By 25 March, the Austrian army had penetrated deep into Russian Poland. So Brusilov attacked the Austrian right flank and forced it to retreat into Galicia, although his forces were outnumbered by the enemy. The Russian army followed the pursuit closely, reaching Lemberg (Lviv), the industrial and commercial center of the province, and entered the city on April 3. Brusilov then divided his forces and sent his left flank to quickly block the Carpathian Pass in case the Austrians retreated, and sent his central forces and right flank straight to Przemyšl. At the same time, General Rusky's army effectively wedged itself between the fleeing Austrian Third Army and its domestic bases.

At Rava-Ruskaya, the main railway junction of Galicia west of Lemberg, General Dmitriev's army put pressure on the Austrians, forcing them to rush to the Serbian support of the Second Army, which had already been battered continuously, but this thin, unreliable force arrived too late. The combined flank of the Russians drove the Austrians back to the Carpathian line, leaving more than 150,000 Austrians in Przemysh, the city that fell after six months of encirclement. When the Russian army entered the city, most of the residents could not stand up. Hunger has turned them into living skeletons. At the same time, Brusilov cut off his long, wide strip through the province of Bukovina, captured the provincial capital Chernivtsi, and then marched towards Hungary.

Ivanov's victory in Galicia exposed Silesia to the Russian invasion. Because the Silesian plain led directly to the heart of Germany, Hindenburg felt that he had to act, and he had to act quickly. On 28 April, a specially formed German Ninth Army, led by General August von Mackensen, went by train to reinforce the Austrians. The newly formed Ninth Army, led by General Mackensen, who had distinguished himself on the Eastern Front, arrived with the Germans and succeeded in containing the decline of the Austro-Hungarian army and blocking Brusilov's army from advancing on Forte Hungary. The fronts on both sides returned to the situation at the beginning of the war, and after the first large-scale fighting on the Eastern Front was largely over, and without much progress had been made, both sides were heavily armed and more soldiers were mobilized to prepare for a larger battle.

The fighting on the Eastern Front did not affect the progress of the German army on the Western Front, which was still the main theater of the European War. The fighting became more intense, with thousands of soldiers killed and wounded every day, artillery roaring, tanks rolling, warplanes staggering, and human ingenuity turning this densely populated, civilized land into ruins, and it doesn't take long for it to return to its original state.

One after another, the unfavorable news reached the headquarters of the coalition forces, and General Xia Fei and his generals and staff officers continued to adjust their deployments, and the soldiers were exhausted and still could not recover the unfavorable situation.

In Belgium, the Anglo-French forces completely lost air supremacy, and the Allied pilots were powerless in the face of the German Fokker fighters until more advanced fighters were acquired. Moreover, the Germans acquired a much larger number of Chinese-origin fighters, estimated by intelligence services at least 400, including some purchased before the start of the war and some smuggled in Chinese merchant ships after the war began. The front-line commanders of the Allied forces had made solemn demands to the British and French high-level officials to inspect Chinese merchant ships, and even to prohibit Chinese merchant ships from entering the ports of the Allied powers, and of course would not cut off Chinese merchant ships bound for the Entente. However, this will take time for diplomats to negotiate, and before that Germany had surpassed the Allies in terms of quality and quantity.

The most infuriating thing is that when the Entente proposed to China to buy fighter jets and tanks, it was rejected by the Chinese government, on the grounds that China was also in a war with the United States and Japan, and there was no more production capacity to export to the Entente. This strengthened the Allies' determination to cut off Chinese merchant ships to Germany.

The war cannot be won or lost on someone else, and both Britain and France understood this, and they obtained a lot of advanced technology from the New York-based Military Research Council, which they used in aero engines and tank engines. Military technology grew rapidly under the catalyst of the war, and the Allies were experimenting with more advanced aircraft and tanks, but it would take a while for advanced weapons to enter service, and the situation on the European continent would not be able to wait for advanced weapons to enter service.

After the capture of Sedan, Moltke received a large amount of fuel and ammunition, and the order from the General Staff to continue the offensive greatly increased Moltke's confidence, and he assured Field Marshal Schlieffen that his armored forces could advance 100 kilometers in three days, completely disrupt the deployment of the coalition forces, and cut off the retreat of the British and French forces in Belgium, provided that the logistics and transportation could keep up, of course.

In fact, the only condition that limited Moltke's armored forces was logistical transportation, and the fuel required for more than 600 tanks of the 1st Panzer Army and more than 500 tanks of the 2nd Panzer Army was a terrible figure. The logistics department needed to deliver valuable fuel to Moltke by truck, through the rugged Ardennes Forest, through the rugged Ardennes Forest. The underground of transport efficiency will limit the speed of advance of the armored forces, and the General Staff even arranged airships to transport fuel, but it is of little significance.

Standing in front of a tank painted with the number 205, Commander Rommel tapped on the hull armor, his mouth kept closing, but no one laughed at him, because most of the tankmen, including Commander 204 Davis, admired the huge tanks.

In Germany, there were more than 200 Chinese-made T01 tanks, and Moltke Jr. scattered them in various units in the previous operation, and the effect was not obvious, which also increased the difficulty of logistics supply. So after the capture of Sedan, Moltke Jr. gathered all the T01 tanks together to form four heavy tank destroyer battalions. Compared to the tanks of Germany and other countries, the T01 tank can be regarded as a heavy tank, otherwise it would not have made Rommel, Davis and others so excited, 75 mm tank gun, heavy inclined armor, powerful engine horsepower, simply a perfect tank - why can't we in Germany produce this kind of tank? The reason is very simple, engine technology needs to be broken through, technology needs to be accumulated, even if there are manufacturing drawings of China, it will take time to digest, which is why Germany produces No. 2 tanks and No. 3 tanks.

