The Rise Of Australasia

Chapter 528: Chapter 414: Central Breakthrough

With the failure of the attempted pincer movement, German Chief of Staff Fajinhan quickly proposed another plan - concentrating forces in weak areas of the enemy and implementing a frontline breakthrough, a tactic that was named the Central Breakthrough.

The pincer movement strategy was initiated by Hindenburg and Ludendorff. After the failure of the large encirclement plan, Hindenburg and Ludendorff had to obey the command of Fajinhan, and the East Prussian army and the Austro-German army began to carry out the Central Breakthrough.

After a series of complex comparisons and judgments, the German General Staff finally chose the upstream area of the Vistula River in the Gorelitz District as the core area for the breakthrough.

The Vistula River originates from the Hungarian Region and flows north through Warsaw, dividing most of the East Prussian Region.

The real reason for implementing the breakthrough tactic in this area is that the Russian army group in this area has been largely annihilated. The newly transferred Russian troops are all new recruits, making the defense force in this area somewhat weak.

More importantly, because of the previous battle in the Carpathian Mountains, one of the two new Russian Army Groups in this area had to be transferred out, greatly reducing the Russian military strength.

Besides the advantage of a powerful military, the terrain in this area is also quite favorable for the German Army.

Because it's not a narrow terrain, advantages of the German Army's troop strength can be brought into play. In addition, the Vistula Valley in the north and Beskid Mountain in the south restrict Russian support, ensuring the flanks' safety of the group responsible for the attack, enabling the German Army to push forward without worrying about flank and rear attacks.

The German high command, including Chief of Staff Fajinhan, had great confidence in the Central Breakthrough plan.

Although the situation the Allies are currently facing is quite poor, the Germans still believe in the combat capabilities of their army, and Fajinhan still believes the heroic German Army can eliminate any threat at any time.

The Germans also prepared a feint on the western front for the secrecy of the Central Breakthrough tactic, in order to attract the attention of the entire Allied Nations.

In addition, by the end of July, the attention of quite a few Allies was on the Ottoman Empire. Even Russia had dispatched some troops in the Caucasus Region, which made the Germans believe that the perfect opportunity to start a new battle had arrived.

It's worth mentioning that in the feint on the Western Front, the Germans used poison gas in combat for the first time.

This resulted in significant casualties among the British and French forces on the Western Front. The poison gas not only caused suffocation, poisoning, and death, but also caused temporary or permanent blindness and a loss of combat capabilities.

When the Germans used the poison gas, they were all equipped with advanced gas masks. On the side of the British and French forces, either two layers of cloth simply covered their nose and mouth, or they wore more complicated gas masks which made it easier for soldiers to suffocate.

In terms of poison gas and gas masks, the research level of the Germans took the lead. Australasia did not do much research on poison gas, but they did make some progress with the research on gas masks.

The current gas mask technology of the Germans largely utilized activated charcoal to adsorb and eliminate some toxins in the air.

The gas masks of Australasia also used this principle. They had a quite good effect on protecting against poison gas.

Therefore, Britain and France made an urgent purchase of a batch of gas masks from Australasia. Even Russia, which had not yet been hit by poison gas, was also buying gas masks urgently from Australasia. .net

At the same time, Britain and France were also conducting urgent research on the use of poison gas bombs in their own countries, preparing for a new round of retaliation against the German army.

When the attentions of Britain, France, and Russia were all attracted by the poison gas used by Germany on the Western Front, on the last day of July, Germany implemented the Central Breakthrough plan on the Eastern Front.