Chapter 833: Expand the Army, Expand the Army!

In early March 1935, Arthur had just planned to go to Douglas Aircraft Company and Boeing to check the new generation of transport aircraft when he received bad news from Europe.

There were two pieces of bad news in total.

The first was the situation of the Spanish Civil War. Britain's inaction and France's retreat directly led to the gradual disadvantage of the Spanish Republic in the civil war, and even the capital Madrid was in danger.

What's more terrible is that the Spanish battlefield has directly become a place for Germany and Italy to train troops. If it weren't for Germany and Italy training a lot of troops, I'm afraid the Spanish Civil War would have ended long ago under the invasion of the German and Italian armies.

The second bad news is Germany's crazy behavior of looking for allies.

There are only so many powers in the world. In addition to Spain, Germany has also made a lot of efforts to win over the island countries.

The geographical location of the island country is relatively special, which is also the reason why it can successfully achieve reform and even grow into the only power in the East.

The island country is located on the west coast of the Pacific Ocean, very close to Russia's very important Far East port, which can pose a sufficient threat to Russia.

More importantly, due to their own limitations, it is difficult for island countries to develop into real superpowers. This leads to the island countries being able to become only military powers, not real industrial and economic powers.

Without large-scale industry and economy, island countries are destined to be unable to challenge the highest world hegemony while maintaining their position as the world's great powers.

To be honest, almost all powerful contenders for world hegemony like island countries.

The British, Americans, and Germans are like this now.

The island countries can help Germany threaten Russia from the Far East, but they are far away from Germany and will not threaten Germany itself.

Moreover, the military strength of the island countries is relatively strong. Compared with Italy, an ally that is not very reliable militarily, from a military perspective, the island countries are the ally that Germany wants to find.

As for the island countries, after their master, the United States, was divided, the island countries' days were not so good.

In particular, in order to win over Australasia, the British completely interrupted the idea of ​​supporting the island countries, which made the island countries truly orphans in the past few years.

Faced with the solicitation from Germany, the island country did not think twice and moved closer to Germany like a licking dog.

This is actually normal. Although Germany is not so strong, its more developed industry can still provide a lot of help to the island country.

Moreover, Germany is the only European power that is strong enough and willing to help the island country, and the island country actually has no choice.

With the two sides in agreement, Germany and the island country sent representatives to hold talks in Berlin many times last year.

There is only one theme for the talks between the two sides, which is to discuss the alliance between the two countries.

The bad news mentioned earlier is precisely because of this. After more than a year of consultations, especially after the French continued to retreat in the Spanish Civil War, Germany believed that the time had come.

On March 2, 1935, the German government proposed the so-called anti-Russian common front to the island government.

Although this front is nominally against Russia, it is absolutely necessary for Australasia to be on guard.

An island country with the support of Germany will have greater potential in industry.

Moreover, Arthur concluded that Germany's military industry would also usher in rapid growth in a short period of time.

Because the island countries are at war, and the island countries' military industry is not as developed as imagined.

In particular, the island countries in this world lacked support from Britain and the United States after World War I, and their own military industry is not strong, except for the warships that the islanders attach great importance to.

And this is good news for Germany. Germany can legitimately expand its military enterprises and scale by exporting weapons and equipment to the island countries.

As for whether Britain and France will object, there is no need to consider it.

After all, the French were able to retreat in the Spanish Civil War. Could they turn against the Germans for the export of some German weapons and equipment?

During this period of time, Germany can also take the opportunity to study more military weapons and quickly develop its relatively lacking heavy weapons by mass-producing weapons and equipment.

This is indeed a problem. The earlier alliance between Germany and the island countries means that these two enemies may become stronger for Australasia.

In particular, the islanders are currently expanding the size of their army.

The army situation of the island country can be roughly divided into the period after World War I and after 1930.

After World War I, the island country could not afford the high military expenditure and was forced to choose disarmament. Because of the naval restriction treaty, the navy's military expenditure has been greatly reduced.

This led to the island country's disarmament goal being placed on the army, and in 1925, the island country's army reached a minimum of 250,000 people.

As time entered 1930, the island country restarted the expansion of the army.

It was also from this period that the island country launched a series of wars, occupied a lot of land, and also allowed itself to obtain a lot of mineral resources and increase its industrial scale.

