The Italian paratroopers landed behind the mountain pass, which was undoubtedly quite shocking news for the French army.
Because this will mean that the very important pass of Carragher Pass will fall into a situation of being attacked from both sides. And if the pass is lost, Italian troops will continue to enter the Savoy region through here.
This was definitely not good news for the French army. So on the day they received the news, a regiment of the French 39th Division stationed in Modana hurried over.
Wanting to drive away the Italian paratroopers who fell from the sky.
At this time, the Vasco slope, an important location, had been occupied by Italian paratroopers. The heroic paratroopers relied on this slope to deal with the incoming French army.
"Bang, bang, bang..."
The French infantry regiment, which came with artillery, pushed its proud 75mm rapid-fire cannon and launched an artillery bombardment at the Italian paratroopers who were stationed on the slopes of Vasco.
However, the distance of the artillery strike was very subtle. It was three kilometers away from the position. This could not hit the French army's most lethal shrapnel shells, because the paratroopers stationed on the Vasco slopes also had their own artillery, which was the 81mm mortar.
Although this gun cannot be compared with Miss 75, it can at least prevent the French artillery from firing at close range.
That's right, the French army's 75mm rapid-fire gun's unique skill is to shoot at close range, using its ultra-high rate of fire to tear the enemy into pieces at a distance of one kilometer from the enemy.
Although these cowards did not dare to fight in hand-to-hand combat with the heroic French soldiers, this did not mean that the French army had no way to deal with them. The French army had understood the use of artillery as early as the Napoleonic era.
Of course, the biggest role of the 75mm artillery now is to clear out the most intimidating machine guns in the hands of paratroopers who are holding their positions.
Yes, for the French army, which currently advocates bayonet charges, they have already experienced the power of machine guns. For the French army, there is also a way to solve the problem of machine guns as a support point of firepower, and that is to rely on the advantages of artillery to attack them.
Make a roll call.
This move is still very effective against the heavy machine guns headed by Maxim. After all, a Maxim heavy machine gun weighs nearly a hundred kilograms, and the rain of bullets it fires is enough to scare even the bravest soldiers.
Therefore, the French artillery needs to give priority to clearing out the machine guns that block the soldiers' charge, followed by other targets.
So this explains why the French artillery will give priority to firing at firepower points such as machine guns.
Of course, Miss 75 is essentially a cannon, and it also has the characteristics of a cannon. Its advantage is that its ballistic trajectory is straight and has a long range. This also determines that its ability to attack trenches is very poor.
So after the artillery attack, there were not many machine guns on the position.
"Let the first battalion attack."
Seeing that artillery was useless in clearing the ground, Lieutenant Colonel Milepi, who led the team, could only let the infantry attack. As for why only one battalion was sent to attack, the reason was simple: the battlefield was not wide enough, so only one battalion could be sent. Any more would be a waste.
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Following his order, the dark French soldiers stepped forward, leaning their bodies and trotting all the way towards the position.
"Fire."
The paratroopers stationed at the position, under the orders of the officers, lay down on the position and fired at the attacking French soldiers.
"Bah..."
The small-caliber 8 Carcano rifle makes a crisp sound. Although this Carcano rifle is shorter than the rifle, its accuracy is not reduced much. In addition, the small-caliber ballistic trajectory is relatively straight. Although
It's weak in terms of lethality, but it's still a very good gun.
In addition, the paratroopers are trained by elite soldiers drawn from each army, and their marksmanship is generally good. Not to mention that there are Revery light machine guns and Maxim heavy machine guns shooting along the way.
This also caused the attacking French officers and soldiers to suffer heavy casualties during the charge. By the time the charge reached 200 meters, more than half of the attacking French battalion had suffered casualties.
Suffering such huge casualties, the attacking French soldiers could no longer bear it. They ignored the officers' scoldings and retreated directly back.
In fact, the officers leading the team were not much better. It could even be said that due to the precise marksmanship of the paratroopers, the officers suffered higher casualties than the soldiers. So after pretending to scold them a few times, the officers also retreated.
Looking at the retreating soldiers, Lieutenant Colonel Milepi had a gloomy expression.
"Order the second battalion to attack, the third battalion to prepare, and attack immediately when the second battalion retreats, and the first battalion to be ready to take over the attack from the second battalion."
Lieutenant Colonel Milepi's words surprised the deputy commander on the side.
"Captain Milepi, doing this can easily cause a backlash from the soldiers."
As a person who knows the military well, how could Lieutenant Colonel Milepi not know that asking the soldiers to attack continuously would make them dissatisfied, but now he had to do this.
"I know the soldiers are dissatisfied with this, but we have no time to waste. The Italians have spent so much effort to block the connection between Karag Pass and us just to capture the pass. If we cannot open up the connection with Karag Pass today,
If there is no contact, then the Italians will definitely cross the mountain pass, and then we will be blamed by our superiors."
