My Italy

The government's additional funding has finally given the struggling Army some relief.

Of course, the Army, which has received the money, needs to make good use of it. For General Simeone, the current number one man in the army, how to spend this money more valuable is what he is most concerned about.

That's right, General Simeone is currently the number one person in the army, because the Minister of the Army, Marshal Cadorna, has been recovering from illness in the past few years and has rarely been involved in military affairs.

With the increase in funding, Simeone is indeed worried about how to spend the money. Speaking of which, as soon as the money was received, the General Staff gave two plans for additional funds.

The first plan is very simple, that is to expand the strength of the divisions that are currently seriously understaffed. According to the General Staff's plan, this additional 60 million lire will allow the Army to expand its strength by at least 20,000 to 40,000 troops.

Of course, it is definitely impossible to spend this amount of money like this. It would be good to use half of it to expand the military strength. The remaining cost can also be used to purchase some new weapons and re-equip the troops. After all, new and old weapons currently coexist in the Italian army, and it is necessary to update the army's equipment.

Compared with the prudent first option, the second option is a bit radical. In this plan, there is no plan to replenish the divisions that are currently seriously short of personnel. Instead, the new funds will be used for two aspects. On the one hand, it is the upgrading of weapons, and on the other hand, it will use the funds to continue to expand divisions. prepared by.

That's right, it's to increase the number of infantry divisions currently severely short of personnel in Italy.

However, although it seems that such an Italian division-level unit has a small number of people, only eight or nine thousand people, its equipment is not much different from that of a full division. Take the Sixth Division of the Army as an example. It is equipped with 18 105mm howitzers, 54 76mm mountain field guns, more than a hundred light and heavy machine guns, as well as various guns, vehicles, radio stations, field telephone lines and other materials. The total equipment procurement cost Up to more than 16 million lire.

In addition to the cost of purchasing equipment, there is also the cost of training it, and daily training costs are also quite large. With the 60 million lire in Simeone's hands, he can only form three such shortages every year.

So in his office, Simeone looked at these two plans and fell into deep thought. When I had no money, I thought about spending more on the military, but when the military spending increased, it became difficult to choose.

But just as he was deep in thought, he heard the secretary's voice coming from outside the door. "Admiral, the Director of Education, Admiral Darkiang, is here."

"Please ask Admiral Darkion to come in."

"Haha, Darkion is so free to come see me today?"

For Simeone, the number one man in the Army, to make such a warm gesture, on the one hand, the two have a good relationship, and on the other hand, he is considered to be of high authority.

Since Prussia defeated France, its advanced military system has been imitated by other countries. The same goes for the Italian Army, which made a large number of copies of the Germans. The mobilization system, total war, etc. were all copied to a very similar degree in Italy. As for the three giants of the German Army (Minister of Army, Chief of General Staff, and Director of Education), Italy also has them. And it is similar to Germany in terms of functions. Therefore, how can General Dalchiang, who is in charge of the training and education of the Italian Army, not be considered a high-ranking official?

The education director of the Italian Army smiled and said to Simeone as soon as he entered the door. "Simone, I heard that you are worried about how to spend the money?"

Although Simeone wanted to ask how you knew, he held back because he knew that this visit must be difficult, so he said frankly. "Yes, I do have a headache spending the money."

Faced with Simeone's confession, Darkian smiled and said. "Actually, I think neither of those two options is the best choice. Do you remember the staffing issue we talked about before?"

Darkion's words immediately brought Simone back to his senses. Of course he knew what he was talking about with Darkion. At that time, the two of them were talking about the increasing number of new equipment and the increasing number of division-level personnel. They both felt something was wrong, so they talked about their respective opinions.

"You mean, you want to make changes to the army organization?"

Simone asked a little uncertainly.

Faced with Simeone's question, Darkion nodded and answered. "Yes, that's what I came to see you for."

"Do you still remember the drill we conducted before?"

"I remember……"

Of course Simonyi remembered that the increasingly large division-level troops in the exercises at that time also had many problems during the exercises. Of course, in addition to military exercises, the Russo-Japanese War in the Far East also gave Italy sufficient reference value.

For this war, the Italian Army conducted in-depth research. The results of the study show that the larger the size of the army, the less conducive it is to its mobilization. At present, although the actual number of people in a division in Italy is small, the establishment is very large.

According to the latest standards of the Italian Army Ministry, a fully-equipped army division should have an infantry organization of two brigades, four regiments and 12 battalions (a battalion consists of four companies of 254 men, plus a 6 Maxim and 12 Revelli machine guns) machine gun company), plus artillery, engineer battalions, cavalry battalions, baggage regiments and other units, a full division has more than 19,000 people.

Such a huge force makes the army's top brass feel very bloated, which is not conducive to wartime command.

Some people may ask, this is true for other European countries as well. Why is it that Italy alone feels that its troops are bloated?

That’s a good question, because each country’s national conditions are different, so their national defense requirements are also different. Compared with its great powers, Italy needs to defend mainly mountainous areas, and the mountainous terrain determines the small-scale elite troops, which is more suitable for this terrain. Therefore, it makes sense that compared to other countries, Italy feels that a large division-level force is not suitable for its needs.

"But how to change it now is a difficult question. Whether to change it from above or from below is difficult to judge. After all, changing the establishment is not a trivial matter, and it is common sense to be more cautious." Darkion looked at Simeone and said. .

But Simone didn't believe it when faced with Darkion's words. "Don't look at me like this. I know you must have some ideas. Please bring them out for reference."

"I really don't have any ideas, just a little thought."

"It doesn't matter, any idea is fine. It's always good to refer to it."

Faced with Simeone's questioning, Darkian was really helpless and had no choice but to say. "Then let me share my humble opinion. First of all, the problem of the large size of the army is that it is actually very simple to lose weight, but it is a bit difficult to ensure the combat effectiveness as much as possible."

Of course Simeone also knew what Darkion said, otherwise he wouldn't be embarrassed by it.

"However, I think that if we want to slim down the army, we should first make changes from the top. I think changes can be made at the brigade and regiment levels first. In addition, whether the number of companies at the battalion level is too many, is it appropriate to cancel an infantry company. Then, will the current four-fourth formation at the squad and platoon level also undergo certain changes? And if the number of infantry is significantly reduced, should the larger number of supporting firepower also be reduced to a certain extent? And in view of the Chinese division? Considering the possible war situation in the future, does it also need to make certain supplements at the corps level, such as letting the corps have three divisions under its jurisdiction, or adding technical arms such as artillery to the corps? "

Darkion spoke out his thoughts at once, leaving Simone a little stunned.

"It seems you have a good idea, so let's sit down and talk slowly."

Simeone then talked with Darchion late into the night and continued the discussion the next day. After a total of three days of conversation, after synthesizing the views of both parties, the two decided on the organization of Italy's new infantry division. For the sake of conservatism, the two decided not to move to the organization below the company level.

According to the two men's ideas, a new Italian infantry division had three infantry regiments and one artillery regiment. There will be no changes to the units directly under the division, and the brigade level of the infantry division will be directly cancelled. In addition to the major changes at the brigade level, there are also major changes at the battalion level. First, the four infantry companies were directly cut into three. Secondly, the two men planned to transfer the machine gun company under the battalion to the company level to form a machine gun platoon to enhance the firepower of the company level.

After such changes, the total strength of the new infantry division will be reduced to more than 14,000. It is much smaller in scale than before. As for discussions at the corps level, we still need to wait and see the effect of the changes at the division level before deciding whether to make changes.

Of course, the plan is still in its first draft, and it will need to be carefully demonstrated and piloted to see the effect before deciding whether to promote it to the entire military.