The Great War: Difference between revisions
New stuff
mNo edit summary |
Dutch-ODST (talk | contribs) (New stuff) |
||
Line 142:
After several significant losses in Africa and North Germany, Camille Laframboise of France and Stefanov Emmerich of Austria engineer a military operation aimed to shock Great Britain and Russia and distract them from the other active fronts of the war. It also aimed to close what Camille Lafamboise saw as a gap between the Tripartite's Coalition's zone of control: the Rhine and the low countries. The plan was dubbed ''Operation Vendémiaire'' (lit. "Operation Grape Harvester" in Occitan). Operation ''Vendémiaire'' was launched on September 7, 1937, and began with attacks on the neutral Netherlands and Rhineland.
France had hoped that the Netherlands would easily capitulate, considering that they recently [[Russo-Corean War|came out of a war in East Asia]], while also expecting Rhineland to respond poorly to coordinated Austrian attacks on their eastern border.
Things did not go according to plan, and the French made a rapid push into the Netherlands capturing Antwerp by the end of September. Forward-placed Dutch units bled the French attackers dry providing significant resistance, and preventing the French army from moving north. Instrumental to the defence was Dutch Louw Verduijn who was vehemently anti-French, and a veteran of the Corean expedition and many other wars. As December came closer and closer the war came to a stalemate, with British reinforcements, Dutch firepower and heavy resistance the Dutch were able to force the French to halt their advance. In the Rhineland, the Australians were able to capture Ertfurt and Goettingen but were forced to retreat, after a series of battles in the south and heavy fighting in the mountains. Key to this was the Battle of Alsfield where a Rhenish, Dutch, Anglo force (8th army) was able to push the Austrians back.
==== British Invasion of Tripolitania (February 1938) ====
| |||