"Shelling, squat down."

At this time, in a trench in Shahal, the French officer leading the team shouted loudly to the frightened Tunisian soldiers in the trench.

At this moment, there was a sharp whistling sound in the air, followed by an explosion. At this time, the reinforced artillery regiment of the 15th Division was constantly bombarding the position with 75 and 105 mm caliber cannons. Thanks to the high-level Italian artillery team, the landing point of its shelling is basically in the trenches.

The constantly exploding positions panicked the soldiers defending in the trenches, who were like deer in a pack of wolves, not knowing what to do.

And the officer's words did not work against the fear of the soldiers, and more importantly, they did not understand the officer's French.

Although France has been in Tunisia for 30 years, the French government has no consideration at all if it wants the people of Tunisia to learn French, but the middle and upper classes of Tunisia have learned some French, and the people at the bottom do not have the time and energy at all.

Therefore, the biggest problem of the conscripted colonial army was the communication between officers and soldiers.

In fact, there is no problem in normal times, because the French officers have interpreters, and through the interpreters, they communicate with the soldiers.

But on the battlefield, there are problems, and the interpreter may be injured and killed, so how should the officers communicate with the soldiers. Even if the translation is fine, but if the command is conveyed through the translation, who knows if it will be out of shape.

And the officer in this position was injured and left when the interpreter was wounded, and now he was blind in front of his own soldiers. Although he also knows a little bit of simple everyday language, there is not much military language. In fact, it is not only his position that is like this, the entire front is similar.

These conscripted indigenous soldiers have only been in the army for four or five months, and they need to be translated for their words, how well can they be trained?

Specifically, he entered the recruit training for two months, then entered the army for a month, and then was sent to the destination, where the average soldier fired only 30 rounds of ammunition.

And the Italian soldiers, who were their opponents, trained 200 rounds of ammunition every year. Not to mention that during the three months of recruit training, at least 100 rounds of ammunition were fired.

As for the officers supported by the army, the gap between the two sides is even greater. Because according to the tradition of the French army, good officers should serve on home soil.

Especially after the outbreak of the war, the French army, which had suffered too great losses, was transferred to the mainland as a supplement or to form a new unit as long as qualified officers. As for the colonial army, it was led by the remaining officers. How good can you expect from these officers, who even the native army can't look down on?

It is precisely because he knows what kind of enemy he is in front of him, so Major General Kasapa, the commander of the 15th Division, who is the vanguard of the Eighth Army, will dare to use the strength of one division to launch an attack on it.

Speaking of which, this Major General Kasapa is also a veteran in the army. At 59 years old, he is on the verge of retirement. In the past, he participated in all the wars after Carlo succeeded to the throne, and although he was unlucky, he participated in the war, but he has not been in a fighting unit, so he has not made any contributions, but it can be regarded as hard work and experience.

He was later promoted to major general three years ago and became the deputy commander of the 15th Division. After the division commander was transferred last year, the military considered that he was about to retire, so he was corrected.

Unexpectedly, soon after the correction, the war broke out, and this person who was very familiar with the 15th Division and his ability was not bad, so he continued to serve as the commander of the 15th Division. In the previous border war between Italy and France, because the 15th Division was a reserve, it did not get any opportunity to perform.

As for the fact that he was later assigned to the Eighth Army to prepare for the Tunisian campaign, at this time the veteran finally couldn't help it. He fought for most of his life, and he was not a talented officer, even if there was no war, he could show his style, and he had to rely on war to show himself. However, since I have never been able to get the opportunity, there is no way to talk about it.

And this time I finally encountered it, and I had to show myself what I said, so after being incorporated into the Eighth Army to prepare for the Tunisian campaign, I kept proposing that I would like to lead the 15th Division as the vanguard.

In the face of the veteran's constant requests, Lieutenant General Brasso, who was the actual commander of the group army, finally agreed to his request. In addition to the indomitable spirit of this veteran, it is also because the 15th Division is the most combat-effective unit in his hands, which can be seen just by the number of the front of the 15th Division.

And in order to live up to Lieutenant General Brasso's expectations and to prove himself, after the 15th Division took up the position of forward, Casapa got up early and was busy with the affairs of the forward. In his opinion, he is not gifted and intelligent, so he can only use diligence to make up for this stupid method.

At this time, looking at the French positions in front of him that were constantly being shelled, Casapa already had an idea in his heart, but he still needed to wait, wait for a telegram.

I took a look at my pocket watch, and if I wasn't late, I thought it was coming soon.

As Casapa pondered, he saw a communications officer running up to him with a telegram.

"Division commander, this is a telegram from the airship unit."

Looking at the telegram in front of him, Kasapa smiled. "Very good, call me Colonel Bogado."

"Commander, you call me."

