What is the most disgusting thing for the superiors? Naturally, as soon as he made a plan, someone came out to disrupt the situation. Especially when the spoiler is someone of higher status than himself. Just as Patton and de Gaulle were preparing to implement the plan they had just agreed upon, representatives of the U.S. Department of the Army came to their headquarters and conveyed new orders to them.

The meaning of this new order is simple, in order to cooperate with the upcoming operation of friendly forces in northern Italy, the United States and French forces are required to hold back the German Army and limit its range of activities in Italy to buy time for operations in the north. In particular, it was demanded that the American-French forces defending central Italy hold the German army to the death in the area south of Pesaro-Arezzo-Siena.

"What the hell are these Brits trying to do?" Charles de Gaulle asked angrily. Since it was an order issued by the U.S. Department of the Army, Patton should know something inside, so the bewildered de Gaulle hoped to get some information from Patton. "I really don't know about this, it should be a new plan made by the British, probably against Austria-Hungary." Barton shook his head.

Patton did not know the exact reason, but he was right about one thing, that is, the British did want to act in northern Italy, and indeed they had to make a plan that had just been made, and to talk about this new plan, it was necessary to start with the plan of action drawn up by the Allies. According to the agreement between the Kaiser and the Austrian Emperor, parts of northern Italy were to be annexed to Austria-Hungary after the war, and in this case, Austria-Hungary itself had to take it. Germany was not obliged to shed blood and sacrifice for the territory of Austria-Hungary. On the one hand, the Kaiser used the lack of specialized mountain troops in the German army as an excuse, and at the same time proposed that a large number of troops would be required to take charge of the seizure of the region, including central and southern Italy. So the Kaiser asked Austria-Hungary to "settle the problem of northern Italy on its own", and of course he also hinted that if Austria-Hungary marched on a smooth line. Something can be "taken" from Italy. For example, machinery and gold and silver in the bank.

As for the emperor's suggestion, the emperor pondered it carefully and felt that it was also feasible. First of all, Ferdinand and the Austro-Hungarian generals analyzed the enemy situation, and the main defensive forces in northern Italy were the Italian mountain infantry and the Italian marines who remained in the north to eliminate the Blackshirts, and then the British army and colonial forces. For the Italian Army, Austria-Hungary had a psychological advantage, and on the whole, Austria-Hungary could not defeat Britain, France and the United States. If you can't fight Russia, the only one who can get some face back is in Italy. And Austria-Hungary did have quite a few mountain warfare troops. In addition, there were not many Italian troops in northern Italy, so it was not much of a problem to deal with the Italian army.

The other force was the British and colonial forces. If you want to say that the combat suzhì of the British Army is absolutely high, there is even a saying that in World War I, purely in terms of the suzhì of junior officers and soldiers, the British Expeditionary Force was a little higher than the German Army. It's just that this small army is too easy to wear and tear. Within half a year, members of this elite unit were either killed or sent to the hospital. Therefore, the British cherish their army very much. This time, there were not many elite troops drawn from the mainland, and the intelligence of the Austro-Hungarian Empire showed that although there were many troops flying the rice flag, many of them were colonial and Dominion troops. So Austria-Hungary thought that this army was nothing more than a spectacle.

Of course, if you enter Italy purely from the northern mountains, because of road transport problems. The logistical pressure was sometimes greater than the trouble caused by the enemy on the other side, but this time Austria-Hungary learned well. The Austro-Hungarian Army was to enter Italy from two directions at the same time, and from the army from the north, another force was to be sent from the port of Pula on the Istrian peninsula, and then attack the ports of Leto and Garibaldi. Then use this as a springboard to wipe out the enemy forces located in northeastern Italy together with the army that enters from the north!

On the one hand, the British Scottish factory and the military intelligence bureau are really powerful, and on the other hand, the Germans' movements are too obvious, originally in the previous battles, the Luftwaffe carried out the vast majority of the tasks, and Austria-Hungary only cooperated and was responsible for logistics, but this time, because the Germans wanted to attack central Italy on their own, and the German army and air force were still marching into East Africa. Therefore, the Germans were very unkind and threw all the tasks of the air force on the Northern Front to the Austrians. Although in the course of the previous battle, the British Air Force also suffered a lot of losses, but the British said that they could not do anything about Germany, but it is not a big problem to deal with your Austro-Hungarian Air Force! Of course, there was also the fact that part of the Austro-Hungarian air force had been sent to Egypt and Crete, and after the naval defeat, the embarrassed Austro-Hungarian Empire was desperate to find a place in North Africa.

