The Three Kings; a Serbian Kaiserreich AAR Part 4
Published: 2017-06-25, edited: 1970-01-01
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"Austrian forces only managed to occupy Serbia itself in late 1915 and only then because of the entrance of Bulgaria in the war. After the war, Serbia’s southern territories were handed over to Bulgaria whilst the remainder was kept under Austrian occupation until 1926 when the Austrians were forced to withdraw their troops due to ethnic tensions elsewhere in the Empire - but only after setting up a new government formed from ex-collaborators. Since then Serbia has struggled to survive keeping a low profile in light of the knowledge that she could not stand up to any sort of military attack. Over time however the government has become increasingly anti-Austrian and jingoistic and knowing that they could not hope to defeat Austria they have instead turned their attentions southwards towards the lands occupied by Bulgaria. Several diplomatic talks have already been conducted with the Romanian and Greek governments (who also lost territory to Bulgaria) with a view to undermining Bulgarian hegemony in the region and some say talk of a formal alliance is not far off. Can Serbia successfully steer a course to triumph in the ‘Bulgarian Matter’? And if so can she finally defeat the old enemy Austria and realise her dream of a pan-Slavic Union?" - Taken directly from Kaiserreich
"Austrian forces only managed to occupy Serbia itself in late 1915 and only then because of the entrance of Bulgaria in the war. After the war, Serbia’s southern territories were handed over to Bulgaria whilst the remainder was kept under Austrian occupation until 1926 when the Austrians were forced to withdraw their troops due to ethnic tensions elsewhere in the Empire - but only after setting up a new government formed from ex-collaborators. Since then Serbia has struggled to survive keeping a low profile in light of the knowledge that she could not stand up to any sort of military attack. Over time however the government has become increasingly anti-Austrian and jingoistic and knowing that they could not hope to defeat Austria they have instead turned their attentions southwards towards the lands occupied by Bulgaria. Several diplomatic talks have already been conducted with the Romanian and Greek governments (who also lost territory to Bulgaria) with a view to undermining Bulgarian hegemony in the region and some say talk of a formal alliance is not far off. Can Serbia successfully steer a course to triumph in the ‘Bulgarian Matter’? And if so can she finally defeat the old enemy Austria and realise her dream of a pan-Slavic Union?" - Taken directly from Kaiserreich
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The Three Kings; a Serbian Kaiserreich AAR
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In which we finish liberating the northern Balkans.
On the 26th of March, we finally declared war on the Habsburgs to liberate the last South Slavs under their rule.
Our troops make contact with Austrian forces on the border. The enemy divisions stationed on our border are reserve units that were deemed to not be ready for combat. Because of this we expect them to not put up much resistance.
Our new Montenegrin allies share with us some technology that had been left there by retreating Austrian forces. These technologies include decryption devices, oil refineries and advanced artillery guns.
Austrian calvary retreats from Ljubljana as our forces close in.
And after a few days we occupy Maribor on the Hungarian border. The Austrians will have to decide whether they will transfer their forces from other fronts to resist us, or whether they will try to hold us back with their reserves. In any case they are at a major disadvantage.
Romania finally holds its first elections which were delayed by their war with Hungary. In the end the Conservative National Peasant's Party wins the vote. We are just glad that the Syndicalists didn't win.
Our advance into Austria has been a great success as we have encircled four enemy divisions around Trieste. Enemy divisions in the city are trapped between a rock and a hard place as they are surrounded by both our army and the Italian one.
While we prepare our army to attack Trieste we order our divisions guarding Maribor to dig in to prepare for an enemy attack.The Austrian army is much larger and more technologically advanced than our own so a transfer of enemy divisions to Slovenia could spell disaster for us.
Trieste has been claimed by the Italians as rightfully theirs however we also hold claim to the city. Due to this we begin attacking the city in order to take it before the Italians do.
The Austrians finally cave in to the Italian advance and agree to hand over Venice along with South Tirol. This could be bad news for us as Austrian troops freed up by the peace treaty could now be directed to the Slovenian front.
