The Rise Of Australasia-Chapter 1155 - 868: France Panics, British and French Envoys Arrive

Chapter 1155: Chapter 868: France Panics, British and French Envoys Arrive

As they faced an attack from the German Air Force, the French General immediately realized the direness of the situation.

But by then, the arrow was on the string and had to be shot, the front-line troops had already been ordered to attack, and the idea of withdrawing safely from the enemy’s onslaught was clearly a pipe dream.

Under the current circumstances, they could only sacrifice a portion of the troops at the very front, trying to preserve those in the rear to avoid excessive casualties.

Since the enemy had already made defensive preparations in Namur ahead of time, it also meant that the German Army was clearly aware of their own movements.

The French General had a headache; he didn’t understand whether it was the detachment sent to Charleroi that had revealed its movements or if it was the main force that had inadvertently exposed their tracks.

Following the command of the French General, the troops began to slowly retreat toward the rear. The German planes above also spotted the intentions of the French Army, and the German Army immediately began to pursue.

The original purpose of the French Army was to retreat to Charleroi in the west and organize a defensive formation there.

But soon, the French Army encountered German planes and troops on the road to Charleroi.

This also meant that Charleroi was absolutely not safe at that moment.

Before the French Army could react, the troops at the very front suddenly discovered that they were entirely surrounded by a large number of German troops.

By the time the French Army realized and stopped advancing, they were completely encircled by the German Army.

“Damn it!” The French General who had issued the commands turned pale, realizing that the troops he led had reached a dead end.

After being completely encircled by the German Army, if they wanted to break through, it would cost the majority of their troops.

This also meant that regardless of whether he could escape back to France, most of the soldiers of the army he led would have to stay in the encirclement.

“Break through to the south! As long as we breach the enemy’s encirclement, we will quickly reach the border,” the French General attempted to resist, ordering the French Army to quickly break through to the south.

But obviously, the German Army was well-prepared.

At the very front were numerous machine-gun positions. These machine guns formed one layer of firepower after another, turning the zone 500 meters in front of the German positions into a no man’s land.

Beyond that, a large number of German planes were in the skies, partly surveying the movements of French planes and partly causing significant casualties among the French troops.

“Damn, we must shoot down those annoying planes,” cursed the French General under his breath, quickly instructing his messenger to contact the Air Force.

But the German Army obviously wouldn’t give the French Army a chance. The network of machine guns and firepower from the cannons, along with the support of fighter aircraft and bombers in the sky, were harvesting the lives of numerous French soldiers every moment.

“Concentrate fire and break through to the south!” the French General ordered. “Gentlemen, we must admit that we have fallen into the encirclement of the German Army. If you want to live and return, then please fight with me with all your might.

For France, charge!”

A cry for France did attract a fair number of French soldiers to charge forward with the General.

But soon, the dense German firepower network sent these French soldiers retreating.

The Germans harbored no good feelings toward these Frenchmen who had swallowed up their territory, seized their factories, exploited the German people, and exacerbated Germany’s economic crisis.

Under the propaganda of the German government, the Germans only detested two groups in their lives: one was the Jews who made a fortune from the country’s misfortune and tried all means to exploit the Germans.

The other was these Frenchmen before them. Facing these enemies, the German Army showed no mercy, wishing to slaughter them all.

At the end of May, two pieces of news from Belgium shocked all nations.

The first was that the capital city of Brussels, after several days of siege by the German Army, was easily breached by them.

The second was that out of the 150,000 French troops sent to support Belgium, fewer than 30,000 returned home safely.

The rest either died in the attack on Namur or were captured by the Germans after falling into their encirclement.

The loss of more than 120,000 troops at once was a heavy casualty for the French.

What was more deadly was that, in less than ten days, most of Belgium’s territory and important urban cities fell into German hands.

The Belgian government had already relocated to Kortrijk, even considering crossing the English Channel to seek refuge in London.

After losing 120,000 troops, the French government was utterly panicked.

The French-Belgian border had no extensive fortifications for protection. Once the Germans completely occupied Belgium, they would surely organize a larger scale army to launch a full-scale invasion into France.

In this light, the Maginot Line, painstakingly constructed by the French, seemed like a joke. The Germans didn’t need to go through the Maginot Line at all to easily attack Paris, France.

In order to protect Paris, the French had done all they could.

As ordered by the French government, the 200,000 French troops originally stationed at the Maginot Line hurriedly headed north, stationed from Lille to Sedan as France’s first line of defense against Germany.

Meanwhile, France amassed over 200,000 troops mobilized from the Normandy and Brittany regions along the Amiens to Reims line, forming a second line of defense against Germany.

