The Rise Of Australasia-Chapter 1257 - 927 The War Situation Turns Urgent
Chapter 1257: Chapter 927: The War Situation Turns Urgent
Chapter 1257 -927: The War Situation Turns Urgent
As the first batch of new bullets was delivered to the European Balkan battleground, the war between European countries had indeed become even harsher.
After the countries had torn off each other’s masks, they began using weapons that had previously been banned, with the sole purpose of inflicting greater casualties on the enemy.
Against such a backdrop, the campaigns launched by nations resulted in even greater casualties, and the numbers of dead and injured kept climbing.
More importantly, the Germans had tasted success. They quickly discovered the remarkable aspects of the enemy’s bullet designs and applied them on a large scale to their own weapons and equipment.
After the Germans began to employ more lethal weapons on a large scale, the Russians, as the primary target of the German offensives, became the ones to bear the brunt of everything.
In the German and Russian offensive campaigns, a vast array of weapons was used in the attack on Smolensk. The Germans mobilized close to 800,000 soldiers, while the Russian army responsible for defending Vitebsk and Smolensk also had more than 500,000.
Both parties committed over 1.3 million troops to this siege, and the resulting carnage was beyond the description of merely ‘gruesome.’
On the German side, in this campaign, they lost over 200,000 men, and hundreds of tanks and over a hundred airplanes were destroyed.
The Russians fared even worse, nearly all of the hastily mobilized reserve forces were annihilated, and out of the 500,000 troops stationed there, less than 100,000 managed to retreat to Moscow in the rear.
On June 3, 1937, the German Southern Army Group successfully captured Kiev, achieving their initial main offensive goals.
Afterwards, the Southern Army Group split into two routes. The first headed northeast towards Moscow, to meet up with the Central Army Group.
The second route followed the rivers southward, with the goal of occupying the entire Ukrainian region and pushing the front line to Stalingrad.
As for the German Northern Army Group, it had already surrounded Saint Petersburg and captured the surrounding Luga and novelbuddyrod.
From the situation on the Eastern European battlefield, the German army seemed to be faring very well. The Russian army was retreating steadily, and even though Russia had already mobilized millions of troops, they still couldn’t stop the German offensive.
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What’s more, from the start of the sudden attack to the present, the German army’s losses were less than 400,000, which is roughly the strength of one Army Group.
The Russians, on the other hand, were suffering far more. Adding the near total annihilation of the Western Front Army to the losses on other fronts, the death toll alone had already surpassed a million, and the total casualties were close to 2 million.
Stalin, who had sworn before the outbreak of war that the German army did not have the courage to attack Russia, was now compelled to frantically mobilize soldiers to form the Moscow defense line.
From a geographical standpoint, Moscow is at the heart of Russia’s Eastern European region. Due to the importance of Moscow, the Russian army had nowhere left to retreat.
Beyond that, aside from Stalingrad, there were hardly any other cities that could temporarily serve as the capital with such capacity.
If Moscow were lost, it would not only shatter the resolve of the Russian military and populace to resist but would also deeply impact the influence of the Russian Government.
Starting from June 5, Russia had been mobilizing the strength of two Army Groups to protect their capital, Moscow.
The media also kept publishing news reports, constantly issuing statements like “Russia may be vast, but behind us stands Moscow,” aiming to bolster the Russian people’s support for the war.
The good news was that the Germans were not planning to capture Moscow immediately.
After occupying Smolensk, the German army did not rush to advance eastward but instead moved south and occupied cities such as Roslavl and Bryansk, completely driving back the Russian forces to the far rear.
Thus, the path for the Southern Army Group to Moscow was cleared, and the Germans’ intentions became obvious: they wanted to encircle Moscow with all three major Army Groups.
The crisis facing Russia forced the Russian Government to see the situation clearly, at least they weren’t blindly confident about their position anymore.
In addition to actively forming the Moscow defense line, the Russian Government was also in frequent contact with Britain and France, requesting that the British and French divert the attention of the German army on the Western European battlefield, and preferably, tie back some German troops to provide reinforcement.
Did Britain and France want to distract the German army at this time? Actually, they did.
However, the problem was that the actions of the German and Italian armies in Tunisia and Algiers had caught the French completely off guard.
Furthermore, due to the involvement of Spain, the French North African Forces lost key coastal areas like Tunisia, Constantine, and Oran in a very short time.
By June 1937, Algiers in Central North Africa was the only coastal area still under French control.
The Spanish army had even reached Casablanca in the Moroccan region, seemingly poised to retake Morocco.
In such a situation, expecting the French to mobilize at least a million troops to counterattack Germany was clearly asking too much.
For the current French Army, preserving the North African colonies was the top priority. Even if Paris were occupied, as long as the Germans could be driven out later, Paris would still belong to France.
But if the North African colonies were captured by Germany, even if the Germans were eventually driven out, it was uncertain whether these territories would return to French arms.
If the French lost the North African colonies, even if they won the war, it would be a devastating blow to the French government.
