My Italy - Chapter 682 East African Campaign

At this time, Europe was turbulent and war broke out everywhere.

In France, the Battle of Paris is still raging. Britain, France, and Germany have continued to invest 2.4 million people in fighting around Paris. Both sides have suffered heavy casualties, and the total casualties have reached one million. It can be said that it is the largest battle in the current war.

In newspapers, the huge casualties suffered by both sides in the Paris area were described as a meat grinder.

The current situation on the battlefield in Paris is that the British and French troops have the advantage, but under the stubborn resistance of the German army, they are still some distance away from regaining Paris.

Apart from the meat-grinder that shocked the world in Paris, the fighting in Transcarpathia was coming to an end.

After a bloody battle in which the Austrian army suffered heavy casualties, and with the support of the German army, the Austrian army won the battle in the Transcarpathian Mountains.

For this reason, the Russian army suffered nearly 300,000 casualties, and the German and Austrian armies also suffered nearly 200,000 casualties. However, the vast majority of these casualties came from the Austrian army, and the German casualties were just over 10,000.

After resisting the Russian attack, the Austrians now set their sights on Serbia.

At this time, the Austrians prepared more than 200,000 people and asked Germany for help, while Berlin sent the 17th Army, whose commander was the prestigious General Mackensen.

Subsequently, nearly 300,000 German and Austrian troops attacked Serbia from the north. As an ally, Italy also sent an army from Kosovo to contain the Serbian army from the west.

In addition, the new ally Bulgaria is not far behind. Although it is fighting Greece on the Cuastos River, Bulgaria also sent more than 100,000 troops to attack Serbia for the North Macedonia region.

One more thing to say here is that Bulgaria currently has nearly 400,000 troops. With a population of more than 3 million, recruiting so many people shows how desperate it is. Moreover, Bulgaria is also the country with the highest recruitment ratio now, and may also be the country with the highest recruitment ratio in this war.

While fighting bloody battles with the Greeks, the Bulgarians still had the energy to besiege Seville. They indeed deserved the reputation of Balkan Prussia.

In addition, the Ottomans not only fought against the British in Palestine, but also attacked Georgia. However, compared with the back-and-forth battles with the British in Palestine, the Ottoman army that attacked the Caucasus suffered a failure.

The 11th Army, commanded by Hasan Izet Pasha, tried to attack the Sarkamysh area, but was repelled by the main force of the Caucasus Army. Both sides suffered casualties of 59,000 Turkish people and 34,000 Russians.

This is much stronger than in the original history. You must know that in the original history, it was a disastrous defeat, but this time it can barely be considered evenly matched. The reason for all this is of course that Osman organized the German weapon army earlier, making it more numerous and better-equipped. .

The war was fought not only in Europe, but also in Asia and Africa.

In Southeast Asia, the Japanese army was close to conquering the Bataan Peninsula, the last German stronghold on Luzon Island. As for the Italian colony of Borneo, there was no way it could survive the war.

In addition, Yuan Weiting, Carlo’s old friend from the Far East, is in a dilemma at this time because he is accepting the enticement of the Allied Powers.

As a country with the largest population, people are also resources. For Britain, France and Russia, especially France, a large number of adult men were recruited, resulting in an extreme shortage of workers in domestic industry and agriculture.

However, although the Allied Powers offered generous terms, they still made the Beiyang Group that ruled China very hesitant.

Europe is crazy, and the risk of getting involved is too great. In addition, China generally has a good impression of Germany and Italy. Most of the various weapons equipped by the army are purchased and imported from Germany, Italy and Austria. So this also makes it very difficult for it to change in a short time.

In the desolate African continent, the two parties are also fighting.

In German West Africa, Germany failed to block the British and French attacks. Now most of its colonies in West Africa have been occupied. Only northern Cameroon is still in the hands of the German army. However, it only has more than 4,000 colonial troops and its time is running out.

