Mediterranean Hegemony Road

On July 16, 1916, the Allies launched landing operations at the three ports of Civitavecchia, Lido-Diostia and Latina at the same time, opening the prelude to the Battle of the Apennine Peninsula.

On July 25, Lieutenant General Wallikot was holding a military meeting within the Allied coalition headquarters. Although the landing operation has already begun, the battle on the front line is somewhat unexpected, and the Italians are much more prepared than they expected.

It's normal to think about it, after all, it involves the security of the capital, no matter how important it is! In addition, the geographical location of the Italians determines that after losing control of the sea, their coastal areas are no longer safe.

Allied armies participating in this campaign included:

Bulgaria: 5 infantry divisions (about 17,000 people each), 2 heavy artillery brigades (each with about 3,800 men and 108 cannons of various types), 5 bombing groups (each with 36 bombers) and 6 fighter groups (each fighter group has 48 aircraft), with a total strength of about 100,000 people;

British: 2 Canadian divisions (about 15,000 people each), 2 Australian divisions (about 14,700 people each), 1 New Zealand division (about 13,600 people), 10 Indian divisions (about 14,700 people each) Each division has about 15,300 people), 4 heavy artillery regiments, with a total strength of about 230,000 people;

French: 5 African divisions (each division has about 14,000 people), 1 heavy artillery regiment, with a total strength of about 72,000 people.

On the surface, the Allies have 25 infantry divisions totaling 400,000 troops, and it seems that it is possible to divide Italy into two, and you can choose the landing point at will!

But in fact, only the five main divisions of Bulgaria are the only ones with real combat effectiveness. The other British and French colonial troops are far behind in terms of weapons, equipment and will to fight!

In the opinion of Lieutenant General Wallikot, it is not an exaggeration to say that the five main Bulgarian divisions can swept the twenty colonial divisions!

Many of the soldiers here have just joined the army.

After just a few months of short-term training, he was sent to the battlefield!

It is estimated that less than one-fifth, or even less, are truly willing to work for Britain and France! Most of the people were forced to join the army because of their livelihood, or were directly conscripted into the army by the colonial government, so what kind of morale was there?

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After the start of the landing operation, Lieutenant General Wallycott was naturally reluctant to let the main force go to mine, and there was no doubt that the British Indian Division, the French African Division, and even the five British Dominions were charging ahead. The white teachers stayed behind, which was considered preferential treatment by white people.

Originally, according to the original plan of the Allies, landing in Italy was a feint. The main strategic purpose was to force the Italians to withdraw troops from the front to return to Rome to create combat opportunities for the Anglo-French coalition forces on the western front.

After all, the Italians can become a member of the great powers, but also rely on their own strength. Britain and France have never thought that they can defeat the Italians by relying on this partial division.

This is too unrealistic. If the colonial troops are replaced by their main troops, there may be a possibility of realization.

If it is just to achieve this strategic goal, it is really not too difficult. Now the Italians are almost unable to hold on. If they continue to fight, they have to consider drawing troops from the front.

What the Allies lost was the cannon fodder troops, neither the British nor the French cared about their lives, they were worthless anyway.

But the Italians can't do it, it's their own nationals who die. What's more critical is that the current battle loss ratio is still a special pit of 2.2:1. On average, it takes 2.2 Italian soldiers' casualties to replace a cannon fodder. This business is very cost-effective for the Allies.

No way, who told the Italians to lose both air and sea dominance now? There are planes bombing in the sky, and warships bombing at sea, so it's no wonder that their casualties are small!

But it's different now. Ferdinand ordered Lieutenant General Wallicot to complete the landing operation as soon as possible, to invade Rome or even occupy Rome, forcing the Italians to withdraw from the war. The difficulty factor has increased exponentially!

Lieutenant General Wallycott said cautiously: Generals, I called you here today because with the changes in the battlefield, we had to change the battle plan we made earlier.

You can see that these are the information we have recently collected. The Italians are mobilizing across the country. Based on their population base, it is estimated that the Italians can mobilize more than 2.2 million troops.

And the Germans have recently provided the Italians with a batch of weapons and equipment, which will reach the Italians next month. At least hundreds of thousands of Italians will be armed by then, and our mission has failed!

Not only will it not be able to force the Italians to withdraw from the Western Front, but it will also give them the ability to continue to increase their troops to the Western Front. I don’t think everyone wants to see such a result.”

Everyone carefully read the information. There is no doubt that the information is true, but some irrelevant content has been deleted. For example, the Italians' strategic materials have been unable to keep up with consumption, and the Italian people have begun to boycott joining the army, etc. .

Therefore, the more people look, the more ugly their faces, especially the French! The combat effectiveness of the Italian army is not very good, but no matter how wasteful it is, a sudden increase of millions of Italian troops can still change the situation of the war!

Major General James asked first: Your Excellency Commander is right, the enemy's strength is increasing, we must revise the battle plan, and the Italians cannot complete the military mobilization!

But what do we do now? With the strength we have now, is it almost impossible to defeat the Italians?

The world war has just broken out, and everyone thinks that it is just an ordinary war that can end in a year and a half at most, and the preparations are not very sufficient.

The only countries that completed industrial mobilization at the beginning of the war were Germany and Bulgaria.

When the war entered 1916, the French also began to mobilize their industries, followed by the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the British Empire, and finally the Russian Empire and the Kingdom of Italy.

As for the other warring countries, the industry can be neglected, and there is no such thing as industrial mobilization. The exception, of course, was Belgium, which was over at the beginning of the war and had no chance for industrial mobilization.

