896. Chapter 863 Mediterranean Strategic Plan (1/2)

Chapter 863 Mediterranean Strategic Plan

Although the British Army has not taken much action for the time being, this does not mean that the British will really remain indifferent in the early stages of the war.

George VI soon made big moves. The first step taken was to re-employ Churchill as Lord of the Admiralty and make Churchill fully responsible for the naval offensive.

This was a position that Churchill was very familiar with and was his first step in returning to British cabinet government.

On his second day as Lord of the Admiralty, Churchill proposed the naval action plan "Mediterranean Strategic Plan" to King George VI and Prime Minister Baldwin.

The whole plan is actually very simple, which is to achieve a complete blockade of the Mediterranean through the British and French combined fleets.

Blockade of the Mediterranean had two advantages. First, Italy, the enemy of Britain and France, is a Mediterranean country. Italy lacks minerals and needs to obtain a large amount of mineral resources from abroad through shipping.

The blockade of Italy will be a major blow to Italian industry and production, and may also dampen Italian morale.

Secondly, the Mediterranean is also very important to the German-Italian alliance. Once the Mediterranean was blocked, the German-Italian alliance could only obtain supplies from outside Europe through the North Sea to the Atlantic route.

As long as the British Empire once again uses its troops to block this route, Germany and Italy will be able to rely on local supplies to support themselves just like they did in World War I. They will already be at a disadvantage in the war.

At present, if you want to achieve a complete blockade of the Mediterranean, in addition to the help of France's navy, you also need to pay close attention to and maintain good relations with Spain.

It was very important for Britain to be able to achieve a blockade of the Mediterranean, with Gibraltar in the west and the Suez Canal in the east.

Gibraltar is the land that the British snatched from Spain. It is no secret that the Spanish have always wanted to recover Gibraltar.

If Germany used Gibraltar to attract the Spanish to join the war, it would become much more difficult for Britain to blockade the Mediterranean.

After all, Spain is not a purely Mediterranean country. The west coast of Spain is connected to the Atlantic Ocean, which also means that Spain can obtain material supplies from the colonies through the transport fleet at any time. Although they have almost no colonies, this is also a way for Germany and Italy to obtain material supplies.

In Churchill's plan, Spain had been regarded as a potential enemy of Britain. There was no way, the treaty they signed with Germany had to be taken seriously, and the radical attitude shown by Franco had to be guarded against.

However, Spain has not declared war on Britain and France so far, which also means that things have not reached the worst point yet.

When the British plan to blockade the entire Mediterranean was launched, the German army also launched a fierce attack on the Austrian Empire in Austria.

Because the attack on Poland went relatively smoothly before, the Germans followed the method of attacking Poland and upgraded the two-line attack to a three-line attack.

If the Italian army is added to the mix, the Austrian Empire is facing attacks from all sides. How long it can last depends entirely on the frequency of German and Italian attacks.

It can be seen from the map that Austria's current territory is somewhat similar to the Chinese character " enter ". The upper part of "enter" is actually the Czech region that Germans have always been thinking about.

It is not only the industrial center of the Austrian Empire, but also has a large number of coal and iron mines, as well as South Germans who have the same roots as the German nation.

For Germany, by annexing the Czech Republic, they can easily completely absorb the Czech industry and population. This is an expansion plan that is more effective than Poland.

From the offensive of the German army, we can also see Germany's attitude towards attacking Austria, that is, the Czech Republic first, Austria second, and Slovakia last.

Not only does the Czech Republic have a large amount of minerals and advanced industries, it is also a prominent part of the Austrian Empire, so it naturally became the first target of Germany's attack.

The purpose of the German government was to fully annex the Czech industry and population, so in this offensive, it did not adopt a strategy of massive bombing of Czech transportation hubs and industrial bases.

The German army was divided into three groups. The first group set out from Bavaria and headed south to attack Austria, containing the main force of the Austrian Empire on the western front.

The second army still set out from Bavaria, but its purpose was not to go south, but to go west and cut the Czech region. The role of this army is similar to that of the First Army that previously attacked Poland. The purpose is to quickly cut through the enemy's defense.

