Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 515 Breakthrough Tactics
Although Spain also sent troops to the Balkans, for Carlo, the trouble of the war was not in the Balkans, but in the British Isles outside of mainland Europe.

The loss of Austria-Hungary was merely the loss of a finger for Germany. It had little impact on the fighting capacity of the German army, and with the morale boosted by a desperate fight, Germany could still contend with the Allied Powers for some time.

Especially with British assistance, Germany could hold out longer than historically, and there might even be a chance of a comeback.

Although the Central Powers were established on the basis of the original Triple Alliance, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which had concluded an alliance treaty with Germany much earlier, was clearly less important than Great Britain.

It is no exaggeration to say that to defeat Germany, Britain must first be forced to surrender. If Britain had consistently stood behind Germany, it could have fully unleashed Germany's war potential, continuously supplying it with resources and prolonging the war.

To force Britain to surrender, one must either defeat the British navy head-on or create some trouble for Britain from within.

The good news is that Spain is currently prepared in both of these areas.

Although Spain's overall naval size lags behind that of Britain, the combined navies of France, Russia, Spain, and Italy are still comparable to those of Britain, Germany, and Austria.

As for the problems within Britain, they were actually no less numerous than those within Austria-Hungary and Russia.

There's no need to elaborate on Ireland, which Spain had already established a presence in long ago. Even in India, Britain's most important colony, there were many voices advocating for Indian independence.

Spain may not care about the Philippines, a colony thousands of miles away, but Britain will certainly care about India.

This is Britain's Achilles' heel. Once you exploit Britain's weakness, dealing with Britain is actually quite easy.

Although we already have the means to deal with Britain, Britain is still the current world superpower, so we must be cautious when dealing with Britain.

It would take at least until Britain's military strength on the mainland was depleted and its navy was tied down by the Allied fleet before it could inflict a heavy blow on Britain in one fell swoop.

It is clearly not the right time to target Britain. Apart from having the Royal Security Intelligence Service secretly contact anti-British forces in Ireland to prepare, Carlo did not make many moves in Ireland to avoid arousing the British's suspicion.

As both the Central Powers and the Allied Powers significantly increased their troop deployments in the Balkans, large-scale battles also broke out on the southern border of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Unlike the war on the Eastern Front, which involved only a few countries, the Balkans now involve multiple countries, including Great Britain, Germany, Austria-Hungary, France, Russia, Spain, Italy, Serbia, Romania, and Montenegro.

In addition to these truly independent nations, European countries also mobilized their colonies and dominions, and the troops fighting in the Balkans came from all over the world.

The fighting in the Balkans was incredibly fierce. For one thing, Serbia genuinely hated Austria-Hungary.

The Serbian troops participating in the war were extremely enthusiastic; they couldn't wait to invade Austro-Hungarian territory and let Austro-Hungary taste the bitterness of being invaded and attacked.

Romania was also quite excited and looking forward to this. According to the agreement between the Allied Powers and Romania, once Austria-Hungary was defeated, Romania would gain Transylvania, which would make Romania the biggest beneficiary of the war among the Balkan nations, firmly establishing Romania's dominant position in the region.

Compared to these two Balkan countries, the troops sent by the other Allied powers were not as enthusiastic about fighting.

The Italian army, in particular, although they never refused orders from the Allied Command, showed from their results that they were not serious at all.

Of course, it's also possible that the Italian army was serious, but they were simply no match for the Austro-Hungarian army.

After all, this was how the Italian army performed on the border battlefields between northern Italy and Austria-Hungary.

If the Western Front did not fully demonstrate the difference in combat capabilities between the French and Spanish armies, then the Balkan campaign, where both armies faced the same enemy, vividly revealed this disparity.

Comparing only the main forces of both sides, the Spanish army was a level above the French army in terms of combat effectiveness. Although the gap wasn't enormous, no one could deny that it existed.

The large-scale deployment of troops to fight against Austria-Hungary quickly put pressure on the country.

Although German troops arrived in Austria-Hungary within days of the Allied conference, the single German army group was insufficient to handle the operational pressures on three fronts facing Austria-Hungary.

Fortunately, Emperor Franz Joseph I was not foolish and knew how to make good use of the German army's fighting strength.

Under the orders of Franz Joseph I, the German-supported army group was not deployed on the western border of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, but rather along the border from Serbia to Romania to defend the Hungarian region.

The reason for deploying the German army group here was that the Austro-Hungarian Empire faced the greatest offensive pressure along the line from Serbia to Romania.

There are not only Serbian and Romanian troops here, but also French and Spanish troops.

If the Austro-Hungarian army were to defend alone, it certainly wouldn't last long. After all, the Allied powers not only had more troops but also a greater number of artillery pieces and machine guns, giving them an absolute advantage in firepower.

