Chapter fifty-eight: Agitation in the trenches
I thought you were gonna go MC Escher on our asses XD
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I thought you were gonna go MC Escher on our asses XD
Chapter fifty-nine: Many Wars Away...
As a part of the Allied cooperation effort, Cadorna released the bulk of the Italian army against the Austrian frontline in the Carnic Alps area. It began with the Fifth Battle of the Alps (9-17 April 1917). In spite of using artillery barrage and smoke, the forty-one Italian divisions were unable to advance against the determined but outnumbered Austro-German defenders. Even a diversive action against Mt. Matajur, in the Julian Alps, on the border between Slovenia and Italy, where an Oberleutnant Erwin Rommel defended the mountain with 100 men against 7,000 Italians, became another failure.All in all, the Italian offensive ended with small advances and many casualties in both sides (65,000 Italians casualties -17,000 dead, 48,000 wounded- vs 35,000 Austro-Germans -3,000 dead, 23,000 wounded-).
Not even the annhilation of most of the Austro-Hungarian fleet at the hands of the Royal Navy could cheer up Rome. After his important victory over the German fleet, Jellicoe was sent to the Mediterranean sea to reinforce the Allied naval forces there, that were being harrassed by the Austro-Hungarian navy. Even with the addition of the Italian fleet, the Allied forces were unable to stop the Austrian raids. Thus, where the Mediterranean Fleet failed, Jellicoe's dreadnoughts prevailed. Using the blockade of the Otranto Straits to channel the enemy sortie, the Grand Fleet patrolled the area with the hope that the admiral Miklós Horthy would leed his forces into another foray agaisnt the blockading force. And then, on April 18, the Austrian fleet sailed to its doom. In exchange for the old battleship HMS Monarch and the virtual annhilation of two complete destroyer flotillas, Jellicoe managed to sink five Austrian battleships -one of them, Horthy's flagship, the Tegetthoff-, a heavy cruiser and two destroyer flotillas. After this, the navy of the Dual Monarchy would never leave its bases at Pola and Cattaro again (1). Two days later, the pitiful Turkish navy -two outdated battleships, a defence coast ship and two light cruisers- were decimated by the French fleet of the Mediterranean Sea when the Ottoman ships attempted to intercept a convoy which transported Gallieni's Middle East Expeditionary Force to Syria. The French fleet just brushed aside the enemy fleet, sinking the two cruisers and heavily damaging the remanining ships, which were finished by Jellicoe's two days later.
Unwilling to admit defeat, Cadorna resumed the offensive, attacking again in the Carnic Alps area (Sixth Battle of the Alps, 6–17 August 1917) and restarting the struggle to the west of the Isonzo river (Fourth Battle of the Isonzo, 6–14 August 1917). In Slovenia, after fierce and deadly fightings, the Italian Second Army, led by General Capello, pushed back Boroevic's Isonzo Armee to the Posavsko Hills, where the Austro-Hungarians finally stopped the enemy onslaught. On the north, however, all the Italian attacks failed in front of the strong defences of the Hohe Tauern mountain range, and the Italian units had to withdraw to their starting point. After the battle, the Austro-Hungarians were exhausted, and could not have withstood another attack. Fortunately for them (and unfortunately for their opponents), so were the Italians, who could not find the resources necessary for another assault, even though it might have been the decisive one. So the final result of the battle was an inconclusive bloodbath
(117,000 Italians casualties -30,000 dead, 87,000 wounded- vs 83,000 Austrians -8,000 dead, 65,000 wounded, 10,000 taken prisoner). Moreover, the end of the battle left a dangerous salient between the lines of the Italian Second and Third Army in the area of the Bela krajina (Weißkrain, White Carniola). With morale in the Italian army plunging Cadorna planned one further breakthrough attempt as he massed the greatest number of divisions and artillery yet along the Hohe Tauern range. Accordingly the Seventh Battle of the Alps was initiated some two weeks later on 20 August 1917 (2).
Cadorna amassed 50 divisions and as many guns as he could must, practically depriving the Third Army at Rijeka of its artillery, and stormed again the enemy lines (Seventh Battle of the Alps, 20 August - 8 September 1917). This time Cadorna changed his tactics. Instead of concentrating his forces in shorts attacks renewed time and time again, he began a continuous onslaught with a third of his divisions, another third in close reserve and the remaning third at striking distance of the front. Thus, as soon as the Austrian forces began to exhaust themselves in the fight, he released the second reserve and moved the remainig third to be ready to follow the success. Initially success emerged at once, and in two weeks the Itallian army advanced to within 50 kms of Lienz, although subsidiary attacks elsewhere failed. Nevertheless, a major Austro-Hungarian counter-offensive launched on 3 September reclaimed virtually all lost ground and by the time the battle was called off by Cadorna on 8 September little territory had been gained.
