Chapter 785 Verdun Meat Grinder South American Version

France and the United Kingdom are facing various problems one after another, making 1 uneasy.

Of course, the war in South America once again became a fair fight between Paraguay and Bolivia, as their respective supporters were in disarray.

Bolivia has great advantages in terms of land area and population. However, Bolivia's initial purchase of weapons and equipment focused on tanks and aircraft. These two weapons did not play a big role in the Northern Chaco region.

Paraguay, on the other hand, has been able to maintain its firepower advantage in the Northern Chaque region by virtue of the large number of small arms it purchased.

In particular, various types of machine guns are like killers in the Northern Chaco region. A few machine guns can hold a position and delay the enemy's attack outside the battle line.

At this time, Australasia, the only theater left, became very important. The attitude of Australasia not only determines the speed with which Britain and France solve domestic problems, but also determines who will gain the advantage in the war in South America.

Because he had already reached cooperation with the British before, Arthur's goal was still to help Paraguay win the war and obtain a share of the interests of Australasia.

As for who can take the lead in solving the problem, Britain or France, that is not something Arthur should consider.

Having said that, although the problems currently faced by the United Kingdom and France are difficult, they are definitely not unsolvable.

It is nothing more than how long it will consume Britain and France, and how much impact it will have on the colonial rule (sphere of influence) of Britain and France.

For Arthur, maybe this is good news. If there is a problem in India, only the British will realize the seriousness of the problem.

In order for India not to fall out of their control, they would reach compromises with Australasia elsewhere.

Arthur was not interested in India anyway. It would be best to help the British stabilize Indian rule to obtain the land and benefits he wanted.

After successfully diverting the British attention to India, the French did not dare to be careless and sent a fleet to the south coast of the United States. The threat was self-evident.

In addition to threatening Mexico, the French government also contacted the government of the Lone Star Republic and agreed to conduct a naval exercise on the south coast of the United States, with both navies participating.

Secondly, France stated that it would assist the Lone Star Republic with a batch of interest-free loans, and privately promised that if it won the war in South America, half of the oil in the Upper Chak area would be handed over to Mobil Oil Company for extraction. Supported by the Lone Star Republic.

On the British side, the trouble is actually even greater. India's area and population far exceed that of the Lone Star Republic, and the trouble it can cause is definitely not comparable to that of a small Mexico.

After Prabati obtained the weapons and equipment supported by the French, he launched an armed rebellion in India without telling Gandhi.

Because the British were unprepared at first, Prabati's armed rebellion successfully attacked several small towns in India and occupied the police stations and weapons depots in these small towns.

When news of Prabati's armed rebellion reached higher levels, it immediately aroused the anger of a large number of British people.

The British decisively adopted armed suppression against Gandhi's non-violent demonstrations, let alone armed rebellions like Prabati's.

Following the order from the Governor of India, the Indian garrison was dispatched one after another, targeting Prabati.

Because Prabati is an important member of the Congress Party, the Indian government directly declared the Congress Party illegal and issued arrest warrants to many Congress Party members, including Gandhi.

What Gandhi did not expect was that he promoted two non-violent marches and attracted tens of thousands of Indian people to support his actions, but he failed to successfully get on the Indian government's wanted list.

But it was only because of an armed rebellion by Prabhati that most members of the Congress Party, including himself, were honored to be on the list.

The good news is that Prabati's armed force has less than 10,000 people, and the current impact is only on a few small towns in India.

As long as it can be controlled in time and Prabati's armed rebellion is controlled within a certain range, it will not cause harm to the rule of all India.

But the bad news is that Prabati's armed rebellion seems to have made a start, opening up a new path for other forces in India.

Even if Prabati's rebellion could be suppressed, the British would have to worry about rebellions from other forces in India.

It can be said that since Prabhati's armed rebellion, the difficulty of British rule in India will increase again.

If nothing else happens, even India's independence will be earlier.

With Bolivia's full mobilization, Bolivia already has an advantage in terms of army numbers.

In order to help Paraguay win this war, Australasia sent a military exchange group with less than 100 people, but all of them were outstanding young officers who had graduated from the Australasian Military Academy or were about to graduate.

