Chapter 400: Victory on the Eastern Front, Offensive on the Western Front

Although both the Central Powers and the Allied Powers have new allies, the Central Powers only attracted Turkey and Bulgaria, which seems a bit isolated and isolated, compared to the Allied Powers, which attracted a great power and several small and medium-sized countries.

As the only great power to join the war and a former member of the Allies, Italy's behavior of betraying the camp during the war is somewhat despicable, but the Italians do not think so.

The Italian government proudly announced that because the country and the people found a way to lose less in the war, they can gain more benefits than before.

But no matter what, since Italy joined the Allies, it is a member of the Allies and an ally of Australasia.

However, compared with countries like Australasia that joined the Allies early, Italy's position in the Allies is more embarrassing and is not at the decision-making level of the Allies.

Even Britain and France still used the name a year ago when promoting, that is, the four great powers of the Allies.

This also made the Italians determined to do something big and change the existing layout of the Allies, which was also to gain more benefits for themselves after the war.

With the help of Italy and other countries, the Allies' general offensive on the East and West Fronts has become even larger.

In the southern part of the Western Front, 500,000 Italian troops will join the battle to eliminate the threat of the German army and the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the southern region.

On the Eastern Front, Romania, Montenegro, Greece and other countries will send part of their troops to assist Serbia in resisting the attack of the Austro-Hungarian Empire while attacking Bulgaria.

With the help of these Balkan countries, a considerable part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire's troops can be attracted to Serbia.

This will also greatly reduce the number of Austro-Hungarian troops faced by the Russian army on the Eastern Front. The Russian army can safely deal with the Germans without worrying that their retreat will be attacked by the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

The first to launch the attack was Russia. After learning that Russia was willing to launch a large-scale offensive, Britain and France generously fulfilled their unpromising promises, supporting Russia with a large number of weapons and equipment and strategic materials, and also exempted Russia from part of its loans.

In addition, the materials transported from Australasia were also transported from Vladivostok to the front line. After obtaining sufficient weapons and strategic materials, the Russian General Staff also had the confidence to launch a large-scale offensive to advance the battlefield on the Eastern Front.

On May 2, 1915, after all the materials were mobilized to the front line, the Russian General Staff officially ordered the start of the next round of large-scale battles.

First, Grand Duke Nicholas transferred the Second Army of the Northwest from the Narew River and the Neman River to Warsaw, and the Fourth, Fifth and Ninth Armies of the Southwest from the San River to the Warsaw to Sandomierz section.

After defeating the Austro-Hungarian Empire in Galicia, the next goal of the Russians was obvious, which was to invade southeastern Germany and recover the Polish area occupied by Germany.

In order to solve the danger from hundreds of thousands of Russian troops, Germany also formulated corresponding combat plans, such as launching assaults on Warsaw and Ivangorod from the two regions of Krakow and Czestochowa, trying to defeat the northern wing of the Russian Southwestern Front and bypass the rear of the Russian army.

Germany mobilized the newly formed Ninth Army and the First Army of Austria-Hungary, totaling more than 310,000 people, to implement this plan.

On the Russian side, the southwest and the garrison in the Warsaw area totaled more than 500,000 people, which had a clear advantage in numbers.

On May 3, 1915, the Fourth and Ninth Armies of Russia successfully encountered the First Army of Austria-Hungary and the Ninth Army of Germany near the mouths of the Vistula River and the San River.

The enemies were extremely jealous when they met, and the four armies immediately started a large-scale exchange of fire. The sound of gunfire rang throughout the whole day, and there was no sign of stopping.

Because of the disadvantage of geographical location, the Austro-Hungarian and German armies wanted to forcefully cross the Vistula River and the San River, but they were all repelled by the powerful firepower of the Russian army.

In order to change their decline, the German army decided to change the original plan and send the 17th and 20th Armies and the Mixed Army to form an army cluster, directly bypassing the Fourth and Ninth Armies of the Russian Army and forcibly seizing Warsaw.

According to the geographical location, as long as Warsaw was occupied, these Russian troops would be cut off from retreat.

The next day, May 4, this newly reorganized army group successfully arrived in Warsaw and launched an attack.

