The Great War: 1914

National Newspaper front page, 9 July 1916

Our beloved Emperor, since his liberal reforms during the 1800s all but a humble figurehead of his proud democracy, last night aired a stirring radio announcement to the Empire. He announced, after much effort on the part of diplomats, and thankfully after so little blood shed between our both great nations: Britain has come to terms and agreed to stop the fighting. The war between the United Kingdom and Austria is over! He proceeded to thank the efforts of the British and Austrian diplomats before concluding that while the fighting with the Western nations is mostly over, there is still hard fighting to come to drive the Russian horde from our homeland and defeat them.


This announcement comes just over a week since the Paris Peace Treaty last Wednesday June 28, which saw the ceasefire signed between Austria and the French, Spanish, Swedish, and Serbians. The radio announcement was met by the ringing of church bells throughout the land, and soldiers on leave within the capital and major cities of the empire took to the streets as a mood of optimism and party spread.

This reporter believes that on hearing of the news, the entire northern wing of the Austrian Army was ordered to move towards Wielkopolskie. It has yet to be confirmed but some sources within the Austrian Army have declared that this area will not be given up again without a fight. This news of peace with the British comes just 3 days after the offensive in Italy was launched. It is believed this offensive has been codenamed Operation Mars, after the Roman God of war, and with luck will see another of Austria’s foes removed from the battlefield soon.

Austria's darkest hour

On 5 July 1916 guns all along the Italian Front opened fire hitting Italian positions, this was followed by 300,000 men assaulting Italian positions. 80,000 of our men moved to occupy a vital area behind the Italian lines, a move to encircle their main force and cut off their line of retreat. Soon after moving into to position they advance south to link up with the army of the Papal States then spread out to retake the lost ground. A mood of general optimism had spread across the army. It was the belief of these men going into action, they would soon knock the Italians out of the war.

Within days the mood in Italy had changed, these southern Italians were also using gas. Throughout July and into August the men continued to slog away at the Italian defences. Near Rome an Italian counterattack had saw our spread out forces concentrate to defeat it, however the Italian use of gas destroyed our cohesion and fighting power. By 18 August, the entire attack had been called off; all troops were recalled to their starting lines. All however would not return, over 70,000 men would remain behind on the various Italian battlefields. No ground had been won and no major losses inflicted upon the Italians. The new armies engaged on this front, had been gutted. Even though losses on the Eastern Front have been horrendous, at least they served a purpose.

To make matters worse, as our forces were reforming at the border forts, the Italian troops counterattacked. As forces were moved around to combat this threat, Russian troops attacked Lvov on 23 August, and engaged our troops in Asia Minor. As the weeks progressed the southern line was barely holding, most reserves were fed into the Battle of Lvov, and the Russians were steadily pushing back our forces in Asia Minor. On 18 September the Italian assault was thrown back but within days they had launched a renewed assault on our lines. By the end of the month the Asia Minor bridgehead had to be given up, heavy losses had been taken, and an entire regular army destroyed.

In the early days of October it was decided to launch the cavalry into Asia Minor, since the Russian forces were withdrawing. Only two corps had mentioned to make the crossing before the second mass uprising of the year happened across the breath of the Ottoman Empire. This resulted in all additional reinforcements being diverted to deal with this new problem, isolating the advanced units who then had to try and fight their way back to Constantinople with Russian troops on their tails: the Russians had about-faced with the onset of the revolution. Once more the bridgehead was given up and heavy losses suffered.

The fighting continues on all fronts through to November, our southern front barely holding, Russians being unable to cross the Hellespont because of our naval presence, Lvov sucking up most of the reserves built up on the Eastern Front, and the Italian invasion still underway. All optimism gained from the peace deals with the Entente had faded, this was turning, indeed, into our darkest hour.

A happy Austrian Christmas

As a wise and noble lawyer once said: “the night is darkest just before the dawn”. So it would seem for Austria.

It was brought to government’s attention that the Sicilians had abandoned all their war aims against the various Italian states, bar the Papal States; this included their war against Austria. Somehow our war with Sicily had come to a close without even starting, nor had anyone in the government or military being informed of this.


With half of the Italian frontline force engaged in an invasion of the empire, a renewed Austrian offensive was launched. Operation Mars II, would see small advances taken to isolate the various Italian garrisons so they could be destroyed piecemeal rather than a general offensive aimed at hitting every Italian unit at once like before. The first would, of course, be the Italians already engaged. Then a further advance would be made to isolate the men at Bologna, and so on.

