581 Battle of Leipzig (XIII)
The German artillery arranged on the defensive line is mainly mortars, and the number is not much different from the Austrian artillery, the range of the Austrian artillery is not far, only about 1000 yards, and the mortar range of the German forward artillery is slightly larger than that of the Austrian artillery, but it is not much larger. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info
Due to the limited ability of the German recruits, if it was a veteran of the Tang Army or the German Army, before the Austrian army advanced the artillery into range, it was possible to organize the artillery to carry out one or more rounds of artillery bombardment to prevent the deployment and firing of the Austrian artillery. However, the Austrian artillery, under the cover of the infantry, successfully came to the front of the position and began to fight.
The preparation of the German artillery was just completed after the Austrian artillery fired, and in fact the operation of the mortar was not cumbersome. Austrian shells began to spread more widely among the German positions. The German line of defense was mainly trenches, in which the infantry hid. Although the soldiers are very immature, many of the commanders have received orthodox Tang military education, so the trench defense system they built is also presentable. The German trenches were a trench system consisting of three parallel trenches, which were connected by a number of communication trenches. The point of connection between the communication trenches and the front trenches was crucial, and it was common to have strong fortifications built here. There were only a small number of guarding troops in the front trenches, which entered the trenches only in the early morning and late afternoon. After 70 to 100 yards there are support trenches (or transfer trenches), where the troops inside can be withdrawn when the front trenches are shelled. After 300 yards to 500 yards there is the reserve trench, which contains another force that can counterattack and recapture the front trench after it has been captured. At the same time, the Germans also adopted a "defense-in-depth strategy", which consisted of building a series of isolated positions in a front-line combat zone several hundred yards wide. And not a continuous trench. Each position can provide fire support to its adjacent positions. Although the attacking side can move freely between positions. They still have to come under fire from the defenders.
After the Austrians advanced over. The effect of the artillery bombardment was not good, and the new German artillery, which was also not good enough to pass the artillery test, could not make a good return fire on the artillery of the opposing army with mortars with limited accuracy. As a result, there was a situation on the battlefield in which both sides were bombarding each other, but the results were very limited.
Then, the German commander who was in charge of this defense realized the problem of his soldiers and immediately adjusted his strategy, so that the artillerymen gave up the special bombardment of the enemy artillery. Instead, they fired at the attacking infantry of the Austrians. As a result, no small damage was inflicted on the infantry of the Austrian army at once.
Prince Hohenloch sent Austrian cuirassiers to fight with the infantry. These troops, which also have the characteristics of medieval knights, have a relatively strong deterrent on the battlefield and are also the pride of the Austrians. Not only cuirassiers, but also light cavalry from the Hungarian Legion were also on the battlefield to respond to other units.
It's just that the military concepts and tactics of the Austrians are more archaic than the British and Prussians, who closely followed the military development of the world. When the Austrian cavalry appeared on the battlefield, the German officers could not help but laugh contemptuously.
Under the fire of the Austrian artillery, the Austrian cavalry charged the German line on both flanks. Prince Hohenloch's idea was to cross the trenches with cavalry. At the very least, it can contain the soldiers in the trenches, thus creating opportunities for other friendly forces to attack. At the beginning of the outbreak of the fighting. Prince Hohenloch could not help but feel that Karl I said that the German firepower was terrible, and it did not look so powerful, because it was obvious that the Germans had not been able to suppress the Austrian artillery fire, and the German artillery fire was not as powerful as the legend, sparse and lacking in deterrence.
Prince Hohenloch already had confidence that he would be able to lead his army to break through this German line.
However, his pride was soon knocked down.
When the Austrian cavalry began to charge, the machine guns in the trenches began to roar, and although the German firepower in the Debern Line was weaker than that of the Elbe Line, and even the new soldiers still used a lot of old weapons, but they were still equipped with a considerable number of machine guns. At least one platoon of machine guns at the same level, the Germans could still hold ground, and when more than 2,000 Austrian cavalry began to charge, the trench machine guns unleashed a hail of bullets.
Even the armor of the cuirassiers obviously can't stop metal bullets. The flesh and blood of the horses and soldiers could not be spared in such a powerful firepower. In addition, the soldiers also opened fire with rifles in the breastwork, and the dense bullets quickly bloodied the Austrian cavalry units. Large swaths of Austrian cavalry were planted on horseback, and even the cavalry, known for their courage, hesitated in the face of such a battle.
After the Austrians accepted the new weapon revolution, although they also fully replaced with new muskets, the use of machine guns was relatively rare, especially their enemies Turkey or Poland, did not have a large number of automatic weapons, so that their cavalry was able to complete the task well even in the face of the enemy's rifles. However, the Austrians did not expect the war to become what it is today, and the cavalry was completely swept into the pile of history with machine gun fire.
The Tang army also has a large number of cavalry, but the cavalry of the Tang Dynasty will never be used for the battle of the position, mobility, harassment, reconnaissance is the cavalry's current job, in the face of machine guns and artillery firepower network, the survivability of the cavalry is too low.
Only a handful of cavalry were lucky enough to rush to the front of the trenches, but this only magnified the German target, and only a very sporadic cavalry approached the trenches, but to no avail.
Prince Hohenloch could hardly believe his eyes when he watched this scene, because at that moment, the German army fired a large number of bullets needlessly, maybe only one of dozens or hundreds of bullets could achieve results, and most of the bullets were wasted, but such unreasonable firepower directly wiped out the Austrian cavalry.
Not long after, the Germans mobilized six guns of the howitzer company to the vicinity of the reserve trenches behind and began to shell the Austrian artillery.
Prince Hohenloch had no choice but to withdraw his troops and lift the state of engagement. Watching the Austrians retreat, the German soldiers in the trenches were greatly excited. However, the German commander could only smile bitterly, under normal circumstances, after thwarting the enemy's attack, it was completely possible to launch a counterattack, artillery fire and everything was in place, and the Austrian army was in a hurry and had no fortifications. But now, for the sake of stability, the Germans will not take these soldiers out of the trenches. (To be continued.) )