Chapter 212 The European War Situation in Early 1915
After traveling around the country for more than half a month, Edel returned to Bucharest.
In this spring, the war that had subsided in Europe started again. On the Western Front, because of the trenches, the British, French and German armies were unable to attack, so both sides turned their attention to other areas.
In early 1915, the German army took the lead in launching the Battle of Mazulihu on the Eastern Front. In this battle, the Russian Tenth Army, which was the main force attacking East Prussia, was severely damaged. The Russian army was forced to withdraw to the east bank of the Neman River and give up attacking East Prussia.
Prussian ideas.
The German high command made major adjustments to the strategic plan of 1915 and decided to shift the focus of the war to the Eastern Front while stabilizing the Western Front. It would first destroy the Russian army and end the war on the Eastern Front, and then turn around and concentrate its forces against Britain and France.
At the end of January 1915, the annual plan for the German-Austrian War was approved. Germany's strategic plan was to launch attacks against the Russian army from both north and south directions simultaneously. The German army would attack from East Prussia toward Brest on the northern wing, and the German-Austrian army would attack on the southern wing from the north and south.
The coalition forces attacked in the direction of Lviv, and finally encircled the Russian army on both sides, encircling and annihilating the main force of the Russian army in the "Polish Pocket".
In order to increase their military and economic potential, Britain and France also planned to implement strategic defense on the Western Front in 1915 and only carry out some local attacks. Therefore, it was recommended that Russia launch an offensive on the Eastern Front to contain the German army and prevent it from launching a powerful attack on the Western Front.
Offensive. Russia was ready to launch a large-scale campaign on the Eastern Front, so it agreed to the suggestions of Britain and France and assumed the task of attracting the main force of the German army. Russia's strategic plan was to launch an offensive in two strategic directions at the same time.
The Northwestern Front attacked Germany from East Prussia, and the Southwestern Front attacked the Austro-Hungarian Empire from the Carpathians.
In the battles from January to March 1915, both sides won and lost. In January, the Austro-Hungarian 3rd and 4th Army first launched the Carpathian Campaign on the southern flank. In February, the German 8th and 10th Army on the northern front launched the Carpathian Campaign.
The group army also launched a powerful offensive against the Russian army. By April 1915, although the German army on the northern flank achieved a tactical victory, it was blocked on the Grodno line and could not advance, failing to achieve the planned campaign objectives; the Austro-Hungarian army on the southern flank suffered losses
The Hungarian plains were seriously threatened by the Russian army. Faced with this situation, the German high command decided to abandon the attack on both wings and use the center of the Russian front, that is, the Gorlice area between the Vistula River and the Carpathian Mountains as a
It has a decisive assault direction to encircle and destroy the Russian 3rd Army and prevent the Russian army from attacking Hungary.
In order to realize its strategic intentions, the German army continued to increase its troops on the Eastern Front. By the end of April, the German and Austrian troops had concentrated strong forces on the upper reaches of the Vistula River and between the Carpathians, forming an assault corps, including 10 infantry divisions.
, 1 cavalry division and hundreds of artillery, occupying a great advantage. However, the Russian army lacked the necessary preparations. The Southwest Front's front line was 600 kilometers long and its troops were scattered. In the German army's 35 kilometers wide frontal breakthrough area, they only deployed
It has 5 infantry divisions with a total of 60,000 troops, more than 100 light artillery, 4 heavy artillery, and 100 machine guns.
On May 1, the German and Austrian troops began long-term artillery preparations. On May 2, they launched a wedge-shaped attack in the town of Gorlice with superior force. The main force of the German 11th Army, with the cooperation of the left and right wings, broke through on the same day.
The Russian 3rd Army was engaged in frontal defense. The Russian army hurriedly mobilized deep mobile units for reinforcements, but due to sporadic input into the battle, they were quickly annihilated by the German and Austrian troops.
By May 4, the Russian 3rd Army had been almost completely wiped out, and the breach was rapidly expanded. The Russian army was forced to retreat across the board, and withdrew to the San River and the Dniester River on May 14. The German and Austrian forces took advantage of the situation to pursue them with heavy troops.
On the 17th, the German army captured Jaroslaw and marched eastward across the river. On the 23rd, Italy declared war on Austria-Hungary. Austria-Hungary was forced to divide its forces to resist the enemy, and the German-Austrian offensive momentum suddenly weakened. June
On the 15th, the German-Austrian allied forces resumed their offensive posture and captured Lviv on the 22nd. The 52-day Battle of Gorlice ended with the defeat of the Russian army. At this time, Russia had very little military supplies left and was in urgent need of British and French supplies.
supplement.
When Germany and Austria attacked Russia, Britain and France were not idle. In addition to pulling Italy onto their tanks, sending combat materials to Russia also became their top priority. So in order to open up the Black Sea Strait, Russia's main external channel, it became
Primary goal.
In fact, in November 1914, British Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill proposed to use the strength of the British navy to open the Dardanelles Strait for landing, then land at Gallipoli, and take Constantinople, the capital of the Ottoman Empire, directly.
Turkey was expelled from the war. On the one hand, it relieved the pressure on Russia's Caucasus Mountain Front. The Golden Cape Sea controlled by Constantinople could lead directly to the Black Sea and support the bloody Russian army. In addition, it hoped to open up a southern front to attack Austria-Hungary.