Austrian forces trapped in Trieste surrender after our siege of the city. By moving into the city before the Italians, we may be able to keep it for ourselves.
Four Serbian infantry divisions take control of Trieste before the Italians can take the city. With this we have eliminated almost all Austrian forces in the Balkans.
In light of this news Austria begins an emergency draft to round up whoever they can for the defence of their country.
The Greeks seize Korfu from the Austrians as the islands have been cut off from supply by our capture of Pola.
In an attempt to force the Austrians to surrender we launch an attack into Graz from Slovenia. A victory here will make the Austrians abandon all hope of victory.
Our attack proves to be successful as the Austrians quickly begin to flee from a combined Hungarian-Serbian assault.
With this victory we send the Austrians a demand for peace. We request the transfer of Istria and Slovenia to our Pan-Slavic state. With this we will have finally liberated all Slavs from Habsburg domination.
The Austrians agree to our demands and we sign a formal peace treaty the following morning. At last we have finally gotten our revenge on the Austrians for all the misery they have caused us and the Balkans for the last century.
We have suffered 40,000 casualties through all our wars to this date. This pales in comparison to the 180,000 that Austria alone has lost during their Civil War. With our victory we have made it so that the fallen of the Great War did not die in vain.
Our wars brought us to rule over Bosnia, Croatia and Slovenia in addition to our own Serbia. Naturally our state is no longer a Serbian one, but rather one for all South Slavs to live in harmony with one another. To a thunderous applause in Belgrade we announce the birth of Yugoslavia; a Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes!
We have adopted a federal system of government where each member state of Yugoslavia has been granted substantial autonomy. We are well aware of the danger of nationalism so we have taken this step as a precaution.
The borders of Yugoslavia. Montenegro remains independent from our rule but they grow more intertwined with our Federation by the day.
The day after the founding of Yugoslavia mass protests break out across Bosnia. This is in response to Muslims not being recognised as a separate national group in our federation. Not wanting an early end to our state due to civil war and ethnic violence, we agree to sit down with Bosnian leaders to reach a compromise.
We decide to offer Bosnians the status a distinct ethnic group along with their our national assembly and reserved seats in our parliament. In short the same rights held by the others national groups in our Federation.
We are relived that the Bosnians have accepted our concessions. With this Yugoslavia stands united against her enemies.
To the North Austria has advanced deep into Slovakia bringing her a large number of Slovak volunteers.
In spite of this Austria has completely ran out of manpower to draft leaving her at a severe disadvantage. We suspect that the Civil War in Austria will end in a Hungarian victory after a few more months of attrition.
With victory achieved against the Austrian Empire, we turn our attention south towards Bulgaria. After the Weltkrieg, Bulgaria annexed land from all of her neighbours including our rightful territory around Skopje. To further our goals in the region we will host a grand conference in Belgrade to discuss potential avenues for reuniting the Greek, Serbian and Romanian diaspora with their homelands.
The German and Ottoman dignitaries do not bother turning up to our conference. This is an indication that Germany has abandoned her once ally Bulgaria...
The conference is a great success as Romania and Greece agree to enter a formal alliance with our state. Our new Belgrade Pact will bring the Bulgarians to their knees!
We receive no formal response from the Bulgarian government however they are no doubt panicking over being abandoned by their German masters.
As part of the new alliance we share technology with the Greeks.
Greek claims on Bulgaria are restricted to Southern Macedonia on the coast. Recovering the city of Thessaloniki is the main priority for our Greek allies as it is the second largest Greek city in the world.
Romania claims just the province of Dobrich which has a mixed Bulgarian-Romanian population.
And we claim Southern Serbia around the city of Skopje. While most of the population in the province speaks Bulgarian, we hold a rightful claim to the land as we took it during the Balkan Wars in the early 1900s.
The King of Greece Georgios...
...The King of Romania Carol II...
And our own King Aleksander II. Together we are the Three Kings of the Belgrade Pact and we shall enact our revenge on the Bulgarians!
