here is a rough draft for the east front in 1916. As always, any input is welcome and encouraged.
1916:
On christmas eve of 1915 the germans settled on a strategy for the coming year. Falkenhayn adamatly argued for an offensive against the french to 'deny britain its best sword' and to forstall any further allied offensives on the western front. He argued that if something was not done, then more punishing attacks would sap the german army's strength. Even though the germans were giving much better than they recieved, they were not without considerable casualties in the west. Citing his new doctrine of attrition, Falkenhayn wanted to take the fight to the allies and force them to attack in an unfavorable situation. They would have to attack at a disadvantage or lose the moral struggle, and by attacking would bleed themselves dry, while the germans perserved their strength for a decisive offensive at a later date. However, the dynamic duo in the east, Hindenburg and Ludendorff, demanded that they recieve the lions share of reinforcements so they could smash the russians and achieve peace on the eastern front. They citied the fact that the russians were constantly on the defensive and had been unable to mount and attack since Gorlitz-Tarnow. To give the russians breathing space now would allow them to restock and build strength to continue the war into 1917 or beyond. Ultimately Falkenhayn was the decision maker and noted the east first policy, but decided on his plan. However, Ludendorff was not going to take this sitting down. He approached the Kaiser with his plan and reasoning and tried to convince him to intervine. This by itself was not enough as Falkenhayn had the support of the army and the Kaiser did not want to second guess his generals. Ludendorff was a clever man though, and had approach the AH emperor with a personal appeal to talk to the Kaiser and help convince him to concentrate on Russia. The Emperor's army was still not fully capable to stand on its own and needed germany to keep the russians occupied until they were able to be trusted to fight by themselves. Also, with his sole enemy being russia, it was in his best interest to see that enemy defeated as soon as possible. Besides, he had plans in the works to court Romania and distract them from their goal of seizing Transylvania. After the emperor's exaggeration of the AH army's short comings and the plea to trust Ludendorff, the Kaiser finally intervined and forced Falkenhayn to give the Dynamic Duo what they needed to continue the struggle in the east.
Falkenhayn was Furious with Ludendorff for going behind his back and appealing to the Kaiser, but there was little he could do. So he gathered his staff and ordered them to find and way to improve their defensive doctrine. Currently, without the needed troops, they would need to find a way to perserve their strength until russia was defeated and still hold the allies.
The Duo began the year with and offensive in the baltic to secure the rich industrial provinces for the war effort and deny them to the russians. The city of Riga was captured late in January after a new type of artillery barrage smashed the russian defences and stunned the defenders into nonaction. General Bruckmuller was given the iron cross first class for his masterful new artillery doctrine which allowed for the overcoming of the russians with minimal cost. Soon, the russians were driven back to lake Peipus and the lines were formed and Narva. Livonia and estonia and large pockets of russians troops that were bottled up by fast moving german troops and the last one and surrendered by august. However, with this great success and breaking of the russians lines, the german troops became stretched and sucked up most of the german reserves in the area. As soon as the region was secured, Ludendorff had divided the baltic provences into six administrative areas and began running a war economy of exploitation. These areas became huge machine shops the supplied german troops in the area with whatever they needed. The massive success had several effects though.
The russians begged for help in the west to relieve the pressure and soon recieved it. By may both the french and british were conducting offensives to siphon off troops that could be used in the east. Also, many generals were dismissed by the tzar and trustworthy cronnies appointed. Also, some of the men the mystic Rasputin recommended found their way into command. This compounded russia's problems as the men now in charge had little experience commanding such large formations and instead of capitalizing of the german's overextension and lack of reenforcement, they dithered and conducted ill-timed and coordinated offensives that suffered massive casualties. The tzar himself took personal interest in these battles and tried to micromanage them to protect st. petersburg. These attempts just added delays and several attacks were driven back because terrible advice by Nicholas, who was not known for his military skill.
On other fronts the central powers began to advance as well. With the primary german thrust in the baltics, there were fewer troops to go around elsewhere. The Austo-Hungarians would be shouldering the burden in the south around the ukraine, but would have some german forces to back them up. It was decided that the center was to be left idle after the capture of pinsk, as noone was interested in fighting through the Pripet Marshes. Without other fronts to worry about, the austrians could concentrate substantial numbers of troops in the ukraine. Bulgaria had accepted occupation duties in serbia, as they would have had moral problems fighting against the russians. Even though some austrian troops were present, the vast majority were in russia. With the italian neutrality confirmed for the duration of the war. Austria was able to leave minimal troops there to guard the new borders. As the german offensive in the north jumped off, the austrian armies coordinated, with the german ones, started their next offensive to prevent more russians from heading north. The russians were at a disadvantage on this front as the last central power's offensive had been conducted against them. The largest share of new recruits and equipment had gone to them, but many troops were still raw and inexperienced. So, when the next offensive openned against them, many surrendered rather than fight. As this front had roughly equal numbers of central and russian troops facing each other, there were few reserves present to save the situation. With the fight in the north being more immediately important to the tzar, fewer men were transfered here to stablize the lines. The thinking was that the space of russia would allow the battered armies to retreat and eventually reform and the overextended attackers would be easy prey to these new armies.
