Rise of Australia

Chapter 415 Central Breakthrough
After the failure of the attempt to outflank the two wings, Falkenhayn, the German chief of staff, quickly proposed another plan, which was to concentrate forces on the enemy's weak areas to carry out a frontal breakthrough. This tactic was also named the central breakthrough.

The tactic of outflanking the two wings was proposed by Hindenburg and Ludendorff. After the failure of the encirclement plan, Hindenburg and Ludendorff also had to obey the command of Falkenhayn, and the East Prussian army and the Austro-German coalition began to implement a central breakthrough. .

After a series of complicated comparisons and judgments, the German General Staff finally selected the core location for the breakthrough in the Goerlitze area in the upper reaches of the Vistula River.

The Vistula River is a river originating in Hungary, passing through Warsaw to the north and dividing most of East Prussia.

The real reason for the implementation of breakthrough tactics in this area is that most of the Russian Army Group in this area has been wiped out, and the newly transferred Russian troops are all recruits, resulting in a relatively weak defensive force in this area.

More importantly, the two new Russian armies here, because of the previous battle in the Carpathian Mountains, caused one army to be transferred away, and the Russian military strength has been greatly reduced.

In addition to the advantages of military strength, the terrain here is also very favorable for the German army.

Because it is not a narrow terrain, the advantages of the German military superiority can be brought into play.In addition, the Vistula Valley in the north and the Beskid Mountains in the south restricted the support of the Russian army, ensuring the safety of the two wings of the group responsible for the assault, allowing the German army to drive straight in without worrying about flanks and backs being attacked.

The German High Command, including Chief of the General Staff Falkenhayn, was very confident in the central breakthrough plan.

Although the current situation facing the Allies is very bad, the Germans still believe in the combat effectiveness of their own army, and Falkenhayn still believes that the heroic German army can solve any threat at any time.

According to Falkenhayn's plan, if the central breakthrough can be achieved smoothly, it will completely eliminate Russia's threat to Hungary and change the current bad situation facing the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

In this way, the Austro-Hungarian Empire only needs to send a small number of troops, and can hold Italy in the west, the Balkan countries in the south and Russia in the east.

The remaining main force can cooperate with Germany to fight together. It is a good choice to either eliminate Russia or go south to eliminate the Balkan countries.

The assault force designated by Falkenhayn was the German 11th Army, and the commander-in-chief was General Mackensen.

In order to facilitate the unified command and prevent any accidents after the start of the campaign, Falkenhayn did not set up a new main attack force, but transferred the 10th Army and 41st Guards Army, the baseline troops, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire to send coordinated operations. The 6th Army was fully incorporated into the 11th Army, under the unified command of General Mackensen, and the rest of the army was responsible for containment and cover for the main attacking force.

The Russian Third Army is stationed in the breakthrough area. This army has seven cavalry divisions, but most of them are recruits just added.

Even if only comparing the German 11th Army and the Russian 3rd Army, the German army has sufficient strength advantages.

After various integrations, the 11th Army has more than 36 German-Austrian allied forces, more than 1200 small and medium-caliber artillery, more than 300 large-caliber artillery, and 100 mortars.

As for the Russian army, although it also has 22 soldiers, most of them are recruits.It also has disadvantages in terms of artillery, with only nearly 700 small and medium-caliber artillery, and single-digit large-caliber artillery.

The Russian Third Army is dominated by cavalry divisions, so it is not equipped with large-caliber artillery, which also creates a more obvious gap in the comparison of forces between Germany and Russia.

In order to conceal the central breakthrough tactics, the Germans even prepared a feint attack on the Western Front to attract the attention of the entire Allied Powers.

In addition, at the end of July, a considerable part of the Allies' attention was on the Ottoman Empire, and even Russia sent some troops to the Caucasus region. This also made the Germans think that a good time to launch a new campaign had arrived.

It is worth mentioning that the Germans used poison gas for the first time in a feint attack on the Western Front.

This also caused many casualties to the British and French coalition forces on the western front. These poisonous gases can not only suffocate, poison and kill people, but also cause temporary or long-term blindness and loss of combat ability.

