The Rise of Australia - Chapter 973

c954 Antarctica sovereignty

The Germans paid everything to launch the Battle of Sudalingrad.

In order to avoid the disadvantage of military strength like the Battle of Moscow, the German government even issued a full mobilization order.

The so-called full mobilization is far more powerful than the previous mobilization of Germany.

Germany has the hope of increasing the size of the army from 5 million to at least 10 million, which also means that the number disadvantage of the German army can be quickly made up.

Of course, such a mobilization policy is not all good.

Although the size of the army can soar to tens of millions, for the Germans with a population of only more than 80 million, this is equivalent to one in eight Germans going to the battlefield.

You know, among the more than 80 million Germans, nearly half are women, and there are also a large number of elderly people and children in the remaining half.

The real situation is that most adult men in Germany are serving the war. After the new mobilization policy is completely completed, adult men in Germany basically have only two choices, either to enter military factories to produce weapons and ammunition for the country, or to go to the battlefield to use those weapons and ammunition.

Such a decision is quite crazy, but the Germans have no complaints at all.

In other words, for the Germans, the humiliation they suffered after World War I was enough to make them angry and determined to go to the battlefield.

Perhaps there were differences within Germany on the decision-making of the war, but in terms of whether to fight or not, most Germans had a unified opinion, that is, a desperate battle.

But before that, the Germans could still spend a very memorable Christmas.

After Christmas in 1937, most German adult men had to go to the battlefield. Whether there would be another Christmas in their lives was a question worth pondering.

After entering December, representatives from Britain, France and Australia gathered in Tours, France, to discuss the offensive plan for the new year, and by the way reached a consensus on the distribution of interests that had not yet been concluded.

Since the victory of the Battle of Moscow, Britain and France have been discussing the matter of strengthening the offensive.

After all, seeing that the Germans had finally suffered a big loss, the character of Britain and France was that they would never wait for the Germans to recover.

Especially after learning that the German government had changed its policy on mobilization, the British and French governments could not sit still.

If they wait until the Germans mobilize tens of millions of troops to join the war, will they also arm tens of millions of troops to fight?

The best way is naturally to defeat Germany as soon as possible to avoid more losses for Britain and France in the war.

During the negotiation, the British and French representatives asked about the preparations of the Australasian army.

According to the British and French representatives’ introduction of the offensive plan for the new year, Australia needs to invest at least 1.5 million troops and prepare at least 500,000 reserve troops to be deployed at any time.

Regarding these 2 million troops, Britain and France hope that at least half of them are Australasian soldiers, and they hope that Australia can provide more support in terms of weapons and equipment.

The Australasian representatives naturally cannot agree to all conditions.

After all, the number of troops invested by Australia in Europe has reached 1.2 million, and coupled with the credit of eliminating the island country in advance, Australia does not have to worry about any doubts about its contribution to the war.

Support of weapons and equipment is of course possible, but if Australasian soldiers are constantly invested in the European battlefield to consume each other with the Germans, then we have to talk about the distribution of benefits.

Obviously, the attitude of Australasia is also very straightforward, that is, to seek more distribution of benefits.

It is not impossible to invest more troops, but Britain and France must also provide more benefits to satisfy Australasia.

This meeting was held in secret, and even concealed the representatives of various countries who were attending the meeting in London.

After all, only when Britain, France and Australia discuss a rough framework, the London Conference will be implemented normally.

From the perspective of the discourse power of Britain, France and Australia, Australasia’s discourse power has exceeded that of France, and is not even weaker than that of Britain.

This has forced Britain and France to make more compromises, otherwise, they will not be able to get more support from Australasia, and they will not be able to carry out their own plans.

The talks in Tours lasted for three days, and finally Britain, France and Australia reached a certain compromise.

The first is the battle plan for the new year. In order to end the war as soon as possible, Britain, France and Australia are expected to invest 5.5 million troops to launch a full-scale counterattack against Germany.

The full counterattack is divided into three battlefields. The first is the French battlefield. France will dispatch 2.35 million troops, cooperate with the 950,000 troops of Britain and 850,000 troops of Australasia, and form a huge army of more than 4 million soldiers.

