Chapter 417: Disagreements in the German Military

German Chief of Staff Falkenhayn and his predecessor, Chief of Staff Moltke the Younger, had completely different ways of doing things.

Moltke the Younger adhered to the attitude of not interfering with the decisions of the commanders on the front line, and was only responsible for formulating the macro strategy, while the micro-operation was handed over to the commanders-in-chief of the front army groups for execution.

But Falkenhayn was different. As the new German Chief of Staff, Falkenhayn not only participated in the formulation of the macro strategy, but also frequently ordered and commanded the front army groups.

Regarding the current good opportunity to encircle all Russian troops and catch them all in one fell swoop, Falkenhayn put forward his own point of view: divide the troops to attack in two directions, and the main attack will still be carried out by Mackensen's 11th Army, which has just won a large-scale victory, and the direction of the attack will be the area between the Vivas River and the Bug River.

The second force is the 12th Army in the direction of East Prussia, and the direction of the attack is the northern root of the Polish protrusion, striving to cut off all the areas of the Polish protrusion.

But Hindenburg, the commander-in-chief of the Eastern Front Army, had completely different ideas. Hindenburg believed that launching an attack from the Neman River, directly entering Minsk via Kovno, and directly cutting off the Russian army's retreat from the rear of Russia would not only occupy a large area of ​​Russian territory including Poland, but also eliminate more of the main Russian forces, creating a decisive victory for the entire Eastern Front.

Falkenhayn's plan was still to fight in Poland, while Hindenburg's plan had penetrated into Minsk, Russian territory, which was more than 200 kilometers away from the Russian border.

Although going around Minsk could indeed cut off the retreat route of the Russian army on the Eastern Front, it was also more likely to achieve more results.

But the problem is that such an in-depth combat plan must invest more troops to ensure that the flanks of the advancing army are not threatened.

More troops also mean more logistical supplies, which is a problem for Germany's logistics department.

You know, although the transportation in East Prussia is very developed, it does not mean that the transportation in Poland and Russia is developed enough.

Compared with Germany's developed railway and road networks, Russia's transportation environment is more primitive, and the mobilization of troops is not only more difficult, but also an unbearable burden for transportation.

More importantly, it is now approaching September, and the winter in Russia is not far away. If the battle cannot be ended quickly before the winter comes, the winter in Russia will be a hell of ice and snow for German soldiers.

At that time, in addition to conventional food and supplies, the German logistics department will have to transport a large number of cotton-padded clothes and winter items to ensure that the German army will not be frostbitten.

Under various factors, Hindenburg's plan is no longer realistic. Germany's logistics department cannot guarantee that a large number of German troops can get sufficient supplies, let alone distribute cotton-padded clothes and winter items to every German soldier in the future winter.

As the two people with the most say in the German military, Falkenhayn and Hindenburg cannot convince each other, resulting in the German army's delay in deciding the final battle plan against Russia.

Seeing that the best opportunity to eliminate the Russian army is about to be missed, Falkenhayn has no choice but to go and persuade William II.

Compared to Hindenburg, who was already stubborn and self-willed, William II was easier to persuade.

Falkenhayn bluntly stated that Hindenburg was a man who loved to show off and was stubborn and self-willed.

Hindenburg's plan was simply not feasible. Russia's territory was very vast, and there was a lot of room for maneuver.

According to the current strength of the German-Austrian coalition, it was impossible to effectively encircle all Russian troops, let alone to fight deep into the Russian interior.

Even if the German army was not defeated by the countless swamps, lakes, forests and terrible roads in Russia, it was destined to be defeated by the winter that would come in a few months.

Falkenhayn said that if William II did not want to face the same difficulties as Napoleon did, he should carefully consider the battle plan against Russia and adopt a more conservative plan with a higher success rate.

Falkenhayn's words were indeed effective. Napoleon was well-known in Europe, and Napoleon's achievements far exceeded William II.

But Napoleon, who was once unstoppable, was defeated by Russia's vast territory and cold winter, not to mention the current German army.

William II was soon persuaded by Falkenhayn, and he supported Falkenhayn's plan without reservation, and ordered all the troops on the front line to execute Falkenhayn's plan.

The good news is that most of the German troops obeyed William II's orders and acted according to Falkenhayn's plan.

The bad news is that only Hindenburg pretended to obey but secretly disobeyed. On the surface, he deployed according to Falkenhayn's plan, but secretly still ordered his subordinates to prepare according to his own plan.

Hindenburg's pretending to obey William II's orders actually represents a sad fact that the German imperial power has gradually been hollowed out by military power.

When the German army was plotting the next round of the famous offensive, the Russian army was extremely pessimistic about the current war situation.

