Marshal Brooke's depiction clearly outlines the current situation of the war in Africa:

After Germany raided the port of Mombasa and occupied the island of Pembasa and Zanzibar, the Kenyan coast, including Mombasa, was completely blocked. At this time, nearly 70,000 British troops were stranded in Kenya, and the demand for various materials was extremely urgent. Kenya could basically solve the problem on the spot, but other combat resources were in short supply, especially the British troops retreated from Egypt. In addition to light weapons, Patton and other troops retreated from the Horn of Africa, they almost turned into bare-handed soldiers, plus a large number of wounded and other civilians. The African theater was in urgent need of fuel, medicine, and ordnance.

The maritime passage to Kenya has been cut off by the Axial Navy. The land distance from South Africa to Kenya is more than 5,000 kilometers, and there is basically no systematic railway or road network to use. The forced "American Logistics Company" can only quickly organize air transportation to replenish a large amount of materials through air transportation, and build an African route across Cape Town, South Africa and Nairobi, Kenya. Because the straight line distance of the entire route is too far (more than 4,000 kilometers), a refueling transfer station was specially set up in Zambia in the middle.

In South Africa, nearly 200 of the b-17, b-25, b-24 and -47 models that were stranded in Kenya were put into transportation. Due to the long route, no fighter can provide full escort. Except for the Zambian transit airport, some fighter jets and air defense forces were left to prevent enemy invasion, the rest of the journey was all due to these bombers or transport aircraft that performed transportation missions flew over them themselves.

The only thing worthy of the Allied forces is that since the entire route lies in the inland Africa, the nearest base controlled by Germany is more than 600 kilometers away from the German-controlled base. In addition, bombers and transport aircraft have relatively high flight altitudes, the longest B-219s in Germany's HNA that controls Pemba Island and Zanzibar Island are not suitable for such interception tasks. Only the -190a with the secondary fuel tank can be used to attack the route. However, after a few attempts, the Germans found that the effect was not good. Although the US fleet did not escort, the self-defense firepower of the dense formation made the limited -190 pilots feel that they could not start a porcupine.

The battle was not great, and several additional aircraft were lost. The situation was reported to Hoffman. He reasonably stated that HNA's focus was to control the coastal areas and not let the British and American transport ships pass by, because the material delivery of a ship was equal to the Allied aircraft for half a month, and the air supply was allowed to be troubled by the Americans. He personally expressed his disapproval. With the clear instructions of the head of state and the difficulties in reality, the German pilots attacked and fought when they were in a good mood, but were too lazy to watch when they were in a bad mood. In the past one or two days, they had slowly given up such interception missions, and were too lazy to even move.

In fact, the US mainland Airlines has made a name for itself. When the weather is good, more than 100 aircraft can arrive from South Africa to Kenya the next day. The average daily air transport volume can reach 500-600 tons. Although there is no need to airdrop food for 70,000 people, a large part of the transportation scale is fuel and must be consumed in the middle. Therefore, the African war zone can actually receive no more than 200 tons of supplies every day. The German Supreme Command has made an estimate on this and believes that the harm is not great. The African war zone cannot maintain the combat of more than 50,000 troops by relying on this material supply level.

The Americans did not give up and tried to secretly transport supplies to Kenya through fast merchant ships. However, firstly, German aircraft and U-boats were closely guarding them, and almost no merchant ships could arrive along the Kenya coast alive; secondly, the port of Mombasa has been completely destroyed and almost impossible to transport, unless an artificial dock is established first. After evaluation, the African war zone believed that the effect was too slow and it was not urgent, so in the end, it chose to completely air transport. Otherwise, with the existing bomber group, if the United States really considered building an artificial dock, the United States could carry out large-scale air strikes on the German troops in Pemba Island and Zanzibar.

What made the UK and the United States feel relieved was that a large number of wounded and sick people with the air force evacuated to South Africa: After ten days of hard work, nearly 2,000 wounded people were evacuated from Kenya and sent to South Africa for treatment, which ensured the morale of the troops. The next step was to withdraw the more than 3,000 civilians stranded in Kenya, most of them were Egypt, Somalia, Sudan, Kenyan colonial officials and expatriates, who were all waiting in line for planes to South Africa.

Lieutenant General Eisenhower, commander-in-chief of the African War Zone, believed that he was not as capable as Patton's war, but he was very skilled in doing this work, so the senior leaders of the headquarters quickly formed a tacit division of labor. Eisenhower was in charge of the overall situation and focused on logistics and management. Patton and Ramsden were in charge of the training and reorganization of British and American officers and soldiers. After the initial panic, most of the troops were settled, and various institutions and organizations were gradually restored.

