By morning, war had officially been declared between the Kingdom of Greece and the Kingdom of Bulgaria, dragging the otherwise neutral power into the side of the Allies. It was an alliance of necessity more than anything.
The Bulgarians and Ottomans had been funding militants to fight one another throughout the Balkans, and to cause unrest in the region that each hoped to take advantage of. The unfortunate byproduct of this proxy war was the death of the Greek Prince in Athens.
An attack conducted by Orthodox Militants against a local Turkish restaurant was one that had unfortunately resulted in the untimely demise of a man whose death was a major international incident.
And in doing so, provoking an outright war between both Balkan Kingdoms. Bruno had moved quicker than anyone else, and had ensured his specialists were well behind enemy lines conducting operations of sabotage, assassination, reconnaissance, and coordination with Aerial and Artillery assets to properly strike the enemy where they were weakest.
While at the same time the 8th Army, which by now consisted primarily of combined arms, Brigades had begun its march straight to Sofia. The war was not static, while the Allies progressed in technology to counter the already advanced German machines of war.
The German Reich continued in its efforts to modify, adapt, and invent new weapons that could be used on the battlefield. And they had made many progress while Bruno had sat in Sarajevo countering an insurgency for months on end.
For example, the fast pace at which Bruno made use of his motorized infantry was an enormous advantage on the battlefield. But it had significant drawbacks. For example, a lack of protection to the crew and those being carried to the edge of battle.
All it took was one placed shot, and the driver was dead. This was, for obvious reasons, less than ideal for trucks that were currently carrying troops into war. Frankly speaking, Bruno’s 3.5-ton trucks were never intended to perform the role of an armored personnel carrier, nor an infantry mobility vehicle.
But the troops preferred to move quickly, and into enemy territory with the speed of Sleipnir as they advanced against a much slower enemy. And yes, men had paid the price of these thunder runs with their lives.
Thus, creating a necessity for some form of armored transport for German soldiers. The e-10 Chassis was designed not only to be modular to a variety of weapons platforms but also easily scalable in size. It was, after all, based upon German blueprints from the second world war that would have revolutionized German armored production.
Long-term solutions to the motorized/mechanized infantry question would require extensive engineering and designing efforts, and frankly speaking, nobody had time for that. Not when a Global War was being waged.
Or at the very least, a more simple solution was required right now, at this moment. So how did one accomplish this? It was simple, while a small team of dedicated engineers would be working on re-engineering the Entwicklung series of chassis which Bruno had initially left crude blueprints behind regarding the now perfect E-10 Chassis, and potentially larger scaled models like the E-25, and E-50.
The primary investment at the moment would be in a similar vein to what the Americans found themselves doing at the start of the Iraq War in 2003 of Bruno’s past life. In other words, slap armor onto their current inventory of trucks, protecting the cab, engine, fuel tanks, wheels, et cetera from hostile munitions, and preferably those inside them.
Some of them that were designated as primary infantry transports even replaced the typical bed of the truck with an armored design. One that protected those carried inside from rifle rounds so long as they kept their heads down.
In addition to this, certain trucks were retrofitted to carry 2cm Flak Guns in their beds, sometimes quad mounted as a means of mobile anti-aircraft as the threat of enemy air power became more and more prominent as the months went by.
This was a simple enough job to manage, as one merely swapped out the standard bed of the truck with a flatbed and put a static 2cm gun in the back. And while these newly up armored 3.5-ton trucks had proven to enhance the combined arms capabilities of Bruno’s armor as a stopgap measure while more dedicated mechanized vehicles were in the process of being created.
There was one recent invention that was being put to the test for the first time since the war began. Knowing that missiles and rockets would one day play a major role in warfare, Bruno had decided to invest in any talent who remotely knew about rocketry.
Sending massive budgets to their departments so long as they could provide tangible prototypes. And while years passed with little results as rocketry was still a very new field of study in engineering. Bruno had completely forgotten about this dedicated team of mad lads researching advanced weapons for the German Reich.
That is until now. Sitting in the bed of several of the new up-armored 3.5-ton trucks was a weapon that Bruno was all too familiar with. As it was one of the first modern MLRS systems ever invented in his past life.
MLRS standing for “multiple rocket launcher system” these weapons would rule the modern battlefield but were woefully underappreciated during the second world war of his past life. The 15 cm Nebelwerfer 41 was designed as early as the 1930s, but was not fully adopted by the Wehrmacht until 1943.
Unlike rival designs employed by the allies, the Nebewerfer was more complex, and more expensive. However, this was really its only drawback, as the complexity of the design allowed for more versatile munitions.
Whether it was high explosive, gas, smoke, or incendiary rockets, the Nebelwerfer was more than capable of firing all of them, and at a range of roughly 7kms at that. This was not the only benefit. It was also compact enough that the launcher could fit in the back of a 2.5-ton 4×4 Opel Blitz, let alone the 6×6 3.5-ton transport trucks Bruno’s army made use of in this life. And because of that Bruno now had a new artillery system to test out on the Bulgarians, whose army was currently running around like a chicken with its head cut off after Heinrich and his men had assassinated a variety of key military and intelligence officials within the Kingdom of Bulgaria.
Even so, Bruno couldn’t help but stare at the marvelous weapons system as he commended the men who had perfected it entirely by their lonesome, with no input from himself personally over the course of the last fifteen years.
“Fritz…”
Bruno’s adjutant, who was a young Junior officer by the name of Fritz, immediately snapped
to attention as his commanding officer spoke to him.
“Yes, sir?”
A fearsome smirk appeared on Bruno’s face as she shook his head in disbelief before giving an order to the man in question.
“Send a message to my corporation that handles matters related to rocketry… Every employee involved in the creation of this product and the rockets it fires is to receive a massive bonus
this year!”