Rise of Australia

Chapter 863 Mediterranean Strategic Plan

Although the British Army has not taken much action for the time being, this does not mean that the British will really remain indifferent in the early stages of the war.

King George VI soon made big moves. The first step taken was to re-employ Churchill as Lord of the Admiralty and make Churchill fully responsible for the naval offensive.

This was a position that Churchill was very familiar with, and it was his first step in returning to British cabinet government.

On his second day as Lord of the Admiralty, Churchill proposed the naval action plan "Mediterranean Strategic Plan" to King George VI and Prime Minister Baldwin.

The whole plan is actually very simple, which is to achieve a complete blockade of the Mediterranean through the British and French combined fleets.

Blockade of the Mediterranean had two advantages. First, Italy, the enemy of Britain and France, is a Mediterranean country. Italy lacks minerals and needs to obtain a large amount of mineral resources from abroad through shipping.

The blockade of Italy is a major blow to Italian industry and production, and may also dampen Italian morale.

Secondly, the Mediterranean is also very important to the German-Italian alliance. Once the Mediterranean was blocked, the German-Italian alliance could only obtain supplies from outside Europe through the North Sea to the Atlantic route.

As long as the British Empire once again uses its troops to block this route, Germany and Italy will be able to rely on local supplies just like they did in World War I, and will already be at a disadvantage in the war.

At present, if you want to achieve a complete blockade of the Mediterranean, in addition to the help of France's navy, you also need to pay close attention to and maintain good relations with Spain.

It was very important for Britain to be able to achieve a blockade of the Mediterranean, with Gibraltar in the west and the Suez Canal in the east.

Gibraltar is the land that the British snatched from Spain. It is no secret that the Spanish have always wanted to recover Gibraltar.

If Germany used Gibraltar to attract the Spanish to join the war, it would become much more difficult for Britain to blockade the Mediterranean.

After all, Spain is not a purely Mediterranean country. Spain's west coast is connected to the Atlantic Ocean, which also means that Spain can obtain material supplies from the colonies through the transport fleet at any time. Although they have almost no colonies, this is also a way for Germany and Italy to obtain material supplies.

In Churchill's plan, Spain had been regarded as a potential enemy of Britain. There was no way, the treaty they signed with Germany had to be taken seriously, and the radical attitude shown by Franco had to be guarded against.

However, Spain has not declared war on Britain and France so far, which also means that things have not reached the worst point yet.

When the British plan to blockade the entire Mediterranean was launched, the German army also launched a fierce attack on the Austrian Empire in Austria.

Because the previous attack on Poland went relatively smoothly, the Germans followed the method of attacking Poland and upgraded the two-line attack to a three-line attack.

If the Italian army is added to the mix, the Austrian Empire is facing attacks from all sides. How long it can last depends entirely on the frequency of German and Italian attacks.

It can be seen from the map that Austria's current territory is somewhat similar to the Chinese character " enter ". The upper part of "enter" is actually the Czech region that Germans have always been thinking about.

It is not only the industrial center of the Austrian Empire, but also has a large number of coal and iron mines, as well as South Germans who have the same roots as the German nation.

For Germany, by annexing the Czech Republic, they can easily completely absorb the Czech industry and population. This is an expansion plan that is more effective than Poland.

From the offensive of the German army, we can also see Germany's attitude towards attacking Austria, that is, the Czech Republic first, Austria second, and Slovakia last.

Not only does the Czech Republic have a large amount of minerals and advanced industries, it is also a prominent part of the Austrian Empire, so it naturally became the first target of Germany's attack.

The purpose of the German government was to fully annex the Czech industry and population, so in this offensive, it did not adopt a strategy of massive bombing of Czech transportation hubs and industrial bases.

The German army was divided into three groups. The first group set out from Bavaria and headed south to attack Austria, containing the main force of the Austrian Empire on the western front.

The second army still set out from Bavaria, but its purpose was not to go south, but to go west and cut the Czech region. The role of this army is similar to that of the First Army that previously attacked Poland. The purpose is to quickly cut through the enemy's defense.

