Re: Blood and Iron

Chapter 242: Looking Back on the First Year of the Great War



Belgium's entry into the war made matters more complicated for the allies. Initially, this war was seen by many in the world as a tragic response of Austro-Hungarian aggression into Serbia. The late Serbian King Peter I had made it seem like their requests would violate his sovereignty as an independent ruler.

However, as more and more hidden secrets were revealed, Serbia and its royal family started becoming the villains from the perspective of those neutral nations which sat by and watched as Europe burned in the background.

In addition to this, France's violations of Luxembourgish and Belgian neutrality was seen as a flagrant and aggressive violation done without any potential just cause. At least the Austro- Hungarians had a valid casus belli to declare war on the Serbians.

But the French invasions of Belgium and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg represented an era long since believed to have been diminished in the Western world, and an era where might was right, and one could invade their neighbors simply because they had the means to do so. Post enlightenment, of which France claimed to be the originator of in at least some capacity, such invasions were seldom to be found, at least among the European powers who believed themselves more civilized than the rest of the world. And to some extent, outside of Asia, that is, this was partially true.Nôv(el)B\\jnn

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Even so, France had violated these international norms, and had done so after repeated defeats at the hands of the Germans when the French Army tried to advance through their eastern neighbors' borders.

This only made their invasions of Belgium and Luxembourg more fiendish in the eyes of the neutral powers, because it was seen as a desperate attempt, done after repeated humiliating defeats. Had it been a matter of Grand Strategy enacted on day 1 of the war, it could be seen as Jess reprehensible.

After all Germany had done this in their past life, and though much of the world seemed to believe this was an unwarranted act of aggression, there were many others which this did not stop their entry into the war on behalf of the Central Powers.

But the dynamic of the aggressors and the defenders had completely swapped in this life, with Germany holding its own ground, and only advance into Luxembourg and Belgium when called upon for aid by the two nations.

Instead, France had been the invader, marching into lands that were not their own, suffering from their own inadequacy against a heavily entrenched, and technologically superior foe. One which resulted in their continuous and bloody losses.

Belgium was no exception to this pattern, as the German Army advanced much like they had in Luxembourg, rapidly on the back of armored cars, and with their artillery being pulled by trucks behind them. Allowing for the rapid transportation of men, materials, and munitions to support the Royal Belgian Army, who were just about to be overrun.

That however changed with the arrival of the German soldiers whose armored cars acted as a battering ram against the French lines, while simultaneously providing protection to the Infantry in support of them until they managed to cross the otherwise dangerous no-man's- land that had been established between the French and Belgian armies.

The French Army was quickly routed. It was only natural for this to occur. The enemy came with armored vehicles that were damn near indestructible against the weaponry currently in the French Army's possession.

The Ausf B. Models of the Spähpanzer utilized the E-10 chassis, meaning that they had sloped armor made of rolled homogenous steel whose plating was 20mm thick at the lightest protected areas, and up to 60mm at the heaviest.

To put this in perspective, 8×50mmR Lebel, which was the primary cartridge utilized by the French Army in both its bolt action rifles and its machine guns, was simply not enough to do anything more than scratch the paint job of these armored cars.

One would need dedicated anti-tank weapons if they wished to take these armored cars out, and these AT guns would need to be considerably larger than what the Germans fielded at the end of the Great War to deal with the pitiful tanks of the era.

Either that or they would need to land a direct hit with an HE shell from at the very least a 10cm field gun. But... That might not even get the job done as high explosive shells were not exactly designed with the purpose of taking out armor.

Even so, achieving such a precise hit on a target moving with the speed these Spähpanzer moved with was much easier said than done. And because of this, the French Army who was damn near about to seize the last remnant of Belgium had broken ranks after their lines were broken through, and fled.

Yet the German Army did not stop there. Belgium was not a small nation like Luxembourg, or at least not nearly as small as the Grand Duchy was. They couldn't simply send a single division to deal with the French, no they had to send far more troops, across multiple battles. At the very least, it would take weeks before the French were fully driven from Belgium. That is assuming they stood and fought, rather than just hightail it back to the French borders. Which if Bruno was in charge of Belgian Campaign, he would bet a substantial amount of money on just that.

Either way the course of the war would be changed one way or another of the course of the next few weeks depending on how stubbornly the French contested control over Belgium, which they had damn near annexed if not for German intervention at the last minute.

And Bruno, who was currently making his preparations for the invasion of Ottoman Thrace, was more or less paying attention to the Western Front with great interest. As was the rest of the world. After all, it was an era where Europe was the center of the world, and what happened between the Great Powers affected all others on Earth.