Chapter 592 Unfavorable start
George's military reforms effectively increased the mobilization speed of the Russian Empire. Falkenhayn's promise to Conrad was that the German army would defeat the French army within 6 weeks and then concentrate its main force. To the Eastern Front, this was based on the premise that the mobilization of the Russian Empire would take 6 weeks to complete.
Six weeks was Schlieffen’s judgment on the Russian Empire in his era.
Schlieffen served as Chief of the German General Staff from 1891 to 1906.
After George's military reform, the mobilization of the Russian Empire was shortened from 6 weeks to only 6 days.
When the Russian army invaded East Prussia, the 8th Army and local garrison troops in East Prussia totaled less than 200,000 people.
The total strength of the Russian First Army and the Second Army is 280,000.
If Renningkamp and Samsonov can cooperate closely, then the Russian army may indeed achieve the tactical purpose of attacking the German 8th Army from both sides and occupy the entire East Prussia.
Although his 8th Army Commander von Pritwitz was mediocre in ability, he was still aware of the danger. Therefore, after the Russian army invaded East Prussia, the German army kept retreating and did not confront the Russian army head-on. .
Today's army marches at an extremely slow pace. During the march of a division, the team will stretch for more than ten kilometers, and it is easy for the enemy to seize the loopholes.
Because of George's military reforms, the quality of the Guards has been greatly improved, and their marching speed is faster.
After the war broke out, the troops mobilized were of poor quality and disorganized. Everywhere they went, they had to implement the Cossack tradition of supporting war with war and plundering loot, so the situation became increasingly pessimistic.
For the Russian army, another bigger hidden danger is that the French army made no further moves after they invaded Alsace, which gave the German army time to adjust its deployment.
Opposite the French army are the German Fifth Army and Sixth Army led by Crown Prince Friedrich.
The French army's invasion of Alsace not only gave Zhilinsky a wrong signal, but also panicked Frederick.
So Moltke had to dispatch two armies from the right wing to Alsace to strengthen the left wing.
At the same time, the progress of the Russian army in East Prussia made William II even more nervous. Moltke had to transfer two more armies from the right wing to East Prussia. This resulted in the German army having to implement the "Schlieffen Plan". further reduction.
On August 25, a fierce battle broke out between the Russian army and the German army in Gonbin. Both sides suffered heavy losses. The German army retreated on its own initiative, but the Russian army did not pursue it.
That night, von Pritwitz called Moltke and suggested abandoning East Prussia.
After Moltke hung up the phone, he ordered the dismissal of von Pritwitz and appointed Hindenburg as the commander-in-chief of the 8th Army.
Little Nicholas also realized at this time that Zhilinsky's rash advance was inappropriate.
Assigning the elite troops of the Guards to two hastily formed group armies will not effectively improve the combat capabilities of the group armies. Instead, it will lead to a tactical disconnect and greater hidden dangers.
Faced with the complex situation, Nicholas was a little at a loss.
This is understandable. For two months after the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand, all countries took almost no action, so that some people thought that there would be no world war at all.
Suddenly, Austria-Hungary declared war on the Kingdom of Serbia, and Germany declared war on Russia and France.
Immediately afterwards, the German army invaded Luxembourg and launched an attack on the Belgian Fortress of the Sun.
The French army invaded Germany, the Russian army also invaded Germany, Serbia began to counterattack, the Romanian regime changed, and the entire Balkan Peninsula was mobilizing.
Everything is in chaos, big things happen almost every day, and it is overwhelming.
Nicholas is still very confident about the war. After the first batch of mobilization of the Russian army, the strength increased to 3.5 million people, a total of 114 infantry divisions and 36 cavalry divisions. This is almost as many as Germany and Austria. The sum of the Hungarian Empire.
Before the outbreak of the war, the German standing army only had 761,000 people. After the first phase of mobilization, the size of the German army expanded to 2 million. These troops were organized into 87 infantry divisions and 11 cavalry divisions.
The Austro-Hungarian Empire mobilized 1.3 million people, organized into 47 infantry divisions and 11 cavalry divisions.
France mobilized 1.8 million people to join the army, with a total of 97 infantry divisions and 10 cavalry divisions.
Data for the UK are not listed above.
The British mainland has begun to mobilize, but it is still far from the "1 million" claimed by Kitchener. French and Kitchener are discussing whether to recruit the Indian Legion as the main battle force.
Nicholas brought 12 infantry divisions to George, and 4 cavalry divisions.
What made Nicholas quite embarrassed was that these troops were seriously lacking in weapons and equipment. Not only did they not have artillery, they did not even have the most basic rifles.
The cavalry does have horses.
If nothing else, the strength of the Russian Empire can be seen from the number of cavalry alone.
After all, more than half of the world's horses are in the Russian Empire.
Don't worry, George. Weapons will be available sooner or later, but this group of troops is rare.
The first batch of mobilized soldiers from various countries are all reservists who have just retired. The conditions in all aspects are the best. In the future, every mobilization meeting will be worse than the last one.
