Chapter 786: The Two Countries Fight, and the Great Powers Gain

Although this brutal South American version of the Battle of Verdun lasted only three days, it caused the loss of most of the elite soldiers in Bolivia and Paraguay.

It can be said that most of the troops that the two countries will put into the war next are untrained recruits.

After the defeat of Saavedra, the Bolivian army has lost control of the front line. The front-line army can be said to be in a state of collapse. In just less than a week, Paraguay captured nearly 30 military strongholds.

Seeing that the front line was about to fall, the Bolivian army was completely unable to sit still. On July 27, 1931, the Bolivian army, which thought it was well prepared, launched a strong attack on the front-line position of Paraguay, the Nanava Fortress.

The Nanava Fortress is located on the west side of the Paraguayan army, protecting the flank of the Paraguayan army. If the Nanava Fortress falls, not only will the Paraguayan army fighting on the front be threatened by the flank, but the Bolivian army may also go down the river and directly threaten Asuncion, the capital of Paraguay.

Paraguay naturally attaches great importance to this extremely important flank military fortress.

The attacking Bolivian army has about 40,000 people, while the defending Paraguayan army has one division, which is close to 70,000 people.

Although the army is at a disadvantage in terms of numbers, Paraguay has equipped the Nanawa Fortress with a large number of machine guns from Britain and Australasia, as well as a small number of artillery as firepower output, making this flank fortress very strong.

After a simple assessment, the Australasia Officers Corps believed that the Nanawa Fortress could withstand the attack of at least three enemy divisions with one division stationed.

The current situation facing the Nanawa Fortress is almost exactly the situation of one against three as assessed by the Australasia Officers Corps before.

Facts have proved that there is basically no difference between the assessment of the Australasia Officers Corps and the actual results.

Although facing an enemy twice as large as itself, the Paraguayan army, because it was stationed inside the Nanawa Fortress, relied on dozens of machine guns and more than ten artillery pieces to defend it.

However, although they held on, the casualties of the Paraguayan army were still very tragic.

The attack and defense of the Nanawa Fortress lasted for more than ten days, causing a total of more than 50,000 casualties on both sides.

Among them, a division of the Paraguayan army stationed in the Nanawa Fortress basically lost its combat effectiveness, with more than 5,000 deaths, and the rest were more or less injured.

On the Bolivian side, of the 40,000 troops participating in the attack, only less than 10,000 withdrew to Bolivia.

More than half of the remaining 30,000 troops died in front of the Nanawa Fortress, and their blood directly dyed the land near the Nanawa Fortress red, making the blood smell for several kilometers around the Nanawa Fortress.

The reason why the Bolivian army suffered such heavy casualties was that they launched a fierce attack on the Nanawa Fortress without any protection.

In such a situation, machine guns become extremely important. Although the Paraguayan side had only a few dozen machine guns, the cross-fire coverage of the machine guns made it impossible for the fortress to have any fire dead spots in front of it, blocking the Bolivian army's offensive route.

Coupled with the occasional fire output of the artillery and the fire replenishment of the Paraguayan army inside the fortress, the Bolivian army was directly blocked within a range of more than 100 meters in front of the flare line.

Until the end of the war, the Bolivian army did not approach the fortress within 100 meters, and could only look at this not-so-large fortress and sigh.

After the battle for the Nanawa Fortress ended, both Bolivia and Paraguay had suffered heavy losses.

Although the war did not last long, for the two countries with small populations, the casualties at this time were already an unbearable number.

You know, the Paraguayan army had only about 3,000 people before the war, which was considered a country with relatively weak armed forces.

But now, the death toll alone is close to 60,000, which is more than five times the original total size of the army.

Not to mention the number of soldiers and civilians injured in the war, the total number has already exceeded 50,000.

Such huge casualties are almost a serious blow to the small country of Paraguay.

What's more, in order to win the war, the two countries have borrowed a lot of debts from the countries that support them to purchase weapons and strategic resources.

Don't underestimate these debts. So far, Bolivia's total debt to France and Mobil Oil has reached 1.2 billion francs (5.83 million pounds), and it is still rising.

Although Paraguay's debt is less than Bolivia's, it is close to 7.43 million Australian dollars (3.71 million pounds).

It can be said that if the war continues, both Bolivia and Paraguay will suffer heavy losses. The only real beneficiaries may be the powers behind the oil war.

For powers like France and Britain, the debts they borrowed will be recovered sooner or later, and there is no need to worry that Bolivia and Paraguay will default on the debt.

As August approaches, the war in the Northern Chaco region has entered a more stalemate. After the casualties on both sides exceeded 50,000, the next competition is the manpower and financial resources of Bolivia and Paraguay.

Knowing that he did not have the upper hand in terms of manpower, at the suggestion of the Australasian Officer Corps, José Felix Estigarrivia decided to launch a counterattack against the Bolivian army in the Northern Chaco region to establish his own Advantage in war.

On August 17, 1931, Jose Felix Estigarribia led more than 50,000 Paraguayan soldiers to launch a full-scale counterattack against the Bolivian army on a front line of more than 70 kilometers.

Jose Felix Estigarrivia's plan was to take advantage of the Bolivian army's two consecutive defeats and take the lead in occupying the entire Chaco region before their reinforcements arrived, thus determining Paraguay's war advantage.

What neither side expected was that this offensive war would last longer than the war so far, and it would also indirectly directly exhaust the effective forces of the two countries.

Paraguay's full-scale counterattack began on August 17, and by the time it ended, it was already the end of October.

This comprehensive counterattack, which lasted for more than two months, was a rare event for these two small countries.

