Chapter 415 Central Breakthrough

After the attempt to outflank the enemy on both sides failed, German Chief of Staff Falkenhayn quickly proposed another plan, which was to concentrate forces to implement a frontal breakthrough in the enemy's weakest areas. This tactic was also named central breakthrough.

The tactic of outflanking was proposed by Hindenburg and Ludendorff. After the failure of the encirclement plan, Hindenburg and Ludendorff had to obey Falkenhayn's command. The East Prussian Army and the Austro-German Allied Forces began to implement a central breakthrough. .

After a series of complex comparisons and judgments, the German General Staff finally selected the Gorlitze area on the upper reaches of the Vistula River as the core area for the breakthrough.

The Vistula is a river that originates in Hungary and flows north through Warsaw, dividing most of East Prussia.

The real reason for implementing breakthrough tactics in this area is that most of the Russian army groups in this area were annihilated, and the newly transferred Russian troops were all new soldiers, resulting in a relatively weak defensive force in this area.

More importantly, of the two new Russian armies here, one of them was transferred due to the previous battle in the Carpathian Mountains, and the Russian military strength has been significantly reduced.

In addition to the advantage of military strength, the terrain here is also very favorable for the German army.

Because the terrain is not narrow, the advantages of the German army's strength can be brought into play. In addition, the Vistula Valley to the north and the Beskid Mountains to the south limited the support of the Russian army, ensuring the safety of the two wings of the assault group, allowing the German army to advance straight in without worrying about being attacked on the flanks and back.

The German high command, including Chief of General Staff Falkenhayn, was very confident in the central breakthrough plan.

Although the current situation facing the Allies is very bad, the Germans still believe in the combat effectiveness of their own army, and Falkenhayn still believes that the heroic German army can deal with any threat at any time.

According to Falkenhayn's plan, if the central breakthrough can be successfully realized, it will completely eliminate the Russian threat to Hungary and change the bad situation currently faced by the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

In this way, the Austro-Hungarian Empire only needed to send a small number of troops and was able to defend Italy in the west, the Balkan countries in the south, and Russia in the east.

The remaining main army can cooperate with Germany to fight together. Either destroy Russia or go south to destroy the Balkan countries. This is a good choice.

The assault force designated by Falkenhayn was the German 11th Army, and its commander-in-chief was General Mackensen.

In order to facilitate unified command and prevent any accidents after the battle was launched, Falkenhayn did not establish a new main offensive force. Instead, he transferred the baseline troops of the 10th Army and the 41st Guards Army, as well as the Austria-Hungary Empire to send coordinated operations. The 6th Army was all integrated into the 11th Army, under the unified command of General Mackensen, and the remaining armies were responsible for containing and covering the main offensive force.

The Russian Third Army is stationed in the breakthrough area. This army has seven cavalry divisions, but most of them are newly recruited recruits.

Even if you only compare the German 11th Army and the Russian 3rd Army, the German army has sufficient strength advantages.

After various integrations, the 11th Army has more than 360,000 German-Austrian troops, more than 1,200 small and medium-caliber artillery pieces, more than 300 large-caliber artillery pieces and 100 mortars.

As for the Russian army, although it also has 220,000 soldiers, most of them are new recruits. It also has a disadvantage in terms of artillery, with only nearly 700 small and medium-caliber artillery pieces and single-digit large-caliber artillery pieces.

The Russian Third Army is dominated by cavalry divisions, so it is not equipped with large-caliber artillery. This also creates a relatively obvious gap in the strength comparison between Germany and Russia.

In order to conceal the central breakthrough tactics, the Germans even prepared a feint attack on the Western Front to attract the attention of the entire Allied Powers.

In addition, at the end of July, a considerable part of the Allied Powers' attention was on the Ottoman Empire, and even Russia sent some troops to the Caucasus. This also made the Germans believe that a good time to launch a new campaign had arrived.

It is worth mentioning that the Germans used poison gas for the first time in a feint attack on the Western Front.

This also caused many casualties to the British and French forces on the Western Front. These poisonous gases could not only suffocate, poison and kill people, but also cause temporary or long-term blindness and loss of combat capabilities.

