Chapter 151: Battle of Tarnovo (End)

It was a good night and there was no moonlight at night, which greatly encouraged the generals who were preparing for the night attack, and at 12 o'clock in the evening, the soldiers were called up to eat, and then they began to march towards the Romanian right flank positions, intending to give them a hard blow, to relieve their resentment of being shelled these days.

In the middle of the night on the Romanian right flank position, the officers and men of the defending 12th Division carefully observed the situation in front of them. The Bulgarian love for sneak attacks has long been known to them through the propaganda of the Serbian and Greek countries. Therefore, all positions have been on strict guard these days. Flares were fired every few minutes, which made the night attack of the Fourth Division even more difficult. But this time they will be on the road no matter how difficult it is, because Bulgaria will not be able to withstand it in the frontal battlefield.

On the front-line position of the 12th Division, a captain was taking advantage of the light of the flares to observe the movements of Bulgaria with a telescope, when he noticed that a piece of grass had moved at a distance of 500 meters, and when he was about to observe again, the flare had already been extinguished.

"Hit the flare on the right side."

The dutiful captain asked the artillery to fire another flare.

"Bang" another flare illuminated everything in front of the position, which exposed the unexpected Bulgarian soldiers. Seeing the dense crowd of Bulgarian soldiers in front of the position, the captain roared without hesitation.

"Night Raid." ”

Then he took out a flare gun and shot the red flare into the sky, which represented the night attack. Seeing that their intentions were exposed, the officers and men of the Bulgarian 4th Division no longer concealed it, straightened up and quickly rushed towards the Romanian position, intending to rush into the trenches when the Romanian army did not react. However, their intentions were clearly recognized, and the numerous machine guns on the Romanian positions made their ideas unrealistic. For a time, the Bulgarian soldiers were stopped at a distance of 300 meters in front of the position, unable to move.

This made the division commander, Major General Vidic, very anxious, and he gave orders to the staff officers behind him. "Let the artillery attack knock out the firing points on the Romanian positions."

At the time when Major General Vidic gave the order to the artillery, news of the Bulgarian night attack also reached the Romanian command. When Eder heard the news of the Bulgarian night attack, he hurriedly ran to the command hall without bothering to wear his military uniform. Seeing that the crown prince came out wearing only a shirt, he was also greeted by the newly arrived chief of staff, General Courtois, and the deputy chief of staff, Major General Prosi.

Edel asked before they could speak. "How's the front line now?"

Hearing Eder's question, Major General Prossi, who had already read the telegram, spoke. "Now the position can still be held, after all, we are not Serbs."

"So can we use that plan?"

Hearing the crown prince's question, Major General Prosi glanced at Admiral Courtois and spoke. "Yes."

After hearing Major General Prosi's words, Eder looked at Admiral Courtois, and Admiral Courtois also said in approval with the inquiring gaze of the crown prince. "If there is a rare chance for Bulgaria to attack, why don't we fulfill them?"

After seeing that the two chiefs of staff agreed, Crown Prince Eder gave a rare order to the staff officers. "Prepare for Plan V."

For a while, everyone in the command room began to get busy. In fact, Plan V was prepared to deal with the Bulgarian night attack, in the plan, after the first-line position was attacked, it would gradually give up resistance within an hour to make way for the two flanks, and there would be two divisions of troops to intercept it three kilometers behind, and two divisions would attack from both sides, and finally the division that let go of the gap would close the gap with the reinforcements of two divisions, and encircle the Bulgarian army that broke through the position on a three-kilometer piece of land to encircle and annihilate it.

Now with the surprise attack of the Bulgarian army, this program was also implemented by the Romanian military.

At this time, the 2nd and 3rd divisions of the 3rd Army began to move, and they were to set up positions three kilometers behind the 12th Division to stop the Bulgarian assault. The 1st and 4th Divisions of the 1st Army were to be deployed on both flanks, ready to flank the Bulgarian army. The 8th Division will move to the front line and prepare for the closure of the 12th Division, while the cavalry division is also making preparations, and they are divided into battalions and regiments, intending to stop the fish that slip through the net after daybreak. An invisible net prepared for the Bulgarian army had begun to be prepared, while the Bulgarian army was still fighting hard to break through the positions of the 12th Division.

"Call the artillerymen to open fire."

The spearhead of the Bulgarian assault, Major General Vidic, commander of the 4th Division, shouted to the chief of staff beside him with red eyes.

It turned out that the Romanian machine gun had already killed quite a few soldiers of the charging 4th Division, although he had previously ordered the artillery to be fired. But the machine guns on the Romanian positions were too cunning, and they usually switched from place to place. The previous artillery attacks were often one step late, and they could not accurately hit these supporting fires on the position, so that the charging Fourth Division suffered a large number of casualties, causing the Fourth Division to delay the attack.

