"Your Majesty, this is our planned troop deployment for the Balkan region and the Asia Minor theater. Please review it." As he spoke, the Chief of the General Staff handed Ferdinand a planning document.
Ferdinand casually took the document and began reading it carefully. He was no longer the military novice he had once been. Perhaps he still lacked the skill to command a battle, but he could at least make a preliminary judgment of how many troops a campaign would require.
Bulgaria had previously formed two front armies: the Northern Front, established for the invasion of Romania, and the Western Front, established for the attack on Belgrade.
The General Staff had long planned to form two more front armies: the Southwestern Front for an attack on Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the Southeastern Front for an attack on the Asia Minor Peninsula. Due to battlefield needs, the Southwestern Front and Western Front were to be merged into a Balkan Front Army for a full-scale offensive against the Austro-Hungarian Empire. If necessary, even the Northern Front might be incorporated into the Balkan Front Army.
Of course, that had been the previous plan. Now that the Alliance had stabilized the situation, Bulgaria naturally had no reason to join in the fray.
Ferdinand had always done his utmost to avoid fighting on two fronts. Now that the Alliance had held back the Russian offensive, the Balkan strategy naturally had to be postponed. In any case, the Austro-Hungarian Empire had no spare attention to come looking for trouble with Bulgaria at the moment.
Thus, the troop deployment on the Balkan Peninsula naturally had to change as well. For the sake of national defense and security, the General Staff decided to establish another headquarters above the Southwestern, Western, and Northern Fronts.
The originally planned Balkan