Before the outbreak of the war, no one thought that after industrial mobilization, the war would continue, because the manpower and material resources that both sides can put into the war have greatly increased, and the time required to determine the winner has also become longer. long!

Soldiers are needed to fight, soldiers need weapons and food, and the production of weapons and food requires workers and peasants, and both workers and peasants are drafted into the army to fight.

At the same time that unprecedented human resources are being put directly into the battlefield, in the rear, the manpower required for production for the war has also increased to an unprecedented level.

Gone are the days when only soldiers and some craftsmen were required to actively participate in wars, while most people were just bystanders, and most people served directly or indirectly in wars.

Now the industrial mobilization of the Italians has not been completed, and their comprehensive national strength has not yet had time to fully erupt. Once they have completed the mobilization, the disaster of the French will come!

As a French major general, James naturally wants to avoid all this from happening. As long as this goal can be achieved, even if the coalition is now completely wiped out, he doesn't care!

Well, Wallycott knew that the reason he was looking for was not sufficient. As long as he calmed down and thought about it, he would find that it was almost impossible for the Italians to complete the full mobilization.

The granaries of the Italians are in the south and Sicily. Now Sicily has fallen, and the south is not less visited by the navies of the Allied Powers.

At least a large part of the food supplies for the Allied landing troops are selfless contributions from Italians!

In order to alleviate the food crisis, Italy has started a campaign to open up wasteland, and the marginal land that was not seen in the past has now been developed.

In this context, how is it possible to continue to mobilize? Now the Allies can't come up with so much food to support them!

The authorities are fascinated by the bystanders. For Major General James, he can no longer calm down and analyze, even if there is only a slight possibility, he cannot take risks!

After all, no one can guarantee that the Italians will come crashing down once, and they are desperate to gamble. As long as the French defense line is broken, their food problem will be solved!

Since the French are so cooperative, Lieutenant General Wallycott will naturally not make any extra explanations. I saw him saying confidently: It's very simple, continue to pretend to attack the other two routes, and gather troops to storm Civitavecchia!

Now the Italians have five divisions in the port of Civitavecchia, with a total strength of less than 70,000 people. As long as we attack with all our strength, they will not be able to stop them at all!

And Lido-Diostia, because it is the closest to Rome, now the Italians have deployed ten divisions there, with a total strength of about 130,000 people.

Latina was similar to Civitavecchia, and the Italians also deployed five divisions. It would be ok if they landed here, but it would not be conducive to our follow-up operations.

The Italians still had fifteen divisions in Rome, and although most of them were rabble, we were still not sure of defeating Italian reinforcements before they arrived.

Therefore, in addition to attacking Rome, we have an option - cut the Italians' north-south artery!

After we occupy Civitavecchia, we can choose to attack Rome to the south, or we can choose to attack the northeast to break up the railway. Before the main Italian army arrives, we can at least blow up hundreds of kilometers of railway!

In this way, in the next few months, the transportation between the north and the south of the Italians can only be transported by horses. If their troops on the western front do not retreat, I am afraid they will starve!

Wallicot still didn't say it, and now he has killed the Italians, which is also related to the battle for the right to speak.

Britain and France can not compete for the dominance of attacking Italy, but they will definitely fight for the military dominance of defeating the Italians and making them surrender. After all, this is related to the distribution of interests after the war and the distribution of the right to speak in the Mediterranean Sea in the future. question.

Once the Italians were defeated under Bulgaria's dominance, Bulgaria would have an advantage in the distribution of the interests of the future Allied powers in the Kingdom of Italy.

For Britain and France, this is definitely not what they want. Perhaps France is now unable to draw a large number of troops from the country for the security of its homeland. It can choose not to fight, but John Bull will definitely jump out.

After all, the British have not yet fully erupted, and they still have spare strength. It is not a problem to mobilize another 200,000 to 300,000 troops from the country!

Since everyone is eyeing the Kingdom of Italy, it is logical that Lieutenant General Wallicot chose to conceal his purpose.

Anyway, no one thinks now that a mere 100,000 Bulgarian troops and 300,000 colonial troops can make the Italians surrender.

Although I don't know what medicine is sold in Wallicot's gourd, Major General Winston feels that something is wrong with the military's intuition. When did the Bulgarians become so selfless?

Major General Winston questioned: Your Excellency Commander, I am afraid that our troops are somewhat insufficient? Once the Italians react, I am afraid that we will not be able to resist their counterattack?

Wallycott smiled slightly and said, General Winston, you are overthinking it! Don't forget that our mission is only to restrain the Italians and force them to draw troops from the front to return to the country!

Anyway, as long as the landing is successful, everyone's first task is to destroy it. This is not our homeland, so what is there to worry about?

I'm a firm believer that it's easier to destroy than to build, and in just a few days, we can hit the Italians hard!

Unless we get away with Rome, I don't think it's necessary to hold on. If the Italians want to regain lost ground, let them go!

The big deal is that if the coastal cities that catch them continue to attack, we can still achieve our strategic goals!

...

After exhausting all his efforts, Wallycott finally managed to persuade everyone and agreed to his plan. As long as the first step is successful, the rest is easy!

Wallicot believes that as long as they see the hope of conquering Rome, even if it is for their own interests, they will cooperate with them later!

Taking credit for defeating the Italians alone, I believe that few people can resist the temptation. This is enough for everyone to be promoted collectively. Even if there are individual exceptions, it will not change the overall situation!

The British and French officers who were assigned to the colonial troops did not do well in the country. Now they have the opportunity to make great achievements and turn around. Anyone who dares to destroy will be against them!

After all, many things cannot be said on the table, these are unspoken rules! Even most of the middle- and lower-level officers and soldiers didn't even know that such a thing would happen!

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