My Italy

The Italian paratroopers dropped behind the mountain pass, which was undoubtedly quite shocking news for the French army.

Because this will mean that the very important pass of Karag Pass will fall into a situation of being attacked from both sides. And if the pass is lost, Italian troops will continue to enter the Savoy region through here.

This is definitely not good news for the French army. So on the day they received the news, a regiment of the French 39th Division stationed in Modana hurried over.

Wanting to drive away the Italian paratroopers falling from the sky.

At this time, the important location of Vasco Slope was already occupied by Italian paratroopers. The heroic paratroopers relied on this slope to deal with the approaching French army.

"Bang, bang, bang..."

The French infantry regiment, which came with artillery, pushed its proud 75mm rapid-fire cannon and launched an artillery bombardment at the Italian paratroopers standing on the slopes of Vasco.

However, the distance of the artillery strike was very subtle, as it was three kilometers away from the position. This cannot hit the French army's most lethal shrapnel, because the paratroopers stationed on the Vasco slopes also have their own artillery, which is an 81mm mortar.

Although this gun cannot be compared with Miss 75 at all, it can at least prevent French artillery from firing at close range.

That's right, the French army's 75mm rapid-fire gun's unique skill is to shoot at close range, using its ultra-high rate of fire to tear the enemy into pieces at a distance of one kilometer from the enemy.

Although these cowards did not dare to fight with the heroic French soldiers, it did not mean that the French army had no way to deal with them. The use of artillery had been understood by the French army as early as the Napoleonic era.

Of course, the biggest role of the 75mm artillery now is to clear out the most intimidating machine guns in the hands of paratroopers who are holding their positions.

Yes, the French army, which currently advocates bayonet charges, has already experienced the power of machine guns. For the French army, there is a way to solve the problem of machine guns as the support point of firepower, and that is to use the advantages of artillery to name them.

This move is still very effective against the heavy machine guns headed by Maxim. After all, a Maxim heavy machine gun weighs nearly a hundred kilograms, and the hail of bullets it fires is enough to scare even the bravest soldiers.

Therefore, the French artillery needs to give priority to clearing out the machine guns that block the soldiers' charge, followed by other targets.

So this explains why French artillery will give priority to firing at firepower points such as machine guns.

Of course, Miss 75 is essentially a cannon, and it also has the characteristics of a cannon. Its advantage is that the ballistic trajectory is straight and the long range is long. This also determines that its ability to attack trenches is very poor.

Therefore, after an artillery attack, there were not many machine guns on the position.

"Let the first battalion attack."

Seeing that artillery was useless in clearing the ground, Lieutenant Colonel Milepi, who led the team, could only let the infantry attack. As for why only one battalion is deployed to attack, the reason is very simple: the battlefield is not wide enough, and only one battalion can be deployed. Any more is a waste.

Following his order, the dark French soldiers stepped forward, leaning their bodies and trotting all the way towards the position.

"Fire."

The paratroopers stationed in the position, under the orders of the officers, lay on the position and fired at the attacking French soldiers.

"Bah..."

The small-caliber M88 Carcano rifle makes a crisp sound. Although this Carcano rifle is shorter than the rifle, its accuracy is not reduced much. In addition, the small-caliber ballistic trajectory is relatively straight. Although It's weak in terms of lethality, but it's still a very good gun.

In addition, paratroopers are trained by elite soldiers drawn from each army, and their marksmanship is generally good. , not to mention the firing of Revery light machine guns and Maxim heavy machine guns along the way.

This also resulted in the attacking French officers and soldiers suffering heavy casualties during the charge. By the time the charge reached 200 meters, more than half of the attacking French battalion had suffered casualties.

Suffering such huge casualties, the attacking French soldiers couldn't bear it. They ignored the officers' scoldings and retreated directly back.

In fact, the officers leading the team were not much better. It could even be said that due to the precise marksmanship of the paratroopers, the officers suffered higher casualties than the soldiers. So after pretending to scold them a few times, the officers also retreated.

Looking at the retreating soldiers, Lieutenant Colonel Milepi looked gloomy.

"Order the second battalion to attack, the third battalion to prepare, and attack immediately when the second battalion retreats, and the first battalion to be ready to take over the attack from the second battalion."

Lieutenant Colonel Milepi's words surprised the deputy commander on the side.

"Captain Milepi, doing this can easily cause a backlash from the soldiers."

As a person who knows the soldiers well, how could Lieutenant Colonel Milepi not know that letting the soldiers attack in turns would make them dissatisfied, but now he had to do this.

"I know the soldiers are dissatisfied with this, but we have no time to waste. The Italians have spent so much effort to block the connection between Karag Pass and us just to capture the pass. If we cannot open up the connection with Karag Pass today, contact, then the Italians will definitely cross the mountain pass, and we will be blamed by our superiors."

