Chapter 1214: Playing Big 2
Chapter 1214 Playing too big 2
Churchill was a layman in the military. Sir Hamilton was better than Churchill. He was a proven British Army general who had fought for the interests of the British Empire for decades. Well, most of the fighting was vigilantism…. So he saw that Churchill's simple landing battle in the Dardanelles Strait was unlikely to succeed. So he planned to make things bigger, and considered launching an offensive from land together with Greece, and at the same time, he was ready to forcefully attack the Bavarian Army!
This looks right! Lord Hamilton has considered various variables on the battlefield and put forward his own opinion-concentrate more troops to join the Greeks and launch an offensive from land, while the navy and other landing forces are at the same time in the Dardanelles Strait Launch an attack and kill your opponent with lightning speed from two directions! What a plan!
However, both Churchill and Lord Hamilton ignored one thing, that is, they unknowingly expanded a limited-scale battle! When a battle is halfway through, when a battle reaches a certain level and has extraordinary political influence, purely military considerations may deflect in other directions! And the historical Battle of Dardanelles was like this!
You know, at the beginning, the entire British-French coalition landing force only had about 75,000 people! Then what. You can say that for the sake of victory, you can also say that for the sake of face, and for political reasons, the Allied forces are constantly increasing their numbers! In the end, 500,000 Allied troops were invested in this battle that was destined to have a low chance of winning! The price paid has far exceeded the original idea!
However, political needs or the so-called face cannot solve military problems. In a place like the Dardanelles Strait where troops cannot be deployed at all, the marginal effect of investing more troops will only continue to decline! Therefore, you should not be able to defeat it, but you just cannot defeat it... Does face have any use? Isn't it going to end in the end? And the tragic defeat on the battlefield once again affected politics!
Look at the Allied fleet with absolute maritime superiority and a six-figure landing force. It can't defeat Turkey, known as the "sick man of West Asia", for a long time! I fought for a whole ten months! What do you want the fence-sitters in the Balkans to think? How can you let those outsiders trust the strength of Britain and France? As a result, a series of chain reactions occurred, and Bulgaria took the lead! Historically, Greece has also regained a certain distance from the Entente. However, Serbia failed... (Serbia asked why you fought in the Dardanelles Strait, but I was the one who took the blame in the end?!)
In fact, it is not uncommon in history for things like this to happen at all levels. Not to mention that there were various loopholes in the planning of the Battle of the Dardanelles from the beginning, and the navy and army were arguing about it. Even if the battle was well planned, There is also the possibility of "playing big", such as the Battle of Verdun. In fact, Falkenhayn just wanted to fight a limited war of attrition at the beginning to attract the French, and then use the artillery that the German Army was proud of. Put it away. Then, the Germans sadly discovered that
The critical moment is when you "can't control your own hands". You keep adding chips, then consuming them, then adding more chips, and consuming them again. You don't stop until the Germans can no longer fight and Falkenhayn steps down because of this.
Although there were various problems in the Battle of the Dardanelles and the Battle of Verdun, there were also typical examples of being unable to hold back. They knew when to start the fight, but did not know how to end it. But it is excusable. At least the strategic value is great enough. After the Battle of Dardanelles was successful, Turkey knelt down! If the Verdun Fortress succeeds, it will really become a grinding mill to crush the entire French front, and at the beginning, the offensive side does have a lot of advantages. Needless to say, Britain and France have absolute naval superiority. The German army in the Verdun Fortress was also very vigorous at the beginning. The battle loss ratio was an advantage. In fact, in the end, including the later period when the French had an absolute advantage in strength and firepower, the Germans still made a profit, but nothing could be done. Family resources are limited.
The most incomprehensible and depressing thing is that in some battles, they quickly developed into something out of control for the sake of pure fighting spirit. For a place where the strategic value is not too high, a certain party risked his life to fight against the bull. Then in the end, I discovered that I had suffered a huge loss... Is there such a thing? Of course! The Battle of Guadalcanal!
Let us recall the process of the Battle of Guadalcanal, and you will realize how fucking funny this battle was! The Japanese found that Guadalcanal was a very good place, suitable for establishing a mine branch, no, it was an aviation base, so they sent thousands of people to prepare. Then this is where the Japanese got funny for the first time. When you went to open a mine, you didn't leave enough defensive troops, and you didn't even have an early warning! And haven’t spoken to the Army yet…. This is not mining, this is mining theft! And it was stolen under the noses of Americans! I’m afraid that people won’t see it!
Everyone knows what happened next. The Americans naturally discovered the Japanese mines, but the Japanese did not notice that the Americans came to dismantle the mines. Counting engineering and aviation personnel, there were less than 4,000 Japanese troops who were directly pressed to the ground and rubbed by tens of thousands of U.S. troops! More than half of the sub-base was built and now belongs to the Americans! This matter was originally lost in a muddle-headed way!
At this moment, the Japanese went completely berserk. When had the majestic locust army ever suffered such a loss? So when it was difficult for the Rabaul Air Base to provide effective support, after recruiting the Army, the Combined Fleet decisively fought a big battle with the Americans. This was the famous Battle of Santa Cruz in history. What are you still doing? Needless to say, the result of the battle was not bad. Two Japanese aircraft carriers were injured, and the Americans directly mounted one and injured another. Tactically speaking, the Japanese had the advantage. It was the last major victory of the Japanese aircraft carrier fleet, (well, there were only a few victories in total)
But the tactical victory could not cover up the strategic failure in the second battle where aviation dominated the sea. After Japan and the United States' maritime mobile aviation forces withdrew at the same time, the Americans still had the aviation base of Guadalcanal as a support point. The fighter jets flown from Rabaul could only exist in the sky over Guadalcanal in minutes. How do you think about this? There is no chance of winning, and then... Then the Japanese navy actually continued to fight with the Americans on their doorstep! Conveniently, the Army was also tricked! After dropping two battleships, a large number of cruisers and destroyers, and hundreds of various aircraft by the way, the Japanese finally knew that they could no longer fight. By this time, Japan had already lost too many!
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