In early March 1935, Arthur had just planned to visit the Douglas Aircraft Company and Boeing to check on the new generation of transport aircraft when he received bad news from the European side.

There are two pieces of bad news.

The first is the case of the Spanish Civil War. Britain's inaction and France's retreat directly led to the gradual disadvantage of the Spanish Republic in the civil war, and even the capital Madrid was very small.

What's worse is that the Spanish battlefield directly became a place for German and Italian military training. If it weren't for the extensive training of German and Italian troops, I am afraid that the Spanish Civil War would have ended long ago under the aggression of the German and Italian armies.

The second piece of bad news is that Germany has been frantically looking for allies.

There are so many great powers in the world, and in addition to Spain, Germany has also made a lot of co-optation of island countries.

The geographical location of the island nation is relatively special, which is also the reason why it was able to successfully achieve the Restoration, and even grow into the only great power in the East.

The island nation is located on the west coast of the Pacific Ocean, close to Russia's very important Far Eastern ports, and can pose a sufficient threat to Russia.

More importantly, because of their own limitations, it is difficult for island countries to develop into a superpower in the true sense of the word. As a result, the island nation can only become a military power, not an industrial and economic power in the true sense of the word.

Without large-scale industry and economy, it is doomed that the island countries will not be able to attack the supreme world hegemony on the premise of firmly occupying the throne of the great powers.

To be honest, almost all strong contenders for world hegemony will like the role of island nations.

It was like that with the British before, it was like that with the Americans, and it is like this with the Germans now.

The island nation could help Germany to threaten Russia from the Far East, but it was far away from Germany and would not threaten Germany itself.

Moreover, the military strength of the island country is relatively strong, and compared with Italy, an ally that is not very reliable militarily, from a military point of view, the island country is the ally that Germany is looking for.

As for the island countries, after their own master, the United States, was divided, the life of the island countries was not very good.

In particular, in order to win over Australasia, the British completely broke off the idea of supporting the island country, so that the island country has truly become an orphan in the past few years.

In the face of the attraction from Germany, the island nation did not think about it, and approached Germany like a licking dog.

This is actually quite normal. Although Germany's strength is not so strong, Germany's relatively developed industry can still provide a lot of help to the island nation.

Moreover, Germany is the only European power that is strong enough and willing to help the island country, and the island country actually has no choice.

In the last year, Germany and the island nation have sent representatives to Berlin for talks.

There was only one topic of the talks between the two sides, and that was to discuss the covenant between the two countries.

The bad news mentioned earlier is precisely because of this. After more than a year of negotiations, and especially after the constant retreat of the French in the Spanish Civil War, Germany decided that the time had come.

On March 2, 1935, the German government proposed to the governments of the island countries the so-called common anti-Russian front.

Although this front was nominally against Russia, it was definitely on guard for Australasia.

An island nation with German backing would have even greater potential in terms of industry.

Moreover, Arthur concluded that the German military industry would also experience rapid growth in a short period of time.

Because the island country is at war, and the military industry of the island country is not as developed as imagined.

In particular, the island countries of this world lacked support from Britain and the United States after World War I, and their own military industry was not strong, except for the warships that the island people attached great importance to.

And this is good news for Germany. Germany can justifiably expand its military industrial complex by exporting weapons and equipment to island countries.

As for the question of whether Britain and France will oppose it, there is no need to think about it.

After all, the French were able to retreat in the Spanish Civil War, so could they still turn against the Germans for the sake of the export of some German weapons and equipment?

During this period of time, Germany can also take the opportunity to study more military weapons and rapidly develop the heavy weapons that it lacks by mass-producing weapons and equipment.

This is indeed a problem. The earlier alliance of Germany and the island nation, against Australasia, meant that the two enemies could become even stronger.

The islanders, in particular, are already expanding the size of their armed forces.

The state of the island nation's army can be roughly divided into post-World War I and post-1930.

After World War I, the island countries could not afford the high military expenditures, so they were forced to choose disarmament. Because of the Naval Limitation Treaty, the Navy's military spending has been greatly reduced.

As a result, the disarmament of the island nation could only be placed on the army, and in 1925, the minimum number of the island army was 250,000.

As the year entered 1930, the island nation resumed the expansion of its army.

