afterglow

Chapter 412 Chapter [-] World Situation; Intermission is over

"The glory of any empire is based on challenging power." - Anonymous

If war can be compared to a stage, then it also has intermissions.

More than two months passed by in a flash, and the time came to the first day of September in [-].

In Western Europe, due to losses and attrition caused by battle damage, breakdowns, casualties, diseases, and some tight logistical supplies, one million German troops temporarily stopped at the line from Aitere to Montpellier.

Now only the two major cities of Bordeaux and Toulouse are under the control of the Third Republic, and they are huddled on the remaining land in the southwest.

The French officers and soldiers were confused and at a loss, but no one dared to desert and become deserters, because the brave ones had already escaped before, and now the punishments have become more severe, and they are often shot and executed.

Many people quietly agreed in private that once the Democratic Commune Army and the German army launched an attack, they would surrender after just firing a few shots.

The glorious victory in the Battle of France is certainly worthy of celebration for the Germans, but they know very well that they must use their remaining courage to pursue the enemy.

Military trains traveled between Germany and France, transporting tanks, artillery, and ammunition that had just left the factory to the front line.Army Group Koblenz and Army Group Mannheim seized the time to rest and resupply, preparing to work with the Democratic Commune Army to deliver the final blow to the remnants of the Third Republic.

After many meetings, negotiations between the French Democratic Commune government and Berlin also made key progress.

Even after a change of government, the people's demands have not changed in a short period of time - the French, who shed countless blood and sacrificed their lives in the last war but failed to obtain substantial benefits, are not interested in the war.

Although some people in the upper echelons of the German society are not satisfied with this, most people think this is understandable. The relationship between Germany and France is complicated, and the same ideology cannot eliminate the long-standing estrangement overnight. Alsace and Lorraine's problems were annoying enough.

Ernst is optimistic - no matter what, at least the French Democratic Commune will not be in a hostile state with the German Society, and the two sides can carry out normal trade activities and even technological exchanges.

Besides, the war has broken out, and it is impossible for the French to stay out of it. Let's let them be isolated for a while until they can figure it out.

During this period, the British planned and implemented "Operation Longbow" because they were afraid of the French navy defecting to the Democratic Commune.

It was June 6. When the German army was advancing from land towards Toulon, the Royal Navy Fleet H in the Mediterranean suddenly approached the port of Toulon and blocked this important port city.

They issued an ultimatum to the French fleet inside-either go to French overseas colonies or be sunk.

The French soldiers rejected the British's unreasonable threats and resolutely fought back in self-defense.

However, British carrier-based aircraft taking off from the HMS Courageous aircraft carrier dropped mines and blocked the outbound route, blocking the French fleet in the port of Toulon.

The slow Swordfish torpedo machine performed well in this close-door battle, and the battlecruiser Strasbourg, Dunkirk, and heavy cruiser Algeria were sunk successively.

Despite the protection of coastal defense guns, the British battleships boldly ventured close to bombard targets in the port, severely damaging many French battleships that were huddled together and in a dilemma.

The morale of the French troops stationed in Toulon was completely depleted. The next day, the German vanguard easily took over the home port of the French Mediterranean Fleet and sent a large number of aircraft to attack Fleet H and drove away the British.

Although the port facilities and capital ships suffered heavy losses, most of the smaller battleships survived.

Facing the approaching German army, Admiral Jean-Laborde issued an order to scuttle. 39 ships of various types carried out this order, but 28 ships did not.

The seaplane carrier Teste, the heavy cruiser Dupre, the destroyer Vauban, the destroyer Vaucan, the destroyer Indomitable and other twenty warships declared their allegiance to the French Democratic Commune.

Eight warships, including the USS Lynx, USS Verdun, USS Cheetah, and USS Aurora, braved the mine blockade deployed by the British yesterday and forced their way out of the port. As a result, only three warships successfully escaped and headed for the French colony of Morocco. Casablanca.

Afterwards, although the Renault government expressed strong protest, what substantive means of opposition could they make if they could only survive in a corner of the country?

The British's stabbing in the back made loyalists of the Third Republic even more disappointed, and morale was already depleted to the extreme.

In Eastern Europe and the vast land of Russia, the battle between red and blue, with black and gray on the same stage, is still ongoing.

