In the southwest of Paraguay, the inland town of Fort General Dias. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

In the drizzle, hundreds of soldiers wearing steel helmets with ear protection and badger fur backpacks lurked quietly in the bushes, some of them had Indian faces with dark yellow-brown skin, some were mixed races with Asian skin tones and European silhouettes, and some of them were close to black people in terms of skin color and appearance, the younger ones looked like adults, and the older ones were about thirty-five or sixteen years old.

Suddenly, a sharp whistle sounded through the field, and the soldiers with Mauser rifles jumped out of their hiding places without hesitation, and quickly advanced in a loose and orderly formation, the crisp sound of machine guns rang out behind the soldiers, and a series of bullets swept accurately towards the hill with red and yellow flags on the opposite side, and many flagpoles were directly broken by machine guns. Without any resistance, the German-looking force swept across the fields like the wind, and when they approached the hills, they threw grenades that would not explode, sprayed the stone piles marked with white lime with flamethrowers, sapped the barbed wire with sappers, poured into the empty trench positions from the breach, pulled out the flagpoles, and raised their arms in cheers......

At the departure point of the soldiers, several officers with bearded lips watched the seemingly simple military drill with serious faces, and from time to time they talked to each other in German. They were standard German army uniforms, wearing the insignia of an active-duty officer and a medal of honor for military exploits, with swaggering and serious expressions, as if there were still many grievances about the details of the exercise. In the field behind them, six Krupp-made M96 field guns could be seen, and the gunners wearing beanies were training according to the prescribed schedule.

Paraguay in 1928 was a small South American country with an area of only more than 300,000 square kilometers and a population of more than 800,000, it was located landlocked, bordering Brazil, Argentina and Bolivia, lacking strategic development space, and seemed to be an insignificant role, but half a century ago, in the same period when Prussia defeated Austria and France successively to achieve imperial hegemony, Paraguay actually singled out Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay with the strength of one country, and staged a vigorous South American war. It has left one classic example after another to the world. It is a pity that although Paraguay at that time had a strong combat power under the leadership of the military madman Francisco López, it still failed to defeat the top three South American powers, and this tragic war basically destroyed Paraguay's industry, so that the country's population plummeted by more than half, and after more than 50 years, Paraguay has not had a hero like López, it hibernates, quietly waiting for the day when it will break its fate.

A few years ago, an exploration team from the United States discovered oil resources in the disputed northern region of Gran Chaco in Paraguay and Bolivia. Faced with considerable potential benefits, both countries want to control this sparsely populated barren land, and when diplomacy cannot resolve disputes, both sides are gearing up. Bolivia has the support of the United States and Chile, and the powerful Mobil Oil Company has even offered the Bolivian government a sky-high contract, and the Bolivian army has always coveted the Paraguay River, which flows through the Chaco Canyon, in order to obtain a river shipping channel to the Atlantic.

German military aid to Paraguay dates back to 1916, when Britain was completely retracted due to its defeat in the war, and German intelligence agents searched the world for opportunities. Although Paraguay is not rich in natural resources, its geographical location in South America is similar to that of Prussia in the past, and the domestic situation is stable, and the people still regard López as a national hero, and worship him for his courage to win more with less, which is an ideal object for military training.

For more than a decade, German investment in Paraguay and the number of immigrants have surpassed those of the United States and Britain, and the diplomats appointed by Berlin have built a good relationship of trust with the country's upper echelons. As the dispute over the Chaco region gradually heated up, more and more German officers with war experience came to Paraguay to help Paraguayans train their troops, instill in them modern tactical thinking, and even directly assume the command positions of some troops. At the same time, a large number of the weapons that had been replaced by the Germans - Mauser 1888 rifles, M96 field guns, Hubert-13 light tanks and even "Albatross" fighters - were secretly and gratuitously handed over to the Paraguayan army.

The Bolivians were not entirely ignorant of the Germans' continued military aid to Paraguay, and they used loans from Mobil Oil to procure large quantities of military equipment in order to defeat the Paraguayan army before it could further strengthen. In September 1928, armed conflict finally broke out in the war-clouded Chaco region, when the Bolivian army invaded two Paraguayan military fortifications in the desert of the Northern Chaco without declaring war. A few days later, Bolivia officially declared war on Paraguay, citing provocations by Paraguayan troops on the border.