Empire. Although this idea was quite clever in terms of strategy, it was too difficult to implement in practice and did not receive approval from the British government.
In January 1915, the British government accepted Nicholas II's request and decided to adopt Churchill's suggestion to launch a new front in the Dardanelles Strait.
Britain and France committed a total of 62 warships and a large number of auxiliary ships to the battle, and appointed Admiral Sackville Cardon, commander of the Royal Navy's Mediterranean Fleet, to be in charge of commanding the battle. The fleet began bombarding Dada on February 19
Neil Strait.
On March 18, 1915, 16 warships tried to force their way into the narrow channel, and 8 warships triggered mines, causing the ships to retreat hurriedly (4 more than in history).
On land, the Turkish troops abandoned their positions and retreated inland when they were suddenly attacked. The British assault troops took the lead in rushing to the coast without encountering resistance. At this point, German military adviser Otto von Zander
Turkey had gained insight into the opponent's planned Gallipoli landing battle and quickly mobilized troops to the war zone. The Turkish army dug trenches to hold on, established a strong defense system based on the complex terrain of the peninsula, and assembled artillery units there.
When the British and French troops were preparing to expand their victory, the Turkish soldiers hidden in their positions opened fire together, catching the British troops who were climbing the cliff by surprise.
On March 3, 1915, the first round of landing operations by the Allied Forces failed, and General Cardon was sent back to England as a wounded soldier.
After discovering that it was impossible to seize the Strait by relying solely on the navy, it was judged that the army must occupy Gallipoli in order to gain control of the Dardanelles Strait. The Allies hastily assembled an expeditionary force in Egypt and the Greek Islands, consisting of 78,000 soldiers.
Soldiers from Britain, New Zealand, Australia, India and France arrived in the war zone one after another. The main force consisted of the Australian and New Zealand troops in Egypt at the time, the Anzac Corps. British Minister of War Horatio Kitchener appointed "Poet General"
British Army General Ian Hamilton was responsible for commanding the battle.
Facing it was the newly formed Turkish Fifth Army led by von Zanders, with 84,000 troops. When the Allied Expeditionary Force arrived, its strength had been exceeded by the opponent. The Turkish army was commanding and had an overwhelming advantage in firepower.
According to the plan, the British army and the Anzac Army landed at two different landing points on the same day. The British army landed at Cape Helles. Before the British landing, the Anzac Army first landed on the beach further north near Gabathepe.
Login.
On the night of April 25, 1915, after the artillery preparations were carried out to cover the fleet, the Allied forces launched a landing operation at the same time. Since most of the ANZAC soldiers had not received night landing training and were ignorant of the terrain of the peninsula, they mistakenly landed on
An unnamed small bay north of the target (today's Anzac Bay). On the same day, British and Indian troops were attacked by Turkish fire at Cape Helles. The French army landed on the opposite side of the strait on the Asian side of Dardanelles, but
They retreated and joined the British army the next day. Although they established a beachhead, the landing force was unable to effectively deploy its troops and actually fell into an unstable and difficult-to-defend foothold.
The Turkish army, under the command of Colonel Mustafa Kemal, immediately launched a fierce counterattack. After a night of melee, both sides suffered heavy casualties. The 16,000 ANZAC soldiers who had landed were suppressed by the Turkish army's artillery fire.
Trapped in the temporary bunker, unable to move, the two sides fell into a stalemate in the next few days.
On May 1, 1915, the Turkish army launched a massive counterattack on the southernmost landing site of the Allied Forces. During the battle, the British battleships Goliath, Triumph and Majestic were sunk one after another. As a result, the British evacuated a large number of ships.
, the landing force lost the support of the navy and its firepower advantage.
From May 6 to 8, 1915, the Allied forces attacked Kresia, suffering heavy casualties and ultimately failing. On the 19th, Turkey launched a counterattack along the entire Anzac front line. Soldiers died in a series of suicide charges. Australia and New Zealand
The legion was unable to capture the intended hilltop target. They were trapped on a thin position only 400 meters from the beach to the front.
As summer approaches, the upper slopes are littered with corpses, bringing with them diseases such as dysentery, diarrhea and enteric fever. Non-combat attrition of ANZAC soldiers on the peninsula continues to increase due to climate discomfort. However, in order to win this operation, the Allies
Three more divisions of British troops were deployed to the peninsula.
At the same time, von Zanders was also gathering Turkish troops to prepare for a new round of attack.
In fact, in February, Ottoman received intelligence that the British and French troops planned to land in Dardanelles. Due to the uncertainty of the time and location in this news (someone had almost forgotten it), Ottoman did not pay attention to it.
During the war, the Ottoman intelligence system was in chaos, and the news was too shocking and bold at the time. 500,000 British and French troops planned to land in Dardanelles and attack Istanbul.
Of course, this information was provided by King Edel of Romania who was hiding behind the scenes. He wanted to weaken the strength of Britain and France during the war so that the two countries could not control Romania too much after the war. In Edel's post-war plan
, both the Balkans and Eastern Europe must have Romania's influence, both for Romania's economy and its national strength.
