Rise of Australia

Chapter 439 Battle of the Somme

On the afternoon of May 1916, 5, Sydney, Australasia.

Batty, the head of the Royal Security Intelligence Service, handed over a top-secret document to Arthur, and said very respectfully: "Your Majesty, this is the latest result of the British-German naval battle. Please read it."

Director Batty did not give any explanation for the results of the British-German naval battle, because no one could know the whole picture of such a top-secret document before Arthur opened it.

Arthur took the file, put his eyes on it, and began to flip through it.

Director Batty's document is the actual result of the Royal Security Intelligence Service after careful investigation, and it is obviously different from the results announced by the British and German sides.

If there is no problem with the investigation of the Royal Security Intelligence Service, then it is obvious that both Britain and Germany exaggerated the results of the war.

In fact, this is indeed the case. The government generally reports good news to the people but not bad news, in order to stabilize the domestic situation and order.

Whether it is the defeated or the victorious side, they will exaggerate their own results as much as possible to keep the country stable and keep the people from panicking.

Prior to this, the British Empire proudly declared that in the naval battle three days ago, the Royal Navy sank a total of six main German warships, including four dreadnoughts and two super dreadnoughts.

In addition, four German pre-dreadnought ships, three battlecruisers, eleven light cruisers, ten destroyers, and two submarines were sunk (total tonnage of warships sunk exceeds 40 tons).

It also damaged more than eight German dreadnoughts, two battlecruisers and several small and medium warships.

If such results are true, then the German High Seas Fleet will definitely be severely damaged, and will not even have the strength to resist for a long time.

The German side also claimed to have sunk seven of Britain's main warships, including five dreadnoughts and two super dreadnoughts.There are also four former dreadnoughts, three battlecruisers, eleven light cruisers, seven destroyers, more than a dozen torpedo boats, etc. The total tonnage of British warships at the grassroots level has reached nearly 50 tons.

In addition, 12 British dreadnoughts and several battlecruisers were seriously injured.
According to the published battle reports of the Germans, they also seriously injured the Royal Navy.If this battle report is true, Germany even has a considerable advantage in naval battles.

But is this really the case?According to the survey results of the Royal Security Intelligence Service, although the Germans did dominate the naval battle, the naval advantage after the naval battle is still on the British side.

For the Royal Navy, three pre-dreadnoughts, one dreadnought, two battlecruisers, six destroyers, four light cruisers, two torpedo boats and two submarines were sunk by Germany.

The High Seas Fleet sank one battlecruiser, two pre-dreadnoughts, one dreadnought, four light cruisers, three destroyers, five torpedo boats and two submarines.

If you count the former dreadnoughts, the British were sunk six main battleships, and the Germans were sunk four main battleships.

However, because a considerable part of it was caused by the former dreadnoughts, the result of such a naval battle was acceptable to both parties, at least none of them reached the point where they were injured.

Although some dreadnoughts were lost, the super dreadnoughts of both sides have not been lost so far, which is a blessing in misfortune.

However, although the loss of warships was not large, the casualties of naval soldiers on both sides were actually not many.

The total number of Royal Navy soldiers participating in the war was as high as 6.6, and the casualties in naval battles were as high as more than 8700, accounting for as much as one-seventh of the casualties.

The Germans did not give in too much. The total number of soldiers in the navy was as high as 5.1, and the number of casualties was as high as 7600, accounting for more than one-seventh of the casualties.

Compared with the easier-to-train army soldiers, the casualties of the navy and air force are the most distressing.

In particular, an excellent naval soldier needs to practice on a warship for 1 to 2 years on the premise of proficiency in operating various instruments on the warship before he can form sufficient combat effectiveness.

The two sides fought too hastily in the naval battle, and coupled with the threat of the opposing warships and submarines, a considerable number of soldiers who fell into the water were not rescued, which is why the casualties were so heavy.

You must know that after the warship is sunk, as the warship sinks, a vortex with strong suction will be formed on the sea surface.

If the marine soldiers who fell into the water cannot swim out of the vortex quickly, they will be sucked into the vortex and buried in the bottom of the sea forever.

If it hadn't been for the fact that after the naval battle, both sides dispatched rescue ships with a tacit understanding, I am afraid that the casualties of their respective soldiers would have increased by at least 1000 more.

