Chapter 421 Russia’s Current Situation and Air War

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

Tragic, very miserable, very miserable, too miserable to look at.

Ever since Grand Duke Nicholas was dismissed from his post as commander-in-chief of the Russian army, Russia has been in chaos. The army, people, government, and royal family have all become a mess.

Putting aside the huge capability gap between Grand Duke Nicholas and Nicholas II, the importance Nicholas II attached to the position of Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Army alone is doomed to the chaos Russia is currently facing.

Compared with Grand Duke Nicholas who wished to live in the staff headquarters every day and had a unified attitude towards frontline planning, Nicholas II seemed much more free and casual, and only had one hour a day to deal with military affairs.

This hour will determine the life and death of millions of Russian troops on the front line. Coupled with the opinions from the Empress and Rasputin, the Russian army cannot accept the unified planning from the staff at all. The front-line army is currently in a state of chaos.

Without orders from the staff, the frontline troops had no idea what to do next.

If they wanted to launch an attack, the staff did not have any orders, and the commanders-in-chief of each group army did not dare to make decisions without authorization.

However, they retreated to the defense and watched as the logistical supplies from the rear became less and less. A considerable part of the various cans and grains originally coming from Australasia were replaced with cereals and rye.

Weapons and equipment have also become diverse. Australasia sold standard rifles to Russia, and the logistics department replaced them with various old shotguns, which were then transported to the frontline troops.

It had only been a week since Nicholas II took office as Commander-in-Chief of Russia, and the level of rot in Russia's logistics department had risen to a new level.

More importantly, in this week, three plane crashes have occurred in Russia.

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

Yes, it is so rampant. The few advanced weapons of the Russians have been dismantled by Russian logistics officials in collusion with other forces and sold in secret.

This is true for less than 20 aircraft in regular use, not to mention those parked in warehouses, waiting for new pilots.

The commanders of the front-line army groups have sent telegrams to the staff many times to inquire. Most of the weapons shipped are made in Russia, even old shotguns, rather than new equipment from Australasia.

But unfortunately, Nicholas II only had one hour to deal with military affairs, which was not enough for him to see the questions of the commanders of each group army.

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

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

If the Russian army had not been unable to launch an attack due to a lack of weapons and equipment, they would have discovered through seizures that the German army on the Eastern Front was already 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 dispatch in large numbers to find and bomb the Russian troops hiding in the positions.

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

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

But now, Russian pilots' lives are in danger when they go into battle. They may die at the hands of enemy pilots, or more likely 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, which involves disassembling the entire aircraft and comparing parts one by one.

The end of October 1915, the Russian front.

"Colonel Sergey, when will our logistics supplies arrive?" Alexeyev, commander-in-chief of the Southwest Army, asked eagerly.

The Russian Southwest Front has not received supplies from the rear for three days, and hundreds of thousands of troops are in desperate need of logistical supplies.

If no supplies arrive within three days, I am afraid that part of the group army will go hungry, which may even affect the entire Southwest Front.

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

"Damn it. Tell the logistics department that if the supplies have not arrived within three days, they will bear the anger of the soldiers. If you send those black bread and grains again, I will personally go to St. Petersburg to ask. The soldiers have been waiting for more than ten days I haven't seen canned food from Australasia for a long time. They need to eat meat to replenish their physical strength." Although there was a reason for the incident, this still could not calm Alexeev's anger.

When Grand Duke Nicholas was the commander-in-chief, although Russia also had logistical problems of one kind or another, at least the soldiers could still receive basic food security.

Apart from anything else, meat is still a common sight. Whether it is beef and mutton from Russia or canned goods from Australasia, they can very well replenish the physical strength of the soldiers.

Since Nicholas II took over as commander-in-chief, the Southwest Front's logistics supplies have become less and less. From the lack of weapons, equipment and ammunition at the beginning, to the current lack of food.

The food supplies they had been waiting so hard for were only black bread and grains, some of which they couldn't even chew.

Hungry Russian soldiers had begun hunting the rats in the trenches, which was not good news, even though there were plenty of rats in the trenches.

"Yes!" Colonel Sergei just nodded in response when a piercing alarm suddenly sounded.

Woo~woo~

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

Before he finished speaking, Alexeyev ran directly to the air raid shelter. In recent times, the Russian army has gained experience in dealing with German aircraft. After hearing the air defense siren, do not hesitate to run to the air raid shelter immediately.

As one of the few senior generals in Russia, Alexeyev naturally cherished his life and hurriedly ran to a solid air-raid shelter closer to the staff headquarters.

This is a strong air raid shelter set up for the headquarters and staff, which is far stronger than ordinary air raid shelters on trenches.

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

Soon, German planes were dropping bombs, exploding on Russian trenches and nearby positions.

Hearing the explosions and vibrations nearby, Alexeyev ordered: "Contact the flying force, dispatch fighter jets, and shoot down these damn Germans. Don't save machine gun bullets, use all firepower to bring down these damn Germans." You know how powerful we are.”

Theoretically, it is possible for today's rifles and machine guns to hit aircraft. The Russian army has no precedent of using rifles and machine guns to shoot down German aircraft. This is why Alexeyev decided to counterattack the German aircraft.

As Germany's previous main attack direction, more than ten Russian aircraft were all deployed in areas relatively close to the Southwest Military Headquarters, which also allowed Alexeyev to urgently mobilize these aircraft.

About half an hour passed before the Russian plane arrived in a hurry. At this time, the bombing of Russian positions by German aircraft has basically ended, but they are facing the pursuit of Russian aircraft. Because there is a performance gap in the aircraft, they can only face the enemy head-on.

There are about 20 German aircraft and only 15 Russian aircraft.

Although insufficient in numbers, the belated arrival of Russian aircraft quickly gained the advantage in air combat. In a one-on-one or one-on-two situation, Russian aircraft can basically take advantage and can even find opportunities to inflict heavy damage on German aircraft.

In this era without radar, aircraft operations relied on naked eye observation. There is no tracking method for various weapons, and it all depends on the performance of the aircraft and the ability of the pilot.

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

However, the gap in pilot strength is not too big, but it can be made up by the gap between the aircraft on both sides.

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

In this world, due to the influence of the Australasian airship, the progress of aircraft development in various countries around the world is slower than in history.

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

After all, Arthur recruited more than one-third of the world's aerodynamics talents in order to develop aircraft.

In terms of aircraft research and development, Arthur can confidently say that no country has yet been able to get ahead of Australasia, and it is not even qualified to be compared.

Looking at the current technical level of German aircraft, 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 military aircraft.

But this war will not give the Germans such a long time. At least in World War I, it was not difficult for the first-generation 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 gun mounted on the aircraft to fire, and the pilot does not have too difficult technical movements.

The air battle lasted for about half an hour and ended in a hurry. 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.

As for the Russian aircraft, three aircraft were shot down by the Germans, and more than five aircraft were damaged.

These damaged aircraft can be re-entered into war after simple repairs, provided that sufficient aircraft parts are available.

Although Russia has the technology of the first-generation military aircraft and has also mastered the repair capabilities of the first-generation military aircraft.

But judging from the current status of Russia's five aircraft, it is still relatively difficult for Russia to complete the repairs alone.

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

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