Greece to roman road

At about 2:10 in the afternoon, the Bulgarian army had formed in front of the Greek defense line.

"mound-"

Three flares slowly rose into the sky, attracting everyone's attention. This was obviously a signal for the Bulgarian army to attack.

After several flares were launched into the air, the Bulgarian army led by Ivanov kicked off the offensive.

First there were a few sparse artillery shots, which stirred up a few puffs of smoke on the Greek position. Then the sound of cannon fire became more and more intense, eventually covering all the more than ten kilometers of Greek trench defense lines.

Major General Papademos, who put down his telescope to view the battlefield situation, immediately shouted to the messenger behind him: "Notify all ministries immediately to prepare for artillery bombardment."

"In addition, inform the artillery regiments of each division not to alert the enemy first, and pay attention to hiding our artillery positions. At the same time, observe and record the position of the Bulgarian army's artillery, and calibrate the shooting elements. However, no firing is allowed without my order." Patimos said.

The Greek artillery force was not inferior to the Bulgarians at all. The reason why Papademos kept the artillery silent was to verify how well the trenches carefully constructed by the Greek army could defend against artillery bombardment.

Although the Greek army has conducted multiple internal evaluations of trench tactics and conducted various drills under simulated actual combat conditions, the results of multiple evaluations have shown that the casualty rate of defensive troops squatting in trenches is far lower than that of offensive forces. However, the trench warfare model has not been tested in actual combat. Many officers in the Greek army are still worried that it will be too risky to rashly adopt tactics that have not been tested in actual combat.

Secondly, the Greek army is on the defensive side and is not in a hurry. It is the Bulgarian army that should be anxious. After all, the longer the delay, the more disadvantageous it will be to Bulgaria.

If the artillery of the Bulgarian army fires first, then they will expose the position of their artillery. Before the Greek artillery fires, the commanders of the Bulgarian artillery will feel worried, worried that their artillery positions will be hit by Greek artillery fire.

But for the Bulgarian army, it is even more impossible for the soldiers to directly charge to the Greek land without using artillery to provide fire coverage and destroy the Greek army's defense line.

Just a few hundred meters in front of the Greek position, dozens of barbed wire fences were placed, which not only turned charging soldiers into living targets, but also provided anti-infantry mines buried underground!

Papademos calculated in his mind that if the effectiveness of the trenches in preventing shelling was indeed outstanding, then the Greek army would already have some advantages as soon as the war started.

The messenger did not dare to neglect the general's order and immediately turned around to convey the order.

After receiving the order from their commander, the soldiers responsible for the defense in the trenches immediately hid in the trenches to defend themselves against the Bulgarian shelling.

As a result, there were not many soldiers on the defense line that was more than ten kilometers long.

After an hour-long bombardment, the Bulgarian artillery fire became increasingly sparse.

"Report to the General, this is the report of the casualties of soldiers in the trenches during shelling calculated by the officers of each division." The orderer held a document in his hand and handed it to Papademos respectfully.

It’s finally here, Papademos thought to himself, then took the document and glanced at the numbers above. He was overjoyed to see more than 800 casualties in the shelling.

Judging from the momentum when the Bulgarian artillery opened fire just now, the Bulgarian artillery has absolutely no spare power.

Hundreds of artillery pieces continued firing for an hour. Such an offensive was not an easy task for the Bulgarian army.

The first is the cost of artillery shells. For Bulgaria, an agricultural country, almost all artillery shells are purchased outsourced.

The second is the transportation problem. Transporting hundreds of thousands of artillery shells to the front line is also a huge burden on logistics.

After an hour of shelling by the Bulgarian army, the Greek soldiers only suffered hundreds of casualties. This result was definitely acceptable to Papademos.

Of course, the shelling by the Bulgarian army was not without any results. After the smoke caused by the explosion of the shells dissipated, the Greek infantry position had already become pitted. The soft soil seemed to have been plowed, and dozens of barbed wire fences were originally there. It was twisted and twisted, and many gaps were blown out.

After the Bulgarian artillery was completely shut down, the infantry began to charge towards the Greek position like a tide.

The Greek artillery unit finally showed off its power. Accompanied by intermittent gunfire, a few sparse shells passed through the air and then landed in front of the position.

The signal of the Bulgarian infantry attack sounded the death knell of the artillery. When the Bulgarian infantry, like a tide, thought that their artillery preparations had caused serious damage to the Greek soldiers, the Greek rapid-fire artillery deployed behind the defense line finally showed its power!

