The Rise Of Australasia-Chapter 1144 - 861: Total War

On April 14th, 1936, under the witness of Prime Minister Baldwin, the Duke of York, the Duke of Gloucester, and the Duke of Kent, His Majesty King Edward VIII of Britain signed the abdication document to be sent to the governments of the self-governing dominions, officially announcing that he would abdicate from the throne of the United Kingdom.

On April 15th, Edward VIII, for the last time as King of Britain, read the "Abdication Act" to all British people via a national broadcast, and said emotionally at the end, "I have found it impossible to carry the heavy burden of responsibility and to discharge my duties as King as I would wish to do without the help and support of the woman I love.

"For the subsequent development of the British Empire, and for my love as well, I voluntarily renounce the throne of the United Kingdom, and my descendants will also lose the right of succession to it."

The abdication of Edward VIII was the biggest news for the British Empire. Not only was Edward VIII the first monarch in British history to voluntarily give up the throne for love, but his reign was also among the shortest of any British monarch.

From the death of the previous monarch, King George V, to Edward VIII's abdication, less than two months had passed.

These two months had a profound impact on the British government and created the dire situation it now faced.

Aside from marveling at Edward VIII's true willingness to give up the throne for love, people were also anticipating whether the new king, the Duke of York, could reverse the downturn brought by Edward VIII and lead Britain back to its former glory.

Starting from April 16th, Britain formally entered the era of the Duke of York's reign.

To stabilize the British government and the populace, the Duke of York decided to continue using his father's regnal name. He abandoned the name Albert and took the name George. Thus, the Duke of York became the sixth monarch of Britain to be named George, also known as George VI.

Because the situation was urgent, George VI focused his attention on the crisis faced by Britain immediately after becoming the King.

In the newly formed Cabinet's oath of allegiance to George VI, the King specifically pointed out, "The British Empire is currently facing a crisis comparable to that of 20 years ago. We must unite to lead Britain out of crisis and restore its former glory."

George VI showed a very determined attitude in favor of war. On April 17th, George VI met with the French envoy, Minister Romon, and discussed matters at length.

It was also on that day that George VI signed the British total mobilization order. This directive fully mobilized Britain's army, navy, and air force, ushering the British Empire into a state of total war.

On April 18th, Britain and France jointly issued a final ultimatum to Germany. The two countries demanded that Germany immediately cease its military operations in Austria and fully withdraw its troops, restoring the situation to its pre-war state.

This ultimatum was urgently translated by the Foreign Affairs Department of Germany and reported to the German government and General Staff.

At 11:15 a.m. on April 19th, the British and French ambassadors in Germany demanded a final response. Germany provided their final reply, which was to reject the British-French proposal, and they also demanded that the governments of Britain and France assume responsibility for initiating the war.

With Britain's support, France also took an unusually firm stance.

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At 3:22 p.m. on April 19th, the French ambassador Courland notified the German government, "Due to your country's unwarranted declaration of war and refusal to relent, you must bear the responsibility for initiating war.

As an ally of the Austrian Empire, I represent the French government in declaring that we will fulfill our obligations to our ally, Austria, and consider ourselves to be in a state of war with your country."

At 5:25 p.m. on April 19th, Minister of Foreign Affairs Halifax summoned the German ambassador in London and stated firmly: "By the instruction of His Majesty the King, I take the honour to inform your government that, due to your country's unwarranted act of war, as the guardian of the European order, I am pleased to notify you that we are from this moment in a state of war with your country."

The German government was stunned; they had not anticipated that Britain would so swiftly become a Faction of War Advocates after changing its monarch, and had reached an agreement with the French to declare war directly on Germany.

But at that time, the Germans could not afford to be dumbfounded. What they had to do was to defeat Austria as soon as possible before Britain and France completed their mobilization, creating a significant advantage in this large-scale campaign.

At 8:12 a.m. on April 20th, Italy honored its alliance with the German Empire by declaring war respectively on Austria, France, and Britain.

Later on the same day, Austria, France, and Britain also declared war on Italy, igniting a war that involved five of the Powers, impacting the entire European Continent and indeed the entire world.

However, although war had been declared, it did not mean that the British and French military could reach the battlefield immediately.

Although the British and French military forces numbered in the millions, a significant part of these troops originated from colonies. As traditional colonial powers, Britain and France had colonies all over the world. Gathering these colonial troops in a short time proved to be quite difficult.

