Chapter 389 We Defeat
The Battle of the Marne ended with the victory of the British and French forces.
Of course, such a victory was quite tragic. In order to eliminate the German First and Second Armies, France paid nearly 220,000 casualties, and the British Expeditionary Force also suffered more than 40,000 casualties.
On the German side, the First and Second Armies lost most of their combat effectiveness and suffered nearly 220,000 casualties.
Since the outbreak of the war, the battle loss ratio between the French army and the German army was relatively close, and it was the battle in which the German army suffered the greatest losses.
When William II heard the news about the defeat on the Marne River, he couldn't help but became furious and asked Moltke: "Why did you order the retreat from the Marne River?"
Seeing that the German army was very close to Paris, the retreat at this time not only meant that Germany planned to retreat westward. The failure of the offensive and defensive strategy also meant that Germany's chance of victory had been reduced by more than half.
At this time, Xiao Maoqi was speechless, his face was gray, and his expression was depressed. After hesitating for a long time, he said to William II: "Your Majesty, I am afraid that we will not only retreat from the Marne River. I think we have lost this war." The failure of the revised Schlieffen Plan also represented
Germany's overall strategy. It has completely failed on this level.
Germany, which could not defeat France in a short period of time and faced a two-front war between France and Russia, could not be an opponent of the Allied Powers.
What's more, France and Russia also have assistance from the United Kingdom and Australasia, which is not mentioned at all in the Schlieffen Plan, that is, France and Russia are actually stronger than Germany.
The Schlieffen Plan was an excellent strategic plan for fighting France and Russia, but this plan did not take into account factors from other countries, such as Britain and Australasia.
In the previous Battle of the Marne, the British Expeditionary Force played a vital role, sharing a considerable part of the pressure on the French army.
What's more, without the material support of Britain and Australasia, the military mobilization of France and Russia would not have been so successful and rapid, and the pressure on Germany's two-front war would have been relieved a lot.
But how could the extreme-tempered William II accept the defeat of the war? On the next day, William II used the excuse of Moltke's illness to remove Moltke from the post of chief of staff and appointed Minister of War Falkenhayn as the new chief of staff. Chief of Staff.
On the day Falkenhay took office, William II patted Falkenhayn on the shoulder and said a crucial sentence: "I will not accept the defeat of this war, and Germany will not accept it either. Either fight to the end. One soldier can either destroy the damn Allies and end this damn war."
Unfortunately, Germany had lost the initiative in the war after its failure in the Battle of the Marne.
The French army relieved a considerable amount of pressure and successfully transformed the war on the Western Front into a protracted war of attrition.
The French army has built a large number of trenches and defensive positions in the current front line area. It seems that they must either step over the corpses or stay in front of the positions.
There is also bad news for Germany. In addition to the war forces on the Western Front, Russia also organized a large number of troops on the Eastern Front battlefield to launch a charge against the German positions.
In the first month before the war began, most of the Russians' eyes were on Austria-Hungary.
The Austro-Hungarian Empire bore most of Russia's troops for Germany, allowing Germany enough time and troops to complete the war on the Western Front.
But the Austro-Hungarian Empire could not withstand the entire Russian offensive, not to mention the assistance of Serbia.
Perhaps due to their own selfishness, under the order of Franz I, the Austro-Hungarian Empire did not implement William II's opinions very well, which was to take defensive measures against Serbia and attack the Russian border with all its strength.
This resulted in a considerable portion of the Austro-Hungarian army staying on the Serbian border, holding back the Serbian residents with ironclad confidence.
After receiving material assistance from Britain and Australasia, Russia made considerable progress in its military mobilization, organizing hundreds of thousands of troops to attack the German border.
Although Russia failed in the offensive and defensive war on the German-Russian border, it still caused a considerable impact on Germany's eastern border and caused very huge casualties.
Although the casualties on the Russian side are greater, for Russia, the most indispensable thing is farmers who can take up weapons and become soldiers at any time.
Of course, the serious problems Germany is facing now have nothing to do with Moltke. All the mess was left to the new Chief of Staff Falkenhayn to solve.
Falkenhayn's first order after taking office was to send troops to attack Antwerp, Belgium, to eliminate the threat from the rear flank of the German army in France.
Antwerp is an important port in Belgium, only more than 80 kilometers away from the North Sea, and is regarded by the United Kingdom as a safety valve.
At this time, 150,000 Belgian troops and 20,000 British troops gathered in Antwerp.
In order to capture the strong city of Antwerp, Falkenhayn not only dispatched German troops with combat effectiveness, but also recruited a large number of college student reserve troops and volunteers from within Germany.
It is reported that Falkenhayn summoned a total of 36,000 college student reserve troops to participate in the offensive and defensive battle of Antwerp.
