Chapter 1091 Epilogue 1
Chapter 1091 Epilogue 1
If we start from the time when Russia's three southeastern armies launched their offensive, the entire Eastern Galicia campaign lasted for 45 days. During these 45 days, the three Russian armies, including the reinforced direct armies, had a huge force of 700,000. The two and a half armies of the Army and the Austro-Hungarian Army, as well as the 15 Bavarian and Prussian divisions that rushed to the battlefield, a total of 620,000 people, launched a battle with the highest technical level, the highest consumption, and the most tragic fighting situation in the history of the Eastern Front. .
In this battle, the Russian Seventh Army and the Eighth Army were severely damaged. The two armies lost a total of nearly 70% of their personnel and more than 80% of their heavy equipment. 350,000 people were killed, wounded, and captured, setting a record for the Russian army. The most disastrous defeat in history. The two armies had more than 1,500 artillery pieces, self-propelled artillery, and train guns at the beginning of the war. After the battle, only about 300 pieces were left. The Russian Tenth Army, which was the general reserve, also lost 4 divisions under the city of Covel. Nearly 60,000 troops were beaten to pieces by Mackensen within three days.
The Russian Ninth Army, which had been fighting positional battles with Prince Leopold, was in a better situation, but after all, there were three Bavarian divisions there to assist in the defense. After a battle between the two sides, the Russians suffered nearly 50,000 casualties. , a successful retreat. Although the damage was somewhat serious, it was far from severe.
By the way, let me talk about the losses of the Russian Air Force. Before the outbreak of this battle, the Russian Air Force concentrated nearly 400 aircraft of various types, including nearly 60 Ilya 4-engine heavy bombers. What surprised the prince was , the Russians successively added about 150 aircraft after the battle began, although it was of little use. But the prince still wanted to know, in this plane of Russia, why did they replenish so many aircraft in such a short period of time? ! It might be nice outside Moscow at night, but if you want to talk about an aircraft factory outside Moscow…. Take a shower and go to sleep. Not to mention Russia, historically the Austro-Hungarian Empire only built a total of 5,400 aircraft from 1914 to 1918! Russia was even more criticized. Although they built the first four-engine bomber in history, haha, it took more than 3 years to build 3,500 aircraft!
Let's put it this way, the Russians have increased their production before the war and in the months before the war, and can produce 400 aircraft. This prince believes that after all, they have accumulated before. But this is definitely the total number of the Russian Air Force after selling everything. Do you want to temporarily produce and then replenish? Let’s assume that the Russians fought for 40 months in history. In fact, it is impossible to produce 100 aircraft per month on average, and the production capacity in the middle and later stages is definitely higher than that in the early stage. Therefore, at this time, the prince really did not believe that Russia could replenish 150 aircraft within a month with its own strength!
Well, even the prince, a butterfly, influenced history and made the Russians invest more power and money in expanding their air force. But there is always a bottleneck here, and that is the engine problem. This cannot be solved simply by investing money. This is just like the Nazis in World War II in history who could not come up with a Nien engine, and the BMW801 struggled to produce 2,200 horsepower. The Russians cannot produce an engine comparable to the JUMO213. This is a technological gap, related to money and the size of the country.
But not directly proportional….
Well, no matter what, Russia invested about 550 aircraft in this battle, but it was of no use... Although they also destroyed about 100 Bavarian Air Force aircraft. But all the Russian air force veterans have been involved. According to the intercepted Russian telegrams and my own statistics, the final number of 550 aircraft that can fly back is estimated to be no more than three digits... .. Most of the remaining ones were destroyed, and a small number were abandoned or captured. If the performance of the Russians in history is followed, then the Russian Air Force will not improve in almost the next year.
But the prince still felt a little uneasy in his heart. He could think that the Russians must be using foreign engines, and he also knew that some routes could not be blocked, such as the Arctic route around Norway. In fact, this route existed during World War I, but Mao Zi during the Tsarist Russia period It's really weak. After transporting it to Murmansk, it is not easy to transport it south to the battlefield.
By the way, in addition, one thing that needs to be explained is the loss of horses and vehicles. In this battle, the Russians lost about 90 self-propelled artillery pieces. Regardless of the small number, this is also the result of several months of Russian industrial efforts. The number of motor vehicle losses was approximately 800 (including locomotives). As for horses? Together with those that were killed, those that died of exhaustion, those that died of illness, and those that were captured, the Russians lost a total of about 150,000 to 180,000 horses! Ah, very good. This loss is estimated to lower the Russians' future mobility capabilities by another level. After all, the Russians have far fewer horses than people, so it is inconvenient to supplement them. So many horses were obtained that the prince began to consider whether to build a horse meat cannery to consume these excess supplies? Lieutenant General Schmidt said that there was no problem and horse meat tasted pretty good.
alright. But no matter what, this was a victorious battle, killing 400,000 Russian troops, and destroying and capturing more than 1,500 Russian artillery pieces! It also completely crippled the Russian Air Force. It is conceivable that for a long time in the future, the Russians will want to make up for these losses. It is unrealistic. Even if you are let go for four months, the prince believes that Russia can make up for it in terms of military strength. , but it is quite difficult for the Russians to supplement artillery, machine guns, and especially the air force.
As for horses? The prince believes that to a certain extent, this is more important than destroying the heavy weapons of the Russian army. Although the number of military horses registered by the Russians in the later period reached more than 3 million, that was the result of completely squeezing a country's strength, and these horses and At the beginning of the war, those soldiers and horses who tried their best were definitely not of the same grade. Of course, the more important thing is the destruction of productivity. In this era, agriculture is mainly based on livestock, and the United States is not immune, let alone Russia? What really caused the collapse of Russia was the collapse of Russia's internal economic system, and the lack of agriculture and transportation capacity was the most important reason.
Of course, the prince believed that according to the usual practice of the Russians, when launching the Polish Pocket Campaign, Russia was capable of replenishing the nine armies on the Eastern Front. However, haha, at the beginning and end of World War 1, the German Army The scale has at least doubled! And if one year after the war started, the Russian army on the Eastern Front is still maintained at 9 armies, it would be really bad. After all, the Russians are standing still, while the opponent's strength is growing rapidly! Why are you undefeated?
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