Chapter 385 Rapid expansion of the military industry

On August 24, 1914, the Australasian Expeditionary Force, totaling more than 316,000 men, began to march towards the European battlefield.

In order to help the Australasian Expeditionary Force reach Europe faster, Britain and France sponsored a large number of transport ships and promised to protect the expeditionary force's transportation throughout the entire process.

But in any case, it will take at least more than a month for Australasia to reach the French border. During this more than a month, the French border can only be maintained by the British and French coalition forces.

After the French border battle ended, the number of French casualties exceeded 140,000, which forced Joffre to admit the failure of the border battle.

Although both France and Germany are fighting the war according to the established combat plans, judging from the current progress made by the two countries, France's Combat Plan No. 17 has failed, while Germany's plan to pass through Belgium has succeeded.

Although the effective strength of the French army has not been consumed much, the defeat in the border war caused the German army to sweep away holes in French territory. The place they passed was like a scorched ruins. Even French President Poincaré was in Nigaku. Er's family cemetery was also dug into a toilet.

Although I don’t know if this was intentional by the German army, the situation France is currently facing has fully demonstrated France’s current crisis.

After the failure of the border war, Xiafei was at the headquarters thinking about the real reasons for the defeat and the decision to save the war situation.

Although both the military and political circles criticized Xiafei, Xiafei was not too panicked at this time.

Seeing his boss frowning as he thought about the problem, Xiafei's assistant and adjutant, Captain Miller, couldn't help but remind him: "Your Excellency, Commander-in-Chief, don't you think there is a problem with the deployment of the army?"

Xiafei was stunned and looked at his assistant. He did not blame him for asking the question unexpectedly, but continued to ask with interest: "Captain Miller, what do you think the German army should do next?"

As the aide-de-camp of the French Commander-in-Chief, Captain Miller's resume is naturally not ordinary.

He was born in the Saint-Cyr Military Academy and has repeatedly made military exploits in the army. He is shrewd and capable and is an extremely capable young officer.

Xiafei took him with him as an accompanying adjutant, and he also had the intention of training Miller.

Captain Miller heard Xiafei's question and thought carefully for a while before replying: "Your Excellency, Commander-in-Chief, I think the Germans' next goal must be to attack Paris. There are three ways to choose from in attacking Paris. The first is One is from Cambrai via the axis of Amiens and Rouen, detouring back to Paris from the west. The second is from the axis of Maubeuge, Saint-Quentin and Soissons, directly attacking Paris. The third is along the axis of Charles Roya and Maubeuge turned southwest, pursued the main force of our army, and then attacked Paris. Judging from the current situation of our army fighting and retreating, the Germans are most likely to choose the third route."

Xiafei nodded encouragingly, looked at his adjutant with gratified eyes, and continued to ask: "Is there any way to deal with it?"

"Although our army has been newly defeated, our main force still has combat capabilities. The northern route army can retreat towards the Marne River and hold on along the river. In addition, an elite group army can be dispatched to station north of the city of Paris, which can not only defend Paris, but also You can look for opportunities to sneak attack the German flank," Miller continued.

For the French army, retreat is okay, but continuous retreat is not advisable. As the capital of France, if Paris falls too early, it will not only bring a huge blow to the French people and army, but also to the entire Allied Powers.

You know, the battlefield on the Western Front is basically defended by the French army. If the French army loses its combat effectiveness too early, it will be equivalent to losing a powerful boost to the Allied offensive and defense.

Xiafei's laughter became louder, he nodded with satisfaction, and said to Miller: "Captain, I think we should change positions. You will be the commander-in-chief, and I will be your adjutant."

Although there was a bit of a joking tone, Xiafei's words were not entirely jokes.

In fact, Miller's proposal to take office is basically consistent with Joffre's idea, which also means that Miller's ability is indeed worthy of being the commander-in-chief of France in some aspects.

The day after the expeditionary force was dispatched to Australasia, that is, August 25, 1914, Joffre officially changed his deployment and promulgated a new combat plan.

