Chapter 352 Participating in the war, expeditionary force

In response to inquiries from the British Empire, Arthur responded in the affirmative. New Australasia is very interested in sending troops to Argentina, not only to maintain the status of the Entente, but also for Australasia's own interests.

The same was true for several other countries, including the Allied Powers. It would be okay if the British Empire's homeland was threatened. Like this, it was to protect the British Empire's external interests and prompt several other Allied powers to follow suit. Other countries would not be willing if there were not enough interests.

However, for France and Russia, even if they co-administer the entire Argentina, their interests and interests are not too great.

France and Russia both own a large amount of land and colonies. Moreover, Argentina's geographical location is too far away from these two countries, and there is also the obstruction of the United States. The gains of condominium Argentina outweigh the losses.

If you want France and Russia to send troops together, I'm afraid the British Empire will have to give up some interests elsewhere to satisfy these two countries.

1. A massive war started on the southern border of Argentina and Chile.

In this war, Argentina and Chile deployed more than 100,000 troops, almost all the troops of their respective countries.

In addition to the reserve troops who are still training, it is no exaggeration to say that most of the combatable troops of Chile and Argentina have been concentrated in this area.

The current status of this war is that Argentina is on the offensive and Chile is on the defensive.

Both sides are anxious about the current war. Chile is eager to gain support from the British Empire, while Argentina is eager to end the war and let it be finalized before the powers react.

The top leaders of the Argentine government knew that if the war they wantonly provoked really alarmed the great powers, the outcome would be unacceptable to them.

Only by quickly annihilating the Chilean army before the great powers take action can Chile's defeat become a definite fact. Even if it is condemned by the great powers after the war, it will not be afraid.

But if Chile cannot be defeated before the great powers take action, even if it relies on the United States, Argentina will not be able to bear the anger of the great powers.

The good news is that, except for the United States, the eight major powers in the world are thousands of miles away from Chile, as well as blocked by the ocean.

The only country that is relatively close, the United States, is actually on Argentina's side.

This also means that Argentina has every hope of using its distance advantage and the support of the United States to quickly end this war.

The British Empire and Chile had well-known diplomatic relations, but their diplomatic relations depended on Chile's rich saltpeter minerals.

As long as Argentina protects the saltpeter mines of the British Empire from damage, surely the British Empire will not be too angry with Argentina? Probably not?

It is precisely because of this idea that the Argentine military had to speed up the pace of the attack and strive to end the war as soon as possible to avoid making the war more unexpected. newᴄᴏᴍ

If according to conservative calculations, the reaction time of the great powers plus the time of sending troops, Argentina will have at least two or three months to end the war.

Unfortunately, the development of the situation was somewhat beyond the expectations of the Argentine government and military. The war between the two major powers in South America instead entered a rather strange stalemate.

But this is actually normal. After all, to put it bluntly, Chile and Argentina are relatively close in terms of overall strength, and their populations and economic scales are also similar.

Both sides also have the support of the great powers. Under such circumstances, it is not surprising that the war has reached a stalemate.

In particular, the first batch of weapons supported by the British Empire to Chile has been shipped from Australasia to Chile. This also gives the Chilean army sufficient weapons, equipment and ammunition to persist in this war of attrition.

On the other side, Argentina also has support from the United States, as well as a huge amount of weapons, equipment and ammunition.

This also put the war between the two sides into a rather strange state. The soldiers on both sides did not care about the consumption of ammunition, but the results achieved were very little.

If there is a reconnaissance plane carefully observing the battlefield at this time, a rather strange phenomenon can be found, that is, the shooting of soldiers on both sides is basically a random sweep. The goal is not to kill the enemy on the opposite side, but to consume all the ammunition of the weapons in their hands. Empty.

Except for battlefields supervised by senior military officers, all other secondary battlefields fell into this strange state.

Logistics officials from Argentina and Chile were surprised to find that since the start of this large-scale offensive and defensive war, their consumption of weapons, elixirs, and supplies had increased a lot, but they had achieved little results.

Even the casualties on our own side were less than before. Except for the tragic casualties during the offensive and defensive battles, the casualties in other periods were not high.

This also led to a rather strange phenomenon, that is, in the first half of July, Argentina and Chile suffered tens of thousands of casualties.

