Chapter 202: First Contact With the Enemy
Bruno often had a grim sense of humor, and that humor manifested itself as the opening shots were exchanged between the "punitive expedition" consisting of the 1.8 million men belonging to the Army Group dispatched into Serbia and the Serbian Army defending against their onslaught.
Bruno stood among his soldiers, or more specifically the command staff in the rear echelon, as he gazed upon the explosions detonating with each passing second. The sound of machine gun fire echoed along with artillery, and the screams of the wounded created a symphony of death.
All the while, Bruno smoked another cigarette and spoke his thoughts on it all.
"I was curious if history would remember me as the man who made such great preparations for this moment, only to be the first to fall in battle by a stray bullet... Truly ironic, wouldn't it be?"
Erich chuckled at Bruno's remarks, finding the man's grim sense of humor aligned with his own. In preparation for this war, he had resigned from his position as the Director of the Kaiser's reformed secret police and re-enlisted. Granted his old commission, the man now served as Bruno's personal adjutant.
Meanwhile, Heinrich, who continued to serve as a colonel, was also nearby to witness Bruno's poor attempt at a joke about his own mortality. He shook his head and sighed, speaking with an almost exhausted tone in his voice.
"Sometimes I wonder if all the wars you've fought have done something to your brain... You really should see a doctor about that sooner or later..."
Bruno simply shrugged his shoulders, a silent dismissal of his friend's concern. Watching an artillery shell explode in the distance, he pointed to it as he exhaled a large plume of smoke from his lungs, seemingly indifferent to the life lost in that moment as he commented on the scale of artillery.
"I see the 210s are being used to greater effect than I initially thought they would. How much do you want to bet the enemy army capitulates by the end of the day?"
The First Battle of the War began at the Serbian border between the German 8th Army and the Serbian 2nd and 3rd Armies. Wanting to seize Belgrade and knock the Serbians out of the war by the year's end, Bruno made a bold advance into the region, while the other Imperial armies sent to the campaign did so from various other entry points at the borders they shared with Serbia.