The information was placed on the desk of Li Qiwei, commander of the 82nd Airborne Division, within a few days.
Ridgway didn't take this telegram seriously at first. At this time, he was so busy making plans to attack Sicily that he had no intention of caring about what happened to the Chinese advisory group. He even forgot about China's formation of airborne troops.
Everything is clean.
The main problem with attacking parachute Sicily was that Hans had two armored divisions on the island.
As we all know, what the airborne troops are most worried about is the enemy's armored forces.
This is mainly because the airborne troops do not have heavy equipment, but the enemy's armored troops can quickly rush to the airborne site, so they can launch a "massacre" against the airborne troops.
What's even more frightening is that airborne troops cannot yet parachute into mountains and hills... because if they parachute directly into mountains and hills, the casualties caused by the airborne landing are likely to be unacceptable. Even if the airborne landing is successful, it will be difficult to gather troops to form combat effectiveness.
But if it airborne in a flat area, it would undoubtedly be hit by Hans' armored forces.
After thinking about it, Li Qiwei thought that the only option was to airborne at night... Enemy tanks have no combat effectiveness at night, and the marching speed of half-tracks and armored vehicles will also be limited. However, the dark night can provide good cover for Yingjiang's airborne troops.
.
But the problem is that airborne landings at night are quite difficult, and there are often strong winds in Sicily at night.
When Li Qiwei was indecisive and didn't know what choice to make, the staff reminded him: "General, China Captain Derek's telegram needs your reply!"
(Note: Ridgway’s military rank at this time was Brigadier General)
Li Qiwei took the telegram, glanced at it, and said impatiently: "I will deal with China affairs with you in the future and give you a reply!"
"Yes, General!" the staff officer responded and was about to leave with the telegram.
But Li Qiwei seemed to have seen the words "disorganized organization training" at his glance just now, so he frowned and called the staff back again.
"Wait!" Li Qiwei stepped forward and took the telegram from the staff officer's hand and read it carefully. He found that what he saw was indeed true. The Eighth Route Army's ongoing training was to "break up the organization."
Li Qiwei had thought about training like this before, but unfortunately this kind of training required too much of the commander, and Yingjiang's troops were all recruits with no combat experience... Although the 82nd Infantry Division, the predecessor of the 82nd Airborne Corps, was a
The troops existed since World War I, but few of them fought in the war.
In this case, disrupting the organization training will only result in chaos.
If training is a mess, what use will it have on the battlefield?
Therefore, Li Qiwei could only take it one step at a time. He planned to practice the tactics of the fixed organization first, and then conduct several trainings in the broken organization before the war to let the soldiers adapt.
but……
Li Qiwei asked the staff: "The Eighth Route Army's airborne troops can actually break up their organization and training from the beginning? How is the training situation?"
The staff officer replied: "From what Captain Derek has learned in the past few days, their training seems to be ideal! Captain Derek said that they are a group of veterans with rich practical experience. The soldiers have high obedience and the quality of the commanders
It’s quite good, and with the implementation of the military rank system, even if the organization is broken up, combat effectiveness can be quickly formed!”
In fact, there were some things that Captain Derek didn't say because he was too embarrassed to say them.
After Captain Derek discovered that the situation was not what he thought, he led his military advisory team to follow the Eighth Route Army's airborne troops for several days of training.
It turned out that these so-called Eagle Airborne Troopers simply couldn’t keep up with the training pace of the Eighth Route Army Airborne Troops:
Mountain climbing and skydiving early in the morning. Immediately after the parachute jump, there was a fully armed five-kilometer cross-country. After the five-kilometer cross-country, there was non-stop construction of fortifications and tactical training, followed by shooting, minelaying, anti-tank, and demolition. At night, the commanders concentrated on studying or discussing
Command experience...
After a few days, Derek and his team were almost exhausted. From then on, the so-called arrogant paratroopers of this group no longer dared to look down on the Eighth Route Army airborne troops, let alone Wang Xuexin.
After reading the telegram, Li Qiwei was silent for a while, and then said to his staff: "Ask Captain Derek, if our army encounters the Eighth Route Army's airborne troops on the battlefield, which side does he think will win?"
The answer to this question was without any suspense for Derek. He answered without thinking: "There is no doubt that it is the Eighth Route Army, General!"
Derek then listed the following reasons:
"First of all, no matter what situation the Eighth Route Army is in, whether it is one squad or less, they can form combat effectiveness and know what they are going to do.
And we...if there are three or five people, they will probably hide somewhere until the battle is over."
In this regard, Captain Derek, as a member of the 82nd Airborne Division, knew very well what the soldiers were thinking: unless a commander forced them to do so, or threatened to take them to court-martial, they did not want to go into battle.
But how to avoid this damn battle.
This is fundamentally different from the Eighth Route Army, and it cannot be practiced on the training ground.
However, it can be said that Captain Derek does not understand the 82nd Airborne Division. Not only three or five of them will hide, but more than two hundred people will hide in the hope of avoiding this war.
It's not surprising that this happened. This war didn't hurt Yingjiang directly, especially the enemy was Hans... The Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and angered Yingjiang, but Hans was fighting Europe, Africa, and the woolly bear.
.
Now let the Eagle Soldiers fight Hans...
The soldiers don't have the same hatred as they do for the Japanese, and they are still fighting on the soil of another country, so they can hide as long as they can. The most important thing is to get back alive.
The Eighth Route Army was different. Their hatred for the Japs was unforgettable. They had only one goal, which was to drive the Japs out of China, and they would not hesitate to sacrifice their lives for this goal.
Therefore, the mental states of the two after entering the battlefield are completely different.
"Secondly," Captain Derek continued: "You may not believe it, General! But as far as I know, the Eighth Route Army seems to have a complete and very mature tactical theory of parachute operations! This allows their airborne troops to quickly form an army.
and form combat effectiveness.”
"Look at our army!" Captain Derek said helplessly: "I used to think that our army had also formed a combat capability, but after seeing the Eighth Route Army's airborne troops, I think we are far behind! I even think... we have not yet
Be prepared to go into battle, general! Otherwise, this may very well be a tragedy!"
Ridgway looked at Derek's report and didn't know what to say.
Could it be said that all his hard work over the past ten months was in vain?