Chapter 932: Influence
Chapter 913 Impact
Compared to the wailing of the French camp, the situation of the allied forces was quite different.
A meteor shower in the sky, and a series of bursts on the ground …… The specific results of the battle have not yet been tallied, but the French corpses all over the ground are already enough to explain a lot of things.
Witnessed this allied officers and soldiers, now have only two words in their minds – “massacre”.
Whether it is the air war in the sky, or on the ground in the offensive and defensive war, are the Austrian army on the French unilateral massacre.
Originally disorganized, unstable morale, the prospect of war on the allied officers and men, at this moment the spirit of all new outlook.
……
Coalition Command
Admiral Adrian leapt to his feet and said, “Marshal, the French army suffered heavy losses in the daytime battle, tonight will definitely not be peaceful, it is a good time for us to counterattack.”
Militarily speaking, there was nothing wrong with this judgment, the heavy casualties had dealt a severe blow to the French army’s military morale.
Especially these casualties, or because of the high-level miscalculation, command errors lead to, but also let the grassroots officers and soldiers to the upper level of grievances.
“No!”
Archduke Albrecht decisively refused.
“Now is not the time for a counterattack, the French just lost a lot of troops committed to the attack today, and there are at least five divisions in Udino’s hands that are not in the fight.
We have too few maneuverable troops in our hands, and the newly integrated units are still in rest and recuperating, so they don’t have much combat power at all.
The troops that fought during the day are already tired, and no more than six infantry divisions are now able to go on the offensive, including the three infantry divisions that were withdrawn from the Belgian front last week.
The French are not fools, and having suffered such a great loss, they will certainly strengthen their guard. With our existing strength, even if we take the opportunity to launch a counterattack, it will be difficult to achieve the desired results.
Besides, the French Third Army is less than fifty kilometers away from the front line, unless we are able to resolve these enemies in front of us within a day.”
Trying to end the battle within a day was simply impossible. No matter how much advantage was taken during the day, it still didn’t change the fact that the Austrian army was understrength, even if the German and Belgian troops were added.
Today’s battle had restored the military morale of the allied forces though, but other than the Austrian forces, the other armies were still recovering from the battle.
Taking the Belgian army as an example, having just lost their old home for a few days, people are in the midst of grieving and shedding tears, and unless a battle is launched to recover the Belgian territory, it will be difficult for them to bring out their peak fighting strength.
The integrated German army, needless to say, can only be said to barely rationalize the command system, officers and soldiers are in a state of friction, let them play miscellaneous, do logistics is okay, sent to fight with the French army is a complete send head.
Time is on the side of the allied forces, the rear of the reinforcements are constantly coming, Archduke Albrecht can afford to wait.
The enemy’s airship unit has been scrapped, now as long as the Rhine River defense line, the French defeat is a matter of time.
Of course, there was another reason that could not be said.
In case the sneak attack succeeded and the French army suffered heavy losses and directly retreated back to the mainland, the battle behind would not be easy to fight.
Fighting the French on the territory of Germany and Belgium, Austria could also raise the banner of anti-invasion and gain the support of the local population.
If you enter the French mainland, not to mention the pile of fortifications, international intervention is a big trouble.
You should know that the international community is now supporting the anti-French alliance, seems to be just shouting slogans, there is no substantive action, in fact, the governments in the secret not less to the French to create trouble.
Only by these small means, France every month to increase the expenses of hundreds of millions of francs. The money was spent and the supplies were not always able to arrive on time.
If the balance of power was reversed, it would be the Anti-French League that would suffer now. At least until the end of the Egyptian campaign, the government in Vienna could not ignore the positions of the countries.
If word of the daytime fighting got out, it would certainly affect the governments’ judgment of the strength of the two warring sides, and might even affect everyone’s foreign policy.
However, Archduke Albrecht was certain that the French could not possibly communicate the true situation of the daytime battle, and even had to desperately try to cover up the defeat, or else they could not explain to the country.
As for the news released by the allied forces, even if it is the truth, everyone will not be able to help but discount it, it is simply impossible to believe that the French casualties are so large.
The reason is naturally the amazing results announced by both sides. According to the annihilation figures announced by both sides of the war, the French have taken out 3.46 million allied troops, while the allied forces have killed 2.47 million French troops.
Based on this figure, since the outbreak of the war, the two warring sides had taken out an average of 70,000 people from the other side every day, and the number of casualties on the entire battlefield had even reached a staggering 140,000 per day.
