Chapter 1108: Battle of Pressburg

Chapter 1108: Battle of Pressburg

The frontal war was completely one-sided. The military technology levels of both sides were too different, and the quality of the soldiers was also very different.

The Hungarian army outside the city persisted for more than half a year without supplies and victory encouragement, and things like military spirit and morale no longer existed.

Sporadic resistance was quickly suppressed, and the Hungarian front collapsed completely. According to the observations from the front, they directly skipped the second line of defense and ran to the third line of defense.

Many people in the Austrian army participated in this series of wars throughout the whole process. Their most direct feeling was that the traditional infantry formation tactics were completely outdated.

Almost all the battles participated in by the Austrian Empire in 1848 were decided in skirmishes, and the main casualties of the Austrian army came from line infantry.

When the Austrian Empire won a crushing victory, the exchange ratio of line infantry still did not improve, and in some cases it was negative.

The huge target made them easy targets for the enemy, and even if the opponent did not have the firepower of the Austrian army, it could always cause them huge casualties.

According to the Austrians' own experience, even the French, who are known as the leader of the European Army, can't withstand the firepower density of the Austrian Army.

In the future, the power of rockets and artillery will only be further strengthened, but the defense of infantry will be difficult to improve.

In fact, the Austrian Empire has long started the research of infantry armor, but its protection is very limited, and it is not practical on large-scale battlefields. The same is true for bulletproof shield vehicles.

Therefore, the status of long-range firepower on the front battlefield will continue to improve with the development of the times. Infantry, as the most important consumable on the battlefield, is a bit out of place when forming a queue.

However, skirmishers also have their weaknesses, that is, the firepower density is insufficient, and it is difficult to form effective firepower suppression, which is a huge disadvantage in defense and pursuit.

Compared with line infantry, the cost of using skirmishers is higher, especially Franz has come up with a military insurance system. Although this solves the morale problem of skirmishers, every death of a skirmisher means a huge pension.

Such a high price makes generals dare not use human wave tactics easily, but this also reduces the death rate of soldiers to a certain extent.

Moreover, Austrians traditionally prefer defensive tactics. They would like to build bastions and fortresses in front of the opponent, which will further reduce the casualties of the Austrian army.

Therefore, infantry tactics must be innovated in the future. Franz suggested a three-three tactical formation, but it was quickly rejected by the Austrian military.

This is not because the three-three tactics are not good enough, but it is not suitable for this era. Neither the firepower of guns nor the training level is enough to support its effective fire suppression.

However, in order to deal with the threat of artillery and rockets, Austria's infantry tactics must be innovated, otherwise the same disaster will sooner or later befall the Austrian army.

Human beings have the strongest ability to learn war-related technologies. Even if there are more restrictions, even if the opponent's starting point is low, it is difficult to limit the spread of technology.

The speed of advancement of this style of play used by Heinau at this time is really not commendable. After taking the first line of defense, the Austrian army immediately began to organize defense to prevent the Hungarians from counterattacking.

Artillery and rocket troops began to move forward step by step, and only the airship troops continued to move forward.

After all, the Hungarians had almost no air defense at this time, and could only use old-fashioned rifles and artillery to try to attack targets outside their range.

The process of the battle was still lackluster. The Hungarian army quickly collapsed under the superior firepower of the Austrian army, but this time the airship did not output firepower, but became a simple lookout outpost.

The ammunition capacity of the airship during this period was very limited, and what was even more fatal was that the bombing was completely dependent on luck, so from the beginning its main function was to deter the enemy, not to kill.

Heinau had a violent temper, but he was not stupid. Although the Hungarian army's retreat was disorderly at this time, it was still risky to pursue rashly.

Behind the Hungarians, the raging flames were spreading mercilessly, but the Austrian army was obviously not facing such a threat. After weighing the two, it was obvious that steady progress was a more wise and cost-effective strategy.

But what Heinau could never have dreamed of was that the remnants of the Hungarian army actually broke through the flames, but the cost of breaking through the flames was also huge, with at least thousands of people dying in the flames or smoke.

Of course, only a small number of them escaped, and most of the Hungarian soldiers were still squeezed in a limited space like sardines.

Some wanted to shout surrender, but the rumbling of artillery drowned everything. Some wanted to raise the white flag, but the falling shells and rockets could not see this.

Hatred makes people crazy, just like they did to others before, the soldiers who were red-eyed didn't want to give them this chance.

The remnants of the Hungarian army that broke through the flames also suffered heavy losses. In addition to those direct losses, everyone had different degrees of burns, and supplies and heavy weapons were also lost.

But they didn't care about the so-called losses, and everyone's face was only happy to survive.

"We survived!"

However, a burst of gunfire broke their dreams, and the militia of the brigade was following the steam tanks and attacking them.

After seeing the steam tanks, most of the remnants of the Hungarian army chose to give up resistance, and a few people even went back into the fire like crazy.

The six-month Battle of Pressburg finally ended, with more than 250,000 Hungarian casualties, more than 20,000 captured, and only 54 escaped.

The Austrian army lost 3,519 people, 29,522 wounded and 782 missing.

At the same time, the four-month siege of the royal territory ended, with a total of 28,000 casualties in the Hungarian army.

The royal territory lost a total of 95,813 soldiers and civilians, including 79,551 who died in the massacre, more than 350,000 acres of farmland were burned, and more than 30,000 houses were destroyed.

In fact, the main reason for the tragedy was that the deacon and militia commander of one of the royal estates did not want to be involved in the war and chose to surrender directly to the Hungarians.

Although most people chose to flee before the Hungarians arrived, there were still many people who were unwilling to leave their homes, and most of them became victims.

Two culprits, one chose to commit suicide, and the other chose to become a Hungarian citizen.

The traitor also gave himself a Hungarian name, Lajos Nagyr.

Although the Austrian Empire suffered a lot of losses at this time, it was still tripled for the purpose of propaganda.

When the news that more than 300,000 soldiers and civilians were killed by Hungarians in the royal territory was sent back to Vienna, the whole country of Austria was shocked.

However, compared with the shock caused in Austria, the impact caused in the German region was greater, because the German nation did not seem to have suffered such serious losses throughout 1848.

Whether it was the war against France or the civil war, even if the total casualties of all the Confederate wars were added together, there were not as many as 300,000.

What's more terrible is that this time the losses were not only soldiers, but also unarmed civilians.

Then it was the charm of journalism. Countless reports on this massacre, coupled with some horrifying photos, made the nationalists who had just been suppressed boil.

A large number of nationalists who were imprisoned in prisons and were about to be sent to South Africa and Texas slammed the iron gates and asked to fight to do their last bit for the nation.