In German South-West Africa, its territory had been occupied by British troops.

As for German East Africa, things were much better.

Under the leadership of General Walbeck, German East Africa was extremely active. It first attacked some towns in southern Kenya, and then repelled the landing British and Indian troops in Tanga, causing the loss of more than 5,000 people.

Facing the brave and capable German East African army, the British knew that it would be difficult to solve German East Africa without a large number of troops, and Italian East Africa. Considering the urgent needs of Italian East Africa, the British army sent 50,000 troops from Kenya to deploy on its borders to defend the German troops in East Africa. This is not a small number. You must know that the German army in East Africa only has more than 12,000 people. The defense with four times the strength shows the combat effectiveness of the German army in East Africa.

The German army in East Africa had a strong fighting capacity, which was also attributed to General Walbeck. The largest number of German troops in East Africa were native Africans. General Walbeck trained these natives according to German army standards and treated his own soldiers equally. This also made him loved by these natives. The battle was naturally not comparable to that of the British colonial army. It was not surprising that he defeated the British colonial army.

The scale of the battle in German East Africa was not large. The truly large-scale battle in Africa was not the one fought by Italy and France in Tunisia, but the Italian East Africa campaign that had just begun.

The British and French troops sent 216,000 and 253,000 troops from Sudan and Kenya respectively to attack Italian East Africa from the north and south. In addition to colonial troops, Britain and France also sent nearly 100,000 native troops.

This shows how much attention was paid to Italian East Africa, which was stuck in the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean and threatened the British Empire’s Asian routes. Even if it is against the Indian Ocean Combined Fleet of the Allied Powers, this strategically threatening area must be destroyed first.

In addition, the British Indian Ocean Fleet also went to the coast of Italian East Africa to conduct artillery bombardments to contain the Italian Navy and some of its forces.

Facing the pressure of the British and French troops, the commander of the Italian Eastern Army, General Burinin, commanded more than 300,000 Italian troops to resist the Ethiopian army.

On the southern front, the two sides fought fierce battles along the Miba River in Kismayo, Gili, and Buale. More than 300,000 people from both sides are fighting around the lower reaches of the Miba River, which is nearly 300 kilometers away. The battle lines are currently being fought over again in this area. It is still unknown who will win.

The battle on the southern front was difficult, but the northern front was much better. 180,000 British troops on the northern front attacked the Italian troops stationed on the defense line of the Hagarnish Plateau.

Although the British army carried 7-inch heavy artillery, the continuous fortifications made the British army’s progress very slow. As the commander of the northern front, Lieutenant General Zelos used the defense line to consume the opponent, and slowly retreated from the middle of the defense line, making the troops retreat backwards as if they could not resist, attracting more than 100,000 British troops from a group. Enter the gap.

Then it launched a pincer offensive from both wings, eventually surrounding and annihilating more than 60,000 British troops. The British troops on the northern front were severely injured, so they could only retreat and slowly lick their wounds. However, it still concentrated heavily on the border to contain the Italian troops on the northern front.

In addition, in the direction of Ethiopia, the British army also sent more than 50,000 people to attack the Tana Lake line. As an important grain-producing area in Ethiopia, of course they did not want to see this area occupied by the British army, so the Ethiopian army assembled heavy troops here to fight with it. . As the king, Ejasu personally went to the front line to direct the battle, and the two sides fought fiercely there.

However, Ethiopia has strong military strength. Although it is not elite, it is still gradually gaining an advantage. However, the British army’s approach obviously achieved the goal of containing the Ethiopian army, although it cost them a lot of losses.

At this time, the fierce fighting in East Africa allowed Italy to speed up preparations for the Egyptian campaign. Only by capturing Egypt can the sea transportation from Rome to Massawa be opened up, threatening India, which Britain attaches most importance to. Therefore, the preparation work cannot be accelerated, because the troops and ammunition in East Africa cannot withstand long-term consumption.