Deleted member 1487
Okay here we go. If anyone notices any factual errors or other issues please let me know. I think I covered everything of importance on the Eastern Front, but if I skipped something please point it out.
Edit: If anyone can make maps PM me.
The Eastern Front in 1916 was truly the decisive theater. Unlike the west, the east saw immense movement and a decisive result. Though forgotten in relation to the massive campaigns and bloodletting in the west, the Central Powers’ offensive was the single largest engagement of the war with the highest body count of any campaign. Presaged by Russian attacks both on the Northern Front held by the Germans and the Southwestern Front held by the Austro-Hungarians, the Central Powers finally preempted the Russians with their offensive in May of 1916. Launched a scant three weeks before Brusilov, the Southwestern Front’s commander, was set to begin his own offensive, the Austro-German forces threw their combined armies into the Russian lines in Ukraine. Using new tactics that the Russians themselves were honing behind the lines for their own attack, the Teutonic armies were backed by the might of their combined industries and the training and planning apparati, which had developed a formidable force for just this occasion.
As the Germans were launching their attacks at Verdun, the commander of Ober Ost, Prince Leopold, approached Falkenhayn in March about an attack that would be aimed at knocking Russia out of the war. Convinced that an offensive in Ukraine would serve to shatter Russian lines and finally draw Romania into the war on Germany’s side, Leopold laid out his strategy that would result in the collapse of Russia. This came at a time when German forces had reached the peak of their success at Verdun, allowing them to fall on the defensive and remove some of the committed forces from the region. This left the German strategic reserve with a surplus of soldiers, but still Falkenhayn was worried about the coming British offensive with the memory of the Autumn battle the previous year weighing heavily on his mind. Ultimately he approved the plan in April after it became obvious that the British had no intention of fighting soon and his operations chief Wetzell had submitted an analysis of the British sector which endorsed Leopold’s plan with the promise that the remaining reserves would be enough to stop any advance in the Somme area. With his stroke of the pen, Falkenhayn released four corps to Leopold and allowed him to remove another two from the Dvina line for use in Ukraine. However, he was forced to promise that once the initial break in happened the reserves would be returned if the British offensive started meanwhile.
Bolstered with these reinforcements, the Austro-German forces prepared for the battle to come with gusto. The German and Austrian staffs worked with the Eastern Front artillery expert Georg Bruchmüller, general Hoffmann’s favorite, to create the artillery plan for the Southwestern Front. The entire force of the Austro-Hungarian army as well as twelve German divisions with supporting heavy artillery and munitions would be available for the offensive. The Russians would be outnumbered in men and guns plus would be forced to deal with the new assault tactics that were developed after the lessons learned in 1915. In all five Austrian and one German armies would be attacking on a front from the Pripet marshes to the Romanian border, with two more in reserve. Rowno and Proskurov were both immediate objectives with deeper targets to be disrupted by massed cavalry forces. It was hoped that once the front was shattered these mobile troops could be inserted and prevent a new line from forming, causing the Russians to retreat back to a major river line, thus opening up Western Ukraine to food pillaging. The War Ministry in Germany predicted a poor harvest this year, so the prospect of Ukrainian grain was hard to pass up. The Austrians were in a worse way, which made the attack that much more desirable. The additional political benefit would be inducing Romania to enter the war seeking easy pickings in territory, which would further open up their grain and oil to Austro-German markets, which so far had been denied thanks to allied nations buying up their production and letting it sit in Romanian warehouses.
On the Russian side, STAVKA was hoping for similar effects from their offensive. They wished to induce the Romanians to invade Hungary, which was only possible if the Romanians felt the Russians were winning. After the great losses of 1915 it was difficult to influence this pro-allied nation into the war, as it seemed the Central Powers were winning. Brusilov was also convinced that the only offensive success open to the Russian armies was against the Austrians, which gave his Front the only chance of success. Having learned the lessons of the war well and finally having sufficient stocks of shells, Brusilov worked to train his armies in the modern ways of war before unleashing them on the enemy. STAVKA and by extension the Czar, demanded a successful attack both to revive the flagging morale of the men and nation, but also to relieve the French, who were screaming for help from anyone that could offer it. Ever loyal to his French allies, Nicolas demanded that Brusilov launch his offensive as soon as possible, which would be June 1st, to coincide with the British attack in the west. However, the Central Powers were also on a timetable, hoping to preempt the British and force the Russians back before having to transfer in men to defeat that attack. As it was, they would win the race.
