While the Germans in the center were busy preparing for a right hook, the Austro-Hungarian Army, which landed in the port of Garibaldi and the Venice area on the northern front, was also busy. Unlike the wealthy Germans, when the Austrians had to take on one aspect of the war mission alone, their overstretched national strength and internal bloated and inefficient work efficiency showed a disadvantage. It is not a matter of following the Germans to fight the autumn wind and take the lead on their own, especially when the leader is so happy and the people are not strong enough to swallow the elephant, this aspect of the problem is even more serious, and in the case of the heavy damage of the navy, and in the attack on Libya and Italian East Africa, and the brazen launch of a ground war against northeastern Italy, even if some preparations have been made, but all kinds of unexpected things still make Austria-Hungary feel quite troubled.

According to what Wilhelm II began to tell the Austrian emperor, the three Allied countries were unable to take care of Italy in a financial crisis, and although China had the heart, it was beyond the reach of the whip. There were blackshirts on the left, and the Germans on the outside, and Austria-Hungary only needed to pick peaches. But in fact, Italy was the first to attack, and the Allies were caught by surprise. Then, with the support of the Entente and Huaxia, the Allies fought a little entangled, although the general trend did not change, but the price paid was far greater than previously estimated. What is even more tragic is that when the ill-prepared Austro-Hungarian Empire needed to take charge on its own, they encountered the combined resistance of China, Britain and Italy.

However, although it was expensive, it was under the command of Admiral Schrager. The Austro-Hungarian army was divided into two routes, one from the direction of Zhengcheng to the south, and the other from the sea. Under the cover of the air force and the fleet, the southbound corps had already surrounded Burzano, and the main force had abandoned the siege and wanted to continue the attack in the south, and the front had now reached Trento. The Austro-Crarian landing force from the sea on the southern front had already arrived in Vicenza, and as long as the two forces could complete the convergence, the whole of northeastern Italy would be isolated, and then the Austro-Hungarian army attacking from the direction of Villach could completely integrate this place into the territory of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

No matter how you look at it from the map. Judging from the battle reports obtained from the front, his plan was well implemented, although he encountered some hard stubble in the process. But in the end, the target was captured within the scheduled time. As a veteran who participated in World War I, Schrager was well aware of the combat effectiveness of the Austro-Hungarian Army, and among the European powers, apart from the defeat of Italy, even the Russians could not defeat. So when he made his plans, he avoided well-defended cities such as Venice and Bolzano. On the one hand, the cost of tackling tough problems is huge. Heavy losses. On the other hand, because Schrager needs speed, the mountain troops under his direct command and the troops landing from the sea are good at maneuvering but not conducive to attacking fortifications, and the siege battle can be handed over to the large forces behind, and he is only responsible for dividing and encircling the siege. At present, his plan is only one step away from success.

But it was precisely because the plan was too smooth that Schrager felt that there was nothing wrong with it, and apart from a few key points, the resistance of the other side was not fierce. Although Schrager strategized some places. But it did not annihilate too many troops of the opposing side. Especially the British Army, with the exception of those in northeastern Italy. The rest of the British army seemed to evaporate. From the beginning of the landing battle to the present, Austria-Hungary has 4 divisions and 1 brigade in the port of Garibaldi. And the three mountain divisions and an infantry brigade brought by the north themselves also entered Italy, and more troops will pour in later. The troops have already been deployed, why hasn't the other side taken action? What are the other parties waiting for? Schrager couldn't figure it out. As time passed, when more and more Austro-Hungarian troops entered Italy, time was their enemy for the British, and they should launch a counterattack as soon as possible.

Although there were some doubts, Schrager was not very worried, because according to aerial reconnaissance and intelligence, a large number of British troops were not found in the north. Some signs were found in the south, but Austria-Hungary also asked for a separate heavy armored battalion from the German allies, which was originally used to make up for the lack of Austro-Hungarian fortifications, and even if they ran into the British, Schrager did not think that the British infantry tanks could hold back the new German heavy tanks.

"According to the intelligence of the Venetian side, the intensity of the Austro-Hungarian fleet's shelling today seems to be somewhat worse." An officer walked up to Montgomery and delivered Wen Jiàn to him. "There is also the air force attacking Vicenza, the intensity has also been reduced a lot, I thought that the Austrians should have improved a little in recent years, but it turned out to be like this."

