Retreat

By the late summer of 1901, for the first time since the very start of the war, it was clear to everyone that something was really happening that was of monumental importance. The problem was that no one, from the man on the street, to the highest echelons of government, actually knew what this something was. Breakthroughs had been made but, once again, as had been the case for the entire war, the gains by one side were being negated by the gains of the other.

In Poland, the German High Commands long sought after prize of Warsaw was finally taken. The way it came about was not in the manner that anyone had thought, and much to the relief of the city‘s residents. It had always been assumed that there would be a be a battle or siege and that the Russians would defend every last building of the city. There was good reason to believe this since the Russians had spent the entire war fortifying and stocking the city for just that eventuality. When German Cavalry came riding into the central city, not a single shot was fired. The Russians, with much larger problems on their hands, had simply fled east as fast as they could. They would also leave behind, unmolested, almost the entire stockpile of supplies that had been accumulating for the better part of three years. Ironically, the only supplies to be destroyed were by German Zeppelins.

The heart of the Russian problem had been created by their own monarch, Czar Nicholas, when he ordered his army to suppress the strikers and demonstrators that were becoming common throughout the empire. Most of the troops that were sent were the core of Russia’s pre war, regular army, and they would be sorely missed on the front. When it came time for one last push against Konigsberg, the troops that moved into the line had only been at the front for less than a month and had not even received that much training before they arrived. It was these scraped together conscripts that would run head long into Ludendorff and Hindenburg’s seasoned veteran troops. The Russian conscripts would melt like the spring snow in wave after wave of fruitless attacks.

To make matters worse, the staffs of both division commanders had reliable intelligence on the composition of the Russian units. Quickly, Hindenburg chose to concentrate his counter attacks on the newer units, blowing huge holes in the Russian line, and leaving the more veteran units, sitting next to the newer ones, with no other option but retreat. The Russian position disintegrated so quickly that events were happening faster than they could be reported to their higher headquarters, and hence, the situation became confused and the retreat turned into a route, with no one knowing what unit was where.

The Russians did have one saving grace and it was by no efforts of theirs. It was the traditional Russian defense that had saved them from Napoleon. In this case it was not winter but, it was rain. That is not to say that some sudden and major deluge fell on the German advance because, it did not. It was just the usual amount of precipitation that fell on western Russia every year. It was enough to turn roads, not made to handle heavy volumes of traffic, into muddy rivers and leave fields as unstable as quicksand.

The weather factor did little to stop the reinvigorated German Infantry who now smelled victory. They marched as fast and with as much spirit as any army ever has in what was a maneuver campaign that would be studied for years to come. Unfortunately, their logistics system could not keep up. Once Ludendorff and Hindenburg began moving away from their rail lines, which became far less dense the further east they went, the more they had to rely on horse and mule for their essential consumables. It was the supply lines that could not keep up and, hence, denied the Germans what could have been a total encompassing victory of the first order.

There was also another factor and it was simply that the Russians were running faster than the Germans could advance. It gave them the commodity they most needed and this was time. The Russian Generals gave up on giving orders and simply began setting up collection points where they could ferret out their troops, reorganize their units, and prepare new lines of defense. They did so with amazing speed but, still had plenty of their own problems including supplies. It was even more critical for the Russians because, their officers discovered to their horror, that many of their retreating soldiers had ditched all of their gear, including weapons and ammunition, as they ran. Now being closer to their own bases of supply, the Russians should have been able to replenish their troops much easier than the Germans but, this was not the case. They had stockpiled too many supplies too close to the front lines and lost most of it when those depots were overrun.

It was turning into a slow disintegration of the front line but, in the end, it was not a complete collapse. The Russians still had the advantage of distance and weather and, for the time being, it was enough or, at least, it was for Theodore Roosevelt. Oddly enough, for the American President, the problem with the Russian situation was not a military crisis but, the political. Theodore stated that, “if Russia could survive Napoleon in Moscow then it could weather Moltke in Smolensk.” The real problem was keeping Nicholas on the throne which, day by day, was starting to look more and more impossible. Again, just like with France, the real problem with that was Nicholas himself.

While Nicholas might be getting in his own way, much like the Council of Deputies in Paris, that was the end of the similarities. Where the French populace had understandable reasons for wishing to continue the war, no matter who was in charge, the same was not true in Russia. The vast stretches of the largest empire on Earth meant that, for most of her population, war and peace meant almost nothing at all. In the cities, where the war had impacted lives the greatest, the strongest sentiments definitely did not favor a continuation of the conflict. Unlike in France, there was almost no one who believed that the Germans would one day show up on their doorstep to stay. Germany was simply too far away for most people to contemplate such an event.

