The Rise Of Australasia-Chapter 1258 - 927 Emergency in Battle_2
Chapter 1258: Chapter 927: Emergency in Battle_2
Chapter 1258 -927: Emergency in Battle_2
A France confined to its native land, although still a power, had completely lost the ability to compete for world or even European supremacy.
A native France was at best a European strong country, and any path towards expansion was thoroughly blocked.
Currently, on the Northwest African battlefield, there were over 2 million soldiers engaged in large-scale warfare. The French had pulled nearly a million soldiers, of which more than 400,000 were genuine Frenchmen, with the remaining less than 600,000 drawn from various colonies.
The British had also pulled less than 200,000 soldiers to assist France, as the alliance with the French still existed, and helping the French was the only option for the British at the time.
In German-Italy, the German Army’s size remained around 300,000. However, it was this 300,000-strong German Army that posed an unimaginable threat and pressure against the millions of French soldiers.
Given that most of the French Army consisted of colonial troops, this was akin to a suppression of bloodline, and it was the real reason the French Army had been retreating step by step until now.
Beyond the 300,000 German soldiers, there were nearly 300,000 Spanish troops and 500,000 Italian troops also fighting in Northwest Africa.
The aim of the German forces was merely to distract the British and French’s attention, while Spain and Italy truly intended to occupy Northwest African territories and expand their influence.
Before the war, both nations had sizable colonies in Northwest Africa and North Africa, and both bordered the French Northwest African colonies.
Spain longed day and night for Morocco, and Italy for the previously occupied Libyan Colony, both currently under French control.
This spurred the Spanish and Italian forces whose combat capabilities were not as formidable as the German Army’s, yet they still possessed a high will to fight.
Conversely, the millions of French troops did not have a strong desire to defend the North African colonies.
However, this was understandable: if the French Army could not even defend their own native land, how could they be expected to guard the North African colonies?
Moreover, the remaining colonial troops were not exclusively from Northwest Africa; a significant portion came from West Africa and Central Africa, and even some from North America.
Expecting these soldiers to defend the French colonies as if they were prepared to die for them was less likely than hoping they would not disparage France too severely after surrendering to Germany.
Facing such a dire situation on the European battlefield, the British, even with their extremely powerful navy, could only sigh and admit their helplessness.
Ultimately, the British turned their attention to their ally, Australasia.
Since the outbreak of the war, in addition to monitoring the European belligerents, the British were most concerned about Australasia.
It couldn’t be helped, as the potential unleashed by Australasia definitely warranted any level of attention from the British.
Especially since last year, when European media tentatively assessed Australasia’s economic scale, the British heightened their vigilance towards Australasia to the highest level, second only to Germany, which was currently engaged in warfare.
This was an unavoidable situation. Australasia’s economy had surpassed that of the British mainland, being the second highest among all the major powers.
If one counted Australasia’s two major colonies, the Philippines and Kalimantan, as well as the Kingdom of California and the United Kingdom of the West Coast within its sphere of influence, the economic scale within Australasia had already matched that of Germany, which had absorbed several strong nations, posing a threat to the Commonwealth of Nations.
What was even more critical was that Australasia’s population scale was close to that of the British mainland, indicating that Australasia had nearly bridged the gap in terms of population issues.
Facing a nation that had become the world’s third-largest economy, one of the top three military powers, and a superpower with comprehensive strength ranked in the world’s top three in less than 40 years, Prime Minister Winston Schmidt believed that his caution and dread had come too late.
Keep in mind that Australasia’s rapid development was still ongoing, which was the most critical concern for the British Government.
Once the growth of Australasia was allowed to continue, how long would it take them to completely catch up to the United Kingdom and leave it far behind?
There was no exact answer to this question, but it was something the British did not want to see at all.
Although Britain’s hostility toward Australasia was not as deep as other countries’, facing this nation that was once only its colony, the British still had a certain pride.
If this nation, once merely its colony, were to outpace itself, would that not mean that all British governments since Australasia’s independence had been incompetent?
Although the British were reluctant to let Australasia gain more from this war, the fact was that the current war had clearly exceeded their expectations.
The British could only be forced to let Australasia deploy more military forces, the price being that the United Kingdom had to make concessions in terms of interests.
Arthur also paid attention to the wars in Eastern Europe and North Africa, and upon learning of the retreats of Russia and the French Army, he knew that the British government would sooner or later turn to him.
Especially since the current premise was the annihilation of the United States, a tiny Great Lakes Republic simply could not support the British and French to win this war.
The only support for the British and French came from Australasia; the British had no choice. Even though they were aware of the future threats from Australasia, they could only cede some interests to them unless they were willing to lose the war.
As the war continued, the outcome of defeat had become very clear—that the colonies within the sphere of influence would be divided and even the native land faced the risk of being split.
After all, all nations had already invested heavily in the war, and the mobilized military forces had long reached millions. Unless the Royal Navy that Britain relied on lost all its combat power, the British would absolutely not surrender easily.
The consequence of never surrendering was only one, that was, to pay the full price to win this war.
On June 15, 1937, the Australasian Government personally received Winston Schmidt, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
This was Prime Minister Winston Schmidt’s first visit to Australasia since he became Prime Minister; his purpose for this visit was also solely to discuss increasing the war efforts with Australasia.
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The war between Australasia and the Island Nation had continued to this point, and the British fully understood that Australasia was merely putting on a show.
If Arthur wanted to end the war, he could have done so within a few months. But Arthur had not done so, and the intentions behind it were very clear: to watch the developments of the European War and strive to maximize his own interests.
Seeing this famously influential figure of World War II again, Arthur’s mood was very relaxed. At this moment, Arthur had already gained absolute initiative, no matter who the British sent as a diplomatic representative, they could only end up in a passive role in this negotiation.
“Your Majesty, it seems that we might lose this war,” Winston Schmidt immediately made a gloomy face upon meeting Arthur, as if the war had already been lost, he said to Arthur.
“Oh? Isn’t the war still ongoing? I recall that both you and France have millions of soldiers, plus the help of the Russian army, how could you not win this war?” Arthur pretended to be greatly surprised and asked Winston.
“Russia is continuously retreating on the Eastern European battlefield, and the French Army has been stuck on the African battlefield. Your Majesty, if we do not get any more reinforcements, I’m afraid the Germans will dominate all of Europe, and the Island Nation will control the entire Pacific Ocean with Germany’s help,” Winston shockingly tried to make Arthur understand the seriousness of the situation.
Naturally, Arthur was not going to be fooled by Winston’s few words. After Winston had finished speaking, Arthur countered, “Doesn’t Britain still have millions of soldiers? If they were deployed to the African and Eastern European battlefields, they should be able to help alleviate the situation for France and Russia.”
Moreover, according to news from North America, the troops being trained on the Eastern Coast of North America number at least in the tens of thousands, couldn’t these troops also be deployed to the European battlefield?”
Winston nodded awkwardly, internally amazed at Australasia’s intelligence agency.
Britain had indeed trained hundreds of thousands of troops on the Eastern Coast of North America, many of whom were Black People. The terms laid out by the British were that as long as they helped Britain win the war, all participating Black People would obtain legal residency and become recognized legal citizens by several countries in North America.