However, some generals recognized that many russians were beginning to question the necessity of the war and a large defeat such as this would possibly cause other peoples in the empire to demand freedom from the tzar. The ukrainians were the first as they were the closest to the fighting, and a region as important to the empire as ukraine could not just be handed to the enemy without a fight. Luckily, one of the best generals that the russians possesed was now brought into the fight. General Brusilov had been studying various strategic and tactical problems that were appearing in this new age of warfare. He had institutionalized in his forces new artillery tactics and the infantry tactics of inflitration. He encouraged debate and the responsiblity of his commanders for their troops. As a result, when his army went into action around Proskurov, he manages to stop the enemy cold. Soon, he had taken nearly 40,000 prisoners and had the AH armies in retreat. The lack of replacements, munitions and the timely arrival of a german corps prevented the rolling up of central power's lines. However, it did give them bloody nose and stopped the advance for the forseeable future.
Russia was given some breathing space for the time being, more as a result of the need for central power's troops to man longer lines and occupy more territory than russian action. Luckily, for russia, the industrialization efforts of the tzar were coming to fruition and enough muntions and equipment were available to russian troops and new armies forming to the east. They were down, but not out. Unfortunatly the Austrians were able to continue to occupy land further south in the ukraine as the armies there did not have to contend with a general as competent as Bursilov, but the overall advance was stopped to contend with the new threat of armies forming in northern ukraine for a counter offensive. Brusilov was given overall command as he at least could demonstrate some success in this war of disasters. But this counter blow would not be ready until later in the year, and the austrians and germans would have time to ready themselves for the coming battles.
With these success in the ukraine and the baltic provinces, the central powers renewed their campaign to draw romania into the war with promises of gold and bessarbia. As the ailing King of romania was of german decent, he had been pushing for the support of the central powers from the beginning of the war. He country though coveted Hungarian land in translyvania and waited to see if Russia could deliver. However, with Russia suffering so many losses and the lack of support that they would be able to offer, romania began to look east to the provinces there that they could receive. Even though they were not as economically developed as translyvania and sparsly popluated, at least they could recieve something from this war. Who knows maybe even more of ukraine could be seized if they were bold enough. Soon romania began coming around. After the halting of Brusilov's counter offensive in june, Romania began to respond to central powers' enticement. It was eventually agreed upon that for recieving gifts of gold, large contracts of natural resouces, and besarbia, Romania would enter the war against russia. With the final payment recieved in August, Romania declared war and marched east as natural resources, such as oil and wheat headed west. Russia war unprepared for this eventuality and was thrown off balance by this latest setback. Romanian troops although equiped with older weapons and materials, were still present in large numbers and were hardy men. They pushed russians defenses far back into ukraine. Finally the advanced stopped as the supply lines were outrun and troops began having to live off the land. With the fall of Chisinau, the romanians dug in on the Dneister and prepared for a winter campaign that would take them to the Bug and beyond.
With the entry of Romania and the shattering of the lines in Ukraine, the tzar demanded that Brusilov start his long awaited offensive. Although he still needed time to stockpile munitions and train his new troops, the demands of the tzar bypassed all of these concerns. So with a heavy heart he ordered the offensive. Although the intial attacks went well, the russian troops became disheartened when the austrians finally stood their ground and halted the offensive. As Brusilov prepared to bring forward more guns to help continue the advance, he as hit with a counter offensive by german troops looking to relieve pressure on their ally. The newer troops had been used to hold the flanks of the advance as they could not be trusted to advance quick enough and with enough skill to break the enemy lines. For many this was the first time in combat and with the new artillery doctrine developed by Bruckmuller, they fled or surrendered rather than hold their ground. With his flank folding, Brusilov had to halt the advance and send his veteran troops to counter this attack. However, as he did this an AH army that was waiting for the russians to continue their attacks was freed from the reserve and put on the offensive on the opposite flank of the attack. The Austrians were shocked at how quickly their advance was and how many prisoners they were recieving. To this point they had been unable to meaningfully hurt the russian armies. Always the russian soldier had held firm against the austrians and made they pay for any success. With this success the AH soldiers took heart and seized the momentum for themselves for once. Brusilov realized that although he could hold one flank, he could not hold both and if he did not pull back soon he would lose a whole army. He gave the order to retreat, but this did not come soon enough for many and nearly 250,000 russian soldiers marched into captivity. Almost one million men had been lost in the offensive and the remaining troops had lost heart for battle. The southern russian army was a shadow of its former self and would not be fit for more combat for at least a six months. The central powers followed up on their success and seized Berdichev, but had to stop there as there lines were now badly stretched with open flanks. The generals considered it worth the risk as there were no troops to oppose them. Their armies were badly mauled and had suffered close to 450,000 casualties. Any more attacks were out of the question for quite sometime. The romanians were urged to follow up and close the gap in the south by moving up to the Bug. The austrians were told that the romanian armies would advance when they could.
The year of battles wound down on the eastern front and the central powers were unquestionably winning. It was now apparent to everyone that it was a matter of time until the war was over there. How soon would suprise many. On christmas day riots would break out in most major cities in Russia, none worse than in St. Petersburg. When the civilians would not disperse, the Tzarina, who was advised by Rasputin, ordered the military garrison to restore order by force. Soon troops had opened fire on crowds demanding peace. With the spilling of innocent blood came a massive backlash as many troops refused to confront the civilians and many joined them. Many firefights broke out as armed civilians and troops battled for control of the city. The royal family fled and headed to the Tzars headquarters for safety. However, by the new year it was apparent that all control over the city was lost and that many others were soon to fall. Many of the troops at the front gave up hope when they found out and began walking home. It seemed that the russian people had spoken and they wanted peace.
So, how plausable is this TL so far? I don't know how to make maps or I would have included some to make thing much more clear. Any suggestions?
