African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 939 Manila Defense System

"Manila Bay should be put on military footing now, especially at the exit of Manila Bay, where obstacles such as mines should be deployed to prevent the enemy from advancing directly."

As one of the few large bays in the world, although it is easy to defend, Manila's export is also very large. If the Spanish navy is strong, there will naturally be no problem. But now the situation is that the enemy is strong and we are weak, so the Spanish navy must rely on external forces to achieve an advantage over the US Navy.

"At the same time, the coastal defense artillery on both sides of the Manila Bay exit needs to be maintained in a timely manner. This time, we have provided a lot of large-caliber coastal defense artillery in East Africa, which can replace some antiques. Of course, these obsolete artillery should also be used to increase the artillery coverage of Manila Bay as much as possible and cooperate effectively with the local navy."

"Especially Corregidor Island, which is located in the center of the exit of Manila Bay, should be modernized immediately. After all, the military facilities built on Corregidor Island are too old. Today's artillery and warships are no longer comparable to those in the sailing era. The original military facilities are unable to cope with current weapons."

The important location of Corregidor Island made it a battleground for military strategists. In the 250th century, Spanish colonialists occupied this small island and equipped it with 2000mm cannons with a range of meters. They also set up checkpoints here and all ships entering and leaving had to be verified by them.

Later, after the United States occupied the island, it paid more attention to it and spent a huge amount of money to build the fortress Fort Mills on the island, equipped with barracks, hospitals, cold drink factories, cinemas, churches and other infrastructure.

In order to defend Corregidor Island, the United States built a solid reinforced concrete battery and 23 artillery positions on the island.

The coastal artillery is very large, with a caliber of 300 mm and a range of 28000 meters. The two mortars have a range of 2 meters and can fire in any direction. Later, a large number of tunnels were built on the island, making the local area impregnable.

Of course, Japan eventually broke through American defenses with a relentless bombing campaign, dropping tens of thousands of bombs in just nine days, and finally captured the island under the cover of aircraft and tanks.

Therefore, if they wanted to hold on to Manila Bay, they had to carry out large-scale transformation of Corregidor Island, which was obviously a daunting task for the Spanish Philippine colony.

Anthony said, "General Bruce, is the question urgent?"

Bruce: "Even if the war is to start, it should start from Cuba first, so Spain still has time before Cuba is attacked, and the two countries are negotiating now to buy time to prepare for war. As far as we know in East Africa, the United States has already prepared for war, so it is unwise for your government to declare war on the United States in advance. So before that, it is best to transform the area around Manila Bay within three months. As for manpower, you need to solve it yourself."

Is the Philippines short of people? The answer is yes, otherwise the Philippines would not have given up the north and fought the US military in Manila in the past.

But the shortage of people in the Philippines does not mean a shortage of people near Manila Bay. This should be the area with the most concentrated population and economy in the Philippines. It just so happens that the Philippine government is going to encircle and suppress local resistance forces these two days, so this guy is here!

Of course, there is still the shadow of East Africa behind this. While the East African Military Advisory Group headed by Bruce was meddling in the defense of Manila Bay, East African instructors had already led Filipinos equipped with new jungle combat rifles into the jungles around Manila Bay to encircle and suppress the resistance organizations.

"Bang..." The sound of gunfire one after another echoed in the Philippine rainforest. Under the leadership of indigenous spies, this Spanish encirclement and suppression was quite successful.

"Lieutenant Karen, it's no accident that you were able to defeat the British in East Africa. In the past, it was difficult for us to organize battles in the rain forest. If it weren't for your expertise this time, I'm afraid we would have returned empty-handed as usual."

Karen said politely: "Haha, every profession has its specialties. We also have a large number of rainforest areas in East Africa, so tropical jungle warfare has always been the focus of the East African National Defense Force." Lieutenant Karen has been in the Congo rainforest in East Africa for many years, encircling and suppressing the remnants of indigenous forces deep in the rainforest, so he has accumulated a huge amount of jungle combat experience.

This time he led the team, and with the cooperation of spies among the Filipino natives, the nine targeted jungle hideouts were wiped out in one fell swoop.

After all, the jungle guerrillas are indeed a headache, but not everyone can handle jungle warfare. For example, the Filipino natives on the opposite side have no tactical thinking, so they have no ability to fight back against an old fox like Karen who specializes in dealing with jungle guerrillas.

One of the main reasons why the Vietnam War in the past stood out and became a classic of jungle warfare was that the local people were influenced by the military thinking of the Eastern powers.

Otherwise, Vietnam would not have been suppressed so thoroughly by France before, and there would not be any impressive military record. The turning point was the military output of the Eastern power to Vietnam. Not to mention the Filipino natives were not as good as the Vietnamese, even some African natives were not as good as them.

This is Karen's intuitive feeling. After all, there is always a devil who is one step ahead of the good. In the encirclement and suppression in East Africa, the native Africans will also make progress, but facing the continuous influx of immigrants from East Africa, their efforts are doomed to be in vain.

The native Filipinos were different. The Spaniards were undoubtedly a minority in the local area, and the technological advances brought by Spain caused a surge in the native population of the Philippines. Therefore, the Philippine resistance forces had a steady infusion of blood. The Spanish were not good at jungle warfare before, and they simply relied on their firepower advantage to suppress the local natives.

However, with the support of the Americans, the local forces were also quickly catching up in terms of weapons, which resulted in the Spanish colonial government having no good way to deal with them, leading to a situation where they were too powerful to be eliminated. Karen taught them a lesson today.

Of course, Karen also drew nourishment from these fragmentary battles. After all, natives fighting with hot weapons were almost unheard of in East Africa, but the Filipino natives were different. The geographical location of the Philippines destined it to have close ties with the outside world, and Spain had no way of preventing these natives from obtaining external sources of weapons.

"The weapons have been effective in this operation. The M1895C jungle combat rifle is more powerful, less restricted by terrain, and has strong structural stability. This rifle is more useful for the Philippines."

Through actual combat, the Spanish garrison in the Philippines has turned its skepticism about East African firearms into recognition. After all, this is the result of more than ten years of research in East Africa.

Karen is also very interested in his country's firearms. Now only a small number of troops in East Africa are equipped with the M1895C jungle combat rifle. After all, East Africa is mainly composed of tropical savanna terrain, and conventional rifles have greater advantages. However, the climate of East Africa's South Sea colonies and the Philippines is the same, so he believes that this new rifle should be widely popularized in East Africa's own colonies.

There is no doubt that this time Spain's "anti-bandit" campaign made up for the manpower needed to build Manila's defense system to a certain extent, but more gaps still had to be drawn from ordinary indigenous people. As for arousing more serious resistance, the Spanish colonial government could not do anything about it.

Facing the powerful enemy, the U.S. Navy, if the Philippines lost the war, it would have no relationship with Spain at all, especially since most of the staff of the colonial government might lose their jobs. So under the advocacy of the East African Military Advisory Group, the theory of the U.S. threat was deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, and the entire Spanish Philippine colonial government actively cooperated with the East African military personnel in preparing for war.

Although due to limited conditions, many projects and training could not meet the psychological expectations of the East African Military Advisory Group, it was still dozens of times better than Spain's preparations in the Philippines in the previous life.

Apart from anything else, the large number of mines deployed in Manila Bay alone makes it impossible for the US military to enter Manila Bay as recklessly as they did in the past.

(End of this chapter)