The Third Route Army set out from Poland and threatened Czechoslovakia to the southwest. If everything goes well, the Second Route Army and the Third Route Army will successfully divide the Czech region and then achieve the goal of quickly annexing the Czech Republic.

Without the Czech region, the Austrian Empire basically no longer has the strength of a great power. More importantly, without the Czech Republic, the land of the Austrian Empire resembled a long "one", and this shape of the country was the most deadly.

Facing the north-south pincer attack from Germany and Italy, as long as the connection point between Austria and Slovakia is cut off, Austria alone or even the Italians can handle it.

After defeating the Austrian Empire, Germany could not only gain a large German population and developed industry, but also open up a route to the Balkans.

Although the Balkans are a famous powder keg in Europe, they are also quite rich in resources. In particular, Romanian oil was a necessary energy source for the German Empire and the Kingdom of Italy at this time, and it was also a material that the army relied on for offensive operations.

At this time, a huge army of more than 300 million soldiers gathered around the Austrian Empire.

Among them, Germany has the largest army, with a total investment of more than 150 million troops, including 12 tank divisions, 17 artillery divisions and 2200 aircraft.

These tanks and aircraft were urgently produced by Germany in the preparation stage for the war, and some of them were weapons and equipment captured from Poland.

Not to mention, Poland’s aircraft manufacturing technology is pretty good, and the relevant drawings and design data have also benefited the Germans a lot.

In addition, there are a large number of weapons from Britain and France in Poland's warehouses. These weapons not only allow the Germans to study a large amount of British and French weapons data, but also increase Germany's weapon design experience.

Italy has invested a total of nearly 70 troops. Because of France's participation in the war, Italy had to devote more than half of its army to defend against the French attack.

Although Mussolini had great ambitions, he still had a relatively clear understanding of the combat effectiveness of the Italian army.

And for this attack, Italy's nearly 70 troops are completely sufficient. After all, the main force of the attack is the Germans, and Italy's biggest role is to contain an equal number of Austrian troops.

The Austrian army now exceeded one million people.

But it is obvious that the overall strength of the Austrian Empire at this time was not even a bit worse than that of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in World War I.

In terms of population, the population of the Austrian Empire barely exceeded 2200 million, which was only about half of Italy's population, which was obviously lower than the normal level of great powers.

Italy's population has reached more than 4244 million people, which is the standard population data for great powers.

Needless to say, of course, Germany. After the demise of the United States, Germany's native population has firmly ranked among the top three major powers.

After annexing most of Poland, Germany's total population has approached 9400 million, and is constantly moving towards the million mark. As long as Germany annexed the Czech region, there would be no big problem for the population to exceed million. Among all the native populations of the great powers, this is already firmly second only to Russia.

Thanks to such a huge population, Germany can easily recruit millions of troops, and even in extreme cases, the number of troops can be as high as 1000 to 2000 million.

Italy could also recruit an army of 300 to 500 million men, something the Austrian Empire could never match. With a population of only over 2000 million, the Austrian Empire could only recruit an army of 200 to 300 million under extreme circumstances.

Once the army suffers a large number of casualties, it will be a major blow to the younger generation of the Austrian Empire.

In addition, the Austrian people's support for the government is not very high. Since World War I, the Austro-Hungarian Empire not only retreated into the Austrian Empire, but they also successively lost Hungary, Bosnia, Croatia, and Slovenia.

What's even more terrible is that although the country's name is the Austrian Empire, it is a federal country composed of Austria, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

With the decline of Austria, Austria did not have an absolute advantage in the rule of the empire, and the Czech and Slovak governments also had a higher say.

This has led to a rather fatal phenomenon, that is, the governments of Austria, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia are not satisfied with the recruitment plans introduced by other governments.

The three governments all want each other to pay more. For the entire country, this instability will make it difficult for the country to show a relatively unified coordination.

This resulted in the Austrian Empire's domestic recruitment being relatively slow. Except for the Austrian government, which resolutely implemented the conscription order, the Czech and Slovak regions were not so willing to conscript soldiers.

