Chapter 461: Battle of the Elite

Chapter 461: Battle of the Elite

Chapter 461: Elite of Battles
"Boom! Boom!"

The Romanians launched an undeclared war, and three field artillery battalions with more than 100 Krupp six-pound guns opened fire on the Bulgarian army.

They came for a surprise attack and did not bring any heavy artillery, but their numerous field guns still made it difficult for a Bulgarian defensive division to raise its head.

Division Commander Josep was a student of the first class of the "Bulgarian Restoration Army Field Military Academy" established by Shao Quanxiao. He had learned all the skills from Shao Quanxiao and was not panicked. He immediately ordered, "Fire Support Battalion, knock down the enemy's hot air balloon."

Three platoons of soldiers bravely moved forward, pulling 47mm Hotchkiss rapid-fire guns and moving forward under the enemy's artillery fire.

This is when the usefulness of military uniform colors comes into play.

Three platoons of Bulgarian soldiers, wearing tobacco-colored uniforms, the same color as the ground, advanced along irregular routes under artillery fire and quickly approached the front line without the Romanians noticing.

The 47mm Hotchkiss rapid-fire gun aimed at the enemy's rising artillery balloons and opened fire. Soon, the Romanian artillery became blind and the effectiveness of the artillery fire was immediately greatly reduced.

The Romanians were embarrassed. According to the British instructor's rules, they should charge after shelling, but shelling was useless now, so should they charge?
The Romanian commanders of the three divisions made different choices. Two divisions were still hesitating and groping in the dark, while the left-wing division had already begun the charge.

The Bulgarian army responded hastily and did not dig proper trenches. They just temporarily pulled sandbags from the logistics vehicles as shelters. However, after the enemy's indiscriminate artillery fire greatly reduced the effectiveness, the shortcomings of the crude shelters were made up for.

The Bulgarian army was similar to the Huai Army, but the squads were equipped with 37mm rapid-fire cannons and Maxim machine guns, and the company-level units were equipped with 47mm rapid-fire cannons.

The enemy advanced slowly without artillery support and without tanks, but charged under the leadership of armored vehicles, and was immediately hit hard by rapid-fire artillery and machine gun fire.

The armored vehicles were paralyzed by 47mm rapid-fire cannons, and the charging Romanian soldiers fell in rows under the fire of the Maxim machine guns.

The British instructors who trained them still insisted on the backward tactics of dense linear charge, and they had just suffered a great loss in the Battle of the Somme.

The Romanians did not understand the skirmish line tactics, and their intensive charge immediately caused heavy losses. Half of the charging soldiers of a regiment were killed, and they fled back in disgrace.

Although Bulgaria only had one artillery battalion, hot air balloons rose high behind them and began to accurately bombard Romania's machine guns and rapid-fire artillery points. Three Romanian divisions were fighting against one division, and they were unable to move an inch.

The Romanian officers discussed with each other, "You can fly a hot air balloon, so can I." Immediately, the group of soldiers pulling the rapid-fire guns also began to move to the front line.

However, troops without combat experience could not learn to imitate others, and the Romanian fire group was quickly wiped out by Bulgarian machine gun fire and could not reach the front line at all.

What was going on? The problem was the color of the Romanians' uniforms.

The Romanian army's brand new grey uniforms are particularly conspicuous against the brown background of the Balkans. It is difficult to launch a sneak attack, but it is very easy to be targeted by the enemy.

The Romanian army's equipment was provided by the British and reached the world's most advanced level, but it had not experienced a cruel and long war.

During the Balkan War, the main battlefield was Bulgaria. The entire country was ravaged by war and scorched earth everywhere, allowing the 800,000 Bulgarian guerrillas to accumulate rich war experience.

Romania was hiding behind Bulgaria at the time, and only sent troops in the later stages of the war to cooperate with the main force of the Bulgarian Restoration Army to annihilate the main force of the Ottoman Empire's expeditionary army in Jurju.

The advantage of not having fought a brutal war is that the vitality of the country has been preserved. The disadvantage is that no fame has been gained and there has been no progress in military concepts.

The Ottoman Empire was defeated and disintegrated in the Balkan Wars, and Romania and Bulgaria became independent at the same time and established their own regular armies.

Romania has chosen beautiful grey military uniforms, which is the colour of military uniforms in most countries in the world.

The Bulgarian troops had rich war experience and chose tobacco-colored uniforms. This was combat experience gained in actual combat, and the single choice had surpassed the war concepts of Britain and France.

The British still wear red coats as lobster soldiers. This was a result of the matchlock era to boost morale and maintain a sense of honor. Because they have never suffered a major loss, it has been preserved.

The French insist on wearing red trousers, which they regard as an honor for the French army's dominance over the world.

In modern warfare, the density of firepower delivery far exceeds that of the matchlock and flintlock eras. Cannons and machine guns are the main force in killing the enemy, and the power of individual soldiers' guns is of little use.

Therefore, in the face of the enemy's powerful firepower, the officers tried every possible means to increase the soldiers' survivability.

When fighting guerrilla warfare against the Ottoman Empire's punitive army, the Bulgarian guerrillas discovered that tobacco-colored uniforms had a very good stealth effect against the background of Bulgaria's brown soil.

Thus, after independence, Bulgaria's military uniforms became tobacco-colored. This was decided by Quan Xiao's wife, the guerrilla heroine Sophie.

The tobacco-colored military uniform looked very tacky and was ridiculed by other countries, who believed that Bulgaria had been crippled in the Balkan War and had lost its fighting spirit. In fact, this was not the case at all.

