The Rise of Australia

In early March 1935, Arthur had just planned to go to Douglas Aircraft Company and Boeing Company to check the status of the new generation of transport aircraft, when he received bad news from Europe.

There are two pieces of bad news.

The first is the Spanish Civil War. Britain's inaction and France's retreat directly led to the Spanish Republic gradually falling into a disadvantage in the civil war, and even the capital Madrid was in danger.

What's even more terrible is that the Spanish battlefield directly became a place for German and Italian military training. If Germany and Italy were not training heavily, the Spanish Civil War would have ended long ago under the aggression of the German and Italian armies.

The second bad news is that Germany has been frantically looking for allies.

There are only so many great powers in the world. In addition to Spain, Germany has also made a lot of efforts to win over the island countries.

The geographical location of the island country is relatively special, which is also the reason why it was able to successfully implement the reform and even grow into the only great power in the East.

The island country is located on the west coast of the Pacific, very close to Russia's very important Far East ports, and can pose a sufficient threat to Russia.

More importantly, it is difficult for island countries to develop into a true superpower due to their own limitations. This results in the island country being able to become only a military power but not an industrial and economic power in the true sense.

The lack of large-scale industry and economy means that island countries are destined to be unable to attack the highest world hegemony while remaining firmly on the throne of great powers.

To be honest, almost all serious contenders for world hegemony would like a character like the island nation.

The British were like this before, the Americans were like this, and the Germans are like this now.

Island countries can not only help Germany threaten Russia from the Far East, but they are also far away from Germany and will not threaten Germany itself.

Moreover, the island country's military strength is relatively strong. Compared with Italy, an ally that is not very reliable in military terms, from a military perspective, the island country is the ally that Germany wants to find.

As for the island countries, after their master, the United States, was carved up, life for the island countries was not very good.

In particular, in order to win over Australasia, the British completely stopped supporting the island country, making the island country truly an orphan in the past few years.

Faced with the wooing from Germany, the island country didn’t even think about it, and frantically approached Germany like a licking dog.

This is actually quite normal. Although Germany's strength is not that strong, Germany's relatively developed industry can still provide a lot of help to the island countries.

Moreover, Germany is the only one among the European powers that is strong enough and willing to help the island countries. The island countries actually have no choice.

Due to the mutual agreement, last year, Germany and the island country sent representatives to hold talks in Berlin several times.

There is only one topic for the talks between the two parties, and that is to discuss the alliance between the two countries.

The bad news mentioned earlier is precisely because of this. After more than a year of negotiations, especially after the French continued to retreat during the Spanish Civil War, Germany believed that the time had come.

On March 2, 1935, the German government proposed a so-called common front against Russia to the island government.

Although this front is nominally against Russia, Australasia definitely needs to be on guard.

An island country with German support will have greater potential in industry.

Moreover, Arthur concluded that Germany's military industry would also experience rapid growth in a short period of time.

Because the island country is at war, and its military industry is not as developed as imagined.

In particular, the island countries in this world lacked support from the United Kingdom and the United States after World War I, and their own military industry was not strong, except for the warships that the island people attached great importance to.

And this is good news for Germany. Germany can legitimately expand its military industrial enterprises and scale by exporting weapons and equipment to island countries.

As for whether Britain and France will object, there is no need to consider it.

After all, the French were able to retreat during the Spanish Civil War. Could they still fall out with the Germans for the export of some German weapons and equipment?

During this period of time, Germany can also take the opportunity to research more military weapons through mass production of weapons and equipment, and quickly develop the heavy weapons that it lacks.

This is indeed a problem. An earlier alliance between Germany and the island nations against Australasia means that these two enemies may become more powerful.

Especially the islanders are currently expanding their army.

The army situation of the island country can be roughly divided into after World War I and after 1930.

After World War I, the island countries were forced to disarmament because they could not afford the high military expenditures. Because of the Naval Limitation Treaty, the Navy's military expenditures have experienced a significant reduction.

This resulted in the island country's disarmament goal being limited to the army, and in 1925, the island country's army reached a minimum number of 250,000 people.

As time entered 1930, the island nation restarted its army expansion.

It was also from this period that the island country launched a series of wars, occupied a lot of land, and also gained itself a lot of mineral resources and increased its industrial scale.

