Grand Strategy was a concept few in history were truly adept at. Bruno, however, was operating on a macro scale. Overseeing and micromanaging multiple theaters of war, all while using the limited communications technology of the early 20th century to do so.
GPS was not a thing, nor were cellar telephones, the internet? If Bruno spoke of such things in this day and age, he might as well be forcing himself to undergo a lobotomy at an insane asylum. It was not like he could access a personal end-user device, and instantly send orders to an entire company of soldiers, informing them of where, when, and how to attack.
However, with his more modern understanding of warfare, especially mobile warfare. Bruno had introduced some specialized troops to the battlefield. While Special Forces were a concept mostly derived as a result of lessons learned from the second world war. One man in this world ultimately knew better.
It wasn’t exactly possible to create a highly mobile unit to deploy across the world at any given time to act as the spearhead of his army. Intercontinental transport planes were a dream of the distant future, and helicopters were an idea that nobody had even conceived up until this point.
Whereas creating specialized forces to go deep behind enemy lines, where their objective was to arm, train, and incite insurrection was not exactly the most useful asset to Bruno at the moment, as those most likely to cause problems for France, and Britain were tomorrow’s enemies.
Having learned from the repeated mistakes of the CIA and the United States Government as a whole in his past life, who more often than not created two enemies whenever they decided to start a civil war in some adversarial country across the world, Bruno had no current use for such special operations units.
But what he could very well use were Special Reconnaissance soldiers, who specialized in infiltrating deep behind enemy lines, where they provided intelligence on enemy positions to combined arms units, as well as coordinating artillery and air strikes upon their rivals on the battlefield.
In this regard, Bruno had actually repurposed the old Jäger units within his 8th Army and forced them to undergo a far more strict, and admittedly cruel form of training. Jäger companies had been specialized units attached to larger German armies for centuries.
Their role was primarily as light infantry, scouts, and skirmishers. Making them more ideal towards the current role Bruno had in mind for them. However, with the prominence of trench warfare, the Imperial German Army had more or less merged their Jäger units with more traditional infantry units.
Bruno, however, as a man with memories of the 21st century, saw a new role for these traditional scouts, and that was more or less a far more advanced role than they previously had. Because of this, there were a group of men within the mountains of Kosovo dressed in unusual uniforms, and with painted faces as they hid in the darkness of night, with their scoped rifles in wait.
The men had marched well within militant territory dressed in a camouflage pattern, most similar to the briefly used East German “Blumentarn” from Bruno’s past life. The uniforms consisted of a smock, a helmet cover, and a pair of pants that went over their standard uniform pants.
In addition to this, they were given gaiters rather than the standard issue puttees, which matched their distinctive feldgrau canvas load bearing equipment.
his equipment was in the same ALICE style pattern as those currently issued to standard infantry, but were of a color that was far more suited to the background environment.
Considering that camouflage uniforms was an entirely new concept, and these men specifically kept to the mountainside, it would not have been easy for their soon to be victims in the village below to have spotted them.
The leader of the team was surprisingly enough Heinrich, who was the Colonel in charge of Bruno’s Singular Jäger regiment. Having learned from Bruno’s example, he was a man who liked to lead his men from the front when he had the opportunity to do so.
As the leader of this fireteam of five men, Heinrich was carrying the radio pack on his back, which he quickly used to contact the other fire team, which was located a bit further away on the other side of the valley.
His words were short, but conveyed all the information they needed to say. After stating the coordinates of the enemy’s position in the village below, he ended his message with a suggestion.
“Hostiles confirmed at location; I suggest the use of 10cm HE shells… You may fire when ready…”
After saying this, a single response resounded on the line.
“Coordinates confirmed, firing first barrage in 3… 2… 1…”
An artillery battery stationed 16 kilometers away thundered in the distance as the six 10 cm Kanone 17 field guns precisely targeted the village where Islamic militants were currently distributing supplies to their newest recruits.
When the air crackled with gunfire, the militants damn near shit their pants as they hit the ground, but that was not enough to save their lives. Six shells detonated within the vicinity of the small mountain town where the guerillas had been hiding out, devastating it and everything in it.
But that was not the end of the attack. Moments later, another six thunderous blasts bellowed in the distance, before once more the barrage struck the town. And again, after that, a third followed before Heinrich got on the mic and gave the order to cease fire.
“Cease fire. All targets are KIA. Requesting medical assistance for the villagers wounded in the attack.”
Surprisingly, a familiar voice ended up on the other end of the line as Bruno spoke the words that Heinrich was not anticipating.
“Request denied, all medical assets in the region are currently being used to treat our own wounded. There has been another attack. Get your ass back to Sarajevo as quickly as possible. I have some work to do while the Kaiser and the King of Bulgaria engage in diplomacy…”
Another attack? Heinrich could only shake his head, and look back at the village that was completely demolished, and filled with the blood-curdling screams of the wounded innocent, and their unharmed families who mourned their sudden loss.
But ultimately orders were orders and because of this, he and his team withdrew back to Sarajevo as commanded. It would appear once more Bruno would make a show of force against the Balkan Guerillas who just refused to lay down their arms and end this senseless
violence.