Although Lieutenant Colonel Milepi did not elaborate, the deputy commander knew the meaning of his words. If they did not work hard today, they would most likely be blamed for the ineffective rescue and allowing the friendly forces to be surrounded and annihilated.
In order to prevent the enemy from breaking through the mountain pass, and for the sake of their military rank, they must work hard. Even if they lose, they can confidently say that they have tried their best.
Lieutenant Colonel Milepi and others can try their best, but for Colonel Bielsa, the commander of the Karag Pass garrison, trying his best cannot describe the current situation of his troops, and must be described as despair.
Yes, for the defenders of Karag Pass, today is really a desperate day. A division of troops on the front is attacking them in turn. The continuous offensive has made the French army defending the pass
There's a lot of pressure.
However, the front can be described as pressure, and the attack from behind must be described as despair.
More than a thousand Italian soldiers somehow bypassed the mountain pass and appeared behind them. Facing the sudden enemy, the defenders were caught unawares and captured many fortifications behind them.
In addition to the enemies appearing before and after, there were several airships circling overhead at any time over the mountain pass today. The bombs and rain of bullets they dropped frightened the defending French officers and soldiers. No one could ignore the threats above their heads and concentrate on their mission.
to deal with invading enemies.
This kind of integrated ground-air combat method left the French defenders at Karag Pass at a loss as to what to do. Even if they were attacked from the back and flanks, there were also machine guns and bombs above their heads. How could you make the defending officers and soldiers endure it?
Faced with this situation, not to mention ordinary officers and soldiers, even the position commander, Colonel Bielsa, was at a loss. He could only order the soldiers to resist desperately while sending a rescue telegram to the outside world.
However, the external distress telegrams did not bring good news. The first was the nearest Modana. The defenders stationed there had rushed towards them, but they had been blocked by the Italian army on the slopes of Vasco, and there was no way.
Way to get closer.
As for the 39th Infantry Division stationed in Grenoble, they were asked to hold on for two days.
With the current desperate posture of the Italian army, the fact that it can last even one day under siege from all sides, let alone two days, is all because of the hard work of the officers and soldiers in the position.
After all, the officers and soldiers of the garrison are not Rambos. They can stably hit the enemy without changing their expression in the hail of enemy bullets. With enemies in front and behind, mountains on both sides that are difficult to climb, and airships attacking overhead, everyone is calm and collected.
It's so hard to deal with.
Faced with such a desperate situation, it is normal for the officers and soldiers to be panicked.
So finally at four o'clock in the afternoon, the garrison officers and soldiers finally couldn't stand it anymore. Under the pressure of these officers and soldiers, the position commander Colonel Bielsa surrendered to Italy with more than a thousand French officers and soldiers after the Italian side promised to abide by the Geneva Convention.
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That's right, there are only more than a thousand French defenders now. You must know that yesterday they still had 3,000 men. In less than a day, their losses exceeded half.
But if the French army at Yamaguchi knew the preparations of the Italian military for them, then they should be proud.
In order to seize the mountain pass in a surprise attack, the Italian military prepared tens of thousands of troops and thousands of tons of ammunition. In addition, most of the most elite paratrooper troops came and more than 80 airships came.
In addition to preparations, the Italian army also suffered a lot of losses in order to capture the pass. 1,537 people were killed, 2,976 were injured, and 49 were missing.
It can be seen from the comparison of casualties that even if the Italian army had a sufficient advantage, the attack on the mountain pass would result in much greater losses than the defenders.
This also fully shows that in such a dangerous place, it is useless to think of new methods and rely solely on manpower consumption.
After receiving the news of the surrender of the defenders, Lieutenant General Pascal, the commander of the 9th Army who was responsible for commanding the offensive, immediately reported the good news to the commander of the group army, Prince Filiberto.
Of course, in addition to reporting the news, Lieutenant General Pascal immediately ordered the 21st Division, which was originally preparing to take over the attack, to immediately cross the mountain pass and march towards Modana. He wanted to occupy the first position in the Savoy area for the Italian army before the enemy could react.
A stronghold.
His order was actually timely. When the 21st Division crossed the Carragher Pass and marched towards Modana, it first defeated most of the French regiment that was attacking the Vasco slopes.
Immediately afterwards, the division organized an elite force and rushed to Modana overnight. It finally arrived at Modana at dawn the next day, and then wiped out the remaining French troops in the town in one fell swoop.
After the unit occupied Modana, the leading troops of the French 39th Division appeared on the outskirts of Modana.
Facing the Italian flag flying in Modana, the 39th Division immediately retreated after a tentative attack.
It was obvious that the commander of the 39th Division was very cautious and had no intention of taking advantage of the Italian army's unstable foothold to recapture Modana.
Of course, no matter what, it is an indisputable fact that the Italian army's tentacles have reached out to the Savoy area.