The purpose of sending these people to Paraguay, in addition to helping Paraguay win the war, was that Arthur wanted to train young officers in Australasia.

Although after more than 30 years of hard work, the military academies in Australasia have become world-famous. There are countless outstanding officers trained every year, and they are very famous at home and abroad.

But if an officer has not experienced actual combat, it can only be said that he has the potential to become an excellent officer.

Only an officer who has been tempered by war can be called an excellent officer. With this purpose in mind, the Ministry of Defense planned to hone Australasia's young officers in this war, and Arthur agreed with this idea.

If it weren't for the fact that the armies of both sides in this war were not very large, Arthur would have even wanted the Australasian armies to rotate in combat, hone their fighting will in a real war, and improve the army's combat effectiveness.

You know, more than ten years have passed since World War I, and most of the soldiers in the army have already retired.

Coupled with the previous expansion of the army, many new soldiers have never seen a real battlefield, and they do not know the cruelty of war.

Although Arthur believed in the army's training system and the combat effectiveness of a rigorously trained army.

But those who have participated in the war and those who have not participated in the war are two different levels for a soldier. Only by experiencing a real war and experiencing the test of death can a soldier experience true transformation and become an excellent elite soldier.

After the First World War, Australasia experienced very few wars. The larger one was the war that wiped out the United States. Australasia deployed more than 100,000 soldiers.

However, the reference value of that war is relatively low. Most of the main American troops were delayed to the Eastern Front battlefield. In fact, most of the Australasian troops faced on the Western Front battlefield were the National Guards of various states in the United States.

As the Australasian Young Officers Corps arrived in Paraguay, they immediately took over the command of part of the Paraguayan army.

Under the creative command of these young officers, the Paraguayan army relied on Australasian weapons and equipment to develop a combat effectiveness far beyond its previous capabilities.

This is indeed the gap between powerful countries and weak countries. Even if both sides have the same weapons and equipment, differences in tactical ideas and experience, as well as familiarity and use of weapons and equipment, also determine the gap in combat effectiveness between the two armies.

In order to make up for the Paraguayan army's lack of air force, Australasia also exported several reconnaissance aircraft to Paraguay.

These reconnaissance aircraft are backward products that have been eliminated before in Australasia. They are carefully kept in warehouses, waiting for such a war opportunity to sell them.

There are currently more than 2,000 such obsolete and outdated aircraft in Australasia's armament warehouses.

Even based on Australasia’s friendly price of A$50,000 per aircraft to Paraguay, these more than 2,000 aircraft can still generate more than A$50 million in revenue for Australasia.

As for whether other countries will purchase such outdated aircraft, Australasia does not have too many worries.

Although it is an outdated product for Australasia, for most countries in the world, such aircraft are still advanced products that they are unable to develop and manufacture.

Even proudly speaking, except for the British who may have the technology to manufacture aircraft comparable to these, other countries, including France, the second great power, may not be able to manufacture the aircraft that have been eliminated in Australasia.

What's even more terrible is that Australasia's first-generation jet aircraft is about to be phased out, and the second-generation jet aircraft is about to take the stage.

However, jet engines in other countries are still under development, and the leading progress in aircraft and jet engines is enough for Arthur to confidently finish World War II.

Although there are only a few reconnaissance aircraft, they are still far behind Bolivia in terms of number. But for things like aircraft, we cannot just look at the quantity. Whether a good aircraft can be used is very important to the effectiveness of the war.

It just so happens that many of these officers come from the Air Force Academy, which can not only help Paraguay cultivate excellent air force soldiers, but can also directly fly on these aircraft for reconnaissance missions.

It was precisely with the reconnaissance power from the air that Paraguay's disadvantages from the sky were made up for in the war.

Taking advantage of the fact that Bolivia had just carried out general mobilization and the army had not yet completed its training, Paraguay launched a full-scale attack and successfully drove the Bolivian army out of the previous border.

1 The Paraguayan army, under the command of José Felix Estigarribia, recaptured the frontline military town of Pitiantuta.

This was not over yet. In less than four days, Jose Felix Estigarrivia, with the help of the Australasian officer corps, led less than 3,000 soldiers to surprise the Bolivian frontline headquarters Al Fortified the fortress and successfully annihilated more than 1,500 Bolivian soldiers.

