Chapter 172: A New Era of Naval Warfare
Life passed by pretty quickly while Bruno continued about his daily life within the German Reich. All he could do during this time was make the necessary preparations for the upcoming war, one which would engulf the entire world, or at least the vast majority of it, and would cause the deaths of tens of millions of people, primarily the poor souls sent to the trenches. By 1911, the German Army had completely overhauled its armament and doctrine. Every single rifleman was now equipped and trained with the Gewehr 05 semi-automatic service rifle, which had become the standard-issue weapon for the German Army and its soldiers.
The Gewehr 05, of course, being the designation given to the modified variant of the Gewehr 43, which Bruno had designed in this life. Aside from the Gewehr 05, there was also at least one man in each squad armed with an MG-05 (MG-34) general-purpose machine gun.
In addition to this, the NCO in charge of the squad wielded an MP-05 (MP-34) submachine gun, making the doctrine incredibly similar to the ones used by the German infantry units in the Second World War.
Artillery was attached to each infantry regiment, utilizing a mixture of the four gun types Bruno had designed early on in this life, and at the platoon level, there were small units of men armed and trained to use 60mm, 80mm, and 120mm mortars.
To say that the German Army was the most well-equipped army in the world was an understatement, and currently its size was bigger than it was in Bruno's life at the start of the war, with one million men actively serving and another four million reserves to be called upon and mobilized at a moment's notice.
This was in contrast to Bruno's past life, where they had 700,000 men actively serving and 3.8 million who could be mobilized within a single week. Either way, the German Army was well- prepared for the war.
In addition to these efforts, the German Luftstreitkr?fte had five full wings of operational He-51 interwar-era biplanes that were capable of performing the roles of reconnaissance, attack fighter, and close air support/bomber.
The border preparations had more or less been completed and were a stark line of defense and deterrence against any potential Anglo-French invasion. When the war broke out, British and French troops would break against the wall.
While the bulk of Germany's armed forces, alongside their allies in Russia and Austria- Hungary, would push into Serbia, Italy, as well as potentially Romania and the Ottoman Empire, seeking to capitulate their rivals in a swift and decisive victory before turning their attention to the Western Front.
This was the plan, but few plans ever really went as one hoped they would, especially when facing the multitude of unknown quantities that revealed themselves on a modern battlefield. All that really remained of Bruno's preparations were the launching of his advanced submarines and destroyers.