The Third Route Army departed from Poland and headed southwest to threaten Czechoslovakia. If everything goes well, the Second Route Army and the Third Route Army will successfully divide the Czech region and then achieve the goal of quickly annexing the Czech Republic.

Without the Czech region, the Austrian Empire basically no longer has the strength of a great power. More importantly, without the Czech Republic, the land of the Austrian Empire resembled a long "one", and this shape of the land was the most deadly.

Facing the north-south pincer attack from Germany and Italy, as long as the connection point between Austria and Slovakia is cut off, Austria alone, or even the Italians, can handle it.

After defeating the Austrian Empire, Germany could not only gain a large German population and developed industry, but also open up a route to the Balkans.

Although the Balkans are a famous powder keg in Europe, they are also rich in resources. In particular, Romania's oil is an essential energy source for the German Empire and the Kingdom of Italy at this time, and it is also the material that the army relies on for attack.

At this time, there are more than 3 million huge troops around the Austrian Empire.

Among them, the German army is the largest, with a total of more than 1.5 million troops, including 12 tank divisions, 17 artillery divisions and 2,200 aircraft.

These tanks and aircraft were produced by Germany in a rush during the war preparation stage, and some of them were weapons and equipment seized from Poland.

Not to mention, Poland's aircraft manufacturing technology is pretty good, and the relevant drawings and design data have also benefited the Germans a lot.

In addition, there are a large number of weapons from Britain and France in Poland's warehouses. These weapons can not only allow the Germans to study the weapons data of Britain and France in large quantities, but also increase Germany's weapon design experience.

As for Italy, a total of nearly 700,000 troops were invested. Because of France's participation in the war, Italy had to take out more than half of its troops to guard against France's attack.

Although Mussolini had great ambitions, he still had a relatively clear understanding of the combat effectiveness of the Italian army.

And for this attack, Italy's army of nearly 700,000 was completely sufficient. After all, the main force of the attack was the Germans, and Italy's greatest role was to contain the same number of Austrian troops.

The Austrian army had also exceeded one million at this time.

But it is obvious that the comprehensive strength of the Austrian Empire at this time was not a little bit worse than that of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in World War I.

In terms of population, the population of the Austrian Empire barely exceeded 22 million, which was only about half of the population of Italy, and was obviously lower than the normal level of the great powers.

The population of Italy has reached more than 42.44 million, which is the standard population data of the great powers.

Germany naturally needs no further explanation. After the demise of the United States, Germany's native population has been firmly ranked among the top three among the great powers.

After annexing most of Poland, Germany's total population has approached 94 million, and is constantly moving towards the 100 million mark. As long as Germany annexed the Czech region, there would be no big problem with the population exceeding 100 million. This is the second-highest figure among all the powerful countries in terms of local population, second only to Russia.

Thanks to such a large population, Germany can easily recruit millions of troops, and even in extreme cases, the army can be as high as 10 to 20 million.

Italy can also recruit 3 to 5 million troops, which the Austrian Empire can never compare with. Because there are only more than 20 million people, the Austrian Empire can only recruit 2 to 3 million troops in extreme cases.

Once the army suffers a large number of casualties, it will be a major blow to the Austrian Empire, as if the younger generation is directly broken.

In addition, the support of the Austrian people for the government is not too high. Since World War I, the Austro-Hungarian Empire has not only degenerated into the Austrian Empire, but they have also successively lost Hungary, Bosnia, Croatia and Slovenia.

What's more, although the name of the country is the Austrian Empire, it is a federal country composed of Austria, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

With the weakening of Austria, Austria does not have an absolute advantage in the rule of the empire, and the governments of the Czech Republic and Slovakia also have a high voice.

This led to a rather fatal phenomenon, that is, the governments of Austria, Czech Republic and Slovakia were not satisfied with the conscription plans issued by other governments.

The three governments all wanted the other party to pay more. For the entire country, this instability would make it difficult for the country to show a relatively unified coordination.

This led to a relatively slow conscription in the Austrian Empire. In addition to the Austrian government's resolute implementation of the conscription order, the Czech and Slovak regions were not so willing to conscription.

