Chapter 606 Battle of Savoy (Part 1)

Of course, the French side will not be indifferent to the Italian army’s capture of the Carragher Pass and the military situation in the Savoy area.

First of all, the French Sixth Army, commanded by Admiral de Cassitrnau, sent all three reserve divisions to the Savoy area. That’s right, the admiral is no longer in the reserves, as the Italians’ situation is already evident, and they are mainly attacking the Savoy area.

Although the Savoy region is all mountainous, even if it is occupied by Italy, it is a great threat to southern France (Look at the Savoy region, the terrain of its mountains restricts the army’s operations, and it wants to follow the river valley to Lyon. To launch an attack is purely military science.)

But this is French territory and must not be occupied by it. Therefore, the reserve team of Admiral De Cassiterno needs to play a sufficient role.

In addition to the response of the Sixth Army, Lyon had an additional mobilization division stationed, which was France’s biggest response to the Italian offensive.

Why did France react so little to the Italian attack on the Savoy region?

The reason is very simple, on the one hand, the importance of the Savoy region is not enough (not as important as the Nice region). The second is to get angry and there are more important things to deal with. This matter is already burning the eyebrows, and there is no rush.

This thing is that the German army has entered the northeast of France. After defeating the Belgian and British armies, the main German force had crossed the French-Belgian border and advanced rapidly into the interior of France.

The main force of millions of German troops appeared in the invincible northeastern part of France. This was a very difficult matter for the French army. It was related to the success or failure of France in this war, so for Italy to attack the Savoy area, The French army could only hold on first, and then deal with the Italians after the Germans were blocked.

However, although the decision to postpone the processing of Italy was made, it was impossible for the French army to release Savoy to the Italians on the battlefield.

It’s time to fight or fight, but the focus is different.

Therefore, the war between France and Italy in Savoy has never stopped.

“attack.”

Following the roar of the leading officers, a large group of Italian officers and soldiers attacked the French positions on the hillside with rifles.

At the foot of the mountain, mortars were continuously firing shells at the French troops in the position.

Speaking of which, in mountain warfare, the Italian soldier’s favorite is this small mortar.

Although its accuracy is very low, its range is also low, and it is not easy to aim, but its convenience of being carried by one person makes soldiers very fond of this kind of artillery that can follow their own footsteps.

Wherever you can pass people, you can use mortars. This has led to the fact that the Italian army is very fond of this mortar, which has also led to the Turin Arsenal working overtime to build this weapon for mountain warfare.

Of course, in addition to mortars, light and heavy machine gun infantry also like it very much, not to mention the Mark Qin heavy machine gun, an absolute defensive weapon. As long as the position is supported by Maxim machine guns, the soldiers don’t have to worry about the enemy’s attack at all.

However, soldiers actually prefer the lightweight Levy machine guns to the heavy machine guns that can only be used for defense. The whole gun weighs only 9 kilograms. Compared with the Maxim, which weighs 3-40kg, the gun can be carried by one person, and it can keep up with the pace of the soldiers and provide fire support at any time.

Although in terms of performance, whether it is the rate of fire, the range or the continuity of firepower, the Levili machine gun is far less powerful than Mark Qin, but its advantage in weight allows soldiers to carry out more tactics around this machine gun. Cooperate.

Therefore, in the army, the demand of the soldiers for the Revelli machine gun has not stopped.

But unfortunately, in view of the production of the gun and the consideration of supply, the gun can only be deployed at the platoon level. One per platoon, and a few elite infantry divisions can do two. Of course, this is apart from the paratroopers who are used to performing dangerous missions.

However, although there are fewer machine guns at the battalion level of ordinary infantry divisions, for these troops, living people can still be suffocated by urine. The use of machine guns at the battalion and company level in a centralized manner to increase the firepower density of the attack is the favorite thing for those lower-ranking officers.

Especially in the Savoy Mountains where troops cannot be deployed, the scale of the battles is small, and the battles at the battalion and company level are generally the main battles. The most deterrent in its hands are machine guns and mortars.

Increasing the firepower density of the attack will naturally reduce the difficulty of the attack.

