Chapter 97: Italy Attacks
"Oh my god, that's also called a tank?" A German expeditionary soldier looked at a tank in the distance (if it can be called a tank), with an incredible look on his face. "This thing is too, too..." If it was the Internet era in the future, he might have said "cute", but there is no such popular word now. After a long time, he finally thought of a word. "Isn't this too small?"
The companion standing next to him agreed. "Who said it wasn't? Compared with our light tanks, it's just like cat and mouse in size."
The CV33 ultra-light tank they were commenting on was the Italian CV33. As the two soldiers said, its size is amazingly small. How small is it? Interested friends can visit the Capital Military Museum. At first glance, the impression given is that this thing can really be sat in? It is 2 meters long, 4 meters wide, and 32 meters high. Tall Westerners can only crouch in it.
There are two members, one driver and one commander who is also a machine gunner. The weapon configuration is a twin-mounted 8mm machine gun. Its combat weight is only about 3 tons. You can imagine how thick the armor is. It can't give the members enough sense of security. The armor not only uses riveting technology, but also has very poor quality. Sometimes the rivets fly around after being hit. These rivets that are shot away kill many members like high-speed bullets.
The only thing that can be praised is its speed. Although its engine has only 41 horsepower, it can run at a high speed of 43km/h, which is a bit incredible!
If it were another country, the CV33 might be used as a reconnaissance tank, but the Italians used it as a main tank. They not only participated in the war of aggression against Ethiopia, but also sent it to the Spanish Civil War, and even equipped themselves with thousands of tanks.
It is not difficult to see from this that the weak industrial level and backward military thinking of the Italians did not have no reason for their poor performance in World War II.
"Where are our tanks?" asked another soldier.
"You have to stay away from this little guy over there. What if you accidentally knock it apart?"
"Hahaha!" Several German soldiers around laughed so hard that they couldn't help laughing, and the Italian soldiers not far away looked at them blankly.
Just then, there was a deafening sound of artillery from behind them. Hundreds of cannons roared and smashed shells at the opposite government army position. That was the outer position of Madrid. As long as they broke through this position, they could break into Madrid.
The shells rained down on the position, blowing up dust and falling into a big pit. Some even fell directly into the trenches. Those who were unlucky would be hit by the fragments of the shells and die tragically on the position.
Of course, there were only a few such unlucky people. Although Spain did not participate in the last war, it also sent many observation groups. In addition, there were also many veterans who participated in the last war among the volunteers from all over the world this time. The deployment of trenches was no less than that of the last war. It was basically impossible to rely on artillery bombardment to severely damage the enemy in the trenches.
In a command post buried deep underground, a government army officer ignored the dust that occasionally fell from his head and wiped a small pistol with full concentration. The other people in the room were doing their own things, ignoring the shelling outside.
At this time, he heard footsteps coming from the door, looked back, and several people in the room stood up and saluted. "Captain, why are you here in person? If you have any tasks, just call me." The officer came forward and helped the commander to sit on a nearby stool.
The commander's left arm was wrapped in a thick bandage and hung around his neck. "I was worried, so I came to see and replenish some soldiers in your camp."
"Replenish soldiers?" The officer asked in confusion. "There is no need to mobilize the reserve so quickly, right? The enemy has not attacked yet. Commander, don't worry, I can hold out here for at least a week."
The commander shook his head. "Of course they are not the reserve troops, but the soldiers who were withdrawn from Aranjuez."
"Aranjuez?" The officer raised his eyebrows slightly. "Aranjuez fell so quickly? I thought it would last at least three or four days."
The regiment commander sighed helplessly. "They encountered a large number of infiltrations by German snipers. Those snipers were just like hunters who came to hunt. Many people fell down without even seeing the shadow of the enemy. As a result, the soldiers were so scared that they dared not show their heads on the battlefield, and the enemy broke through the position in one fell swoop." But he couldn't blame those soldiers. After all, the horror of German snipers in the last war was obvious to all. Even those veterans who had experienced the war were terrified, let alone these recruits who were experiencing the war for the first time.
"German snipers?" The officer's face became a little gloomy. "These stupid British guys! Sooner or later, they will reap what they have sown!" If these bastards hadn't let go again and again, how could Germany restore its armaments so quickly? Aren't these bastards afraid of raising a tiger to cause trouble? Do you really think the Germans will just let them do whatever they want? Even he had a premonition that the Germans were ready to avenge the humiliation of more than a decade ago, so how could Britain and France not see that? !
After a fierce curse, he continued to ask. "Didn't the Soviets send snipers?" But he already had the answer in his mind. This time the Soviets did provide a lot of weapons and equipment, including planes and tanks. But the planes were no match, the tanks were no match, and now it seemed that even the snipers were no match for the enemy? He even suspected that the Soviets were just using second-rate stuff to fool them.
The leader smiled bitterly. "The Soviets did send out several sniper teams, but six of them were killed in less than half a day. Although they reported that they killed three sniper teams of the other side, I don't think they even saw the Germans. So we There’s no good way to take out German snipers.”
The two of them had nothing to say for a while, and just stayed there melancholy. It wasn't until the sound of shelling outside gradually faded that the regiment leader stood up. "It seems that we are preparing to attack. I have to take a look at the next position. You have to hold on here until the last moment!"
The officer saluted with great solemnity. "Don't worry, I will defend until every soldier is killed!" After seeing off the regiment commander, he picked up the phone and contacted the company headquarters below one by one, asking them to count the wounded and losses.
After a while, the subordinates reported again. "Report to the battalion commander that the enemy has begun to attack, led by Italian tanks and Italians!"
"Small Italian tanks?" The officer breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed that this wave could be easily resisted. They also had two T26 tanks coming from the Soviet reinforcements, which was enough for those small tanks to drink a pot.
As for why the Italians took the lead, this was also what the Italians themselves requested.
I don’t know if it was because of the outstanding achievements of the Germans in the sky and on the ground these days that made Mussolini jealous. This morning General Rojata, the commander-in-chief of the Italian intervention force, came to see Yu, the commander-in-chief of the German Expeditionary Force. Gospier, demanding that their Italian soldiers take the lead in this battle, rushed into Madrid in one breath.
After the Ethiopian War not long ago, the German top brass now simply cannot look down upon the fighting power of the Italians. As His Highness said, what else do Italians do besides cooking and playing football? Can a tank that a few soldiers can overturn with bare hands be called a tank? Just rely on those soldiers who don't look like soldiers to break through the well-fortified government army positions?
Although he was ridiculing in his heart, Hugo Sbier still happily agreed to Italy's request. Anyway, Germany and Italy are not allies now, and may even become enemies in the future. It doesn't matter whether they live or die.
In this way, the Germans watched from a distance as the Italians rushed towards the enemy positions in the distance "menacingly".