Romanian Eagle

The news of Bulgaria's withdrawal from the war caused considerable shock within the entire Allied powers.

There are quite a few people talking about it in Vienna, Berlin and Istanbul. Some of them said that this is the first boned rice card to fall.

As a government agency in power, the voice of negotiating with Britain and France to reduce losses also appeared in their ears.

In this regard, the Allies also tested the attitude of Britain and France in private, but they did not reach an agreement because of the huge gap between the two sides.

And now with Bulgaria's withdrawal from the war, the Allies have discovered that the situation in the Balkans has fallen into a rather passive and bad situation.

In Greece, Serbia, Montenegro and Romania joined the Allied camp, while Bulgaria withdrew from the war, and now the Balkan situation is entirely the Allies have the final say. The link between Germany and Austria and Turkey was cut off, and the situation was quite unfavorable for the Allies.

For this reason, Berlin and Vienna have also put aside their own thoughts and dealt with this difficult time together.

So with the cooperation of the German and Austrian general staff, a plan to defend against the Allied forces' attack was introduced.

In the plan that combines the essence of the two countries' staff thinking here, the German-Austrian coalition will currently defend the Allied attack on the front line of Niš and Luyeza in the southern mountains of Serbia. For this reason, Austria-Hungary needs an additional 150,000 troops to complete this plan. . There was no objection to the whole plan, but there were still some small disputes when drawing troops.

Because when formulating the plan, the German staff suggested that Austria-Hungary draw and refit troops from home, but Austria-Hungary did not agree. From Austria-Hungary's point of view, the troops that were rehabilitated by the withdrawing country suffered heavy casualties on the front line, their weapons and equipment were relatively lacking, and the spirit of the personnel was not very good, so it was better to be drawn from the front-line troops.

And Austria-Hungary chose to draw from the Hungarian region, the ninth army that confronted Romania in Transylvania. This decision was considered too dangerous by the Germans. If Romania broke out of the Transylvanian plateau, the Hungarian plains would face the danger of war.

Do you feel that the style of painting is wrong, Germany is more concerned about its safety than Austria-Hungary. In fact, these are all obvious reasons. Germany's inner thinking is that Austria-Hungary needs to put pressure on the Romanian army in Transylvania to ensure that Marshal Mackensen's flank will not be threatened.

And Austria-Hungary transferred Hungarian troops for the Italian battlefield, and the repaired troops can also be urgently transferred to the front line. Face it calmly.

But in the end, Austria-Hungary's decision prevailed, after all, it was its troops that needed to be used.

The Turkish side was much more nervous than Austria-Hungary. After Bulgaria withdrew from the war, not only the Third Army had withdrawn to the Dardanelles defense, but even the Sixth Army, which was ready to be transferred to Syria to fight the Allies, also stayed in Istanbul.

For a time, Turkey gathered nearly 400,000 troops near its capital, which surprised the Allies, fearing that Germany and Austria and Turkey would also attack. So after the defeat of Bulgaria, the Greek army in the Allied powers was transferred to Adrianople to prepare for the possible invasion of the Turkish army,

The rest of the Allied armies paid attention to the movements of the German and Austrian troops.

For a time, because of the change in Bulgaria, both sides felt a little bit of a fight, and the situation became delicate.

However, this is not a big impact on Romania, because domestic materials are abundant.

Since the signing of the Armistice Agreement in Thessaloniki, supplies from the Allied countries have supplemented the consumption of the Romanian army along the Bulgarian railway. According to statistics after the fact, within three months after Bulgaria withdrew from the war, up to 1.2 million tons of military supplies were sent to Romania. Of course, along with the supplies that have been delivered, there are also reinforcements from the Allied countries.

A colonial division from France, and two British Indian and ANZ divisions had rushed to Romania, easing the pressure on the Romanian army's defense at Bacau.

True, the Germans were led by Marshal Mackensen, although no loopholes in the Romanian army were found. However, with its excellent front-line officers, experienced soldiers, and fierce firepower, the Moldavian Army led by Admiral Courtois, who was still fighting, retreated steadily, causing His Excellency Admiral to give up Roman and Yat-sen one after another. West.

A large number of conscripts were put into the defense against the German invasion, and many of the conscripts failed to survive the first battle.

According to the statistics of the General Staff, in the battle with the German army, the Romanian army has suffered close to 100,000 casualties. Among them, the lack of training of recruited soldiers and the lack of grass-roots officers are the main factors.

Of course, Admiral Courtois, as their commander, also has certain responsibilities, but who let him face the German army's most outstanding mobile warfare master, Marshal Mackensen. This makes His Excellency Admiral dare not take risks, for fear of letting the opponent seize the opportunity to tear the defense line, which is not so wonderful.

However, when Bulgaria withdrew from the war, the pressure from the German army was much less. Especially when the British and French troops appeared on the Bacau front, the German offensive gradually decreased, and many times it was just a perfunctory thing. It seems that the Germans also know that they have no chance of quickly conquering Romania.

Of course, the consumption of personnel and materials of the German army is also a major factor, especially the consumption of materials. This is the point where Marshal Mackensen, the commander-in-chief of the German army on the Eastern Front, has the most say. After the declaration of war in Romania, Marshal Mackensen spent a month preparing for the war with the logistics department on the issue of military supplies.

Because Ludendorff was preparing for the offensive on the Western Front, the supplies supplied by the Eastern Front before that were not enough for combat readiness, and Mackenson could only maintain the loss by reducing the amount of training. However, after Romania declared war, the movement of materials did increase, but it was still not enough for half a year's combat readiness. (This is the operational standard Mackenson prepared after serving as commander-in-chief of the Eastern Front)

Even when Marshal Mackensen led the army to attack Romania, he still did not meet this standard (only five months of combat readiness). Therefore, I have always hoped that the loopholes in the Romanian army's defense line could be found and used by Gary. To this end, he also deliberately sold several flaws to lure the Romanian army to attack. However, who knows that the commander of the Romanian army is not fooled, so Marshal Mackensen can only use the advantages of firepower and elite troops to compete with the enemy city by city.

The management effect is good, but the consumption of ammunition is too high. Just yesterday, the logistics officer informed His Excellency the Marshal that their ammunition was only one-third of what it was before departure. This sentence made the German offensive immediately misfire.

The attacking German army was immobile, and the defending Romanian army was equally immobile. The huge casualties and material consumption also made Romania devastated, so at this point in the most intense fighting in Moldavia, the war also calmed down.

As for Transylvania, which has been much quieter, it is even possible to rotate the officers and soldiers to rest.