The overall situation in the African theater has stabilized, but a small episode occurred during this period: Australia, which has suffered unfair treatment many times, the new troops proposed that although Ramsden was a good commander, they did not want to join the British troops anymore and asked to join the US military. This was a big blow to Great Britain's reputation. There were a lot of people criticizing Churchill for this matter, but he had put all the blame on General Alexander. After coordination among many parties such as London, Washington, Canberra, and Wellington, he finally agreed to add Australia and the new troops to Patton's Second Armored Division, and Egypt and other countries.

The British troops who retreated were added to the British 78th Division. Since the division commander was killed, Ramsden temporarily served as the commander. In this way, the African theater had a total of 5 divisions, and the troops were barely full, but the equipment was too different, especially the Second Armored Division, which had the title of the Armored Division, even a tank and an armored vehicle. It was almost an absolute light infantry division. Finally, Eisenhower set up heavy equipment including 40 tanks, 50 armored vehicles, and 80 artillery pieces from other troops to hand over to the Second Armored Division.

The supply problem has temporarily alleviated a little, but the situation in Africa is getting worse and worse.

Brooke said in an anxious tone: "After the Germans took over Kasmud and overwhelmed the local Sudanese forces, they had already driven their troops to the border between Sudan and Ethiopia. Emperor Haier Selasi has been resisting, but this time they came not the clumsy Italians, but Guderian's most famous armored troops. The Ethiopian troops that were not much better than the Chinese team's equipment may not last long. The border troops have retreated one after another. Although Addis Ababa is still in his hands, it will be a matter of time to fall."

Originally Churchill had a plan to place Australia and New Army in Addis Ababa to assist the Ethiopians in resisting the German team together, and gain time for the deployment and addition of the African war zone in the future. Although Ramsden reasonably argued that Australia, which had been hunted by German troops since Egypt and was in short supply of equipment, could not be able to complete this task at all, but London still insisted on its own opinion. The two New Division Chiefs decisively "left alone", not only directly took the troops away and retreated south, but also sued Churchill in the country, believing that he "deliberately murdered the army of Australia and the autonomous rulers of New Zealand." The two division commanders thought very clearly that it was impossible to be kind to the British after the "mutilation" in Aswan. They simply forced themselves to the end and directly demanded to join the US military.

They were confident in doing this. Not only did all the soldiers express their support, but they also aroused anger after crying at the elected MPs in Australia and New Zealand. Some people also asked why they sent troops to Europe to participate in the war? The Germans did not attack us. Therefore, the whole thing was finally left unresolved, and the British troops retreated south together, which violated Churchill's original promise to the Ethiopians, making him unfamiliar with inside and outside, so he had to accept questioning from the parliamentarians again.

The members of the congregation did not understand why the Germans had to spend time and effort to fight for the Italians, but no one was optimistic about Ethiopia's prospects. They estimated that the entire territory of Ethiopia would not fall for more than half a month, and Kenya would go south.

After careful study, the senior military leaders represented by Marshal Brook came to a conclusion: it is not enough to rely solely on air supply to save the African war zone. Even if the African war zone is full, it may not necessarily be able to defeat the German African army. Therefore, additional troops must be added. Then, they hope that the United States will increase its troops to Africa on the ground, and the armored troops are still in training. The subtext is very obvious. If the United States cannot or is unwilling to increase its troops, then the African war zone can now begin to consider retreating to South Africa.

Unexpectedly, President Roosevelt and the US side actually agreed with the plan to increase troops, but in turn they used the British army: the United States can draw troops to aid African army, but the main force of the US Navy must deal with the Japanese in the Pacific. I hope the British will send corresponding naval forces anyway, since the British main ships will be removed from the Pacific battlefield and can be put into use. The US Atlantic Fleet will send other warships, and the battle for aid Africa can be launched.

The Americans made it clear: The Royal Navy's main battleship does not have too many combat missions now. The main force of the Japanese Navy has entered the Mediterranean again. The axis may launch the Malta Battle. The fall of Malta is inevitable, but it is the best time for the battle to aid Africa. If Britain is willing to assume this responsibility, the United States can return an additional George V battleship to its country.

This counter-suggestion hit Britain's weakness. To increase troops, it is necessary to open up maritime traffic lines. A naval battle is inevitable. Churchill originally wanted to pull the main force of the Pacific Fleet over, but the Americans obviously didn't think so, so the Royal Navy was forced to consider relying on existing forces to carry out the Kenyan landing war. (To be continued.)
Chapter completed!