Rise of Australia

Chapter 910: Offensive and defensive debate
The scene that the Germans least wanted to see happened. After losing the Battle of Britain, the German Air Force was no longer able to organize a large-scale attack on Britain.

This also means that the first phase of the Sea Lion plan has failed. Without being able to effectively destroy the military airports and radars in southern England, it would be extremely difficult to conceal the British Navy and successfully achieve a landing.

Moreover, the British had also stepped up patrols of the English Channel since the outbreak of the Battle of Britain. Under such circumstances, a large-scale landing on the British mainland would undoubtedly send the German army to their deaths.

Helplessly, the German Chancellor was forced to announce an indefinite suspension of the Sea Lion Project and temporarily shift the German army's target back to the European continent.

There were also quite fierce disputes within the German General Staff regarding the war on the European continent.

The three Nordic countries have been basically destroyed. Although the remaining areas near the Arctic Circle have not yet been occupied by the German army, they no longer pose any threat to Germany.

This also means that Germany currently only has two major battlefields left, namely the French battlefield and the Balkan battlefield.

Germany had a considerable advantage in both battlefields. The French were beaten by Germany and could only flee in panic. Although they established a defensive position in Tours, it is an indisputable fact that they lost their capital, Paris.

Looking at the Balkan battlefield, the German army only sent one army group and had already gained the advantage in the Balkan battlefield.

It is not difficult for Romania, Bulgaria and Italy to gain an advantage against Yugoslavia, Greece and Albania.

After all, the combined population of these three countries is less than that of Greece, and two of them, Albania and Greece, have small populations, so they are not two powerful enemies.

The troublesome thing is that although certain advantages have been gained in these two battlefields, it seems difficult to completely win the war in a short period of time.

With the help of the British, France still pursued a strategy of resolute resistance, and its defense line was temporarily strong. The German army could only helplessly engage in a war of attrition with the French army.

On the Balkan battlefield, although the enemy countries have small populations, the combat effectiveness of the army of these Balkan countries is still quite good.

In particular, Yugoslavia, led by Serbia, has a military combat effectiveness comparable to that of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire and is much stronger than the Italian army.

This also means that although Italy has deployed more than 50 troops in the Balkan battlefield, the results achieved so far are minimal, and it may even be a bit of a nuisance.

The two Balkan countries of Romania and Bulgaria did not perform so well in this war.

With the help of the British, Yugoslavia can hold out for a long time. Either Germany will put more troops in the Balkan battlefield, or it will have to wait for Romania and Bulgaria to contribute to the war.

But it seems that it will take at least half a year to resolve these two wars. Even if they enter a stalemate, it will not be a problem to drag it out for a year or two.

The Germans had already suffered from the stalemate in World War I. Some officers in the German high command believed that the current German army should look for solutions from other directions.

German General Staff, March 1937, 3.

A top-secret military meeting is taking place here. In addition to many senior military officials from the General Staff, those attending the meeting also include the supreme commanders of the two battlefields, the German Chancellor, the commanders-in-chief of various army groups, and so on.

To put it in an exaggerated way, if you are not at the rank of lieutenant general, you are not qualified to attend this meeting. If you are not at the rank of admiral, you are not qualified to speak at this meeting.

Even several army marshals quarreled fiercely during this military meeting, and it almost turned into a melee between senior generals.

If the German Chancellor's prestige was not so high, this top-secret military meeting would probably have turned into an arena between senior generals, or even evolved into a group fight between several marshals.

Sitting in the main seat with a gloomy face, the German Prime Minister glanced calmly at all the senior generals, then looked at Field Marshal Brauchitsch who had the most intense attitude just now, and asked: "Marshal Brauchitsch, tell me your opinion."

"Yes, Your Excellency the Prime Minister." Brauchitsch nodded respectfully, then stood up and expressed his opinion to all the senior officers present: "

I think we should hold off on our Balkan offensive and focus on this huge country to our east.

Russia has mineral and oil resources that we need very much, which can greatly alleviate our demand for resources. At the same time, Russia's huge population can also become our labor force. If Russia is divided into 2 or 3 countries, we can have tens of millions of vassal troops, and then we will not be afraid of any war of attrition. "

"That's easy to say." The commander-in-chief of the German Army Group A stood up with a sneer, not giving Brauchitsch any face, and directly retorted: "Where do we have so many troops to attack Russia?
You are right, Russia has a huge land area and a population of hundreds of millions. But this also means that we have to fight against a country that can mobilize tens of millions of troops at any time.

