The Rise Of Australasia

Chapter 433: Chapter 351: Joining the War, Expeditionary Army

In response to the British Empire's inquiry, Arthur responded with a positive attitude. Australasia was very interested in sending troops to Argentina, not only for maintaining the position of the allied countries but also for the benefit of Australasia itself.

Other countries of the allied nations also held similar views. If the British Empire's native land was threatened, that would be one thing; but involving allied countries to protect the interests of the British Empire overseas, there would not be enough benefit for other countries to be willing to do so without sufficient incentive.

However, for France and Russia, even if they jointly controlled the whole of Argentina, the actual interests and enthusiasm were not very great.

Both France and Russia have vast territories and colonies, and Argentina is too far away from the two nations, not to mention the hindrance by the United States; jointly controlling Argentina would be more trouble than it's worth.

To persuade France and Russia to send troops together, the British Empire might still have to give up some interests in other places to satisfy these two nations.

On July 23, 1913, a large-scale war broke out on the southern border of Argentina and Chile.

In this war, Argentina and Chile deployed more than a hundred thousand troops, almost assembling the entire armed forces of their respective nations.

Besides the reserve forces still in training, it was no exaggeration to say that the majority of the combat-ready troops from Chile and Argentina had all been concentrated in this region.

As for the current state of the war, Argentina was in an offensive position, while Chile was in a defensive position.

Both sides were anxious about the war, with Chile eager for support from the British Empire and Argentina desperately trying to end the war before the great powers could react and put the matter to rest.

Argentinian government's high-level officials knew that if their acts of aggression alarmed the great powers, the consequences would be unacceptable.

Only by quickly annihilating Chile's military before the great powers took action, and turning Chile's defeat into an indisputable fact, could they face the condemnation of the great powers without fear after the war.

But if they failed to defeat Chile before the great powers' intervention, they would be unable to withstand their anger even with the support from the United States.

Fortunately, all the other seven great powers of the world besides the United States were far away from Chile and separated by vast oceans.

As for the relatively close United States, they were supporting Argentina.

This also represented that, with Argentina's geographical advantage and the support of the United States, they had a real chance of quickly ending the war.

The well-known diplomatic relationship between the British Empire and Chile relied on Chile's rich saltpeter mining resources.

As long as Argentina ensured that the British Empire's saltpeter mines were not destroyed, the British Empire should not be too angry with Argentina, right? They probably wouldn't be, right?

It was precisely because of such a mindset that the Argentinian military had to accelerate their offensive steps and strive to end the war as soon as possible, so as not to let the war turn into something unexpected.

If they were to play it safe, taking into account the time for the great powers to react and deploy troops, Argentina would have at least two to three months to end the war.

However, the development of the situation somewhat exceeded the expectations of Argentina's government and military, and the war between the two powerful South American nations fell into a rather strange stalemate.

But in fact, this was quite normal, since Chile and Argentina had a rather close comprehensive strength, and their population and economic scale were not very different.

Both sides also possessed the support of great powers, so it was not strange for the war to fall into a stalemate under such circumstances.

Especially since the first batch of weapons supplied to Chile by the British Empire had already been shipped from Australasia, the Chilean army had sufficient weapons, equipment, and ammunition to keep up the fight.

On the other side, Argentina also received support from the United States, which included a large amount of weaponry, equipment, and ammunition supplies.

This resulted in a rather strange stalemate in the war, where both parties' soldiers showed little concern for ammunition consumption, but their achievements were minimal.

If there were reconnaissance aircraft carefully observing the battlefield, they would notice the peculiar phenomenon that the shooting from both sides' soldiers was basically random spraying, and their aim was not to kill the enemy but to exhaust all the ammunition in their hands.

Aside from the battles where senior officers were supervising, all other sub-battlefields had fallen into this strange state.

Argentinian and Chilean logistical officers were shocked to find that since the large-scale offensive and defensive battle had started, their ammunition consumption had increased significantly, but their achievements were meager.

Even their own side's casualties were lower than before; apart from the fierce casualties during the offensive and defensive battle, the casualties at other times were not high.

This led to a rather peculiar phenomenon: in the first half of July, Argentina and Chile suffered tens of thousands of casualties.

In the second half of July, with only two large-scale offensive and defensive battles taking into account, the number of casualties on both Argentinian and Chilean sides barely exceeded ten thousand.

Bear in mind that in the second half of the month, both sides had deployed over a hundred thousand troops on the southern border, engaging in large-scale offensive and defensive battles.

Logically speaking, not only should the consumption of supplies increase, but the number of casualties should also rise significantly.

However, apart from the rapid consumption of ammunition, medical supplies, and grain, there was no significant increase in the casualties of both the friendly and enemy forces.