Chapter 717: Not Enough Officers
Chapter 701 – Not Enough Officers
Theory and reality often run counter to each other. Perhaps because Obodo responded well, or perhaps the officers had no way to retreat, the besieged Russian Fourth Army exploded into a fighting force beyond the Prussian army’s expectations.
Seven days passed in a flash, the Fourth Army was still like a nail sticking there, making the Prussian army in a dilemma.
Looking at the ever-increasing casualty figures in his hands and thinking of his mission, General Hansgrohe, who was responsible for executing the siege of the Fourth Army, was about to turn white with worry in his beard.
The enemy had suffered more than half of the casualties and still didn’t show any sign of surrender, making it clear that they were going to fight to the end.
If the Russian army was this tenacious, there would be no need to fight this war. The population of the Pupo Federation is limited, so it’s simply not possible to fight on.
After rubbing his forehead, Hansgrohe instructed his adjutant, ”Send a telegram to the headquarters, report our situation in detail, and tell Marshal Mauch to give us five more days to ensure that we can annihilate this enemy army.
If other areas need support, we can pull out some of our troops to leave first, we don’t need so many troops surrounding us anymore.”
After these few days of engagement, Hansgrohe was already certain that the enemy would not run away. In order to accomplish his mission, he even deliberately left a road open to lure the enemy to break out.
As a result, the enemy acted as if they didn’t see it and remained firmly in place, not giving him an opportunity to take advantage of it at all.
Have the opportunity to not even run, completely out of the ordinary, Hansgrohe does not know what the Russian commander again think, in short, he is very depressed.
“Yes, General!”
……
Not only was the Prussian army depressed, the besieged Lieutenant General Obodo was even more depressed. It was as if the Prussian Army had gone mad, launching attacks without counting casualties, beating the Fourth Army with only the ability to fight, but not the ability to fight back.
After being caught in the encirclement, he became ignorant of the situation outside and had no idea why the enemy was going crazy.
The whistling sound rang out, and a blimp flew from the sky, which was the most joyful and tense moment of the day for the Russian army.
I don’t know since when, the whistling airships became the Fourth Army’s spiritual support, giving them hope for life.
This was the most tense time, except for the first few days, every time the dirigible unit came later there was always an air battle.
In just ten days or so, the Russian army paid a total of thirty-five crashes, and almost every day, three blimps were finished in the air battle.
Of course, the Prussian army is also not good, the gap between the two sides is not much difference, the airship unit which is perhaps the closest to the combat effectiveness of the Prussian and Russian forces.
Obodo picked up the binoculars, observing this thrilling air battle, the heart also counted silently: “1, 2, 3, 4 ……49”.
“49” airships, this number made Obodo’s heart ecstatic, increased by a full third compared to yesterday, and the enemy on the opposite side was only half of this number.
Half the difference in numbers, even if the Russian airships still had transport airships among them, they still had an absolute advantage.
These days, although the combat airships and transportation airships are separated, but the transportation airships are used as combat airships, it is also a common thing.
The airships were large, and a few rounds of ordinary bullets could still hold up. The heavy machine gun for the air force has not been invented, the real killing move is still artillery.
Whether it was a combat airship or a transportation airship fitted with artillery, they could all go into battle, it was just that the hit rate was pathetically low. If it hit, then the result was the same, everyone was brittle.
In essence, airships are not used to beat each other up, the high cost of construction is enough to make any country hurt, the Russo-Prussian War is also considered to be the beginning of the earliest air war in the history of mankind.
See things can not be done, Prussian airship troops decisively chose to retreat. The Russian army to drop strategic supplies, simply can not care to catch up.
Perhaps the number of the Fourth Army has been reduced; or perhaps the great lords of the headquarters have sent a kindness, sympathizing with the officers and soldiers of the Fourth Army who have fought hard, today’s supplies are extraordinarily rich.
Rarely seen vegetables, fresh beef, ham, cheese, bread, butter, bean flour, see Obodo are hungry.
As a commander, Obodo quickly woke up and realized that I’m afraid it’s not that the Grand Old Man is being kind, but that the value of the Fourth Army has increased.
Dragging 500,000 to 600,000 Prussian troops here is the greatest value of the Fourth Army’s existence. Needing them to sell their lives, their treatment naturally increased.
Shaking his head and dismissing the thoughts in his mind, Obodo instructed the guards around him, “Send someone to look carefully to see if there are any orders from the headquarters.”
Without waiting for the guard to reply, a young officer ran over with a document, “General, this is the battle report from headquarters.”
Obodo grabbed the document with one hand and quickly opened it and read it. The more he looked at it, the more gloomy his face became, as if the sky was falling.
It wasn’t that the situation was bad, the overall situation on the battlefield was great, the Russian army was getting closer and closer to winning the war.
On October 28, 1880, the Russian Fifth Army and Seventh Army launched an attack on the Warsaw area from the northeast on two sides, and are now under the city of Warsaw.
On November 1, the Russian First and Second Armies launched the Battle of East Prussia.
Under naval cover, on November 3, the Russian Army launched a landing operation in the Gdynia area, which was a great success.
