Chapter 844: Declaration of War! Declaration of War!

Arthur was obviously aware of the large-scale mobilization of the German army.

Compared with the French government, which did not care, Arthur had long understood that the Germans' appetite would never be satisfied by a small Polish corridor.

Since France's attitude of continuous concessions was known, why not take this opportunity to directly annex Poland, which was not prepared at all?

Even a person like Arthur who was not crazy had such an idea, not to mention the rulers of Germany and Italy who were already crazy.

After learning that the island country was constantly expanding its armaments and provoking Australasia in this regard, the Australasia government quickly came to the conclusion that the island country was attracting Australasia's attention, and Germany might soon take action in Europe.

For his own benefit, Arthur certainly chose to play along.

The more lively the fight in Europe, the easier it would be for Australasia to earn greater benefits from the war.

In this world without the United States, the faster Europe fell, the more benefits Australasia would gain.

In order to cooperate with the Germans, Arthur decided to further expand the armaments, so that the Germans believed that Australasia's attention had been attracted by the islanders.

Even Australasia's hostility to the islanders was not concealed at all, and various armament expansions against the islanders emerged one after another.

As time came to October 3, 1935, a piece of news that shocked the whole of Europe instantly ignited world public opinion.

The day before, October 2, a giant airship Wilhelm II, which was heading from Berlin, Germany to Romania, crashed when passing through the Polish territory.

Although the German side did not announce the cause of the airship crash, there were many photos of airships burning in mid-air and wreckage falling to the ground.

You know, this airship is a giant airship in the true sense. Being able to be named after the German Empire's Emperor Wilhelm II is enough to prove Germany's attention to this airship.

In fact, this is indeed the case. Although airplanes have completely replaced airships at the strategic level, large airships still have a certain role in long-distance transportation and transporting goods because they have an area far exceeding that of airplanes.

For example, this super airship named William II is the largest aircraft in human history.

So the question is, why is only Germany among the major powers still vigorously developing airships?

This still has to mention the restrictions on Germany after World War I. Before Germany completely abolished these restrictions, they had no right to research and manufacture aircraft.

Since they could not manufacture aircraft, airships could only be Germany's only choice.

This is also why airship accidents occurred frequently, and Germany still had large and small airship airlines.

This airship, which suddenly exploded and burned and crashed in mid-air, is nearly 233 meters long and nearly 40 meters in diameter. It is definitely a behemoth in the sky.

Thanks to the huge size of the airship, the William II airship can accommodate 55 to 72 passengers and 42 to 55 airship crew members.

Among these forty or fifty airship crew members, there are also 6 to 9 flight attendants, which are later stewardesses.

In addition, airships also have many facilities including bars, large restaurants, luxurious living areas, movie screening rooms, and viewing rooms.

Although the speed is only a pitiful 123 kilometers per hour, considering the luxurious personnel and facilities of this airship, this is definitely the highest service that nobles and capitalists can enjoy in the sky at present.

Because most of those who can enjoy such a luxurious airship are nobles and capitalists, the news of the crash of this airship instantly attracted the attention of the whole of Europe.

As the owner of the airship, the German government immediately began an investigation. Because the airship crashed in Poland, the German government asked Poland to open its borders and allow Germany to send an investigation team to investigate in Poland.

The Poles did not care at first and agreed to the Germans' request without thinking.

After all, the airship did crash in Poland. It is reasonable for Poland to agree to let the Germans investigate.

But soon, the Poles found something wrong.

The German government rejected the Polish government's proposal for a joint investigation, and simply collected the debris after the crash of the airship, basically ending the investigation.

But a few days later, the German government suddenly issued a statement saying that the Wilhelm II airship was ignited by a spark in the air, which caused the leaked hydrogen and then caused the explosion and combustion of the entire airship.

The question is, how did the spark in the air come from?

Considering that the air forces of various countries currently have sufficient combat effectiveness, the German government shifted all the responsibilities to the Polish government.

In an interview, the German Foreign Minister angrily stated that the Poles were very angry about Germany's recovery of the Polish Corridor and they launched a terrorist attack on Germany.

Facing a group of very surprised domestic and foreign media, the German Foreign Minister strongly stated that if the Poles did not plan this terrorist attack, they should hand over all their air forces for the Germans to check.