Although various forbidden weapons were also used in World War I, sometimes there are still some bottom lines between countries.

Whether on the Franco-German front or on the German-Russian front, many soldiers can be seen celebrating Christmas with the enemy.

And there is also a tacit understanding between the two sides, at least they will not attack medical personnel, so as to facilitate themselves and the other party to collect the corpses of their comrades-in-arms.

Arthur is completely acceptable to the result of such a naval battle.The Germans won the battle results, and they were able to stabilize the hearts of the German people in a short period of time, and continued to contribute in this war.

The British actually won a strategic victory. Although the naval battle failed, the British Empire's naval advantage over Germany became more obvious because the damage ratio of the two sides was similar.

Not only can the Germans continue to persist in the war, but also the United Kingdom can continue to maintain its advantage over Germany at sea, and cutting off the German logistics supply line is already a perfect victory.

As the monarch of Australasia, Arthur was concerned with when the war would end and what Australasia would gain.

As for the casualties of the British in naval battles, it is not important to Arthur, and I believe that the British Empire can fully bear it.

Anyway, the casualties of the major participating countries did not start with hundreds of thousands, and even the current casualties in Australasia have already reached hundreds of thousands.

Regardless of whether this naval battle can change Germany's current disadvantages, after the German government's publicity, the morale of the country and the army has obviously recovered, and the anti-war wave is not so intense.

The German government and army also had enough time to organize defenses in the Somme area to deal with the upcoming large-scale battles between Britain and France.

After this naval battle ended, the Verdun area, the entire Western Front, the Eastern Front, and even the entire Europe fell into a short-lived peace.

But the calm before the storm is the most terrifying. Both the Allies and the Entente know what it means after the calm, and there will be a bigger storm coming.

At the end of May, 50 recruits in Germany went to the Somme region, Verdun region and the Eastern Front in batches, which also represented that Germany had spared no effort to win the war.

On the French side, the government delivered a large amount of supplies to the Verdun area and commended the defenders in the Verdun area.

On June 1916, 6, after only half a month of silence, the British and French allied forces launched a large-scale assault on the German army on the south bank of the Somme, and the Battle of the Somme officially started.

In order to organize the Battle of the Somme, the British and French allied forces spent half a year transporting weapons and equipment and mobilizing soldiers.

It is no exaggeration to say that the Battle of the Somme was the most important strategic plan of the Allies in 1916, and its importance far exceeded that of the Balkan front opened in 1915.

On the first day of the Battle of the Somme, the British and French allied forces demonstrated the strength of British logistics.

From the first to the sixth day, the British and French allied forces fired more than 1 million artillery shells at the German army, with an average of more than 6 rounds per day.

Under the cover of such a huge shell, the British and French allied forces in the Somme area launched an unprecedented counterattack.

Why is it unprecedented, because this is currently the most important offensive on the Western Front, and it is also a full-scale counterattack by Britain and France since the beginning of the war.

Participants at the Battle of the Somme included a British Army Group and a British Separate Corps, as well as the reserves of twelve divisions and six French corps.

The continuous heavy rain in the Somme area in recent days has turned this German-built trench into a swamp.

The military boots of the soldiers are covered with a layer of heavy soil, which is not only cumbersome to walk on, but also very slippery.

Of course, this is not the case with the German army, the British and French allied forces are also prone to slipping on such a battlefield.

This also made the British and French coalition forces that rushed to attack more like living targets in the eyes of German soldiers, and they were credited with being able to walk one by one.

Because the British and French allied forces attached great importance to the Battle of the Somme, more than [-] British and French troops entered the battlefield on the first day, charging towards the German positions again and again.

But the Germans, who had been prepared for a long time, repelled the attacks of the British and French allied forces time and time again.

This may be the most unlucky day for the British army. On the first day of the Battle of the Somme, they suffered more than 6 casualties. Nothing compares to the famous D-Day landings.

The offensive for three consecutive days did not make good progress, because the Germans strictly defended the artillery and machine gun positions, which not only caused a large number of casualties to the British and French allied forces, but also prevented the British and French troops from advancing a step forward.

In order to fight against the German machine gun positions, the British decided to dispatch their long-prepared secret weapons, including a large iron box named water tank.

