My Italy

Le Cheira is a town located between Grenoble and Darbigny, in the Isère Valley between the Belledonne Mountains and the Chartreuse Mountains.

The town has been used to plant flowers and beekeeping, and it is a beautiful place.

But now, the small town of Le Sierra is no longer beautiful, because a battle is breaking out in the town. The French 39th Division stood firm here, blocking Army Group North's advance towards Grenoble.

"Boom boom boom..."

One shell after another fell on the small town of Le Sierra, shrouding the entire town in smoke. The French officers and soldiers hiding in trenches and other fortifications could only pray silently in their hearts to protect the shells from falling on their heads.

The Italian army's division-level main artillery, 75mm field guns, 105mm howitzers, a small number of 150mm howitzers, and four 210mm cannons specially brought for suppression were shelling the small town of Le Sierra.

This 210mm cannon is a weapon of the Italian Army. Mainly used to suppress enemy artillery and destroy strong fortifications.

The gun has a caliber of 210 mm, a barrel length of 5.25 meters (25 times the barrel diameter), and a retractable gun mount. The muzzle velocity of the gun is 523 meters per second, and the maximum range is 14.2 kilometers. The speed is one round every two minutes, and its total weight is 15.8 tons.

This heavy artillery is very powerful. It can bombard the town and surrounding fortifications. As long as it is hit by it, there is no possibility of survival.

Of course, the Northern Army originally planned to strengthen the 9th Army with six 210 mm cannons. However, during the transportation process, due to the changeable climate in the mountainous areas, two airships carrying heavy artillery crashed.

Yes, it is very difficult to transport heavy artillery with such large tonnage from land. It can only be transported by airship. Only then can it catch up with the battle against the small town of Le Sierra.

When it comes to the current use of airships, the Italian military ranks second, and absolutely no one dares to say first. In the hands of the Italian military, airships can be used for both reconnaissance and air-to-ground attacks. From bombing to ground shooting and artillery, airships have become a success in the hands of the Italian military.

Of course, for the Italian army, the biggest role of airships at present is air transportation. Especially in the high mountains of the Alps, transportation by manpower and stored energy is too slow, not to mention the small transport capacity. Trucks are good, but the road requirements are not low. As far as the current road on the Carragher Pass is concerned, under the emergency repairs by Italian engineers, trucks can currently reach Dalbini through it. However, there are only more than 200 trucks that can pass through it every day. We also need to consider the number of trucks that pass through every day. The supplies were only over 500 tons.

Although this seems like a lot, a division needs at least hundreds of tons of supplies every day in combat mode. The Italian army that invaded the Savoy region had eight divisions and 130,000 men, requiring at least thousands of tons of supplies every day.

Trucks solve half of the problem, and the rest is transported by airships. Compared with trucks, airships transport faster, have larger load capacity, and can minimize the impact of terrain.

The airship takes off from Turin early every morning, arrives at Dalbini to unload its cargo at noon, and then rushes back to Turin in the evening.

Of course, the mountain environment changes greatly, and the airflow is also very chaotic. Although airships are much better resistant to climate than airplanes, they are also dangerous.

In just six days, six airships were lost. The main reason was that I was not familiar with the environment at the beginning, which led to many mistakes and damage to the airship.

It's much better now. There has been no damage to the airship in the past two days.

It is precisely by relying on these air transports that the Italian army can complete combat equipment as soon as possible, otherwise the battle in the small town of Le Sierra will be delayed for two days.

Facing the Italian artillery bombardment, the defending French army was certainly not to be outdone, and its 75mm rapid-fire cannons also continued to fire back. However, in terms of artillery caliber, range, and power, the Italian side has an absolute advantage. It has a variety of 75mm, 105mm, 150mm, and 210mm models available, which are far beyond what the French 75mm rapid-fire cannon can match.

Not to mention that the Italian side still has an advantage in the number of artillery. Therefore, in the artillery battle between the two sides, the Italian side had an absolute advantage. The French 75mm rapid-fire cannons were retreating steadily in the artillery battle. Many artillery positions were destroyed in the enemy's counterattack, and they all died out soon after. .

Speaking of the defeat in the artillery battle, this was also the result of the stubbornness of the French. After the invention of the 75mm rapid-fire gun, the French army formed the quick-fire gun omnipotence school. They added a steel mantlet to the rapid-fire cannon, and required artillerymen in the training to advance the 75mm rapid-fire cannon to within one kilometer of the front line, suppressing the enemy's front with a barrage of shrapnel to support the French infantry in launching their proud campaign. National skill: bayonet charge.

Due to both technical and spiritual factors, the French's enthusiastic support of the 75mm rapid-fire gun has been upgraded from a military school of thought to an unquestionable belief.

Various old firearms and large-caliber cannons such as howitzers, heavy artillery, and mortars were thrown into the garbage dump. The French army believed that they had found the best solution for future wars. The entire army only needed one kind of artillery and one weapon. A variety of calibers and ammunition, 75mm, 75mm, shrapnel, can defeat the enemy when facing it.

Therefore, after the war began, the French army had only one kind of artillery available, and that was the direct-firing 75mm rapid-fire cannon.

We all know that blind faith is not allowed. It is obvious that the French army has a blind faith in the 75mm rapid-fire gun. Even now that Germany and Italy have used large-caliber artillery to educate the French and beat the French artillery units on the front line to pieces, the senior military officers in the rear still think it is right.

France does not need to learn from Germany and Italy to adopt or design larger-caliber heavy artillery. As long as it improves the 75mm rapid-fire cannon so that it can increase the elevation angle and carry out deflection attacks, the problem can be solved.

Of course, if the senior officers and soldiers of the French army knew what they were thinking, they would definitely curse.

But now they don't have the energy to scold, because Italian heavy artillery is constantly shelling them, and the shelling on their positions has never stopped. The screams from time to time are a reminder of the cruelty of the battlefield. Of course more

Lieutenant General Pascal, commander of the 9th Army, was very satisfied with the effect of the artillery bombardment. Although the French 39th Division fortified themselves in the small town of Le Cherra, delaying their progress.

But it is obvious that the fortifications around the town are mainly civil engineering, and there are not many strong permanent fortifications. This also leads to artillery with a caliber of 100 mm or more, which has excellent shelling effects.

Of course, this is also thanks to the cooperation of the French army. If it were not known that the French army only has 75mm rapid-fire cannons with direct fire capabilities, this battle would be much more difficult to fight.

The bombardment lasted for half a day, starting in the morning and lasting until one o'clock in the afternoon.

Seeing that it was almost the same, Lieutenant General Pascal immediately ordered. "Order the infantry to attack."

Following his order, a regiment of troops arrived at the launching position. They had already recharged their batteries and were waiting to launch an attack on the enemy's position.

Following the lieutenant general's order, they climbed out of the trenches one after another and launched a charge towards the enemy's position.