Iron Cross Fire

The Russians deployed a total of 80,000 people in the 50-kilometer area between Gorlice and Rzeszow, and the battle line was very tense.

And at this moment, the friendly forces have not completely given up the defense of Gorlice. Conrad can be asked to directly order the friendly forces there to hold on to Gorlice, so as to delay a large number of Russian troops.

The First Army is responsible for defending the area around Tarnow (20 kilometers northwest of Gorlice), and the high-level officials can also directly fix the local garrison.

After getting Conrad's affirmation, what he should do next is much simpler, that is, to break through the enemy's defense line vertically from the northwest.

After a series of internal adjustments, the friendly forces were successfully used to attract 20,000 Russian troops, and at this moment there are still 60,000 Russian troops available for defense.

But Kuster didn't take them seriously. Their current artillery shells have begun to be stretched, except for the endless bullets. But what's the use? Without stronger supporting firepower than the enemy, any battle is a dead end.

The Austro-Hungarian high-level officials hope to successfully rescue Przemysl through this battle to reverse the unfavorable situation of the war. In order to ensure the success of the operation, the top leaders gave Kuster the highest operational freedom and military advice.

The Austro-Hungarian 19th Army had a total of 70,000 people. Among the four divisions under its command, three Austrian selected divisions were used as the main attack, and there was a mixed division as a reserve.

Surprisingly, they had four tanks that could be called up and organized into the Empire's First Tank Battalion.

He had a heavy artillery company (2 305MM heavy artillery), two medium cannon companies (12 149MM guns), a self-propelled rocket artillery battalion (8 140MM rockets), and three rocket artillery battalions (24 140MM rockets) as support.

400 305MM shells, 3 shells, and 5,000 140MM rockets.

The top leaders kindly told Kuster that if these were not enough, they could be directly transferred from other army groups. It can be seen that the empire attached great importance to this battle.

After determining the position of each unit, Kuster turned his attention back to the map.

If the defenders of Tarnow were willing to launch a counterattack, the situation would have gone smoothly; but unfortunately, those officers were unwilling to do so.

Even with the strong pressure from the Supreme Command, the defenders were barely holding on for a few seconds, and Kuster simply ignored them.

Let's turn our attention back to the army fighting with them.

They had a total of 30,000 people, organized into two divisions (called filling-line divisions), and were affiliated with the First Army. Before Kuster's 19th Army came, they were the Russian army specifically defending Rzeszow.

Now Kuster has the highest military power here, and the First Army dared not say a word if he wanted to forcibly requisition them.

They had 100,000 people (6 divisions), while the Russians on the opposite side had only 60,000 people (4 divisions). The superiority in force against the Russians was already great, and the advantage was mine, so let's fight!

On December 11, in the early morning of that day, artillery shells and rocket launchers broke through the clouds and continuously bombarded Russian positions. Austria's general offensive began.

The offensive in the north went smoothly. With strong fire support, two Austrian elite divisions took Rzeszow in just half an hour.

Another elite division and a filling-in division also successfully broke through the Russian defense in the west. There were two more divisions as reserves, without any action, in case of emergency.

In the south, three divisions of the Third Army also attacked northward. But the attack was not fast enough, and they were caught in a fierce battle with the enemy.

In the west, although the Austrian defenders in Tarnow and Gorlice were reluctant, they also began to counterattack the enemy under the strong pressure of Kuster to exert pressure.

All the Russians in this area suffered defeats under such a concentrated offensive and retreated eastward.

On December 12, the war expanded. The Russian army once again invested 30,000 people (2 divisions), and Austria-Hungary also invested 10,000 reserves.

This battle even affected the participating countries on other fronts.

After learning about this, German Emperor Wilhelm II jumped up and down and asked the two armies on the Eastern Front to launch an offensive to relieve Austria-Hungary's burden.

Britain and France did not provide material support, but only encouraged the Tsar, hoping that they could win again like Galicia.

Even the Tsar himself was confident in this battle, thinking that Kuster's attack was just a suicide mission.

But they didn't know that Austria-Hungary's new armaments were several levels higher than before, and the current Russians could not beat them at all.

The overall situation on the battlefield was also favorable to Austria-Hungary, especially in the north.

Just one day later, Kuster's army advanced 12 kilometers into the enemy's depth and gradually surrounded the Russian army in Tarnow.

Bad intelligence is really killing people! The Russian army inside didn't know that their flank friendly forces had been broken through, and it was even more impossible for them to know that they were facing the enemy at this moment.

Kuster mercilessly ordered a division to surround it, and then joined forces with the friendly forces in Tarnow, and it took only 2 hours to eat up 14,000 enemy troops.

Seeing that Kuster's battle plan could succeed, the defending officers decisively wrote a letter to their immediate superiors, and then happily followed Kuster to fight.

On December 13, an Austro-Hungarian reserve division had arrived; but Russian support was delayed because the railway had been seriously damaged due to long-term lack of maintenance, and the soldiers on it had to change trains.

After learning this information, the allies all laughed their heads off, and at the same time paid attention to people like Kuster.

On this side of the battlefield, Kuster still maintained a fierce attack.

In order to maintain efficiency, Kuster added a reserve division to the battle.

Gradually, the Russian army in Gorlice was also surrounded.

The same ending as the Russian army in Tarnow, they were completely annihilated without exception, and the Austrian army inside also joined Kuster's offensive brigade again.

At this point in the battle, the northern front had been united with the western front, and gradually controlled part of the army on the western front.

In the south, because the Russian army finally learned that the northern front had been broken through, they were scared to death. But their retreat speed was not as fast as the marching speed of the armored battalion, and they were soon surrounded.

I remember when a few Russian soldiers saw four iron boxes and dared to block their retreat, they shot at it angrily, and then found in horror that they could not shoot through it at all.

And when they fired at the Russian soldiers, it really swept a large area! Machine guns, cannons and small-caliber artillery fired at the same time, killing the hundreds of Russians. Of course, some Russians died without leaving any trace.

Kust's army had also rushed over, and as the encirclement was consolidated, the Russian army inside gave up resistance; their general led 20,000 people to surrender to Kust, and he committed suicide.

So far, Austria-Hungary has invested a total of 160,000 people, and currently there are 120,000 people left (excluding support), and no one has been captured.

The Russians invested 130,000 people before the war, and currently there are only 40,000 people left, and 50,000 of the losses were captured.

Ivanov, the then Russian commander-in-chief, saw that the war situation was out of control and ordered all soldiers to give up fighting and retreat to the east bank of the San River.

They will wait for Kust there, and then hold on tightly; to provide cover for Brusilov to besiege Przemyśl.

The top politicians of the two warring parties held the war report, each showing different expressions.

Of course, the happiest person is the German William the Second Fool.

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