The Rise of Australia

Chapter 897 The two pro-German countries and the New Balkan Alliance

After watching the specific test of the homing pigeon helicopter test machine, Arthur still has high expectations for the development of helicopters.

Even in a short period of time, the development of helicopters in Australasia can play a considerable role, and helicopters can also flood Australasia's rescue and strategic transportation fields.

After praising Douglas' company for their research, Arthur returned to the palace.

Douglas has been very busy recently. It not only has to produce the Sop-34 transport aircraft, but also improves it. It also takes time to develop helicopters. It can be said that it is doing three things at once.

Fortunately, the Sop-34 transport aircraft has now entered the assembly line production mode. Mass production can not only effectively reduce the cost of the Sop-34 transport aircraft, but also increase the construction speed of the aircraft.

Just over half a month has passed since the air raid on the Ryukyu Islands, and the number of Sop-34 transport aircraft in Australasia has increased by more than ten.

Although this treaty cannot completely guarantee their safety, it can at least ensure that they have a certain backing when facing an attack by a military group led by Germany.

What's more, William holds the position of regimental leader and does not need to charge forward. He only needs to do his job as a commander and lead the army to complete military tasks.

Within Europe, the only one that can confront Germany is the four-nation alliance of Britain, France, Austria, and Australia.

In order to train William, Arthur specially prepared a position of regimental commander for him and let him participate in the war in the East African battlefield.

On September 3, 1936, representatives of the Yugoslav state, the Greek government, the Albanian government, and the British and French governments met in Athens, Greece, to formally discuss issues related to the situation in the Balkans.

If this rate of development continues, by the time the island nation is attacked, the number of Sop-34 transport aircraft owned by Australasia will easily exceed hundreds, and the number of paratroopers transported at one time can reach tens of thousands.

The Treaty of Alliance stipulates that Yugoslavia, Albania and the Kingdom of Greece, which signed the treaty, are allies and are subject to the independent protection of Britain and France.

Although it has strengthened its defense of the Libyan colonies, Italy has clearly underestimated the ambitions of Britain, France and Australia to occupy Libya.

On August 11, 1936, the Italian East African colonies were divided among the three countries of Britain, France and Australia.

The eastern front, dominated by British and Australian troops, advanced from the direction of Sidi Barani to Tobruk and Benghazi in the Libyan colonies.

If Bulgaria and Romania surrendered to Germany, they would encircle the Balkans with Germany and Italy.

Italy had no choice but to sit back and watch its last large colony being divided up by Britain and France.

Faced with the north-south attacks from Germany and Bulgaria, the Romanian government feels under pressure, and the Romanian people also feel the threat from Germany.

If any one of the three countries is attacked by another country, it is regarded as an attack on the entire alliance. At the same time, Britain and France will provide strong support to the three countries and, if necessary, can open up a new Balkan battlefield, just like the previous World War I.

This statement was widely welcomed by the Bulgarians, and Bulgaria also joined the camp of coercing Romania.

Having said that, in the preparation stage before the war, Arthur felt that he was quite busy.

After Bulgaria and Germany signed an alliance, Bulgaria's northern neighbor Romania also experienced changes.

Compared to the Italian East African colonies, Italy values ​​these colonies on the Mediterranean Sea more.

More importantly, Yugoslavia and Italy already have territorial conflicts, and it is absolutely impossible for Yugoslavia to join the German camp.

The diplomatic representatives of Britain and France were naturally happy to see Yugoslavia, a major Balkan country, approaching them, so they expressed their willingness to support Yugoslavia and other countries.

The East African colonies are one of Italy's most important colonies and one of the few Italian colonies in Africa and even the entire world.

Australasia obtained Jubaland and Somaliland from Italy, as well as British Somaliland controlled by the British, and established the Australian Somaliland colony.

Although defeating Turkey allowed Bulgaria to gain a lot of souls, it was defeated by the Balkan countries, and the territory gained from Turkey was also divided among various countries.

Without the participation of Australasia, the Libyan colony would naturally be divided between Britain and France.

This also caused Arthur to be very idle at the moment. Apart from occasionally caring about the production status of armaments and the domestic economy, he had nothing to do.

Arthur also knew the truth well. If you are not so proficient in military command, then the best way is not to interfere with the dispatch of various departments.

Of course, giving up on Libya is not in vain. Australasia would not participate in the partition of Libya in exchange for the British possessions of Oman in the Middle East.

As for Australasia, although only 300,000 troops were sent, 50,000 of them were the main force, which was equivalent to hundreds of thousands of colonial troops. Coupled with the more than 100,000 troops from France, the combined troops of Britain, France, and Australia have exceeded one million. Facing the Italian army, which has only 500,000 defenders in total, the advantage is still huge.

Because the Libyan colony is located in the Mediterranean and surrounded by British and French colonies, Australasia has no interest in Libya.

But after the war broke out, Arthur was not so busy.

This also means that Yugoslavia actually has only one choice, which is to join the British and French camps and help Britain and France defeat Germany.

As representatives of Britain and France signed the Balkan Alliance Treaty. The three Balkan countries finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Libya is located on the Mediterranean coast, across the sea from Italy.

In order to protect their territorial security, the Balkan countries, led by Yugoslavia, had to turn their attention to Britain and France.

The first to be attacked was naturally the Abyssinian Empire, which Italy had only captured a few years ago.

If Arthur hadn't wanted to end the war against the island country too early, in fact, judging from the current technological and industrial gap between the two sides, the island country would not have been able to last long in the hands of Australasia.

As long as the island nation's navy is dispatched, it will definitely be a naval decisive battle. If it wins this naval decisive battle, the island country will actually have failed.

On August 29, 1936, Germany and Bulgaria signed an alliance, and Bulgaria officially entered the German battlefield.

