Chapter 116: Use The Enemy’s Corpses To Raise The Altitude Of Dukla Pass By Ten Meters
After Marshal Leopold’s German 10th Army Group made its move, merely 3 days.
The entire Gorlice-Tarnuv line changed hands, and the Southwestern Front’s total of 4 divisions stationed on the western front north of the mountains suffered annihilation（including cavalry division）.
The entire main force of the Southwestern Front withdrew to the vital lifeline north of the Carpathian Mountains, which was also under severe threat.
Although the road through the Dukla Pass had not yet been 100% completely cut off, the Germanians’ blade tip was practically at the throat of the Southwestern Front.
All of this happened in merely 3 days.
On the vast battlefield south of the Carpathian Mountains, many troops had not even had time to react and recognize the situation.
And on the farther away other fronts of the entire European War, many Entente Powers nations had not even had time for a version update, still stuck in the version celebrating the previous good news—
That is, celebrating 3 days ago when Southwestern Front Commander-in-Chief General Yudovich had just broken through the Hungarian throat vital point of Kosice south of the Carpathian Mountains, opening the road into the Hungarian Plain leading to Budapest.
For example, in the Alps on the Italy-Austria border, the Isonzo River valley.
Upon hearing on the 13th that the Southwestern Front had advanced into the Hungarian Plain yesterday（the 12th）, the Italian Army’s main force of over 400,000 troops hastily launched a full-scale offensive against Austria.
Italian Army Commander-in-Chief Marshal Luigi Cadorna even personally took command and delivered an important pre-war speech:
“Officers and soldiers! Reclaiming our nation’s territory once occupied by the Ollie people is today! We will also seize the Slovenia Region in one go! Austria is finished, their main force completely pinned down in the Hungarian Plain direction, the Lusha Army’s main force has charged into the Hungarian Plain! Austria has no dangers to defend and is on the verge of destruction!
I know some of you think this offensive is too hasty, without sufficient preparation, artillery and supplies not yet in place. But our enemies are a hundred times weaker. If our nation still doesn’t act, Austria will completely perish at the hands of the Lusha and Serbian allied forces, even the Romanians can get a share and snatch Transylvania, while our nation gains nothing!”
The Italian officers and soldiers, hearing there was such a huge bargain to be had for free, were all extremely excited.
Regardless that their own heavy cannons had not arrived, they just casually shelled with some field guns on the border, then charged into enemy territory.
The Austrian Army on the other side of the Isonzo River appeared “caught off guard,” retreating while fighting along the river valley under Italian attacks.
The Austrian Army actually retreated very methodically, biting off a chunk of flesh from the Italians with all their might every step back.
For every kilometer advanced, the Italians paid a four-digit casualty price, at least 1,800 men, up to 5,000 or 6,000.
The Italian Army’s main objective was to first advance from the Venice region into Austrian territory, at least to Trieste, Austria’s most important port on the Adriatic Sea.
Trieste Port was only about 50 kilometers in straight-line distance from the then Italo-Austrian border, but due to the Alps, the actual route had to follow the mountain river valleys, with a total mileage of about 80 kilometers.
Originally in Earth’s history, the Italians’ best record in the previous Isonzo River battles was penetrating 3 miles into Austrian border territory, roughly equivalent to 5 kilometers.
But in this plane, the Austrian 18th Division（Alpine Mountain Division） and the several mountain battalions sent by the Germanians to reinforce them, under Major Model’s suggestion, executed elastic defense in the Isonzo River valley and Alps.
Those relatively easy-to-lose river valley terrains were abandoned by the Austrian Army after slight resistance, ultimately letting the Italians advance 30 kilometers into the country.
Until the Italians reached the Gorizia Fortress and nearby several high ground peaks, the German-Austrian Allied Forces then held the fortress and surrounding key points dead with merely 2 divisions, not retreating an inch.
At this time, the Italians were still 35 kilometers in straight-line distance from Trieste, with 50 kilometers remaining in actual total mileage.
The Gorizia Fortress is the most critical gateway to Trieste, located near a mountain pass in this section of the Alps.
A tributary of the Isonzo River flows out from the valley at the foot of the Gorizia Fortress mountains and joins the main stream. To reach Trieste, the Italians must advance along this tributary river valley; other places are extremely rugged Alpine peaks, impossible to cross.
And if they cannot take the Gorizia Fortress and directly advance along the river valley, the fortress garrison can threaten the attackers’ rear and supplies—this situation is similar to the Carpathian Mountains battlefield on the southeast line. Previously in the Carpathians, the Lusha Army insisted on attacking the Przemysl Fortress, breaking the fortress first before crossing the mountains, precisely to avoid their retreat route and logistics being cut off by the fortress.
