Battle of the Third Reich

The German ninth armored division was upgraded from the original fourth light armored division, and it was also the last light armored unit upgraded to an armored division before the battle on the Western Front. The predecessor of the ninth armored division, the fourth light armored division, was incorporated into the 14th Army of Liszt in 399 and participated in the German invasion of Poland.

At that time, this light armored division with only 57 tanks was the weakest of all the armored forces participating in the battle, but this small armored force was in Dr. Hubiki (the lieutenant general has the doctorate title). Under the command, he participated in the campaign to siege the Polish Krakow Army, and cooperated with the friendly forces to wipe out this Polish heavy army group in a week.

After the end of the Polish campaign, the Germans began a new round of expansion and preparations. In January 1940, the German military headquarters upgraded it to a standard armored division. On the basis of the original light division, a large number of tanks and equipment were added. When he debuted again on the battlefield, he was already a main armored division with 153 tanks.

At that time, the ninth armored division belonged to General von Bock’s Group B army group, joined the attack sequence against Belgium, and participated in the battle of Dunkirk, and was later transferred to the Krest armor cluster, as a French battle. The assault main force of the German Army hit the south all the way. Eventually, the soldiers approached the city of Lyon. If the headquarters did not arrest the reins in time, it might just rush to the port of Marseilles.

After all, it was originally the foundation of the light armored division. At that time, the equipment of the ninth armored division was mainly light tanks. Among them, the old type 1 and type 2 tanks accounted for about two-thirds of the total division tanks. After the end of the French campaign, the ninth armored division immediately participated in the battle of England, and finally completed the update of some armored vehicles before the war.

Tank One has proven to be unable to cope with combat under modern conditions, and this metal car has no merit other than speed. All the 30 tanks of the No. 1 tank originally reserved by the Ninth Armored Division were eliminated, and 30 tanks of the No. 2 tank were also eliminated. This was almost more than half of the number of tanks in the division at that time, and these equipments were subsequently replaced. It is thirty-eight brand-new No. 3 tanks and twenty-two No. 4 tanks, but the latter are all the initial models equipped with short-barreled seven or five guns.

At that time, a large number of armored forces were waiting to upgrade, and the output of the new tanks was extremely limited, so they could only give priority to supplementing the armored units that participated in the first wave of British landings. Whether the ninth armored division can be strengthened, it still depends on the merits it has established before. If you don’t believe it, you can turn around and look at the eighth armored division in the same cluster. Until now, it has dragged more than one hundred 38t tanks in Denmark. rock.

Captain Conrad bent down and picked up an Italian officer's uniform from the gravel, shaking the dust on it.

"It's a major Air Force, a very good souvenir." The captain took out his uniform pocket, then folded the uniform at random, and turned around and threw it to the loader who came out of the turret side door.

"Martin! The battalion began to advance to the front. The second company and the third platoon had already fired with the Italian infantry." Captain Dolman, the deputy company commander, protruded his head from the turret of the command tank and reported to the company commander loudly.

"Yes, what is the command of the battalion?" Conrad looked down at the documents pulled from the pocket of the major's uniform.

"Lieutenant Colonel Geisler congratulated us on the successful occupation of the Italian military airport. Let us leave some people here to wait for the handover of the infantry. The main company of the company accelerates towards the established goal. That is all, there is nothing else to explain." Dolman half He leaned out of the captain's control tower and replied loudly to his boss.

The captain of the armored soldier was wearing a black ship-shaped combat cap and only a white shirt on the upper body. The open neckline was loosely tied with a black tie. The sleeves reached the elbow high, and the sweat soaked his front chest and back. .

From the high Alpine mountains to the plains, as the altitude and dimensions decrease, the temperature also begins to rise rapidly. The German armored soldiers soon discovered that their beautiful autumn uniforms could no longer be worn. The Po River plain was clear and sunny. The temperature inside the tanks soon became similar to the summer, and the officers and men would continue to sit there. Sweating out.

