Re: Blood and Iron

There were a series of awards Bruno was to be given for his performance in the Great War. Like any Field Marshal of the era, it was not uncommon for the man to be granted decorations from allied nations.

But the Kaiser was adamant to be the first one to award his greatest general, and give Bruno what he felt the man had been owed for far, far too long. Because of this, it was a day of celebration for the German Reich and its allies.

Not just because of Bruno’s victories, but rather because of the scale of them. Whether it be the Boxer Rebellion, the Russo-Japanese War, or the Russian Civil War. All paled in scope when compared to the ongoing Great War, which involved nearly every continent of the planet in some capacity or another.

It had not been since Napoleon that a war of such magnitude had been waged. And yet, nobody could deny that the victory in the Balkans, and the lands east of it had been accomplished by a single man.

Bruno had not only led the charge in the Theater against Serbia, Albania, Bulgarian and the Ottoman Empire, but his defensive strategy which replaced the poorly thought out Schlieffen plan of his past life had proven to be a winning formula.

Losses on the Western and Alpine front for Germany and its allies were minimal. Over the course of a year, and against the combined might of the British, French, and Italian armies, the Central Powers in the west had suffered less than 50,000 casualties.

Meanwhile, the Allies in the same theater had lost well over 200,000 men so far, and had endured hundreds of thousands of more wounded in action. Had these western fortifications not been prepared in advance, and the German army equipped with an overwhelming technological advantage spearheaded by Bruno’s investments and personal intervention?

Then it was entirely likely that the war would be a brutal stalemate in the west right now, rather than a one-sided affair in favor of the Germans and Austro-Hungarians. Thus, despite no peace treaty having been signed, officially ending the war in the east, nor any negotiations for its terms having yet begun.

The fact remained that the enemies in the Balkans and the Near Eastern world were defeated in such a thorough fashion that their ability to continue to wage war was no longer existent. And as a result, an armistice was declared.

There was one man to thank for all of this, and that was Generalfeldmarschall Bruno von Zehntner, hence, why the Kaiser had recalled him, and the men of the 8th Army, which was directly under his operational authority back to Berlin.