Chapter Summaries

General Morkes kept the Austrian army’s southern offensive restrained, while Franz sought to draw French troops into Italy and exhaust France. At the Suez Canal, fighting reached Port Suez and forced John to flee, as Austrian officers struggled to find a way to cross the canal.

• Vittorio Emanuele III failed to persuade General Morkes to launch a full-scale offensive and received no support when he asked the Vienna Government to replace him.
• Franz’s strategy aimed to tie down French forces in Italy and stretch France’s manpower rather than quickly destroy the French army.
• John learned from soldiers’ conversations that French casualties were heavy, feared conscription, and fled Port Suez after artillery fire reached the city.
• An Austrian colonel berated Fike for failing to prepare boats for a surprise attack on Port Suez, and Fike explained that enemy artillery made large vessels impossible to conceal.
• The colonel faced the prospect of attempting a canal crossing with rafts, since the Sinai Peninsula offered no local source of boats and ships sent into the canal would be exposed to French artillery.

Colonel Bodeman’s attempt to launch a surprise crossing of the Suez Canal failed under French artillery fire, and General Feslav weighed the military need to destroy the canal against the diplomatic fallout. As the chapter ended, Bodeman ordered a second night assault while the enemy searchlights were turned away.

• French artillery smashed the rafts Colonel Bodeman had prepared for a surprise attack on Port Suez, and he urged headquarters to authorize destroying the canal.
• General Feslav received Bodeman’s telegram and considered how to capture the canal as Austrian forces advanced elsewhere in Africa.
• Chief of Staff von Frank told Feslav it was his responsibility to decide, while Feslav explained that destroying the canal could ruin Austria’s international standing.
• General Feslav concluded that decisions with major political consequences had to be referred to the Vienna Government.
• Colonel Bodeman gathered his men for another night crossing, waited for the enemy searchlights to sweep away, and ordered, “Attack!”

Colonel Bodeman ordered Austrian artillery to damage the Suez Canal embankment, and General Feslav then committed the front to crossing the river and taking control of the canal. As Austria’s leaders considered the diplomatic fallout and Bodeman paused vulnerable motor operations, Governor Jacob ordered French troops to hold their canal defenses.

• After the Austrian surprise attack failed, Colonel Bodeman ordered his artillery to fire solid shot at the opposite embankment, and the bombardment began to crumble it.
• General Feslav learned the embankment had been damaged, ordered the front to fight without restraint, and demanded that the troops cross the river and seize the Suez Canal.
• Franz discussed the risk of British calls for international control of the canal with Wessenberg and Chancellor Karl, who urged vigilance while Austria fought France.
• Colonel Bodeman halted his motor company’s operations until night because French artillery was destroying the vehicles needed to transport supplies.
• Governor Jacob ordered French troops along the canal to stay behind their fortifications and resist the Austrian attack.

After the French broke through the Luxembourg Line, Archduke Albrecht refused to divert his limited Austrian forces from the Rhine defense, leaving Belgium exposed. Leopold II learned that Belgium would receive no reinforcements and was left weighing whether to defend Brussels or flee into exile.

• The French army broke through the Luxembourg Line after twenty-seven days of fighting, scattering German troops and opening two routes into Belgium and the Rhineland.
• General Adrian told Archduke Albrecht that the German forces had lost more than half their strength and could not adequately defend the Rhineland.
• Archduke Albrecht ordered the German forces to retreat to the Rhine and rejected Adrian's proposal to send troops to plug the breach.
• Archduke Albrecht told Adrian that Belgium would have to abandon territory and explain the situation to its government.
• Leopold II learned that Albrecht would not send reinforcements and asked whether Belgium should defend Brussels or go into exile in Austria.

Franz used France’s victory at the Luxembourg Line to draw other European powers into opposing it while Austria prepared to manage the conflict. As German forces fled, the Austrian Allied Command began absorbing and reorganizing the scattered troops, including Colonel Lane’s Bremen-Hansa unit.

• Franz directed the Foreign Ministry to encourage Britain to restrict material exports to France and to keep courting Spain and Russia.
• Colonel Lane led his exhausted Bremen-Hansa troops from Luxembourg to Koblenz without encountering the French army.
• At Koblenz, an Austrian officer checked Lane’s service record and welcomed his unit back into the ranks on behalf of the Allied Command.
• Lane asked for rest and reorganization after the defeat, but accepted the Allied Command’s control over his troops.

