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Volume 3 Far East Story Chapter 274 The Allied Summer Offensive

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    ~Date:~October 07~

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    Looking back at the European Western Front battlefield, after the spring offensive in April ended without any problem, the Soviet Union and Germany negotiated peace in May. Throughout May, most of the main forces of Germany and Austria were transferred to the west, and the US military continued to arrive on the French battlefield.  It injected new blood into the Allied Powers.

    Throughout June, the Allies, with Britain and France as the main force, launched a large-scale offensive against the two protrusions of the German defense line, Amiens and the Marne. The British army invested 42 divisions and 500,000 people, and the French army  The main force of fifty-six divisions with 670,000 men was invested, and the remaining British and French troops, about thirty divisions each, guarded the Allied defense lines.

    The eight main divisions of the First Army of the American Expeditionary Force serve as reserves, and the remaining 16 new divisions of the US Army guard the third line of defense.

    Through mobilization throughout May, German commander Ludendorff deployed 188 divisions, 6,500 heavy field guns and 9,800 light field guns on the Western Front.

    The Allied Powers, as the attacking party, have 6,800 heavy artillery pieces and 8,300 light artillery pieces. The Allied Powers' air force is nearly twice as powerful as Germany's - in the direction of the Amiens attack, there are 1,500 aircraft against Germany's 1,000 pieces.  Two hundred; in the direction of the Marne, about 1,800 to 1,070.

    The Allied summer offensive in June was a tragedy for both warring parties. The total number of troops on the front line of the attacking Allied Powers was less than that of the German and Austrian troops on the defensive side. However, in the two salients of Amiens and the Marne River, the Allied Powers concentrated  The two British and French assault groups used had more troops than the opposite German and Austrian troops.

    The Amiens-Marne summer offensive launched by the Allies lasted for nearly a month. The Allied tanks broke through the German first and second line positions, but were trapped by the crisscrossing anti-tank trenches between the German second and third line positions.  They were unable to move, and the infantry accompanying the attack were simply isolated by the German artillery fire and unable to advance in front of the second line position.

    The nearly 2 million main forces of both sides fought fiercely in Amiens and the Marne. The German heavy artillery always had a partial advantage. This advantage offset the slight advantage of the Allied Air Force and was still rich. Ludendorff's reserve force was far greater than that of the Allied Powers.  General Foch had more, and Germany, as the defensive side, was fighting on the inside. The developed railway networks in France and Belgium allowed the German troops to mobilize quickly and efficiently in both directions.

    The 1918 summer offensive launched by the Allied Powers was later considered to be a wrong offensive launched at the wrong time. When the battle subsided at the end of June, the Allied Powers returned to their previous starting positions, and the British army suffered a loss of 210,000.  The French army suffered casualties of 270,000, while the German and Austrian troops on the opposite side suffered casualties of about 320,000. What's even more terrible is that the Allies lost about half of their heavy artillery and almost all of the nearly 1,000 tanks that were put into the battlefield.

    If the First Army of the American Expeditionary Force had not blocked Ludendorff's counterattack, the Allied front could hardly be maintained. As for the air force, the two sides were evenly matched. The number of aircraft shot down by the Allied Powers was about the same as that of the Germans. In other words, the Allied Powers' air superiority was eliminated.  were suppressed by the outnumbered Luftwaffe.

    The disastrous failure of the Allied Powers' summer offensive made the atmosphere on the Western Front even more tense. While both sides paused to lick their wounds, they invariably turned their attention back to Russia's Eastern Front.

    In late June 1918, Kolchak's White Guards voluntarily abandoned their positions on the right bank of the Volga River and west of Ufa, and instead contracted to the west and north. Kazan was always caught by the White Guards like a meat grinder and a hard walnut.  There was no looseness in his hand.  Of course, rumors are flying that the gold in the Kazan treasury has been transferred to Ufa.

    The people fleeing the Volga River Basin and Ufa area are rolling westward. It is rumored that in Western Siberia east of the Ural Mountains, 375 rent reduction and temporary land management regulations have been implemented. There is a rear area and there is no war. It is very difficult for Russian farmers, especially  For landless farmers, this is paradise right now!

    Tukhachevsky, the 1st Army of the Soviet Eastern Front, had never been so proud. He defied all opinions and ignored the orders of the front headquarters and commanded his army to cross the Volga River from Simbirsk in one fell swoop. The White Guards on the other side had already  Fleeing, within a week, the First Army regained land a hundred kilometers deep on the right bank of the Volga River, and regained the important town of Meleks at the confluence of the Meleks and Bolshoi Cheremshan rivers.

