"The Ninth Army retreats to Hungary, what should we do?"
Major General Hans seemed to have understood the situation before, and immediately asked the most important question of the Tenth Army.
Faced with the chief of staff's inquiry, Lieutenant General Sam did not express his thoughts, but asked, "So what is your suggestion?"
Regarding Lieutenant General Sam's request for him to make suggestions, Major General Hans said he had just thought of a solution. "I think under the current circumstances, we must evacuate."
Major General Hans pointed to the location of Deva on the map and continued. "I believe that after the Ninth Army retreats, the enemy's target must be us. By then, no matter in terms of troops or weapons and equipment, we will not be an opponent. At that time, the offensive and defensive positions will change.
, the taste is unpleasant. So I think we need to make a decision early."
"And we can take advantage of the fact that the enemy is still entangled with the Ninth Army on the Cluj line and retreat directly to Adela."
Lieutenant General Adrasam, whom the Chief of Staff mentioned, certainly knows. This is the main transportation route on the railway line from Hungary to Romania. There is a southern line here that reaches Belgrade. And its origin is the Murie River in the Transylvanian Plateau.
Passing through here, turning back and joining the Danube River to the south, it can be said to be the most powerful city point to defend against possible Romanian attacks.
Lieutenant General Sam also admitted that his chief of staff's method was the best defensive plan at present. However, Lieutenant General Sam was very unwilling to retreat like this. "Hans, you are right, but I don't think it can be done at the moment."
Just go like this."
Seeing that his chief of staff wanted to ask what he meant after hearing this sentence, Lieutenant General Sam directly expressed his thoughts. "Hans, I know that your consideration in doing this is to reduce the losses of our army group, but you only consider
We have to consider military issues. This is not comprehensive. We also need to consider the political and diplomatic impacts."
At this point, Sam asked, "Chief of Staff, what would happen if we lost Transylvania in one month?"
Faced with Sam's inquiry, Major General Hans expressed his thoughts. "The already bad domestic environment will be even more difficult. Diplomatically, the allies will also have different views on the empire, and the Italian campaign prepared by His Majesty will be affected.
"
Facing the chief of staff's answer, Lieutenant General Sam nodded. "I know all what you said, but I think the most important thing right now is to pay attention to the emotions of the soldiers. A quarter of the soldiers in our Tenth Army are
Coming from this land, retreating like this will make them discouraged, which will not be beneficial to future operations."
Lieutenant General Sam actually didn't say a word until he said this, so he was reluctant to part with the heavy artillery brigade attached to him. This independent third heavy artillery brigade of the Austro-Hungarian Army, commanded by Major General Klos, cost the Imperial Army nearly a hundred years of hard work.
The heavy artillery brigade composed of 150, 180, 210, and 240 caliber grenades and cannons is a treasure that is envied by armies of all countries.
There are only six brigades in the Austro-Hungarian Army, and Lieutenant General Sam used them carefully for fear of suffering heavy losses. And if we retreat according to what Major General Hans said, then it will be difficult for this heavy artillery brigade, which has condensed the hard work of the army, to return.
To get to Adela. Because Deva is hundreds of kilometers away from Adela, it will take at least five days at the slow speed of the heavy artillery brigade, but it does not take that much time for the Romanians to surround them.
Therefore, whether it is to stabilize the Transylvanian soldiers or to preserve the Third Heavy Artillery Brigade, Lieutenant General Sam needs to fight the Romanians. Through the battle in Deva, Lieutenant General Sam felt that Romania
He is not too short or too strong, and he still hopes to keep his heavy artillery and stabilize the morale of the army.
"Hans, we can't just leave in despair."
Looking at the map in front of him, Lieutenant General Sam quickly searched for a suitable location for combat, and soon a place name in Deva and Adela appeared in front of him. "I fought with them in Misio,
We can't let these Romanians get too presumptuous. But if the Salamik in front of us dares to come out of the turtle shell, let's give him a hard taste."
Following Lieutenant General Sam's order, the Tenth Austro-Hungarian Army began preparations for evacuation. The changes in the Austro-Hungarian army immediately attracted the attention of the Deva defenders.
In the headquarters of Army Group South in Deva, General Salamik was considering the evacuation of the Austro-Hungarian army.
"General, we can't just let them evacuate, otherwise this defensive operation will cause too much loss to our entire army."
The person who was making an impassioned speech was the mentally retarded Lieutenant General Ankodar of the 1st Guards Division. Of course, he was not just speaking to the general, but to every division commander who had participated in the Battle of Deva.
Lieutenant General Ankodar's speech made General Salamik very embarrassed. Originally, he planned to report the good news that Cluj had been captured. Who knew that after hearing that Cluj had been captured, these division commanders immediately used the excuse
The topic of how to expand the results of the battle came up. General Salamik didn't think much about it at first, and the topics discussed by these division commanders became unified. The topic gradually changed from how to expand the results of the battle to how to delay the battle.
The Tenth Austro-Hungarian Army in front of them waited until Lieutenant General Freyt brought reinforcements to destroy this enemy's heavy army in one fell swoop.
And General Salamik, who was watching all this, knew that these were the divisions belonging to the Southern Army Group. He couldn't bear the bad breath of being beaten by the Austro-Hungarian Tenth Army, and wanted to take advantage of the situation to regain this opportunity.
place.
However, not everyone agrees with what Lieutenant General Ankodar said, and some people plan to be more cautious. "But now our troops are not strong enough to hold the enemy back, so we should wait for the friendly forces from Cluj to arrive before fighting."
However, the person who spoke was quickly rebuffed. "Colonel Antonescu, you'd better do your job well and don't let deserters happen again, otherwise it will make people laugh."
After saying this, Antonescu clearly heard laughter coming out. This was because someone couldn't help laughing. However, Antonescu was very unwilling to face this situation, but there was nothing he could do about it.
The division he leads is only a newly mobilized division. And he is only a deputy. If the division commander hadn't asked him to take over the unit due to a sudden illness, he wouldn't even be qualified to sit here.
After seeing that other voices that had emerged were suppressed, General Salamik knew that this was a unanimous decision by all the main division commanders under his command. In fact, General Salamik himself felt aggrieved by the battle of Deva.
And after seeing that everyone was unanimous, he was willing to be a favor. After all, the army group was only a temporary establishment and would not be seen again in the future, and the risk of delaying the Austro-Hungarian army this time was not too great.
"Since everyone agrees so, I decided to dispatch the 1st Guards Division, the 15th Division, and the 18th Division to attack and delay the enemy. We cannot let them leave comfortably like this. The other divisions continue to be on guard against possible surprise attacks by the enemy.
." At this point, Salamik paused and continued. "However, your attacking troops must be careful and must withdraw when they find that the enemy is making a counterattack."
"As commanded."
Regarding General Salamik's words, all the division commanders present could understand that it would be too embarrassing if there was a big fall before the end of the battle.
Sure enough, after the diversionary attack launched by the Southern Army, it was immediately counterattacked by the Austro-Hungarian Tenth Army, which made everyone who was about to vent their anger suddenly hold back. However, this was just a reflection of the Tenth Army. Under Freit's leadership,
After the elites of the Central Army and the Northern Army hurriedly arrived, Lieutenant General Sam's Tenth Army finally could not withstand the attack. Facing an attack of nearly 300,000 Romanian elites, the Tenth Army was defeated. However, the Romanian army was completely defeated.
After driving it out of Transylvania, the pursuit was not continued because Romania's biggest threat, the German Army on the Eastern Front, had already reached the border and the test had just begun.
