Chapter 411 Landing in the Persian Gulf

Arthur acted quickly. On July 10, 1915, the Aeronautical Research Laboratory split the aircraft and aviation industries, and all aircraft R\u0026D and manufacturing industries were transferred to a new factory, the Royal Aircraft Manufacturing Factory.

Konstantin Tsiolkovsky also successfully became a space navigation expert and rocket expert at the Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, responsible for theoretical research on space navigation and rockets.

Arthur even encouraged Tsiolkovsky to recruit well-known aviation experts from Russia and other places to serve in Australasia, and Arthur would give him more generous positions and rewards.

Space navigation and rocket development in Australasia will also take the lead from the Aeronautical Laboratory.

However, whether it is space navigation or rockets, they will not be scientific research projects that will produce results in a short period of time.

Including the nuclear weapons that Arthur had long thought about, the research time for these things was calculated in decades. It was enough for Arthur to have some ideas before World War II.

The most important task for Australasia at present is to win this war. To earn more benefits from this war, it is best to establish Australasia's position after World War I, second only to Britain, France and the United States. the status of the fourth great power.

As for surpassing Britain, France and the United States, it is not very likely to be achieved before Britain and France lose most of their colonies and before the United States officially participates in the war and is defeated by the coalition forces.

Let’s not talk about Britain and France for the moment. After all, they are old colonial powers. The United States also has extensive land and a larger population. Its industry and economy far exceed those of Australasia, and it is not yet something that Australasia can easily surpass.

The only way to quickly surpass the United States during World War I was for the Americans to lose their heads, directly support Germany and join the Allies.

With the five major powers of Britain, France, Russia, Australia and Italy joining forces, even if the United States joins the Allies in the future, it will never be an opponent of the Allies.

This is certain. The only reason to blame is that the Americans' military strength is not very strong, and their more role for Germany is to transport resources.

However, Germany's geographical location suffered huge restrictions. The North Sea and the Mediterranean leading to the Allies had already been jointly blockaded by the Allied fleets.

Turning our attention back to the war in Europe, on the Balkan front, after the fall of Constantinople, the defeat of the Ottoman Empire became inevitable.

It is worth noting that the large hills and plains west of Constantinople were important grain-producing areas in the Ottoman Empire.

However, this area fell the fastest during the war, which also resulted in the Ottoman Empire's food production being insufficient, especially as the war accelerated consumption.

Coupled with the comprehensive landing of Allied troops on the borders of the Ottoman Empire, the Ottoman Empire faced a very serious crisis.

The army lacked weapons and ammunition, the people lacked food and clothing, and everyone lacked medical supplies. This caused the Ottoman Empire to collapse internally. It just depends on when the heavy punch of the Allies caused its appearance to collapse.

Division Commander Martin had Arthur's advance orders and was not very interested in attacking the Asia Minor Peninsula.

After leaving part of the Balkan army to fight in the Asia Minor Peninsula, Commander Martin led the Australasian Expeditionary Force of less than 100,000 people and headed south along the Suez Canal, intending to land near the Persian Gulf and open up a new battlefield.

In later generations, it is known that the place with the largest oil reserves in the world is the Middle East, and the place with the largest oil reserves in the Middle East is the coast of the Persian Gulf.

It is no exaggeration to say that the countries along the Persian Gulf, including Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Qatar, accounted for more than half of the world's oil reserves, and their annual output value was as high as the world's total petroleum output. one-third of production.

In this area, the British only occupied the truce states (the United Arab Emirates) and the Protectorate of Bahrain, as well as Kuwait and Qatar. Saudi Arabia, Iraq and other regions are still under local indigenous or Ottoman rule.

More importantly, there were not many British troops in this area, and the British offensive was mainly concentrated in Egypt.

This also means that Australasia can choose suitable land from this area to occupy. As long as Britain, France and Russia agree, they can also gain sovereignty over this land after the war.

In fact, the only difficulty was obtaining the consent of the British. It is too far away from the Russians, and coupled with the good relations between Russia and Australasia, the possibility of the Russians obstructing it is not high.

As for the French, during the war they were thinking about how to defeat the Germans. After the war, they were thinking about how to weaken the Germans. They were not very interested in an inconspicuous colony in the Middle East.

As for Italy, the last great power of the Entente, his opinion is not important. I believe Britain, France and Russia will feel the same way.

It’s no wonder that the four major Allied powers looked down upon Italy. The Austro-Hungarian Empire only deployed 100,000 troops on the border with Italy, and 500,000 Italian troops have not yet crossed the border, which is enough to prove the incompetence of the Italian army.