At this time, Colonel Bogado, who was burly and exuded a macho atmosphere, came to him. And the mass he carried, just like his temperament, had a fierce character.

"Bogado, you have come just in time, I need you to attack the enemy at the distance from the middle of the enemy to the left flank position, do you have the confidence to break through the enemy's position at once?"

"The division commander will leave it to our regiment, we will definitely be able to conquer the enemy's position at one time, look at those panicked indigenous soldiers, do they know how to shoot people?"

Colonel Bogado patted his chest and assured that he thought his regiment was capable of it.

"In that case, then you will launch the main attack, and the second and third regiments will be responsible for containing it from the two wings. In addition, our airship unit from Tripoli is about to arrive, and it will be responsible for air support for your regiment. ”

Casapa called the airship he called and gave it to a group of people to use.

"With the airship, I feel more confident."

"Don't you have too many casualties?"

Seeing Colonel Bogado's confident look, Casapa then reminded the other party.

"Don't worry, I'll show you a beautiful record. Eh, the airship that the division commander supported us appeared. ”

The rumbling cannon bombarded until the airship reached the sky above the French army, and the French officers and soldiers were a little panicked when they looked at the black pressure of the airship above their heads. Because in mainland France, the Italians have made countless ground attacks with airships.

In order to deal with the threat from the sky, the French arsenal urgently developed anti-aircraft machine guns, anti-aircraft guns and other defensive weapons. However, because the current production is not enough, the equipment is basically left in France.

As for the Tunisian side, which faced Italy, the French army still allocated some for the safety of their North Africa. A total of 24 anti-aircraft machine guns and 8 anti-aircraft guns, but these weapons were deployed on the Tunisian front, and Shaal, who only slowed down the enemy's advance, was not equipped with these anti-aircraft weapons.

At this time, these airships boldly descended to an altitude of 1,500 meters, at which even the machine guns of the airships would pose a huge threat.

At this time, the artillery fire stopped, and groups of Italian officers and soldiers rushed towards their positions.

"When the enemy attacked, they all came out to the trenches."

Under the orders of the officers, the indigenous soldiers ran out one after another with rifles in their hands. At this time, the airship in the sky above made these people a little panicked, and some even chanted the name of Allah.

At this moment, a dense burst of machine guns suddenly sounded in the sky, and then several people in the trenches fell to the ground with blood and splashes.

"This is a skyscraper shooting, everyone shoot back."

"呯~呯~"

A burst of gunfire rang out, and the soldiers who were shooting at the airship kept firing their guns, trying to drive them away or shoot them down. However, at an altitude of 1500 meters, these rifles and even machine guns do not have such a high range, so this is nothing more than useless work.

"The enemy is approaching, don't worry about the airship on your head."

At this time, looking at the Italian soldiers who had already entered the firing range, the French officers who led the team kept ordering their soldiers to ignore the threat from the sky. Of course, it was a bit difficult for him to give orders with his mouth, so he used both hands and feet to let these indigenous soldiers who had never seen the market know which one to deal with now.

But seeing that no one cared about it anymore, the airship was even happier next. Not only did he shoot at the soldiers in the trenches with his machine gun, but he also dropped bombs at them.

The harassment of machine guns and bombs, although it did not cause much damage to the defenders, but it made the soldiers uneasy, coupled with their own poor marksmanship, its shooting effect made people shake their heads.

At this time, the 15th Regiment of the 1st Division did not lose its fierce character, and under the cover of mortars, machine guns, and smoke bombs, the officers and men of the 1st Regiment attacked along the weak points of the defenders given by the division commander of Kasapa. Under a charge, it went directly into the French position. And although the indigenous soldiers on the battlefield were cheered on by French officers, there were still many who sneaked away without paying attention.

In fact, even if they don't slip away, they are not the opponents of a group, and bayonet fighting is the most courageous, you look at the eyes of these indigenous soldiers, there are all kinds of things, but they lack courage This kind of thing, so they were opened up by a group of breaches at once.

"Immediately order the rest of the troops to open a gap along a regiment and continue the attack, and we will strive to crush the enemy today."

As the breach widened, the other French officers and soldiers in Shah Al also began to waver. The enemy is so fierce that he takes the friendly position with a single charge, so what should he do next?

And Casapa, who did not give the enemy time to react, directly launched a bigger offensive and did not give the opponent a chance to deal with it.

At this time, the indigenous soldiers in the French positions began to flee, often still in the trenches before, and when they turned around, there was only one rifle there.

And after being broken through three trenches by one regiment in succession, no one could stop the rout of the French army at this time.

At this time, Major General Kasapa, who saw that the situation was very good, had a deep understanding of these indigenous troops. "It seems that not everyone has it, our servant army in East Africa has combat effectiveness."

I felt like I was writing three chapters into two chapters.

(End of chapter)