Chapter 419 Dismissal

The rumors that the Germans heard were not groundless. Britain and France did plan to organize a large-scale offensive on the Western Front to ease the pressure on Russia on the Eastern Front and find a breakthrough on the Western Front.

The offensive suffered by the Russians on the Eastern Front has proved that the Germans have mobilized a considerable number of troops from the Western Front.

This also means that Germany's defense on the Western Front must have weak points. As long as it can break through the tight positions arranged by Germany on the Western Front, Germany will be busy fighting on two fronts and will be in chaos without attacking.

The positional warfare on the Western Front has continued to this day, and the consumption is actually very huge.

Although Germany's strategic transfer has indeed reduced the pressure on Britain and France, as of now, the British and French coalition forces have still suffered millions of casualties, and the death toll has already exceeded 400,000.

Although it also caused hundreds of thousands of casualties to the German soldiers in the position, these Germans, like indestructible cockroaches, did not let Britain and France push the front line forward.

Of course, although the front line did not move forward, Britain, France and Germany consumed a lot of troops, weapons and equipment and resources.

In addition to the large number of casualties on both sides, there were millions of weapons, hundreds of millions of bullets, tens of millions of artillery shells, etc., all consumed in this offensive and defensive war.

After Germany was cut off from most of its overseas supplies, it could not bear such high consumption at all, which is why Germany was so eager to find a way out.

On October 11, 1915, Hindenburg's attempts failed again and again. The army he led faced mosquitoes and diseases, and soldiers and war horses were sick and died in large numbers, and the army's combat effectiveness dropped sharply.

Because of the injuries of the war horses, the army could only move less than five kilometers a day in clear weather.

Faced with a very bad logistical situation, Hindenburg could only order a halt to the attack and let the soldiers and horses rest.

What's worse is that because Hindenburg acted recklessly and did not participate in the plan formulated by Falkenhayn, Falkenhayn's plan lacked sufficient troops, and the attack of the German main force did not succeed.

Hindenburg and Ludendorff not only hindered the plan to encircle and annihilate the Russian army in the Warsaw area, but also failed to succeed in the plan they thought would succeed.

Although Germany was undoubtedly the successful party throughout the battle. But Germany did not eliminate the Russian army at the best time. The Allies faced a three-front war and the possibility of victory was not great.

If Germany could pursue the victory, eliminate most of the Russian army, and force Russia to withdraw from the war, it might still be possible to win the war.

But unfortunately, this is only if. The reality is that the difficulties faced by the German army in Russia are more serious than those faced by the Russian army. It is already quite difficult for positional warfare to hold the occupied areas.

From mid-October, Germany entered a full-scale positional warfare defense on the Eastern Front and no longer had any plans to launch any offensive.

Russia was able to breathe a sigh of relief and get a short respite.

The failure of the entire battle caused a strong shock in Russia. Although the protest marches in St. Petersburg and Moscow's Red Square were forcibly suppressed, riots more serious than demonstrations were taking place everywhere in the entire Russian Empire, even in towns and villages of all sizes.

Russia seemed calm on the surface, but secretly it was boiling.

Especially after Nicholas II sent out the Cossack cavalry to forcibly suppress the riots, the people changed from demanding Nicholas II's abdication to demanding the overthrow of the Romanov dynasty and the monarchy, and from being dissatisfied with Nicholas II to being dissatisfied with the entire monarchy, the Tsarist system, and the Tsarist family.

Although the relatively peaceful protests and demonstrations were suppressed, there were more and more actions to subvert the country and overthrow the royal family in secret.

According to the report that Director Batty gave to Arthur, almost overnight, the number of reactionary and revolutionary parties in Russia doubled, and the number of people joining these revolutionary and reactionary parties tripled.

Even if Arthur controlled some political parties in advance, it would be impossible to suppress the current situation in Russia.

In short, Nicholas II has already offended the public, and the whole of Russia is going to overthrow the royal family, which cannot be stopped by any external force.

It has been more than a year since the outbreak of the war. In the past year or so, although Russia's performance is not the worst among the great powers, it is definitely ranked last.

Logically speaking, although the famous European bulldozers are already decayed, their industry and economy are not as good as those of top powers such as Britain, France and Germany.

But at least a lean camel is bigger than a horse, and it should not face such tragic casualties now.

But if you think about the corruption and incompetence of some senior Russian commanders during the war, the muddy roads in Russia, the extreme shortage of transport vehicles, the collusion between logistics officers and contractors, and the embezzlement of military funds for personal gain. They were perfunctory about the materials urgently needed on the front line, and even withheld logistics materials, even rifles and bullets, they would feel that Russia's defeat was completely justified.

