Rise of Australia

Chapter 959: London Conference Ends
If 1937 was the year when the situation in World War II was the most unclear, then 1938 was the cruelest year of the war.

This is not just talk. In the first half of the first month of 1938, Britain, France and Australia launched the North African Offensive, the French Counteroffensive and the Normandy Landing. The three battlefields involved millions of soldiers and countless aircraft and tanks.

In order to cope with the successive pressures from Britain, France and Australia, Germany could only continuously mobilize new soldiers at home and send them to the French battlefield after hasty training.

The war in Eastern Europe did not stop. On January 1938, 1, when the fighting in France was raging, the Germans launched the Battle of Sudalingrad.

According to the original words of the German Chancellor, they needed to occupy the entire Sudalingrad as soon as possible within half a year, and then send troops to the Caucasus region to cut off Russia's energy supply.

As long as Germany solves the Russian problem first, it can return to France and destroy the British, French and Australian troops in France.

At this time, Italy and Spain become more important. During the six months when Germany attacked Sudalingrad, Spain and Italy would bear the heavy responsibility of defending the armies of Britain, France and Australia.

Only these two countries can bear most of the pressure for Germany, so that Germany will have enough energy to concentrate on dealing with Russia, a powerful enemy.

In addition to the comprehensive national strength of each country, the competition in World War II also focused on the strategies and tactics behind each country.

For Australasia and Britain, neither wanted to defeat the German enemy prematurely before Russia suffered heavy losses.

This also led to a thought-provoking scene on the French battlefield, that is, most of the British, French and Australian troops did not advance very fast, and their attack on Germany was not as fierce as imagined.

Even some British, French and Australian troops have been mobilized. They will go to Spain and Italy respectively and attack these two countries first.

Attacking these two countries has an advantage, that is, it can cut off Germany's left and right arms. After Germany lost Italy and Spain, it basically only had Romania and Bulgaria as relatively reliable allies.

However, a small Romania and Bulgaria could not turn the tide. How could the German Empire alone shake the powerful alliance formed by Britain, France and Australia?
1938年2月2日，由50万法国军队、35万澳大拉西亚军队和25万英国军队组成的联合军队抵达了意大利西北部的城市都灵，并且继续朝着东部的米兰前进。

There is one advantage of attacking Italy. As long as you cross the Alps, which is the border with France, the area south of it is basically a narrow peninsula, and there is no place that is easy to defend or difficult to attack.

The Alps and Turin had been conquered in the previous war between France and Italy. Even though the French army lost the capital Paris, it did not lose the city of Turin.

This also makes people sigh again about Italy's performance in World War II. France was almost destroyed, but Italy only barely stabilized the front line in the hands of France and did not recover much territory.

To the east of Turin is Milan, to the south of Milan is Genoa, and to the southeast of Genoa are important cities such as Florence and Rome.

The British, French and Australian troops were not going to be polite to Italy. A large number of tanks drove towards Genoa from the gap in the southern Alps and quickly broke through to the rear of Florence.

The intention of the combat command was also very clear, which was to use the mobility of the armored forces to quickly encircle the entire area north of Florence.

You know, the area north of Florence covers most of northern Italy and is also a very important industrial area in Italy.

Once these areas are occupied, the Italian threat will be completely eliminated.

The 35 Australasian troops fighting in Italy belonged to the newly formed 4th Army, whose commander-in-chief was the former commander of the 4th Army, Barford.

Thanks to the expansion of the army, the commanders of the original nine armies in Australasia basically grew into army group commanders and chief of staff, and each of them became a commander in charge of hundreds of thousands of troops.

Judging from the achievements made by the various armies so far, the commanders-in-chief and chiefs of staff of several army groups will basically be able to be promoted to a higher level in title after the war.

"How many Italians are there ahead of us?" Commander of the Fourth Army, Bafford, looked at the area dozens of kilometers away and asked his subordinates without turning his head.

"According to British intelligence, there are at least 15 Italian soldiers stationed in Genoa, and there are at least 1500 aircraft in northern Italy." The subordinate was already familiar with the number of Italian troops in Genoa, and he quickly answered after hearing the question.

Barford nodded, thought for a moment, and then ordered the messenger, "Move our armored forces and penetrate directly into the rear of Florence. We not only want to capture Genoa, but the entire north of Florence is our target of attack."

"Yes!"

Unlike the exhausted British and French armies, the Australasian army and the island nations had not been fighting for long and were not yet obviously tired of the war.

More importantly, after the Australasian soldiers have established merits, they can exchange them for corresponding land and funds, and they can even accumulate merits to become nobles.

Under such motivation, the soldiers are not averse to the battlefield, and even hope to establish certain merits on the battlefield to create a better life for themselves and their families.

Not to mention that there were only 15 Italian troops in front of him, even if there were 150 million Italian troops, Balfour would still order the implementation of infiltration tactics, because 150 million Italian troops represented more merit.

Moreover, as early as the African battlefield, General Barford had already understood the actual combat effectiveness of the Italian army. If it were a 15-man German army, they might still need to be wary, but even if the Italian army had 150 million, they would still surrender when it was time.

On February 1938, 2, an armed conflict also broke out in South America with the support of Australasia and Britain.

Brazil did behave itself a bit more after the unrestricted submarine warfare policy was enacted, but neither Australasia nor the United Kingdom were willing to let go of South America's largest country in terms of land area.

Especially when Europe is in chaos, Brazil is likely to grow into the only great power in South America or even the entire Americas.

This is not a good thing for Britain and Australasia, because if there is only one great power in the entire Americas, both South America and North America will become the backyard of this great power.

