After more than half a month of traveling, Calyput's war report was finally delivered to Berlin, and several copies of the report were printed and sent to the Prussian General Staff, the Kaiser, Ruprecht, and the Bavarian military. Pen ~ Fun ~ Pavilion www.biquge.info And for this war report that beat the British, the reactions of all parties are different.

The German Army General Staff, headed by Schlieffen, admitted that Calyput had done very well in South Africa, combining the mobility of the cavalry with the firepower of the artillery. Moreover, this tactic of penetrating the frontal defense line and directly carrying out large-depth penetration and mobile operations is also very good. But unfortunately, all this is not suitable for the European theater, and the reference value for the German Army is very limited.

In South Africa, the British were so limited in strength that they could not form a coherent front, and they lacked firepower, which could be easily interspersed with cavalry units. With a little artillery, it was possible to attack the poorly defended rear of the British. But in Europe, none of this is possible. ”

"On either the Western Front or the Eastern Front, if we were to fight the French or the Russians, millions or even millions of troops would be crowded together on a not very wide front. The legions of Europe had a large number of heavy artillery and machine guns. With a system of fortresses and trenches, it was almost impossible for the cavalry to pass through layers of blockades. ”

"So all of our previous plans were to take advantage of the time difference to defeat the opponent before they could react after the battle began. If the war had turned into a stalemate, the German Empire, with its scarce resources, would inevitably fall into a disadvantage. ”

"As for increasing the number of vehicles, this is a good suggestion, but it is feasible for Bavaria, which has a small army, and it may not be possible for Prussia, which has a large number of troops, because our military spending is limited, but we will try to increase the mechanical capacity."

The prince put aside Count Schlieffen's reply, it cannot be said that the count's point of view is wrong, judging from the situation of the 1st World War, any attempt to make a breakthrough on the Western Front, interspersed or long-distance frog jump will not be successful in the end, without it, the density of troops is too great! And the density of fire is just as terrible!

At the beginning of 1918, for example (before the mass arrival of the American army), Germany had a total of one hundred and ninety-four and a half divisions on the Western Front! It has a total strength of 4 million troops, 15,000 artillery pieces, 3,000 aircraft, and 10 tanks. And what about the Entente opposite? A total of 176 infantry divisions and 10 cavalry divisions! In total, it has nearly 5 million troops, 17,000 artillery pieces, 3,800 aircraft and more than 800 tanks! And all these troops are concentrated on a front that is no more than 500 kilometers wide! An average of 10,000 people on a one-kilometer front! Add to this the trenches, mines and machine guns, what kind of troops in the 1st World War can completely penetrate such a defensive line?

Therefore, His Royal Highness agreed with Count Schlieffen half of the idea that it would be very difficult for the Western Front to achieve victory, even in the so-called Rapid Corps. But if this kind of rapid corps play is used on the Eastern Front, it is promising, for the simple reasons, first, the front of the Eastern Front is too broad. Second, the Russian army could not be compared with the Western Front in terms of numbers and equipment. It's easier to pierce. Thirdly, Russia's railway network is very sparse, once a point is breached, it will lead to a fairly long section of the front that cannot get enough supplies, even if it is difficult to achieve a frontal attack, but the Russian army, which lacks supplies, must choose to retreat!

What was the Eastern Front like in history? Let's talk about Russia first, Russia's front-line troops (combatants, combat units) have been maintained at around 3 million. An army of this size was deployed on a long front of 1,625 versts, which was completely disproportionate to the strength of Britain and France on the Western Front. And if you take a unit area of Germany's railway density to 10. If the railway density of Austria-Hungary is 6.7, then the railway density of Russia is only 1!

Whether it was World War 1 or World War 2, the supply of the Russian army was completely dependent on the railway, the Russians had limited troops, and the equipment could not be compared with the British and French, and the length of the battle line was terrible, which meant that their defense line was very easy to break through. The quick-break mobile corps still had a lot to offer in the rear of the Russians. Don't seek to fight a blitzkrieg and a large-depth encirclement similar to the level of World War 2, as long as you can knock out the key transportation center behind the battle line, the huge Russian army will be finished by itself, because no matter how strong it is, you must always eat.

In order to deal with Russia as soon as possible at the lowest cost, the prince thought that the efficiency of simple ground push operations was too low. The Russians knew that they could not defeat Germany, so the Russians responded by procrastination, just as they did with Napoleon in history. When necessary, seeing that the main German forces were no longer on the Eastern Front, they launched one or two large-scale attacks to give Austria-Hungary a good beat. However, it is a pity that historical Russia was unable to kill its opponent in the end, and hung up under internal and external troubles.

And in the prince's timetable, Russia must be solved within 2 years of the start of the war! Only then could we withdraw from Russia and solve a series of problems in Austria-Hungary and the Western Front, and at the same time, the reparations obtained from Russia were also the key to supporting Germany in the war. All kinds of supplies are one thing, and the most important thing is food!

Frontal propulsion plus limited maneuver interspersed operations are the tactical framework that the prince will plan in the future on the moving line. The former is easy to say, relying on the quality and equipment superiority of the German army, it is impossible to do worse than in history. And the latter is troublesome, because the material conditions of this era are very coffee table

This mobile corps is not just about running fast. Having a large number of vehicles and a strong transport capacity is only the first step in the formation of this mobile corps, which only solves part of the logistical problems. The most critical issue - how to continue to break through the opponent's defense line has not been solved.

When it comes to this question, the first thing that comes to everyone's mind is the tank. That's right, there must be tanks, not armored vehicles, for the simple reason that armored vehicles are not passable. Historically, the German tanks were tragic and could not be compared with Britain and France in terms of quantity and quality. And in this plane, if the prince wants to blitz the Eastern Front, the first thing to solve is the tank problem.

But fortunately, now the first tanks have been tested at the test site of the Bavarian military. That's right, in order to deal with the war that swept across Europe, the prince was still very well prepared, especially in the field of key technical weapons. The first batch of tank tenders had two alternatives.

When the prince decided that Prussia would not be interested in building a new type of large-scale rapid assault corps in the short term, he decisively left Berlin and went home to attend to his own business.

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