As time entered 1935, the size of the island country's army was close to 450,000, and it was still increasing.

With help from Germany, the island nation will be able to expand its army more easily.

They have the largest population among the great powers and can easily expand their army to millions of people.

Since all countries in the world have been continuously expanding their armies and navies, Australasia has no need to hide its strength.

On March 7, 1935, Arthur signed the Army Expansion Order, announcing that the Australasian army would be expanded to more than 570,000 troops in the next three years.

The number of infantry divisions in Australasia will be expanded from 15 to 22, and the number of cavalry divisions will be expanded from 4 to 8.

In addition, the number of artillery divisions will be expanded from 6 to 10, and the number of tank divisions will be expanded from 3 to 5.

The newly added 16th to 18th Infantry Divisions will form the 8th Army of the Australasian Defense Forces with the 5th Cavalry Division and the 7th Artillery Division.

The 19th Infantry Division to the 22nd Infantry Division will form the 9th Army of the Australasian Defense Force with the 6th Cavalry and 8th Artillery Division.

In addition to these two newly formed corps, the 7th Cavalry Division will be dispatched to the 2nd Army, the 8th Cavalry Division and the 9th Artillery Division will be dispatched to the 4th Army, and the 10th Artillery Division will be dispatched to the 3rd Army army to enhance the number of soldiers and comprehensive combat capabilities between the armies.

As for the two newly formed tank divisions, they will be merged into the 7th Army, making the 7th Army a super tank army with 5 tank divisions.

Of course, the final army organization in Arthur's mind is to disperse the tanks into various units to achieve tactical infantry-tank coordination.

But that can only be done after Australasia's tank production catches up. This tactic has been practiced in military academies, and many new discoveries have been made about the coordination of tanks and infantry armies.

In addition to the expansion of the conventional army, the Royal Guards directly under Arthur will also usher in a small-scale expansion.

The Guards currently has 2 Guards Infantry Divisions and 1 Guards Cavalry Division, but the overall number is still too small.

In this expansion, the Guards will expand into a comprehensive super force with 2 Guards infantry divisions, 1 Guards cavalry division, 1 Guards artillery division and 1 Guards armored division.

Among the troops directly under the corps level, there are also many special types of troops including special forces.

If this military expansion is completed, the number of Australasian troops will be at the forefront of the world, second only to Russia, Italy and France.

If we look at the comprehensive combat effectiveness of the army, Australasia's army will be number one in the world in terms of comprehensive combat effectiveness.

Of course, all this can only happen if the size of the armies of each country does not change much.

If various countries expand their armies to a certain extent in the past three years, especially the Germans who have been showing their fangs, their army combat effectiveness will not be much inferior to that of Australasia.

But in any case, such a military expansion order will greatly improve Australasia's military strength.

No matter when the war breaks out, Australasia, which has a larger army, can ensure that it will not suffer losses in the early stages of the war.

Even if the enemy's troops gather in a hurry, Australasia can achieve the effect of being one step ahead.

In fact, judging from the current population structure of Australasia, it is only an expansion of 170,000 troops, which should be completed soon.

Especially under Arthur's order, the expansion of 170,000 people can be completed within a month.

But Arthur still chose to set the time at three years, which was also done after certain considerations. The first is to avoid more intense army arms competition with other countries.

Australasia’s military expansion this time is bound to attract the attention of other countries. Especially the island countries, which are currently at war, naturally have to be prepared for Australasia's actions.

If Australasia rapidly expands its military, the island country is likely to react and quickly expand its army to a larger number.

This is not worth the gain for Arthur. After all, if a war is really going to break out, it must be best to start it when the enemy is not ready.

The size of the army of 570,000 is a rather tricky number. Further up, the armies of France and Italy both remain at around 600,000, which is a little larger than the army of Australasia.

Although there are only 30,000 more people, it is still a real increase.

This gap of 30,000 people can save Australasia a lot of trouble, and also limit the world-wide army arms race to about 550,000 to 600,000.

If other countries want to expand to more than 550,000 people, they have to consider whether such an action will cause a stress response in other countries and rapidly increase the army arms race from a level of about 550,000 to a fierce competition of about one million. .

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