Britain and France fought against the Germans on the Western Front. The British's dazzling red shirts and the French's dazzling red trousers became clear targets for German machine guns, rapid-fire cannons and even Mauser rifles, and the casualty rate remained high.

After millions of people died, Britain and France belatedly changed their uniforms and ordered millions of gray uniforms from Daxia. Now, the gray uniforms ordered by Britain and France are still sailing in the Mediterranean, and on the Western Front, the red uniforms of Britain and France are still like torches, attracting German bullets.

Gray military uniforms are suitable for fighting on the plains in Western Europe, as the color is close to the environment, but they become conspicuous on the brown soil of the Balkans.

The Romanians had never fought a big war, so they didn't understand this. They copied the uniforms of Germany, Russia, Britain, France, and Bactria and adopted gray uniforms. When they fought in actual combat, they suffered losses. This is a bloody lesson. You don't know the pain until you get beaten.

The experience that the Bulgarians gained after sacrificing hundreds of thousands of young men is of course quite effective.

Now a rather embarrassing situation arose on the battlefield. The three Romanian divisions had been planning a surprise attack for a long time, intending to attack a Bulgarian division halfway across the river, but as a result their artillery was blinded and could not attack anymore.

The attack must have artillery to plow the ground, suppress the enemy's firepower, and the soldiers' charge will be effective.

Otherwise, the charging soldiers will become targets of the defending side's machine guns and rapid-fire cannons.

Although the Bulgarian Division has a small number of people, it has sufficient firepower, including machine guns and rapid-fire cannons. You cannot defeat them by relying on human wave tactics.

When you charge, you don't have the ability to pull heavy rapid-fire cannons or machine guns forward, so you will be at a disadvantage in terms of firepower.

The troops of the four divisions of both sides were in a stalemate, and the only sound was the whistling of shells from the Bulgarian artillery battalion hitting the enemy's effective targets.

The Romanian army was caught in a dilemma and its morale was slightly low, and the experienced Bulgarian officers immediately spotted the opportunity.

The commander of the 22nd Regiment, Broz, requested to fight, "Commander, our regiment is willing to be the vanguard, destroy the enemy in the front, break the enemy's encirclement, and annihilate the enemy one by one."

"Okay, prepare the artillery fire! Clear the way for the heroic 22nd Regiment!"

The Bulgarian army uniforms are all tobacco-colored. Most soldiers' collar patches, epaulettes and the cap bands of their military uniforms are red. Only the cap bands, epaulettes and collar patches of the 22nd Regiment are green.

This is the glory of the Heroes Group.

The 22nd Regiment was reorganized from the guerrillas led by the heroine Sophie. They made outstanding contributions in the Bulgarian Restoration War and have a strong sense of honor.

Broz was Sophie's subordinate back then. He got the order to attack and waved his hand, "Armored Battalion, prepare, Infantry Battalion, follow up, prepare for the barrage of bullets to advance slowly."

Division Commander Joseph made a quick decision, "Leave two battalions from each of the 23rd and 24th Regiments to defend the flanks, and the division's fire support battalion will assist in the defense."

"Artillery attack the enemy's frontal firepower points. The 22nd Regiment is the vanguard, the 25th Regiment follows up, and the remaining four battalions of the 23rd/24th Regiment are the reserve forces. Attack!"

The Romanians never expected that with one division against three divisions and both sides equipped with exactly the same equipment, the Bulgarians would actually launch a counterattack.

Under the guidance of a hot air balloon observer, a battalion of field artillery continuously and accurately bombarded the enemy's rapid-fire artillery and machine gun fire points in front. The Romanians were originally the attacking side and had no trenches or shelters, so the shelling effect was even more outstanding.

One firepower point after another was either knocked out or suppressed. The armored vehicles of the 22st Battalion of the nd Regiment advanced with machine guns spewing flames. The soldiers of the nd and rd Battalions followed behind the armored vehicles, holding submachine guns, and moved forward, crouching over.

With just one charge, the Romanian vanguard regiment without trenches was defeated and was chased and attacked at close range by submachine guns of the soldiers of the 22nd Regiment.

The barrage of artillery fire from the 22nd and 25th Regiments was very well trained. As the artillery fire extended, the two regiments quickly rushed to the enemy's artillery positions. The enemy artillery raised their hands in surrender, and the subsequent few regiments had no will to fight and turned around and ran away.

Just half an hour later, a division on the Romanian front was defeated.

The two Romanian divisions surrounded on both sides organized five assaults by the fire support battalion, but failed to knock down the enemy's hot air balloons, and all the rapid-fire artillery troops in dazzling uniforms who came forward were killed.

The 22nd and 25th Regiments turned around and attacked an enemy division on the left wing. Artillery fire immediately followed. The enemy was frightened and fled without engaging in a fight.

Forty-five minutes after the battle began, the divisional command received a report from a messenger who had rushed back from the south bank. "Headquarters has begun emergency mobilization across the country. The diplomatic department has begun negotiations with Romania. Air support will arrive within an hour. Please hold out for one—"

Um, it seems I don’t need to persist.

The Romanian army was too thin and was defeated by the Bulgarians, who outnumbered it three to one.

When the messenger came back, he saw that one of his own divisions had defeated two enemy divisions and was chasing the enemy's right wing division.

Equipment is not the decisive force in war, talent is.

This is the difference between elite troops that have experienced many battles and ordinary troops that have never experienced a major war.

(End of this chapter)