My Italy

The National Socialist Party's vigorous struggle against the Mafia in the south is a major event worthy of attention for the political party and the government. After all, it is related to their interests.

But for General Simeone, this matter is not worthy of attention, because he can't pay attention to the army's affairs, so he has no time to care about other things.

General Simeone, who had just arrived at the General Staff Headquarters, began a busy day of work.

"Chief of General Staff, this is the list for the assessment of the 21st Division."

"Okay, I understand, put it on the table."

Simeone, who was immersed in work, continued to work without raising his head.

"Chief of the General Staff, this is the plan for a division-level confrontation exercise between the 5th Division and the 13th Division formulated by the Combat Training Department."

"Okay, put it there and I'll take a look."

"Chief of General Staff, you need to meet with Marshal Cadorna in the afternoon to discuss adjustments to the size of the army battalion and company level."

"Okay, I know."

After the adjutant left, Simone was the only one left in the room immersed in work. Simoni's office is quite simple. Apart from his office chair, there is only a sofa, a clothes rack and a file cabinet on one side. There is nothing else. There is also a map of Italy on the wall.

Half an hour later, Simone finally finished the work at hand and picked up the assessment book for the 21st Division.

If you want to say what scares the Italian Army officers and soldiers the most right now, it is the assessment.

In recent years, what Simeone has promoted the most during his tenure is the strict implementation of the assessment system. Before he took office, the Army also had an assessment system, but this system was more like a formality and not authoritative enough.

After he took office, he was deeply aware of the low combat effectiveness of the Italian Army, so he reported an attitude of reorganizing the combat effectiveness of the Italian Army and strictly suppressed the assessment system. Every officer needs to be assessed, and it doesn't just take one assessment. There will be an assessment every two years, and the difficulty of each assessment increases year by year. If you fail the assessment twice in a row, then I'm sorry, you may not be suitable to stay in the Army, so apply for retirement. No one is an exception, even if you are from a family of military officers, children of nobles must pass the assessment.

For this reason, many officers called Simeone the most stern chief of staff in the history of the army.

Of course, this alone is not enough, nor is forceful pressure alone, there also needs to be rewards, and the reward Simeone gives is promotion. Officers who excel in each assessment will have an advantage in promotion and job promotion. For example, for vacant officer positions, officers with excellent assessment results will be given priority to fill them, and the same is true for promotions.

In these years, Simeone has promoted the strict implementation of the assessment system, and the combat effectiveness of the Italian Army has also continued to improve. In the military exercise between Germany and Italy last year, the 9th Division defeated the 14th Division of the German Army in a division-level exercise. This was the first time that the Italian Army defeated Germany in a division-level confrontation with non-Guards troops (equal numbers and equal equipment). This made the German colleagues look at him with admiration and affirmed the results of General Simeone's re-examination.

Of course, these years of assessment have also brought about an effect, that is, Italian officers are more reasonable, and a large number of incompetent officers have retired, making the Italian Army more combat effective.

A statistic can be mentioned here. Before Simeone took office, the Italian Army had more than 500 senior general-level officers on active duty. For an Italian army with only 200,000 soldiers, having so many generals is not a good thing. And having so many generals is not a good thing for the army. After all, a division-level unit generally has three chief officers who are generals (chief and deputy division commander + chief of staff). With so many generals in the Army, many positions are over-qualified, which is not conducive to the development of the Army.

After Simeone's reorganization over the years, there are now only more than two hundred active generals in Italy.

As for school-level officers, a large number of them retired as a result. As for lieutenant-level officers, fewer officers failed the assessment. Perhaps it is because most lieutenant-level officers graduated from military academies. As long as they are not lazy and goofing off, they can pass the examination with hard work.

After Simeone's reorganization, although the Italian Army cannot say that it can compete with the German army with the same number of people and equipment, at least it will not be too far behind. Its quality is considered to be mid-range among the armies of the great powers.

Of course Simeone is also worthy of this honor. If you compare it with a photo of Simeone before he became chief of staff, you will find that his black hair has turned white. He looks like he is only in his fifties. Over sixty.

Simone picked up the assessment report on the 21st Division and read it carefully.

Admiral Simeone attaches great importance to assessment reports, and will review the contents of each report with the most serious attitude.

"Very good. The 21st Division's assessment results are very good. They are much improved compared to the last time. The infantry and artillery coordination is particularly good. Commander Mesut seems to have worked hard."

Judging from Simeone's attitude, he was very impressed with the 21st Division.

Of course, this also has a lot to do with the small number of divisions currently owned by the Italian Army. At present, the Italian Army only has a total of 17 divisions. After deducting five independent artillery regiments and three cavalry brigades, each division has less than 10,000 people, which is really miserable. The reason why the Army saves so many people is also caused by the Army's insufficient funds.

At present, the Italian Army has annual funding of 203 million lire. Although this funding is not too much, it is not too small either. Unfortunately, this amount of funds is simply not enough for the Army. You know, the current emergence of various new technologies has made the army's equipment update very fast. For example, Italy has only recently been equipped with the 1897 75mm field gun. It has fallen behind in less than two years. Will the 128 guns purchased by the Italian Army be distributed to the troops?

The replacement of new weapons and equipment is so fast that the Army must invest more funds in catching up. Therefore, in order to save money, the total strength of the Italian Army was cut again and again. It was originally guaranteed that there would be three fully equipped and fully trained division-level troops, but now all of them have been changed to one of the stand-up regiments. As for other units, they were also cut down. The most exaggerated example is that the 7th Division has two shelf regiments, two infantry regiments that are not full of personnel, plus artillery regiments and other ancillary troops, one division only has about 6,000 people.

Of course, this kind of reduction in troop strength and still retaining the establishment is not bad, but it would be really miserable to abolish the troop establishment.

And the reduction of its own forces in this way is not only to save money, but also to upgrade weapons and equipment, it is inevitable for the army to cut back on food and clothes.

Of course, this state of the army also has a lot to do with the current Italian strategy. Currently, the Italian Army only needs to consider land defense against France as its relationship with France is not very good.

With less pressure on the Army, there will naturally be less funding.

Look at the booming navy next door. In recent years, the proportion of military expenditures has almost caught up with the army. However, this is also the result of the navy's efforts. The benefits that Italy has gained in recent years have basically relied on the navy. In this case, you ask the government not to favor the navy in military spending. How is this possible?

Therefore, if the army is to be improved, in addition to Italian finances being relieved, it is only possible if Italy faces land pressure. Of course, the Army does not want to see this problem either. After all, when war comes, no one will have an easy time, and neither of the two neighboring big countries is easy to deal with.