As the international situation churned, the struggle between France and Austria over Egypt was also drawing to a close. Facts had once again proved that in modern warfare, victory could no longer be won by numbers alone.
Looking at the ever-growing pile of telegrams requesting aid on his desk, Governor Jacob had begun to despair. Reinforcements were impossible. Since the ports had fallen, the French forces in Egypt could rely only on themselves.
Governor Jacob had originally planned to use the troops at his disposal to entangle the Austrian army for a year or more, buying time for the decisive battle in Europe. Now, however, before even a month had passed, the situation was already beyond saving.
There was no helping it. From the moment Austria's armored units entered the fray, every one of Governor Jacob's strategic plans had been shattered.
Faced with this unfamiliar enemy, Jacob was utterly dumbfounded. The fortress works that the French army in Egypt had painstakingly built were completely unable to withstand the torrent of steel.
They had originally been built only to block enemy infantry attacks, but now the enemy they faced consisted of aircraft and airships in the sky, armored tanks on the ground, while the infantry merely served as support for these iron monsters.
There was nothing to be said. Flesh and blood could not stand against a torrent of steel. Every field encounter ended in tragedy for the French army. Of the original force of more than eight hundred thousand men, they had now been battered into scattered fragments.
Even after gathering up the routed troops, Governor Jacob did not dare order the army to concentrate, because concentrating them would only make the French army lose faster.
To delay for as long as possible, Governor Jacob was forced to order his