Casualties continued to be high: 96,000 Italian losses were sustained, with a further 56,000 Austro-Hungarian casualties. With the Austro-Hungarian front in danger of collapsing, von Hindenburg and Ludendorff send reinforcements to the area to launch a combined operation. Cadorna began to received reports of German activity and, therefore, he called off further attacks, preferring instead to adopt a defensive posture (3).
(1) Somewhere in the Adriatic are the Goeben and the Seydlitz. I know they are there because after the war was over they returned back home, but not because they ever met my fleet in the whole war.
(2) In OTL, the 11th battle of the Isonzo began on 19th August 1917. Had I knew how history was to repeat HoIstically itself...
(3) The Alps front is amazingly excruciating to attack. You're dried white trying to break through the enemy front and, when you manage to do it, the enemy counterattacks and sends you reeling back to your starting position. And be thankeful not too have a whole in your lines where the enemy is going to walk down the mountains to kick some Italian bottoms while whistling happily "An der schönen blauen Donau".
@Agent Larkin: I admit that the Japanese planes flying CAS over France are almost as striking as the Japanese Expeditionary Force in Iraq fighting, side by side, with the MEF. But the only one... Thank God that Nathan spotted it
@trekaddict: Indeed. I just regret not to have enough words devoted to that glorious action -it cuold have made a sharp contrast with the Somme...
@quaaz :rofl: Now you mention it, it's true!
@Nathan Madien: And then they say I'm slightly francoteaser...
@TheExecuter: Apparently, the idea was to give that "weapon" to the assault parties to cut the wire, IIRC. But, agreed, it was quite silly.
@Enewald: That's, definetively, ASB (I mean Alien space bats, neither the American School of Barcelona nor the Aarhus School of Business nor the American Society of Biomechanics nor the Artistic Society of Bulliers).
@Faeelin: Run away, it's a trap!
@trekaddict -2-: And no big moustached fellows? That's odd
@Enewald -2-: Americans are different, you know. Had they been Saudies or Japanese bussiness men...
@StephenT: Apprently, they had lost their direction and were searching for a way to return to France
@Enewald -3 :rofl: In the name of the Kaiser, of the Kaiserin and of Peti von Nebel, I award thee, Enewald von Enewalden, with the Order of the PetiPizzen, Erste Klasse, mit Lattichen und Gurken. Prossit!
@TheExecuter -2- Too right. And I would add Marengo, Austerlitz, Jena,... and Bailén. (Sorry, I'm a bitch)
@Enewald -4-: And I thought I liked to tease the French...
@TheExecuter -2-: No, it's a quite widespread malady, methinks.
@trekaddict -3-: Something like that.
@TheExecuter -3-: Of course, we all like to tease the French. And you know the British. They prefer to make praise of an enemy and to diminish themselves... False modesty, I would think.
In this AAR I hope that I've proved that the French army is as badly led as the British one -or the German, but I haven't got too deep-. And Let's not mention Cadorna... If there's a Passchendaele, you'll see that Nivelle wasn't the only fool at hand. The First day of the Somme proves that.
Fayolle... soon, very soon. Along with Humbert and Debeney, don't be afraid.
@MastahCheef:
Phew. I studied the Alpine Front in WWI extensively during history classes (it's my home, after all), and I must say: Your slaughter is not far off. Is this Cadorna deliberately different from the OTL one? He seems to lack the trait of sending his troops on pointless and unwinnable offensives (actually, he does that just fine), and punishing them very harshly (you know, decimation in the original sense of the word) afterwards for failing to win.
It would not surprise me if the Italians are soon all dead, trying to storm up a near-vertical mountain slope filled to the brim with machine guns, while armed with bayonets and rifles their fathers had already held during the Abyssinian War...
It would not surprise me if the Italians are soon all dead, trying to storm up a near-vertical mountain slope filled to the brim with machine guns, while armed with bayonets and rifles their fathers had already held during the Abyssinian War...
Ouch, those casualties are massive. I'm not even sure the CPs diverting troops from the other fronts are worth such a bloodbath. But then again, it's Italians.
Agreed, the Italians suffered some heavy losses. But I look forward to further developments in the Alps area
As a footnote, I have just discovered an Argentinian football club named after our good field marshall Douglas Haig: Club Atlético Douglas Haig (in fact, the whole name is "Club Atlético Ferrocarril Central Argentino General Douglas Haig", or Argentinian Central Railway Athletic Club Douglas Haig), which was created on November 18th, 1918.
Amazing
Amazing
Argentinians are not very up-to-date with the geography of the British Empire. This has led to some confusion, for example in 1982, when Argentinian army maneuvers accidentally took them on British soil, a simple misunderstanding that was quickly set straight by helpful British troops dispatched to the location with some maps.