The Red Eagle Legion and some cooperating Russian troops launched an attack on St. Petersburg on July 7. The Russian army loyal to the Tsar put up a resolute resistance. However, its organized defense was shattered on the 2th, and sporadic resistance continued. Lasts until the 13th.

The Tsar and the imperial nobles had fled as soon as the Red Eagle Legion approached St. Petersburg. They withdrew to Murmansk, which was still under their control, and then boarded battleships and sailed with the fleet to Britain via the Arctic Ocean route.

德国人向俄国人提供了数量可观的军事援助，超过500部5W.S.E.b短波电台、400门Le.FH26型105㎜榴弹炮、120门sFH34型150㎜榴弹炮、660门Pak35型37㎜反坦克炮，以及数以万计的大量炮弹。

219 Panzer II tanks, Panzer III tanks, and TNH light tanks were successively provided with assistance. In addition, some parts substitutes provided by the Czechs enabled the Russians to assemble 56 T-26 light tanks that lacked key equipment.

Starting from mid-August, the ▇▇▇ troops (red), which had accumulated a certain amount of strength, began to plan a large-scale attack, hoping to break through the Nationalist Republican Army's defense lines in one fell swoop and capture Moscow.

The Red Eagle Legion did not participate in this offensive. After receiving the replenishment and rest of their troops, they took the train all the way south.

Tsaritsyn was controlled by the uprising forces not long after the civil strife in Tsarist Russia began, but the situation to the south is no longer optimistic - there is the complex Caucasus region, and various large and small warlord forces in Georgia and Azerbaijan are also In the melee.

But correspondingly, the British are also very worried that the Baku oil fields will fall under the control of the German Agency, and are thinking about how to prevent the Red Eagle Legion from north of the Caucasus.

In Oceania, because the sovereign country cannot protect itself and is unable to protect Australia, Australia and the United States signed the "U.S.-Australia Shipping and Expatriates Security Agreement."

Although the London gentlemen are very dissatisfied with this, the British Empire is indeed unable to save itself, so it can only hold its nose and let it go.

Although this agreement may sound unrelated to the military at first glance, it is actually a serious guarantee of independence—when there is a threat to Australia, the United States is allowed to send troops to garrison and use all of Australia's infrastructure and ports.

In addition to the 41st Infantry Division, which arrived two months ago, the 8th Infantry Division has also set off by ship and is still drifting on the busy ocean.

At the same time, as expected, the Americans sent another newly formed infantry division to Hawaii, with more than 5000 troops stationed on Oahu.

During the interwar period, the U.S. military used the square division of the second brigade and fourth regiment. The establishment was large and bloated, with a single division having more than [-] troops.Taking into account actual combat needs and to facilitate strategic deployment, the Ministry of the Army issued a trial guidance order to change the organization of the infantry divisions that were to be deployed overseas, which is now the more popular delta division around the world.

Headquarters - division headquarters, mechanized reconnaissance company, military police company, signal company;

Service support units - logistics battalion, medical battalion, cooking team, military post office;

Combat support units - one heavy howitzer battalion, three medium howitzer battalions, anti-tank battalion, anti-aircraft battalion, engineer battalion;

Combat units - three infantry regiments.

这样一个试行编制的三角师共有军官630人、士兵14615人。武器装备总计有12门155㎜榴弹炮、36门105㎜榴弹炮、68门37㎜反坦克炮，各型机动车辆则多达1447辆。

In addition to the reinforcements sent by the Americans across the Pacific, the Australians themselves are also making every effort to expand their troops and prepare for war.

Factories of all sizes in Sydney, Melbourne and other places have received huge orders that far exceed their production capacity. Even if they work overtime, they cannot meet the explosive growth in demand.

To this end, the U.S. Congress approved the military assistance bill and began to provide the Australians with the rifles and artillery they are currently most in need of - the M7917 rifle and the M7897 75mm field gun respectively.

During the European War, Britain had to seek OEMs from foreign manufacturers because its production capacity was full. Three companies, Winchester and Remington in the United States, and Guangzhou Army Arsenal of Ming Dynasty, took orders to produce P14 for Britain. type rifle.

After the United States entered the war, in order to meet the large number of rifles needed for military expansion, they simply directly modified the caliber of the P14 rifles being manufactured by Winchester and Remington to avoid wasting time in drastically modifying the production line.

Therefore, these American versions of P14 rifles are the M7917. There are still hundreds of thousands of them in stock, which is very suitable for military assistance.

