Chapter 122: Brusilov Abandons His Army And Flees
“Have you heard? Lviv was captured by the enemy in just 30 hours! At 6 a.m. on the 19th, a Germania Parachute Regiment surprise attacked two large prisoner of war camps near Lviv, rescuing over 80,000 prisoners of war. By noon on the 20th, Lviv was completely breached! Now there are suddenly 90,000 Germania Army troops behind us!”
“Germanians are real war maniacs! I heard that a Zeppelin Airship loaded with bombs was already smashed by our interceptor fighter jets, and the people on the airship maneuvered the wreckage directly onto the ammunition depot at Lviv train station! Everyone within two kilometers was blown to death! The remaining troops in Lviv city were all scared silly and completely stunned by the enemy!”
News like this swept through the various Army Group Headquarters of the Lusha Southwestern Front like a storm just half a day later, at nightfall on May 20.
Front Army Commander Udovici was not too stupid and had already tried his best to blockade the news. Such bad news was temporarily only known to high-ranking generals at the Army Group level, with strict orders not to pass it down further, to avoid shaking morale.
Everyone knew that Lviv was the total logistics base for this Lusha Army offensive and the material stockpiling center for the entire Southwestern Front. Losing a place like this would have too great an impact.
It was at least over 80 kilometers from the front line, with two divisions of troops stationed there—how was it suddenly stolen by enemies dropping from the sky?
“What to do?” From Udovici to General Brusilov, all Lusha high-ranking generals suddenly felt the blood rush to their heads.
General Brusilov, personally stationed at the Przemysl Fortress, made a very decisive choice after a brief hesitation: to cut off the arm to save the body and stop the losses in time.
Because he knew very well that holding the Galicia region was completely hopeless now; any more hesitation for one or two days, and he himself would be entirely done for.
So late on the night of May 20, Brusilov set a big fire at the Przemysl Fortress, burning all materials that could not be taken away, then withdrew with the remaining 3 cavalry divisions and 2 infantry divisions.
Those 3 cavalry divisions were personally led by Brusilov himself, withdrawing toward Lviv, but not strictly along the railway. Instead, when approaching Lviv, they would detour south to bypass the enemy-occupied Lviv city.
He took this route also to pull and attract the enemy’s attention at Lviv, preventing the enemies at Lviv from spreading to other places and rotting away.
While those 2 remaining infantry divisions definitely could not take this road; infantry mobility was too slow, and they would surely be caught up. So they chose to go directly north and withdraw into the Polish heartland.
However, going north also required crossing some mountains, just not as steep as the Carpathian Mountains, and that area was originally controlled by the Lusha Army. As long as they discarded some overly heavy burdens, the troops could still withdraw north lightly equipped.
While the Przemysl garrison safely withdrew, the Rzeszów garrison, which was fighting the Germania 10th Army Group’s assault troops, definitely could not escape. That division was in contact with the enemy and could not withdraw; they held out until the morning of the 21st, when the last few thousand Rzeszów garrison troops chose to surrender.
Marshal Leopold’s Germania 10th Army Group seized back the ruins of the now-empty Przemysl Fortress the next day. This fortress had changed hands twice, and each time before changing hands, the garrison would blow up the defensive fortifications in the city, so when Marshal Leopold entered the city again, he found everything had no repair value.
Marshal Leopold continued to advance, marching east at 30 kilometers per day, while his cavalry troops moved even faster. Ultimately, his cavalry first arrived at Lviv on May 22, linking up with Lelouch’s Faction that had infiltrated behind enemy lines. The infantry vanguard troops also arrived at Lviv on the 23rd.
At this point, the entire line from Krakow to Lviv was restored to Germania Army control.
Ultimately, of the 13 Lusha divisions（7 infantry 6 cavalry） deployed north of the Carpathian Mountains, only 5 divisions（2 infantry 3 cavalry） escaped under Brusilov’s lead; the rest were all annihilated.
And the Lusha Army in the South of the Mountains War Zone would end up far more miserable than Brusilov.
……
Over at Udovici in the south of the mountains, he and his Lusha 3rd and 11th Army Groups were already blocked south of the Dukla Pass, definitely unable to break through north to escape.
Late on the night of May 20, Udovici gathered the two Army Group Commanders by his side for a private short meeting to discuss countermeasures, ultimately reaching several consensuses:
“Breaking through north is impossible; now we can only try either to break through east desperately, find another Carpathian Pass, cross over, and return to the Kievan Rus’ Plain.”
But this road was destined to be extremely difficult, and they would face constant interceptions and pursuits along the way; in the end, they might not break out anyway.
“Or, stake everything southward in an assault on Budapest. If Budapest can be captured before our own supplies are exhausted, then everything is fine—that would be trading places with Austria. Trading Lviv for Budapest is definitely a profit; Budapest is more important and valuable, with more military supplies stockpiled in the city than in Lviv.”
The problem with this road mainly lies in whether they can succeed in the trade. If the assault on Budapest exhausts them without capturing it, then it would truly be total collapse!
“Finally, there is one more road, which actually cannot be considered a separate road, but rather an alternative backup to the previous plan: if the assault on Budapest fails, then lead the Lusha Army remnants, dragging along the Serbian Army, to withdraw downstream together along the Danube River. That way, they can withdraw all the way back into Serbian territory, to Belgrade. Then later find a way via downstream Romania to circle back to the Kievan Rus’ Plain.”
After weighing the options, the Southwestern Front high command ultimately decided: choose the second plan, and be ready at any time to switch to the third plan.