With a muffled sound, a ball of orange flames erupted from the muzzle. The barrel quickly retreated, and then quickly reset under the action of the gun mount. The breech of the gun was opened, and a brass cartridge case was thrown out. Then a gunner will A 75mm shell was fed into the gun chamber, the gun breech was then locked, and the gun rope was pulled.

In the first few minutes, the average rate of fire of each artillery gun reached 8 rounds per minute! Howling artillery shells streaked through the air, and within a few seconds, the Bulgarian army artillery position in the distance was shrouded in flames and smoke.

Violent explosions continued to come from the target area. Because there was enough time for the artillery to measure the distance in advance, the accuracy of the first round of shooting was good. The artillery shells were almost evenly distributed in the target area, and a large number of them were fired in a very short period of time. equipment and personnel were killed by flying shrapnel and flames.

The artillery battery of the Greek Legion was like a machine, tilting the deadly rain of bullets over the target's head, using dense shrapnel to blow the artillery into pieces, mowing down the soldiers in pieces.

Flames and smoke heralding death rose behind the positions.

The flames and smoke in the rear positions were like a dark cloud, hanging over the attacking Bulgarian army.

At this time, about half of the Bulgarian army had already rushed to a position only 300 meters away from the target, a distance that they could rush down if they worked harder!

Under the scolding of the officers, the soldiers launched the first wave of attacks on the battlefield! A large number of soldiers began to sprint, and some soldiers picked up their rifles and started shooting!

With a creak, a soldier felt as if he had stepped on something under his feet. When he raised his feet in surprise, a death metal storm composed of hundreds of steel balls passed under his feet. In just an instant, the steel balls This poor guy's lower body was completely shattered!

Then he flew through the soldier's broken body, thinking of the unprepared soldiers behind him!

In an instant, several huge gaps appeared in the Japanese front line that was rushing forward like a wave. The anti-infantry mines deployed at the front, although most of them were destroyed and detonated by artillery fire, still devoured the Bulgarian infantry in the first place. suffered.

The remaining people stepped on the mutilated limbs of their comrades on the ground and continued to advance. They used hysterical howls to dispel the fear in their hearts, and rushed towards their opponents like wild beasts, hoping to overwhelm their opponents with bayonets in their hands.

"Bulgarians? They were like a group of wild boars that had not lost their senses, rushing towards the trap we set. They tried to overwhelm the steel with their barbarity, but it turned out that they left nothing but corpses in front of our position. Besides, there is no use in providing targets for us soldiers hiding in the trenches!" A Greek soldier commented after the war.

As the Bulgarian soldiers continued to approach, at first the Greek soldiers only used rifles to shoot from a long distance, and then the sound of "ta-da-da" shooting was heard on the position.

That's the Maxim machine gun firing!

The deadly metal storm and dense rain of bullets, like cutting wheat, instantly swept away a large number of Bulgarian soldiers.

In order to more effectively utilize the advantages of the Maxim machine gun in defense, the staff officers of the Greek Army also followed the Germans and carefully studied the tactics of using machine guns.

Soldiers in the process of charging seem to be easily hit by Maxim machine guns. In fact, this is not the case. If you shoot directly at the charging soldiers from the front, there will be little effect at medium and long distances.

At close range, the enemy infantry's precise shooting will also pose a serious threat to the machine gunner. After all, important targets such as the machine gunner are originally the priority target of the soldiers.

Machine guns fire at the charging enemy from the flank, making it impossible for the enemy to escape.

The Greek soldiers used multiple machine guns to fire on the left and right flanks, forming a crossfire, which was an insurmountable iron wall.

Under the coercion of the officers, the Bulgarian soldiers roared violently and rushed toward the Greek positions without wavering. Soon, these people fell down row by row like dominoes.

The continuous "ta-ta-ta-ta" sound of shooting continued, as if beating the hearts of the soldiers.

The brave Bulgarian soldiers also felt confused at this time. When facing the Ottoman army, it was not like this at all. This was different from the previous battlefields.

The Bulgarians' first wave of charges lasted only more than 20 minutes before being repulsed. The speed of victory exceeded Papademos's expectations.

However, only more than 3,000 Bulgarian soldiers were killed or injured in this round of attacks. If it had not destroyed several vital enemy artillery positions, such losses would not be too great for the Ivanov Army.

