Vol 4 Chapter 100: , Italy Raiders

On July 16, 1916, the Allies simultaneously launched landing operations at the three ports of Civitavecchia, Lido Diostia, and Latina, which opened the prelude to the battle of the Apennines.
On July 25, in the Allied Forces Command of the Allied Powers, Lieutenant General Valikot was holding a military meeting. Although the landing operation had already begun, the battle on the front line was somewhat beyond everyone's expectations. The Italians were more prepared than they expected.
It's normal to think about it. After all, the safety of the capital is involved, no matter how important it is! Coupled with the geographical location of the Italians, after losing the dominance of the sea, their coastal areas will no longer be safe.
The troops of the Allied powers participating in this battle include:
Bulgaria: 5 infantry divisions (each infantry division has about 17,000 people), 2 heavy artillery brigades (each heavy artillery brigade has about 3,800 people, with 108 artillery pieces), 5 bombing groups (each group has 36 Bombers) and 6 fighter groups (each fighter group has 48 aircraft), with a total force of about 100,000;
British: 2 Canadian divisions (each division has about 15,000 people), 2 Australian divisions (each division has about 14,700 people), 1 New Zealand division (about 13,600 people), 10 Indian divisions ( Each division has about 15,300), 4 heavy artillery regiments, with a total force of about 230,000;
French: 5 African divisions (each division has about 14,000 people), 1 heavy artillery regiment, with a total strength of about 72,000.
On the surface, the Allied Powers have 25 infantry divisions with a total of 400,000 troops. It seems that a strong army may divide Italy in two, and you can choose the landing point at will!
But in fact, there are only the five main divisions in Bulgaria. The other British and French colonial forces are far behind in terms of weaponry and combat will!
In the opinion of Lieutenant General Valikot, these five main Bulgarian divisions can sweep the twenty colonial divisions. This is not an exaggeration!
Many of these soldiers have just been enlisted in the army, and they have been sent to the battlefield after only a few months of short-term training!
It is estimated that less than one-fifth, or even less, are truly willing to work for Britain and France! Most people were forced to join the army because of their livelihood, or were directly conscripted by the colonial government. What morale would that come from?
...
After the start of the landing operation, Lieutenant General Valikot was naturally reluctant to let the main force go to thunder. The charge ahead was undoubtedly the British Indian division, the French African division, and even the five British dominions. The white teachers are all in the back, which can be regarded as preferential treatment for white people.
Originally, according to the original plan of the Allies, landing in Italy was a feign attack. The main strategic purpose was to force the Italians to draw troops back to Rome from the front line and create combat opportunities for the British and French forces on the western front.
After all, the Italians can become a member of the great powers, but they also rely on their own strength. Britain and France have never thought that they can defeat the Italians by relying on this partial division.
This is too unrealistic. If the colonial forces are replaced by their main force, there may be a slight possibility of realization.
If only to achieve this strategic goal, it is really not too difficult. Now the Italians are actually almost unable to hold on. If they continue to fight, they will have to consider drawing troops from the front.
What the Allies lost was the cannon fodder troops. Neither the British nor the French cared about their life or death. They were worthless anyway.
But the Italians can't do it, they are their own citizens. More importantly, the current battle damage ratio is still a special pit of 2.2:1. On average, it takes 2.2 Italian soldiers' casualties to replace a cannon fodder. This business is very cost-effective for the Allies.
No way, who told the Italians to lose air and sea dominance at the same time? There were plane bombings in the sky and warships bombing in the sea. It's no wonder that their casualties are not big!
But now it's different. Ferdinand ordered Lieutenant General Valicote to complete the landing operation as soon as possible. The soldiers came to Rome or even occupied Rome, forcing the Italians to withdraw from the war. This difficulty coefficient increased exponentially!
Lieutenant General Valikot said carefully: "You generals, we are calling everyone here today because we have to change the battle plan we made before as the battlefield changes.
As you can see, these are the intelligence we have collected recently. The Italians are mobilizing nationwide. Based on their population base, it is estimated that the Italians can mobilize more than 2.2 million troops.
And the Germans also recently provided a batch of weapons and equipment to the Italians, which will reach the Italians next month. At that time, at least hundreds of thousands of Italians will be armed, and our mission will fail!
Not only was it impossible to force the Italians to withdraw from the Western Front, but they were also able to continue to increase their troops on the Western Front. I don’t think everyone wants to see such an outcome.

Everyone looked through the information carefully. There is no doubt that the information is true, but some insignificant content has been deleted, such as: the Italians' strategic materials can no longer keep up with the consumption, the Italians have begun to resist joining the army, etc. .
Therefore, the more people look at it, the more ugly their faces, especially the French! The combat effectiveness of the Italian army is not very good, but no matter how wasteful it is, the sudden increase of millions of Italian troops can still change the situation!
Major General James took the lead to ask: "Your Excellency Commander said that the enemy's strength is increasing. We must revise the combat plan and not allow the Italians to complete military mobilization!
But what should we do now? With our current strength, it is almost impossible to defeat the Italians? "
The world war has just broken out. Everyone thinks that this is just an ordinary war that can end within a year and a half at most, and preparations are not very sufficient.
The only countries that completed industrial mobilization at the beginning of the war were Germany and Bulgaria.
When the war entered 1916, the French also began to carry out industrial mobilization, followed by the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the British Empire, and finally the Russian Empire and the Kingdom of Italy.
As for the other countries participating in the war, industry can be ignored. Naturally, industrial mobilization cannot be mentioned. Of course, Belgium is an exception. The war was over since the beginning of the war and there was no opportunity for industrial mobilization.
