Rise of Australia

Chapter 106 Army Expansion (Please Subscribe!)
On February 1902, 2, after several days of discussions with German military experts, Australia's military expansion officially started.

Of course, this round of military expansion does not prepare for any military operations, but simply expands Australia's military power to ensure control over its homeland and colonies.

It is also very helpless to say.The reason why Australia chose to expand its army was entirely because the small and pitiful army could no longer meet the needs of the colonies of Australia and New Guinea, and the Guards, as an important army to protect the royal family, could not be stationed elsewhere.

Under such circumstances, it is very necessary to expand the existing army.

Australia has a population of nearly 400 million. Under conservative estimates, it is no problem to expand the army to 4 to 5.

Of course, the expansion plan for the first round will not be so crazy. Arthur's goal is to recruit 5000 people and complete the plan to reorganize the active army.

According to the change plan formulated by the Ministry of Defense, those soldiers who have completed the training will be expanded to become the backbone of the First Defense Division.

The establishment of the first division of national defense mostly adopted the establishment of the German division, and a full division has as many as 6000 people.

Compared with Germany's slightly bloated establishment, the Australian army's establishment has undergone certain changes, canceling the brigade-level establishment, and changing it to three infantry regiments plus an artillery regiment and a cavalry battalion to form an infantry division.

In terms of weapon configuration, Arthur had high hopes for the new defense division, and the Ministry of Defense also spent a lot of money on it.

In terms of heavy machine guns, the First Division has five heavy machine gun companies, each equipped with six MA-96 Maxim machine guns, for a total of thirty heavy machine guns.

In terms of artillery, the First Division has one artillery regiment plus three artillery companies, making a total of four artillery battalions.

The artillery regiment is equipped with many types of artillery. Ideally, each artillery battalion of the artillery regiment will be equipped with eight CA-1 machine guns, five M1897 automatic artillery guns and three 105mm howitzers with technology provided by German experts.

The artillery companies belonging to the three infantry regiments are equipped with four CA-1 cannons and two M1897 automatic cannons.

In this way, the apparent firepower of the First Division has reached the level of the German army, or even slightly exceeded it.

Especially after being equipped with a large number of semi-automatic artillery, the number of artillery and firepower output of the First Division is definitely not weaker than that of the German army.

Of course, the installation cost of such a first division will also be huge.Just the 30 heavy machine guns and dozens of artillery cost more than [-] pounds, plus the cost of soldiers and rifles, the formation of this infantry division requires at least [-] pounds, and the monthly training and maintenance of weapons and equipment The cost is as high as tens of thousands of pounds.

This kind of army organization is completely against Germany, even if it is placed on the European battlefield in the future, it will be a powerful army.

Let alone Oceania.Counting the surrounding enemies in detail, it may be the number of people that can defeat this army.

It is worth mentioning that after this conscription, the theoretical number of Australian troops reached 5000.

Among them, the Guards will expand to 8000 people, doubling the number directly.These 8000 men would form a mixed Guards division, consisting of an infantry regiment, a cavalry regiment and an artillery regiment.

The number of soldiers left for the First Division was as high as 7000.The reason why there are 1000 more people than the planned establishment is because these extra people will become the reserve officers of the Second Division and will also be the instructors of the Second Division when it is recruited in the future.

The combat effectiveness of a division composed entirely of recruits and a division composed of veterans and recruits is absolutely different.

Veterans have significantly improved the combat effectiveness of the troops, and can also be used as reserve officers for future expansion of the troops.

For this reason, under the discussion of the Ministry of National Defense, the officers of the First Division will have one more deputy, and these candidates for the deputy will most likely fall to the second division as full-time officers in the future.

For these existing soldiers, this also improved their hopes of promotion in a disguised form.

Even if you are not capable enough to be an officer in the army, you can still work hard to get the position of deputy.

After a period of training, won't you still become an officer when the army expands in the future?
Although it may take longer, it is better than direct promotion without hope.

The military expansion plan of the Australian Ministry of Defense has been welcomed and actively participated by a large number of Australians.

No sooner had word spread than the recruiting offices set up in New South Wales and Victoria were packed.

As for other states, due to the small population, they are not considered within the scope of conscription for the time being.

As the capital of Australia, there is a neat and long line at the conscription office in Sydney.

Not even one street could hold the applicants, and several nearby streets were crowded with crowds.

While Arthur didn't see the recruiting scene in person, reports from the Victorian and Australian Daily at least say so.

It is hard to say how many of them are sincerely joining the army to serve the motherland, because the benefits of Australian soldiers are very high. Even ordinary soldiers generally have an annual salary of about [-] pounds, far exceeding Australia's per capita income level.

More importantly, the number of conscription this time was only 15000, but it was carried out simultaneously in the two most populous states in Australia.

This also led to a significant reduction in everyone's chances of being selected, which is why the conscription office was so full from the very beginning.

After all, if you work hard in a factory, you can only earn ten pounds a year.As long as you enter the army, you can get a salary of at least twelve pounds a year, and once you become an officer, it will be even higher.

Australia is surrounded by islands of major powers, and there are no enemies directly bordering it.Under such circumstances, Australia should not go to war, right?
Many people have such a fluke mentality, thinking that even if they join the army, they will be safe. Under the temptation of high salaries, they choose to join the army one after another.

Of course, this scene is also what the Ministry of Defense and Arthur want to see.No matter what the reasons for these people to join the army are, as long as they join the army, various ability training and ideological education will let them understand what it means to be loyal to the monarch and patriotism, what it means to serve the motherland, and what it means to sacrifice their lives for righteousness.

Australia's overcrowded conscription office has won the favor of German experts.In the words of German experts, even if it is the whole of Europe, it is probably only Germany.

This is not bragging by German experts.The history of the founding of the German Empire is the history of wars with neighboring powers.

As the German Empire, which broke through Austria and set foot on France, and conquered two great powers one after another before successfully unifying it into one country, its military capabilities are absolutely world-class.

Since the Kingdom of Prussia, the Prussian army and the Junker nobles have always been one of the overlords of the European army. After defeating the traditional powerful France, the European army's identity directly fell on the German army.

This also led to the bursting of recognition and pride of the German people for the country. Every time Germany expanded its military, the enthusiasm of the Germans was unmatched by other European countries.

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(End of this chapter)