The spring offensive (Frühlingserwache) was launched in May against the Southwestern Front with several pinning attacks and a pair of focused assaults, all of which were preceded by bombardments in depth of the Russian positions. The assault troops followed hard on the heels of the rolling barrage (Feuerwaltz), which led the attack. Following similar methods used in the West, grenadiers bombed out the surviving enemy, many of whom were still waiting in bunkers for the bombardment to end. The results were predictable; the Russian lines shattered allowing for reinforcements to pour into the gaps and roll back the enemy. However, the Central Powers had not counted on the Russians to still be training for their own offensive, which meant that they had large numbers of their own assault troops in reserve. The front had disintegrated in a manner reminiscent of 1915, but on a larger, more painful scale. Surrenders formed the largest number of Russian casualties and even the Austro-Hungarian forces felt assured of victory, causing them to fight with distinction.
The Russian line was in full retreat with the artillery component leading the way and was being harried by Austro-German cavalry. Eventually Brusilov was able to mount limited counter attacks, which served to stiffen the resolve of the retreating soldiers. After a penetration of several miles the lines reformed as the Russians managed to inflict a bloody nose upon their attackers near their fortresses at Rowno, whereas near Proskurov they only stopped the offensive once it had rolled over the strategic city. For the rest of the month the fighting was characterized by a sea-saw battle over the fortified city of Rowno, which fell multiple times to both sides, especially as STAVKA reinforced the Southwestern Front. But the campaign was characterized by Russian ineptness, as the best troops were wiped out early in the initial battles. Replacements were mishandled and morale was low. The Russians were only able to maintain their positions by pouring in massive numbers of men and equipment, only to watch it melt away in the face of superior technical skill and doctrine. Though the Austro-Germans were being ground down, the Russians were collapsing much quicker. Finally after June, during which the Germans were forced to reduce their commitments in men and material, the lines solidified with the Russians finally having lost Rowno and being forced to fight deeper into the Ukraine.
Ultimately the campaign would ground on for several bloody months, eventually culminating in the collapse of the Russian forces as tens of thousands of soldiers, fed up with the slaughter and the obvious inferiority of their arms, deserted or surrendered. Morale was breaking down across the army, leaving the gapping holes in the line as men increasingly deserted. As the front moved eastward throughout the year, the problems increased for the Russians. Despite falling further back on their lines of supply, it also opened up the prime farmland of the empire to the horrors of war. The harvest was being disrupted, further increasing problems in the major cities as food grew scarcer. By October the lines had reached Zhytomyr, which finally drew the Romanians into the war. Realizing since August that the Russians were losing the war and were probably going to collapse along the Southwestern Front, their king, a German by birth, began negotiating with Germany for their entry into the war. Though the population wanted to fight to reclaim Transylvania, the losses the Russians had suffered demonstrated which side was likely to win. There was only one choice to make if Romania wanted to profit in this war. Mobilization started in September once the harvest had been completed, by which time the Austro-German armies had already flanked Bessarbia. Lightly held, the province represented an easy prize to the Romanian forces. When invaded it fell quickly, as most of the soldiers left were more than happy to surrender or desert rather than fight yet another enemy.
With the collapse of the southern wing of the front, the Russian lines disintegrated, forcing them to pull all loyal troops back to the next major terrain obstacle, the Dnieper river. Logistically hamstrung by their positions, the Austro-Germans were not able to follow quickly, but by December they had occupied Ukraine up to the Dnieper. The entry of Romania into the war meant that they were able to contribute enough troops to assist in the occupation of the expanses of Steppe had fallen to the Central Powers. Additionally, the Romanians opened their resources up to their allies for purchase, offsetting some of the grain deficits that plagued the Austro-Germans. The political ramifications were greater still. It was a massive blow to the Allies’ morale and ensured that the Italians would keep neutral. The latter nation even began clandestinely trading with the Central Powers, as they now considered an Allied victory impossible. In Russia, the development was met with riots demanding that the war end immediately, undermining the Czar’s rule. Production fell with temperatures. Snowfall was increasing, soon to be some of the heaviest in recent memory, blocking rail lines to major cities and aggravating the tight food situation. In the West, the French government toppled, while the new British government was damaged by the news. Everyone realized what an intense boon this was to Germany; not a war winner, but certainly it would facilitate Russian exit from the war, which became more likely every day. Anti-war and food riots occurred nearly daily, which further destabilized the regime. The Czar’s government would survive into the next year, but not for long.