When the Germans used poison gas, they all wore relatively advanced gas masks. On the British and French side, either a simple two-layer cloth was used to wrap the mouth and nose, or a more complicated gas mask was used, which could easily suffocate the soldiers.

In terms of poison gas and gas masks, the Germans are leading in research. Australasia has little research on poison gas, but there has been considerable progress in research on gas masks.

Most of the Germans' current gas mask technology also uses activated carbon for adsorption to eliminate some poisonous gases in the air.

Australasian gas masks also use this principle and are quite effective in protecting against poisonous gases.

Because of this, Britain and France urgently purchased a batch of gas masks from Australasia. Even Russia, which has not yet suffered from poison gas, is also urgently purchasing gas masks from Australasia.

At the same time, Britain and France were also urgently studying the use of poison gas bombs and preparing for a new round of retaliation against the German army.

When the attention of Britain, France and Russia was attracted by the poison gas used by Germany on the Western Front, on the last day of July, Germany launched the Central Breakthrough Plan on the Eastern Front.

In order to ensure the smooth implementation of the plan, except for a small number of group army commanders and commanders, in the real central breakthrough plan, even some important division commanders did not know where their troops were really going, and could only follow the temporary instructions of their superiors. Order.

While the real main force launched an assault, some Russian troops also conducted feint attacks in the northern area, attracting the attention of some Russian troops.

This successfully paralyzed the Russians, who were unprepared for the upcoming German offensive.

By the time Commander-in-Chief of the Southwest Front Ivanov discovered something was wrong, although he ordered the strengthening of defenses along the Vistula River, it was already a bit late.

In summer, along the Vistula River, the trees are green, the grass is lush, the temperature is not hot, and the scenery is very beautiful.

But with the roar and indiscriminate bombing of more than 1,000 artillery pieces by the German army, the short-term peace in this area disappeared again, and the flames of war enveloped the entire land.

The bright light caused by the explosion of the shell illuminated the destroyed Russian positions and the panicked Russian soldiers who fled in all directions.

As soon as the Russian army's artillery wanted to fight back, it faced the German army's artillery suppression. Faced with this situation, the Russian artillery positions either remained silent during the war or were destroyed by German artillery.

Although Russia had received some aid at this time, there were actually not that many divisions allocated to the Russian army on the front line.

On average, each German artillery can receive hundreds of shells per day, but the number of shells a Russian artillery can fire per day basically does not exceed ten.

There was already a quantitative gap in artillery, and the number of artillery shells was at a disadvantage. The Russian army lacked artillery assistance, which also resulted in the Russian army having almost no room to fight back under the attack of the German army.

Throughout World War I, the most effective defensive weapons were heavy machine guns and artillery. But for the Russian army, machine gun bullets and artillery shells are the most easily consumed and the most precious.

The German bombardment lasted for several hours, and only in the first half hour did the Russian artillery respond at all.

For the remaining hours, the Russian defensive positions were under heavy bombardment by German artillery. Occasionally, fireworks bloomed on the land, illuminating the wails and pain of the Russian soldiers.

This is not over yet. After several hours of bombing, the next thing to appear was the German plane.

These Russian recruits were all illiterate peasants a year ago. They were shocked by these iron birds spitting death flint from their heads, just like the pets of the God of Death demanding their lives. This damaged the morale of a large number of Russian soldiers. When they saw the German planes, they buried their heads in the trenches, for fear that the God of Death would snatch them away. .

Although several years have passed since the birth of airships and their popularity, Russia also has the first batch of aircraft.

The problem is, whether it is airships or airplanes, these are too far away for ordinary Russian farmers.

They have not had the opportunity to fly in the sky on an airship, nor have they seen aircraft that Russia has not yet trained pilots. It is natural for them to be in awe of these things that can fly freely in the sky.

Among the major powers, St. Petersburg, the capital of Russia, has the fewest flights around the world.

This is not only because St. Petersburg is located in the snow-covered Northern Europe, but also because St. Petersburg is too far away from the mainstream trade routes of various countries.