According to statistics from both Germany and Russia, the number of artillery shells consumed by Germany in the Battle of Goerlitze was more than 100 times that of Russia.

This also means that after Germany fired more than 100 shells, Russia could only fire back one shell. It would be strange if Russia did not lose such a war.

What's more terrifying is that such figures were reported by the Russian logistics department. Given the level of corruption in Russia, the authenticity of this figure is questionable, which also means that the fire support Russian soldiers have may be lower than imagined.

Of course, the most tragic are the ordinary Russian soldiers. About one-third of them have no guns, only wooden sticks with bayonets tied to them.

Fighting with such weapons and well-equipped German troops, Arthur even felt that the Russian casualties were small.

It is worth mentioning that there are a large number of foreign journalists on the Eastern Front, including journalists from the Allies.

These journalists have a glorious identity, battlefield journalists.

When a British journalist was interviewing an unknown soldier on the Russian front, the soldier showed his only wooden stick with a bayonet tied to it and said to the British journalist: "Sir, this is not a war, this is a massacre. We have nothing but our chests."

The course of the war was indeed like this. Russian soldiers faced various problems and could use their flesh and blood to resist the German attack.

The problem is that flesh and blood cannot stop the firepower network composed of heavy machine guns and artillery. Even though the Russian army suffered heavy casualties, it still allowed the Germans to occupy a large amount of territory and capture many important transportation hub cities.

Of course, this does not mean that the entire Russian top leaders are not wrong. The Russian command lacked excellent strategic vision and was somewhat indecisive when formulating strategies.

Unlike Germany, which constantly changed its battle plan according to the situation and chose the main attack and flank attack direction, Russia made a common sense mistake when formulating a strategic plan for the overall situation. The troops on the north and south lines were evenly distributed, and there was no main attack point.

In this Battle of Goerlitze, Germany had clearly deployed troops to prepare for a new campaign, but the Russian command turned a blind eye and even urged the army to march into the Hungarian Plain, which led to this disastrous defeat.

After the German army broke through the defense line, the Russian command rashly ordered the two wings to fight at the breakthrough point, resulting in batches of Russian troops rushing into battle, without firepower support from the rear, and the front-line combat troops had no unified command and lack of coordination.

Under the bombardment of the German artillery, the hastily deployed Russian troops were quickly destroyed, and the only result was to add a few more casualties to Russia.

If the Russian command could be more decisive, let the two wings retreat significantly, let the Germans be defeated by logistics in the vast Russian hinterland, and finally let the well-prepared army launch an attack, perhaps they would have won a victory like Kutuzov's defeat of Napoleon's army hundreds of years ago.

Even the Germans were worried about this when they launched the attack. They were worried about suffering a defeat like Napoleon.

But unexpectedly, the Russian command completely avoided what the Germans were worried about and gave the Germans a chance to defeat Russia.

Although this seems a bit incredible, if you carefully study the resume of Grand Duke Nicholas, it can actually be explained.

Grand Duke Nicholas seems to have come from a famous Russian military academy and enjoys a good reputation in the military.

But Grand Duke Nicholas has no actual combat experience, and theoretical knowledge alone is not enough.

Coupled with Nicholas II's defense and the poor situation in Russia, it is not surprising that some absurd actions were made.

You know, although Nicholas II gave up the position of Russian commander-in-chief, the Tsarist government and Nicholas II himself still had some constraints and interference on Grand Duke Nicholas.

You know, Nicholas II's court was also very chaotic.

The Tsar and his wife favored Rasputin, a semi-illiterate man from the countryside, just because he used so-called magic to stop the bleeding of Nicholas II's son, Crown Prince Alexei, when he had hemophilia.

Under the favor of the Tsar and his wife, Rasputin was in charge of or influenced the appointment of most senior officials and most state affairs, and his power was no less than that of Nicholas II.

This also made most officials and officers hate Rasputin, but because of the favor of the Tsar and his wife, they could do nothing about it.

Even after the failure of the Battle of Gorlitse, under the promotion of Rasputin, Nicholas II announced the abolition of Grand Duke Nicholas's position as the supreme commander, and appointed himself as the commander-in-chief of the Russian army and the supreme commander of Russia.

Although the indecisive Grand Duke Nicholas was dismissed, the Russian army faced the less capable Tsar Nicholas II.

Nicholas II had more power than Grand Duke Nicholas. After the defeat of Grand Duke Nicholas, the commander-in-chief recommended by the military, the military had no excuse to recommend other candidates for the commander-in-chief.

The second update of 3000 words, please vote for me and support me!