On November 5, the Russians launched another landing operation at Kovobrzeg, again confirming the success.
On November 7, the Russian Southern Front tore through the Prussian defenses.
On the following day, the Russian army was divided into three groups, with the Eighth Army setting off on a long drive towards Berlin, the Ninth Army turning to attack Poznań to the north, and the Tenth Army taking charge of the center.
……
The battlefield was full of good news, except for the news of the rescue of the Fourth Army. What this meant was self-evident, and although it was not explicitly stated, the warning was very clear.
The Russian army’s high advance was also inseparable from the Fourth Army’s efforts. If they had not slowed down the maneuvering forces of the Prussian Army, the Fifth and Seventh Armies would not have had the guts to march on Warsaw, and the Southern Front would not have dared to divide their forces into three.
In this situation, whoever dropped the chain and spoiled the hard-won situation would have to bear the responsibility for it.
There were no orders, but this battle report was the best order. Obodo knew very well that the Fourth Army was not just to be treated as an outcast, but was clearly to be treated as a dead soldier.
If the front break out, the big deal is that they personally lose their heads; now if they run, they will have to follow the whole family to the guillotine.
Don’t think that Europe is not popular to kill the nobles, then really rest easy. Alexander II was known as “The Butcher”, if he didn’t kill people’s heads, how could the reform be successful?
After a short thought, Obodo commanded: “Tell the whole army the good news, tell everyone that victory is just around the corner, as long as we hold out for another half a month, we will take Warsaw!
“Seeing is not telling is also one of the rules of survival in this cruel world. Intelligent people can naturally understand, those who can’t are the ones with a single brain, this war report is real good news when it reaches their hands.
Hold out for half a month?
Obodo himself do not believe, deep down he feels that the fourth army can hold out until now, are over-performing.
However, people are blindly obedient, especially when they are the closest to victory, everyone is always able to self-hypnotize and explode into an unimaginable fighting strength.
Deep down inside Obodo has decided that the main force of the Prussian army will hold back for as long as it can, and if it really can’t hold out, it will leave the local rats behind.
As long as the fourth army did not run away, still staying here to insist on fighting, others can not put the black pot on his head.
Fortunately, the soldiers do not know the unscrupulous thoughts of Obodo, or else the morale that everyone has managed to drum up will be deflated again.
Sometimes ignorance is also a blessing, immersed in the sea of hope, is better than knowing the truth and then despair.
……
The Prussian army is in a total disadvantage on the battlefield, the Berlin government is completely panicked, even if Mauch repeated assurances, but also can not dispel everyone’s misgivings.
Mobilization of the entire population was a must, as long as they could resist the guns, they had to go to war.
It doesn’t matter if there are not enough officers, the officers of the main force can’t be moved, then they will be drawn from the local forces.
If it’s really not possible, then find someone to hold the fort for a while, and then replace them when there’s a suitable one. If there has never been a suitable one, then naturally there is no need to replace them.
The enemy is about to hit Berlin, who cares about quality! Getting the quantity up first would at least increase everyone’s sense of security.
While Berlin was mobilizing its armed forces, it didn’t forget to launch a diplomatic offensive.
It was no longer useful to bring in the Ottomans, the Central Asian countries, the German Confederation, and these small players, who had lost the ability to influence the victory or defeat of the war.
At this point in time, the Pupo Federation needs the support of the Great Powers. The European continent is different from other regions, the battlefield got something, the negotiation table is equally likely to be spit out.
The Berlin government does not have the luxury of letting the Russians return without any success, but obtaining the support of the Great Powers and preserving their strength as much as possible should still be done.
Vienna Palace, Franz has just dispatched the envoy sent by the Berlin government.
Frankly speaking, he was very puzzled in his heart, the war has not even been divided into winners and losers, why should the Berlin government be in such a hurry?
The Russians seemed to be riding high on the battlefield, but the war was not yet over. Pupo federal domestic at least there are still 600,000 or 700,000 recruits, these troops fighting strength is weak, defending the city can always make do, right?
Facing Franz’s doubt, Chief of Staff Albrecht explained: ”Your Majesty, the battle has been going on until now, the casualties of the Pupo Federation’s army has long exceeded the one million mark, with more than three hundred thousand killed in action alone.
If we are talking about the loss of ordinary soldiers, they can still be replenished immediately, but the loss of basic officers will be difficult to make up for.
According to the information we have collected and analyzed, the Pupo army’s nobles’ casualty rate is much higher than the ordinary soldiers’ 13.5%, and is already approaching 20%.
The insufficient number of officers in the Prussian army is not only from this war, but also from the effects of the last war.
In the First Russo-Prussian War, the new generation of Junker nobles suffered heavy casualties, and now they are not only short of officers at the basic level, but also at the middle level, and there is actually a shortage of officers at the top level.
The insufficient number of qualified officers had a very great impact on the fighting strength of the army. Compared to the early days of the outbreak of the war, the fighting strength of the Prussian army had actually slipped.
This could be seen from their siege of the Russian Fourth Army. If the Prussian Army had been at its peak, it would not have needed to drag on for so long.
It wasn’t anyone’s fault that there weren’t enough officers to go around, the PBF had done a good job, and the officers they had stockpiled beforehand were enough to command a million and a half armies.
