Chapter 726: Unclear Battle Situation
"Now that the order has come in, you know how good I am. Haven't you been focusing on that Japanese woman recently?" Alice Roosevelt muttered to herself, the blush on her face still not fading.
"Some misunderstandings should be explained, but that doesn't mean I love you any less. Don't link our love to the order!" Seeing Alice Roosevelt's disbelieving look, Sheffield added helplessly, "Well, there are indeed reasons for this, but as a successful entrepreneur, my behavior cannot be considered shameful. It's all for money. It's true that I do it for money, and it's true that I love you."
"This is the best answer I can get." Alice Roosevelt sighed and put on her pajamas, wrapping her beautiful figure. She seemed to remember something. "If the United States eventually joins the war, my father seems to want to form an army to fight on the battlefield."
"Don't even think about it. It's impossible!" Sheffield flatly refused. "Your father participated in the Spanish-American War in Cuba and gained a lot of political capital. Don't even think about doing it again."
"But you have already joined the war and organized a much larger army?" Alice Roosevelt said dissatisfiedly, "Don't you think you are showing double standards?"
"No, I never wanted to run for president." Sheffield pointed out the difference between him and Roosevelt. "Normally, I will never be the president of this country unless I dismantle the United Company. And your father is a politician, which is too dangerous for many people. If you insist on doing this, your father may soon receive the care of President Wilson. To be fair, it is best not to go to that step. Once the president expresses his position, it will not be good for both sides."
"Well, you are becoming more and more like a politician." Alice Roosevelt reached out and pinched the slave owner's ear. "You are a hypocritical person. You deceived my body. Now your true nature is exposed!"
"Honey, I knew you wouldn't use force." Sheffield accurately grasped the hand that was extended to him and whispered, "The difference between me and politicians is that I can always guarantee my position, while politicians' positions are determined by votes."
"What if citizens still don't like joining the war?" Alice Roosevelt asked pointedly.
"Of course I'll listen to the higher voters. We can join the war first and then explain this problem." Sheffield shrugged. "There are too many ways to achieve this goal. Citizens have their own ideas, but don't they still depend on the media's indoctrination? Of course, I won't use the League of Nations to do this. Instead, I will come up with some anti-war speeches to prevent us from joining the war, and then let the Supreme Court arrest and sentence a few journalists to give the Germans the impression that I have tried my best. Maybe after the war, I will have a chance to cooperate with the Germans."
As for the results of the First World War, Germany was not seriously damaged. The countries that were seriously damaged were Britain and France, because Germany's domestic population did not suffer any structural damage, that is, a generation died.
France was the country where a generation of people died. Although Britain had colonies to supplement its cannon fodder, its own domestic population structure was also affected. Germany's birth rate was roughly balanced before and after the war, so it quickly recovered its military potential. Of course, the same was true for Imperial Russia and even the Soviet Union.
Germany and the Soviet Union both fought bloody battles during World War II, which caused severe damage to their population structure! Just like Britain and France during World War I.
"Now that the three major decisive battles in Europe are over, we can almost see who has the upper hand." Sheffield thought for a moment and said, "At that time, it is almost time to show the intention to join the war."
The three major decisive battles taking place simultaneously in Europe were still in full swing. Both major camps knew that this was the year that would change the course of the war, and both tried their best to do so. Two months after the Battle of the Somme began, the British Expeditionary Force, which had been unable to fundamentally shake the German defense line, used a new weapon, the tank.
This tank, which was in the test stage, was deployed. Forty-nine tanks were sent to the battlefield, but only 18 of them participated in the battle due to various reasons. Although the number was small, the effect was good. The German soldiers had never seen this thing before, and they did not expect that the so-called "water tank" would actually move. There were also light and heavy machine guns, and even machine guns could not shoot through it. Many German soldiers were shocked. One tank actually captured more than 300 German soldiers, and one tank directly occupied a village.
When the news reached Germany, it quickly attracted the attention of the German General Staff. The British, who had not made any achievements on land, actually used this weapon to break through the German soldiers' defense line.
Whether to copy the tank immediately and how to understand the tank's weaknesses have become the top priorities. The war on both the eastern and western fronts is going on, and the sudden appearance of tanks has filled Germany with anxiety.
As the leader of the German military industry, Krupp Military Industrial Complex was the first to bear the brunt. Gustav Krupp was thinking hard and suddenly saw the anti-tank gun that Sheffield had given him. This gun with a huge caliber and an overly long barrel immediately attracted Gustav Krupp's attention.
He quickly reloaded the bullets that the slave owner had sent as gifts, and asked someone to come and conduct an experiment. The experimental results made Gustav Krupp overjoyed. The head of the Krupp family never dreamed that the panic caused by the appearance of tanks could be resolved so inadvertently.
Thanks to Sheffield's help to Germany in agriculture, Germany in this world did not have a problem of insufficient food supply, and the country's tractor reserves were sufficient.