On 13 November the courageous admiral Hellpach died peacefully.

On 30 November, the Italian invasion force was destroyed with several thousand captured. It was then discovered that the Italians were seeking peace; there advance across Italy, and their war with France, had caused great loss and exhausted the small nation. With Italian troops removed from our soil, the offer was made and a white peace was organised: the Papal States regained their lands, and we closed down another front.


On 2 December the mass delivery of gas masks was made to all front line forces. These masks arrived just in time as over 500,000 Russians were now engaged at Lvov, and the southern line seemed to be on the verge of cracking. With the masks issued to the men, the long term Russian advantage had at last finally been surpassed.

On 10 December it was decided to launch a limited attack, to the south of Lvov, to see how effective the masks were. In the first counterattack, launched against the main Russian horde since the previous year, 12,000 men were taken prisoner for only a few losses!


Within days Operation Franz Joseph was launched, a two part operation to retake territory lost to the Russians. Men started streaming to the north and south of the Lvov battlefield, by Christmas Day it was 150 miles behind the frontline and a full blockade had been put in place upon the Ottomans and the Russian Black Sea provinces.


While 1916 had been a year to stand on the defensive, recoup our losses and prepare for 1917, it had been a deadly year. So much, yet so little had been acomplished and 193,114 Austrians had paid the price.

1917

‘The Great War’, as the fighting has since become known across the world, had by 1917 fragmented from two large alliances facing one another into two European Wars. Germany, now only facing the Anglo-French, was still waging a war on two fronts: the French fighting rather obviously from France while the British had took the place of the Russians on the Eastern Front. Fighting in Asia had ended, and fighting in Africa had developed into minor mopping up operations rather than major fighting. Austria-Hungary had only the Russians to face and the minor Ottoman army.

With such a successful offensive in December, Field Marshal Eisner ordered the second phase of Operation Franz Joseph to commence. With the command, on 2 January 1917, several hundred thousand men crossed into Germany moving towards the occupied territories. In the south all available reserves were ordered to advance through Rumania towards Odessa to encircle the Russians fighting on our southern flank. As this great counterattack got underway, the first elections since before the war started.

During the month 36,000 cavalrymen crossed into Asia Minor to destroy the remnants of the Ottoman Army. By mid-January 100,000 Russians had been encircled in the south, in conjunction with the 600,000 at Lvov; best intelligence estimates suggested that this was over half the Russian strength. A further 50,000 were withdrawing from Asia Minor and by the end of the month 100,000 had engaged our forward troops at Korosten. This suggested the Russians were near enough fully committed with few reserves left: when the great battles in the south and Lvov come to an end, the Russians should be crippled.

During February the Russian counterattack at Korosten was beaten off with heavy losses but further Russian attacks were launched in the north. Over the course of the next few months the Russian attack in the north drove back our troops, the Russian advance acuminating in yet another battle for Brest-Litovsk.

During April some minor diplomatic events happened. Greece secured a peace deal with the Ottoman Empire; the Greeks only took a portion of what they went to war for. The Ottomans may have been military beaten by the Greeks, but won a diplomatic victory when one looks at the peace deal. In the Americas, after fighting for sixty-three years, the various stages of the American Civil War came to an end with the reintegration of the rebel states into the Union.


At the end of May, the fighting in the south ended with horrendous losses on both sides. However no sooner had the fighting ended on the original battlefield it expanded to the north and into Odessa. As the summer months arrived, it was decided the army should advance upon the Dnieper River to secure better defensive positions for the coming winter. Between our borders and the Dnieper, various battles raged; over the summer and into the autumn thousands of prisoners were taken as our men closed on the river. With Russian attention firmly on the Ukraine, the northern Austrian provinces were liberated – all Austrian territory was liberated. While these events took place, the remnants of the Ottoman Army was crushed. With the coming of winter, battle erupted at Kiev, while at Lvov the main battle continued to rage with no sign of it coming to an end.