The number of dead alone is so many, the number of casualties according to the number of dead tripled projection, then the total casualties of the French army is 12.35 million; and the total casualties of the allied forces is even more shocking 17.3 million.
Such exaggerated results, if it really happened, the war would have been over long ago, who believes who is a fool.
In fact, initially, the war results announced by the two sides, not so exaggerated, even if it is artistic processing, we also have some convergence, at least did not develop to the point of adding zero.
To the back will not work, for example, after the end of a battle, the French army was prepared to announce the killing of the coalition army eight thousand, see the coalition army announced the killing of the French army twelve thousand, have no say can not show weakness ah, and then a stroke of a pen into the annihilation of the enemy fifty thousand.
See the French announced the annihilation of the coalition army 50,000, the coalition army can not lose, and in the twinkling of an eye and find ways to increase the enemy tens of thousands of results, anyway, who is not willing to weaken the momentum.
If it is not Luxembourg defense line lost, Belgium fell to half of the country, the cow skin really can not be blown, the allied forces in the number of enemy annihilation will not fall into the wind.
Even so, the wordplay continued. And is the more to the back, everyone published the results of the war is more and more outrageous, the truth from the public is also more and more far away.
There is nothing strange, bragging is a common human disease. If you look up the history books, you will know that thousands of years ago, the ancients played this way.
Until now, the two sides of the battle have only annihilated a few million enemies, and by removing one zero, it is very close to the real number, and those who annihilated hundreds of millions of enemies are completely incomparable.
However, according to the current situation of the warring parties to announce the results of the war, if the war continues for a few more months, the number of casualties on paper to break through a small target, is not a problem at all.
……
Tonight was destined to be a sleepless night, and as a telegram traveled out, many bigwigs couldn’t sleep.
The allied side was fine, as the victorious side received good news.
Aside from a moment of incredulity and the need to verify the news from multiple sources, the politicians were in good spirits.
Certain active guys have decided to have an all-night high to celebrate this hard-won victory.
Of course, this did not include Franz, who received the telegram and replied, “I see.
And then there was no more.
The surprise wasn’t so sudden because he was already prepared for it, so naturally he went to bed.
There were no surprises, and this performance of Franz, who was not surprised by the change, added another chapter to his career as emperor, leaving a small story for posterity.
……
Compared to a quiet Vienna Palace, at this moment the Palace of Versailles has been brightly lit, vaguely can still hear the roar from time to time.
There is no doubt that dare not sleep in the middle of the night, in the Palace of Versailles roar, in addition to Napoleon IV, can not find the second person.
Since tearing through the Luxembourg defenses, the French army has been riding in Central Europe, “punching the crone of the German Confederation, kicking the Belgian children’s shoes,” all the way to the enemy.
In Napoleon IV’s plan, the French army this state should continue, all the way to Vienna to kill the Austrian collapse.
However, the plan did not change quickly, which is just ready to drink the Rhine, suffered a blow to the head.
Napoleon IV want to not angry are difficult, change anyone in his position, at this moment can not guarantee that they will perform better.
First came the front line of the airship troops lost a lot of bad news, declared the end of the airship era, marking the French these years in the airship investment, all hit the water vote.
Napoleon IV is to accept the new style of education grew up the emperor, technical updates, he is still barely acceptable.
It’s just an airplane, with the strong foundation of France, in a few months will also get out.
Anyway, the power of the airplane is limited these days, in addition to restraining the airships, the role of the battlefield can play, but not as big as in later years.
Even though the loss of air power, Napoleon IV still full of confidence in the French army.
In his opinion, without the assistance of the airship bombing force, it is only the cost of winning the war to be a little higher, and time to be pushed back some more.
Unfortunately, the French Army, which he had high hopes for and had a long history, gave him an answer sheet with a single-digit score.
With over 30,000 killed in action and up to 50,000 casualties, it wasn’t so much a battle as it was a day’s fighting.
With such a heavy price to pay and minimal results achieved, a conservative estimate of Austrian casualties would have been in the triple digits at best.
Most of these were caused by artillery, and a small number by airship bombardment. Although the airship unit didn’t drop a few bombs before they flopped magnificently, they crashed down to be a giant bomb.
Of course, after the zeppelin force swooped down, it didn’t forget to patronize the French camp while wreaking havoc on the Allied forces.
They were treated equally in this regard, and it was up to God’s will to decide where to land.
As for the infantry that launched the attack, don’t look at them as having suffered heavy casualties, but in reality they were just skulking around the battlefield, giving away a large wave of heads.
