Re: Blood and Iron

Chapter 235: Consequences of Aggressive Negotiations



The moment the Serbian Army, which was sent to intercept the Germans in the northern half of the territory that more or less currently remained under the control of the Serbian Provisional Government, surrendered, all hell broke loose among the allies.

This was a severe matter, as this was roughly half of Serbia's remaining combat might, albeit primarily made of conscripts, being sent on a suicide mission. Even with the men sent by the French, British, and Ottomans to assist the Serbians, it was not enough to prevent the complete and total collapse of their northern front.

Worse yet, radio broadcasts were being made across the country, as were any other means of propaganda, whether that be publication, posters, influence in the local churches, et cetera. Where the words being spoken were entirely made to convince the Serbians that peaceful surrender was their guarantee of being treated better than Belgrade was.

Even those who may have had an initial desire to take up arms and attack Imperial occupying forces hesitated to do so when they were called upon by their own leadership to resist such an urge for chaos and violence.

At the end of the day, the Serbians felt like they had been completely and totally betrayed by their own forces, or at least those within the leadership who still wished to cling to their pride in the face of what was clear and overwhelming defeat.

And while the British, Ottoman, and French commanders in charge of their expeditionary forces, which were at most a brigade or two each, convened to discuss their next course of action. Montenegro came under the full assault of some 500,000 plus German soldiers who convened upon it from the north and eastern flanks.

In Bruno's past life, the Serbian Army had been forced to withdraw from their own borders within less than a year of the hostilities' beginning. However, they had fled successfully into Montenegro, where they more or less kept the overall theater of war open until essentially the end of the war in 1918.

This had consumed hundreds of thousands of not millions of men and the resources required to supply them. A mistake Bruno did not intend to make in this life. From the moment Montenegro entered the war, Bruno used the excuse of them ferrying Allied troops and supplies into Serbia as an excuse to completely and totally obliterate them as a sovereign kingdom.

Montenegro was a small kingdom, capable of fielding at most 50,000 men in its army, most of which were wielding vastly obsolete equipment. Facing ten times their numbers in modern German soldiers, deployed via motorized means, in both infantry and logistics. The Montenegrin campaign was over before it began.

The only reason it really held out so long in Bruno's past life was due to its small territory which was supported by hundreds of thousands of Serbian soldiers who fled into its territory following Serbia's occupation by the Central Powers, and because of its access to the Mediterranean which more or less allowed allied material support of their defense.

Two things, however, had occurred in this life that prevented such a result. First and foremost, and also the most unexpected. Was the Greek entry into the war... While the Hellenic Army was inferior in scale, and equipment to the Bulgarian Army.

The Hellenic Navy proved its value tenfold over Bulgaria's assistance to the Central Powers during Bruno's previous life. By itself Austro-Hungary's K.u.K. Kriegsmarine did not have the strength to blockade Montenegro.

After all, they had to also combat attacks on their convoys by the allies, and the Italian navy for control over the Adriatic. Which was something which ultimately stressed the Austro- Hungarian Navy and made its control over the Balkans thin.

However, this changed with the addition of the Hellenic Navy supporting their interests. While admittedly small, the addition of even a small amount of battleships, cruisers, destroyers, and submarines was all that was needed to fully deter the allies from landing troops and supplies in Montenegro.

Montenegro had only been able to ferry a small number of at most 20,000 troops from Britain, France, and the Ottomans combined into their lands, while still acting under the false guise of neutrality. These forces now had already crossed over to support Serbia in its efforts to combat the Greeks.

At most, a division worth of coalition forces had entered Serbia, which while the British and French forces were generally better supplies and trained than the Serbians, the Ottomans were utterly useless.

Their entry into WWI on behalf of the Central Powers during Bruno's past life came with the transfer of German generals to reform them into a more modern and capable army, along with German warships added to their ranks.

Considering British Naval losses suffered during the outbreak of war trying to send aid to their allies in France, no such maritime support came from the British Empire. And much to the anger of the Turks, the British used the battleships they were manufacturing for the Turks as replacements for their losses against the German High Seas Fleet.

Justifying this breach of contract by the promise of sending men and resources to support the Ottoman Empire in the Balkans and in their war against the Russians in the Caucasus, or what remained of their forces there.

However, such aid manifested itself in the form of a few brigades sent to Serbia, and zero support to the Caucasus. With the Kaiserliche Marine more or less coming to dominate the North Sea, and the English Channel, they began sending a small contingent of wolf packs to the Mediterranean after learning of allied plans to support Serbia and the Ottomans. Considering the advanced nature of Germany's current submarine fleet, it was damn near impossible for the British to understand what was sinking their trade convoys and warships in the region, as they had yet to encounter a single intact Type XXI Submarine.

Hence why the complete and total betrayal of the Serbian Northern Army Group, which surrendered to Bruno without a fight, proved so disastrous for the Allied Powers and their goals in the region.

Without a doubt, they would either have to divert already limited forces to counter the rapid and motorized advance of the enemy in the north, or focus all of their efforts on combating the Hellenic Army, who were dug in like ticks in their own territory.n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om