The road from Thessaly to Athens has always been through the coastal road. Because of the mountainous terrain, the inland is not suitable for large-scale troops to march through. Therefore, since ancient times, Greece has fought with other forces, basically naval battles or
It is carried out in coastal areas, and few people try to cross mountains and ridges.
Although with the development of the times, the role of checkpoints has been greatly reduced, the only way for large armies to pass is the coastal road. Today, on the coastal road, a majestic army is rushing along.
Yes, this force is the Armored Corps commanded by Hoffmann. They have passed through the Thessaly Basin and are heading towards their destination, Athens.
For the just-concluded Battle of Thessaly, this was a good talking point for them. They drove chariots and chased the retreating Greek army, divided and surrounded them, and forced them to surrender in large numbers.
At first they were extremely happy about this, but there were too many retreating Greek officers and soldiers. These retreating officers and soldiers were surrounded and divided by them piece by piece, and in the end they almost became numb.
After surrounding the defeated troops and surrendering, they left only a small number of soldiers to guard the surrendered Greek soldiers, while other troops continued to advance inland.
After taking the lead in attacking Larissa (the capital of Thessaly), they captured Volos without stopping, and then rushed all the way to Athens under the command of Hoffman.
No one in the Greek army along the way was an opponent, and they were either annihilated or routed.
And now their commander, Lieutenant General Hoffman, is in the command car constantly watching the latest information on the entire battle situation.
"I didn't expect that the navy fought so brutally on Chios Island."
What Hoffman was looking at was the Navy's battle report. In this battle report, the Navy listed the details of the battle on Chios Island in detail, including the magical cannon that was so lucky.
This battle caused the First Marine Division to suffer more than a thousand casualties, of which nearly 800 were killed. This caused the First Marine Division a lot of losses. Their opponent, the Greek army, also suffered more than 3,000 casualties.
, also broke their backbone.
Hoffman studied the battle report carefully. Although the landing battle had little to do with him, who could say for sure, he might be able to use it for something. And this battle report was also helpful to him, whether it was
The formation of troops and command and response can give him a lot of ideas and reference.
From a tactical point of view, he believed that the battle on Chios Island was not worth the gain. Because attacking the enemy's position by force would cause too many casualties, and some of the losses were not worth the gain.
But from a strategic point of view, he believed that this battle was the right one, because it showed the Greeks that their resistance was ineffective. Even with the belief in death and excellent terrain, they were still no match for the Romanian army.
While he was studying the report carefully, a communications staff officer came over. He took out a telegram from his file bag and handed it to Hoffman's desk.
"Your Excellency, General, this is a telegram from Italy sent by Ji Zhi."
"Okay, I know."
Hoffman gave up the idea of ​​continuing to study the Chios battle report, casually put it on the table, and picked up the newly arrived Italian telegram to look at it. Because he was curious why Admiral Mandive sent the Italian telegram
Send it to him.
"What, the Italian army is asking for help!"
Don't blame Hoffman for such a gaffe, but because the Greek campaign was going well, Italy was having trouble attacking in Albania, so it actually sent a request for help to Romania.
The format of the telegram is a telegram sent by Lieutenant General Pesca, the commander of the Italian army in Albania, to General Mandif.
In this telegram, Lieutenant General Pesca first congratulated the general on encircling and annihilating the main force of the Greek army. Then he began to talk about his difficulties, such as lack of ammunition, unfavorable terrain, tenacious enemy resistance, etc. Finally, he hoped that General Mandif would
A force can be sent to attack the Greek defenders from behind and relieve the pressure on the Italian army.
When Hoffman saw this telegram, he didn't know what to say. But the admiral didn't say his decision, so he couldn't make random guesses. But according to his prediction, the admiral should send a team
He sent troops to help the Italian army. Because Italy is an ally, it would be unjustifiable not to help.
Hoffman's guesses were actually somewhat optimistic. The real situation was that the Italian army failed to attack and retreated, unable to fight anymore.
Yes, that's the case.
There are two reasons for the poor performance of the Italian army; one is insufficient ammunition preparation. Yes, there is insufficient ammunition. Italy's chaotic logistics has never replenished the ammunition of the Italian troops stationed in Afghanistan. By the time Mussolini was ready,
After the war started, these people discovered that the ammunition of the Italian troops stationed in Afghanistan had not been replenished.
So they immediately took out a lot of ammunition and urgently replenished it to the Italian army in Albania. However, Albania's port loading and unloading capacity was insufficient, and a large number of ships were piled here. The Italian army launched an attack, and a lot of ammunition was still unloaded at the port.
The plan to carve up Greece, which had been agreed upon by Edel and Mussolini as early as May, was still insufficient in ammunition by November, which shows the extent of the confusion in the Italian army's logistics.
On the other hand, the Albanian troops recruited were unreliable. Even shortly after the attack was launched, the Albanian troops recruited by the Italian army fled in all directions, and many even fled back to resist Italian rule.
Facing the attack of the Italian army, the Greek defenders relied on the terrain to resist the attack. However, the Italian army had several waves of unsuccessful battles, which made them demoralized. At this time, they happened to encounter a counterattack by the defenders, and they were all driven back. They were in such a mess.
.
Facing the Romanian army that had defeated Greece, it was obvious that the Italian army planned to ask for reinforcements.
It's just that the current situation makes Hoffman dumbfounded. No one could have imagined that the Italian army fought so badly. In the Spanish Civil War and the Ethiopian War, it seemed that the Italian army performed well, but it turned out that it was the turn to fight Greece, and it was like this.
It is necessary to make Hoffman think that Italy intends to work but not exert its strength.
Putting down the telegram in his hand, Hoffman couldn't help but worry about Italy. Of course, he did not sympathize with the Italians, because Libya in Italy's hands was too important to the three countries.
I hope this battle is an individual performance of the Italian army. If the Italian army all behaves like this, then this will hinder Romania's own strategy in the eyes.
With doubts about the combat effectiveness of the Italian army in his eyes, Hoffman couldn't help but think more. Now that Hoffman had received hints from Admiral Mandive, he was increasingly looking at the problem from an overall perspective, and his vision was naturally broad.
few.
At this time, a staff officer came over and reported. "Reporting to your Excellency, Commander, the First Armored Division of the Pioneer Division discovered the Greek defenders at Thermopylae."
