Chapter 1057 The End of the Strong Crossbow 2
Chapter 1057 The End of the Crossbow 2
So now the number of men and horses in this army has dropped to 3 to 2! The number of horses was even reduced to 6,000! Not even guaranteed a horse per person! You must know that even in history, the ratio of personnel to horses in ordinary infantry units was about 3:1! So much so that now two-thirds of Arkady's 4th Cavalry Assault Division fight on foot, and only those used for mobile assault and reconnaissance can be assigned a horse! After all, you're leaving some horses to haul artillery and transport supplies. A man can fight on two feet, artillery? Try using manpower to drag a 1-ton artillery piece over a long distance!
Of course, it is impossible that all of these horses were lost in battles, nor were they killed by the air force during transportation. In fact, among the 17,000 horses lost, the number of horses actually lost due to combat reasons was less than 10,000 horses, nearly half of which were lost due to lack of supplies and the use of unclean water. A large number of horses will consume about 15KG of feed every day, of which at least half must be concentrated feed. Naturally, these concentrated feeds cannot be obtained from enemy-occupied areas, so they can only rely on transportation. In fact, the horses of the Fourth Assault Division Except for a full meal on the first day of the attack, the horses' concentrate feed ration was never enough! The ration for the second and third days is half the demand. Only one-third of the goods actually arrived on the fourth and fifth days! But now, the horses of the transport troops can only eat roughage!
"In order to feed these four-legged animals, we even cleaned the bark of the trees!" a Russian army veterinarian said after the war. And under such supply conditions, they had to perform heavy manual labor, and these delicate horses naturally fell down in pieces. So now, before the Bavarian Army launches its counterattack, this elite force that was so arrogant a week ago has now become an army that is no different from ordinary infantry units. They are not even in as good condition as ordinary infantry units, at least the latter The supply line is a little shorter!
The follow-up troops of the Seventh Army's eight divisions developed in depth along the road opened by the cavalry assault division. They were responsible for uprooting the remaining support points and consolidating their positions. Although it cannot be called exhausted now, the offensive is still weak. The number of artillery assigned to them is not even as good as the average of the Russian infantry divisions at the beginning of the war. After all, the Russians have previously used a large number of artillery to attack Lviv or strengthen the enemy. Assault division, therefore, with a certain amount of equipment, the remaining infantry units will naturally not be allocated enough artillery. The equipment level of the Russians is already on the coffee table, but if they do this, it will be a tragedy!
"Our division is only allocated less than 50 artillery pieces of various types, some of which are old 47MM guns. We don't even have an artillery piece with a diameter of more than 3 inches! There are nearly 15,000 people in a division, and we We can only rely on the rifles in the hands of the infantry and less than 120 machine guns in total." A Russian infantry division commander wrote in his diary.
Even so, the supplies of the Russian infantry were almost unsustainable. Just 4 days ago, the Bavarian Air Force, which had been fully prepared, and the Austro-Hungarian Air Force, which had moved from the rear to the front, had a total of 7 bomber groups/attack aircraft groups. Begin to attack Russia's rear supply lines, military depots and other important targets.
Although the amount of bombs dropped by bombers in this era was very small, don't forget that Russia's carriage-based transportation method has no ability to fight against the ground sweepers. Even if it cannot be destroyed, even if it can only cause delays or delays, then for Russia It is also extremely deadly for frontline troops. If a person is hungry, he can eat later, but when he needs ammunition, he cannot transport it, which becomes a problem!
Now, the air strikes of the Allied Air Force have also been upgraded to a new level. They have changed from simply bombing and leaving, to continuous suppression of certain important road sections. After all, there are only a few railways and hard roads. The air strikes The meaning is to block, but to destroy? It is naturally better to destroy it, but as long as the front line cannot obtain supplies, the strategic goal has actually been achieved!
In this battle, the Allied Air Force organized the largest attack on a target in history! A three-day bombing campaign was launched against Starova Vola, the largest frontline material distribution center of the Russian Seventh Army! Every day, more than 150 aircraft (including more than 100 bombers) carry out repeated indiscriminate bombings on this key city that is at the intersection of railways, waterways and highways!
The significance of this battle is not only a blow to the Russian army's logistics system, but also an "accidental" heavy damage to the Russian frontline aviation! In order to protect this important transportation node, the Russians decisively displayed the spirit of not being cowardly but doing it. The Russian Air Force, which believed that it had a home field advantage, staged an aerial meat grinder in Starova Vola! In the air without bunkers and cover, in a battle without radar and systematic air defense, the defender itself is synonymous with weakness. Yes, you read that right, except for the fact that the defender does not have to worry about being captured if the pilot falls. What an advantage!
Some people may say that the defender has an advantage in terms of range, but what about this? how to say? At first the Russians thought so too, but then, after the war started, the Russian pilots discovered that some hidden factors caused the so-called range advantage to be nothing! For example, if you wait until the opponent's bomber is about to take off before taking off, then you probably won't try to stop the opponent. The climb of aircraft in this era is simply a tragedy. If you climb to an altitude of 3,000 meters for more than ten minutes, you are considered lucky! Climb to a designated altitude before heading into a war zone? Are you sure they haven't left yet?
(In fact, even in World War II, when the Luftwaffe intercepted Allied bombers, it was very troublesome to climb to an altitude of about 7,000 meters. After all, many of the interceptor groups were heavily equipped assault aircraft, and they also had to carry The auxiliary fuel tanks and external weapon pods overwhelmed the FW190A, which had a decent climb. In World War I, even an altitude of 3,000 meters was very terrifying. Some bombers needed to fly slowly for more than half an hour to reach the predetermined altitude. What? You said 4,000 meters? After the start of World War I, most aircraft could not fly at this altitude...)
And if you plan to be prepared, you must always arrange patrol aircraft, and then it will be a tragedy. Combined with the common short legs of aircraft in this era, and the fact that detection basically relies on sight and communication basically relies on roar, the defender is generally Very sad!
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