Rise of Australia

Chapter 958 New Version of Normandy Landing

While Mussolini was busy finding trouble for the royal family, Britain, France and Australia were also not idle.

Since the Italian soldiers gave the Allied forces the opportunity to completely encircle Tunisia and Bizerte, the Allied North African Joint Operations Department would naturally not let it go.

On January 1938, 1, more than 6 British, French and Australian troops rushed to Bizerte, trying to completely block the retreat route of the German and Italian troops in Tunisia in a short period of time.

As for the coastal salient in Tunisia, as long as they are encircled, they will be unable to escape.

The army stationed in Bizerte was originally just an Italian army of less than 100,000 people.

After all, Bizerte is not a strategic location compared to Tunisia. In addition, since it is relatively close to Tunisia, it is natural that no ports or airports will be built there.

But after the Italian troops surrendered one after another, the German army suddenly realized that something was wrong.

In order to avoid being surrounded, the German army reported to the German High Command and planned to break out to Bizerte or even Annaba in the west.

As long as they escaped from the Tunisian region, it would be impossible for the British, French and Australian troops to form an encirclement. At the same time, there were many German and Italian troops stationed in Constantine and Algiers, and with the Spanish troops further west, the safety of the German army in Africa could be basically ensured.

But that's easier said than done.

Although they knew that they could ensure their own safety as long as they broke out of Bizerte, who could guarantee that there were no British, French and Australian troops that had been prepared around Bizerte?

This led to the German army almost advancing on the way to Bizerte while scouting the situation. Although the distance between Bizerte and Tunisia was not far, it still took the German army most of the day to arrive.

At this time, the British, French and Australian troops also arrived not far from Bizerte.

Thanks to a large amount of air force reconnaissance, the British, French and Australian troops naturally discovered the German army that wanted to evacuate.

In order to ensure the encirclement of the German and Italian troops, this British, French and Australian coalition force of only 30 people was mostly composed of local soldiers from the three countries.

Compared with the colonial army, the combat effectiveness of these armies is still at a certain level. Although the combat effectiveness of the British and French native armies is still a long way behind that of the Germans, with the support of the air force and navy, it is still no problem to stop these Germans.

Thus, a battle that could determine the fate of the entire North African battlefield officially began. The two warring parties were the 30 troops of Britain, France and Australia and the 40 troops of Germany and Italy.

Although the German and Italian soldiers were at an advantage, the fact that Italy had as many as 100,000 soldiers actually lowered the Germans' hopes of winning.

The Italian army at this time was just like the object of ridicule in the history of World War II. Although Germany did not openly dislike Italy, Italy at this time had indeed become a drag on Germany.

The Allied North African Joint Operations Command was well prepared for the powerful German army. In order to completely eliminate the German army in Tunisia, Britain, France and Australia mobilized more than 2000 aircraft, and a large number of Royal Fleets were waiting on the coast, ready to bomb Tunisia and Bizerte with naval guns at any time.

The encounter lasted for four days and ended with a tragic victory for Britain, France and Australia.

On the Allied side, Australasia suffered the heaviest losses, with more than 15 casualties. It can be said that only one in ten soldiers survived without injuries.

The casualties in Britain and France were also close to 10, and there were almost no uninjured members of the Allied forces that blocked Germany's retreat. It should be noted that this was a battle fought with both air force and navy having advantages.

Of course, the results of the battle on the German side were also quite tragic.

The number of people participating in the war on both the German and Italian sides eventually exceeded 40 because Italian troops in Tunisia also participated in the breakout.

Although it was just a medium-sized encounter with less than 70 people at the beginning, after the reinforcements from both sides continued to arrive, the total number of soldiers participating in this battle eventually exceeded one million, and even approached 150 million.

The total casualties of Britain, France and Australia combined were nearly 34, of which more than 13 died.

Germany and Italy were not much better off, with total casualties also exceeding 30 and deaths exceeding 10.

However, what is different is that the 30 German troops suffered most of the casualties and were also the main force attacking the British, French and Australian troops.

The larger Italian army of 40 suffered less than 10 casualties.