If this was the case, it would not have made the British decide to fight, but just before that, Huaxia expressed its willingness to send a division-sized ground force and a new air force into northern Italy to fight with the British, which gave the British some confidence. Northern Italy was mountainous, the terrain was narrow and inaccessible, and it was not easy to deploy even a large number of troops, which offset the strength advantage of Austria-Hungary. And the reinforcements of China greatly increased the defense force in the north. So it wasn't just the British who saw it as an opportunity, but likewise the top of the Allies saw it as a big piece of good news. Before that, Huaxia had provided most equipment, and at most it had sent its air force to fight, but this was the first time that it had sent a large-scale ground force to the battlefield, which further illustrated the attitude of Huaxia in future wars. Maybe after this war, the Big Three of the Entente will become the Big Four of the Entente! The odds are better in the future.

As for why Huaxia has to be involved in this action, the reason is very simple, although Xu Jie, as a traverser, has a certain understanding of the equipment and tactics of later generations, but it is one thing to understand it himself, and it is another thing for the people below to learn and comprehend. No one can say what the combat effectiveness is. The last time the Navy engaged was a fight with the Americans on Saipan, as for the Army? I'm afraid I didn't fight with the Great Powers except for a few times with the Russians. Therefore, Xu Jie was also a little skeptical about the combat effectiveness of the Huaxia Army, since the Entente took the opportunity to try the other party's catties and taels in Italy, then Huaxia could not let go of this opportunity either, after the air force and navy went into battle repeatedly, Huaxia finally decided to send the army into Italy on a large scale. However, considering that the walnut in Germany is relatively hard, I was afraid that I would accidentally break my teeth, so I decisively looked for the soft persimmon of Austria-Hungary and pinched it.

As for the number of troops in the first level of this division, Huaxia said that at least there would be no less than 10,000 combat troops, and if the Entente could solve the problems of logistics and mobility and mobility, it could send more troops, and said that there would be at least one battalion-level heavy armored unit. The British, who had received the promise from China, felt confident that it was necessary to launch a major campaign in the north to inflict heavy damage on the Austro-Hungarian army. Of course, there is a prerequisite for this, that is, the German land forces landing in central Italy cannot enter the northern areas, otherwise the battle will have a lot of variables.

The order given above was very vague, and Barton and de Gaulle were to confine each other to central Italy, but how to limit it was up to the commander to figure out how to do so. It is obviously impossible to drive the other side into the sea. Then the only way is to limit the control area of the other side and drag the other side along the coast. It is impossible for the other side to use the railway lines along the eastern coast to maneuver quickly, and if this is to be achieved, then the coastal cities cannot be given up lightly. This was a very troublesome question for de Gaulle and Barton. They didn't want to expose their troops to the enemy's naval guns.

"Actually, we can lure the other side into the cities to fight, and there will be a large-scale street fight, and the Germans are going to strategize these cities and then use the transportation hubs to transport them, so they can't destroy these places wantonly. We've been working on street fighting for a long time, and if the three of us can work together, it might not be difficult to use coastal cities to hold each other back for a while. At this moment, an Italian colonel named Parzon came to the door, and after introduction, it was learned that this colonel had specialized in street fighting, because as early as a few years ago, the Italian marines had considered how to deal with the blackshirts hidden in the city, and by the way, how to conduct street fighting was also studied, and he also practiced it himself, but the other side was too weak, and many tactics had not been implemented, and the other party collapsed first, and this time, the Italians thought it was necessary to try it on the Germans.

Although the Italian Navy was responsible for the defense of the southern region, considering that the other side showed no signs of launching a large-scale landing in the south, and that Tycho was unable to provide naval assistance to the American and French forces fighting in the center, it was willing to let Colonel Parsson and two regiments of Italian marines participate in the defensive operations on the Eastern Front as compensation. And in line with the principle that it is better to have someone to help than no one to help, Patton and de Gaulle did not refuse this native army. Although they are not optimistic about the combat effectiveness of the Italian Army, even if they can only provide guides and liaisons, they are better than nothing!

Therefore, while the German and Austrian armies were busy launching landing operations, Italy and the Entente also formulated a plan to drag the south and fight in the north, trying to defeat the Austro-Hungarian army in the north and delaying the German offensive as much as possible in the south. Strive to achieve some big victories in land warfare as well.

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