Chapter 210: The Turning Point

  Chapter 206 The Turning Point

Vienna.

After the Holstad factory’s new rifle passed the real-world test, it entered the list of options for the Austrian army to be listed, and was named the Styron M1852 rifle.

This seemed to be a European habit, designers always preferred to name the designed weapons after themselves.

It was a minor issue, Franz was not interested in getting to the bottom of it, and just because it was on the army’s alternative equipment list did not mean it was ready for mass equipment.

It had been more than thirty years since the breechloading rifle had appeared, the first being the American Hall M1819, which unfortunately had bullets flying off to the left after 45.7 meters had passed.

Then there was the Prussian Drexel M1841, which the Prussian army had already begun to field, although many generals were opposed to it, apparently his performance had not yet conquered the masses.

This rifle made a big splash was the 1864 Prussian-Danish and Austro-Prussian wars, but of course the advantages over the front-bore gun were not as godly as the latter boasted.

This is evident from the fact that it was not fully mounted in the Prussian army.

Despite the fact that the rate of fire was four or five times that of the front-bore gun, he firing pin was easily damaged, and the initial industrial production of the M1841 was ridiculed by some: do not go into battle without a spare pointer.

The breech was also prone to gas leaks, which could easily interfere with shooting, burn the skin in severe cases, and possibly blind the shooter if he was unlucky.

With improved production techniques and stabilized performance, the Drexel M1841 began to shine.

Similar rifles, Franz also touched a lot of rifles, many rifles in the laboratory performance is excellent, once the large-scale industrial production is not.

Either the cost was too high or the performance was reduced. This is not a nuclear weapon, Franz naturally have to consider the cost; sacrifice of performance is even more undesirable, no performance advantage of the rifle there is no need to install?

Until the Styron M1852 was introduced, from the performance point of view, and the history of the Chassepot rifle is almost the same, but the effective range is a little closer.

This is a small problem, to ensure that the effective range of 650 meters has been enough, the furthest is not able to hit more than 1,500 meters, long-distance intimidation can also be.

Franz has always believed that in actual combat within 150 meters can accurately hit the enemy are excellent soldiers, more far away from the place or by feeling to hit it!

“Your Excellency Marshal, what do you think of this rifle, should we change it?” Franz asked

Marshal Radetzky replied with a smile, “Your Majesty, from the data collected the effect is not bad, it has the value of large-scale equipment.

However, this rifle arsenal’s offer is thirty percent higher than ordinary rifles, and ammunition consumption may be two or three times higher.”

Obviously Marshal Radetzky is experienced, do not expect in the battlefield this rifle can hit the theoretical limit of 15 rounds, otherwise this ammunition consumption, the increase will not be so little.

Franz said calmly: “The cost increase of a part is also acceptable, after mass industrial production will still fall, as long as its power is worthy of this price on the line.

If the order to concentrate on full-scale production is given immediately now, Austria’s more than twenty arsenals, both large and small, combined, will have no problem producing thirty to forty thousand of these rifles every month.”

This was thanks to the outbreak of the Near East War, Austria’s arsenals all expanded their production capacity, compared to a year ago, Austria’s military production capacity jumped by fifty percent.

If the production of front-bore rifles, now the monthly mass production of one hundred thousand is not any problem at all, otherwise the Russian army has no way to change so quickly.

Marshal Radetzky calmly said: ”Your Majesty, it’s good to be cautious, first procuring one hundred thousand to try out.

If the results on the battlefield are good, then we will fully change the rifles, right now all the countries in the world are still using front-bore rifles, our rifles are not lagging behind.”

Franz nodded, time was running out for a mass changeover as well. Unless a national mobilization was ordered now, then there was still a lot of potential in Austria’s military industrial capacity to be tapped.

It was the same as when the automatic rifle came out, everyone knew it was good, but with the horrific consumption of ammunition, could logistics afford to supply it?

Where is the limit of ammunition consumption, that will be known only after the battlefield is fought. Just as the army of the Duchy of Montenegro, after testing the rifle, was very satisfied with the performance of this rifle, but after seeing the horrible consumption of ammunition, there was no more intention of purchasing it.

You say the hit rate is high? That’s right, the enemy has a maximum of two or three rounds per minute, and you have a random seven or eight rounds per minute, so your chances of hitting the enemy are naturally higher, which is a very normal thing.

But this hit rate increase is not two or three times, just only two or three percent, which is still just using the enemy is not used to, if you adapt to may also continue to decline.

On the surface does not seem to be much, if you consider how many bullets to kill an enemy, you will find that no money can not afford to play.

In the era of the front-bore gun, every enemy killed, on average, had to consume double-digit bullets; in the era of the breech-loading rifle, it had grown to four digits.

