The Rise of Australia - Chapter 992

c972 The role of the encirclement

Arthur was still a little disappointed. After the Russians took the initiative to withdraw from the cities in northern Finland, Australasia lost a reason to declare war on Russia directly.

However, this also directly reflects the strength of Australasia. Even Sudarin, who was unwilling to be under someone else, had to succumb to Australasia at this time.

The small conflict between Australasia and Russia was just a small incident in the European war. As long as there was no fighting, its importance could not be compared with the war against Germany.

As time came to April 22, 1939, with the help of the Australasia army, all the territory of Finland was declared liberated, and Dmitry had long returned to Helsinki, the capital of Finland, 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 army had been completely driven out of the Nordic region.

Some of the Australasia troops in Northern Europe chose to go south to Denmark, while others 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 would obviously not give the Australasian army a chance.

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

The Germans naturally could not allow their troops to be attacked from the north and south by Australasian and Russian forces. As early as mid-April, they had evacuated the troops in the St. Petersburg area to the Lujia and Pskov lines in the south.

Doing so not only facilitated the Russians to recapture St. Petersburg, but also facilitated Australasian’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 the coastline? Of course, the German mainland needed the defense of these troops more.

Since May, the British and Australasian attacks have come from Scania Duhai to Zealand, which is the largest island among all the Danish mainlands. Even Denmark’s original capital Copenhagen is on this island.

In fact, if we start from a normal geographical concept, the capital of Denmark 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 past historical reasons that the capital of Denmark is located on Zealand Island on the Mediterranean Sea.

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 establishing Scandinavia, a behemoth 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 so important after Germany built the Kiel Canal, as a traditional and long-standing monarchy in Europe, Britain also attaches great importance to Denmark’s status and influence among all monarchies in Europe.

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

After all, in the Schleswig-Holstein region 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 into the heart of Germany and quite close to the Ruhr area and Berlin in Germany.

No matter how you think about it, the Germans will never give up such important regions as Schleswig-Holstein.

Instead of fighting the Germans to death in Denmark, it is better to seize the three Baltic countries as soon as possible, or at least occupy two places in the three Baltic countries.

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

After the Russians occupied the three Baltic countries, they could not only expand Russia’s coastline in the Baltic Sea, but also greatly enhance Russia’s influence in the entire Baltic Sea.

This is not worth the loss for Arthur and Australasia. For Australasia’s strategic deployment in the Baltic Sea, the three Baltic countries must not be taken by the Russians.

And if the three Baltic countries can be controlled, they can also go south to Poland through the three Baltic countries and take over the strategic buffer between Germany and Russia.

There is an advantage to doing this, which is that it can directly cut off the path of the Russian army to the German mainland. As long as the Russian army cannot invade the German mainland, their contribution in this war is destined not to be too great.

As long as the credit is not great, Australasia and Britain can unite to reduce the proportion of Russia’s post-war benefits.

Even if it is more extreme, it can also support a new Polish government in the Polish region, and benefit from this new Polish government before the Russians have completely recovered their homeland, occupying a large area of ​​Russian territory and causing some trouble for the Russians.

I believe that in order to maintain their regional balance policy, the British are unwilling to see that there is only one powerful country in the vast Eastern European region, Russia.

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 block the Russian Baltic Fleet stationed in the St. Petersburg area.

Deploying a large number of radars and missiles on the coastlines of these two countries can even block the Russian fleet outside the seaport, so that the Russian Baltic Fleet will never enter the Baltic Sea.

On May 7, 1939, after a short rest in Finland, the Australasia army landed in Estonia on a large number of landing ships under the cover of the Air Force.

According to various intelligence, there are only 50,000 local troops and one division of German troops stationed in Estonia, and the German troops are still in the Vru area in southeastern Estonia.

Obviously, in the German strategic contraction plan, a large area of ​​Estonia can also be abandoned.

On May 11, Arthur was sitting in his office, watching the war report sent back from Europe.

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

Arthur was immersed in the joy of the good news. Not long after, the heads of the Military Intelligence Bureau and the Royal Intelligence Bureau came together and reported a piece of news that surprised Arthur a little but made him feel better, that is, the latest news of 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.

As of the day when the news reached Australasian, it was confirmed that there were at least 1.5 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.

There are also thousands of tanks and thousands of artillery in this 1.5 million army. If all of them are lost in the encirclement, it will definitely be a heavy blow to Russia now.

This also made Arthur have to admire the Germans’ courage.

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

The Germans even had to shrink their strategy, and even the Western Front was forced to give up a large area of ​​land.

But even in such a bad situation, the Germans still had the courage to carry out a huge encirclement operation, and successfully besieged at least 1.5 million Russian troops.

If such an operation fails, the only fate of the German army deployed in the defense circle is to be completely destroyed, which will make Germany’s already poor defense line even worse.

But now, it is obvious that the Germans have won the gamble.

If not many of the 1.5 million Russian troops can break through the encirclement, this will greatly change the situation on the Eastern European battlefield.

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

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

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

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

In this way, the threat from Russia would be greatly reduced. Even if Australasia moved faster and supported the new Polish government before the Russian army entered the Polish territory, the Russians might be blocked forever at the border between Poland and Russia.

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

In addition, the first batch of island countries’ troops preparing for an expedition to Europe were ready, and Australasia directly announced that it would send 500,000 troops to Europe to help European countries recover their homeland faster.

Of course, more than half of these 500,000 troops were composed of island country soldiers. Among the remaining less than 250,000 troops, the Philippine and Kalimantan troops also exceeded 150,000.

This also means that the Australasia army, which is truly the core force, has less than 100,000 people. But considering that there are more powerful island country troops as cannon fodder, the overall combat effectiveness of these 500,000 troops is still reasonable.