Seeing the increasing casualties at the front, the Austro-Hungarian government could no longer sit idly by and hurriedly requested the British government to expedite the transport of troops and supplies, ideally delivering all troops and supplies to Austria-Hungary within a week.

Faced with Austria-Hungary's urging, the British government was actually in a rather difficult position. The reason was simple: the shortest route from the British mainland to Austria-Hungary was through the Strait of Gibraltar.

However, the Strait of Gibraltar was controlled by Spain, and for British troop transport ships to pass through it was like lambs to the slaughter.

Without going through the Strait of Gibraltar, British transport ships would have had to circle around Africa, making it completely unrealistic to transport troops to Austria-Hungary within a week.

Britain had only two options left if it wanted to transport troops to Austria-Hungary within a week.

Alternatively, troops could be transported to Germany and then transported by train to Austria-Hungary. Although this was more complicated, given Germany's well-developed railway network, transporting hundreds of thousands of troops within a week was still feasible.

Another option was to move troops not to Britain, but to British colonies such as Egypt, South Africa, and India to support Austria-Hungary.

In these three colonies, in addition to the colonial army, Britain also had regular troops stationed there.

All three colonies were very important: the Egyptian colony controlled the Suez Canal, the Indian colony was the core of the British Empire, and the South African colony was one of the few African colonies that generated positive returns.

Drawing troops from these three major colonies and incorporating some of the colonial troops would easily suffice to form an army group of 30 men.

Although both methods could have enabled the deployment of additional troops to Austria-Hungary in a short period of time, the British government, after careful consideration, ultimately decided to choose the first method.

Although the three colonies had enough troops to mobilize, if troops were to be transferred from the colonies, the colonies would face a shortage of troops before reinforcements could be sent to Britain.

Now that it was a world war, the British government could not guarantee that Spain and France would not launch a surprise attack on its colonies, which were now vulnerable to attack.

This is also why Britain ultimately decided to redeploy troops from its homeland. After all, even if its homeland forces were depleted, as long as it held the English Channel, it wouldn't have to worry about being attacked by France or Spain.

Moreover, Britain can mobilize more troops at any time, so a shortage of troops is not a major problem.

To this end, the British government specifically contacted Germany, hoping that Germany's railway system could cooperate with Britain to transport troops to Austria-Hungary more quickly.

The German government naturally wouldn't refuse. After all, aside from the transportation department needing to cooperate with Britain, the German government had no other contributions. If these British troops could stabilize the southern front after arriving in Austria-Hungary, it would be good news for Germany.

Germany could then concentrate its efforts on the Eastern Front, and if it could resolve the situation in Russia, it could also alleviate the pressure on Austria-Hungary.

The reason why the Austro-Hungarian Empire faced a three-front war was largely due to the conflict between the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Russia.

Although Russia lost the ability to launch a counterattack in the short term after its defeat on the Eastern Front, nothing is absolute. Russia still had nearly a million troops deployed on its border with Austria-Hungary, and Austria-Hungary had no choice but to deploy over a million troops on the border as well, even though there were crises on the southern and western fronts.

If Russia could be completely defeated, Austria-Hungary could redeploy its millions of troops to the western border or the southern battlefield, thus relieving the pressure on Austria-Hungary.

After much deliberation, the German government finally realized that Russia was the biggest problem. Once Russia was dealt with, all other problems would be solved.

Therefore, under the planning of the German High Command, it was decided to launch a new offensive against Russia, using large-scale tactical infiltration across the vast East European plains to encircle as many of the remaining Russian troops on the Eastern Front as possible.

If Russia can eliminate one or more Russian army groups as it has done in previous campaigns, it will no longer be able to launch a counter-offensive, and there is a very high probability that it will have to withdraw from the war.

After all, an army group has hundreds of thousands of troops, and several army groups can have millions of troops.

Even Russia would be unable to withstand such a large loss of soldiers at once.

The German High Command spent a long time examining the map of the Eastern Front and ultimately concluded that the areas where victories had already been achieved were the best places to carry out tactical infiltration.

The reason is simple: although Russia replenished its forces in time after the 10th Army suffered heavy losses, these troops sent to the battlefield were all new recruits.

Compared to the original main force of the 10th Army Group, these troops sent to the battlefield not only had terrible military skills, but also worse weapons and equipment.

Although France and Spain have provided Russia with a large amount of weaponry, the Russian military still faces a shortage of supplies.

These recruits rarely received a standard-issue rifle; for most, simply getting a rifle was already a good thing.

A large portion of Russia's new recruits still haven't received rifles. The fastest way for them to get rifles isn't by waiting for French and Spanish arms aid, but by acquiring rifles from fallen comrades at the front.

