After defeating again and again, the German army retreated to about 100 kilometers west of Kiev, and joined with the Austro-Hungarian army here to form a defense line of more than 130 kilometers long and more than 40 kilometers deep.

One round of energy will fade and then decay and then exhaust.

The Armored Assault Corps belonging to the Second Expedition Army fought a head-on battle with the German Ninth Army on the defensive line during a head-on breakthrough at the end of July.

Although he broke through the front line, he had to retreat under the resolute counterattack of the German reserve force.

This battle

The Second Tank Regiment of the 302nd Armored Division (Armored Dragoon Division) suffered heavy damage, with a total of 82 combat vehicles including T-5 main battle tanks, and a total of 100 auxiliary semi-track combat vehicles. More than 100 light tanks, including more than 6,700 officers and soldiers, including the accompanying infantry, suffered unprecedented heavy setbacks.

The German army suffered greater casualties on the defense line. In the bloody battle of positions, a total of 25,700 officers and soldiers of the German army were injured and killed, and four genuine German divisions were crippled.

Even so, it cannot be said that the Second Expeditionary Army won the battle.

The t-5 main battle tank is expensive, has strong firepower and strong defense. It is the undisputed main force of the Royal Army's armored assault power. Whenever these "crank" steel war monsters appear on the battlefield, huge fear will appear in the hearts of German soldiers.

Unlike the huge and bulky cruiser tanks in European countries, the T-5 main battle tank has strong front armor and can withstand direct 76mm artillery fire, and the side armor can withstand 37mm anti-tank shells. It has a fast off-road speed and flexible response. It is the deadly nemesis of the German heavy firepower position.

The huge British or German tanks, using 37mm anti-tank guns, can easily penetrate the front armor. It has been proven that the battlefield survivability is extremely poor, and the two cannot be compared.

In the battle to break through the German defense line

The Second Tank Regiment suffered heavy damage from German artillery fire, and then the German army joined the reserve team and launched a resolute counterattack, recapturing the lost front line.

The attempted attack attracted high attention from the Second Army Command and immediately stopped the next combat operation.

After analysis, we came to the conclusion that this battle failed;

While moving closer to the main position of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the German army quickly received a large number of artillery equipment from the other side. In the previous air bombing, they had been showing weakness and were holding back their bad luck.

After a series of rapid victory, the expeditionary forces were paralyzed, underestimated the enemy and stepped into the German trap.

As the best army unit in the world, German officers and soldiers have very strong ability to adapt to war.

The German Eastern Front Corps suffered heavy losses in air bombings, and then strengthened air defense operations and troops' concealment measures, weaving straw hats and straw curtains to disguise them, creating many fake artillery positions, showing false hidden truth, false realism and real reality.

For air defense

The German trenches were built into a "w" tortuous form, which enhanced concealment, enhanced the setting of infantry anti-aircraft artillery shelters, strengthened the establishment of air defense anti-aircraft machine gun positions, strengthened the command of air combat, and took various measures to pose a serious threat to air bombing.

After a series of competitions, the attack routes of the Imperial Expeditionary Force's armored assault troops had been roughly understood by the German troops and targeted deployments were made, which caused the Expeditionary Force's armored troops to suffer a great loss and did not achieve the purpose of breakthrough before the war.

In fact, the breakthrough of this junction failed.

Even if the lives of 200 German soldiers were taken, they could not exchange for a T-5 tank. With the strong financial resources of the Ocean Empire, only one tank armored division was built a year.

Before the war breaks out

The Ocean Empire took more than 10 years to build 6 fully equipped tank armored divisions. Each tank armored division consumed a huge amount of equipment to build two state-of-the-art 46,000-ton "Duke"-class battleships.

Look around the world

The Ocean Empire has the strongest tank armor, with a large organization and strong combat power, and can even influence local battle situations.

There are now three Ocean Empire tank divisions on the European battlefield, two on the Western Front and one on the Eastern Front.

Among the three remaining armored divisions, one stationed in the Republic of Virginia, one stationed in the North American territory of Utah, and one stationed in the mainland.

After the war breaks out

The Ocean Empire has successively formed four armored divisions, namely the Royal Guards' First Armored Division, the Fifth Armored Division, the Royal Army 307th Division, and the 308th Division...

Therefore, the Armored Dragoon Division is the trump card in the hands of the Second Expedition Army, the only tank division, and the heart of General Duan Qixiang and Lieutenant General Wu Baoli. The losses of the 2nd Tank Regiment made them heartbroken.

After repeated attacks, the total number of German troops was about 350,000.

Because the German army and the Austro-Hungarian army were closely linked, forming a back-to-back situation, with heavy troops gathering, and their fighting styles were more cunning and changeable, this made General Duan Qixiang feel very tricky.

The heavy artillery that had been lost in the German army could be obtained from friendly forces and quickly recovered more than 80% of its combat effectiveness.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire had good industrial strength, and the army equipped artillery and heavy machine guns were of high quantity and quality, especially the Manlisha rifle and advanced VZ14 149mm howitzer.

Austro-Hungarian soldiers were equipped with Manlisha rifles, which appeared three years earlier than the Mauser 1898 rifle, and their comprehensive performance was better than the Mauser rifle.

