Chapter 667 The Last Battle
After losing trade with Germany, the US military became a new source of finance for the United States.
Wilson was ambitious and formulated a mobilization plan of up to 4 million people.
The Americans were extremely efficient in mobilizing. By May, 1.85 million people had been mobilized.
This was huge bad news for Ludendorff, who had already sidelined Hindenburg and gained actual command of the German army.
After the signing of the Brest-Litovsk Treaty, Ludendorff concentrated the main force of the German army on the Western Front, preparing to deliver a fatal blow to France.
Ludendorff now has 191 divisions and 3.5 million men.
In terms of numbers, the size of the German army is no less than that of 1915, but its strength is not as good as before.
The German army mobilized 250,000 soldiers last winter. All of these mobilized soldiers were born after 1900, and the youngest was only 14 years old.
The situation in the Austro-Hungarian Empire was even worse. The bandages and underwear issued to soldiers were made of paper.
Corresponding to this situation, last winter, 50,000 war horses or draft horses in the Austro-Hungarian Empire starved to death due to lack of fodder.
Probably the Austro-Hungarian Empire used all the grass to make paper.
It is difficult to tell whether the death of these army horses was caused by a lack of forage or because the soldiers wanted to eat meat.
The only thing that is certain is that training a war horse costs much more than training a soldier.
For Russia, the Austro-Hungarian Empire was no longer a threat, and George focused his main energy on appeasing various places.
Pressure increased on Constantinople as peasants' grain was forcibly confiscated.
Now George not only has to organize logistics for the frontline troops, but also raise food for disaster relief.
The Balkan Army now has to deal with not only the rebels, but also the horse bandits roaming around, separatist forces, local armed forces, and the mushrooming local self-government.
The "Brest-Litovsk Treaty" did not directly cede territory to Germany. Instead, Germany established a puppet regime to rule the local area.
Except for cities, Russia has originally been a grass-roots autonomous government in various regions. These autonomous governments have transformed themselves into legal local governments.
The First Army commanded by Runev frequently dispatched to various places to suppress rebellions.
This is familiar to the Russian army because they have been doing this job for many years.
The difference is that after the rebellion subsided this time, self-government did not continue as before. Instead, Constantinople sent civil officials to directly manage it.
The rebels not only stole farmers' rations and seeds, but also completely destroyed local transportation facilities, especially transportation facilities, railways, roads, tunnels, bridges, and so on.
George has food, but it is different from Nicholas’s rain and dew. Only those who accept the work can get food.
Bombed railways and highways need to be repaired, burned houses need to be rebuilt, the ruins caused by the war need to be cleaned up, and the corpses hung on the gallows need to be buried. These tasks all need to be handled by people.
The number of victims is too great.
But the current situation is actually not serious.
If their lives are not stable before winter comes, then when winter comes, it will be a real disaster.
The small town of Rivne, where George once made his fortune, was also greatly damaged by the war.
All the residents of Rivne were Cossacks. After the war broke out, they actively responded to the empire's call and enlisted in the army. 807 people joined the army.
Of these 807 people, except for 11 who were lucky enough to go home due to injuries and disabilities, the others were either killed in battle or their whereabouts are unknown.
The efforts of the residents of Rivne did not receive the rewards they deserved. Instead, they were regarded as a model of stubbornness and were targeted by the provisional government and the autonomous government. Not only the train station was bombed and the railway tracks were demolished, And the whole town was set on fire.
When Alexander came to Rivne with the 1st Livadia Rifle Battalion, Rivne, which once had a total population of 3,000, had less than 100 people left.
George was very sad. The Cossacks in Rivno were moved here by George. George promised to give them a stable and beautiful life, but he failed to do so.
Stannis, who once worked at the Rivne Railway Station and served in the Guards, not only had no complaints about George, but was full of gratitude.
“The Grand Duke has fulfilled his promise and brought us from the bitter cold Lake Ladoga to the warm Rivne. This is not the Grand Duke’s responsibility——”
Stannis finally asked Alexander: "When did the Grand Duke become Tsar?"
George's new nickname was "Tsar."
Alexander decided to rebuild Rivne. He led the soldiers of the rifle battalion to build new houses on the ruins, used his salary to buy new clothes for the half-clothed children, and gave military boots issued by the army to The barefoot homeless people eventually even replanted food with the residents.
George was very pleased. Regardless of whether Alexander would engage in politics or business in the future, George hoped that Alexander could become a person who contributed to society.
As it gets closer to Moscow, the resistance encountered by the Second Army becomes stronger and stronger.
On June 11, the Second Army finally found the main force of the rebels in Tula.