    Of course, not to be outdone, the 4th Army of the Soviet Eastern Front crossed the Volga River from Seseran to the north, and also rushed to Meleks. The two sides almost clashed over the spoils left by the White Guards, and all telegrams sent to Moscow were  It was the other party who took away the credit and spoils from him.

    Comrade Ulyanov in Moscow obviously paid more attention to the Red Army general Tukhachevsky who had a worker-peasant background. In the earlier struggle with the rebellious Eastern Front Commander Muraviev, Comrade Xiaotu alsoHis firm party spirit and uncompromising fighting spirit obviously left a profound impact on Ulyanov.

    As a support or balance, and also to reconcile the contradiction between the First Army and the Front Army Commander Vacetis, at the end of June 1918, the Supreme Military Council of the Soviet Union issued an order to divide the Eastern Front Army into two clusters, the North and the South.  The Northern Group consists of the Fifth Army and the Third Army, and is commanded by Front Army Commander Vacetis.

    The Southern Group of the Eastern Front consists of the 1st, 2nd, and 4th armies. The commander of the Southern Group is concurrently served by the commander of the 1st Army, Tukhachevsky. At the same time, in order to strengthen the gap that has been opened and the Volga River is forcibly crossed, the commander of the Southern Group is concurrently appointed.  The strength of the southern cluster.

    The 31st Turkestan Infantry Division, the 13th Cavalry Division and the Mixed Cavalry Division under the Fifth Army of the Northern Cluster in Kazan were urgently transferred to the 1st Army to strengthen the offensive on the southern front in the direction of Ufa.  , the strength of the Southern Cluster commanded by Tukhachevsky increased to about 160,000, becoming the main cluster on the Eastern Front battlefield.

    Such adjustments and deployments are obviously the result of a game between Ulyanov and Trotsky over control of the frontline military command. Trotsky's view of using Tsarist Russian military experts to command group armies and front armies was unknowingly weakened.  , although these senior generals of Tsarist Russia had long sworn allegiance to the Soviets and joined the Bolsheviks, it was obviously difficult for Vacetis or Slavin, as former senior generals of Tsarist Russia, to fully integrate into the embrace of the Bolsheviks.  difficult.

    At the same time, because the Northern Cluster was unable to conquer the front line in Kazan for a long time, while the Southern Cluster was progressing smoothly west of Ufa, Ulyanov's comrades had more than once criticized Vacetis, who was in charge of commanding the Northern Cluster, and the commander of the Fifth Army.  Slavin made the mistake of right-wing opportunism and demanded that they and the middle and senior generals on the Kazan front be reviewed. Of course, fortunately, Trotsky, the chairman of the Supreme Military Council, defended him against all opinions.

    Dzerzhinsky's Chekas did not dare to act as randomly on the Kazan front as they did in Tsaritsyn. During the three defense battles of Tsaritsyn in May and June, Comrade Joseph, the military commissar of the Southern Front,  There were as many division commanders and brigade commanders as there were not a platoon but a squad who gave the order to be shot!  Of course, facts have also proved that the anti-revolutionary and iron-blooded policies are necessary means. Two division commanders immediately led their troops to defect to the White Guards of Krasnov and Denikin on the opposite side after escaping the Cheka's butcher knife!

    Of course, the Central Committee of the Soviet Union and the Russian people have seen the announcements made by Kolchak's All-Russian Provisional Government on land reform, an eight-hour working day, improved workers' benefits, and the issuance of food stamps to urban residents, but the Volga River defense line has already failed.  Nowadays, no one takes what the Kolchak government says seriously. The seemingly precarious regime makes empty promises no matter how much it promises. In fact, west of the Ural Mountains, with the news of the defeat of the White Guards one after another on the front line, the entire society is in a state of turmoil.

    Half of it was the spontaneous movement of local people from the west to east of the Ural Mountains to escape, and the other half was the Kolchak government beginning to relocate factories and equipment and White Guard family members in important cities such as Kazan and Ufa to the east of the Ural Mountains.  It just happened that everyone fell down before. Of course, no matter whether the east of the Ural Mountains belongs to the Chinese, the Japanese, or the Western Siberian Autonomous Government, as long as it gives people a way to survive, it is better than anything else!

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