Chapter 853: Spanish Elegy

From the outbreak of the war to the signing of the contract, it took only a little more than two months.

If we only count the time Germany fought against Poland, it was even only one and a half months.

It was incredible for all countries to destroy a country with millions of troops in one and a half months.

You know, because there was no large-scale war after World War I, the main combat ideas of various countries remained in the World War I period.

Like Poland, the main tactical ideas of various countries were to use a large number of infantry to dig trenches on the front, fight defensive battles with the enemy, deploy a large number of cavalry on the flanks, and be ready to attack at any time.

But the Germans changed this situation, allowing countries all over the world, including Britain and France, to see a new way of war.

Using a large number of tanks and motorized troops for rapid assaults will tear the enemy's defense line. As long as the size of the motorized troops is large enough and the speed of the advance is fast enough, the main purpose of the blitzkrieg can be achieved before the enemy reacts, that is, to break through the enemy's capital.

Of course, such a blitzkrieg also has certain flaws.

First of all, the target of the blitzkrieg can only be a country like Poland, which has a small land area.

If the target of the blitzkrieg is set on a country with extremely large territories such as Russia or Australasia, such tactics will be extremely challenging for the logistics supply and the size of the motorized forces.

Secondly, in order to achieve a rapid and effective blitzkrieg, it is necessary to have a sufficient number of armored forces with strong combat effectiveness.

Except for countries like Poland that are somewhat biased in cavalry, including Britain and France, they all attach great importance to the development of tanks.

If Poland is replaced by France, Germany may not be able to complete the blitzkrieg in less than two months, which is why the French can still remain calm in the face of danger.

But it must be admitted that the horrific results created by the Germans still make Britain and France feel a little panic.

One of the reasons why Britain and France retreated was that they were afraid of the German troops and were afraid that the Germans could quickly defeat Poland in such a short time.

Before the outbreak of the German-Polish War, the size of the French army was at the same level as that of Germany.

But the French defense department has held many meetings and they have come to a fact that they still don’t want to believe, that is, the French army can’t defeat Poland within two months.

Even according to the results of the General Staff's multiple simulations, the French army would need at least half a year and would have to use all its strength to defeat Poland.

Moreover, in order to defeat Poland's army of more than one million, the French would also have to bear at least hundreds of thousands of casualties.

This also means that so far, the German army has surpassed the French army. The French army has once again fallen behind Germany in terms of tactical thinking and war concepts.

After Germany and Russia jointly divided Poland, the most embarrassing thing was not Britain and France, but the international organization that was once thought to be able to easily manage the world, the World Alliance.

From the beginning of the war, the meetings held by the World Alliance have been constantly condemning the behavior of the Germans.

Even in the middle of the war, many countries have proposed to intervene in this war.

However, due to the neutrality of the British and the retreat of the French, this proposal was not passed, which also led to the current result, that is, Poland was divided.

This greatly reduced the prestige of the World Alliance, and the World Alliance's international status has become very embarrassing.

Since it is impossible to manage the powerful powers, what is the point of these small and medium-sized countries continuing to stay in the World Alliance?

What really defeated the World Alliance was a series of German aggression against other countries after the German-Polish War.

After the war with Poland ended, Germany and Italy turned their attention back to the war in Spain.

So far, the situation of the Spanish Civil War has long been clear.

Without the intervention of other powers, the Spanish Republican government could only last for half a year at most before it would be seized by the Spanish National Army.

But it is obvious that neither the ambitious German Empire, which had just annexed Poland, nor Italy, which envied Germany's great expansion, was willing to wait another half a year.

Spain will be an extremely important part of the expansion plan formulated by the German government.

Being able to control the entire Spain earlier means that Germany will gain a greater advantage in the confrontation in Western Europe.

After Christmas, Germany and Italy accelerated their attack on the Spanish Republic.

The troops they sent to Spain also rapidly increased from a total of 50,000 to more than 150,000.

Coupled with the more than 500,000 Spanish National Army, the combined force has far exceeded the 400,000 troops owned by the Spanish government.

In order to eliminate the Spanish Republican government as quickly as possible, Germany and Italy carried out indiscriminate bombing of cities controlled by the Spanish Republican government.