In 1632, the Dutch established an arsenal in Tula. In 1712, Peter the Great expanded the arsenal into a royal arsenal. From then on, Tula became one of the three major empires. After the outbreak of the war, Tula's industrial capacity increased rapidly, and rifle production increased nearly 10 times. More than one-fifth of the rifles used by the Russian army were produced by Tula.
When the Second Provisional Government moved the capital, part of the machinery from the St. Petersburg Arsenal was transferred to Tula, and Tula became the most important industrial center of the Second Provisional Government.
Vasily knew the importance of Tula to the rebels and personally directed the attack on Tula.
Air Force reconnaissance showed that the Tula garrison numbered at least 300,000 people, which far exceeded Vasily's estimate.
Vasily’s estimate is that since the rebels still have to defend Moscow, the defenders of Tula will not exceed 100,000 at most.
The total strength of the Second Army was only 400,000, and Vasily’s troops used to attack Tula were only about 100,000.
100,000 beats 100,000, Vasily is still very confident.
If you fight 100,000 against 300,000, you might be counterattacked.
George transferred troops from the Third Army led by Andrei to reinforce Vasily.
At the same time, Brusinov and Ruzsky were ordered to support the Russian army on the northern front and stop the attack on the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
As the war spread to Austria, the resistance of the Austrians became stronger.
When they first attacked Transylvania, Vasily and Andrei encountered almost no resistance and easily swept through Transylvania in two months.
When Brusinov attacked Bosnia and Herzegovina, he also did not encounter much resistance. The locals did not care whether they were ruled by Russians or Austrians.
On the land of the Kingdom of Hungary, the Austrians’ fighting will was not tenacious.
As the Russian army invaded the Austrian mainland, even Austrian women took up arms to fight the Russian army, which made Qiao Zhe feel helpless.
Even the capital of Hungary was occupied by the Russian army, and it could no longer squeeze out much oil and water.
George's main focus now is on the Second Provisional Government.
On June 15, the artillery of the First Army shelled the rebel positions.
At the same time, Vasily dispatched bombers to bomb the Tula Arsenal.
Now that George has to provide relief to the victims, food is a bit tight, and artillery shells are abundant. The artillery shells sent from Amur alone reach 300,000 tons every month.
With the improvement of Constantinople’s local industrial capacity, the number of artillery shells that can be produced every month has reached about 100,000 tons.
Although the pension of the servant army was very low, George still did not waste manpower on problems that could be solved with artillery shells.
Compared with the First Army, the weapons and equipment of the rebels are relatively backward. Not only do they not have an air force, but they also lack heavy artillery. On the contrary, they have a lot of armored fighting vehicles.
These armored fighting vehicles all come from the previous Russian Army on the Northern Front and the Guards, with a total of nearly a thousand vehicles.
On the 17th, the transport troops of the First Army were attacked by rebels in Tumusk. The troops attacking Tula were in danger of being surrounded by rebels.
Vasily did not take it to heart and continued to attack Tula.
On the 18th, Bryansk was also attacked by rebels. Fortunately, the defenders were well prepared and the losses were minor.
On the night of the 18th, the leading troops of the Third Army arrived in Bryansk.
While Vasily stormed Tula, the German army launched a full-scale attack on the Western Front.
Last winter, Ludendorff and Hindenburg met, and the two agreed that if the war could not end in 1918, it would be difficult for Germany to win the final victory.
Following the Georgette Offensive, the German forces launched attacks on Allied positions at Mancheiddam, the Ainne, the Marne, the Mats, and Champagne.
In the second half of last year, Ludendorff's cousin Oscar von Hutier invented a new tactic. This tactic consists of 6-8 carefully trained soldiers forming a commando team as the vanguard, sneaking into the Allied positions, and attacking in depth. Infiltrate and leave the strong fortress on the position to the follow-up troops carrying heavy weapons to deal with it.
This tactic achieved good results in small-scale battles, so Ludendorff regarded the "Hutil Tactics" as a magic weapon to win victory.
Last winter, the German army withdrew its best officers from the front line for four weeks of training, and then formed 42 elite divisions based on these officers.
These 42 divisions are Ludendorff's main offensive force.
After the battle began, Ludendorff discovered that the "Hutil tactics" that worked well in small-scale battles did not have the desired effect at the corps level battle. Not only did they not achieve For the purpose of infiltration, the "Storm Troopers" often suffered devastating blows as soon as they approached the Allied positions.
It’s not Ludendorff’s fault.
42 divisions may seem like a lot. In fact, due to the heavy losses of the German army, the establishment has been shrinking. The total strength of the 42 divisions is only about 500,000.
The US military that just entered the war had a division of 25,000.
Before the outbreak of the World War, the main field forces of various countries, the establishment of a division usually ranged from 15,000 to 18,000 people.
This value has been shrinking since the outbreak of the World War. The most miserable Austro-Hungarian Empire now has only 5,000 men per division.
(End of this chapter)