There was no way the era of the volley gun was over; everyone crawled on the ground to fight, and it was much harder to hit the enemy. The advent of trenches and machine guns in later years exacerbated the amount of ammunition consumed.

In the era of the semi-automatic rifle, it rose again to five figures; further on the use of hair as a unit is too large a number, directly using tons as a unit is more appropriate.

……

Sofia Theater

A Sardinian officer said with righteous indignation, “General, the Russians are still biting us, what now?”

Having leaked all the British military intelligence to the Russians, they actually dare to continue attacking here, it’s simply too much of a bully.

Mantua gritted his teeth and said, “We can’t retreat now, this is about our honor and the glory of the Sardinian Kingdom.

You guys don’t want to go back to your country to be court-martialed with the name of a defeated general, now we absolutely cannot be the first to lose our position.

Since the Russians are bullying us too much, let’s give them a hard lesson and let the Russians know that we are not easy to bully.

Tell the soldiers that our paychecks are still in the hands of the British, and if we run away now this time it will be for nothing. Whoever dares to run away, I’ll shoot him now.”

“Yes, General!” The young officer immediately replied

Mantua added uneasily, “Wait a minute, put out a message privately, say that the British are about to be unable to hold out, and when their defense line collapses, we’ll retreat immediately.”

Facts proved that the Sardinian army still had fighting ability once they put their lives on the line, the so-called heavy casualties, that also depended on what the criteria was.

When a few wounded appeared, they could also add two or three zeros to the back, and return it upwards as heavy casualties.

If anyone paid attention to the casualty report that the Sardinian army had previously submitted to the allied forces, they would have realized that their casualty rate was already approaching one-fifth.

This report was believed by the British, as the casualties of the British army were not too far from this figure. Judging themselves by themselves, the British never doubted it at all.

Faced with a violent outburst of Sardinian troops, the Russians found that this soft target was not easy to pinch.

Fitzroy Somerset decided to try to see if the information above was true, after all, this way to fight over, the Bulgarians have provided them with too much information, the opposite side of the enemy army there are Bulgarians is not surprising.

……

As soon as the Russians made their move, Montes was about to go mad with the battle report he had just received. Suddenly an artillery barrage rang out, accurately delivering shells to their artillery positions.

If it had been just one spot then it could have been called luck, but all the artillery positions were patronized without a single one being left behind.

This is not to mention the fact that after the artillery positions had fallen into bad luck, the military warehouses had been accurately baptized once again.

Even if the distance is far, the Russian artillery hit rate is low, but so some shelling down, they are also heavy losses.

After the shelling was completed, the Russians again accurately found the weak point of their troops and launched the fiercest attack.

Montes knew that a traitor had leaked the information, but things had come to this, he could only call for reinforcements. Even if he wanted to settle scores, then he had to hold the Russians back.

“How long before that fool Oliver arrives at the front?” Montes asked again

The valet nervously replied, “Major General Oliver reported that they have just recaptured Plovdiv from the partisans, and expects to arrive in Sofia after a week has passed.”

A hundred and twenty kilometers of road was no problem to walk for a week. The normal marching speed of the British army was only twenty to thirty kilometers per day, and it was understandable that it would be slower now that there was a guerrilla attack.

Monteith ordered, “Order that fool to speed me up, we must arrive at the front line within three days, or else we will be punished by military justice!”

“Yes, Commander!” The retainer officer immediately replied

Montes was uneasy and instructed, “Wait a minute, tell that fool to send half of his troops to rush over here lightly first, and put the supply wagons in the troops behind him, so as to speed up the pace.”

The Russians played Stud, it was a risk and an opportunity, as long as the reinforcements could arrive, the allied forces could still fight back.

Otherwise Montes would have run away long ago. Sardinians do not want to continue to fight, can find a way to let the British as a scapegoat, how can Montes not let the Sardinians take the blame?

He is the commander of the allied forces, and he has a lot of ways to trap people.

Now it is the British and Ottoman army joint put, bear the main pressure on the battlefield, as long as he gives up part of the position to the Sardinian army and the Ottoman army joint defense, estimates that less than a day, the Russians will be able to penetrate the defense line.

Monteith still wants military credit, if he loses the Sofia region, even if he lets his allies help take the blame, he, the commander, can hardly be blamed and will leave a permanent stain.

……

Oliver is still capable, only the first time on the battlefield, inexperience is the cause of a series of failures.

He had sped up his march before Monteith’s order arrived, only the roads along the way were just too pitted.

Being the area where the Bulgarian guerrillas operated, how could they not disrupt the traffic? They were fixing the roads and marching at the same time, and by the way, they had to deal with cold shots coming from who knows where.

There were also the occasional surprise landmines, which Franz had kindly sponsored, and had given them a batch in advance for fear of the Russians losing the war, so that they could be used to block their pursuers.

