"I was on the left flank of the line, and I didn't even notice where the Italians came from, and when Second Lieutenant Dane of the second platoon gave the order to open fire, I realized that the Italian infantry was charging at the tanks and armored vehicles on the right flank of our platoon." German Panzer Sergeant Rudolph. Kozel recalled after the war.

"There was a small forest three hundred meters on the right side of the road, and some shrubs more than a meter high had grown on the outside of the forest, and I thought that the Italians might have been ambushed in the woods a long time ago, but of course it turned out that this was not the case at all." Second Lieutenant Dorman, the platoon commander of the third platoon, wrote in his diary.

"What was I thinking, you ask? It's a hard question to answer (laughs). To be honest, my mind was blank at all, thinking only that I had to hold off these Italian infantry, not let them break through the outer line and rush into the company's array. Fortunately, we had enough MG machine guns, as well as twenty-mm machine guns. After the battle, we found unlit [**************] next to the corpses of many Italian infantrymen, do you know what it is? Well, it seems that I don't need to go out of my way. Sergeant Major Schönberg replied in an interview with Berlin TV.

The Germans have a very detailed record of the battle that took place on the outskirts of Verona, which provides a wealth of information for future scholars who study the Nine-Day War, but it is regrettable that there is a lack of testimony from the Italian side, and only a handful of the first battalion that participated in the battle survived in the end, but everyone remained silent on the matter, and they kept silent about the battle no matter what they were attacking, and people could only feel the tragedy of that [bloody day] from their frightened and painful eyes.

Seven hundred and twenty men were grouped into six stragglers, which used to be the most popular infantry shock formation, but in the last world war. There was no way to do it, the Italians were not prepared in the slightest, there was not even the most basic trenches at this time, and the troops lacked weapons and ammunition, not to mention any supplies and reinforcements.

At this time, they can only rush out to fight, but retreat into the city to fight street battles, and no matter what choice they make, Verona will definitely fall.

Colonel Bernafini did not think about surrendering to the Germans from the very beginning, because the honor of an old Italian nobleman was at stake, and he could not afford to destroy Verona. It is an ancient city that has stood at the foot of the Alps since the first century AD, carrying the history of Italy for 2,000 years, and is the hometown of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, the holy place of love in the hearts of Italians and all Europeans, and the good wishes of countless people.

Bernafini knew that if street fighting broke out, the ancient city would be destroyed, and the Germans' focus on monuments did not mean that they would be soft on those who resisted. Bernafini didn't want to be stigmatized as the "Destroyer of Verona" after his death, so the colonel decided to lead the team himself, hoping to die honorably on the battlefield at the beginning of the battle, so that not only did he save his reputation, but even if the whole city was destroyed in the end, no one could blame him.

Bernafini did not receive any useful information, he did not know which German army was attacking or how many troops the other side had, and the villagers who came to report only said that the Germans had a lot of tanks, but could not say exactly how many they were. Bernafini initially estimated that this was only the vanguard of the German army, and it should be a battalion-level combat unit, with a small number of armored vehicles and tanks. It's just that this zealous villager rushed into the city to report the situation, and did not see the vast German follow-up armored forces.

Four companies of the 1st Battalion of the 33rd German Panzer Regiment had gathered three outside Verona at this time, and a medium panzer company was escorting the 1st Motorized Artillery Battalion and the 47th Heavy Machine Gun Battalion of the 102nd Artillery Regiment towards the front line.

The task of the 1st Panzer Battalion was to occupy the favorable terrain outside the city, block the city's external communications, surround the city before the main force arrived, and wait for the arrival of the large forces before the final decision was made.

Of course, the troops in charge of the encirclement can also launch some feints to test the opponent's defensive arrangements and the morale and determination of the defending troops. If the enemy's resistance is found to be weak, a feint can also be immediately turned into a full-fledged attack, which has been used by the Germans in the past in countless successful cases.

The task assigned to the fourth company is to carry out some feints on the west side of the city, reconnoiter the defensive arrangements on the periphery of the city, and if conditions permit, you can enter part of the urban area.

