The hard work of building roads did not last long. As two engineering regiments rushed from Rome to Eritrea, and the local people actively signed up to join the road construction army (the salary was thirty lire per month), the Guards
The army was the first batch of troops to be freed from it.
Of course, after getting rid of their status as road construction workers, there will inevitably be things left for them. Simone asked them to drive to the Adi Kwara front line and pay attention to the actions of the Abyssinians at all times.
Although the Abyssinians pretend to be stubborn, they are afraid of everything, so necessary defense and protection are things that every qualified commander should pay attention to.
Of course, Simone would not wait until the road was completely repaired before taking action against Abyssinia. After the carriages were barely able to reach Adi Kwara, Simone immediately ordered the 3rd Guards Regiment, the 3rd Mountain Brigade and a mountain artillery battalion from the 7th Artillery Regiment.
, formed an advance force and crossed the border line (demarcated by Italy) and marched towards Mara.
Mara is located on the edge of the Abyssinian Plateau and is a key point on the road connecting the country with Eritrea. Sixty kilometers behind it is the important town of Adua in the northern part of the plateau.
Two roads branch off from Adua to the southeast. To the west is the road leading to Gonder, the old capital on the side of Lake Tana. To the south is the road to the current Abyssinian capital Dese.
If you continue southward, you can reach Shoa.
It can be said that Adua is a strategic key city in the north. Simeone's attack on Mara was obviously a test to see if he could attract the main force of the Abyssinian army.
Of course, if he fails to attract the main force of the Abyssinian army, it will not be a loss to Simone, because this can continue to build the road to the plateau. This time he made up his mind not to build the road to the plateau.
Launch a massive offensive.
"Boom, boom, boom!"
The artillery kept bombarding the stone fort on the ridge, and the blown stones scattered in all directions, revealing the earthen walls wrapped inside. And this ferocious bombardment made Abyssinia hiding in the stone fort
The soldiers did not dare to show their heads at all.
As the commander of the 3rd Mountain Brigade and the commander of this advance team, Major General Wagman is carefully observing the results of the shelling with high-powered binoculars.
He was very satisfied with the artillery skills of the officers and soldiers of the 7th Artillery Regiment. It was indeed a veteran unit, and its artillery skills were much better than those of the artillery battalion in his brigade.
However, he was not satisfied with the results of the shelling. The round of shelling just now hit the stone castle and failed to cause enough damage.
It can be said that the artillery in his hands is not powerful enough. He only has two types of mountain guns, 75 and 57 mm, which are naturally not very powerful. But if he wants a more powerful artillery, thinking of the hardships along the way, Wagman intuitively
Discarded this idea.
Since artillery cannot directly defeat the opponent, let the infantry attack. Anyway, we have fought against such a fortress many times before, and this time is not bad.
"Let the infantry attack."
Following Major General Wagman's order, a battalion of Italian soldiers immediately formed a skirmish line and moved towards the bunker.
After seeing the Italian troops approaching, the Abyssinian soldiers in the fortress stepped forward and picked up their weapons and began to fight back.
For a while, the officers and soldiers of the two sides were fighting lively, but the fierce battle did not attract the interest of Cosenz, who was responsible for performing security duties. He did not even look at the battlefield.
"Cosenz, how long do you think it will take to capture this fortress this time?"
His friend appeared next to him, and what he said seemed not to worry about friendly forces at all.
"I don't know about this, but based on the intensity of the firefight, it should not exceed three hours."
Facing Barry's inquiry, although Cosentz felt that it was not good to speak of friendly forces like this, he still gave his own judgment.
"Okay, I understand."
But then Barry's words almost made him fall down in fear.
"The market is open now. Let's bet on whether we can capture this fortress in two and a half hours this time, starting from the time of launching the attack."
Unexpectedly, someone would respond to Barry's words.
"Count me in and I'll bet a pack of cigarettes."
"Me, two packs."
"I'll bet a bottle of wine."
"I……"
Faced with this situation, Cosentz felt a little embarrassed, so he stepped forward and grabbed his friend. "You are crazy. If anyone finds out, we will all suffer."
"It doesn't matter. We have fought against small bunkers like this before. It's basically like that. And if we don't have some fun, everyone will lose interest."
Barry's words left Cosentz at a loss what to say.
"Pay attention to yourself."
Then he left. Maybe watching other people's battles would help improve himself.
"boom!"
A loud explosion, much louder than before, attracted everyone's attention. Anyone with experience would know that it was an explosive package exploding.
The gate of this small fortress and a small half of its walls were blown down, revealing the scene inside the castle.
At this time, the officers and soldiers watching cheered, which meant that the battle had entered the final stage.
But at this time, Barry looked at his watch and immediately shouted happily. "Two hours and eight minutes, the fortress has been breached."
His words made several soldiers lament.
Major General Wagman did not know the situation of the troops below, but seeing that the fortress blocking the road had been breached, he gave instructions to the officers around him.
"Let the front troops go, we are already too far behind the schedule."
Yes, Major General Wagman doesn't even want to read the battle results report now.
What's so cool about this is that he killed one or two hundred Abyssinian soldiers, captured more than a hundred prisoners of war, and then seized so many scrap metal guns and cold weapons.
In order to achieve such a result, my troops were stuck here for half a day.
This is also the biggest headache for Major General Wagman. This road is originally difficult to walk. You still need to pull out these nails one by one. It is not enough if you don’t pull them out. These small fortresses are all key points that control the road. You can’t get through them without fighting. Even
It was impossible to send troops to surround and let the large troops pass, because the Abyssinians placed one or two small artillery pieces in this small fortress, completely blocking the entire road, forcing Major General Wagman to pull out one by one.
This is also the culprit that led Major General Wagman to take the advance team for six days to travel 70 kilometers. You must know that the road from Mara to Adi Kwara is only 84 kilometers. According to this speed, he still needs to walk
It would take two days to see Mara.
However, in addition to roads and enemies, Major General Wagman also has another threat, and that is the climate. The temperature difference here is huge throughout the day, reaching more than ten degrees at night, and reaching more than 30 and close to 40 degrees at noon. There is such a huge temperature difference between day and night.
, causing serious attrition of his troops. At present, hundreds of people in the advance team he leads have become ill and have lost their combat effectiveness. But fortunately, it was not easy to get up, and it will be much better when they go back. Except for some severe patients, other patients with mild symptoms
They were all placed in the established strongholds and slowly cultivated.
However, this also caused the strength of the contingent he led to drop from more than 8,000 to about 8,000.
However, considering the upcoming situation, Major General Wagman felt that it was necessary to send another batch of medicines to the rear. In addition, the consumption of artillery shells was a bit high, so he could also ask the rear to send some.
Thinking of this, Major General Wagman took out a pen and wrote a list, then called a messenger. "Give this list to Colonel Mora in Adi Kwara and ask him to send another supply up according to the list.
"
Colonel Mora is the head of logistics in Adi Kwara, so there is nothing wrong with asking him for various supplies.
"As you command, General."
The ordering soldier took the list, saluted with a military salute, then immediately mounted his horse and rushed to the rear with a few soldiers.
After Major General Wagman ordered the messengers, he led the large troops and continued to rush towards Mara.
Although there were several fortresses along the way, the determined Major General Wagman pulled them out all the way. Although it took him two and a half days, after seeing Mara City, he finally felt relieved.
Take a breath.
No one will feel happy if they keep pulling out nails. I hope the Abyssinians in Mara can withstand the angry Italian army.
