Chapter 1337 - 346: The Plot

Chapter 1337: Chapter 346: The Plot

After all, the East African Navy is not a global navy, as can be seen from its distribution, with permanent and primary areas of activity limited to the Atlantic, Indian Ocean, and Pacific Region.

Of the four oceans, it covers three, but apart from the Indian Ocean, the other two are just in name only.

Take the Pacific Fleet, for example, its area of responsibility appears vast, covering the entire Pacific Ocean, but this has no real significance; from a practical perspective, if disputes and conflicts arise in the Pacific direction, the Pacific Fleet can only play a role in the South Sea Region.

After all, in the Pacific range, the only threats to East Africa are the United States and Japanese Navy, and both countries’ strength in the Pacific is far superior to that of East Africa.

The same goes for the Atlantic; the East African Navy’s area of activity is primarily in the South Atlantic. Furthermore, even in the South Atlantic, East Africa only has military bases supporting the eastern part.

The Indian Ocean Fleet is considered the only truly regional fleet of the East African Navy; in the Indian Ocean range, East Africa’s only competitor is the United Kingdom, whose naval strength in the Indian Ocean does not match that of the East African Indian Ocean Fleet.

Besides, over the years, East Africa has acquired numerous colonies in the Indian Ocean and its coastlines and has built military bases covering the entire Indian Ocean.

However, this has also dispersed the deployments of the Indian Ocean Fleet. The three fleets under the Indian Ocean Fleet, especially the Fourth Fleet, after moving their area of responsibility to the Eastern Indian Ocean, had their original area taken over by the First Fleet, but with the First Fleet’s area being too large, making it difficult for them to effectively support the Third Fleet.

Although the British naval strength in the Indian Ocean is not as strong as East Africa’s, its overall strength is still not to be underestimated, which is the primary reason for the concerns of the Third Fleet’s commander, Lomache.

The East African Navy’s Third Fleet Lieutenant General Plato stated: "Currently, the British Navy’s focus in the Indian Ocean is clearly on strengthening the India-Middle East-Red Sea coast, forming a line related to the Southern Front, and our East Africa originally had little influence in the Red Sea."

"Now the country is also engaged in a war in the Horn of Africa, and the First Fleet will subsequently undertake construction work in the Socotra Islands and northern Somalia."

"This means that relying on others to alleviate pressure in the Northern Indian Ocean is quite difficult."

Lomache exhaled a puff of smoke and said: "Ultimately, it is because our Third Fleet’s own strength is inadequate, especially lacking the numerous military bases that other fleets have, to help us grasp the situation in the Middle East."

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

Clearly, Ernst surely understands the importance of the Middle East, especially the Persian Gulf Region, so why doesn’t Ernst increase support for the Third Fleet?

Part of the answer is indeed as Lomache said, East Africa lacks military bases in the Middle East region, especially along the Persian Gulf and Red Sea coastlines, a navy without overseas military bases is like a duckweed on water.

Before the British ceded Gwadar Port, the only naval military base of East Africa on the northern coast of the Indian Ocean was Dubai Port in the Beibu Gulf territory; even if you add the currently under-construction Fujairah and Hawalifikan Port, that’s only three.

The small number is one thing, but the conditions of these three ports are also very poor; today’s Persian Gulf Region is not like the past world where rich oil resources made it wealthy, with oil tycoons sparing no expense to artificially modify the coastal harbors, whereas today the Persian Gulf, especially the Arabian Peninsula side, many ports only accommodate shallow-draft sailboats.

Furthermore, the Persian Gulf’s shipping conditions are relatively poor, similar to the Bohai of the Far East Empire, with rivers like the Euphrates and Tigris carrying large amounts of sediment, causing the Persian Gulf’s depth to become shallower and shallower.

