Rise of Australia

Chapter 928: War is urgent

As the first batch of new bullets were delivered to the Balkan battlefield in Europe, the war between European countries became even more brutal.

After the countries fell out, they began to use forbidden weapons that were originally prohibited, with the sole purpose of inflicting greater damage to the enemy.

Against this backdrop, the casualties incurred by the wars launched by various countries were even greater, and the number of deaths and injuries continued to rise.

More importantly, the Germans tasted the sweetness of it. They quickly discovered the ingenuity of the enemy's bullet design and applied it on a large scale in their own weapons and equipment.

After the Germans began to use more lethal weapons in large quantities, the Russians, as the main target of the German attack, became the ones who had to bear everything.

In the offensive of Germany and Russia, a large number of weapons were used in the attack on Smolensk. The Germans deployed nearly 80 troops in this battle, and the Russian troops responsible for defending Vitebsk and Smolensk also had more than 50 troops.

Both sides deployed more than 130 million troops in this offensive and defensive battle, and the results were so tragic that they could not be described.

On the German side, more than 20 people were lost in this battle, and hundreds of tanks and hundreds of aircraft were destroyed.

The Russians were in an even worse situation. The reserve troops that they had mobilized with great difficulty were almost wiped out, and only less than 50 of the garrison troops evacuated to Moscow in the rear.

On June 1937, 6, the German Southern Army Group successfully captured Kiev, completing its initial major offensive.

After this, the Southern Army Group was divided into two routes. The first route went north to Moscow along the northeast direction to join forces with the Central Army Group.

The second route went south along the river, with the goal of occupying the entire Ukrainian region and advancing the front line to Sudalingrad.

As for the German Northern Army Group, it has now surrounded St. Petersburg and captured the surrounding Luga and Novgorod.

Judging from the situation on the battlefield in Eastern Europe, the German army was in a very good position. The Russian army was losing ground, and even though Russia had mobilized millions of troops, it was still unable to stop the German army's attack.

More importantly, from the time Germany launched the raid until now, the German army’s losses were less than 40, almost the strength of an army group.

The Russians suffered much more. The Western Front, which had been almost completely annihilated, and the losses in other areas, had killed more than one million people, and the total casualties were close to two million.

Sudalin, who had vowed before the outbreak of the war that the German army did not have the courage to attack Russia, could only frantically mobilize soldiers to form the Moscow Defense Line.

From a geographical point of view, Moscow is already in the center of Russia's Eastern Europe. Because of the importance of Moscow, the Russian army has nowhere to retreat.

After that, with the exception of Sudalingrad, almost no German city had the ability to serve as a temporary capital.

If Moscow is lost, it will not only undermine the confidence of the Russian military and civilians in resistance, but also undermine the influence of the Russian government.

Starting from June 6, the Russian army mobilized troops from two army groups to protect its capital, Moscow.

The media is also constantly publishing news reports, with various remarks about "Russia is big, but Moscow is behind us." The purpose is to make the Russian people support this war more firmly.

The good news was that the Germans had no intention of taking Moscow immediately.

After occupying Smolensk, the German army did not rush eastward, but instead moved southward to occupy cities such as Roslavl and Bryansk, completely forcing the Russian army to retreat to the rear.

In this way, the road to Moscow for the Southern Army Group was opened up, and the Germans' purpose was obvious, which was to gather the three major army groups to encircle Moscow.

Russia's crisis situation has allowed the Russian government to see the situation clearly. At least they are no longer so blindly confident in themselves.

In addition to actively forming the Moscow Defense Line, the Russian government also frequently contacted Britain and France, asking Britain and France to attract the attention of the German army on the battlefield in Western Europe, and preferably to divert a group of German troops to come back for support.

Did Britain and France want to draw the attention of the German army at this time? In fact, they did.

But the problem was that the actions of the German and Italian troops in Tunisia and Algiers caught the French completely unprepared.

Coupled with the involvement of Spain, the French North African Corps lost important coastal areas of North Africa such as Tunisia, Constantine and Oran in a short period of time.

By June 1937, the only coastal area of ​​North Africa still under French control was Algiers in central Africa.

The Spanish army has even reached Casablanca in the Moroccan region, and seems to be on the verge of reoccupying Morocco.

Under such circumstances, it was obviously too much to ask the French to mobilize at least one million troops to counterattack Germany.

For the current French army, keeping the North African colonies is the top priority. Even if Paris is occupied, as long as the Germans are driven out in the future, Paris will still belong to France.

But if the North African colonies were occupied by Germany, even if all the Germans were driven out in the future, the North African colonies would not necessarily return to the embrace of France.

If the North African colonies were lost, it would definitely be a heavy blow to the French government even if it won the war.

Although France, which only has its own land, is still a great power, it has completely lost the right to compete for world hegemony or even European hegemony.

With only its own territory, France would at best be a European power, and its path to expansion in any direction would be completely blocked.

Currently, there are more than 200 million troops fighting in the Northwest African battlefield. The French have already mobilized nearly one million troops, of which more than 40 are French people, and the remaining less than 60 are troops drawn from various colonies.

The British also dispatched less than 20 troops to help France. After all, the alliance between Britain and France still exists, and helping the French is the only option for the British at present.

In Germany, Italy and Spain, the size of the German army remained at around 30. But it was these 30 German troops that posed an unimaginable threat and suppression to the millions of French troops.

In the case that most of the French army was colonial troops, this was like blood suppression, and it was also the real reason why the French army had been defeated so far. In addition to the 30 German troops, there were nearly 30 Spanish troops and 50 Italian troops fighting in Northwest Africa.

The purpose of the German army was only to divert the attention of Britain and France, while the purpose of Spain and Italy was to actually occupy the territory of Northwest Africa and expand their sphere of influence.

