The Valtellina Valley is located in the mountains in the northern province of Lombardy. The Ada River, a tributary of the Po River originating from Lake Concanano in the Rhaetian Alps, flows through this valley, bringing Sondrio, Morbegno and Co
There are three small towns in Liko. The fertile land here is very conducive to the development of agriculture, forestry and animal husbandry.
Precisely because it is relatively rich and the terrain is similar, the 57th Division, which is currently being formed as a key part of the Army, was arranged to be formed and reorganized here.
The headquarters of the 57th Division was located next to the small town of Morbegno in the middle of the valley.
"Squeak~"
There was a sound of braking, and a dusty Fiat Model A stopped at the entrance of the 57th Division.
Cosentz got out of the car and moved his buttocks that were numb from sitting.
That's right, Cosenz accepted General Simeone's transfer order and became the commander of the newly formed 57th Infantry Division from the deputy commander of the 1st Guards Division.
Cosentz's transfer also caused a lot of fluctuations in the Guards system. Many Guards officers saw a change in Cosentz's transfer, so many officers who were promoted slowly had inner turmoil.
, and of course the War Department is willing to see changes in the Guards officers.
Then the Ministry of War tried to send out transfer invitations to more than a dozen officers of the Guards. Of course, it was difficult for these officers to be promoted, and most of the officers readily accepted. Of course, these officers were all middle- and lower-level officers, with no higher than the highest.
He is a lieutenant colonel, not comparable to Cosentz's rank of major general.
On Cosentz's side, it has been half a month since he took over as commander of the 57th Infantry Division. Within this half month, Cosentz has not made any major moves with the division, mainly to go below.
Inspection of various troops.
Moreover, Cosentz's inspection was unlike other officers, who basically came to each troop camp suddenly without saying hello, and did not call in officers for questioning. Instead, they liked to ask soldiers everywhere.
This is Cosentz's way of understanding the real situation, because the information obtained from the soldiers' mouths is definitely more reliable than the reports reported by officers at all levels.
This is not to say that junior officers will lie to others, but the situation reported at each level will add some subjective thoughts to each officer, which is not conducive to Cosenz's understanding of the true situation of the division in a short period of time.
After half a month of understanding, the situation of the 57th Infantry Division is not good. The training progress of the soldiers is slow, the running-in time of the grassroots officers and soldiers is too long, the grassroots officers have little experience, the middle-level officers have poor ability to handle affairs, and there are few technical officers, etc.
Many problems.
Cosenz also knew the reason for the occurrence of these problems, which was caused by the poor technical and tactical level of the officers.
To this end, Cosentz already has an idea.
"Call the deputy division commander and chief of staff and tell them that I have something important to discuss."
"Yes, sir."
Cosenz, who had just returned to his office, asked his adjutant to call the other two chief officers in the division.
After a while, Deputy Division Commander Ezio and Chief of Staff Colonel Wagner arrived at Cosenz's office.
Cosentz also knew something about his two colleagues. Deputy division commander Major General Ezio had previously served as chief of staff of the 19th Infantry Division and had just completed his promotion to major general before coming to serve as deputy division commander.
The chief of staff, Colonel Wagner, previously served as the regimental commander of the 6th Infantry Division. This time he was sent to the 57th Division as chief of staff, which can be regarded as a step forward.
Moreover, these two people took office a little earlier than him. Deputy Division Commander Major General Ezio took office half a month earlier than him, while Chief of Staff Colonel Wagner took office the longest, nearly two months.
"Teacher, are you looking for us?"
Facing the inquiries of two colleagues, Cosentz nodded and replied. "Yes, I have something to ask you. I spent some time going to the various units below to understand the situation. It is not optimistic. Although the troops have no shortage of weapons,
But there is a lack of sufficient training, tactics are not mentioned first, and many soldiers cannot even do basic tactical movements. The grassroots officers lack experience, and the same is true for the middle-level officers, which makes me very worried."
The two of them also agreed very much with what Cosenz said.
Colonel Wagner, the chief of staff who had been here the longest, said, "The division commander is right. I know this too. At present, the junior officers in our division are basically freshly graduated military academy students. They have good theoretical knowledge.
But I lack actual experience. I think it will be much better if I give them some time to get familiar with it.”
"I have also learned about this situation. It is not just our division, but other newly formed divisions are basically like this. In addition, some divisions and companies still have vacancies of officers and are still waiting for the Ministry of War to continue to allocate officers."
These two are right. Although the 57th Division is a key force established by the Ministry of War, although it can provide sufficient supplements in weapons and equipment, it is also very difficult to supplement qualified officers.
A qualified officer must not only have sufficient knowledge of military theory, but also have sufficient technical and tactical skills, as well as the knowledge and application of new weapons, new tactics, and other aspects of the situation.
Therefore, it is not easy to train a qualified officer. It not only requires time and energy, but also requires the person to have this understanding.
In addition, the Army is now in a period of major expansion. Six divisions will need to be formed this year. Officers are needed everywhere, and qualified officers are naturally in demand.
And the Army Department cannot be too favorable to one. If it can give a little more to the 57th Division, it will be enough to attract attention, but if it gives more to other new divisions, it will not cause a fuss.
Seeing the two colleagues saying that everyone was like this and there was nothing I could do about it, Cosentz felt even more pressure on himself.
"Actually, I have an idea that can remedy the current problem of basic officer experience."
"What can be done?"
These two also knew their own teachers well. They knew that this person had an excellent resume and was stronger than them in terms of experience and ability, so they were looking forward to the methods he said.
"That is to retrain these grassroots officers, focusing on the company level where the current problem is most serious. Let the company commanders of each company come to train, and the three of us will teach them. If the theory is enough for them, we will teach them some practical experience
. Come here every other day. In addition to training, we also give them time to speak. They will talk about some problems of their own troops. First, they, the company commanders, will discuss it themselves and give solutions, and then we will judge.
applicability of this approach.
This training will be conducted for one month first, and then the deputy company commander will be replaced. I think that after these two months of training, at least the basic officers will know what to do. If the effect is good, then it can also be done for battalion-level officers.
Get some training.”
Cosentz's method was actually derived from his own experience in the Far East. Of course, when he trained his troops with General Yuan, he used this method to train his officers.
However, his words surprised two colleagues. This man was too courageous. What if the Ministry of War held him accountable?
Don't blame these two for being ignorant. This method, which was very common in later generations, is very rare in this era. On the one hand, due to their responsibilities, they, the military chiefs, train officers privately. At best, it is to improve the combat effectiveness of the troops. At worst, they
He said that this was a serious interference with the army's regulations and norms, and that he would be punished.
On the other hand, this may affect the training of the troops. Their newly formed divisions already need to strengthen training. Although they have retained manpower, they will be affected to some extent.
"It's hard to say whether there will be any criticism from above. In addition, it may affect the progress of training."
Faced with these two words that were called suggestions but were actually objections, Cosenz showed why he was favored by Simeone.
"If there is any criticism from above, let me tell you that it does affect training, but it is a good thing. This allows training officers to listen to our training and conduct training based on actual conditions. Otherwise, I would not choose to train every other day.
At a time, it means leaving a day for them to practice what we talk about.”
"Okay then, just listen to you, Master"
Since their own division commander insisted, these two men no longer insisted. They wanted to see the effect first, so the lower-level officers of the 57th Division had even heavier tasks.
－－－－－－Digression－－－－－
Where are the tickets? This is just enough for extra updates today.
