Re: Blood and Iron

To say that the world was on the verge of being lit aflame after the assassination of the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife was no exaggeration. In Bruno's previous life, the Habsburg Dynasty sent a list of demands to the Kingdom of Serbia, including the matter of an international investigation into the murder of their heir apparent.

There was a common misconception that Serbia had agreed to all of these demands except for one, which was the one that would give up their sovereignty as a nation, choosing instead to fight to remain an independent kingdom.

The reality was that the ultimatum, which "put Serbian sovereignty into question," was the demand that Austria be allowed to conduct a bilateral and international investigation into the assassination of their heir.

Why would Serbia reject such a request? The answer was threefold. Russia had told them in advance that they would back the Serbian army no matter what happened, and had already begun to mobilize their forces for this effort.

France had also told Russia they would back them no matter what, and communications were already being held on how to win the war before the deadline for this ultimatum was reached.

And thirdly, Serbia could never allow this last point of the six-point ultimatum, which was intended to de-escalate the situation before it turned into war, because their own intelligence agencies had supplied the assassins with the weapons, training, and safe houses to conduct the attack.

They knew for a fact that they were guilty, and this revelation would damn them in the eyes of their potential allies. So it was better to drag the world into war than to be obliterated by the combined might of Austria-Hungary and the German Reich.

When combined with the fact that the German parliament had given Austria-Hungary a "blank cheque" to do as they pleased while the Kaiser was on vacation, this compounded into the start of the Great War, which led to the destruction of Western civilization.

This was not, however, how things had proceeded in this timeline. Austria-Hungary was, of course, sending a similar series of demands almost immediately after diplomatic exchanges had begun. Meanwhile, Bruno stood in the Kaiser's palace along with the rest of his General Staff, each of whom had an opinion on the matter.

While the Kaiser did not have the means to approve an offensive, the man was still being informed of what was happening. And Bruno intended to be the devil on his shoulder. Thus, while the other generals were arguing over the matter, Bruno was leaning against the wall at the back of the room, entirely unfazed as he smoked a cigarette.

Once he had finished the tobacco contained within the device, he stamped it out on a nearby ashtray before speaking, and when he did, everyone became silent.

"We all knew that this day would come sooner or later… Is this not the reason we have spent the last decade preparing for such an eventuality? There is only one solution: there must be war! God himself has willed it the moment he deemed fit to permit the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand.

The French and the British have thrown their lot in with the Serbians. The time has come for the Great European War, as we were warned decades ago. So be it… We will fight this war, and when we win, there will be a new order to the world. It is the dawn of a new era, gentlemen… A German era!"

After saying this, Bruno walked away from the meeting. He had said what he needed to say, and like the devil on the Kaiser's shoulder, approval for funding would be granted, and the army would be mobilized.

---

It was the same in every country when a man told his family that he was leaving for war, going forth to wave a banner on some foreign earth. Tears were shed, hugs were given, and prayers were chanted.

Bruno's departure for the Balkans was no different. Heidi, and all of the children she had together with Bruno, were more than dispirited about their father's departure. Some of them were old enough to remember when he marched off to Russia.

In that war, he returned a valiant hero, gaining a title of hereditary nobility for them all within the Russian Empire. But this was not the same… Bruno's older children, among whom his oldest daughter Eva was already nearing her thirteenth birthday, understood well enough that this was a different matter.

This was not some petty civil war fought in the frozen wastelands of Russia between a ragtag group of Marxist rebels and the Russian army. This was a war fought between the world's great powers. Nearly a month had passed since the July Crisis began, and the declarations of war had been made.

Italy, France, Great Britain, Serbia, the Ottoman Empire, and several other Balkan states such as Montenegro were the initial members of the Allied Powers. Relations between the German Reich and the British Empire had deteriorated so much in this timeline that there was no need for the British to wait for a violation of Belgian neutrality.

They had promised France full support in years prior for any war fought against the Germans and Austro-Hungarians. Naturally, they intended to honor this allegiance. As for the "Central Powers," they had been replaced in this life by what was known as the "Imperial Powers."

It was an alliance consisting of four empires: the German Reich, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Russian Empire, and the Empire of Japan. Other minor powers that had joined the major alliances in Bruno's past life, such as Bulgaria, Romania, Greece, Siam, the United States, etc., were all currently neutral.

Having previously mobilized their combined forces to the Serbian border a year prior during the Second Balkan War, the three European empires were quick to do just that. They already had extensive experience in this regard.

Because of this, nearly two million men were sent straight toward the Kingdom of Serbia, and it took them less than a month to do so, with full mobilization beginning the moment the Archduke of Austria and his wife were assassinated.

Operational command for the Balkan Campaign was given to Generalfeldmarschall August von Mackensen, who led the German 11th Army. Along with him, Bruno and his 8th army were dispatched to the region.

This army group also included the Austro-Hungarian 4th and 5th Armies, as well as the Russian 1st and 2nd Armies. Meaning at the official outbreak of war, 1.8 million men representing the three European empires of the Imperial Powers marched into Serbia, and hell came with them…