Before the war, both countries had colonies of a certain size in Northwest Africa and North Africa, and both were adjacent to France's Northwest African colonies.

Morocco, which Spain had long coveted, and Italy's previously occupied Libyan colonies were now under French control.

This resulted in the Spanish and Italian armies not being as formidable as the German armies in terms of combat effectiveness, but they still had a high will to fight.

On the contrary, the millions of French troops were not so eager to protect the North African colonies.

But it is understandable that the French army could not even protect its own homeland, so how could it have the mind to protect its colonies in North Africa?
The remaining colonial troops did not all come from Northwest Africa. A large part of them came from West Africa and Central Africa, and there were even troops from North America.

Rather than expecting these soldiers to defend France's colonies at the risk of their lives, it would be better to expect them not to slander France too badly after surrendering to Germany.

Faced with such a terrible European battlefield, the British, even though they had an extremely powerful navy, could only sigh and say they were powerless.

In the end, the British turned their attention to their ally, Australasia.

From the outbreak of the war to the present, in addition to paying attention to the European countries involved in the war, the country that the British are most concerned about should be Australasia.

There is no way around it. The potential that Australasia is currently unleashing is definitely worthy of any degree of attention from the British.

Especially after European media roughly estimated the economic size of Australasia last year, the British raised their vigilance against Australasia to the highest level, second only to Germany, which is currently fighting.

There is nothing that can be done about it. The economy of Australasia has surpassed that of the United Kingdom and is the second largest among all the major powers.

If we include Australasia's two major colonies, the Philippines and Kalimantan, as well as the Kingdom of California and the West Coast United Kingdom within its sphere of influence, the economic scale of Australasia is already on par with Germany, which has currently annexed several powerful countries, and can also pose a threat to the Commonwealth.

What’s more, the population size of Australasia is close to that of the United Kingdom, which means that Australasia has basically closed the gap in population.

Faced with this superpower that had become the world's third largest economy, one of the top three military powers and one of the top three comprehensive powers in the world in less than 40 years, British Prime Minister Churchill believed that his caution and fear were too late.

You know, the rapid development of Australasia is still continuing, which is the most fatal thing for the British government.

If Australasia continues to develop, how long will it take for them to catch up with Britain and leave it far behind?
There is no definite answer to this question, but the question itself is something the British do not want to see at all.

Although Britain's hostility towards Australasia is not as deep as that of other countries, the British still have a certain pride towards this country which was once their colony.

If this country, which was once just its colony, is allowed to be blamed, doesn't it mean that all British governments since the independence of Australasia until now have been incompetent?
Although the British were very reluctant to allow Australasia to gain greater benefits in this war, the problem was that the current war had clearly exceeded the British expectations.

The British were forced to choose to send more troops to Australasia, and the price they paid was that they had to make concessions in their interests.

Arthur was also concerned about the wars in Eastern Europe and North Africa. After learning that Russia and France were losing ground, Arthur knew that the British government would come after him sooner or later.

Especially under the premise that the United States has already perished, a small Great Lakes Republic cannot support Britain and France in winning this war.

The only thing that can support Britain and France is Australasia, and the British have no choice. Even if they know the threat Australasia will pose in the future, they can only give up some of their interests to Australasia unless they are willing to lose the war.

The war has continued to this point, and the outcome of defeat has become very clear, that is, the colonies within the sphere of influence will be divided up, and even the homeland is at risk of being divided.

After all, the investment of various countries in the war is already very huge, and the mobilized troops have already reached millions. Unless the Royal Navy that Britain relies on loses all its combat effectiveness, otherwise, the British will never surrender easily.

There is only one consequence of never surrendering, and that is that you must pay every price to win the war.

On June 1937, 6, the Australasian government personally received British Prime Minister Churchill.

This was the first time Churchill came to Australasia since becoming the British Prime Minister. The only purpose of his visit was to discuss with Australasia about increasing investment in the war.

The war between Australasia and the island nations continues to this day, and the British are not unaware that Australasia is simply acting.

If Arthur wanted to end the war, he could have ended it in a few months. But Arthur did not do so. The intention behind this was obvious, which was to watch the development of the war in Europe and try to maximize his own interests.

Arthur was very relaxed to see this famous figure in World War II again. At this time, Arthur had already grasped the absolute initiative. No matter who the diplomatic representative sent by Britain was, he would only be the passive party in this negotiation.

"Your Majesty, our war may be lost." After seeing Arthur, Churchill immediately said to Arthur with a sad face, as if the war had already failed.

"Oh? Isn't the war still going on? I remember that you and France both have millions of troops, plus the help of the Russian army, how could you not win this war?" Arthur pretended to be surprised and asked Churchill.

"Russia is losing ground in Eastern Europe, and the French army is trapped in Africa. Your Majesty, if we don't have any reinforcements, I'm afraid the Germans will dominate the whole of Europe, and the island countries will control the entire Pacific with the help of Germany." Churchill made a shocking statement, trying to make Arthur understand the seriousness of the matter.

Arthur was naturally not fooled by Churchill's words. After Churchill finished speaking, Arthur asked back: "Don't you still have millions of troops in Britain? If you put them into the battlefields of Africa and Eastern Europe, it should be able to help France and Russia ease the situation.

Moreover, according to news from North America, there are at least hundreds of thousands of troops being trained on the east coast of North America. Can't these troops also be deployed to the European battlefield?"

Churchill nodded awkwardly, feeling surprised at the intelligence agencies in Australasia.

The British did train hundreds of thousands of troops on the east coast of North America, many of whom were black people from North America. The British offered the condition that all black people who joined the army would obtain local legal household registration and become legal citizens recognized by several North American countries as long as they helped the British win the war.

(End of this chapter)