There will be three offensive directions on the French battlefield, namely, counterattack Paris in the north, attack Italy in the east, and attack Spain in the south.

Undoubtedly, counterattack Paris will be the main offensive option on the French battlefield. The French alone have invested 1.8 million troops. Together with the British and Australasia troops, the total number of British, French and Australian troops in the counterattack will exceed 2.5 million, which is far more than the German garrison near Paris.

The second is to attack Spain. Spain is located in the western Mediterranean, and its geographical location is still a certain threat to Britain, France and Australia.

In addition, with the continuous material support from Spain, the Allied forces in North Africa can gallop freely in the French colonies, and the French are miserable about this.

This Allied army in North Africa has also seriously affected the conscription progress of French colonies. At present, at least 500,000 colonial soldiers are blocked in West Africa and Central Africa, and various facilities of France in North African colonies have been destroyed by German and Italian troops.

The army attacking Spain is about 1.2 million. Among them, France has invested 350,000 troops, Britain has invested 550,000 troops, and Australasia has invested 300,000 troops.

Although the number is not as large as imagined, the 1.2 million troops gathered by Britain, France and Austria are enough to fight against the Spanish army.

After all, this country experienced a civil war before World War II, and the overall population is not large. Millions of troops are also a burden for Spain.

What’s more, when the North African battlefield gradually stabilizes, most of the troops in North Africa will also counterattack Spain.

The troops invested by Britain, France and Australia in North Africa are second only to those in France, with a total number of about 1.2 million. The British are the main force of this army, accounting for 60% of the total number of troops, about 700,000 people.

The soldiers in France and Australasia are relatively few, with about 200,000 French soldiers and about 300,000 Australasia soldiers.

The third battlefield is the Balkan battlefield. However, compared with the French battlefield and the North African battlefield, Britain, France and Australia have no great willingness to deploy soldiers in the Balkan battlefield.

After all, from the location of the Balkans, it can already affect the southern region of Germany, and it is also one of the areas that the German army focuses on guarding.

What’s more, there are also Bulgaria and Romania, two of Germany’s few younger brothers, among which Romania also has very scarce oil resources in Germany.

Under such circumstances, the difficulty of attacking the Balkans is far greater than that of attacking Italy and Spain, which is somewhat not worth the loss.

More importantly, Russia’s Ukrainian region is adjacent to the Balkans. If Britain, France and Australia send troops to attack the Balkans, wouldn’t it mean that they are actively reducing the pressure on the Russians?

First, Britain, France and Australia are unwilling to see Russia reduce casualties, and second, it is indeed very difficult to attack the Balkan Peninsula, so it is better to leave it to the Russians to slowly gnaw on themselves.

Anyway, the current distribution of interests is already underway. Even if the Russians accidentally conquer the Balkan Peninsula, under the joint pressure of Britain, France and Australia, the Russians cannot swallow too many resources and land.

It is precisely because of this that in the new year’s combat plan formulated by Britain, France and Australia, only 300,000 to 400,000 troops were deployed in the Balkan battlefield, of which the Australasian army accounted for more than 250,000.

Of course, in addition to the 5.5 million troops deployed in the battle, Britain, France and Australia must prepare at least 2 million reserve troops.

According to the agreement reached with Britain and France, Britain and France will prepare about 1.5 million reserve troops, and Australasia only needs to prepare the remaining 500,000 reserve troops.

Although it seems that Australasia needs to invest 2 million combat troops, it only needs to ensure that half of them are Australasian soldiers to meet the requirements of Britain and France.

After all, the situation of the British and French armies at this time is not much better than that of Australasia. Especially the French army, a large number of black colonial populations can be seen at present, and black natives wearing standard French military uniforms are walking on the streets of France. The weird feeling even makes many French people say that it is better not to come.

It is precisely because of the outrageous military ratio of the three countries of Britain, France and Australia that it seems that the offensive next year will mobilize 5.5 million main forces and 2 million reserve forces, totaling 7.5 million troops, but in fact, it is already very good to have 3 million regular troops of Britain, France and Australia.

At least 4.5 million of them are colonial troops of the three countries. The combat effectiveness and discipline of the colonial troops are completely at two levels with the regular troops of the local area. The combat effectiveness that these 7.5 million troops can burst out is also worth discussing.

