The German 9th Panzer Division was upgraded from the original 4th Light Division, and was the last light armored unit to be upgraded to Panzer Division before the war on the Western Front. The 4th Light Division, the predecessor of the 9th Panzer Division, was incorporated into Liszt's 14th Army in 39 and participated in the German invasion of Poland.

At that time, this light division, with only 57 tanks, was the weakest of all the armored units participating in the battle, but this small armored unit, under the command of Dr. Hubicki (this lieutenant general has the title of doctor), participated in the siege and annihilation of the Polish Krakow Army Group, and cooperated with friendly forces to wipe out this Polish heavy army group in a week.

After the end of the Polish campaign, the German army began a new round of military expansion, in January 40, the German high command upgraded it to a standard armored division, on the basis of the original light division added a large number of tanks and equipment, and when it reappeared on the French battlefield, it was already a main armored division with 153 tanks.

At that time, the 9th Panzer Division belonged to the von Brown. General Bock's Army Group B, which joined the attack on Belgium and participated in the Battle of Dunkirk, was then transferred to the Kleist Panzer Group, and in the French Campaign, it charged south as the main assault force in the center of the German army, and finally reached the city of Lyon, and if the command had not been reined in time, it might have rushed all the way to the port of Marseille.

After all, it was originally the foundation of the light division, and the equipment of the 9th Armored Division at that time was mainly light tanks, of which the old models of Type 1 and Type 2 tanks were the most, accounting for about two-thirds of the total number of tanks in the division. After the end of the French campaign, the 9th Panzer Division participated in the British Campaign, and finally completed the renewal of some armored vehicles before the war.

Tank No. 1 has proven to be incapable of coping with battles in modern conditions, and this tin car has no merit except speed. The Ninth Panzer Division's original 30 No. 1 tanks were all eliminated, along with 30 No. 2 tanks, which was almost half of the number of No. 2 tanks in the division at that time, and then these were replaced by 38 brand-new No. 3 tanks and 22 No. 4 tanks, but the latter were all initial models equipped with short-barreled 75 guns.

At that time, there was a large number of armored units waiting to be upgraded, and the production of new tanks was extremely limited, so priority could only be given to replenishing the armored units that participated in the first wave of the British landings. The Ninth Armored Division can be strengthened, or because of the merits it has established before, and I don't believe that we can turn our heads and look at the Eighth Armored Division, which is in the same group as it, and is still dragging more than 100 38T tanks around Denmark.

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

"It's an Air Force major, a nice souvenir." The captain dug into the pockets of his uniform, then folded it casually, turned around and threw it to the loader peeking out of the side door of the turret.

"Martin! The battalion headquarters began to advance to the front, and the second company and three platoons were already engaged in an exchange of fire with the Italian infantry. Captain Dorman, the deputy company commander, poked his head out of the turret of the command tank and reported loudly to the company commander.

"Yes, what is the order of the battalion headquarters?" Conrad looked down at the papers he had pulled out of the pockets of his major's uniform.

"Lieutenant Colonel Geisler congratulates us on the successful capture of the Italian military airfield, let us leave some people here to wait for the handover with the infantry, and the main force of the company speeds up to advance towards the set goal, that's all, nothing else to explain." Dorman leaned out of the commander's tower and replied loudly to his superiors.

The captain of the armored corps was wearing a black boat-shaped combat cap and a white shirt on his upper body, with a black tie loosely tied to his open neckline, and his sleeves were pulled high to his elbows, and sweat soaked his chest and back.

From the towering Alps to the plains, the temperature begins to rise rapidly as the altitude and latitude decrease. The German armourers soon found that their beautiful autumn uniforms were no longer available, the Po River Plain was sunny and the sky was clear, and soon the temperature inside the tank was similar to that of summer, and the officers and men would be sweating just by sitting there.

The temperature was about 30 degrees Celsius, which should be quite comfortable in theory, but it became a bit awkward for the Germans who had just changed into autumn and winter clothes. The high command made a small mistake on this issue, but fortunately it did not have any impact on the combat effectiveness of the troops, and after receiving feedback from the front-line troops, the follow-up troops were all wearing summer clothes.

The first armored company is the unit with the largest number of light tanks in the division, except for the company platoon equipped with two No. 3 tanks, the other four light platoons are all No. 2 tanks. The advantages of this lightly armed company are that the marching speed is very fast, the cross-country ability is very strong, the road requirements are relatively low, and although the firepower is weaker, it has no problem at all against ordinary infantry units, so it is often given some forward fire reconnaissance and rapid interspersed assault missions.

In this operation, the 1st Battalion and 1st Company of the 33rd Panzer Regiment were assigned to the right flank of the battalion, bypassing the perimeter of Verona and heading 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 to be a bit heavy for a light armored company, but at the moment the Ninth Panzer Division can use only a limited number of troops, and everyone knows the truth of the speed of soldiers, the whereabouts of the troops should have been exposed, and at this moment it is necessary to seize the strategic advantage in one go, leaving no time for the Italians to respond. There is no reason to speak in the face of the big picture, the fighters only need to follow the instructions of their superiors to act.

After entering the plain from the mountain pass, the Germans passed through many Italian villages along the way, and the German armored forces did not have the strength to occupy these villages, which was left to the subsequent infantry.

The torrent of iron armor rushed forward along the well-developed road network of the plains of Italy, attracting many curious Italian villagers to watch, who looked at this iron-gray army blankly, and still wondered in their hearts where this army came from, and how to subdue it was so different from what they saw in ordinary days.

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

The Italians didn't know how to face these invaders, although their previous rhetoric was still echoing in their ears, but the strength of the German army in front of them was so strong, the Italians were not fools, most of them immediately extinguished the idea of armed resistance, and if they wanted to die, they could go to the river and hang themselves, at this time attacking the Germans would only give away their own lives in vain, and it might also affect the neighbors and villagers.

It's not that the Italian peasants are without blood, but they live at the bottom of the society without weapons at all, and some only have grass rakes and rusty sickles left to them by their parents.

The Italians soon discovered that the Germans seemed to be in a hurry, and did not harass the villages along the way, except for asking for some fresh water from the village wells, which was somewhat different from what was advertised on the Roman radio.

In recent years, Italy's economic situation has deteriorated, although Mussolini claimed that the Italian government had eliminated the deficit, and at the same time announced that the fiscal surplus of the year had begun to be surplus, but the actual wool still came from the sheep, and the financial burden of the Italian government was all shifted to the heads of ordinary people, for example, the life of the middle and lower classes in rural Italy was not as good as advertised in the fascist party brochure.

Land annexation in Italy is very serious, especially in the fertile Po River Plain, which has been severely degraded due to long-term repeated cultivation, and now has to rely on large quantities of fertilizers and pesticides to maintain normal yields.

In order to improve the fiscal deficit, the Italian lira continued to depreciate, so that the cost of agriculture also increased year by year, many farmers had no choice but to declare bankruptcy due to poor management, from the original landlord to tenant farmers who leased arable land, and the proportion of landless farmers in the Italian rural population is rising rapidly in the past two years.

Seeing the Germans at this moment, many Italian farmers made their own little calculations in their hearts, and this may be an opportunity for them to get out of this poverty in front of them.

Thus, just nine hours after the German invasion of Italy, the first Italian Belt and Road parties appeared.

ps: The first chapter is presented, and the next chapter will be a little later, about half past ten, thank you for your support and understanding.

Thank you. (To be continued.) )