Rise of Australia

Chapter 954: Antarctic Sovereignty

The Germans gave everything they had to launch the Battle of Sudalingrad.

In order to avoid being at a disadvantage in terms of military strength like in the Battle of Moscow, the German government even issued a general mobilization order.

The so-called full mobilization was far more powerful than Germany’s previous mobilization.

Germany has the hope of increasing the size of its army from 500 million to at least 1000 million, which also means that the numerical 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 means that one out of every eight Germans will have to go to the battlefield.

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

The truth is that most adult German men were serving in the war. After the new mobilization policy was fully implemented, adult German men basically had 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 was quite crazy, but the Germans had no complaints at all.

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

Perhaps there were differences within Germany on the decision to go to war, but on whether to fight or not, most Germans were unanimous in their opinion, which was to fight to the death.

But before that, Germans can 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 is 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 reach a consensus on the distribution of interests, which had not yet been concluded.

Since the victory of the Battle of Moscow, Britain and France have been discussing how to intensify the offensive.

After all, seeing that the Germans had finally suffered a great loss, the British and French were not going to sit around and wait for the Germans to recover.

Especially after learning that the German government had changed its mobilization policy, the British and French governments could no longer 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 back?

The best way, naturally, was to defeat Germany as quickly as possible and avoid further losses for Britain and France in the war.

During the talks, the British and French representatives asked about the preparedness of the Australasian army.

According to the British and French representatives' introduction of the offensive plan for the new year, Australasia would need to deploy at least 150 million troops and have at least 50 reserve troops ready to go into war at any time.

Regarding these 200 million troops, Britain and France hoped that at least half of them would be Australasian soldiers, and they hoped that Australasia could provide more support in terms of weapons and equipment.

It is naturally impossible for the Australasian representatives to agree to all conditions.

After all, the number of troops Australasia has deployed in Europe has reached 120 million. Coupled with the credit of eliminating the island country in advance, Australasia does not have to worry about any doubts about its contribution to the war.

Support of weapons and equipment is certainly possible, but if Australasian soldiers are to be continuously deployed to the European battlefield to consume the Germans, then we have to have a serious talk about the distribution of benefits.

Obviously, Australasia's attitude is very straightforward, which is to seek more distribution of benefits.

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

The talks were conducted in secret, even from representatives of various countries attending the conference in London.

After all, only when the three countries of Britain, France and Australia can agree on a rough framework can the London Conference be implemented normally.

Judging from the discourse power of the United Kingdom, France and Australia, Australasia's discourse power currently exceeds that of France and is not even weaker than that of the United Kingdom.

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

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

First of all, there is the new year's combat plan. In order to end the war as soon as possible, Britain, France and Australia are expected to deploy 550 million troops to launch a full-scale counterattack against Germany.

The full-scale counterattack will be divided into three battlefields. The first is the French battlefield. France will dispatch 235 million troops to cooperate with 95 troops from Britain and 85 troops from Australasia to form a huge army of more than 400 million soldiers.

There will be three offensive directions on the French battlefield: northward counterattack on Paris, eastern attack on Italy, and southern attack on Spain.

There is no doubt that counterattacking Paris will be the main offensive option on the French battlefield. The French alone will deploy 180 million troops. Together with the British and Australasian troops, the total number of British, French and Australian troops counterattacking Paris will exceed 250 million, which is far larger than the German garrison near Paris.

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

Coupled with the continuous supply of material support from Spain, the Allied forces in North Africa were able to run rampant in the French colonies, causing great suffering to the French.

The Allied forces in North Africa also seriously affected the conscription progress of French colonies. At least 50 colonial soldiers were blocked in West Africa and Central Africa, and various facilities of France in North African colonies were destroyed by German and Italian troops.

The army that attacked Spain was about 120 million, of which France contributed 35 troops, Britain contributed 55 troops, and Australasia contributed 30 troops.

Although the number of people was not as large as imagined, the 120 million troops gathered by Britain, France and Austria were enough to fight against the Spanish army.

After all, this country had experienced a civil war before World War II, and its overall population was small, so millions of troops were also a burden for Spain.

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

The number of troops deployed by Britain, France and Australia in North Africa was second only to that of the French battlefield, with a total of about 120 million. The British were the main force in this army, accounting for 70% of the total number of troops, about .

France and Australasia have fewer soldiers, with about 20 French soldiers and about 30 Australasia soldiers.

The third battlefield is the Balkan battlefield. However, compared with the battlefields in France and North Africa, 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 part of Germany, and it is also one of the areas that the German army focuses on guarding against.

