On the afternoon of May 20, 1916, Australasia, Sydney.

The head of the Royal Security Intelligence Agency, Barty, handed over a top-secret document to Arthur and said very respectfully: "Your Majesty, this is the latest result of the Anglo-German naval battle, please take a look." ”

Director Barty did not give any explanation for the outcome of the Anglo-German naval battle, because no one could know the full picture of such a top-secret document until Arthur had opened it.

Arthur took the document in his hand, looked at it, and began to flip through it.

This document by Director Barty is the actual result of a careful investigation by the Royal Security Intelligence Service, and there is a clear discrepancy between the results announced by the British and Germans.

If there are no problems with the investigation of the Royal Security Intelligence Service, then it is clear that both Britain and Germany have exaggerated the facts.

In fact, it is also true that the government generally reports good news to the people but not bad news, so as to stabilize the situation and order in the country.

Both the defeated and victorious sides will exaggerate their results as much as possible to maintain stability in the country and keep the people from panicking.

Prior to this, the British Empire proudly claimed that in the naval battle three days earlier, the Royal Navy had sunk six of Germany's capital warships, including four dreadnoughts and two superdreadnoughts.

In addition to this, four German ex-dreadnoughts, three battlecruisers, eleven light cruisers, ten destroyers, two submarines (the total tonnage of sunken battleships exceeded 400,000 tons) was sunk.

It also damaged more than eight German dreadnoughts, two battle cruisers and a number of small and medium-sized warships.

If such a result is true, then the German High Seas Fleet will definitely lose its vitality, and it will not even have the strength to resist for a long time.

The Germans also claimed to have sunk seven of Britain's capital warships, including five dreadnoughts and two super dreadnoughts. There are also four former dreadnoughts, three battle cruisers, eleven light cruisers, seven destroyers, more than a dozen torpedo boats, etc., and the total tonnage of British warships at the grassroots level has reached nearly 500,000 tons.

In addition to this, 12 British dreadnoughts, several battle cruisers, etc. were seriously damaged.

Judging by the German public war reports, they also managed to seriously injure the Royal Navy. If this battle report is true, Germany even has a considerable advantage in naval battles.

But is that really the case? According to the findings of the Royal Security Intelligence Service, although the naval battle was indeed dominated by the Germans, the naval superiority after the naval battle was still on the British side.

For the Royal Navy, three former dreadnoughts, one dreadnought, two battle cruisers, six destroyers, four light cruisers, two torpedo boats and two submarines were sunk by the Germans.

And the High Seas Fleet sank one battle cruiser, two ex-dreadnoughts, one dreadnought, four light cruisers, three destroyers and five torpedo boats, as well as two submarines.

If you count the former dreadnoughts, the British sank six capital ships, and the Germans sank four.

However, because a significant part of them were former dreadnoughts, the outcome of such a naval battle was acceptable to both sides, at least not to the point of breaking bones.

Although some dreadnoughts have been lost, there are no losses of super dreadnoughts on both sides so far, which can be regarded as a blessing in misfortune.

However, although the losses in terms of warships were not large, the casualties of naval soldiers on both sides were actually not few.

The total number of Royal Navy soldiers participating in the war was as high as 66,000, and the casualties in the naval battle were as high as 8,700, accounting for as much as one-seventh of the casualties.

The Germans did not give in too much, with a total of 51,000 soldiers and 7,600 casualties, accounting for more than one-seventh of the casualties.

Compared with the army soldiers, who are relatively easy to train, the casualties of the navy and air force are the most distressing.

In particular, an excellent naval soldier needs to be trained on a warship for one to two years on the premise of skillfully operating various instruments on a warship in order to form sufficient combat effectiveness.

The fact that the two sides fought too hastily in the naval battle, coupled with the threat of the opposing warships and submarines, resulted in a considerable number of soldiers who fell into the water not being rescued, which is also the reason for such heavy casualties.

You must know that after the warship is sunk, as the warship sinks, a whirlpool with strong suction will form on the sea surface.

If a fallen Navy soldier can't swim out of the whirlpool quickly, he will be sucked into the whirlpool and buried at the bottom of the ocean forever.