The Russian side received news that the Fourth and Fifth Armies began to forcefully cross the Vistula River and retreat.

On the other hand, the Russian Second Army arrived west of Warsaw to guard the flanks of the Warsaw defenders.

From May 5 to May 7, the Russian army and the German and Austro-Hungarian armies launched a fierce attack. The death toll on both sides reached tens of thousands every day, and the number of casualties started in the tens of thousands.

On May 8, the German army, which suffered heavy losses, evacuated the Warsaw area, and the Russian army successfully defended Warsaw.

This is not over yet. Under the order of Grand Duke Nicholas, the Russian army opened a new landing site in Ivangorod, which was also the second battlefield on the Eastern Front.

The opening of this new front instantly weakened the offensive of the German army. The German army could not fail to guard its flanks, which distracted the German army on the front and had to split its troops to its flanks.

As the German offensive weakened, the Russian army took over the offensive and switched from defense to offense, launching a fierce attack on the German army from Singogievsk, Warsaw, Ivangorod, and Sandomierz.

At this time, the German army was exhausted and had lost contact with the Austro-Hungarian First Army after retreating repeatedly.

The First Army of the Austro-Hungarian Empire wanted to support the German army in the war, but it mistakenly entered the encirclement of the Russian army, and finally suffered heavy losses, and the entire army was defeated.

To borrow Ludendorff's words: "The order to retreat on the 11th, but this retreat was completely involuntarily. Our situation is already very critical. Now it seems that the Russian army is about to invade Poznan, Silesia and Moravia."

In fact, Ludendorff's judgment was very correct. After the initial success of the battle, the German army rushed to attack westward and southwestward, with the purpose of occupying Silesia, and then entering the hinterland of Germany from Silesia, cooperating with the four-nation coalition on the Western Front, and ending the war as soon as possible.

The Russians were very ambitious. After the initial victory of this battle, Russia even had a plan to attack Berlin to end the war.

If it weren't for Grand Duke Nicholas's excuse to cooperate with the Western Front Army and not blindly advance and delay, I'm afraid Nicholas II would really have to make a plan for the army to attack with all its strength and conquer Berlin.

Although the German army's offensives on the Western and Eastern Fronts failed repeatedly, no one dared to guarantee that Berlin could be conquered at this time, and the German army still had the strength to fight.

This battle on the Eastern Front was named the Warsaw-Ivangorod Battle because the battle was fought near these two regions.

This battle played a vital role in the Eastern Front. Russia dispatched up to 800,000 troops (including the garrisons in Warsaw and other regions) and won a hearty victory against the German and Austrian troops of more than 300,000.

Although the Russian side suffered nearly 100,000 casualties, judging from the results of this battle, these 100,000 casualties were worth it.

More importantly, after this battle, the German army experienced a disastrous defeat on the Eastern and Western Fronts respectively, which not only broke the myth of the highest combat effectiveness of the German army, but also made many countries including Russia see the hope of directly defeating Germany. The experience also made some forces in Germany lose confidence, and the Germans' enthusiasm for war seemed not so high.

Shortly after the Russians launched the campaign, the battles on the Western Front were also launched one after another.

The Australasian Army was divided into two parts. The 2nd Guards Division and the 3rd Regular Division acted independently. Britain and France mobilized two more divisions to form a mixed army, which was commanded by Division Commander Martin to protect the flank of the French Army.

The 400,000-strong indigenous army was mobilized to the front battlefield to serve as cannon fodder for the Allied forces' attack.

The indigenous army was indeed used in this way. Martin, the commander-in-chief of the expeditionary force, had no complaints about such a plan. After all, Britain and France also mobilized two main divisions.

On May 7, 1915, with an order from the French General Headquarters, the Western Front Campaign was launched in full swing.

The first action was the central line, where the Australasian Expeditionary Force was also here. On the afternoon of May 7, the two French armies and the Australasian Expeditionary Force, with a total of nearly 850,000 combat troops (400,000 main forces and 450,000 indigenous troops), marched towards Alsace and Lorraine, firing the second shot to recover the lost territory.

