Admiral Robeck was as stable as a rock and remained motionless, which greatly disappointed the Italian Admiralty.
Yes, this is indeed a trap.
No, this is a strategy. The battle patrol formation led by Lieutenant General Gomes also bears risks. If it is surrounded, it will be a disastrous defeat.
Is it worth taking such a big risk to lure out the Allied Powers' combined fleet?
Italian executives will tell you it's worth it.
Because if the Allied fleets are defeated in the Mediterranean, there will be no rivals in the Indian Ocean, Southeast Asia, and the Far East.
This will also allow the Italian army to send troops to Africa, the Middle East, India, Southeast Asia and other places under the protection of warships. This is simply a better situation. This will allow Italy to destroy the British and French colonial rule and accelerate the possibility of surrender.
If this could be achieved with the loss of five battle cruisers, Rome would wake up from sleep laughing.
However, Britain and France did not take any risks. Apart from some mistakes on the Italian side, they could only arrange the Egyptian campaign step by step. The task of the navy was to suppress the enemy fleet, which was not an easy task.
However, if the Egyptian campaign is to begin, it needs the cooperation of other campaigns. After all, only when the fighting in other places stops can the Egyptian campaign have enough supplies.
At present, the Tunisia campaign has ended, and even the Eighth Army has moved to the Benghazi front line.
As for the battle in Corsica, it has now entered the stage of security warfare. The Italian troops that landed have completed the occupation of the main towns, and there are currently more than 9,000 French troops retreating to the mountains in the center of the island to fight guerrillas.
At present, the 21st Army has deployed two divisions to carry out encirclement and suppression. However, in view of the complex terrain of the mountainous area, as long as the enemy does not have short circuits, it is impossible to successfully encircle and suppress them in a short time, and they can only work slowly and carefully.
In addition to the 21st Army, Rome also sent two mobilization divisions to Corsica. The price was that in addition to the 21st Army, the 16th Army, the Army Headquarters, and the Second Marine Division all evacuated Corsica.
Two of the three battles have ended, so the most important Battle of Nice has also come to an end.
At this time, the 11th Army, as the flank, performed astonishingly. Lieutenant General Caviglia first mobilized more than 3,000 elite troops, discarding everything except weapons and a day's rations. Then under his leadership, he climbed over the ridge and circled around.
Open the French defensive position and suddenly attack Levan.
It quickly defeated Lewan's small garrison. At this time, a regiment of French troops and a regiment of militiamen were blinded, and they were blocked in the valley. Subsequently, under attack from two sides, except for a few who escaped over the mountains, the rest of the army was blocked.
Some of them were taken prisoner.
And this is just the beginning of Lieutenant General Cavilla's wonderful performance.
After capturing Levan, Lieutenant General Caviglia boldly divided his forces and sent the 31st Division to attack the upper reaches of the Va River.
The Va River turned westward into a large bay 6 kilometers north of Levan, and the 31st Division thoroughly implemented Lieutenant General Caviglia's instructions and successively captured Marcelloin and Pigetenie along the Va River.
, Saint-Benoit and other places. In three days, it had attacked the Ruin Pass 4 kilometers south of the town of Arnaud.
As long as they continue to attack, they can reach the upper reaches of the Ferdon River and continue to attack along the river. Then they can fight all the way to Perdy, forty kilometers north of Marseille. Although this is impossible, who can guarantee that they will continue to occupy this place?
Will the Italian army launch a north-south pincer attack from here in the future?
In addition, this move of the 31st Division does not matter. It directly cuts off the French army 38 kilometers east of Colma guarding the Alps. There are only more than 30,000 troops here. With one division, it wants to block the way from inside.
The French army attacking Yates and the French army coming down from the mountains are simply impossible to dream about.
So after receiving the 31st Division's request for reinforcements telegram, Lieutenant General Caviglia sighed and said that the 31st Division was so courageous, and immediately sent the request for assistance telegram to General Baxter.
Admiral Baxter immediately sent a telegram to Turin, asking him to immediately organize an airship to dispatch a reserve division to send it to the 31st Division. He also requested that it be completed within two days.