This meant that Britain and France needed more preparation time than other countries before the majority of their forces could join the war.

This was especially the case for Britain. Although the British Empire was the global hegemon, hegemony offered no special advantages in assembling its troops.

As the Empire on which the sun never set, with colonies scattered around the world, it would not only require a substantial fleet of transport ships but also a considerable amount of time to bring all these colonial forces to the European Continent.

The German General Staff made estimates based on the respective situations of Britain and France. Within three months, France could deploy at most about 1 million troops to the battlefield, and the United Kingdom only about 500,000.

On the German side, they had already assembled over 2 million soldiers, and with Italy's poised force of millions more, they could completely overwhelm the Austrian Empire with a blitzkrieg akin to what happened in Poland within these three months.

After the downfall of Austria, the situation would turn into Britain and France versus Germany and Italy. Although the foundational strength of Britain and France was stronger, in terms of military combat power, it was clear that Germany and Italy were the stronger of the two.

Of course, the combat power of the German forces played a decisive role in this. As for the Italian forces, as long as they didn't drag their feet, they would be of the greatest help to Germany.

While placing their hopes on a rapid defeat of the Austrian Empire, Germany had already begun seeking out another ally, that being the assistance of the Island Nation.

The position of the Island Nation was still very important; they could threaten the most crucial region for the British, namely India.

Should India face danger, the British Government—no matter how pro-war it might be—would certainly not give up their own India for the sake of France.

As long as part of the burden on the British military was shared, the German forces could easily crush the French Army on the front lines.

However, it was clear that the Islanders were not fools. Though the Island Nation could indeed pose a certain threat to India, they would have to go through the might of Australasia's sphere of influence.

Facing Australasia alone already put immense pressure on the Islanders, and if they completely antagonized the British, there would be utterly no hope for them in the Pacific power struggle.

As an island nation, maintaining their position and a strong navy was of paramount importance. Yet, the most powerful navy of the time belonged to Britain; if they upset the British, the Islanders' navy would be thoroughly blockaded by the British, rendering the Island Nation's strong army useless since it couldn't leave the island.

After the British Empire declared war on Germany and Italy, members of the Commonwealth such as India, Canada, and South Africa also declared war on Germany and Italy in succession.

Although the war seemed to carry a grand momentum, what was peculiar was that by April 25th—the day the entire Commonwealth declared war—the main battlefield was still in Austria.

Even with the outbreak of war between Germany and France, there still were no large-scale battles or conflicts at the German-French border.

This was a tacit understanding between the governments of Germany and France. Germany had no intention of squandering its forces on an early offensive against France, as defeating Austria as quickly as possible was the more pressing matter at the time.

On the French side, while they had decided to go to war, their preparations were not yet complete, and they were not ready to commit their main forces to battle before the arrival of the British.

And the British? King George VI was indeed an advocate for war, but this didn't change the fact that Britain was utterly unprepared for war prior to his ascension to the throne.

The British took far longer than the French in preparing for war. As estimated by the British Cabinet, the first batch of troops to arrive in France would land on its coastlines no sooner than half a month later.

But these troops would be comprised of only Britain's regular forces, and their numbers were destined to be limited. According to the British Cabinet's plans, within two months, the number of British forces committed to the European battlefield would not exceed 200,000 people.

Comparatively, this force was like a drop in the bucket against the millions-strong armies of Germany and Italy.

But this was unavoidable. The British Government's preparations for war were indeed lacking, and the existing scale of the British military was less than 600,000 people.

Due to hasty involvement in the war, the British civilian population was clearly unprepared for this conflict, and the government's overall mobilization process was progressing slowly.

There was little hope in the colonies. The nearest of the larger British colonies were Canada and South Africa, which were separated by an ocean or a continent.

The main source of colonial military strength, India, was even further away from Britain, separated by the Indian Ocean, the Mediterranean, and the European continent.

It would take these colonial governments at least 3 to 4 months from the declaration of war to mobilization and then to dispatching forces to Europe.

This meant that in the first three months of the war, it was essentially a Franco-Austrian versus German-Italian conflict. If the Austrian forces could hold off Germany and Italy and buy enough time for Britain and France, the situation would look much better for the allies.

However, if the Austrian Empire was as fragile as Poland, then in the coming months, the situation might evolve into France facing Germany and Italy alone.