The Bulgarian army did not sit idly by while Romania conquered Bulgarian towns and occupied its territory. Under the coordination of Army Minister Lieutenant General Mikhail Savov, they are gradually drawing troops from the Sechi front line in Macedonia and Thrace
Return aid.
The Serbs and Greeks will not allow Bulgaria to mobilize its troops smoothly, because according to the agreement, the two countries must delay the Bulgarian army and create opportunities for Romania to attack Sofia. Among them, the Serbian army, under the command of Marshal Putnik, launched an attack on the Bulgarian army.
The attack lasted for two hours, and after suffering a "heavy price" of 800 casualties, they stopped the attack.
The Greeks were more "brave". Under the leadership of King Constantine I, they attacked the Bulgarian Second Army and retreated after suffering 200 casualties. They also fulfilled their alliance obligations to Romania.
Thanks to the "powerful" offensive, Bulgaria decided to mobilize 180,000 troops from the 150,000 troops on the two fronts. Among them, 90,000 newly recruited troops were transferred to the two fronts. 20,000 troops were also transferred from the Ottoman border.
Including the 60,000 people recruited again because of the Romanian invasion, a total of 260,000 troops faced the Romanian invasion.
However, it takes time for Bulgaria to assemble its troops, and the Romanian army is already approaching the first-stage targets of Suman and Varna. Among them, the Romanian Third Army is preparing to launch an attack on Varna, the largest port city in Bulgaria.
As early as the 6th century BC, the Greeks settled here and named it "Odessos". In the second half of the 6th century AD, Slavs poured in from the north in large numbers and changed the name to "Varna". In 1878,
After the Tenth Russo-Turkish War, the city was given to the newly born Bulgaria by the Russian army that liberated Bulgaria. It has been Bulgaria's largest trading port city ever since.
In the headquarters of the Third Army, Army Commander Lieutenant General Salamik was explaining the essentials of the attack to Major General Delekuca, Commander of the 1st Division, and Major General Gerasim, Commander of the 8th Division.
"You launch offensives from the west and north respectively, and I will ask the Second Heavy Artillery Regiment to support you. Due to the coastal defense fort at Cape Vernov, the navy has no way to provide help. You need to seize the fort to get support from the navy.
"
Since Varna is close to the sea to the east and a narrow bay called Asperu to the south, the Romanian army can only launch attacks from the west and north. However, because Bulgaria has few local defenders (more than 8,000 people from the 2nd Independent Brigade later
22,000 people were recruited for defense, but the lack of training and combat effectiveness was worrying), so everyone in the Third Army believed that this battle would be resolved within three days.
After describing the overall offensive, Lieutenant General Salamik named Major General Gerasim of the 8th Division. "Major General Gerasim, your 8th Division, when you need to launch an offensive against the north, send a regiment.
Capture Cape Vernov and capture the coastal defense fort there. According to intelligence, there are 2,000 coastal defense troops there."
Major General Gerasim, who was named, replied readily. "Please rest assured, Commander, our Eighth Division has no problem."
Lieutenant General Salamik saw that both of them were very confident and said to them, "Then you go back and prepare. We will start the attack at ten o'clock."
After Lieutenant General Salamik finished speaking, the two major generals returned to their troops to prepare for the upcoming attack.
In the Second Heavy Artillery Regiment, each 150-meter cannon has been deployed. The 9.5-kilometer-long howitzer and the 12-kilometer-long cannon can completely suppress the small and medium-sized artillery owned by Bulgaria. Now one by one, giant rows of ring-shaped artillery bunkers have been built.
Now, heavy artillery has been placed in the middle of the bunker, surrounded by a 1.5-meter-high civil structure breast wall for protection. There is a trench behind the gun emplacement. These trenches lead to another ring-shaped bunker not far away, which contains a stockpile of
Lots of shells.
When the clock pointed to ten o'clock, 54 150-meter cannons of the Romanian Second Artillery Regiment opened fire. The 45KG heavy artillery shells were an unbearable heavy blow for Varna, a port city that is not a fortress. In the observation balloon
Under the guidance of Romania's excellent artillery bombardment, a large number of city fortifications were reduced to rubble, and the soldiers stationed among them were also hit and turned into dust.
After the Second Heavy Artillery Regiment opened fire, the Third Army concentrated all its 50 105 howitzers and launched artillery attacks on the Bulgarian soldiers stationed in the trenches outside the city. For a time, the defenders of Varna suffered huge casualties and pressure.
.
"You guys quickly find cover."
