African Entrepreneurship Record-Chapter 104 - 99: Coastal Defense System

Besides Mtwara Port, other ports are naturally equipped with fortifications, and influenced by geographical and historical factors, the other East African ports have much higher specifications than Mtwara.

The number of coastal defense guns varies according to the importance of each port.

Dar es Salaam and Mombasa are the most crucial ports in East Africa, with a long history of port construction, the best natural conditions, and ranked in the first tier among East African ports.

The gun placements for the fortifications at Dar es Salaam and Mombasa are preliminarily set at eight guns each.

Tanga and Bajamojo are also two key ports being developed, connecting the sea area between Dar es Salaam and Mombasa, and are in the second tier.

Six gun positions are reserved for both Tanga and Bajamojo ports.

Mtwara Port, not only small in scale but also not as strategically prominent as the former, is ranked in the third tier. Future newly built ports in Tanzania and Kenya are expected to be on the same level as Mtwara.

However, Mtwara Port has also reached four gun placements.

Besides these ports, some islands seized from the Sultanate of Zanzibar are also key to defense, the most typical being Bemba Island and Mafia Island, the two largest islands along the East African coast after Zanzibar Island.

Bemba Island was an important part of the territory of the Sultanate of Zanzibar. Mafia Island is also suitable for human settlement.

Both islands serve a protective role along the East African coast. Combined with Zanzibar, they form an island chain, but this chain is relatively close to the East African coast and not easily controlled by overseas powers.

For example, it’s impossible for someone to use this island chain to blockade the East African coast. First, these three islands can only cover the northern Tanzanian coastal zone; secondly, the vast Indian Ocean to the east makes it difficult for hostile forces to supply and arm this island chain.

Like the Ryukyu Islands in the East Asian island chain, although it’s far from the United States, it’s also not close to the mainland, while the U.S. can control and block this island chain relying on countries like Japan and the Philippines.

However, this "island chain" off the East African coast, to say the least, could potentially be landed on with a canoe departing from the East African mainland coast.

Even so, the strategic position of Bemba Island and Mafia Island remains prominent, and the economic potential of Bemba Island is huge, being suitable for population settlement. In the past, Bemba Island housed more than 200,000 people, with cities and ports, and suitable for agricultural cultivation.

While Mafia Island’s status is roughly between Tanga and Mtwara ports, it was an important tourist destination in Tanzania’s past, with a permanent population of around twenty thousand.

So these two islands will not be abandoned by the East African colony. To ensure the development of these two islands and secure the strategic safety of the East African coast, six gun positions are reserved for Bemba Island and two for Mafia Island.

This gives a rough outline of the East African coastal defense system, with a total of forty large-caliber coastal defense guns.

Forty guns are not many, but given the current port size of East Africa, the number matches well, especially to defend against large ships, it’s more than enough.

This is merely the first step. The current East African colony doesn’t have the capability to further enhance its defenses, so increasing the number of large-caliber guns will have to wait for the future.

However, small-caliber guns can be gradually arranged, as the cost of the ammunition for large-caliber guns alone is unaffordable for most.

If enemies at sea use small boats for reconnaissance and attack, the cost of using large-caliber coastal defense guns would be unbearable, requiring small-caliber guns for such scenarios.

The advantage of large-caliber coastal defense guns is the fixed design parameters of the sea coverage, which are pre-calibrated, so their hit rate is much higher, but they are costly and suitable for dealing with larger vessels.

Small-caliber guns, with relatively low cost, mobility, and flexibility, have a significant advantage against smaller targets.

Currently, the East African colony has not been equipped with small-caliber guns, because the Heixinggen factory located in Trieste has not yet started production.

The difficulty in developing large-caliber guns is quite high. Given the capabilities of the Heixinggen factory, it’s still too early to start developing large-caliber guns.

After all, one cannot learn to run before learning to walk, so accumulating experience by starting with the production of small-caliber guns is very important.

Moreover, small-caliber guns have a wide range of applications, are easy to transport, and cost-effective, making them very suitable for production by the modestly sized Heixinggen factory.

And the East African colony is basically the reserved area for the Heixinggen factory, with the artillery produced continuously equipping the East African colonial army.

The indigenous forces are currently the most numerous facing the East African colony. Frankly, a rifle is more than enough. Why use a sledgehammer to crack a nut? However, Ernst just likes the idea of overwhelming firepower.

Moreover, Portugal is also a potential enemy, with its Mozambique colony having a long history of development, surely there are some real weapons in hand, so caution is necessary.

When the Heixinggen factory in Trieste begins production in the future, the top priority supply will go to the two systems: the East African coastal defense system and the East African and Portuguese border forces.

The coastal defense system construction invites professional Austrian Navy personnel to design it personally. In the last Battle of Lissa, the Austrian Navy was actually on the defensive side, hence rich in experience in this area.

Additionally, after the war, the Austro-Hungarian Empire strengthened its coastal defense, and its retired ship guns, like those in East Africa, were also deployed in strategically important positions in the Adriatic Sea.

So Ernst is getting a good deal by copying it. Except for the still inadequate number of small-caliber guns (second-hand goods left by the Sultanate of Zanzibar), everything else replicates the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

For example, the construction of more robust reinforced concrete fortifications for the gun emplacements follows the same structure as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, with the coastal defense guns being produced from the same source.

Thus, the coastal defense system along the East African coast essentially replicated the defense system of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the Adriatic Sea, which belongs to a first-class standard of this era.

As long as the number of small-caliber guns reaches the required level, the entire East African coast will be an unassailable fortress, unless attacked without regard to cost. It’s not that Ernst underestimates the strength of other countries; only the Navies of Europe and America have the power to break through the East African coastal defense system once it’s completed.

But navies around the world aren’t fools. Who would bring an ironclad to East Africa to fight this fortress? The ship costs alone wouldn’t be enough to compensate.

Only Portugal has the capability and motive to attack East Africa by sea and land, so the East African colony has particularly strengthened its military presence in the south, with the south being the land defense line of East Africa and the east the coastal defense system, clearly targeting someone for prevention.

In other directions, the East African colony is on the offensive, and defense isn’t necessary. For instance, to the southwest, from Mbeya to Zambia and Zimbabwe, the west is naturally protected by Lake Tanganyika, and the north consists of indigenous forces.

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