The year ended with most forward positions along the Dnieper secured, and mopping up operations taking care of unoccupied Russian provinces. However with such a huge commitment to the Lvov battle, once again the initiative had been lost: there are little reserves to allow the long hoped for general offensive to take place until Lvov is wound up. The offensive starting in December 1916, having fizzled out by the middle of the year, turning into a board advance in the south, a static front in the centre, and a bloody back and forth in the north resulting in victory, had not come cheap. 267,882 Austrian casualties had been suffered, while the army had inflicted 254,223 casualties upon the Russians and captured a further 130,732. Heavy losses had been suffered in destroying the Ottoman Army, but that army consisted of only 21,307 men. In addition, while previous revolutions had been en-mass and in large numbers, an Ottoman anarchy-liberal revolution was crushed with 45,000 losses.

No mods, just a lot of assing about switching sides and declaring war and then save game editing. I probably should have used the mod recommended earlier in the thread, and i believe by someone else earlier on in another topic, and it would have saved me all the hassle lol. The AI has mostly fought itself into stalemates and white peaces, other have went out after limtied gains.

As far as my concerns towards Russia, ive beaten them before a few times and confident i can do it again although there was moments when i thought they had me this time. I think its just going to take some time.

Everything of the Ottoman Empire bar Constantiople, and a big ass chunk of Russia iirc everything i have already occupied a little bit more.

Tackling a revolution

The strategic objective for the opening of 1918 was to once again conserve our overall strength and allow depleted forces the time to regain their strength. However with so many forces committed to the fighting at Kiev and Lvov this was hard to achieve.

At the start of the year, learning from the lessons of this war and with all territory now liberated, the government ordered the strengthening of all border defences. Future strategy, they declared, would not allow enemy troops to enter the so-called “buffer zones” or outflank the nation via another country; they would be fought on the borders and no ground would be given up without a fight.


On 14 January the strategy for winter, had become fantasy as a massive revolution sprung to life across the width and breath of the Ottoman Empire: occupied territories or not. The overall strength of the rebellion was later estimated to be close to a million strong. All available reserves were ordered south to engage the rebel forces in the occupied provinces. Their forces were even identified as having substantial cavalry elements.

In Asia Minor our forces holding the frontline were engaged as was a force of 7,000 men on some of the Aegean Islands. The latter quelled the opposition they faced before moving onto the mainland, engaging by double their force and cut off from any reinforcements by hundreds of thousands of right-wing rebels. On mainland Europe, battered units from the fighting in the south were moved to tackle the rebels as where the four Panzer Korps and some cavalry units all rebuilding their strength from the previous fighting.

During this time the Papal States, whose soldiers had ad times spear pointed the invasion of Asia Minor and led the invasion of the Gulf, withdrew from the war; this was quite the blow to our efforts as it meant that an invasion of the Middle East would have to follow-up the occupation of Asia Minor. Any attempt to close this front down just seems to make the fighting drag on longer.


After two months of fighting Europe had been cleared of the right-wing Ottoman rebels, with our forces concentrated they then struck into Asia Minor. Thousands of men had already been lost in the fighting as well as tens of thousands of rebels. This strike into Asia Minor came as excellent news to the frontline troops and the trapped garrison: overwhelming weight of numbers would now crack the rebel lines and relieve these battered units. By the end of March sections of the frontline had been cleared and freed up units were able to launch an attack west.


On April Fool’s Day the fighting at Kiev came to an end after five months of fighting. The battle had ended in a strategic victory for Austria with the withdrawal of Russian troops but it had been a stalemate at the tactical level with much bloodshed on both sides. In Asia Minor by mid-April the counterattack had cleared out a huge portion of the north-west and was closing in on relieving the trapped garrison. By the end of the month the garrison had been relieved, having lost 6,000 men in the previous three month but over 30,000 rebels had been killed or wounded during the siege.

On 24 May France and Germany signed the Treaty of Versailles ending the war between them with a white peace.


Throughout May the rebels were driven into two pockets: one in the north and another in the south. By the end of the month the northern pocket was destroyed and on 3 June so was the southern. In around five months of fighting the revolution had been crushed, clearing the supply line to allow our war against the Ottoman Empire to continue. Over 30,000 of our men had been killed or wounded in the process, seriously hampering the attempt to let these units rebuild. The rebel death toll amounted to 697,920. However the revolution was widespread, rebels were still present on some of the Aegean Islands, in the Middle East and presumably in Africa; an initial strength of a million seemed like a reasonable estimate.

The rest of May was peaceful as the frontline line areas, in Asia Minor, were fully occupied. Still needing to drive home the point the Ottomans had lost the war and should cede everything we had asked for, an invasion of the Middle East was required. On 8 June, 60,000 men of various cavalry and panzer units, were ordered to advance across Russian territory and invade the region of Iraq.