Seeing such a scene, Major General Vidic, as the commander of the 4th Division, was also anxious, and he could only order the artillery to continue to bombard the machine gun points on the Romanian positions, hoping to relieve the pressure on the front-line troops.

After almost an hour of fighting, the firing points on the position gradually decreased, and they could no longer stop the onslaught of the Bulgarian soldiers, and the soldiers attacked the position. After seeing that his men had finally broken through the Romanian position, Major General Vidic's face finally turned cloudy as the weather, and he said to the chief of staff beside him with a smile. "Despite the heavy casualties, it was worth it."

The chief of staff also let go of the worries in his heart and asked. "Then I'll send a telegram to the Fourth Army and ask them to follow up immediately."

Major General Vidic did not look back, but still raised the telescope in his hand to speak to him. "Go ahead."

The news that the 4th Division had broken through the first line of defense of Romania quickly reached the general headquarters of the Bulgarian army, and the burden on the hearts of King Ferdinand I and Lieutenant General Savov, the Minister of War, who had been waiting for the news, was relieved. None of them could sleep tonight, all waiting for this surprise attack that would affect the fate of Bulgaria. This is a good start to break through the first line of Romanian defence.

The 4th Division, which was in the vanguard, waited for reinforcements from the 4th Army to arrive and continued its march towards the Romanian rear. The Fourth Army also sent two divisions to follow the Fourth Division to continue its advance, although they encountered resistance from the Romanian 2nd and 3rd Divisions three kilometers away. In the face of the ferocious fire from the Romanian positions, the Bulgarian army, combined with the strength of three divisions, completely attacked and made up. This made the commander of the 4th Division, Major General Vidic, who commanded the attack, secretly anxious, and if they could not break through the Romanian line before dawn, then their night attack would be a failure.

"This time the Romanian defense looks not easy to fight, we are running out of time."

The chief of staff told Major General Vidic about his fears, it was already four o'clock in the morning, and if the position in front of them could not be broken through by six o'clock, then three of their divisions would be exposed to Romanian artillery.

When Major General Vidic heard the words of the chief of staff, he said as if to cheer himself up. "We haven't captured this position by 5:30, so let's retreat."

Hearing his partner's unwillingness, the chief of staff could only agree with it. "Okay, this time allows us to attack twice, and if it doesn't work, retreat."

Then the Bulgarian army launched a larger offensive, and a large number of soldiers bravely attacked the Romanian positions in front of them, completely ignoring the bullets of their comrades and being blown up by artillery.

"These Bulgarians are very brave." Lieutenant General Salamik, commander of the Third Army, who was observing the battle from behind the position, commented on the Bulgarian troops.

"It's a pity that no matter how brave they are, they can't withstand bullets, and our Romanian army will do better than them when it attacks." The commander of the 1st Army, Lieutenant General Prishan, was clearly not optimistic about these Bulgarian troops.

Seeing the two army bosses in front of him, the other generals in the back didn't dare to interject.

However, the soldiers on both sides of the battlefield will not care about anything else, and now they must kill the enemy soldiers on the opposite side to save themselves. However, in the confrontation between the two soldiers, the Romanian army relied on superior technology, the defense of the trenches, and the help of machine guns to suppress the Bulgarian soldiers.

By the time the Bulgarian army had attacked to five o'clock, the 12th and 8th Divisions, which had retreated to both sides of the front-line positions, began to assault. The 15th Division of the Fourth Army, which was guarding the gap, faced the elite soldiers who had been trained by Romania for several years, and the recruits, who had only been trained for more than a month, were completely no match and were driven out of the trenches one after another.

The three Bulgarian divisions that were attacking panicked as soon as they received the news and were about to withdraw their troops, when the 1st and 4th divisions, which were waiting on both flanks, also rushed over and entangled them from both flanks, and the 2nd and 3rd divisions on the position also rushed out of their positions. Faced with the siege of four Romanian divisions, the Bulgarian army of three divisions could not retreat at all, and could only watch as their rear roads were closed by the eighth and twelfth divisions of the Romanian army. Seeing that three divisions of the Bulgarian army were encircled in this nine-square-kilometer area, in order to avoid too many casualties, the Romanian army that entangled them also retreated.

This made Major General Vidic uncomfortable, they knew that the Romanian army would bombard them with heavy artillery when the day came, and it was up to God to decide whether the young men they brought with them would survive under the massive artillery attack of the Romanian army.

For this reason, their three divisions tried to launch a final attack while the 8th and 12th Divisions, which were defending the first-line position, were not firmly established. The repulsed Bulgarian 15th Division also tried to attack the position in order to meet the three divisions that had been trapped in the encirclement, distracting the defenders. The 8th and 12th Divisions, which were defending the front-line positions, withstood one of the fiercest attacks of the battle.

"Machine gun suppression."

