Chapter 693 Churchill's Confidence
"Although we don't know the specific deployment of the British army in the Middle East, we can make a rough estimate from the information we get from India and Australia. The Australian and New Zealand Army Corps formed by the two colonies of Australia and New Zealand has already had 100,000 people rushing to the battlefield, and they should all be on the front line in Egypt. As for Canada, I heard that it has mobilized 200,000 people to join the army. The Canadian Army should be going to Europe." Edith Rockefeller was away, and Jesra began to report on the situation in the Middle East again.
"The British suddenly felt more conscientious, and with the British-Indian coalition formed after the Ottoman Empire joined the war, as well as some Egyptian Arabs, Egypt now has at least 500,000 troops." Sheffield closed his eyes and thought for a while, "Now the Western Front is calm, and the Allies obviously want to gain an advantage on the Eastern Front and concentrate their forces to defeat the Russian Empire first. Then they will solve the problem of turning back to the Western Front, and the Allies will naturally rescue the Russian Empire. This year, the war will be concentrated in Eastern Europe and the Middle East, with the Russian Empire and the Ottoman Empire as the protagonists."
"What do you think, boss?" Jesla nodded upon hearing this. "John Connor and Brown, be careful not to be sucked into this vortex. It's like walking on a tightrope."
"That's true, but both the Russian Empire and the Ottoman Empire are considered a bit weak by their opponents. Although the Russian Empire is no match for the Germans, except for the Germans, the Allied forces cannot defeat the Russian army. As for the Ottoman Empire? Under the current situation, the surrounding environment of the Ottoman Empire is too dangerous. It is so dangerous that the residents of the Ottoman Empire have to fight this battle for survival. Just look at how close Constantinople is to the border."
According to what was said on the Internet in later generations, the Ottoman Empire had begun to guard the country's borders! Enver Pasha insisted on joining the war as an ally, which was nothing more than a desperate struggle for survival. There was no place for the Ottoman Empire in the Allied camp.
Not to mention that the Allied Powers did not give the Ottoman Empire a verbal guarantee in exchange for not joining the war. Even if they did, once the Central Powers camp collapsed and there was no power to compete with the Allied camp, wouldn't it be a matter of minutes to break the contract?
The Ottoman Empire simply could not stay out of the war, and joining the war was its only option.
"The remaining combat effectiveness of the British Army is in France, and the combat effectiveness of the army mobilized on the second line cannot be counted. The Ottoman Empire now has a large German advisory group commanding the operations. It is not so easy for the British to take advantage. The Ottomans are afraid of the Russians, but not the British." Sheffield leaned lazily on the backrest and said, "If nothing unexpected happens, this year's major battles should not be on the Western Front. Germany and Italy on the Western Front should maintain a threatening posture and keep pressure on France. The place where the big fight will take place is the Mediterranean. The Allies will choose to start in Eastern Europe, and the Entente will mainly target the Ottoman Empire."
For the countries participating in the war, every day passed like a year, unlike the slave owners in the United States. Not only monopoly capitalists like him involved in the military industry can benefit from the orders accumulated by various countries before the war, but the United States, the world's largest debtor country, is also slowly disappearing the mountain of billions of dollars in debt.
This trend made the federal government more determined not to participate in the war, and first pay off the world's largest debt. This did not require slave owners to go to Washington to lobby.
Any voice calling for participation in the war was suppressed by the federal government. In addition, unlike in history, in World War I, the Allied Powers used propaganda to benefit from the international status of Britain, France and Russia, and smeared the Central Powers.
But in this time and space, there are slave owners who like to slam on the brakes, leading the League of Nations to expose the British rhetoric. I dare not say that I can whitewash the image of the Allies, but it is still easy to discredit the Allies and the Allies.
Since it's a life-and-death fight on the battlefield, forget about occupying the moral high ground. It's only fair that all problems be resolved on the battlefield.
When the monthly European orders of the United Company finally reached 40 million, the situation in Europe changed again. The German-Austrian coalition on the Eastern Front started a battle to resolve the Russian threat to the Austro-Hungarian Empire. After a breakthrough in Gorlice, the Allied counterattack on the Eastern Front began.
At the same time, the Gibraltar base, which connects the Mediterranean to the Atlantic Ocean, became an important stronghold for the French Navy and the British task force. The Egyptian port of Alexandria in the eastern Mediterranean posed a threat to the Allied Mediterranean maritime forces.
The situation has become very obvious. The goal is to wait for an opportunity to annihilate the Italian Navy and the Austro-Hungarian Navy in the Mediterranean.
