It was a good night today and there was no moonlight at night. The general who was preparing for the night attack was very excited. At 12 o'clock in the night, the soldiers were called up to eat. Then they began to march towards the Romanian right wing position, intending to give them a hard blow to relieve themselves.
The resentment that has been bombarded these days.
On the Romanian right-wing position late at night, the officers and soldiers of the defending 12th Division carefully observed the situation in front of them. Bulgaria's love for sneak attacks has long been known to them through the propaganda of the two countries. Therefore, all positions have been strictly guarded these days.
The flares were also fired every few minutes. This situation made the night attack of the Fourth Division even more difficult. But this time they had to attack no matter how difficult it was, because Bulgaria would not be able to withstand the frontal battlefield.
On the front line of the 12th Division, a captain was taking advantage of the light of the flares to observe the movement of Bulgaria with a telescope. At this time, he found that a piece of grass moved at a distance of 500 meters. When he planned to observe again, the flares
Has been extinguished.
"Fire the already sent flare on the right side."
The dedicated captain asked the artilleryman to fire another flare.
"Bang!" Another flare illuminated everything in front of the position, exposing the Bulgarian soldiers who had not expected it. Seeing the densely packed Bulgarian soldiers in front of the position, the captain roared without hesitation.
, "Night Raid."
Then he took out a flare gun and fired a red flare into the sky, representing a large-scale night attack. Seeing that their intentions were exposed, the officers and soldiers of the Bulgarian Fourth Division no longer concealed it, straightened up and rushed towards the Romanian position quickly.
They planned to rush into the trenches when the Romanian army did not react. However, their intention was obviously seen through. The numerous machine guns on the Romanian position made their idea unrealistic. For a time, the Bulgarian soldiers were blocked 300 meters in front of the position.
Can't move up.
This made the division commander, Major General Vidic, very anxious. He ordered the staff behind him: "Let the artillery attack destroy the firepower points on the Romanian position."
When Major General Vidic ordered the artillery, news of the night attack in Bulgaria also reached the Romanian headquarters. When Eder heard the news of the night attack in Bulgaria, he ran to the command hall without even bothering to put on his military uniform. When he saw the crown prince, he just
When he came out wearing a shirt, he was greeted by the newly arrived Chief of Staff, General Courtois, and Deputy Chief of Staff, Major General Prossi.
Edel asked before they could speak. "How is the situation on the front line now?"
After hearing Edel's question, Major General Prosi, who had already read the telegram, said, "The position can still be held now. After all, we are not Serbians."
"So can our plan be used?"
After hearing the Crown Prince's question, Major General Prossi glanced at Admiral Courtois and said, "We can proceed."
After hearing what Major General Prosi said, Edel looked at General Courtois. Opposite the Crown Prince's questioning gaze, General Courtois also said in agreement. "Since it is rare for Bulgaria to have an opportunity to attack, why don't we make it happen?"
where are they?"
After seeing that both chiefs of staff agreed, Crown Prince Edel gave a rare order to the staff: "Prepare to implement Plan V."
Suddenly everyone in the command room started to get busy. In fact, Plan V was prepared to deal with the Bulgarian night attack. In the plan, after the front line position was attacked, it would gradually give up resistance within an hour to make way for the two wings.
Two divisions will intercept three kilometers behind, and two divisions will attack from both sides. The division that finally opens the gap will close the gap with the reinforcements of the two divisions, and surround the Bulgarian army that breaks into the position.
Encircle and annihilate a three-kilometer area of land.
Now with the surprise attack of the Bulgarian army, this plan has also been implemented by the Romanian military.
At this time, the 2nd and 3rd divisions of the 3rd Army began to move. They will set up positions three kilometers behind the 12th Division to stop the Bulgarian assault. The 1st and 4th Divisions of the 1st Army will line up on both wings.
Deploy defenses and prepare to carry out a flank attack on the Bulgarian army. The Eighth Division will move to the front line position and prepare to close the door on the Twelfth Division. The Cavalry Division is also making preparations. They use battalions as units and plan to intercept the fish that slip through the net after dawn. 1
Time has begun to prepare an invisible network for the Bulgarian army, while the Bulgarian army is still fighting hard to break through the 12th Division's position.
"Tell the artillery to fire."
Major General Vidic, the vanguard of the Bulgarian assault and commander of the Fourth Division, shouted to the chief of staff beside him with red eyes.
It turned out that the Romanian machine guns had killed many charging soldiers of the Fourth Division, even though he had ordered the artillery fire before. However, the machine guns on the Romanian position were too cunning, and they usually fired a shuttle and changed places. Previous artillery attacks were often a step too late.
They were unable to accurately hit the supporting firepower on the position, causing the charging Fourth Division to suffer a large number of casualties, making it difficult for the Fourth Division to attack.