Gustav Krupp arrived in Berlin and solemnly promised Kaiser Wilhelm II that Germany would soon have its own tanks. He also demonstrated the power of anti-tank guns in front of the emperor.
"It should be put into mass production immediately!" Crown Prince William also witnessed the tremendous power of the anti-tank gun at the shooting range. Because of the panic caused by tanks, they now have to work overtime to make up for the disadvantage in weapons.
This was when the capabilities of the German Empire's national conglomerates were demonstrated during World War I. The entire German Empire was a conglomerate empire formed by the merger of many conglomerate groups, and this was indeed the case in terms of the economic model.
With the support of the royal family and the military, Gustav Krupp easily mobilized the necessary support and embarked on a large-scale imitation of the slave owner's gift, while tanks converted from tractor production lines were also involved and demonstrated.
Because the Verdun fortress had been under tremendous pressure from the German army, this time the Battle of the Somme was different from the historical ones. The British army had to assume the responsibility of being the absolute main force. The British army invested a total of 54 divisions plus 28 Indian divisions, becoming the protagonists of the Battle of the Somme.
In this way, on the European battlefield in 1916, the situation was that the British fought alone in the Battle of the Somme, the French fought alone in the Battle of Verdun, and the Russian Empire led the main attack in the Brusilov Offensive.
Because of the temporary retreat of the British Royal Navy in the Mediterranean, France could not draw colonial troops from its colonies to join the war. Britain had to increase its investment on land. In this way, the three battles formed a situation where each was the main force.
The situation on the German side also changed. After the German Chief of General Staff Falkenhayn learned that a large number of Indian troops had appeared on the battlefield, he began to consider retreating, considering that Verdun had made no progress and the French were desperately sniping.
The main battlefield was moved to the Somme River line, on the one hand because Falkenham believed that there were a large number of colonial Indians in the British army. Although the commanders of the Indian Corps were all British, they could not be compared with the native British people. The proportion of the Indian Corps in the entire British army was still very large, so they could try to attack in the hope of bringing about an avalanche effect.
Falkenhayn communicated with the Austro-Hungarian Empire and placed two Austro-Hungarian army groups on the Somme front line. At the same time, he added ten divisions of troops and launched a counterattack at the end of September, mainly attacking the Indian Corps on the Somme front line. The German heavy artillery bombarded the Indian Corps' positions for a day and a night, and then quickly launched an offensive.
This was inspired by the Brusilov Offensive on the Eastern Front, where the Russian Empire broke through the Austro-Hungarian defenses.
The British Indian Army, which had been independently supporting the attack for two months, did not expect Falkenhayn to abandon Verdun, which had been tense for several months, and withdraw troops to attack the Somme River. The German soldiers who formed the team to carry out the infiltration operation were all veterans of the battlefield. They referred to the Brusilov Offensive on the Eastern Front, which caused great damage to the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It was a perfect lesson for the British who took the lead in the land battle of the World War.
The two German defense lines occupied by the British Indian Corps were completely penetrated. Under this offensive method that the British were unfamiliar with, the Indian Corps, which was given special attention, suffered heavy losses.
The German positions occupied for more than two months were completely reoccupied by German soldiers in two days. The relentless pursuit of the Indian Corps made the entire British front line shaken. The British front was constantly compressed and retreated again and again. The progress on the Somme River made Falkenhayn completely determined to end the Battle of Verdun, leaving some troops to guard against the French counterattack in Verdun, and all the main forces were invested in the Battle of the Somme.
A large number of German troops evacuated from the Verdun front and joined the attack on the British troops on the Somme River. The British army could not resist. On the one hand, they hoped that the French army would pursue the German troops on the Verdun front, and on the other hand, they cursed the Indian soldiers for their incompetence.
It was not until the German army recaptured all its positions and pushed the front line forward forty kilometers that the embarrassed British army was able to gain a foothold. The British-Indian coalition forces suffered heavy losses, and the Indian Corps was almost completely wiped out.
By the end of October, the three decisive battles in Europe were coming to an end. The German offensive was thwarted in the Battle of Verdun, but it made up for it in the Battle of the Somme. As for the Brusilov Offensive on the Eastern Front, it had already ended. Imperial Russia defeated the Austro-Hungarian Empire through the Brusilov Offensive on the Eastern Front, but because Italy was also a member of the Allied Powers, the losses of the Austro-Hungarian Empire could be fully compensated.
France withstood the attack of the German army in the Battle of Verdun, but in the second half of the battle, the German army regained the initiative on the battlefield from the Battle of the Somme and inflicted heavy damage on the British Expeditionary Force and the Indian Corps led by it.
"This is a bit confusing!" Sheffield looked at the map every day, but he didn't expect that even after the three decisive battles, he still couldn't see the trend of the war.
But in these three decisive battles, Britain undoubtedly suffered the most in the Allied camp, while the Austro-Hungarian Empire suffered the greatest losses in the Central Powers.
(End of this chapter)
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