The situation was even worse than the Battle of Somme and in the original time, where the British simply ignored the threat of machine gun fire networks and the bureaucrats mechanized a handful of them.
The French, however, didn’t even know what a Maxim machine gun was, and charged straight up. If they just didn’t know, it wouldn’t have been a big deal.
The front line commanders would certainly report back to the top brass when they realized the heavy casualties. As long as the attacking tactics are adjusted in time, the loss will not be so big.
Unfortunately, all this doesn’t apply to the French army. Tell us a story.
During the attack on Luxembourg, there was a mixed French-Italian infantry division that was ordered to launch the main attack on the enemy positions.
After the battle was fought, the gallant French soldiers charged forward and backward, with a regiment of infantry, composed mainly of Italian soldiers, showing particular bravery in the battle.
Nearly two-thirds of the regiment of 2,146 men fell half-way through the charge, so terrified that the commander of the division at once called a halt and replaced them for rest and recuperation.
As a result, when the troops were finally counted in the evening, the regiment had 2,101 soldiers out of the 2,146 that should have been there.
The missing platoon, the corpse brigade only found seven bodies, the rest of the people actually died in battle, or slipped and ran away, so far there is no way to determine.
Because the number of people involved is too large, the French command in addition to the officers involved in the removal, sent to the court-martial, and did not dispose of this group of soldiers, but only to drive them back home.
Undoubtedly, such a light-handed treatment was undoubtedly a major failure. By the time the French military hierarchy reacted, the situation was already out of control.
The power of example is enormous, and there is never a shortage of people who are afraid of death in this world, and those who follow suit in almost all French army units.
Reacted to the French army top management naturally also took measures to severely punish these guys, however, Pandora’s Box once opened, it is not closed can be resolved.
In order to avoid punishment, all kinds of strange excuses have appeared. Of course more or pretend to be wounded, many people deliberately make a little light injury, and then hide in the rear hospital to recuperate.
It wasn’t until Marshal Patrice McMahon stepped in, cleaned up military discipline, and changed the original pattern of punishment that things got better.
No matter how much it was changed, the commander’s preconceived impressions could not be changed for a while.
All the factors came together and together they caused the tragedy.
In terms of the overall war situation, the casualties of a few tens of thousands of people were not worth mentioning to the French Empire.
The problem was that in order to open the gap as quickly as possible, Marshal Patrice McMahon had thrown the main force of the French army into the front line, so the ones who were suffering heavy losses now happened to be the elite of the French army.
Specifically look at the troop number to know, generally speaking the troop number number number is smaller, or the front of the troops are standing army, has been formed for many years, the combat strength is not the new troops can be compared.
Waiting for Napoleon IV to vent almost enough, Prime Minister Terrence Burgin walked up and persuaded: “Your Majesty, things have come to this.
We’d better find a way to make good, whether it’s the enemy’s airplanes or the new machine guns and mortars that have just popped up, they’re all worth having.
Today’s battle isn’t all the fault of the generals at the front, either. The fact that the Austrians are taking advantage of all this new equipment and catching us off guard doesn’t mean anything.
Having learned the lesson of this defeat, I believe that in the battles to come, our Army will exert itself to the fullest extent.”
Many people in the higher echelons of the French government, including Prime Minister Terence Burgin, were unconvinced by today’s inexplicable loss of the war.
In their view, the Austrians had done nothing more than catch them off guard by relying on more advanced equipment, and as soon as the French army reacted, the situation would be changed.
Listening to the prime minister’s persuasion, Napoleon IV’s complexion did not improve, and immediately reprimanded the Minister of War: “What is the Ministry of War for, we have invested so much military expenditure every year, why is the equipment so far behind the Austrians?
Don’t tell me this is an accident, whether it’s airplanes, or machine guns, they’ve been born for decades, so why isn’t our army equipped?”
After a series of whys, the Minister of War buried his head even lower. An unmitigated disaster, that’s what.
Armament technology innovation is never easy, the original time and space Maxim machine gun first made a big splash, or the British used to deal with the natives, the result is that in World War I they still jumped the pit.
This time, not to mention, Austria hid all these family belongings at home, the outside world simply do not know anything.
Before today, everyone’s consciousness: the Maxim machine gun is just an ordinary machine gun, and Gatling has no essential difference; the airplane is even more a flashy toy, in addition to the flight show, other than nothing.
This is the broad judgment of the community, the Secretary of State for War is not a traveler, there is no hanging can drive, naturally can not jump out of this circle of thinking.
(End of chapter)