~Date: ~October 07~

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Looking back at the European Western Front battlefield, after the spring offensive ended in April, the Soviet Union and Germany talked about peace in May. Most of the main forces of Germany and Austria were transferred to the west throughout May, while the continuous arrival of the US military on the battlefield in France injected fresh blood into the Allies.

Throughout June, the Allies launched a large-scale offensive against the two prominent units of Amiens and Marne on the German defense line, with Britain and France as the main force. The British army invested 42 main divisions and 500,000 people, the French army invested 56 main divisions and 670,000 people, and the remaining British and French troops each guarded the Allies' defense line.

The eight main divisions of the First Army of the US Expeditionary Force were used as reserves, while the remaining sixteen new recruit divisions of the US army were guarding the third line of defense.

Through the mobilization since May, German commander Ludendolf set off 188 divisions, 6,500 heavy field guns and 9,800 light field guns on the western front.

As the attacking party, the Allies had 6,800 heavy artillery and 8,300 light artillery. The Allies' air force was nearly twice as strong as Germany - in the direction of the attack of Amiens, there were 1,500 to Germany, and in the direction of the Marne River, there were about 1,800 to 1,070.

The Allied summer offensive in June was a tragedy for both sides of the war. The Allied forces on the front line were less than the German and Austrian troops on the defensive sides. However, in the two outcrops of Amiens and the Marne River, the Allied forces were concentratedly used by the two British and French assault groups than the German and Austrian troops on the opposite side.

The summer offensive of the Amiens-Marne River launched by the Allies lasted for nearly a month. The Allies' tanks broke through the German first and second-line positions, but were trapped by the anti-tank trenches crisscrossing between the German second and third-line positions and could not move. The infantry accompanied by the attack was simply isolated from the artillery fire that was blocked by the German army and could not advance before the second-line positions.

Nearly 2 million main forces on both sides fought in Amiens and the Marne River. The German heavy artillery always had a local advantage, which offset some of the advantages of the Allied Air Force and was rich. Ludendolf had a much greater reserve team than General Fuxi of the Allied. Moreover, Germany was fighting in the inside line as the defensive side. The developed railway network in France and Belgium allowed the German army to mobilize quickly and efficiently in both directions.

The summer offensive of 1918 launched by the Allies was later considered to be a wrong offensive launched at the wrong time. When the battle ended at the end of June, the Allies returned to their previous starting position, with British troops losing 210,000 and French troops suffering 270,000 casualties, while the German and Austrian troops on the opposite side were about 320,000 casualties. What's even more, the Allies lost about half of their heavy artillery and almost all nearly a thousand tanks put on the battlefield.

If the First Army of the United States Expeditionary Force had not blocked Ludendolf's counterattack, the Allies' fronts could hardly be maintained. As for the Air Force, the two sides fought evenly, and the number of aircraft shot down by the Allies was similar to that of the Germans, or in other words, the Allies' air superiority was suppressed by the number of Luftwaffe's Air Force, which was less than theirs.

The disastrous defeat of the Allies' summer offensive made the atmosphere on the Western Front even more tense. While both sides paused to lick their respective wounds, they both turned their eyes back to the Russian Eastern Front.

In late June 1918, Kolchak's White Guards took the initiative to abandon the position west of Ufa, and turned to the west and north. Kazan was always held in the hands of the White Guards like a meat grinder and hard walnut without any loosening. Of course, the rumors that the gold in the Kazan treasury had been transported to Ufa were also flying all over the sky.

The crowds of people fleeing in the Volga River Basin and Ufa area are rolling westward. It is rumored that in Western Siberia, east of the Ural Mountains, had begun to implement temporary regulations on rent reduction and land management. There is no war in the rear there. For Russian farmers, especially landless farmers, this is paradise!

Tukhachevsky, the 1st Army of the Eastern Front of the Soviet Union, had never been so proud. He ignored the orders of the Front Command and directed his army to cross the Volga River from Simbirsk in one fell swoop. The White Guards on the other side had already fled. In a week, the 1st Army recovered the land of a hundred kilometers deep in the right bank of the Volga River and recovered the important city of Melex, where the Melex River converged with the Grand Cheremshan River.