Also, the coastline of East Africa’s Beibu Gulf territory is relatively straight, unlike other parts of the Persian Gulf, such as the British Bahrain Naval Base or the Persian coast; as for areas like Basra along the Ottoman Empire’s coast, though facing many issues, the natural conditions there are the best in the region, backed by the Two Rivers plain with rich produce, abundant water sources, and a dense population.

This is one of the crucial reasons why the Third Fleet placed its command center in the Fujairah region along the coast of Oman Bay, which from a practical standpoint, is essentially no longer connected to the Persian Gulf, located outside the Hormuz Strait.

The Third Fleet chose this site as a command center partly because Fujairah is backed by the West Jihal Mountains, which previously intercept moisture from the Indian Ocean, causing precipitation and meeting water needs. Secondly, Oman Bay has far superior water depth conditions compared to the Persian Gulf, and after both ports are modified, they can host larger, deeper-draft warships.

The West Jihal Mountains mainly lie within Oman, corresponding to the East Jihal Mountains within Oman, with the Omani capital Muscat located at the foot of the East Jihal Mountains.

It can be said that most of Oman’s population is concentrated on either side of the Hajar Mountains, similar to how the East African Third Fleet placed its command center in Fujairah, the presence of the Hajar Mountains brings Oman abundant rainfall resources.

In the Middle East, a region extremely lacking in rainfall, civilizations generally depend on mountain-generated resources, even the water resources of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers in the Two Rivers plain originate from the upper mountainous areas of the Ottoman Empire.

Thus, Fujairah relies on the rainfall brought by the Jihal Mountains to form a coastal oasis with better natural conditions than the Persian Gulf coastline.

However, the conditions here can only be considered relatively good, especially since the scale of Fujairah Port and Hawalifikan Port is too small, so the Third Fleet is not satisfied with this.

Therefore, Lieutenant General Plato said: "To change the plight of our Third Fleet, we must find military bases capable of expanding our fleet’s scale; Dubai, Fujairah, and Hawalifikan cannot meet our needs."

"Although there is a proposition to give us Gwadar, we still have to wait several years for its construction, and the security situation there is not favorable."

The conditions of Gwadar Port are not bad, but being neighbors with British India, how could the Third Fleet be at ease with establishing a military base there?

In contrast, Fujairah, although with many restrictions, is next to Oman, which doesn’t dare to offend East Africa at all, especially considering the current East African troops stationed in the Beibu Gulf territory number over 50,000, unless the Omanis have gone out of their minds to provoke East Africa.

Lomache said: "Given this, do you think we have better choices? East Africa entered the game too late, all good places were long divided, and being able to occupy the Beibu Gulf territory is essentially picking over others’ leftovers."

Lieutenant General Plato said: "In that case, we have no choice but to take risks! Without good ports, we’ll seize them, the Persian Gulf doesn’t belong to the British, and we East Africans have no need to act entirely in accordance with the British."

"Back then, wasn’t the Pirate Coast (United Arab Emirates) also nominally a British protectorate? And now it’s not become our Beibu Gulf territory, so there is nothing insurmountable in this world, it just requires resolve; sometimes we must be bold; we might achieve unexpected results."

Regarding Lieutenant General Plato’s adventurous approach, Lomache did not refute and instead fell into contemplation; the cigarette in his hand burned slowly, and the ash dropped into the ashtray.

Only then did Lieutenant General Lomache say: "Let’s do it! Sometimes taking risks may not be a bad thing; when the British defeated Spain’s armada, luck played a part, and this time we’ll see if our luck holds."

With the two commanders of the Third Fleet uniting in thought, they engaged in a deep discussion, the contents of which naturally concerned selecting where to strike, what kind of plan to adopt, and whether the plan would gain approval from the Central Government to be successfully implemented, and so forth.

After all, no matter how aggressive Lomache and Plato might be, there are still two superiors above them: the Indian Ocean Fleet Commander and the East Africa Central Government; to carry out such a significant matter, they must ultimately persuade the Empire’s center.