The road from the Thessaly region to Athens has always been through the coastal road. Because the mountainous terrain made its interior unsuitable for large troop marches. Therefore, since ancient times, Greece has been at war with other powers, mostly naval battles or coastal areas, and few people have tried to cross the mountains.

Although the role of checkpoints has been greatly reduced with the development of the times, it is still the coastal roads that can be used by the army. And today on the coastal promenade, a majestic army is rushing all the way.

That's right, this force is the Panzer Corps under the command of Hoffman, and they have passed through the Thessaly Basin and are heading for their target Athens.

This was a good conversation for them in the recently concluded Battle of Thessaly, where they drove their chariots after the defeated Greek army, dividing them up and encircling them, forcing them to surrender in pieces.

At first, they were very happy about this, but there were too many defeated Greek officers and soldiers, and these defeated officers and soldiers were surrounded and divided by them one by one, and they were almost numb later.

After encircling and surrendering these defeated troops, they left only a small number of soldiers to guard these surrendered Greek soldiers, while the rest of the troops continued to advance inland.

After taking Larissa (the capital of the Thessaly region) first, they captured Volos without stopping, and then rushed all the way to Athens under the command of Hoffmann.

Along the way, no one of the Greek armies was their opponent, either annihilated or routed.

And now their commander, Lieutenant General Hoffman, is in the command car, constantly watching the latest information on the entire battle situation.

"I didn't expect the navy to fight so badly on Chios Island."

Hoffman was reading the Navy's battle report, in which the Navy listed the details of the battle on Chios Island, including the unlucky fairy cannon.

The battle resulted in more than 1,000 casualties for the 1st Marine Division, including nearly 800 casualties, which caused the 1st Marine Division to suffer considerable losses. And they were not comfortable with the Greek army, and the casualties of more than 3,000 people also broke their backbone.

Hoffman carefully studied the report, and although the landing battle had little to do with him, who could say for sure, maybe he might use anything. And this battle report is also helpful to him, whether it is arranging troops and commanding and responding, it can give him a lot of ideas and references.

Tactically, he thought it would be worth the loss of the battle on Chios. Because of the storming of the enemy's position, the casualties caused were too great, and some of the gains outweighed the losses.

Strategically, however, he believed that the battle had been fought on the right foot, as it showed the Greeks that their resistance was useless, and that they were no match for the Romanian army, despite their decisive conviction and excellent terrain.

And just as he was poring over the report, a communications staff officer approached. He took a telegram from his bag and handed it to Hoffman's desk.

"Report to Your Excellency General, this is a telegram from the Italian side from the Collector."

"Okay, I got it."

Hoffman gave up the idea of continuing to study the report of the battle on Chios, and casually placed it on the table, and picked up the telegram that had just arrived in Italy. For he was curious as to why Admiral Mandiff had sent him the Italian telegram.

"What, the Italian army asks for help!"

Don't blame Hoffmann for such a gaffe, but in the new situation of the Greek campaign, the Italian attack on the Albanian side was unfavorable, and the report for help was actually sent to the Romanian side.

The format of the telegram was a telegram sent by the commander of the Italian army in Albania, Lieutenant General Peska, to Admiral Mandiv.

In this telegram, Lieutenant General Pesca first congratulated the admiral on his encirclement and annihilation of the main force of the Greek army. Then he began to talk about his difficulties, what was the lack of ammunition, the unfavorable terrain, the stubbornness of the enemy's resistance, etc. Finally, it was hoped that Admiral Mandiff would send a force to attack the Greek defenders from behind and relieve the pressure on the Italian army.

And Hoffman saw this telegram, so that he did not know what to say. It's just that the admiral didn't say his decision, so it's not good for him to speculate. However, according to his expectations, the admiral should send a force to help the Italians. Because Italy is an ally, it is somewhat unreasonable not to help.

Hoffmann's speculation was actually a bit optimistic, and the real situation was that the Italian army had failed to attack and retreated, and was unable to fight again.

That's right, that's the case.

There were two reasons for the poor performance of the Italian army; One is the insufficient preparation of ammunition. That's right, ammunition is insufficient, and Italy's chaotic logistics have never replenished the ammunition of the Italian army in Afghanistan. It was only after Mussolini was ready to go to war that they realized that the Italian army in Afghanistan had not yet replenished its ammunition.

So he immediately took out a lot of ammunition and urgently replenished the Italian army in Albania, but the loading and unloading capacity of Albanian ports was insufficient, and a large number of ships were piled up here. The Italian army has attacked, and a lot of ammunition is still in the port.

As early as May, Eder and Mussolini had agreed on a plan to divide Greece, and by November there was still a shortage of ammunition, which shows the extent of the confusion in the logistics of the Italian army.

On the other hand, the conscripted Albanian troops are unreliable. Even shortly after the attack, the Albanian troops recruited by the Italian army scattered and fled, many of them back against Italian rule.

In the face of the attack of the Italian army, the Greek defenders relied on the terrain to resist the attack. The Italian army did not fight well in several waves, which made them demoralized, and at this time, they happened to encounter the counterattack of the defenders, and they were all driven back, so they were not embarrassed.

Faced with a great victory over the Greek Romanian army, it was clear that the Italian army intended to call for help.

It's just that the current situation makes Hoffman a little crying and laughing, no one can imagine that the Italian army fought so badly. In the previous Spanish Civil War and the Ethiopian War, it seemed that the Italian army was performing well, but it turned out to be the turn to fight Greece, which made Hoffman think that Italy planned to work but not contribute.

Putting down the telegram in his hand, Hoffman couldn't help but worry about Italy. Of course, he was not sympathetic to the Italians, because Libya in the hands of Italy was too important for the three countries.

Let's hope this battle is an individual manifestation of the Italian army. If the Italian army behaved like this, then it would be a drag on Romania's own strategy.

With a skeptical attitude about the combat effectiveness of the Italian army, Hoffman couldn't help but think more. Now that Hoffman has received the hint from Admiral Mandiv, he has become more and more looking at the problem from the perspective of the overall situation, and his vision is naturally much broader.

And at this moment, a staff officer came over to report. "Report to Your Excellency, Commander, that the 1st Vanguard Panzer Division has discovered the Greek defenders at Thermopylae."