleet, we must find a military base that can expand the size of our fleet. Dubai, Fujairah, and Khor Fakkan cannot meet our needs."

“Although the higher-ups intend to give Gwadar to us, it will take several years to complete the construction, and the security is not very friendly.”

The conditions in Gwadar Port are not bad, but its neighbor is British India. How could the Third Fleet feel comfortable building a military base there?

On the other hand, although Fujairah has many restrictions, Oman, which is next to it, dares not offend East Africa at all. What's more, East Africa now has more than 50,000 troops stationed in the Beibu Gulf territory. Unless the Omanis are desperate, they will not dare to provoke East Africa.

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Romachi said: "In that case, do you think we have a better choice? We entered East Africa too late, and the good places have already been divided up. We were able to occupy the Beibu Gulf territory by picking up other people's leftovers."

Lieutenant General Prato said: "In this case, we can only take risks! If there is no good port, we will go and rob it. The Persian Gulf is not the British Persian Gulf. We in East Africa do not need to take the British into consideration."

"Back then, wasn't the Pirate Coast (UAE) also a nominal protectorate of the United Kingdom? Now it has become our Beibu Gulf territory. So nothing is impossible if you are determined. Sometimes we just have to be bold and we may achieve unexpected results."

Instead of refutation of Lieutenant General Prato's adventure, Lomazzi fell into deep thought. The cigarette in his hand slowly burned out and the ashes fell into the ashtray.

Vice Admiral Romage said, "Let's do it! Sometimes taking risks may not be a bad thing. The British were able to defeat the Spanish Armada because of luck. This time it depends on whether our luck is strong enough."

As the two commanders of the Third Fleet reached a consensus, they fell into an in-depth discussion. The content of the discussion was naturally about where to start, what plan to adopt, whether the plan could be approved by the central government and successfully implemented, etc.

After all, no matter how radical Romazzi and Plateau are, they still have two superiors above them: the commander-in-chief of the Indian Ocean Fleet and the East African Central Government. If they want to carry out such a big event, they must ultimately convince the imperial center.

(End of this chapter)