On the Italo-Austrian border here, the Gorizia Fortress is of the same nature. So unable to take it temporarily, the Italians surrounded the Gorizia Fortress completely.
Just like when Ma Su did not “camp on the main road” to block Street Pavilion back then, Zhang He wanted to surround the mountain garrisoned by Ma Su and starve him to death on the mountain.
Only, Model is not Ma Su; this time he had planned ahead, following Officer Lelouch’s instructions, deliberately playing elastic defense to wear down, exhaust, and overconfident the enemy. Before the Italians arrived to besiege, he had stockpiled sufficient military rations, fresh water, and ammunition in the Gorizia Fortress and surrounding several mountain peak positions. Even if the Italians besieged for half a year, Model was not afraid.
What he had to do was, while Officer Lelouch solved the Carpathian problem in the east, pin down and wear out the Italians here, ensuring that when the officer freed his hands later, the Italians here were already exhausted.
The Italo-Austrian battlefield temporarily had no other situations worth dwelling on.
The Italians attacked very fiercely at first, regardless of casualties. But after just a few days of attacking, hearing that the Lusha Army on the eastern front seemed in danger with changes, the Italians also became hesitant.
But they had already advanced 30 kilometers into the Austrian border—this was such a huge “war achievement”? Withdrawing directly would be such a pity? Since they were stuck to this fruit of the Gorizia Fortress, they would continue sticking, to see when they could annihilate the Austrian Alpine Mountain Division.
And scenes like this not only played out on the Italo-Austrian border, but also in several other places, with striking similarities.
For example, on the southern Hungarian battlefield, the Serbian Army formally counterattacked north on May 11.
In just four or five days, they really recaptured several small towns. The Serbian Army struck out from Novi Sad on the Danube River banks（this place is 70 kilometers northwest of Belgrade）, successively capturing Temerin, Kula, and Srbobran.
Though these places were not very important, spaced 10~20 kilometers apart, they were at least a signal.
The Romanian Army’s troops also, in these four or five days, marched by rail, detouring to near Belgrade, then began crossing the border north—who let the Romanian Army, if advancing north from their own border, still have to cross the eastern Carpathians, with very difficult roads.
So better to borrow the Serbian route, going through the Danube River valley.
And after the Germanians pinched the Lusha Army’s throat in the northern Carpathians, everything became delicate.
For those Italian, Serbian, Romanian armies already hooked, what next—advance or retreat?
The Italian Army was greedy for gain, unwilling to retreat.
Some generals in the Serbian and Romanian armies wanted to hold steady and slightly retreat, but they soon received a telegram from Southwestern Front Commander-in-Chief General Yudovich, telling them the situation was still controllable.
As long as giving the Southwestern Front a few days, General Yudovich could divide forces to reopen the road behind, telling the Serbian and Romanian friendly forces not to flinch.
Ultimately, Serbian Army Chief of Staff Radomir Putnik Marshal and Romanian Army Commander-in-Chief Constantine Prezan both acknowledged General Yudovich’s statement.
They thought Yudovich should still be quite confident in solving the “small problem” on the Gorlice-Tarnuv-Rzeszów line.
This also benefited from the Lusha Army’s propaganda tone: they had always loudly proclaimed “the setback on the northern line is small in scale, no big problem.”
And the Germanian side temporarily did not engage in tit-for-tat propaganda, too lazy to deliberately puncture General Yudovich’s “swelling face to look fat” act.
This one positive and one negative propaganda effort finally misled the Serbian and Romanian armies.
The Lushans needed the Serbian and Romanian armies to share their pressure, to go all-in.
The Germanians needed the Serbs and Romanians lured out, to net them all at once.
The warring sides unexpectedly, on the issue of deceiving third parties, based on opposite motives, did similar things.
The Serbian and Romanian armies both decided to continue advancing north for five days, while observing the situation. If by May 20, General Yudovich still could not fulfill his promise, unable to solve the “small problem in the rear,” then the Serbian and Romanian armies would reconsider and reassess risks.
……
While General Yudovich deceived his allied peers, he was of course also desperately salvaging.
Starting from May 14, he had already gathered a batch of troops, wanting to recross the Dukla Pass north again, at least to hold the road from Dukla Pass to Rzeszów, ensuring rear supplies and retreat routes stable.
On May 14, the nearest Lusha Army division to the Dukla Pass arrived at the battlefield; on May 15, two more Lusha Army divisions arrived.
But the ruthless and sharp Old Marshal Leopold did not give General Yudovich a chance.
After breaking through Tarnuv, he had the German 10th Army Group’s 21st Corps charge fiercely at maximum speed, crossing mountains and ridges through mud, infiltrating between Rzeszów and Dukla Pass.