At the same time, France also launched a major mobilization in the central-southern region, expecting to form at least 300,000 troops in a short period and transport them northward for training near Paris.

These 300,000 troops would be added to the Paris garrison, forming the last line of defense for the city.

Just for the defense of Paris, France had deployed over 700,000 troops, which showed the significant importance France attached to the capital city.

In fact, it was indeed so. Having been the capital of France for a long time, Paris’ significance had far surpassed that of any other French city.

If Paris were to fall, the blow to the French military and civilian morale would be unparalleled. It’s not an exaggeration to say that a France without Paris would be like a rooster without its fighting spirit, merely a larger piece of chicken meat.

The deployment of the French military had also become clearer. By June, there were nearly 1.4 million troops on French soil, and their numbers were still growing rapidly.

Apart from the 700,000 positioned on the Paris defensive lines, the Maginot Line had nearly 300,000 French troops, 300,000 were ready for the war against Italy, and another 100,000 were stationed in various other regions.

Including the colonial troops, the number of French military personnel had approached 1.7 million and would be able to exceed 2 million in a short span of time.

However, the problem was that the extensive French colonies required a large number of troops to be stationed, which meant that the number of troops currently mobilizable from the colonies was quite limited.

It would be more practical to count on the mobilization of the domestic forces than on the mobilization and transport of colonial troops to France.

Because Germany was more prepared for the war, its military numbers had surpassed France, reaching around 2.2 million.

However, due to war on two fronts and the need to keep some troops stationed in Poland to quell the rebellion, the German forces available for transfer had declined to around one million.

After the annexation of the Czech Republic, Germany’s industry experienced significant growth, giving it a larger population from which to mobilize troops.

Furthermore, the numbers of the German military had not yet reached their limit, and for a considerable time in the future, Germany’s combat power would continue to strengthen.

Beyond organizing its armed forces into defense lines, France also made several overtures to the British Government, requesting the dispatch of troops.

The British Government, by this time, could no longer remain idle. Within approximately two months since the outbreak of the war, Germany had annexed both Poland and the Czech Republic and was on the verge of taking over Belgium.

It was evident that France and Austria could not withstand the German onslaught, a realization completely contrary to British expectations.

In such a scenario, the British could not sit idly by or complacently watch the war between France and Germany unfold.

If France were to be entirely defeated, Britain would then have to face the German-Italian Alliance, wielding control over central and western Europe.

On one hand, Britain urgently organized 200,000 land troops and utilized transport fleets to ship them in large quantities to Belgium and France.

New novel chapters are published on freewёbn૦νeɭ.com.

Although most of Belgium had fallen, the coastal areas were still relatively safe.

The Germans were not foolish enough to expose their land forces within range of the British navy’s cannons.

This also meant that the British could fully rely on Belgium’s coastline to leverage the naval advantage and engage in a protracted war with the Germans.

The sole objective of the British troops headed to France was to help the French hold Paris as best they could.

France’s stance had also become clear: Britain must help France to the utmost, and only then would the French be prepared to resist Germany at all costs.

If the British continued to stand by, the fighting spirit of the French government would greatly diminish, and such a weakened France would clearly be no match for Germany.

Suddenly, Britain also began to scramble, frantically preparing war supplies, and along with the army troops, transporting them in large amounts to the European Continent.

After both Austria and France had become deeply entrenched in a severe decline, Britain and France finally turned their attention to the other side of Earth, to that superpower rooted in the same origins as Europe and ranked among the world’s top three powers.

On June 9, 1936, British Envoy William and French Envoy Cassel visited together, seeking an audience with Arthur.

Arthur understood their purpose and met with the two envoys in the Royal Palace’s reception room.

As Arthur had expected, after a round of insincere pleasantries, the envoys finally broached the real purpose of their visit covertly and overtly: they requested that Australasia abide by the British-Australian alliance and join the war as an ally to Britain and France.

Arthur was very much focused on this war and understood that it was impossible for Australasia to remain as neutral as during World War I and to profit immensely from the conflict.

Britain and France were not fools; they would not allow Australasia to profit from the war while remaining uninvolved.

If Australasia did indeed choose that path, Arthur would have to find every possible way to break the British and French colonial rule after the war’s end.

Otherwise, a Britain and France, slightly recovered, would inevitably turn their sights on Australasia.

However, joining the war meant joining the war, and without sufficient interests, Arthur would not join the conflict so soon.

After all, joining earlier would mean bearing more of the responsibility of the war. War signified casualties, and for Arthur, who dearly loved his people, that meant the price would be higher.