Yes, the situation in Russia is that bad. Apart from the main Russian army being uniformly equipped with standard rifles from France and Spain, only a small number of troops with relatively reliable combat capabilities are given priority in being equipped with rifles from France and Spain.

The majority of the remaining Russian troops were equipped with rifles produced in Russia. These rifles were not only far inferior in performance to the standard rifles of France and Spain, but their numbers were also far from sufficient.

Compared to France and Germany, which were able to provide every soldier with a rifle, Russia was far behind in this regard.

According to data from the front lines, Russia's elite troops are able to equip each soldier with a rifle, and its main forces, which are known for their reliable combat capabilities, can also achieve this.

For the majority of the remaining Russian regulars and recruits, it was considered quite good if two people could share one rifle. Recruits, in particular, were often three to one rifle, with the remaining two only receiving ammunition.

When your comrade dies in battle, you can pick up his rifle and use your own bullets to join the fight.

Both France and Spain are well aware of the current state of the Russian army.

However, this situation was unsolvable because Russia had far too many troops, so many that France and Spain simply could not meet the needs of Russia for weapons and equipment.

It has been almost two years since the outbreak of the war. In these two years, countries have mobilized millions of troops, and the casualties have been enormous.

On the Central Powers side, Germany mobilized more than 600 million troops, Austria-Hungary mobilized 370 million troops, the Ottoman Empire mobilized 210 million troops, Britain mobilized 170 million troops, and Bulgaria mobilized 85 troops.

On the Allied side, France mobilized 540 million troops, Spain mobilized 160 million troops, Italy mobilized 150 million troops, Romania mobilized 80 troops, and Serbia mobilized 70 troops.

As for Russia, which has mobilized the most troops, it has currently mobilized nearly 890 million soldiers. After deducting casualties, Russia still has more than 500 million troops on the front lines.

To fill the gaps in the Russian army's weaponry all at once, even with the addition of France, let alone Spain's military manufacturing capabilities, it would only be barely enough.

After all, France and Spain still have to consider their own military's weapons and equipment needs, so they can only allocate a portion to help Russia.

This is why Russia still faces significant shortages of weaponry and equipment at its front lines. Furthermore, after each Russian defeat, large quantities of weaponry and equipment were captured by the German army.

This has led to a decline in the Russian army's weaponry, which can only be maintained with the continuous supply of weapons and equipment from France and Spain.

The German High Command was well aware of the current state of the Russian army, which is why it ultimately decided to focus its main offensive on areas where it had already won battles.

Located in the Gorlice region on the upper reaches of the Vistula River, this area has relatively open terrain, making it suitable for tactical infiltration and breakthroughs.

Once a breach is created in this defensive line, it will be difficult for the Russian army to plug the gap and to use the terrain advantage to launch an attack.

This is another major reason why Germany chose this location for its attack; in short, it is difficult to defend and easy to attack.

To facilitate unified command, German Chief of the General Staff Falkenhahn did not appoint Hindenburg and Ludendorff's troops as the main attacking force, but instead chose the more obedient 11th Army. General Mackensen was put in charge of all attacking forces, and the 10th Corps and 41st Guards Corps from the baseline were also placed under the command of the 11th Army, thus strengthening the 11th Army's paper strength.

Before launching the attack, Germany had conducted a survey of the Russian troops stationed in the area. The Russian Third Army was stationed there, consisting of seven cavalry divisions, but most of them were newly recruited soldiers.

After reorganization, the German 11th Army had more than 340,000 troops and 1600 artillery pieces of various calibers, of which more than 300 were large-caliber artillery pieces.

While Russia's Third Army also has more than 25 soldiers, most of them are new recruits, some of whom are even going to the battlefield for the first time and have not yet experienced the baptism of war.

Besides the difference in the quality of soldiers, Russia's Third Army was also at a significant disadvantage in terms of artillery compared to Germany's Eleventh Army.

The entire Russian Third Army possessed only about 700 artillery pieces, with fewer than 30 of them being large-caliber guns. More importantly, these 700 artillery pieces had a stockpile of less than 5 rounds of ammunition.

On average, each artillery piece was equipped with only 71 shells in reserve, which was basically only one day's worth of shells on the front lines.

On the German side, with more than 1600 artillery pieces, the German army also prepared more than 50 rounds of ammunition, averaging 312 rounds per artillery piece.

This alone reveals the fundamental difference between the German and Russian armies.

With everything prepared, the German High Command confidently issued the order and launched the attack.

With all of Europe focused on the Balkans, the German High Command was convinced that this offensive would prevent the Russian army from responding in time, and that the German army would quickly create a breach, thus completely destroying the Russian defenses.

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(End of this chapter)