Chapter 785: Verdun Meat Grinder South American Version
France and Britain encountered various problems one after another, making mid-1931 less peaceful.
Of course, because the supporters behind Paraguay and Bolivia were in chaos, the war in South America once again became a fair duel between Paraguay and Bolivia.
In terms of land area and population, Bolivia has a great advantage. However, Bolivia's early purchase of weapons and equipment focused on tanks and aircraft, and these two weapons could not play a big role in the North Chaco region.
On the contrary, Paraguay, relying on the large number of light weapons purchased, was able to maintain its firepower advantage in the North Chaco region.
In particular, various types of machine guns, like killing gods in the North Chaco region, a few machine guns can defend a position and delay the enemy's attack outside the front line.
At this time, Australasia, the only one left to watch the show, became very important. Australasia's attitude not only determines the speed at which Britain and France solve domestic problems, but also determines who can gain the advantage in the war in South America.
Because he had reached a cooperation with the British before, Arthur's goal was still to help Paraguay win the war and obtain a share of the benefits belonging to Australasia.
As for who between Britain and France could solve the problem first, that was not something Arthur should consider.
Having said that, the problems currently faced by Britain and France are indeed difficult, but they are definitely not unsolvable.
It's nothing more than how much time it takes for Britain and France, and how much impact it has on the colonial rule (sphere of influence) of Britain and France.
For Arthur, perhaps this is still good news. Only when there is a problem in India will the British realize the seriousness of the problem.
In order to prevent India from being out of their control, they will compromise with Australasia in other places.
Anyway, Arthur is not interested in India. It would be best to help the British stabilize their rule in India to obtain the land and benefits they want.
After successfully diverting the British attention to India, the French did not dare to be careless and sent a fleet to the south coast of the United States. The threat is self-evident.
In addition to threatening Mexico, the French government also contacted the Lone Star Republic government and agreed to conduct a naval exercise on the south coast of the United States, with the participation of both navies.
Secondly, France said it would provide a batch of interest-free loans to the Lone Star Republic, and privately promised that if it won the war in South America, half of the oil in the Upper Chak region would be given to Mobil Oil Company for exploitation, which won the support of the Lone Star Republic, including Mobil Oil Company.
On the British side, the trouble is actually bigger. India's area and population are far larger than the Lone Star Republic, and the trouble it can cause is definitely not comparable to that of a small Mexico.
After Prabati got the weapons and equipment supported by the French, he launched an armed rebellion in India without Gandhi's knowledge.
Because the British had no defense at the beginning, Prabati's armed rebellion successfully attacked several small towns in India and occupied the police stations and arsenals in these small towns.
When the news of Prabati's armed rebellion reached higher levels, it immediately aroused the anger of a large number of British people.
Britain decisively adopted armed suppression against Gandhi's non-violent marches, not to mention armed rebellions like Prabati's.
At the order of the Governor-General of India, the Indian garrison troops were dispatched, aiming directly at Prabhati.
Because Prabhati was an important member of the Congress Party, the Indian government directly declared the Congress Party illegal and issued wanted orders to many members of the Congress Party, including Gandhi.
What Gandhi did not expect was that he promoted two non-violent marches and attracted thousands of Indian people to support his actions, but he failed to successfully get on the wanted list of the Indian government.
But just because of Prabhati's armed rebellion, most members of the Congress Party, including himself, were honored to be on the list.
The good news is that Prabhati's armed forces are less than 10,000 people, and the current impact is only a few small towns in India.
As long as it can be controlled in time and Prabhati's armed rebellion is controlled within a certain range, it will not cause harm to the rule of the whole of India.
But the bad news is that Prabhati's armed rebellion seems to have opened a new path for other forces in India.
Even if Prabhati's rebellion can be suppressed, the British have to worry about the rebellion of other forces in India.
It can be said that after Prabhati's armed rebellion, the difficulty of Britain's rule over India will rise again.
Even if nothing unexpected happens, even the time of India's independence will be advanced.
With Bolivia's full mobilization, Bolivia has taken an advantage in terms of the number of army personnel.
In order to help Paraguay win the war, Australasia sent a military exchange group with less than 100 people, but all of them were outstanding young officers who graduated or were about to graduate from the Australasia Military Academy.