What is wrong with Argentinians?
Too many mean German immigrants?
No, because then they'd be better at football than the English.
Tragically, the British expedition was short on effective air cover and ship close in defence, which the Argentinians were happy to help demonstrate by lobbing bombs through the British ships with such skill that the detonators failed to explode. See HMS Argonaut, etc.
Hey! Who let Italians into Carniola? Time to summon some feared Austro-Hungarian colonial units, ermmm, Bosnian regiment! Die Bosniaken kommen!
Chapter sitxy: Revolution in Petrograd
Soldiers, students and workers in the streets of Petrograd during the February Revolution
The temporary breakdown of the French fighting power was not the worst of the troubles which plaged the Allied war effort in 1917. In Russia, the tempest finally broke loose in March and April 1917. On March 7 [Old Style (or O.S.) February 22], workers at Putilov, Petrograd's largest industrial plant, went on strike. Although some clashes with the Tsar's forces did occur, no one was injured on the opening day. Soon the protest spiraled out of control and by March 10 there were over 50,000 workers on strike. Students, white-collar workers and teachers joined the workers in the streets and at public meetings. In the streets, red banners appeared and the crowds chanted "Down with the German woman! Down with Protopopov! Down with the war!"[1]. Then the bulk of the Petrograd garrison mutinied, starting with the Volynsky Life Guards regiment, quickly followed by the Semenovsky, the Ismailovsky, the Litovsky and even the legendary Preobrazhensky Regiment of Guard, the oldest regiment founded by Peter the Great. Thus the governmental authority in the capital collapsed.
Nicholas II failed to react at the news but, when he did, he attempted to journey to Petrograd to bring order to the empire, yet the dissenting railwaymen refused him transit. Stranded at Pskov, the Tsar met the Army Chiefs and his remaining ministers, who suggested in unison that he abdicate the throne. Aware that the army would not remain loyal to his rule, the Tsar accepted the inevitable and abdicated the throne on March 15 [O.S. March 2] 1917, on behalf of himself and of his son, the Tsarevich. Nicholas nominated his brother, the Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich, to succeed him. Yet Mikhail vacillated, hoping that any prospective rule could be blessed by a popular mandate. This was not to be. Guchkov and Milyukov wanted Mikhail to assume the throne, but the opposition of Prince Lvov and Kerensky (2) was enough to dissuade a reluctant Mikhail from replacing Nicholas. Thus, the immediate effect of the February Revolution was a widespread atmosphere of elation and excitement in Petrograd. On 16 March [O.S. 3 March], a provisional government was announced, initially chaired by a liberal aristocrat, Prince Georgy Yevgenyevich Lvov. Whilst Milyukov assumed the Foreign Office, Guchkov became the War Minister. Kerensky represented the Soviet in the role of Justice Minister. The socialists had formed their rival body, the Petrograd Soviet (or workers' council) four days earlier. Thus, soon the Petrograd Soviet and the Provisional Government would compet for power over Russia.
The western Allies reacted positively to what they perceived as a victory for liberalism. The first statesman to recognise the new government was Roosevelt, a long time opponent of tsarism, as he was relieved to be rid of standing alongside an autocrat regime. In London, Lloyd George welcomed the end of the Romanov dynasty’s rule in Russia as a positive manifestation for the Allies, writing that ‘this war is at bottom a struggle for popular government as well as for liberty.’ Meanwhile, while Nicholas requested to the new government in Petrograd free passage to Tsarskoe Selo and from there to Romanov-on-Murman, on the Barents Sea coast, a circulating rumour that the Romanovs were conniving with moderate members of the government to restore the monarchy threatened to destroy these arrangements. The Soviet demanded that Nicholas and his family be detained at Tsarskoe Selo, and the government complied, but being sure that that troops known to be loyal to them were deployed to guard the Romanovs. Milyukov, the Foreign Minister, sent a telegram to London on 17th March pleading with the British government that the Romanovs be given assylum in Britain.
The Romanovs, from the richest and powerful family in the world to simple inmigrants seeking assylum.
The next day, Lloyd George, Bonar Law, Lord Stamfordham -George V’s Private Secretary- and Lord Hardinge, the Permanent Under-Secretary at the Foreign Office, met to discuss Milyukov’s telegram. Concluding that Nicholas’ life was endangered, it was agreed to instruct Sir George Buchanan, the British Ambassador in Petrograd, to offer the Romanovs asylum in England. Buchanan passed the British government’s invitation to Milyukov while George V raised concerns over the possibility of Nicholas being granted safe haven in Britain. Concern for the future of the throne in Britain motivated the King, who did not want to be associated with a hated autocrat married to a German, to suggest Switzerland or Denmark as a home for his deposed cousin. However, Grey informed Stamfordham that the offer of asylum had already been made and was publicly known. Left wing critics of the monarchy were indignant at the prospect of Nicholas’ arrival in Britain, Labour backbenchers expressed their aversion to the Romanovs living in Britain and the socialist-supporting press warned the King of the dangers of allowing Nicholas asylum.
