As time entered October 1936, something terrible still happened: Paris, the capital of France, officially fell.
However, there was also good news: France had truly escaped its historical disgrace and was no longer the laughingstock that surrendered before Paris was even breached.
Of course, to break through Paris, the Germans had paid a devastating price.
The four countries of Britain, France, Australasia, and Germany had gathered more than four million troops around Paris. After a complete battle for the city, the four countries had suffered losses exceeding half their forces. Only nearly one million Anglo-French-Australasian troops had retreated south toward Orléans.
As the attacking side, Germany had suffered even worse losses. More than 800,000 soldiers had been killed, leaving the army in a state where almost everyone was wounded.
The four countries had deployed more than 5,000 aircraft around Paris. Over 1,500 had been shot down, while more than 2,000 others had been damaged.
Although the fighting around Paris had stopped, the wreckage and ruins caused by the war were almost everywhere. The smoke of battle had turned the once-prosperous metropolis into a living hell.
How terrible was it? The casualty reports submitted by the units were only rough estimates. In this war, it was simply impossible to calculate the exact number of casualties.
Every so often, large numbers of soldiers fell along the paths of attack or defense. The casualty figures kept fluctuating.
Only after retreating to the area around Orléans did Australasia conduct a count of its forces. Of the nearly 800,000 combat troops it had started with, only around 300,000 had successfully withdrawn.
Among them, 150,000 were Australasia's own troops, while the remaining 150,000 belonged to the Philippines and Borneo Army.
This meant that in the battle to defend Paris, Australasia alone had lost nearly 500,000 troops—a