Chapter 594 The Emperor
After receiving additional troops from Petrograd, the 12th Army led by Vasily was also strengthened. Now Vasily can mobilize a total of 8 divisions and brigades, with a total strength of 13 Thousands of people.
These troops are 6 infantry divisions, 2 cavalry divisions, and an artillery brigade.
In addition, Vasily can also mobilize 11 Romanian divisions to cooperate in combat. All of these Romanian divisions are infantry divisions.
The task given by George to Vasily was to cross the Carpathian Mountains, invade the hinterland of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, occupy Transylvania, and threaten Budapest, the capital of the Kingdom of Hungary, from the flanks.
Most of Transylvania is located within the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and its main inhabitants are Romanians.
This area is also the birthplace of the Romanians. Ferdinand was very enthusiastic about regaining this area, which coincided with George's plan.
This task is actually not difficult. The Kingdom of Hungary is weak and people indulge in pleasure. The Romanians in Transylvania are suffering from the double oppression of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary. They will use their incomparable strength to Enthusiastically cooperate with the coalition's offensive.
When the airborne troops received the combat order, Vasily had already launched an attack on the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
In the Balkan War, George already had examples of successful use of bombers, and Vasily would not ignore the role of bombers.
Before launching the offensive, Vasily organized artillery units and air forces to bomb the Austro-Hungarian defense lines.
After 4 hours of shelling and bombing, Vasily ordered a probing attack on the Austrian defense lines.
This decision was opposed by Romania’s Chief of General Staff Constantin Cristescu.
Christescu believes that 4 hours of shelling and bombing are not enough to destroy the Austrian fortress. Referring to the current habits of various countries, firepower preparations before launching a large-scale battle must be at least 3 days. .
This is the standard now.
After the Battle of the Somme, this standard was raised to a week to half a month.
This can explain why the consumption of artillery shells in various countries is so large.
Although Amur has strong industrial strength, Vasily's tactical guiding ideology is to save when he can and try to avoid unnecessary waste.
Due to long-term preparations before the outbreak of the war, the 12th Army's artillery had an average ammunition supply of 1,500 rounds, which was similar to the level of the German army.
The artillery technology of the 12th Group Army is advanced and the firing speed is very fast, so the consumption of artillery shells is naturally very large.
1,500 rounds seems like a lot. If at least 3 days of firepower preparation are carried out before each battle, they can all be fired in one battle.
So Vasily’s tactic is to combine artillery strikes with infantry attacks, which can reduce consumption more reasonably.
The reason for Christkus's objection was that the attacking troops sent by Vasily were Romanians.
As a servant army, Christkus was mentally prepared to sacrifice.
But such hasty fire preparation gave Christkus the feeling that his sacrifice was not taken seriously.
Sacrifice is okay, but the sacrifice must be worthwhile.
"Your tactical thinking is outdated. The purpose of artillery is not to destroy the enemy's defense line, but to cover the infantry attack."
Vasily entered a combat state. This kind of consumption was a big blow to him. Commonplace.
During the Russo-Japanese War, Vasily had outstanding military exploits. When Russian newspapers praised Vasily, they never paid attention to the casualty data of the servants.
Let’s not talk about the Korean troops.
The Sakhalin Division, which was mainly composed of Japanese, was beaten at least twice during the Russo-Japanese War to the point where it almost had to be cancelled. However, it returned to the battlefield after only a short period of supplementary repairs.
As the first batch of East Asian troops to arrive in the Balkans, the Sakhalin Division is currently affiliated with the 11th Group Army led by Brusinov and is stationed in Bulgaria.
Relative to the Gauge Army, Vasily was more willing to use the Romanian army to consume the Austrian army.
It is not impossible to use the Russian army as the main force.
But in that case, who will get Transylvania?
Vasily did not want to learn from the previous tsars, he worked hard to conquer the Balkans, made wedding clothes for others in vain, and cultivated a bunch of white-eyed wolves.
“The Kingdom of Romania has never conducted training in infantry and artillery coordination, and they are unable to undertake such a difficult combat mission.”
Christkus hopes that Vasily will learn from the perspective of the Kingdom of Romania Set off and send the Gaori Legion to fight.
The Romanian army is also dominated by Slavs.
“Then let them train in battle.”
Vasily was indifferent and would be beaten if he fell behind.
From what Christkus said, it makes sense that he has not received any training in this area!
As part of the coalition, the Romanian army must work hard to adapt to the Russian army's combat methods if it wants to play a full role in the war, rather than in turn allowing the Russian army to adapt to the Romanian army.
Compared with the Gaori Army, the newly mobilized Romanian army is seriously lacking in training, and its combat effectiveness is far inferior to the Gaori Army.
It is impossible for Vasily to send elite troops as expendables to wait for the growth of the Romanian army.
This is also George's style.
The monarchs of the Balkan countries are all from Europe, and their ambitions are not very big. They just want to be kings comfortably, and they don't have much ambition. Those who are ambitious will not have the chance to go to the Balkans and become kings.