The German 21st Corps’ vanguard troops clashed fiercely with the northward turning-back Lusha Army at a position about 20 kilometers north of Dukla Pass.
Both sides fought in the most rugged terrain of the Carpathian Mountains, troops hard to deploy, the slaughter extremely brutal, one side wanting to block the road dead, the other wanting to seize the way through.
However, after the initial one or two days of stalemate meat grinder, the German 21st Corps quickly gained tactical advantage—and this advantage mainly came from those dozens of diesel half-track tractors that had broken down in the previous Gorlice Breakthrough Battle and were now urgently repaired.
The May 12 Gorlice Breakthrough Battle let Army Group Commander Marshal Leopold personally feel how useful half-track tractors were in mountainous and muddy terrain combat environments.
If not for the half-track tractors that day, with the spring thaw mud in the black soil plains, heavy cannons simply could not be towed to such remote positions like Gorlice.
So after that day’s bloody battle ended, though all vehicles ran until breakdown before stopping, once the battle ended, these broken vehicles received the marshal’s highest attention, ordering the army group’s repair battalion to fix them at all costs.
The rear Skoda Company was also ordered to continuously send parts, some directly dragging unassembled semi-finished parts from the production line for direct replacement.
To save time, Leopold as marshal even bypassed Skoda, directly telephoning the diesel engine supplier BMW, ordering them to send a batch of spare engines; upon finding front-line tractor engine failures, replace directly first, repair bad engines after the battle.
The old marshal personally roared over the phone: “Don’t consider money issues! Don’t worry about waste! Send whatever repair parts available directly to the front line. Immediately, right now! As many as there are!”
In this way over three or four days, over 50 vehicles were fully repaired, just in time for the Dukla Pass blockade battle.
Then, Marshal Leopold immediately, per one of the “main uses of half-track tractors” taught by Staff Officer Lelouch pre-war, had these repaired vehicles tow heavy cannons to key high grounds on the east and west slopes north of Dukla Pass, towing heavy cannons to build blockade fire points.
The Carpathian Mountains are extremely rugged; near Dukla Pass, normal marching can only follow the pass valley path. Heavy cannons can be towed through, but only along the valley bottom, almost impossible to go up the east and west side slopes. Previously when the Lusha Army main force went south, they just towed the guns along the valley bottom and done, never thinking of putting heavy cannons on the mountains.
In Earth’s war history, Austria did have operations of “a thousand men towing one heavy cannon to the mountaintop,” but those were extremely rare individual acts.
But now, with high-power half-track tractors, towing heavy cannons uphill in complex, steep terrain became much easier.
Diesel engines guzzle fuel, requiring special diesel preparation… these minor flaws, at this moment, were they still problems?
After personally using them, every soldier in the German 21st Corps said these vehicles were very useful.
What this vehicle solved was not a matter of good or bad, but “whether there is, whether it’s possible.”
Without it, many places simply couldn’t go up or through. With it, it caused a qualitative change.
With dozens of heavy cannons successively towed to the east and west side slopes 10~20 kilometers north of Dukla Pass, they could then overlook and seal the pass vital road with plunging fire.
In mountain combat, artillery’s natural field of fire is severely restricted; often only indirect, high-angle fire support can be used, but its accuracy and power are far inferior to direct fire.
Moreover, the mountains block many trajectories; some places can’t be hit even if wanted, too many fire dead angles.
Only mortars, grenade launchers and such high-trajectory weapons can barely overcome the mountain trajectory shielding issue. But those weapons lack rifling, with very poor firing accuracy, combat effectiveness incomparable to direct-fire rifled guns.
After the German 21st Corps deployed more 75 mm to 105 mm caliber field guns to high slopes, even towing up over twenty 150 mm sFH02 field howitzers,
General Yudovich hoping to reopen the traffic line from Dukla Pass to Rzeszów became a luxury.
Lusha Army soldiers charged north in entire regiments and divisions along the Dukla valley for desperate breakout, but all were direct-fired and blasted madly by dozens of large-caliber heavy cannons from both hillsides.
Light and heavy machine guns, grenade launchers, mortars from the hillsides also smashed fiercely onto the Lusha Army.
The Lusha Army finally organized heavy cannons to counterattack, but their heavy cannons with narrow fields of fire and low positions were no match for the overlooking German artillery.
Germanian airplanes provided timely reconnaissance spotting for their own artillery, easily eliminating Lusha artillery positions.
Dukla Pass quickly turned into a meat grinder slaughterhouse, with thousands, even tens of thousands of Lusha soldiers casualties here every day.