This made Turin feel as if a whip had been whipped, and they were immediately busy without touching the ground. In the evening of course, 46 airships of various types were organized to transport an infantry regiment for the 31st Division.
On the next day, under the cover of various aircraft, 167 airships were organized to transport the troops of the 42nd Division to the 31st Division. Except that more than a dozen cannons and some non-emergency equipment were not transported, it was a complete success.
Completed General Baxter's order. Later, he transported more than 4,000 troops for the 31st Division and more than 2,000 wounded soldiers.
It was precisely with the reinforcements shipped in a short period of time that the 31st Division and the 42nd Division withstood the enemy's two-sided attack. Not only did it provide convenience for the annihilation of the 30,000 French troops in the Alps, but it also inserted into the Haute-Provence region.
An excellent location.
The 31st Division turned the enemy upside down, and the performance of Lieutenant General Caviglia and the 17th Division was equally comparable.
The 17th Division first captured Saint-Martin-d'Ivar, then Castagnier, and attacked all the way to Gatières, which was only 9 kilometers away from the French army's retreat in Nice. This was the most uncomfortable thing for the Nice defenders.
As for why, you directly occupy its retreat, which forces the Nice defenders to fight you. And Lieutenant General Caviglia only has one division in his hands. If there are three divisions, he will not choose to directly occupy its retreat, but push forward.
To a distance of two kilometers, the enemy could pass through, but the casualties would definitely not be small. In addition, because the road was not blocked, the French soldiers had no intention of fighting. In addition, they could also use their panic mentality, which might cause the opponent to be defeated. This could
It was an unexpected surprise.
The 11th Army caused an uproar on the flank, which truly amazed General Baxter. He did not expect that the 11th Army could achieve such outstanding results.
But since the flanking troops can fight so well, he must take Nice to complete the campaign objective.
Although the three main corps of the Southern Army cannot perform any tricks in the attack in the narrow coastal strip, they still have the ability to nibble step by step (if the 11th Army were to attack, they could only nibble slowly).
Although the enemy has many bunkers, tunnels, and permanent fortifications, the Southern Group Army has now gained experience. It first used heavy artillery to knock down the strong and obvious fortifications, and then used smoke grenades. The commandos held light machine guns, submachine guns, and shotguns.
Explosives rushed forward, and occasionally new flamethrowers appeared.
After the commando first disrupted the enemy, the infantry from behind also rushed up. Then came the fight on the position, whoever is stronger wins. Of course, this tactic has successes and failures. But for this set of tactics that have been explored,
The army is still very satisfied. Except for the somewhat useless elite soldiers and smoke bombs, everything else is very good.
And after eating it step by step, the Southern Group Army finally reached the top of the Marg Mountain in the east of Nice from Eze. It is only 2 kilometers away from the city of Nice, and any artillery can hit the city of Nice.
At this time, facing a situation with enemies at both the front and rear, Lieutenant General Fast wanted to withdraw.
Although there were not many enemy troops behind him, he was a little afraid of the enemy airships coming for air transportation. Speaking of which, the people who designed fighter jets were useless, otherwise they would not have allowed Italian and German fighter jets to show off their power above them.
I heard that new fighter jets with machine guns in the nose are already in production, but unfortunately they are all invested in Paris. As for the Sixth Army defending the Italian-French border, not a single one has been produced. On the one hand, the production of aircraft is low;
The Battle of Paris has entered its final five minutes, and even if your shoulders are crushed, you still have to hold on.
When faced with Lieutenant General Fast's telegram that he wanted to withdraw, Admiral Ebbett replied directly after some consideration. There must be a battle in Nice.
Okay, Lieutenant General Fast understands.
Lieutenant General Fast then gradually withdrew his troops from various positions, leaving only one regiment to guard Nice, and ordered them to defend for a day, and then led his men to retreat to the front line of Sadere, which was regarded as withdrawing first.
Nice area. In the face of the retreat of the French army, except for the 17th Division's slight fight, the retreat was very successful.
As for why Italy let go of the 100,000 French troops in Nice, it was because they did not want to destroy Nice.
On October 17, Nice returned to the embrace of Italy.
