The Rise of Australasia

In order to ensure the smooth implementation of the plan, apart from a small number of Army Group commanders and generals, the real central breakthrough plan was kept secret even from some important brigade generals who did not know the true destination of their troops, and could only obey the temporary orders from their superiors.

At the same time when the real main force launched the attack, some Russian forces also conducted feigned attacks in the northern region, attracting the attention of the some of the Russian army.

This successfully paralyzed the Russians, who had no preparations for the impending German offensive.

When Ivanov, the commander-in-chief of the Southwest Army, discovered something was wrong and ordered the strengthening of defenses around the Vistula River, it was already a bit late.

On the banks of the Vistula River during summer, the trees are verdant, the grass is lush, and the temperature is not scorching, making the scenery very beautiful.

However, accompanied by the roaring and fierce bombardment of over 1,000 German artillery pieces, the short-lived peace in the area disappeared once again as the war engulfed the entire land.

The bright light caused by the explosion of shells illuminated the destroyed Russian positions and the panicked and fleeing Russian soldiers.

The Russian artillery wanted to retaliate, but faced suppression from the German artillery. Faced with such a situation, the Russian artillery positions either remained silent during the war or were destroyed by the German artillery.

Although by this time Russia had already received some aid, the actual amount allocated to each division of the frontline Russian army was not that much.

On average, each German artillery piece could receive hundreds of shells per day, but the number of shells fired by each Russian artillery piece would not exceed ten per day.

With a gap in their numbers in terms of artillery and a disadvantage in the number of shells, the Russian army lacked the support of artillery, and under the attack of the German army, they had almost no room to fight back.

In World War I, the most effective weapons for defense were heavy machine guns and artillery. But for the Russian army, machine gun bullets and artillery shells were the most easily consumed and precious things.

The German bombardment lasted for several hours, with the Russian artillery responding only in the first half-hour.

For the remaining hours, Russian defensive positions were subjected to the fierce bombardment of German artillery, with occasional bursts of fire illuminating the land and highlighting the screams and pain of Russian soldiers.

That was not the end of it. Following the bombardment that lasted for several hours, the next to appear were the German airplanes.

A year ago, these Russian recruits were illiterate farmers. They were shocked by the iron birds spewing death and fire above their heads, as if they were the pets of the Grim Reaper seeking lives, causing great harm to the morale of the Russian soldiers, who buried their heads in the trenches at the sight of German planes, fearing that death would take them away.

Although several years had passed since the advent of airships, Russia also possessed its first batch of airplanes.

The problem was that both airships and airplanes were too remote for ordinary Russian farmers.

They had no chance to ride airships in the sky, let alone see Russian airplanes that had not yet trained pilots. It was only natural for them to be in awe of these things capable of flying freely in the sky.

Among the great powers, the capital city of Russia, Saint Petersburg, had the fewest global air routes of any capital.

This was not only because Saint Petersburg was located in the icy and snowy region of Northern Europe, but also because it was too far from the mainstream trade routes of other countries.

London and Paris were the most popular stops for global air routes in Europe, followed by Berlin, Rome, and Vienna.

The German air force was not large, with only just over 100 aircraft. These planes were simple in design, and their main means of attack was a machine gun mounted on the aircraft.

However, although the planes did not cause heavy casualties to the Russian army, they did impose a heavy psychological burden on them.

Many Russian soldiers even developed a fear of war, and if it were not for the Russian commander's swift handling of a few deserters attempting to flee the battlefield, the Russian army might have collapsed. ṞÁ𐌽𝘰ᛒË𝘴

On August 1st, the German-Austrian alliance officially began the breakthrough. Leading the charge was a German cavalry division, who, wielding sharp sabers, collected the gifts sent by the Russian soldiers just as they poked their heads out of their positions.

Under the German Army's combination attack, the Russian 3rd Army Group quickly collapsed, and the military law and supervisory teams could no longer control them.

The Russian army retreated in chaos, and some of the escaping Russian soldiers, in order to lighten their load, abandoned almost all of their equipment.

When General Ivanov, the commander of the Southwest Army, learned of the collapse of the 3rd Army Group on August 2nd, the German army had already occupied favorable terrain in the area.

Ivanov acted quickly, ordering the Russian troops on both sides of the Gorelitz District to force the breakthrough German troops back to the west of the Vistula River at all costs and hold the area.

Under Ivanov's orders, a large number of unprepared Russian troops rushed to the front line and launched suicidal cluster charges against the Germans.

It should be noted that the German 11th Army Group was not only equipped with a large number of artillery, but also had hundreds of heavy machine guns, as well as taboo weapons such as poison gas.

The Russian's cluster charge, in plain terms, was a group of people charging together. Under the dense fire of the German army's machine guns and artillery bombardment, this was no different from sending the Russian troops to their deaths in an orderly manner.

Within just two days, the breakthrough point of the German army in the Gorelitz District did not shrink but rather grew larger and larger.

Even with the corpses of Russian soldiers lying all over the banks of the Vistula River and the Beskid Mountains, nothing could stop the advance of the German army.

The crimson Vistula River proved the cruelty of this battle, and the river's surroundings prevented residents from daring to eat fish for a long time.

Speaking of the German poison gas bombs, there was a small twist in this charge battle that shocked many people.

After the last use of poison gas bombs on the Western Front caused heavy losses to the British and French forces, the Germans quickly decided to use poison gas on the Eastern Front too, to make the Russians suffer.

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The poison gas used by the Germans at this time was choking chlorine gas, which was three times heavier than ordinary air.

When the gas was released, the heavy gas cylinders had to be opened by a special team to measure the wind direction. The yellow-green smoke, entangled together, floated above the ground and rolled forward as it was gently blown by the wind.

However, this poison gas release team clearly did not consider the sudden change in wind direction, which caused the rolling poison gas to suddenly be blown back to the German positions by the changed wind direction.

After the poison gas entered the trenches along the ground, it soon spread throughout the German positions, causing many unprepared German soldiers to die painfully of asphyxiation.

According to secret German statistics, this poison gas accident led to the deaths of several hundred German soldiers, making it a major accident.

In order not to affect morale and to prevent the army and the public from doubting the safety of such taboo weapons, the German General Staff chose to keep the matter strictly confidential.

This real historical event was not revealed until many years after the end of World War I.

Of course, this accident could not affect the large-scale use of poison gas by the German army.

The day after the accident, the German army used poison gas again on the Eastern Front, causing great suffering for the Russian troops.

Together with the dense firepower of the German army, the Russian troops that filled the gaps suffered more than 100,000 casualties within two days, leaving the Russian Southwest Front extremely precarious.

It is worth mentioning that the Germans' blatant use of poison gas caused the price of gas masks to soar.

Britain, France, and Russia began purchasing gas masks from Australasia while also starting their own research and development of gas masks.

The current market price of gas masks has doubled, but the purchase orders from Britain and France are still in high demand.

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