Summer and the Treaty of London

fighting over the summer, other than themassive battle at Lvov is mostly light skimishes
Over the summer of 1918 fighting remained small-scale across the front, with major fighting still taking place at Lvov. Other than these skirmishes most units were moved to quiet sectors of the front to rebuild their strength however four years into the war, and so many regiments requiring replacements, this is a slow process. However the advance into Iraq, while a complete success, had took its toll on the men. II Panzer Korps, for example, had dropped to a strength of under 3,000 men due to the on-going clashes with rebels.

In the twilight of summer further uprisings took place across the Ottoman Empire. However with so much bloodshed among the civilian population, overall casualties closing in on one quarter of the pre-war population (the pre-war male population stood at only 3.95 million), the uprising was not surprisingly small and crushed within a few weeks. Neither the non-existent Ottoman military nor the rebellious elements among the population would stop their defeat.

On 20th October the global war ceased, leaving the fighting only a European concern. Germany and the United Kingdom came to terms. The ceasefire was called on the 20th and within the week the Treaty of London was rushed through and signed, signalling the end of the war and peace between the two nations. The fighting had been costly, major naval losses had been inflicted, eastern Germany had been overrun, her military near enough destroyed, and a quarter of the population demonstrating for an end to the fighting. Yet Germany had won a massive political victory. Britain was on the verge of victory, suffering from no internal problems demanding peace, but lacked the conviction to enter Berlin, carry on advancing west, and see the war through to its conclusion. It was established later that they were in fact within a hairs breadth of forcing the Germans to agree to the initial terms of military disarmament and to pay reparations.


Instead the Treaty of London imposed that the Germans release their control of Iceland, and accept the independence of Danzig and Memel. These clauses were secretly supported by the Austrian government; the Prime Minister, pushed on by the more and more imposing General Staff on civilian matters, had argued the British should demand more, such as the creation of a Polish state from the eastern German provinces. However it would seem the Polish people lacked the means to support the creation of their own state due nearly a million Poles living within the imperium. It was a blow to the civilian-military government, as the creation of a state to the north of Austria and to the east of Germany would provide a buffer state for the imperium against future Russian offensives if the Germany military was once again unable to defend her borders.

The British and Germans lost so much for so little. Following the signing of the treaty, in a sign of goodwill, the British also created the dominions of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Rhodesia, and South Africa.

National Newspaper front page, 3 December 1918

Lvov Campaign Ends!​

After 28 months of fighting, the longest siege in history has finally come to an end. The gut of the Russian horde has been pulled out, they had suffered such grievous losses that victory can no longer be doubted; to admit defeat is to blaspheme against the Emperor, and the men going into combat on a daily basis never doubted victory would be the ultimate result.

Our troops, who have been rotated in and out of combat, to keep them fresh mounted daily attacks upon the besieged Cossacks pushing them back from each defensive line one after the other. Outgunned and besieged, the Russian was unable to withstand our valiant troops, and practically their entire artillery was destroyed during the battle.


We have been informed they have now retreated from their redoubt, where they had stored huge stockpiles of stores that were to allow them an advance deep into the Empire.

Casualty information has yet to be released but we have been informed our own loses have been light. Once again the Russian horde has been defeated and we have this morning petitioned the military-advised freely elected civilian government to make 3 December a national holiday!



Dispatch from the front, 5 December 1918

Prime Minister,

Please see attached casualty report for the fighting at Lvov. I confirm that the strategic blunder that allowed the Russians to escape the siege was of my own doing. With recent developments in southern Europe I ordered reinforcements to move their immediately; this included troops manning the siege lines. They were due to be replacement by men moving back off the front to rest however the switchover was mistimed and the Russians took the opportunity that was available.


However one should not be too disappointed with the results. Additional forces have already been moved into blocking positions around the new Russian dispositions to hinder any attempt by them to advance further. The main weight of the army is now descending on this new position to destroy it.


- Eisner

1919, the early months

Despite the “success” of December, Russian counterattacks were mounted up and down the line. With troops being redeployed to besiege the Russian main force, and also to allow depleted units to move to quiet sectors of the front to rebuild, the Russians took advantage of an opening in the line. They pushed through the gap engaging second line units, frontline intelligence then identified various other Russian formations on the move; it was clearly a move to reinforce the breech and the overall assessment was that they were moving to break the siege and regain the initiative.