If it weren't for the tacit understanding that both sides sent rescue ships after the naval battle, I'm afraid that the casualties of their respective soldiers would have increased by at least 1,000.

Although various forbidden weapons were also used in World War I, there were times when there were some bottom lines between countries.

Whether on the Franco-German front or on the German-Russian front, you can see many soldiers celebrating Christmas with the enemy.

And there is also a tacit understanding between the two sides, at least not to attack the medical personnel, so as to facilitate themselves and the other party to collect the bodies of their comrades.

For such a naval battle result, Arthur was completely acceptable. The Germans won the victory, and in a short time they were able to stabilize the hearts and minds of the German people and continue to pay in this war.

The British actually won a strategic victory, and although the naval battle was lost, the British Empire's naval superiority over Germany was more pronounced because the ratio of losses to the two sides was about the same.

It would have been a perfect victory for the Germans to continue to hold on to the war, for Britain to continue to maintain superiority over Germany at sea, and to cut off the Germans' logistical supply lines.

As the monarch of Australasia, Arthur was concerned about when the war would end and what Australasia would be able to gain.

As for the British casualties in the naval battle, it was not important to Arthur, and it was believed that the British Empire could fully bear it.

Anyway, the casualties of the major participating countries did not start from hundreds of thousands, and even the current casualties in Australasia have already reached hundreds of thousands.

Regardless of whether this naval battle can change Germany's current disadvantage, after the German government's hype, it is clear that some of the morale of the country and the army has been restored, and the anti-war wave is not so fierce.

The German government and army also had plenty of time to organize a defense in the Somme area in anticipation of the imminent large-scale battle between Britain and France.

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

But the calm that preceded the storm was the most terrible, and both the Central and Entente powers knew what it meant after the lull, and that there would be an even greater storm to come.

At the end of May, 500,000 German recruits went to the Somme, Verdun and the Eastern Front in batches, which also represented that Germany had done whatever it took to win the war.

On the French side, the government sent a large amount of supplies to the Verdun area and commended the defenders of the Verdun area.

On June 11, 1916, after only 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 Somme River, and the Battle of the Somme officially began.

In order to organize the Battle of the Somme, the Anglo-French forces spent up to half a year transporting weapons and equipment and mobilizing soldiers.

It is no exaggeration to say that the Battle of the Somme was the most important strategic plan of the Allies in 1916, far more important than the Balkan front opened in 1915.

On the first day of the Battle of the Somme, the Anglo-French forces demonstrated the strength of British logistics.

On days 1 to 6, the Anglo-French forces fired more than 1.5 million shells in a row at the German army, an average of more than 200,000 rounds per day.

Under the cover of such a large number of shells, the Anglo-French forces in the Somme area launched an unprecedented counteroffensive.

Why is it unprecedented, because this is the most important offensive on the Western Front at present, and it is also an all-out counterattack by Britain and France since the beginning of the war.

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

Heavy rains in the Somme region in recent days have turned the German-built trench into a muddy patch.

The soldiers' boots were covered with a heavy layer of mud, and they were not only bulky to walk, but also very slippery.

Of course, this was not the only case for the German army, but also for the Anglo-French army.

This also led to the hasty attack of the British and French troops in the eyes of the German soldiers more like a living target, a walk of merit.

Because of the importance attached by the Anglo-French forces to the Battle of the Somme, on the first day, more than 100,000 British and French troops were thrown into the battlefield and launched one charge after another towards the German positions.

But the Germans, who had been prepared for a long time, repelled the attacks of the Anglo-French forces again and again.

It was perhaps the most unfortunate day for the British army, who suffered more than 60,000 casualties on the first day of the Battle of the Somme, a loss far greater than any other battle, not even the famous Normandy landings of World War II.

The offensive did not make good progress for three consecutive days, because the artillery and machine-gun positions that the Germans held so tightly not only brought a large number of casualties to the British and French troops, but also prevented the British and French troops from advancing a single step.

To counter the machine-gun positions of the Germans, the British decided to dispatch their long-prepared secret weapon, among which was the large iron box named the water tank.

The weapon, known as the tank, had been planned as early as 1915, and at the urging of Admiral Winston Churchill, a prototype was successfully produced at the end of 1915.

