Romanian Eagle

After observing the new armored vehicle, Edel, accompanied by Major Hoffman, inspected the seed "Armored Experimental Battalion" of the armored unit that was still being formed.

The unit's camp was eight kilometers outside Constanta, a wilderness called Polk, and less than ten kilometers from the Volkswagen factory. It used to be the station of a cavalry regiment and was later transferred, but the camp still remains. Major Hoffman took a fancy to this place when choosing a station (the cavalry regiment is of course a large station), the few people nearby are conducive to testing various tactics, and it is not far from the city to facilitate life, so he chose the armored experimental battalion here. .

"The staff are well prepared."

Edel looked at the more than 300 officers and soldiers of the armored experimental battalion neatly lined up in front of him, and talked to Hoffman when he was inspected by himself.

"His Royal Highness, they are all elite soldiers transferred from the motor transport regiment and the cavalry unit."

Major Hoffman praised his soldiers.

In fact, the situation is not as good as he said. After Major Hoffman took the crown prince and gave the order to set up an armored experimental battalion, Major Hoffman happily went to the cavalry unit and the car transport regiment where he had stayed before. personnel. In the face of Hoffman's poaching of the two chief officers, although they would not disobey the order of the crown prince, they also gave Major Hoffman a lot of hardships in private.

Especially in the cavalry unit, its chief officer, Lieutenant Colonel Stockley, told his soldiers in private that the unit formed by Hoffman would only stay in the city, because his armored vehicles could only be used in the case of good roads. fight. This caused many of the soldiers and officers whom Major Hoffman favored to decline his invitation. Hoffman didn't understand this situation at first, but it was only after seeing that a large number of officers and soldiers invited by him refused his invitation.

Major Hoffman after learning that the mastermind behind his lack of recruitment was Lieutenant Colonel Stockerry. He specifically found Lieutenant Colonel Stockley to discuss this matter, after friendly consultation between the two. Lieutenant Colonel Stockley no longer prevented Hoffman from recruiting people in the cavalry unit, and Hoffman could not specifically find the backbone of the cavalry unit, but could only choose among ordinary soldiers and officers.

The situation of recruiting people in the motor transport regiment was much better. As a result, it belonged to the logistics force and was not as good as the combat force in the first world war, and the lessons Major Hoffman learned from Lieutenant Colonel Stockerry made him learn smart. When he came to the motor transport regiment to select people, he no longer only focused on the best soldiers and officers of the other party, which also saved him a lot of trouble. However, after Major Hoffman finished picking people, the commander of the transport regiment was also in pain for a while, because he took away the maintenance personnel of a company.

Coupled with the fact that Hoffman is still in the military academy, he has recruited several good cadets from the school.

"I hope you can complete the training as soon as possible."

Eder, after inspecting the soldiers and officers of the armored battalion,

Continue to check on soldiers' living conditions and talk to them.

"Soldier, what's your name?"

Edel asked with concern to a soldier in front of him.

"His Royal Highness, my name is Sanders, from Hobeck Village."

The soldier named Sanders, who was asked by the crown prince, answered excitedly.

His words caused the shoulders of the surrounding soldiers to rise and fall, and it seemed that they endured very hard.

"Sanders, are you used to living here?"

Edel did not change his attitude because of the soldier's funny answer, and still asked with a smile. The court etiquette that Edel has learned over the years will prevent him from changing his complexion because of the changes, unless the soldier named Sanders suddenly sings the East is red.

In fact, the soldier regretted it after he finished speaking, and could not wait to find a hole to burrow into. However, after the crown prince continued to ask questions to help him resolve this embarrassment, he was much better, at least he knew how to answer. "His Royal Highness, I am very accustomed to living in the army, among which my squad leader Dosk helped me the most."

Edel was very happy to see one of the non-commissioned officers smiling, probably the Dosk squad leader he said. He continued to chat a few words with the soldier and continued to patrol the entire camp.

"It looks like you haven't finished remodeling this camp yet."

After the tour, Edel told Major Hoffman, who had been with him, about his situation after the tour. When patrolling the barracks, Eder saw the shadows of too many cavalry camps. A large number of stables had not been dismantled. In the corners, he could still see broken horseshoes, and in the corners of the barracks, he also saw stacks of hay.

Hoffman explained after hearing the crown prince's questioning. "Yes, Your Highness, there are still many traces of cavalry in our barracks. The main reason is that the time is too short, and the soldiers in front of us did not resist five days ago at the latest. Now the main purpose is to train them into an army. After getting to know each other, we will arrange for people to transform the general battalion as soon as possible."

After hearing Major Hoffman's explanation, Edel didn't answer whether it was good or bad, but continued to care about how Hoffman trained the unit. "There is no situation where European armies have centralized armored vehicles, so what do you think about this new force?"

Hoffmann knew that the crown prince was telling the truth, and now the armored vehicles in other armies in Europe are scattered. Generally, they are allotted for use by the army, but there are only a dozen or so, because now countries do not know how to use this expensive and not easy to use thing.

Like Russia, which worked hardest to develop armored vehicles before, in 1905, Nakasize designed Russia's first armored vehicle, named "Nakasizer" armored vehicle, and Russia subsequently purchased 10 such armored vehicles, which were placed in St. Petersburg is used as a guardian force. Although the United Kingdom, which was the first to develop armored vehicles, used armored vehicles in the Boer War, now the United Kingdom is doing the same as Russia, and they all purchase a small amount of them and put them in the Ministry of War as expensive novelties.

"His Royal Highness, I am going to purchase 24 armored vehicles from Volkswagen and train them into two companies (currently one with 84 men and one with 81 men), plus a maintenance company (currently 74 men), and a logistics company (currently with 81 men) 87), which is the preparation I am currently preparing."

Hoffman said the plan that he thought about for a long time.

Edel heard that he was going to train four companies, and asked after thinking for a while. "Then how many people are there after you're ready to train?"

"I calculated that according to the preparation of the armored experimental battalion, a total of 497 people are needed."

Edel heard Major Hoffman's answer and spoke to him. "Let go and do it."

Afterwards, Eder took a train back to the capital, Bucharest, after inspecting the military camp, where the chief of the general staff, Admiral Prieshan, had already prepared a plan to train two more divisions, waiting for the approval of the crown prince. ()