First, prevent the disintegration of all French armies, but allow the integrated troops to evacuate in an orderly manner to Verdun, the Aine, Craon, Laon, Raphael, Saint-Quentin, and the Somme.

At this time, Xiafei still didn't know that his order would lead to the outbreak of some of the most brutal battles in World War I.

The line from Verdun to the Somme River was the position designated by Joffre to build military facilities and build offensive and defensive positions.

Starting from this decision by France, the Western Front battlefield fell into protracted trench warfare. The two sides compete not only in manpower, but also in material, financial and transportation capabilities.

Since the beginning of the war, all military-industrial enterprises in Australasia have entered into a state of overtime production.

On the European battlefield, the consumption of weapons, equipment and ammunition is also increasing faster. Britain, France and Russia are already negotiating a batch of huge arms trade orders with Australasia.

According to the current situation, this arms trade order is divided into 400,000 rifles, 1,200 artillery pieces, 500 heavy machine guns, 100,000 grenades, 80 million rounds of rifle bullets, 10 million rounds of machine gun bullets, and 200,000 Various types of artillery shells.

This is more than 10 million Australian dollars involved in the huge arms purchase, and the pure profit alone is at least 4 million Australian dollars.

The bulk of this weapons purchase order belongs to the Tsarist Russian Empire. Because of the crazy expansion of the Russian Empire, many soldiers have not yet received their weapons.

In the current Russian army, there is a tradition of grabbing weapons. Of course, they were not snatching from the hands of their comrades, but the corpses of those who died on the battlefield.

As long as you are quick and can pluck weapons from corpses, these weapons will belong to you, whether they are from enemies or comrades.

This has also led to the current chaos in Russia's logistics. There are guns produced by Russia, guns supported by Britain and France, guns produced by Australasia and guns produced by Germany. If it is a little more confusing, it can be called "Made by All Nations". .

These various types of weapons caused a huge burden on the logistics of the Tsarist Russian Empire, and the Tsarist Russian government was determined to replace the weapons of its elite troops.

At least the elite troops must adopt unified combat weapons, which can greatly reduce the logistical pressure caused by different weapons.

This batch of weapons orders is almost a quarter of Australasia's inventory. Even if the Australasian arms factories work overtime, the current consumption rate of weapons and equipment (including foreign exports) is still far greater than the production rate.

This also made Arthur's previous decision to order a crazy hoard of weapons and equipment extremely wise. Inadvertently, the arsenal became more obedient to Arthur's orders.

So far, the number of employees in the Royal Ordnance Factory has reached 25,000. This number has increased by nearly 10,000 compared to more than a year ago, which does not indicate how exaggerated the expansion rate of the military factory is.

Even the expansion rate of Australasia's civilian military factories is astonishing. Conservative estimates suggest that the military industry in Australasia employs more than 30,000 people. The biggest change that the war brought to Australasia was the crazy expansion of the military industry.

If the war continues, the number of people employed in the Australasian military industry may even exceed 50,000, heading towards the 100,000 mark.

Although this is a good thing for promoting employment in Australasia, when the war is over, how to deal with the too large and bloated military industry is also a problem.

There was a long gap between World War I and World War II. Due to its special geographical environment, Australasia was destined not to have many wars.

Unless Australasia can provoke many regions around the world and artificially create many wars, there will be nowhere to sell the weapons and equipment it manufactures.

Wait, Arthur suddenly felt that this behavior was a bit familiar. Isn't this the world police in later generations?

Although the war has lasted for nearly a month, the impact on Australasia has not been too great.

Judging from the current situation in Australasia, the residents' lives are still as usual. Except for the military factories that are constantly recruiting people, there seems to be no difference in anything else.

This is the benefit of Australasia’s unique geographical location. Even if a war affected six major powers, it was basically unlikely that the war would reach the mainland of Australasia.

If Australasia had not sent an expeditionary force and had transported weapons, equipment and resources to Europe many times, this war would not have had much to do with Australasia.

