The Colin Bridge is a steel-structured highway arch bridge from Sospele to Les Carrennes.
The bridge is 83 meters long and 27 meters high. It spans a long and narrow valley and is the key point connecting the two places. If it is occupied by the Italian army, the French troops in the Bro Pass will be doomed. Therefore, the French army attaches great importance to this place.
In addition to deploying a battalion of troops, a militia battalion was also deployed here.
For a point in the rear, this is already a considerable amount of attention.
However, although heavy troops were deployed here, they still did not escape the sharp eyes of Lieutenant General Caviglia. He keenly saw the benefits of seizing this place. Not only could it completely annihilate the two French divisions in the Bro Pass, but it could also reduce them.
Threatening Nice from the flanks and taking pressure from Lewandowski.
After all, two infantry divisions are not a small number for the French Sixth Army. If they want to supplement the combat effectiveness of at least one division in a short period of time, where can the Sixth Army draw from?
If the reserve team is called, what should he do if there are other situations where he does not have enough cards?
It was precisely in consideration of the French army's problems at the Burro Pass that Lieutenant General Caviglia decided to send out surprise troops to capture the bridge in one fell swoop. Even if he could not capture it, he at least needed to blow up the bridge. And Lieutenant General Caviglia
The goal that I have been obsessed with has been halfway accomplished.
"Fire to prevent the enemy from crossing the bridge!"
"I'm asking how long it will take for reinforcements to arrive."
"In addition, we will report our current situation upward."
When he said this again, Lieutenant Colonel Kaman, who was the commander of Colin Bridge, was filled with regret. He hated that he only focused on the front, which resulted in the rear being attacked.
To put it bluntly, Lieutenant Colonel Kaman should not actually bear responsibility. His own battalion was placed in the more dangerous east of Qiaodong, and the militia battalion was placed in the safer west of Qiao. There is no problem in terms of military deployment. But Nai Kaman
Lieutenant General Villa made a surprise move. He organized thirty large and medium-sized airships and took advantage of the cover of night to transport an elite reinforcement battalion behind the Colin Bridge. For this reason, he even lost one airship.
Needless to say, the subsequent result was that the other party launched a surprise attack on the lack of vigilance of the militia camp at dawn. Under the enemy's superiority and the terrifyingly dense firepower, the militia camp was defeated. Even the militia camp he sent to support was defeated.
A reinforced company was beaten back.
The officer who heard back said that the enemy had an automatic weapon that could be fired hand-held. After rushing into their position, they fired at it and defeated them.
After listening to the report of the defeated officers, Lieutenant Colonel Kaman gave up the idea of immediately retaking the west side of the bridge. At the same time, he asked the troops to be more vigilant to prevent enemies from the east of the bridge from attacking. In addition, he also deployed two at the bridge.
Company, and aimed most of its heavy weapons at the west side to prevent the enemy from attacking through the bridge.
Of course, he also sent out the news that the west side of the bridge had been captured as soon as possible.
Then he received a telegram from the 71st Division in Les Carrennes. An infantry regiment had been dispatched to support, and another infantry regiment was also making preparations for departure.
However, as the part of Buro Pass that was most affected by the capture of the north of the bridge, he received no other news except that he had to hold on until he cooperated with reinforcements to recapture the west of the bridge. It seemed strange.
In fact, there is nothing strange about this, because there are really no troops on the Buro Pass. Starting at dawn, the enemy launched a fierce attack on it, trying to capture its last position, the West Peak. Faced with the enemy's fierce attack, Buro
The French army at Yamaguchi fought back fiercely, and under the suppression of the enemy's superior aircraft, artillery and other weapons, they repelled the enemy's attacks time and time again.
For this reason, the defenders put the remaining 22 artillery pieces into the battle. However, these artillery pieces did not allow the French army to breathe for long before they were destroyed by the enemy's hugely superior artillery counterattack.
At this time, the French army at the Bro Pass had no supporting weapons and could only resist the attack of the 11th Army with their flesh and blood. For this reason, the defenders used all the troops they could mobilize just to block the enemy and leave a way out for themselves.
