Ensign Sander, who was attached to the Austrian 16th Frontier Army, and his eighteen men should have been honoured to encounter the latest German all-metal attack aircraft in the Alps, because only a few German officers and soldiers had seen the German J1 attack aircraft a day earlier, and they were among the first foreigners to meet this new aircraft.

Unfortunately, the bullets of these Austrian soldiers seemed to annoy the pilots above the iron vultures, and two of the J1s flapped their wings and then quickly descended from a height. After a while, I saw red light flashing on their wings, and several strings of bullets fell from the sky.

Thankfully, Sander's white trench coat and the complex environment here lowered the German plane's accuracy, and the bullets splattered countless pieces of rubble and snow several meters away from them.

Although the first attack of the German plane did not cause any casualties, the psychological shock was self-evident. Look at the soldiers of Second Lieutenant Sander, one by one, they have completely lost the high-spirited expressions just now, and they seem to have turned into a group of mice that have seen cats, and now they are only thinking about how to save their lives.

Sander didn't say anything, he had already started beating the drum in his heart, and with their dozen guns, no matter how you look at it, they can only be beaten.

After the first two planes strafed, the German plane behind them adjusted slightly and flew from not far away. Its speed is not fast, the flight path maintains a horizontal attitude, as a veteran of the Galician and Italian battles, Sander is shocked, and the German plane is about to ""!

On the battlefield in Italy, the soldiers of the Austro-Hungarian army liked to call the bombing of German aircraft groups "", because it was cool to think of a group of vultures pooping on the heads of Italians, but they did not expect that one day they would be treated like this.

At this time, although the Vulture IV set a world record, it was not yet able to carry out dive bombing like the later Stuka of later generations, and they were equipped with two 7.92mm machine guns and four 50-kilogram aerial bombs, although the power was not particularly powerful, it was already very deadly for the infantry with almost no air defense in this era.

With just two aerial bombs, Sander lost 3 soldiers at once, and 2 others were wounded. Some of the soldiers raised their guns and shot blindly into the air, some fumbled to hide in a safer place, and some looked at the bodies of the dead in a daze.

Sander looked at the German planes still hovering in the air, gritted his teeth, and chose a bright path for him and his soldiers.

"General, a telegram from Berlin!"

The young communications officer walked up to the young general and handed him a telegraph with both hands. Saluted, turned around, and walked briskly back to the armored communications vehicle on the side.

The young general took the telegram, saluted, read, walked to the edge of the makeshift tent and looked up at the sky.

"Pass my order to go down and continue the march tonight, with the advance guard troops maintaining a battle formation, and the follow-up troops marching vigilantly! Be sure to get to Kraforgen before dawn! ”

"Yes!" The young staff officer rose up. Quickly record this new command. Salute and walk to the communication vehicle just now.

On the road in front of the improvised headquarters consisting of two makeshift tents and several armoured communication vehicles, tanks, armoured combat vehicles, armoured personnel carriers, trucks full of soldiers, trucks full of supplies, fuel tankers, repair vehicles were one after another. Form a continuous torrent of steel.

This was a young team, the 1st Panzer Corps of the German Imperial Panzer Group, nicknamed the "Thor's Corps". Thor is the god of thunder in Norse mythology, and this armored unit is also expected to advance and fight like the god of thunder.

The Young Squad has an equally young commander, Heinz von Guderian, Major General of the Imperial Panzer Corps, the youngest recipient of the Blue Max Medal.

For this "lightning plan", the German army high command mobilized nearly 80 percent of the country's active troops, and as the vanguard of the army, the Reich's armored cluster was naturally the arrow.

After the end of the war. The German Army has not only been reduced in size, but also in its structure. As the backbone of the army, the number of the 1st to 8th armies was retained, and each army group maintained a strength of 8-100,000 men in peacetime after the army was reduced, and it will be expanded to 20-250,000 after the inclusion of reserve forces in wartime.

