Chapter 149

When Romania conquered Bulgarian towns and occupied its territory along the route, the Bulgarian army did not sit idly by. Under the coordination of Army Secretary Lieutenant General Mikhail Savov, they are gradually drawing back troops from the Sesi front in Macedonia and Thrace.

The Serbs and Greeks will not allow Bulgaria to transfer troops smoothly, because according to the agreement, the two countries will hold the Bulgarian army and create opportunities for Romania to attack Sofia. Among them, the Serbian army under the command of Marshal Putnik launched a two-hour attack on the Bulgarian army. After receiving a "heavy price" of 800 casualties, they stopped the attack.

The Greeks were even more "courageous." Under the leadership of King Constantine I, they attacked the Second Bulgarian Army and retreated after suffering 200 casualties. For Romania, it has fulfilled the obligations of the alliance. Thanks to the "powerful" offensive of the two countries, Bulgaria decided to change the army of the two fronts from 150,000 to 180,000. Among them, the newly recruited 90,000 people will be transferred to the front of the two countries. It also drew 20,000 people from the Ottoman border and 60,000 people were recruited again because of the Romanian invasion, bringing a total of 260,000 troops to face the Romanian invasion.

However, it takes time for Bulgaria to assemble the army, and Romania's army is already close to the first stage targets Suman and Varna. Among them, the Romanian Third Army is ready to launch an attack on Varna, Bulgaria, the largest port city.

As early as the 6th century BC, the Greeks settled here and named it "odessos". In the second half of the 6th century, Slavs poured in from the north and changed their name to "Varna". In 1878, after the Tenth Russo-Turkish War, the city was sent to the newly born Bulgaria by the Russian army that liberated Bulgaria, and it has been Bulgaria's largest trading port city ever since.

In the command of the Third Army, Lieutenant General Salamik was explaining the methods of the attack to Major General Draguta, commander of the 1st Division, and Major General Gelasim, commander of the 8th Division.

"You launched the offensive from the west and the north, and I will let the second heavy artillery regiment support you. Due to the coastal defense turrets of Cape Vinoff, the navy cannot help. This requires you to seize the turrets to get the support of the navy. "

Because Varna is close to the sea to the east and a narrow bay called Asperu to the south, the Romanian army can only attack from the west and north, but because Bulgaria has fewer defenders in the local area (the 2nd Independent Brigade more than 8,000 people later 22,000 people were enlisted to defend, but the lack of training combat power is worrying), so the Third Army believes that the battle will be resolved within three days.

After talking about the whole offensive, Lieutenant General Salamik named Major General Gelasim of the 8th Division. "Major General Gelasim, your eighth division, when you need to launch an offensive to the north, send a regiment to capture the Cape Vinov and take down the coastal defense fort there. According to the intelligence, there are 2,000 coastal defense forces."

The named Major General Galasim replied readily. "Please rest assured, your commander, our Eighth Division has no problem."

Lieutenant General Salamik saw that both of them were very confident and told them. "Then you go back and prepare, we will start attacking at ten o'clock."

After the two major generals finished speaking at Lieutenant General Salamik, they returned to their troops to prepare for the upcoming attack.

In the Second Heavy Artillery Regiment, a 150 cannon has been deployed. The howitzer with a length of 9.5 kilometers and the cannon with a length of 12 kilometers can completely suppress the small and medium-sized artillery owned by Bulgaria. Now the giant circular artillery bunkers have been built, and a heavy artillery has been placed in the middle of the bunker, surrounded by a 1.5-meter-high civil structure parapet to provide protection, and there is a trench behind the gun position. These trenches lead to the There is another circular bunker in the distance, with a large number of shells accumulated in it.

When the clock points to ten o'clock, 54 150 cannons of the Romanian Second Artillery Regiment fired. Shells weighing up to 45kg are an unbearable blow to Varna, a port city that is not fortified. Under the guidance of the observation balloon, a large number of fortifications were turned into rubble by Romania's excellent artillery bombardment technology, and the soldiers stationed there were also turned into dust as they were hit.

After the second heavy artillery regiment opened fire, the Third Army concentrated on the 50 105 howitzers owned by the whole army and launched shelling on Bulgarian soldiers stationed in the trenches outside the city. For a time, Varna's defenders suffered huge casualties and pressure.

"You guys quickly find a cover."