It was also from this time that the island nation launched a series of wars, occupied a lot of land, and also allowed itself to obtain a lot of mineral resources and improve its industrial scale.

By 1935, the island nation's army had reached nearly 450,000 and was growing.

With help from Germany, the island nation will be able to expand its land forces more easily.

They have the largest population of the great powers, and can easily expand their armies to millions of men.

Now that countries around the world are already expanding their armies and navies, there is no need for Australasia to hide its strength.

On March 7, 1935, Arthur signed the Army Enlargement Order, announcing that the Australasian army would be expanded to more than 570,000 troops over the next three years.

Australasia will have an expanded number of infantry divisions from 15 to 22 and cavalry divisions from 4 to 8.

In addition to this, the number of artillery divisions will be expanded from 6 to 10, and the number of tank divisions will be expanded from 3 to 5.

The new 16th to 18th Infantry Divisions will join the 5th Cavalry Division and the 7th Artillery Division to form the 8th Army in the Australasian Defence Force.

The 19th Infantry Division to the 22nd Infantry Division will join the 6th Cavalry and 8th Artillery Division to form the 9th Army in the Australasian Defence Force.

In addition to these two newly formed corps, the 7th Cavalry Division will be deployed to the 2nd Army, the 8th Cavalry Division and the 9th Artillery Division will be sent to the 4th Army, and the 10th Artillery Division will be sent to the 3rd Army to increase the number of soldiers and the overall combat capability between the various armies.

As for the two newly formed tank divisions, they will be merged into the 7th Army, making the 7th Army a super tank army with 5 tank divisions.

Of course, Arthur's final army formation was to disperse the tanks to the various units to achieve tactical infantry coordination.

However, that will only be possible after Australasia's tank production catches up. This tactic has already been practiced in military academies, and many new discoveries have been made about the idea of the coordination of tank and infantry armies.

In addition to the expansion of the regular army, Arthur's royal guard will also usher in a small expansion.

The Guards currently has 2 Guards Infantry Divisions and 1 Guards Cavalry Division, which is still too small in number.

In this expansion, the Guards will be expanded into a combined superforce with 2 Guards Infantry Divisions, 1 Guards Cavalry Division, 1 Guards Artillery Division, and 1 Guards Armored Division.

Among the directly subordinate units at the army level, there are also many special types of armies, including special forces.

If this expansion is completed, Australasia will have the largest army in the world, second only to Russia, Italy and France.

If we look at the overall combat effectiveness of the army, the comprehensive combat effectiveness of the Australasian army will become the first in the world.

Of course, the premise of all this can only happen if the size of the army of each country does not change much.

If there had been a certain expansion of the land forces of various countries in these three years, especially the Germans, who had been constantly showing their fangs, their army combat effectiveness would not be much inferior to that of Australasia.

But in any case, such an expansion order is very huge for Australasia's military strength.

Regardless of when the war broke out, Australasia, with its larger army, was able to guarantee that it would not suffer losses in the early stages of the war.

Even if the enemy's army gathers in a hurry, Australasia can be one step ahead.

In fact, according to the current population structure of Australasia, only 170,000 troops should be expanded, and it should be completed soon.

Especially under the premise of Arthur's orders, the expansion of 170,000 men could be completed within a month.

But Arthur still chose to set the time for three years, which was also considered to be a certain amount. The first is to avoid a more intense army arms race with other countries.

Australasia's military expansion is bound to attract the attention of other countries. The island nations, in particular, are already at war and naturally have to be prepared for actions in Australasia.

If Australasia rapidly expands its forces, it is likely that the island nation will respond to stress and quickly expand its land forces to a larger number.

This is a bit more than worth the loss for Arthur, after all, if war does break out, it must be launched before the enemy is ready.

The size of the army of 570,000 is a relatively clever number. Further up, the size of the armies of France and Italy has remained at around 600,000, which is a little more than the size of the Australasian army.

Although it is only 30,000 more, it is a real lot.

The gap of 30,000 people would save Australasia a lot of trouble, and limit the worldwide army arms race to about 550,000 to 600,000.

If other countries want to expand to more than 550,000, they will have to consider whether such an action will cause a stress response from other countries, so that the army arms race will quickly increase from the level of about 550,000 to about 1 million fierce competition.

3000 words for the second update, ask for a monthly pass, ask for support!

(End of chapter)