Chapter 421 The Current Situation in Russia and Air Warfare

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

Miserable, very miserable, extremely miserable, horrible.

Since Grand Duke Nicholas was relieved of his post as the commander-in-chief of the Russian army, Russia has been in chaos. The army, the people, the government, and the royal family are all in a mess.

Not to mention the huge gap in ability between Grand Duke Nicholas and Nicholas II, the importance that Nicholas II attached to the position of commander-in-chief of the Russian army alone doomed the chaos that Russia is currently facing.

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

This one hour would 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 could not accept the unified planning from the General Staff at all. The front-line army is currently in a state of chaos.

Without orders from the General Staff, the front-line army had no idea what to do next.

Wanting to launch an attack, the General Staff did not have any orders, and the commanders-in-chief of each army group did not dare to make a decision on their own.

But they retreated on the defensive, watching the logistical supplies from the rear becoming less and less, and a considerable part of the various canned foods and food originally from Australasia was replaced with grains and rye.

Weapons and equipment also became varied. The standard rifles sold to Russia by Australasia were replaced by various old hunting rifles by the logistics department, and then transported to the front-line troops.

It was only a week after Nicholas II took office as the commander-in-chief of Russia that the corruption of the Russian logistics department rose to a higher level.

More importantly, in this week, Russia has had three plane crashes.

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

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

This was the case for less than 20 aircraft that were in regular use, not to mention the aircraft that were parked in the warehouse and waiting for new pilots.

The commanders of the front-line armies had sent telegrams to the General Staff many times to inquire that most of the weapons transported were made in Russia, and even old hunting rifles, rather than new equipment from Australasia.

Unfortunately, Nicholas II only had one hour to handle military affairs, which was not enough for him to see the doubts of the commanders of the armies.

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

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

If the Russian army had not been unable to launch an attack due to lack of weapons and equipment, they would have discovered through 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 aircraft had problems, German aircraft began to go out in large numbers to find and bomb the Russian troops hiding in the positions.

Before there were no problems with Russian aircraft, the quality of German aircraft was not as good as that of Russian aircraft, and there was a big gap in combat effectiveness.

Often two German aircraft could compete with one Russian aircraft, and they could not achieve the final victory.

But now, Russian pilots are in danger of their lives when they go to war. They may die at the hands of enemy pilots, or even at 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, pilots will conduct a very detailed inspection of their aircraft, almost dismantling the entire aircraft and comparing each part.

At the end of October 1915, the Russian front.

"Colonel Sergei, when will our logistics supplies arrive?" Alexeev, commander-in-chief of the Southwestern Army, asked anxiously.

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

If no supplies arrive within three days, I am afraid that some of the army groups will have to starve, and it may even affect the entire Southwestern Front.

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

"Damn it. Tell the logistics department that if the supplies have not arrived within three days, let them bear the anger of the soldiers. If the black bread and grains are sent again, I will go to St. Petersburg to inquire in person. The soldiers have not seen canned food from Australasia for more than ten days. They need to eat meat to replenish their physical strength." Although there are reasons for this, this still cannot calm Alexeyev's anger.

During the period when Grand Duke Nicholas served as commander-in-chief, although Russia also had various logistical problems, at least the soldiers' food could still be basically guaranteed.

Apart from other things, meat can still be seen frequently. Whether it is beef and mutton from Russia or canned food from Australasia, it can replenish the physical strength of the soldiers very well.

Since Nicholas II became commander-in-chief, the logistical supplies of the Southwestern Front have become increasingly scarce, from the lack of weapons, equipment and ammunition in the beginning to the current shortage of even food.

The food supplies that were waiting for so hard were also black bread and grains, some of which were even hard to bite.

The extremely hungry Russian soldiers had begun to catch rats in the trenches, which was not good news, although there were piles of rats in the trenches and the number was large.

"Yes!" Colonel Sergei just nodded in response, and a shrill alarm suddenly sounded.

Woo~ Woo~

Alexeyev's face changed immediately, and he quickly ordered: "Damn it, it's the German planes coming. Order the soldiers to go to the air-raid shelter quickly."

Before he finished speaking, Alexeyev ran directly to the air-raid shelter. In recent times, the Russian army has had experience in dealing with German planes. After hearing the air-raid alarm, do not hesitate and run to the air-raid shelter immediately.

As one of the few senior generals in Russia, Alexeyev naturally cherishes his life and hurriedly ran to the sturdy air-raid shelter close to the staff.

This is a sturdy air-raid shelter set up for the headquarters and staff, which is much stronger than the ordinary air-raid shelters in the trenches.

The headquarters of each army group would often build such air-raid shelters for the army group commander and the staff of the general staff to take shelter.

Soon, German planes dropped bombs one after another, exploding in Russian trenches and nearby positions.

Hearing the explosions and vibrations nearby, Alexeyev ordered: "Contact the flying unit, dispatch fighters, and shoot down these damn Germans. Don't save machine gun bullets, use all firepower, and let these damn Germans know how powerful we are."

Theoretically, it is possible for current rifles and machine guns to hit planes. The Russian army has also used rifles and machine guns to shoot down German planes, which is why Alexeyev decided to counterattack German planes.

As the main attack direction of Germany before, more than a dozen Russian planes were all deployed in areas close to the southwestern military headquarters, which also allowed Alexeyev to urgently mobilize these planes.

About half an hour later, the Russian planes hurried over. At this time, the bombing of Russian positions by German aircraft had basically ended, but they were facing the pursuit of Russian aircraft. Because of the performance gap in aircraft, they could only face the enemy head-on.

Germany had about 20 aircraft, and Russia had only 15 aircraft.

Although the number was insufficient, the late Russian aircraft quickly gained the advantage in air combat. In a one-on-one or one-on-two situation, Russian aircraft could basically take the advantage, and even find opportunities to inflict heavy damage on German aircraft.

In this era without radar, aircraft combat also relied on naked eye observation. There was no tracking method for various weapons, and it all depended on the performance of the aircraft and the ability of the pilots.

After all, aircraft were new weapons, and neither Germany nor Russia had studied them very deeply. German pilots were stronger than Russian pilots in terms of ability and quality. After all, Russian pilots were trained urgently, while German pilots had been trained for a long time.

But the gap in pilot strength was not too large, but it could be made up by the gap between the aircraft of both sides.

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

Because of the influence of the Australasian airship, the progress of aircraft development in various countries in the world is slower than in history.

As a result, there is a clear gap between German and Russian aircraft, which is enough to have a huge impact on air combat.

After all, Arthur has won over more than one-third of the world's aviation dynamics talents in order to develop aircraft.

In terms of aircraft development, Arthur can confidently say that no country can go ahead of Australasian at present, and it is not even qualified to be compared.

Take 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 so much time. At least in World War I, it was not difficult for the first generation of 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 carried by the aircraft to fire, and the pilots do not have too difficult technical moves.

This air battle lasted about half an hour and ended hastily. 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 planes can be put into 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 mastered the repair capabilities of the first generation of military aircraft.

But according to Russia's current situation, it is still difficult for Russia to complete the repair of these five aircraft alone.

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

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