Rise of Australia

Chapter 385 Rapid Expansion of the Military Industry

On August 1914, 8, the Australasian Expeditionary Force, with a total of more than 24 people, began to march towards the European battlefield.

In order to help the Australasian Expeditionary Force reach Europe faster, Britain and France sponsored a large number of transport ships in friendship and promised to protect the transportation of the expeditionary force throughout the process.

But in any case, it will take at least a month for Australasia to reach the French border. During this month, the French border can only be maintained by the British and French coalition forces.

After the end of the French border battle, the number of casualties in France has exceeded 14, which also made Joffre have to admit the failure of the border battle.

Although both France and Germany are fighting according to the established combat plan, judging from the current progress made by the two countries, France's No. 17 combat plan has failed, while Germany's plan to pass through Belgium has succeeded.

Although the vitality of the French army was not consumed much, the defeat of the border war made the German army leave the court and sweep the holes in the French territory. The places they passed were like scorched earth ruins. Er's family cemetery was also dug up and turned into a toilet.

Although I don't know if this was intentional by the German army, the current situation in France has fully proved the current crisis in France.

After the defeat in the border war, Xiafei was thinking about the real reason for the defeat and the decision to save the war at the headquarters.

Although both military and political circles have blamed Xiafei, Xiafei is not too panicked at this time.

Seeing his boss frowning and thinking about the problem, Xiafei's assistant and adjutant Captain Miller couldn't help reminding: "Your Excellency Commander-in-Chief, don't you think there is a problem with the deployment of the army?"

Xia Fei was stunned, looked at his assistant, did not blame him for asking the question abruptly, but continued to ask with interest: "Captain Miller, what do you think the German army should do next?"

As the aide-de-camp of the French commander-in-chief, Captain Miller's resume is naturally not ordinary.

Born in the Saint-Cyr Military Academy, he has repeatedly made military exploits in the army, is shrewd and capable, and is an extremely capable young officer.

Xiafei brought him by his side as an adjutant, which meant to train Miller to some extent.

Captain Miller heard Xiafei's question, thought carefully for a while, and then replied: "Your Excellency Commander-in-Chief, I think the next goal of the Germans must be to attack Paris. There are three options for attacking Paris. One is from Cambrai via the Amiens-Rouen axis, detouring back to Paris from the west. The second is from the Maubeuge, Saint-Quentin, Soissons axis, directly attacking Paris. The third is along the Chale Roy, Mauberi turned to the southwest, pursued the main force of our army, and then attacked Paris. Considering the current situation of our army fighting and retreating, the Germans may choose the third route the most."

Xiafei nodded encouragingly, looked at her adjutant with gratified eyes, and continued to ask: "Then is there any way to deal with it?"

"Although our army has been newly defeated, our main force still has the ability to fight. The North Army can retreat to the Marne River and stand firm along the river. In addition, sending an elite group army to the north of Paris City can not only defend Paris, but also You can look for opportunities to attack the German flank," Miller continued.

For the French army, retreat is okay, but continuous retreat is not advisable.As the capital of France, if Paris falls too early, it will not only bring a huge blow to the French people and army, but also a huge blow to the entire Allied Powers.

You know, the battlefield on the Western Front basically relies on the French army to hold on.If the French army loses its combat effectiveness too early, it will be equivalent to missing a powerful boost for the Allied offensive and defensive powers.

Joffre's laughter became louder, he nodded in satisfaction, and said to Miller, "Captain, I think we should switch positions. You will be the commander-in-chief, and I will be your adjutant."

Although there was a bit of a joking tone, Xiafei's words were not entirely jokes.

In fact, Miller's proposal to take over was basically the same as Joffre's idea, which also represented Miller's ability, and in some respects it was indeed enough to be the commander-in-chief of France.

On August 1914, 8, the day after Australasia dispatched the expeditionary force, Joffre officially changed the deployment and issued a new operational plan.

