Chapter 536 Middle East (1)
After Dönitz left, Yannick stood up and walked to the world map, looking at Australia at the bottom of the map.
Not long ago, Yannick heard that the United States was actively wooing Australia and neighboring countries, so he sent a special envoy to visit Australian Prime Minister Robert Gordon Menzies.
If it were an ordinary small country, he would not bother to pay attention, but although Australia is vast and sparsely populated, its national strength is not weak.
Australia is rich in mineral resources, oil and natural gas, and there are at least 70 kinds of mineral resources. Among them, bauxite reserves rank first in the world, accounting for 35% of the world's total reserves. Australia is the world's largest producer of bauxite, alumina, diamonds, lead, and tantalum, and the production of gold, iron ore, coal, lithium, manganese ore, nickel, silver, uranium, zinc, etc. is also among the world's top.
At the same time, Australia is also the world's largest exporter of bituminous coal, bauxite, lead, diamonds, zinc and concentrates, the second largest exporter of alumina, iron ore, and uranium, and the third largest exporter of aluminum and gold. The reserves of crude oil are 240 billion liters, the reserves of natural gas are 136 billion cubic meters, and the reserves of liquefied petroleum gas are 174 billion liters. The forest coverage area accounts for 20% of the country's land, the natural forest area is about 5.5 billion hectares (2\\3 of which are eucalyptus), and the timber forest area is 1.22 million hectares. It is called "a country sitting on a mine cart".
Moreover, the combat effectiveness of Australia's army in the original time and space during World War II was not weak.
In World War II, Britain was defeated by Germany's blitzkrieg and almost lost its homeland. It could not take care of Asia and the Pacific. Not only could it not take care of it, but it also had to ask "patriotic overseas Chinese" to help, which was in line with the mainstream public opinion of "defending Britain" in Australia at that time.
After following Britain's declaration of war on Germany, Australia sent the first division (the 6th Division) to the Middle East in November 1939, and later sent the 7th and 9th Divisions. These troops were put into battle from January 1941, and their record was still good. On the battlefield in North Africa, the 6th Australian Division cooperated with the British Army to capture Bardia, Tobruk, Benghazi and other places held by the Italian Army. Ten Italian divisions were annihilated, equivalent to killing 1/6 of the Italian Army.
If defeating Italy, a notoriously weak chicken, is nothing, then the battle with the German Army can explain the problem. In March 1941, the German and Italian armies began a counterattack against the Allied forces in the North African desert. Tobruk, where the 9th Australian Division was held, was surrounded, but the Australian Army fought to the death and repeatedly repelled the German attack until the Allied forces came to rescue in December. Rommel was unable to succeed. This tough battle can be called the Stalingrad of North Africa, and it won honor for the Australian Army again more than 20 years later. In the Battle of El Alamein the following year, the 9th Australian Division fought a bloody road on the right at a critical moment when the other two offensives were frustrated, turning the tide of the battle. Rommel's evaluation of the Australian Army was "(the Australian Army) is like a crusher, everything that touches it will be crushed to pieces." The combat effectiveness of the Australian Army is beyond doubt as it is highly regarded by the Desert Fox.
Yannick asked the envoy to bring a message that he would forgive Australia for sending an expeditionary force to the European continent to resist the German army. As long as Australia allocated a piece of land to rent to Germany to build an overseas base, he could guarantee that it would not invade the Australian mainland; Australia would live its own life as usual; and Europe would strengthen its trade relations with Australia.
Renting to build an overseas base and not invading the mainland seemed to be a little contradictory, but this was not the point.
Australian Prime Minister Robert Gordon Menzies was immediately caught in a dilemma.
A group of senior officials discussed for several days and finally decided to cooperate with Germany. After all, Germany swept across Europe in just one year, kicking over France, the first power in Europe, and the British Empire, the first power at sea. And what about the United States? In addition to the record of the First World War 20 years ago, what else is there? It is clear who is stronger and who is weaker.
Australia agreed, and the surrounding countries did not dare to have any small thoughts, and continued to "serve the old master" and live their own lives.
