Greece and Bulgaria have been attracted by the Entente and Alliance camps respectively. Whether it is a blessing or a curse for these two countries is still unknown. But for Italy, as the three giants of the Allied Powers, the Tunisian campaign and preparations for the most fully prepared campaign have now begun.
In Ben Gardan, a town on the border with Tunisia, there is a large number of soldiers in the town. At the same time, groups of cars and soldiers pass through the place. It can be seen from the uniforms of the soldiers that these are Italian soldiers.
Yes, this is the Italian Eighth Army that is preparing to launch an attack on Tunisia. The Army has five infantry divisions, two cavalry divisions, and various other attached troops, with a total strength of 130,000. Due to Crown Prince Vettori
Austria served as the nominal commander of the army, so the army was also called the Crown Prince's Army.
Since it is the Crown Prince's Army, all materials and equipment must be sufficient. This is indeed the case. The personnel and equipment of the Eighth Army are fully equipped. In addition, the most important thing about the Eighth Army is its affiliated units. What?
New units such as armored battalions, independent heavy artillery regiments, airship brigade, and aircraft brigade can all be seen in the Eighth Army.
The current headquarters of the Eighth Army is in Bengardan, and Crown Prince Vittorio, the commander of the army, just arrived at his loyal army headquarters yesterday.
At this time, he was listening to the deputy commander, Lieutenant General Brazo, introducing the current specific situation of the army group.
"Your Excellency, Commander, currently the 15th Division of the 13th Army forward of our Eighth Army, with the cooperation of the Navy, has occupied this place after repelling the French Algerian 14th Division stationed in Gabes.
Currently, according to reports from our country’s intelligence department, the French army has 240,000 troops stationed in Tunisia, mainly defending northern Tunisia. There are only four divisions in the south, with a strength of nearly 50,000 people. And most of these troops are troops recruited from Algeria.
, the Tunisian army has six divisions with more than 70,000 people. Three of them are a division in Shaal, a division in Sfax, and a division in Luktai deployed in the south.
In the north, the French army has deployed an army in Sousse. The main force of the French army is deployed on the line from Abenroth to Tunisia. It is obvious that the French army here is trying to use the terrain to lengthen our supply line, and use our supply line as a
articles, so as to achieve the purpose of defeating us."
Before the battle was launched, the Eighth Army had already taken action, and its advance layout would be beneficial to the subsequent battle.
As for the French army's deployment in Tunisia, Lieutenant General Brasseau could see through the opponent's intentions at a glance. After all, the French army in Tunisia was basically a colonial army. Although there were as many as 240,000, they were certainly no match for the Eighth Army.
Therefore, appropriate tactics must be adopted. The desolate south of Tunisia and the rich north are perfect for luring the enemy deep into the interior. There may be many tribal armed forces hidden in the interior of Tunisia. Although these armed forces cannot face the enemy head-on, they can attack the supply lines.
Definitely quite good at it.
As for the Eighth Army, which was about to launch the Tunisian campaign, they had long considered the enemy's use of luring tactics. After the intelligence agency sent back the enemy's layout, the countermeasures had already been in Lieutenant General Brasso's mind.
One more thing, the Italian intelligence service has always been a key area for Tunisia, and we all know the reasons.
Crown Prince Vittorio, who was listening to Lieutenant General Brazo's story on the sand table, said at this time, "Then do we have any solution?"
"Yes, Your Excellency Commander."
As he spoke, Lieutenant General Brazeau talked about how to deal with it. "As for the enemy's arrangement, our Eighth Army Operations Office has formulated a very good plan. That is to use the sea to change the route, so that the enemy cannot cut off our route.
supply.
First we need to capture Sfax. After obtaining the sea transportation line, we can make our supply line on land irrelevant. Then we rely on this place to capture Sousse all the way, and then rely on this place to continue approaching the city of Tunis. Wait until
After the French army in Tunis City is eliminated, we can then spread out and sweep other areas."
The method described by Lieutenant General Brazeau is very simple, that is, relying on ports to supply the Eighth Army, and also reducing its troop deployment on the supply line, allowing the Eighth Army to devote more troops to the Tunisian campaign.
.
The tactic that Lieutenant General Brazeau mentioned is a bit like the island hopping tactic used by MacArthur during World War II. However, compared with avoiding islands heavily defended by the enemy in World War II, the tactics Lieutenant General Brazeau mentioned are more of a
Use the port city as a supply base and utilize the port cities in Tunisia to maximize the use of the Eighth Army's forces.
Of course, the ports that can supply the Eighth Army's consumption needs are limited. According to the analysis of the staff, only a few ports in Sfax, Sousse, and Tunisia are available. After all, the Eighth Army's daily consumption requires three thousand tons of supplies.
This is simply not possible for most of Tunisia’s ports, which still use manual handling.
Although Vittorio was only a nominal commander, he still understood the basic military situation and thought the plan was very good.
"Lieutenant General Brazeau, this plan is very good, I am very satisfied. Is there anything else our army is lacking at the moment? I can think of a way."
Well, His Excellency the Crown Prince is self-aware and knows what capabilities he has in combat command and other aspects, but he also has his own role, which is to need supplies, all kinds of supplies that can help the Eighth Army complete the campaign.
The words of the crown prince made all the officers present show a look of joy. This crown prince is so considerate. The officers and soldiers of the Eighth Group really met a very good crown prince.
As for Lieutenant General Brazeau, he knew what cards he had in his hand since he assumed the post of deputy commander of the Eighth Army.
"Your Excellency, Commander, we have enough equipment and supplies. The 1,500 trucks of the three car transport groups are enough to carry out material transfer work. In addition, the Navy has also set up a transport formation to be responsible for our maritime transportation and safety issues, so currently we have no
Other supplies are needed.”
The trenches are inhumane. According to Lieutenant General Brasso, the Eighth Army is attacking Tunisia this time. All supplies are more than enough, and there is no need to take anything else.
Think about it, there are currently 18 automobile transport regiments in the Army, but there are only six automobile regiments mainly equipped with F75 trucks, and half of them are assigned to the Eighth Army.
Some people may be wondering, isn't Fiat's annual truck output reaching 30,000 units? Why does the Army only have 18 truck transport groups with more than 9,000 units?
This number is correct, because Fiat's pre-war trucks were sold all over the world, and the sales volume in Italy was less than 30%. Moreover, the service life of these early trucks was far less than that of later generations, and Italy also needed trucks, so it was impossible to provide them all.
The army.
Currently, the Italian army has 23,000 trucks, but many of them are assigned to the troops. In addition, the navy has also allocated more than 4,000 trucks, so the army can have 18 separate regiments, which is already very good.
After hearing that the Eighth Army now wanted nothing, His Excellency the Crown Prince had nothing to say.
"Then, let's wait for the battle to begin."
"Crown Prince, please rest assured that our officers and soldiers of the Eighth Group will not disappoint your expectations and will definitely bring Tunisia back to our country."
Despite the two men's words, the Tunisian campaign will also begin.
