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1912

"Gott strafe England!" - Statement by German and Hapsburg soldiers in the trenches and post war became part of the poem, "Hassgesang gegen England" by Ernst Lissauer

"God heard the embattled nations sing and shout

'Gott strafe England!' and 'God save the King!'

God this, God that, and God the other thing -

'Good God!' said God, 'I've got my work cut out!'"

British reply by Sir John Collings Squire

Since the armistice was signed the various parties had been meeting in London attempting to bring a final end to the Balkan war. The result has been mutual recriminations between the members of the Balkan League. Montenegro and Serbia had achieved most of their objectives and at little cost. Greece had also achieved most of their objectives, the Aegean Islands in Ottoman hands were being taken one by one as there was no armistice in place between Greece and the Ottomans. At the same time the Ottomans continued to hold out in Albania. Also other than its victory on the sea Greece's conquests had not come cheaply however. Bulgaria alone had not achieved its objectives or cheaply; much of eastern Thrace was overrun but the great city of Adrianople refused to surrender due to lack of siege artillery to force the issue and large Ottoman forces held out in western Thrace around the city of Sevez and various fortified cities in between the two. Bulgaria demanded of their allies that they be compensated for their sacrifices that permitted the others conquests. In particular the Bulgarians wanted Macedonia and access to the Aegean with the port of Salonika. Greece refused and kept strong forces facing the Bulgarians. The Bulgarian demands so alarmed their "allies" that Serbia and Greece conclude an alliance and open talks with Romania.

The Great Powers wanted an end to the war. In Particular Austria wanted the war resolved but was not willing to let Serbia grow much larger by seizing all or even part of Albania. Pointed threats were issued that Vienna would not stand for such an event to come to pass. The conscious was that Albania was to be setup as an independent state. Still no agreement was forth coming as the various members of the Balkan league could not agree on a division of the spoils.

Matters then came to a head once a coup d'état occurs within the Ottoman Empire. The so called "The Three Pashas", Ottoman minister of the interior, Mehmed Talat Pasha, the minister of war, Ismail Enver, and the minister of the Navy, Ahmed Djemal take control of the government.

Bulgaria which had been very frustrated with the peace talks decides to use window of opportunity that the Ottoman coup has created to seize their claims in the Balkans. The Bulgarian army moves into Macedonia.

The Bulgarians believe that the coup will distract the Ottomans and so the most of Bulgarian army is shifted west. Despite the Bulgarian objective of taking area nearer pre-war Greece the lay of railroads forces an offensive vs. Serbia first. Only light forces are available to face the Greeks. What follows that spring is a month of heavy combat between the Bulgaria, Greece and Serbia; fighting that the Bulgarians do poorly in over all.

What ends the renewed war is the duel entry of Rumania and the Ottoman Empire into the second Balkan War. With all of the Bulgarians troops in the west, the Romanians are able to occupy Bulgarian Dobruja in the east and in the west advance towards Sophia at the same time the Ottomans retake all of Thrace right up to the pre-war border.

The final result for the war is a near disaster for Bulgaria; the treaties that end the war see Bulgaria losing most but not all of her gains from the First Balkan War and Rumania seizing Dobruja. The Ottoman Empire has kept Thrace but the rest of its territory in Europe and the Aegean Islands are lost. Greece and Serbia greatly expand and a new independent Albania is setup. Goltz in Germany with his pro-Ottoman stance perceived wildly as a disaster.

January British War Staff established

French Army General Staff makes the offensive à outrance official French military doctrine in it's Regulations for the Conduct of Large Units. At the same time the concept of élan remains the heart and core of small unit tactics. As such the traditional blue and red uniform remains despite recommendations to switch to the duller colors used by the African colonial army. "En avant à la baionette" is to remain the central command for infantry.

Despite the continued fixation on the rapid offensive the German fortification project was causing increased debate in France. With the 105mm field gun Model 1911 / L 11 S now in series if low level production the Conseil supérieur de la Guerre has decided to look into other heavy artillery. Lt. Col of Artillery Émile Rimailho is ordered to work on an update to his Canon de 155 C. T. R. court Rimailho modèle 1904; a 155mm rapid firing howitzer. While some suggestion is giving to looking into updating the siege artillery to allow for the reduction of the German fort system it never advances beyond the design and study phase.

January - Reichstag elections with S.P.D. emerging as the strongest party in parliament. The rise of the SPD is the final straw for Goltz government. His Ottoman adventure widely viewed as a disaster and many seeing the rise of the SPD as the first step towards a liberal revolution causes support to fall away from the Chancellor. Goltz growing tired of the continued political battles and intrigues offers to step down as Chancellor but to serve on as War Minister if the Kaiser so wishes. The Kaiser accepts the resignation but who to replace the General as Imperial Chancellor needs to be answered. The leading candidates are Imperial State Secretary for the Interior, Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg, Secretary of State of the Imperial Naval Office Alfred von Tirpitz and Finance Minister Adolf Wermuth. Wermuth quickly falls out of consideration because of his perceived anti military bias as a result of his opposition to past military spending. Tirpitz while an interesting candidate is not without his problems in particular following one military chancellor with another. Instead Bethmann-Hollweg is selected as the replacement for Goltz, but Bethmann-Hollweg will face difficult challenges. Both the army and navy desire to embark on even larger military programs but the budget is already stretched by these programs and the new left leaning Reichstag is unlikely to be sympathetic to more arms programs.

Also the 2^nd elections are held for the Ducal Diet of Elsaß-Lothringen and Franz Ferdinand's administration is fully in place after two years. There are still questions over the Grand Duchies military but they are being worked out if slowly.

January 12 - HMS Iron Duke laid down at Portsmouth Dockyard

January 25 - HMS Marlborough laid down at Devonport Dockyard

February - Joffre tells the Conseil supérieur de la Guerre that he was counting on the British for 6 infantry and 1 cavalry divisions to be ready for action by 15th day of mobilization

February 7 - Kaiser Wilhelm talks with the just installed Imperial Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg about the army and navy requests for expanded budget. Erich Ludendorff a General Staff officer has become one of the more vocal members of the "citizen army" faction. Currently Germany uses about 52% of its available annual manpower intake. Ludendorff presents a plan to increase the standing peace time army by over 50%. While this will involve the creation of a number of new Army Corps the majority of the increase is to take place in the form of additional cadre in current formations to allow for more rapid mobilization in time of war. The two Balkan wars showed that speed of mobilization and rapid movement of troops is critical. Such a massive increase in the standing army would besides being expensive have its own set of social problems. As it would mean more solders from urban areas and then there would be the question of additional NCO's and Regular officers. Such an expansion would greatly upset the social make up of the army.

At the same time Tirpitz wants to add an additional Battle squadron to the fleet, maintaining the current three battleship per year building tempo, more small cruisers, more large torpedo boats and larger crews to allow for more of the fleet, large torpedo boats in particular, to be kept at war readiness in peace time. Tirpitz felt that the fall from power of Goltz means that he can push through his naval bill at the expense of the armies own plan.

If either program is to be enacted as is let alone both the manpower of the military would exceed the constitutional limit of no more than 1% of the population in the military. This limit dates back to the founding of the Empire in 1871 as a way of compromise to the various other kingdoms to limit the power of the new Imperial State. Not to mention the expense, either program would be prohibitively expensive both would be crushingly so in the current budget setup.