Chapter 416: The Southwest Army Is Defeat

As the situation on the southwest front of Russia deteriorated, the defeat of the Third Army also posed a serious threat to the flanks of the nearby Fourth and Eighth Armies.

In order to ensure the safety of their flanks, the Fourth and Eighth Armies of Russia had to follow the speed of the Third Army's retreat and evacuate to the rear.

The Fourth and Eighth Armies were fine, after all, they evacuated in an orderly manner. But in order to speed up the retreat, the Third Army, which was close to collapse, threw away its armor and weapons along the way, leaving all the artillery, heavy machine guns and some shells, ammunition and supplies that were not easy to carry and transfer on the front-line positions and on the road of retreat.

If it were not for the danger of the river from the San River to the Dniester River, I am afraid that the German army would have advanced all the way and occupied the entire Polish region.

On August 7, the Russian army, which had rested for a while, reorganized its defensive positions near the San River in an attempt to fight a decisive battle with the German army.

But at this time, the Russian army was at an absolute disadvantage in terms of firepower. Germany seized a large number of Russian artillery and heavy weapons, and had absolutely crushed the Russian army in terms of firepower.

It is obvious that the Russian defense line hastily built in a few days could not stop the German attack at all.

Under the fierce bombardment of the Germans, the Russian army lost tens of thousands of soldiers every day, while the German casualties were minimal.

If it were not for the death order of Ivanov, the commander-in-chief of the Russian Southwestern Front, requiring the Third, Fourth and Eighth Armies to stop the German attack at all costs, it would probably be only a matter of time before Poland was broken.

Under the fierce bombing of the Germans, the Russian soldiers had formed a tacit understanding with the German soldiers.

Whenever the Germans bombed, the Russian soldiers would shrink in their positions and take the time to rest or replenish their physical strength.

After the German artillery fire stopped, the Russian soldiers climbed into the trenches one after another and launched a counterattack against the German army with rifles and a small number of machine guns.

Even when the German-Austrian coalition forces were quite close to the positions, a large number of Russian soldiers would jump out and fight hand-to-hand with the German-Austrian army, using their lives and bodies to block the pace of the German-Austrian coalition forces.

Although Germany had advantages in firepower and weapons and equipment, the advantage of the number of Russian soldiers was revealed in the bayonet fight.

The battle of cold weapons ultimately depends on numbers. Although the Russian army could not achieve a complete victory in close combat, it still used the soldiers' bodies and lives to temporarily block the German army at the San River defense line.

Of course, the Germans were not without ways to deal with it. When the assaulting army stopped moving forward, the Germans were transporting a large amount of materials and supplies to the front-line positions, and a steady stream of reinforcements arrived.

This also allowed the German artillery to fire at the Russians unscrupulously, and the artillery fire almost covered the entire Russian position.

Of course, there was good news for Russia. On the fourth day of the Battle of San River, the Treaty of Constantinople was signed, and the Ottoman Empire officially withdrew from the war.

This also means that hundreds of thousands of troops from the Balkan countries can be deployed to the Eastern Front, and the southeastern border of the Austro-Hungarian Empire is in danger.

On August 13, 1915, the troops of the Balkan countries gathered at the border of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and launched a fierce attack on the border of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Among them, the attack of the Serbs was the most fierce. Commander Martin led hundreds of thousands of Balkan troops to attack Sarajevo, the Danube and the Carpathian Mountains from the borders of Montenegro, Serbia and Romania.

The troops in the Montenegrin direction include 80,000 troops from Montenegro, 50,000 troops from Greece, and 80,000 troops from Australasia, totaling 210,000.

The Serbian direction includes 250,000 troops from Serbia and 100,000 troops from Greece, totaling 350,000.

There are only 200,000 Romanian troops in the Romanian direction, but there are also Russian troops in the north of the Carpathian Mountains, which can cooperate with each other.

With the participation of the Balkan countries, the pressure faced by Russia was instantly reduced a lot.

But what Russia did not expect was that the Austro-Hungarian Empire organized nearly 200,000 troops to defend the southern border, and transferred 150,000 troops from other regions, and did not transfer the troops that cooperated with Germany.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire was obviously gambling that the German-Austrian coalition could annihilate the main force of Russia before the Balkan countries broke through the Austro-Hungarian border, which would seriously damage Russia's vitality.

By then, millions of German-Austrian coalition troops would march south again, and the armies of the Balkan countries would naturally not be opponents.

On August 17, 1915, the Russians did not wait for the withdrawal of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, but waited for the more crazy attack of the German-Austrian coalition.

At this time, the Russian army had held on to the San River line for ten days, and suffered more than 100,000 casualties. The Fourth and Eighth Army suffered heavy losses, and the Third Army's combat strength was less than a quarter of the full strength.