The front line stood still on the German front to the north, still locked in on the Dvina and quiet as both sides had drained their forces to feed the battles in the south. In the Ukraine, the fighting finally ended in November with the Central Powers stretched beyond supply and forced to requisition food from the locals often by force. The Russian forces were starting to rally, though they now had fewer men willing to fight than ever. Most remained only to ensure that they could eat over the winter. Few had any intention of resisting if the enemy attacked. The Romanians gobbled up Bessarbia and began integrating the province into their nation. They also contributed troops to the front lines, though with little intention of fighting, only helping with occupation. The Germans had pulled out most of their troops, which were then sent west or back north to their own sector, while those remaining were of low quality and supported only by several cavalry divisions. They needed to do little more than occupy however, so their fighting abilities were not put to the test. The campaign had been brutal and required rebuilding for all sides. The Germans had lost about 165,000 men in the area during the attacks, while their allies the Austro-Hungarians had suffered proportionally less, but still very heavily with 485,000 men becoming casualties, though this included about 100,000 that had surrendered (most being of Slavic parts of the empire). The Russians were by far worse off, with nearly 1.5 million losses, but at least 650,000 were prisoners. This reflected on the poor morale of their army at the time. The numbers do not reflect the losses to desertion, which could have be upwards of another 400,000 men just in the Southwestern Front alone.
The Austro-Hungarian Empire was met with tragedy as the beloved emperor finally died in December of 1916. Found dead at his desk in the morning, he was reading reports of grain resources taken from the Ukraine when he suffered a heart attack. The nation mourned his loss, though some areas were less than heartbroken over his demise. The emperor Karl rose to the throne on the first day of the New Year symbolically representing a new start for the nation. During his coronation speech Karl promised his people their just reward for their loyalty in the conflict, which caused consternation among the Hungarian nobility. They began plotting and organizing their power base in case the new emperor proved more than an empty shirt. By this time the Czech and Southern Slavic groups were becoming resigned to the victory of the empire in the war, which caused the international groups agitating for independent nation-states to tone down their rhetoric and focus on pressuring their ethnic leaders to ensure Karl remained true to his word.
That winter would prove to be a difficult one for the Central Powers, but not nearly as bad as feared. The demobilized Bulgaria, friendly Greece and Italy, newly allied Romania, and sparse resources plundered from Ukraine all helped offset deficits in production in the Habsburg and German empire. Losses had bee stiff that year, though manageable for the Austrians. Under Karl the nation seemed to be losing will to fight the war to the bitter end, though publically and privately the new emperor remained committed to winning the war. As it was, he was also jockeying for influence in Poland where he wanted to put his cousin Charles Stephen on the throne. Even proposing ceding Galicia to the new Kingdom if necessary, the Germans demurred for the moment, still internally divided on the issue of annexing more Polish territory themselves. Falkenhayn was against any annexation of Polish territory and was supportive of Karl’s proposal, though he had little real power in the debate just yet, as the civilian parties in the Reichstag debated the issue. His opinion was increasing in weight as the victories in the East and the entry of Romania into the conflict bolstered his reputation. Falkenhayn had gained immense sway over Kaiser Wilhelm who now stood convinced of his warlord’s infallibility. The only chink in his political armor now was the criticisms of the annexationists and the conservatives who hated him for wanting to throw away the territorial gains they demanded. Many in these parties hoped to appease public opinion with annexations to prop up the old order, and the war had made them even more extreme. But political trouble was brewing as the left wing in Germany was not going to accept more territory in the Reich, certainly not in compensation for political freedoms. The victories in the East had raised more problems in the fractured government, while the military were increasingly concerned about maintaining the war effort with the blockade biting increasingly hard. Only the new year would tell if peace was near.