Such an incident has already happened once in the United States. Neither Arthur nor Britain want to see such a thing happen again in Brazil.

Compared with the other two powerful countries in South America, Argentina and Chile, Brazil has almost no major disadvantages, and its territory is larger than the sum of Argentina and Chile.

This is clearly not in line with the British policy of regional balance, nor is it in line with the interests of Britain and Australasia in South America.

Therefore, armed conflict in South America is inevitable. Before this conflict, Australasia and Argentina signed an agreement on the development of black soil. Argentina promised to lease part of the black soil to Australasia for agricultural cultivation on a long-term basis, and the two sides also established close trade relations.

This can be regarded as Arthur's planning for the future. As a country on the Pacific coast, it is very important for Australasia to closely unite with the Pacific coastal countries.

Both North America and South America are within Arthur's plan. A new Pacific Alliance will be formed in the future, and the relationship will be closer than the current Pacific Alliance.

Arthur even planned to provide some of the less important weapons to the allies of the Pacific Alliance at a low price. This would not only enhance the military strength of the entire Pacific Alliance, but also effectively expand the arms market in Australasia.

For small and medium-sized countries, such arms trade is undoubtedly a timely help, because small and medium-sized countries are simply unable to afford the development of military technology, and from research and development to manufacturing, it not only requires a large number of talents and a long period of accumulation, but also requires a lot of funds.

Even if more advanced military technology is developed, it is still necessary to invest manpower, material resources and financial resources to build military factories and produce them.

Instead of doing this, it would be better to use Australasia's advanced weapons at a price lower than the market price, which would be much more convenient than developing weapons on our own.

Doing so would also be beneficial to Australasia, as it would weaken the weapons development and military industrial capabilities of its allies, allowing them to unite more closely around itself.

This is what happened to the United States in later generations. Europe was very glorious during World War II, with various weapons from Britain, France and Germany emerging one after another, and the military industry was also quite powerful.

However, the military industry of European countries in later history has weakened a lot. Only France has complete military industry capabilities. Most European countries are very dependent on the US military trade to maintain their military strength, which also allows the US to control the discourse power of some European countries.

Arthur is currently planning to do the same, uniting most of the Pacific coastal countries around him.

Even if European countries are relatively weak, they can follow the example of the United States in history, propose a revitalization plan for Europe, and use Europe to fight against post-World War II Russia.

On February 1938, 2, several months of talks in London finally ended.

The talks defined the spheres of interest of each country and divided the interests of the Allied Powers such as Germany, Italy and Spain.

First, there were the Italian colonies.

As previously agreed between Britain, France and Australia, the entire Abyssinian Empire and Italian Somalia were divided between Britain and France.

The other participating countries did not have the strength to take a bite of Italy's colonies, and could only watch as Britain and France took over Italy's colonies with a smile on their faces.

The same is true for Libya. The entire Libya region was divided into two parts by Britain and France, with the area near the west belonging to the French colony and the area near the east belonging to the British colony.

Spain's remaining colonies were all taken over by Britain and France. However, the British occupied relatively few colonies, only a small amount of land such as Ceuta and Tetouan in northern Morocco.

France took over larger areas such as Melilla and Sahara.

However, in terms of importance, the area held by the British is definitely more important. Ceuta and Gibraltar are across the sea from each other, which makes it easier for the British to control the western outlet of the Mediterranean.

However, Equatorial Guinea, located in Central Africa, also came under French rule, which made up for France's Spanish North African colonies.

Australasia did not participate in the division of Spanish colonies. As compensation to Australasia, Puerto Rico, which originally belonged to the United States and is now controlled by the British, will be incorporated into Australasia's rule.

Puerto Rico is located in the Caribbean Sea, at the junction of North America and South America. The geographical location here is still relatively important. When missile technology becomes more powerful in the future, the weapons deployed here will be able to threaten North America and South America, which is more conducive to the Australasian world hegemony strategy.

It was originally going to be Jamaica in Australasia or the Bahamas, but the British refused to give in, so the matter ended up in nothing.

After all, being able to take Puerto Rico was beyond Arthur's expectations. Australasia will not develop Puerto Rico too much. In the next few decades, Puerto Rico's more important purpose is to serve as Australasia's naval base and missile base in the Caribbean.

Finally, the division and handling of several countries including Germany, Italy, Spain, Romania and Bulgaria are discussed.

It is impossible for these countries not to pay some price after the victory of the war.

Especially in terms of territory, they must pay a sufficient price to make them understand that it is immoral to launch a war wantonly.

There was not much debate among Britain, France and Australia about the division of Romania and Bulgaria.

If nothing unexpected happens, Romania will have to give up Transylvania, which it annexed from Hungary. Even the Banat region close to Yugoslavia will basically belong to Yugoslavia after the war.

The same is true for Bulgaria. As an accomplice of Germany, Bulgaria must at least give up the regions of Vidin, Burgas and Haskovo to satisfy the appetite of the surrounding enemy countries.

The real big deal is how to deal with the three countries of Germany, Italy and Spain.

However, among these three countries, the debate between Britain, France and Australia is more intense.

First of all, none of the three countries wants to see any one of them annex too much land, which would be a disruption to the balance in Europe and not in their own interests.

However, if these defeated countries are allowed to retain too much strength, it will inevitably lead to a situation where World War II breaks out again after World War I.

This was the point of contention among the three countries, and even representatives from many other countries joined in. This was also the real reason why the London Conference was delayed for several months.

However, Spain and Italy are still easy to deal with. The real headache is Germany. If Germany is too strong, it will take revenge sooner or later. If Germany is too weak, the balance in Europe will be broken, and another more powerful country will rise.

(End of this chapter)