The Black Sea was a turbulent journey, from Odessa to the shores of Eastern Thrace the Russian Army and their Greek Allies boarded the Black Seas fleet, and began to cast off in what little means they had towards the shore.
The plot to invade the Ottoman Empire, or should I say the territory it occupied within the European continent had not been leaked. It was damn near impossible for the Allies to crack the enigma code, especially in this era.
And because of this, there was no way for them to know about it, let alone what precise beach had been selected for the landing, even so the men within the Russian Army were a bit frightful as they stepped foot on the earth once more.
Those with a lesser constitution were quick to give into sea sickness, and vomit into the sea which they had just crossed over. Nevertheless, the landing had been successful, and as Bruno had claimed entirely uncontested.
A beach head was secure, and the engineers from both the Hellenic Armed Forces and their Russian Allies began getting to work to quickly establish a more secure and long-term means of transferring troops and supplies to their newly occupied territory.
A Greek officer stepped forward, his distinctive uniform being similar to those which the Hellenic Army wore during the period within Bruno’s past life, albeit with a M1916 Stahlhelm rather than an Adrian helmet.
The weapon in his hands was a Mauser C96 Trench Carbine that Bruno had supplied to the Balkan League during the Balkan Wars a few years prior. Naturally, several of these weapons were within the hands of Greek soldiers.
The man looked rather willful, as he performed the sign of the cross, while speaking of how long it had been since Greece, nay, Christendom, had an opportunity to reclaim Constantinople.
“The city of Saint Constantine had been occupied by the Turks for damn near five hundred years… Today we begin the first step of reclaiming these lands for Christ.”
The Russian officer by his side couldn’t help but nod his head in agreement. Though Greece and Russia were two very different countries, they more or less followed the same branch of Christianity. Constantinople meant a lot to both of these men, and now, for the first time in nearly five centuries they would have a chance to reclaim it for its rightful rulers.
After taking a moment of silence to fully comprehend the gravity of their current situation, the Russian officer finally responded with a grim and sober tone in his voice.
“Under no circumstances can we fuck this up. Once we have established our foothold here so that it is capable of being defended, we will march to the west and catch both the Ottomans and the Bulgarians with their pants down.
Meanwhile, the Germans and Austro-Hungarians will do the same from their end. Hopefully, we can obliterate the enemy in one single major battle, and not have to worry about any other potentially fatal events after…”
Though his words were hopeful, they did not sound so confident. But ultimately the Greek officer could not respond to them, as he was also all too aware of the severity of the situation they currently found themselves in.
—
Bruno had made one thing abundantly clear to the Empire of Japan, while the territories of the Allied Powers in the Pacific were up for grabs, under no circumstances were they permitted to do something as foolish as provoke the Americans into the conflict.
If the Japanese attacked the American holdings in the Philippines for example, Bruno would advise the Kaiser and Germany’s other allies to break faith with Japan and leave them to face their own retribution. It was because of this that the Imperial Japanese Army focused primarily on French and British holdings in South-East Asia.
Unlike Bruno who tried to fight this Great War as humanely as possible, taking prisoners of war wherever he could, so long as they were lawfully recognized combatants, and treating them with the utmost respect and humanity.
The Imperial Japanese Army were far from as a civilized in their treatment of their conquered subjects. If Bruno’s gassing of Belgrade was his greatest sin in this war, then the Japanese made it look like it was a daily occurrence.
Having been given ten extra years to prepare for this war, and a general direction to be guided in. The Imperial Japanese Army in 1915 was a force to be reckoned with. The British and French colonial forces repeatedly found themselves withdrawing further and further back from the front lines.
While their prisoners of war were either tortured for information, or outright executed. War had always been a brutal affair, and the idea of treating your enemies humanely during such stressful circumstances was a rather new idea.
One that the Japanese apparently didn’t quite understand. As they had done in their previous lives, so too now did they engage in the worst kinds of brutality, and yes, beheading PoWs was one of their many crimes.
A Japanese officer stood in his signature brown Taisho era uniform, with his steel helmet on his head, and his kyu gunto sword in his hands. The knot tied to the bottom of the hilt construction swayed in the wind as he raised the quasi dress saber like sword in the air above his victim’s neck.
The prisoner in question was a British Colonial Officer who had been sent from the British Raj to aid the French who were suffering horrific defeat after horrific defeat in French Indo China. A pile of corpses of French soldiers were roughly hewn nearby, while the British soldiers awaited the same fate.
However, just before the sword fell, something happened. Perhaps it was a miracle, but the officer was approached by one of the soldiers beneath his command who whispered in his ears. It turned out the officer in question was a dual citizen with the United States. And this information had just been confirmed right before he was to be executed.
When the officer heard this, he was quick to demand a verification on this information, and after receiving it he stashed his blade away. Looking at the British-American with a hateful gaze, before speaking in broken English to him.
“You very lucky American….”
After saying this the officer shouted in Japanese towards his soldiers who carried the British officer away. Giving him just enough time to look back towards the troops beneath his command who were gunned down by a firing squad.
The British-American officer grit his teeth, and swore internally that one way or another he would make the Japanese pay for the crimes they had committed here on this day. And in this war in general… Whether or not he would be able to achieve this only time would tell….