Iron Cross Fire

At noon that day, 30 kilometers west of Przemyśl, the first artillery fire sounded.

The Austrian 19th Army took the lead in launching an attack: three damaged selected divisions merged into one, piercing the enemy's weak defense line with a sword-like posture; while the filling divisions flanked the Russian army from both wings.

This time the Russian army learned their lesson. In order to prevent being outflanked, they simply retreated directly.

But this also completely exposed their weaknesses, and Kuster ordered the front-line troops to increase their offensive efforts.

Soon, the Russian army's still disciplined retreat turned into an unorganized retreat, and the Russian front was torn into several pieces.

"The Russian front is just like their weathered face, full of cracks that cannot stop the strong wind."

An officer under Kuster commented.

The reserve divisions that had been prepared for a long time penetrated into various gaps to seize opportunities.

Sadly, the Russian army's retreat speed was not as fast as the Austro-Hungarian advance.

But it's not their fault, this was Austria-Hungary's territory before; the Russians were not able to apply the Russian system to Austria-Hungary's transportation in just two months.

As the reserve division marched deeper, the Russian defense collapsed and their retreat became more chaotic.

About half an hour later, the first surrendered Russian army appeared, a total of 8,000 of them surrendered to Kuster's iron hoof.

Soon, almost all the Russian troops in this area surrendered - a total of 34,000 people.

At this moment, the entire southern defense line of the San River has collapsed, and the Russian Third Army has also lost a large number of troops. Currently, only 130,000 people can defend.

However, the then Russian Army Commander was unwilling to give up the rest of the San River defense line, but only filled the gap in the south with more reserves.

Ivanov believed that although the south was broken through, once they gave up the entire San River defense line, they would be forced to retreat continuously.

In addition, the quality of Russian soldiers was not good, and they could be defeated at any time.

So they might as well hold the line, so that at least there will not be too much threat in the west, and then wait for assistance from the Russian rear, so that Kuster can have a taste of the steamroller.

But his wishful thinking is good, but it does not mean success.

Kuster hopes that there will be no change in the main force of the Russian army, so that he can expand the results and eventually surround the entire Russian Third Army.

But if they want to break through, they need to face a stronger opponent-the Russian Eighth Army led by General Brusilov.

In the Battle of Galicia, this army defeated the Austrian Second Army on the flank. Austria-Hungary, which originally extended the front line to Galich, was beaten back to Lemberg overnight.

Now, this army is digesting the fruits of its labor-Przemysl Fortress.

This is an extremely strong fortress. In history, it was surrounded by Russia on September 21, 1914; it held on until March 22, 1915, which shows the bravery and fearlessness of the defenders in the city.

But Kust still did not dare to neglect it, fearing that an abrupt action would anger it, which would lead to Przemyśl being captured by it all at once.

And now the Austrian 19th Army suffered too much loss, with only 50,000 of the original 70,000 elite troops left, and the bones of those dead Austro-Hungarian soldiers had long been buried in the west.

So Kust did not intend to find fault with the Russian Eighth Army, but instead concentrated on finding a way to besiege the Russian Third Army. The work of filling the line was given to the Austrian Third Army.

Kust continued to march north, and the two Russian divisions on the path were also defeated.

Soon, the flank defense and reserve of the Russian Third Army were defeated by Kust; at this moment, their rear was completely leaked to Kust.

"March to the north bank of the river!" Kust shouted in the command post.

His order, like his army, had a thunderous momentum and was unstoppable.

Only half a day later, on December 23, the Russian Third Army's retreat was completely cut off, and they were separated from the Russian headquarters by a distance of 500 meters.

It can be said that as long as the Russians dared to launch a counterattack, the Third Army could be rescued. A mere 500 meters of road can be dug out countless times on the map.

But they did not do so. These Russians were stunned by Kust and huddled in the trenches and dared not show themselves; they had never seen the Austro-Hungarian army attack so fiercely, and thought it was the magic soldiers sent by God.

Perhaps they did not know that these so-called "magic soldiers" had only received a few days of training; they had touched a gun and fired once before going to the battlefield, and had no combat experience at all.

General Ivanov, who was in the encirclement, angrily questioned Brusilov why he did not help them, and then found that the person he was talking to was actually Kust of Austria-Hungary, and he was so scared that he quickly hung up the phone.

Yes, as early as when their retreat was cut off, Kust had people cut off the Russian army's telephone line-he has always attached great importance to the control of intelligence.

During his inspection, he suddenly encountered a group of Austro-Hungarian soldiers escorting a Russian operator, asking him which telephone line was at the army level; out of a sense of fun, he replaced the cut part with his own army's telephone line.

As for what Brusilov was doing further east, ha! He didn't know that Kuster had already broken through Ivanov's defense line, and he didn't know that Ivanov had been surrounded.

It was not until December 24 that Kuster made the intelligence public, and attached some black material about Russian officers that he had overheard.

When all the countries learned about this, they were shocked. They didn't believe that a small army commander could lead a local battle and encircle the Russian army, which had several times their strength.

Soon, almost everyone in Europe knew about Kuster.

Especially in Austria-Hungary, the Habsburg dynasty deified him and even called him "omnipotent"; Germany also called him "a rare solid and reliable ally".

But as the saying goes: the lower you stand, the more you rise; the higher you stand, the worse you fall.

Because of this high praise, Kuster had to be more careful in his future actions, otherwise a mistake would ruin all his reputation and future.

Return to the battlefield. Because Kuster's successful actions inspired all the Austro-Hungarian troops.

The Austrian First Army and the Fourth Army joined the battle one after another, which suddenly increased the number of Austro-Hungarians to 700,000.

Of course, most of them went to pick up the leaks-eat the besieged Russian Third Army.

This forced Kuster to let the already severely damaged 19th Army defend the Russians in the east again to prevent them from successfully sieging friendly forces.

But he was not alone, and Borojevich's army was also defending with him.

But Kuster felt uneasy: he felt that what he had done before was just the prelude to the battle, and the next group army battle was the real core.

Warm reminder: The website is about to be revised, which may cause the reading progress to be lost. Please save the "bookshelf" and "reading record" in time (it is recommended to take a screenshot to save), and we apologize for the inconvenience caused to you!