In addition to helping Paraguay win the war, the purpose of sending these people to Paraguay was that Arthur wanted to train young officers in Australasia.
Although after more than 30 years of hard work, the military academy in Australasia has become world-famous. There are countless outstanding officers trained every year, and they are very famous both at home and abroad.
But if an officer has not experienced actual combat, it can only be said that he has the potential to become an excellent officer.
Only officers who have been tempered by war can be called excellent officers. With this purpose in mind, the Ministry of Defense plans to train young officers in Australasia in this war, and Arthur also agrees with this idea.
If it weren't for the fact that the armies of both sides in this war were not too large, Arthur would even want to rotate the Australasia army to hone their fighting will in a real war and improve the army's combat effectiveness.
You know, more than ten years have passed since World War I, and most of the soldiers in the army have already retired.
In addition to the previous expansion of the army, many new soldiers have not seen the real battlefield, and they don't know the cruelty of war.
Although Arthur trusts the military training system and the combat effectiveness of a strictly trained army.
But participating in war and not participating in war are two levels for a soldier. Only after experiencing a real war and the test of death can a soldier undergo a real transformation and become an excellent elite soldier.
After World War I, Australasia experienced very few wars. The largest war was the one to destroy the United States, in which Australasia sent out more than 100,000 soldiers.
However, the reference value of that war was relatively low. Most of the main American forces were delayed to the Eastern Front, and the Australasia army faced mostly the National Guard of various states in the Western Front.
As the Australasia Youth Officers Corps arrived in Paraguay, it immediately took over the command of part of the Paraguayan army.
Under the creative command of these young officers, the Paraguayan army, relying on Australasia's weapons and equipment, broke out with far more combat effectiveness than before.
This is indeed the gap between powerful countries and weak countries. Even if both sides have the same weapons and equipment, the difference in tactical thinking and experience, as well as the familiarity and application of weapons and equipment, also determines the combat effectiveness gap between the two armies.
In order to make up for the shortcomings of the Paraguayan army in the air force, Australasia also exported several reconnaissance aircraft to Paraguay.
These reconnaissance aircraft are backward products that Australasia has eliminated before, and they are carefully kept in warehouses, waiting for such a war opportunity to sell them.
At present, there are more than 2,000 such obsolete aircraft in the Australasia military warehouse.
Even if Australasia offers Paraguay a friendly price of 50,000 Australian dollars per aircraft, these more than 2,000 aircraft can still generate more than 50 million Australian dollars in revenue for Australasia.
As for whether other countries will buy such obsolete aircraft, Australasia does not have too many concerns.
Although it is an obsolete product for Australasia, for most countries in the world, such aircraft are still advanced products that they are unable to develop and manufacture.
Even proudly speaking, except for the British who may have the technology to manufacture comparable aircraft, other countries, including the second power France, may not be able to manufacture the aircraft that Australasia has eliminated.
What's more terrible is that Australasia's first-generation jet aircraft is about to be eliminated, and the second-generation jet aircraft is about to enter the stage.
But the jet engines of other countries are still under development, and the leading progress in aircraft and jet engines is enough for Arthur to confidently finish World War II.
Although there are only a few reconnaissance planes, they are far behind Bolivia in terms of quantity. But the number of airplanes is not enough. Whether good airplanes can be used is very important for the war.
Coincidentally, many of these officers came from the Air Force Academy, which not only helped Paraguay train excellent air force soldiers, but also directly took these planes for reconnaissance missions.
It is precisely because of the reconnaissance force from the air that Paraguay's disadvantages in the sky during the war were also made up.
Taking advantage of the fact that Bolivia had just carried out a general mobilization and the army had not yet completed training, Paraguay launched a full-scale offensive and successfully drove the Bolivian army out of the previous border.
On July 3, 1931, the Paraguayan army, under the command of José Felix Estigarribia, recaptured the important military town of Pitiántuta on the front line.
This is not over yet. In just less than four days, with the help of the Australasian officer corps, José Felix Estigarribia led less than 3,000 soldiers to attack the Bolivian front-line headquarters, Fort Arce, and successfully annihilated more than 1,500 Bolivian soldiers.
