Battle of the Third Reich

"Marco Marco Costantino, Corporal Costantino!" Captain Quinto called out Marco's name aloud. This is a very good guy at ordinary times, but when you get nervous, it will scream. Noisy, it was disturbing.

"Come on, Lieutenant!" Marco put the half-eaten dry bread into his arms, stood up, took the rifle leaning against the stone wall, and hurried towards the company leader.

"We should be in this position now, and Sanlian should follow us."

Captain Quinto squatted beside a rock. Company service personnel spliced ​​several German soldiers' rain cloths to prop up a rain canopy above the company commander. Two platoon leaders and several staff officers formed a circle under the rain canopy. , Watching the company commander mark the current marching route on a waterproof map.

"It should have been this way, but the third company is now gone. I have sent soldiers to look back, and now no one knows when they ran off with us."

"Did we go the wrong way? I think the terrain is different from the map." The communications officer interjected.

"Every **** mountain here looks the same. There is only one way to march. How can it go in the wrong direction." Lieutenant Commander Sabbatino is a straight-talking guy, and only has the good character of the company commander. Only officers can tolerate it.

"Sir, you call me." Costantino trot out of the canopy, saluting several officers after standing.

"Sergeant Costantino, you immediately take your squad and go to the front to scout. The map shows that there is a mountain village two kilometers ahead. If there is no problem, the village is occupied and the company is going to take a rest there. Rain The beginning is getting bigger and bigger, you must find a place where you can avoid the rain before dinner, otherwise there will be a lot of people catching a cold tomorrow. It is no joke to get sick in this place." Captain Kunto gave the most capable infantry squad leader in the company. command.

"Follow your orders, sir." Marco promised unequivocally. After saluting again, he turned and ran towards his men.

The 23rd [Firana] Infantry Division of the Italian Army, also known as the Broadsword Infantry Division, was the result of a new army formed in April last year during Mussolini’s blind expansion.

This infantry division is new from officers to soldiers. Just like the military uniforms on them, most of the soldiers were recruited from the Adriatic Mug area. They consisted of ordinary urban residents, industrialists and businessmen, and country farms. Farmers. These people had just received the most basic infantry training, and were transported to Albania by the Italian government as an occupation force. Many people even got to the local area before they were armed.

The 23rd Infantry Division was composed of the standard Italian Infantry Division, which included the 47th, 48th [Filana] Infantry Regiment, 14th Artillery Regiment, and 82nd National Volunteer Army Regiment (that is, the Black Shirt), the 23rd Mortar Battalion, the 23rd Anti-Tank Company, the 23rd Communications Company, the 58th Investigation Company, the 127th Health Company, and the 1st The Three Bread Company, with a staffing capacity of 9,200, is also equipped with a 3,500-member Albanian auxiliary regiment to help the guards and transport. At the end of the war, when the war broke out, the strength of the 23rd infantry division on paper reached one. More than two thousand seven hundred.

This is already one of the few fully-equipped infantry divisions in the Italian Army. At present, there is a serious shortage of infantry divisions in Italy, because the soldiers are temporarily retired to go home to help with the autumn harvest. Many infantry divisions ran There was only an empty shelf left, waiting for the autumn harvest to end after the soldiers returned to the team before reorganizing.

This is what the Italian wonderful government will do, because Mussolini’s military expansion is too fast and takes up a lot of rural labor. In the busy season of agriculture, these farmers have to be put back to work, otherwise the Italians will wait the next year. Let's go hungry.

The invasion of Greece is the only thing Mussolini can do at present. He originally tried to unite with Bulgaria and move Yugoslavia. As a result, the Bulgarians ignored him. The czar was not stupid, a group of French soldiers could beat the Italians, and now there is no one in Europe who can believe this big chin.

Italy has shrunk and strengthened the defense line in the Alps. The Gauls are now the Roman gods before they hit the mountain and smashed the field. Mussolini dared to have other undivided thoughts at this moment.

The road to expansion in the Balkans has been blocked, and the African colony is in the middle of Britain and France. At present, it is difficult to protect itself. Mussolini can foresee that once Britain and France are relieved, they will definitely take these colonies, and relying on the current strength of Italy, it is impossible to hold such a large area.

Want to break this dead end, unless Italy can get the support of Germany again, but now it seems that this hope is very slim, the relationship between Germany and Italy has been hovering on the brink of collapse, and the high-level of both parties seem to have no intention to remedy It seemed that Mussolini would rather die than put his body down and ask the "blonde boy" in his eyes for help.

There are already a lot of forces in Italy that have expressed their dissatisfaction with the current situation, either explicitly or implicitly. When they see that the conflict between Italy and Germany is purely a dispute between Mussolini’s wills, it is only now that they have lost their troops and abandoned their divisions. Insulting the country, watching a lot of interests slip away from the eyes.

With the repeated defeats of the Italian army, Mussolini's reputation in the country began to slowly decline. He must find a breakthrough as soon as possible and re-establish his authority in the hearts of the Italian people.