Before the outbreak of the war, no one thought that after the industrial mobilization, the war would continue, because the manpower and material resources that both sides can put into the war have greatly increased, and the time required to determine the victory and defeat has also become more. Long!
Fighting requires soldiers, soldiers need weapons and food, and producing weapons and food requires workers and peasants, and workers and peasants are enlisted into the army to fight.
While unprecedentedly huge human resources were directly put into the battlefield, the manpower required for the production of war in the rear also increased to an unprecedented level.
Gone are the days of wars that only required the active participation of soldiers and some craftsmen and most people were just bystanders. Most people served the war directly or indirectly.
Now the Italians’ industrial mobilization has not been completed, and their comprehensive national strength has not yet had time to fully explode. Once they have completed the mobilization, disasters for the French will come!
As a French major general, James naturally wants to avoid all this happening. As long as this goal can be achieved, even if the coalition is now annihilated, he doesn't care!
Well, Valicot knew that the reason he was looking for was not sufficient. As long as he calmed down and thought about it, he would find that it was almost impossible for the Italians to complete the full mobilization.
The Italians’ granaries are in the south and Sicily. Now Sicily has been occupied, and the south is not less frequented by the Allied navy.
At least now, a large part of the food supply for the Allied Landing Forces is contributed by the Italians selflessly!
In order to alleviate the food crisis, a large-scale land reclamation campaign has begun in Italy, and corner areas that were previously unsatisfactory are now being developed.
In this context, how can it be possible to continue to mobilize? Now the Allies cannot produce so much food to support them!
The authorities are obsessed with the bystanders, and for Major General James, he can no longer calm down and analyze, even if there is only a slight possibility, he can't take risks!
After all, no one can guarantee that the Italians will come to ruin the boat once, in a desperate gamble, as long as they break through the French defense, their food problem will be solved!
Since the French cooperated in this way, Lieutenant General Valikot would naturally not explain anything else. I saw him confidently saying: "It's very simple, continue to pretend to attack the other two routes, and gather troops to attack Civitavecchia!
The Italians now have five divisions in the port of Civitavecchia, with a total strength of less than 70,000. As long as we attack with all their strength, they can't stop them!
Since Lido Diostia is the closest to Rome, the Italians now have ten divisions deployed there, with a total strength of about 130,000.
Latina is similar to Civitavecchia. The Italians also deployed five divisions. If they land from here, it will be fine, but it is not conducive to our follow-up operations.
The Italians still have 15 divisions in Rome. Although most of them are mobs, we are still not sure to defeat them before the Italian reinforcements arrive.
Therefore, in addition to attacking Rome, we have another option-to cut off the Italians' north-south artery!
After we occupy Civitavecchia, we can choose to attack Rome to the south, or to attack the railway to the northeast. Before the main Italian forces arrive, we can blow up hundreds of kilometers of railway at least!
In this way, in the next few months, the transportation between the north and the south of the Italians can only rely on horses. If their troops on the western front do not retreat, they will be hungry! "
Valikote still didn't say that, now that the Italian has been killed, this is also related to the dispute over the right to speak.
Britain and France can not fight for the dominance of attacking Italy, but they will definitely jump out to fight for the military dominance that defeats the Italians and allows them to surrender. After all, this is related to the distribution of interests after the war and the distribution of the right to speak in the Mediterranean sea in the future. problem.
Once the Italians are defeated under the leadership of Bulgaria, then Bulgaria will have an advantage in the distribution of the interests of the Kingdom of Italy in the future Allied powers.
For Britain and France, this is definitely not what they want. Perhaps France is now incapable of drawing a large amount of troops from the country for the sake of its domestic security. It can choose not to fight, but John Bull will definitely jump out.
After all, the British have not fully exploded yet. They still have spare energy. It is not a problem at all to mobilize another two or three hundred thousand troops from the country!
Now that everyone is eyeing the Kingdom of Italy, then it is logical for Lieutenant General Valicotte to choose to conceal his purpose.
Anyway, no one now thinks that a mere 100,000 Bulgarian troops and 300,000 colonial troops can cause the Italians to surrender. As long as Valikot creates the established facts, it is impossible for Britain and France to deny it.
Although I don't know what medicine is sold in Valikot, Major General Winston felt that something was wrong with the intuition of a soldier. When did the Bulgarians become so selfless?
Major General Winston questioned: "Your Excellency Commander, I am afraid that our military strength is somewhat insufficient? Once the Italians react, we may not be able to resist their counterattack?"
Valicotte smiled slightly and said, "General Winston, you are too worried! Don't forget that our mission is only to contain the Italians, forcing them to draw troops from the front to help the country!
Anyway, as long as the login is successful, everyone's first task is to destroy it. This is not our homeland. What should I worry about?
I firmly believe that destruction is much easier than construction. In just a few days, we can deal a serious blow to the Italians!
Unless we are lucky enough to conquer Rome, I don't think it is necessary to stick to it. If the Italians want to regain their lost ground, let them go!
After the big deal, the coastal cities that caught them continue to attack, and we can also achieve our strategic goals! "
...
After exhausting all his energy, Valicotte finally managed to persuade everyone and agreed to his plan. As long as the first step is successful, it will be easy to handle later!
Valikote believes that as long as they see the hope of conquering Rome, even if it is for their own benefit, they will cooperate with them later!
I believe that few people can resist the temptation to monopolize the credit for defeating the Italians. This is enough for everyone to be promoted collectively. Even a few exceptions will not change the overall situation!
The British and French officers assigned to the colonial forces were not mixed up very well in the country. Now they have the opportunity to make a great contribution to turn around. If anyone dares to do damage, he is against them!
After all, a lot of things cannot be said on the table, these are the unspoken rules! Even most of the middle and lower-level officers and soldiers did not even know that this would happen!
...
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