After Leopold II withdrew from Belgium and pledged to Austria, Archduke Albrecht prepared for the French advance and ordered an airfield built. Colonel Lane’s reassigned Bremen Legion worked on the site without knowing Austria’s plans for it.

• Leopold II agreed to retreat into exile after Archduke Albrecht assured him Belgium’s fate depended on Austria’s victory.
• Archduke Albrecht ordered engineers to speed up construction after French airships arrived to gather intelligence.
• Austrian officers assigned Colonel Lane and the Bremen Legion to build an airfield because the army lacked engineers and civilian laborers.
• Archduke Albrecht kept the poorly trained reorganized units out of combat and reserved them for engineering work.
• Colonel Lane questioned why his troops were hardening a vast area, but Captain Henry refused to explain the airfield’s purpose.

Archduke Albrecht refused to hand German troops back to General Adrian, consolidating Austria’s control over much of the Allied front as French forces advanced toward the Rhine. At French headquarters, Marshal Patrice MacMahon prepared to attack the Rhine defenses before Austrian reinforcements arrived, while warning that time and supplies constrained France.

• Archduke Albrecht told General Adrian that the German troops incorporated under Allied Command Headquarters would remain under his command until the war ended.
• General Adrian abandoned his effort to reclaim the troops, fearing that further conflict would endanger the Rhine River line and the German Confederation.
• The French army continued advancing after occupying Luxembourg, while Archduke Albrecht fortified the western bank of the Rhine with trenches.
• Marshal Patrice MacMahon warned his officers that France had to break the Rhine defenses before Austrian reinforcements arrived.
• Oudinot said the French troops were ready to attack and eagerly anticipated capturing Franz, though the campaign’s actual first goal was to seize territory west of the Rhine.

French forces launched an offensive against the Anti-French Alliance despite its superior artillery and machine guns, while Austrian aircraft devastated the French airship force. The French attack remained underway as the airship fleet fell, marking the end of its dominance in the skies.

• An artillery shell killed Major General Anduin Uruen near the French headquarters, and General Oudinot ordered the headquarters moved three kilometers back.
• Colonel Foch took over as acting commander of the Ninth Division, and Oudinot approved using airships to bomb enemy gun positions once specialized ammunition arrived.
• On November 11, 1890, Oudinot ordered a full-scale French assault, and Allied Maxim machine guns inflicted devastating casualties on the advancing troops.
• Oudinot ordered the French soldiers to attack at any cost and sent supervisory squads to stop men from pretending to be dead.
• Haodesen and Tom spotted Austrian aircraft attacking the French airships, and Tom could not aim his machine gun at the nimble planes.
• Austrian aircraft shot down French airships one after another, ending the French airship force.

After the French airship force was destroyed, General Oudinot’s army suffered a catastrophic defeat in its assault on the Allied trenches. Oudinot accepted responsibility for the losses and ordered his commanders to prepare for the enemy’s next move.

• General Oudinot saw the French airship force destroyed and summoned senior officers to a military conference.
• Colonel Foch ordered the Ninth Division to recover its dead, then discovered that nearly all the soldiers who had failed to return were dead or dying.
• Colonel Fuxi ordered officers to steady the demoralized survivors and received a casualty report listing 4,367 wounded and 3,816 killed in the Ninth Division.
• General Oudinot saw the French army’s losses from the day’s attacks, fainted, and then admitted that his orders had caused the disaster.
• General Oudinot told Phillet to report the defeat to the marshal and the homeland while ordering front-line commanders to guard against a night raid.

The Austrian army’s devastating victory over the French forces restored Allied morale, but Archduke Albrecht rejected a counterattack and chose to wait for reinforcements. At Versailles, Napoleon IV raged over the losses and France’s technological disadvantage, while his government struggled to explain the defeat.

• General Adrian urged Archduke Albrecht to counterattack, but Albrecht refused because the Allies lacked enough rested troops and French reinforcements were nearby.
• Archduke Albrecht expected France to conceal the scale of its losses and noted that both sides’ public casualty claims had become wildly exaggerated.
• Franz received news of the Allied victory, replied, “Understood,” and went to sleep.
• Napoleon IV erupted at Versailles after learning that France had lost its airship forces and suffered more than thirty thousand deaths in a single day of fighting.
• Prime Minister Terence Bulkin urged Napoleon IV to learn from the defeat, but Napoleon blamed the War Ministry for failing to equip the army with airplanes and machine guns.

France struggled to copy Austria’s advanced weapons while its demoralized army faced a stronger opponent along the Rhine. Marshal Patrice MacMahon ordered General Oudinot to make one last attempt to break the Rhine River Line before Austrian reinforcements arrived.

