The Russians were like an indestructible young strongman. In the summer of 1915, it was almost facing collapse. The remaining few troops were no longer enough to maintain the front line, and they could only retreat all the way and exchange space for time.

But the severe cold in winter in Russia saved them again and again. When winter came, they once again got a chance to breathe. For nearly half a year, the "winter break" of arms and military resources from the United States, Japan, Britain, France and other countries continued to pour into Russia. After half a year of reorganization of equipment and personnel, they regained their military strength.

Russia, which suffered a series of severe failures in 1915, was mobilized by itself and provided by the Allies,

When spring came, they organized an army of nearly 2.7 million on the Eastern Front. Falkenhai drew the 4th, 9th and 10th armies from the Eastern Front to return to the Western Front, and Germany now has only three armies left on the Eastern Front.

The Markensen group on the south side was transferred to the Sluchi River line to fill the gap left behind due to the 9th and 10th armies. Now from the entire Nanbug River to the Romanian line, only the Austro-Hungarian army is left to independently fight against the Russian attack. More than one million troops of the Russian army's southern line group commanded by Brushilov are concentrating in Odessa. It seems that he will launch a new counterattack soon.

Lee Haydn was helpless. He originally planned to invest three armies in North Africa and Turkey to drive the British out of North Africa and Asia Minor. In that case, he opened the path to the Indian Ocean, where there was no force that could stop the Austro-Hungarian Navy from galloping.

Now everything is scrapped, and he has to draw three armies on the Balkans and the Apennines to fill the Eastern Front, and even add the First Bulgarian Army. The Romanian army is absolutely unreliable and can only act as a logistics force on the second line, and they now have only 200,000 people left. Li Haydn disbanded most of the Romanian army formed for mobilization, and he needs these people to go back and grow food for himself.

The 3rd, 5th and 6th Austro-Hungarian Army troops were forced to return to the Eastern Front again. Now the Austro-Hungarian Army on the Eastern Front formed two major combat groups: the Western Front Group commanded by General Elmoli and the Eastern Front Group commanded by General Boloevich.

Now only part of the mobile troops that Lee Haydn can use is left in his hands. They have to leave some troops to guard Malta and continue to siege Valletta. Of course, he still has a navy.

Lieutenant General Horwald, who was born in the Marine Corps, was ordered to lead the 13th Army, composed of some of the 7th Army and some supplementary troops, into North Africa. This unit includes the 2nd Shooting Division of Tyrol, the 7th, 11th Infantry Division of Croatia and the 5th Dalmatia, and the 21st Infantry Division. In addition to the 21st Infantry Division, other miscellaneous units upgraded from local garrison troops.

The 1st and 4th Marine Divisions that entered Tripoli and Cyrenaga in advance would also be under his command.

In this way, he had nearly 140,000 troops on his hands.

However, such a small amount of troops is far from enough to fight on the vast land of North Africa.

Since January 27, 1916, the 1st and 4th Divisions of the Austro-Hungarian Marine Corps landed in Tripoli and Benghazi respectively. The Italian troops stationed in Tripoli and Cyrenega did not resist, and the Austro-Hungarian army easily gained a large area of ​​control in North Africa.

The coast of North Africa in the early morning was still shrouded in a faint mist. On the foggy and hazy sea, you could vaguely see the gray figures of several warships undulating slightly with the waves. On the pier in Tripolitania, thousands of sleepy Arab workers were lazily carrying supplies from the freighter. Some of them were obviously supervisors shouting at the lazy workers, but the actual situation proved that their effect was almost zero.

Lieutenant Colonel Melzin transferred from the Sagittarius destroyer to a yellowish traffic boat and headed towards the dock. He was an army officer who was riding on the Sagittarius for a night in the sea before he arrived in the Cyrenega. He still felt dizzy.

He didn't understand why the imperial army had to come to Africa to fight.

For a soldier from the Austro-Hungarian Empire in Slovenia, the land of Africa seemed very strange. The Austro-Hungarian Empire had never had its own overseas colony, but the Germans still had some. His reflections of Africa were all seen from books. South Africa had gold and diamonds, which would be heart-warming, while the concept of Central Africa was tropical savanna, African indigenous blacks, lions, and elephants. But what was there in North Africa? In addition to the desert, there were deserts, and there were also some Berbers riding camels. He could not see what the use of this large hot and barren desert that the imperial army would occupy.

The Port of Tripoli is a natural semi-enclosed harbor formed by a narrow headland extending from the protruding coast to the sea. The port is not small but very backward. After the Italians occupied this place, they had imagined expanding the port, but after only one concrete pier was built, the war broke out.

Now, this place belongs to the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

There were many transport ships from the empire in the port, and several cargo ships with Italian flags. Although Italy surrendered, its country was still retained. The Istrian crown prince claimed that the Habsburgs had no intention of restoring their old rule over Italy and invading Italian territory, except for colonies.

The few Italian colonies were handed over to Vienna in full as war compensation, except Eritrea and Italian Somaliland.

It is still a complete country, despite being disarmed.

The port is currently being expanded, and with the war materials transported to North Africa, the entire port is loud and the cranes are rattleing, and it is very busy.

The traffic boat was docked next to a wooden pier, and the cables were tied to the wooden piles on the pier. Lieutenant Colonel Melzin and more than 20 officers went to the pier along the newly built springboard.

Two Isleian cars and a Steyr truck parked at the dock and pulled these people to the Austro-Hungarian North African Legion Command in Tripoli. The scenery along the way was full of exoticism, with loess built into houses, occasionally with some buildings made of marble or limestone, churches or mosques, and their styles were very different from Vienna, Trieste or Zagreb. There were tall palm and olive trees on both sides of the loess streets, and some brown-skinned Berber natives, everything brought people an inexplicable sense of freshness.
Chapter completed!