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In the spacious and bright hotel suite, Fang Yanzheng listened to Zeitzler tell him about the miserable situation of the Italian Army. Although Fang Yan only knows about the army, through Zeitzler's simple but connotative narration, as a layman, Fang Yan also deeply feels what chicken feed is in weak chickens.

As time entered the 40s of the 20th century, the armies of the great powers were heavily equipped with mechanized vehicles, but due to the constraints of capital and production capacity, the mainstay was still the infantry force. Even in the German Army, which pursues the concept of blitzkrieg, there are only 16 fully mechanized armored and motorized divisions so far, while the number of infantry divisions is more than 120, accounting for more than three-quarters of all divisional strengths. Therefore, if you want to evaluate the strength of a country's army, the first thing to look at is the combat effectiveness of its infantry divisions. Through Zeitzler's contacts and investigations, it was found that the Italian army was very different from the German army in this area.

First of all, on the paper formation of the infantry divisions, the Italians were thrown by the Germans more than a notch. The new Italian infantry division has a total strength of about 12,000 men, which is 30% smaller than the standard German infantry division of 17,000 men. Although the Italian army had planned to make up for the reduction in manpower caused by the downsizing of the army by adding modern equipment (the new Italian infantry division had only two infantry regiments, while the infantry divisions of other countries had three regiments), due to the weakness of the relevant military industry and the lack of funds, this idea eventually became complete wishful thinking.

At present, the main suppressive fire of the 1 infantry division of the Italian army is only 12 100mm howitzers. The German infantry division alone had 12 150mm heavy howitzers, 36 105mm howitzers, and 6 150mm infantry guns designed for infantry regiments to destroy enemy field fortifications. In terms of ammunition projection, the firepower of the German infantry division was 10 times that of the Italian army, and the gap of an order of magnitude was completely realized. Even if the size of a division of the Italian army is smaller than that of the German army, this firepower disparity still cannot be explained!

Even if compared with the armies of other European powers, the firepower of the Italian infantry division is undoubtedly at the bottom. The French equipped their infantry divisions with 48 105mm guns as standard, while the British had 36 114mm howitzers; The Soviet division has a luxurious lineup of 12 doors 152mm + 28 doors 122mm, although only a very small number of elite troops have obtained enough equipment.

Of the world's major industrial countries, perhaps only Japan's army is inferior to the Italian army. The main suppressive firepower of the Japanese 37th Division was also only 12 100mm howitzers, but because the total strength of its division was as high as 26,000 people, the unit firepower was lower than that of the Italian army. However, the Japanese army was originally only a young player in East Asia, and it could not become a benchmark for the first-class army to measure its combat strength.

And in the field of mid-level firepower of less than 100 mm caliber, the Italian army is still lackluster. They were armed with 24 75mm infantry guns, 8 65mm mountain guns, and 8 47mm anti-tank guns, while the Germans had 20 75mm infantry guns and as many as 56 50mm anti-tank guns. The Germans were not left behind in the firepower of the Italian infantry at the grassroots level, and the density of mortars and machine guns reached the mainstream standards of the Great Powers, but this only ensured that they could barely maintain the balance of power in the battalion-level skirmishes. Once it rises to the level of confrontation at the regimental or division level, the Italian army will be inferior to the artillery; In this regard, Chang Kaishen's German mechanic is the most direct example.

For example, the main field army in the early days of the founding of the TG was able to use extremely limited weapons to fight against the US imperialism in the mountains of Korea. And at this point, the Italian Army once again left Zeitzler in the open.

The number of non-commissioned officers in the Italian infantry division was only 600, less than a quarter of the 2,600 men in the German infantry division. And the non-commissioned officer is the pillar of the army, which directly determines the combat effectiveness of the squad unit. Imagine that the German infantry squad leaders are all high-quality non-commissioned officers, who can lead their subordinates to make accurate and effective responses in the face of various complex and changeable battlefield environments; However, the grassroots squad leaders of the Italian army are filled with a large number of soldiers who have not been trained enough, and once the battlefield situation changes, they will panic first, let alone command the team members to solve the crisis. This situation undoubtedly lowered the already very weak Italian army to another notch, and it became almost the norm for a small force of the same size to not be able to defeat the enemy.

What was most intolerable to Zeitzler was that even the Italian Army had the number of European third-rate infantry divisions of limited size, the number of non-commissioned officers, and the lack of artillery firepower that could be counted on only two hands. Of its 49 infantry divisions, only 10 have sufficient personnel, weapons, and transport vehicles. another 17 can fight, but lack personnel and transport vehicles; The remaining 22 divisions are even more than 50 percent short of strength, and there is a serious shortage of equipment and transport vehicles. If this is placed on the main battlefield of the European continent, the Italian army can be easily destroyed by either side of the German and French armies in one face, and there will not even be bones left!