However, this does not mean that Italy's losses were small, because the remaining more than 30 Italian soldiers all chose to surrender, which also brought the number of Italian prisoners in North Africa to more than 40 in an instant.

Mussolini's fears came true.

The 40 Italian troops in North Africa were indeed captured by Britain, France and Australia. This was fortunate news, but also unfortunate news.

Fortunately, the casualties of Italian soldiers were relatively small, and the families of those soldiers were able to accept it. But unfortunately, more than 40 Italian prisoners were in the hands of Britain, France and Australia. If Mussolini's treatment resulted in the 40 Italian prisoners not returning, the families of these prisoners would transfer all their hatred to Mussolini.

Mussolini, who had no other options, could only place his hopes on the Germans. He ordered his men to send a telegram to the German government, asking whether Germany was interested in sending troops to North Africa to rescue the prisoners.

After all, a part of the German army eventually chose to surrender. Although the number of German prisoners was less than one-fifth of that of Italian prisoners, it was still tens of thousands of prisoners.

As for Italy sending its own army to rescue the prisoners, Mussolini dared not even think about it.

Most of the hundreds of thousands of Italian troops in North Africa were taken prisoners. If only a few hundred thousand troops were dispatched, it would be nothing more than giving another batch of prisoners to Britain, France and Australia.

If Italy had millions or even tens of millions of troops to mobilize, wouldn't it be great to use these troops to attack France and win the final victory in the war?

After all, to travel from Italy to North Africa, one needs to cross the Mediterranean Sea. Once discovered by the British, French and Australian fleets, the troops going to North Africa to rescue the prisoners may not be able to see the land of North Africa and will be directly lost in the not-so-large Mediterranean Sea.

At this time in Germany, the Prime Minister's office was also in a mess.

The German Chancellor was so upset that he could not believe that more than half of the 30 elite German troops had been lost in Tunisia.

At present, there are only Spanish troops and a small number of German and Italian troops left on the North African battlefield, and these troops cannot cause any trouble at all.

If Britain and France pacify the North African battlefield and turn their attention to the French battlefield, can the German soldiers hold out on the French battlefield?

"More troops! More troops must be sent!" the German Prime Minister shouted angrily in his office!

"Yes, Prime Minister!" The guard at the door replied quickly. He took a few steps and found something wrong. He turned back and asked, "Where do we need to send more troops? Prime Minister."

"France!" The German Prime Minister gritted his teeth and gave the answer, obviously not wanting to rescue the North African battlefield that had already lost its advantage. "Yes!" The guard was also straightforward, without any further questions, and hurried to execute the order.

On January 1938, 1, the smoke of gunpowder from the French battlefield once again enveloped the entire northern France.

Millions of French troops marched out of the Tours Line and charged recklessly towards the German positions across the river.

At the core of the attack, from Tours to Orleans, the French formed a powerful armored group with the aim of breaking through the German defense line and getting around to Orleans or even Paris as quickly as possible.

Not to mention, the Germans at that time really couldn't come up with a matching armored cluster to deal with it.

It’s not that the Germans were without tanks and armored vehicles, but the problem was that most of these tanks were transferred to the Eastern European battlefield, where the two armored groups demonstrated their great power.

But on the French battlefield, Germany's only remaining armored forces were two tank divisions, which were deployed in Tours and Orleans.

It would be too much to expect these two tank divisions to resist the armored group formed by the French.

However, the Germans were not completely without means of resistance. Although they were at a disadvantage in terms of armor, in order to hold their defensive positions, the Germans repaired a large number of military airfields in northern France and deployed a large number of aircraft and bombers.

As the French counterattack officially began, thousands of German planes took off in groups and moved towards their respective targets in a mighty manner.

On the British, French and Australian side, even larger numbers of planes took off from rear airports in France, airports in Britain and aircraft carriers in the Atlantic, and also headed towards the German positions on the front line.

The offensive in World War II was relatively simple, and the competition was based on the potential of each country, that is, the number of aircraft and tanks.

If the Germans were not fighting on two fronts, perhaps their military production capacity, coupled with the support of Italy, would have allowed them to barely compete with Britain, France and Australia.

After all, France was in a low health state at that time, and only Britain and Australasia truly possessed strong military and industrial capabilities.