Under the standard establishment, each group army will have two corps, and it will be expanded to four corps in wartime. In addition, each army group has a direct air force, which usually has 24 reconnaissance/collatorial aircraft, 12 fighters, 12 attack aircraft, and 24 bombers. In wartime, this figure will also increase with the support of the Air Department and the Army Air and Air Departments. For example, the blitzkrieg invasion of Austria-Hungary involved 6 general armies, 1 emperor's janissary and a part of the border guards, which were divided into upper and lower clusters, the upper group entered Bohemia under the command of General von Mackensen, and this part of the army included the 6th and 7th armies and the 3rd armored army, with a total of more than 150 aircraft of various types, and the headquarters was located in Chemnitz; The lower group entered Austria under the command of Admiral Hausen, which included the 1st, 2nd, 4th, and 5th armies and the 1st and 2nd Panzer Armies, and the Air Department and Army Aviation provided more than 700 aircraft of all kinds to this large group, including 82 new J1 all-metal attack aircraft.

According to the lightning plan for the invasion of Austria-Hungary, the task of the German fleet on the first day was to drop leaflets and suppress Austro-Hungarian fighters, and orders were given to pilots to use weapons only in the event of an attack by the opposing side. On this day, none of the 36 Austro-Hungarian fighters stationed in Bohemia flew together, and the nearly 80 fighters stationed in Upper Austria took off, but none of them fired at the German planes, so that the air forces of both countries suffered casualties on the first day, and only one Austro-Hungarian plane crashed due to mechanical problems during landing.

This peculiar situation occurred not only because of the sudden invasion of the German army, but also because the Austro-Hungarian government and army lost their backbone after the death of the Austrian Emperor, the huge Austro-Hungarian Army was slow to respond, and there were quite a few fighters of the Austro-Hungarian Air Force with more than 200 aircraft, but they were mainly old models such as "Sky 3" and "Sky 4" imported from Germany. Had it not been for Germany's non-war strategy, the planes would have been lost on the first morning.

With the rapid advance of the German troops, by the afternoon of the first day, the German ground forces had occupied three Austro-Hungarian airfields and the outgoing aircraft parked at the airfields, and the rest of the Austro-Hungarian fighters deployed in Upper Austria had moved to the airfields of Lower Austria.

In the German Army, the army group is under the corps (corps). Under the corps is set up as divisions. At present, each German infantry corps usually contains 3 infantry divisions, a corps artillery group and a corps armored group, and the corps artillery group generally has 36 152 mm heavy howitzers, 24 105 mm heavy cannons, and 24 105 mm light howitzers; The corps armoured group is roughly equivalent to two regular armoured regiments, with about 50 tanks, 100 armoured vehicles and a corresponding number of trucks.

Each German Army division typically consists of 16,600 combat and non-combatant personnel belonging to 6 infantry regiments and 3-4 reconnaissance/vigilance cavalry companies and 12 artillery batteries, each with 2-3 infantry battalions and a regimental artillery battery, with the remainder assigned to divisional and regimental headquarters as needed, with each division typically having 120 artillery pieces of various types and a number of reconnaissance/school-firing balloons.

As of the beginning of 1916, the standard configuration of German Army soldiers was a Mauser 1898 rifle. In addition to the cartridges on the waist, the ammunition carried with them can also be distributed with 2-5 cartridges in oil-paper packs, backpacks, water bottles, spare leather boots, trench digging tools, knives, and various utensils and personal equipment tied to the jacket with belts according to the needs of wartime. In his pocket was his own "emergency rations" – two cans of meat, two cans of vegetables, two packets of hard biscuits, a packet of ground coffee and a bottle of whiskey. The bottle should only be consumed with the approval of the superiors, and it should be checked once a day to see if the owner of the bottle is honest. the other pocket contained needles and threads, bandages, and plaster; There is also a pocket with matches, chocolate and tobacco.

In addition to carrying guns, the officers wore binoculars around their necks and leather maps showing the regiment's marching routes.

Of course, this is only for ordinary infantry, and the cavalry and armored units of the army units have their own special equipment.

Cavalry has been in decline since the middle of the last war, and its role has evolved from a combat assault to a full-time scout, alert, and logistical defender. Normally, a German cavalryman is equipped with a cavalry field knife, a Mauser 1898 carbine, a small amount of ammunition, a water bottle, rations, and a first aid kit in addition to his own horse.

