Rise of Australia

Chapter 421 The Status Quo of Russia and Air Combat

Unlike the laughter in Australasia, the situation in Russia can only be described in one word, which is miserable.

Miserable, very miserable, very miserable, terrible.

Ever since Grand Duke Nicholas was dismissed from the position of Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Army, there has been chaos in Russia. The army, the people, the government, and the royal family have become a mess.

Leaving aside the huge gap in capabilities between Grand Duke Nicholas and Nicholas II, the degree to which Nicholas II attached importance to the position of Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Army is doomed to the chaos Russia is currently facing.

Compared with Grand Duke Nicholas who wished to live in the staff department every day and had an attitude towards unified planning on the front line, Nicholas II seemed to be much more free and undisciplined, spending only one hour a day on military affairs.

This hour will determine the life and death of millions of Russian troops on the front line, coupled with the opinions from the queen and Rasputin, the Russian army cannot accept the unified plan from the staff at all, and the front-line army is currently in a state of chaos.

Without an order from the staff, the frontline troops simply don't know what to do next.

To launch an attack, the staff did not have any orders, and the commander-in-chiefs of the various armies did not dare to make decisions without authorization.

However, they retreated and defended, seeing that the logistical supplies from the rear were getting less and less. A considerable part of the various cans and grains originally from Australasia were replaced with miscellaneous grains and rye.

Weapons and equipment have also become various. The standard rifles sold by Australasia to Russia were replaced by various old shotguns in the logistics department, and then transported to the front-line troops.

In just one week after Nicholas II took office as the commander-in-chief of Russia, the corruption of the Russian logistics department has risen to a level.

What's more, in this week's time, there have been three plane crashes in Russia.

The root cause of the three plane crashes was that all three planes were missing some parts when they took off.

Yes, it is that rampant.The few advanced weapons of the Russians have been dismantled and secretly sold by officials of the Russian logistics department in collusion with other forces.

That's true for less than 20 aircraft in regular use, let alone ones sitting in storage awaiting new pilots.

The commanders of the front-line armies have sent telegrams to the staff for many times, and most of the weapons delivered are made in Russia, even old shotguns, rather than new equipment from Australasia.

But unfortunately, the only one hour Nicholas II had to deal with military affairs was not enough for him to see the doubts of the commanders of the various armies.

Most of these inquiry telegrams were handled by Rasputin. After obtaining bribes from some capitalists and logistics officials, Rasputin destroyed these telegrams as a matter of course.

What's even more outrageous is that some logistics officials sold Russian weapons and equipment to Germany, and they sold them at a low price.

If it weren't for the fact that the Russian army was unable to launch an offensive due to lack of weapons and equipment, they would have been able to find out through the seizure that the German army on the Eastern Front had been equipped with a small amount of weapons and equipment from Australasia, which were all supported by Australasia to Russia.

After the Russian plane went wrong, German planes began to dispatch aggressively, looking for and bombing the Russian troops hiding in the positions.

When the Russian aircraft had no problems before, the quality of the German aircraft was not as good as the Russian aircraft, and there was a big gap in combat effectiveness.

Often two German aircraft can contend with one Russian aircraft, and the final victory cannot be achieved.

But now, Russian pilots are in danger of dying. They may die in the hands of enemy pilots, and they are more likely to die in the hands of their own country's logistics officials and capitalists.

This has led to a very unique phenomenon in the Russian Air Force. Before performing a mission, the pilots will conduct a very detailed inspection of their aircraft, and they almost disassemble the entire aircraft and compare the parts one by one.

The end of October 1915, the Russian front.

"Colonel Sergey, when will our logistical supplies arrive?" Alekseyev, commander-in-chief of the Southwest Army, asked eagerly.

The Russian Southwestern Front has not received supplies from the rear for three days, and hundreds of thousands of troops are in desperate need of logistical supplies.

If the supplies do not arrive within three days, I am afraid that part of the army will need to go hungry, and it will even affect the entire Southwest Front Army.

"The logistics department replied that it should be delivered before the beginning of next month. There has been heavy rain near Minsk recently, which hindered the arrival of the logistics troops." The colonel named Sergey quickly replied.

"Damn it. Tell the logistics department that if the supplies haven't arrived within three days, let them bear the anger of the soldiers. If the black bread and miscellaneous grains are sent over again, I will go to St. Petersburg to inquire in person. The soldiers have been out for more than ten days." I haven't seen canned food from Australasia for a long time, and they need to eat meat to replenish their strength." Although there was a reason for the incident, this still could not calm Alekseyev's anger.

When Grand Duke Nicholas was the commander-in-chief, although Russia also had various logistical problems, at least the food for the soldiers could still be basically guaranteed.

Among other things, meat is often seen.Whether it is beef and mutton from Russia or canned food from Australasia, they can well supplement the physical strength of soldiers.