After the last defeat, the angry Nicholas II directly dismissed Ivanov, the commander-in-chief of the Southwestern Front, and appointed Alexeev as the new commander-in-chief of the Southwestern Army.

At the same time, Nicholas II repeatedly questioned Grand Duke Nicholas, the commander-in-chief of the Russian army. If it were not for the fact that changing the commander at the last minute would lead to a faster collapse of the army's morale, I am afraid that Grand Duke Nicholas would have been dismissed from his position as the commander-in-chief of the Russian army by Nicholas II long ago.

The Russian High Command believed that after the failure of the Battle of Goerlitze, the Russian army suffered a heavy blow.

Not only did they face serious casualties and losses, but they also lost a large amount of supplies, which led to a shortage of supplies and ammunition for the front-line troops.

Coupled with the damage to the morale of the army, the combat effectiveness of the front-line troops has weakened, and it is not suitable to confront the German-Austrian coalition head-on.

Grand Duke Nicholas also ordered that before the above problems were resolved, no army was allowed to take offensive actions against the German-Austrian coalition, and to retreat in large strides on all fronts that were not favorable to the Russian army.

When necessary, the army can withdraw from Warsaw and move to Brest behind Warsaw.

This is actually equivalent to Russia unilaterally giving up most of Poland's land and switching from full-scale offensive to full-scale defense on the Eastern Front.

Although such a decision will cause Russia to lose a lot of land, it is the only correct decision Russia can make at present.

In order to facilitate the integration of the Southwestern Front and restore its combat effectiveness, the new commander-in-chief of the Southwestern Front, Alexeev, asked the Northwestern Front's army groups to hold on for at least one month to cover the retreat of the Southwestern Front in the Warsaw area and reorganize troops in the Brest area.

On the second day after the Russian Southwestern Front began to retreat, Germany launched a large-scale offensive.

On September 3, 1915, the German 11th Army, the Bug River Army and the Austro-Hungarian Fourth Army launched a large-scale campaign and launched a fierce attack on Tomaszow and Krasnik.

It is worth mentioning that because the Russian army knew that there were not enough artillery, the German artillery positions were even very close to the Russian front line, with the closest distance less than one kilometer.

Such close-range direct shooting is equivalent to shooting with a rifle within one meter, and the hit rate will also increase significantly.

Of course, with the increase in hit rate, the lethality of this close-range artillery is also amazing.

Thanks to the closer distance, German artillery can almost accurately hit the Russian trenches, killing a large number of Russian soldiers in the trenches.

The tragic scene of the armies of various countries moved people, and even German officers couldn't help but pity these tragically dead Russian soldiers.

Of course, as soldiers, they only pity for a few seconds at most, and then they will strangle the Russian army with a more courageous attitude.

The Russian army held out in these two areas for four days, suffering nearly 100,000 casualties, and finally the front collapsed and retreated completely.

In mid-September, when the German army forced its way across the Bug River, Russia finally dispatched the aircraft purchased from Australasia for the first time, launched a fierce bombing on the German-Austrian coalition forces crossing the river, and continuously strafed with machine guns.

This was the first time that the Russian army used aircraft to fight a war, and it was also the first time in Russian history that air-ground coordinated operations were carried out, which is a worthy record in the history of Russian wars.

Russia dispatched more than ten aircraft in total, dropping more than three tons of bombs in a few days.

With the emergency training of some Australasia experts, Russia finally trained more than ten pilots before it was able to dispatch aircraft for the first time.

Fortunately, the aircraft achieved considerable results in its first deployment, and Nicholas II was glad that his money on the aircraft was not wasted.

After the 11th Army failed to force a river crossing, the German 12th Army in East Prussia also began to attack from Psyasnich in the lower reaches of the Narew River.

Compared with the Russian army faced by the 11th Army, the Russian soldiers faced by the German 12th Army were much weaker.

When attacking Galicia, Russia transferred some of its elite troops to the Southwestern Front, which also led to the fact that some Russian troops in East Prussia were not very capable.

Under the fierce artillery attack of the 12th Army, the Russian army could only retreat to the city and rely on the messy streets and alleys in the city to engage in street fighting with the German army.

For a while, the German army, which was not well prepared, suffered a lot of casualties in the street fighting.

The Russian army gave full play to the spirit of firing a shot and changing places, and launched guerrilla warfare in the street fighting, so that the German army could not find the enemy at all, and was in chaos for a while.

The reinforcements from other places repelled the German army, resulting in the failure of the attempt of Galvez, the commander of the 12th Army, to forcefully cross the Narew River.

However, Galvez was quick-witted and thought of another good way, which was to cross the river in other areas by taking a detour.

After some searching, Galvez finally found an area where the Russian army was weak, forced his way across the Narew River from Rocani, and successfully controlled an important crossing on the Narew River.

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