The remaining months of winter saw inactivity across the front bar the breech already made. Fighting was localised on pushing the Russians back beyond the Dnieper, and destroying their main force. However in Rumania, civil war broke out between Wallachia and Moldavia, in addition to Wallachia attacking Serbia.


In Iraq, Tuscany forces had landed in Kuwait and Austrian forces had occupied most of the region. On April 28, rebellion once again broke across the Empire, this turned out to be the final straw for the Ottoman government. Two days later they surrendered. Over the coming weeks the Treaty of Constantinople was signed formalising the end of fighting. With the Ottoman role in the war over, they were subjected to assault by their neighbours. The Arab states around them attacked to free Yemen and to free Iraq, in addition the British declared war to free the people of Cyprus.

With peace, the Empire found itself in a new war. The Egyptians had launched an attack on the independant state of Crete. With Crete attacked, Greece and the Empire found itself at war with Egypt. Resources were diverted away from the Eastern Front and marched south to cross into Asia Minor and engage an Egyptian Army, while the navy moved to blockade Egypt and Crete. Austria was not the only one to find itself in a new war: Canada was attacked by the United States, who in turn found itself at war with the British Empire along with the Japanese who sought to push back the American encroachment on the Pacific Islands.

Cheers!

Treaty of Constantinople

Austria had gone to war, in conjunction with the Greeks, to push the Ottomans out of Europe once and for all. Along the way our Italian allies had supported us but dropped out one by one bar Tuscany. Austria had demanded three regions from the Ottomans: the regions south of the Rumanians and up to the Russian border while the Greeks would take everything along the coastline and north to meet with ourselves. However the early Greek withdrawal from the war skewered these plans, as they only took one region leaving the Ottomans with Constantinople and territory to the south of Austria.

As the war progressed our aims remained the same: the three regions demanded. When the Papal States had been leading the Italian contingent, it had been suggested among circles within the Austrian government that the peace settlement should hand over African territories to them as a reward. With their withdrawal from the war the idea was scrapped until Tuscany, now rampaging across Ottoman lands, demanded Tripoli for themselves.


On 30 April the ceasefire was signed and the Ottomans handed over what Austria and Tuscany had demanded. However these demands was just to ensure a ceasefire. The Treaty of Constantinople would impose the true peace: the Ottomans would be kicked out of Europe regardless of their political efforts to gain only a partial peace with the Greeks. The city that bore the treaty's name, had fell to Austrian forces numerous times during the wars of previous decades, would be annexed by Austria as the government felt no need to support the Greek claim following their withdrawal. However to avoid future clashes with the Greeks, the lands between Austria’s borders and Greece that the latter had also gone to war for, was handed to them by the treaty. In addition Cyrenaica was also ceded to Tuscany. The treaty removed the Ottoman presence from Europe, made Tuscany a rival Italian power to the Two Scillies, and made the Ottomans so weak that their neighbours besieged them to acquire what was left. A major result of the fighting was that the rebellious elements of the provinces we had acquired, had been culled before they absorbed into the empire.

To be honest, i have no idea! lol

Breaking the horde

With the fighting in the Middle East over, the troops there were ordered to advance into southern Russia. They first had to fight their way out, rebels holding practically every province. Once in Russia they spread out to capture as much ground as possible while a strong blocking force moved towards the coast.


On the Eastern Front a second attempt to confine the Russian forces was bungled resulting in them retreating further south. Fighting raged on throughout spring and into early summer resulting in the last of the horde being defeated on 11 July. In the series of battles from the Lvov campaign to now 485,000 Russians had been killed or wounded and the remaining force of 116,000 were captured. Around the same time the breech in the lines was finally pushed back.


With the defeat of the main Russian force, most of the armies were redeployed to launch the long awaited broad frontal assault to capture St. Petersburg and Moscow. In the south, troops fanned out to capture the Crimea and straighten the frontline. With their assault on our central line repulsed, the Russians struck the southern Front.


The most surprising news, arrived at the headquarter of the general staff: the Russian had been virtually annihilated. At most their armed forces can only field 123,000 men. It had long been feared that, as in the previous war, that vast reserves were maintained within the country; it now seemed that was improbable. At least 37 brigades are engaged on the front leaving little to no opposition to face down an assault and not least one as wide as planned.