The counteroffensive began.

On 17 June 1916, the 3rd Army and the Romanian Army of the Austro-Hungarian-Romanian Front launched the first attack from Galati, followed by the 6th Army in Transylvania and the 4th Army in Bukovina. The 11th Army was assembled in the vicinity of Iasi as a strategic reserve.

The Austro-Hungarian 14th Army crossed the Prut River in the vicinity of Kahur and, with the cooperation of the 1st Army in Sochi, Ukraine, advanced towards Chisinau, the capital of Moldavia.

The Galician 3rd Lancer Division began to cross the river near Leowa, and the Danube Flotilla sent four gunboats to cover the crossing of the river. On the fast-flowing Prut River, these gunboats towed several barges behind them and then carried soldiers and equipment to the dock opposite.

The troops were assembled at Leowa and then replenished with ammunition, which was 120 rounds of ammunition and 4 grenades for each soldier.

The field cooks drove up, and the soldiers filled their meals, squatted on the ground and devoured them.

The 2nd Armored Brigade and the 3rd Lancer Division, which were attached to the 3rd Army, operated alongside them, along with the 1st Ukrainian Chasseur Division. In recognition of the division's bravery in the defense of Balkhatians and for inspiring the Ukrainians, their flag reads "Lion of Ukraine".

The Russians threw the main force into the Brest-Volyn line, and on the Moldavian and Galician lines there were now only 3 army groups, which were insufficient. After the Austro-Hungarian counteroffensive launched, they began to retreat, only using Cossack cavalry units and constantly carrying out frequent harassment in order to slow down the advance of the Austro-Hungarian side.

After the 14th Army conquered Chimishlya, the Russians abandoned Bessarabia, set up positions on the left bank of the Dniester River, and built a strong defensive line, and the follow-up troops of both sides gathered along the riverbank, all preparing for a big battle.

However, the battle plan in Ukraine was immediately canceled.

After Germany transferred three armies from the Western Front back to East Prussia, the German-Austrian forces worked together to lift the Russian siege of the Brest fortress, and the Russian offensive was forced to stop. But the surviving German 8th Army also suffered huge losses, and now they have only 110,000 men left, less than half of what they had at the beginning of the year.

Ludendorff advocated continuing the counterattack on the Eastern Front, while Helton advocated a temporary break. He knew that the Russians would turn into a major upheaval early next year, but they were unwilling to expend precious troops on the Eastern Front. Without the support of the Austrians, the Germans could not act on their own, and Ludendorff had decided to go on the defensive on the Western Front, and now there was calm on land.

The Austrians were at odds with the Turks, the Turks wanted to take back Rhodes, and Lechelton would not agree at all, this was the compensation that Austria-Hungary received from the Italians, what a joke.

As a result, the Austro-Hungarian fleet simply left Constantinople and stationed itself on the island of Rhodes, which was used as a naval base to choke the sea access to the Haichen Sea.

Instead, Sorochin devised a feasible battle plan: sail out of the Dardanelles to the shores of Palestine and attack the British fleet there.

The Levant was now in the hands of the British and French, and at the instigation of the British, riots broke out in the Arabs, and almost the entire peninsula of Asia Minor had fallen into the hands of the British. In Mesopotamia, the British marched along the Tigris River to the heart of the Ottoman Empire, and continued to provide military assistance to the Russian army in the Transcaucasus through Guò Persia.

Without German reinforcements, the Turkish army would not be able to defeat either the British or the Russians, but in the Levant there was still much to be done for the navy, especially now that the British Mediterranean fleet was greatly weakened.

This contributed to the power struggle between Jemal and Enville.

Two raids by Sorochin's fleet on the ports of Beirut and Tel Aviv were fruitful, sinking the British four shallow gunboats and two destroyers.

After losing sea supremacy, the British reluctantly withdrew their troops from the Levant, concentrating their main efforts on the defense of Egypt and the Suez Canal Zone. So far, however, the German-Austrian forces in North Africa seem to have focused their attention on the French colonies of Tunisia and Algeria.

This gives the British a slight sigh of relief for now.

North Africa or Turkey? Helton Lead was weighing the two current campaign directions. The oil in the Persian Gulf is mouth-watering, but what if the Ottomans drove out the British and quelled the Arab rebellion, they would eventually drive themselves away?

A strong Ottoman Empire was by no means something they wanted to see, and although the Germans wanted to turn it into their colony, that was the business of the Germans, and had nothing to do with Austria-Hungary.

This required an agreement when the Ottomans decided to give up the land.

Taking over the colonies of the Italians and then fighting the British looks good.

This is also what Lechelton wants to do the most, the problem is that the support of the Germans is needed, one Austro-Hungarian army is not enough to support the entire North African battlefield, and logistics support is a big problem.

With the support of one more German Army Group, Lechelton would have been absolutely sure that the British would have been driven out of Egypt. The real interests are in the East. O vast Indian Ocean, you will lose from the British and fall into the arms of the Austrians. This requires a plan with Ludendorff and, of course, enough benefits for William to impress him.

However, there is no room for mistakes, and any failure could bring the empire to its knees.

Lechelton rushed to the German General Staff to discuss with Ludendorff a plan for joint action in North Africa, where an accident arose.

At the invitation of the Kaiser, he rushed to Lübeck to attend the first sea trials of the battleship "Mecklenburg".

The warm sunshine of early summer always gives people a lazy feeling, and Mecklenburg Bay, far from the battlefield, does not feel any war at all, and more than a dozen ships of all sizes are moored in the calm harbor. Workers and sailors can still be seen busy in the clean outfitting docks of the Elbe Shipyard. It was the Navy soldiers in dark blue navy uniforms and spears patrolling the docks that made people realize that it was time of war.

After a brief ceremony, the No. 5 ship "Mecklenburg", which had already completed outfitting the battleships of the "Bavaria" class of the German Navy, quietly began its first sea tests.

Due to the construction of Lechelton, except for the "Bavaria", the sea trials of this class of German capital ships did not carry out any fanfare.

In January 1916, the conservative Admiral Boll resigned as Chief of the General Staff of the German Navy due to illness, Admiral Spee became Chief of the General Staff, while the former commander of the Second Battlefleet, Admiral Schell, was promoted to commander of the High Seas Fleet, and Vice Admiral Hipperer became Chief of Staff of the High Seas Fleet and commander of the cruiser. Now the German Navy is finally in the hands of three restless men.

Accompanied by Field Marshal Ingnoor, Minister of the Navy, Admiral Spee, Chief of the General Staff of the Navy, and Admiral Schell, Commander of the High Seas Fleet, Lee Hayton and the German Kaiser quietly left the Kiel naval base in the middle of the night on the light cruiser Rostock.

They will rendezvous with the "Mecklenburg" at sea.

For mobile phone users, please go to M. to read.