Then Lloyd George asked Paul Cambon, the French Ambassador in London whether France would be prepared to accept the former Tsar. Cambon was terrified by the suggestion, but he did not say that openly. Thus, while the British Prime Minister attempted to decoy Cambon's true asnwer, then the solution appeared from the most unexepected place in the world: Spain.
Since the beginning of the war, king Alfonso XIII of Spain ran an office for captives from the Palacio de Oriente, which leveraged the Spanish diplomatic and military network abroad to intercede for thousands of prisoners-of-war (3). Sine he first heard of the events in Russia, he was deeply distress by the fate of the Tsar and his family. He even wrote personally to George V asking for his help to rescue the depossed Tsar. He went as far as suggesting to tke kings of Sweden and Norway to send a Spanish warship to a northern harbour where the Romanovs would embark to Spain. Gustav V of Sweden, who had family relations with Nicholas, favoured the plan and contacted with Chirstian X of Denmark and Haakon of Norway. The Foreign Office dismised this plan as sheer lunacy and, for a while, the "Trust of Kings" was forgotten for a while.
The old armored cruiser Emperador Carlos V
[1] Alexander Dmitriyevich Protopopov, Minister of Interior, was supported by the Empress Alexandra who kept him in office despite the mounting protests against him, and the repeated requests for Tsar Nicholas II to dismiss him.
[2] Alexander Ivanovich Guchkov was the Chairman of the Duma. After the February Revolution, he became Minister of War in the Russian Provisional Government; Pavel Nikolayevich Milyukov was the founder, leader, and the most prominent member of the Constitutional Democratic party (the Kadets); Prince Georgy Yevgenyevich Lvov, another Kadet, was made head of the Provisional Government;, formally appointed by Nicholas II as his last act as a sovereign; Alexander Kerensky was one of he most prominent leaders of the February Revolution, member of the Provisional Committee of the State Duma, vice-chairman of the Petrograd Soviet and the first Minister of Justice in the newly formed Provisional Government.
(3) It helped in the repatriation of 70,000 civilians and 21,000 soldiers and also took care of visiting POWs camps to investigate the situation of the POWs.
@GulMacet: I tried to keep Cadorna at bay, but the hopeless alternative for an offensive did make no sense. This Cadorna is the same bullier than in OTL, as he kept pressing against the Alps for little gain. It's me that cannot bear so much slaughter and I stop him from time to time. Anyway, when he goes attacking, unless the Austrian is asleep -it happened only in the early stages of the war-, the proverbial slaughter is ensured...
@Nathan Madien: I couldn't keep him at home
@Milites: It's not worth the gain, but the Allies sudder at the thought of the Austrian army moving its reserves against the Russian front.
@MastahCheef117: And you'll get them sooner as expected. I can tell you something: the Italian army will soon excell in doing two of its "specialities"
@Enewald: Too little Finnish inmigrants, perhaps
@quaazi: This won't happen this time... I hope...
@trekaddict: Unless the Hand goes in...
@TheExecuter: Just imagine if they had more available Exocets *shudders*
@MastahCheef117 -2-: Well... I don't think so
Burn him, just in case....
@Asalto: Darn. Peti has whispered what's comes soon...
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We beat them in '90.
In any case, methinks that the OTL October Revolution is not going to happen. For one the Romanovs are out-country and their presence in Spaing might have interesting repercussions there, but that is something different. As for Russia, with a Liberal Aristocrat the support for the Whites from the West will come earlier and be more substantial and directed.
So, shall the Tsar now sell his titles to the king of Spain?
Heirs to second Rome sold them some nice names too.
Heirs to second Rome sold them some nice names too.
We beat them in '90.
In any case, methinks that the OTL October Revolution is not going to happen. For one the Romanovs are out-country and their presence in Spaing might have interesting repercussions there, but that is something different. As for Russia, with a Liberal Aristocrat the support for the Whites from the West will come earlier and be more substantial and directed.
Even the probability of a constitutional monarchy, do not forget that the monarchists may be dealt a heavy stroke, but when the things go bad for the Kadets or Soviets, the monarchists may get strong again (depends on the army most likely...)
Tim
Which in the case of Russia would probably be the best of both worlds.
I'm glad that the Romanovs got out of Russia alright. Hopefully, they can complete the journey to Spain without anymore trouble ...