Of course, the 4th Army, a subsidiary of the Eastern Front of the Soviet Union, who was not willing to be outdone, rushed to Merex after forcing the Volga River north from Sethran to the north. The two sides almost clashed for the spoils left by the White Guards. The telegrams sent to Moscow were all the other party snatched their credit and spoils.

Comrade Ulyanov of Moscow obviously valued more the Red Army general Tukhachevsky, who was born in the industry and peasant industry. In his earlier struggle with the rebellious commander of the Eastern Front, Muravyov, Xiaotu's firm party spirit and uncompromising fighting spirit obviously left a profound influence on Ulyanov.

As a kind of support or balance, and also to reconcile the conflict between the First Army and the Commander of the Front, Vates, at the end of June 1918, the Supreme Military Commission of the Soviet Union issued an order to divide the Eastern Front into two clusters of north and south. The Northern Cluster consists of the Fifth Army and the Third Army, and is commanded by the Commander of the Front.

The southern cluster of the Eastern Front Army consists of the first, second and fourth third armies. The commander of the southern cluster is Tukhachevsky, the commander of the First Army. At the same time, in order to strengthen the forces of the southern cluster that has opened the gap, it has forced the Volga River to cross the Volga River.

The 31st Turkestan Infantry Division, the 13th Cavalry Division and the Mixed Cavalry Division under the Fifth Army on the Kazan line of the Northern Cluster were urgently transferred to the 1st Army to strengthen the offensive of the Southern Cluster against the Ufa direction. In this way, the troops of the Southern Cluster commanded by Tukhachevsky increased to about 160,000 people, becoming the unscrupulous main cluster on the battlefield on the Eastern Front.

Such adjustments and deployments are obviously the result of a game between Ulyanov and Trotsky's control of the military command of the front line. Trotsky's view that he advocated the military experts of Tsarist Russia as the command of the army and the front was unknowingly weakened. Although these senior Tsarist generals had long sworn allegiance to the Soviets and joined the Bolsheviks, whether it was Vates, Slaven, or former Tsarist Russian senior generals, it was obviously difficult for them to completely integrate into the arms of the Bolsheviks, whether it was Vates, Slaven, as former Tsarist Russian senior generals, it was obvious that they were aristocratic.

At the same time, because the Northern Cluster failed to conquer the front line of Kazan and the Southern Cluster was progressing smoothly west of Ufa, Ulyanov's comrades have accused Vatedith, who was responsible for commanding the Northern Cluster, and Slavin, the commander of the Fifth Army, who made the right-leaning opportunism mistakes and demanded that they be examined and the middle and senior generals on the front line of Kazan. Fortunately, Trotsky, the chairman of the Supreme Military Commission, protect him more than once.

The Chikas of Derrensky dared not act as chaotic on the Kazan frontline as they did in Chalizin. In the three Chalizin defense battles in May and June, the military commissioner of the Southern Front, Comrade Joseph, ordered the shooting of the division commanders and brigade commanders, were not one platoon or one squad! Of course, the facts also proved that anti-counterfeiting and iron-blooded policies were necessary means. Two division commanders immediately pulled the team to Krasnov and Denikin's Bai Guards on the opposite side!

The Central Soviet Union and the Russian people of Russia certainly saw the announcement of land reform and eight-hour working system issued by Kolchak's All-Russian Provisional Government, which increased the treatment of workers, and issued food stamps to urban residents. However, when the Volga defense line had failed, no one took what the Kolchak government said seriously. No matter how the regime, which seemed to be in danger, was empty talk. In fact, with the news of one White Guard defeat on the front line, the entire society was in turmoil.

Half of the local people spontaneously flew from west to east to escape, and half of the Kolchak government began to relocate factory equipment and Baiwei Army families in important cities such as Kazan and Ufa to east of the Ural Mountains, which happened to be the same as before. Of course, no matter whether it is Chinese, Japanese, or Western Siberian Autonomous Government east of the Ural Mountains, as long as people are given a way out, it is better than anything else!
Chapter completed!