In June 1916, the Allies were celebrating victorious news: the Russian Empire had entered the war that month with a major offensive, known as the "Brushilov Offensive," which had been a great success.
The Brusilov Offensive was initiated by a request from the French military: the Third Republic asked Nicholas II for help in dispersing German forces on the eastern front, thereby relieving pressure on the western front, and Nicholas agreed.
"You French people, have you finally come crying to me without any shame or dignity? Well, for a bunch of people who get rejected from Paris every time, this time you're hanging on pretty well."
For the Russian Empire, this would be a golden opportunity to sell its favor at a high price, and it would be advantageous to define the borders during post-war negotiations.
To launch his offensive, Brusilov massed four armies in the area of operation, consisting of 40 infantry and 15 cavalry divisions, facing off against the Austrian army of 39 infantry and 10 cavalry divisions, triple-deeply entrenched in the style of the Western Front.
At the beginning of the war, most military personnel and experts were negative about the Russian military's plans, as all offensives on the Western Front had ended in failure with heavy casualties.
Many people doubted the capabilities of the Russian military, which had no combat experience, and most ridiculed Brusilov's plan, which called for a short period of concentrated artillery fire followed by a simultaneous breakthrough from multiple directions over a wide area, as "armchair theory."
At that time on the Western Front, the prevailing strategy was to carry out long-term artillery bombardment for a full day or more to destroy the enemy's heavily trenched positions, and then concentrate troops on a narrow offensive front to break through.
This type of tactic was seen in battles such as the Battle of Ypres and the Battle of Artois, but even if the attacking side concentrated hundreds of thousands of tons of artillery shells and tens of thousands of troops, they could only break through a few kilometers. After each failed operation, commanders on both sides thought, "We still don't have enough firepower," and concentrated their firepower even more, resulting in the beautiful French countryside becoming covered in craters like the surface of the moon.
No man's land turns into desert.
Brusilov, on the other hand, took a completely different approach.
What distinguished the Brusilov Offensive from previous battles was the use of short but precise artillery bombardments, which allowed the enemy to attack quickly while they were still recovering from their shock.
On the Western Front, careful artillery bombardment had been carried out over several days in an attempt to completely destroy the entire fortification, but the trenches withstood the fire better than expected, and as a result, the enemy had called in reinforcements by the time the offensive began.
If such a concentrated force was not enough to break through, it was only natural to expect that Brusilov's attack plan of "distributing troops and artillery fire thinly and widely" would fail. In fact, there were many generals in the Russian army who were skeptical of Brusilov's plan.
However, Nikolai, knowing the history of later times, supported Brusilov's plan despite the opposition of those around him.
"The key is surprise. If you concentrate your troops and artillery on a narrow front, any fool can see that you can attack that area. And do you really think the enemy will stay quiet and obedient while you bombard them for an entire day?"
After displaying his knowledge, which only someone from a later generation could understand, as if he had discovered it himself, Nikolai named Brusilov's tactics "infiltration tactics" and gave him full authority over the operation.
Thus, with the full backing of the emperor, Brusilov thoroughly investigates the Austrian positions using various means, including reconnaissance planes, airships, spies, and cavalry. He aims to neutralize the defense system rather than destroy the positions by carrying out accurate artillery fire in a short period of time.
The short-term bombardment caused little physical damage, but the Russian soldiers did not mind and charged as soon as the bombardment ended.
At the time, the Austrian soldiers were hiding in deep underground bunkers to avoid artillery fire, but the Russian army broke through their weak spot before they could take up their positions.
Next, small, specially trained shock troops would break through the enemy's weak spots that they had scouted in advance from multiple locations and infiltrate to the rear.
At this time, they were instructed to leave the capture of strongholds to the following infantry units, and to destroy only important bases such as communication stations and command centers.
Brusilov carried out this attack not in one place but over a wide area, aiming for a multiple point breakthrough through simultaneous offensives. The Brusilov Offensive is the origin of modern mobile warfare, which would later be linked to infiltration tactics, blitzkrieg, and deep attacks.
