December 31, 1939
Northern Italy, Südtirol (Trentino-Alto Adige)
The Italian Army saw the German Military's defense line, with its poorly constructed, attack-friendly salients and flimsy weak points exposed here and there, and inwardly cheered.
It seed clear that those German bastards, in their hasty preparations for a retreat, had failed to establish a proper defense line.
The Italian Army's High Command thought so and ordered the offensive, but it didn't take long for them to realize it was a delusion.
The salient, which at first glance seed easy to attack, contained a network of fire far denser than the Italian Army's imagination, literally grinding up the approaching military force like at.
Unable to watch any longer, the Italian Army's High Command instead led with an armored unit and began an attack on the defense line that was loosely woven and easy to penetrate.
But what they heard, while waiting for good news, was an unbelievable situation report.
“E-Enemy tank to the front! Aaargh!”
The armored unit, which had cheerfully broken through the weak resistance of the flimsy defense line, encountered the heavily ambushing Tank Destroyer 3s and began to take enormous damage, and soon found itself surrounded in the middle of the enemy's network of fire, being beaten from all sides.
[Headquarters, Headquarters, we need reinforcents! This isn't a flimsy defense line! It's a trap waiting for prey!]
In response to the urgent report from General Garibaldi in the field, only a long silence filled the headquarters.
Weren't their military forces supposed to be inferior to ours? Why does it feel like there are more enemies?
“…For now, send the reserve infantry unit to rescue them.”
“Y-Yes, Commander.”
When the offensive that was expected to show results instead beca an encirclent, Field Marshal Graziani sent the nearby infantry corps.
But in just one day, more tragic news arrived.
“The infantry corps sent as reinforcents were encircled along with them? How is that possible?”
“W-Well, they gathered their artillery for concentrated operation and tore up the terrain itself, so supplies are not getting through, and the soldiers don't dare enter the roads where artillery shells are raining down.”
The generals at headquarters swallowed dry saliva.
This is an offensive battle. An offensive battle to push the enemy's established defense line, a push and pull to seize territory.
But what is this situation, where the thinly spread defense line, which seed unable to even defend that territory, writhes as if alive and devours our friendly forces as soon as they enter?
Doesn't this feel like a situation where the enemy is attacking our friendly forces, which are cut off and being encircled for annihilation, while we are on the defense?
It was impossible for them to conceive, at least with their common sense, that the defense line, which looked flimsy as if it were laid out haphazardly, was actually a ticulously planned line where each front was arranged to provide organic support fire, taking all terrain and each unit's weapons into account.
“I-In that case, send the armored reserve.”
They decided to dispatch the armored reserve, including a unit composed of M11/39 dium tanks that they had saved until the end for a decisive offensive, to rescue their friendly forces.
-
“Aaargh!”
“Pietro!”
Seeing his comrade fall while spewing blood, the Italian soldier crouched in the trench, holding his steel helt with trembling hands.
It was the third day since they had underestimated the flimsy-looking defense line, entered, and began to be encircled. The Italian Army was in a state of near panic.
We heard our friendly forces were far more nurous, so why are we the ones being encircled and attacked?
Based on the feeling at the front line, it seed the German Military was three tis larger than the Italian Army.
The Italian tankettes that had proudly led the charge were already shattered in a large-scale ambush, and the few survivors were useless, unable to maneuver and being battered while surrounded.
The only comfort was that the poor weather conditions ant there was no enemy Air Force.
The Italian Air Force, which had bombed Tyrol at will in the early days of the war, had long since lost air superiority after suffering a blow that was tantamount to being disintegrated by the enemy Air Force from the German Ho Country.
“This is a crazy act. Why, why are we fighting a defensive battle!”
General Italo Garibaldi couldn't close his mouth at the unbelievable reality.
He thought he had broken through the enemy's flimsy defense line, so he couldn't understand why they were now inside the enemy's well-established network of fire, being unilaterally battered.
“General, the armored division has arrived in the rear! We can escape if we receive cover!”
“Oh, finally!”
General Garibaldi rejoiced so much he was about to cry, unbefitting of the na ‘Garibaldi’, but sadly, their joy did not last long.
“General, our armored unit is being attacked by an enemy armored unit!”
The M11/39 tanks, which looked magnificent by Italian Army standards, began to be attacked by the German Panzer IVs that erged from their flanks.
Italian engineers had advertised it as a revolutionary tank that could destroy enemy tanks with the main gun mounted on the chassis and destroy infantry attacking the flanks with the machine gun on the rotating turret, but harsh reality is often far from the ideal.
Italy's ‘new’ tanks, most of which didn't even have radios properly installed, began to be blown up indiscriminately as their flanks were hit by concentrated bombardnt from the Panzer IVs before they could even turn their chassis.
“S-Stop them! Stop them sohow! If they get those too, it's the end for us!”
But no matter how hard General Garibaldi gave orders to his subordinate divisions, the Italian Army, already terrified within the encirclent, had reached a point where they could barely move.