This tank of the British is very different from the tank in the impression of later generations, the overall diamond-shaped shape, which looks like a huge tadpole, with a round body and a long tail dragging behind it.

This long tail is the steering wheel of the tank, which keeps the balance of the hull when steering.

The tanks of the British were divided into females and males, with the female tanks armed with only five machine guns, and the male tanks, armed with two 57 mm guns and four machine guns.

After half a year of concoction and testing by the British, the weight of this tank was maintained at about 27 to 28 tons, the speed was able to be maintained at about six kilometers per hour, the maximum range was 15 kilometers, and the crew was eight people.

In this half year, the British produced more than 40 tanks, which were brought to the battlefield of the Somme by the British, who were eager for quick success.

A full 43 tanks departed from the assembly area, and they looked very spectacular and mighty. But just a few minutes later, more than a dozen tanks broke down halfway.

Coupled with the quagmire, the sudden damage of the fuselage parts, etc., only 15 tanks ended up close to the German front.

Although the performance of British tanks is very impressive at the moment, tanks are a big killer in this era, and can effectively resist the rifles and machine guns of the Germans.

Although artillery can indeed kill tanks, it is impossible for German artillery to accurately hit these tanks, especially since the tanks are close to the front line of the Germans, where there are still a large number of German soldiers.

In the path of these tanks, the trenches and barbed wire, which were able to hold back countless Anglo-French troops, were easily crushed, and the German army did not have any resistance at all.

Under the cover of more than a dozen tanks, more than five divisions of British soldiers launched an attack on Germany.

In just five hours, the tanks had advanced more than five kilometers of the front line, something that had not been done by the Anglo-French forces in the previous days.

But the excitement of the British soon ceased, as they wept and found that less than five of the 15 tanks were able to move the next day, and the rest were either damaged or could not be started for unknown reasons.

Five tanks were no longer vital to the outcome of the war, and there were only a limited number of British soldiers that they could cover, and it was difficult to guarantee that these tanks would not have problems again.

Because of this, the British advance was stopped, and the advantage that tanks had brought to the British was instantly lost.

In the British rear, when Churchill heard that more than 40 tanks had only been exchanged for five kilometers of advance from the front line, he said in disappointment: "I am simply shocked that Haig (the British commander of the Battle of the Somme) has exposed this huge secret to the enemy on such a small scale!" ”

Tanks, which the British government considered a secret weapon, were exchanged for a five-kilometer advance from the front line. What's even worse is that it was not only the Entente that understood the existence of tanks, but Germany also learned of the existence of tanks.

I believe that with German technology, it is not difficult to copy one such tank. Although the performance of tanks is not well guaranteed at present, when it comes to critical offensive and defensive battles, a sufficient number of tanks can indeed pose a deadly threat to the enemy.

No matter how much Churchill and the British government criticized Haig, it could not change the result that the British had missed the opportunity.

After the secret weapon of the tank was revealed, the British were able to use only a sufficient number of lives in the Battle of the Somme.

After that, the Battle of the Somme became another Battle of Verdun, a gladiatorial arena between British and German soldiers.

Sadly, throughout the Battle of Verdun, the French army was in a defensive posture for most of the time, so as to ensure that the battle loss ratio was slightly lower than that of the German army.

But the Battle of the Somme was an offensive battle launched by the Anglo-French forces, a counteroffensive by the Anglo-French forces against Germany.

This led to the fact that the Anglo-French forces were in the role of attackers, and the real defensive side was the Germans.

The Germans, with a sufficient number of machine guns and artillery, were able to gain a considerable advantage in the Battle of the Somme, inflicting huge casualties on the British and French forces.

The Battle of the Somme lasted for more than a month, and in addition to bringing more than 200,000 casualties to the British and French forces, only a narrow strip of land several kilometers wide and more than 20 kilometers long was gained.

The Somme counteroffensive vigorously advocated by the French government not only failed to bear fruit, but instead plunged the French government into a quagmire from which it could not get out, except for the Battle of Verdun.