Looking around, Mussolini took a look at the Greece around him. Compared to Italy at the time, Greece did look weak and bully. The country did not have much resources, let alone develop industries. All weapons, equipment, ammunition and even clothing of the Greek army have to rely on imports from abroad. As long as he cuts off his foreign channels, the country will even fight without chaos.

The current leader of Greece is Janis Metaxas, an outright military dictator. Under the Prime Minister’s rule, the Greek royal family has become a rubber stamp-like existence. There are few followers, and at the same time have marriage and blood with other royal families in Europe, plus a very clever expression of full support for the current government, which has not been overthrown by the prime minister who actually holds the power of the state.

The Prime Minister’s attitude was biased towards Germany. Before the outbreak of the war, Greece and Germany had a wide range of trade, and the Greek king was a pro-British element. Therefore, after the war, Britain immediately announced that Greece’s security will be affected by the British Empire. protection.

In the eyes of ordinary people, based on Greece's previous performance, it is equivalent to standing on the opposite side of Germany. Germany is obviously not going to come forward for this country. After the defeat of the British, although the Royal Fleet was still active in the Mediterranean, the forces of the British Army and the Air Force lost a lot in the war. The military strength in the Mediterranean region was only enough to maintain the security of colonies such as Africa and the canal area for the time being. Too much power has come to interfere with Greece’s problems.

When the two biggest obstacles were stripped, in Mussolini's eyes, Greece became a piece of meat on a chopping board. He just needed to extend his hand to easily put this territory into his pocket. After occupying Greece, Italy occupies a third of the Mediterranean Sea. It is a further step away from Mussolini's goal of rebuilding Rome. The Roman army stepped into the city of Athens again and will surely win the favor of Italian civilians.

There have been some island and territorial disputes between Italy and Greece. Although relations between the two countries eased in the 1920s and 1930s, as Mussolini came to power, these issues were put on the table again.

This dictator is full of ambitions and desires for the territory and wants to become a new generation of Roman emperors. In order to achieve this goal, he did not hesitate to send a whole generation of Italians to the **** battlefield.

The plan to invade Greece was sloppy and rough. The staff of Rome did not even complete the preliminary data calculation, so they directly handed over the task to the twenty-fifth army stationed in Albania.

However, it can also be understood that when Mussolini's fighting intentions were released, Italy was in a busy agricultural season. A large number of soldiers were undergoing temporary decommissioning procedures. The country roads were full of soldiers who returned to their hometowns in military uniforms. Many, many The troops have already laid their sheep and there is no way to regroup.

According to the information previously obtained by the eyes of Odin, a large number of Alpine troops were transferred back to southern Italy. In fact, most of them were made for this matter. The Germans thought that the Italians were preparing for a large-scale military. action.

"Everyone listened well, sorted out the equipment and set off in five minutes." Corporal Costantino walked to his team and gave orders to the soldiers.

This is a standard ten-person infantry squad. In addition to the deputy squad leader, there are six riflemen and two machine gunners. They are carrying a Beretta m1930 light machine gun. This is a complex structured weapon that is prone to failure. And famous.

The rifle soldiers each carried a 6.5 mm Calcano m1891 rifle. Looking at the product model, you know how old this thing is, and there have been few improvements since it was finalized.

Costantino, as a sergeant squad leader, got a Carcano m91 cavalry carbine. This carbine model, which is only two-thirds of the length of a standard rifle, is also standard equipment for Alpine mountain hunters. At the same time, it is also distributed to infantry hunters and intermediate and low-ranking army noncommissioned officers.

God knows why the Italians should distribute carbines to snipers. Perhaps the starting point was to reduce the weight of the gunmen, but the result was that the Italian hunters suffered heavy losses in the confrontation with the French and British shooters with standard rifles.

"God, forgive me, they won't send others. Isn't the entire company only usable as an infantry squad?" Machine gunner Ottokino complained loudly.

"Shut up, senior soldier, someone will always do this job." The deputy squad leader Giuliano restrained the machine gunner's complaint. He lowered his head to check the armed belt on his waist. In addition to the two standard bullets hanging on the black leather belt Outside the box, there are two red shell ot35 grenades, which look round like a baby bottle with a lid.

"Line up!" Castantino ordered loudly. Nine soldiers braved the dense drizzle and stood in a row beside the mountain road.

"Maricino and I are the vanguards, the others are in the middle, and the deputy squad leader carries the machine gun group tail. The target is the mountain village two kilometers ahead. We want to occupy that village. We may camp there today. Everyone must be vigilant. There is probably a Greek soldier scattered nearby. Without my order, don’t fire at random to avoid exposing the whereabouts of the team. Did you all understand it?” the squad leader asked loudly.

"I see, squad leader." The soldiers answered loudly.

"Very good, let's go." Costantino is satisfied with the current morale of his men. Although this group of guys are all rookies with no combat experience, they can still be trusted at a critical moment.

In the cold autumn rain, a team of Italian soldiers stumbled along the mountain road to re-enter the journey. No one knew what was waiting for them. At this moment, everyone was full of confidence in the victory of the war.

ps: There is still some fever today, but this chapter is finally completed, thank you for your understanding and support.

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thank you all. (To be continued.)