I'm playing whack-a-mole in Siberia

Chapter 620 The fight begins

Ferdinand was in his prime, and even if Elizabeth had a chance, it would be a long time in the future.

George's top priority is to win the war for the Russian Empire.

Speaking of the Russian Empire.

Even George did not notice that his feelings towards the Russian Empire had quietly changed after Boris became the King of Bulgaria.

After Boris got married, Catherine and Anne did not return to Amur immediately. Anne stayed in Constantinople to accompany George, and Catherine was waiting to hold her great-grandson in Adrianople. The whole family seemed to have forgotten about Amur and were reluctant to leave.

Anne is fine. Wherever George is, there Anne is.

Catherine's feelings had completely shifted from Amur to the Kingdom of Bulgaria.

Amur was just George's fiefdom.

Bulgaria was a kingdom belonging to the Yuriev family.

These are completely two concepts.

After learning the details of the Second Balkan War, Catherine felt very sorry for her eldest grandson and asked George to help Boris regain the territories lost by the Kingdom of Bulgaria in the Second Balkan War.

To ensure the stability of the Balkan Alliance, George would certainly not do this.

But George would not let his son down. He would do his best to safeguard the interests of the Bulgarian Kingdom within his ability.

Once this is confirmed, Bosnia and Herzegovina will have nothing to do with the Kingdom of Serbia.

Even further, after Peter's death, it is hard to say whether the Kingdom of Serbia will still exist.

Brusinov had spent the past winter preparing for an invasion of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

As soon as George signed the 11th Army's combat plan, Brusinov couldn't wait to lead his troops to attack the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

After the Battle of Belgrade, Conrad did not reorganize the Sixth Army and the Eighth Army, but instead established a new Ninth Army to defend the direction of the Kingdom of Serbia.

Although Falkenhayn was punished to stand, he could not stand by and watch the Austro-Hungarian Empire be defeated, so in addition to the Austrian 14th Army, Brusinov also faced the German th Army led by Otto von Bulow.

The 14th Army consisted of 6 German divisions, while the 7th Austrian Army consisted of infantry divisions, a cavalry division, and an artillery division.

Since almost all the Austrian divisions were not fully staffed, the troops under von Bilow's command had only 20 men, which was also a huge gap from Brusinov.

Von Bilow's advantage was that he could organize his defense using the defenses built by the Austro-Hungarian Empire before the war.

However, this line of defense was not solid, because Conrad had almost never considered defense before the war and was only focused on offense, so the line of defense was not perfect.

Von Bilow was well aware that Brusinov would attack as soon as spring came, so he spent the entire winter building fortifications.

On April 4, 5 Russian-Bulgarian troops, under the command of Brusinov, launched an attack on the German-Austrian coalition forces.

Almost on the same day, the Russian-Romanian coalition forces, under the command of Vasily, also launched an attack on Mackensen's corps.

As usual, the Russian attack also began with artillery bombardment.

In the artillery battle last winter, the Russian artillery performed outstandingly, causing huge losses to the German-Austrian coalition forces, and at one point forced the Austrian army to abandon its positions and flee.

Falkenhayn agreed to send more troops to Austria-Hungary on the condition that all front-line troops must obey the command of the German commander and the Austrian generals would be in a subordinate position.

Conrad also did not want to give up command.

But the situation was stronger than the person, and after comprehensive consideration, Conrad accepted Falkenhayn's request.

When the news reached Vienna, the old emperor's patience with Conrad had finally reached its limit, so Conrad was dismissed and sent to Isonzo to deal with the Italians.

Luigi Cardona was still very tenacious and launched the Second Battle of the Isonzo River in February of this year.

This time Cardona finally regained some face, occupied a small town, defeated the Austrian 20th Division, and caused 4.5 casualties to the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

But overall, there has been no obvious change in the battle line, and both sides are still in a stalemate.

This attack finally restored some confidence of the Allies in the Kingdom of Italy, and it seemed that the Italians were not someone who could be bullied.

It’s not that the Italians can’t fight, the key is whether they want to fight.

During World War II in North Africa, an Italian army wanted to surrender to the British Army, but was rejected by the British Army.

Having its surrender rejected is the most direct humiliation for Italy.

The Italians, knowing their shame and then becoming braver, took the initiative to attack the British army and defeated it.

This time the British finally accepted the surrender of the Italians. Also in the Battle of Volgograd during World War II, the Italians became the only Allied force to break through the siege. During the breakout, Italian soldiers even engaged in hand-to-hand combat with the Soviets.

Miraculously, the Italians won again.

So the character of Italians is similar to that of Russians. Unless they are pushed into desperate situations, Italians don't know how great their potential is.

Vasily still attached great importance to Mackensen. The artillery and air force bombing lasted for three full days before launching ground forces to attack.

The German positions were severely damaged. Mackensen commanded his troops to launch a counterattack in the ruins. In order to repel the Russian attack, the German army once again used poison gas bombs in the battle.

