Rise of Australia

Chapter 972: The Role of the Encirclement
Arthur was still a little disappointed. After the Russians voluntarily withdrew from the cities in northern Finland, Australasia lost a reason to declare war directly on Russia.

However, this also directly reflects the strength of Australasia. Even Sudarin, who was unwilling to be inferior to others, had to surrender to Australasia at this time.

The skirmish between Australasia and Russia was only a minor incident in the European war. As long as it did not come to blows, it was not as important as the war with Germany.

As time came to April 1939, 4, with the help of the Australasian Army, the entire territory of Finland was declared liberated, and Dmitry had already returned to the Finnish capital Helsinki to preside over the order of the entire principality.

Also in April, the cities in northern Norway and Sweden were basically recovered, and the German troops had been completely driven out of the Nordic region.

Part of the Australasian troops in Northern Europe chose to go south to Denmark, while the other part crossed the sea from Finland to the three Baltic countries.

Although Arthur wanted to occupy St. Petersburg, the capital of Tsarist Russia, the Russian government at that time obviously would not give the Australasian army any chance.

As early as when the Russian army evacuated from Sara, some Russian troops had already moved south to St. Petersburg.

Naturally, the Germans could not allow their troops to be attacked from the north and south by Australasia and Russia. As early as mid-April, they had evacuated the troops in the St. Petersburg area to the Lujia and Pskov line further south.

Doing so not only made it easier for the Russians to recapture St. Petersburg, but also facilitated Australasia's attack on the three Mediterranean countries.

Although the puppet governments of the three Mediterranean countries occupied by Germany also deployed strict defenses on the coastline, the combat effectiveness of these troops was certainly not comparable to that of the German army.

Why didn't the Germans send troops to help these countries defend their coastlines? Of course, Germany needed the defense of these troops more.

Since May, the British and Australasia attacks have moved from Scania to Zealand, the largest island in Denmark. Even Denmark's original capital, Copenhagen, is on this island.

In fact, based on normal geographical concepts, Denmark's capital should be placed on the Jutland Peninsula, which has a significantly larger land area and is connected to the European continent.

But it is precisely because of Denmark's historical past that the capital of Denmark is located on Zealand Island in the Mediterranean.

After all, Denmark was once one of the overlords of the entire Northern Europe and the Mediterranean, uniting the two huge countries of Norway and Sweden, and established Scandinavia, a behemoth composed of three countries.

Compared with Denmark, Australasia focuses more on the three Baltic countries.

First of all, the British must win over Denmark. Even though Denmark is no longer as important after Germany built the Kiel Canal, as a traditional and long-standing monarchy in Europe, Britain attaches great importance to Denmark's status and influence among all monarchies in Europe.

Secondly, the south of Denmark is Germany's mainland. Germany will definitely defend the Danish region, or at least the Jutland Peninsula.

After all, in the Schleswig and Herstein regions south of Denmark, there is not only the Kiel Canal built by Germany, but also Hamburg, a very important northern city in Germany.

Further south of Hamburg is Hanover, which is deep in the heart of Germany and quite close to Germany's Ruhr area and Berlin.

No matter how they thought about it, the Germans would never give up such important areas as Schleswig and Herstein.

Instead of fighting a life-and-death battle with the Germans in the Danish region, it would be better to speed up the recovery of the three Baltic countries, or at least occupy two places among the three Baltic countries.

After all, Russia's mainland is adjacent to the three Baltic countries. If Australasia does not seize the opportunity to conquer the three Baltic countries, the Russians will definitely have ideas about these three countries.

After the Russians occupied the three Baltic countries, they were not only able to greatly expand Russia's coastline in the Baltic Sea, but also greatly strengthen Russia's influence in the entire Baltic Sea.

This would be a loss-making situation for Arthur and Australasia. For the sake of Australasia's strategic deployment in the Baltic Sea, the three Baltic countries must not be taken by the Russians.

Moreover, if the three Baltic countries can be controlled, it will be possible to go south to Poland through the three Baltic countries and take over this strategic buffer zone between Germany and Russia.

This has the advantage of directly cutting off the Russian army's path to Germany. As long as the Russian army cannot enter Germany, their contribution to this war is doomed to be not too great.

As long as the credit was not too great, Australasia and Britain could unite to reduce Russia's share of postwar gains.

