Chapter 649: 300 additional troops
The British can occupy uninhabited islands, but why can’t Russia?
The British way of occupying Socotra is child's play in George's eyes. Does it mean that if the British plant a flag in St. Petersburg, St. Petersburg will become British?
This British way is bullying and bullying. The local indigenous chief was okay.
This won’t work for Russia.
George said there would be no major construction projects, but at the end of June, an engineering team arrived at Little Rock Island from East India and began to expand the port on Little Rock Island.
Although the name of Xiaoshi Island is "small", it actually covers an area of more than 130 square kilometers, which is quite large.
Although it cannot be compared with Socotra Island, which has a total area of more than 3,400 square kilometers, it is enough to build a port.
The British were not idle either. When the engineering team was expanding the port on Xiaoshi Island, the British army stationed a small team on each of the other two islands in the Socotra Islands.
The reason why Xiaoshi Island was successfully stolen by the Russians was that the British army did not have a garrison on Xiaoshi Island.
This is really not a sign of slackness on the part of the British. After all, for so many years, no one has dared to disturb Tai Sui. This has never happened before.
Now that the Russian Empire fired the first shot at Britain, if Britain does not do something, there is no guarantee that other countries will not follow suit.
Lloyd George knew that the consequences of allowing the Russian Empire to seize Little Rock Island would be serious, but he had no way to expel the Russians. The whole world was paying attention to the performance of the British army on the Somme.
Since the outbreak of the World War, the British army has been carefully hiding behind the French and waving flags, never taking the initiative to attack the German positions. This has made it difficult for countries around the world to judge the true strength of the British army.
Before the Battle of the Somme was launched, Haig made preparations for half a year. Not only did the British army hoard a large amount of supplies, but the total strength of the British army under Haig had reached 500,000.
It should be noted here that after mobilization in various countries, the training time for new recruits is generally 3 to 6 months, but the training time for British recruits is as long as 18 months.
In Amur, soldiers only serve for 24 months in peacetime.
After the war broke out, Kitchener announced that he would mobilize an army of one million people.
From 1914 to 1916, two full years passed. Kitchener had been buried under the sea, and his plan was still not completed.
The British attack was really eye-opening.
Before the attack, the British army conducted a week-long artillery bombardment. Out of extreme confidence in the artillery, the British army officers told the soldiers before setting off that there would not be even a living mouse on the German position.
The British troops participating in the attack had a total weight of 70 pounds of equipment, equivalent to about 32 kilograms.
The British army has strict regulations on the speed at which soldiers can advance, one hundred yards (91.44 meters) every two minutes, no more, no less, accurate to the second.
“The distance between people must be close enough to give each other confidence.”
It is hard to believe that these words came from a British Army commander.
The German army had never experienced such a battle.
A German machine gunner told reporters: We kept loading and shooting without having to aim, we just had to pull the trigger.
So the British army lost 60,000 people on the first day of the battle.
It is impossible for such a British army to gain the respect of its opponents and allies.
George didn't bother to laugh at the British at this moment. The situation of the Russian army on the northern front was more dangerous than that of the British army.
After the abolition of the death penalty, deserters inevitably appeared, and the first to flee were those soldiers who demanded the abolition of the death penalty.
Yanushkevich finally understood that those soldiers who demanded the abolition of the death penalty were foreshadowing themselves.
Immediately afterwards, the situation began to spread to the front line, and some frontline troops also began to escape.
First-line generals such as Ruzsky and Alexeyev called Yanushkevich one after another to ask how to deal with it.
Yanushkevich's response was to send more priests to the front line, hoping to use the power of religion to strengthen the officers and soldiers' will to fight.
George could only be glad at this moment that Hindenburg did not take the opportunity to launch an attack, otherwise the Russian army on the northern front would completely collapse.
This is not because of Hindenburg's conscience, but because the battle between Hindenburg and Falkenhayn has reached a stage where the winner is about to be decided, and Hindenburg has no time to formulate a battle plan.
Last winter, Falkenhayn advocated changing the direction of the main attack from the Eastern Front back to the Western Front, so there was the Battle of Verdun.
The Somme was a unilateral massacre of British troops by the German army.
Verdun was a meat grinder, constantly devouring the lives of soldiers on both sides.
From February to June, German casualties had reached 300,000, of which 100,000 were killed.
The French army's losses reached 350,000, and the number of killed was also around 100,000.
It may seem like there is no winner, but don’t forget that the German army is the attacking side. The French army is waiting for work and uses its positional advantages to cause damage to the attacking German army. The German army’s losses should be more heavy than the French army.
About half of the French troops participating in the war came from the colonies.
The German army is entirely composed of Germans.
William II did not care about the losses of the German army. As long as the German army could occupy Paris, everything would be worth it.