This number, in theory, was already enough for any war. Before the outbreak of the Russo-Prussian War, no one knew that the war could reach the scale it did.
Whether it’s the Pupo Federation or the Russian Empire, their mobilization ability is beyond our imagination.”
Not to mention the people of this era, even Franz, a traveler, did not know beforehand that Prussia and Russia were able to reach the present level.
This mobilization ability was close to catching up with the First World War. The Prussian-Polish Confederation had mobilized more than two million six hundred thousand troops, and the Russians had even more heartlessly mobilized nearly four million troops.
This number is not the end of the line, the number of troops on both sides is like blowing up a balloon, in the continuous expansion.
The balloon got thinner and thinner. While the armies were increasing in number, their combat effectiveness was also declining.
The Prussian armies showed it more clearly, mainly because they went for quality; the Russians started out with open quantity, and even though the fighting strength of their troops also declined, because none of the quality was very good to begin with, this decline was not as great.
Franz asked suspiciously, “As far as I know, there are still quite a few officials in the Berlin government who are from the army, and now that it’s a time of crisis, it shouldn’t be too much of a problem to conscript them to save the day.
With these people putting up a fight, and promoting some civilian soldiers to serve as officers, the problem of insufficient officers at the grassroots level will be solved. There’s no need for the Berlin government to get so worked up in a hurry, right?”
This wasn’t Franz talking nonsense, many of the Berlin government’s officers were from the military. It wasn’t just the Pupo Federation, but Austria as well.
Under the universal military service system, not only government officials had served in the military, but people from all walks of life had spent time in the military.
Putting them back in uniform at a time of crisis is also a solution to the shortage of officers.
Albrecht shook his head, ”Your Majesty, these people seem to have organizational skills, but they are not suitable for the army at all.
The officers of the Pupo Federation are dominated by the Junker nobility, and influenced by traditional forces, the best of them, or those most suited to the army, will be in the army for a long time.
The majority of those who retired from the military and entered the government sector to offer their services were remnants that were eliminated halfway through the process, and their military capabilities were inherently worrisome.
If these people were allowed to re-enter the army, their official position would be the same as the position they entered the army in, but this position would have nothing to do with military command ability.
Letting a group of bureaucrats with unknown military abilities to command the troops, that scene is simply unimaginable.
I think it might be better than first-year military academy students; at least these people are full of hot blood, don’t pull punches or shirk their duties, and are able to strictly carry out orders.”
Franz nodded a little awkwardly, having bureaucrats command troops was indeed a giant pit. Don’t drag the army into a political struggle before the battle is even fought.
After a pause, Albrecht added, “Promoting civilian officers, the Prussian army has long been doing it. However, these soldiers have not received military school education, the upper limit of training is very low, and only a very small number of them can serve as officers.
The number of civilian officers among the basic officers of the Prussian Army is actually not a small number. But the performance of these people is not good, and there has been quite a lot of chaos.”
Franz wanted to say something, the problem of civilian officers is a difficult problem in all European countries.
It wasn’t that the aristocracy held the army and excluded civilian officers, as it was said in later times.
In fact, the aristocrats are only interested in the middle and high level positions, and the company platoon level positions below are not their target at all, and no one is that shallow eyed.
The real problem still lies in military literacy, the common soldiers have never been exposed to this knowledge, how can they be turned into qualified officers?
It could be said that in times of peace, the channels for ordinary soldiers to rise up were locked up early on, and only a very few geniuses were able to become officers.
There were indeed opportunities in the war years, but the prerequisite was to be able to survive to do so. Military honors weren’t that easy to come by, they needed to be exchanged for lives.
The noble officers at the grassroots level had to lead the charge, let alone the civilian officers, and I’m afraid that many dangerous tasks would fall on their heads.
No matter how talented you are, only if you survive the battlefield will you have a future, or else you’ll be a martyr.
Getting military honors, this is not the end. Quite the contrary, this is only the beginning.
After being promoted to a higher position, the requirements for personal military qualities, also became higher.
In times of peace, there is still a chance to go to military school to study a wave, and when you come back, you will almost be able to do the job. Not in the war years, war doesn’t wait for people.
In a way, it’s also indisputable that Albrecht complained about the poor military literacy of civilian officers.
With the exception of a very few geniuses, most civilian officers were rushed after being promoted, and it was not unusual for them to be unable to adapt in a short period of time.
The military was a place that believed in the strong, no one would consider so many reasons, much less give you time to learn slowly.
If you can’t do it, you’ll be ostracized, and you don’t even need to resort to tactics to squeeze you out.
Not just civilian officers, even many sons of great nobles, who were not capable enough on their own, would be just as likely to be ostracized.
Not only now, even in the future, there is only one path for civilian officers – to take the military academy.
Through studying at the school, they can improve their military literacy. Through learning, to make up for the ability gap with the noble officers.
This road is also not easy to go, higher military officer school enrollment is limited, thousands of horses across the wooden bridge, but also face the competition of noble candidates.
Affected by educational resources, it is simply impossible to break out if you are not a genius.
(End of chapter)