It was after this unexpected raid that the offensive of Bolivia and Paraguay on the front line was completely reversed.
Bolivia changed from the original offense to defense, and Paraguay changed from the original defense to offense.
Especially after the front-line headquarters Arce was raided, the command of the Bolivian army on the front line fell into chaos.
Although the commander of the Bolivian army successfully withdrew to the rear, his guards and the front-line command system all remained in Arce.
After successfully occupying Arce, the war shifted from Paraguay to Bolivia.
This is good news for Paraguay. After all, Paraguay is a country with less land and even fewer people, and its land cannot withstand the ravages of war.
Now that the war has been transferred to Bolivia's territory, at least Paraguay's territory can be guaranteed to be safe and the losses in the war will be reduced a lot.
But since then, Paraguay's offensive has not been so smooth. Starting from July 8, the offensive of both sides has become a long war of attrition and tug-of-war.
The war has also become very tragic, with casualties on both sides approaching hundreds of people every day, at least dozens of soldiers died every day, and the number of injured soldiers is endless.
On July 22, 1931, the Paraguayan army set its offensive target on Saavedra. Because there is an open area called 7 kilometers in front of Saavedra, the main battlefield of this offensive and defensive battle was also placed here.
At this time, the French commander Louis William Dedeville, a more traditional and old-fashioned commander, commanded the Bolivian army.
This offensive and defensive battle is very important for both Bolivia and Paraguay. In order to win this war, both sides have invested a lot of troops.
Bolivia has invested about 30,000 troops, more than half of which are the latest recruits.
On the Paraguayan side, adhering to the principle that the number of attackers in an offensive and defensive battle should be greater than that of defenders, the Paraguayan army was close to 20,000.
In this open area called the Seven Kilometers, the armies of both sides fought a fierce bloody battle.
Although the Bolivian army had dug trenches in advance, most of their troops were new recruits, and the highest commander was French, and the language barrier between them created certain obstacles for the army's operations.
But it was different on the Paraguayan side. Lieutenant Colonel Jose Felix Estigarribia, who led the army to recapture Pitiantuta, has been successfully promoted to colonel and appointed commander of the Saavedra offensive.
Although Jose Felix Estigarribia also had the help of officers from Australasia, the command of the Paraguayan army was still in Jose's hands.
The advantage of doing this is that the language is more fluent, and the soldiers can better understand what orders their commanders have issued.
Secondly, letting Jose command the Paraguayan soldiers is still more trusting of each other. Compared to letting Australasian officers command Paraguayan soldiers, these Paraguayans always trust their own people more.
The Saavedra Offensive and Defense in history is called the South American version of the Verdun meat grinder.
From this name, it can be seen that the cruelty of the Saavedra Offensive and Defense is even comparable to Verdun.
The reality is indeed like this. Both sides invested more than 30,000 troops, which is not large in scale.
But because each side is in an open area, there are almost no shelters on both sides, except for the trenches hastily dug at night.
Because of this, this offensive and defensive battle was very cruel, and the number of people on both sides only lasted for three days.
In the end, the Paraguayan army paid more than 5,000 deaths and nearly 10,000 injuries to win this extremely cruel offensive and defensive battle.
On the Bolivian side, the 30,000 troops were almost wiped out. Among them, there were about 10,000 casualties, and the remaining 3,000 were all captured by Paraguay.
The reason why Bolivia lost the war, in addition to the language barrier between the commander and the soldiers mentioned above, is that the French commander overestimated the combat effectiveness of the Bolivian army.
If the Bolivian army were all well-trained regular troops, they might still have a chance to fight the Paraguayan army, and the French commander's command would not have been wrong.
But the problem is that half of the Bolivian army at that time were recruits, and these recruits had only undergone about two weeks of military training so far.
It is better to expect these soldiers to play their due combat effectiveness than to expect the Paraguayan soldiers on the opposite side to make mistakes in the battle.
War is so cruel. Although the French officers had no other faults, they just misjudged the combat effectiveness of the Bolivian army.
But it was with such a mistake that the Paraguayan army gained an advantage in the deployment of the front line and successfully conquered the Bolivian front.
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