Chapter 915: Strategic Highway
A counteroffensive also required time to prepare. Units that had suffered heavy casualties needed to be pulled back for rest and reorganization, while strategic supplies likewise needed time to be gathered and transported.
The facts had long proven that modern warfare was no longer merely about fighting and killing on the battlefield. The rear lines were fighting a battle as well.
The newly launched Battle of the Rhine River was a prime example. If Austria had not amassed vast quantities of machine guns and artillery, it would never have been able to hold off the French attack with inferior troop numbers.
The greater the firepower, the greater the logistical demands. Of the trains and ships Austria sent toward the front, more than eighty percent were carrying strategic supplies.
If logistical supplies had not consumed so much transport capacity, the Austrian army's movements would not have been so sluggish.
Of course, this sluggishness now was mainly in preparation for swiftness in the future.
In fact, several years earlier, the Vienna Government had proposed to the German Confederation the construction of a strategic highway running directly from Bavaria to Luxembourg.
However, Europe had still been too peaceful at the time. No one had possessed a sufficient sense of crisis, and because of the costs involved, no agreement had been reached for a long time.
After all, transportation in the German region was already developed enough. River transport plus railways could fully meet everyday shipping needs, so the economic value of building another highway was too low.
Moreover, Britain and France feared that Austria would use this highway to further deepen its influence over western Germany. They threw stumbling blocks in the shadows, and the plan was shelved.
It was not until the Continental War broke out, intensifying logistical