Edit: If anyone can make maps PM me.
The Eastern Front in 1916 was truly the decisive theater. Unlike the west, the east saw immense movement and a decisive result. Though forgotten in relation to the massive campaigns and bloodletting in the west, the Central Powers’ offensive was the single largest engagement of the war with the highest body count of any campaign. Presaged by Russian attacks both on the Northern Front held by the Germans and the Southwestern Front held by the Austro-Hungarians, the Central Powers finally preempted the Russians with their offensive in May of 1916. Launched a scant three weeks before Brusilov, the Southwestern Front’s commander, was set to begin his own offensive, the Austro-German forces threw their combined armies into the Russian lines in Ukraine. Using new tactics that the Russians themselves were honing behind the lines for their own attack, the Teutonic armies were backed by the might of their combined industries and the training and planning apparati, which had developed a formidable force for just this occasion.
As the Germans were launching their attacks at Verdun, the commander of Ober Ost, Prince Leopold, approached Falkenhayn in March about an attack that would be aimed at knocking Russia out of the war. Convinced that an offensive in Ukraine would serve to shatter Russian lines and finally draw Romania into the war on Germany’s side, Leopold laid out his strategy that would result in the collapse of Russia. This came at a time when German forces had reached the peak of their success at Verdun, allowing them to fall on the defensive and remove some of the committed forces from the region. This left the German strategic reserve with a surplus of soldiers, but still Falkenhayn was worried about the coming British offensive with the memory of the Autumn battle the previous year weighing heavily on his mind. Ultimately he approved the plan in April after it became obvious that the British had no intention of fighting soon and his operations chief Wetzell had submitted an analysis of the British sector which endorsed Leopold’s plan with the promise that the remaining reserves would be enough to stop any advance in the Somme area. With his stroke of the pen, Falkenhayn released four corps to Leopold and allowed him to remove another two from the Dvina line for use in Ukraine. However, he was forced to promise that once the initial break in happened the reserves would be returned if the British offensive started meanwhile.
Bolstered with these reinforcements, the Austro-German forces prepared for the battle to come with gusto. The German and Austrian staffs worked with the Eastern Front artillery expert Georg Bruchmüller, general Hoffmann’s favorite, to create the artillery plan for the Southwestern Front. The entire force of the Austro-Hungarian army as well as twelve German divisions with supporting heavy artillery and munitions would be available for the offensive. The Russians would be outnumbered in men and guns plus would be forced to deal with the new assault tactics that were developed after the lessons learned in 1915. In all five Austrian and one German armies would be attacking on a front from the Pripet marshes to the Romanian border, with two more in reserve. Rowno and Proskurov were both immediate objectives with deeper targets to be disrupted by massed cavalry forces. It was hoped that once the front was shattered these mobile troops could be inserted and prevent a new line from forming, causing the Russians to retreat back to a major river line, thus opening up Western Ukraine to food pillaging. The War Ministry in Germany predicted a poor harvest this year, so the prospect of Ukrainian grain was hard to pass up. The Austrians were in a worse way, which made the attack that much more desirable. The additional political benefit would be inducing Romania to enter the war seeking easy pickings in territory, which would further open up their grain and oil to Austro-German markets, which so far had been denied thanks to allied nations buying up their production and letting it sit in Romanian warehouses.
On the Russian side, STAVKA was hoping for similar effects from their offensive. They wished to induce the Romanians to invade Hungary, which was only possible if the Romanians felt the Russians were winning. After the great losses of 1915 it was difficult to influence this pro-allied nation into the war, as it seemed the Central Powers were winning. Brusilov was also convinced that the only offensive success open to the Russian armies was against the Austrians, which gave his Front the only chance of success. Having learned the lessons of the war well and finally having sufficient stocks of shells, Brusilov worked to train his armies in the modern ways of war before unleashing them on the enemy. STAVKA and by extension the Czar, demanded a successful attack both to revive the flagging morale of the men and nation, but also to relieve the French, who were screaming for help from anyone that could offer it. Ever loyal to his French allies, Nicolas demanded that Brusilov launch his offensive as soon as possible, which would be June 1st, to coincide with the British attack in the west. However, the Central Powers were also on a timetable, hoping to preempt the British and force the Russians back before having to transfer in men to defeat that attack. As it was, they would win the race.