It was also after this unexpected raid that the offensives in Bolivia and Paraguay on the front lines were completely reversed.

Bolivia changed from offense to defense, and Paraguay changed from defense to offense.

Especially after the frontline headquarters Arce was raided, the Bolivian army's frontline command fell into chaos.

Although the Bolivian army commander successfully withdrew to the rear, his personal guards and frontline command system all remained in Arce.

After successfully occupying Arce, the war moved from Paraguay to Bolivia.

This is good news for Paraguay. After all, Paraguay is a country with less land and fewer people, and its land cannot withstand the devastation of war.

After the war is currently transferred to Bolivia's territory, it can at least ensure that Paraguay's territory is not infringed, and the losses in the war will also be reduced a lot.

But since then, Paraguay's offense has not been so smooth. Starting on July 8, the offensive of both sides turned into a long war of attrition and tug-of-war.

The war has also become very brutal. The daily casualties on both sides are close to hundreds. At least dozens of soldiers are killed every day, and there is a constant stream of injured soldiers.

1. The Paraguayan army targeted Saavedra. Because there is an open area called Seven Thousand Meters in front of Saavedra, the main battlefield of this offensive and defensive battle was also placed here.

The army in Bolivia at this time was commanded by the French commander Louis Williams Davide, a more traditional and old-school commander.

This offensive and defensive battle is very important for both Bolivia and Paraguay. In order to win this war, both sides invested a lot of troops.

Bolivia has invested approximately 30,000 troops, more than half of whom are newly recruited recruits.

Paraguay, on the other hand, adheres to the principle that the number of attackers in an offensive and defensive battle is greater than the number of defenders. The Paraguayan army has close to 20,000 people.

In this open area called Seven Thousand Meters, the armies of both sides engaged in a fierce bloody battle.

Although the Bolivian army had dug trenches in advance, most of their troops were new recruits, and their top commander was a Frenchman. There was a language barrier between them, which created certain obstacles for the army's operations.

But it's different here in Paraguay. Lieutenant Colonel José Felix Estigarribia, who had led the army to recapture Pityantuta, had been successfully promoted to colonel and appointed commander of the Saavedra Offensive.

Although José Félix Estigarribia also had help from Australasian officers, command of the Paraguayan army remained in José's hands.

The advantage of doing this is that the languages ​​are more fluent, and the soldiers can better understand what orders their commanders have given.

Secondly, by letting Jose command the Paraguayan soldiers, they still trust each other. Compared to letting Australasian officers command Paraguayan soldiers, these Paraguayans always trust their own people more.

The Battle of Saavedra in history has been called the South American version of the Verdun Meat Grinder.

From such a name, it can be seen that the cruelty of this Saavedra offensive and defensive battle was even comparable to that of Verdun.

The reality is indeed this. Both sides invested more than 30,000 troops, but the scale was actually not large.

But because each was in an open area, both sides had almost no shelter, except for trenches hurriedly dug at night.

Because of this, this offensive and defensive battle was very cruel, and the numbers on both sides only lasted three days.

In the end, the Paraguayan army won this extremely cruel offensive and defensive battle at the cost of more than 5,000 deaths and nearly 10,000 injuries.

On the Bolivia side, the 30,000-strong army was almost completely wiped out. Among them, there were about 10,000 casualties, and the remaining 3,000 were all captured by Paraguay.

The reason why Bolivia lost this war was that, in addition to the language barrier mentioned before between the commander and the soldiers, another problem was that the French commander mistakenly overestimated the combat effectiveness of the Bolivian army.

If the Bolivian army were all well-trained regular troops, they might still be able to fight the Paraguayan army, and the French commander would not have made any mistakes in his command.

But the problem is that at that time, half of the Bolivian army were new recruits, and these recruits had only experienced about two weeks of militarized training so far.

It is better to expect that these soldiers will display their due combat effectiveness than to expect that the Paraguayan soldiers on the opposite side will make mistakes in the battle.

War is so cruel. Although the French officers had no other fault, they just miscalculated the combat effectiveness of the Bolivian army.

But relying on such a mistake, the Paraguayan army gained an advantage in the front line defense and successfully conquered the Bolivian front.

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