Just one month after entering the war, the Romanian army was already beginning to collapse.
"What exactly were those guys doing here...?"
The Romanian army was so weak that Lieutenant General Denikin, who was sent to suppress the revolt, was perplexed. The Romanian army had already lost nearly half of its territory and was in a state of annihilation.
The Romanian army was large, numbering 600,000, but it was nothing more than a paper tiger, inferior to the Russian, Austro-Hungarian, and even Italian armies. Many of the soldiers and even officers were illiterate, and some had to be discharged during the busy farming season, making it more like a feudal army than a modern one.
If they could cooperate well with the Austrian army, they could have pincer-attacked the Russian army that had occupied Hungary. However, Austria, which was fighting on the Italian front, did not have the resources to do so, and as a result, they were pincer-attacked by the Russian army in Hungary and Ukraine. The Ottoman Empire in the south was also busy defending its own country, and Germany was too far away to send reinforcements in time, and the only reinforcements, the Bulgarian army, was too small in number.
As a result, Romania, far from occupying Transylvania, was caught in a pincer attack from the north and west by the Russian army, and the northern half of the country was occupied. Romania set up a defensive line from the mountains in southern Transylvania to the Danube River, and attempted a final resistance with reinforcements from allied countries, mainly Bulgaria.
The Russian army, on the other hand, seizes the opportunity to deploy their most advanced tank corps, led by General Lavr Kornilov.
Kornilov puffs on a cigarette as he watches the T-15 tanks follow behind him.
(It's finally my turn...)
Even though this was the long-awaited stage, Kornilov's expression was somewhat dejected.
(It's nice and easy to know that no one has any expectations of you. But fighting small fry just doesn't feel as exciting.)
The long-awaited deployment of new tank units to the Romanian front this time is not a reflection of the Russian military's high expectations.
On the contrary, the Romanian front was crumbling and a loose front where they could win if they made no mistakes, so the decision was made to deploy tanks, which the higher-ups saw as "a toy they didn't really understand." Existing weapons with a proven track record were deployed to a battlefield where they absolutely could not lose, while units with a gamble such as new weapons were deployed to a lukewarm front... In short, the Romanian front was perceived as a "testing ground for new weapons."
Kornilov made that point well.
"Well, I guess I'll just think of it as a bonus and do my best to achieve some results. I want to eliminate any troubles while the battle situation is still favorable."
The Russian military's new weapon, the T-15, was originally imported from the UK. It was the prototype for the Mark IV tank, the world's first tank, which had debuted just a month earlier. Nicknamed "Little Willie" in the UK, it was a steel box mounted on caterpillar tracks, with machine gun fire coming from holes in the front armor.
The "T-15" is an even smaller version of this, more like an interwar "tankette" than a tank. Its armor is so thin that it can barely protect against small rifles, and its armament consists only of machine guns and small infantry guns, so it would be easily defeated by anti-tank guns or full-scale pillboxes.
Stalin, who was familiar with full-fledged "tanks" of later generations, was not satisfied with this, but considering the balance between budget and technical capability, he had no choice but to make do with it for the time being.
However, because it was poorly equipped, it was cheap, and because it was lightweight, it could be fast and fuel-efficient even with the low-powered engines of the less technologically advanced Russian Empire, and the number of parts could be reduced, making it suitable for mass production. Even though it was poorly equipped, it was equipped with sufficient armor and firepower to deal with the military forces of developing countries that lacked firepower, so it was sufficient performance to serve as a stopgap until the development of a full-scale tank.
In particular, the Eastern Front had a vast battlefield and poor infrastructure compared to the Western Front, so mobility and the number of vehicles deployed were more important than trench-breaking ability or firepower. In that respect, light tanks were the perfect weapon, as they were easy to manufacture and convenient to move and transport.
Above all, it was a weapon that the enemy Romanian troops had never seen before. Even though it was a light tank, it had an overwhelming presence compared to the cavalry, and the sight of a mass of iron the size of a small ship spewing fire and charging at breakneck speed was an intimidating sight on a whole new level.
"Who the hell is that monster?!"
As soon as Kornilov's tanks were deployed, the Romanians became nervous.
"Fire! Fire away!"
The Romanian army, yelled at by their commander, desperately fights back with their infantry rifles. However, even when their bullets hit their targets, the tanks continue to charge forward as if nothing had happened. Eventually, they lock onto their target and begin firing at the enemy in a thorough crossfire.
On the Western Front, the Romanians would have been able to hide in the well-fortified trenches, but on the vast Eastern Front, the battlefield was dynamic and the only cover was the use of houses as shields or piles of sandbags. In a panic, the Romanian defenses were easily breached.
"If bullets don't work, then stop it with human bullets!"
With their front lines breached one after another, the Romanian army finally realised they had no choice and began to hold their ground, but by the time that the Russian army was already approaching the capital, Bucharest.
"Hide behind cover, ambush the tank, and take it down with a close-quarters attack!"
Romanian troops, in pairs, carried grenades and hid in houses or bunkers to avoid the machine gun fire of Russian tanks. When the enemy approached, they hurled grenades at them. About half of the attackers fell on the way, but the rest were lucky enough to escape and succeeded in ramming the enemy. When the enemy approached, their thin armor could not defend them, and even the light tanks spewed black smoke and burst into flames.
The Russian attacks became more cautious, placing more emphasis on long-range artillery and machine gun fire, slowing the advance.
"Even if we are outgunned, our courage and ingenuity can stop the enemy!"
Romanian King Ferdinand I encouraged his people with spiritualism, and the Battle of Bucharest was urban warfare, so Russian tank units also suffered heavy casualties.
However, close-quarters attacks were a tactic that caused great bloodshed among the Romanian infantry, and as morale fell with mounting casualties, soldiers began to refuse orders and desert.
"If we send out two million more suicide squads, Romania can win!"
Despite the Romanian army's desperate resistance, the resistance became hopeless when the main Russian forces arrived and a large-scale artillery battle unfolded.
King Ferdinand I and part of the Romanian army managed to escape to Bulgaria, and the two sides finally ceased fighting after Russian General Denikin realized that it would be difficult to break through the enemy's defense line along the Danube River along the Bulgarian border due to supply issues.
"Really, what was going on with the Romanian army...?"
The Romanian campaign was thus concluded within three months, to the stunned even of Emperor Nicholas in Petrograd, and contrary to initial intentions, Romania ended up with almost the entire country being occupied by Russia, a truly tragic outcome.
＊＊＊
In conclusion, the Romanian campaign was another great victory for the Russian army.
However, as history has shown, tactical victory does not always translate into strategic victory, and the Russians found themselves facing huge costs in occupying the newly acquired northern Romanian territories, as their already stretched supply lines and stockpiles were depleted.
In a sense, the situation was similar to that of the German army just before the Battle of Moscow, where they were unable to retreat after a major victory that had overwhelmed their supply chains.