My Italy

The French side would certainly not remain indifferent to the situation in which the Italian army captured the Carragher Pass and entered the Savoy region.

First, the French Sixth Army, commanded by General De Cassiternot, sent all three reserve divisions to the Savoy area. That's right, the admiral no longer keeps a reserve force, because the situation of the Italians has become obvious, and their main attack is the Savoy region.

Although the Savoy region is all mountainous, even if it is occupied by Italy, it will pose a great threat to southern France (just look at the Savoy region and you will know that its mountainous terrain limits the army's operations. If you want to follow the river valley to Lyon Launching an attack is purely military science and does not pass the test).

But this is French territory and must not be occupied. Therefore, the reserve team of General Deka Siterno needs to play a sufficient role.

In addition to the response of the Sixth Army, an additional mobilization division was stationed in Lyon. This was France's biggest response to the Italian offensive.

Why did France respond so little to Italy's attack on the Savoy region?

The reason is simple. On the one hand, the Savoy region is not important enough (not as important as Nice). The second thing is that there are more urgent things that need to be dealt with when getting angry. This matter is already urgent and there is no need to rush it.

This thing is that the German army has entered northeastern France. After defeating the Belgian and British armies, Germany's main force has crossed the Franco-Belgian border and advanced rapidly into the interior of France.

The main force of millions of German troops appears in the undefended northeastern part of France. This is a very difficult matter for the French army. It is related to the success or failure of France in this war. Therefore, regarding Italy's attack on the Savoy region, The French army can only hold them back first, and then deal with the Italians after blocking the Germans.

However, although the decision was made to postpone the treatment of Italy, it was impossible for the French army to just release Savoy to the Italians on the battlefield.

The fight should still be fought, but the focus is different.

Therefore, the war between France and Italy in Savoy never stopped.

"attack."

Following the roar of the leading officer, a large group of Italian officers and soldiers armed with rifles launched an attack on the French position on the hillside.

At the foot of the mountain, mortars were constantly firing shells at the French troops in the position.

Speaking of which, in mountain operations, this little mortar is the favorite of Italian soldiers.

Although its accuracy is low, its range is low, and it is not easy to aim, its convenience of being carried by one person makes soldiers very fond of this artillery that can follow their footsteps.

As long as you can pass people, you can use mortars. This has caused everyone in the Italian Army to like this mortar very much, and this has also caused the Turin Arsenal to work overtime to build this weapon for mountain warfare.

Of course, in addition to mortars, infantrymen also like light and heavy machine guns very much. Needless to say, the Maxim heavy machine gun is an absolute defensive weapon. As long as the position is supported by Maxim machine guns for defense, the soldiers do not have to worry about the enemy's attack.

However, soldiers actually prefer the lightweight Revery machine gun to the heavy machine gun that can only be used for defense. The whole gun weighs only 9 kilograms. Compared with the Maxim, which weighs 3-40kg, the gun can be carried by one person, and it can also keep up with the soldiers and provide fire support at any time.

Although in terms of performance, whether it is the rate of fire, range or continuity of firepower, the Revelli machine gun is far less powerful than the Maxim, but its advantage in weight allows soldiers to carry out more tactics around this machine gun. Cooperate.

Therefore, in the army, soldiers' demand for Revery machine guns has never stopped.

Unfortunately, due to the current production of the gun and supply considerations, the gun can only be deployed at the platoon level. Each platoon has one, and a few elite infantry divisions can do two. Of course, this has to exclude the pride of heaven and the paratroopers who are used to performing dangerous missions.

However, although ordinary infantry divisions have fewer machine guns at the battalion and company level, for these troops, a living person can still be suffocated to death. Centralizing the use of machine guns at the battalion and company level to increase the firepower density of the attack is what those lower-level officers like to do most.

Especially in the Savoy Mountains where troops cannot be deployed, the scale of the battle is small, and the battles are generally at the battalion and company level. The most deterrent weapons in its possession are machine guns and mortars.

Increasing the firepower density of the attack will naturally reduce the difficulty of the attack.

