Chapter 450 All parties are in a hurry

1. The Balkan Front coalition took the lead in launching an offensive on the southern border of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. new

Led by the 150,000 Australasian Expeditionary Force, including 200,000 Romanian troops, 250,000 Serbian troops, 150,000 Greek troops, and 50,000 Montenegrin troops, a total of 800,000 troops were divided into two groups, targeting the Croatian region and Transland. Attack in Sylvania area.

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

The Eastern Front had 200,000 Romanian troops and 150,000 Greek troops, a total of 350,000 troops.

The purpose of the eastern front is to hold back part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire's army and threaten the Kingdom of Hungary.

The western front was the main task of this offensive, advancing directly to the northwest, capturing the Croatian and Dalmatian regions of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and then joining the Italian army in Klagenfurt.

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

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

In order to cope with the good firepower of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Australasia specially raised nearly 2,000 artillery pieces this time, and its intention to destroy the entire Austro-Hungarian Empire in one fell swoop was 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 it encountered desperate resistance from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the advancement of the front line was relatively smooth, and both the eastern and western fronts achieved good results.

Among them, the eastern front is already very close to the important town of Sibiu in Transylvania. If Sibiu can be captured, the flat Hungarian plains will be like fish on a knife board, allowing them to be slaughtered by the Balkan front coalition forces. new

The western front advanced all the way to the coast of Dalmatia, preparing to move north to encircle the important town of Zagreb in Croatia.

Although they encountered resistance from part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire during this period, these armies basically did not have much room for resistance in the face of the Australasian army, which had sufficient firepower advantage.

After two rounds of bombing, these Austro-Hungarian troops became honest. There are even some unstable troops who have been devastated by the war. After experiencing the bombing like a sky, the only thing they think about is surrender.

On March 1, the rapidly advancing Australasian army came to the banks of the Sava River, and further north was the important town of Zagreb in Croatia.

After arriving here, the army felt a different intensity of resistance than before, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire built very dense defensive positions in this area, apparently to block the Australasian army here.

General Thomas, who had fully fought against the Austro-Hungarian Army, already knew the true combat effectiveness of the Austro-Hungarian Army.

Therefore, General Thomas did not pay attention to these defensive positions established by the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and still adopted the tactics of large-scale bombing and concentrated breakthroughs.

But soon, General Thomas discovered something was wrong. It was obvious that the Austro-Hungarian army blocking the road ahead was very powerful.

Judging from the reaction and resistance displayed by the enemy, either this is an elite army of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, or this is the army group that the Germans left in the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

But no matter what, the army at the front is an elite army, an army with very powerful firepower and combat effectiveness.

Although the first trial attack encountered setbacks, General Thomas was not discouraged, and even looked forward to it.

Theoretically speaking, as long as the elite army of the Austro-Hungarian Empire is captured in front, the Austro-Hungarian Empire will not have many trump cards.

The current General Thomas is still unclear. This is not an Austro-Hungarian army, but a purely German army composed of 15 divisions and a German army group rotated between Hungary and Germany.

Originally, the German group army lost about two armies due to redeployment for two battles.

But because of the filling of these 15 German divisions, the German army returned to full strength.

Both the Germans and the Austro-Hungarian Empire were very confident that this fully or even over-staffed army group could easily keep the Australasians out of the position.

After knowing the combat effectiveness of the elite army in front, General Thomas did not lose care. He changed the original attack plan to a large-scale bombing, and sent an army to outflank the enemy in a roundabout way, trying to cut off the enemy's channels for transporting supplies to this defensive position.

At this time, the more than 2 million rounds of artillery shells prepared by Australasia in advance came into effect. Under the premise of full bombardment by more than 2,000 artillery pieces, these artillery shell reserves lasted for more than ten days.

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

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It was obvious that such a massive bombing campaign had some effect. Even the Germans, who have extremely powerful combat capabilities, will be afraid of the damage caused by such a large-scale artillery bombing.

Germans are human beings too, and it is normal for them to have fears. After all, the Germans had previously used fire suppression and large-scale bombing to cover other countries. Now this is the first time they have tasted the power of such bombing.

Such a large-scale artillery shell hit the small defensive position, which not only flattened the hilltop where the defensive position was located by several meters, but also caused a large number of casualties to the German troops on the position.

More than ten days later, on March 14, all that was left of the originally lush hills were charred black earth and red streams mixed with blood and various debris.

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

This kind of tank is different from the British tank. Because the main body is a tractor, its performance is still guaranteed to a certain extent.

Although the speed is also not fast, the probability of being trapped is much lower than that of the British tanks.

A total of nearly 200 tanks were dispatched in Australasia, and the number of tanks lying on the ground was less than 20, which was less than one-tenth.

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

Now facing a big guy who can withstand bullets, his mentality suddenly collapsed.

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

However, the enemy's artillery shells caused a large number of casualties to our own side. In this situation where the enemy could not be seen but was chased by the enemy, some German soldiers did not know how to fight back.

At present, the enemy finally has plans to attack, but the leader is a large number of steel guys.

These big guys made of steel have good resistance to bullets, and the probability of artillery shells accurately hitting these guys is also very low. The German army has no good way at the moment.

Seeing the enemy troops getting closer and closer, the German commander had no choice but to give the order to retreat.

1. The Western Front officially surrounded Zagreb, which also means that the offensive of the Balkan Front army has achieved more than half of the progress.

Perhaps because seeing that the Australasian army was about to defeat the Austro-Hungarian Empire alone, the Italians suddenly couldn't sit still and immediately launched a campaign.

The Italians plan to invest at least 500,000 combat troops, first attack the Trento and Innsbruck areas from the north, and then turn east to capture Trieste in Istria, and then join forces with the Australasian army. In Klagenfurt.

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

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

The campaign was launched on March 1 and the Trento area was quickly surrounded.

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

Roman newspapers even regarded this battle as the clarion call for the rise of Italy, and regarded the retreat of the Austro-Hungarian defenders as the defeat of the Allies.

Many media in Italy have greatly praised the government and the army, as if Italy has won and has occupied a large amount of land.

After the Balkan coalition and Italy launched attacks one after another, Nivel also decided to look for opportunities to launch a spring offensive and 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 wave of war.

Once the Spring Offensive was launched, it immediately replaced the Balkan Front and the Italian Front as the front with the most casualties every day.

This is actually quite normal. After all, the British, French and Germans invested more than 3 million troops in the spring offensive, far exceeding the combined number of soldiers on the Balkan and Italian fronts.

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

This also means that almost the entire Croatian region has been reduced to the occupation zone of Australasia. The Hungarian plains are already in danger, and the coastal areas of the Austro-Hungarian Empire are also in danger.

On the one hand, there was the crazy attack on the Balkan front, and on the other hand, the crazy consumption of the Italian army. Even with the support of the Germans, the Austro-Hungarian Empire was unable to hold on for a while.

1 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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