France has transferred all its naval forces on the Atlantic front to the Mediterranean, and handed over the waters north of France entirely to the British Royal Navy for guarding. In addition, Britain has also dispatched a force from its home fleet to sharpen its sword against the Allied naval forces in the Mediterranean.
At this time, the British and French joint fleet gathered in the Mediterranean Sea consisted of eleven battleships, one battlecruiser, four light cruisers, sixteen destroyers, seven submarines, and one aircraft transport ship.
The main force of the Italian Navy that faced the Anglo-French joint fleet was the combat fleet stationed in Taranto under the command of the Duke of Abruzzi, which consisted of four dreadnoughts, four pre-dreadnoughts, five armored cruisers, four destroyers and nine torpedo boats.
At Brindisi, Ernesto Presbitero had a squadron of two dreadnoughts and four old armored cruisers. Venice also had three pre-dreadnoughts in reserve.
As for the Austro-Hungarian Navy, which ranks eighth in the world, the United Power class is the core. The United Power class battleship is the only first-class dreadnought battleship built and put into service by the Austro-Hungarian Empire, sometimes also called the Tiegotov class. The United Power class has a full load displacement of 22,000 tons, and its main weapon is four triple-mounted 305mm guns, with a maximum speed of 20 knots. At the outbreak of World War I, the first three ships of the United Power class, the United Power, the Tiegotov, and the Prinz Eugen, had already been in service, and the St. István was about to be completed. Overall, the United Power class battleship is an excellent dreadnought battleship.
In addition, there are three pre-dreadnoughts, and the Combined Power class constitutes the core of the Austro-Hungarian Navy. The two navies ranked so high in the world, one has six dreadnoughts and the other has four dreadnoughts.
So why did the slave owner, with four dreadnoughts in his hands, want to fly to the sky, roam the Indian Ocean, and think that the British dare not touch him? It is because from the perspective of the battleship, he is at the level of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, although the Courbet-class battleship has some problems.
Although the naval power in the Mediterranean had just been brought back to balance, Churchill had already formulated a very ambitious combat plan to annihilate the Allied naval forces in the Mediterranean, while at the same time opening up the external connections of the Russian Empire and forcing the Ottoman Empire to withdraw from the war.
The battle plan against the Ottoman Empire was not unfamiliar to Churchill. Long before the Ottoman Empire entered the war, Churchill had already had the idea of attacking the Ottoman Empire.
He suggested seizing the Gallipoli Peninsula, then marching into the Sea of Marmara, and directly threatening Istanbul, or Constantinople, which was more appealing to Christians. But at that time, he was the only one in Britain who had such a strong interest in the Ottoman Empire, and other British people were focusing on the fierce battle with Germany on the Western Front.
In the second year of the war, the conscientious Russian Empire paid the price for fulfilling its alliance and being besieged by the Allies.
Churchill's plan, which had been shelved, was quickly put into action. The key to this plan was the Gallipoli Peninsula, which was like a boot of the Ottoman Empire extending from the northeast into the Aegean Sea. From the sole to the calf, the narrow Dardanelles Strait formed between the calf and the Asia Minor Peninsula. The narrowest part of the heel was less than two kilometers wide. After passing through the Dardanelles Strait, one entered the Sea of Marmara, the inland sea of the Ottoman Empire. The capital Istanbul was built on the Bosphorus Strait between the Sea of Marmara and the Black Sea. Once the Gallipoli Peninsula was lost, the capital of the Ottoman Empire would be exposed to the gun range of the British and French navies.
This plan was quickly approved by the British wartime cabinet and also received the approval of the French who hoped to get rid of the threat from Italy. However, in St. Petersburg, Nicholas II flatly rejected the plan. "Constantinople is extremely important to the Orthodox Church. If the British want to take it all for themselves, let them fight for it themselves. If you want us to help the British occupy the capital of the Orthodox Church, just dream on!"
"I don't know what the Russians are thinking. It's already this late. They still insist on their ambitions for Constantinople." Churchill, who was opposed by the Russian Empire, said nonchalantly, "Even the Russian army can humiliate the Ottomans, so how can our British Empire still run into trouble? Anyway, we have to deal with the Allied Mediterranean Fleet first. When the Russians are hurt by the Allies on land, they will urge us to act quickly. What we need to do now is to formulate a plan to attack the Allied Mediterranean Fleet."
Churchill was full of ambition and did not care about the Russians' pedantry. Even without the cooperation of Imperial Russia, the plan would be successful.
(End of this chapter)
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