Seeing such a scene, Major General Vidic, as the commander of the Fourth Division, was also very anxious. He could only order the artillery to continue bombarding the machine gun points on the Romanian position, hoping to reduce the pressure on the frontline troops.
After fighting for almost an hour, the firepower on the position gradually decreased, and it could no longer withstand the impact of the Bulgarian soldiers, and the soldiers invaded the position. After seeing his men finally break through the Romanian position, Major General Vidic's face finally looked like
The weather also turned sunny, and he said to the chief of staff beside him with a smile, "Even though the casualties are heavy, it's still worth it."
The chief of staff also put aside his worries and asked, "Then I will send a telegram to the Fourth Army and ask them to follow up immediately."
Major General Vidic did not look back, but still raised the telescope in his hand and said to him, "Go."
The news that the Fourth Division had broken through Romania's first line of defense quickly spread back to the Bulgarian army's headquarters, allowing King Ferdinand I and Army Minister Lieutenant General Savov, who had been waiting for the news, to relax some of their burdens.
No one can sleep tonight, everyone is waiting for this raid that affects the fate of Bulgaria. Breaking through Romania's first line of defense this time is a good start.
The Fourth Division, as the vanguard, waited for reinforcements from the Fourth Army to arrive at the captured position, and then continued to advance toward the Romanian rear. The Fourth Army also sent two divisions to follow the Fourth Division to continue the advance, but they encountered the Romanian Second Division three kilometers away.
The resistance of the 4th Division and the 3rd Division. Facing the fierce firepower on the Romanian position, the Bulgarian army combined the strength of the three divisions to completely make up for it. This made Major General Vidic, the commander of the 4th Division who commanded the attack, secretly anxious and planning
If they cannot break through the Romanian defense line before dawn, then their night attack will be a failure.
"This time the Romanian defense looks difficult to fight. We don't have much time."
The chief of staff told Major General Vidic his worries. It was already four o'clock in the morning. If the position in front of them could not be breached before six o'clock, then their three divisions would be exposed to Romanian artillery.
After hearing what the Chief of Staff said, Major General Vidic said as if to cheer himself up. "We haven't captured this position by 5:30, so we will retreat."
Hearing his partner's reluctance, the chief of staff could only agree. "Okay, we can attack twice at this time. If that doesn't work, we will retreat."
Then the Bulgarian army launched a larger offensive, and a large number of soldiers bravely attacked the Romanian position in front of them, completely ignoring their comrades who were hit by bullets and bombed by artillery.
"These Bulgarians fought very bravely." Lieutenant General Salamik, commander of the Third Army who was observing the battle behind the position, commented on these Bulgarian troops.
"It's a pity that no matter how brave they are, they can't withstand bullets, and when our Romanian army attacks, they will do better than them." Lieutenant General Plesan, commander of the First Army, obviously did not think highly of these Bulgarian troops.
Seeing the two army bosses fighting in front of them, the other generals behind them did not dare to interrupt.
However, the soldiers on both sides did not care about anything else on the battlefield. Now they had to kill the enemy soldiers on the opposite side to protect themselves. However, in the exchange of fire between the soldiers from the two sides, the Romanian army relied on its superior technology, the defense of the trenches and the help of machine guns to suppress them to death.
with Bulgarian soldiers.
When the Bulgarian army attacked at five o'clock, the 12th Division and the 8th Division, which retreated to both sides of the front-line position, began to attack. The 15th Division of the Fourth Army, which was guarding the gap, faced Romania's elite soldiers who had been training for several years.
The new recruits, who had only been trained for more than a month, were no match at all and were driven out of the trenches one after another.
The three attacking Bulgarian divisions panicked as soon as they got the news. They were about to withdraw their troops. The 1st and 4th Divisions, who were waiting on both wings, also rushed over from both wings and entangled them.
The 2nd and 3rd divisions also rushed out of their positions. Faced with the siege of four Romanian divisions, the three Bulgarian divisions were unable to retreat at all. They could only watch their retreat being blocked by the 8th and 12th divisions of the Romanian army.
Close. Seeing that the three divisions of Bulgarian troops were surrounded on this nine square kilometers of land, in order to avoid too many casualties, the Romanian troops that entangled them also retreated.
This made Major General Vidic feel uncomfortable. They knew that the Romanian army would violently bombard them with heavy artillery when it arrived in the daytime. It was up to God whether the young man they brought could survive under the massive artillery attack of the Romanian army.
will.
For this reason, the three divisions tried to launch a final attack while the 8th and 12th Divisions defending the front-line positions were not stable. The repelled Bulgarian 15th Division also tried to attack the positions in order to meet the three divisions that were surrounded.
, distracting the defenders' attention. The 8th and 12th Divisions defending the front-line positions withstood the most violent attack in this battle.
"Machine gun suppression."