The really ambitious ones are the generals in the Balkans. They dream of restoring the largest territory in history, so they have all kinds of "bigness" that are equal to one country. The originally law-abiding king gradually turned into a careerist in this fanatical atmosphere.
Like Bulgaria and Serbia, Romania also wants to establish a "Greater Romania".
Dreams are forged with blood and sacrifice, and getting something for nothing is called charity.
After Vasily came to the Kingdom of Romania, he was awarded the title of Marshal of Romania.
Vasili was the only marshal of the Kingdom of Romania.
Christus couldn't defeat Vasily, so he went to Ferdinand to complain.
“What do you want Grand Duke Yuriev and Prince Suvorov to do? Use Cossacks to conquer Transylvania and then give Transylvania to us? This is impossible!”
Ferdinand knew George and Vasily well, both of whom were standard royal princes by Romanian standards.
“I am not afraid of sacrifice, I just hope that a longer firepower preparation will make our sacrifice more valuable.”
Christkus sighed, both wanting and The plan will fail.
“Compared with Grand Duke Yuriev’s legion, our equipment is backward and our training is insufficient, but at least we have a strong will and are not afraid of sacrifice.”
Ferdinand is determined, The Kingdom of Romania now has no way to retreat and can only follow the Russian Empire to the end.
Four hours of firepower preparation was indeed not enough to destroy the Austrian defense line. The attacking troops suffered heavy losses and were forced to retreat.
In just 20 minutes, the Romanian Second Army lost a regiment.
This is because due to the terrain restrictions, too many attacking troops cannot be invested, otherwise the losses will be even greater.
When the Second Army attacked, Vasily sent planes to conduct reconnaissance, looking for Austrian artillery positions.
For attacking troops, artillery is a far greater threat than infantry.
Killing the Austrian artillery is equivalent to breaking off the sharpest fangs of the Austrian army.
The Austrians were also smart. The artillery was not deployed centrally, but was dispersed in strong fortresses.
There is no other way but to grind slowly. The battle is going on extremely anxiously.
On September 2, the airborne troops who were doing nothing in Crimea finally received George's battle order.
This time the battle plan was named "Soybean" by George.
The mission of the airborne troops is to parachute to the rear of the Austrian army's defense line, threaten the Austrian army's defense line from behind, and cut off the Austrian army's supply routes.
This is the first time the airborne force has received a combat mission since its formation. The commander, Colonel Constantine, was excited but also under great pressure.
During the Balkan War, George once prepared to use airborne troops, but the Marines were ultimately dispatched.
This mission is more dangerous because of the lack of naval gun cover.
The total strength of the airborne troops is only 4,000, which is already the limit because of the lack of sufficient transport aircraft.
These 4,000 people need to be divided into two batches before they can all be delivered to the designated location.
Limited by delivery conditions, the heavy firepower of the airborne troops is mortars.
Fortunately, although the range of the 90mm mortar is not far enough, it is still powerful.
In the process of conquering the Fortress of the Liege in Belgium, the German army used howitzers with a caliber as high as 420 mm.
It doesn’t make much sense to overemphasize the caliber. There are also artillery pieces with a caliber of 1 meter in the museum in Petrograd.
In addition to 90mm mortars, the airborne troops are also equipped with heavy machine guns and grenade launchers.
These heavy machine guns are no longer traditional water-cooled heavy machine guns, but are air-cooled, greatly reducing their dependence on the environment.
At this time, the Russian coalition's attack had entered its fourth day. The Austro-Hungarian Empire's defense line was crumbling under the repeated attacks of the air force and ground forces, leaving only its last breath.
At 6 o'clock in the morning, the airborne troops who were ready to go took turns boarding the plane in Bucharest, and Colonel Constantine was also in the first echelon.
Bucharest is very close to the target location, and the transport plane only needs to fly for one hour to reach the target location.
In order to avoid becoming the target of Austrian shooters, Colonel Konstantin wore a steel helmet and field clothing like ordinary soldiers, and replaced his command knife with a rifle, which was a requirement of the Amur Military District.
In the ongoing Battle of Galicia, Austrian military officers often became targets of Russian precision shooters because of their shiny belts and golden command knives, and suffered tragic headshots many times.
At 7:15, the transport plane arrived at the scheduled location, and Colonel Constantine jumped out of the cabin like everyone else.
The entire airborne process went extremely smoothly. Except for one transport plane that was forced to return due to its own malfunction during the flight, most of the airborne troops landed safely.
Since airborne troops had never appeared on the battlefield before, the Austrian army was unprepared for this. The airborne landing site was the small town of Victoria, a transportation hub about 30 kilometers behind the Austrian defense line. This town only had about one platoon. The Austrian troops were stationed, but they dispersed immediately after the airborne troops landed. Their will to resist was even inferior to that of the small town residents and train station staff.
(End of this chapter)