Chapter 411 Landing in the Persian Gulf

Arthur acted quickly. On July 10, 1915, the Aviation Research Laboratory split the aircraft and aviation industry, and all industries related to aircraft research and development and manufacturing were transferred to a new factory, the Royal Aircraft Manufacturing Factory.

Konstantin Tsiolkovsky also successfully became a astronautics expert and rocket expert at the Aviation Research Institute, responsible for theoretical research in astronautics and rockets.

Arthur even encouraged Tsiolkovsky to attract familiar aviation experts from Russia and other places to work in Australasia, and Arthur would give more generous positions and rewards.

Australasia's astronautics and rocket research and development will also be carried out first from the Aviation Laboratory.

However, neither astronautics nor rockets will be scientific research projects that will produce results in a short period of time.

Including nuclear weapons, which Arthur had long thought of, the research time of these things is calculated in decades. It is enough for Arthur to have some clues before World War II.

The most important task for Australasia at present is to win this war, earn more profits in this war, and preferably establish Australasia as the fourth power after World War I, after Britain, France, and the United States.

As for surpassing Britain, France, and the United States, before Britain and France lost most of their colonies, before the United States officially joined the war and was defeated by the Allied Forces, it was unlikely to be achieved.

Let’s not talk about Britain and France for now, after all, they are old colonial powers. The United States also has a wide range of land and a larger population, and its industry and economy are far superior to Australasia. It is not something that Australasia can easily surpass for the time being.

The only way to quickly surpass the United States during World War I was for the Americans to be confused, directly support Germany and join the Allies.

Under the joint efforts of the five major powers of Britain, France, Russia, Australia, and Italy, even if the United States joins the Allies in the future, it will definitely not be the opponent of the Allies.

This is certain. The only thing to blame is that the American military strength is not too strong, and the role it plays in Germany is more of a transportation resource.

But Germany's geographical location suffered huge restrictions. The North Sea and the Mediterranean Sea leading to the Allies had long been jointly blocked by the Allied fleets.

Turning our attention back to the war in Europe, on the Balkan front, after the fall of Constantinople, the defeat of the Ottoman Empire had become inevitable.

It is worth noting that the large hills and plains west of Constantinople are important grain-producing areas in the Ottoman Empire.

But this area fell the fastest in the war, which also led to the Ottoman Empire's food production not being enough, especially when the war accelerated consumption.

In addition, the Allied forces landed on the border of the Ottoman Empire, causing the Ottoman Empire to face a very serious crisis.

The army lacked weapons and ammunition, the people lacked food and clothing, and everyone lacked medical supplies. This caused the Ottoman Empire to collapse internally. It depends on when the Allied heavy punch will collapse its appearance.

Martin, the division commander, had Arthur's advance order and was not very interested in attacking the Anatolian Peninsula.

After leaving part of the Balkan army to fight in the Anatolian Peninsula, Division Commander Martin led the Australasian Expeditionary Force of less than 100,000 people and went south along the Suez Canal, intending to land near the Persian Gulf and open up a new battlefield.

In later generations, it is well known that the place with the largest oil reserves in the world is the Middle East, and the place with the largest oil reserves in the Middle East is the coast of the Persian Gulf.

It is no exaggeration to say that the Persian Gulf coastal countries such as Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar, etc. on the coast of the Persian Gulf in later generations account for more than half of the world's oil reserves, and the annual output value is as high as one-third of the world's total oil production.

In this area, Britain only occupied the truce states (the United Arab Emirates) and the Bahrain Protectorate as well as Kuwait and Qatar. Saudi Arabia, Iraq and other regions are still under the rule of local natives or Ottomans.

More importantly, the number of British troops in this area is not large, and the British offensive is mainly concentrated in the Egyptian region.

This also means that Australasia can completely select suitable land from this area to occupy, and as long as Britain, France and Russia agree, it can also obtain the sovereignty of this land after the war.

In fact, the only difficulty is to obtain the consent of the British. This place is too far away from the Russians, and coupled with the good relationship between Russia and Australasia, the possibility of Russians interfering is not great.

As for the French, they thought about how to defeat the Germans during the war, and how to weaken the Germans after the war. They are not very interested in a certain inconspicuous colony in the Middle East.

As for Italy, the last great power of the Allies, his opinion is not important, and I believe that Britain, France and Russia will think so.

It is not surprising that the four great powers of the Allies looked down on Italy. The Austro-Hungarian Empire only deployed 100,000 troops on the border with Italy, and the 500,000 Italian troops have not crossed the border yet, which is enough to prove the incompetence of the Italian Army.

