— The Complete History of World War I —
— by Zhang Huiyan
By the end of 1915, the Eastern Front had shifted from a mobile warfare to a trench warfare, and the two sides had entered the trench warfare stage, with 1.8 million Russian troops and 1.06 million German-Austrian troops facing each other like two tired bulls in the cold wind.
At the end of the same year, russian troops withdrew from Galicia and Poland, and Russia was in danger.
It was not until the beginning of 1916 that the state of the Russian army began to improve, and various equipment and supplies began to flow forward. At this point, after the successful operations of the Caucasus against Turkey, the Russian High Command decided to launch a series of restrained offensives to ease the German pressure on the Western Front.
Russia decided to launch an offensive on the north side of Narathi Lake in March of that year, a campaign that was named "Brusilov Breakthrough" after its commander.
Brusilov (1853-1926) Brusilov, Aleksei Alekseevich
On March 17, 1916, a lean general came to the headquarters of the Russian Southwestern Front, who was the newly appointed commander, General Brusilov. Brusilov, a noble cavalry officer who had commanded the Eighth Army, had his imagination combined with his attention to detail making his command one of the most important factors in the success of the Russian army in 1916.
When he was still the commander of the group army, his fierce and stubborn temperament was already known, and his extraordinary courage and extraordinary talent were even more admired by his subordinates.
The new commander of the Front, the Russian base camp, gave him the task of carrying out an auxiliary assault on Lutsk, but Brusilov had a bold offensive plan in mind: to break through the German-Austrian defense line and completely turn the tide of the war in Eastern Europe!
After being given full command of the army on the southwestern frontier, Brusilov decided to abandon the traditional Russian strategy of "human waves" attrition in favor of surprise tactics, he proposed an attack along the front line of the Austro-Hungarian Army, and carefully planned the entire strategic deployment, including four full-scale attacks, in which the four armies under his command were involved.
However, the formation of the long front gave him a difficult problem: roundabout two wings to encircle and annihilate the enemy, which was considered the best maneuver on the eve of the war, but the enemy's broad frontal front ruled out the possibility of solving the victory or defeat on the defensive enemy flank, concentrating forces, and implementing a frontal breakthrough in a selected area, often easily exposing his own intentions and failing to achieve the suddenness of the battle.
Brusilov, who had been the headmaster of the military academy, had taught his students never to be superstitious about textbooks, and this time he was determined to set an example with his actions.
Brusilov's considerations went far beyond those of the other Tsarist officers, who had made all the details of the attack and stressed to his subordinates all the necessary preparations, thus giving them a complete understanding of the Defense of the Austrian Army.
Brusilov believed that the Allies had a fully functioning railroad system that could quickly transport reinforcements to threatened areas. Therefore, he decided to expand the strike area so that the enemy reinforcements could be contained and prevented from withdrawing.
Brusilov chose the Austro-Hungarian army as the target of the attack and began meticulous preparations.
Brusilov abandoned the practice of breaking through the defenses in one area adopted by the British and French armies, and prepared to carry out breakthroughs in all the army groups of the Front, that is, in four directions at the same time, so that it was difficult for the enemy to judge the main direction of attack, so that the campaign camouflage of the main assault was achieved, so that the enemy reserves could not maneuver in the main offensive direction.
In view of the heavy losses of the Italian army at Trentino and the Allies' request that russia begin the offensive early to divert the enemy from the Italian front, the base camp decided to start the southwestern front two weeks earlier than the scheduled date.
Officers of the German artillery unit check the accuracy of the shelling
On 4 June, Brusilov's four Russian armies attacked at the same time, even the Austro-Hungarian reserve army suffered this attack, and Brusilov's Eighth Army launched a large-scale attack on the southern part of the Pripyat swamp in Lutsk, which destroyed the Austro-Hungarian Fourth Army and successfully occupied the city within two days.
Further south, the Eleventh Army broke through the enemy line and defeated the Austro-Hungarian First and Second Armies, while the Ninth Army also occupied the Austro-Hungarian positions, and although the Austrians counterattacked fiercely, the Austrian defenses were eventually breached, and the Austrians lost 600,000 men, of whom more than 400,000 were captured.
By mid-June, the Austro-Hungarian army in Galicia had effectively collapsed.
The rout on the Eastern Front horrified the German-Austrian military leaders, who hurriedly mobilized reinforcements from the Western And Italian Fronts to block the breakthrough.
In mid-July, Germany and Austria-Hungary took advantage of more convenient lines of communication, german reinforcements from the Western Front, and Austro-Hungarian reinforcements also arrived from Italy, so that the passive situation began to turn around, and the Germans launched a resolute counterattack against the weaker northern flank of the Russian army.
In the south, the Russians had reached as far as the Carpathians and were forced to slow down due to insufficient supplies; in the north, the Germans managed to stop the Russian advance.
The successful breakthrough of the Russian Southwestern Front was not supported in time by other fronts, the Russian base camp was not good at organizing the coordinated action of various armies, and the situation urgently required the main assault to be shifted from the west to the southwest, but the base camp did not make up its mind until July 9 when the Germans had already gathered heavy troops here.
In mid-July, the Russians launched two offensives against the fortified Kovely, as well as the participation of the Special Army Group of General Brazov, the strategic reserve of the Russian headquarters, which led to a protracted and bloody battle on the Stokhod River.
Cannons used by the Austro-Hungarian army in World War I
In this battle, Brusilov's soldiers captured a total of about 200,000 people and more than 700 cannons, and advanced the army forward by 80 kilometers, and finally Due to the lack of reinforcements that could further pursue the enemy, Brusilov had to suspend the plan to continue the attack. The total Russian casualties in this battle were 50,000.
By August, Brusilov was still stubbornly advancing, but due to logistical difficulties, the Russian casualties were extremely high, and finally on September 20, they were forced to stop the attack, and when the leaves turned golden, the eastern front was once again silent.
The Russians defeated the Austrians in the Brusilov Offensive, so that the Russian offensive eventually overwhelmed the Austrians. Unfortunately, the glorious beginning and the bleak ending were not commensurate, and the victory failed to turn the final situation in the Eastern Theater.
The offensive of the Russian Southwestern Front was a large-scale front battle, and although the victory of the front was not a decisive strategic victory, it was of great significance throughout the course of the war. In order to slow the Russian advance, the Germans had to draw more than 30 infantry divisions and 3 cavalry divisions from the Western and Italian fronts, which alleviated the Pressure on The French at Verdun and forced the Germans to stop their offensive at Trentino, forcing Falkingham to resign as Chief of the German General Staff.
For austria-hungary, its effects were even worse, and its military power was exhausted, prompting the rapid disintegration of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy.
Brusilov's success convinced the Romanians that the Austro-Hungarian Empire was collapsing.
In August, they declared war on the Central European powers at an astonishing rate, although the final result proved that their involvement was insignificant, since Germany and Austria-Hungary still had enough troops to destroy Romania and control its precious resources, wheat and oil.
Thus, the only consequence of Romania's entry into the war was to prolong the already exhausted front of Russia.
Brusilov's offensive greatly relieved the Pressure on the French army at Verdun, saved Italy, and heralded the beginning of the collapse of the two monarchical empires, Germany and Austria.
On the German-Austrian position, which was said to be impossible to be breached, Brusilov was famous for creating a new method of warfare that "focused on one point and breakthrough at the same time at multiple points", becoming the only "famous general" in Russia in World War I. Brusilov's offensive also died in the annals of history with its brilliant achievements.
— End —