Chauffeur's stubbornness in the early stages of the Battle of Verdun, as well as his preference for interfering in political affairs rather than being ordered by the government, were seized by French politicians and awarded him the rank of Marshal, but at the cost of being discharged from his armor and returned to the field.

Along with Germany, Russia changed its commander-in-chief (general staff), France also changed its supreme commander-in-chief, and the new commander-in-chief of the French army was replaced by General Nivel, who had performed well in the Battle of Verdun.

It is worth mentioning that General Haig, who was criticized by the British for prematurely exposing tanks, not only did not lose his position as commander-in-chief of the British Expeditionary Force, but was awarded the title of Field Marshal and continued to control the British Expeditionary Force.

On the German side, the German military attached great importance to the Battle of Verdun and the Battle of the Somme, even calling them Germany's only chance for victory.

Knowing that Germany was inferior in both manpower and material, Ludendorff rushed to the Somme front immediately after the outbreak of war, and as far as he knew, the soldiers on the front line invented a new theory of war, the "Mode of Warfare in Defensive War".

The Germans no longer dragged massive infantry to the front, but deployed a part of the machine gunners in forward positions.

As the enemy's attack went deeper and deeper, the fortresses and trenches that greeted them became closer and closer.

At the same time, the Germans placed large numbers of infantry out of the reach of the enemy's artillery, waiting for the opportunity to launch a local or frontal counteroffensive.

Although Germany was on the defensive during the Battle of the Somme, it was not very useful to use this military theory.

Historically, however, this new military doctrine was of great help to the subsequent German offensive, and was very effective in slowing down the pace of German defeat.

Although Ludendorff's strategic short-sightedness led to Germany's eventual defeat, his brilliant tactics slowed down Germany's defeat.

In contrast, Ludendorff's contribution to Germany outweighed his faults, and he still contributed to the First World War.

The successive outbreaks of the Battle of Verdun and the Battle of the Somme were not good news for Britain, France and Germany on the Western Front.

These two battles in history have caused heavy casualties in Britain, France and Germany, and this time and space will only get worse.

Of course, this is not necessarily good news for Australasia and Arthur.

First of all, the war of attrition consumes manpower and materials, and Australasia relies heavily on the export of goods to Europe.

In other words, because of these two wars of attrition, Australasia wanted to make more profits, and also improved Australasia's status in the Entente in disguise.

As for the attrition of the two wars of attrition on Britain and France, Arthur could only smile and say that there was no problem for the two allies to bear it themselves.

In fact, the Entente seemed to be a piece of iron, and there were also quite a few internal disputes.

Nearly two years have passed since the outbreak of the war, and the struggles within the Entente have never stopped.

First there were Britain, France, and Australia pitting Russia, Britain and Russia pitting France, Britain and Australia pitting France and Russia, and so on, and now there are Russia, Australia, and Britain and France.

In fact, this is also normal, Britain, France and Russia are all old powers, and the domestic forces and interest groups are deep-rooted, and it is impossible to lose their own interests to save their allies.

Judging by the respective territorial claims of Britain, France and Russia, the French wanted to annex a large amount of land in Germany, but the British did not allow it. Russia wanted the Iranian region, the British would not allow it.

Previously, France had opposed British acquisition of Syria, Palestine and Iraq, but was eventually divided between Britain and Australasia.

In addition, the relations between the great powers in the Constantinople area were also very complicated. If they wanted to control Constantinople to gain stable access to the Black Sea, but neither Britain nor France would allow it.

On the other hand, in order to prevent Russia from withdrawing from the war, the British made a vague promise to Russia, promising to settle the fate of the two straits of Constantinople after the war, with the consent of Russia.

In fact, if we look closely at the contradictions within the Entente, a considerable part of them are the contradictions between Britain and other countries.

The contradictions between France and Russia, Australasia and all the countries are not really big. It was for this reason that the British were eager to win over Australasia and form a solid alliance after the war to ensure that France and Russia would not unite against the British.

The British were also afraid of a Franco-Russian union, which, if the war was won, would be the two most powerful countries on the European continent.

The character of the British-stirring stick did not allow France and Russia to become bigger, so they could only win over Australasia, which was far away in the world, to maintain their continental balance policy.

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(End of chapter)