• War Minister Luskinia learned that French factories lacked the information and time to quickly imitate Austrian machine guns and aircraft.
• Marshal Patrice MacMahon arrived at the front, rebuked the officers, and urged them to redeem the army’s defeat with victory.
• French commanders confronted low morale as skirmishes showed their troops suffering heavier losses than the Austrians.
• General Oudinot explained that Austrian trenches, artillery, machine guns, and barbed wire made frontal attacks costly.
• Patrice MacMahon approved Oudinot’s plan to concentrate artillery on a key position and gave him one last chance to break the Rhine River Line.

Austria and the German states rushed to build a strategic highway to support wartime logistics, sending hundreds of thousands of Austrian laborers to widen and reconnect existing roads. At Viss Town, engineer Iverson rejected a vineyard owner's request for a major detour but agreed to a small adjustment that would not delay construction or infringe on another landowner's property.

• The German Confederation's governments restarted the highway project after the Continental War intensified pressure on front-line logistics, and Austria sent more than six hundred thousand laborers to help.
• Iverson surveyed the route near Viss Town and pushed construction forward with minimal surveying to meet the wartime deadline.
• Iverson instructed his guard to screen a visitor's urgent request, anticipating a dispute over land needed for the highway.
• Mr. Will asked Iverson to reroute the road around his vineyard, but Iverson refused because the detour would affect another owner's land and risk delaying the project.
• Mr. Will offered to move the road slightly to the edge of his estate and provide workers, and Iverson approved the adjustment because it would not cause a land dispute or slow construction.

As Austrian forces threatened Egypt, Governor Jacob sought French reinforcements but learned that Paris could spare only twenty infantry divisions after retreating from other African colonies. Austrian aircraft then destroyed Cairo’s French airships, and Adolf proposed flying low to attack French troops on the ground.

• Governor Jacob demanded reinforcements after the French position in Egypt deteriorated, but the War Ministry initially refused his request.
• A French officer told Governor Jacob that France planned to withdraw from several African colonies and might send twenty infantry divisions to Egypt.
• Governor Jacob insisted that the reinforcements be French-descended troops, then ordered Cairo’s airships and air defenses to respond to explosions overhead.
• Second Lieutenant Wade and Adolf destroyed French airships over Cairo, while Wade complained that there were too few targets.
• Adolf proposed lowering their aircraft to five hundred meters to strafe French forces, and Wade asked whether he was serious.

Governor-General Feslav authorized Austria’s air force to refine low-altitude strafing tactics, and its escalating attacks across Egypt caused severe civilian casualties. Governor Jacob planned to expose the Austrians internationally, while Cairo remained under air attack and cut off from reliable news from France.

• Air Force Major General Andrew McCarthy persuaded Feslav to authorize independent sorties testing and refining low-altitude strafing.
• Austrian aircraft expanded their attacks across Egypt, striking military positions as well as cities, farmland, and other civilian areas.
• Governor Jacob moved his headquarters into Cairo’s basement as Austrian airships and airplanes repeatedly attacked the city.
• Jacob told his officials that Paris had also been bombed, but reassured them that France was preparing to produce aircraft.
• Senior Official Abraham reported that air attacks had disrupted Cairo’s economy, driven nearly fifteen thousand people from the city, and caused more than ten thousand civilian casualties.
• Jacob ordered Abraham to gather evidence of Austrian attacks so France could condemn them before the international community.

As Austria advanced in Africa and France struggled to hold Egypt, Napoleon IV confronted the worsening war and heard Luskinia argue that France needed dependable allies. The chapter ended with France facing a widening crisis and no obvious partners to turn to.

• Governor Jacob received news that the eastern defensive line had fallen again and ordered French forces to prepare a staged defense around Aswan.
• Major General Hertzendorf directed Austrian divisions to attack as he considered how the Air Force and Navy could reshape the Army’s future standing.
• Napoleon IV received repeated requests for reinforcements from Africa, but the French Government could not spare troops from the European war.
• War Minister Luskinia told Napoleon IV that France needed real allies rather than relying on the United Kingdom.

Napoleon IV pushed France’s Foreign Ministry to seek allies as the war left France strategically disadvantaged, while General Okinets faced pressure from the Russian government to seize the Afghan region before Christmas. The chapter ended with Okinets agreeing to launch an offensive while warning that his army lacked the vast supplies needed to meet the deadline.

