The Byzantine War of 1853
One of the most successful wars in the history of the German Republic began with some controversy when Chancellor Bismarck, with the approval of Foreign Minister (and Army Chief of Staff) Unger, quietly extended the emergency taxes put in place by the crisis and increased funding to 100% of army and navy needs. [1]
When this increase was discovered a few days later, Chancellor Bismarck responded only with, “We are at war. Not giving our soldiers and sailors the weapons they need is, in my opinion, nothing short of treason, and I am certain that Dr. Fellman would have approved my program if we had time to discuss is.”
Foreign Minister Unger, before leaving for the temporary HQ in Graz, personally negotiated with the Transylvanian and Bosnian ambassadors to Germany, securing a declaration of war from the former and the right to pass through the lands of the latter.
Shortly after the vote to declare war on the Byzantines, the German Reichstag was pleased to receive a telegram from General Albrecht Stolzer, who had defeated the rebels in Siena. [2] In Nice, the port of the German Navy, Alexander Schobber prepared to take 1st Fleet across the sea to seek out Byzantine shipping, leaving a capable subordinate with the transports and 5 men o’ war to support the invasion of Greece.
German soldiers began marching for Byzantine soil on 9 May after receiving orders from the Army Chief of Staff. 3rd Army headed for the fortress of Livno, while the other three armies tasked with fighting the Byzantines moved to their staging areas. General von Horstein, in the meantime, reported his own victory over the rebels in Treviso, remarking that “if these Jacobin scum spent as much energy training as they do committing treason, we might actually break a sweat putting them down!”
He would have a much more difficult with the Venetians, however, as he moved to support General Hartmann. To their shock, the commander of the Lombard uprising was a retired German Colonel named Maximilian Hoffmann. A bright, capable officer, he had served with distinction in the campaigns against the British and the Deucoleur Empire.
The difficulty of assaulting the rebels across the lagoon, combined with the bold counterattacks by Hoffmann, made the victory a very costly one for the Republic, with almost 10% of the German two armies engaged becoming casualties. Hoffmann was killed during the fighting, but intelligence found on his person indicated that the Lombard Patriot Movement had been funded, at least in part, by contributions from the Jacobins.
Farther to the west, 5th and 7th Armies prepared to take ship for the invasion of Greece.
By 19 May, Castille dispatched the meager forces left to garrison the port of Santander and began to siege the fortifications. In less than two weeks since the war’s outset, significant progress had already been made. 22 May saw the end of the rebellion in Stade. By 28 May, 2nd Fleet sailed with its cargo of soldiers for the Gulf of Taranto. 16th Army – delayed by difficulties finding enough space on the somewhat outdated railroads of Eastern Germany – finally reached its own staging area on 8 June, attacking across Bosnia into Byzantine lands.
3 July 1853 had been tentatively scheduled for the beginning of elections, but a few Imperialists had actually tried to raise the issue of postponing them until the conclusion of war. The Imperialists feared the presence of the new HUN, worrying that some of their more liberal members might defect. On 14 July, the second phase of the war against the Byzantines began with the dual-pronged invasion of Greece.
General Julius von Habsburg, a proud Imperialist in his own right, took the letter from his cousin in the Conclave, spat on it, tore it up, and threw it into the Mediterranean. “That any true son of the Habsburgs would stoop so low as to call himself an Italian… Rest assured, all of the real, untainted Habsburgs shun this fool.”
This incident became a key feature in the upcoming elections, even as Chancellor Bismarck begged for civility. [3]
The fortress of Livno fell on 18 July, but the real news came in August from the Atlantic, as Admiral Schobber systematically engaged and destroyed the Byzantine fleet before shelling the capital of Montevideo with impunity.
Admiral Schobber’s decision to ship a case home of “indigenous religious artifacts” to Germany as trophies of war prompted a ferocious debate on the question of religious propriety. Carlo Brunelli, although a proud Catholic, nonetheless won the day, at least temporarily, by sidestepping the question and positing that politics and religion did not mix.
For the first time since the war began, German and Byzantine soldiers exchanged shots at the Battle of Janina on 13 September 1853. Foreign Minister Unger, hoping to avoid further bloodshed, tried to use the offices of the French Ambassador to Germany to arrange a peace, especially with the port of Santander in Castillian hands. The Byzantines were not interested, however, despite their losses at sea and despite the lands they’d lost. 22 September 1853 – the conclusion of the Battle of Janina – changed their minds.
Transylvanian forces were already dangerously close to Constantinople, which although no longer the capital, was still the source of Byzantine power in Europe. The first battle between German and Byzantine forces would prove to be the last, as they surrendered Santander to Castille 5 days later.
Emboldened by their victory (conveniently discounting the amount of aid they received from Germany and Transylvania), Castille decided to regain more of the former Spanish Empire by declaring war on France. While certain members of the Reichstag – most notably the leader of the HUN, Michael von Hohenzollern – enthusiastically supported the war with France in hopes of regaining German lands, many more were opposed to further bloodshed.
The monetary cost of the war had been approximately £30,000, and there were fewer than 5000 total casualties during the war with the Byzantines, most of them wounded. The German people, certainly, were willing to support a war with one of their most hated enemies, even if it meant more taxes.
The question was, what about their elected representatives?
[1] I know nobody specifically said to do this, but we’d look pretty stupid if we lost the war because we only had 70% maintenance on the Army and Navy.
[2] I’m retconning the term, first used by Sakura_F, I think, to mean “the Conclave and Assembly as a collective unit.” I’ve tried to use English analogs for German words wherever possible in this version of the AAR (as opposed to the first two components of the megacampaign), so I could also use “Parliament” if that’s preferable.
[3] The event, basically speaking, makes Soldiers, Aristocrats, and Officer POPs more reactionary throughout the country (except in colonies). All POPs on German cores with Bavarian culture become more jingoist; all POPs on German cores without Bavarian culture are more pacifist. This is on top of the normal boosts to consciousness, political awareness, and war exhaustion.
Here are some bonus screenshots to get you up to speed on the end of the war.
France proper:
French Spain:
The positions of our soldiers as of the end of the war:
7th Army is the one in Janina; 5th Army is on Corfu. 16th Army is the one on the border with Bosnia – they didn’t get very far into Byzantine territory by the end of the war. 3rd Army is the one trapped in IRL Bulgaria; they actually can’t get back to German territory without the fleet because everybody hates us that borders the Byzantines (except Transylvania, with whom there’s no direct land connection). We also need the fleet to get 5th Army off of Corfu. Everybody else can walk if we need them to.
Most of our combat ships are still on the Atlantic Coast of IRL Brazil, and will take some time to get back. They took relatively little damage in the battles, but the attrition from crossing the Atlantic will take a bit of time to repair. Castille has some colonies in northern South America, and we could fix them up there, or send them back to Germany.
The red area is the state we have the CB on – the province to the left of the green line (Moulins) is our actual core.
Finally, here’s the French Empire as a whole:
Everybody in the Reichstag needs to vote on the DOW – both Assembly and Conclave. The vote will go for 24 hours or so.