A Bulgarian officer hid behind a two-story house and shouted loudly to several new recruits who were standing on the street at a loss. After hearing the officer's voice, the new recruits planned to hide with the officer. This
At that moment, there was only a "whoosh" sound, and the house that served as his bunker was blown down. The air wave pushed his military cap in front of several recruits. Seeing such a shocking scene, the recruits turned into birds and beasts and scattered.
Scenes like this are not rare in Varna. Many soldiers and civilians were crushed by houses destroyed by heavy artillery. For a time, a large number of panicked local people ran out of the streets. Seeing the heavy casualties of their own soldiers and civilians, as defenders
The corps commander, Major General Shaknosov, was extremely distraught.
I want to mention here that he was promoted to major general just the day before yesterday. Before that, he was only the colonel commander of the 2nd Independent Brigade. After Romania declared war on Bulgaria, he, as the highest-ranking officer in Varna, was urgently promoted to major general and was responsible for command.
The defense of the city of Varna. After Romania declared war, he urgently recruited 14,000 people in the city as his own defense force, and also recruited 8,000 people from surrounding areas to strengthen Varna's defense.
Faced with the sudden recruitment of a large number of soldiers, Varna did not prepare so many weapons at all. Major General Shaknosov searched Varna up and down before finding 5,000 rifles. He took out more than 4,000 rifles in stock from the Second Independent Brigade
There were only more than 9,000 guns. He organized these people into 9 supplementary regiments, issued 1,000 rifles to each regiment, and then distributed bullets to the soldiers who did not have guns, and asked them to pick up the rifles of the soldiers who died in the battle.
The Third Army's shelling lasted for an hour, and a large number of buildings in Varna were destroyed. It is not like the houses in later generations that were all reinforced concrete structures. Due to economic reasons, most of the buildings in Varna are made of bricks and wood.
Structure, even Romania only uses reinforced concrete structures in large buildings. The reason is that the current steel is not cheap, and the cost is too high to afford it.
After the large-caliber artillery stopped, the 1st Division and the 8th Division outside the city launched artillery bombardments on the Bulgarian positions with the division's 75-gun. At the same time, the two regiments that were the first to attack also began a test attack.
"Get ready, the Romanians are coming."
A Bulgarian officer who was observing in the trench shouted to the soldiers who were squatting in the trench to avoid the shelling. When he saw some people had not stepped forward, he stepped forward and kicked them down. Other officers were also doing so.
The same thing happened to him. Due to the presence of these officers in the position, the mood of the soldiers in the position was pretty good.
Seeing that the attacking Romanian soldiers were still four to five hundred meters away from their positions, the officers on these positions kept walking around the battlefield to encourage the soldiers, shouting, "Hold still, don't shoot."
It wasn't until the Romanian soldiers entered three hundred meters that the officers shouted, "Shoot."
The impatient Bulgarian soldiers, who had long been waiting for the death of the invaders and comrades, fired at the attacking Third Army soldiers with their weapons, which immediately provoked a more precise counterattack from the opponent. In the exchange of fire, the third
The soldiers of the three armies relied on their superior shooting skills to suppress the Bulgarian soldiers in the position, unable to lift their heads.
"Come at me."
Seeing the suppressed Bulgarian soldiers on the position, the Romanian commander who directed the battle shouted to the soldiers behind him.
After saying that, Cheng stood up and rushed towards the Bulgarian soldiers on the position. The Romanian soldiers behind him also rushed past with his commander. For a while, soldiers from both sides began to fight fiercely on the position.
The two commanders of the 8th Division and the 1st Division who were watching behind him saw this scene and ordered to send another regiment for reinforcements.
Finally, after two hours of fighting, the Romanian army captured the position outside the city. The defeated Bulgarian soldiers retreated into the city along the communication trenches.
In the headquarters of the Third Army, Army Commander Lieutenant General Salamik frowned after watching the battle. He turned to the Chief of Staff beside him and said, "It seems that the next battle will be difficult to fight."
The chief of staff took over Lieutenant General Salamik's words and said, "It seems that the commander guarding the city is a very smart guy."
After hearing what his chief of staff said, Lieutenant General Salamik said in a deep voice, "If he wants to delay us and buy time for the main Bulgarian army, then it depends on whether he is capable enough. I am not afraid of street fighting."
After Lieutenant General Salamik finished speaking, he called for a staff order. "Give the Second Heavy Artillery Regiment an order to focus on attacking the Bulgarian city defenses. At the same time, send a message to the First Division and the Eighth Division to let them break through."
After the city fortifications are fortified, they are advanced one by one and cleaned up repeatedly. I want to see what they use to defend the city."
Following the commander's order, the Romanian and Bulgarian soldiers began to fight fiercely again.
PS The war scenes are not very well written, but Mantou still needs to practice, otherwise there will be a lot of wars later.
