The Rise Of Australasia

Not only did the United States' entry into the war bring down the Allied Nations, but so did the subsequent Battle of Moxinis.

This was one of the plans of the Neville offensive, with the British Expeditionary Force as the main force to break through the German defense lines in the direction of Flanders.

The direction of the British Expeditionary Force's attack was Ypres in Flanders, and at the southernmost end of Ypres was a piece of high ground surrounding Ypres, near which was a small town named Moxinis.

Moxinis Town was an outstanding frontline position of the German Army, and as long as the town could be captured, it would secure a highly advantageous terrain for the Allies' next spring offensive.

The Germans deployed more than 30,000 troops of two infantry divisions in this area, with no doubts about the solidity of their defenses.

What no one in the Allied Nations expected was that the British Expeditionary Force, along with a small part of the Australasia Army, took Moxinis Town in just a few hours, taking the Germans by surprise with the speed of the attack.

The man in charge of the battle was British General Plumer, who, due to his thoughtful and cautious reliability, had a significant reputation in the entire British Expeditionary Force.

Starting in 1916, General Plumer had arranged for soldiers to lay landmines in front of the German trenches, and now they had finally come in handy.

With full use of firearms, tanks, and airplanes, General Plumer not only quickly took Moxinis Town but also repelled several German counterattacks in a row.

After successfully occupying Moxinis, the British and French forces immediately decided to launch the Battle of Ypres in order to capture the entire Belgian region.

Of course, since the main force of the French Army was still engaged in the spring offensive, the participants in the Battle of Ypres were still the British Expeditionary Force.

On June 17, 1917, the Battle of Ypres was officially launched. The British Expeditionary Force dispatched the Fifth Army Group and the Second Army Group, with the assistance of the French First Army Group, to launch a full-scale attack on the German forces in the Ypres area.

The British mobilized a massive 3,000 guns for a continuous bombardment of the Ypres area for ten days, and on June 27, after ten days, they launched a general offensive along an 18-kilometer front line.

The enemy faced by the British Expeditionary Force was the German Fourth Army Group, commanded by General Hiccost Von Arnim.

Although the ten-day bombardment seemed to be of a large scale and intimidating, it also gave the German forces within the frontline enough time to prepare.

Most of the British forces were intercepted by the German Army on their way to the attack, and the British forces in the main attack direction gained little.

Under the fierce resistance of the Germans, the battle turned into a war of attrition, with more than 70,000 total casualties in just three days.

Moreover, due to the heavy rain, the battlefield had become a blood-red swamp, which indirectly delayed the speed of the British Expeditionary Force's attack.

In order not to let the army be held up in the Ypres area, British Expeditionary Force Commander Hagg made a decisive decision and handed over command of the Battle of Ypres to Commander Prumo of the Second Army Group, who had previously won the Battle of Moxinis.

After Prumo took over the frontline troops, he abandoned Hagg's previous plan of a decisive breakthrough and decided to take a different approach, narrowing the scale of the attack, no longer pursuing a complete breakthrough of the German defense line, but gradually eroding the enemy's vitality by attacking small targets one by one.

This also turned the so-called war of attrition launched by British Expeditionary Force Commander Hagg to reverse the situation into a genuine war of attrition, and Hagg had no choice but to let Prumo act according to his plan.

From mid-June to mid-July, the British Expeditionary Force fought a protracted war with the German Army in the southeastern battlefield.

Using his talent and knowledge, Prumo launched numerous small-scale attacks, eroding most of the positions the Germans had occupied in the previous two years and successfully pushing the British front line eight kilometers into the Ypres area.

However, both the British Expeditionary Force and the German Army suffered heavy casualties. The British had as many as 300,000 casualties in just over a month, while the Germans suffered no less, with up to 260,000 casualties.

The British had achieved considerable gains in the Belgian region, but the main battlefield of the French-led spring offensive had not made much progress.

Although the French had invested a large number of forces in the campaign, they faced the full resistance of the main German forces, and even the French could not push the front line forward by a single inch.

Although the situation of the Germans had already entered a state of desperate resistance, no one could deny that the German counterattacks were terrifying.

Even though the French suffered nearly 20,000 casualties on the frontline every day, the Germans did not retreat one step.

This resulted in the spring offensive, which was heavily relied upon by French Commander-in-Chief Neville, making great gains on the flanks but no progress on the main front.

Such a disparity in results has left some Frenchmen, who had high hopes for General Neville, feeling restless.

The French had expected that Neville's appointment would enable the French Army to avenge their previous humiliations and even directly promote the victory of the war.

However, the French Army still had no results despite the massive casualties, and the soldiers' blood had been shed in vain.

France has always had a tradition of revolution, and there have already been many factory strikes and street protests, with the strong intention of overthrowing the government if they do not receive an explanation for this situation.