In addition to the 50,000 soldiers initially invested, Paraguay sent three divisions, or about 40,000 soldiers, to the front more than a month after the war started.

As for Bolivia, three divisions were initially stationed on the front line. Together with reinforcements, there were also six divisions with more than 90,000 soldiers.

After this all-out counterattack ended, two Paraguayan divisions were almost wiped out, with a total death toll of more than 20,000 people and more than 20,000 injured.

Bolivia is no better. This all-out counterattack still ended in failure in Bolivia, which also resulted in the annihilation of two Bolivian divisions. The death toll exceeded 60,000, nearly 8,000 were captured, and the number of injured was countless.

After this war ended, the effective strength of both sides had dropped to freezing point. At present, Paraguay has only three divisions of troops with less than 50,000 troops that can be mobilized.

Bolivia is not much better, with less than two divisions on the front line and more than 50,000 prisoners in Paraguay's hands.

It is worth mentioning that the French commander who was originally responsible for commanding the Bolivian army has lost the trust of all Bolivians after experiencing several consecutive defeats.

Taking over command of the Bolivian army from the French was a rising star in the army, Enrique Peñaranda.

Speaking of Enrique Peñaranda, he is also a famous figure in Bolivia.

As a native born in Bolivia, Enrique Peñaranda began joining the army as a boy and relied on his ability to study at the Bolivian Army Military Academy.

When Peñaranda was 18 years old, he had successfully graduated from the military academy and received the rank of second lieutenant.

Since then, Peñaranda has been appreciated by many senior military officials and has been successfully promoted to the rank of colonel.

After the Chaco War broke out, Peñalanda led his Army's Fourth Division in the early stages and occupied several Paraguayan military fortresses.

But after the command was taken over by the French, Peñaranda had no room to display his abilities.

It was not until this time that Peñalanda returned to the attention of the Bolivian government after the Bolivians gave up the command of French officers, and was promoted to the rank of brigadier general, becoming the commander-in-chief of the Bolivian Army.

In history, Enrique Peñaranda is definitely a famous player in Bolivia.

Although he came from the military in his early years, Enrique Peñalanda had a smooth journey and eventually served as the president of Bolivia.

After Enrique Peñaranda took over the command of the Bolivian army, he changed the decision made by the previous French commander and ordered the Bolivian army on the front line to switch to full defense.

This is actually a wise choice. Although Bolivia is ahead of Paraguay in terms of population, it currently lags behind Paraguay in the number of troops it can mobilize.

Bolivia's losses in the war were much higher than those of Paraguay, which to a certain extent evened out the population gap between the two countries.

If the attack continues, it will not be a good thing for the Bolivian army. Especially the large number of wounded in the rear area are in urgent need of medical supplies.

For Bolivia, it is time for the Bolivian army to reorganize order and launch a counterattack until these wounded can regain their combat effectiveness after simple medical treatment.

Before that, the most important task on the front line was to hold on and try to delay it for as long as possible to create a certain opportunity for domestic treatment of the wounded.

Although the Bolivian army has moved on the defensive, the Paraguayan army has no intention of competing with Bolivia.

After all, Paraguay is at a disadvantage in terms of land and population. Being able to end the war early is the key to whether Paraguay can win the war.

Fortunately, Paraguay has the support of the two major powers, the United Kingdom and Australasia. In addition to the manpower that needs to be prepared by itself, including funds and weapons and equipment, the United Kingdom and Australasia can handle it single-handedly.

Of course, none of this is free. For Paraguay, the longer the war dragged on, the more loans it owed to Britain and Australasia.

By the time the value of the loan was far greater than the value of the oil in the Northern Chaco region, it was time for the Paraguayan government to collapse.

It is worth mentioning that in the past two months, Britain and France have almost solved their own problems.

The French have temporarily stabilized the Lone Star Republic by paying certain interests.

However, Mexico's covetousness for the Lone Star Republic has become increasingly strong. Either strengthen the control over the Lone Star Republic, or strengthen the military strength on the south coast of the United States to guard against possible actions by Mexico.

Compared with the French, who only have diplomatic troubles, the British have the military rebellion in India.

However, as expected by the French, this military rebellion is not fatal to Britain's rule in India.

It took only more than half a month for the Indian army to quell Prabhati's military rebellion.

The Indian government even arrested many members of the Indian National Congress, including Prabhati and Gandhi, and solved the non-violent actions that had previously troubled the British.

Although the Indian government clamored to execute these criminals who launched the armed rebellion, most countries understood that Gandhi would basically be fine.

It's the same reason as before. As long as Gandhi lives for one day, India will not have too many problems.

If the Indian government really wants to execute Gandhi, what they will face next may be armed rebellion all over India.

Sure enough, more than half a month after arresting Gandhi, the Indian government announced the verdict on the members of the Congress Party.

Although most members were sentenced to death, the maximum punishment for a small number of members, including Gandhi and his confidants, was only two years in prison.

Moreover, the prison where Gandhi was imprisoned was a relatively good prison in India, which was specially used to imprison British people.

This actually also indirectly shows the attitude of the British. They also understand the importance of Gandhi to India.

Before he is fully sure that he can control India, Gandhi is undoubtedly still very safe.

In Australasia, the actions of Britain and France in the past few months, including the replacement of Bolivia's military commander, have all been reported to Arthur's desk.

Arthur was not surprised by the actions of Britain and France, especially the French, who were unwilling to see war at this time.

If France, in its heyday, faced a provocation from a country like Mexico, most of the French army would probably clamor to declare war on Mexico.

But now, the French are just threatening, which is enough to prove that they do not want to see war, even if the target of the war is just a weak Mexican Republic.

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