Aside from the tragic conventional infantry forces, the strength of the three tank divisions, which were regarded as the pride and symbol of the Italian army, was also very different from that of the German army of the same level. The vast majority of Italian tanks are the CV-33 and CV-35, which weigh less than 3.5 tons, which are read as tanks, written as anti-infantry destroyers: not only are they armed with two 8mm machine guns, but they also do not even have a turret, and their combat effectiveness is so low that it is almost touching to cry.

Although the German No. 1 tank is only equipped with two 7.92mm machine guns, it has 360-degree omnidirectional firepower, and the most important thing is that it can cooperate with friendly forces through the on-board radio, and its comprehensive combat effectiveness can be completely destroyed by the Italian army. Not to mention that the German armored troops in this plane also have excellent combat vehicles such as "Lynx" and "Snow Wolf". In fact, as long as you look at the two main tanks of the Italian army, you can intuitively feel what level of combat effectiveness they are - which tank can be carried on the back by a truck in World War II?

After hearing Zeitzler's accusation, Fang Yan finally understood why the Italian Army in history was bloodied by the British in North Africa. With this kind of equipment and the quality of the grassroots troops, it is only to be able to defeat the elite of the British expeditionary force that was withdrawn from Dunkirk. However, Fang Yan still couldn't understand why the Italian Army's top management didn't start to remedy it since there were so many shortcomings?

Perhaps the problem of the number of non-commissioned officers and the performance of the tank can no longer be solved overnight in a short period of time, but the production of equipment can have an immediate effect. Seven months have passed since September 1939, and it stands to reason that Mussolini would have urged the military industry to step up production as long as he did not want Italy to become the Switzerland of the big size. Why is the army's equipment still like this now?

During Fang Yan's inquiry, Zeitzler seemed to be reminded of unpleasant memories, and said hatefully: "Please don't mention to me about Italian arms production again. I looked at their army equipment production statistics for the first quarter of this year, and the completion rate was unbelievably low. The production of artillery in the Italian army was completed only 6% of the original plan, 25% of bullets, 10% of shells, 35% of rifles, and 10% of machine guns; They can't even build 100 regular artillery pieces a month, and now the demand gap of the front-line troops is at least 2,000. The most infuriating thing is that the small amount of guns and ammunition that the factory has managed to produce, but it still has to give priority to the aid to Finland! ”

Fang Yan was stunned when he heard this, and a lot of information that had been sealed in his mind began to emerge quickly. More than four months ago, he did encourage him to support Finland's resistance to the Soviet Union through the relationship line of little Ziano, and the latter and Mussolini did not live up to Fang Yan's expectations, decisively discovered this fame and fortune and did it. To this day, every day Italian transport planes laden with munitions fly to Sweden in the guise of passenger planes in German airspace, and as for their final destination, Fang Yan and the German command are clearly in a clear mind.

Although Fang Yan was only a third person who contributed to this incident, and it was not at all clear how much arms the Italian side had given in the specific process, judging from the current situation in which the Soviet Union and Finland were still fighting fiercely, Italy's assistance did play a role that could not be ignored. Today is March 30, and the historical Finland has run out of ammunition and food on March 12, and has been forced to beg for peace with the Soviet Union. Fang Yan felt more and more that the advantages of this move led by him definitely outweighed the disadvantages: instead of letting these small arms into the military camps of Italy that had not yet entered the war, it was better to send them to the well-trained Finnish soldiers to resist the westward expansion of the Red Empire.

"Don't be too upset, Mr. Colonel. How many supplies can be supported by air transport? The Italian army's Sparrowhawk transport aircraft carried a maximum of 1.5 tons of supplies, which was completely incomparable with normal sea transportation. Fang Yan comforted Zeitzler, who was annoyed by the Italians, but his heart was filled with joy.

Now, for every day that the Soviet Union is stuck in the quagmire of Finland, Germany can occupy a clear initiative in relations with the countries of the East. Germany not only allowed Romania and Hungary, two younger brothers with whom it was related and whose strength was also remarkable, to annex them, but also made the Soviet Union compromise and cheaply exported a large amount of raw materials to the heart of Germany every month. Not to mention anything else, nearly 20 percent of the vehicles, artillery, and ammunition received by the German Army are made from raw materials provided by the Soviet Union. The German Navy was also a beneficiary, and the massive amount of strategic metal ores from the East gave Raeder sufficient material confidence to carry out wartime construction.

"On the other hand, the weakness of the Italian Army is not a bad thing for Germany. Think about it, if the Italian army is strong enough to rival the French army, will there be a place for Germany to speak in the Balkans and North Africa in the future? What we need in southern Europe is a loyal retinue, not a great power on our footing. Italy, with its obvious flaws, was undoubtedly more easily subdued by Germany. Fang Yan showed a deep smile and said hesitantly.

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