The reason why Australasia agreed to dispatch 2 million troops is, of course, that Britain and France made certain concessions in terms of interests.

The first is the trade issue of weapons and equipment. Australasia and Britain and France signed a trade order with a total value of up to 1.5 billion Australian dollars, including weapons and equipment, ammunition, food and medical supplies, and even various daily necessities, mineral resources and consumables.

Because of the rising prices caused by the war, Australasia’s profit from this order is at least 500 million Australian dollars, which is already a very good harvest.

In addition, at the initiative of Australasia, Britain, France and Australia reached an agreement on the sovereignty of Antarctica.

As the only superpower in the Southern Hemisphere spanning the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean, Australasia naturally has the sovereignty of most of Antarctica.

Regarding the determination of Antarctic sovereignty, it is divided based on the distribution range of each country’s territory in the Southern Hemisphere. This also means that the sovereignty of the Antarctic territory corresponding to the range from the Kerguelen Islands to Pitken Island already belongs to Australasia.

The reason why Britain and France agreed to this agreement is also very simple, that is, the current scientific and technological means cannot effectively enter Antarctica for material mining.

It is not an exaggeration to say that it is difficult to build permanent settlements in Antarctica, and the so-called sovereignty of Antarctica will have no effect in the next few decades.

Even according to the predictions of British and French domestic experts, in the next 200 years, humans will not have any hope of mining materials in Antarctica.

It is precisely because of this conclusion that Britain and France agreed to allow Australasia to occupy most of the sovereignty of Antarctica.

After all, there is still the Antarctic land corresponding to South America and Africa, which is enough for Britain and France to divide.

According to the current world situation, after the war is over, there will only be four superpowers in the world: Britain, France, Australia and Russia.

Of course, the French have the lowest status among them, but compared with other countries, they also have certain advantages.

After all, the island country and Austria no longer exist, Germany is destined to be a defeated country, and it is impossible to maintain the status of a great power after the war.

It can be expected that after the war, perhaps countries like Brazil and Yugoslavia can also experience the feeling of being a great power.

However, even if these countries can successfully rush into the top ten in the world, they are completely incomparable to the four countries of Britain, France, Australia and Russia in terms of the right to speak.

More importantly, after the end of World War II, the world situation has been basically determined. Any country that wants to rise to become a great power means that it must challenge the new world situation.

The new world situation is jointly maintained by the three great powers of Britain, France and Australia. The difficulty of challenging the world situation is not low, and it can even be said to be a dead end.

After all, nuclear weapons, a powerful means of attack, have already been born. It is much more difficult to challenge the status of world hegemony through force than in World War I and World War II.

After Britain, France and Australia reached a compromise, the progress of the London Conference naturally accelerated a lot.

On December 11, 1937, under the joint witness of representatives from various countries, a brand-new “Arms Trade Treaty” was freshly released.

This Arms Trade Treaty stipulates that countries with additional military production capacity should provide weapons and equipment to their allies, and the selling price shall not exceed 90% of the market price.

The speed at which countries signed this treaty was so fast. So far, the consumption of weapons and ammunition has been extremely terrifying.

Especially for those countries that are not very large in size, their military scale cannot be increased rapidly in a short period of time.

This also means that in many small and medium-sized countries, there is still a large gap in weapons and ammunition, which is also the real reason for the signing of this arms and equipment trade treaty.

However, although it agrees to export weapons and equipment abroad, Australasia will not be stupid enough to sell the most advanced aircraft, tanks, missiles, and atomic bombs.

These advanced weapons are not only Australasia’s trump card to control the world situation, but also the precious property left by Arthur to William and Alexander.

With the leading aircraft, tanks, missiles and atomic bombs in various countries, it can ensure that Australasia will remain at the forefront of the world or even the strongest in the world within the inheritance of the throne of the next three generations.

This also means that William and Alexander can be at ease as a conservative monarch. They don’t need to be too outstanding to maintain the glorious era created by Arthur.

Considering that Arthur’s century in Australasia is not inferior to Queen Victoria, perhaps future generations can still call the period from Arthur’s coronation as the Duke of Australia to Arthur’s abdication the glorious Arthur era.