As time entered 1935, the size of the island country's army has approached 450,000 people, and it is still increasing.

With the help from Germany, the island country's actions to expand the size of the army will be more handy.

They have a larger population than the other powers, and can easily expand their army to millions of people.

Since all countries in the world are constantly expanding their army and navy, Australasia no longer needs to hide its strength.

On March 7, 1935, Arthur signed the Army Expansion Order, announcing that Australasia's army would be expanded to more than 570,000 people in the next three years.

The number of Australasia's infantry divisions will expand from 15 to 22, and the number of cavalry divisions will expand from 4 to 8.

In addition, the number of artillery divisions will expand from 6 to 10, and the number of tank divisions will expand from 3 to 5.

The newly added 16th to 18th Infantry Divisions will form the 8th Army of the Australasia Defense Force with the 5th Cavalry Division and the 7th Artillery Division.

The 19th to 22nd Infantry Divisions will form the 9th Army of the Australasia Defense Force with the 6th Cavalry Division and the 8th Artillery Division.

In addition to the two newly formed armies, the 7th Cavalry Division will be sent to the 2nd Army, the 8th Cavalry Division and the 9th Artillery Division will be sent to the 4th Army, and the 10th Artillery Division will be sent to the 3rd Army to increase the number of soldiers and comprehensive combat capabilities between the armies.

As for the two newly formed tank divisions, they will be incorporated into the 7th Army, making the 7th Army a super tank army with 5 tank divisions.

Of course, the final army organization in Arthur's mind is to disperse the tanks to various units and realize the coordination of infantry and tanks in tactics.

But that can only be done after the tank production in Australasia catches up. This tactic has been practiced in the military academy, and there have been many new discoveries about the idea of ​​cooperation between tanks and infantry armies.

In addition to the expansion of the conventional army, the Royal Guards directly under Arthur will also usher in a small-scale expansion.

The Guards currently have 2 Guards Infantry Divisions and 1 Guards Cavalry Division, and the overall number is still too small.

In this military expansion, the Guards will be expanded into a comprehensive super force with 2 Guards Infantry Divisions, 1 Guards Cavalry Division, 1 Guards Artillery Division and 1 Guards Armored Division.

Among the direct subordinate forces at the army level, there are also many special types of troops, including special forces.

If this military expansion is completed, the number of troops in Australasia will be among the top in the world, second only to Russia, Italy and France.

If the combat effectiveness of the comprehensive army is considered, the comprehensive combat effectiveness of the Australasia Army will become the world's first.

Of course, all this is based on the premise that the size of the army of each country does not change too much.

If each country has a certain army expansion in these three years, especially the Germans who have been showing their fangs, their army combat effectiveness will not be much inferior to Australasia.

But in any case, such an expansion order will greatly enhance the military strength of Australasia.

No matter when the war breaks out, Australasia, which has a larger army, can ensure that it will not suffer in the early stage of the war.

Even if the enemy's army gathers hastily, Australasia can still achieve the effect of being one step ahead.

In fact, according to Australasia's current population structure, it should be able to complete the expansion of 170,000 troops soon.

Especially under Arthur's order, the expansion of 170,000 troops can be completed within a month.

But Arthur still chose to set the time at three years, which was also after certain considerations. The first is to avoid more intense competition with other countries in army arms.

Australasia's military expansion this time is bound to attract the attention of other countries. Especially the island countries, they are currently at war, and naturally have to guard against Australasia's actions.

If Australasia expands its army rapidly, the island countries are likely to respond with stress and quickly expand their army size to a larger number.

This is a bit of a loss for Arthur. After all, if the war really breaks out, it is definitely best to start it when the enemy is not ready.

The army size of 570,000 is a more tricky number. Going up, the army size of France and Italy is maintained at around 600,000, which is a little more than the army size of Australasia.

Although it is only 30,000 more, it is indeed more.

This 30,000-man gap can save Australasia a lot of trouble and limit the world's army arms race to about 550,000 to 600,000.

If other countries want to expand to more than 550,000, they will have to consider whether such actions will cause stress reactions from other countries, causing the army arms race to quickly increase from the level of about 550,000 to a fierce competition of about one million.

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