In the second half of July, including the two offensive and defensive battles that had already taken place, the number of casualties in Argentina and Chile was only over 10,000.

You know, in the second half of the month, both sides invested more than 100,000 troops in a large-scale offensive and defensive battle on the southern border.

Logically speaking, not only the consumption of materials, but also the number of casualties will increase a lot.

But at present, apart from the crazy consumption of ammunition, medical supplies and food, the casualties of our own and the enemy have not increased much.

But this is a good thing for Chile. After all, Chile's goal is only to defend and has no idea of ​​counterattack.

For Chile, their most important task is to defend the country before British support arrives, and by the way, protect the British minerals in Chile.

But for Argentina, the war coming to a standstill is the last thing they want to see.

Once the war enters the attrition stage, it will not only consume a large amount of Argentina's domestic resources, but most importantly, it will waste Argentina's time.

If the battle cannot be resolved quickly and the British may end up, will the Americans send troops to help Argentina?

If the other side was Italy, maybe the Americans would. The new opponent is the British Empire, the world's largest power. Even the German Empire will not offend easily, let alone the United States, which is regarded by Europeans as an upstart and generally looked down upon.

To be honest, the war at this time has already overwhelmed the two major South American countries. If both sides didn't have a firm belief in winning, I'm afraid it would have reached the stage of seeking peace.

In order to win this war, the Argentines spared no expense. The United States purchased a large number of heavy machine guns and artillery in order to break through Chile's defense line as soon as possible.

1. Towards the end of July, the third offensive and defensive battle between Argentina and Chile officially began.

This time Argentina has used all its cards, adding 10,000 reserve troops to the front line, and supporting a large number of machine guns, artillery, weapons and ammunition, and medical supplies.

At present, Argentina's equipment on the front line has surpassed that of Chile, which shows how much Argentina has spent on this war.

These weapons, equipment and strategic materials alone have caused the Argentine government to owe huge debts.

If war reparations cannot be used to pay off this debt, I am afraid that Argentina's development will be severely restricted in the next ten years or so.

After all, this debt is owed to the Americans. It is basically impossible to rely on the Americans to repay the debt in America.

The third offensive and defensive battle lasted for most of a day and ended in a major defeat due to the negligence of the Chilean commander.

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This offensive and defensive battle also changed the offensive and defensive balance between Chile and Argentina, allowing the war to evolve from a balanced state at the beginning to one in which Argentina had a certain advantage.

The clues can be seen from the number of casualties on both sides. Argentina invested more than 50,000 soldiers in this offensive and defensive war, resulting in 3,024 deaths and 12,058 injuries.

There were also more than 40,000 combat soldiers in Chile, with 5,021 dead and 14,231 injured.

In addition to the fact that Chile had more casualties than Argentina, due to the negligence of the Chilean commander, the Chilean army lost its difficult-to-attack and easy-to-defend position, and the station was forced to evacuate back more than ten kilometers.

This means that the Argentine army has officially expanded forward by more than ten kilometers, and the area of ​​fighting between the two sides has reached Chilean territory.

This was an urgent matter for Chile, and it forced Chile to ask for help from the British Empire again.

1 After communicating with each other, the four major powers of the Entente announced their intervention in the Chilean and Argentine wars and would form an expeditionary force to help Chile defend its homeland.

The four major powers jointly intervened in the war between two small countries. This also made the South American war instantly become a topic of discussion around the world. People are curious about what kind of magic South America has to attract the four major powers. send troops.

In fact, if the United States hadn't been hiding so well behind the scenes, the people at this time would have known that the war in South America involved more than the four major powers. The United States in the Americas had a total of five major powers.

If Germany had not been obsessed with developing naval armaments and had no interest in participating in this dispute, South America might have attracted not only the Allies, but also the Central Powers.

Half a month has passed since the last time the British Empire sent an inquiry telegram to Arthur.

During this half-month period, the four major Allied powers conducted preliminary negotiations on the number of troops they would send.

According to the agreement of the Allied Powers, the proportion of troops sent by the four major powers was: Britain 20,000, France 25,000, Russia 30,000, and Australasia 16,000.

The total number of troops sent by the four major powers has exceeded 90,000. Coupled with the powerful navy for escort and the tens of thousands of Chilean troops currently remaining, there is absolutely no problem in quelling a small South American war.