There are also some voices of Germans in the Czech Republic. These Germans obviously wanted to join the arms of Germany. They took an oppositional attitude towards the Austrian government and passively resisted the conscription regulations promulgated by the imperial government.

Shortage of manpower should be the most serious problem facing the Austrian Empire at present. With the support of Britain and France, the Austrian Empire had no shortage of weapons and equipment for the time being.

In addition to the tanks and aircraft that took time to manufacture, including artillery, Britain and France both transported a large amount of weapons and equipment to the Austrian Empire.

But the price is that the Austrian Empire needs to survive the previous month alone, which is a severe test for the Austrian Empire with insufficient army numbers.

April 1936, 4, border of the Austrian Empire.

As early as half a month ago, this place was still a green mountain forest. Occasionally, wild animals emerge from the woods, drink fresh water from the nearby lake, and then jump into the dense jungle.

But now, after more than ten days of fighting, this border has long turned into a red and black battlefield.

The entire battlefield was filled with smoke, and even the small lake seemed to be covered with a layer of plain clothing.

The battlefield looked messy. In the sky, there are fighter jets and bombers from both sides attacking one after another.

The humming roar of a large number of aircraft, accompanied by the explosion of artillery shells and the screams and wails of soldiers on both sides, formed the charge song of soldiers on both sides.

Whenever such a charge is played, a large number of soldiers will fall on both sides of Germany and Austria. Some soldiers were lucky and were only hit in the limbs by stray bullets, which could only be considered minor injuries on the battlefield.

Some guys are more unlucky. The cannonballs falling from the sky hit the target without any bias, and with the sound of explosion, even the people and their clothes disappeared.

Both the German army and the Austrian army have long been numb to such a tragic situation.

The war broke out on April 4, and only about half a month has passed until now. But in the past half month, the casualties of both armies have already exceeded six figures, and the hospitals in the Austrian rear have been filled with wounded.

In the past half month, the Austrian Third Army has been almost defeated. The huge army of more than 25 people is less than half full.

Of course, this is not how heroic and skillful the Austrian army is. It can still fight the enemy with less than half its strength.

In fact, this group army was unlucky. It first experienced intensive bombing by the German Air Force, and then was outflanked by the German group army. Almost all the elites were killed in the breakout.

In the end, the Third Army, with less than half of its soldiers left, was rescued by the Fourth Army and finally retreated to the rear of Austria to rest.

It can be seen from the encounter between the German and Austrian armies that the combat effectiveness of the two armies is not on the same level.

In fact, logically speaking, the Germans are the German nation, and the Austrians are also the German nation. The actual combat effectiveness of the armies of the two sides should not be much different.

But the reality is that the battle loss ratio between the German army and the Austrian army reached a terrifying 1:3. This also means that for every three Austrian soldiers killed, one German soldier can be killed.

Although this battle loss ratio is not very accurate, after all, the defeat of the Third Army was relatively sudden and did not occur frequently on the battlefield.

But being able to achieve such a battle loss ratio can already prove the actual gap between the German army and the Austrian army.

The fundamental reason for such a gap is the result of the mixed formation of the Austrian army.

The Austrian army was composed of Austrians, Czechs and Slovaks, but most of the officers commanding the army were Austrians.

Such unfair treatment caused many Czech and Slovak soldiers to be dissatisfied with the Austrian officers, and even violated the orders issued by the Austrian officers.

The reason why the Third Army was outflanked was actually because the Second Army failed to resist the firepower of the German army on the front.

In fact, a Czech infantry division in the Second Army retreated prematurely, which threatened the flanks of the Third Army and faced being outflanked.

The reason why the Czech infantry division retreated prematurely was that the Czech division commander believed that the Second Army's defense was using the Czechs as cannon fodder.

Under such circumstances, there was no way for the various ethnic groups in the Austrian Empire to unite and resist the German invasion.

If Austria relied solely on Austria's efforts, it would only be a matter of time before it was quickly annexed by Germany. After all, compared to Poland, which only lasted a month, the population of the Austrian Empire was smaller.

Once one of the three governments cannot bear excessive casualties, the internal collapse of the Austrian Empire is a foreseeable problem.

　An update for today.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)