By mid-April, the World War had entered its most climactic phase. The two great alliances were locked in a battle so fierce it turned heaven and earth dark across the European continent. Each side suffered anywhere from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of casualties every day. The cruelest stage of the World War had arrived!
On the Western Front, neither side could gain the upper hand. Although the Anglo-French forces suffered greater losses, they had no shortage of cannon fodder. Strategically, neither side had managed to achieve a decisive result.
On the Eastern Front, the Russians were pressing the German army hard this time, giving the Germans a thorough lesson in the might of human-wave tactics. Even when their casualty ratio had reached 1:3, and some areas had even produced the impressive record of 1:5, the Russian Bear still declared itself fearless!
So the Germans very wisely chose a strategic retreat. Trying to outlast the Russians in a war of attrition at a time like this was simply courting death!
The Bulgarian army, launching a sudden attack on the Southern Front, seized Budapest with lightning speed before the enemy could cover their ears, aided by the Hungarians, and then charged straight toward Austria.
Marshal August von Mackensen, commander of the Alliance's Southern Front, decisively chose to run. He did not even go to Austria, instead heading directly to Poland to join forces with the German army on the Eastern Front.
It was clear that he no longer trusted the Austro-Hungarian Empire. If the Vienna government switched sides again, then his remaining hundred-odd thousand battered troops would not even get the chance to flee.
With the war having reached this point, the prestige of the military government led by Hindenburg had fallen to a historic low. Even the commanding