The preemptive Bolivian army seized the initiative in the early stages of the war, while the Paraguayan army rapidly expanded from 5,000 to 60,000 after a national mobilization, of which about 20,000 were formally trained by German officers and most of the remaining soldiers were trained in reserve. The main force of the Pakistani army, led by General Estigarivia, marched to the front line with high morale, and before the arrival of the large force, the Paraguayan border guards stationed in the Chaco area took advantage of the unstable foothold of the Bolivian army and took decisive counterattacks. The operation, planned by German Army Colonel von Blomberg, involved just over 1,600 Paraguayan soldiers and 18 field guns, no armored fighting vehicles, no heavy artillery, and even a pitiful cavalry for reconnaissance, but they were supported by the German task force stationed at Fort General Dias, and for the first time the German army's air-ground coordination tactics, which were best used in the South American continent, showed its power.

The Bolivian troops who captured the fortress of Pitiantuta thought that the Paraguayan army would not arrive until at least half a month later, so they were psychologically unprepared and only expelled the enemy planes that came to reconnoiter repeatedly. On a rainy afternoon, the Paraguayan border guards, who had marched sharply, launched a surprise attack under the cover of short artillery fire, and two charges took the geographically important military fortress, with the Paraguayan army suffering fewer than 100 casualties, while the Bolivian army lost 44 killed and 570 captured.

Not only the Bolivians, but even the military observers sent by the United States and Britain were stunned by this sudden defeat. According to the accounts of the fleeing Bolivian soldiers, they thought that Germany had sent troops directly into the war, and without obtaining direct evidence, the United States and Britain put pressure on the German government through public opinion, and as a result, they were officially rebuked by Germany -- the Germans assured that there was not a single German soldier in Paraguay or even in the Chaco region, except for a very small number of military instructors hired by the Paraguayan government in their personal capacity.

During the reign of Wilhelm II, German guarantees were never ineffective, and this time was no exception. Aside from those German officers who were directly involved in military operations, Paraguay's only tank battalion was composed of nearly half of the crews of German active duty soldiers, and the Paraguayan Air Force was largely supported by the German task force.

There will always be a day when the lie will be exposed, but the German top brass is not very worried about this, because they have reliable information, and the United States and Britain have also sent a lot of aid workers to the Bolivian army, and a considerable number of them are serious active duty soldiers. The American and British troops, who failed to "train their troops" in France, seemed to regard the Chaco War as a good training opportunity.

One day in late September, Captain Hermann Goering and Second Lieutenant Helmut Gerbert, who had been drawn from the 4th Fighter Wing of the Luftwaffe to join the task force, flew their Albatross on a reconnaissance patrol in the North Chaco area. During the flight, they spotted three Caproni bombers with their peculiar twin fuselage and triple tail shape flying over the Chaco Canyon in the direction of the fortress of Pitiantuta.

Caproni is an Italian aircraft manufacturing company, the history of developing and producing bombers is earlier than Britain and Germany, and the Caproni Ca-32 biplane three-engine bomber put into production during the war is famous for its long range and large bomb load. After the end of the war, after repeated comparisons between the British Handley-Pétge and the Italian Caproni, the U.S. Naval Air Force decided to purchase the Handley-Pédge V/1500 as a long-range reconnaissance and bombing model, and the U.S. Army Air Corps favored Capronie very much, they purchased a batch of Ca-32s, and later ordered an improved Ca-33. By the mid-20s, it was clear that these wooden-framed and skinned bombers were out of date, and the Americans transferred them to the reserve forces, and then to the Bolivian Air Force.

Like the Caproni Ca-32 and Ca-33, the German Albatross fighter was also a product of the last great war, but unlike the Caproni bombers that showed their skills on the Eastern Front, the glory of the Albatross appeared on the Western Front - the British and French lost more than 400 aircraft during the war, at least 200 were shot down by Albatross fighters equipped by the German army, and from 1913 to 1927, the German Albatross aircraft factory produced a total of more than 9,000 Albatross of various types, The early Albatross Type D and the 20's Albatross Type H were both very successful models.

Captain Goering and Ensign Gerber were piloting the most famous Albatross Type D, which had been in service with the German army for 13 years, and although it was gradually withdrawn from the front line of the Air Force, it was still a sword. The 185-horsepower Mercedes engine provides it with a top speed of nearly 200 kilometers per hour, the streamlined wooden fuselage has good survivability after being shot, and the aircraft is easy to control, the improved model with strengthened structure has good maneuverability, and the firepower configuration of two 7.92 mm machine guns in the mid-to-late 20s is also okay, you must know that the new generation of British "Bulldog" fighters still use two 7.7 mm caliber aviation machine guns.

(End of chapter)