Chapter 1322 New Meat Grinder Southern Front Battlefield

Chapter 1322 New Meat Grinder - Southern Front

The Allies used carrots and sticks, and Romania had no choice but to obey. This naturally went against Ferdinand I's wish to be "neutral" in the end, so it is understandable that Ferdinand I was dissatisfied.

Of course, Ferdinand I had a lot of little thoughts. The reason why he agreed to join the Allies was definitely not just because of the threats from the Allies. In essence, it also shows that he was optimistic about the future of the Allied camp.

Although the United States' joining has led to the great momentum of the Allies, the Allies currently have an advantage in Europe's military, not to mention that there is still a German country in East Africa overseas that has not ended.

Crown Prince Rudolf did not care about Ferdinand I's little thoughts. He just wanted Romania to obey the arrangements of the Allies, or Germany and Austria.

Crown Prince Rudolf said: "You don't have to worry too much. We don't need Romania to join the Western Front. Your main task is to assist my country, Bulgaria, and the Ottoman Empire to attack Greece, Albania and other countries in the Balkan Peninsula."

"At the same time, organize at least 200,000 expeditionary forces to enter the Ottoman Empire to assist my country and the Ottoman Empire in regaining the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea coast and opening up trade routes between the Alliance and East Africa."

"The Allied forces in these two directions are not strong. If we can defeat the Allied forces in these two directions, our chances of winning will be greater."

Although the Allies have acquired a large amount of Russian territory, it will take time to reorganize local industrial and agricultural production to feed back to the Allies, and these new territories cannot provide the Allies with strategic materials such as cotton, rubber, and sugar.

Therefore, the Allies clearly know that only by breaking the Allied maritime blockade can the Allies be invincible.

The easiest thing to achieve is to recapture the Ottoman Empire's land along the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea, so Crown Prince Rudolf decided after discussing with Wilhelm II of Germany that the Austro-Hungarian Empire would lead the new Eastern Front.

Lead the Ottoman Empire, Bulgaria, and Romania to clear the Allied forces in the Balkan Peninsula and the Middle East.

…

Romania's participation in the war and joining the Allies was very bad news for the Allies. In addition to adding nearly 600,000 elite troops to the Allies, Romania also solved the Allies' oil gap.

Because of the investment of East African and other countries in Romania's oil fields, its oil production exceeded the historical level of the same period, so relying on Romania's current oil production to ensure the operation of the Allies' cars and machines is no problem, not to mention that Russia's Baku oil field will also complement the Allies in the future.

Moreover, in the trade between East Africa and the Allies before 1918, the Allies themselves had a large reserve of gasoline and diesel.

This means that for a long time, the Allies do not need to feel nervous about energy issues. At present, the energy needed by the Allies is nothing more than coal and oil, and the Allies have never lacked coal. Several Allied member states are coal-producing countries.

In addition to ensuring industrial production and military needs, the most important energy for the Allies is to ensure people's livelihood, especially heating in cities in winter, especially Germany, which is responsible for the Allied forces.

Germany is the only high-latitude country among the Allies, and it is also the most developed industrial country with the largest population, so Germany's demand for energy far exceeds that of allies such as the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Ottoman Empire.

After solving the energy problem, Germany's biggest problem is the food problem. After all, human survival is inseparable from the word "food and clothing", so energy and food are the most basic problems, but the food problem is also being alleviated after occupying the grain-producing areas of Eastern Europe.

In addition to obtaining new channels for obtaining food, trade with East Africa is also an important reason why German society can be maintained normally. From 1914 to 1918, East Africa exported a large amount of agricultural products to the Allies.

Especially important agricultural products such as wheat, meat, and sugar, which not only maintain the basic livelihood needs of the Allies, but also allow the Allies to import tropical fruits and vegetables, meat, eggs, milk, desserts and other non-essential materials from East Africa.

A typical data can illustrate the importance of East African export trade to the Allies. In the past, the Germans estimated that at least 700,000 Germans died of hunger or hunger-induced diseases in World War I. Because of the existence of East Africa, Germany's basic living materials could barely be maintained before 1918.

Not to mention that the Allies still have the ability to import non-essential materials from East Africa. In the past, Germany's food shortage problem was so serious that it threatened the survival of the nobles.

For example, Blücher, a British woman who married a Prussian noble in her previous life, wrote in her diary in January 1917: "We are getting thinner every day. The plump figure of the German nation has become a legend of the past. We are now skinny, with dark circles around our eyes, and we mainly think about what the next meal will be."

Assuming that there was no trade between East Africa and the Allies, the Allies would have been difficult to maintain as early as the beginning of 1917. After all, even the nobles were disturbed by the problem of food shortage, and the living environment of the civilians can be imagined.

So it is very important for the Allies to reopen trade with East Africa, which is also the main reason why Germany supported allies such as the Austro-Hungarian Empire to seize the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea coast.

For this reason, the Allies were even willing to give up part of their troops to support the Western Front battlefield, and first wipe out the Allied forces in the Balkans and the Ottoman Empire in order to realize the strategy of reopening trade with East Africa.

This strategy basically relied on the army as the main force. Although the naval strength of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Ottoman Empire still existed, they could not shake the British and French navies that had absolute dominance in the Mediterranean.

If it were not for the weakness of the navy, the Allies' target would probably not be the Balkans and the Middle East, but the Suez Canal under British control.

August 1918.

With Austria-Hungary as the main force and Bulgaria and Romania as auxiliaries, the Allies assembled nearly 1.2 million new troops and officially set off to fight in the Balkans and the Ottoman Empire.

Among them, 700,000 were from Austria-Hungary, 300,000 from Bulgaria, and 200,000 from Romania, plus the Allied forces originally fighting on the front lines in Greece and Albania, as well as the Ottoman Empire.

On the battlefield from the Balkans to the Middle East, the size of the Allied forces exceeds five million. Among them, the Ottoman Empire has the largest army, reaching more than two million, followed by the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which is close to two million. Bulgaria's military strength in the Balkans is approximately More than 700,000, and finally Romania has just joined. Although Romania only has 200,000 participants in the war, Romania will gradually increase its military strength in the future.

As for the Allied Powers, mainly Britain, France and Greece, the number of troops recruited from their respective colonies is about four million.

However, the composition of the Allied forces was worrisome. Among them, the United Kingdom had the largest number. The number of British troops in the Middle East reached a staggering two million, but nearly 90% of the British troops were Indians. The French army was basically composed of blacks and North African whites. This means that although the British and French armies are large in number, their actual combat effectiveness may not be as reliable as that of Greece, which has less than 700,000 troops.

The increase in troops by the Allies and the Entente to the Balkans and Middle East battlefields has completely upgraded the so-called "new" Eastern Front battlefield to the Southern Front battlefield that is no less inferior to the Western and Eastern Fronts in World War I.

The two sides have nearly 10 million troops fighting on the long front from the Balkans to the Middle East. As time goes by, Britain and France will definitely continue to recruit troops from India, Southeast Asia, North Africa, West Africa and other colonies to support the southern battlefield.

It is only a matter of time before the strength of both sides on the Southern Front exceeds 10 million, which will quickly turn the entire Southern Front into a new meat grinder.