The temperature of the day was about 30 degrees, which should be quite comfortable and pleasant in theory, but for the Germans who had just put on autumn and winter clothing, this became a little embarrassing. The command headquarters made a small mistake on this issue. Fortunately, it did not have any impact on the combat effectiveness of the troops. After receiving feedback from the front-line troops, all the follow-up troops had already carried summer clothes.

The armored company is the unit with the largest number of light tanks in the division. In addition to the two platoons equipped with two No. 3 platoons, the remaining four light platoons are all No. 2 tanks. The advantage of this light company is that it travels very fast, has strong off-road capabilities, and has relatively low road requirements. Although the firepower is weaker, it is completely ok for ordinary infantry units, so it is often given some front fire detection and fast Interspersed with assault missions.

In this battle, a group of thirty-three armored regiments were assigned to the right wing of the whole battalion, bypassing the periphery of Verona to the east of the city, cutting off the retreat of the defenders in the city, and blocking possible reinforcements from the east. .

To be honest, this task seems a bit heavy for a light armor company, but at present the ninth armored division can use a limited amount of troops, and everyone knows the reason for the speed of the soldiers. The whereabouts of the troops should have been exposed. The superior position on the left does not leave the Italians the slightest time to respond. In the face of the overall situation, there is no reason to say that the soldiers only need to follow the instructions of their superiors to act.

After entering the plain from the mountain pass, the Germans passed many Italian villages along the way. The German armored forces did not have the time to occupy these villages. This was the task left for the subsequent infantry.

The armored torrent rushed along Italy's well-developed plain road network, attracting a lot of curious Italian villagers to watch. They stared at this iron-grey army for a long time, still wondering where this was going from. How come the army came to subdue what he saw in Peace Day so differently.

When these Italian villagers realized that they were Germans, the field gray uniforms had filled their vision, and the German troops had covered the entire surrounding area.

The Italians did not know how to face these invaders. Although their rhetoric was still echoing in their ears, the Germans were so powerful at present. The Italians were not fools. Most of them immediately extinguished their armed resistance. Thought, if you want to die, you can go to the river and hang. At this time, attacking the Germans will only give away their lives, and may also be involved in the neighborhood and the villagers.

It’s not an Italian farmer who has no flesh and blood, but they don’t have weapons at all at the bottom of the society. Some only have the grass rakes and rusty sickles left by their parents. How can it be possible to hold this toy-like thing? Confronted with a fully armed regular army.

Immediately, these Italians discovered that the Germans seemed to be in a hurry. Apart from requesting some fresh water from the wells in the village, they did not harass the villages along the way, which was somewhat different from the content promoted on the radio station in Rome.

In recent years, Italy’s economic situation has been getting worse. Although Mussolini claimed that the Italian government has eliminated the deficit and announced that the fiscal year began to have a surplus, the actual wool is still on the sheep. The Italian government’s financial burden is all The shift to ordinary people, such as the middle and lower classes in rural Italy, is not as good as advertised in the Fascist Party Handbook.

The situation of land mergers in Italy is very serious, especially in the fertile Po River Plain. The quality of the cultivated land has seriously deteriorated due to long-term repeated cultivation, and now only rely on a large amount of chemical fertilizers and pesticides to maintain normal production.

In order to improve the fiscal deficit, the Italian lira has continued to depreciate, so that the agricultural costs have increased year by year. Many farmers have poorly managed to declare bankruptcy, from the original landlord to a tenant farmer who leased cultivated land. The proportion of farmers in the Italian rural population is rising rapidly.

At the moment, seeing the Germans as strong and powerful, many Italian farmers have their own small abacus in mind. This may be an opportunity to let them get rid of the poverty in front of them.

So, nine hours after the German invasion of Italy, the first Italian lead party appeared.

ps: The first chapter is presented, the next chapter will be later, probably around ten thirty, thank you for your support and consideration.

Thank you. (To be continued.)

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