Furthermore, by direct orders from Nicholas, contrary to the historical fact, the Western and Southern Fronts were to support Brusilov's Southwestern Front. In the end, more than one million Russian soldiers participated, and they broke through three lines of defense of the 450,000-strong Austro-Hungarian army.
The Austrian front line collapsed in many places due to the simultaneous large-scale Russian offensives in various places, and the command posts and communication stations were targeted intensively, causing great confusion. The commanders had no idea what was happening on the ground, and the soldiers were unable to act in an organized manner when their headquarters was overrun.
As a result, the Austrian army, although most of its troops remained, fell into the illusion that they were surrounded, and most of them surrendered to the Russian army due to loss of morale. Although the offensive caused heavy losses to the Russian army, about half of the Russian army, 500,000 men, in exchange for that, the German army's losses were 350,000 and the Austro-Hungarian Empire's losses were more than 1.5 million.
The Brusilov Offensive lasted four months, and by the time the Russians were forced to halt their advance in October 1916 due to a lack of supplies, it had almost completely destroyed the Austro-Hungarian Empire's main army on the Eastern Front.
"Haha, hahahahahahahaha――――!"
When Nikolai heard the news, he reportedly screamed and nearly ran out the door.
(We can win! We can win this――)
The Russian army led by Brusilov had already reached the Carpathian Mountains and was said to be just one step away from Vienna.
"Austria will be destroyed"
Nicholas quickly declared victory and began to negotiate a separate peace with Russia behind the scenes. In fact, Austria-Hungary, which had completely lost its fighting capability, had no power to stop the Russian army, and it seemed only a matter of time before the Russian army, which had crossed the Carpathian Mountains, which seemed impossible, flooded into Vienna.
In contrast, it was the Central Powers who nearly fainted upon hearing this.
The new German Chief of Staff, Falkenhayn, and Kaiser Wilhelm II both turned pale and hastily decided to cancel Operation Verdun and send additional troops to the eastern front.
Austria was in a devastated state, with morale completely lost, and General Conrad and Emperor Franz Joseph began to independently seek a way to negotiate a separate peace.
Of course, the Allies could not allow Austria to make a separate peace. Britain and France, in particular, were burdened with many deaths and huge war debts, and were determined to force Austria into a complete surrender and demand a large amount of indemnity.
＊＊＊
However, three months after the Brusilov Offensive, the Russian army's advance had halted, with the Kingdom of Hungary and the Kingdom of Galicia surrendering and just one step away from Vienna.
There were a number of reasons for this, but the first was a supply problem.
Russia's road and railway conditions have never been good to begin with, and although they have improved somewhat, the industrial capacity to support the production of ammunition and transport vehicles is not strong.
In an attempt to occupy as much of the Austro-Hungarian Empire as possible before the Germans could divert their forces from the Western Front, an army of over one million men had crossed the Carpathians, straining supply lines to the breaking point.
If Austria had at least been an industrial country, it might have been possible to utilize the railways in the occupied territories, but unfortunately the Austro-Hungarian Empire only had a small railway network radiating from Vienna and Budapest, and its domestic infrastructure was too poor to support a large Russian army.
As a result, although the Russian army currently controlled the Kingdom of Hungary, the Kingdom of Galicia, and more than half of the Dual Empire, their reckless advance had put a strain on their supplies.
Already, soldiers on the front lines were running out of ammunition, and food and clothing could not be replenished in time, so they were only managing to make ends meet by requisitioning supplies locally, which angered the local residents.
(It would be a bit troublesome if they were turned into partisans in this situation...)
Stalin had seen firsthand how troublesome partisans could be during World War II (although he was the one who made them do it), and in the post-war negotiations of governing the country, expanding westward, and establishing puppet states, it would have been disadvantageous to anger the local population too much.
Thus, Austria, which was on the verge of death, narrowly escaped death. After that, having lost the Kingdom of Hungary and the Kingdom of Galicia, Austria built trenches in the remaining territory and was on the defensive.