I think it is very unwise to open a new battlefield in Eastern Europe, given that we have already mobilized millions of troops to open up battlefields in Western Europe and the Balkans.

Furthermore, even if we could defeat the Russian army in Eastern Europe, what about Siberia? What about the Far East?
If we cannot destroy Russia, it is doomed to make a comeback. I believe you all understand the horror of Russia's ideas. Under the premise that we are already fighting on two fronts, if we offend such a terrible country again, will this be a hope or a disaster for Germany? "

Hearing the rebuttal from the commander-in-chief of Army Group A, Brauchitsch did not rush to explain, but sneered and said disdainfully: "Is Marshal Grian worried about the pressure of our three-front war, or is he worried that opening up a new battlefield will draw troops from the Western Front?
It is obvious that the battlefield in Western Europe cannot achieve results in a short period of time. Do we still have to waste millions of troops and give up Russia's resources that are almost within our reach?"

"You! Damn it, are you questioning my loyalty to the Empire?" Marshal Grian, commander-in-chief of Army Group A, was stunned for a moment, as if his purpose had been exposed, and said angrily.

"Loyalty?" Marshal Brauchitsch continued to question as if he had heard something funny: "If you are really loyal to the Empire and the Prime Minister, then you should be considering the feasibility of the Eastern European battlefield at this time, instead of worrying about whether your soldiers will be transferred without any thought.

If you don't even have this awareness, then I might understand why Army Group A was unable to capture Tours, France, after such a long offensive. "

"Okay, Brauchitsch, continue to talk about your thoughts on the Eastern European battlefield." The German Prime Minister ended the topic, waved his hand and said to Brauchitsch.

"Yes, Your Excellency the Prime Minister." Marshal Brauchitsch nodded. He also understood that it was impossible for the Prime Minister to replace such an important position as the Commander-in-Chief of Army Group A because of these things.

How big is an army group? A normal army group has about 10 to 20 troops, while an army group has as many as 80 to 150 million troops.

As the earliest army group established in Germany, Army Group A made a lot of contributions in the war, including the blitzkrieg on Poland, the rapid annihilation of Belgium and the Netherlands, etc., all of which involved Army Group A.

Even the blitzkrieg of France and the capture of Paris were due to the contributions of Army Group A. Without sufficient evidence, the Prime Minister would not have replaced the Commander-in-Chief of Army Group A, even if his performance was poor.

“Regarding the consideration of the new Eastern European battlefield, I have the following three opinions.

First, temporarily suspend the offensive in the Balkans.

For us, the most important thing in the Balkans is actually Romania's oil resources. We only need to protect Romania's national security and successfully obtain Romania's oil to achieve our goal in the Balkans.

Doing so can save us about 30 troops. Combined with the troops saved by switching from offense to defense, we can save at least 60 troops in the Balkan battlefield alone for fighting against Russia.

Secondly, the battlefield in Western Europe shifted from offense to defense.

Since we cannot quickly capture France in a short period of time, we might as well rely on our existing border line, switch from offense to defense, and launch a comprehensive defense within France.

In this way, we only need to leave a small number of troops to ensure that the current border line will not change. After we complete the offensive in the Eastern European battlefield, there will be countless troops available for the Western European battlefield, and the Western European battlefield can also restart the offensive.

In my estimation, we can completely blitz Russia like we blitzed Poland. Although Russia's territory is more vast, their army's combat effectiveness and advanced weapons and equipment may not be comparable to Poland's.

Ideally, we would need at most six months to complete the offensive. Conservatively, we could occupy all of Eastern Europe before winter and completely destroy Russia in the new spring.

Third, although we do not have much help from allies in the Eastern European battlefield, our allies, the island countries, can help us in the Far East.

Although the Pacific coast of the island nation is blocked by Australasia, the coast of the Sea of ​​Japan is still safe. This also means that the millions of troops in the island nation can be mobilized to the Far East and launch an attack on Russia's territory in the Far East.

In this way, Russia will also fall into the disadvantage of fighting on two fronts. They need to fight across the entire Russia. As long as we can quickly break through Moscow, the Russians will have no choice but to surrender. "Marshal Brauchitsch slowly spoke of his plan.

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(End of this chapter)