When the Germans used poison gas, they all wore relatively advanced gas masks.On the side of the British and French allied forces, it was either a simple two-layer cloth covering the mouth and nose, or a more complicated gas mask, which easily suffocated the soldiers.

In terms of poison gas and gas masks, the Germans are leading in research.Australasia has little research on poison gas, but research on gas masks has made considerable progress.

Most of the current German gas mask technology also uses activated carbon for adsorption to eliminate some poisonous gases in the air.

The Australasian gas mask also uses this principle, and it still has a pretty good effect on the protection of poisonous gas.

Because of this, Britain and France urgently purchased a batch of gas masks from Australasia. Even Russia, which has not yet been poisoned, is also urgently purchasing gas masks from Australasia.

At the same time, Britain and France are also urgently studying the use of gas bombs, preparing for a new round of retaliation against the German army.

When the attention of Britain, France and Russia was drawn to the poison gas used by Germany on the Western Front, on the last day of July, Germany launched the Central Breakthrough Plan on the Eastern Front.

In order to ensure the smooth implementation of the plan, except for a small number of group army commanders and army commanders, in the real central breakthrough plan, even some important division commanders don't know where their troops are really going, so they can only follow the temporary instructions of their superiors. Order.

While the real main force launched an assault, some Russian troops also carried out a feint attack in the northern region, attracting the attention of some Russian troops.

This successfully paralyzed the Russians, who were unprepared for the imminent German offensive.

When Ivanov, the commander-in-chief of the Southwest Front Army, found out that something was wrong, although he ordered to strengthen the defense along the Vistula River, it was already a little late.

Along the Vistula River in summer, the trees are green, the grass is lush, the temperature is not too hot, and the scenery is very beautiful.

However, with the roar and indiscriminate bombing of more than 1000 artillery pieces of the German army, the short-term tranquility of this area disappeared again, and the flames of war enveloped the entire land.

The bright light from the explosion of the artillery shells illuminates the destroyed Russian positions and the panicked Russian soldiers fleeing in all directions.

As soon as the artillery of the Russian army wanted to fight back, it faced the artillery suppression of the German army.Faced with such a situation, the artillery positions of the Russian army either remained silent during the war or were destroyed by German artillery.

Although Russia has received some aid at this time, it is actually not that much allocated to each division of the front-line Russian army.

On average, each German artillery can be allocated hundreds of shells per day, but the number of shells that a Russian artillery can fire per day will basically not exceed ten.

In terms of artillery, there is already a quantitative gap, and the number of artillery shells has fallen into a disadvantage. The Russian army lacks artillery assistance, and it also causes the Russian army to have almost no room to fight back under the attack of the German army.

Throughout World War I, the most effective defensive weapons were heavy machine guns and artillery.But for the Russian army, machine gun bullets and shells are the easiest to consume and the most precious.

The German bombing lasted for several hours, and only the first half hour did the Russian artillery respond a little.

For the remaining hours, the Russian defensive positions were under heavy bombardment by German artillery, and occasionally fireworks bloomed on the ground, illuminating the wailing and pain of the Russian soldiers.

It's not over yet.After several hours of bombing, the German planes appeared next.

These Russian recruits had been illiterate peasants a year before.They were shocked by the iron birds that spewed death flint above their heads, like the pets of the god of death, which damaged the morale of a large number of Russian soldiers. When they saw the German planes, they buried their heads in the trenches, for fear that the god of death would catch them .

Although it has been several years since the airship was born and became popular, Russia also has the first batch of aircraft.

The problem is, neither airships nor planes are too far away for the average Russian peasant.

They have no chance to travel in the sky in an airship, and they have never seen a plane that Russia has not yet trained pilots. It is only natural that they are full of awe for these things that can fly freely in the sky.

Among the major powers, the capital of Russia, St. Petersburg, is the capital of the major powers with the fewest flights around the world.

This is not only because St. Petersburg is located in the snowy northern Europe, but also because St. Petersburg is too far away from the mainstream trade routes of various countries.

