In the battle of Shahal, the 15th Infantry Division, with 14,000 men, routed two divisions of the French Colonial Army stationed in Shahal. Among them, the 15th Division killed and wounded 13,000 people, captured more than 5,000 guns of various kinds, 27 artillery pieces, and 27 tons of various ammunition.

For this victory, the officers and men of the 15th Infantry Division also paid more than 600 casualties. After weighing the quality of the French army in the Tunisian colony, he left a regiment to clean the battlefield and guard the prisoners, and immediately marched towards Sfax without stopping.

And the actions of the 15th Division collapsed the defeated army of the former Shahal. They were originally preparing to withdraw to Sfax, but under the constant pursuit of the 15th Division, the retreating colonial army collapsed. These defeated colonial troops were either captured by the vanguard of the pursuing 15th Division, or they took advantage of the defeat to slip away, and by the time they retreated to Sfax, only a thousand men remained. This was also due to the fact that there were too many French officers to make it impossible for some to escape.

This made Colonel Blogue, commander of the Sfax garrison and commander of the 1st Tunisian Division, intimate.

Now he has more than 8,000 people in his hands, plus the defeated Shah Al defenders are only more than 9,000, and these defeated troops are almost lost in their weapons.

In addition, after listening to the battle reports of the Shah defenders, they were skeptical about how long they could hold Sfax.

However, although he was skeptical, Sfax had to defend it, otherwise the military court would never spare him.

However, although it is necessary to defend the place, how to defend it is a problem.

Sfax City is the second largest city in Tunisia, with a population of 40,000 and an urban area of 4.3 square kilometers. It is also a major olive producing region in Tunisia, home to tens of thousands of the world's largest olive trees and the center of Tunisia's oil extraction industry. The city is full of handicraft workshops, and the smell of olive oil is in the air.

Nine thousand men in the hands of Colonel Bulrog would be barely defensible, but it would make it difficult to retreat.

However, this Colonel Bulrog still had a level, and after some consideration, he decided to abandon the outer defense, gather his troops into the city, and send another regiment to defend in the north outside the city, so as to keep his rear road.

And the local residents of Sfax City, after seeing that this place was about to become a battlefield, hurried away from this land of right and wrong with their families, and they did not dare to return until the battle was over.

The next day, when most of the 15th Infantry Division arrived, Commander Kasapa smiled at the enemy's defensive disposition. It's a run-and-run formation, and he knows what to do.

"Order the artillery to fire at the enemy's troops outside the city with all their might, first hitting three bases. In addition, the 2nd Regiment was ordered to transfer two battalions to prepare for an attack on the enemy forces in the northern suburbs. ”

Under Cassappa's orders, 72 75 and 105 mm guns (36 75, 36 105) of the 15th Division's artillery reinforcement regiment opened fire on French positions on the northern outskirts of Sfax.

The civil fortifications could not withstand the hit of 105-mm shells, and the number of 72 guns made the officers and men of the 1st Tunisian Division on the northern outskirts of the city even more distressed. And in front of them, thousands of Italian officers and soldiers were preparing for the attack.

Looking at the enemy positions covered by artillery fire, Kasapa looked at the bombed enemy positions with satisfaction. Now that he has made a move, it is up to the commander of the garrison to see if he can defend his retreat.

On the side of the northern outskirts, in the face of the Italian army staring at them, the commander of the defending army immediately sent a message calling for help, thinking of the performance in Shah Al since yesterday.

As the commander of Sfax, Bullog discovered the options given to him by the Italians at the very beginning of the shelling. The first regiment outside the city to guarantee a retreat, should it be saved?

What can I do?

In fact, the best way is to fight an artillery counterattack and fight an artillery battle. It's just that this method is useless against the 1st Tunisian Infantry Division, because this division has only one artillery battalion, and it is equipped with 18 guns, and it is impossible to fight several times the enemy's artillery, which is completely suicidal. Although the artillery battalion is all elite local officers and soldiers, it is decided that there are too few artillery pieces, and they can only be used at key points.

Looking at the airship suspended in the sky, Brog was even more afraid to mention the idea of artillery battle.

Then now there is only one way, and that is to increase the number of troops, so that the position can maintain enough telegraph troops. He then ordered one battalion each from the 3rd and 4th regiments to form reinforcements, and immediately reinforce the 1st regiment in the northern suburbs.

One more thing to say here is that the French colonial troops are also composed of 1 division, 2 brigades, 4 regiments and 12 battalions, but the number is much smaller.

