Chapter 1234 Balance of Power on the Battlefield
Bitola's camp was built on the mountain. It was more like a simple and rough temporary fortress group. Talorin and his party returned to the camp before dark.
Subsequently, everyone interrogated this Serbian element. Obviously, the army is best at dealing with such people. After all, they are not professional torturers.
After a night of torture, this Serbian extremist could not bear it anymore.
In the interrogation room, interrogator Antalier reported to Moshui, the top military commander of Bitola:
"This man's name is Gerrovski, and he is a Serbian from the former Macedonian region. According to his dictation, he should want to find out our truth. It seems that the remnants of the Serbs are very restless."
"Gerlovski is a company commander of the former 16th Division of Serbia. He was born in a Serbian Orthodox family in Macedonia. His father is a local priest in Bilato."
"So Gerlovski Vski has been deeply poisoned by national parochialism since he was a child. After the Kingdom of Serbia annexed Macedonia, he resolutely chose to join the army and experienced two Balkan wars..."
Serbs, Orthodox believers, extreme A nationalist, from a small family in Macedonia... There is no doubt that this Gerlovski is a typical Serbian element.
Moss said: "Sure enough, the Serbs are determined to conquer us. The empire paid a huge price to destroy the Kingdom of Serbia."
In order to conquer the Kingdom of Serbia, the Austro-Hungarian Empire suffered more than 400,000 casualties. Of course, this number includes ordinary people.
The Austro-Hungarian Empire actually did not pay much attention to the casualties of ordinary people. After all, the situation on the Serbian battlefield was so bad that it only allowed the Serbs to invade Bosnia.
The state of Bosnia is where Serbs, Croats and Ottoman survivors live, so the casualties in Bosnia are a good thing for the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Of course, the huge losses suffered by the Austro-Hungarian army were also quite uncomfortable. After all, many of the imperial troops stationed in Bosnia were elite elites.
After all, the Austro-Hungarian Empire had been plotting against the Kingdom of Serbia for a long time. The troops on the border between the two countries were at least in the middle and upper reaches of the imperial army. However, these elites were all due to Potiorek’s command errors. And was ruined.
To put it more simply, most of the Bosnian state army under the command of Potiorek were professional soldiers.
This is not comparable to the cannon fodder troops that are temporarily recruited and hastily joined the battlefield.
However, fortunately, the Austro-Hungarian Empire had a deep foundation and finally restored the situation, but the price paid was also quite heavy.
Moss continued: "Not to mention Albania and Greece, even the situation in the Kingdom of Serbia is not very good, especially the guerrillas and the Serb people who shelter the guerrillas, making it difficult for us to be stable. To survive.”
The guerrillas are currently Moss’s biggest headache, and the soil of Serbia is naturally suitable for the development of guerrilla tactics.
The first is ideology. The Serbian people have a very deep hatred for the Austro-Hungarian Empire. This is due to the Serbian government’s long-term negative propaganda against the Austro-Hungarian Empire, coupled with the blessing of nationalist thoughts, the Serbian people are like madmen.
The second is the terrain and climate of the Balkans. It is mountainous, hilly and densely forested, which is naturally suitable for guerrilla warfare.
This has caused the entire Serbian region, although the major battles have basically ended, small attacks and rebellions have continued.
The situation in the Bitola region is even more complicated. On the one hand, Moss must be wary of counterattacks by local forces, and on the other hand, he must be wary of attacks by foreign forces.
Although Bilatto is next to Greece, it is not far from the Albanian region, and these two places are the main destinations for Serbian troops participating in the retreat.
So Moss said: "It is impossible for the enemy to send just one infiltrator, so many others must have infiltrated across the border between the two countries."
"Counting the time, the Serbs should not be able to sit still either. After all, this half year is enough time for them to obtain support from Britain, France and Germany to re-arm their troops." We need to increase patrols in the next few days and be alert to changes in the situation in Greece, and we must also be vigilant in the west. After all, the enemy may also come from the Albanian region.”
After the fall of Serbia at the end of 1915, the Serbian government-in-exile has always been cautious. There is no big move, which is obviously against common sense.
So Moss concluded that the Serbian government-in-exile will make big moves in the near future, and there is a high probability that Bitola will be within the scope of the Serbian plans.
But Moss only has one battalion of troops. Of course, this does not mean that the coalition forces deployed in the border areas are small. Together with the brother troops, the Austro-Hungarian and Bulgarian coalition forces in the entire Serbian border area are as high as 50,000. And it occupies a geographical advantage.
But my family knows their own affairs, and the combat effectiveness of the more than 50,000 coalition forces is quite worrying. The main force of the coalition forces in Serbia has basically gone to the Russian battlefield.
Albania and Greece are also factors of instability. No one knows whether the two countries will join the Allied camp at this time.
Not to mention these small countries, even the paramilitary allies of the Allied Powers, the Ottoman Empire is still in a wait-and-see state.
This is mainly because the entire war situation in 1915 has fallen into a stalemate. The Allies and the Central Powers were evenly matched, so many countries did not dare to bet.
Related countries such as Italy, Greece, Romania, and the Ottoman Empire do not dare to end up at this time.
Bulgaria is an exception. Bulgaria's main goal is Serbia and other Balkan countries. After Austria-Hungary gained an advantage over Serbia last year, Bulgaria will inevitably be unable to sit still.
Among other things, Bulgaria must regain the territory lost in the Second Balkan War, so Bulgaria has only one option: participating in the war.
Of course, the Bulgarian government naturally wants to use this opportunity to get more spoils in the Balkans. If the Austro-Hungarian Empire were to finish everything, Bulgaria would not even be able to drink soup.
Of course, if the battlefield situation is carefully studied, the Allies are still at a disadvantage. After all, the Allies are very different from the Allied Powers in terms of materials and national strength.
However, the situation is much better than in the previous life, which is mainly reflected in three aspects. The first is that Italy is missing as a troublemaker. In the previous life, Italy rebelled before the war, which can be said to have caused huge trouble to the Allies.
Don't look at Italy's disastrous record in its previous life, but Italy in its previous life was still a great power.
But now on the Italian peninsula, the three countries dare not make a bet easily. This gives Germany and Austria more room to operate, at least it will not make the Austro-Hungarian Empire panic.
Secondly, the two "neutral countries" in East Africa and the United States resold supplies to the Allies, which strengthened the Allies' war potential. At least Germany and Austria devoted more troops to the battlefield.
At the same time, because of the existence of East Africa, it has strengthened its armed forces against Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire, which is also a good thing for the Allies.
Especially Bulgaria, which has already participated in the war, can at least ensure that each soldier has a rifle, so that he will not be in the same situation as Tsarist Russia.
At this point, Ernst admired the mobilization ability of Orthodox countries. Regardless of Serbia, Bulgaria, or Tsarist Russia, they all showed strong mobilization capabilities.
On the contrary, the three countries have poor logistical support capabilities. In previous lives, regardless of Serbia, Bulgaria or Russia, a large number of soldiers were recruited into the army without even having weapons. This is probably also a characteristic of Orthodox Christian countries. .
Of course, Bulgaria is quite special. Although its belief is Orthodox Christianity, it is still somewhat different from the general Slavs.
However, it is undeniable that the combat effectiveness of the Bulgarians is trustworthy. Today, the Bulgarians perform equally well on the Russian battlefield.
(End of this chapter)