Mediterranean Hegemony Road

Marshal August von Mackensen, the commander-in-chief of the Allies on the southern front, was in a worse and worse mood recently. As the Allies opened a new front in Italy and threatened Austria, the pressure on him was even greater. Know that the reinforcements promised by the Austro-Hungarian Empire will not arrive!

Now there are less than 600,000 combat troops in his hands, and this number continues to decrease as time goes by.

Although the enemy's losses were greater, it still did not make Marshal August von Mackensen feel the slightest joy. Germany has achieved too many tactical victories. It is really not to be happy, in his opinion As long as there is no strategic breakthrough, this war will be in vain!

August von Mackensen was hesitating whether or not to tell the country to give up the battle on the southern front and let the attack take the lead. After all, there is really no hope of winning on the southern front. A familiar voice came from outside the house, interrupting his thoughts.

Marshal, good news! Our frontline troops have captured Salva, and the enemy's defense line in Transylvania has been torn apart by us!

The person who came was Colonel Berg-Irma of the General Staff. It was obvious that he was very excited now! (Remarks: Colonel General Security Service has a very special status in the German army, which is higher than that of ordinary officers, which is equivalent to the role of the supervisor.)

August von Mackensen asked in surprise: What? The enemy's line of defense was torn apart?

After speaking, August von Mackensen came to the map and looked carefully.

No wonder he was surprised, the two sides have been fighting for so long, and he has almost grasped the strength of the enemy. The enemy's weakest troop is the colonial troop, which is almost consumed by the war, and the combat effectiveness of the rest of the troops is still good, at least more combat effectiveness than the ally of Austria-Hungary.

Moreover, the opponents are numerous and powerful, and relying on favorable geography for defense, it is almost impossible to tear apart the enemy's defense line, but now the enemy's defense line has been torn apart!

Colonel Berg-Irma explained: We were able to break through the enemy's line of defense. It was an accident. The enemy troops stationed in the Salva region were colonial troops. Their limited combat effectiveness was torn apart by us, etc. When the enemy reacted, the hole was already big, and the enemy reinforcements launched a violent counterattack against us, but they were all repelled!

After listening to this explanation, Marshal August von Mackensen's mood did not improve, but heavier. The two sides had fought for so long, and he did not think that the commander on the opposite side was an idiot!

August von Mackensen subconsciously thought that this was a conspiracy of the enemy. Although he could not think of any conspiracy by the enemy for a while, but with the intuition of the soldiers, August von Mackensen. Sen still stands by his judgment.

August von Mackensen said coldly: Order the front-line troops to fight steadily and not greedily!

Colonel Berg-Irma asked very excitedly: Your Excellency Marshal, now that we have torn apart the enemy's line of defense, it is time for the entire army to press on and expand the victory, why should we slow down the attack speed?

Our efforts will be in vain once we allow the enemy to rebuild our defenses, which is...

August von Mackensen gave him a stern look and said in a serious tone: Shut up, Colonel, don't think of the enemy as an idiot like you, okay?

Building a new line of defense? Having been with the Bulgarians for so long, when did you find that they had only one line of defense?

Are you sure that our entire army's advance is expanding the results, rather than getting into the pocket array laid by the enemy?

What if you get stuck? Let me tell you that now there is no more troops in the country to come to rescue us! And as long as we lose the battle on the southern front, the Austro-Hungarian Empire will be finished. Can you afford this consequence?

Obviously Berg-Irma hit the gun, and August von Mackensen, who was in a bad mood, shot his anger directly on him.

It is a pity that he is a field marshal, he is only a colonel, even if he is a Colonel of the General Staff, he has a very special status and can even command an army in the army, but he is still only a colonel!

Even though he was already very dissatisfied, thinking that August von Mackensen was too old to take even a little risk, now he can only listen obediently.

...

The prudence of the German army made Dante-Christoph's plan half-failed, and it was impossible to hit the German-Austrian allied forces in Transylvania, but this did not affect the blitz of Belgrade.

In fact, this time to lure the enemy into depth, the plan is very simple, that is, to lure the German army to a specific battlefield, and then concentrate the main force of the air force to make a strategic bombing to hit the enemy army, and finally the two sides will have a decisive battle.

To achieve this goal, the enemy must first be concentrated enough, and the location is preferably on the plain, and the weather must be clear, and August von Mackensen's caution undoubtedly allowed the German-Austrian coalition to escape. A catastrophe!

The enemy was not fooled, but Dante Christophe was still a little disappointed. After all, he did a lot of coordination work for this plan, and he was also seconded to establish a base air force in Italy.