Compared with. The armored corps had replaced the cavalry as the ground "assaulters" of the German Army. After the end of the war. The German Army High Command divided a special armoured cluster outside the eight main army groups, which was under the direct command of the Kaiser, with General François as deputy commander. Lieutenant General Olg served as Chief of Staff and was subordinate to three armoured corps, commanded by Major General Heinz von Goodrie, Major General Michael Fleming, and Major General Benjamin Beyer.

The establishment of the armored army is basically the same as that of the infantry army, with divisions, divisions, regiments, battalions, and battalion companies, each tank company is generally equipped with 4-5 tanks, each armored combat company has 6-8 armored combat vehicles and 36-48 infantry, each armored assault company has 2-3 armored combat vehicles, 6-8 armored personnel carriers and 72-96 infantry, plus towed artillery, logistics, and maintenance units, and each armored corps is in principle composed of 250 tanks, 400 armored vehicles, 500 trucks and 150 artillery pieces, of course. For example, Guderian's Panzer Corps is mainly engaged in assault missions, and its configuration has 310 tanks, most of which are new "Monster 1" tanks, and there are fewer armored combat vehicles and armored personnel carriers, only 170 and 180 respectively, and 120 towed guns of various types. Rear Admiral Fleming's 2nd Panzer Corps emphasized effective killing of enemy infantry in addition to assaults, so 50 of its 240 tanks were "Stone 2C" tanks equipped with two 20mm machine guns, which were also called "infantry killers" by German officers and soldiers. Major General Bayer's 3rd Panzer Corps has 240 tanks of various types and up to 460 armoured combat vehicles and armoured personnel carriers. There are 260 towed artillery pieces, and most of them are large-caliber howitzers, which are good at attacking fortified positions.

By the beginning of 1916, the German Army's armored cluster had a total of 286 new "Monster 1" tanks and 504 "Stone 2" series tanks.

According to the armament program of the German War Ministry, by the end of 1916, the last "Stone 1" in the army would enter the museum.

In addition, the direct aviation unit of the Panzer Group has 24 reconnaissance/collation aircraft, 36 fighters, 36 attack aircraft, 48 bombers and a number of reconnaissance/collatorial balloons, which will be used directly in support of the operations of the three Panzer Corps in wartime.

According to the "lightning plan" against Austria-Hungary, by the first day, at 4 p.m. on February 2, Guderian's 1st Panzer Army had all crossed the German-Austrian border, and Major General Guderian's temporary headquarters was placed next to a road more than 60 kilometers from the border.

"Communications Officer!" Guderian turned from the edge of the tent and walked back to his table with a map, and called his communications officer.

Hearing this, the young communications officer trotted from the armored communications vehicle next to him, "Here! ”

"Send a telegram to General Fleming and ask where their vanguard is now! Also, will you be able to get to Vienna tonight! ”

With that, Guderian's right hand, dressed in black leather gloves, rested on the map, and his eyes followed his index finger to a point on the map, which was a city called Ibs, nearly 100 kilometers from the German-Austrian border. 1 hour earlier, General Fleming's 2nd Panzer Army had arrived and occupied there.

"Yes!" After a quick note, the Communications Officer trotted away.

After this, Guderian's gaze continued to move along with his right index finger on the map, where there was a thick blue line that represented the Danube River, which fed the Germanic peoples. Europe's second-largest river originates in southwestern Germany and flows from west to east through southern Germany, Upper Austria and Lower Austria. Less than 200 kilometers from the German border along the Danube is Vienna, the capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

"1 hour!" Guderian muttered to himself, following the blue line to the east, each centimeter meant another step towards Vienna.

However, Guderian and his 1st Panzer Corps were not headed for Vienna, as the 1st Panzer Corps was advancing from Salzburg into Austria, into the Alps and then northeast, along the mountains to the Enns, where the arrow would turn southeast again, and then through southern Austria and the Austro-Hungarian principality of Carniola to the Maritime provinces on the northern shore of the Mediterranean.

At this time, the vanguard of the 1st Panzer Corps was just a step away from the Enns River, and after the second refueling of the day, they would turn to the Graz Basin, the main livestock region of Austria.