Bruno came to notice something as the German, Austro-Hungarian, and Russian armies came together. Something subtle had shifted in the timeline, and it was not exactly all that surprising. To a certain degree, the same rules which applied in his past life still were applicable to this timeline despite its changes.
What did this mean? Well, at a very small level, slight changes in uniforms were made due to the nature of the shift in alliances. For example, in Bruno’s past life, there were, for the most part, two different steel helmet designs that came to dominate the battlefield during the Great War.
If one were aligned with the Central Powers, then the odds were that they adopted the M1916 Stahlhelm, originally created by the German Reich, as their answer to head trauma caused by artillery shrapnel.
Or at the very least, they fielded some form of locally produced variation of that design. This had been true for not only Austro-Hungary but also the Ottoman Empire and the Kingdom of Bulgaria during Bruno’s past life.
Whereas the Allied Powers, except for two exceptions, used the French Adrian Helmet more or less. This included Russia to a much smaller degree, as they were very late to the game to adopt a steel helmet as a result of Tsar Nicholas’s aesthetic sensibilities.
The two exemptions to this general rule of thumb were Great Britain and their infamous Mk I Helmet. There were various nicknames given to this timeless flat brim design, such as the “Brodie Helmet” or the “Tommy Helmet” but at the end of the day it was the same thing.
The United States, curiously enough, was the only faction during the war of any partial significance which opted for the British Mk I design over the French M1915 Adrian Helmet. Which the American soldiers affectionately referred to their domestic copies of the Mk I as the “doughboy” helmet.
I mention these distinctions, because in this life it was the same way. With Germany adopting the m1916 Stahlhelm much earlier than it otherwise should have, a decade or earlier that is, there were naturally copied designs by its allies who understood the value of steel helmets as the infamous Iron Division which Bruno led into Russia had received far fewer casualties as a result of their unique head protection.
The Austro-Hungarians, much as in Bruno’s past life, copied the Stahlhelm. It was damn near identical aside from the chin strap used, and the placement of the rivets which attached it to the helmet.
However, what was most certainly interesting was the fact that the Russians had also adopted their own variation of the Stahlhelm. A direct copy of the German version, the only distinction was the Russian Empire’s coat of arms being emblazoned into its center.
Something that interestingly enough appeared during Bruno’s past life among German Freikorps volunteers in the Russian Civil War of 1917-1922. Something which Bruno had luckily dealt with much earlier in this life, and thus did not have to fear as a consequence of his pursuit of victory over the Great War.
Because of this, there was little distinction in the appearance of the combined army of the Imperial Powers as they marched south through the Balkans, in particular both Montenegro and Serbia. Especially as both Germany and Austro-Hungary had adopted a damn near identical version of feldgrau for the coloration of their uniforms.
The Russian Uniforms were only mildly different in this regard, as they were more of an olive drab green than they were a green-grey. Even so, the Stahlhelms, brown leather equipment, and puttees did no favors in distinguishing them from their allies, who shared a similar degree of equipment.
Even though the cuts of their uniforms, and insignia were wholly distinctive, such things were difficult to spot at a distance, because of this, if one were gazing from afar, even with binoculars, the massive force of men moving in tandem with one another almost appeared like a force of one million German soldiers to the uninitiated.
Which was a terrifying thought considering how efficiently the Germans had been dealing with their rivals on the global stage. And because of this, when the Serbian Provision Government heard back from its scouts that somewhere around a million German soldiers were advancing into their territory, the leadership instantly began to panic.
The reality was that only about 300,000 of those soldiers were actually German soldiers. After the victory at Belgrade, and its successful defense. Bruno ordered the 2nd Army, along with the 11th Army, to invade the Kingdom of Montenegro.
Montenegro had remained neutral for the first month of the war. That is, until Bruno smashed half the Serbian Royal Army at the border, and obliterated their capital all within a single month. In retaliation, the small Balkan Kingdom had quickly declared war on the Imperial Powers.
The reality was that since the start of the war in July, Montenegro had been ferrying troops and supplies into their lands to support Serbia all under the guise of neutrality. The moment they declared war, however, Bruno was well prepared to counter them, and in doing so split his own forces to do so.
This wasn’t exactly difficult, with Russian and Austro-Hungarian reinforcements. He was able to spare two whole field armies for the Montenegrin campaign, and in doing so, still have roughly one million men give or take to combat the Serbian Provisional Army.
Normally, it would be easy for a properly trained scout to spot the difference between German troops and those of their allies. The problem was that the Serbian Provisional Army was basically relying on men with minimal training, and whatever equipment they could scrounge together.
Thus, the idea that the 300,000 men who were using motorized transportation for their troops equipment and were the only German soldiers within the massive army advancing south into Serbia never even crossed their mind. ƒreewebɳovel.com
Instead, the roughly 700,000 men in similar uniforms but marching on foot, and carrying their equipment either on their own backs, or via horses and pack mules were also assumed to be German soldiers, resulting in an unintentional disruption of Serbian intelligence, and allied intelligence over all.
Either way, the Serbian Provisional Government was now in a state of internal panic, and was considering whether to throw in the towel altogether, or flee into Montenegro and Albania to continue the war via a combined guerilla campaign.
Especially now that Greece had announced its entry into the war, and would be attacking Serbia from the south, while “Germany” attacked from the north. It was truly a very bad situation to be in.
But in all reality, the current situation was much better for the Serbians than they thought, considering that the German soldiers and artillery composed of only a minority of those headed their way.