The entire land battlefield became calmer in the summer and autumn. Austro-Hungary was unwilling to fight with the Russian army. The Germans were slightly short of their attacks on the Eastern Front alone. Since three armies were drawn from the Western Front to strengthen the Eastern Front, the Germans were unable to launch a large-scale attack on the French front.

At present, both sides are in a stalemate on the main battlefields, and only the Austro-Hungarian army is still launching some small battles in North Africa.

Sio Hungarian tank training camp in Zuvala, Ripolitania.

Under the scorching sun, a pale yellow sand dust rose from behind the sand dunes in the distance. Gradually, bursts of motor roars came from his ears. The sand and dust were getting heavier and rolling towards the Zuvala tank training ground. More than a dozen tanks were vaguely visible in the sand and dust.

"It's very good. We ran nearly 65 kilometers in two hours. This distance is enough for the Army to walk for a day and a half." Melzin took out his pocket watch, looked at the time and said to Colonel Hukel, who was standing next to him holding a telescope and observing the direction of the sand and dust.

Colonel Hukel put down the telescope in his hand, turned his head to look at Colonel Melzin with a smile on his face: "This is all under your command to achieve what you have now. If it were two months ago, I wouldn't know how to keep these young men in the battle queue." After that, he narrowed his eyes again and looked at the tank convoy rumbled from afar. "I wonder how many tanks will come back this time?"

"It's already very good. We can maintain a 60% intact rate after running 100 kilometers, which is far beyond my expectations. You should know that in Galicia, one of my armored battalions had only less than 5 cars left after advancing 60 kilometers. Only 6 cars were destroyed by the enemy or broken by themselves. The rest were all due to mechanical failures." Colonel Merzin said that the new tank had greatly improved in terms of mechanical performance. Although there are still shortcomings, it was enough to cope with the requirements of a battle.

Currently, the 7th Croatian Armored Division and the 21st Imperial Army Armored Division, which have just been reorganized into an armored division, are stationed at the Zuvala Armored Training Base. There are nearly 500 tanks in total, accounting for nearly one-third of the total number of tanks equipped by the Imperial Army.

The first goal of the North African campaign is to take Tunisia first, then continue westward or turn eastward.

Melzin has been promoted to the chief of staff of the 7th Armored Division of Croatia. In the empire, since they first entered the armored forces, these officers from the 1st and 2nd Armored Brigades were promoted quite quickly.

Due to the scarcity of talents, Melzin is currently the training director of Zuvala Armor Training Base. The training arrangements of the two armored divisions were made by him, of course, many of them came from experience in the First Armored Brigade. Like naval battleships, the basic combat elements of tanks and armored vehicles are also maneuvering, protection and firepower. At any time, Lee Haydn will put maneuvering ability first.

If you can't beat it, you can run away. No matter when you are, survival is the first priority.

Of course, it is best to achieve a perfect balance between firepower, maneuvering and protection. With the current technical conditions, it is obviously impossible to do this.

For tanks that just appeared on the battlefield, countries around the world are currently in the exploration stage. The British obviously took a detour, while the French were almost on the right path, but the crisscrossing trenches in northern France made the excellent performance Renault PT-17 not play its due role.

So they retreated instead and returned to the infantry tanks.

The Austro-Hungarian armored forces have been used as a separate assault force since their establishment, rather than accompanied by infantry operations, which is from later experience. Therefore, the imperial armored forces initially focused on using tanks as much as possible instead of dispersing them into infantry ranks.

Because of this, the armored soldiers of the Austro-Hungarian Empire understood more deeply than other countries.

That's all.

The daily maintenance and consumption of an armored force is no less than a squadron. If it were not for the strong support of Lee Haydn, its large-scale use would probably not begin until all parties recognize its value. In this regard, the Austro-Hungarian Empire only took a few steps ahead of others.

But this is what causes a huge gap on the battlefield.

In order to cooperate with the German Navy's combat plan, at the request of Leheiden, Rudendolf agreed to draw the German 12th Army commanded by General Galvitz into North Africa and fight with the Austro-Hungarian army. In mid-August, the German and Austrian coalition took action and captured Tunisia in one fell swoop. France currently has only a small number of colonial troops in North Africa and cannot resist the attack of the German and Austrian coalition.

With the fall of Tunisia, the situation of the British and French coalition forces in North Africa became worse and worse. Britain had to draw a large number of colonial troops from South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and India to travel to North Africa to ensure Egypt's security. In order to alleviate the pressure on France in Algiers, the British troops stationed in Egypt launched an attack on Cyrenega and conquered Tobruk at the end of August. The offensive of the German and Austrian coalition was stopped.

General Negovan commanded the Austro-Hungarian fleet to carry out a night shelling of the Gibraltar Fortress, which was heavily deployed by British troops on August 27. Although it did not achieve any results, it shocked London.

The new Navy Secretary Belford asked to draw four battleships from Jelico's large fleet to strengthen Gibraltar's defense, but the local fleet refused without hesitation. Jelico, who was already worried that his strength would not allow any more troops to be drawn from his hands. In his opinion, the local fleet could not suffer any failure at sea. If it fails, everything in Britain would be over.

Jelico would never allow a battle when his troops were weaker than his opponents. He has always maintained his superiority over the German fleet in his hands.

And there are signs that the German fleet will have major actions recently, and at this moment, he is even less allowed to weaken his power. In the end, Belfort compromised and sent only four old-fashioned former dreadnoughts to Gibraltar. He also understood that if Jelico lost, then Britain would almost lose the entire war.

Since the war has been going on, its scale and process have long exceeded the initial expectations and control of all parties involved. Even the British have been exhausted by the war and exhausted.

The biggest real benefit is that the Americans who watched the fire from the other side of the river. The wealth saved by the British Empire and the French over the past century have basically been plundered by American bankers and arms dealers.
Chapter completed!