The M7897 field gun is even more famous. This epoch-making artillery is the world's first artillery to use a muzzle brake produced by Schneider Company, and is nicknamed "Miss 75".

大力扩军以后的澳大利亚陆军已有12个步兵师、3个步兵旅、1个装甲旅，这些部队编为3个军共计25万人，不过装甲部队因为没有足够的坦克而只是个空壳子。

The Governor-General of the Ming Dynasty also believed based on various intelligence that the training of these hastily formed troops was poor and the quality of the officers was worrying. The actual combat effectiveness may not be very strong, but due to the high morale, they still need to be treated with caution.

In other words, the Ming army will face approximately 30 US-Australian coalition forces in the future, and will face nearly twice as many enemies after the Labor expedition.

The generals thought it didn't matter. They all agreed that this kind of troops that required training and no weapons were easy to defeat. Courage was important, but it could only offset part of the disadvantages.

The world situation has been developing step by step in the past two months, and people seem to have a premonition that a turning point will come soon.

"My back hurts. If I wasn't in a hurry, I would never fly back and forth again."

At noon, the sun was shining brightly.

Zhou Changfeng complained as soon as he entered the check-in room, then shook his arms and back, and leaned under the electric fan to blow the air.

Luo Fu, who had been working hard at his desk all morning, stretched out, rubbed his eyes and said with a smile: "What you are thinking about is not something others are urging you to do."

Because he was concerned about the modification work of the amphibious command ship, Zhou Changfeng took a special flight to Haizhou at noon yesterday, and took the time to return again this morning.

After getting used to seeing giant ships that can weigh tens of thousands of tons, seeing this kind of eight-thousand-ton ship is no longer a surprise. The scene I saw when I took the traffic boat to the battleship on the dock was really shocking.

The combat command room, combat intelligence room, combat control room, radio monitoring room, aviation reconnaissance and judgment room and other cabins have long been separated and formed, and various professional equipment are also being installed one after another. It is expected to be completed in just a few days, and then actual operations can be carried out test.

The Ming Navy has never had the habit of naming ships after people, but this amphibious command ship is rarely named after Lu Xun.

While Zhou Changfeng was talking about what he had seen at the Haizhou Shipyard, Luo Fu took out a document from a pile of documents next to him and said, "Thank you for coming back in time. Take a look at this. Is it a coincidence?"

"what's the situation?"

"After the destroyers provided by the United States are in place, it can be seen that the efficiency of submarines in breaking diplomatic relations has dropped significantly. It dropped by more than [-]% year-on-year last month. Well, the Germans are determined to strangle the British."

By handing over the naval base in the West Indo Islands, the United States provided the Royal Navy with 46 Clemson-class destroyers and Vickers-class destroyers.

The Workers' Navy submarine force's operations to break diplomatic relations were therefore curbed. The surface ship force had previously hoped to participate in the war, but the War Council had not agreed out of careful consideration.

Now it seems that we can no longer cower. We must increase our efforts and deal a devastating blow to the Atlantic route to force the British to make peace!

After more than half a month of struggle, the upper management of Deshe finally made up their mind.

Although the two high-speed battleships Ma and En have not yet entered service, the remaining battlecruisers have maintained combat readiness and are ready to attack at any time.

In the afternoon of August 8, the break-up fleet consisting of four warships set sail and slowly left the port of Kiel.

This fleet consists of three battlecruisers and one heavy cruiser, namely the two completed Mackensen-class battlecruisers Bruno and Theodor, the battlecruiser Franz, and the Piccolo Heavy cruiser.

They will do their best to cross the North Sea and break through the encirclement and interception of the Royal Navy's Home Fleet.

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Once they successfully enter the Atlantic Ocean, the British will have almost no way to restrict this fleet, and the Atlantic route will inevitably collapse - how can the only remaining Hood defeat one against three?
It can be said that the Germans hesitated for a long time before cautiously pulling out the long sword. If the British failed to block the sword, then begging for peace was only a matter of time.

"The Germans are still too cautious. They could have done this a few months ago." Luo Fu said with a smile while sorting out the documents: "Now the British are really burning their butts. They finally calmed down from the submarine war. This time The fleet shows up again."

"..." Zhou Changfeng, who was standing in front of the electric fan, was silent for a few seconds before speaking: "The intermission is over."

(End of this chapter)