The Rise of Australasia

Unlike the laughter and cheers in Australasia, the situation inside Russia could only be described as miserable.

Miserable, very miserable, extremely miserable, unbearably miserable.

Ever since Archduke Nicholas was relieved of his position as Russian Commander-in-Chief, chaos ensued inside Russia: the military, the people, the government, and the royalty all in disarray.

Never mind the vast capability gap between Archduke Nicholas and Nicholas II, Nicholas II's lack of importance for the position of the Commander-in-Chief alone had doomed Russia to its current chaos.

Compared to Archduke Nicholas, who would have loved to stay in the General Staff headquarters every single day, Nicholas II appeared much more laid-back, only spending one hour daily on military affairs.

One hour to decide the life and death of millions of Russian soldiers on the front line, plus the input from the Empress and Rasputin, led to the Russian army being incapable of receiving unified planning from the General Staff, and now the front line forces were in a state of chaos.

Without orders from the General Staff, the frontline forces had no idea what to do next.

Wanting to launch an attack but receiving no orders from the General Staff, the commanders of various army groups did not dare to make decisions on their own.

However, contracting defenses and seeing logistical supplies from the rear dwindling, the original canned goods and grains from Australasia had mostly been replaced by coarse grains and rye.

Weapons and equipment had become diverse: the standard rifles sold by Australasia to Russia had been replaced by various old hunting rifles in logistical departments and then transported to the frontline forces.

In just one week since Nicholas II took over as Russia's Commander-in-Chief, the level of decay in Russia's logistics department had escalated.

More importantly, during that week, Russia had already experienced three aircraft crash incidents.

And the root cause of those three crashes was that all three aircraft were missing some parts during takeoff.

Yes, it's just that outrageous. Russia's few advanced weapons had already been dismantled by logistical officers colluding with other forces, with some parts removed and secretly sold.

Even the fewer than 20 regularly used aircraft faced this fate, let alone those stored in warehouses awaiting new pilots.

The frontline army commanders had sent multiple telegrams to the General Staff inquiring why the weapons they received were mostly Russian-made, or even old hunting rifles, rather than new equipment from Australasia. Read exclusive adventures at m_v-l'-.net

Unfortunately, the single hour Nicholas II spent on military affairs wasn't enough for him to see the commanders' questions.

These inquiring telegrams were mainly handled by Rasputin, who naturally destroyed them after receiving bribes from some capitalists and logistical officers.

Even more outrageous, some logistical officers sold Russian weapons and equipment to Germany at a low price.

If it weren't for the Russian army's inability to launch an attack due to the lack of weapons and equipment, they would have discovered through their captures that a small number of East German forces were equipped with weapons from Australasia, which were intended as support for Russia.

After the problems with Russian aircraft, German aircraft began to take off in large numbers, seeking and bombing Russian troops hidden in their positions. Ṛ𝙖Νồ𝐁Ès̈

When Russian aircraft had no issues, the quality of German aircraft could not match that of Russian aircraft, and there was a noticeable gap in combat capabilities.

Two German aircraft could barely hold their own against a single Russian aircraft and could not achieve ultimate victory.

But now, when Russian pilots go into battle, they face life-threatening danger; they could die at the hands of enemy pilots, or, more likely, at the hands of their own country's logistical officers and capitalists.

This has led to a unique phenomenon in the Russian Air Force: before carrying out missions, pilots conduct extremely detailed inspections of their own aircraft, almost to the point of completely disassembling them and comparing each part individually.

By the end of October 1915, on the Russian front line.

"Colonel Sergei, when will our logistical supplies arrive?" General Alexseyev of the Southwest Army urgently asked.

The Russian Southwestern Front Army had been waiting for supplies from the rear for three days, and hundreds of thousands of troops were in desperate need of logistics.

If supplies did not arrive within three days, some army groups would starve, and it would even affect the entire Southwestern Front Army.

"The logistics department replied that the supplies should arrive before the start of next month. Heavy rain near Minsk has hindered the arrival of the logistics forces," Colonel Sergei quickly replied.

"Damn it. Tell the logistics department that if supplies don't arrive in three days, they will have to face the soldiers' anger. If they send more of that black bread and coarse grain, I'll personally go to Saint Petersburg and inquire.

The soldiers haven't seen Australasian canned goods for over ten days; they need to eat meat to replenish their strength." The explanation still couldn't quell Alekseyev's anger.

During the time when Archduke Nicholas served as Commander-in-Chief, there were also various logistical problems in Russia, but at least the soldiers' food received basic protection.

