The Russians were like an unbeatable little power, and in the summer of 1915, it was almost facing collapse, and the few remaining troops were no longer enough to maintain the battle line, so they could only retreat all the way, trading space for time.

But the bitter cold of the Russian winter saved them again and again, and every time winter came, they were once again given a respite. During the "winter break" of nearly half a year, arms and military resources from the United States, Japan, Britain, France, and other countries continued to pour into Russia.

Russia, which suffered a series of crushing defeats in 1915, mobilized itself and the materials provided by the Entente,

When spring came, they had raised an army of nearly 2.7 million men on the Eastern Front. In order to launch a senseless Battle of Verdun, the 4th, 9th, and 10th armies were transferred from the Eastern Front back to the Western Front, and Germany now had only three armies left on the Eastern Front.

The Mackensen Group on the southern flank was redeployed to the Sluch River line to fill the gap left by the withdrawal of the 9th and 10th Armies. Now on the entire line from the South Bug River to Romania, only the Austro-Hungarian army is left independently against the Russian offensive. More than a million troops of the Russian Southern Front Group under the command of Brushilov are concentrating in Odessa, and it seems that he will soon launch a new counteroffensive.

Lechelton was helpless, he had planned to throw the forces of three armies in the North African and Turkish directions in order to drive the British out of North Africa and Asia Minor. In that case, he would open the way to the Indian Ocean, where there was now no force that could stop the Austro-Hungarian navy from galloping.

Now that everything was scrapped, he had to draw three armies from the Balkans and Apennines to fill the Eastern Front, and even added the Bulgarian First Army. The Romanian army was absolutely unreliable and could only act as a logistics unit on the second front, and now they also had only two hundred thousand men left. Lehedon disbanded most of the Romanian army that had been mobilized as a result of the mobilization, and he needed these men to go back and grow food for himself.

The 3rd, 5th, and 6th Austro-Hungarian armies were forced to return to the Eastern Front, and the Austrian forces on the Eastern Front now formed two major battle groups: the Western Front under the command of General Elmolly and the Eastern Front under the command of General Bolojevich.

Now LeHaydon had only a portion of the 7th Army at his disposal, and they had to leave some of them to defend Malta and continue the siege of Valletta. Of course, he also has the Navy.

Lieutenant General Hovald, who was born in the Marine Corps, was ordered to lead the 7th Army, consisting of part of the 7th Army and some additional units, into North Africa. This force included the 2nd Tyrolean Marksman Division, the Croatian 7th and 11th Infantry Divisions and the 5th Dalmatian Division, as well as the 21st Infantry Division. With the exception of the 21st Infantry Division, the others were all motley units upgraded from local garrisons.

The 1st and 4th Marine Divisions, which had entered Tripoli and Cyrenaica earlier, would also come under his command.

In this way, he has nearly 140,000 troops at his disposal.

However, such a small number of troops were not enough to fight on both sides in the vast expanses of North Africa.

From January 27, 1916, the 1st and 4th Austro-Hungarian Marine Divisions landed in Tripoli and Benghazi respectively, and the Italian troops stationed in Tripoli and Cyrenaica did not resist, and the Austro-Hungarian army gained a large area of land in North Africa.

In the early morning, the coast of North Africa was still shrouded in a light mist, and on the misty sea, the gray figures of several warships could be faintly seen rising and falling with the waves. On the docks in Tripolitania, thousands of sleepy Arab laborers lazily carry supplies down freighters, and some apparently overseers shout at the lazy laborers, but the reality has shown that they are almost identical to zero.

Lieutenant Commander Melzin changed from the destroyer "Star Sagittarius" to an earthy yellow transport boat and headed for the pier. He was an army officer who had spent the night at sea aboard the Sagittarius Star before arriving in Cyrenaica, and he still felt dizzy.

He couldn't understand why the Empire's armies had to come to Africa to fight.

For a soldier from the Austro-Hungarian Empire in Slovenia, the land of Africa seemed very unfamiliar. Austria-Hungary never had its own overseas colonies, and the Germans did have some. His images of Africa are all from books, South Africa has gold and diamonds, which is exciting, and Central Africa gives people the concept of the savannah, the indigenous black of Africa, the lions, the elephants. But what does North Africa have? Except for the desert and the desert, oh, there were some Berbers on camels, who could not see any use in this large expanse of hot and barren desert that the imperial army was about to occupy.

The port of Tripoli is a natural semi-enclosed bay formed by a narrow headland jutting out of the sea from the protruding coast. After the Italians occupied the area, they envisioned expanding the port, but after only a concrete pier was built, war broke out.

Now it is owned by Austria-Hungary.

The harbor was crowded with transports from the Empire, as well as a few cargo ships flying the Italian flag. Although Italy surrendered, its country remained, and the Crown Prince of Istria declared that the Habsburgs had no intention of restoring their old rule over Italy and that they had no intention of encroaching on Italian territory, with the exception of the colonies.

The few Italian colonies were handed over to Vienna in their entirety as war reparations, with the exception of Eritrea and Italian Somaliland.

Now it is a whole country, albeit disarmed.

The port is currently being expanded, and with the delivery of war materials to North Africa, the whole port is noisy and the cranes are rattling.

The boat docked beside a wooden pier, the cable was tied to the stakes on the pier, and Lieutenant Colonel Melzin and more than twenty officers followed the gangplank that had just been erected.

Two Israia cars and a Steyr truck were parked at the pier and pulled the men to the Austro-Hungarian North African Corps headquarters in the city of Tripoli. The scenery along the way is exotic, with loess houses and occasional marble or limestone buildings, churches or mosques in a very different style from Vienna, Trieste or Zagreb. The loess streets are lined with tall palm and olive trees, as well as some brown-skinned Berber natives, all of which give people an inexplicable sense of freshness.

This is Africa, and they're going to fight for it!

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