"It doesn't make sense at all." Cal. Sergeant Major Dick turned over and jumped into the natural earthen ditch that was used as a bunker, and found his platoon lieutenant sitting comfortably against the ditch wall, drinking cold coffee from an aluminum cup, and reading with relish a captured Italian newspaper with the headline "The German Army Advances" in large print.

"It's ridiculous." Dick leaned against the ditch wall to compose, then put the submachine gun back on his shoulder.

"What did you just say?" Platoon Deputy John. Sergeant Famm blinked, as if he had just noticed his boss.

"I said it was ridiculous, the rest of the troops were moving forward while we were playing a game of confrontation with a group of Italian mountain infantry. The men at the battalion headquarters are all crazy, and we only need to launch a simple assault now, and we can definitely take the opposite position. Dick took the aluminum cup that Fam handed him and watched as the other man poured cold coffee into the cup.

"Isn't it good, comrades have been fighting continuously for this time, and they are already very tired, so they can take a good rest. Since this order has been given from above, then there must be a reason for them. Divide the rest, and don't forget to fill another pot in the kitchen. Sergeant Famm passed the thermos flask to a soldier beside him.

"Well, you're right, maybe I'm too impulsive." Dick placed the empty cup on the ammo box beside him and pulled his pipe out of his pocket.

"Don't underestimate those Italian mountain soldiers, that's the Verona battalion, which belongs to the Italian 2nd Alpine Mountain Division, which is one of the most elite units in the Italian Army." Sergeant Famm folded the newspaper and stuffed it into the map bag around his waist.

"Aren't we the same? No one dared to underestimate the hundredth hunting battalion. Dick took a pinch of tobacco from the tobacco pack and filled it into the crudely carved walnut pipe.

The Fifth Mountain Division of the German Army is a newly formed unit, and it is usually thought that this new unit must be full of rookies, but in fact, the number of veterans with rich combat experience in the Fifth Mountain Division is no less than that of any old German unit.

This unit is formed from several teams split from the old troops, such as Dick's 100th Chasseur Regiment, which was originally subordinate to the First Field Division, and was the first group of mountain troops formed by the German Army.

The 85th Chasseur Regiment was adapted from an ordinary infantry regiment and was originally subordinate to the 10th Infantry Division of the German Army, so its mountain combat capability was slightly lacking, and if it wanted to meet the standards of the mountain division, it would take a lot of time to conduct professional intensive training. But these infantry were very good at conventional warfare, and the 85th Regiment, which was still an infantry unit at the time, fought in the European war throughout the war, from Poland to England Beach, and this unit performed with distinction and success.

Before the outbreak of the Italian War, the 5th Mountain Division had been transferred to the Austrian border city of Villach, where Austria, Yugoslavia, and Italy bordered, so the issue of garrisoning troops here in the past was very sensitive, and every change of force would attract the attention of the Italian and Yugoslav governments.

But this time the Italians had made a serious miscalculation, perhaps to something to do with the fact that they were preoccupied with preparations for the invasion of Greece, and in any case the actions of the Germans Chen Bing Villach were seen by the Italians as a means of demonstrating the Führer to Yugoslavia.

The 5th Mountain Division was the first to enter the Italian border from the Eastern Front, and these attacking units from the Eastern Front proceeded exceptionally well. After breaking through the border, there was only sporadic resistance along the way, and because of the small number of towns along the line, the German infantry division almost effortlessly advanced into the Po plain along the railway line.

Eighteen hours after the start of the battle, the Germans announced the occupation of Venice, and at midnight on the 21st, the last Italian troops in the Veneto region renounced resistance and surrendered to the Germans.

The fighting spirit of the Italians cannot but be said to be low, but the backward equipment and poor logistics have held these fighters back, and there are also very serious problems in the selection of tactics and on-the-spot command at the command level; at the same time, they cannot obtain correct intelligence information, and after losing air supremacy, they cannot even control the number and direction of the enemy's troops.

The Italian troops generally lacked heavy weapons, and the main firepower was some medium-caliber artillery, and because of the confusion in logistics and supply, coupled with the destruction of the German interspersed troops, there was no reinforcement from the rear after the outbreak of the battle, once the two sides began to exchange fire, the Italian artillery often quickly ran out of ammunition carried by the team, and the artillerymen could only pick up their rifles and be thrown into the front line of resistance as infantry.

The Italian infantry had to rely on small-caliber mortars, heavy machine guns and grenades to fend off the German infantry and tanks, and they crouched in makeshift trenches and foxholes, suffering from the almost endless heavy artillery bombardment of the German army, and the terrifying howl of Stuka sounded from time to time overhead, and then the entire platoon of positions was reduced to a sea of fire under the attack of incendiary bombs.

These are not the most fatal, the worst thing is that when they find that there are traces of enemy troops in the rear, and their retreat is cut off, as mentioned earlier, the system of Italian troops cannot withstand too much pressure, so when those troops find themselves in a desperate situation, the officers find it difficult to continue to make their soldiers obey their orders, usually at this time, as long as the German army launches a surprise, it will see a spectacular collapse.

The few armoured units that Italy had in the north were no match for their German counterparts in terms of quantity and quality. After being attacked by Italian L3 ultralight tanks and armored vehicles, the German infantry was pleasantly surprised to find that the 37mm door hammers that were originally going to be eliminated were once again useful. These armored vehicles, which the Germans could only consider to be armed tracked transporters or machine-gun vehicles, were quickly lost under the strangulation of the German army's multi-layered anti-tank fire network.

The only thing that interested the Germans was the L3/33 Spitfire tank assigned to the Italian armored flamethrowfire platoon, if it weren't for the more conspicuous fuel trailer towed behind this kind of car, and the German army had long been wary of this kind of vehicle, maybe the front-line infantry units would suffer a big loss in front of this special tank.

Italy's main armored forces had previously been transferred to Greece and Libya, leaving only a few independent armored units on the mainland, most of which were equipped with equipment that had been eliminated from other units, and of course some experimental companies equipped with the latest Italian tanks. The 9th Panzer Division once encountered such an Italian tank company, which, in addition to a bunch of L3 and L5 tanks, was equipped with four of the latest M13/40 medium tanks.

But that's another story, and it has little to do with the current war, so let's put it aside.

PS: I'm sorry, there's something to do today, the number is a little small, and I'll try to make up for it tomorrow.

The current results are not ideal, the subscription is very poor, the monthly pass has dropped to one hundred and forty, and there are only more than 1,000 votes in twenty days, and I don't have the strength to say more. (To be continued.) )