The spring offensive (Frühlingserwache) was launched in May against the Southwestern Front with several pinning attacks and a pair of focused assaults, all of which were preceded by bombardments in depth of the Russian positions. The assault troops followed hard on the heels of the rolling barrage (Feuerwaltz), which led the attack. Following similar methods used in the West, grenadiers bombed out the surviving enemy, many of whom were still waiting in bunkers for the bombardment to end. The results were predictable; the Russian lines shattered allowing for reinforcements to pour into the gaps and roll back the enemy. However, the Central Powers had not counted on the Russians to still be training for their own offensive, which meant that they had large numbers of their own assault troops in reserve. The front had disintegrated in a manner reminiscent of 1915, but on a larger, more painful scale. Surrenders formed the largest number of Russian casualties and even the Austro-Hungarian forces felt assured of victory, causing them to fight with distinction.
The Russian line was in full retreat with the artillery component leading the way and was being harried by Austro-German cavalry. Eventually Brusilov was able to mount limited counter attacks, which served to stiffen the resolve of the retreating soldiers. After a penetration of several miles the lines reformed as the Russians managed to inflict a bloody nose upon their attackers near their fortresses at Rowno, whereas near Proskurov they only stopped the offensive once it had rolled over the strategic city. For the rest of the month the fighting was characterized by a sea-saw battle over the fortified city of Rowno, which fell multiple times to both sides, especially as STAVKA reinforced the Southwestern Front. But the campaign was characterized by Russian ineptness, as the best troops were wiped out early in the initial battles. Replacements were mishandled and morale was low. The Russians were only able to maintain their positions by pouring in massive numbers of men and equipment, only to watch it melt away in the face of superior technical skill and doctrine. Though the Austro-Germans were being ground down, the Russians were collapsing much quicker. Finally after June, during which the Germans were forced to reduce their commitments in men and material, the lines solidified with the Russians finally having lost Rowno and being forced to fight deeper into the Ukraine.
Ultimately the campaign would ground on for several bloody months, eventually culminating in the collapse of the Russian forces as tens of thousands of soldiers, fed up with the slaughter and the obvious inferiority of their arms, deserted or surrendered. Morale was breaking down across the army, leaving the gapping holes in the line as men increasingly deserted. As the front moved eastward throughout the year, the problems increased for the Russians. Despite falling further back on their lines of supply, it also opened up the prime farmland of the empire to the horrors of war. The harvest was being disrupted, further increasing problems in the major cities as food grew scarcer. By October the lines had reached Zhytomyr, which finally drew the Romanians into the war. Realizing since August that the Russians were losing the war and were probably going to collapse along the Southwestern Front, their king, a German by birth, began negotiating with Germany for their entry into the war. Though the population wanted to fight to reclaim Transylvania, the losses the Russians had suffered demonstrated which side was likely to win. There was only one choice to make if Romania wanted to profit in this war. Mobilization started in September once the harvest had been completed, by which time the Austro-German armies had already flanked Bessarbia. Lightly held, the province represented an easy prize to the Romanian forces. When invaded it fell quickly, as most of the soldiers left were more than happy to surrender or desert rather than fight yet another enemy.
With the collapse of the southern wing of the front, the Russian lines disintegrated, forcing them to pull all loyal troops back to the next major terrain obstacle, the Dnieper river. Logistically hamstrung by their positions, the Austro-Germans were not able to follow quickly, but by December they had occupied Ukraine up to the Dnieper. The entry of Romania into the war meant that they were able to contribute enough troops to assist in the occupation of the expanses of Steppe had fallen to the Central Powers. Additionally, the Romanians opened their resources up to their allies for purchase, offsetting some of the grain deficits that plagued the Austro-Germans. The political ramifications were greater still. It was a massive blow to the Allies’ morale and ensured that the Italians would keep neutral. The latter nation even began clandestinely trading with the Central Powers, as they now considered an Allied victory impossible. In Russia, the development was met with riots demanding that the war end immediately, undermining the Czar’s rule. Production fell with temperatures. Snowfall was increasing, soon to be some of the heaviest in recent memory, blocking rail lines to major cities and aggravating the tight food situation. In the West, the French government toppled, while the new British government was damaged by the news. Everyone realized what an intense boon this was to Germany; not a war winner, but certainly it would facilitate Russian exit from the war, which became more likely every day. Anti-war and food riots occurred nearly daily, which further destabilized the regime. The Czar’s government would survive into the next year, but not for long.
