The Rise of Australasia

Apart from the rifles, colonial divisions had very few heavy weapons. Each colonial division was only equipped with a few machine guns and about ten artillery pieces, and their heavy firepower was rather symbolic.

Compared to the lavishly equipped regular troops and guard divisions, the colonial divisions seemed poorly equipped.

However, after all, they were the cannon fodder to be used by Arthur, and being able to equip some machine guns and artillery was quite impressive.

In terms of training, the colonial divisions had a substantial gap compared to regular troops.

The most important training for colonial divisions was discipline and English language training.

This was to facilitate better communication with Europeans after these soldiers arrived in Europe and to allow them to better follow the commands of the Australasian officers.

As for shooting practice, although the colonial divisions had it too, it was not as frequent as regular troops.

Generally, these native soldiers could have shooting practice every five days, each consuming about ten bullets per person, averaging two bullets per person per day.

This meant that the 300,000 native soldiers consumed as many as 600,000 bullets per day, testing the production capacity of the Royal Military Factory.

However, this consumption proved effective. At least the marksmanship of these indigenous soldiers had improved significantly since they joined the army.

Of course, the Ministry of Defense didn't expect these native soldiers' marksmanship to be very good. As from the once-every-five-days shooting practice, the Ministry's requirement was merely for these native soldiers to master the use of firearms proficiently enough to know how to operate a gun on the battlefield.

For once they arrived on European battlefields, the consumption of these native soldiers would be mainly provided by the British Empire.

As for whether these native soldiers would waste a lot of bullets, it would depend on the logistical capabilities of the British Empire and the speed of production in their factories.

While the colonial divisions underwent extensive training, the regular forces of Australasia, including two guard divisions and three regular divisions, continued their training as well.

This resulted in a massive figure of daily consumption for the soldiers of Australasia in present times.

Currently, ordinary soldiers consume about twenty bullets per shooting session, which means a total consumption of 1.6 million bullets for them in each session.

This figure doesn't include the consumption of the colonial divisions, or else it would be even higher.

Of course, regular troops wouldn't have shooting practice every day, as they had many other types of training to participate in. But in theory, regular soldiers would have shooting practice at least three times a week.

By this calculation, the annual bullet consumption of all Australasian forces is nearly 100 million.

If not for Arthur's early preparation for the upcoming World War, ordering the Royal Military Factory to expand madly and increase the production speed of weapons and equipment, the consumption of Australasia alone would be enough to make the factory suffer.

The current Royal Military Factory is one of the largest enterprises in Australasia.

It has a total of 17,000 employees, a main factory, and two subsidiary factories.

With the combined capacity of the three factories, the Royal Military Factory can produce 500 Lee-Enfield rifles, 200 Gew98 rifles, 90 various artillery pieces, 30 heavy machine guns, 110 submachine guns, and 400 hand grenades a day.

As for ammunition, the factory can produce 500,000 rifle bullets, 150,000 machine gun bullets, and 8,700 artillery shells daily.

If they could concentrate their efforts on producing certain types of weapons or ammunition, the output of that category could increase several times, but the downside would be a decrease in the output of other types of weapons and ammunition.

However, the good news is that the production capacity of the Royal Military Factory is still increasing, and it grows every few months.

Moreover, apart from the Royal Military Factory, various civilian military factories in Australasia, including those invested in by the government and the royal financial group, can also produce over 100 rifles and more than 100,000 pieces of ammunition daily.

A developed military industry is the confidence that allows Australasia to participate in World War I and for Arthur to be confident in earning enough benefits during the war.

Keep in mind that during World War I, countries around the world were in dire need of weapons, ammunition, and supplies.

In the war, the problems caused by the shortage of weapons and ammunition made these countries suffer tremendously.

Particularly, Australasia's current ally, Russia, was one of the countries most affected by the shortage of weapons, ammunition, and supplies.

In 1915 alone, Russia ordered 3 million rifles, 20 billion bullets, and 12 million shells from the Allies and various neutral countries, but only 8-15% of these munitions actually arrived.

This also implied that the market for armaments during World War I was enormous. Being able to obtain a share of this market depended not only on a country's strength but also on the development of its military industry.

Thanks to Arthur's foresight and preparations, it wouldn't be difficult for the Royal Military Factory and Australasia's military industry to secure enough orders for weapons during World War I.

As a result, under Arthur's urging, the Royal Military Factory has begun to stockpile weapons and equipment madly, including various weapons and ammunition.

According to Arthur's understanding, the Royal Military Factory has currently stockpiled over 500,000 various rifles, 2.5 billion bullets, 1,200 machine guns, 750 artillery pieces, 67 million machine gun bullets, 1.1 million shells, and 209,000 hand grenades, with the numbers still growing.

If not for concerns about damaging Australasia's normal development, Arthur would even consider expanding the Royal Military Factory and other military factories madly, massively laying production lines for various weapons and ammunition.

At least during World War I, weapons and ammunition sold themselves. The more weapons and ammunition produced, the more funds and benefits to be gained.

As one of the Allies, Australasia could sell weapons and ammunition to Britain, France, and Russia, earning the goodwill of all three nations, so why not?

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