Hearing his statement, Andrei was also relieved, and the next thing to discuss was how to pull the troops out. However, before discussing this plan, Andrei first had to understand the strength and equipment of his troops, so I asked: "Captain Gusev, I would like to know the strength and weapons of your battalion, so that I can formulate a targeted response plan."www.biquge.info ”

"The battalion consisted of 578 men, including an artillery company with four 12 60-mm mortars, and the remaining three companies were infantry companies, each with four light machine guns and one heavy machine gun. Due to the recent supply difficulties, the mortar shells have been used up, and if you want to stand out, the artillery will not be able to help anything, we are guarding all food, and there is no ammunition for clothing. ”

"If you do it anyway, can you be sure to pull everyone away?" After listening to the strength and equipment of the Eastern Battalion, Andrei then asked a question that he was concerned about, "What are you going to do with those officers and soldiers who are unwilling to follow us?" ”

Gusev smiled bitterly and replied: "Comrade division commander, if you kill the Germans in the battalion who are in the soldier monitoring group, you should be able to pull all the troops away." But what worries me now is, how can we get out of the bag of three German divisions? ”

Then, Andrea thought that there was an Italian army next to them, and when it came to the Italian army, everyone was laughing, and later generations of the Internet also blackened them into scum, but sometimes the rumors also had an exaggerated side, the overall quality of the Italian army was indeed not high and many troops were humiliated, but by no means all Italian troops were rookies, in fact, there were also Italian soldiers who fought bravely in World War II

Like what

The Soviet offensive against the Italian army, codenamed "The Battle of Christmas"! The 81st Infantry Regiment of the Italian Army (part of the Turin Infantry Division of the Soviet Expeditionary Force) successfully held the Izjum line!

August 24, 1942! The Italian troops defending the line of the Don River on the flank of Stalingrad were subjected to a onslaught from the Soviet troops! The Italians stubbornly repelled the attack of the Soviet tank forces! More than 1,500 people were killed in this battle and more than 1,700 were captured! A considerable number of small arms were seized!

The famous Italian cavalry regiment "Savoy" humiliated the Soviet army with a sabre! During the Soviet Winter Offensive, where the battle took place, the troops successfully defended and then counterattacked the Soviet troops, and 600 cavalry regiments detoured to the flanks of the Soviet troops and then charged on horseback! What was unacceptable to the Soviets for a moment was that the Italians rushed up with a saber in their hands! Defeated 2 battalions, annihilated 1 battalion, captured more than 500 people, 4 howitzers, 10 mortars, and 50 machine guns!

On the northern flank of Stalingrad, the Italian army defended a frontage of 1,200 kilometers, and instead of providing reinforcements and weapons (especially the scarce anti-tank guns), the Germans in charge of supplying them often used Italian trucks to transport supplies for themselves (there was an Italian convoy during the siege of Stalingrad). When the Soviet Union's absolutely superior armored forces attacked, there were no reinforcements, and the heavily armed Italian army broke through and surrounded on the flanks (Romanian and Hungarian), but the mountain army and other troops still held out for nearly a month, until they received the order to retreat, and an Italian army group of 30,000 men broke through after a bitter battle, including white-knuckle fighting, with 4,000 men. Without these so-called Italian "baggage", how could the German army defend this 200-kilometer position on the Don River?

On November 18, 1941, in Operation "Crusader" launched in the Battle of Gubijing in the North African theater, the Italian Ariette ("Aries") Panzer Division faced the British 22nd Panzer Brigade, the British were not inferior in strength, and Ariette was not fully involved in this battle, in this battle Ariette Division had 12 officers and 193 soldiers killed/wounded and missing, and lost 49 tanks, 4 75/27 and 8 47/32 guns. The British 22nd Panzer Brigade had 79 tanks destroyed or heavily damaged.

The Lightning Division fought very tenaciously at El Alamein, capturing Brigadier General Clifton, the commander of the 6th New Zealand Brigade, and inflicting heavy losses on the 44th Division. Their own casualties were also very high, and the commanders and subordinates of the division fought bloodily, and 9 of the 18 officers were killed and 4 were wounded. Among them, the deeds of Corporal Maiolatesi are the most representative. Corporal Maiolatesi's right arm was blown off, and he continued to fire from the machine gun until he ran out of bullets. Then he jumped out of the trench and threw a grenade with his left hand at the rushing British. Field Marshal Rommel wrote home on November 1 that the Lightning Division was one of the best troops on our side.

On 3 November, the Lightning Division began to retreat westward on foot, and since there were no means of transport, and the weapons, ammunition, and drinking water were exhausted, it was impossible for the Italian paratrooper division to escape from the British encirclement, which was much more mobile than itself. In fact, the end of the division was already doomed. The British had summoned the Lightning Division several times, and had expressed their admiration for the Italian paratroopers for their chivalrous warfare, but they were answered by a shout of "Folgore". In the end, the division only survived 306 men, but their strength was 5,000 men, and more than 90% of the battle losses were enough to be proud of the others in World War II at that time.

This is only part of the performance of the Italian army, because the Italian elite is too few, they are only a very small part of the whole Italian army, and they cannot change the situation of the war at all, in the history of World War II, the Italian army will always be marked with a mark of shame, but those units that fought bravely will still leave a trace of memory for the enemy today. The Italian soldiers are not all garbage, they also have individual units that are not inferior to the elite units of any one country in battle. Later, when referring to the lovely Italian army, one would think that in the battle of blood and fire, the Italians also created glory, although such a brief glory was overshadowed by the shame of most Italian soldiers.

After the war, like the Turin Division, these elite units were retained after the war, and a large number of troops who lost their divisions and humiliated the country in World War II were dismantled, and the Italian army in later generations was not lagging behind in NATO.

Unfortunately, these Italian troops in Stalingrad now belong to the elite of the Italian army, not those pustules who surrender at every turn, and there are people who can fight in any army.

And Gusev also paid attention to the Italian army, and when he heard him say this, I nodded, took over and said: "Well, I know this Italian battalion, they are responsible for guarding the German military supplies, and because of the heavy security, our reconnaissance unit has not been able to successfully infiltrate. But I don't understand, is there any connection between the Italian battalion and your extrication operation? ”

"Absolutely." Gusev said in the affirmative, looking at me with a blank expression on his face. Quickly explained to me: "It's like this, division commander, there are contradictions between the Italian battalion and the Germans in the vicinity. It used to be a German camp, but because of the frequent clashes with the Italians, the German commander had to transfer our battalion to ease the conflict between the two armies. ”

Although Gusev did not finish his words, Andrei understood, and said with a wicked smile: "What do you mean, we will find a way to bring the Germans and Italians into conflict again and divert the attention of the German commanders, so that you will have a chance to break through from where the Germans have a loose defense." ”

"That's right, that's how we broke through unknowingly" Seeing Andrei directly say his thoughts, Gusev couldn't close his mouth with joy, and praised repeatedly: "Commander, you are so smart, you guessed my plan before I finished speaking." ”

And Andre said: "This matter is on me, you continue to be stationed, how to fan the flames will be left to me, I will go back first, and we will keep in touch during this time." ”