Chapter 24
If you want to have an excellent military tactical system, you have to lay a good foundation on the infantry squad.
For this reason, Kuster carefully prepared a set of infantry squad tactics; in fact, although it was carefully prepared, it would be more appropriate to say that it was copied, with only slight modifications.
He adopted Sandezi's infantry squad tactics: 10 people per squad. Among them, 2 machine gunners and deputy machine gunners are the core, and the rest are an ammunition man, a squad leader and deputy squad leader, and 5 ordinary riflemen.
A squad will use: two submachine guns (for the squad leader), a machine gun, and seven semi-automatic rifles.
However, there is no unified plan for the ammunition they carry, and the amount of ammunition they should carry is decided by the commander of the campaign at the time. Although this seems a bit unprofessional, it has actually strengthened the adaptability of the infantry squad.
Next, each level of organization will adopt the three-three system: three squads and one platoon, three platoons and one company, three companies and one battalion...
If the number of people is 50,000 as the benchmark and the organization of three divisions is maintained; then a division will have about 17,000 people and a regiment will have 2,850 people.
This is much more than the official standard number of 2,400 people in Austria-Hungary, which will inevitably cause bloated organization and difficulty in command.
In order to avoid such a situation, Kuster set the standard number of a regiment at 2,000, and the other soldiers were all formed into reserves or reinforced battalions and deployed on various fronts.
Of course, as a commander in Austria-Hungary, one must pay attention to one thing: ethnic issues.
This is the most critical and important point. If you can handle the relationship between ethnic groups well, you can beat the Russians; on the contrary, if the internal ethnic conflicts are serious and the soldiers do not speak the same language, they will be beaten by the Russians.
Kuster does not want to be beaten black and blue, but the ethnic issues in Austria-Hungary are very prominent and serious; their main ethnic groups only account for 1/3, and such a complex and diverse country will surely perish.
He couldn't temporarily establish identical battalion-level troops as before.
Even if this could strengthen the individual combat effectiveness of each unit, coordinated operations were required on the vast battlefield; think about it, no matter how strong an Austro-Hungarian battalion-level unit was, even if it could penetrate dozens of kilometers, it would not be able to play any strategic role, and it was impossible.
Therefore, Kuster planned to work hard when recruiting soldiers. That is, to recruit as many Austrian soldiers as possible and strive to have two reorganized Austrian divisions.
This would greatly enhance their combat capabilities and better achieve victory.
The overall military thinking is probably like this. The detailed allocation of troops needs to be allocated according to the actual number of weapons and equipment and the amount of manpower.
As for the higher-level strategic aspects, what does it matter to this army commander? Naturally, he didn't even think about it.
Next, there is another important question: what kind of weapons should be used, and how many?
Because there are many new military factories, there is no need to worry about the guns that have been developed for a long time, but things like rockets still need to be paid attention to; especially artillery, they haven't made a single artillery yet.
With rocket launchers, the reliance on artillery is not great. Especially large-caliber artillery such as 105MM and 150MM.
But they need tanks, and the soul of tanks lies in the artillery they carry. Therefore, the research and development of some small-caliber cannons must be put on the agenda as soon as possible.
The two tank models proposed by Kuster before are very good: Type A 20MM machine gun and Type B 37MM artillery.
These two calibers of artillery are very suitable for now, both in terms of power and cost performance.
But Kuster has no ability to manufacture them, because their artillery workers only know how to make bronze cannons and are not familiar with pure steel artillery.
No one wants to install a protruding bronze barrel on a handsome armored tank, which is too ugly and very dangerous.
So who has advanced artillery manufacturing technology now? Without a doubt, it is Skoda. They have the best production system and manufacturing process in the entire Austria-Hungary.
But they seemed unsuitable for making small-caliber artillery. They made a lot of useless artillery with large calibers like 305 and 420MM, but they never produced any normal practical artillery during World War I.
However, Kuster still wrote a letter to a cannon factory of Skoda Company, saying that he would visit them as a lieutenant general of the army tomorrow, hoping that they would be more polite.
Compared to asking Skoda to make artillery for him, Kuster trusted himself more. So he planned to take some bored workers to watch together.
The next day, Kuster went to Skoda Company with two guards and a dozen cannon casting workers.
There was a man with a bad face standing at the door of the company, probably to greet them.
Kuster went over to greet him, but he said unhappily:
"My general, why are you here with us if you don't have time to fight on the front line? You know, we are in a hurry, and those workers like to slack off at work, so I need to keep an eye on them."
Kust put his hand on his shoulder and said in a friendly manner:
"I won't go to war until next year, and I'm still a logistics captain now! I came with you this time to reach some business agreement with you."
The man's eyes were shining with a strange light, and he said after a little thought:
"Oh? Then I welcome you very much. I am the owner of this factory - Datir-Lofesien, a Hungarian. I have heard of your name for a long time, General Kuster, please come in quickly."
Several people walked in the busy factory, talking and laughing.
Suddenly, Kuster asked:
"Mr. Datir, I want to know how your current research and development of artillery is progressing?"
"Haha, that's quite good; come and take a look at these artillery."
Datir pointed to a huge artillery and looked very proud:
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"This is a 149MM howitzer developed by our company. It weighs 2.7 tons and uses a horizontal wedge breech block; it is designed with two long and short barrels and various shells to deal with various situations."
