The Rise Of Australasia

"Now is not the time for a decisive battle with the Island Royal Navy," said Lieutenant General Andrew Wilson, former Commander-in-Chief of the navy, who was currently the Chief of Staff. He shook his head in dissent and argued,

"This clearly does not align with our plan. Quickly defeating the Islanders at this time is not in our best interest, as we still have to face an even stronger Germany.

Moreover, an Australasia that has defeated the Islanders and seized hegemony over the entire Pacific Ocean, would that be less of a threat to Britain and France than Germany?

In order not to worry our allies, we should continue playing with the Islanders for a bit longer."

Although both the Commander-in-Chief of the navy and the Chief of Staff hold the rank of Lieutenant General, there is still some difference in their status.

The military structure in Australasia is slightly different from other countries. As a monarchy, the military's primary loyalty naturally lies with Arthur.

This leads to the highest military institution being the Ministry of Defence, which is commanded by Arthur, as opposed to the General Staff or other organizations in other countries.

Under the Ministry of Defence, there are the three military branches' headquarters, the General Staff, and smaller departments like the Logistics Department.

During the promotion of senior officers, the staff of the three military branches are promoted to commanders, and the commanders are in turn promoted to Chief of Staff.

The position of Minister of Defence is similar to that of a Commander-in-Chief of the military; it is the highest-ranking military position and carries the highest military rank.

Upon hearing Andrew's mention of the plans from the General Staff, General Daniel suddenly calmed down.

The so-called plan is to use war with the Island Nation as a way to turn the war in Europe into a conflict of attrition between the British-French and the German-Italian blocs.

In the absence of the United States, Australasia, as the strongest power outside of Europe, stands to be the biggest beneficiary in the event of European self-destruction.

As long as Europe weakens, Australasia could attain a substantial heritage from the European nations and seize the opportunity to dominate the world.

Of course, this approach is not without its risks.

Firstly, a fine balance must be struck between the British-French and German-Italian military blocs. Australasia has always been biased towards Britain and France, which implies that the victors of the war can only be the British and French, not the German-Italian alliance.

Secondly, while Britain and France must win, they must also be significantly drained by Germany and Italy.

Judging by the current combat capabilities of the British and French armies, achieving this goal is fraught with difficulties.

Only by sufficiently weakening Britain and France, especially the British, can Australasia obtain more land in a relatively peaceful manner.

Places like Britain's Strait Colony, the centrally located Chagos Archipelago in the Indian Ocean, and Mauritius on the western side of the Indian Ocean are not of utmost importance to the British.

At least in the face of large-scale wars that threaten national survival, these lands are not considered particularly crucial.

To win the war, Britain will inevitably have to make some concessions of interest. What Australasia demands are precisely these lands with significant geographical positions, including the post-war distribution of resources and so on.

Historical experience suggests that there will likely be no large-scale wars for nearly a hundred years following the end of this conflict.

Of course, history is only a reference, not a definite answer.

But this does hint that once the major countries of the world possess powerful nuclear weapons, those countries with ulterior motives will have to rein in their ambitions.

After all, you might search and even annihilate a country on the suspicion that it has nuclear weapons, but you certainly wouldn't do so because a country actually possesses them.

Suspicion and possession lead to two different outcomes on the diplomatic stage.

Since World War II is the largest conflict in a hundred years and the one most likely to change the global situation,

it is not unjustifiable for Australasia to strategize in this war. After all, if Australasia does not emerge as the world's supreme power following the conclusion of this global conflict, it is doomed not to do so in the coming decades.

Throughout world history, ever since the age of exploration began, the succession of world leaders has often been accompanied by war.

It's nearly impossible to become the world's leading power through peaceful means; after all, no country is willing to watch itself slowly descend from its pedestal.

The British Empire's status as the world's leader has been sustained for nearly a hundred years, and the British naturally do not want to see Britain become a mere powerful nation, even if the new world leader is Australasia, a country almost identical in origin to Britain, sharing virtually the same royal family.

Therefore, the only way for Australasia to become the world's supreme leader is to weaken Britain as much as possible during the war so that the British themselves realize they are no longer powerful.

"So what should we do? Are we to have no response to the Islander's recent attack?" Navy Commander Daniel looked towards Chief of Staff Andrew Wilson with the question.

