Greece to roman road

After the war began in Europe, as time entered September, the war situation in Europe changed dramatically. read

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First, in September, Germany's Schlieffen Plan failed. The French army defended the German army's onslaught on the Marne River, and Germany's idea of ​​a quick victory was completely shattered.

At almost the same time as the Marne River Fair, as the British Allied Forces faced a fierce offensive from the German army on the Western Front, in order to relieve the pressure, the two countries urged Russia to launch an attack on Germany and contain Germany from the east.

Afterwards, two Russian armies, totaling 800,000 men, attacked German East Prussia, but were completely wiped out by the inferior German forces led by Hindenburg and Ludendorff.

As for the Balkans, well, Austria-Hungary and Serbia were fighting back and forth.

For a time, the development of the European war situation completely exceeded everyone's expectations.

But one thing is obvious: the war has inevitably become protracted.

Under such circumstances, both the Entente and the Central Powers began to scramble to win over neutral countries in order to strengthen their own power and weaken the other.

The signs that the war is further expanding its scope are already obvious.

Immediately afterwards, two German warships "detained" by the Ottoman Empire, the "Goben" and the "Brest", flying the flag of the Ottoman Empire, bombarded the Russian port of Odessa.

The arrival of these two warships attracted the attention of the Greek navy.

For comparison, before the British war began, the people of the Ottoman Empire lived frugally and raised a sum of money to order two modern warships from British shipyards.

As a result, on August 3, the Ottoman Empire received British rule: The war has broken out, we have to accept the two warships, and the shipbuilding funds will not be refunded for now.

Neither the warship nor the money was refunded. Britain's arrogant great power-style diplomacy made the Ottoman Empire angry.

Compared with Britain's arrogance, Germany was very sincere and directly donated these two German warships to the Ottoman Empire.

Two battleships were nominally seized by the Ottomans. The Germans won great favor, and the Ottoman authorities quelled the boiling public opinion.

Seeing that the Ottoman Empire and the Germans were getting closer, in order to teach the Ottomans a lesson, the British government ordered the freezing of all Ottoman property in the UK.

Soon after, warships flying the star and crescent flag of the Ottoman Empire, under the command of German naval officers, bombarded the Russian port of Odessa.

On October 29, 1914, the Ottoman Empire officially entered the war.

The war is burning at Greece's doorstep.

The development of the severe situation has put increasing military pressure on Greece.

In the Balkans, only Romania, Bulgaria and Greece have remained neutral.

On October 30, Constantine, together with Chief of General Staff Emmanuel and the new Minister of Arms Manougianaski, set out from Athens and took a train to Salonika to inspect the armaments of the Greek Army. Condition.

In the train carriage, the three of them discussed the preparations of the Greek army for war.

"I didn't expect the Germans to be so generous. They actually gave two warships to the Ottoman Empire. Only two battlecruisers were in service in the Greek Navy. The Germans actually gave two modern warships to the Ottoman Empire." Manu Giannaski said in an envious tone.

"There is no way, the Germans are really willing to pay in order to achieve their strategic goals," Emmanuel said calmly.

"The Germans' strategic goal is to win over the Ottoman Empire and cut off the most important communication channel between Russia and its Allied allies, the Dardanelles-Bosphorus Sea Knight," Emmanuel explained to the two.

"The current war situation has inevitably become protracted, which has led to changes in the response methods of various countries."

"Russia has a large population and a large number of young and middle-aged men who are suitable for military service. Even if the Russian army loses some troops, as long as Britain and France support Russia with sufficient arms and supplies, the losses caused to Russia by the Battle of Tannenberg are not worth mentioning at all. "

Constantine nodded in agreement: "For the Allied camp, the greatest strategic significance of the Ottomans is that it can contain and weaken Russia. Russia has huge human resources, but a weak industrial base, and needs allies to provide it with weapons and equipment as assistance. , and the Dardanelles Strait controlled by Turkey will cut off this military assistance connection."