The four battalions of heavy tank destroyers were supplied with the most abundant supplies, and they filled the tanks with French fuel, ate French bread, smoked French cigarettes, looked at the French women on the side of the road, swore rudely, laughed and marched forward amid the roar of the tanks. Behind were panzergrenadiers in French trucks, and then, French planes appeared in the sky that came to greet them.

"Mark, get off the road and into the woods! Brothers, I'm afraid you're going down! Rommel quickly gave the order and told the grenadiers in the hitchhiker to get down.

Not far away, several anti-aircraft machine guns were being installed nervously, and Rommel suspected that by the time they had finished installation, his own tank would already be burning after the bombardment. The Allied forces lost air supremacy in Belgium, but they were happy to find that the German troops in the direction of Sedang did not have the cover of the air force, so a large number of allied planes moved to bully the German armored units that lacked aircraft cover.

Unlike the armored and mechanized units of the Chinese army, Moltke's armored units lacked mobile anti-aircraft weapons, and most of the anti-aircraft machine guns and artillery were disassembled into parts to accompany the tanks as they advanced, and then assembled after entering the front line. Such combat efficiency can be imagined, but the Germans are developing new self-propelled anti-aircraft weapons, and armored forces are gradually maturing.

The coalition planes delayed the advance of the armored forces and caused a lot of trouble to the troops and logistics transportation lines, but the coalition planes had limited ground attack capabilities and bombing capabilities, and they were only delayed, but they could not stop the advance of the armored forces. When the level of technology is low, the role that the air force can play is low, and it is no wonder that the militaries of various countries do not attach much importance to aircraft -- unless they have advanced aircraft that can compete with the monoplane metal aircraft of the Chinese army, they have to rely mainly on the strength of infantry.

German sappers performed an engineering marvel by unloading tons of equipment from trucks and trailers with improvised equipment and assembling them as quickly as possible. It took only 38 minutes for troops of an engineering battalion to attach a steel cable across the wide river and secure the barge. They worked frantically and sweated in the cold river water, and finally completed the erection of the pontoon bridge in time.

On the other hand, the logistics forces are frantically squeezing their transport capacity, and they use wire to tie the vegetable baskets unloaded from the front of the bicycle to the outside of the truck, and transport dozens of barrels of gasoline at a time. Even the communications corps was required to carry two more barrels of gasoline on their motorcycles to ease the logistical supply pressure. Behind the tanks in the rear, several barrels of gasoline for backup were stacked to ensure that the entire army could advance for hundreds of kilometers even if it was detached from supplies in the process of continuous advance.

And the grenadiers who were unstaggered in obscurity, carrying heavy ammunition, rifles and steel helmets, and rolling their sleeves in the snow and ice, often traveling overnight, marching dozens of kilometers a day just to cover the vulnerable flanks and rear of the German armored forces.

These units contributed to the glorious achievements of the German armored forces, they were not taken seriously and were not talked about, but they did contribute to the German victory, and they were an important part of the invincible and powerful German army.

"General, a few minutes ago, our forward reconnaissance unit exchanged fire with the French, and we broke through their lines with a few thousand prisoners." The staff officer smiled lightly, expressing his agreement with Moltke Jr., and then he handed Moltke Jr. a piece of information, pointed to the text on it and said: "The French have no intention of fighting and are retreating on a large scale. ”

"Don't set up camp!" Little Moltke waved his hand with the swaying of the car, pointed to the map on his knees, and said to his staff and officers: "Let's get here as soon as possible, and when we stop and rest in a while, you go to the command car behind and send a telegram to the armored troops in front, telling them not to stop and continue the attack!" I'm right behind them! ”

"Contact the 3rd Division and 2nd Regiment of the 1st Armored Division and ask them what they are doing? They should have taken the village half an hour ago, but they still haven't moved! He said to an officer sitting in the front row of the SUV: "If they encounter resistance, ask them to explain their strength and equipment, so that I can support them." ”

"I see." The officer nodded.

"Give me the radio." He beckoned to the signal corpsman in the third platoon: "The channel is transferred to the division headquarters of the 3rd Division of the 1st Panzer Army. ”

The soldier immediately handed the headset and microphone to Moltke, he grabbed it and put one to his ear, then grabbed the intercom and began to call: "I'm L, I'm L, A, please talk back, please talk back." ”

"This is Command A, and we're on the offensive front." The voice of the commander of the 3rd Division of the 1st SS Panzer Corps was heard in the headphones.

"I order you to keep on the offensive! I'll be at your headquarters in an hour and a half! When I arrive at you in the afternoon, your troops must rest in the village of Correa, and you must get there, no matter how many French troops are ahead. ”

"Yes! I'll keep going! But you'll have to help me get in touch with the refueling. The commander of the third division over there said with a smile: "It is impossible for my men to push the tank forward." ”

"Chief of Staff, contact our supply detachment and send fuel to the Third Division!" Moltke said loudly to the chief of staff beside him, and seeing the chief of staff nodding, he continued to say to the intercom: "There is no problem with the fuel matter, your troops continue to keep attacking!" (To be continued.) )