In a turret in the Lviv Fortress, an M1908 siege howitzer was deployed. There was a track right behind the artillery. A small cart moved to the rear of the artillery under the push of several soldiers. Then several soldiers used a boom to place the grenade weighing 382 kilograms to the loading place at the tail of the artillery, and then opened the bolt. Several soldiers used a push rod to stuff it into the mouth of the gun that was shining with cold light. After the artillery was locked, the short and thick gun barrel began to slowly rise. It finally stayed at the 25-degree position.

At the same time, the same scene also appeared on 22 turrets in 5 important defense zones in the Lviv Fortress area, 8 M1908 12-inch siege howitzers, 10 240MM long-range cannons and 32 210MM heavy howitzers were aimed at the pre-selected targets, and the caliber but lost more medium-caliber howitzers and cannons were ready!

"From now on, shelling for 2 hours!" Kariput's order was very simple, but it was too cruel for the Russians who knew nothing at this time!

Boom! With the shooting of the shell, a huge fireball was sprayed out from the muzzle. The remaining energy generated after the gunpowder burned blew a strong wind within a few dozen meters around. Balls of smoke continued to gush out from the muzzle, and then dust and water vapor formed a foggy air mass to spread to other places. The shell weighing 382 kilograms drew an elegant arc in the air and fell into the Russian army's assembly position 7 kilometers away!

A black thing was flying with a harsh whistling sound. It fell down like a sword of Damocles that predicted destruction. In an instant, the earth seemed to tremble. The impact force of more than 300 kilograms of bullet bodies and the huge explosive force generated by more than 70 kilograms of explosives directly exploded into the air! A wave of air that could be seen with the naked eye wrapped in fragments and corpses quickly expanded to the surroundings, tearing up everything they could touch like a storm!

The flames, poison gas, and the air pressure difference that was invisible but enough to explode the human lungs swept across the range of nearly a hundred meters of the landing point of the shell! The fortifications built have never thought of resisting such a degree of attack! The shell went down and directly tore two 75MM cannons and half of the surrounding infantry into pieces! And when the smoke of gunpowder dissipated, a radioactive crater several meters deep and more than ten meters in diameter appeared in front of people.

And this is just a prelude. When the 305MM heavy howitzers and 240MM cannons in the fortress area opened fire, the Austro-Hungarian artillery group that had been hidden for a long time began to be fully activated! The roar of hundreds of body-barred artillery broke the tranquility of the morning! The shells, like a meteor shower of doomsday, landed densely on the 10-kilometer wide position. At its peak, 3,000 shells were shot towards the distant target every minute! A storm composed of flames and steel pushed across the Russian position, leaving behind a large and small craters, wreckage and corpses everywhere! Before the Russians launched an attack, the artillery of the Allied First disrupted the Russian army's deployment!

After sweeping the shallow positions, the artillery with a margin of range began to expand to depth, and a wall of flames piled up with shells began to advance forward, expanding from the front of the Russian position to the limit of the range of the artillery. Several Russian breakthrough points discovered were damaged more than half of the sudden attack.

What's even more tragic is that some of the troops that were ready to expand the breakthrough entered the position too early and were bombarded by flying shells! The more than two hours of artillery bombardment almost completely ruined Russia's assault plan today. The frontier troops suffered heavy losses. If the Russians wanted to launch a new attack, they would need to re-arrange the infantry and close-range support firepower at least one day and one night.

"Damn our plan has been leaked!" Looking at some Russian positions in the distance that had turned into a sea of ​​fire, Alexeyev said in grief. "But it doesn't matter. We have a lot of capital this time! Even if we suffer a little loss, it will not hurt the overall situation! What are those heavy artillery waiting for? Are all the infantry waiting for the front line to be killed?! Let them open fire! Open fire immediately!" Alexeyev roared.

There is a reason for the optimism of the Russian Southeast Front commander. It can fire hundreds of kilograms of shells and can fire far-reaching artillery numbers. This is the case on the Western Front and even more so on the Eastern Front. To be honest, if there were no support from the two empires of Germany and Austro-Hungary, the Bavarian Legion would not even have a few 12-inch train guns.

For example, the M1908 heavy howitzer, which just started the first gun of the battle, had a range of only 9,600 meters. Considering that the deployment position was relatively low, these guns were at most against Russian frontlines and units with shallow depths. No matter how far they were, they could not reach it. The K09 cannon with a relatively long range was less powerful, and it was still difficult to destroy the important nodes that the Russian army had been operating for several months in a short period of time.

The naval gun snatched from the navy by the Russian Army became the most powerful weapon of killing both sides in the first round of artillery battles! At this time, a 12-inch L52 naval gun nicknamed Katyusha by the Russian army raised its barrel of more than ten meters. This gun was transported and placed on two 5-axis trailers. After entering the position, the second half of the artillery was fixed, and the first half was placed on an arc-shaped railway, which could rotate within 120 degrees on the front.

The grenade weighing 446KG was loaded into the gun bore. When the nearby personnel were almost evacuated, the most powerful artillery of the Russian Army finally released its first roar after the war. At the same time, more than 20 12-inch and 10-inch train guns of various types opened fire in a few minutes! The reconnaissance planes in the air could clearly see the light spots rising about 19 kilometers behind the Russian front line! The Russian artillery group finally showed its power!

The 446KG shell flew out of the gun mouth at a speed of nearly 800 meters per second, and accompanied by a sharp scream, drew an elegant arc in the air and flew to the Lviv Fortress 24 kilometers away. The preferred target of "Katyusha" and its comrade "Seryosha" was a huge reinforced concrete gun nest. Two 210MM heavy howitzers were deployed in this gun nest, directly blocking a certain Russian army's preset breakthrough point.
Chapter completed!