By 1746, the armies of the major factions had reached a standstill. Any advance was countered relatively easily, and nothing seemed to be the end of the fighting. On January of that year, the French had decided to bring forth a new strategy in an effort to make the war as defensive as a means to bring an attrition war upon the factions of Maria Theresa and the Poles. They dug in using trenches resembling those thought up by Le Prestre De Vauban.
Shortly following, was an attempt at the Poles to break the defenders of the area of Munich defenders, in an effort to break the standstill. This proved the effectiveness of the trenches in the specific circumstances, and soon the Poles and Hungarians followed in regards to furnishing the hostile border with light zig-zag trenches. This created a nearly impenetrable WW1-like scenario to which no one would move or try to invade the trenches. If infantry tried to go across they'd be battered by musket fire, and if cavalry tried to move across, they'd encounter the staked trenches and refuse to go further.
The standstill soon turned out to be littered with men, as disease spread throughout the poorly-irrigated trenches. Withdrawing would mean losing land, and charging would result in slaughter. Therefore each side started to look outwards for ways to capitulate their enemies.
The Poles embarked on a combined Scandinavian-Polish naval campaign against British trade ships, getting caught in crossfires with the British navy, although managing to hold upright against them. The Brits established blockades over the French and Prussian (Prussian Jutland) naval borders. Although, the French were able to get flowing, by collaborating with the Ottoman Empire, a well-known enemy of the Hungarians. The Poles collaborated with the Russians to find trade routes, all but the English had resorted to Asian trade rather than the previously much more popular American trade routes. The English attempts at invading the French all ended up in massive failures, while the Netherlands hadn't seen much change in control since the last major battle in the region. Fighting in the area had become hell.
In April a joint offensive was launched in an effort by the Hungarians and the Venetians to invade the Swabian Union in an effort to gain a backhand opening to the Bavarian-French lines, which ultimately failed. Konig Frederick von Wurttemberg and Pierre Victor Benseval, a Swiss general, used the Alps to gain an advantage on the invading armies, to which they smacked back with a surprisingly low casualty count of only 238 men opposed to the 721 of the invaders. Following this, the Swabians launched a Guerilla war against those on its Eastern border, to discourage any future attack. This diverted troops from the trenches of the Bavarians to deal with this threat, and lead to an offensive that was successful by the Hungarians, even going deep into Tyrol before being stopped. and upholding a new system of fortifications, connecting to the deeper trenches. The Bavarians ending up with a trench-system from the South-Western edge of Tyrol, all the way till Southern Saxony, all connected. The cavalry use of all sides had practically become obsolete at this stage of the war
Meanwhile on the other side of the war, in late April, controversially on a Sunday, all nations decided to invade at a similar time, the Tri-Front area, ending in absolute devastation. Schlacht von Drei Punkte, or simply called Schlacht des Rauches, translated as Battle of the Smoke. The charge was commenced by all sides, people died on all sides simply from the amount of discharge in the air. Long gone were the formal days of the war to which disciplined tactics had been used.
"The fields were filled with smoke for days. For a man to die such a cruel death, being strangled in the gray smoke of black powder at the ringing bells of the Lord surely leaves an omen of the Judgement we may all soon face" - Binno Niklas von Bayer, Veteran of the War of Austrian Succession, on the topic of the War, 1782.
A whopping 12,295 died total as a result of the day of fighting. This became the turning point in political viewpoints in the war. People of all three major nations cried for a ceasefire to the war.
None of the nations involved had finished their wrath, each had their own strategy. The Poles wished to seduce Russia into a surprise invasion of the Southern Hungarian front, although Russia had taken a neutral stance and vehemently refused. The Bavarians decided to wait it out, using their elaborate fortification system and almost full control of Mediterranean trade. The Hungarians had come upon a rough patch, not able to get trade lines through anywhere else, the Ottomans increased taxes upon potential passers-by, the Hungarians had to get a step up. They planned what would be the last campaign of the war. A Hannibalistic campaign.
The Hungarians, Venetians, and the Papal States planned a sneak invasion of Haute-Savoie, in order to scare the French out of the war. On December the invasion was launched, seemingly to no eyeing or suspicion by either side, with only minor skirmishes happening on the Drei Punkte, as well as individual fronts. Maria Theresa personally trailed the Armies marching to Haute-Savoie. They passed successfully through Milan by explaining that they were simply sending support to an ally.
