My Italy

The Valtellina Valley is located in the mountains of northern Lombardy. The Ada River, a tributary of the Po River originating from Lake Concanano in the Rhaetian Alps, flows through this valley, bringing Sondrio, Morbegno and Co There are three small towns in Liko. The fertile land here is very conducive to the development of agriculture, forestry and animal husbandry.

Precisely because it is relatively rich and the terrain is similar, the 57th Division, which is currently being formed by the Army, is arranged to be formed and reorganized here.

The headquarters of the 57th Division was located next to the small town of Morbegno in the middle of the valley.

"Squeak~"

There was a sound of braking, and a dusty Fiat Model A stopped at the entrance of the 57th Division.

Cosentz got out of the car and moved his buttocks that were numb from sitting.

That's right, Cosenz accepted General Simeone's order and became the commander of the new 57th Infantry Division from the deputy commander of the 1st Guards Division.

The transfer of Cosenz also caused a lot of fluctuations in the Guards system. Many Guards officers saw a slight change in Cosenz's transfer, so many officers who were promoted slowly had inner turmoil. Of course, the Ministry of War was willing to see changes in Guards officers.

Subsequently, the Ministry of War tried to issue transfer invitations to more than a dozen Guards officers. Of course, these officers were basically difficult to promote, and most of them readily accepted. Of course, these officers were all middle- and lower-level officers, with the highest ranking being only a lieutenant colonel, which was not comparable to Cosentz's rank of major general.

On Cosentz's side, it has been half a month since he took over as commander of the 57th Infantry Division. Within this half month, Cosentz did not make any major moves towards the division, mainly inspecting the various units below.

Moreover, Cosentz's inspection was unlike other officers, who basically came to each troop camp suddenly without saying hello, and did not call in officers for questioning. Instead, they liked to ask soldiers everywhere.

This is Cosentz's way of understanding the real situation, because the information obtained from the soldiers' mouths is definitely more reliable than the reports reported by officers at all levels.

This is not to say that junior officers will lie, but the situation reported at each level will add some subjective thoughts to each officer, which is not conducive to Cosentz's understanding of the true situation of the division in a short period of time.

After half a month of understanding, the situation of the 57th Infantry Division is not good. The training progress of soldiers is slow, the running-in time of grassroots officers and soldiers is too long, there are many problems such as the lack of experience of grassroots officers, the poor ability of middle-level officers to handle affairs, and the lack of technical officers.

Cosentz also knows the reason for these problems, which is caused by the poor technical and tactical level of the officers.

To this end, Cosentz already has an idea.

"Call the deputy division commander and chief of staff and tell them that I have something important to discuss."

"Yes, Commander."

Cosentz, who had just returned to his office, asked his adjutant to call the other two chief officers in the division.

After a while, Deputy Division Commander Ezio and Chief of Staff Colonel Wagner arrived at Cosenz's office.

Cosentz also knew something about his two colleagues. Deputy division commander Major General Ezio previously served as chief of staff of the 19th Infantry Division and had just completed his promotion to major general before coming to serve as deputy division commander.

The chief of staff, Colonel Wagner, previously served as the regimental commander of the 6th Infantry Division. This time he was sent to the 57th Division as chief of staff, which can be regarded as a step forward.

Moreover, these two took office a little earlier than him. Deputy Division Commander Major General Ezio was appointed half a month earlier than him, and Chief of Staff Colonel Wagner had been appointed the longest, nearly two months.

"Teacher, are you looking for us?"

Facing the questions from his two colleagues, Cosentz nodded and answered. "Yes, I have something to talk to you about. I spent some time going to the various units below to understand the situation. I am not optimistic. Although the troops are not lacking in weapons, they lack enough training. I won't talk about tactics first. Many soldiers cannot even perform basic tactical actions. The junior officers are inexperienced, and the same is true for mid-level officers, which makes me very worried."

The two of them also agreed very much with what Cosenz said.

Colonel Wagner, the chief of staff who had been here the longest, spoke. "The division commander is right, and I know this too. At present, the junior officers in our division are basically freshly graduated military academy students. They have good theoretical knowledge, but lack practical experience. I want to give them some time to get familiar with it, and they should be able to much better."

"I have also learned about this situation. Not only our division, but also other newly formed divisions are basically like this. Moreover, some divisions and companies still have vacancies of officers and are still waiting for the Ministry of War to continue to allocate officers."

These two are right. Although the 57th Division is a key force established by the Ministry of War, although it can provide sufficient supplements in weapons and equipment, it is also very difficult to supplement qualified officers.

A qualified officer must not only have sufficient knowledge of military theory, but also have sufficient technical and tactical skills, as well as the understanding and application of new weapons, new tactics, and other aspects of the situation.

Therefore, it is not easy to train a qualified officer. It not only requires time and energy, but also requires the person to have this understanding.

In addition, the Army is now in a period of major expansion. Six divisions will need to be formed this year. Officers are needed everywhere, and qualified officers are naturally in demand.

And the Army Department cannot be too favorable to one or another. If it can give the 57th Division a little more, it will be enough to attract attention, and if it gives more to other newly-built divisions, it will not cause trouble.

Seeing the two colleagues saying that everyone is like this and there is nothing I can do about it, Cosentz felt even more pressure on himself.

"Actually, I have an idea that can remedy the current problems with basic officer experience."

"any solution?"

These two also knew their teachers well. I know that this person has an excellent resume and is better than them in terms of experience and ability, so I am looking forward to what he has to say.

"That is to retrain these grassroots officers, focusing on the company level where the current problem is most serious. Let the company commanders of each company come to train, and the three of us will teach them. If the theory is enough for them, we will teach them some practical experience . Come here every other day. In addition to training, we also give them time to speak. They will talk about some problems of their own troops. First, they, the company commanders, will discuss them and give solutions, and then we will judge. applicability of this approach.

The training will be conducted for one month first, and then the deputy company commander will be replaced. I think that after these two months of training, at least the basic officers will know what to do. If the effect is good, then we can also train battalion-level officers. "

Cosenz's method was actually derived from his own experience in the Far East. Of course, when training his troops with General Yuan, he used this method to train his officers.

However, his words surprised two colleagues. This man was too courageous. What if the War Department held him accountable?

Don't blame these two for being ignorant. This method, which was very common in later generations, is very rare in this era. On the one hand, due to their responsibilities, they, the military chiefs, privately train officers. At a small level, it is to improve the combat effectiveness of the troops. At a large scale, it is a serious interference with the regulations and rules of the army, which will be punished.

On the other hand, doing so may affect the training of the troops. Their newly formed division already needs to strengthen training. Although they have retained manpower, it will be affected to some extent.

"It's hard to tell if there will be any criticism from above. In addition, it may affect the progress of training."

Faced with these two words that were called suggestions but were actually objections. Cosenz now showed why he was favored by Simeone.

"If there is any criticism from above, let me tell you. It does affect training, but it is a good thing. This allows training officers to listen to our training and conduct training based on actual conditions. Otherwise, I would not choose to train every other day. At a time, it’s about giving them a day to put into practice what we’re talking about.”

"Okay then, just listen to you, Master"

Since their division commander insisted, these two men no longer insisted. They wanted to see the effect first, so the tasks of the grassroots officers of the 57th Division became even heavier.

Where are the tickets? This is just enough for extra updates today.