"Germany's top leaders undoubtedly clearly saw the importance of the Dardanelles to Russia, so they spent a lot of money to win over the Ottoman Empire to join their side."

Before the war, Russia was Europe's largest grain exporter, and 90% of grain transport ships passed through here. Therefore, the Dardanelles Strait can also be called Russia's economic lifeline.

Once controlled by an enemy country, not only Russia's wheat cannot be sold, but also all ships transporting military supplies and living supplies cannot enter the Black Sea ports. Russia can be said to have its throat strangled.

"Now that the Ottoman Empire has been won over, it is foreseeable that Germany will not just be satisfied with this, they will continue to win over Bulgaria," Constantine said solemnly.

"Once Bulgaria is also drawn into the Allied camp, then we can see that a noose around Russia's neck is officially formed."

"This noose starts from Germany in southwest Europe, along the Berlin-Baghdad Railway, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Bulgaria, the Ottoman Empire..., connecting cities on a front line bordering each other"

"The next thing to do is to keep tightening the noose until Russia suffocates and dies."

The two listened to Constantine's story and sketched out Germany's military concept in their minds.

Russia's seaports for external exchanges are very limited. There are four main seaports, St. Petersburg on the Baltic Sea, the Northern Route, the Trans-Siberian Railway-Vladivostok, and seaports in the Black Sea region.

After the two sides launched a war, the Baltic Sea was naturally blocked by the German navy.

As for the Northern Route, under the technical conditions of this era, it was almost like death.

The weather was bad and there was the threat of ice floes, making it very difficult.

After the Ottoman Empire joined the Allied camp, the Black Sea routes between Russia and the outside world were also cut off.

So, Russia's only remaining external channel is Siberia-Vladivostok.

However, this railway is a single-track railway, with a long distance and low transportation efficiency.

The Trans-Siberian Railway is the longest railway in the world. It was built on July 13, 1904 and took 13 years to complete.

It crosses the Ural Mountains, extends in the forests of Siberia, and spans almost 1/4 of the circumference of the earth. The railway is designed to run at a speed of 80 kilometers per hour. It takes seven days and seven nights to reach the terminal in Vladivostok, a total of 9,288 kilometers from Moscow.

Now Russia can only rely on such a channel,

"Once Bulgaria is won over by the Germans, we may also be forced into the war."

Manujianaski and Emmainur looked calm.

The most hated country in Bulgaria now is definitely Greece.

After the two Balkan wars, Bulgaria not only failed to gain Macedonia, which it had longed for with confidence, but also lost a lot of territory.

Instead, Greece took almost all of Macedonia.

In order to win over Bulgaria and realize its grand strategy, Germany has completed the blockade. There is no guarantee that it will not make commitments to Bulgaria, such as the issue of Macedonia's ownership.

Considering Bulgaria's insane mobilization rate in history, even if Bulgaria's total population is less than four million, it will still have an army of six to seven million.

Coupled with the support from Germany and Austria-Hungary, they will definitely provide sufficient arms supplies. Berlin passes through the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and the train bound for Sofia will be full of German arms to arm the Bulgarians.

"No matter what, the Greek army should be ready for combat now. Your Excellency, Chief of General Staff, how is our mobilization system?" Constantine asked.

"Although it is impossible to predict when Greece will be involved in the war, your army must still be fully prepared and ready to enter the battle at any time."

Emmanuel said calmly: "After the baptism of two wars, Greece's mobilization mechanism has been very perfect."

"Our General Staff has formulated a complete Greek Army Reserve training plan. All young people in Greece, aged over 18 and under 40, are required to undergo military training on time.

The training time is from the fourth to the sixth day of each month. Such frequent military training also requires the government to invest a sum of money to provide subsidies to the reservists who participate in the training.

Both rural residents and urban residents are no exception.

The General Staff Headquarters adopts different models based on the actual situation and the differences in life between rural and urban residents.

Military training for rural residents, since they usually have to participate in land labor, military training is mainly carried out during the slack season, and is carried out intensively at this time.

