The Rise Of Australasia-Chapter 1110 - 831: Weapons Reserve Plan

Chapter 1110: Chapter 831: Weapons Reserve Plan

After Princess Louise’s funeral, Arthur’s mood was very heavy.

But at this moment, there were clearly more important things for Arthur to attend to, and the busy state of national affairs hardly allowed him to dwell on his personal grief.

Because of his mother Princess Louise’s funeral, Arthur’s previously planned visits to Douglas Aircraft Company and Boeing Company had been postponed for several months.

He was originally supposed to see Australasia’s newest transport aircraft at the beginning of the year, but now he could only wait until March.

Before March arrived, Arthur convened a Cabinet Meeting and officially determined the main direction for the development of the Australasian Empire in 1935: to continuously expand the quantity of weapons and equipment, and of strategic supplies.

At the end of February, Arthur agreed to the Ministry of Defense’s request, and military factories began full-scale production of weapons and equipment.

In the strategic reserve of weaponry, Arthur specifically made requests for the weapon stores of the Ministry of Defense. As of now, the weapon stores had a total of 1.557 million rifles, 14,000 machine guns, 12,000 various types of firearms, 750 million bullets, and 25 million shells.

In addition, as for heavy weaponry, the weapon stores possessed 420 tanks, 780 aircraft, and the corresponding weaponry ammunition.

These reserves of weaponry ammunition were already completely sufficient for peacetime, and could even support a medium-scale war.

But for the present, these stockpiles of weapons and equipment were far from enough. According to Arthur’s request, the submission by the Ministry of Defense to the Cabinet Government significantly increased the storage numbers for all weapons.

According to the plan, within two years, the Ministry of Defense will increase the number of small weapons to at least 5 million rifles, 100,000 machine guns, 50,000 various types of firearms, 3 billion bullets, and 75 million shells.

The Cabinet was initially hesitant, as to achieve such a vast reserve of weapons would require not only that the nationwide military factories enter full production mode, but also work overtime.

Even the government’s finances would have to be stretched, and the government would have to find ways by all means to assemble the funds needed to purchase the weapons and equipment.

But Arthur would not give the government a chance to refuse. Stocking up on weapons and equipment in advance was crucial, and even if it plunged the government’s finances into crisis, it had to be done.

The good news was that the financial situation of the Australasian Government was always very good, so raising this amount of money was relatively easy.

Moreover, with Arthur’s high popularity among the civilian population, as long as the government issued relevant bonds, a large number of people would subscribe to these bonds, creating a huge source of funds for the government in a short period.

According to the government’s estimates, more than 40 million people of Australasia could subscribe to over 2 billion Australian dollars’ worth of bonds, which was about five times the government’s annual financial income.

Apart from the reserves of small weapons, Arthur also had certain requirements for the reserves of tanks and aircraft.

Within two years, the Ministry of Defense’s weapon stores must have at least 2,250 Cromwell I light tanks, 1,550 T-31 medium tanks, and 750 T-31A heavy tanks.

Just the tank reserves alone added up to 4,550 tanks, enough to equip more than a dozen tank divisions.

According to the budget stats provided by the Ministry of Defense, completing the manufacture of these weapons and equipment would require at least over 1 billion Australian dollars in funds.

Though it was only the government’s two-year financial income, such a large investment in weapons and equipment was a risky act for the government.

If the war did not break out after two years, Arthur’s early hoarding of weapons would result in a tremendous loss.

But Arthur understood that the war was not far away. He even felt that war would definitely break out within these two years.

If it weren’t for pacifying the public’s sentiment and not alerting the enemy prematurely, Arthur would even want to put the country into a military state directly and enter the maximum limit of military production.

One must know that the national military output of weapons during World War II was far more exaggerated than the weapon reserve plan now being set out by Australasia.

In history, Americans produced over 108,000 tanks and self-propelled artillery, as well as 238.23 thousand various military vehicles, and 372,000 firearms from 1941 to 1945.

In just five years, this meant that Americans, on average, produced at least 20,000 tanks, 400,000 military vehicles, and 70,000 firearms each year.

Although this was a result of America’s excessively monstrous industrial scale, the output of weapons manufactured by various industrialized nations during the same period wasn’t much less.

The British produced a total of 47.8 thousand tanks and self-propelled artillery, over 460,000 military vehicles, and 125,000 firearms during World War II.

The Germans produced more than 50,000 tanks, 340,000 military vehicles, and nearly 160,000 firearms.

Even the Islanders, with the weakest industrial base, produced nearly 5,000 tanks, 60,000 vehicles, and 13,000 firearms during the war in history.