A Bulgarian officer hid behind a two-story house and shouted to a few recruits standing on the street at a loss. After these recruits heard the officer's voice, they planned to hide with the officer. At this time, only a sound of "shoo" was heard. The house used as a shelter for him was blown down. The air wave pushed his military cap in front of a few recruits. Seeing such a shocking scene, the few recruits turned into birds and beasts.

Scenes like Varna are no longer a minority. Many soldiers and civilians were crushed by houses destroyed by heavy artillery. For a time, a large number of panicked local people ran out of the streets. They saw their soldiers and civilians suffered heavy casualties. Major General Shaknosv, the commander of the army, was distraught.

I want to talk about it here. He, the major general, only mentioned it the day before yesterday. Previously he was just the commander of the 2nd Independent Brigade. After Romania declared war on Bulgaria, he was urgently promoted to major general as the highest-ranking officer in Varna and was responsible for commanding the defense of the city of Varna. After he declared war in Romania, he urgently recruited 14,000 people in the city as his defensive force, and also recruited 8,000 people from the surrounding to strengthen Varna's defense.

Facing a large number of soldiers suddenly enlisted, Varna did not prepare so many weapons at all. Major General Shaknosev searched Varna up and down to find 5,000 rifles. He took out more than 4,000 guns in inventory from the Second Independent Brigade, and there were only more than 9,000 guns. He divided these people into 9 supplementary regiments, distributed 1,000 rifles to each regiment, and then distributed bullets to soldiers without guns and asked them to pick up the rifles of the dead soldiers.

The shelling of the Third Army lasted for an hour, and a large number of buildings in Varna were destroyed. Now, unlike the houses of later generations, they are all reinforced concrete structures. Due to economic relations, most of the buildings in Varna now have brick and wood structures, and even Romania only uses reinforced concrete structures for large buildings. The reason is that the current steel is not cheap, and the cost is too high to afford it.

After the large-caliber artillery was stopped outside the city, the 1st and 8th Divisions used the division's 75 guns to launch artillery bombardments on the Bulgarian position. At the same time, the two regiments that were the first attack also started a trial attack.

"Get ready, Romanians are coming up."

A Bulgarian officer who was observing in the trenches shouted to the soldiers squatting in the trenches to avoid shelling. When he saw that someone hadn't come forward, he stepped forward and kicked him down. Other officers are doing the same thing as him. Because of the presence of these officers in the position, the mood of the soldiers in the position is not bad.

Seeing that the offensive Romanian soldiers were four to five hundred meters away from their positions, the officers on these positions kept walking on the battlefield to encourage the soldiers and shouted. "Stay steady, don't shoot."

The officers shouted after seeing these Romanian soldiers entering three hundred meters. "shooting."

The Bulgarian soldiers, who had long been waiting for the impatient, would shoot their hatred for the death of the invaders and comrades through their weapons at the attacking Third Army soldiers, which immediately led to a more precise counterattack. In a pair of shots, the soldiers of the Third Army relied on better shooting techniques to suppress the Bulgarian soldiers' heads on the ground.

"Come with me."

Seeing the suppressed Bulgarian soldiers on the position, the Romanian commander in charge of the battle shouted to the soldiers behind him.

After speaking, he got up and rushed to the Bulgarian soldiers on the battlefield. The Romanian soldiers behind him also rushed past his officer. On the ground for a while, the soldiers on both sides began a fierce battle.

The two commanders of the Eighth Division and the First Division who were observing after his surviving saw this scene and ordered another regiment to be sent for reinforcement.

Finally, after two hours of fighting. Romanian troops captured positions outside the city. The defeated Bulgarian soldiers retreated into the city along the traffic trenches.

In the command of the Third Army, Lieutenant General Salamik, commander of UU Reading www.uukanshu.com, frowned after watching the battle. He turned and spoke to the chief of staff beside him. "It seems that the next battle will be difficult to fight."

The Chief of Staff took over the words of Lieutenant General Salamik. "It seems that the commander who guards the city is a very smart guy."

Lieutenant General Salamik heard the remarks of his chief of staff. Said in a deep voice. "He wants to hold us back to buy time for the main Bulgarian army, so it depends on his ability. I am not afraid of street fighting."

After Lieutenant Salamik finished speaking, he called a staff officer to order. "The second heavy artillery regiment was given an order to focus on attacking the Bulgarian fortifications. At the same time, the first and eighth divisions sent reports so that after they broke the fortifications, they proceeded to clean up the city one by one. I want to see what he takes to defend the city. Come guard."

Following the command of the army commander, Romanian and Bulgarian soldiers began a fierce battle again.