Romanian Chief of Staff Ion Antonescu, with the support of Germany, vigorously promoted the pro-German theory and received the support of a considerable number of Romanians.

That's the kind of time Australasia has been waiting for. If the island nation wants to attack, the first step must be to launch an attack on the Australasian Navy.

Why do you feel free to let William participate in the war?

First of all, what the East African battlefield faced was Italy and its colonial armies. Whether it is Italy or the Italian colonial army, their combat effectiveness is only so-so compared to the German army.

During this period, although Italy tried to support the Libyan colonies, most of its resources were repulsed by the British fleet.

Arthur was not interested in the results of the partition between Britain and France, but presumably the British would not let France gain too many colonies.

According to the predictions of the Ministry of Defense and the General Staff, even if Australasia does not launch a full-scale offensive, the poor domestic conditions of the island countries will force them to launch an attack on Australasia.

Millions of British, French and Australian troops quickly entered Italy's Libyan colony with lightning speed and launched a fierce offensive on the colonial cities.

Once the Italian fleet is discovered by the British fleet, the only outcome waiting for them is sinking.

Although Oman is not as valuable as the colonies along the Persian Gulf, it can also effectively expand Australasia's colonies in the Persian Gulf, which is a good exchange of interests.

During this discussion, representatives of Yugoslavia mentioned the developments in Bulgaria and Romania, and requested support from Britain and France in this regard.

With the defeat of the African colonies, German and Italian offensives in Europe became more urgent.

Among them, the French acquired Eritrea and Afar, plus the former French Somaliland, and established the French Eritrea colony.

Yugoslavia, Albania and Greece are all in this huge encirclement.

The successive changes in Bulgaria and Romania have alarmed other Balkan countries. Once Germany reaches out to the Balkans, these Balkan countries will have no ability to resist.

Under the alliance of Britain, France and Australia, the East African battlefield was quickly opened. A large number of Allied troops arrived in the Italian colonies and launched a fierce attack on the Italian colonial troops.

The next step is Australasia's various tortures on the island countries, and the way of war with the island countries to slowly amuse themselves.

But getting around Africa isn’t easy either. Gibraltar was controlled by the British, which also meant that the Strait of Gibraltar was filled with a large number of British fleets.

As an officer who graduated from the Royal Military Academy, William still had some military command capabilities, but he had not experienced the baptism of war.

It is worth mentioning that in order to train William, Arthur had sent him to the Persian Gulf to undergo military training in the Persian Gulf.

After all, for the handling of war, Australasia has a complete Ministry of Defense, General Staff and military headquarters. Arthur only needs to coordinate the overall situation.

Under such circumstances, the pro-Germanist Ion Antonescu received support from a large number of Romanians and became a very important figure in Romania.

The news of the partition of the Italian East African colonies came back to Italy, which was like a bolt from the blue.

Germany also promised Bulgaria that as long as Romania was forced to join its own camp, Germany would take note of Romania and ask Romania to return the territory it occupied to Bulgaria since the Balkan War.

After losing its East African colonies, the only large colony left in Italy was the Libyan colony.

In order to relieve the pressure on the French, the British used the navy, a large number of air forces, and even a considerable number of tanks in this attack.

By participating in the battle under such circumstances, William's own safety can still be guaranteed.

Without the support of Italy, the East African colonies could not last more than a few days under the joint attack of the British, French and Australian forces.

At the cost of hundreds of thousands of casualties, it took Britain and France only more than half a month to successfully capture the Libyan colony and reduce Italy's sphere of influence to the Italian mainland.

Although all of these people are indigenous and their combat effectiveness is difficult to guarantee, they are still 700,000 people, so they still have a certain degree of combat effectiveness.

Even though Arthur knew that Libya had oil reserves, he still chose to give up because of Libya's remote location.

Coupled with the blockade from the navy, the current domestic situation in the island country is very chaotic and the economic situation is also very bad.

The Suez Canal is currently firmly controlled by the British, which means that Italy has no choice but to go around Africa.

In fact, you can understand from the map why the three Balkan countries became so panicked after learning about the news in Bulgaria and Romania.

In order to defend the Libyan colony, Italy announced an increase of 300,000 troops to the Libyan colony and dispatched some aircraft and tanks to Libya.

It can also be seen from the map that Italy's East African colonies, including the Abyssinian Empire, are relatively far away from the Italian mainland.

Due to German pressure, negotiations among various countries were quickly completed and a new Balkan Alliance Treaty was concluded.

In terms of offense, Britain and Australia are obviously the main forces. The British easily formed an army of nearly 700,000 with the help of Indian, South African and Egyptian armies.

It is precisely because of this history that Bulgaria hates several of its neighboring countries, which is why they chose to join Germany.

If Italy wanted to go from its mainland to its East African colonies, it had to either go through the Suez Canal or go around the entire Africa.

The British acquired the entire Abyssinian Empire and established the British Colony of Abyssinia.

The Western Front offensive was dominated by British and French troops, advancing from the direction of Gabes towards Tripoli, one of the few cities in Libya.

Even if Australasia is not doing its best, the current situation in the island nation is very bad. After losing the Ryukyu Islands, the Australasian Air Force would harass the mainland cities of the island country from time to time and conduct air raids on the more important areas of the island country.

There are only two directions for attacking Libya, namely the east and the west.

Bulgaria's surrender to Germany made the situation in the Balkans even more anxious. You know, Bulgaria was also the losing side in the last world war.

This also means that without external support, it will be difficult for the three countries to fight against the entire German-Italian military group, and it is very likely that they will be quickly defeated by the German army.

With the support of Britain and France, at least the Royal Fleet would ensure their safety. Even if they face the risk of national annihilation, they can go to London by sea and form a government in exile to continue resisting Germany.

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