Per pre-war official Austrian maps, the highest point of the Dukla Pass road was only 508 meters elevation. But now, it had exceeded 510 meters.
The extra few meters of elevation were all piled up from Lusha soldiers’ corpses.
That feeling was like playing a StarCraft tower defense map. Watching waves of insect swarms charge toward the high ground with good siege tank groups.
……
“We’ve won this battle for sure; one incompetent general Yudovich will exhaust three armies to death.”
On May 17, Marshal Leopold personally came to a certain commanding height hilltop north of Dukla Pass, watching the enemy Southwestern Front’s waves of desperate breakouts bombed back; he finally relaxed, knowing General Yudovich was powerless to break out from here.
Beside Marshal Leopold, there was still a colonel staff officer very calm; he cautiously reminded the marshal:
“Your Excellency Marshal, we cannot let our guard down yet. Although we divided flanking forces to infiltrate and block the pass, it was not steady step-by-step advance, but using surprise troops via shortcut. We blocked the pass, but Rzeszów is still contested.
Even occupying Rzeszów this railway transfer three-way hub, but Rzeszów is too close to the Przemysl Fortress, within the heavy cannon coverage range of the fortress high ground. Without taking the Przemysl Fortress and surrounding high grounds, we cannot use the Rzeszow Train Station.
Now it looks like our army is fighting spectacularly, but every shell used here is carried over the mountains by rear soldiers’ manpower; from Tarnuv Train Station eastward, less than 30 kilometers and the railway is a dead end, subsequent all rely on unloading and manpower carry.
A day or two is fine now, but over time, soldiers will be exhausted, the artillery group’s shells won’t get supplied here. To eternally despair the enemy once and for all, we still need to take Rzeszów and Przemysl Fortress in one go.”
The speaker was Colonel Lelouch von Hunter.
He was very clear that the current situation was still “both sides choking each other’s necks like groundhogs,” only this time the Lushans’ choking hand was much weaker.
As long as the Germanians hadn’t retaken the Przemysl Fortress, the battlefield here was in a state of “you can’t use the railway, I can’t use the railway either.”
Only by recapturing the fortress could they return to full strength, to the state of “I can use the railway, only you can’t.”
Old Marshal Leopold had fought battles his whole life, already a general in the Franco-Prussian War period; of course he understood these principles.
The old marshal confidently said: “No need for you to say; I’ve long arranged assaults on Rzeszów and Przemysl Fortress. When the Przemysl Fortress garrison was forced to surrender to the enemy before, didn’t they follow Major Keitel you sent’s instructions and thoroughly destroy all fortress defensive fortifications? Hitting back this time will be much easier.”
Lelouch still couldn’t help reminding: “Although Przemysl Fortress was heavily sabotaged by friendly forces when it last changed hands, the enemy has held this fortress for nearly 20 days; they likely urgently repaired some relatively easy field fortifications. Still cannot let guard down.
I think I can execute the previously planned backup scheme, simultaneously conducting friendly prisoner of war rescue operations behind enemy lines and creating chaos… This way, even Przemysl Fortress and Lviv can be taken more easily, utterly dashing Lusha Army hopes on the northern line.”
Old Marshal Leopold ultimately still couldn’t keep up with young people’s new thinking; hearing this he just frowned slightly: “You mean that plan using airships to airdrop into open enemy rear areas, per reconnaissance aircraft intelligence, to rescue friendly prisoners of war?
Fine, though I can’t assess it, if you think it’s feasible, go do it. Anyway, this matter you discuss with the Crown Prince; no need for my 10th Army Group troops. The remaining work here others can handle too; go.”
Lelouch received orders, then left the 10th Army Group, that same day found Major Oswald Boelcke, asked him for an airplane, flew over the Carpathian Mountains, sending himself to Budapest to deploy paratrooper combat mission.
Major Boelcke of course knew he was a big favorite before both marshals; he himself had to command the air squadron and couldn’t get away, so had his subordinate ace pilot candidate send him.
“This is Captain Kurt Student; that day over Tarnuv he shot down 4 enemy fighter reconnaissance aircraft. His flying skills are excellent; let him send you to Budapest.”
Lelouch’s eyes lit up slightly upon hearing the other’s name.
Air Force officers came from all over; unlike the 6th and 10th Army Groups these army units limited to Four Southern German States soldier sources.
If in the army, for Lelouch to win over several Prussian or other northern states like Hanover officers would be harder.
But in the air force, no factionalism; as long as encountered, as long as shown favor, could be won over.
Lelouch thus beamingly chatted with him: “So it’s Captain Student; this trip we may execute some dangerous paratrooper airdrop missions. You can also escort our airship team then, observe from the side.”