A Romanian officer on the position loudly issued an order to a Maxim machine gun group under his command. The main shooter now completely ignored the operation manual of the machine gun, held down the trigger, and fired wildly at the Bulgarian soldiers rushing towards the position.
.Under the fierce attack of this desperate main shooter, the offensive of the Bulgarian army in front of this position was suppressed.
Just when the officer breathed a sigh of relief, he was disturbed by the noise and heard an imperceptible gunshot. The death-defying main shooter fell to the ground. After seeing the main shooter falling to the ground, the deputy shooter hurriedly stepped forward to take action.
At this time, there was another gunshot and the deputy shooter also fell to the ground. This time, the officer used the flame from the muzzle to see clearly where the cold gun was. There was a rifle quietly stretched out under the corpses of three Bulgarian soldiers.
He came out. He stepped forward, took the machine gun, and fired fiercely at the three corpses he had spotted. Facing the powerful firepower of the Maxim heavy machine gun, they really turned into corpses this time.
The Bulgarian offensive continued until dawn, but the front-line positions guarded by the two Romanian divisions were still firmly in their hands. Faced with this situation, the surrounded Bulgarian army was completely desperate. At this time, fierce Romanian artillery fire came as expected.
Facing the unavoidable scene, a large number of Bulgarians were killed. Many people could not bear such an attack and threw away their weapons and surrendered to the Romanian army surrounded by the Romanian army with their hands raised.
In the end, only 23,000 of the 110,000 troops that raided the Romanian positions retreated, of which 48,000 died and 39,000 were captured. Of the 39,000 captured, 11,000 were wounded.
Waiting for news from the headquarters. After Crown Prince Edel saw the results of this battle, he knew that Bulgaria's peace sue was imminent. He planned to reward the meritorious officials who deserved to be commended, and those who deserved to be promoted to military rank after this battle.
Increase military rank.
Unlike the Romanian army, which was full of joy and laughter, King Ferdinand I of Bulgaria and Minister of War Lieutenant General Savov, who were waiting for the news, had faces as white as paper and their eyes revealed deep despair after receiving the news.
Ferdinand I grabbed the shoulder of the Minister of War and asked in a desperate tone. "What should we do now? What should we do?"
Lieutenant General Savov, who was shocked by Ferdinand I, felt the king's firm grip on his shoulders. After calming down, his brain began to think quickly.
"Your Majesty, we must withdraw our troops now and abandon Tarnovo."
After hearing Lieutenant General Savov's suggestion, Ferdinand I said with blank eyes. "Yes, this is our last force now, and we can't waste it here anymore. We have to go back quickly, we...
"
Ferdinand I couldn't help but shed tears as he spoke. He was weeping for the shattering of the dream of a greater Bulgaria, and he was also weeping for the heavy casualties suffered by Bulgaria this time.
Seeing King Ferdinand I lose control of his emotions, Lieutenant General Savov was equally uncomfortable. However, he still had to organize the troops to evacuate, but it was estimated that at least two divisions would be needed to break the rear. This break would probably be a disaster. So hold on now.
The First Army cannot withdraw from its position on Tsarevets Mountain, and now Lieutenant General Kudinchev can only make sacrifices.
For this reason, he personally called Lieutenant General Kudinchev, but they had to hold on for three days no matter what. Lieutenant General Kudinchev guaranteed his honor to delay the Romanians for three days to allow them to retreat.
After figuring all this out, Lieutenant General Savov began to prepare for the evacuation. He first asked the 14th Division to step forward to reinforce the First Army, and then withdrew the 3rd Division. After the 7th Division reorganized the retreating assault soldiers, they began to
Retreat to the rear.
After annihilating the three Bulgarian divisions that attacked at night, the Romanian army began to attack the Bulgarian First Army defending the Tsarevets Mountain position. This time they will face three Romanian armies taking turns to attack, but the defense is
The First Bulgarian Army in the Tsarevets Mountain position held on tenaciously after receiving firepower from other troops who were lightly evacuated. It was not forced to retreat until three days later.
However, only 37,000 people were left in the First Army defending the position when they withdrew. Including the additional troops to the First Army, they left 60,000 casualties on the position, which was considered a heavy casualty. Moreover, the heavy firepower was completely lost due to the withdrawal.
They discarded it.
Romania occupied Tarnovo on July 21. This time around the city of Tarnovo, Bulgaria invested 247,000 troops and Romania invested 230,000 troops. The two sides fought a battle of nearly 500,000 people. In the end, Bulgaria suffered 11.3 million casualties and was captured.
Ten thousand people died, and Romania also lost 28,000 people. With the end of this battle, Bulgaria's war potential has been exhausted, and other countries began to prepare for subsequent diplomatic negotiations.
PS is finally over, and the familiar plot of the steamed buns will begin later. You should not miss it.