In addition to ending the South American War and protecting British interests in South America, this war was also an important way for the four major Allied powers to demonstrate their military strength.

Therefore, according to the respective agreements of the four major powers, this expeditionary force will send their own country's elite troops, and the combat capabilities of the expeditionary force must be guaranteed.

Arthur didn't know about other countries, but the troops Australasia expected to send were the Fourth Standing Division that had undergone long-term training.

Apart from the Guards Division, the Standing Division is the combat force with the most luxurious weapons and equipment and the best training in Australasia.

Although the Fourth Division was established the latest, it has been training for several years.

Taking this opportunity, it is necessary for the soldiers of the fourth time to see the world and see blood.

After all, an elite army must go through many wars, large and small, to take shape.

An army that relies on training cannot grow into an elite army. Only a soldier who has seen blood, a soldier who has been on the battlefield, is an excellent and elite soldier.

The reason why the current number of expeditionary forces in Australasia is 1. The number of people in one Australasian division is exactly 16,000.

Although the four major columns can easily gather millions of troops if they are imposed, they are just to deal with a small country like Argentina. Let alone millions of troops, a hundred thousand troops are too large.

Even if they were all troops with the strength of the Australasian Standing Army, Arthur was confident that only 30,000 people would be needed to wipe out the entire Argentina.

Although the armies dispatched by the four major powers were collectively called the Allied Expeditionary Force, their respective deployment times were different.

In order to reach the battlefield as soon as possible, according to the internal agreement of the Allied Powers, Australasia, which is closest to here, will take the lead in sending soldiers.

The mission of the Australasian Army is to go to Chile and help the Chilean Army defend its territory.

Successfully persist until all the Allied Expeditionary Force arrives, and then gather all the manpower to organize a counterattack.

By the way, it can also practice the cooperation of all the Allied forces, so that when the European war begins, the respective forces of the four Allied powers will cooperate in fighting.

1 The Australasian Expeditionary Force, the 4th Regular Division, embarked on a journey to Chile on a transport ship.

In order to protect the transport fleet carrying the 4th Regular Division, the Australasian Navy dispatched an escort fleet headed by a dreadnought and a battlecruiser.

Although the size of the escort fleet is not large, there is absolutely no opponent in the entire South America region.

Even if we look at the entire United States, the only one that can pose a threat to this escort fleet is the United States, one of the eight major powers.

But does the United States dare to attack the Australasian transport fleet openly? Perhaps the naval strength of the Americans is stronger than that of Australasia. The actions in Australasia are jointly supported by the Allies, and the Americans also have to weigh the consequences of offending the Allies.

To put it bluntly, as long as the Americans jump out of the field now and oppose Australasia, the four major Allied powers will send more expeditionary forces directly to the United States.

Unless the Allies also help the United States, in this era, the dignity of the four Allied powers cannot be trampled upon.

You know, looking at the status of the world's great powers, there are only eight. The Allied Powers directly gathered half of the eight major powers, which is enough to show the strength of the Allied Powers.

From this point, we can actually see the impact of the current confrontation between the two major European military groups on the world.

You must know that the two major military blocs in Europe, the Central Powers and the Entente, include seven of the eight major powers in the world.

Except for the United States, which is far away in America and is not affected, all the powers in the world are involved in the dispute between the two major military groups.

This also represents a terrible fact. If a war breaks out between the two major military groups, it will be a worldwide war affecting at least seven powers and covering the entire globe.

It is precisely because of this that both parties to the dispute have many fears and do not dare to wantonly trigger this world war.

If they were not fully prepared, the current two major military groups in Europe would not have had too fierce a dispute.

After all, due to the opposition between the two major military groups, public hatred among the European powers is already very high.

If disputes are provoked arbitrarily, the people will be easily influenced and encourage the government to launch wars against other countries.

By then, even if the European countries have no plans to start a war yet, they will have to start this war because of the boiling public opinion.

Europe developed rapidly due to the Industrial Revolution, but various revolutions can also be seen everywhere.

This makes it easy for the country's opinions to be swayed by the people. After all, no one wants to be like France, a country where the government is easily overthrown or even overthrown.

The state can influence the opinions of the people, and the people can also influence the judgment of the state. For policymakers in European countries, considering the opinions of the people is also a necessary link and factor.

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