195 – Linz Plain Grand Battle (7)
About 30 minutes later, the command post of the deputy commander of the Imperial Army’s 7th Guards Division.
“Pull back the 5th Division on the right wing and replace it with the 12th Division! “If you don’t push as hard as you can now, you have no chance of winning!”
According to that order, 16,000 soldiers moved all at once and changed positions.
Meanwhile, the Reich Imperial Army gradually pressured the Austrian infantry through pincer attacks between the right and left wings, like a crocodile closing its mouth to tear its prey apart.
“Put pressure on the Austrian bastards! Soldiers who surrender are disarmed and sent away, and officers are captured! Or kill them all! “Kill at least one more guy!”
“Enemy soldiers turn into money! Just remember this and fight to the death!”
“Remember His Royal Highness the Crown Prince and the 7th Guards Division who are risking their lives and fighting to protect our rear!”
Even with a force of 180,000, they lost their momentum and became very weak, and unlike the Reich Empire soldiers, the Austrian soldiers did not receive proper physical training.
No, it is not that the soldiers of this era lacked basic physical strength because they were all engaged in farming, which was a form of manual labor.
When he reached his physical limit, he had no strength to fight, so he was one-sidedly defeated by the Reich Imperial Army.
For example, when the soldiers of the Reich Empire stabbed their spears twice, the movements of the Austrian soldiers were so slow that they could only stab them once.
Even though no one touched them because their stamina was exhausted, soldiers fell down one after another.
“Spear, the spear is heavy. The armor is too heavy. I’m hopeless. “If you save me, I’ll just surrender.”
“What on earth are those bastards doing that makes us feel like we’re going through such a hard time, so why are they okay?”
“It doesn’t matter whether it’s a loss or a victory, so just let me go home, f*ck. “This isn’t it.”
The Austrian soldiers, whose stamina was exhausted, were being unilaterally massacred by the Reich Empire soldiers, who had more physical strength.
Originally, in this situation, a retreat order should have been issued, but the Archduke of Austria lost his temper and continued to look for only a way to win.
“We have to win here somehow. “If defeated, the Grand Duchy and the Grand Duchy of Austria will not be able to rise again!”
However, no matter how hard we searched, it was impossible to find a proper solution, so only vague shouting and shouting grew louder, and countermeasures were delayed.
The Archduke and his officers racked their brains to find a way to turn the situation around, but were unable to devise a proper strategy.
Meanwhile, the officers on the scene had to keep fighting here because they had not been ordered to retreat.
Therefore, he gave the order while ignoring the fact that the soldiers were unable to fight and were dying due to low stamina.
“Even if we die here, we must fight until the end. “His Majesty the Grand Duke will provide a solution soon!”
“If you fight at the risk of death, you will definitely be rewarded for it, and if you withdraw from here, you and your family will not be able to avoid misery.”
“Don’t die! Keep your mind straight and fight until the end. Even if you die, kill the person who killed you together!”
If Lieutenant General Yeager had listened, he would have definitely given a failing grade to the officers who gave such orders in this situation.
Because in a situation where the unit’s strength has completely collapsed, the division commander of each division orders ‘all units to retreat and reorganize’, so the offensive must first be concentrated in the place where the encirclement appears to be the thinnest.
Now, just because the Archduke’s next order is delayed, these guys are not even trying to ‘reorganize after retreating the unit’ because the division commanders are prioritizing their own protection.
Meanwhile, Max, who had completed his double agent mission by killing his friend Matthias von Griffin, saw this scene and thought.
‘The order my brother-in-law gave me was to confuse the enemies as much as possible.’
So, even though he was escaping, he risked his life to enter the camp of the Archduke of Austria and begin to spread false rumors. He also served as an unofficial advisor and helped destroy the Austrian army.
‘With this level of skill, I don’t think there will be much trouble in being promoted from non-gong peddler to lieutenant colonel after this battle. In addition, he will be able to regain his honor. But there are still more opportunities to make a difference… If my brother-in-law were in my position, what would he have done?’
