Österreichische Kriegnachrichten Oktober 1915 (Teil zwei).

Am Anfang Oktober zwei wurden Hauptbetriebe von unseren Truppen durchgeführt, welche die Umzingelung der italienischen Isonzo Armee durchführen. Trotz des Mangels an notwendigen Versorgungsmaterialienwaren die Italiener in der Lage, von unseren Hauptangriffen erfolgreich zurückzuziehen. Jedoch informiert der Hauptsitz uns, daß "es nur ein Frage der Zeit ist, bevor die Italiener in unserer massiven Tasche überwunden werden".

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Erzherzog Eugen von Österreich

Oct I 15 - Southern Front - Entente turn

After cleaning out the Italian high command from the its passive commanders, the new leadership showed strong will to do better.
One of the strongest Italian offencives since the Italians entered the war was undertaken.
Units from both the 3rd & 8th corps in addition to units stationed in Mestre, attacked the defending Austrian-Hungarian expedition force, 7 corps.
After the initial successfull recon a well coordinated attack was made, but the fiel troops where still efected by the old leaderships passivness and did not manage to overtake the Austrian-Hungarian forces.
It seems that they where well prepaird and dug in by the riverbanks.
After a week trying to push the Austrian-Hungarian 7 corps back towards Austria, the only result was very heavy losses in manpower for the Italians. Close to 63000 men had lost there lives or been injured very badly.
Lucky no heavy equipment were lost in the battle.

Austrian-Hungarian reinforcements has been seen to arrive at the scene. And some movements in the fast moving 7th corps seems to indicate more aggresive actions from the Austrians.

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Gen Cardorna
C-in-C
Italian Armed Forces.

L'I ottobre 15 - parte anteriore del sud - girata di Entente

Dopo la pulitura verso l'esterno l'ordine alto italiano dai relativi comandanti passivi, la nuova direzione ha mostrato la volontà forte per fare più meglio. Uno dei offencives italiani più forti poiché gli italiani hanno entrato nella guerra è stato intrapreso. Unità sia dal terzo & ottavo corpo oltre che le unità disposte in Mestre, attacato la forza Austriaco-Ungherese difendente di spedizione, 7 corpi. Dopo che il successfull iniziale ricondizionato un attacco coordinato pozzo sia fatto, ma il fiel si aduna dove ancora efected dal vecchio passivness di leaderships e non stato riuscito a sorpassare le forze Austriaco-Ungheresi. Sembra che dove prepaird buono e scavato dentro dai riverbanks. Dopo che una settimana che prova a respingere i 7 corpi Austriaco-Ungherese verso l'Austria, l'unico risultato sia perdite molto pesanti nella forza di lavoro per gli italiani. Vicino a 63000 uomini aveva perso là le vite o aveva danneggiato molto male. Fortunato nessun'apparecchiatura pesante è stata persa nella battaglia. I rinforzi Austriaco-Ungheresi è stato visto per arrivare alla scena. Ed alcuni movimenti nel settimo corpo muoventesi veloce sembra indicare le azioni più aggresive dagli Austriaci.

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Gen Cardorna
C-in-C Italian Armed Forces
Entente Southern Front
Europe Command

Österreichische Kriegnachrichten Oktober 1915.

 

Die Reports von unseren Stange Kopftruppen sind knapp. Aber unbestätigte Reports vom prachtvollen Kaiserschutzen erklärt uns, daß Betrieb Eisenring jetzt durchgeführt wird. Dieses konnte gebildet werden nachdem die wütenden Gegenangriffe, die von drei italienischen Korps gebildet wurden.

/Hauptkommando Tirol

Entente Oct I 1915 Western front.

The weather stayed clear.

The French started to make rebuilding of cadres with the newly found reserves.
Wonder these soldiers had been all the time?
Perhaps on the Riviera but as they heard that the Huns are starting to threaten Lyon and if it falls then the way to the the Beaches in the south, they returned to the front.
But still the Germans can find corps to attack but they can only attack one and with only the best of the best to get 6:1 odds. It would be better to get 2 4:1 +1 odds but it's not anymore possible.

The Belgians started to make some scrapping so they can later rebuild some unit and get more units into the Belgian exile corps.


The Germans failed all reactions rolls (10 tries on 5-6!) giving the French some time to strengthen the lines.
In the exploiation the French move some more cadres to positions were they can be rebuilt.