The lightly armoured company was armed with a total of twenty-two tanks, with four armored platoons of four No. 3 and one No. 2 tank each. At present, there are quite a few armored units in the German army that are deployed in this way, and it is said that this is only a transitional formation, which leads to the German armored corps full of expectations for the future.

Because the No. 2 tank did not have high requirements for the road, it was arranged in the fields on both sides of the road to undertake the reconnaissance and alert tasks on both flanks of the marching column, and the No. 2 tank was accompanied by six six-wheeled medium armored reconnaissance vehicles belonging to the ninth reconnaissance battalion. This reinforced armored reconnaissance platoon happened not to receive a new task, so it was pulled by the armored regiment.

Bernafini did not expect to encounter the German tank troops, and his original target was the German infantry on the other side of the road, where two infantry companies of the 1st Battalion of the 2nd Regiment of the 9th Brigade were wielding shovels to build defensive positions. The Italian colonel was ready to take advantage of the fact that these German troops were not firmly on the ground and launched a surprise attack to teach the Germans a profound lesson, perhaps the Italian infantry battalion would suffer heavy losses, but it was also expected, he did not expect to rely on these light infantry to defeat a strong enemy.

The tactics of the Italian colonels should have been considered successful at the beginning, and they maneuvered to a distance of less than a kilometer from the German positions, which the Germans did not even know about at this time.

The Italians marched through the woods in a line of skirmishers, but when the soldiers came out of the bushes, they found that the road not far away was full of German tanks, and in the field there were several wheeled armored vehicles less than two hundred meters away, and they could clearly distinguish the number of the vehicles and the emblem of the Iron Cross.

At this time, the Italians had already revealed their whereabouts, and the German scouts, who were on high alert, hurriedly turned the machine gun tower on the reconnaissance vehicle and fired several short bursts to warn the large troops.

An over-the-top No. 2 tank also began to turn its body, aiming its frontal armor at the woods, who knows if these unidentified enemy troops were carrying anti-tank weapons, the armor of No. 2 tank was too thin to barely withstand heavy machine gun fire.

At this time, the Italian officers and soldiers on the edge of the jungle, including Colonel Bernafini, who was standing in the first row, were all stunned by the sudden situation in front of them, and they were pestled like stakes by the bushes, not knowing whether to retreat or advance now. As a result, the Germans were not sure what was going on, so neither side reacted for the first few seconds, and they confronted each other with wide eyes.

It was Bernafini who broke the stalemate, and he now regrets that he didn't send a sharp soldier, and as a result, he put himself in this embarrassing situation. These were real tanks, not street trams, the angular armor reflected the cold light in the sun, and he could even see the face of the German soldier on the machine gun tower of the armored reconnaissance vehicle, the young and immature face that looked particularly hideous because of nervousness, Bernafini estimated that his current expression would not be much better than that of the other party.

"Charge! Long live Italy! Bernafini raised his command knife and pointed forward, and then led the charge towards the German armored group.

"This is the ending I want!" The old colonel strode forward brandishing his saber, he saw that the German machine gun against him was constantly spewing flames, the bullets passed by his ears and made a sharp whistling, death was approaching, but his heart was extremely quiet at the moment, this is not the moment he was looking forward to, like those tragic heroes on the battlefield to die a heroic death.

The Italian infantrymen watched in a daze as their regimental commander launched a one-man charge, and then watched as the brave old man was knocked over the lawn by German machine guns, blood splattering red like flames.

"Onward! Long live Italy! ”

The German No. 2 tank began to shoot at the Italian infantry, as the comrades around them fell one after another under the rain of German bullets, the inescapable despair and anger at death occupied the minds of the soldiers, the tyrannical flames filled their chests, the Italian infantry roared like madness, they danced the Carcano rifles in their hands, clutched the ************** they had just made before departure, and launched a final charge towards the Germans.

PS: Sorry for being a little late today, thank you all for your support.

Thank you. (To be continued.) )