Chapter 450: All Parties Are in Danger

On February 21, 1917, the Balkan Front coalition took the lead in launching an attack on the southern border of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Led by the 150,000 Australasian Expeditionary Force, a total of 800,000 troops, including 200,000 Romanian troops, 250,000 Serbian troops, 150,000 Greek troops, and 50,000 Montenegrin troops, were divided into two routes to launch an attack on Croatia and Transylvania.

Among them, the Western Front had 150,000 Australasian troops, 250,000 Serbian troops and 50,000 Montenegrin troops, totaling 450,000 people.

The Eastern Front had 200,000 Romanian troops and 150,000 Greek troops, totaling 350,000 people.

The purpose of the Eastern Front was to delay part of the Austro-Hungarian army and threaten the Kingdom of Hungary at the same time.

The Western Front was the main task of this attack, advancing directly to the northwest, capturing the Croatian and Dalmatia regions of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and then joining forces with the Italian army in Klagenfurt.

As long as Slovenia, Istria, Croatia and Dalmatia can be completely occupied, the Austro-Hungarian Empire will become a completely landlocked country, and the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire will not be far away.

In order to ensure the smooth progress of this attack, Australasia specially transferred hundreds of bombers from the country, and a large number of airships were transporting supplies and conducting reconnaissance in the sky.

In order to deal with the good firepower of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Australasia specially raised nearly 2,000 artillery pieces this time, and the intention to destroy the entire Austro-Hungarian Empire in one fell swoop was already very obvious.

With the official launch of the campaign, hundreds of thousands of Balkan Front troops launched a fierce attack on the front line with the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Although the Austro-Hungarian Empire resisted desperately, the advancement of the front line was relatively smooth, and both the Eastern Front and the Western Front achieved good results.

Among them, the Eastern Front is very close to Sibiu, a major city in Transylvania. If Sibiu can be conquered, the flat Hungarian plain will be like fish on a knife board, and the Balkan Front coalition will be slaughtered.

The Western Front advanced all the way to the coast of Dalmatia, preparing to go north to encircle Zagreb, a major city in Croatia.

Although they encountered resistance from some Austro-Hungarian troops during the period, these troops had little room for resistance in front of the Australasian army with sufficient firepower advantage.

After two rounds of bombing, these Austro-Hungarian troops became honest. Even some troops that had been devastated by the war and were mentally unstable, after experiencing the bombing like a sky curtain, the only thing they thought of was surrender.

On March 1, the rapidly advancing Australasian army arrived at the Sava River, and further north was Zagreb, a major city in Croatia.

When they arrived here, the army felt a different resistance intensity than before, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire built a very dense defensive position in this area, which seemed to be to stop the Australasian army here.

General Thomas, who had already fought fully with the Austro-Hungarian army, had already known the true combat effectiveness of the Austro-Hungarian army.

Therefore, General Thomas did not take the defensive positions established by the Austro-Hungarian Empire seriously, and still adopted the tactics of large-scale bombing and concentrated breakthrough.

But soon, General Thomas found something wrong. It is obvious that the Austro-Hungarian army blocking the road in front is very strong.

According to the reaction and resistance strength shown by the enemy, either this is an elite army of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, or this is the army group left by the Germans in the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

But in any case, the army in front is an elite army, an army with strong firepower and combat effectiveness.

Although the initial exploratory attack encountered setbacks, General Thomas was not discouraged, and even had some expectations.

In theory, as long as the elite army of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in front is taken down, the Austro-Hungarian Empire will not have many trump cards.

General Thomas is not clear at present. This is not an Austro-Hungarian army, but a pure German army composed of 15 divisions and a German army group rotated between the Hungarian Empire and Germany.

Originally, the German army group was withdrawn due to two battles, resulting in a loss of about two armies.

But because of the filling of these 15 German divisions, the German army group was restored to a full state.

Both the Germans and the Austro-Hungarian Empire were very confident that this fully staffed or even overstaffed army group could easily block the Australasians from their positions.

After knowing the combat effectiveness of the elite army in front, General Thomas did not take it lightly. He changed the original offensive plan to a large-scale bombing and sent an army to outflank and try to cut off the enemy's channels for transporting supplies to this defensive position.

At this time, the more than 2 million artillery shells prepared by Australasian in advance came into play. Under the premise of more than 2,000 artillery pieces bombing at full force, these artillery shells reserves supported more than ten days.