To use a more appropriate word to describe the three current Russian armies, that is, the last gasp of a strong bow.

On August 18, with the advance of the German-Austrian coalition, the Russians had to give up Przemysl.

You know, when the Russians occupied Przemysl, they suffered a lot of casualties.

Facing such a strategic location, if the Russian army was not at the end of its rope, it would never give up such a place in vain.

As the Russians retreated urgently, Hindenburg and Ludendorff made a decisive decision to pursue and launch a large-scale offensive across the board.

At this time, the central breakthrough tactic was completely successful. The Germans mobilized more than one million German-Austrian coalition forces and broke through the gap opened by the 11th Army directly, striving to give the Russian army a fatal blow.

In fact, they did it. The Russian Southwest Front was already like a spent force. Facing the full-scale attack of the German army, the Russian army collapsed quickly.

At the end of August, the Russian Southwest Front was completely defeated. Not only did it hand over the occupied Galicia to others, but it even retreated to the rear of Poland.

This battle of Gorlitze, which took nearly a month, ended with the Russian army's all-round defeat.

The German-Austrian coalition suffered less than 100,000 casualties, a considerable part of which were the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

On the Russian side, the number of casualties was as high as more than 500,000, and more than 300,000 Russian soldiers were captured.

Not only was the Third Army almost annihilated, but the Fourth and Eighth Armies also lost more than 100,000 people each, and the loss of equipment and supplies was incalculable.

At the same time, after Russia lost Galicia, the results of the previous battles against the Austro-Hungarian Empire were almost wiped out.

After the Austro-Hungarian Empire reoccupied Galicia, it was difficult for the Russians to capture this area again.

More importantly, the German-Austrian coalition had sufficient time and opportunities to resist and even defeat the Balkan coalition.

Of course, the Russians' losses were far more than that.

After this disastrous defeat, the morale of the Russian army plummeted, and the soldiers seemed to have no confidence in resisting the German-Austrian coalition.

Some Russian officers were even more afraid of the enemy. When they saw the German army, they were so scared that they fled in panic.

The anti-war sentiment of ordinary soldiers also began to spread. The soldiers were afraid of death and tired of the war without any results.

In the Russian political arena, this failure also caused an earthquake in the entire political arena. If the previous Russian government and Nicholas II could suppress the rebellion in the country, then after this defeat, Nicholas II seemed to have lost control of the domestic situation.

Demonstrations took place in St. Petersburg and Red Square in Moscow. The angry masses not only demanded the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II, but also demanded that the queen who abused her power and harmed the country be sent to a monastery, that the court favorite Rasputin be hanged, and that peace be restored to the Russian political arena.

As one of the old powers, the Russian Empire, the people could not accept such a heavy loss of the country in the war.

If the war had not been relatively smooth in other regions, I am afraid that the angry people would have demanded the hanging of Nicholas II at this time.

It can be said that the entire Tsarist Russia was in chaos at this time. If Arthur had not arranged in advance and controlled some revolutionaries, I am afraid that a rebellion would have broken out in Russia at this time, and Nicholas II would not be far from being overthrown.

In order to deal with the current very serious crisis in the country, Nicholas II decided to send out Cossack cavalry to carry out armed suppression of the riot areas.

Even if the riots were too serious, Nicholas II specifically authorized the Cossack cavalry commander to attack the crowds of demonstrators.

Armed suppression of demonstrations was the last choice, and it was also the helpless choice of Nicholas II.

Once force was used against the demonstrators, and even casualties occurred, it would mean that Nicholas II and the Tsarist autocracy were on the opposite side of the Russian people.

If the riots failed to be quelled, the Russians might not demand a change of monarch, but would demand the elimination of the entire monarchy.

In addition to various domestic crises, the Russians were also in a very bad situation on the front battlefield.

After the defeat of the Battle of Gorlitze, Russia's strategic state was already in an extremely dangerous situation.

There were only three understaffed armies in the entire southwest, and the total number of soldiers was only more than 500,000.

Although the Northwest Front still had eight armies, it was pinned down by part of the German army, and its position was also very unfavorable for the war.

It can be seen from the map that the entire Russian army on the eastern front has been surrounded by the German-Austrian coalition forces on the north and south wings in a semicircle.

If the German-Austrian coalition forces attack from the north and south wings, all Russian troops on the front battlefield will be wiped out.

The German General Staff would certainly not miss such a favorable opportunity, but the top decision-making of the German General Staff was actually not unified as to what strategy to adopt to realize the plan of encircling all Russian troops.

Currently, there are two forces with a high voice in the German military, one is the German Chief of Staff Falkenhayn, and the other is the Eastern Front Commander Hindenburg and Ludendorff who had just won a great victory on the Eastern Front.

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