Of course, it is impossible to say that the war had no impact on Australasia. At least in terms of immigration, especially starting from the second half of this year, the number of immigrants in Australasia has been reduced to the naked eye.

Previously, a large number of oil tankers and transport ships would come and go between Oceania and Europe every day, transporting thousands of immigrants to Australasia.

But starting from the second half of this year, the number of immigrants has been reduced by more than half. If it were not for the struggling number of Russian immigrants, I am afraid that this year's immigration number would have been cut in half.

According to a report from the Immigration Bureau of the Ministry of People's Livelihood of Australasia, this year's immigration has dropped significantly compared to last year, and the final number of immigrants may not even exceed 700,000.

The number of Russian immigrants accounts for the majority, which should be around 500,000 to 550,000.

Without the support of a stable source of immigrants from Russia, I am afraid that the immigration boom that has lasted for more than ten years in Australasia will come to an end, and the population growth rate of Australasia will also decline.

On August 27, 1914, after several days of preparation, the weapons and equipment shipped to Britain, France, and Russia were successfully shipped from the Sydney port, and the troops were divided into two groups and headed to France and the Russian Far East.

The Australasian expeditionary force had already set off by boat a few days ago. They will arrive in France around the end of September, and then take the railway from France to the border to cooperate with the British and French coalition forces in combat.

In addition to requesting support from Britain and Australasia, France and Russia are also seeking support from other neutral countries.

In fact, since the beginning of the war, some of the more important neutral countries, such as Italy and Bulgaria, have been the targets of the Allies and the Entente.

Needless to say, Italy, as one of the great powers, is adjacent to the Austro-Hungarian Empire and France, and has good naval strength in the Mediterranean region.

If Italy can be roped in to join the war, it will be good news for either side (limited to the navy).

The Entente and Central Powers have never stopped wooing Italy. Although Italy has long declared neutrality, the interventionists and neutralists within Italy have been arguing for a long time about which force to join.

There are also frantic discussions between the Allied Powers, the Entente Powers and Italy. If nothing unexpected happens, Italy should wait and see for a while before making a decision.

In addition to Italy, Bulgaria was also attracted by the Allies and the Entente.

Bulgaria's geographical location is relatively important. It is not only located on the Balkan Peninsula, the outbreak point of World War I, but also close to Serbia, Romania, Greece and other countries.

If Bulgaria joins the Allies, Serbia will be attacked from both sides, which is not a good thing for the Allies.

After Bulgaria receives support from the Allies, it can pose a major threat to Serbia and the Balkans.

And if Bulgaria joins the Allied Powers, it will also be a huge help to the Allied Powers. Not only would it allow Serbia to have no backup worries and focus on uniting with Russia to fight against the Austro-Hungarian Empire, it would also allow the Balkans to form a whole, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire's advantage in this region would be gone.

However, compared to Italy, which is relatively weak, it is actually more difficult to win over Bulgaria.

Italy will join whoever provides the most benefits. What they hesitate is just waiting for which side will gain a greater advantage.

Bulgaria was different. During the Second Balkan War, the hatred between Bulgaria and Serbia deepened, which also greatly reduced the possibility of Bulgaria joining the Allies.

Unless Britain and France can offer conditions that far exceed those of the Allies and satisfy the forces and people in Bulgaria, it is unlikely that Bulgaria will join the Entente.

In any case, Bulgaria's geographical location is indeed very important, and Britain and France are also trying their best to fight for it.

In addition to fighting for countries like Italy and Bulgaria, the four major powers within the Allied Powers have also held many meetings, of course in the form of telegraphs.

The four major powers are conducting various negotiations to determine how much concessions can be given to these neutral countries in order to draw these countries into the Allied Powers and jointly fight against the Central Powers.

If nothing else happens, the Italians should join the Entente. It must be said that Italy and the Austro-Hungarian Empire had direct territorial conflicts, which was the reason that prevented Italy from joining the Allies.