This weapon, known as a tank, had been planned as early as 1915, and at the urging of the Secretary of the Navy Churchill, a prototype was successfully trial-produced at the end of 1915.

The tank of the British is very different from the tank in the impression of later generations. It is generally diamond-shaped and looks like a huge tadpole with a round body and a long tail behind it.

This long tail is the steering wheel of the tank, which can keep the balance of the vehicle body when turning.

British tanks are divided into female and male. Female tanks are equipped with only five machine guns, while male tanks are equipped with two 57 mm caliber artillery and four machine guns.

After half a year of preparation and testing by the British, the weight of this tank is kept at about 27 to 28 tons, the speed can be kept at about six kilometers per hour, the maximum travel distance is 15 kilometers, and the crew is eight people.

In the past six months, the British produced a total of more than 40 tanks, and they were brought to the Somme battlefield by the British eager for quick success.

A total of 43 tanks set off from the assembly point, which looked very majestic and mighty.But just a few minutes later, more than a dozen tanks broke down midway.

Coupled with the ones that got stuck in the quagmire, the fuselage parts were suddenly damaged, etc., there were only 15 tanks that were close to the German front line.

Although the current performance of British tanks is very impressive, tanks are big killers in this era and can effectively resist German rifles and machine guns.

Although the artillery can indeed cause damage to the tanks, it is impossible for the German artillery to hit these tanks accurately, not to mention that the tanks are already close to the German front line, where there are still a large number of German soldiers.

On the forward route of these tanks, the trenches and barbed wire fences that could stop countless British and French allied forces were easily crushed, and the German army had no resistance at all.

Under the cover of these more than a dozen tanks, more than five divisions of British soldiers launched an attack on Germany.

In just five hours, these tanks advanced the front line by more than five kilometers, which was something that the British and French allied forces failed to do in the previous few days.

But the excitement of the British quickly stopped, because they found out without tears that less than five of the 15 tanks were able to move the next day, and the rest were either damaged in parts or could not start for unknown reasons.

The five tanks no longer played a vital role in the battle situation, and the British soldiers that these five tanks could cover were also limited, and it was difficult to guarantee that these tanks would not go wrong again.

Because of this, the advance of the British was stopped, and the advantages brought by tanks to the British disappeared instantly.

In the rear of the United Kingdom, when Churchill heard that more than 40 tanks were only exchanged for advancing five kilometers from the front line, he said disappointedly: "Haiger (the British commander of the Battle of the Somme) exposed this huge secret to the world on such a small scale. Enemy, this simply shocks me!"

Tanks, which the British government regarded as a secret weapon, were exchanged for a five-kilometer advance on the front line.What's more terrible is that not only the Allied Powers understood the existence of tanks, but Germany also learned of the existence of tanks as a weapon.

I believe that with German technology, it is not difficult to imitate such a tank.Although the performance of tanks cannot be well guaranteed at present, a sufficient number of tanks can indeed bring a deadly threat to the enemy during key offensive and defensive battles.

No matter how much Churchill and the British government criticize Haig, it cannot change the result that the British have missed the opportunity.

After the secret weapon of the tank was made public, the only thing the British could use in the Battle of the Somme was a sufficient number of lives.

After that, the Battle of the Somme became another Battle of Verdun, a fighting arena between British soldiers and German soldiers.

The terrible thing is that throughout the Battle of Verdun, the French army was in a defensive posture most of the time to ensure that the battle loss ratio was slightly lower than that of the German army.

But the Battle of the Somme was an offensive war launched by the British and French allied forces, and it was a counterattack by the British and French allied forces against Germany.

This led to the role of the Anglo-French coalition forces as the attackers, and the real defenders were the Germans.

Relying on a sufficient number of machine guns and artillery, the Germans were able to gain a considerable advantage in the Battle of the Somme, causing huge casualties to the British and French allied forces.

The Battle of the Somme lasted for more than a month. In addition to causing more than 20 casualties to the British and French allied forces, only a narrow strip with a width of several kilometers and a length of more than 20 kilometers was obtained.

The counter-offensive on the Somme that the French government vigorously advocated not only failed to achieve results, but instead plunged the French government into a quagmire that was obviously inextricable from the Battle of Verdun.