Such figures are extremely exaggerated and prove Germany’s efforts and achievements in education.
You know, in the whole of Australasia, there are currently only more than 4,000 university graduates every year.
Australasia's education has developed for more than ten years, but it only has nearly 40,000 university students.
Germany invested nearly 40,000 college students in one battle. Such arrogance was something that a country like Australasia could not even imagine. Of course, the heroic ending is also tragic. Among the 36,000 college student reserve troops, less than 6,000 survived the Battle of Antwerp, only one-sixth of the total number.
It is worth mentioning that among these surviving reserve forces, there is a person whose name is well known, that is Hitler, Adolf Hitler, who launched World War II.
At this time, Hitler was just a sergeant, an ordinary soldier fighting for his country.
At this time, he could not imagine his future glory and the disaster he would bring to the European people.
The German army captured Antwerp on October 10. A few days before Germany captured Antwerp, the Australasian Expeditionary Force arrived in France one after another, and took French trains and transportation to the German-French border to join the war. War of attrition.
Because the Australasian Ministry of Defense and its subordinate staff are extremely far away from the European battlefield, under Arthur's order, the Fourth Division Commander Scott Malone was promoted to the interim commander-in-chief of the Australasian Expeditionary Force. Commander, control up to 300,000 colonial troops.
According to Arthur's plan, every division commander of the main army heading to the European battlefield will become the temporary commander-in-chief of the expeditionary force.
During the period when they served as the interim commander-in-chief of the expeditionary force, it was not only a test of their commanding abilities, but also represented trust in them.
After all, this is an army of more than 300,000 people, and all command rights are in the hands of one person, which shows the trust of the country and the royal family in him.
In fact, although there are more than 300,000 army mercenaries outside, Arthur is not worried about any accidents in these armies, such as the situation of officers and mercenaries becoming self-reliant.
After all, the material consumption of these more than 300,000 troops is a problem. Although the United Kingdom is responsible for half, Australasia itself is responsible for the other half.
Coupled with the good relationship between Britain and Australasia, if the Australasian Expeditionary Force breaks away from the government's control, the first thing it will face is the problem of eating, drinking and eating for 300,000 people.
As time entered October 1914, the European battlefield became much quieter. The huge offensive and defensive war involving millions of troops has ended. The next war is a war of attrition about the country's potential.
Of all the countries participating in the war, the easiest would have been the British Empire and Australasia.
If we had to decide on a winner, Australasia would actually be easier than the British Empire.
After all, the British Empire was still within the scope of Europe and was very close to France and Germany.
If France were defeated and Germany annexed some territory in Western Europe, it would be possible for it to expand its influence to Britain's sphere of influence, such as across the English Channel and the North Sea.
This is unacceptable to the British Empire. If Germany dominates the European continent, Britain's hegemony will no longer exist.
But Australasia has no such trouble. Australasia is located in remote Oceania, so there is no need to worry about the influence of European countries.
This also resulted in Australasia being the only country among all the participating countries that was not greatly affected by the war. Even Australasia's economy achieved considerable growth due to large-scale export trade to the Allied Powers.
Finance Minister Kevin once reported to Arthur with a smile that if the current situation continues, Australia's financial situation will become better in 1914 and fiscal revenue will continue to rise.
More importantly, because the army and navy were cooperating with the Allied Powers in operations, the United Kingdom was responsible for nearly half of Australasia's military expenditures.
Calculated in this way, under the premise of growth in Australasia's fiscal revenue, fiscal expenditures, especially military expenditures, have actually decreased.
This is under the premise that European countries have certain material reserves and the demand for external orders is not large.
When the war continues to develop and European countries need a large amount of weapons, equipment and resources, Australasia's finances will still have more room for growth.
Only now did Arthur understand how happy the American mood was during the original historical war.
This feeling of sitting on a mountain and watching tigers fight while making a lot of money is so wonderful. If Britain and France were not Australasia's allies, and Australasia still needed the support of Britain and France to fight against the United States, Arthur even wanted to add more fire to the European war, and by the way, balance the balance and bring out the British's advantages.
Balanced policy, shit stirrup. During this era the British Empire enjoyed global renown for its policies and reputation.
As a monarch who was born in the British royal family, Arthur said that this policy still has merit, at least it is not bad at all when used on the enemy.
At the end of October 1914, Arthur visited the Royal Dockyard about the construction of warships and gave a speech, which received cheers and applause from everyone present.
Immediately afterwards, Arthur visited major military factories to see the current recruitment and production status.
The production of the military factory is related to the income of the royal family and the Australasian government, and Arthur attaches great importance to it.
After all, you can only make money by producing something. If they only sign an order, Russia will not be stupid enough to pay the full amount directly.
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(End of chapter)