George also has a trump card.
Considering Amur's industrial capabilities, Amur has not yet mobilized.
After the Russian Empire began to mobilize, Goryeo and Japan also began to mobilize. Now, there are still 500,000 Goryeo troops training in military camps in East Asia.
After receiving this batch of troops, the number of troops that George can mobilize has exceeded 1.2 million, not including the Serbs. For George, he had almost never fought such a rich fight.
Give George another 3 months. After the mobilization troops of the Balkan Alliance are trained and weapons are replenished, George can challenge the Austro-Hungarian Empire alone without the help of little Nicholas.
“I look forward to the news of your victory.”
When Nicholas left, he was full of expectations for George.
Ferdinand sent his brother Nicholas to George's side to serve as a liaison officer between the Balkan Theater and the Kingdom of Romania.
As Nicholas' aide-de-camp, Carol will accompany Nicholas to Constantinople.
In front of George, Carol behaved very reservedly, honestly, and did not look sideways.
But George knew the details of Carol and was very worried about the future of the Kingdom of Romania.
What George was most worried about happened. As soon as he returned to Constantinople, George received news that the Russian army was defeated by the German army at Tannenberg. 130,000 people were killed and 140,000 were captured. Samsonov was defeated and committed suicide.
The First Army and the Second Army had a total strength of 280,000 people and suffered losses of 270,000, almost completely annihilating them.
The defeat was extremely simple. Hindenburg arrived at the front line secretly and concentrated his superior forces to besiege the Second Army led by Samsonov.
Lunningkamp did not provide reinforcements in time and sat back and watched as the First Army was surrounded and annihilated.
After the German army annihilated the Second Army, they continued to attack the First Army.
Renningkamp ordered the troops to retreat, but the action was extremely slow. Later, his troops were surrounded and annihilated by Hindenburg on Lake Masuria.
During the Battle of Tannenberg, George was only relieved that Demeter led part of his troops to successfully escape before being surrounded by the Germans.
Okay, Demeter has been following George for so long and finally learned something.
Before George had time to digest the fact of Zhilinsky's defeat, another bad news came from St. Petersburg, and Milyutin passed away.
This is not bad news. Milyugin, who was born in 1816, is 98 years old this year. In this era when the average life expectancy is less than 40 years old, he can be called an old monster.
George was very sad. He still remembered the first time he met Milyutin, which was at a banquet in the Winter Palace in the winter of 1881.
It has been 33 years since 1881.
For George, Milyugin was both a teacher and a friend, and was the person who had the greatest influence on George.
George returned to Petrograd by plane.
This is George's first time flying.
Milyugin was buried in the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow. Since it was during the war, the funeral ceremony was extremely simple.
Nicholas did not attend Milyutin's funeral. He had to clean up the mess after the Battle of Tannenberg.
After the Battle of Tannenberg, Zhilinsky was dismissed and went to France as a liaison officer.
Renningkamp was also dismissed. Both he and Zhilinsky paid the price for their mistakes, but the losses suffered by the empire were irreparable.
The aftermath of the Battle of Tannenberg continues to unfold.
After losing the First Army and the Second Army, the Russian-German border is in an unprecedented state of emptiness. If Hindenburg drives in at this time, not only Warsaw will not be able to hold it, but also Galicia and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The fighting Ivanov Army will be double-attacked by the German and Austrian troops.
If Ivanov is also defeated, the sailors of the Baltic Fleet will come ashore to assist the Guards in defending Petrograd.
In order to relieve the pressure on Ivanov, George had to order Vasily to launch an attack on the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
This was a difficult decision, because Vasily needed to cross the Carpathians and the Alps to pose a threat to the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Before the outbreak of the war, the Austro-Hungarian Empire built strong fortifications in the Carpathians and Alps. Due to the rugged and difficult roads in the mountainous areas, it was difficult for the armored fighting vehicles equipped for Vasily to function. Vasily He didn't have enough troops in hand. The only ones he could use were the three divisions of Gao Ri Corps.
The army of the Kingdom of Romania is not even as good as the militia according to Amur standards, and cannot even perform the most basic infantry and artillery coordination.
For these small countries, the difficulty of infantry and artillery coordination is indeed too high. After all, the entire Kingdom of Romania has less than 200 artillery pieces.
The Russian Empire had 9,500 artillery pieces.
The artillery of the Kingdom of Romania is still seriously backward. Some of the artillery were even manufactured in the last century and are completely antiques.
Even so, Vasily launched an attack on the Austrian defense lines.
Because Vasily’s biggest trump card is the air force.
It is unbelievable to say that although the European theater is also equipped with an air force, during the Battle of Tannenberg, the air force in the European theater was not dispatched at all. Zhilinsky seemed to have forgotten that he still had an air force. Same thing.
If the air force can provide help to the ground forces, let’s not talk about whether it can change the outcome. At least more Russian troops will be able to withdraw smoothly.
(End of this chapter)