To put it plainly, what World War II boiled down to was the industrial strength and overall national power of the various countries. Industrial strength signifies the speed at which nations could produce weapons, playing a crucial role in the advantage on the front lines.

Overall national power, on the other hand, encompasses the economy, population, and a series of other factors. Only a thriving economy and a vast population could sustain the enormous consumption resulting from such exaggerated weapons production.

This is also why strong countries significantly outperformed weaker countries in a super war. The Island Nation’s weapons and industrial output might barely keep up with the European powers, but their fragile economy was doomed to falter before long in the war.

From this alone, one could also see the industrial gap between Australasia and the Island Nation.

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After all, being a genuine Western country, Australia was able to receive substantial support from the European powers early on, plus the abundant mineral resources at home, its industrial scale and level were not something that a tiny Island Nation could compete with.

After 1932, Arthur had gradually loosened the restrictions on industry. Especially with the completion of the Broken Hill industrial base, Australasia’s industrial scale welcomed yet another round of growth.

In the year 1932, Australasia’s annual steel production reached 5.97 million tons and 10.57 million tons respectively.

After two years of development, Australasia’s annual steel production had already surpassed 20 million tons, reaching an annual steel production of 6.92 million tons and pig iron production of 13.25 million tons.

Islanders, on the other hand, did not see much growth in their steel production total compared to two years prior.

This is without mentioning the significant role of Arthur’s extensive export of weapons, which somewhat slowed down the Island Nation’s expansion.

Throughout 1934, the Island Nation’s annual steel production reached 3.198 million tons, which was less than half of Australasia’s.

However, it wasn’t the Island Nation’s fault. Australasia’s steel production had already reached the fourth in the world, only trailing the powerful British Empire, Germany with its still-potent industrial strength, and the Great Lakes Republic, which inherited most of the United States’ industry.

Of course, in terms of steel production, the French were still very close to Australasia. If it hadn’t been for the industrial growth caused by Arthur’s permission for military expansion in the last two years, it would be hard to tell whether France or Australasia had the larger industrial scale.

The discrepancy in industry resulted in Australasia completely leading in weapons production over the Island Nation.

The Islanders produced only 5,000 tanks and 13,300 artillery pieces during World War II. For Australasia, this was a figure that could be achieved in just one year.

Even while accomplishing these weapons productions, Australasia could produce even more weapons and equipment, achieving several times the difference.

Although the number of weapons and equipment alone does not directly decide the outcome of a war, it greatly influences the success or failure of it.

And, possessing more advanced and numerous weapons and equipment meant that the Australasia Army would suffer fewer casualties in war, while also inflicting greater casualties on the enemy.

As this progressed, Australasia’s advantage would grow larger and larger, which was the real reason Arthur was confident in defeating the Island Nation.

To be honest, ever since the fall of the United States, Arthur had ceased to worry about the threat from the Islanders.

The Island Nation Army’s combat effectiveness might have been decent, but it could no longer pose a significant threat to Australasia.

After all, the Island Nation was merely a country with a narrow land area and scarce mineral resources. Let alone the burden of a prolonged war on the economy, even in a mere comparison of resource consumption, they could never be a match for Australasia.

Moreover, once the Island Nation went to war with Australasia, it would be akin to battling the entire Pacific alliance.

Although the nations of the Pacific alliance were small with little say, a mass of ants can devour an elephant, not to mention these small and medium-sized countries with some strength.

In times of war, Australasia would still have the markets of the Philippines, Kalimantan, the United Kingdom of the West Coast, and the Kingdom of California, and could even expand its influence to the opposite side of the Pacific, South America, whose war potential was leagues beyond the Island Nation’s.

Facing a war that was basically impossible to lose, Arthur’s initial target from the beginning was the currently more chaotic situation in Europe.

Having signed the weapons and equipment manufacturing plan, Arthur’s eagerness to quickly build the finished product of the sixth generation military aircraft grew even more urgent.

Of course, he was also very keen to see the new generation of transport planes reported by Douglas Company and Boeing.

Even though the reserve plan for weapons and equipment was comprehensive, it didn’t expand greatly in the aircraft sector. The main reason was that both military and transport aircraft were about to welcome new models of the next generation.

Arthur knew the saying “buy the new, not the old” well enough, especially when it comes to airplanes, where any slight improvement in performance could determine victory in war.

Plus, the previous product of Douglas Aircraft Company was the DC-2 transport plane. Arthur was very much looking forward to seeing whether their so-called new generation product would be the famous DC-3 transport plane from history?