Iron Cross Fire

It was August 2 when Custer arrived in Belgium. During this period, the situation of the war had not changed much, and the troops on the Western Front were still squatting and confronting each other.

Several German officers told him that France was occupied from Calais and Picardy in the north to Normandy in the west, and Burgundy and Franche-Comté in the south.

The German army in Normandy was very wicked. Not only did they seize French land, but they also cut off their supply sources.

They set up huge cannons on the front line and bombarded Brittany from a long distance, threatening the British navy far away in Britain, so that they dared not approach the coast of Brittany.

The Royal Navy was forced to make a big circle from the south to the Aquitaine region in southern Brittany.

The effect was very significant. Before, every sea transport took about one or two days, and the British fleet could cross the English Channel and transport supplies and soldiers to France.

It would take at least three or four days to deliver it now, and unlike directly transporting it from the north, Aquitaine is far from the front line. After it is transported to the shore, it will take a long time to transport it to the front line.

Comprehensive calculation shows that now the Allies in Western Europe need at least one week for each maritime aid. This is enough for the Allies to take advantage of the opportunity to complete a week-long offensive.

The German army in Burgundy joined forces with the main force in Champagne to attack the important city of Paris.

The Battle of Paris lasted from last year to this year, during which the artillery fire continued and the attack never stopped.

However, the initiative has always been in the hands of the German army. They fight when they want to fight, retreat when they want to retreat, and stab France's fatal points at any time.

The officially recorded casualties began in February. As of today, the French army in Paris has lost nearly two million.

Germany began to record as early as last year, with a total of 1.2 million casualties. April 2015 was a huge watershed in casualties. In the previous five months, the German army had a total of only 400,000 casualties, and easily captured Verdun and Amiens and approached Paris.

But after that, the United States provided volunteers and indirect industrial assistance, and the front line gradually widened. The German casualties surged, and nearly one million people were lost in just three months.

As for the British casualties, there is no record, but it should be around 500,000.

The French were almost bleeding, the British supply lines were also stretched far away, the German attack was still sharp, and the situation became more and more obvious.

But the defense against Paris has never been slackened. When an army group died, they would piece together and immediately add a new army to the front line.

This resulted in a lack of defense in other places. Normandy had only a few divisions stationed, and Franche-Comte even had only one battalion on defense.

While the rest of the troops were fighting fiercely, Franche-Comte was picking up leaks and continued to attack southwards to the Alps until the French reserve filled the gap in the front line, and their greed was curbed.

However, they were not completely blocked. Their superiors ordered them to change the direction of attack, enter the central region of France, and attack Paris from the belly.

The French army in the south saw them retreating and thought it was an ambush, so they didn't dare to move forward.

Even though the German army's tracks were clearly heading for Paris, they still didn't dare to move forward, after all, no one wanted to die. The superiors were busy in Paris and didn't say anything.

Compared to the continuous artillery fire in Western Europe, the rest of the war in the European continent was so peaceful.

Italy has not made any progress in the months since the war began, but has lost hundreds of thousands of soldiers' lives.

Before the war, they had a million troops and shouted that they could defeat the dying and decadent Austro-Hungarian Empire.

As a result, they didn't take a single step forward, and their blood was almost drained.

The Italian government blocked the unfavorable news on the front line, temporarily blinding the people's observation.

However, although the Italians are not good at fighting, they are still smart, and the enemy countries are relatively immoral. After this move, the unscrupulous media exposed the government's actions. The Italian government quickly suffered a violent social backlash, obstructed the implementation of government affairs, reduced administrative efficiency, and became more chaotic.

In order to make up for the shortage of troops on the front line, more and more workers were conscripted to the front line, and the same dilemma as Tsarist Russia appeared - insufficient factory productivity.

I believe that before long, the Italian army will not have a single shell, the car will not have a drop of oil, and even the guns will have to use antiques from several centuries ago.

In comparison, the situation in Austria-Hungary is much better. The equipment is all new armaments, and the army organization has become grouped according to different nationalities. A large number of passionate aristocrats have poured into the grassroots officers, and the combat effectiveness has been greatly enhanced.

Of course, the Austro-Hungarian Army's record can be achieved, not without the contribution of Kuster, making the army the world's second strongest after Germany.

But it must be said that Austria-Hungary's own strength is also very strong. The savings of the Habsburg family over the past century can give this empire on the verge of disintegration a life.

At least in terms of front-line food, no European army can eat better than Austria-Hungary. After all, they only have about one million people now, unlike other countries where they are all a group of animals sent to die.

Since the surrender of Russia, in order to stabilize the domestic situation and make full use of the armed forces, the Austro-Hungarian Army has become more quality-oriented, greatly reducing the number of conscriptions, and even cutting some low-quality armed forces and sending them back to local areas for maintenance.

Austria-Hungary deployed 800,000 troops in the Alps and 600,000 troops in the Balkans.

The commander-in-chief of the Alpine Army is Borojevic, Kuster's old boss. Kuster was promoted to the position of honorary marshal, and he also followed the popularity and became the commander-in-chief of the theater.

The commander-in-chief of the Balkans is Potiorek, the "Ink General", who is also an old acquaintance of Kuster.

He was originally the main supporter of the attack on Serbia, and now he is the natural choice to attack Greece, the only obstacle to Austria-Hungary's dominance in the Balkans.

Borojevic has rich combat experience. He has led his army to overcome difficulties since Galicia, and until he took control of the army group, he relied on hard power to fight.

However, Potiorek is not very competent. Compared with Greece, which has rugged terrain and full of mountains, it is obviously not suitable for the terrain he is best at - the flat desk.

Although he controls the full military power, he actually doesn't care much about the front-line war, and pays more attention to internal affairs.

Rebellions broke out in various places. Everyone knew that the demise of Habao was forced by the situation, and they were all prepared to share a cup of corpses in advance. Potiorek was no exception.

He didn't believe that a weak Greece could hold out for long, even if it could resist longer than Russia.

Greece was in danger, and its demise was coming sooner or later. Even the government was ready for exile.

They had been expelled to the Peloponnese, where they were fighting a meaningless last stand.

But the tenacity of the Greek army and civilians was beyond imagination. They fought guerrilla warfare in the mountains, making it difficult for the Austrian-Bulgarian coalition to move forward. Perhaps it was a sudden awakening of blood, which transformed them from the defeated court and restored the bravery of Rome.

But Rome could not save it. After all, hundreds of thousands of troops could not stop millions of troops.

The only thing the Allies were worried about was the North American continent beyond the ocean.

Warm reminder: The website is about to be revised, which may cause the loss of reading progress. Please save the "bookshelf" and "reading record" in time (it is recommended to take a screenshot to save). We apologize for the inconvenience caused to you!