Under the ferocious pursuit of the German army, the planned orderly retreat of the Russian 5th Army suddenly turned into a catastrophic retreat.

As an army transferred from the Galician front to Warsaw, the morale of the Russian 5th Army was undoubtedly quite strong before the confrontation with the Germans. The victory from Austria-Hungary had already given the Russians recruited from the extremely cold of Tunguska a sense of war: as long as they mustered up the courage to launch a brave and ferocious attack, the Austro-Hungarian army would be scattered after a little resistance. In previous battles against the Austro-Hungarian army, they used this trick to defeat the Austrians, and it seems to recreate the majestic scene of the Russian Empire on the European continent two hundred years ago.

However, when they were transferred to Poland to face the Germans, the situation took a turn for the worse. Although the Germans were inferior to Austria-Hungary in the field of heavy artillery, their soldiers were undoubtedly far superior to the Austro-Hungarian army. The German soldiers were trained and determined, and there were many junior officers with solid professional skills and the ability to make wise choices in battle. And in terms of the firepower of light automatic weapons, which directly kill and injure the opponent's personnel, the German army is even more than the European continent. In the face of the clumsy and reckless fighting style of the Russian army, which did not know how to cooperate with each other at all, and was like a brute beast attacking indiscriminately, the officers and men of the 8th Army under Ludendorff immediately dealt a head-on blow to the Russian army, which was deeply brainwashed by the French offensive concept.

Only three days into the war, the Russian 5th Army was defeated by the German 20th Army, which was only a quarter of their strength. The German machine-gun fire seemed to be everywhere, and the Russian infantry cavalry, who were attacking in dense formations, were beaten all over the ground by this torrent of bullets. No deposit at all. The Russian army was shelled by the Germans every day. And the other side's shells are also like having eyes. Landing with jaw-dropping precision into their artillery positions, front-line barracks, supply warehouses, and troop crowds. The Germans were already good at reconnaissance, and both airships and airplanes gave artillery an excellent field of vision; And the Russian army almost did not hide at all, and every one of its deployments was naked in front of the eyes of the German army. Compared with the French army at the beginning of the war, these gray animals with developed limbs and simple minds are obviously more conducive to the German army's achievements!

The retreating Russian 5th Army was faced with an extremely unfavorable situation. The German 8th Army was pressed up and was outflanking this Russian army; Before, they had not been able to get the advantage of the Germans when they had a fourfold superiority in strength, let alone now being attacked and pursued by enemy forces with equal strength? In order to escape to the well-fortified vicinity of Warsaw. To save his own life, the retreat order of the Russian army suddenly became chaotic; The soldiers no longer followed their own companies, the battalions were out of the control of the divisions and brigades, and the organizational structure of the Russian 5th Army began to crumble. The field was full of earthy yellow centaurs, and cars carrying high-ranking officers honked wildly on the clogged roads; Cannons and baggage were discarded in the fields and villages as before, and the flames of burning supplies lit up the western sunset.

On July 13, the Russian front in northern Warsaw collapsed. François's corps drove hundreds of miles and crushed the flanks of the Russian 5th Army in a fierce battle, recreating the situation at the Battle of Lake Masuria. However, to François's great regret, due to the rapid retreat of the Russian army. He only seized the edge of the Russian 5th Army and put the troops left behind by the other side in the encirclement. For François. It was clearly a situation with which he was not at all satisfied; His troops did not stop at all, and pursued the retreating Russian troops in pursuit. Although the German heavy artillery could not keep up with the infantry advance, François's division, which had a large number of mortars and machine guns, was still invincible in the battle on the field. The Russian army, which was useless except for a large number of people and had become a frightened bird, was chased north, and a large number of Russian troops laid down their arms after the arrival of the pursuers.

The decision of the commander of the Russian 5th Army not to take any measures to relieve those who had fallen into the German encirclement in the rear was probably the right decision in the present situation. His rearguard units fought to the end and were all annihilated. He was now able to understand the state of mind of Northwest Army Group Commander Gillinsky, who had been disgraced after the disastrous East Prussian campaign, and Leningkamp, the former commander of the 1st Army. The only thing that gave him a good fortune was that, irritated and fearful of the danger coming, a large number of his troops broke free from the claws that had swallowed up the Russian Northwest Army Group in a rapid retreat, and fled to Warsaw on the banks of the Vistula River, where they were spared the fate of Leinenkamp's men. For this reason, the Russian 5th Army paid a high price of 45,000 prisoners, about 300 artillery pieces abandoned, and more than 100,000 dead and wounded, and the combat attrition was more than half. The Russian 3rd Army, which had sold the flanks of the 5th Army to the Germans and had seen a bad situation in advance, did not escape the fate of losing its troops: when they withdrew to Warsaw, only two-thirds of Moyo would be able to retreat in one piece.

