The war officially broke out at 2:30 in the morning on April 8, 1936.
A little past 3:00 a.m., massive squadrons of bombers took off from the German mainland, roaring toward Austrian territory.
These bombers had a single mission: to launch a concentrated attack on the Austrian troops stationed at the border, striving to blast a breach in the Austrian defense line.
Simultaneously, as if thoroughly prepared, the German Army massed thousands of artillery pieces and unleashed an indiscriminate, full-scale bombardment on the Austrian forces.
Shells poured down onto the Austrian positions like a torrential rain, triggering tremors no less violent than an earthquake.
Following a chain of reports, the news that a border clash had erupted and provoked a German declaration of war was delivered to the desk of Austrian Emperor Karl I.
Damn it, how dare the Germans declare war on us? Karl I looked at his Prime Minister with a sense of disbelief. And what is this about the attacks we supposedly launched against them?
Half an hour ago, Karl I was still fast asleep in sweet dreams.
Yet with the Prime Minister's emergency audience, Karl I's pleasant dream shattered, and a nightmare followed right behind it.
From this aspect, one could also see that Austrian Emperor Karl I's grip on domestic affairs had indeed dropped to the freezing point.
Karl I knew nothing of the news that the military had clashed, nor did he possess any channels to issue commands to the frontline troops.
"It is the provocation of those damned Germans," the Austrian Prime Minister said with a gloomy face. "The Germans took the lead in sending out soldiers to provoke us, which is what sparked the conflict."
"Fuck! You mean the Germans deliberately lured us into their trap just to find a legitimate reason