Not to mention, they often had meat. Whether it was Russian beef and mutton or Australasian canned goods, they could all provide a good boost to the soldiers' strength.

Ever since Nicholas II took over as Commander-in-Chief, logistics support for the Southwestern Front Army had become scarcer, evolving from initial shortages of weapons and ammunition to now lacking even food.

The hard-earned food supplies were black bread and coarse grains, some of which were too tough to bite.

Ravenous Russian soldiers had started catching rats in the trenches, which was not a good sign, despite the abundance of rats there.

"Yes!" Colonel Sergei had just nodded in response when a piercing alarm suddenly sounded.

Woo ~ woo ~

General Alexseyev's face immediately changed, and he quickly ordered: "Damn it, German planes are coming. Order the soldiers to move quickly to the air-raid shelter."

Before he could finish his sentence, Alexseyev went straight to the air-raid shelter. During this recent period, the Russian army had gained experience in dealing with German airplanes. Upon hearing the air-raid warning, they didn't hesitate and went straight to the shelters.

Being one of Russia's few high-ranking officers, Alekseyev naturally cherished his life and hurried to the sturdy air-raid shelter near the General Staff.

This was a solid air-raid shelter set up for the headquarters and the General Staff, which was much sturdier than the ordinary shelters above the trenches.

Army Group Headquarters often built such air-raid shelters to shelter their commander-in-chief and staff officers.

Soon, the German aircraft dropped bombs one after another, exploding in Russian trenches and nearby positions.

Hearing the nearby explosions and tremors, Alekseyev ordered: "Contact the aviation units, dispatch fighter aircraft to bring down these damned Germans. Don't spare machine gun bullets, use all firepower, let these damned Germans know our power."

Theoretically, rifles and machine guns are capable of hitting airplanes now. The Russian army had already managed to bring down German planes with rifles and machine guns before, which was why Alekseyev decided to counterattack against German planes.

As the previous main target of the Germans, Russia's ten or so aircraft were all deployed in areas close to the Southwestern Army Group, which allowed Alekseyev to mobilize these planes urgently.

It took more than half an hour for the Russian planes to arrive in a hurry. By this time, the German planes had basically finished bombing Russian positions, but faced with the pursuit of Russian planes, they had no choice but to confront them head-on due to the performance gap in airplanes.

There were about 20 German planes, and just 15 Russian planes.

Although outnumbered, the late-arriving Russian planes quickly gained the advantage in aerial combat. In one-on-one or two-on-one situations, Russian planes could basically take the upper hand and even find opportunities to deal heavy blows to German planes.

In this era without radar, air combat entirely relied on the naked eye for observation. Various weapons also lacked tracking capabilities, relying solely on the aircraft's performance and the pilot's skill.

After all, airplanes were new weapons, and neither Germany nor Russia had delved deeply into their research. German pilots were more capable and better trained than Russian pilots, who were hurriedly trained, while German pilots had been training for a long time.

However, the gap in the pilots' skills was not that significant and could be compensated by the disparity between the two sides' planes.

Although Russia only had the first-generation Australasian military aircraft, their actual performance had already surpassed that of the planes in the middle of World War I in history.

Due to the influence of the Australasian airships in this world, the development of airplanes by various countries was slower than in history.

As a result, a noticeable gap emerged between German and Russian planes, which was enough to have a significant impact on air combat.

After all, Arthur had attracted more than one-third of the world's aerospace power talents in order to develop airplanes.

In terms of aircraft research, Arthur could confidently say that no country had yet surpassed Australasia, or even came close to being on par with it.

Looking at the current technical level of German planes, given another 1 to 2 years, they might be able to match or even surpass the first-generation military aircraft in performance.

However, this war would not give the Germans that much time. At least in World War I, the first-generation military aircraft owned by Britain, France, and Russia would still have no difficulty maintaining an advantage over German planes.

At present, aerial combat was relatively simple, mainly relying on the machine guns mounted on the planes for strafing. Pilots didn't have to perform complicated maneuvers either.

This air battle lasted for more than half an hour before hastily ending. The Germans lost half their planes, while the remaining planes quickly fled, with two more being shot down by pursuing Russian planes.

On the Russian side, they lost three planes to the Germans, and more than five were damaged.

After some simple repairs, these damaged planes could be put back into the war, provided there were enough spare parts.

Although Russia possessed the technology of first-generation military aircraft and the ability to repair them, it was still difficult for them to complete the repairs on their own, given their current situation.

Even if they purchased parts from Australasia, those parts would not necessarily be used on these planes.

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