By August 1915, the fighting on the Eastern Front had largely subsided, and Russia's poor roads and communications had become the biggest obstacle to the German-Austrian offensive to continue. With winter approaching, the German-Austrian forces withdrew a little further and formed a defensive line along the South Bug and Goren rivers in the Bordeaux Heights.

The Russians were again given a chance to recuperate.

The German army on the Eastern Front was divided into three parts: Hindenburg commanded the 4th and 20th armies on the northern front and confronted the Russians defending Riga and Minsk, the Mackensen group fought the Austro-Hungarian army under the command of General Pohm-Elmolli on the southern front against the Russians, and Ludendorff commanded the German 8th and 10th armies in Brest as a strategic reserve for the entire Eastern Front.

1.3 million Russian prisoners of war were demobilized and re-employed as railway workers under the drive of the German or Austrian forces. Thanks to the hard work of these road-building armies, the railways of Galicia and East Prussia extended into the heart of Ukraine, greatly improving the supply of goods to the front.

According to Lechelton's meaning, as long as the Russians did not surrender, the German-Austrian army would advance 200 kilometers into the Russian hinterland every year, and then build another 200 kilometers of railways to consolidate the war situation ahead.

Now that Helden had set his sights on the south, the Mediterranean remained at the heart of his strategy. By taking control of the Mediterranean and expelling the British from the region, he could take control of the vital Suez Canal, and then he would be able to march into the Indian Ocean and shake the foundations of the British.

The greatest advantage of controlling the Mediterranean is that it has access to a richer source of supplies, which makes it strategically invincible. To achieve this goal, it is necessary to deal with the Italians who are tired of scheming.

The war that swept across Europe in 1915 was a dramatic drama of ups and downs, with the balance of power and the shape of the battlefield on both sides changing dramatically. By May, the Russians had swept across Galicia with an unstoppable force, with their forces directed towards Silesia and Hungary, and it looked like the entire Austro-Hungarian front was crumbling and threatening to collapse at any moment. And the successful landing of the Anglo-French troops on the Saloniki and Gallipoli peninsulas is also reminiscent of the rout of the Turks, and the Ottoman army is not worth mentioning at all.

This situation prompted the Italians and Romanians to choose to join the side of the Entente.

But the whole situation took a huge turn from May onwards, in the Gallipoli Peninsula, the Turks stubbornly held off the offensive of 500,000 Anglo-French troops, and most importantly in the Galician counterattack, the Russian army completely collapsed under the blows of the German-Austrian forces, losing not only Poland and half of Ukraine, but also the offensive capability.

Romania was finished, Serbia was struggling to hold on, and the British looked set to suffer a crushing defeat at the Battle of Gallipoli. Now the Allies have turned the finger to Italy.

The Italians were caught in a state of contradictions, anti-war voices were growing at home, and the government and parliament were divided, with some advocating the continuation of the war and others advocating the withdrawal from the war. This confused the Italian army.

At a military coordination conference in Vienna in July, after some disputes, Kondra and Falkenhein finally reached an agreement: to mobilize forces to attack Italy as soon as the Eastern Front was drawing to a close in 1915. Lechelton said that Austria-Hungary could not undertake the combat mission against Italy alone, and asked the German side to send at least two army groups to participate in the war against Italy. The German-Austrian Army Staff was to concentrate six army groups on a full-scale offensive against Italy.

The specific operational objectives were: 1. To force Italy out of the war; 2. Cutting off the sea lines of the Mediterranean Sea of the Entente countries; 3. Distract the Anglo-French forces on the Western Front. However, a concrete plan of action has been left unresolved. Falkenhayn insisted on launching a major offensive at Verdun, but Lehedon wanted the status quo on the Western Front and for the Germans to devote more troops to the Eastern Front and the Mediterranean.

By the end of July, the three armies drawn from the Eastern Front by Austria-Hungary had basically been assembled on the Italian-Austrian border, and the 3rd and 6th armies and three divisions of the Tyrolean Local Defense Army, totaling 560,000 people, were assembled in the mountains of South Tyrol, with Archduke Eugen as commander-in-chief of the Austrian army on the Southern Front and Bolojevich as chief of the general staff. After Bolojevich moved his headquarters to Pozon, South Tyrol, he began to plan and develop a counterattack plan.

As a result of Lehden's insistence, Falkenhain finally agreed to transfer Army Group Mackensen from the Balkan line to the Apennine battlefield. The Mackensen Group, consisting of the German 9th Army under the command of General Bello and the German 12th Army under the command of General Galvetz, was intended to be used on the Serbian battlefield, but Hirton was not prepared to capture the already weakened Serbia first, and after some quarrels, Falkenhain finally agreed to throw the two armies into the battle against Italy.

At the naval headquarters in Trieste, it was the first time since the outbreak of war in Europe that the Austro-Hungarian military convened a joint operational conference with the participation of army and navy generals. After the outbreak of the war in Europe, the Austro-Hungarian Navy had become independent from the War Department due to its outstanding operations, and finally became a department on an equal footing with the War Department. The high-ranking generals who attended the operational meeting, which was personally chaired by Crown Prince Lee Haydon, included Archduke Eugen, commander-in-chief of the Austro-Hungarian Army on the Southern Front, Colonel General Boloyevich, chief of the General Staff of the Army on the Southern Front, Field Marshal Mackensen, commander-in-chief of the Balkan cluster of the German Army, Admiral Negovan, commander-in-chief of the Navy, Admiral Kondla, chief of the General Staff of the Army, who had made a special trip from Vienna, and commanders of the Austro-German army groups who were working on the Southern Front.

The plan drawn up by Admiral Bolojevich was for the Austro-Hungarian South Tyrol group and the German Belo group to form the main attack group and launch an attack at Trentino. The 450,000 men of the Austro-Hungarian 3rd Army, the Tyrolean Defense Army and the German 9th Army attacked Vicenza and Padua, with the goal of cutting off the railway supply lines of the main force of 850,000 Italian troops in the Veneto area. The Austrian 6th Army advanced south along the eastern side of Lake Garda, targeting the fortresses of Verona and Mantua. The Eastern Front Group, consisting of the Austro-Hungarian 7th and 8th Armies and the German 12th Army, launched a counterattack in the Issonzo area before the start of the battle, drawing the attention of the main Italian forces to the Isonzo line.

Since the special terrain of the Isonzo River was not conducive to the operation of the large armies, the senior generals had agreed that the main direction of the campaign in northern Italy would be from South Tyrol.

Heldon believed that it would be a waste to place three armies along the Isonzo River, and that the complex mountainous and swampy terrain of this area could only devote the combat strength of one army group at most at one time. So he came up with a bold battle plan: three divisions of the Marine Corps would land at Ravena and cut off the railway supply lines for the Italian army in the Vinito area. Subsequently, the 7th Army, together with three newly formed Croatian divisions and one Dalmatian division, would use these ports to land. If progress goes well, the German 12th Army will also be withdrawn from the Italian-Austrian border as a follow-up force to continue to be transported to Italy by sea. Then flank from both sides, annihilating the main Italian forces in the Veneto and Trentino areas.

However, Hirdon's plan was unanimously opposed, and there had never been a landing operation on such a large scale in the history of mankind, such an action plan was just ordinary for Hirdon, who was accustomed to large-scale landing operations in later generations, but it was simply inconceivable for the senior generals of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

They agreed that Helton Lee was simply crazy and that such a plan would never work.

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