Besides, at present, the French army has very little support firepower at the battalion and company level, and basically uses rifles. I need to say a little more here. The French company level 1 is called the infantry squadron. Although it also has four platoon level 1 squads, the next step is to reach a strange place. The squad consists of two platoons (we call them semi-platoons), and such a platoon consists of two infantry squads. (14 soldiers and 1 officer in the first class, 1 officer in the second class of 13 soldiers)

The entire infantry squadron (company), in addition to the rifle, has only the officer’s self-defense pistol.

That’s right, except for Italy, the infantry company level of all countries is based on riflemen. To support weapons, at least the battalion level.

Therefore, the French defenders, who were originally in favorable terrain in the mountain battle, were suppressed by the attacking Italian troops. More importantly, after the highly anticipated Saint-Etienne 1907 heavy machine gun on the French army position was torn to pieces by the percussion shells, the morale of the French army dropped at a speed visible to the naked eye.

This heavy machine gun has excellent French blood. After the advent of Maxim, France decided to make its own heavy machine gun, so an air-cooled heavy machine gun class came out. It has to be said that this design is one step ahead of the others in the current water-cooled fashion.

Of course, the consequence is that the performance of this machine gun is not good. Although the soldiers do not think highly of it, its original French origin has made the Ministry of War very close to it, so this machine gun appeared in France. in the hands of the army.

However, it is a pity that compared with the Italian army, which has been trained in the use of a machine gun and anti-machine gun skills, the current French army’s use of machine guns is not even a little bit worse.

It is difficult to set up the machine gun at the highest position of the position, and it is difficult not to hit it, who made it so conspicuous. So the Saint-Etienne 1907 heavy machine gun, which had not been fired for a long time, was restored to the state of parts by the persecutor.

The French army, who had no firepower, was immediately suppressed by the attacking Italian army with Reveri machine guns, making the defenders in their positions unable to lift their heads. And taking advantage of the opponent being suppressed, the attacking Italian officers and soldiers rushed to the trenches at a faster speed.

“The enemy is coming.”

When the defending French soldiers saw the Italian soldiers approaching the trenches, they immediately exclaimed with trembling voices.

Then the two sides threw grenades at each other, and a burst of grenade explosions sounded inside and outside the position.

But when it comes to grenades, Italy uses the same wooden handle grenades as Germany, and we won’t say much about its advantages and disadvantages. As for the grenade thrown by the French army, it is a product of another era, and we can call it a variant of the bomb thrown by the grenadier (interested book lovers can go to Bilibili to see how weird it is).

Then after an explosion, the soldiers on both sides who did not hang up entered a **** hand-to-hand battle.

But at this time, in Cosenz’s eyes, the battle was over, because the second wave of attacking troops had already reached the halfway point, and the third wave had already set off. There was absolutely no chance of a comeback for the French troops guarding the position.

This is indeed the case. After waiting for the second wave of attacking troops to break into the position, the French officers and soldiers who were struggling to support them could not hold it anymore. Some of them surrendered to the Italian army, while others fled. So this position fell into the hands of the Italian army.

However, for the immediate victory, Cosenz did not show a happy expression~www.readmtl.com~ Because a battalion attacked a company of French troops, what is there to be happy about.

And to him, the purpose of this French army sticking here is clear at a glance, which is to delay their time.

Want to hold back the footsteps of their 18th Army and delay their advance towards Annecy.

Although he knew the purpose of these French troops, there was no good solution. Only one step at a time can nibble away the French positions.

Speaking of which, although the equipment of the French army is not suitable, there is nothing wrong with the tactics. Taking advantage of the mountainous terrain of the Savoy region, the layers of blocking make their progress slower.

Although the towns of Moderiena, Aigbele, Dalbiny, etc. have been captured one after another, Annecy and Gremoble, which are crucial to Savoy, are still in the hands of the French army, as long as these two places are not captured. Take it, then the French army can fight whenever they want, and stop when they want, which will put the Italian army in the Savoy area at a strategic disadvantage.

So in order to change this situation, Prince Filiberto, the commander of Army Group North, sent the 18th Military Region to capture Annecy in the north, and he would lead the main force of Army Group North to attack the more important Gremoble.