Yannick gestured at the distance between Australia and Pearl Harbor in the United States on the map, and really wanted to launch a German version of the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Unfortunately, the two sides have declared war, and the United States must have strengthened its vigilance.
At this time, on the other side of the Middle East, on the border of Egypt, Rommel in the conference room yawned boredly.
Sitting opposite him were envoys sent by Saudi Arabia, but there were not just one, but seven or eight, all representatives of various forces. Because Saudi Arabia at this time was just a unified country, and various domestic forces were entrenched in one side, and no one was submissive to anyone.
In the middle of the 18th century, the Saudi family and Wahhab on the Arabian Peninsula achieved a union and jointly established the Wahhabi state in Najd. After that, the emergence of the first and second Saudi kingdoms ended the long-term division of the Arabian Peninsula. In its heyday, the rule of the Saudi family extended to almost all parts of the Arabian Peninsula, and even Syria and Mesopotamia in the north were attacked by the Wahhabi army. However, the Wahhabi army's conquest outside of Najd was not successful. Instead, the Wahhabi sect encountered fierce resistance in the occupied areas due to its overly strict and conservative religious precepts.
In the early 20th century, the Arabian Peninsula returned to a state of fragmentation, and the Saudi family began to rebuild the Saudi state.
In 1902, Abdul Aziz (also known as Ibn Saud) of the Saudi family led his army from Kuwait, where his family had taken refuge, and recaptured Riyadh from the hostile Rashid family. In 1926, Abdul Aziz became the king of the territory he ruled.
Before 1915, Britain adhered to the traditional policy of non-interference in the affairs of the Arabian Peninsula and rejected the Saudi leader Abdul Aziz's repeated requests to establish diplomatic relations with Britain. But Abdul Aziz did not give up. He repeatedly sent envoys to meet with British diplomatic officials in the Middle East and asked for the protection of the British Empire. Ibn Saud's humble and respectful attitude at the time moved all the British diplomats who met him. They also suggested to the British Cabinet to establish diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia and accept this seemingly obedient younger brother.
However, in the whole ten years before and after, the British government changed twice, and the proposal to establish diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia was not passed by Parliament once. The reason is simple. At that time, the Arabian Peninsula was poor in resources, and Saudi Arabia's power was just starting. It only controlled one city. At most, it was a large tribal chief. How could it be taken seriously by the high-ranking British MPs?
Another point is that the Persian Gulf region was not the sphere of influence of Britain at that time. They only focused on the land transportation line to India. The Najd region controlled by Saudi Arabia was located in the heart of the Arabian Peninsula and had no strategic value in the eyes of Britain. The more important reason was that Britain was worried that accepting a younger brother in the Persian Gulf region would stimulate Ottoman Turkey.
After the outbreak of World War I, in order to win the support of Saudi Arabia, Britain adjusted its policy toward Saudi Arabia and successfully encouraged Abdul Aziz to participate in the Arab uprising under the rule of the Ottoman Empire. Britain provided him with arms and financial assistance.
After the end of World War I, Britain and France re-encroached and divided the political map of the Middle East. Britain initially supported the powerful Hashemite family and restricted the power of the Abdul Aziz family. The fundamental intention was to prevent the growth of French power. Later, due to the failure of the Hashemite family's internal and external policies, Britain turned to support the Saudi family in power.
In 1915, Britain and Abdul Aziz signed the Darling Agreement, formally recognizing the Saudi family's sphere of influence as a British protectorate, and intended to establish the Saudi family's ruling boundaries to prevent Saudi forces from infiltrating or occupying British protectorates in Kuwait, Qatar, etc. In 1927, Britain and Saudi Arabia signed the Treaty of Jeddah, and Saudi Arabia officially broke away from British rule and gained independence.
On September 22, 1932, Saudi Arabia officially announced its unification, but unfortunately the princes were obsessed with their own small piece of rotten land and did not think about making progress.
Seeing that a large number of German troops had gathered at the Egyptian border, these princes might have panicked a little and sent envoys to negotiate. But I don't know where these idiots learned "the strong dragon can't beat the local snake", and they actually raised all kinds of outrageous demands to the German army.