Suddenly a combat staff officer ran up to him and asked, Your Excellency Commander, the Air Force Command called and asked if we would continue to implement the original plan?

Dante Christophe didn't hesitate at all, and said fiercely: The original plan remains unchanged. Since the main force of the German-Austrian coalition has not arrived, let's focus on taking care of the troops that have arrived at the reserved location!

Since it took so long to prepare and consumed so much manpower and material resources, Dante Christophe didn't want to waste it like that.

Even there are not many German-Austrian coalition troops on the front line, but based on the principle that no matter how small a mosquito is, it is worth the price of killing these tens of thousands of people!

Yes! the staff officer replied

...

The scene of thousands of bombers going into battle is rare even in World War II, and it has never happened now.

Don't say anything else, the construction of the airport alone is a hassle. If it weren't for Romania's many plains, this work alone would be devastating.

Second, the coordination of taking off from different airports is a problem, even for the Bulgarian Air Force.

After all, in addition to bombers, escort fighters are also indispensable, and this command is even more difficult.

With the order of Dante-Christoph, at dawn on January 26, 1917, the Bulgarian Air Force launched a large-scale deployment. The first batch of 262 bombers and 180 escort fighters were sent to Salva, Deri, and Luo. The German-Austrian coalition in the area of ​​Murray launched a strategic bombing.

The German-Austrian Allied Forces, who had just woken up from their sleep, were beaten before they could react, and incendiary bombs from the sky ignited tents and warehouses...

The raging fire began to burn, which could be called a modern version of the burning company. Soon, thick smoke rose, and the second group of bombers suddenly found that they had lost their bombing targets.

They had to go further afield to find bombing targets, and the German forces in the Baya Mare and Borsa areas also suffered unpredictable disasters.

The sudden bombing brought heavy losses to the German-Austrian coalition. Of course, this loss mainly refers to weapons, equipment and ammunition materials, but the casualties in terms of personnel were not too great.

After all, the world war has broken out for so long, everyone still knows how to escape, and it is safe to leave the camp.

In fact, this caught the German-Austrian allied forces by surprise. In normal times, the layout of the camp also considered threats from the sky, and a certain distance was maintained between adjacent tents.

But when marching and fighting, there is no way to do it in such a standard way. They are tents erected hastily, and everyone does not think so much about the distance.

Moreover, they are now chasing the enemy, and the southern front has been fighting for so long, and they have never encountered a major bombing by the Bulgarian Air Force. The officers naturally neglected this problem!

But this negligence gave the German-Austrian coalition a blow to the head. After the bombing, the Bulgarian infantry immediately launched an attack. The Allied soldiers who avoided the bombing were now facing the attacking enemy with bare hands. The outcome is self-evident.

In one day, the losses of the German-Austrian coalition exceeded 50,000, and they also lost the initiative on the battlefield and had to conduct a comprehensive defense.

Seeing this result, Dante Christophe was not surprised. Even if the enemy commander did not make this mistake, it would still be difficult to escape this outcome, and even the casualties they paid might be even greater.

You must know that in this battle, less than 5,000 people were killed in the bombing of the Bulgarian Air Force, and the rest began to run away. Even though more than 47,000 prisoners were captured by the Bulgarian army, they actually fled back. There are still more soldiers.

If the camps were not linked together, they would probably have to suffer a few more rounds of bombing, and they would have to fight against the Bulgarian ground forces with bombers, and the loss of personnel would only be greater.

Dante Christophe said calmly: Report success to the country and start the next plan at the same time!

The chief of staff shook his head and said: The next plan will have to wait and see, now we can beat a wave of drowning dogs first, the German-Austrian coalition lost more than just personnel!

According to the information sent by our reconnaissance plane, it can be preliminarily judged that the enemy has lost at least more than 150,000 weapons and equipment this time, as well as a large amount of material losses, which they cannot replenish in the short term.

At least for the next week, their weapons and equipment will not be able to be replenished. With the poor logistics and transportation system of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, they may not be able to replenish their equipment even in half a month.

That is to say, in the future, the enemy we will face is only 400,000 German-Austrian allied forces. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!

Dante Christophe pondered for a moment, then said: 900,000 to 400,000, our odds are very good, we can do it!

The battle plan for the raid on Belgrade has been cancelled, and the underdogs will be beaten first!

Let the air force bomb the enemy's railway line every day. In case we are lucky enough, the enemy has not replenished the equipment for ten days and a half months, which is enough for us to severely damage the enemy army. Great and powerless!

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