London and Paris are the most popular circumnavigation stops in Europe, followed by Berlin and Rome, followed by Vienna.

The number of German aircraft is not many, and there are only a little over 100 at full count.And these planes are relatively rudimentary, and the main attack method is a machine gun mounted on the plane.

However, although the aircraft did not cause a large number of casualties to the Russian army, it caused a serious psychological burden on the Russian army.

Many Russian soldiers even developed a mentality of war weariness and fear of war. If the Russian commander hadn't urgently dealt with several deserters who wanted to escape from the battlefield, the Russian army might collapse.

On August 8, the German-Austrian coalition forces began to formally implement the breakthrough.At the forefront was a German cavalry division. They brandished sharp sabers and had already accepted the gifts from the Russian soldiers when they just put their heads out of the position.

Under the combined punches of the German army, the Russian Third Army quickly fell apart, and the military law and supervisory teams could no longer control them.

The Russian army fled in such a chaotic manner. Some Russian soldiers who rushed to escape abandoned almost all their equipment in order to reduce their burden.

When Ivanov, commander-in-chief of the Southwestern Army, learned of the defeat of the Third Army on August 8, the German army had already occupied favorable terrain in this area.

Ivanov moved very quickly. He immediately ordered the Russian troops on both sides of the Gollitzer area to drive the German army back to the west of the Vistula River at all costs and hold the area.

Under Ivanov's order, a large number of unprepared Russian troops rushed to the front and launched a suicide-like cluster charge against the Germans.

You know, this German 11th Army is not only equipped with a large number of artillery, but also hundreds of heavy machine guns, and forbidden weapons such as poisonous gas.

The group charge launched by the Russians, to put it bluntly, is a group of people standing together and charging. Under the dense machine gun firepower and artillery bombardment of the German army, this is tantamount to letting the Russian army line up to die.

In just two days, the breakthrough of the German army in the Gollitzer area not only did not shrink, but became bigger and bigger.

Even if the Russian army lay full of dead bodies on the Vistula River and the Beskid Mountains, it could not stop the German army from advancing.

The already flushed Vistula River proved the cruelty of the battle, which also prevented the residents around the river from eating fish for a long time.

Speaking of the German gas bombs, there was a shocking episode in this charge.

After the last time gas bombs were deployed on the Western Front, which caused heavy losses to the British and French allied forces, the Germans quickly decided to also deploy gas bombs on the Eastern Front to make the Russians suffer.

The poisonous gas used by the Germans at this time was asphyxiating chlorine gas, which was three times heavier than ordinary air.

When releasing poisonous gas, a special team is required to measure the wind direction.When the wind strength and direction are suitable, the cylinder cover containing the poisonous gas is opened, and clusters of yellow-green smoke are entangled, floating above the ground, and being blown forward by the breeze.

However, this poison gas release force obviously did not consider the sudden change of wind direction, which caused the poison gas that was originally rolling forward to be blown back to the German position by the sudden change of wind direction.

After the poisonous gas entered the trenches against the ground, it quickly spread across the German positions, causing many unprepared German soldiers to suffocate to death.

According to the secret statistics of the Germans, the gas accident, which resulted in the death of hundreds of German soldiers, was an extremely serious accident.

In order not to affect the morale of the army, and to prevent the army and the public from doubting the safety of such taboo weapons, the German staff chose to keep it strictly confidential.

The real events in this history were not revealed until many years after the end of the First World War.

Of course, this accident did not affect the large-scale use of poison gas by the German army.

The day after the accident, the German army resumed the use of poison gas on the Eastern Front, causing the Russian army to suffer.

Coupled with the dense firepower network of the German army, the Russian army that filled the gap suffered more than [-] casualties within two days, and the Russian army's southwest front was very small.

It is worth mentioning that the Germans used poison gas so much that the price of gas masks soared.

While Britain, France and Russia purchased gas masks from Australasia, they also began to develop their own gas masks.

At present, the market price of gas masks has doubled, but the purchase orders from Britain and France are still in short supply.

　It’s just four thousand words today, I’m not feeling well, so let’s take a break.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)