Sep II 15, Southern Front, Entente report

No reinforcements for the Italians.
The Sp light XX moves to Mestre, just outside Venice to defend. 3 Army HQ moves to support the defence of Venice.

The Battle for Venice and the north eastern Italy has begun.
The battle is preluded by the wars first major bombarment strike, this is joint massive bombardment by units from the artillery corps, naval units in the port of Venice and low level bombers.
After the bombarment, lasting for 2 days, the attack i suddenly stopped.
It seems to be a general failure in the Italian high command. This opend for a rapid response by the Austrian-Hungarian forces already stage at the eastern and northern borders.
Moving fast they captured undefended land and meet no resistance at all.
This how ever lead to very thin support and supply lines extending over enemy territories.
Stopping short of a full encirclement of the Italian 2nd Army, they seemd to prepair for the next stage by early October.

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Gen Cardorna
C-in-C
Italian Armed Forces.

CP Sep II 1915 western Front

The German was eager to follow up the the success from the previous reaction phase.
But the French lines are getting more dense all the time.
Anyway there was 2-3 possible targets.
The Germans massed their best troops and got a 6:1 odds which resulted in a DH without getting modified by MGs and Art.
At that point it was discovered that French had counted wrong when calculating DH losses.
They calculated divisions getting cadred only the difference between division and cadre sides, not the full defense point from the division as it should been.
An appr. calculation was made that the about 4 real DH results previously would have resulted in about 48p MP points less than was taken.
So these points was returned to the French MP pool to be used for replacements.
Wonder how much they calculated wrong in the BX,DX and DL results.
These results happened mainly last during fall/winter 14-15 against trenches and fortresses.

The germans got back some divisions from the eastern front.
2 Guards divisions was returned but not in the shape they were sent. They got back as cadred.
However they are now were they belong as and at full strength.

The French once again managed the close the gap in the lines with sucessful reactions in the area.

Entente Sep II 1915 Western front

The French rebuilt some units to try to stop the Germans in the south.

Somewhat unexpected help came from the Belgians, they rebuilt a cavalry cadre which could be converted to a full division if 2 other cavalry divisions were removed from replacement pool.
So they did. They also called up the training units, 3x 4-6-4 divisions.
Also some plans to make some scrapping was mentioned but first a check to not scrap units which can be used in useful conversions/upgrade/reorganization must be made.

The Brits was looking for a 2:1 attack on 9R corps but when the recon planes failed to see how the corps was organized in the trenches the Brits cancelled the attack.

The Germans rebuild the 4 cadred divisions. in the reaction phase the Germans reacted once again at the weakest point in the French lines.
The four rebuilt cadres and the elite formations deployed there came in handy to make a 6:1 attack from three hexes and not even needed to use combat supply.
The German recon planes made their job and the flying circus intercepted and aborted french bombers. However the german flak forgot to fire as they saw the French bombers burning in the skies so the rest of the French ground support came through.
The gas engineers and the heavy cavalry failed their attempt to use their specialty abilities.
The odd was a straigth 6:1, would have been 5.3:1 if the French would have used a combat supply.
The result from die roll was DR but as they French MG and Art hade made their job it turned into a HX leaving a cadre left on the french side of the fromerly 23p strong stack and making a 12-14-5 division cadred.

In the exploitation the French tried to prepare the lines for another CP assault in the coming turn and The Brits moved forward some reserves.

Some rumours of the wars first bombardment was heard from the Italian front but as the communications are poor nothing is confirmed yet.

Western front rest of Sep I 1915

The French did it again. They got succesful reaction roll where the Germans had made a hole in t he lines.
The Germans did some arrangements in exploitation for rebuilding 4 cadres to full strength and to prepare for 2 x 3-8-5 MG X to 4x 4-8-5 MG X conversions.
Also some Artillery conversions are prepared.

The remaining 4 reorganizations of divisions will propably have to wait until the mud period starts as the involved unit are spread along the front and are probably needed there either to defend against British assaults or to attack the weak French forces in the south.

A Great War Naval Campain blog

This seems like an other blogg that might be fun to read, as it also covers the Great War, but with the focus on the naval war during the time period.
Here is the link Great War naval campain, a SeeKrieg5 macro game.

/War Corspondant Service
NixxoN