Because the first plan is pure loss, and even after pure loss, they might not escape.
The second plan at least offers a chance to fight; even if it doesn’t win, both sides suffer heavy losses, at least not just our side suffering heavy losses. Finally switching to fleeing downstream along the Danube River is just taking a big detour.
Moreover, from May 15 to May 20 these five days, the Southwestern Front actually made some progress in approaching Budapest and occupying the Hungarian heartland.
On the 15th, they had just broken through Kosice; by the 20th, they had advanced another forty or fifty kilometers southwest. They had fought through small towns along the railway between Kosice and Budapest like Miskolc and Eger—
Now it seems, whether Udovici achieved these results because he really had the strength, or because the Germanians deliberately let water in and induced the enemy to deepen, trapping him deeper and deeper until he couldn’t turn back and was stuck in the quagmire.
Moreover, in the previous five days of fighting, Udovici’s losses were also increasing; now the combat-effective troops available to him had further shrunk from over 400,000 to over 300,000. Every day, to advance just over ten kilometers, they paid at least over 10,000 casualties. Troops’ supplies and ammunition consumption were very high, and morale was gradually falling.
And previously, to prove that assaulting Budapest was very promising, Udovici had also fooled the Serbian and Romanian friendly forces, urging them to push north hard as well. At that time, Serbian Army Commander-in-Chief Marshal Putnik also believed Udovici’s persuasion and was willing to cooperate with the Lusha Army for another five or six days to observe the situation.
So, from May 15 to 20, the Serbian Army and Romanian Army were also continuously advancing north along the Danube River.
And Germania 6th Army Group Commander Duke Rupprecht was similarly employing a “fighting retreat” strategy, slightly letting water on the defense line along the Danube River to let the enemy advance a bit faster, but at the same time heavily consuming and killing the enemy in blocking battles.
Every time the Serbian Army advanced ten or twenty kilometers and captured another town advancing north along the Danube, they paid thousands or tens of thousands in casualties. The Serbian Army mobilized a total force of 330,000 for the offensive; by May 20, the remaining total force had dropped below 250,000.
While Duke Rupprecht was “fighting while retreating in the central defense line,” he defended the left and right wings of the defense line relatively firmly; although there was some pretense of retreating a bit, it was absolutely not as fast as the central line near the Danube River.
So, in the process of the Serbian Army continuously pushing north, the Serbian Army itself was increasingly deepening into isolation, with enemy-occupied areas on both left and right. If the enemies on the flanks exerted force, they could cut off the Serbian Army’s retreat at any time.
With Marshal Putnik’s intelligence, under normal circumstances he wouldn’t make such a low-level mistake. But now he had been step by step induced into no choice, involuntarily trapped—friendly forces on the north line kept boasting and painting pies to him, telling him the benefits of capturing Budapest.
Putnik had already invested too much sunk cost in this goal; at this point, if he even slightly lost momentum or retreated a step, the previous losses would be pure loss, and he might also face enemy pursuit later.
With the battle at this stage, all resolute and decisive general officers knew it was a case of the brave winning when paths cross narrowly; they must fight to the end—
Especially even at this moment, on the night of May 20, Putnik was still in the dark. He didn’t know that a major change had occurred with the Lusha friendly forces on the north line, didn’t know that Brusilov had been beaten to decisively cut off the arm and break out, that the support troops north of the mountains had all been abandoned, and that Lviv, the total logistics base of the Southwestern Front, had been taken out.
The Lushans, to prevent morale from collapsing wildly, concealed the defeat north of the mountains even from their own people, and deceived the friendly forces to the end, desperately pulling the friendly forces to huddle together for warmth.
All of this allowed Germania 6th Army Group’s Duke Rupprecht to better execute his “fighting retreat” plan.
On May 21, Duke Rupprecht in Budapest issued the order:
“Udovici definitely can’t escape; no rush to collect him, just keep blocking there to slowly consume and tease him. Anyway, he has completely no ammunition supplies left; using a bit means one bit less, he’ll die sooner or later.
Temporarily hand the north line defense to Austria 3rd Army Group and 5th Army Group. Our Germania 6th Army Group concentrates forces to detour south, first envelop the Serbian Army that has deeply penetrated our territory! The west route army directly infiltrates the Serbian Army rear, pinching from west to east toward the west bank of the Danube River. The east route army directly takes the shortcut to breakthrough the Romanians from the front, then pinches toward the east bank of the Danube River!
While attacking, widely propagandize that Lviv has been captured by our army, Brusilov has fled to the Poland region, abandoning the friendly forces south of the mountains, Udovici has been 100% cut off from supplies for many days and can’t possibly return. Um, just use radio clear-code telegrams for propaganda, plus airplanes dropping leaflets, to strike Serbian and Romanian Army morale.”
The Germania 6th Army Group quickly moved, expanding the victories according to Your Highness the Duke’s orders.
——
PS: Still daily updating 10,000 words today.
Tomorrow I plan to speed up the progress a bit, because small countries like Serbia and Romania actually don’t have strong combat effectiveness. The Serbian Army is pretty strong at guerrilla fighting in the southern Balkan mountains, but once lured onto the Danube River plain, they have no threat.
So tomorrow I’ll briefly write the rapid advance; no one objects, right? Because I think, after the Southwestern Front’s rear support is completely beaten away and supplies totally cut off, the campaign has no suspense; everyone should understand that a force out of ammunition, even with hundreds of thousands of men, will collapse quickly.
