Chapter 465: The British Empire Monthly Pass in Despair)
The Canadians were more forthcoming and replied that they could immediately organize three battalions of troops to come to support the British Isles. Even the ships transporting these troops had already escorted the fleet, and they could also contract them.
However, the reinforcements of the size of these three battalions are probably of little use.
However, with the idea of better than nothing, Churchill still bit the bullet and held back his anger, accepting the Canadian government's hypocritical reinforcements of three battalions.
As for the New Zealanders, they don't have many troops to begin with, so it's probably not realistic to wait until they are ready to send out a large force to come to the rescue.
The remaining small states, small tribes, were either not armed at all, or were surrounded by powerful enemies. They had problems even protecting themselves, let alone sending troops to help Britain fight against Germany.
In this circle, the only ones who have made effective and substantive responses are the Australians.
Australia, the Asian version of the "Chosen Country" with an extremely superior geographical location, is similar to the United States in that it has unique geographical defense advantages.
Although the Australian Army is even more useless than the 300,000-strong American Army.
However, the series of geographical disadvantages of being far away from the mainland, inconvenient, difficult to transport, and isolated overseas, actually became Australia's super advantage for self-protection during the war.
Relying on the isolation from the surrounding island chain and the ocean, Australia has insufficient offense but more than enough defense.
Maybe it’s because when you’re full, you’ll be too full to do anything, and when your safety is absolutely guaranteed, you’ll always want to do something big.
Therefore, Australia, which believed that its homeland defense was impregnable, awe-inspiringly provided two infantry divisions to the Commonwealth sovereign states. It can be said that it is a model representative of the Commonwealth who dispatches troops diligently.
But in fact, the British Empire was already crumbling, and the Commonwealth gradually became a loose alliance.
After the First World War, British power was weakened. People in various colonies demanded independence and national liberation movements arose. The conflicts between the mainland and the autonomous territories also intensified, and the colonial system gradually collapsed.
In order to save the decline, the United Kingdom was forced to recognize that the Dominions had gained independence in domestic and foreign affairs. The Dominions and the sovereign state formed the Commonwealth with "mutual loyalty to the king". Both parties had equal rights and were not subordinate to each other.
The Commonwealth is not a country and has no central government.
The British king is only the nominal head of state of the Commonwealth. Unlike the German head of state Reinhardt, the British king and head of state have no right to interfere in the domestic and foreign affairs of other member states.
The Commonwealth has no authority, and the UK and its member states only send high commissioners to each other to represent diplomatic relations at the ambassadorial level.
Although Britain's slogan on its "Empire Day" is: "One King, One Flag, One Army, One Empire."
However, this empire included the six white dominions of Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Ireland, Newfoundland and the vast colonies of Great Britain.
The empire at that time was no longer the same empire as before!
The subsequent "Law of Westminster" allowed the Dominion to further obtain complete equality in diplomacy on the basis of domestic freedom.
The British Empire also substantively transformed into the British Commonwealth.
Different from the First World War, the six white dominions no longer have the obligation to unconditionally support Britain in the war. Whether to participate in World War II completely depends on their own choice!
In the end, although Ireland chose neutrality, it still agreed to organize Irish volunteers to reinforce the British Army, which could be regarded as giving Churchill a lot of assistance.
After all, Ireland is the closest to Britain, so these support troops can be easily transported to the south of England to strengthen defense.
With the support of Australia and Ireland, it was a reassurance for Churchill and allowed him to temporarily breathe a sigh of relief.
Of course, Churchill did not believe that those Australians had much fighting ability.
He just used the seemingly incompetent Australian "savages" to replace 2 divisions scattered in various colonies. Elite, rigorously trained, loyal, reliable, and full of combat effectiveness British Empire soldiers returned to the British Isles.
The total number of British regular army divisions was enough to make up four divisions.
People all over the world know that crossing rivers and demolishing bridges is the British strength, but this time the Australians would not have thought that Churchill had already started demolishing bridges before he had even crossed the river.
Of course, although Churchill had assembled a regular army of four divisions, he also knew very well that judging from the combat effectiveness of the British Army, these four divisions would not be of much use, so this small amount of troops would be used to defend the British.
Strait is a complete joke.
Then Churchill could only place his hope on the self-sacrifice of the British people.
That's right, just like the exhausted Republican Army during the Spanish Civil War, Churchill now also began to vigorously form the National Guard!
The so-called National Guard is actually the militia, and the National Guard is just a nicer name given to him by Churchill.
These members range in age from sixteen to sixty years old and have basically no military training. Many of them have even touched a gun for the first time. To put it bluntly, they are arming ordinary civilians to resist the German invasion.
The weapons they hold are even more diverse, from standard rifles to homemade shotguns, from front-loaded powder guns to breech-loaded flintlock guns, from self-defense revolvers to palm mines, covering almost an entire century of European handheld firearms development history.
Of course, Churchill did not want these militiamen to foolishly give their lives to the German professional army.
Churchill's plan was quite reasonable. He just wanted to arm some civilians to use as a reserve force to counterattack the German landing troops.
As long as the three battalions of regular officers and soldiers from Canada and the officers and soldiers sent by Ireland in the name of volunteers can be separated and added to this group of militia like slots, this militia can be made commandable.
Get up and complete the emergency rescue mission of the reserve team.
At the beginning of the German landing, when the foothold was not stable, it seemed to be a way to use the firepower assistance of the regular coastal defense troops and then use these National Guardsmen, whose losses were not a pity, to undertake the sacrificial mission of close combat.
Well-trained troops provide precise fire support from long distances.
The National Guards, whose large numbers had unreliable long-range shooting accuracy and could only be used in close combat, rushed forward to fight the German troops for losses and bloodshed.
Typical of each taking advantage of his own strengths, Churchill even thought he was a bit smart.
However, Churchill actually didn't like this kind of cleverness used in desperate situations.
After all, no one would mobilize civilians to be cannon fodder unless they were forced into a desperate situation...
