Chapter 389 We Were Defeated
The Battle of the Marne ended with the victory of the British and French forces.
Of course, such a victory was rather tragic. In order to destroy the German First and Second Armies, France paid nearly 220,000 casualties, and the British Expeditionary Force also suffered more than 40,000 casualties.
On the German side, the First and Second Armies lost most of their combat effectiveness, and the number of casualties was nearly 220,000.
It was a battle in which the French and German armies had a relatively close ratio of casualties since the outbreak of the war, and it was the battle in which the German army suffered the greatest losses.
When William II heard the news of the defeat at the Marne, he could not help but get angry and asked Moltke the Younger: "Why did you order a retreat from the Marne?"
Seeing that the German army was very close to Paris, retreating at this time not only meant the failure of Germany's planned strategy of attacking the west and defending the east, but also meant that Germany's chances of victory had been reduced by half.
At this time, Moltke the Younger was speechless, his face was pale, and his expression was depressed. After hesitating for a long time, he spoke to William II: "Your Majesty, I'm afraid it's not just a retreat from the Marne River. I think we have already lost this war."
The failure of the revised Schlieffen Plan also means that Germany has completely failed at the overall strategic level.
Unable to defeat France in a short period of time, Germany, which is facing the two-front war between France and Russia, can never be the opponent of the Allies.
What's more, France and Russia also have assistance from Britain and Australasia, which is not mentioned in the Schlieffen Plan at all, that is, France and Russia are actually stronger than Germany.
The Schlieffen Plan is an excellent strategic plan for fighting against France and Russia, but this plan does not take into account the factors of other countries, such as Britain and Australasia.
In the previous Battle of the Marne, the British Expeditionary Force played a crucial role and shared a considerable part of the pressure for the French army.
What's more, without the material support of Britain and Australasia, the military mobilization of France and Russia would not have been so successful and rapid, and the pressure of Germany's two-front war would have been relieved a lot.
But how could the radical William II accept the failure of the war? Just the next day, William II dismissed Moltke the Younger from the post of Chief of Staff on the pretext that Moltke the Younger was ill, and appointed Army Minister Falkenhayn as the new Chief of Staff.
On the day Falkenhayn took office, William II patted Falkenhayn on the shoulder and said a crucial sentence: "I don't accept the defeat of this war, and Germany won't accept it either. Either fight to the last soldier, or destroy the damn Allied Powers and end this damn war."
Unfortunately, Germany lost the initiative in the war after the defeat of the Battle of the Marne.
The French army relieved a considerable part of the pressure and successfully transformed the war on the Western Front into a protracted war of attrition.
The French army built a large number of trenches and defensive positions in the current front area, with the intention of either stepping over the corpses or staying in front of the positions.
There is also bad news for Germany. In addition to the forces of the Western Front War, Russia also organized a large number of troops on the Eastern Front to charge at the German positions.
In the month before the war began, the Russians mostly focused on the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
The Austro-Hungarian Empire took on most of the Russian troops for Germany, which gave Germany enough time and troops to complete the war on the Western Front.
But the Austro-Hungarian Empire could not withstand the entire Russian offensive, not to mention the assistance of Serbia.
Perhaps it was because of its own selfishness. Under the order of Franz I, the Austro-Hungarian Empire did not implement William II's opinion very well, that is, to take defensive measures against Serbia and attack the Russian border with all its strength.
This led to a considerable part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire's troops staying on the Serbian border, blocking the Serbian residents with iron-like confidence.
After obtaining material assistance from Britain and Australasia, Russia's military mobilization progress has made considerable progress, organizing hundreds of thousands of troops to attack the German border.
Although Russia failed in the offensive and defensive battle on the German-Russian border, it still caused a considerable impact on Germany's eastern border and suffered huge casualties.
Although the casualties on the Russian side were greater, for Russia, the least lacking thing is farmers who can take up weapons and become soldiers at any time.
Of course, the serious problems facing Germany now have nothing to do with Moltke the Younger. All the messes were left to the new Chief of Staff Falkenhayn to solve.
Falkenhayn's first order after taking office was to send troops to attack Antwerp, Belgium, to eliminate the threat of the rear flank of the German army in France.
Antwerp is an important port in Belgium, only more than 80 kilometers away from the North Sea, and is regarded as a safety valve by the United Kingdom.
At this time, 150,000 Belgian troops and 20,000 British troops gathered in Antwerp.
In order to capture the strong city of Antwerp, Falkenhayn not only sent the German army that still had combat effectiveness, but also summoned a large number of college student reserves and volunteers from Germany.
It is reported that Falkenhayn summoned a full 36,000 college student reserves alone to participate in the attack and defense of Antwerp.