Italy, without any disguise, dispatched a large-scale navy to encircle and suppress the Spanish navy controlled by the Spanish Republican government.

Under the joint offensive of Germany and Italy, the Spanish Republican government retreated step by step, and the casualties of the army and the people were very heavy.

On January 7, 1936, the representatives of the Spanish Republican Government cried and requested the major powers including Britain and France to intervene in the Spanish Civil War at the regular meeting of the World League. They also provided a large number of real photos and evidence of German and Italian planes bombing Spanish cities and causing a large number of Spanish civilian casualties.

In the vote that day, the World League meeting preliminarily agreed to the proposal of the representatives of the Spanish Republican Government to support Spain with an absolute suppression of more than 70%.

But the next day, on the proposal of whether to intervene in the Spanish war, with the French pro-peace statement, the peace faction finally succeeded in getting the World League to give up intervening in the Spanish Civil War with more than 47% of the votes (43% pro-war, 10% abstention).

In fact, it can be seen from the votes of the two days before and after that most small and medium-sized countries agreed to intervene in the Spanish Civil War.

They are also afraid that Germany, whose ambitions are getting bigger and bigger, will eventually set its sights on them.

But unfortunately, although the World League is an international organization, the right to speak in it is in the hands of the powers.

As long as the powers expressed their opposition, these small and medium-sized countries had to consider the consequences of going against the powers.

What's more, France, which expressed its opposition, was the power with the most colonies and the most support from European countries, except Britain.

After the proposal to intervene in the Spanish Civil War was rejected, the representative of the Spanish Republican government said with sadness and anger: "One day, you will pay the price for your cowardice today!"

Although they had withdrawn from the World League, Germany and Italy expressed close attention to this meeting of the World League.

After learning that the World League rejected the proposal to intervene in the war, the German and Italian governments laughed at them in a note with disdain: "They (Britain and France) are a group of cowards who are scared out of their wits, and no one can stop us anymore."

Having said that, Australasia voted in favor of this vote.

But unfortunately, Britain and France did not agree to intervene in the Spanish War, and Australasia would not have to cross the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean to help the Spanish Republican government, which was about to perish.

But for various interests, after the regular meeting of the World Alliance, the representatives of Australasia found the representatives of Spain and expressed that Australasia was willing to provide Spain with a batch of materials and weapons and equipment.

Because of this, Australasia easily gained the friendship of Spain.

Because of the dissatisfaction of various small and medium-sized countries, the final result of this meeting became big news and was widely spread among European countries.

The cowardly attitude of the French in favor of peace is completely opposite to the attitude of Australasia willing to help Spain. It is precisely because of the French that Australasia has gained the favor of many European countries.

Back to Australasia.

Arthur felt a little strange and crisis about the current development of the world situation.

The development of this world is completely different from history, which also means that Arthur cannot completely rely on the direction of history to judge the development of the real world.

In real history, Germany annexed Czechoslovakia and Austria successively, and then set its sights on Poland.

But now, because the Austrian Empire still exists, Germany first sets its sights on Poland.

Will the German Empire, which has annexed most of Poland, choose to continue to move eastward and follow the idea of ​​Britain and France to provoke the relationship between Germany and Russia, or will it turn its army westward after consolidating Poland's rule?

Whether France can resist the attack of Germany now, and whether the Austrian Empire, which did not exist in history, can play its role, these are things that Arthur is not sure about.

Since everything is uncertain, we can only pin our hopes on our own strength.

As 1936 is approaching, Arthur convened another cabinet meeting for the purpose of preparing for war.

At this meeting, Arthur boldly predicted that the war will break out this year or next year.

In order to cope with this war that may far exceed the previous European war, Arthur asked the army to expand its scale as soon as possible, the navy to produce as soon as possible, and all walks of life to be ready to enter a state of war at any time.

In addition, Arthur also asked about the production of weapons and medical supplies.

Although Germany eliminated Poland quickly, it did not mean that the European war would be resolved quickly. Even though it was completely different from the development of history, Arthur still believed that this new World War II would still last for several years.

In this war, the most important thing is still the reserve of strategic materials. The more materials are stored, the longer you can last.

For a long war of attrition, the reserve of materials and the people's desire for victory in the war are the key to victory.

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