The Rise of the Empire

Chapter 713: Russian preparations II



The Russian industry is very rubbish, even if the military expenditures are spent hard, this is still the case. With the same money, Germany can do 10 things, Britain and France can do 8 things, and the Russians can only do 4 things. Look at Russia’s military expenditures in history. You can understand from the combat effectiveness of the Russian army that everything depends on imports. If you cannot produce it yourself, the result will be too high prices and too little equipment.

So, the Germans can play the original armored units within a certain limit, and a large number of cars can be added. The French and British can also, but only the Russians can’t. Imported products are expensive, assets are more expensive, and there are many problems. Not only the armored units and cars, but even the artillery of Russia before the 1st World War failed. Who in the major countries did not have a few more NB 6-inch heavy howitzers or long-range cannons? Russia is really nothing but imports....

However, as a fighting nation, the Russians can always give full play to their subjective initiative to upgrade their equipment and military strength under limited conditions. Especially after combining the experience and lessons of the Russo-Japanese War, the Russians also upgraded their equipment system.

First of all, the Russians believe that long-distance heavy artillery is very important for the Russian army's attack and field combat capabilities. During the Russo-Japanese War, Russia’s 152MM naval guns imported from the United States and their country’s naval guns were converted to land guns. So after the war, the Russians always wanted a 6-inch L40 cannon with good performance as a future army. The main force of the class.

If you just build an artillery and don’t consider other issues, it’s naturally easy. The Russians could do it in the 1980s, but the key is that the artillery should be light! It must be easy to transport, and it must be as long as possible with the smallest weight possible. And this is the problem! By the way, another problem is the cost. It must be cheap. Otherwise, how can there be so much equipment?

At the level of the Russians, it is impossible to produce a heavy artillery like the K16 that weighs less than 10 tons and can reach 22 kilometers. If the weight is enlarged to 15 tons, the range can be achieved, but unfortunately, this thing is difficult to transport.

Therefore, the Russians took the second place and came up with a 152MM intermediate heavy howitzer named M1908. The reason why it is called an intermediate howitzer is because its weight and range are almost intermediate... .... The weight of this artillery is 6777KG, which is much heavier than ordinary short-barreled howitzers, but lighter than cannons. The range is also between 10KM of the howitzer and 22KM of the cannon, and the range is about 14,870 meters. Generally speaking, the performance is okay.

This is the intermediate version of the artillery. The Russians still cannot guarantee the quantity and transportation of the equipment, especially the latter. Although the 6.777 tons of this thing does not seem to be heavy, it is still very laborious if you use a horse. In order to ensure the number of medium-caliber artillery with a range of more than 10KM, the Russians produced another intermediate-caliber artillery, which is the famous M1907 107MM artillery in history.

Of course, it became the M1908 type on this plane. If the M1908 152MM howitzer is considered an intermediate product, then this 107 artillery is a top-quality artillery, and it is also one of the few boutiques in the Russian World War I arsenal. However, the weight of 2200KG can hold 17KG shells. It shot 12.7 kilometers away and completely suppressed the SFH13 howitzer in German history. And this artillery will make up for the lack of the new 6-inch artillery and become the military-grade firepower in the Russian army.

The Russians’ obsession with 122MM guns also began to appear. The reason is simple. The 6-inch guns are not powerful enough, and the 3-inch guns are too weak. In order to make up for the weakness of the division’s first-level guns, the Russians can only equip another one. The intermediate caliber artillery is the 122MM howitzer.

The Russians used twelve points of effort to supplement the quantity and quality of their artillery. However, there is no way to supplement the corresponding means of transportation, and if you don’t want the originally overwhelmed railway system to collapse during mobilization, Russia can only deploy these large amounts of artillery in Russian Poland, even after the war plan begins. As a result, a considerable part of the artillery was deployed on a long but thin front.

The biggest difference between the Russian military system and other countries participating in the war is that he has a large number of cavalry. Think about it, almost all the cavalry in the Austro-Hungarian Empire has 11 cavalry divisions, while the Russians used 21 cavalry in the first wave. The division, and even Budjoni later, once said that Russia had 400,000 cavalry in World War I. Although this number is not known to be reliable, it is an indisputable fact that the Russian army has a large number of cavalry.

And this time, in the Russian war preparations, as many as 21 cavalry divisions, and the total cavalry force of nearly 100,000 troops will also be a sword in the hands of the Russians. The Russians used a large amount of rubles to add machine guns and light artillery to the cavalry units. Inspired by the machine gun carriages used by the Bavarian Army in North Africa when the Bavarian Army fought in North Africa, the Russian Army also began to equip this kind of seemingly low force, but it is indeed very useful. In order to strengthen the assault force, the Russians decided to continue to expand the armored vehicle force that performed well in the Russo-Japanese War. The Russians are preparing to increase the number of first-line armored vehicles to about 400 to ensure that each A cavalry division can be divided into a small team. Together with the cavalry, they will be used as a fast assault force against the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Yes, the main goal of the Russians has always been Austria-Hungary. As for the German troops in East Prussia, the Russians’ idea is to try it. If it is profitable, then continue to go deeper. As for the Bavarian side, the Russians’ current approach is Prepare for defense.

Generally speaking, the Russian war plan is still very suitable for their national conditions, poor technical level, based on existing technology and industrial foundation, and tried their best to produce the best results. In the dark, Kuropatkin felt that there were some mistakes in his plan, but he hadn't figured out exactly what it was.

"If you can, go to the battalion level and add some heavy machine guns. Our infantry has too much firepower to project from the opponent. We have very few semi-automatic rifles and not many light machine guns, so we can only add heavy machine guns. "Kuropatkin swipes a big pen and adds a few more to the plan.

A few years later, when Kuropatkin recalled the decision that year, he suddenly realized that his mistake was not a matter of firepower and equipment. Of course, by then it was a bit late, as for what the mistake was, let's talk about it then...

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