Part 65: Diabolus Ex Machina (Oct 1911-Feb 1912)
While originally, the idea of making a
Western Front offensive in winter seemed sound to the French generals, they soon realized exactly how dumb that idea is. The plan was to use the frozen Rhine as a natural bridge to transport soldiers for the other side, but even a river frozen to the bedrock would probably not be able to endure anything more than soldiers - so transporting artillery pieces, medical supplies and heavy machinery would be out of the equation. German artillery could also simply break the ice, and the mere fact that soldiers would have to be fighting in winter will erode their combat effectiveness. A few major generals were still calling for a "winter blow", but once the Director of the Estates-General himself disapproved of the idea, the plan was shelved.
Still, France searched for other ways to break the stalemate at the Rhine. The production of pontoon bridges and river barges increased by a lot, stockpiled for future use - just not in winter.
Meanwhile, they had some more important things to worry about. The Netherlands Campaign continued on into the fall and winter of 1911, where the Germans, having reorganized and replenished their units, began a second offensive, this time planning to take out Holland and the important city of Amsterdam. Time was running short - France was funneling more and more soldiers into the Netherlands, and both sides knew that Germania could not play the waiting game here. October marked the beginning of the
Second Battle of Utrecht, and unlike last time, the Germans managed to break through French lines, thanks to the use of a sinister new weapon -
chlorine gas, manufactured for use in the South German army before the war as a potential trump card. The entrenched French soldiers in Utrecht were not issued gas masks, thus gas shells were severely effective against their stationary positions, and, coupled with superior enemy firepower, within a week, they were forced to retreat.
The French foreign ministry issued a public complaint over the "barbarism" of German gas warfare, but only a week after the conclusion of the Second Battle of Utrecht, French forces began using their own gas attacks in skirmishes in Gelderland, which speaks volumes about whether or not they were actually caught unprepared for chemical warfare. Still, despite strong French and Dutch resistance, they were pushed back thanks to a combination of surprise, superior German morale and terror within the French ranks from gas attacks, and in December 11th, the 10th North German Infantry Division reached Amsterdam. The city was abandoned by authorities weeks before it's capture and all government institutions were moved to Antwerpen months ago, but it was still a major boost of morale to the Germans and a big blow to the Dutch.
While the Germans were the first to employ chemical warfare, the French were the first to adapt an another "dishonorable" tactic -
terror bombing. The aeroplane may have been a recent invention, but it was rapidly adopted by militaries across the world, and while reconnaissance was still the machine's primary warfare use, the French army were one of the first o outfit it for bombardment. In late November, the first air raid on German territory, targeting the city of Frankfurt, was executed - 15
Marchal ver. VIII planes dropped a flurry of bombs over the city's industrial quarters, killing over 50 people and causing heavy damage to the local chocolate factory. This was the beginning of the war in the skies, and while the Germans attempted to respond with "interceptor" wings to target bombers and their own air raids on French territory, France maintained air superiority for most of the war. Both sides also publicly called terror bombing to be inhumane and dishonorable, although, ironically, the battle in the skies was probably the most "chivalrous" this war ever got, with "air aces" serving as heroes to look up to and one-on-one combat being widespread, in contrast to the days and nights of artillery barrages and machine gun fire that land warfare became.
Chemical warfare and terror bombing were both not the wonder weapons that could win the war by themselves, but they served a purpose in eroding the enemy's morale, especially among the population. This war was no longer something to be proud for, but a bloodbath of horror, and that was reflected in the steady rise of anti-war movements in both sides.
French chasseurs during a gas shell barrage in the outskirts of Haarlem
While the Western Front was certainly active despite the weather, the
Pyrenean Front fully stabilized during the winter and remained stable throughout. Spain was licking it's wounds from their previous unsuccessful offensives, while France, which was more interested in dealing with Germania first, had no desire to enter a mountain quagmire with the Spaniards. Aside for some mountain skirmishes and sporadic small-scale battles, the front was calm. But it was calm before the storm.
A much different song was being sung in the
Eastern Front. The limited territorial gains after the July Offensive left Lithuania with a large salient around Warszawa, so the high command gave the order to straighten the front by taking Lublin, a city in between Lithuanian-occupied Greater Poland and Galicia, assigning Field Hetman Silvestras Žukauskas to lead the offensive to take the region. While he was reluctant to lead such a vast attack so close to winter, he didn't really have a choice - the Emperor said his word, through Chancellor Čepukas, oddly. In the following Battle of Lublin, the Lithuanians under Žukauskas's command employed a brand new tactic for dealing with entrenched enemies, using directed artillery fire in front of advancing soldiers to clear out obstacles and fortifications - the
creeping barrage. It proved to be successful and allowed Lithuania to score one of it's first major strategic victories in the war, although both sides suffered a lot of casualties in the crossfire.
Almost a year of fighting has passed, and even though Lithuania has been the one advancing most of the time in this front, both sides lost soldiers in many, many thousands. As if these two nations were practically equal in strength. Perhaps they were rivals for a reason.
Something ominous went down in Visegrad during this time. A group of 20 Russian and Ruthenian intellectuals in Prague, hoping to advance the issue of their peoples' sovereignty, formed the
Foundation for the Liberation of Slavs in Lithuania. It's goal was to use Visegradian steel and blood to liberate their homelands, and the first item on their agenda was raising the issue to the kingdom's Convention of Three Nations.
Besides the Pyrenees, other fronts that were stable during this time were the
Southern,
Northern and
Burmese fronts. Winter stopped any and all military activity in the frozen wastelands of Karelia, the Ottomans were still mobilizing and too busy in other fronts to try anything against the Visegradians, while thick jungle and mountains made large-scale, Europe style warfare in Indochina almost impossible. In the
African Front, the Egyptians captured Sirte despite tougher Coalition resistance, and only Tripoli remained as the last major city in Visegradian Tripolitania.
The new front that everyone was paying attention to was the
Persian Front, where the Ottomans faced off the might of the Mughal Empire. Because of the tropical climate, Persia was just as good of a battlefield in winter as it was in summer - so awful all-around. Scorching deserts, long mountain ranges and lack of modern infrastructure made warfare in this region a logistical nightmare, but neither side was willing to budge. And from the start, the Mughals showed superiority in numbers and tactics, pushing the Turkish defenders away from the border and advancing upon the coast - and they also brought a trump card, the so-called
Manassa rockets. Based on 18th century Mysorean rockets, the Manassa rockets were updated for modern warfare, and they proved to be useful as a long range, high accuracy alternative to standard artillery, especially in low-scale skirmishes. They could also be outfitted for ships, although the accuracy suffered in sea battles.
However, their battlefield usage was limited - but the Indian army soon found a better use for them, as a city bombardment weapon. In early January, a Mughal fleet executed a barrage of over 3000 incendiary and 2000 explosive rockets over Bandar-Abbas, the Ottoman Empire's main port in the Arabian Sea, dealing heavy damage on the city and killing almost a thousand civilians. Large portions of the town were burned to the ground by ignited fires. By the end of January, the Mughal armies captured the abandoned city.
The Great European War was a war of machines, a war of technology. The chemist's war, the artillery engineer's war, the bomber pilot's war. But where does the average soldier fit in?
The world in February 1st, 1912