"Of course not," the Chief of Staff shook his head and turned his gaze to Arthur. After receiving a nod of approval from Arthur, he continued, "

We certainly must retaliate against the Islander's act of aggression, and we must make the Islanders bear a hundredfold the loss.

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"But the time for retaliation is not now, now we have other plans," Andrew Wilson said with a smile, he pulled out a document and introduced: "Gentlemen, please look, this is the latest plan formulated by the General Staff concerning the attack on the Island Nation.

Since our allies (the Philippines, Kalimantan, the United Kingdom of the West Coast, and California) have declared war on the Island Nation, we can assemble a huge army of over 1.5 million in a short time. The closest member of our alliance to the Island Nation's native land is the Philippines, but there is still a remote distance of nearly 1,700 kilometers.

Clearly, such a remote distance has a very significant impact on our operational plans. Therefore, the first step of our plan is to rapidly land in the Okinawa region of the Island Nation from the north of the Philippines.

The northernmost tip of Okinawa is only about 300 kilometers away from the Island Nation's native land, and even some closer islands have round-trip distances of less than 500 kilometers. This also means that the planes we deploy in the Okinawa region can easily harass the Island Nation's native land areas. Next, regarding the navy, we also have a more detailed battle plan.

According to the current situation, besides the Asian continent, the main source of the Island Nation's supplies is basically the Americas and Africa. The navy's mission is to completely blockade the Island Nation's trade routes to the Americas and Africa, cutting off the possibility of the Island Nation obtaining supplies from the outside world.

If the Island Nation lacks sufficient supply of supplies, their attacks will become even more frantic. Once their attack falls into ultimate madness, our chances of victory will be greater. Additionally, Some Pacific Islands of the Island Nation, where there are not many stationed troops, are also in our first step of the capture plan.

As long as we gradually block the Island Nation's sea routes to the east and south, this island floating on the Pacific Coast is destined to become an isolated and helpless island," Andrew continued. From the Australasia's combat plan against the Island Nation, it can also be seen that the military does not take this so-called great power nation too seriously. In fact, it is indeed the case.

Due to the deficiency of mineral resources and petroleum materials, the Island Nation's great power status is somewhat dubious. Their most significant achievement in becoming a great power was defeating some of the inadequately prepared Russian forces in the Far East at that time.

However, their opponent at the time was only the Russian forces in the Far East, not the entire Russia Nation, so the Island Nation still took quite an advantage. After gaining some hegemony in the Far East, the Island Nation's industry began to grow rapidly.

But they also had to face a larger issue, which is that the mineral resources of the Island Nation's native land are very barren, this not only seriously restricts the development of the Island Nation's industry but also keeps the Island Nation's overall national power and potential at the lower levels of the great power level. This is also the reason for the nation's continuous expansion.

If they do not expand, they are destined to be at the bottom among the Powers, and even become weaker and descend from the altar of the Powers. No matter what they do, they can never change the fact that the Island Nation has a small land area and poor mineral resources.

Even if the Island Nation has a larger population than some powers of great power level, in the eyes of the more powerful European powers, the Island Nation is still just a power on the level of Italy, with mediocre strength. Australasia can easily crush the Island Nation in the industrial field. The longer the competition drags on, the easier it will be for Australasia to win.

The Island Nation is the one country that can't afford to drag things out. The Island Nation's only hope of victory is to win in naval battles and then gradually blockade Australasia's native land, attacking Australasia's overseas territories one by one.

But the problem is that the industrial scale of Australasia far exceeds that of the Island Nation, and the speed of building warships is naturally also far beyond that of the Island Nation. Under the condition that both Island Nation and Australasia are running production at full throttle, for every main battleship the Island Nation builds, Australasia can build at least 2.5.

This is one point, and the second is the economic inequality between both parties. The Island Nation, with such a huge scale of military and warships, can't avoid the predicament of the whole country tightening their belts to make a living. But Australasia is different. The economic level of Australasia is also not top-notch among the Powers, but the Government Finance is definitely relatively good.

Moreover, Australasia itself has a large amount of mineral resources and petroleum, so the cost of industrial construction is much lower than that of the Island Nation. The Island Nation, in order to maintain a certain level of industry, apart from forcibly seizing ore from other countries, can only purchase at a high price and waste more time from further away places.

This limits the fact that the Island Nation's industry can never develop to a larger scale because they simply do not have any raw materials. Wanting to build skyscrapers without cement and steel is simply impossible; you can't construct walls out of thin air!

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