What's more, there are Bulgaria and Romania, two of Germany's few little brothers, and Romania has Germany's very scarce oil resources.

Under such circumstances, attacking the Balkans is much more difficult than attacking Italy and Spain, which is not worth the cost.

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 relieving pressure on the Russians?

Firstly, Britain, France and Australia were unwilling to see Russia reduce its casualties. Secondly, attacking the Balkan Peninsula was indeed very difficult, so it would be better to leave it to the Russians to deal with it slowly.

Anyway, the distribution of interests is already underway. Even if the Russians accidentally conquer the Balkan Peninsula, under the joint pressure of Britain, France and Australia, it is impossible for the Russians to swallow up 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 30 to 40 troops were deployed in the Balkan battlefield, of which the Australasian troops accounted for more than 25.

Of course, in addition to the 550 million troops deployed in the battle, Britain, France and Australia must also prepare at least 200 million reserve troops.

According to the agreement reached with Britain and France, Britain and France will prepare approximately 150 million reserve troops, and Australasia only needs to prepare the remaining 50 reserve troops.

Although it seems that Australasia needs to deploy 200 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 was not much better than that of Australasia. Especially the French army, a large number of black colonial populations could be seen at present, and black natives wearing standard French military uniforms walked on the streets of France. The weird feeling even made many French people say that it would be better not to come.

It is precisely because of the outrageous military ratios of the three countries of Britain, France and Australia that it seems that the offensive next year will require the mobilization of 550 million main forces and 200 million reserve forces, totaling 750 million troops, but in fact, it is already very good to have 300 million regular troops of Britain, France and Australia.

Among them, at least 450 million are colonial troops from the three countries. The combat effectiveness and discipline of the colonial troops are completely at two levels compared to those of the regular local troops. The combat effectiveness that these 750 million troops can unleash is also questionable.

The reason why Australasia agreed to dispatch 200 million troops was, of course, that Britain and France made certain concessions in terms of interests.

First, there is the issue of trade in weapons and equipment. Australasia and Britain and France signed a trade order with a total value of up to 15 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 was at least over 5 million Australian dollars, which was already a very good gain.

In addition, at the initiative of Australasia, the United Kingdom, 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 owns sovereignty over most of Antarctica.

The sovereignty of Antarctica is determined based on the distribution of the territories of various countries in the Southern Hemisphere. This also means that the sovereignty of the Antarctic territory from the Kerguelen Islands to Pitcairn Island already belongs to Australasia.

The reason why Britain and France agreed to this agreement is very simple, that is, the current technological means are simply unable to 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 Antarctic sovereignty will have no effect in the next few decades.

Even according to the predictions of experts in Britain and France, in the next 200 years, humans will have no hope of exploiting Antarctica's resources.

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 this war is over, there will only be four superpowers left in the world: Britain, France, Australia and Russia.

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

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

It is foreseeable that after the war, countries like Brazil and Yugoslavia may also be able to experience what it is like to be a great power.

However, even if these countries can successfully make it into the top ten in the world, the voice they hold is completely incomparable to that of the four countries of Britain, France, Australia and Russia.

More importantly, after the end of World War II, the world situation was basically determined. If any country wants to rise to become a great power, it must challenge the new world situation.

The new world situation is jointly maintained by the three major powers of Britain, France and Australia. The difficulty of challenging the world situation is extremely high, and it can even be said to be a dead end.

After all, such a powerful means of attack as nuclear weapons has 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 1937, 12, under the joint witness of representatives from various countries, a brand new "Arms Trade Treaty" was freshly released.

The arms trade treaty stipulates that countries with additional military production capabilities should provide weapons and equipment to their allies, and the selling price must not exceed 90% of the market price.

The countries signed the treaty so quickly that the consumption of weapons and ammunition so far in the war has been extremely terrifying.

Especially for those countries that are not very large in size, it is impossible for their military industry scale to increase rapidly in a short period of time.

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

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

These advanced weapons are not only Australasia's trump card for controlling the world situation, but also the valuable property left by Arthur to William and Alexander Jr.

With aircraft, tanks, missiles and atomic bombs that are ahead of other countries, Australasia can ensure that its national strength will remain at the forefront of the world or even the strongest in the world during the next three generations of the throne.

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

Considering that Arthur's century in Australasia was no less impressive than that of Queen Victoria, perhaps future generations can call the period from Arthur's coronation as Duke of Australia to his abdication the Glorious Age of Arthur.

(End of this chapter)