Even if it is more extreme, it is possible to support a new Polish government in the Polish region and benefit from the new Polish government to occupy a large area of ​​Russian territory and cause trouble for the Russians before the Russians completely recover their homeland.

I believe that in order to maintain their regional balance policy, the British do not want to see Russia as the only powerful country in the vast Eastern European region.

With the support of the two great powers of Britain and Australasia, the new Polish government will certainly not be like Poland before World War II, guarding the backward cavalry and dreaming of a Greater Poland. Among the three Baltic countries, Arthur values ​​Estonia in the north the most.

The reason is very simple. If Australasia can control Finland and Estonia, it can directly encircle the Russian Baltic Fleet stationed in the St. Petersburg area.

By deploying a large number of radars and missiles on the coastlines of these two countries, it is even possible to block the Russian fleet outside the sea outlet, preventing the Russian Baltic Fleet from ever entering the Baltic Sea.

On May 1939, 5, after a brief rest in Finland, the Australasian army landed in Estonia on a large number of landing ships under the cover of the Air Force.

According to intelligence from all sources, there are only 50,000 local troops and one division of German troops stationed in the entire Estonia. The German troops are also located in the Võru region in southeastern Estonia.

It is obvious that in the Germans' strategic contraction plan, large tracts of land in Estonia can also be abandoned.

It was May 5th, and Arthur was sitting in his office, watching the battle reports coming back from Europe.

The attack on Estonia in the past few days was very successful. After suffering casualties of tens of thousands of indigenous people and thousands of Australasian soldiers, the army finally captured the Estonian capital Tallinn and controlled the top leaders of the Estonian puppet government.

Not long after Arthur was immersed in the joy of the good news, the heads of the Military Intelligence Agency and the Royal Intelligence Agency came together and reported a piece of news that surprised Arthur a little but made him feel even better. That was the latest news about the German-Russian War.

The encirclement deployed by the Germans near Kiev took effect. The Russian army rushed into this huge encirclement and was trapped by the German army.

By the time the news reached Australasia, it had been confirmed that there were at least 150 million Russian troops trapped in the encirclement, and many of them were elite Russian soldiers who had experienced the Battle of Moscow and the Battle of Sudalingrad.

Among this 150 million-strong army, there are thousands of tanks and thousands of artillery pieces. If all of them are lost in the encirclement, it will definitely be a heavy blow to Russia at this moment.

This also made Arthur admire the Germans' courage.

You know, before deploying the encirclement, the Germans had already suffered two large-scale defeats in the Eastern European battlefield, in Moscow and Sudalingrad.

The Germans even had to carry out strategic contraction, and were forced to give up large tracts of land on the Western Front.

But even in such a bad situation, the Germans still had the courage to launch a huge encirclement operation and successfully besieged at least 150 million Russian troops.

If this operation failed, the only fate of the German troops deployed in the defense circle would be annihilation, which would make Germany's already poor defense line even worse.

But now, it is clear that the Germans' gamble paid off.

If only a few of Russia's 150 million troops can break out, this will greatly change the situation on the Eastern European battlefield.

Although it did not force the Germans to switch from defense to offense, at least the Russians did not have too many troops to counterattack the German mainland.

If you think about it this way, after the Germans completed this encirclement operation, the biggest beneficiaries were not Germany, but Britain and Australasia.

If the German encirclement could be successfully reduced, Russia would basically lose the possibility of breaking through Berlin.

Although the Russian government was still able to organize troops to invade Germany, the Russian army at that time did not have enough strength to occupy too many areas.

In this way, the threat from Russia will be greatly reduced. Even if Australasia moves faster and supports a new Polish government before the Russian army enters Polish territory, the Russians may be permanently blocked at the border between Poland and Russia.

Thinking of this, Arthur was also very much looking forward to the next action.

In addition, the island country's first batch of troops preparing for an expedition to Europe are already ready, and Australasia directly announced that it would increase its troops by 50 to Europe to help European countries recover their homeland faster.

Of course, more than half of the 50 troops are made up of soldiers from island countries. Of the remaining less than 25 troops, the Philippine and Kalimantan troops also exceed 15.

This also means that the Australasian army, which is the real core force, has less than 10 people. But considering that there are more powerful island countries' armies as cannon fodder, the comprehensive combat effectiveness of this 50-strong army is still reasonable.

(End of this chapter)