"In a few days, their navy and air force should be close to the limit, right? Not long ago, there was a battle with the Italian Navy, which suffered certain losses, and it was really difficult for Austria-Hungary to be responsible for the fire support of the entire two landing fields. Having been supported for so long on a third-rate naval scale, it's time for these battleships to go back. Montgomery touched his chin and felt a sense of relief. For more than a week since the start of the landing battle, the British have not taken major action, and one of the important reasons is that they are afraid of the other side's navy and air force. But by now, it seems that the problem has been solved, and the Austro-Hungarian fleet and air force are already at the end of their crossbows!

According to the observation and calculation of the previous period, the life of the main and secondary guns of the Austro-Hungarian fleet should be close to the limit, generally speaking, the life of the main guns is about 180 rounds of full charge. And the life of the secondary gun (6-inch class gun. Around 500 rounds. Although it will be more economical to shoot high-explosive shells, the key is that these guns are not new guns that were just replaced before the war, so this time back, the Austro-Hungarian fleet is afraid that it will not be so easy to come out again.

As for the Air Force? The British found that the Austro-Hungarian air force was worse than before! At first, they thought that Austria-Hungary was preserving its strength, but then the British found that the Austro-Hungarian air force was really not working. There are many reasons for the decline of the battlefield, and if you want to generalize, it can basically be described as internal and external difficulties. The external reason is that the Austro-Hungarian Air Force has also consumed a lot of weight after a long period of air battles, although Ferdinand participated in this war with the mentality of picking peaches at the beginning, but the air force still tried its best. After 2 months of air battles, the total number of aircraft completely lost by Austria-Hungary for various reasons has reached more than 800! More than 600 units were lost. The number of injured aircraft also reached more than 400 units. The number of aircraft replenished during this period was only about 500. This made the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which was itself relatively limited, cry out. The loss of the aircraft is put aside first, and the loss of more than 600 crew members can be described as really nerve-wracking! It took a while for the plane to be built, what about the pilots!

If it were only external factors, it would not have made the Austro-Hungarian Air Force so weak, and what really drew the bottom of the pot was that the Germans had problems with the supply of aircraft engines to Austria-Hungary! Aircraft engines have been the highest representatives of industrial technology since their inception, and how many countries in history can build engines in World War II? It's just Britain, the United States and Germany, the Soviet engine is improvised, and the engines of Japan and Italy are more miserable, and there is no comparison with the former. (France was wiped out without exerting force, but it should not be able to surpass Germany in terms of technology.) Although Austria-Hungary survived in this plane, the shortcomings of Austria-Hungary in terms of high-performance engines, which can only be described in general terms by industry, could not be compensated, so advanced engines could only be imported to Germany.

Under normal circumstances, the supply of engines is fine, but the Germans are also fighting. The consumption of the engine is also huge. In particular, the Battle of Naples and the just-concluded Battle off the coast of Benghazi caused considerable losses to the Luftwaffe, and it urgently needed to replenish a large number of aircraft, and many damaged engines also needed to be replaced. However, Germany did not turn into war mobilization, so it was difficult to expand engine production capacity in a hurry. Until now, the Germans have been overwhelmed by the shortage of various parts and engines, and how can there be excess production capacity for the allies? As a result, in the most recent week, Austria-Hungary had acquired only about 200 engines, and the average loss of more than 100 aircraft in a week of air combat was not enough. It's also normal for attendance to drop dramatically.

In addition to engines, the supply of fuel and lubricants was also becoming more and more prominent, the Red Sea route was influenced by the Italian East African Air Force, the oil fields of Romania and Transcaucasia were preferentially supplied to the Germans, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire had to import fuel except for a small oil field in Austria. The war had reached this point, and Austria-Hungary had entered a situation of eating up fuel stocks. Attendance naturally dropped further. And it is precisely because of the air force's strict zhòng lame leg that the burden of fire support on the navy has been increased. By this point in the war, the Austro-Hungarian Empire's naval and air forces had reached the end of the crossbow. And the British were waiting for this opportunity.

"Where is Major General Zhou Xuan's troops? They shouldn't have a problem dealing with these mountain infantry, right? Montgomery asked. Huaxia was still very trustworthy, and finally decided to intervene in the ground battle, a division-level battle group crossed the Pacific and Atlantic to France, and then entered Italy after landing in the port of Renaya along the railway line to the front line, according to the agreement between the two sides, the Huaxia troops will be used as the spearhead of the northern offensive from Bagolino to attack the Austro-Hungarian troops on the northern front in Trento. And the British Army will be responsible for the attack on the southern front. And the British were to attack the Austro-Hungarian troops who landed in the port of Garibaldi from the line from Bologna, Imola to the north.

Thank you for the monthly ticket support of book friend ranky and running piggy~~~. The second is more ~~~. (To be continued......)