And every move of the defenders was clearly observed by the airship in the sky, and it was only three minutes before the reinforcements set off for Kasapa to know.

"I'm going to take the city today."

After figuring out the temperament and weakness of his opponent, Major General Kasapa arrogantly said that he would take Sfax today, quite a kind of old man chatting about the attitude of a teenager.

However, although he dares to make such remarks, he must have some ability. If it is said that for an excellent commander, Kasapa is definitely trembling and does not dare to play a little tricks, but the level of this one, in his opinion, as a division commander, is a bit reluctant.

At this time, I saw him giving orders. "Order all 105-mm guns of the artillery regiment to be ready and wait until enemy reinforcements have arrived on the northern outskirts to open fire on Sfax. After the artillery ceasefire, the first regiment is responsible for launching the main attack from the south, the second regiment is responsible for containing it from the west, and our army in the northern suburbs also needs to launch a diversion attack. ”

Major General Kasapa's order was quickly conveyed to the divisions, and just after the arrival of enemy reinforcements on the northern outskirts, suddenly all the 105-mm guns of the artillery regiment fired rapidly at the direction notified by the airship.

Then a dense burst of explosions was heard all over the city, and the shells exploded specifically at the place where the French troops were stationed, as if they had eyes. Considering the helpless airships overhead, the morale of these French soldiers was further demoralized.

"All attack!"

Under the orders of the commander of Bogado, the officers and soldiers of the main attack roared and attacked the city of Sfax.

At the same time, the 2nd Regiment also attacked from the west, and in the northern suburbs, two battalions of Italian troops were also eager to try.

For a time, the 15th Division launched an attack on the entire front of Sfax.

In the face of the attack of the Italian army, as the commander of the defenders, Bulrog was a little blind, and he only had a little more than a regiment in the city, and it became a problem for him whether to transfer reinforcements back at this time. However, in the end, he was worried about the safety of the back road, so he could only choose not to transfer reinforcements back.

The difficulty of Brog's is that the officers and men of the 15th Division, as your opponent, did not understand the other side, and the officers and men of the 15th Division were storming the opponent's position at this time.

"Enemy reinforcements came from the right, and machine guns suppressed them. Take out the smoke bomb and hit the smoke. ”

Following the officer's order, the two machine guns in the company immediately opened fire, and their dense fire suppressed the Tunisian soldier on the right and could not raise his head.

Several smoke grenades were then thrown into the street, emitting thick smoke, and then the smoke filled the entire street, making it impossible to see people ten meters away, which made the Tunisian soldiers hiding behind sandbags look dazed.

The French officer who led the team was dumbfounded when he saw this scene, and there were grenades that could put smoke?

This is all the credit of a certain traverser, smoke bombs, a powerful weapon for urban warfare, the Italian Army successfully developed in 1909, but because of secrecy, it waited for the large-scale equipment of troops before the start of the war.

Although the defending officer did not understand why there were still smoking grenades, he knew that his position was dangerous.

"Fire, fire, fire now."

Under the orders of the officers, the soldiers on the defending positions could only fire indiscriminately at the smoke, but no matter how they fired, the smoke continued to expand and was coming towards them step by step.

Just as the French officers were thinking about what to do next, suddenly a whistle sounded, and a bunch of grenades flew towards the position in the smoke.

"Not good, watch out for grenades."

As soon as the words fell, a dense explosion sounded from the position, and in an instant, a large area fell on the position, which made the rest of the soldiers feel terrible. And at this moment a large number of enemies suddenly rushed out of the smoke, and they rushed into the position with rifles with bayonets. The next killing was inevitable.

Battles like this were everywhere in Sfax, where smoke grenades, grenades, machine guns, and mortars became the weapons of street fighting among Italian officers and soldiers. This also led to the defeat of the French army in the city of Sfax, leaving the commander Colonel Bulrog helpless, and finally caught the sun setting, and took advantage of the night to flee with the defenders towards Luktai.

Although it failed to completely annihilate the Tunisian 1st Division, it only took one day to capture Sfax, which also made Major General Kasapa high-spirited. He led the 15th Division to defeat three enemy divisions in a row, although they were all colonial divisions, but they were all conquered in one day, which was enough for him and the officers and soldiers of the 15th Division to show up.

"Send a telegram to the commander of the army group and inform them that our division has captured Sfax ahead of schedule."

With this telegram, the pace of the Tunisian campaign also increased.