Re: Blood and Iron

Chapter 237: Who Dares Wins



The order was given, the Allied Expeditionary Force sent to the Balkans to aid the Serbian Provisional Army was commanded to march south and attempt another assault against the Greek Trenches built which were hastily constructed on their borders with Serbia beginning at the start of the July Crisis.

To put it simply, the Greek Army was putting its all into holding the line, while raising more troops in anticipation of a second campaign against the Turks. Their hope was that the enemy would be caught by the Germans before their defenses broke against the wave of the Allied Onslaught.

Luckily for them, they had a man who, while cautious in nature, was by no means reserved for leading the combined Imperial Army sent to the Balkan Theater. For Bruno there was a phrase, first attested in the 18th century by German sources.

The phrase consisted of three words later adopted by the British Special Air Service in English as their motto, and in many ways, it was a motto which Burno lived by. "Wer wagt, gewinnt" Or in the English tongue, "He Who dares wins..."

A simple phrase, but one which emphasizes the need to take opportunities that present themselves even if they are a risk. One could never gain ground and conquer while playing defensively. Risks were necessary to achieve victory.

He who was dedicated solely towards a cautious and defensive approach, whether two aspects of war, business, romance, or life itself would never prosper. Risk was a part of life, and only the man who dared to take the opportunity presented to him would win in the end.

The war Bruno saw it, he was facing an armed force, of mostly conscripts and some 30,000 trained soldiers. The enemies he was facing numbered close to a million in totality, even with the surrender of those who had presented themselves to him in exchange for leniency on the Serbian people.

Bruno had the ability to advance beyond his allies with 300,000 men, it would be more but the other 500,000 of Germany's soldiers in the Balkans were currently teaching Montenegro a very valuable lesson on why one does not start or join a war they are utterly incapable of winning.

And because of that, Bruno was limited to a single Army Group. Even so, this was a motorized Army Group supported by armored reconnaissance units. He could easily pierce the gap between him and Serbia, catching them and their allies in between the Hellenic Army at the Greek border, and slaughtering them to the last man.

However, to do so, Bruno would need to take a risk. He would have to advance beyond not only his Austro-Hungarian and Russian Allies, who were not only slow as they marched on foot and on horse. But were also the majority of his forces, many of which were tasked with occupying every town they encountered.

In addition to this, Bruno would have to march beyond the capability of his logistical capabilities. History had proven time and again, the General who sought a quick finish to a conflict by advancing beyond his means of resupply ultimately suffered the consequences of such a reckless yet bold decision.

However, on the rare occasion it bore fruit, and finished a war, or at the very least a campaign, in a much quicker time than it otherwise would have been and with much shorter casualties sustained. Because of this, Bruno found himself in a difficult situation.

On the one hand, victory was guaranteed even if he took a cautious and measures approach towards the war. Waiting on his Austro-Hungarian and Russian Allies to march with him to certain victory.

Yet, there was a possibility the Greek lines of defense would break by then, and the results of such a circumstance could prolong his victory in the Balkans, drag in otherwise independent nations like Bulgaria, Albania, and Romania, as well as cause significantly greater casualties among his soldiers.

However, even with these potential circumstances presenting themselves, the cautious and measured approach guaranteed total victory for the Imperial Powers. On the other hand, however... a thunder run into Southern Serbia, which until he reached the enemy currently fighting on the Greek Border were wholly uncontested, presented an opportunity to annihilate the Serbian Provisional Army, and their Allies to the last man.

Immediately ending the war as the Year came to an end, and guaranteeing the Imperial Forces in the Balkans, minus those needed to occupy towns, and cities, were shipped off to other theaters of combat, and thus ending the Great War far earlier than it could be.

Bruno would sit in the back of his vehicle for many hours, as they slowly dredged forward towards the enemy, pondering this question. He could not come to the conclusion on his own. The risks and rewards were perfectly balanced.

Because of this, the man sought out the advice of the person whose opinion he valued the most in this world. It was neither his battle-hardened friends, Heinrich or Erich, both of which had served as officers in the German Armed Forces for the past decade.

Nor was it the esteemed generals of the Russian Army, or the Austro-Hungarian Army who history in his past life had remembered as men of greatness. It was not even the Kaiser, who Bruno greeted, respected.

In fact, it was not even a man to begin with. As Bruno went through the extensive process of enabling communications back to the fatherland, Bruno asked his wife, Heidi, for advice. Heid knew neither of war nor its intricacies. But she was his moral support in every facet of his life.

And the question he was faced with was not one of practicality, risk mitigation, strategy, logistics, or tactics. It was one of ethics. Was it a moral of him to risk the lives of the men beneath his command in order to risk a quicker route to victory, when the enemies certain defeat was already a settled matter, even if it took another few months, or perhaps even years to achieve?

Heidi, of course, responded with the phrase mentioned earlier, a phrase Bruno had nearly forgotten in his moral quandary.

"Bruno, my love... He who dares wins! That is all I am going to say on the matter..."

And it was those words that compelled Bruno do to what he should have done from the start. After receiving this message from his wife, Bruno relayed his commands over the wire to every officer within the Balkan Campaign.

"The 8th Army is to advance South at full speed beyond the support of our Austro-Hungarian and Russian Allies. The Hellenic Army must be relieved, and the enemy must be destroyed as soon as possible! To those still advancing south, seize and occupy territory as you have donen/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

until now..."

To every man who read this message over a telegraph, or heard it over radio chatter. It was as if the mother of all bombs had been dropped. The blitzkrieg in the Balkans had begun, and the Germans were about to show the entire world a new era of mobile warfare.