I did not think that the allied forces actually stupefied constantly, one by one do not want to contribute to let the allies pick up the advantage, hard to toss the advantage away.

The Russians could not see these turd bombs, so they gave the Bulgarian partisans, and now it is Oliver’s turn to have a headache.

These mines are the simplest to lay, want to demining is very simple, the only thing needed is just time.

There was no good way to do it, but the stupid way was good to think about. The British drove the animals through the minefield, the speed of the march was still inevitably delayed.

……

January 2, 1853, the Bulgarian guerrillas suddenly attacked the back of the British position, the allied forces appeared to be confusion, in this critical moment the Sardinians scampered away, Monteith’s painstakingly defended line broke.

There was no way, the troops were really insufficient, Monteith did not have enough troops to guard against the Bulgarian guerrillas that might appear behind them, and was taken by surprise.

The most pitiful thing was that at this time, the reinforcements were only less than fifteen kilometers away from the front line. If the Sardinian army didn’t run away and gave their best to help, they could still hold out until the reinforcements arrived.

Obviously, Mantua did not have the consciousness to fight with the Russians to the end, and never hesitated to run away. In any case, it is the British line of defense failed, this responsibility can not be blamed on them.

Even in order to avoid condemnation, Mantua also abducted part of the British soldiers to run away together.

This run on the pit death of Montes, as a defeated general is not far from the day of the court martial, if he can go back alive, inevitably have to go on a journey.

All the way to rush to rush to Oliver became the second unlucky, tired, regardless of losses to rush over, and easily in the last time to arrive, the results immediately and the Russians to an encounter.

There is no accident, the battlefield is always less people to suffer, Oliver in order to hurry did not carry artillery, a hand-to-hand on the loss.

After some hard fighting, Oliver successfully led the troops to run away, and by the way, also rescued a group of routed British soldiers, finally, the efforts were not in vain.

The Russians were also exhausted and the soldiers did not have the physical strength to continue the pursuit. Seeing this situation, Fitzroy Somerset naturally chose to take what he could get.

A dead hold on Sofia didn’t exist, Montes had considered this long ago. Unfortunately the city had been tossed around so much by the Ottomans that the fortifications were long gone.

The people of the city hate the coalition forces with a passion, relying on the city and the Russians to fight street battles, the first to fall into the people’s war is them.

Moreover, the efficiency of the Ottoman government is too low, in Sofia hoarded supplies are not enough to the coalition army’s consumption for a month, if they dare to sit in a lonely city, just wait for the whole army to be wiped out!

This general war has been going on so far, the allied forces are already strained, don’t expect anyone to come and relieve them.

Even if they were to draw reinforcements from home, it would be too late. After the battle was lost, the allied forces scrambled to run away.

Up to more than ten kilometers long battle line, total annihilation is non-existent is impossible, Russia also just tore open a section of the Allied defense line.

If it is not to rescue more soldiers to leave, Oliver also do not need to rush over and the Russians to fight the encounter, they turned around and ran the Russians will not even chase.

The battle, which lasted six months and involved nearly 200,000 troops on both sides, ended in a crushing victory for the Russians.

Looking at the casualty reports, Fitzroy Somerset could responsibly say that he had fulfilled the Tsarist government’s mission well, and had really won without counting casualties.

The total casualties before and after added up to a whopping 67,000, with the Russian soldiers essentially replaced, including 26,000 killed in action (including the wounded who were not saved).

Even with a steady stream of replenishment from the rear, by now this Russian force was crippled and in desperate need of repair. The final battle of the offensive, it is obvious to see the decline of the Russian army’s fighting strength.

The results achieved at such a high cost were: defeating 100,000 Allied troops, taking out 34,000 Allied soldiers, and capturing 25,000 Allied troops, including upwards of 11,000 Allied wounded.

Judging by the casualties on both sides, it was the Russians who lost this battle. Had it not been for the outbreak of the Bulgarian partisans, the battle would have been a close one.

In order to save face, Fitzroy Somerset did not hesitate to swallow the Bulgarian partisans’ record, again ignoring the casualties they had suffered.

Of course, in order to keep the Bulgarians working for him, Fitzroy Somerset still gave them credit at home, emphasizing the outstanding contribution of the Bulgarian partisans to the victory of the war by delaying the enemy’s reinforcements.

And then there was no more then, and this alone was enough for the Tsarist government to agree to the terms he had previously promised.

Originally, the Tsarist government was ready to annex the Bulgarian region, and St. Petersburg was worried about whether these guerrillas would be a hindrance, but now that he was able to incorporate them, how could Nicholas I refuse?

Regardless of the losses on both sides, it could not detract from the historical status of the battle, which is recognized by historians as the turning point of the Second Bulgarian Campaign.

(End of chapter)