Although Lieutenant Colonel Milepi did not elaborate, the deputy commander knew the meaning of his words. If they don't work hard today, they will most likely be blamed for failing to rescue and letting friendly forces be surrounded and annihilated.

In order to prevent the enemy from breaking through the mountain pass, and for the sake of their military rank, they must work hard. Even if they lose, they can confidently say that they have tried their best.

Lieutenant Colonel Milepi and others can try their best, but for Colonel Bielsa, the commander of the Karag Pass garrison, trying his best cannot describe the current situation of his troops. It must be described as despair.

Yes, for the defenders of Karag Pass, today is really a desperate day. A division of troops on the front was attacking them in turn. The continuous offensive put great pressure on the French army defending the mountain pass.

However, the front can be described as pressure, and the attack from behind must be described as despair.

More than a thousand Italian soldiers somehow bypassed the mountain pass and appeared behind them. Facing the sudden enemy, the defenders were caught unawares and captured many fortifications behind them.

In addition to the enemies appearing before and after, there were several airships circling overhead at any time over the mountain pass today. The falling bombs and rain of bullets frightened the defending French officers and soldiers. No one could ignore the threat above their heads and concentrate on dealing with the invading enemy.

This kind of integrated ground-air combat method left the French defenders at Karag Pass at a loss as to what to do. Forget about being attacked from the back and abdomen, there are also machine guns and bombs above your head. How can you make the defending officers and soldiers stand it?

Faced with this situation, not to mention ordinary officers and soldiers, even the position commander, Colonel Bielsa, was at a loss. He could only order the soldiers to resist desperately while sending a rescue telegram.

However, the external distress telegram did not bring good news. The first is Modana, the nearest place. The defenders stationed there have rushed towards them, but they have been blocked by the Italian army on the slopes of Vasco and there is no way to get close.

As for the 39th Infantry Division stationed in Grenoble, they were asked to hold on for two days.

With the current desperate posture of the Italian army, the fact that it can last even one day under siege from all sides, let alone two days, is the result of the desperate efforts of the officers and soldiers on the position.

After all, the officers and soldiers of the garrison are not Rambos. They can stably hit the enemy without changing their expression in the hail of enemy bullets. With enemies in front and behind, mountains on both sides that are difficult to climb, and airships attacking overhead, it was very difficult for everyone to respond calmly.

Faced with such a desperate situation, it is normal for the officers and soldiers to be panicked.

So finally at four o'clock in the afternoon, the garrison officers and soldiers finally couldn't stand it anymore. Under the pressure of these officers and soldiers, the position commander Colonel Bielsa surrendered to Italy with more than a thousand French officers and soldiers after the Italian side promised to abide by the Geneva Convention. .

That's right, there are only more than a thousand French defenders now. You must know that yesterday they still had 3,000 people. In less than a day, more than half of its losses were lost.

But if the French army in Yamaguchi knew the preparations of the Italian military for them, then they should be proud.

In order to seize the pass in a surprise attack, the Italian military prepared tens of thousands of troops and thousands of tons of ammunition. In addition, most of the most elite paratroopers arrived, and more than 80 airships arrived.

In addition to preparations, the Italian army also suffered a lot of losses in order to capture the pass. There were 1,537 killed, 2,976 injured, and 49 missing.

It can be seen from the comparison of casualties that even if the Italian army had a sufficient advantage, the attack on Yamaguchi would suffer much greater losses than the defenders.

This also fully shows that in such a dangerous place, it is useless to rely on manpower consumption alone without some new methods.

After receiving the news of the surrender of the defenders, Lieutenant General Pascal, the commander of the 9th Army who was responsible for commanding the offensive, immediately reported the good news to the commander of the group army, Prince Filiberto.

Of course, in addition to reporting the news, Lieutenant General Pascal immediately ordered the 21st Division, which was originally preparing to take over the attack, to immediately cross the mountain pass and march towards Modana. He wanted to occupy the first stronghold in the Savoy region for the Italian army before the enemy could react.

And his order was actually timely. When the 21st Division crossed the Carragher Pass and marched towards Modana, it first defeated most of the French regiment that was attacking the Vasco slopes.

Immediately afterwards, the division organized an elite force and rushed to Modana overnight. At dawn the next day, they finally arrived at Modana, and then wiped out the remaining French troops in the town in one fell swoop.

After the department occupied Modana, the leading troops of the French 39th Division appeared on the outskirts of Modana.

Regarding Modana flying the Italian flag, the 39th Division immediately retreated after a tentative attack.

It was obvious that the commander of the 39th Division was very cautious and had no intention of taking advantage of the Italian army's unstable foothold to recapture Modana.

Of course, no matter what, it is an indisputable fact that the Italian army's tentacles have reached out to the Savoy area.