Compared with the 5th Army, which was able to escape back with more than half of its men, the Russian 2nd Army on the southern front was not so lucky. The Hindenburg Division, which has 9 independent cavalry divisions, has unparalleled mobility; In less than two days, the German cavalry encircled the 150,000-strong Russian army.

Although the 2nd Army this time was not without food for four days before the start of the battle of Tannenberg like the previous Battle of Tannenberg, both the Siberian Army and the Turkestan Army had abundant physical strength and will to fight; However, the strength of the German army has also been greatly improved. The German army that directly participated in the Battle of Tannenberg was only three and a half armies, but at present, Hindenburg has five integrated armies and a large number of cavalry, and the total strength is more than double that of the last time. Since the Russian 2nd Army was surrounded by German troops, the Russian Grand Duke could not communicate with it by wired telephone, and the internal and external collusion relied on wireless telegraphy to carry out the exchange of wild geese; Hindenburg, who deciphered the Russian army's telegrams, was always able to anticipate the enemy first, make adjustments according to the deployment plan of the Russian army, and repeatedly defeated the enemy on the battlefield.

During the three-day breakout and rescue operation, the Russian army suffered 30,000 or 40,000 casualties; Mountains of human and horse corpses were piled up, and the vast Polish plains were already filled with corpses, flames, craters, and gunsmoke. However, at such a great cost, they only got less than 5,000 German casualties. If the German troops on the Eastern Front could be equipped with even a few giant bombing airships, the losses of the Russian army in the offensive would have soared significantly.

On 13 July, the Germans launched a general offensive against the three and a half Russian armies in the encirclement. The thunderous roar of the Skoda-made 240mm heavy howitzer was like a spring thunderstorm, and the waves set off by the explosion were like a hurricane and a tsunami, sweeping in all directions. Before the start of the campaign, the Austro-Hungarian commander-in-chief, Herzendorff, at the request of Ludendorff, lent two battalions of super-heavy artillery armed with guns of more than 150 mm caliber to the German command, and it was time for them to play their role. Under the careful deployment of artillery positions by the Germans and the guidance and correction of school shooting planes, these Austrian gunners finally showed the power of their weapons to the fullest. Heavy shells crashed into the Russian fortifications in the encirclement one after another, and the sand, gravel and cement instantly collapsed and exploded into the sky. Seeing that his artillery unit could achieve such brilliant results, Colonel Austro-Hungary, who was responsible for the communication and liaison among the German army, was already shocked; If the Austro-Hungarian artillery could play a third of the level of this artillery in the German army, the army under the Habsburg double crown would not have been beaten by the Russians!

According to Hindenburg's original plan, it was not prepared to close the net of the Russian troops in the encirclement so quickly. Because the fighting spirit of the Russian army is still there, its food and straw are far from being consumed to the point of exhaustion. The longer it dragged on, the more advantageous it was for the Germans; If the current status quo can be maintained for another week, then the German army can not only wait for the combat effectiveness of the Russian 2nd Army in the encirclement to exhaust itself like Samsonov's headquarters due to lack of food, but also implement the strategy of encirclement and reinforcement, prompting the Russians to send more troops to rescue this force, so as to consume the strength of the Russian army as much as possible in the defensive battle. For Hindenburg, who had mastered all the secrets of the Russian army's radio communications, there was no difficulty at all in this act.

However, the situation on the other side of the battlefield did not allow him to adopt such a prudent strategy anymore. For no other reason, in the nearly ten days of fighting, the Austro-Hungarian 1st Army, which was responsible for covering his flank, had been struggling to resist the fierce attacks of the Russian 9th Army. And with the arrival of the 2 armies transferred by the Russian army from the Ukrainian front, the pressure on the Austro-Hungarian 1st Army has increased sharply, and Commander Daniel has sent a telegram to Hindenburg for urgent help. If this Austro-Hungarian army was defeated, Hindenburg would not only be flanked by a new Russian Army Group, but he would also not be able to account for it in the face of Herzendorf, who had given him his full support.

In view of this, Hindenburg decisively gave the order for a general offensive. In the end, as he had predicted, the Germans encountered some resistance from the Germans, but the overall pace of advance was quite rapid. In the face of the German troops with fierce firepower and close coordination of all arms, the Russian 2nd Army, which was inferior in numbers, had no chance of turning the tables at all; Although the Grand Duke of Russia had done everything in his power to urge his 4th Army to launch a rescue attack, the flesh could not defeat automatic weapons and artillery after all! (To be continued......)

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