As for urban residents, since they usually have to work and go to school, we will use their rest time for training. "

"How is the mobilization efficiency?" Constantine continued to ask.

"According to the estimates of our General Staff, theoretically if a war breaks out, after the Greek Army begins its general mobilization, it can mobilize 400,000 troops within a week, and within 15 days, this number can reach 750,000 troops."

Emmanuel then went on to add: “This number does not include the number of indigenous Congolese soldiers”

Manougianaski interjected: "There is no problem with mobilization. Depending on Greece's current economic situation, the government's finances can be maintained within six months to one year. We have discussed this issue with the government departments."

"But Your Highness, relying on the production capacity of our military factory, we do not have sufficient arms supplies to supply a large number of soldiers on the front line."

"According to the information sent back from the Western Front, the war there turned into trench warfare, which made artillery preparation very important for both offense and defense," Manugianaski said with an ugly face.

"Our armaments department found that everyone's calculations of military supplies reserves and consumption rates during peacetime are too optimistic."

"In the just-concluded Battle of the Marne, the actual consumption of artillery shells was 240,000 rounds per day. According to my friend who serves in the French army, the French General Staff calculated the consumption of artillery shells before the war to be 30,000 rounds per day. hair"

"According to him, France's reserve of 75mm artillery shells can only support until September 1914, and its reserve of rifles can support until November. France's domestic production of 75mm artillery shells can only meet 7% of demand,"

"According to estimates, starting from November, the French army's ammunition reserves will be unable to make ends meet. By February 1915, the entire French army was short of 700,000 rifles and 1,500 75mm artillery pieces."

Hearing that the French army consumed 240,000 French artillery shells in one day, Emmanuel's expression changed and he quickly asked: "How many artillery shells are there in the army's armament reserve?"

"890,000 rounds for the 75mm and 210,000 rounds for the 105mm," Manogianasky said sadly.

Even though Constantine was prepared, he was surprised. According to the consumption of the Battle of the Marne, the total reserve of artillery shells of the Greek Army was completely consumed in four or five days.

"So what is Greece's military production capacity now?" Constantine asked quickly.

"According to data from the armaments department, if production is at full capacity, 1,000 rifles, 80 machine guns, 300 barrels and 100,000 rounds of artillery shells can be produced every month."

Although Constantine could not know how much arms and supplies would be needed based on the scale of the General Staff's mobilization of more than 700,000 troops.

However, the production capacity reported by Manujianaski is undoubtedly far from enough.

According to this production capacity, not to mention anything else, the gap is very large for more than 700,000 rifles alone.

When a soldier goes to the battlefield, he can't be without a rifle, right?

War preparations mainly focus on materials, rather than simply pursuing the number of troops.

Emmanuel said: “Before the war, none of the major participating countries expected that the war would turn into a long-term war of attrition. The general staffs of the armies of each country were formulating various offensive plans instead of considering how to defend. Military thinking is still very common."

"After the war broke out, all countries failed to switch to a wartime economy in time. Military operations mainly relied on pre-war arms reserves. No one thought that these reserves were only enough for a few months."

“Armies from all countries are facing ammunition shortages, and it’s not just our problem in Greece.”

"Is there any way to solve the problem?" Emma Inur asked.

Manugianaski said with confidence: "Chief of General Staff, please rest assured! Although the Greek army has a large military industry gap, I believe that the situation of the Bulgarian army will only get worse."

"As long as military spending is sufficient, we can give arms factories the right to produce arms now. Even if the gap is still too large by then, we can also seek assistance from other countries."

"Anyway, we don't have to be like the Russians. Even if we have supplies, they can't transport them in."

"The worst-case scenario is nothing more than asking for help from the outside world, such as the US military factory."

"In addition, our military industry department plans to immediately send a working group to the military factory for supervision with the consent of the Crown Prince and Prime Minister Venizelos. Although it is too early to talk about the Greek army joining the war, our military industry supplies Production can be mobilized in advance.”