Secondly, before Poland's evidence of guilt is completely cleared, Poland is the culprit of the explosion of the airship. As compensation for all members on the airship, the Polish government should pay a total of 18.77 million pounds in compensation and try the criminals who planned and launched the terrorist attack.

Although the Poles have not figured out how they became the culprit of the airship explosion in just a few days, they will definitely not agree to the Germans' demands.

Although the compensation is not much for Poland, how can Poland admit that it was not their own doing?

Such a very obvious frame-up has caused great dissatisfaction with the Polish government.

In the face of interviews with foreign media, the Polish government also made a strong statement, saying that the Germans were simply framing.

In addition, officials from the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that all the conclusions drawn by the Germans were their own speculations and had nothing to do with the reality.

If the Germans do not have sufficient evidence to prove that the airship crash was caused by Poland, then Poland is innocent.

Regarding the German government's frame-up, the Polish government demanded that the German government pay 18.77 million pounds in compensation and publicly apologize to the Polish government.

Obviously, the two governments are facing each other again.

This also has to mention the reaction of the Polish people after being forced to cede the Polish Corridor.

The so-called Greater Polandism has been recognized by many Polish people. Faced with the forced cession of territory, which was contrary to Greater Polandism, the Polish people were quite dissatisfied.

What could the Polish government do? They could only keep stating that the cession of territory was forced, and even their diplomatic officials had almost no sense of participation in the second half of the peace talks.

This did have some effect. The people's dissatisfaction with the government's cession of territory was transferred to Germany, which occupied Polish territory, and France and the Austrian Empire, which condoned Germany.

Facing the Germans' open frame-up, the Polish people could no longer bear it and asked the government to maintain a firm attitude in this diplomatic confrontation.

Although the Polish Corridor was forced to cede, most of the Poles in this land were moved back to the country.

This also led to the current Poland still having a population of more than 30 million, which is still a medium-sized country with a large land area and a large population in this part of Europe.

You know, Spain, which is highly valued by all countries, had a population of only about 25 million before the outbreak of the civil war. From the outbreak of the civil war to now, it is already very good for Spain to have a population of 24 million. (Casualties and emigration)

The Polish people's firm attitude of confrontation was just what the German government wanted.

Regardless of the outside world's reaction, the German government put forward more stringent conditions, requiring the Polish government to open all air force bases to the Germans for investigation and provide flight records of all aircraft in Poland.

The Polish government could not agree to the previous conditions, let alone the conditions of almost showing the air force data to the Germans.

After the Poles rejected their demands again, the German government did not pretend. In the early morning of October 15, 1935, the German government notified the Polish ambassador, handed over a declaration of war from the German government to the Polish government, and then drove the Polish ambassador out of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The Polish ambassador did not dare to hesitate at all and hurried back to the Polish embassy.

But the Polish ambassador sadly discovered that the road back to the Polish embassy was suddenly under emergency repair, and another slightly farther road had a car accident and was blocked.

It was obvious that the German government was preventing the Polish ambassador from delivering news to Poland.

The helpless Polish ambassador could only choose to walk back to the embassy. This also turned the journey that originally took only more than ten minutes into more than an hour.

At the same time as the declaration of war was submitted, hundreds of thousands of German troops on the German border and the Polish corridor marched towards the Polish border.

The Germans had made careful preparations before this and stockpiled 350,000 troops on the eastern border.

These 350,000 troops had all experienced the Spanish Civil War and were considered Germany's elite troops.

However, the Germans did not dare to be careless. The countries they faced, in terms of military size alone, were even larger than them.

Yes, Poland had more troops than Germany.

Because of the Polish people's tragic history, even though Poland regained independence and gained a lot of territory after World War I, the Poles still did not dare to relax at all.

Coupled with the Polish idea of ​​a Greater Poland, the Poles were very keen to expand the size of their army and regarded the major countries around them as imaginary enemies.

So far, the size of Poland's army is about 750,000, and it has a large number of tanks and aircraft.

It can be said that, judging from the size of the army alone, the size of Poland's army is similar to that of Italy, which is why the Poles are confident that they can fight against Germany.

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