• Napoleon IV questioned Foreign Minister Karel Kadletz about potential allies, and Kadletz proposed courting Russia, Switzerland, the Confederate States, Colombia, Japan, and the Far Eastern Empire.
• Napoleon IV ordered the Foreign Ministry to pursue those plans and urged it to focus on Britain, Russia, the Nordic Federation, and the German Confederation.
• The Russian Army continued its attacks in Afghanistan as the Tsarist Government grew eager to seize the region and open a route toward India.
• General Okinets cursed the order to occupy Afghanistan before Christmas, but an officer reminded him it reflected the War Ministry’s and Cabinet’s consensus.
• General Okinets agreed to launch the final offensive and demanded 1.2 billion rounds of ammunition and three million artillery shells, citing inadequate supplies.

Franz approved selling aircraft to Russia with safeguards, judging that the export would help Russia fight Britain in Afghanistan while delaying the spread of Austrian technology. In London, French Foreign Minister Karel Kadletz learned that Britain was hiding a major battlefield defeat and ordered his staff to probe the government’s reaction, hoping to draw Britain closer to France.

• Wessenberg told Franz that Russia planned a Christmas Offensive in Afghanistan and wanted to buy aircraft.
• Karl explained that Britain and France could study an exported aircraft quickly but would need much longer to reproduce it at scale.
• Franz approved the sale and ordered the Foreign Ministry to impose restrictions and monitor the aircraft’s spread.
• Karel Kadletz arrived in London and found that the British had given him a routine reception without senior officials or royals.
• Karel Kadletz learned that Britain had blocked reports of a major defeat in Afghanistan and ordered his staff to investigate or leak news of Afghanistan’s fall to test the government’s response.

Gladstone and his ministers weighed how Britain could use the Continental War to preserve the balance between France and Austria while Britain profited from French shortages. In Saint Petersburg, Alexander III pushed for Russian airplanes to enter combat sooner, and Ivanov proposed training airship pilots to speed up the process.

• George argued that France’s prospects would worsen as the war dragged on, while Hugh Childers warned that trade deficits and shrinking reserves could exhaust French finances by 1891.
• Childers explained that British exports to France had surged in value because wartime demand and tariffs had driven prices up, while trade with self-sufficient Austria had declined.
• Gladstone ordered the Foreign Office to negotiate lower tariffs with France, and George cautioned that Britain would need to support France economically while limiting its military strength.
• Alexander III asked when Russia’s newly acquired airplanes could enter combat, and Ivanov said Austria was preparing to train Russian pilots for service in three months.
• After Alexander III demanded a faster schedule, Ivanov suggested including airship pilots in the training program to save time.

Ambassador Albon tried to obtain Russian aircraft for France to study, but Duke Olmedo could only offer limited access to aircraft maintenance crews. On Christmas, Marshal Patrice MacMahon worried about France’s worsening position while Archduke Albrecht prepared to use newly arrived Austrian armored units in a surprise attack.

• Ambassador Albon offered Duke Olmedo a blank check to help France acquire Russian aircraft, but Olmedo refused to steal one because Austrian personnel controlled maintenance and Austria was watching closely.
• Duke Olmedo agreed to let several French engineers join the maintenance personnel, though he doubted they could learn aircraft manufacturing technology by observation alone.
• Marshal Patrice MacMahon spent Christmas at the front, concerned that the Anti-French Alliance was growing stronger and might soon reverse the balance of forces.
• Archduke Albrecht met with senior Austrian officers on Christmas to confirm that the newly arrived armored units had been dispersed and concealed near the front.
• Archduke Albrecht ordered the armored units kept secret from Belgium and Germany and explained that Austria intended to surprise the French and keep their main force near the Rhine.
• Archduke Albrecht asked Friedrich, commander of the armored forces, to explain how the armored units would fight.

Archduke Albrecht rejected Friedrich's proposal for an immediate armored assault on the French, explaining that Austria's strategy prioritized assembling its forces and coordinating the Rhine front with the Egyptian and southern campaigns. He left Friedrich with the reminder that, as a royal commander, he had to consider political aims as well as battlefield opportunities.

• Friedrich argued that Austria should use its armored units to surprise the French before they could prepare.
• Archduke Albrecht explained that the Allied troops on the Rhine were not reliable enough for a full offensive and Austria risked being unable to exploit a breakthrough.
• Archduke Albrecht said Austria would wait for the ice to melt, assemble its forces, and coordinate its attack with the Egyptian and southern fronts.
• Archduke Albrecht told Friedrich that Austria aimed to cripple France politically and militarily, not merely win an early battlefield victory.