The front line stood still on the German front to the north, still locked in on the Dvina and quiet as both sides had drained their forces to feed the battles in the south. In the Ukraine, the fighting finally ended in November with the Central Powers stretched beyond supply and forced to requisition food from the locals often by force. The Russian forces were starting to rally, though they now had fewer men willing to fight than ever. Most remained only to ensure that they could eat over the winter. Few had any intention of resisting if the enemy attacked. The Romanians gobbled up Bessarbia and began integrating the province into their nation. They also contributed troops to the front lines, though with little intention of fighting, only helping with occupation. The Germans had pulled out most of their troops, which were then sent west or back north to their own sector, while those remaining were of low quality and supported only by several cavalry divisions. They needed to do little more than occupy however, so their fighting abilities were not put to the test. The campaign had been brutal and required rebuilding for all sides. The Germans had lost about 165,000 men in the area during the attacks, while their allies the Austro-Hungarians had suffered proportionally less, but still very heavily with 485,000 men becoming casualties, though this included about 100,000 that had surrendered (most being of Slavic parts of the empire). The Russians were by far worse off, with nearly 1.5 million losses, but at least 650,000 were prisoners. This reflected on the poor morale of their army at the time. The numbers do not reflect the losses to desertion, which could have be upwards of another 400,000 men just in the Southwestern Front alone.
The Austro-Hungarian Empire was met with tragedy as the beloved emperor finally died in December of 1916. Found dead at his desk in the morning, he was reading reports of grain resources taken from the Ukraine when he suffered a heart attack. The nation mourned his loss, though some areas were less than heartbroken over his demise. The emperor Karl rose to the throne on the first day of the New Year symbolically representing a new start for the nation. During his coronation speech Karl promised his people their just reward for their loyalty in the conflict, which caused consternation among the Hungarian nobility. They began plotting and organizing their power base in case the new emperor proved more than an empty shirt. By this time the Czech and Southern Slavic groups were becoming resigned to the victory of the empire in the war, which caused the international groups agitating for independent nation-states to tone down their rhetoric and focus on pressuring their ethnic leaders to ensure Karl remained true to his word.
That winter would prove to be a difficult one for the Central Powers, but not nearly as bad as feared. The demobilized Bulgaria, friendly Greece and Italy, newly allied Romania, and sparse resources plundered from Ukraine all helped offset deficits in production in the Habsburg and German empire. Losses had bee stiff that year, though manageable for the Austrians. Under Karl the nation seemed to be losing will to fight the war to the bitter end, though publically and privately the new emperor remained committed to winning the war. As it was, he was also jockeying for influence in Poland where he wanted to put his cousin Charles Stephen on the throne. Even proposing ceding Galicia to the new Kingdom if necessary, the Germans demurred for the moment, still internally divided on the issue of annexing more Polish territory themselves. Falkenhayn was against any annexation of Polish territory and was supportive of Karl’s proposal, though he had little real power in the debate just yet, as the civilian parties in the Reichstag debated the issue. His opinion was increasing in weight as the victories in the East and the entry of Romania into the conflict bolstered his reputation. Falkenhayn had gained immense sway over Kaiser Wilhelm who now stood convinced of his warlord’s infallibility. The only chink in his political armor now was the criticisms of the annexationists and the conservatives who hated him for wanting to throw away the territorial gains they demanded. Many in these parties hoped to appease public opinion with annexations to prop up the old order, and the war had made them even more extreme. But political trouble was brewing as the left wing in Germany was not going to accept more territory in the Reich, certainly not in compensation for political freedoms. The victories in the East had raised more problems in the fractured government, while the military were increasingly concerned about maintaining the war effort with the blockade biting increasingly hard. Only the new year would tell if peace was near.