Then on the next day, a French army group, a British expeditionary force with a total of nearly 500,000 troops, and the remaining Belgian army of about 80,000 troops set out from northern France in a mighty manner, with the goal of recovering the French border and some Belgian fortresses.

The battle in the southern region was the last to be fought, where France only dispatched one army group to cover the Italian army.

The Italian army dispatched a full 500,000 troops to launch a fierce offensive against the Austro-Hungarian Empire and conquer the disputed areas between the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Italy.

The scale of the battle on the Western Front was even larger than that on the Eastern Front. On the Allied side alone, the total number of troops participating in the battle was nearly two million.

If the German army is included, there were more than 3 million people fighting desperately on the Western Front alone.

In order to deal with this offensive, Germany can be said to have taken out all its old capital, including various Krupp cannons, airships produced by Zeppelin, aircraft with no actual combat performance, and even cars and trucks with simple additions of some steel plates. Whatever is useful is sent to the battlefield, which is the current situation in Germany.

In order to deal with the German airships, the Allies also took out their own airships that had been gathering dust for half a year.

In fact, when the war just broke out, various countries used airships with great interest, but soon found that the actual combat significance of this kind of airship was not great, because the enemy also had airships, and when the two airships met, they were basically both injured.

Because they could not create a technological lead over the enemy in terms of airships, it was difficult for the British and French airships to perform combat missions after meeting the German airships.

The current airships are too fragile and will basically crash if hit by enemy weapons. After dozens of airship operators were killed and injured, European countries generally chose to hide their airships, either directly put them in warehouses to gather dust, or transport supplies in the rear, occasionally conduct reconnaissance and intelligence, etc.

Because of this battle, airships were able to re-participate in the war, and they were the kind that the whole army was dispatched.

The total number of airships in Britain, France, Australasia and Italy has reached nearly 300, far ahead of the 100 airships owned by Germany.

In addition to the small number of aircraft of relatively backward models in each country, it is now possible to frequently see flying objects, large or small, in the sky on the battlefields of the Western Front of World War I, demonstrating the technological progress brought about by the war.

It has to be admitted that war is the fastest period for the development of science and technology. According to Arthur's understanding, Britain and France have improved the current airships and are about to develop a new generation of airships and put them into production.

In terms of aircraft, Britain and France have also re-emphasized it and are already jointly researching military aircraft.

Although it is unknown how Germany is progressing, referring to the black technology that Germany frequently brought out in World War I in history, Germany's progress in researching airships and aircraft will not be slow.

Conservatively estimated, Australasia's aircraft should be able to be put into battle soon. After countries have re-emphasized aircraft, Australasia will no longer need to hide its own aircraft.

Even if Australasia continues to hide, it will not stop the progress of Britain, France and Germany in developing aircraft.

Instead of doing this, it is better to let the aircraft appear in advance and gain a certain advantage in the war.

Then sell a large number of aircraft that are obviously outdated, earn a lot of profits from Britain and France, and provide more power for Australasia's aircraft research.

As for whether Britain, France and Germany will achieve a curve overtaking in aircraft research and catch up with Australasia's aircraft research progress.

At least in the next ten years, this situation will not appear. Arthur has been planning for aircraft for several years, even for ten years. Australasia has already attracted more than one-third of the world's aviation power, airship and aircraft manufacturing talents.

Unless Britain and France can work together, there may be hope to catch up with Australasia's aircraft development speed in a short time.

But judging from some contradictions between Britain and France in the distribution of interests, the relationship between Britain and France will not be so close after the war, and some contradictions will arise.

However, after the end of World War I, Britain and France were in a weak period, and the possibility of a large-scale conflict between Britain and France was almost zero.

With the maintenance of Australasia, interest organizations such as the Allies should be able to be maintained until before World War II. Australasia, which is in the Allies, can also rely on the advantages brought by the Allies to obtain more international status and interests.

Apart from other things, the United States after World War I may not have a higher international status than Australasia. On the one hand, Britain and France are wary and defensive, and on the other hand, the United States is not a member of the Allies. Facing a behemoth like the Allies, the United States alone seems a bit weak.

The first update of 4000 words, please vote for me and support me!