This all came down to one thing, Nicholas had to stay on the throne. Unfortunately for Theodore, and it gnawed at him greatly, there was little he could do about it besides send some telegrams of advice, most of which fell on deaf ears. As we now know, the Czar considered Theodore to be something of an upstart, a peasant, and decidedly inferior, despite Roosevelt’s pedigree. For that reason, Nicholas chose to confine his communications with the American President to official memo’s between the diplomats of both nations. This was why the telegrams from Roosevelt never even made it to the Czar.

Roosevelt was determined to help the Czar even if the emperor of Russia did not want it. This left Roosevelt with only one real option. His new military offensive, against the CSA, was already getting underway and, it had largely been for purposes of making an impression on France. Roosevelt was under no illusions about it making an impression on Nicholas, however, it did not have too. The only viable options, as Roosevelt saw, was that if he could not keep Russia in the war then he would have to end the war before Russia capitulated.

This seemed an impossible task. Theodore walked across the street to the War Department and spent many days visiting the office of General Shafter where they discussed the southern offensive in great detail. In the end, Shafter convinced the President that, even if the offensive succeeded spectacularly, it could not knock the Confederacy out of the war. In order to do that, as was seen by the war department, they would have conquer most of the southern states and, even with the full weight of the US Army, that might take years. One only had to look at Canada as a blue print.

Roosevelt did not concede defeat, even if he conceded Shafter’s points. Once again, Roosevelt realized that the problems they were facing were ones that were largely the trappings of a lack of imagination that was running rampant through the halls of the worlds war rooms. Theodore realized that if he could not conquer the Confederacy, in time, then he needed to wrestle what he could out of them, just like he had with Canada. He had to figure out where their true weaknesses were and use those to bring them too the mat. As he would later tell Leonard Wood, “if we cannot bring them under our thumb then the situation dictates that me must make them yell uncle!”

Fortunately for Roosevelt, the pattern for what needed to be done was already developing in Tennessee. This was largely in thanks to his personal friend, Woodbury Cane, and the much scoffed at Bull Moose Battalions that were largely thanks to his pen. These special operations units were seeing the last skepticism from the US Army. They defied much of the conventional wisdom that was associated with offensive operations. While the Air Corps had began this offensive with a flash and a bang, the new infantry assault went in with absolute silence. There was no preparatory bombardment and, for that matter, there was absolutely no warning at all.

The first waves of infantry crawled out of their trenches under the cover or darkness. They were very small teams that moved along pre scouted lines of advance and, once they reached their objectives, they waited patiently till just before dawn. Their opening salvo came as a hail of grenades against enemy strong points. The following waves did not advance along a wide front, or even spread out but, they moved along narrow paths, now cleared of enemy direct fire, and were in the Confederate trenches before there was any time to even react.

Even the second wave was not as large as was usual for a standard assault. The conventional wisdom, up till that point, had been that the more men you tossed at the enemy, the better. These groups slipped into Confederate trenches, almost unmolested, and began worming their way along the trench line. This reduced the size of the fight, normally between thousands of men, down to just a handful at any given time. Suddenly, the extensive maze of trenches were no longer protection for their owners, they had suddenly become death traps.

The assault teams used flags to mark their advances for covering teams that were located in no man’s land. These sharp shooters had occupied shell holes, clumps of kudzu, and any concealment they could find and their fire kept Johnny Kudzu pinned down beneath the trench line, preventing counter attacks on the assault teams exposed flanks. As these multiple assault teams worked their way towards each other, the Confederates found themselves growing more and more compressed, and vulnerable to the new hand grenades. Once enough strong points were knocked out, the general assault from the standard US infantry went over the top and advanced against sporadic and weak enemy fire.

The results were several big gaps that formed in the defenses of Fort Brag and, this time, the US Army was ready to take full advantage of it. They shoved as many units into the breeches as they could. Again, this was limited by how far a man could walk in a day and, compared to breakouts in later wars, it was at a snails pace but, a breakout it was none the less. It was aided by the fact that the Confederate logistics system had been hampered by the fire raids. While the front line units had plenty of supplies, the reserve forces, those meant to plug holes in the lines, were running short. In the end, this made the holes larger but, the Confederates were still able to plug them, even if it was not as well as they liked. This is where Roosevelt once again stepped in and went toe to toe with his top Generals.

As the situation on the battlefield developed, Roosevelt saw the basic problem and, once again, he walked across the street to the War Department and began his usual rants. “You are trying to take ground, General,” Roosevelt bellowed. “As you have pointed out that is something the enemy has in almost endless supply. Your own figures show that what they are short of is manpower. This needs to be your target!” Once again, Roosevelt’s force of personality allowed him to get his way. Suddenly, the target of the offensive was no longer the Confederate States but, it was their army instead. Operations were no longer being planned along the lines of seizing land but, to actively grind the army of the CSA into nothing. It would not take long before this began to be felt.