The Rise of Australasia

The strategy that both allows Germany to continue the war and keeps Britain maintaining the naval advantage over Germany, cutting off Germany's logistical supply lines, is already considered a perfect victory.

As the monarch of Australasia, Arthur is concerned about when the war will end and what Australasia can gain.

Regarding the casualties of the British in the naval war, it's not important to Arthur, and he believes the British Empire can fully endure.

Anyway, every participating country's casualties are not less than hundreds of thousands, and even Australasia's casualties have already reached hundreds of thousands.

Regardless of whether this naval battle can change Germany's current disadvantage, the German government's propaganda has clearly restored some morale within the country and the military, and the anti-war wave is not as intense.

The German government and the army also have enough time to organize defenses in the Somme Region to cope with the large-scale campaign to be launched by the British and French forces soon.

After this naval battle, the Verdun Region, the entire Westline, the Eastern Front, and even the whole of Europe, fell into a brief peace.

However, this calm before the storm is the most terrifying. Both the Allied Nations and the Allies know what the calm means after the storm - an even bigger storm will arrive.

At the end of May, German new recruits, totaling 500,000, went to the Somme Region, the Verdun Region, and the Eastern Front in batches, which also meant that Germany had spared no effort for the victory of the war.

As for France, the government transported a large amount of supplies to the Verdun Region and commended the garrison in the Verdun Region.

On June 11, 1916, after just half a month of silence, the British and French forces launched a large-scale assault on the German Army on the south bank of the River Somme, and the battle of the Somme officially began.

To organize the Battle of the Somme, the British and French forces spent as long as six months transporting weapons and equipment and mobilizing soldiers.

Without exaggeration, the Battle of the Somme is the Allies' most important strategic plan in 1916, far more important than the Balkan Front that was established in 1915.

On the first day of the Battle of the Somme, the British and French forces demonstrated the power of British logistics.

From days 1 to 6, the British and French forces fired more than 1.5 million shells at the German Army, averaging over 200,000 shells per day.

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Under the cover of such a massive barrage of shells, the British and French forces in the Somme Region launched an unprecedented counter-offensive.

Why is it unprecedented? Because this is the most important offensive on the Western Front so far and the all-out counterattack by the British and French forces since the start of the war.

The participants in the Battle of the Somme included a British Army Group and a British Separate Army, as well as twelve reserve divisions and six French armies.

In recent days, continuous heavy rain in the Somme Region has turned the trenches built by the Germans into a muddy quagmire.

The soldiers' military boots were covered with a layer of heavy mud, making it difficult to walk and prone to slipping.

Of course, not only the German soldiers but also the British and French forces faced the same problem of slipping on such a battlefield.

This has made the hastily attacking British and French forces appear more like live targets to the German soldiers, walking achievements.

As the British and French forces place great importance on the Battle of the Somme, on the first day alone, more than one hundred thousand British and French troops were thrown into battle, charging the German positions again and again.

However, the well-prepared Germans repelled the British and French forces time and time again.

This may be the most unlucky day for the British forces. On the first day of the Battle of the Somme, they suffered casualties of over 60,000, a loss far greater than any previous battle and even unmatched by the famous Normandy landings during World War II.

Three consecutive days of attacks did not yield significant progress, as the Germans' tenacious artillery and machine-gun positions not only caused heavy casualties to the British and French forces but also prevented their continued advance.

In order to counter the German machine-gun positions, the British decided to deploy their long-prepared secret weapons, including one named "Water Cabinet." ꞦΆℕổ฿Ëṣ

This weapon, called a tank (tank), was planned as early as 1915, and under the urging of Navy Secretary Churchill, a prototype was successfully tested at the end of 1915.

The tanks developed by the British were quite different from what people in later generations imagined, as they were overall diamond-shaped and looked like huge tadpoles with a round body and long tail.

This long tail was the tank's steering wheel, allowing the vehicle to maintain balance when turning.

British tanks were divided into male and female types, with female tanks equipped with only five machine guns, while male tanks were equipped with two 57mm-caliber guns and four machine guns.

After half a year of modulation and experimentation by the British, the weight of this tank was maintained at around 27 to 28 tons, with a top speed of about six kilometers per hour, a maximum range of 15 kilometers, and eight crew members.

During this half-year, the British produced more than 40 tanks, which were hastily brought to the battlefield of the Somme by a short-sighted approach.

A total of 43 tanks set off from the assembly area, looking quite magnificent and mighty. However, just a few minutes later, more than ten tanks broke down halfway.

In addition to those stuck in the mud and those with sudden vehicle part failures, only 15 tanks eventually approached the German frontlines.

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