Such figures are very exaggerated, and also prove Germany's efforts and achievements in education.
You know, in the whole of Australasia, the number of college graduates each year is only more than 4,000.
Australasia has only about 40,000 college students in the past decade of education development.
Germany deployed nearly 40,000 college students in a single battle. Such arrogance is something that a country like Australasia could not even imagine.
Of course, the ending of the arrogance is also tragic. Among the 36,000 college student reserve troops, only less than 6,000 survived the Battle of Antwerp, only one-sixth of the total number.
It is worth mentioning that among these surviving reserve troops, there is a well-known name, that is, Adolf Hitler, who launched the Second World War.
At this time, Hitler was just a sergeant, an ordinary soldier who fought for his country.
At this time, he could not have imagined his future glory and the disaster he brought to the European people.
The German army broke through Antwerp on October 10, and a few days before Germany broke through Antwerp, the Australasian Expeditionary Force arrived in France one after another, and took French trains and transportation to the German-French border to join this war of attrition.
Because the Australasian Ministry of Defense and its subordinate staff were extremely far away from the European battlefield, under Arthur's order, Scott Malone, the commander of the 4th Division, was promoted to the temporary commander-in-chief of the Australasian Expeditionary Force, controlling up to 300,000 colonial troops.
According to Arthur's plan, the division commander of each main army going to the European battlefield would become the temporary commander-in-chief of the expeditionary force.
During the period when they served as the temporary commander-in-chief of the expeditionary force, it was not only a training of their command ability, but also a trust in them.
After all, this is also an army of more than 300,000, and all the command power is in the hands of one person, which shows the trust of the country and the royal family in him.
In fact, although these more than 300,000 military mercenaries are outside, Arthur is not worried about any accidents in these troops, such as the situation of officers and mercenaries becoming independent.
After all, the material consumption of these more than 300,000 troops is a problem. Although Britain bears half of it, the other half is borne by Australasia itself.
In addition to the good relationship between Britain and Australasia, if the Australasian Expeditionary Force escapes from the control of the government, the first thing it will face is the problem of food, drink, defecation and urination for 300,000 people.
As time entered October 1914, the European battlefield became much quieter. The huge offensive and defensive war that mobilized millions of troops has ended. The next war is a war of attrition about national potential.
Among all the participating countries, the easiest ones should be the British Empire and Australasia.
If you have to decide who wins and who loses, Australasia is actually easier than the British Empire.
After all, the British Empire is still in Europe after all, and is very close to France and Germany.
If France is defeated and Germany annexes part of Western European territory, it is entirely possible to expand its influence to the British sphere of influence, such as across the English Channel and the North Sea.
This is unacceptable to the British Empire. If Germany dominates the European continent, then Britain's hegemony will no longer exist.
But Australasia does not have such troubles. Australasia is located in the distant Oceania and does not have to worry about the influence of European countries.
This also led to Australasia being the only country among all the participating countries that was not greatly affected by the war. Even the economy of Australasia has achieved considerable growth due to the large amount of export trade to the Allies.
Kevin, the Minister of Finance, once reported to Arthur with a smile that if the current situation continued, Australia's financial situation would become better in 1914, and fiscal revenue would also rise steadily.
More importantly, because the army and navy were cooperating with the Allies in the war, Britain had to bear nearly half of Australasia's military expenses.
In this way, under the premise of Australasia's fiscal revenue growth, fiscal expenditure, especially military expenditure, has actually decreased.
This is still under the premise that European countries have certain material reserves and the demand for foreign orders is not large.
When the war continues to develop and European countries need a large amount of weapons and equipment and resources, Australasia's finances will have greater room for growth.
Arthur now understands how good the mood of Americans was in the original history of World War I.
This feeling of sitting on the mountain and watching the tigers fight and making a lot of money is really too good. If Britain and France were not allies of Australasia, and Australasia still needed the support of Britain and France to fight against the United States, Arthur even wanted to add a few more fuel to the European war, balance the balance, and play the advantages of the British.
Balanced policy, a troublemaker. In this era, the British Empire is famous for its policies and reputation all over the world.
As a monarch from the British royal family, Arthur said that this policy is still desirable, at least it is not a loss to use it on the enemy.
At the end of October 1914, Arthur visited the Royal Dockyard about the construction of warships and gave a speech, which won cheers and applause from everyone on the scene.
Then, Arthur visited the major military factories and the current recruitment and production situation.
The production of military factories is related to the income of the royal family and the Australasia government, and Arthur attaches great importance to it.
After all, only production can make money. If only an order is signed, Russia will not be stupid enough to pay the full amount directly.
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