This rifle is simple in design, light in weight, and can fire different types of bullets. It uses a larger caliber than a Mauser rifle, so the Manlisha rifle is more powerful.

The Manlisha rifle and Mauser 1898 are known as the "two ace guns of the bolt-action rifle family", and the design is very classic.

In addition to the first-class performance of standard rifles, the Austro-Hungarian Empire also had a high level of artillery research and development. Especially the Skoda Arsenal, which ranked second in the world, launched a 149mm howitzer called vz14 in 1914. Its performance is very advanced and it is the main heavy artillery in the Austro-Hungarian Empire army, with a considerable amount of equipment.

The total weight of this artillery is less than 3 tons. When marching, the barrel can be removed from the gun stand and decomposed into two parts. Each part can be transported by horses.

If there is an imported heavy truck, just one truck can transport a cannon to the front line.

When the Second Tank Regiment under the 302nd Armored Division (Dragoon Division) was attacking, unfortunately encountered a VZ14 149mm heavy artillery regiment hidden behind the second-line position of the German army. Under the fierce bombardment of 48 heavy artillery pieces, the Second Tank Regiment was submerged in a sea of ​​fire...

Faced with the bombardment of 149 mm large caliber heavy artillery, the thick front armor of the T-5 was broken like paper, and in a blink of an eye it became charred scrap iron. The iron-rolling armor clusters turned into piles of scrap iron scattered on the battlefield of more than ten square kilometers under the ravage of artillery fire.

The fleet circling in the sky found something wrong, but unfortunately it was too late. It could only be destroyed by crazy attacks and repeated bombings to completely destroy the German 149mm heavy artillery regiment.

Same weapon

It is completely different in the hands of the Austro-Hungarian army and the German army.

The Austro-Hungarian soldiers were equipped with the most advanced weapons in the world, but they could not bear to see them. At the beginning of the outbreak of the world war, they were beaten by the Serbs and abandoned their armor and pressed them to the ground to rub against them.

The more than one million Austro-Hungarian army gathered on the battlefield on the western front of Kiev belonged to more than 20 different ethnic groups. The commanders of their troops issued orders to be issued in more than a dozen languages. It is conceivable how low the efficiency is.

The German army was different. After obtaining the VZ14 149mm heavy artillery, they immediately gave the Ocean Empire Expeditionary Force armored corps to a heavy blow, showing strong battlefield resilience.

In view of this

After convening a high-level military meeting of the group army, General Duan Qixiang adopted the combat plan formulated by the group army staff;

That is, to change the tactics of attacking the German positions on the front, instead breaking through Kiev, mainly the front line of the Western Austria-Hungarian Empire, driving away the fleeing Austria-Hungarian soldiers and attacking the German positions...

Pick up the persimmons and pinch them after 6 days of preparation

August 4

Under the repeated bombing of artillery fire and the impact of two pilot armored tank battalions, the Expeditionary 2nd Army broke through the front line of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and carried out large-scale defeat... and then defeat... and then drive away tactics.

610,000 Belarusian troops cooperated with more than 100,000 expeditionary soldiers to defeat the front line of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in one fell swoop. The collapse became bigger and bigger. The first-line positions, second-line positions and third-line positions were successively broken. In just a few days, it rushed and attacked, triggering a large-scale defeat of the Austro-Hungarian Empire's army.

See this scene

General Reinhardt, commander of the German Eastern Front Corps, cunningly led the Austro-Hungarian army into the German defense line, ordered him to defend the front line to death, and then led the remaining German troops to retreat quickly, leaving allies behind to stand in front.

The melee lasted for a week

In the end, less than 400,000 Austro-Hungarian soldiers were able to escape into the Balkans, with more than 120,000 casualties, more than 70,000 missing, and more than 410,000 were captured.

The German Eastern Front Corps had been retreating continuously for 11 days without telling their allies. In the midst of the defeat, they continued to mobilize Austro-Hungarian soldiers to stand in front. Only when they had no choice but to use a small number of German troops to block the pursuers, and finally 310,000 German troops retreated into the Balkan mountains.

The Battle of the Eastern Front has come to an end

The Second Imperial Expedition Army severely damaged the Fifth and Ninth German Armies, commanding millions of Belarusian vassals to win a brilliant victory in the Battle of Western Ukraine.

The number of German officers and soldiers captured more than 162,000, and more than 400,000 Austro-Hungarian troops were captured. The Germans fought in this battle did not dare to look east and basically gave up their attempt to occupy the Western Ukraine region.

But we should see that in the vast Eastern European region, from Lithuania to Poland, from Kurland, Levelland and Estrland, as well as Finland and the Orland Islands, the German army still has more than 900,000 troops, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire has more than 2.3 million troops, and its overall strength is still superior.

After this battle, the 2nd Army Army suffered more than 73,600 casualties, and nearly 200,000 casualties of Belarus soldiers, and had to enter a long-term rest and recovery stage.

This battle of Western Ukraine is also the last large-scale battle on the entire Eastern Front battlefield.

Until the end of the World War, there were no more than 50,000 battles in the entire Eastern Europe, only some sporadic conflicts or small-scale battles with more than 100 casualties.

The Second Army established the dominance of Western Ukraine with a refreshing victory. Since then, he has been in charge of Crimea for 26 years, and no one has dared to challenge it.
Chapter completed!