London and Paris are the most popular round-the-world sailing stops in Europe, followed by Berlin and Rome, followed by Vienna.

The Germans don't have many planes, only a little over 100 at full count. Moreover, these aircraft are relatively simple, and their main attack method is a machine gun mounted on the aircraft.

However, although the aircraft did not cause a large number of casualties to the Russian army, it caused a serious psychological burden on the Russian army.

Many Russian soldiers even became war-weary and fearful of war. If the Russian commander had not urgently dealt with several deserters who wanted to flee the battlefield, the Russian army might have collapsed.

On August 1, the German-Austrian forces began to formally implement the breakthrough. At the forefront was a German cavalry division. They brandished sharp sabers and had already accepted the gifts sent by the Russian soldiers when they had just raised their heads out of the position.

Under a combination of punches by the German army, the Russian Third Army quickly collapsed, and the military law and supervisory teams could no longer control them.

The Russian army fled in chaos. Some Russian soldiers who scrambled to escape abandoned almost all their equipment in order to reduce their burden.

When Ivanov, commander-in-chief of the Southwest Army, learned of the defeat of the Third Army on August 2, the German army had already occupied favorable terrain in this area.

Ivanov acted quickly. He immediately ordered the Russian troops on both sides of the Gorlitz area to drive the breakthrough German troops back to the west of the Vistula River at all costs and defend this area.

Under Ivanov's order, a large number of unprepared Russian troops rushed to the front line and launched a suicidal group charge against the Germans.

You know, this German 11th Army is not only equipped with a large number of artillery, but also hundreds of heavy machine guns, as well as poison gas and other taboo weapons.

The cluster charge launched by the Russians was, to put it bluntly, a group of people standing together and charging. Under the dense machine gun fire network and artillery bombardment of the German army, this was tantamount to having the Russian troops line up to die.

In just two days, the German army's breakthrough in the Gorlitz area not only did not shrink, but became larger and larger.

Even if the Russian army was full of corpses on the banks of the Vistula River and the Beskid Mountains, it could not stop the German army from advancing.

The already red Vistula River proved the cruelty of this battle, which also made the residents around the river afraid to eat fish for a long time.

Speaking of the German gas bombs, a surprising episode occurred during this charge.

After the last time they dropped poison gas bombs on the Western Front, causing heavy losses to the British and French forces, the Germans quickly decided to also drop poison gas bombs on the Eastern Front battlefield to make the Russians suffer.

The poison gas used by the Germans at this time was suffocating chlorine gas, which was three times heavier than ordinary air.

When poisonous gas is released, a special team is required to determine the wind direction. When the wind strength and direction are suitable, the cylinder cover containing poisonous gas is opened, and clouds of yellow-green smoke are entangled together, floating on the ground, and rolled forward by the breeze.

However, this poison gas release force obviously did not consider the sudden change in wind direction, which caused the poison gas that was originally rolling forward to be blown back to the German position by the changed wind direction.

After the poison gas entered the trenches close to the ground, it quickly spread throughout the German positions, causing many unprepared German soldiers to suffocate to death in pain.

According to German secret statistics, this poison gas accident resulted in the death of hundreds of German soldiers and was an extremely serious accident.

In order not to affect the morale of the military and prevent the military and the public from doubting the safety of such forbidden weapons, the German General Staff chose to keep this strictly confidential.

The actual events in history were not revealed until many years after the end of the First World War.

Of course, this accident did not affect the large-scale use of poison gas by the German army.

The day after the accident, the German army reused poison gas on the Eastern Front, causing the Russian army to suffer greatly.

Coupled with the dense firepower network of the German army, the Russian army that filled the gap suffered more than 100,000 casualties in two days, and the Russian southwestern front was left in danger.

It is worth mentioning that the Germans used poison gas with such great fanfare that the price of gas masks soared.

While Britain, France and Russia purchased gas masks from Australasia, they also began to develop their own gas masks.

The current market price of gas masks has tripled, but purchase orders from Britain and France are still in short supply.

These are the four thousand words for today. I don’t feel comfortable, so I’ll take a break.