This time the Russian army was well prepared, and all the soldiers participating in the attack wore gas masks, so the attack was not affected by the poison gas.

What Vasily did not expect was that the Russian armored vehicles, which were not stopped by the poison gas, were helpless in the face of the poor traffic conditions.

To stop the Russian attack, Mackensen dug an artificial lake upstream of the Tisza River, creating an artificial flood when the Russian army attacked.

Vasily was caught off guard and lost 60 armored vehicles.

60 armored vehicles were almost equivalent to half an armored division, which made Vasily heartbroken.

Due to the swollen river water, the Russian offensive was forced to halt, which gave Mackensen the opportunity to reorganize the defense line.

Similar to Vasily's frustrated attack, Brusinov's attack was not going well either.

Due to the absolute advantage in military strength, Brusinov ordered his troops to launch a full-scale attack on the German army from Serbia and Montenegro respectively.

Von Bilow was experienced and participated in both the Masurian Lake Battles. With his outstanding performance in the two Masurian Lake Battles, he gained Falkenhayn's trust and came to Bosnia.

Faced with the attack of Brusinov's superior forces, von Bilow did not fight head-on, but fought and retreated, hoping to lengthen the supply line, disperse Brusinov's forces, and find Brusinov's loopholes.

In order to prevent the Russian army from fighting to support the war, von Bilow also implemented the policy of scorching the walls and clearing the fields. All water sources in the retreat area were polluted and all residents were evacuated. Von Bilow even ordered the burning of houses in the retreat area to prevent them from being used by the Russian army.

Facing such an opponent, Brusinov was in great difficulty. He could not find a better solution for a while and could only advance steadily.

George was not in a hurry. While patiently organizing the logistics, he reminded Brusinov not to underestimate the enemy and advance rashly, thus falling into von Bilow's trap.

George was also very patient with Vasily. Mackensen became famous in the Battle of Warsaw and was also difficult to deal with.

If the Russian army underestimates the enemy and advances rashly, the tragedy of the first Masurian Lakes will surely happen again.

Now the fighting is taking place within the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Although von Bilow has no problem responding, he still has to face pressure from Vienna. The old Austro-Hungarian emperor certainly does not want to see the Russian army wreaking havoc within the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

While Brusinov was patiently dealing with von Bilow, the Russian navy, which had already entered the Corfu naval base, under the command of Peter, launched an attack on the Austrian navy retreating in the Adriatic Sea.

After completing the combat mission of cooperating with the 14th Army, the three battleships of the Mediterranean Fleet returned to Corfu and reunited with the Baltic Fleet.

The fleet now commanded by Peter consists of five super-dreadnoughts and two dreadnoughts. All the warships add up to nearly a hundred, making it the most powerful fleet in the Mediterranean.

The Austrian Navy's four "United Force" battleships have all been put into service, but their combat effectiveness is questionable because the Austrian Navy has not been tested by war for 50 years.

Austria had no navy until the entire 18th century, and it was not until 1867 that the Austro-Hungarian Empire established a navy.

During the Austro-Prussian War, the Austrian Navy defeated the Italian Navy in the Battle of Lissa, and the Austrian Navy never participated in the war afterwards.

In 1911, the first ship of the "United Force" class, "United Force", was launched. In the following two years, four battleships of the Austro-Hungarian Empire were launched and put into service one after another. Their home port was Pula in the southwest of the Istrian Peninsula.

Pula is over 700 km from Corfu and only 100 km from Italy.

After the outbreak of the war, the battleships of the Austro-Hungarian Navy did almost nothing and remained in Pula, while the Austro-Hungarian submarines frequently attacked and made some gains.

A month earlier, an Austro-Hungarian submarine had sunk an Italian troop transport, killing 870 people.

The attack took place within the British garrison zone, sparking mutual accusations between Britain and the Kingdom of Italy.

After the Kingdom of Italy entered the war, the Adriatic Sea was divided into 11 defense zones. The strongest country, Britain, was responsible for 4 of them, France was responsible for 3, and Italy was responsible for 3. After Greece leased Corfu Island to the Russian Mediterranean Fleet, the Russian Mediterranean Fleet was also assigned a task.

Since Corfu is located at the entrance to the Adriatic Sea, the Mediterranean Fleet is only responsible for the defense of this area.

When the Kingdom of Italy entered the war, reinforcements from the Baltic Fleet had not yet arrived in the Mediterranean. The Russian Mediterranean Fleet was not assigned many tasks because it had to take into account the Ottoman direction.

After the arrival of reinforcements from the Baltic Fleet, the Russian Navy became the strongest fleet in the Mediterranean, which aroused dissatisfaction from the Kingdom of Italy and France.

Both Italy and France want the Russian Navy to take on more regional defense tasks.

Peter didn't want to defend, he wanted to attack.

(End of this chapter)