There were also some voices of Germans in the Czech Republic. These Germans obviously wanted to join the arms of Germany. They took an opposing attitude towards the Austrian government and passively resisted the conscription regulations issued by the imperial government.

Insufficient manpower should be the most serious problem facing the Austrian Empire at present. With the support of Britain and France, the Austrian Empire is not short of weapons and equipment for the time being.

In addition to tanks and aircraft that take time to manufacture, including artillery, Britain and France have transported a large amount of weapons and equipment to the Austrian Empire.

But the price is that the Austrian Empire needs to survive the first month alone, which is a severe test for the Austrian Empire with insufficient troops.

April 22, 1936, the border of the Austrian Empire.

Half a month ago, this place was still a green forest. Occasionally, wild animals would rush out of the woods, drink the fresh water from the lake next to them, and then jump into the dense jungle.

But now, after more than ten days of fighting, this border has already turned into a red-black battlefield.

The entire battlefield was filled with smoke, and even the small lake seemed to be covered with a layer of plain clothes.

The battlefield looked messy. In the sky, fighters and bombers from both sides were attacking each other continuously.

The humming roar of a large number of aircraft engines, accompanied by the explosion of shells from both sides and the screams and wails of soldiers, played the charge song of soldiers from both sides.

Whenever such a charge is played, a large number of soldiers will fall on both sides of Germany and Austria. Some soldiers were lucky and were only hit in the limbs by stray bullets, which could only be considered minor injuries on the battlefield.

Some guys are more unlucky. The cannonballs falling from the sky hit the target without any bias, and with the sound of explosion, even the people and their clothes disappeared.

Both the German army and the Austrian army have long been numb to such a tragic situation.

The war broke out on April 8, and only about half a month has passed until now. But in the past half month, the casualties of both armies have already exceeded six figures, and the hospitals in the Austrian rear have been filled with wounded.

In the past half month, the Austrian Third Army has been almost defeated. The huge army of more than 250,000 people is less than half full.

Of course, this is not how heroic and skillful the Austrian army is. It can still fight the enemy with less than half its strength.

In fact, this group army was unlucky. It first experienced intensive bombing by the German Air Force, and then was outflanked by the German group army. Almost all the elites were killed in the breakout.

In the end, the Third Army, with less than half of its soldiers left, was rescued by the Fourth Army and finally retreated to the rear of Austria to rest.

It can be seen from the encounter between the German and Austrian armies that the combat effectiveness of the two armies is not on the same level.

In fact, logically speaking, the Germans are the German nation, and the Austrians are also the German nation. The actual combat effectiveness of the armies of the two sides should not be much different.

But the reality is that the battle loss ratio between the German army and the Austrian army reached a terrifying 1:3. This also means that for every three Austrian soldiers killed, one German soldier can be killed.

Although this battle loss ratio is not very accurate, after all, the defeat of the Third Army was relatively sudden and did not occur frequently on the battlefield.

But being able to achieve such a battle loss ratio can already prove the actual gap between the German army and the Austrian army.

The fundamental reason for such a gap is the result of the mixed formation of the Austrian army.

The Austrian army was composed of Austrians, Czechs and Slovaks, but most of the officers commanding the army were Austrians.

Such unfair treatment caused many Czech and Slovak soldiers to be dissatisfied with the Austrian officers, and even violated the orders issued by the Austrian officers.

The reason why the Third Army was outflanked was actually because the Second Army failed to resist the firepower of the German army on the front.

In fact, a Czech infantry division in the Second Army retreated prematurely, which threatened the flanks of the Third Army and faced being outflanked.

The reason why the Czech infantry division retreated prematurely was that the Czech division commander believed that the Second Army's defense was using the Czechs as cannon fodder.

Under such circumstances, there was no way for the various ethnic groups in the Austrian Empire to unite as one to resist the German invasion.

If Austria relied solely on Austria's efforts, it would only be a matter of time before it was quickly annexed by Germany. After all, compared to Poland, which only lasted a month, the population of the Austrian Empire was smaller.

Once one of the three governments cannot withstand excessive casualties, the internal collapse of the Austrian Empire is a foreseeable problem.

An update for today.