But unfortunately, the Germans were blindly arrogant, just as they had been in history. They chose to fight on two fronts and were convinced that they could defeat the enemy on the Eastern Front.

Are the enemies on the Eastern Front so easy to deal with? Not to mention Germany at this time, even Australasia, which is now basically ranked in the top two in the world, dare not say that it can completely defeat Russia in the battle of annihilation.

Perhaps Australasia could gain an advantage in the war with various advanced military technologies, but it was a bit unrealistic to want to completely destroy a country whose territory and population ranked among the top in the world, or even ranked first in the world among the great powers.

When the German Chancellor announced the reinforcement of troops, the French counterattack had already begun for three days.

During these three days, the French army successfully crossed the Loire River and destroyed several German military airfields in northern France.

During these three days of air battles, the German Air Force lost more than it won.

There was no way around it. After all, how could Germany gain air force superiority on both fronts when it was fighting on two fronts?

What's more, Britain, France and Australia divided up part of the land of the United States in history. Needless to say, the industrial production capacity of the United States is not enough. Although the most elite Great Lakes industrial area has been separated, the east and west coasts of the United States still have a certain industrial scale.

With the transfusions from these regions, and the fact that France did not perish early, the Germans are not as powerful as they were in history.

On January 1938, 1, after careful preparation, more than 17 elite British, French and Australian soldiers, escorted by warships of the three countries, crossed the English Channel to the Normandy region in northern France.

Although the direction of this world and history is different, the importance of Normandy is very high both in history and in this world.

The reason is simple. Normandy is located in the central region of northern France and is close to the French capital, Paris.

Moreover, across from Normandy is Britain, and both the British Air Force and Navy can quickly support Normandy.

In addition, south of Normandy is France's temporary capital Tours and the defense line built by the Germans, which is a perfect place to circumvent the enemy.

If we land in Normandy, either marching southeast toward Paris along the railway or going south along the highway to encircle the German army would be a very suitable option.

Once the Normandy landings are successful, Germany's influence on Brittany will be directly cut off. The German garrison in Brittany will be trapped in the peninsula salient surrounded by the sea on three sides, just like Tunisia.

From the fate of the German army in Tunisia, we can judge that as long as the Normandy landing can be successfully carried out, the German army in Brittany will have only one result: destruction.

In order to realize the entire landing plan, the 50 landing troops were all the elite main forces of the Three Kingdoms. More importantly, after the 50 main landing troops, there were more than one million landing troops.

As long as these 50 troops can tear a hole in the beaches of Normandy, millions of troops will flock in and try to widen the narrow hole into a sunny avenue.

Of course, it is still easier said than done.

Especially in the landing battle, the casualties were definitely huge. Although the casualties in the Normandy Landing in history were not as exaggerated as imagined, it was carried out in the later stages of the war.

At that time, the number of Allied forces on the entire front was far greater than that of the German army.

But now it is different. Although the British, French and Australian armies still have an advantage in numbers, the German army is not at the end of its rope.

Although Australasia also suffered casualties, the British and French casualties were obviously greater.

Moreover, such a battle could form a battlefield in Normandy similar to the meat grinder of Verdun, madly consuming the manpower of Britain, France and Germany.

This is also the reason why Arthur did not reject the Normandy Landing. Although success would defeat Germany faster, it would increase the losses of Britain and France in this war, even significantly, which Arthur would certainly be happy to see.

As for whether the attack by Britain, France and Australia would give the Russians an opportunity to take advantage, Arthur was basically not worried.

First of all, intelligence from the front showed that Germany was planning a new attack on Russia. Combining history, this should be the so-called Battle of Sudalingrad.

Moreover, it was impossible for Germany to withdraw its main forces in Eastern Europe at this time, because if their army retreated one step, it would mean that the Russian army would move forward one step.

If Germany did not want to give up the large tracts of Polish and Russian territory it had already occupied, it would have to keep its troops stationed in those lands and wait for new recruits to arrive from training at home.

The Russians will take the initiative to hold back the German army, and the war between the two sides will continue. In this case, no European country participating in the war will be spared, and they will continue to suffer more casualties in the next battle.

(End of this chapter)