A Romanian officer on the position shouted to a Maxim machine gun crew under his command to give the order. The main shooter now completely ignored the machine gun's operating manual, held down the trigger, and frantically strafed the Bulgarian soldiers who rushed towards the position. Under the fierce attack of this deadly main marksman, the offensive of the Bulgarian army in front of this position was suppressed.

Just as the officer was breathing a sigh of relief, he was disturbed by the noise and an imperceptible sound of gunfire, and the deadly shooter fell to the ground. After seeing the main shooter fall to the ground, the secondary shooter hurriedly stepped forward to fill the position, and at this time, another gunshot rang out, and the secondary shooter also fell to the ground. This time, the officer could see where the cold gun was being put by the flame of the muzzle, and a rifle was quietly sticking out from under the corpses of three Bulgarian soldiers. He stepped forward and took the machine gun, and fired fiercely at the three corpses he was looking at, and in the face of the powerful fire of the Maxim heavy machine gun, this time it was really a corpse.

The Bulgarian offensive continued until dawn, but the front-line positions guarded by the two Romanian divisions remained firmly in their hands. In the face of this situation, the encircled Bulgarian army was completely desperate, at this time the Romanian heavy artillery fire came as scheduled, and in the face of the scene that could not be avoided, a large number of Bulgarians were killed, and many people could not stand such an attack, and they threw away their weapons and raised their hands to surrender to the Romanian army surrounded on all sides.

Only 23,000 of the 110,000 troops who eventually raided the Romanian positions retreated, of whom 48,000 were killed and 39,000 captured, and of the 39,000 captured, 11,000 were wounded.

After waiting for news from the headquarters, Crown Prince Eder saw the results of this battle and knew that Bulgaria's sue for peace was imminent. He planned to reward the meritorious men who should be rewarded this time after this battle, and those who should be promoted will be promoted in rank.

Unlike the laughter of the Romanian army, King Ferdinand I of Bulgaria and Lieutenant General Savov, Minister of War, who were waiting for the news, received the news, and their faces were as pale as paper, and their eyes revealed deep despair.

Ferdinand I grabbed the War Chancellor by the shoulders and asked in a desperate tone. "What do we do now? What should I do? ”

Lieutenant General Savouf, who was startled by Ferdinand I, felt the king clutching his shoulder, and after he calmed down, his brain began to think quickly.

"Your Majesty, we must now withdraw our troops and abandon Tarnovo."

After hearing Lieutenant General Savow's advice, Ferdinand I said with blank eyes. "Yes, now this is the last of our troops, and we can't afford to waste it here. We're going to hurry back, we're ......."

As Ferdinand I spoke, tears flowed from his eyes. He wept over the shattering of the dream of a great Bulgaria, but also for the heavy Bulgarian casualties this time.

Seeing King Ferdinand I lose control of his emotions, Lieutenant General Savouf was also uncomfortable, but he still had to organize the evacuation of the army, but it is estimated that at least two divisions will be needed to break the rear, and this time it is estimated that the rearing will be more auspicious. Then the 1st Army, which is now holding its position on the Zarevitz Mountains, will not be able to withdraw, and now it will only be possible for Lieutenant General Kutinchev to make sacrifices.

For this he personally telephoned Lieutenant General Kutinchev, but they were to hold out for three days anyway, and Lieutenant General Kutinchev promised in his honor that he would hold off the Romanians for three days and give them three days to retreat.

After thinking about all this, Lieutenant General Savouf began to prepare for evacuation. He first asked the 14th Division to come forward to reinforce the 1st Army, and then withdrew the 3rd Division. The now defeated raiding soldiers began to retreat to the rear after the reorganization of the 7th Division.

The Romanian army, having eliminated three Bulgarian divisions from the night attack, began an attack on the 1st Bulgarian Army, which was defending the positions on Mount Czarevitz. This time they were to face a series of attacks by the Romanian three corps, but the Bulgarian 1st Army, defending the position on Mount Charlevitz, held on stubbornly after being lightly armed with the fire of other troops who had withdrawn lightly. It was not until three days later that he was forced to retreat.

However, when the First Army of the defensive position withdrew, only 37,000 men remained, and with the replenishment of the First Army, they left 60,000 casualties on the position, which was considered a heavy casualty. And the heavy fire was completely abandoned by them because of the evacuation.

On 21 July Romania occupied Tarnovo. This time, around the city of Tarnovo, Bulgaria invested 247,000 troops, Romania invested 230,000 troops, and the two sides fought with nearly 500,000 troops. In the end, Bulgaria suffered 113,000 casualties and captured, and Romania also lost 28,000. With the end of this campaign, Bulgaria's war potential had been exhausted, and other countries began to prepare for the diplomatic negotiations that followed.

PS is finally over, and then we will enter the familiar plot of steamed buns, so you shouldn't miss it.