Besides, the French army currently has very little support firepower at the battalion and company level, basically relying on rifles. One more thing needs to be said here. The French company level is called an infantry squadron. Although it also has four platoon-level teams, the next step is a strange place. The team has two platoons (we call them half-organized platoons), and each platoon has two infantry squads. (The first squad has 14 soldiers and 1 officer, the second squad has 13 soldiers and 1 officer)

In addition to rifles, the entire infantry squadron (company) only has pistols for self-defense for officers.

Yes, currently, except for Italy, infantry companies in all countries are based on riflemen at the first level. If you want support weapons, you must at least be at the battalion level.

Therefore, the French defenders, who were originally in a defensive position in the mountain battle, were suppressed by the attacking Italian army. More importantly, after the Saint-Etienne 1907 heavy machine gun on the French army's position, which was highly anticipated by the public, was torn into pieces by mortar shells, the morale of the French army decreased at a speed visible to the naked eye.

This heavy machine gun has excellent French origin. After the advent of Maxim, France decided to make its own heavy machine gun, so an air-cooled heavy machine gun class was released. It has to be said that this design is one step ahead of the current trend of water-cooling.

Of course, the consequence was that the performance of this machine gun was poor. Although the soldiers did not think highly of it, its original French origin made the Army Department very close to it, so this machine gun appeared in France. In the hands of the army.

But it is a pity that compared with the Italian army, which has mastered the use of machine guns and anti-machine gun skills, the current French army is still a little bit behind in the use of machine guns.

The machine gun is set up at the highest point of the position. It is difficult not to hit it. Who made it so conspicuous? As a result, the Saint-Etienne 1907 heavy machine gun, which had not been fired for long, was restored to parts by the mortar crew.

The French army, which had no firepower, was immediately suppressed by the attacking Italian army with Revery machine guns, making the defenders unable to raise their heads. While their opponents were suppressed, the attacking Italian officers and soldiers rushed towards the trenches at a faster speed.

"The enemy is coming."

When the defending French soldiers saw the Italian soldiers approaching the trench, they immediately exclaimed with trembling voices.

Then the two sides threw grenades at each other, and a burst of grenade explosions sounded inside and outside the position.

But speaking of grenades, Italy uses the same wooden handle grenades as Germany, and we won’t go into details about their advantages and disadvantages. As for the grenades thrown by the French army, they are a product of another era. We can call them a variant of bombs thrown by grenadiers (interested book friends can go to Bilibili to see how weird it is).

Then after an explosion, the undefended soldiers on both sides entered into bloody hand-to-hand combat.

However, in the eyes of Cosentz, the battle was over at this time, because the second wave of attacking troops was already halfway and the third wave had also set off. There was no possibility of a comeback by the French troops guarding this position.

This is indeed the case. After waiting for the second wave of offensive troops to rush into the position, the French officers and soldiers who were struggling to hold on could no longer hold on. Some of them surrendered to the Italian army, while others fled in all directions. In this way, the position fell into the hands of the Italian army.

However, Cosentz did not show a happy expression about the victory in front of him, because there was nothing to be happy about when a battalion attacked a company of French troops.

And to him, the purpose of this French army's persistence here was clear at a glance, and it was to delay their time.

They wanted to hold back their 18th Army and delay their advance towards Annecy.

Although he knew the purpose of these French troops, there was no good solution. They can only eat away at the French army's position step by step.

Speaking of which, although the equipment of this French army was not suitable, there was nothing wrong with their tactics. They took advantage of the mountainous terrain of the Savoy region and blocked their progress at every level.

Although towns such as Modriena, Aiguebele, and Darbiny have been captured one after another before, Annecy and Gremobre, which are crucial to Savoy, are still in the hands of the French army. As long as these two places are not occupied If captured, the French army can fight at any time and stop at any time. This will put the Italian army in the Savoy area at a strategic disadvantage.

Therefore, in order to change this situation, Prince Filiberto, as the commander of the Northern Army, sent the 18th Military Region to seize Annecy in the north, and he will lead the main force of the Northern Army to attack the more important Gremobre.