First, to prevent the disintegration of all French armies, but to allow the orderly withdrawal of the consolidated army to Verdun, Aine, Craon, Laon, Raphael, Saint-Quentin, and the Somme.

At this time, Xiafei still didn't know that his order led to the outbreak of some of the most brutal battles in World War I.

The line from Verdun to the Somme is the position designated by Joffre to build military facilities and build offensive and defensive positions.

Since this decision by France, the Western Front has fallen into a protracted trench warfare.The competition between the two sides is not only manpower, but also material, financial and transportation capabilities.

Since the beginning of the war, all military industrial enterprises in Australasia have entered a state of overtime production.

On the European battlefield, the consumption of weapons, equipment and ammunition is getting faster and faster. Britain, France and Russia are already negotiating a batch of huge arms trade orders with Australasia.

According to the current situation, this arms trade order is divided into 40 rifles, 1200 artillery pieces, 500 heavy machine guns, 10 grenades, 8000 million rifle bullets, 1000 million machine gun bullets, and 20 Various types of shells.

This is more than 1000 million Australian dollars more than the funds involved in the huge military purchase, and the pure profit alone is at least as high as 400 million Australian dollars.

And the bulk of this weapons purchase order belongs to the Tsarist Russian Empire.Because of the crazy military expansion of the Tsarist Russian Empire, many soldiers have not yet obtained their own weapons.

In the current Russian army, there is a tradition of grabbing weapons.Of course, it's not about grabbing the hands of your own comrades, but about grabbing the dead bodies on the battlefield.

As long as you are quick and pick up the weapons from the corpse, then these weapons will belong to you, whether it is from the enemy or your comrades.

This has also caused the current logistics in Russia to be quite chaotic. There are guns produced by Russia itself, guns supported by Britain and France, guns produced by Australasia and guns produced by Germany.

These various weapons have placed a huge burden on the logistics of the Tsarist Russian Empire, making the Tsarist Russian government determined to replace weapons for the elite troops.

At least adopt unified combat weapons in the elite troops, which can greatly reduce the logistical pressure caused by different weapons.

This batch of weapons orders is almost a quarter of Australasia's stockpile.Even if the Australasian military factory works overtime, the current consumption rate of weapons and equipment (including export) is still far greater than the production rate.

This also made Arthur's previous decision to order the crazy hoarding of weapons and equipment to be extremely wise. Unintentionally, the military factory became more obedient to Arthur's order.

As of now, the Royal Military Factory employs as many as 2.5 people.This number has increased by nearly 1 people compared to more than a year ago, and it does not appear that the expansion speed of the military factory is exaggerated.

Even the expansion of civilian military factories in Australasia is astonishing.It is conservatively estimated that the military industry employs more than 3 people in Australasia.The biggest change that the war brought to Australasia was the crazy expansion of the military industry.

If the war continues, employment in the Australasian military industry may even break through 5 and move towards the 10 mark.

Although this is a good thing for promoting employment in Australasia, when the war is over, how to deal with the too large and bloated military industry is also a problem.

There was a long period of time between World War I and World War II. Because of its special geographical environment, Australasia was destined to not have too many wars.

Unless Australasia can provoke many regions in the world and artificially create many wars, otherwise the weapons and equipment manufactured will not be sold anywhere.

Wait, Arthur suddenly felt that such behavior was somewhat familiar. Isn't this the future world police?
Although the current war has lasted for nearly a month, the impact on Australasia is not too great.

Judging from the current situation in Australasia, the lives of residents are still as usual. Except that the military factory is constantly recruiting people, everything else seems to be the same.

This is the benefit of Australasia's unique location.Even if the First World War involved six great powers, it is basically unlikely that the flames of war will be burned to the mainland of Australasia.

If it hadn't been for the fact that Australasia sent an expeditionary force and had already transported weapons, equipment and resources to Europe many times, this war would not have seemed to have much connection with Australasia.