Of course, their survival depends on when the 71st Division can recapture the western end of the bridge.
However, as the planner of this operation, how could Lieutenant General Caviglia not know that his commando team would encounter a crazy counterattack by the enemy after its success.
So at this time, in the open space two kilometers west of the bridge, airships were landing one after another. They were replenishing personnel and supplies to seize the commando battalion on the west side of the bridge. In addition to the airships, there was also a group of flying people circling vigilantly in the sky.
Now, they have to protect the airship from threats in the air.
This is the second batch of airships, which set off in the early morning. They bypassed the French defense area and took more than 3 hours to arrive here from Cuneo. The main reason was that the wind direction in the valley was changeable, so the airships could only be cautious.
Fly slowly. Otherwise, it will take more than half an hour to reach this distance on flat ground.
"Quickly, push the artillery out of the pod."
Just after the airship landed, the officer loudly ordered his soldiers in the cabin to push the artillery out. At this time, he opened the hatch and pushed the cannon. Outside the airship, the officers and soldiers waiting outside immediately came in.
Together with the arriving officers and soldiers, carry weapons, ammunition and other supplies down.
Because the space is limited and time is tight, no one knows when the enemy will come, so the airship needs to transport the personnel and weapons and ammunition out of the cabin as quickly as possible, leaving the space for the next airship. So what is the unloading speed?
Come on, how come?
At this time, on one side of the field, several officers were looking at the busy officers and soldiers. As the commander of the assault force, Lieutenant Colonel Arturo, he was holding a pocket watch and watching his soldiers busy transporting the airship.
Behind him, two staff officers were observing the handling scene, trying to optimize it and improve the efficiency of the handling.
Although the airship carried a lot of supplies, it was quickly emptied due to the efforts of the officers and soldiers. After the airship swayed left and right into the air, Lieutenant Colonel Arturo looked at his pocket watch. The minute hand pointed to 46 minutes.
, it took them 8 minutes from the time the airship landed and unloaded the supplies to the time it took off. Half of that time was spent just taking off and landing.
"This damn wind is making the airship land too slow. At this speed, it will have to move to at least noon. We don't have that long. Lieutenant Colonel, would you like to open a second docking point?"
Major Pittis, the deputy next to Lieutenant Colonel Arturo, said with a worried look. Originally, they expected the airship to take off and land in two minutes, but under the influence of Category 5 winds, it was much more difficult to take off and land.
.
Although airships are easy to use, the use of airships will be difficult when there are strong winds above level 7. For example, in 1911, the giant airship White Swan encountered a strong wind of level 11 over the Atlantic Ocean, which blew the white swan 800 meters northward off course.
Many kilometers.
"It's too late. Other available stops are far away from the bridge, and it's even more inappropriate at this time."
When faced with his deputy, Lieutenant Colonel Arturo directly rejected it.
He knew what his deputy was worried about. Time was extremely precious for them at this time. This was the last supply of personnel and materials before they completed the mission. They would definitely take out as much as they could at this time. One stop was not enough now. They
I don't have the energy to open another one now.
For Lieutenant Colonel Arturo, personnel, weapons and ammunition are the priority. If there is not enough time for other supplies, then he can only choose to give up. Of course, he is also looking for ways to increase his own time.
"Let the 2nd Company gather some mines and set up a few positions in the front to harass the enemy troops coming from Lescaren. After one round of fighting, they will withdraw."
"As you command!"
After watching the messenger leave, Lieutenant Colonel Arturo watched the airship transport for a while, then headed to the position.
They wanted to build a defensive position on the hills west of the bridge in a short period of time. Although time was tight, trenches were necessary, otherwise how could they defend an enemy division.
With this air replenishment, Lieutenant Colonel Arturo's troops can reach 2,000. Coupled with weapons, ammunition and other supplies, he can barely hold the place for three days. Of course, this is still based on air superiority.
Under the circumstances, whether the enemy can be completely annihilated and whether they can be saved also depends on how fast the 11th Army attacks.