But if the German army fails to achieve its campaign objectives, then Falkenhayn will be responsible for the German army's losses.
Although the Hindenburgs were in Warsaw, their eyes were fixed on Verdun, waiting for Berlin's call at any time.
George is in Constantinople, but his heart is in St. Petersburg. Mikhail's "Operation to Depose" did not go smoothly. Although Alex was unpopular, he received the support of the Grand Duchess from Germany and the officials who were promoted by Alex. There was great resistance after the depose. .
Four of the nine heads of important departments in the empire are related to Alex, including Interior Minister Protopopov, who is equivalent to the prime minister.
Protopopov was recommended to Nicholas by Alex because of his friendship with Rasputin, and was appointed Minister of the Interior by Nicholas. This was something the grand dukes hated Alex. direct cause.
In the eyes of the grand dukes, the empire was not the empire of the Tsar alone, but the empire of the Romanov family.
Although Alex is a queen, how can a woman dictate the appointment of such a key position as the Minister of the Interior?
The key is success!
News from Alexander indicated that the Grand Dukes of St. Petersburg were now considering forcing Nicholas to abdicate because of Nicholas' unshakable trust in Alex.
As long as Nicholas is no longer the Tsar, Alex's power will naturally disappear.
George sent a telegram to Mikhail and asked if Mikhail's promise was still valid.
Mikhail called George back and his promise stood forever.
George had many things going on during this time, and his energy was inevitably distracted.
After the war broke out, the East Indies quickly attacked and took over all the German colonies in the Pacific, including the German colonies on the island of New Guinea, before the Australians could react.
The island of New Guinea has a total area of 785,753 square kilometers. It was previously divided between Britain, Germany, and the Netherlands, each occupying a part. The specific distribution ratio is about half of the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom and Germany divide the other half.
After the war broke out, a quarter of the German territory was occupied by the East Indies, and Australia continued to occupy the remaining quarter.
Then the problem arises.
Compared with East India, Australia's strength in New Guinea is very weak and not enough to completely control it. There are only a few strongholds along the coast, and most of the inland areas are empty of strength.
During the East Indian occupation of New Guinea, sporadic small-scale battles broke out with the Germans. The Germans did not resist resolutely, and some Germans fled into Australian-controlled areas.
Not only were these Germans not expelled by the Australians, but they were accepted by the Australians.
Since the end of last year, the Germans who fled into Australian territory have frequently crossed the border and launched attacks in East India.
The German attack was mainly based on destruction. Today they cut a telephone line and tomorrow they planted a bomb on the road. Although the damage caused to East India was not great, the trouble was not small.
De Young initially asked the Australians to restrain the Germans in the country.
The Australian's reaction was cold and there was no response to De Young at all.
So in May this year, Australia’s stronghold on the island of New Guinea was attacked by unknown forces.
Now the Australians were finally anxious and took the initiative to contact De Young.
De Yang’s response was: I am Phuket Island - it has nothing to do with me.
At this time, he can still be cute and full of ridicule.
After the outbreak of the World War, Australia and New Zealand actively responded to the call of their mother country and mobilized 400,000 Anzac troops to fight in Europe.
Australia has a total of 5.5 million people, which is as sparsely populated as Siberia in the Russian Empire.
There are still about 100,000 troops training in Australia, and they were originally going to go to the European battlefield this summer.
Because Australia's territory in New Guinea was attacked by "unknown forces", Australia used this as an excuse to not send these reinforcements to Europe.
This especially made Haig, who suffered heavy losses in the Battle of the Somme and was in urgent need of replenishing his troops, anxious to get angry.
East India was George's private territory. After the Russians occupied Little Rock Island, Lloyd George sent a telegram to George, hoping that George would restrain East India.
George was baffled.
When the East Indies were attacked, the Australians ignored De Young's appeals.
Now that Australia is being attacked, how can we be sure that the person who launched the attack is from East India?
What if they are the same group of people!
Not just in case, but definitely.
So there must be remnants of the German army hiding on the island of New Guinea, and they are trying to provoke conflicts between Australia and East India.
George's suggestion is that East India and Australia jointly send troops to completely strangle the remnants of the German army on the island of New Guinea.
Lloyd George was speechless for a moment.
The island of New Guinea covers hundreds of thousands of square kilometers. Since it has not been fully developed, it is full of uninhabited virgin forests.
How many people would it take to search the island?
Sending all 500,000 Anzac troops is not enough.
Since Lloyd George disagreed with George's suggestion, George had no choice but to seek his own blessings.
On July 13, Australia's largest stronghold in New Guinea, Morbizi, was attacked again.
This time the attacker used artillery, causing serious losses to Morbizi.
Australian Governor Ronald Ferguson was very angry and sent 300 more troops to New Guinea.
(End of Chapter)