For the structure of the entire Entente, the current number of navies is sufficient. What is lacking are countries that can fight Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire on land.

Obviously, Italy is not. Britain and France even had the idea of ​​asking Italy to send troops to support the German-French border. However, after frequent reports of Italy's defeat, they immediately gave up the idea.

The Italian army was just adding to the chaos. This was the consensus reached by the British and French commanders after looking at each other.

Although this does not represent the combat effectiveness of some elite Italian troops, the overall combat effectiveness of the Italian army is indeed very poor. It should be considered the worst among all the current European powers.

Although Britain may prevent Australasia from acquiring new colonies in the Middle East, the intensity of the effort should not be too great.

Oil has indeed been discovered in the Middle East. It was Iran that discovered oil fields in the Suleiman area of ​​Muscat, but no valuable large oil fields were discovered in the lands controlled by the Ottoman Empire and the British.

The discovery of large oil fields will have to wait until the 1930s, and it will be nearly 20 years at the earliest.

In addition, this land is relatively far from the Suez Canal and a certain distance from India. It will not harm Britain's vital Mediterranean routes, the Suez Canal, the Indian Ocean, and India.

For the British, India and the Suez Canal were the most important, and other areas were not so important.

As long as certain concessions are made in other interests, such as the distribution of German warships after the war, the British will not stop Australasia's expansion in the Middle East.

The expansion direction planned by Arthur along the Persian Gulf coast is initially set to be along the Persian Gulf coast of Iraq and Saudi Arabia, and he will try his best to win over Qatar.

This area has large oil reserves and is close to the Persian Gulf, so oil can be transported better by sea.

Both the coast of Iraq and the Persian Gulf coast of Saudi Arabia have large oil reserves, and they are currently under the control of local indigenous people or the Ottoman Empire. They are completely soft persimmons.

The only special thing about Qatar was that although it was claimed by the British, it really fell into the hands of the British after the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in World War I.

The area of ​​Qatar is not large. If some of the interests are transferred, it should be possible to exchange it from the British.

As for Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, which are already controlled by the British Empire, Arthur has no plans to damage relations with Britain for the time being. The British Empire is not something Australasia can afford to offend yet.

It was under Arthur's order that Commander Martin led the Australasian Expeditionary Force with a clear goal of landing from the coast of the Persian Gulf and heading north, intending to break through from the Saudi region to the Iraqi region.

There are currently wars in various parts of the Ottoman Empire. Iraq is one of the few grain-producing areas in the Ottoman Empire and is very important to the Ottoman Empire.

Once the Mesopotamian plains in Iraq are lost, the Ottoman Empire will face a more serious food crisis. If it does not surrender, famine will be enough to cause civil strife in the Ottoman Empire.

Although launching a war will cause the indigenous people in this region of the Middle East to suffer the harm of war, and even be affected by the war, causing large-scale deaths.

But for Division Commander Martin, the interests of the country are above all else. Not to mention sacrificing some indigenous people in the Middle East, Commander Martin was even willing to sacrifice himself when necessary.

On July 15, 1915, the Australasian Expeditionary Force officially landed near Qatar.

It is worth mentioning that at this time, the Qatari and Saudi Arabian regions were still connected. The Qatari region was a peninsula, not an island.

As for why there was a river blocking Qatar and Saudi Arabia in later generations, you have to ask the Saudi government at that time.

At this time, the Rashid Emirate State controlled Qatar and parts of Saudi Arabia. This area was an emirate state established by the Rashid family in the Arabian Peninsula relying on the rule of the Ottoman Empire.

Simply put, the Rashid Emir State is a lackey of the Ottoman Empire.

The combat effectiveness of the Ottoman Empire's army was in shambles, let alone indigenous countries like the Rashid Emir State.

Tens of thousands of indigenous soldiers were defeated at the first contact with the Australasian Expeditionary Force. They were defeated as soon as they came into contact.

They had never seen the Australasian army fight in such a arrogant way. Bullets and artillery shells seemed to be free of charge. They not only caused huge physical casualties to the Rashid indigenous soldiers, but also caused a heavy blow to their souls.

Their army was as if it were made of paper and could not withstand the charge of the Australasian army.

On July 17, the Australasian army entered Saudi Arabia from the Qatar region and marched along the Persian Gulf coast to the Mesopotamian plains.

There is good news for the Rashid Emir State. Most of the Persian Gulf coast is under the rule of the Ottoman Empire. Their army finally does not have to face enemies like the Australasian Expeditionary Force.

But it was not so wonderful for the Ottoman Empire. The Australasian army was like a death-seeking god, rushing toward them in a mighty manner.

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