Kust listened on the side, nodding on the surface, but he was extremely disgusted with this kind of manufacturing in his heart.
This thing just touches on one of his criteria for evaluating weapons: whether logistics are easy to replenish and whether the actual combat operation is simple.
This artillery looks novel, but in fact, the design of multiple barrels is a failure; because their soldiers will not change them at all.
If you must use multiple barrels on the same artillery, you must install one barrel when it leaves the factory, leaving no room for soldiers to change, so as not to make soldiers on the battlefield feel anxious.
When experienced soldiers operate artillery, it is very common to replace shells; and to replace barrels on the battlefield, the soldier must be a graduate of a very professional school. Now that the professional standing army of Austria-Hungary is basically dead, let alone the matter of replacing barrels on the battlefield.
But even so, Kuster still said to him with respect and politeness:
"Sir, can you let me take a closer look at the overall structure of this artillery?"
"Of course, my general, you can take a look at it at will."
Kusko climbed onto the shelf and carefully observed the various structures of the artillery.
Perhaps because he had been busy with military manufacturing these days, he only observed it roughly and got a precise artillery structure diagram in his mind.
The manufacturing accuracy of this cannon is far lower than the three types of artillery he designed before, which made Kuster give up the idea of manufacturing World War II artillery now.
So he said to Datir:
"Sir, can we reach a business agreement?"
Datir's eyes sparkled, as if he had been waiting for this moment for a long time, and he said excitedly and greedily:
"Okay, I've been waiting for you to say this! No matter what kind of artillery you want, as long as you pay enough, they will definitely make it by the end of the year."
"I hope you can make artillery of 20MM and 37MM calibers, and they must be mass-produced and will not be produced until the end of the year. Can you produce them?"
"Uh... This may take a long time," Datir said hesitantly:
"We have never made such small artillery, maybe other factories have made them?"
"Then let's change it, how about letting some of your skilled workers help me? Don't worry, there is enough money."
Kust put his hands behind his waist and said a seemingly reasonable condition. But Datir on the other side stopped and said angrily with gritted teeth:
"You are delusional! You Austrians are just a bunch of disgusting, dirty, and annoying street rats, all of whom can only dream! Give you the technology? Bullshit!"
Datir's words were very arrogant, which directly angered Kuster. He threw down his hat without any etiquette, waved his hands, and shouted:
"You Hungarians are just a bunch of lazy pigs! You only know how to eat chickens all day long; the Skoda boss who feeds you is a stupid donkey! You only know how to raise chickens all day long; your workers are a bunch of incompetent chickens! There is no will and spirit to resist.
Your Skoda is also rotten, the whole thing is a chicken farm! Such a factory will go bankrupt sooner or later!"
Kust's words were more insulting and targeted, but the people he targeted were not ordinary; everyone in the factory stood up together, picked up things and drove Kuster and his men away.
Two guards stood up, picked up the semi-automatic rifles with bayonets in their hands, pulled the bolts, and aimed at the people who surrounded them in the factory.
Kuster also drew out the golden saber from his waist, revealing the sharp tip that could pierce through everything, and pointed at the crowd:
"I'll see who dares to come over, I'll chop him to death! My body is a little old, but my soul and skills are getting older and older, I'm not afraid of you brainless reckless men!"
Datier looked at Kuster who was always saying "Come on! Come on! Kill me!" crazily, and then looked at the reporters swarming outside the door, gritted his teeth, and finally waved his hand, letting the workers disperse.
"Haha! Give up, a bunch of cowards!"
Kust shouted happily and contemptuously, and then led a few people around him back to the armory.
Looking at the golden saber in his hand, it was the first time he pulled it out, and he was a little unfamiliar. He didn't know what to do, so he sat quietly in the room and looked at his previous military exploits and accessories.
Outside, the "Skoda Chicken Farm" incident was being reported by countless reporters and went viral.
The initial few reporters wanted to interview Kuster after learning that he had been promoted to lieutenant general, but they were afraid of his hot temper, so they had to follow him secretly.
After arriving at the factory, many reporters came over as they saw their colleagues waiting there. When they heard that the person being interviewed was Kuster, they all waited here, hoping to get a piece of the pie.
Later, the fierce noise attracted the attention of many people. When they heard Kuster call Skoda a "chicken farm", they reported it frantically, so much so that they ignored the fact that Kuster and his team were returning.
Now, Skoda has become a topic of long conversation after dinner in Austria and Hungary. However, it is more appropriate to call it "Hungarian chicken farm" instead of Skoda.
This is mainly because Datir is a Hungarian. Skoda fired him as soon as possible, but this still couldn't get Skoda out of the funny nickname of "chicken farm".
After this incident was exposed, Kuster's reputation was greatly improved. In particular, he openly insulted Hungarians, which made many Austrians extremely support him; Hungarians opposed him.
This further intensified the ethnic conflicts in Austria-Hungary, and also gave rise to an Austrian joke: Daku dialogue (Datir-Kuster dialogue).
If a Hungarian in a tavern called an Austrian a rat, then the other Austrians would unite and call him a stupid pig. The rest of the Hungarians would also reach a consensus and fight with the Austrians.
In the end, the tavern became gloomy, and the glass seemed to be shattered by a shell; the only thing that remained unchanged was the wine liquid - they didn't know who had knocked it over, slowly flowing to the floor, splashing on the door, red, and a bit of fishy smell that humans don't like...
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