Thinking like that, a good idea occurred to him as he pretended to be a communications officer and ran all the way to the front lines to escape.
‘Anyway, the Austrian Grand Duke has already been pushed into a corner by his brother-in-law. However, the current situation where they are unable to retreat is because the officers are holding out by giving unreasonable orders. If this situation prolongs, damage to our allies will accumulate unnecessarily.’
The current situation was, as he thought, the Austrian soldiers had formed their own formations against the soldiers of the Reich Empire, so they were somehow preventing a ‘massacre’ from occurring.
When seen from a third party’s perspective, the state of the Austrian army looked like it would collapse in an instant if anyone touched it even slightly.
From noble mtl dot com
Max von Wenner, as an officer of the Reich Imperial Army, was a man who regarded the life of one Reich soldier as precious, but did not consider the lives of tens of thousands of Austrian soldiers as the droppings of ants.
I raised the flag symbolizing the messenger officer I had captured on my way here and shouted.
“His Majesty the Archduke of Austria has pushed back the main camp! The main camp has retreated! Everyone, reorganize your troops. Regroup and attack again!”
Because it is an order to reorganize the troops, at first glance it may seem like an order advantageous to the Austrian Grand Air Force.
However, reorganizing in this situation gives the soldiers a reason to break through the encirclement of the Reich Imperial Army and retreat.
Even though it was not an official order, the soldiers lost their senses and tried to retreat when a friendly messenger officer said that they could retreat as the situation was critical. As a result, the order that maintained the military as an army completely collapsed.
If you tell the soldiers who are cornered like this to step back, they will lose sight of the thought that they have a way out, and control by their superiors becomes impossible.
This means that ‘the control of the Austrian army has collapsed’, where the Reich Imperial Army can unilaterally massacre the Austrian Grand Duchy army.
“f*ck, f*ck! Finally, the order to retreat! Move!”
“No, it’s a retreat order, let’s retreat! “Let’s go back home!”
“Ugh, this is crazy.”
As Benner had predicted, the Austrian soldiers lost order and even lost the will to fight, and started running towards the rear indiscriminately.
In order to control the fleeing soldiers, officers killed them with swords or shouted loudly.
When I thought about it with common sense, I knew that if I believed and followed a single officer’s messenger passing by and calling for a retreat, I would have my head blown off for violating military orders.
However, the most frightening thing for the Austrian soldiers now is the threat of the Reich Imperial Army, not the unlucky people who were summarily executed by the officers.
This strong control by Austrian officers was not helpful in commanding the troops.
And this situation was soon conveyed to Lieutenant General Jaeger.
“Now is the perfect opportunity! When a signal is given, the 14th, 17th, and 19th Divisions are to prepare a way for the soldiers of the Grand Duchy of Austria to escape. In that gap, the knights who resupplied their lances will be mobilized to wipe out the fleeing Austrian infantry. “No, Colonel’s Archer Cavalry Regiment, kill at least one more of the fleeing soldiers and knights!”
According to that order, the three divisions massacred the fleeing Austrian infantry until the knights of the Reich army attacked the rear of the Austrian infantry.
Then, the knights who arrived soon after stepped on the fleeing Austrian infantry, and the surviving knights and infantry were thoroughly slaughtered by the archer cavalry and knights.
And when the Archduke and his staff at home base, including the Archduke of Austria, judged that the war had become a situation that could not be completely reversed.
I chose to leave my unit behind and run away as quickly as possible.
The Reich Imperial Army had 5,000 dead and 7,000 wounded, which amounted to casualties exceeding 10% of its troops.
On the other hand, the Austrian Imperial Army suffered close to annihilation, with 45,000 dead, 27,000 wounded (many deaths occurred due to delays in recovering the wounded), and 23,000 prisoners.
And of course, Peter Jaeger’s brother-in-law, Major Max von Benner, who safely visited the Reich Imperial Army camp, succeeded in formally regaining his honor on this day.
If there was one regret, it was that we could not capture the Archduke of Austria and his headquarters.
This was also something that could not be helped.