Prelude to War Jan 1936 to Mar 1938
Private Diary – Todor Georgiev – Bulgarian Chief of Staff
January 1st 1936
Why is it when the King is drunk he gets these crazy ideas in his head? Naturally, last night the King had a new year’s party at the palace and all the prominent members of the government were present. The alcohol was flowing and everything was well mannered, even if the King was in a bit of a grump from his trip to Greece, the reason as to why was to become apparent later.
So it was around 1:00 when one of the civil servants asked the King how his trip had gone. His reply, which lasted nearly an hour, was a rant about how several of the Greek ‘nobility’ had laughed at him having the smallest Bulgarian ‘empire’ to have ever existed! Of course while he was relating this story he became somewhat agitated and ended up ordering the entire cabinet into his private meeting room.
We were in there for several hours, during which time we all sobered up. The message from the King was simple, he wants the Bulgarian empire back and he thinks the rise of Hitler in Germany is going to lead to a world climate in which we can act. As I said earlier it’s a crazy idea!
Of course I told him our Army is backward and still uses its equipment from WW1! Not to mention we actually don’t have an air force or navy to speak of or the capacity to build one and/or research one! He didn’t care.... his response, ‘Find a way Todor, I don’t care how, just do it!’. Fantastic I thought.
I retired to a smaller room with the ministers and together we outlined a plan. Before we even think about expanding our borders we need a modern(ish) army. Our ability to modernise is limited and its clear we can’t have everything. After much debate it was settled that we will focus on the Infantry and in particular develop our special forces in the form of mountain infantry which will have an enormous advantage in the terrain around here! Expanding the army much beyond its current size is limited but the amount of recruits we have, hopefully we’ll be able to increase that in the coming years!
Vasil (at this time he is the Chief of the Air Force) convinced me to invest some research time in tactical bombers, expanding our strategic options. We’ll also immediately commence building of some troop transports for the Navy, although developing combat ships seems to be all but impossible.
At this point Georgi Kioseivanov (our Foreign Minister) come up with a fantastic idea, at least his was for his thick head! We could align ourselves close to one of the major powers and negotiate production licences for their ships and tanks! SO now the question is which power? The UK and USA distrust us immensely, as we are part of the pseudo ‘eastern bloc’ and even with great relations it would be all but impossible to negotiate any licences. Germany and Italy arn’t interested in trading with us since they are consuming all the raw materials she can at the moment rebuilding their armed forces – the more I think about this the more I think the world is going to war again! That left our neighbour... the Russians, hardly known for their ship building skills but never mind. So, Georgi is now setting up numerous trade deals with the Russians for the resources our growing industry needs and hopefully in the future this will lead to some kind of navy for us!
Finally, Georgi Sapov (Minister of Security) has informed me he has set our spy network in such a manner to maximise the number of spies in Greece and at home in order to drum up enough popular support to make a war feasible without a civil war! He estimates we’ll be ready in early 1938 – that gives me two year to prepare for war against Greece!
June 1st 1936
I’ve reorganized out army as follows....
General Bakyrdjiev heads the High Command.
1st Army – ‘The Border Guards’ – led by Vulkov
3 Divisions each with 3 brigades of Infantry.
2nd Army – led by Marinkov
3 Divisions each with 3 brigades of Infantry
Plus one brigades of ancient artillery!
3rd Army – led by Murnov
2 Divisions each with 3 brigades of Infantry
I disbanded our ancient Calvary regiments, we simply don’t have the resources and they are already outdated. The army has primarily been deployed along the Greek border. I fear the worst!
August 7th 1936
We’ve finished preparing the arrangements to train our infantry in specialist mountain combat – I immediately commissioned the training of 3 divisions each consisting of 3 brigades. We are also well on the way upgrading our infantry to the latest weaponry, the troops are impressed and seem to sense something is going to happen. One trooper I spoke too asked me what’s was going on, I just replied it was routine upgrades his response put me in high spirits. He said, ‘Well, with all due respect Sir, I’m ready to go and kick some Greek butt! Bulgaria WILL be great once more!’.
I forgot to mention last month I was at the launching of the first of our transport craft to be commanded by admiral Variclechkov. The King was mightly impressed by the fine vessels but after the celebrations the admiral looked me in the eye and said, ‘Now get me something to protect them with as if we launch now these are going straight to the bottom of the Black Sea. I looked at him rather glumly, but his point was valid. I spoke to Georgi the next day and he told me the Russians still aren’t interested in selling their technology – hopefully one day soon!
January 5th 1937
Bombers! Who would have thought it? We’ve finalized the plans for a squadron of the planes and I just gave the go ahead for production. Madness! Naturally the King is head of heels and is already planning the parties he going to have in Athens. Maybe this will work?
On a rather more ominous note several countries have declared their allegiance with Germany. These include Italy and Hungary. If we get on the wrong side of Germany there simply isn’t going to be anything left of our country and I’ll be almost certainly dead.....
March 7th 1937
Well today marks a fantastic achievement for our glorious nation. Our mountain infantry brigades have just left basic training! To say they look mean is somewhat of an understatement. These guys are just what our army needs! One brigade has gone into the 2nd Army and two into the 3rd Army.
Georgi informed me today that we have reached our full trading capacity with the Russians and that they are beginning to accept us as allies. Still no movement on the ships though. Hopefully its only a matter of time!
I’ve also had news that New Zeland, Australia, South Africa and Ireland have aligned themselves with the UK and Japan has allied with Germany. A war is brewing that much is certain, the King was right. Maybe we can steal the Balkans from under their noses....
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