Of course, it is impossible to say that the war had no effect on Australasia.At least in terms of immigration, especially since the second half of this year, the number of immigrants in Australasia has decreased visibly.

Before that, a large number of oil tankers and transport ships traveled between Oceania and Europe every day, and thousands of immigrants were transported by Australasia.

But since the second half of this year, the number of immigrants has been reduced by more than half. If the number of Russian immigrants is not struggling, I am afraid that the number of immigrants this year will be directly cut in half.

According to the report of the Immigration Bureau of the Ministry of People's Livelihood of Australasia, this year's immigration has dropped significantly compared to last year, and the final number of immigrants may not even exceed 70.

The number of Russian immigrants accounted for the majority, and it should be around 50 to 55.

Without the support of Russia's stable immigration source, I am afraid that the immigration boom that has persisted for more than ten years in Australasia will end, and the population growth rate of Australasia will also decline.

On August 1914, 8, after several days of preparation, the weapons and equipment delivered to Britain, France and Russia were successfully shipped from Sydney Port, and the troops were divided into two routes to France and the Russian Far East.

The Australasian expeditionary force had already set off by ship a few days ago. They will arrive in France around the end of September, and then take the railway from France to the border to cooperate with the British and French coalition forces.

In addition to asking for support from Britain and Australasia, France and Russia are also seeking support from other neutral countries.

In fact, from the beginning of the war, some of the more important neutral countries, such as Italy and Bulgaria, were the targets of the Allies and the Entente.

Needless to say, Italy, as one of the great powers, is adjacent to the Austro-Hungarian Empire and France, and has a good naval strength in the Mediterranean region.

If Italy can be drawn into the war, it will be good news for any party (only limited to the navy).

The Allies and Allies have never stopped wooing Italy. Although Italy has already declared its neutrality, the interventionists and neutrals in Italy have already had a long-term quarrel about which side to join.

The Allied and Entente countries are also frantically negotiating with Italy. If nothing unexpected happens, Italy should wait and see for a while before making a decision.

In addition to Italy, Bulgaria was also wooed by the Allies and the Entente.

Bulgaria's geographical location is relatively important. It is not only located in the Balkan Peninsula, the outbreak point of World War I, but also close to Serbia, Romania, Greece and other countries.

If Bulgaria joins the Allied Powers, then Serbia will suffer from the enemy, which is not a good thing for the Allied Powers.

After receiving the support of the Allies, Bulgaria can pose a major threat to Serbia and the Balkans.

And if Bulgaria joins the Allied Powers, it will also be of great help to the Allied Powers.Not only can Serbia have no backup worries, and it can concentrate on uniting with Russia against the Austro-Hungarian Empire, but it can also form a whole in the Balkans, and the advantages of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in this area will disappear.

However, compared to Italy, which is relatively sloppy, it is actually more difficult for Bulgaria to win over.

Italy will join whoever gives the most benefits, and what they hesitate to do is to wait for which side has a greater advantage.

Bulgaria is different. During the Second Balkan War, the hatred between Bulgaria and Serbia deepened, which greatly reduced the possibility of Bulgaria joining the Allies.

Unless Britain and France can offer conditions that far exceed those of the Allies and satisfy the forces and people in Bulgaria, it is unlikely that Bulgaria will join the Allies.

In any case, Bulgaria's geographical location is indeed very important, and Britain and France are also trying their best to fight for it.

In addition to fighting for countries like Italy and Bulgaria, the four major powers within the Allied Powers have also held many meetings, of course in the form of telegrams.

The four major powers are conducting various negotiations to determine how much concessions can be given to these neutral countries, so as to attract these countries to join the Allied Powers and jointly fight against the Allied Powers.

If nothing else, the Italians should join the Allies.It has to be said that Italy and the Austro-Hungarian Empire have direct territorial conflicts, which is the reason that hinders Italy from joining the Allies.

(End of this chapter)