Trouble struck upon hitting the Costadellese, they had fortified their regions strictly, the only way to get past would be through the Alps, a dangerous trek, which would leave them without supplies. A plan had been devised though, the majority army of 14,250 with simply cavalry, and infantry, would take most of the supplies and head through the Alps. The rest, numbering about 4,000, a mix between the rest of the infantry, cavalry, and the totality of the artillery, would try their best to trek through the Costadellese land. Both hit setbacks almost immediately.
By the time they got to the impass it was January 25th of the year 1747, which meant that while they were equipped with winter clothing, and provided with animal leather as means of warmth, they still had to face the rough terrain, and hardships, of crossing the Alps in Winter. On the other side, the Army that had to go through Costadella, and had left Maria Theresa with the Milanese as insurance, were battered with retaliation upon crossing the Costadellese fortifications. Without knowledge of the complex intelligence and fortification routes of the Costadellese, the Army had become stranded in an un-crusty see of Costadellese. They'd move at night along-side the mountain in a zig-zag formation, yet still, get battered by shots from the Mountains and Forests on occasion. Trouble had yet to truly strike the Army though.
The Costadellese had been tracking the intruders using a well-built system of defensive scouting, in order to maintain the aggressive neutrality of the Costadella Republica. They decided to wait for the Army to be stripped of morale before engaging, with a ragtag group comprised of decently-disciplined but well-trained militia.
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| The Rout of the Austrians - Amerigo Santo Di Stefano |
The Costadellese routed the Hungarians after using honed environmental tactics against the Hungarian military, disabling their Artillery, and wiping out their whole cavalry force. Sending the Hungarians in a rout. Which would trigger rampant Patriotism in the new Costadella Republica. The Hungarians still had hope, though, in hearing from their Alp group.
On April of 1747, a little over a thousand men entered French soil, no longer seeking to invade, but to surrender. In a village just off of Lyon, they raided the food supply having been clearly malnourished. Upon surrender to the French, a story was publicized around European newspapers, it was an interview upon which one of the Hungarians described the Invasion attempt:
"So it began when we split up with the Army of Maria-Theresa, in an effort to gain an up-hold against your status of the war. We were to cross the Alps, a simple task given we were properly supplied, we held much of the supplies, valid directional assistance, and there were surveyors in our ranks. We started off simple, and well-off, with high spirits. A week into our Journey, we found a split pass, we decided after arguing for days to split everything in half, one going on the left path, one going on the northern path, no one could tell at which direction we were going. The Blizzards had hit and we were informed not to stop our march, some thought turning left would have us back at where we came from. I was simply a rank-musician and was therefore forced as a means to even out the split to join the left army. We marched for days, weeks, it felt like months, the storms hit hard and left us with a deficit of supplies. By the last week, there was no hope in sight, a group of 40 deserted with a vast majority of supplies. We started eating the horses, and some resorted to the cannibalism of the dead. Many perished under snowfall, the Mountains were unrelenting. I feared for my life, I was an un-useful to the majority of the group. We lacked morale, many deserted, many more died. When we came upon the green of the country, we rejoiced and decided that war was not in our spirits or the spirits of anyone in the nations of Europa. Given this, we do not know what happened to the Northern Army."
Following the horrific descriptions of the grueling, gruesome, and useless campaign, many around Europe called for the end of the war for good. Threatening to retaliate with violent force against any further attempts to progress the war. On June 17th, 1747, the leaders of all three coalitions met at Milan. They decided on what would be named the Treaty of Bergamo.
It explained that there would be no more Holy Roman Empire, and the distinction would be stripped from any state, with violent force as a threat if claiming the title. The Bavarians would eventually follow this by renaming themselves the Kingdom of Austro-Bavaria, enacting a new flag to follow it.
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| Flag of the Austro-Bavarian Kingdom |
Forwards to this, there was a clause regarding all newly formed states be untouched for a reason regarding independence following the end of the war. The Hungarians became the Hapsburg Empire, and the Poles became the Kingdom of Saxon-Polska. Following this, an issue was decreed to leave the Drei Punkte Battle-field as a neutral unowned territory as a sign of respect. The Prussians were allowed to keep Lower-Jutland, however, were forced to give up the rest of the Danish peninsula. The Treaty was signed by a total of 8 nations, the Poles, the Bavarians, the Hungarians, the Venetians, the Papal States, the British, the French, and the Prussians.
The War of Austrian Succession was now, finally, over.