Since Nicholas II became the commander-in-chief, the logistics supplies of the Southwest Front Army have become less and less. From the lack of weapons, equipment and ammunition at the beginning, to the lack of even food now.

The food supplies that have been waiting so hard are also black bread and miscellaneous grains, some of which cannot even be chewed.

The starving Russian soldiers have begun to catch the rats in the trenches, which is not good news, although there are piles of rats in the trenches and a large number.

"Yes!" Colonel Sergey just nodded in response, when a shrill alarm suddenly sounded.

Woo~woo~
Alekseyev's face changed drastically immediately, and he quickly ordered: "Damn it, it's the German plane coming. Order the soldiers to go to the air-raid shelter quickly."

Before he finished speaking, Alekseyev ran directly to the air-raid shelter.In the recent period of time, the Russian army has already had experience in dealing with German aircraft. After hearing the air defense alarm, don't hesitate to run to the air-raid shelter immediately.

As one of the few senior generals in Russia, Alekseyev naturally regretted his life, and hurried to the sturdy air-raid shelter that was relatively close to the staff headquarters.

This is a solid air-raid shelter set up for the headquarters and staff, which is far stronger than the ordinary air-raid shelters on the trenches.

The headquarters of each group army often also build such air-raid shelters to shelter the commander-in-chief of the group army and the staff of the staff department.

Soon, German planes dropped bombs, exploding on the Russian trenches, as well as nearby positions.

Hearing the nearby explosion and vibration, Alekseyev ordered: "Contact the air force, send out fighter jets, and shoot down these damned Germans. Don't save machine gun bullets, use all firepower, let these damned Germans Know how good we are."

In theory, it is possible for current rifles and machine guns to hit aircraft.It is not without precedent that the Russian army used rifles and machine guns to shoot down German planes, which is why Alekseyev decided to fight back against German planes.

As the main attack direction of Germany before, more than a dozen Russian aircraft were all deployed in an area relatively close to the Southwest Military Headquarters, which also allowed Alexeyev to mobilize these aircraft urgently.

About half an hour later, the Russian plane arrived in a hurry.At this time, the bombing of the Russian military positions by German planes has basically ended, but facing the pursuit of Russian planes, because of the performance gap in the planes, they can only face the enemy head-on.

The number of aircraft in Germany is about 20, and the number of aircraft in Russia is only 15.

Although insufficient in numbers, the belated Russian aircraft soon gained the upper hand in the air battle.In a one-on-one or one-on-two situation, the Russian aircraft can basically take the upper hand, and even find opportunities to inflict heavy damage on the German aircraft.

In this era without radar, aircraft operations are also observed with the naked eye.There is no tracking method for various weapons, and it all depends on the performance of the aircraft and the ability of the pilot.

After all, the aircraft is a new weapon, and neither Germany nor Russia has studied it too deeply.German pilots are stronger than Russian pilots in terms of ability and quality. After all, Russian pilots were trained urgently, while German pilots have been trained for a long time.

However, the gap in the strength of the pilots is not too great, but it can be made up by the gap between the two aircrafts.

Although Russia has only the first generation of military aircraft in Australasia, the actual performance of the first generation of military aircraft has surpassed the aircraft in the middle of World War I in history.

In this world, due to the influence of the Australasian airship, the progress of developing aircraft in countries around the world is slower than in history.

In this way, the German aircraft and the Russian aircraft also showed a significant gap, which is enough to have a huge impact on air combat.

After all, in order to develop aircraft, Arthur has attracted more than one-third of the aerodynamics talents in the world.

In terms of aircraft research and development, Arthur can confidently say that there is currently no country that can go ahead of Australasia, or even have the qualifications to be compared.

Taking the current technical level of German aircraft as an example, if the Germans are given another 1 to 2 years, they may be able to reach or even exceed the technical level of the first generation of military aircraft.

But this war will not give the Germans such a long time. At least in World War I, it is not difficult for the first-generation military aircraft owned by Britain, France and Russia to maintain an advantage over German aircraft.

At present, the combat of aircraft is still very simple, basically relying on the machine guns equipped on the aircraft to fire, and the pilots do not have too difficult technical actions.

The air battle lasted for about half an hour and ended in a hurry.After the Germans lost half of their planes, the remaining planes fled in a hurry, and even two were shot down by the pursuing Russian planes.

On the Russian side, three planes were also shot down by the Germans, and more than five planes were damaged.

These damaged aircraft can be used in war again after simple repairs, provided that there are enough aircraft parts.

Although Russia has the technology of the first generation of military aircraft, and has also mastered the repair capabilities of the first generation of military aircraft.

However, judging from Russia's current status of these five aircraft, it is still relatively difficult for Russia to complete the repairs alone.

Even if parts are purchased from Australasia, the parts may not necessarily be used on these aircraft.

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(End of this chapter)