Joffre's stubbornness in the early stage of the Battle of Verdun, and his character of interfering in political affairs but unwilling to be ordered by the government, were seized by French politicians and awarded Joffre with the rank of Marshal, but at the cost of disarming and returning to the field.

Following Germany and Russia's replacement of the commander-in-chief (general staff), France also replaced the supreme commander of the army. The new commander-in-chief of the French army was replaced by General Nivel, who performed well in the Battle of Verdun.

It is worth mentioning that General Haig, who was criticized by the British for his premature exposure of tanks, not only did not lose his position as Commander-in-Chief of the British Expeditionary Force, but was instead awarded Field Marshal and continued to control the British Expeditionary Force.

On the German side, the German military attached great importance to the Battle of Verdun and the Battle of the Somme, and even called it the only chance for Germany to win.

Knowing that Germany was at a disadvantage in terms of manpower and material resources, Ludendorff rushed to the front line of the Somme immediately after the outbreak of the war, and based on what he knew about the current situation, the soldiers on the front line invented a new war theory, namely The Ways of Warfare in Defensive Warfare.

The German army no longer dragged large-scale infantry to the front line, but deployed some machine gunners in forward positions.

As long as the enemy's attack goes deeper and deeper, the fortresses and trenches that meet them become closer and closer.

At the same time, the German army placed a large number of infantry out of the reach of the enemy's artillery, waiting for an opportunity to launch a partial or frontal counterattack.

Although Germany was on the defensive during the Battle of the Somme, this kind of military theory was not very useful.

But in history, this new military theory was of great help to Germany's subsequent offensive, and it effectively slowed down the speed of Germany's defeat.

Although Ludendorff's short-sightedness on strategy led to Germany's final defeat, his genius tactics also delayed the progress of Germany's defeat.

In a two-by-two comparison, Ludendorff's contribution to Germany was greater than his fault, and he still contributed a lot in World War I.

The successive outbreaks of the Battle of Verdun and the Battle of the Somme were not good news for Britain, France and Germany on the Western Front.

These two battles in history caused heavy casualties to Britain, France and Germany, and this time and space will only be more serious.

Of course, for Australasia and Arthur, this may not be bad news.

First of all, the war of attrition consumes manpower and materials, and Australasia relies heavily on the export of materials to Europe.

In other words, because of these two wars of attrition, to make Australasia more profitable, it also enhanced Australasia's status in the Allied Powers in disguise.

As for the consumption of Britain and France by these two wars of attrition, Arthur can only smile and say that there is no problem with the two allies themselves.

In fact, the Allies seem to be a piece of iron, and there are also many internal disputes.

Nearly two years have passed since the outbreak of the war, and various struggles within the Allies have never stopped.

First, Britain, France, Australia pitted Russia, Britain, Russia pitted France, Britain, Australia pitted France and Russia, etc., and now Russia, Australia pitted Britain and France.

In fact, this is also normal. Britain, France and Russia are all established powers, and domestic forces and interest groups are deeply rooted. It is impossible to lose their own interests to save their allies.

Judging from the respective territorial claims of Britain, France and Russia, the French wanted to annex a large amount of land in Germany, but the British did not allow it.Russia wants areas of Iran, the British don't allow it.

France also opposed Britain's acquisition of areas such as Syria, Palestine and Iraq before, but they were eventually divided by the United Kingdom and Australasia.

In addition, the relationship between the great powers in the Constantinople area is also very complicated.If you want to control Constantinople to obtain a stable outlet to the Black Sea, neither Britain nor France will allow it.

But on the other hand, in order to prevent Russia from withdrawing from the war midway, the British made a vague promise to Russia, promising to resolve the fate of the two straits of Constantinople with Russia's consent after the war.

In fact, if you look closely at the contradictions within the Allies, a considerable part of them are the contradictions between the United Kingdom and other countries.

The contradictions between France and Russia, Australasia and all countries are actually not that great.It is precisely because of this that the British are eager to win over Australasia and form a solid alliance after the war to ensure that France and Russia will not unite against the United Kingdom.

The British are also afraid of the alliance of France and Russia. If the war is won, France and Russia will be the two most powerful countries on the European continent.

The character of the British who is a shit stick does not allow France and Russia to grow bigger, so they can only win over Australasia, which is far away in the sky, to maintain their own continental balance policy.

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(End of this chapter)