"This is simply unimaginable!" Looking at the artillery position that had been plowed over by artillery shells, Ivanov looked gloomy. The morale and military pride accumulated through successive victories in previous wars were shattered in an instant. Return to original shape.

The Bulgarians, who thought they were good at fighting, were as helpless as children in front of the Greek army. In just the first tentative attack, their sharpest fangs were destroyed by their opponents, and their artillery suffered heavy losses. How could they fight this battle?

Let the soldiers brave the opponent's artillery to rush in?

It was originally thought that the Greeks' land acquisition had suffered nearly an hour of artillery preparations, and the defending soldiers would definitely suffer heavy casualties. However, judging from the Greek soldiers' counterattack just now, the damage caused by our own artillery preparations was extremely limited.

The current situation is already obvious. The Greek army has strong combat effectiveness, and there are well-prepared defenses. They are obviously waiting for work. They have been laid out long ago, waiting for the Bulgarian army to attack.

Artillery strikes cause limited damage to enemy lines and also reveal the position of artillery pieces.

What's the difference between letting the soldiers charge without shelling and sending them to death?

But procrastination will be even more detrimental to Bulgaria. The Greeks obviously want to adopt delaying tactics, and time is on their side.

Just when Ivanov was hesitant, the communications unit reported that the two infantry divisions that came to support had already arrived.

At the same time, there was also intelligence from the northern battlefield. Targeting the Greek defense line near Serre, the Bulgarian army in the direction of Petrich had begun an attack on Serre.

Serre and Nizhnytarovs, two important fulcrums of the Greek defense line, were attacked by the Bulgarian army at the same time.

Ivanov's army needs to launch a fierce offensive so that the Greek army cannot take care of both the north and the south, contain the Greek army facing them, and strive to quickly break through the defense line and end the war quickly.

After learning the news, Ivanov had no choice but to bite the bullet and ignore the request of his subordinates to delay the attack until he could think of an effective way to deal with the Greek trenches.

Ivanov knows clearly in his heart that the Bulgarian strategy is to attack the Greek defense line from the north to the south. All the current actions of the Bulgarian Army are implemented around this strategy. Once this strategy fails, the Bulgarian Army will soon fall into passive.

He has no other choice.

We can only bite the bullet and continue the attack.

Early the next morning, the Bulgarian army, which had been repairing all night, regrouped here and planned a new round of offensive.

"Let all the artillerymen stop estimating the shortage of artillery shells and intensify the bombardment," Ivanov ordered to his subordinates.

"Let's start." When the sound of artillery sounded again, the Bulgarian troops on the left and right were eager to try.

In order to achieve results in this attack, Ivanov will press all his troops onto the battlefield!

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Papademos also knew that the next enemy attack would not be as easy to deal with as the previous tentative attack.

The Bulgarian army, which suffered a loss, will attack even more fiercely next time!

At eight o'clock in the morning, the artillery of the Bulgarian army opened fire first. The Greek artillery no longer concealed its firepower, and the artillery first launched a head-on artillery battle.

Later, Ivanov also learned his lesson and immediately ordered the Bulgarian Army to attack while the artillery bombarded the Greek soldiers' positions.

From the accumulation of troops to the launch of the attack, Bulgarian soldiers will move forward in a hail of bullets every step they take. Once driven onto the battlefield, they will be attacked regardless of whether they advance or retreat.

In this case, people's survival instinct made them temporarily forget their fear. When most people dropped the cannonballs, the rate of fire of these artillery pieces seemed to be faster than that of rapid-fire cannons!

A round of artillery shells quickly exploded next to the soldiers who had just assembled.

The fragments made from cast-iron projectiles are no less lethal than steel balls. These cheap shrapnel can easily blow up half of a squad of soldiers, while the remaining people lie trembling on the ground, letting their superiors scold and punch them. He doesn't even stand up even if he kicks.

But even so, the Bulgarian attack was still advancing steadily step by step. The continuous reinforcements from the rear forced the front team to rush towards the opponent's position. At a distance of 200 meters to 300 meters, the Bulgarian army encountered the most severe test!

In a frontal attack, soldiers faced a combination of machine gun and mortar fire.

The fierce firepower of the machine guns sprayed blood among the charging Bulgarian soldiers, and the shells fired by the mortars sent a large amount of shrapnel over the heads of the Bulgarian soldiers every minute.

The soldiers in the group were first taken care of. After a series of grenades fell, a platoon of protective soldiers quickly disappeared in the smoke and flames.