For the entire Allied structure, the current number of navies is sufficient, and what is lacking is a country that can fight against Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire on land.

Obviously, Italy is not. Even Britain and France had originally thought of asking Italy to send troops to support the German-French border, but after the frequent reports of Italy's defeat, they immediately gave up this idea.

The Italian army would only cause trouble, this was the consensus reached by the British and French commanders after looking at each other.

Although this does not represent the combat effectiveness of some elite Italian troops, the overall combat effectiveness of the Italian army is indeed very poor, and it should be considered the worst among all the European powers.

Although Britain may be able to prevent Australasia from acquiring new colonies in the Middle East, it is unlikely that the efforts to prevent it will be too great.

Oil has indeed been discovered in the Middle East. It was Iran that discovered oil fields in the Suleiman region of Muscat, while no valuable large oil fields have been found in the lands controlled by the Ottoman Empire and the United Kingdom.

The discovery of large oil fields will have to wait until the 1930s, which is nearly 20 years away from now at the earliest.

In addition, this land is far from the Suez Canal and India, and will not endanger Britain's vital Mediterranean Suez Canal, Indian Ocean, and Indian routes.

For the British, India and the Suez Canal are the most important, while other regions are not as important.

As long as certain concessions are made in other interests, such as the allocation of German warships after the war, the British will not prevent Australasia from expanding in the Middle East.

The expansion direction planned by Arthur along the Persian Gulf coast is initially set as the Iraqi and Saudi Arabian Persian Gulf coast line, while trying to win Qatar.

This area has a large amount of oil reserves and is close to the Persian Gulf, so it can be better transported by sea.

Both the coast of Iraq and the coast of the Persian Gulf in Saudi Arabia have large oil reserves, and are currently under the control of local indigenous peoples or the Ottoman Empire, making them a perfect soft persimmon.

The only special point is Qatar, which was claimed by the United Kingdom, but it really fell into the hands of the British after the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in World War I.

The area of ​​Qatar is not large, and if some interests are given up, it should be possible to exchange them from the hands of the British.

As for Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, which are already controlled by the British Empire, Arthur has no intention of destroying relations with Britain for the time being, and the British Empire is not something that Australasia can afford to offend for the time being.

It was also under Arthur's order that Division Commander Martin led the Australasia Expeditionary Force, with a clear goal of landing on the coast of the Persian Gulf, heading north, intending to break through from the Saudi region to the Iraqi region.

At present, there are wars everywhere in the Ottoman Empire. The Iraqi region is one of the few grain-producing areas in the Ottoman Empire, which is very important to the Ottoman Empire.

Once the Mesopotamian Plain in Iraq fell, the Ottoman Empire would face a more serious food crisis. If it did not surrender, famine would be enough to cause civil unrest in the Ottoman Empire.

Although launching a campaign would cause the indigenous people in this part of the Middle East to suffer from the harm of war, and even be affected by the war, with large-scale deaths.

But for Division Commander Martin, the interests of the country are above everything else. Not to mention sacrificing some indigenous people in the Middle East, Division Commander Martin is even willing to sacrifice himself when necessary.

On July 15, 1915, the Australasian Expeditionary Force officially landed near Qatar.

It is worth mentioning that at this time, Qatar and Saudi Arabia were still connected. Qatar was a peninsula, not an island.

As for why there was a river blocking Qatar and Saudi Arabia in later generations, we have to ask the Saudi government at that time.

At this time, the Rashid Emirate controlled Qatar and part of Saudi Arabia. This area was an Emirate state established by the Rashid family on the Arabian Peninsula based on the rule of the Ottoman Empire.

Simply put, the Rashid Emirate was a running dog of the Ottoman Empire.

The combat effectiveness of the Ottoman Empire's army was a mess, not to mention the indigenous countries like the Rashid Emir.

Tens of thousands of indigenous soldiers were defeated as soon as they encountered the Australasian Expeditionary Force. They were defeated as soon as they came into contact.

They had never seen the Australasian army fight so arrogantly. Bullets and shells were free of charge, which not only brought huge physical casualties to the Rashid indigenous soldiers, but also brought a major blow to their souls.

Their army was like paper and could not resist the charge of the Australasian army at all.

On July 17, the Australasian army had entered Saudi Arabia from the Qatar region and marched along the Persian Gulf coast to the Mesopotamian Plain.

There was good news for the Rashid Emir. Most of the Persian Gulf coast was under the rule of the Ottoman Empire, and their army finally did not have to face enemies like the Australasian Expeditionary Force.

But it was not so wonderful for the Ottoman Empire. The Australasian army was like a death god, rushing towards them in a mighty way.

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