Coupled with the bombing from airships and bombers, Australasian consumed nearly 3 million artillery shells in this defensive position alone.

Obviously, such a large-scale bombing did achieve certain results. Even the extremely powerful Germans would be afraid of the damage caused by such a large-scale artillery bombing.

The Germans are also human beings, so it is normal for them to be afraid. After all, the Germans used to suppress other countries with firepower and carry out large-scale bombings. This is the first time they have experienced the power of such bombings.

Such a large number of shells smashed into the defensive position, which was not large in area. Not only did it flatten the hilltop where the defensive position was located by several meters, but it also caused a large number of casualties to the German troops on the position.

On March 14, more than ten days later, the originally lush hill was left with only charred black land and a red stream mixed with blood and various fragments.

Under the cover of a series of tractors converted into first-generation tanks, the Balkan coalition launched a large-scale offensive.

Such tanks are different from British tanks. Because the main body is a tractor, the performance is still guaranteed to a certain extent.

Although the speed is not fast, the probability of breaking down is much lower than that of British tanks.

A total of nearly 200 tanks were dispatched in Australasia, and the number of breaking down was less than 20, which is less than one-tenth.

After more than ten days of bombing, the mentality of the Germans was originally shaken.

Now facing the big guys that can withstand bullet strafing, the mentality suddenly collapsed.

Except for the first day of the Australasian army's attempted attack, these Germans did not see the Australasian army much.

However, the enemy's shells caused a large number of casualties to their own side. In this situation where they could not see the enemy but were chased and beaten by the enemy, some German soldiers did not know how to fight back.

Now the enemy finally had plans to attack, but the leaders were a large number of steel guys.

These big guys made of steel have a good resistance to bullets, and the probability of artillery shells hitting these guys accurately is also very low. The German army did not have a good solution for a while.

Seeing that the enemy's army was getting closer and closer, the German commander had no choice but to issue an order to retreat.

On March 17, 1917, the Western Front officially surrounded Zagreb, which also meant that the offensive of the Balkan Front army had made more than half of the progress.

Perhaps because the Australasian army was about to defeat the Austro-Hungarian Empire alone, the Italians could not sit still and immediately launched a campaign.

The Italians planned to deploy at least 500,000 combat troops, first conquering Trento and Innsbruck from the north, then turning east to capture Trieste in Istria, and then joining forces with the Australasian army in Klagenfurt.

The Italian army even had other ambitions. If possible, they wanted to occupy the entire Slovenia region, control their border line south of Zagreb, and even occupy the entire Dalmatia region.

If such a strategic goal can be achieved, the Adriatic Sea will become Italy's inland sea, and Italy's interests in the Balkan Peninsula will also be greatly expanded.

On March 19, the Italians urgently launched a campaign and quickly surrounded the Trento region.

There were only two divisions of the Austro-Hungarian garrison stationed in this area. Under the full attack of the Italians, they were defeated and retreated in the end.

The newspapers in Rome even regarded this battle as the clarion call for Italy's rise and the retreat of the Austro-Hungarian garrison as the defeat of the Allies.

Many Italian media outlets have been touting the government and the army, as if Italy has won and occupied a large amount of land.

After the Balkan coalition and Italy launched attacks in succession, Nivelle also decided to look for an opportunity to launch a spring offensive to defeat the entire Allied group in one fell swoop.

On March 25, the spring offensive was launched, and the European continent once again entered the tide of war.

Once the spring offensive was launched, it immediately replaced the Balkan Front and the Italian Front and became the front with the most casualties every day.

This is actually a very normal thing. After all, the British, French and Germans invested more than 3 million troops in the spring offensive, far exceeding the total number of soldiers invested in the Balkan Front and the Italian Front.

As time entered April, Zagreb could not withstand the attack of Australasia after holding on for more than ten days.

This also means that almost the entire Croatian region has become an occupied area of ​​Australasia, the Hungarian Plain is already in danger, and the coastal areas of the Austro-Hungarian Empire are also in danger.

On the one hand, there was the crazy offensive on the Balkan front, and on the other hand, there was the crazy consumption of the Italian army. Even with the support of the Germans, the Austro-Hungarian Empire could not hold on for a while.

On April 7, 1917, the Italian army officially surrounded Innsbruck, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire's plan to exchange a chance for peace with a beautiful defensive battle became a fantasy.

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