The Italian Army, realizing that even their reserve, which included many of the new tanks, had been baited by the enemy, continuously committed units to try and save them, but by the ti they realized they were just making a pieceal commitnt in the face of thoroughly prepared concentrated bombardnt and an armored division, it was too late.
After several days of battle, the Italian Army that had entered the encirclent suffered damage close to annihilation, and only a very small number survived to retreat.
Erwin von Witzleben, who ca from the infantry, entrusted the armored unit operation to Chief of Staff Walther Model throughout the battle, allowing him to commit the armored units to the right person in the right place, and his choice brought catastrophic losses to the Italian Army.
Walther Model's offensive defense—not just setting up a defense line and waiting, but luring the attacking enemy to expose a flaw and then attacking that flaw—horrified both the German Ho Country and Italy in the very first battle.
In the two-week engagent between 15 German divisions and 40 Italian corps (divisions), the German Military's casualties were about 5,000, while the Italian Army's casualties reached about 40,000.
Witzleben's Army Group South not only bought ti for Wilhelm Ritter von Lepp's main force to retreat to the German Ho Country but also succeeded in evacuating all the locals in Südtirol who had been cooperating with the German Military to Tyrol.
The Italian Army tried to pursue Army Group South again as it withdrew after finishing its delaying action in Südtirol, but they only suffered more losses in the face of the Luftwaffe's fierce bombing, the valiant efforts of the rearguard, and booby traps.
Thanks to Walther Model, who had ensured smooth winter clothing and equipnt supplies from the ho country and had even carefully prepared sleds for equipnt transport, Army Group South, unlike the Italian Army, retreated over the Alps to Tyrol with minimal straggling and equipnt loss.
Italy, having retaken the territory anyway, propagandized it as a great Italian victory, but was only t with ridicule from other countries and had to suffer humiliation.
The Italian Army, who had finally regained the land, called Army Group South's defense line the ‘at Grinder’ and feared it, so the Italian Army's High Command couldn't even think of re-attacking Tyrol.
-
January 15, 1940
Budapest, the capital of Hungary
“Sohow, being with you like this, Vice Minister, reminds
of the old days.”
Hearing the words of Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Erich Kordt, I replied with a smile.
“Haha. It actually wasn't that long ago.”
“That's right. It's only been a few years.
And yet, it feels like a very long ti has passed.”
When I first attended the von Kleist Group eting, Kordt put in a good word for
with Weizs??cker, which helped
gain a faint right to speak in the Black Orchestra.
Thinking back, we've been together for quite a while, from the Munich Agreent to Operation Widerstand. It's been an eventful ti.
Though, after the formation of the new governnt, I haven't been out with him often.
“So, when are you getting married?”
Perhaps because Erich Kordt knew Claudia before he knew , he showed interest not only in
but also in her, unlike others.
“Well, I'd like to. But the current state of affairs isn't helping.”
This August 15th, my birthday—and Korea's Liberation Day in the original history—I'll be 30. I'm starting to get a little anxious.
My reporter is just so charming.
“Haha, that is a bit of a regret.”
“Tell
about it.”
Claudia coolly suggested skipping the wedding ceremony and just doing the marriage registration, and while I'm grateful for her consideration, isn't that a bit too much?
In any case.
With General Witzleben and General Model brilliantly blocking the Italian Army and succeeding in extracting General Wilhelm Ritter von Lepp's main force, Germany managed to put out the imdiate fire.
But in the anti, the Polish Army launched another concentrated offensive on East Prussia, and we had to suffer a considerable loss of territory in the East Prussian region.
Fortunately, the most important city, K??nigsberg, was barely defended in the end by the Reichsmarine (Imperial Navy), which had shattered the Polish Navy in Danzig and anchored its capital ships to unleash a rciless artillery bombardnt.
Of course, the price was having to resupply those expensive artillery shells, and it was back-breaking not being able to refuse the demand for an increase in the naval budget from a broadly-smiling Admiral Raeder…
Still, it's better than giving up K??nigsberg.
Wilhelm III inwardly wanted to change the navy's na back to Kaiserliche Marine, but it was rejected on the grounds that it sounded too much like an emperor's army for the navy of a democratic nation, and Reichsmarine was chosen instead.
As a result, we were relatively successful in overcoming the initial crisis of the war and were pondering the next problem, Hungary, when Hungary unexpectedly proposed a secret eting.
Thanks to that, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Erich Kordt and I are now in Hungary.
“What do you think Regent Horthy was thinking, calling us here?”
“I'm not sure.
We'll have to go and hear him out, but I suspect it's because of the current war situation.”
They probably joined thinking Poland and Italy would be enough to crush us, but seeing how the war situation is turning out, it's highly possible they requested a eting because they realized this wasn't it.
Hungary is the country that proposed the idea of the na 'Axis powers', but as for whether they've actually joined the Axis powers, not yet.
They received approval from Poland and France for the annulnt of the Treaty of Trianon and declared a large-scale rearmant, but they still haven't expressed any clear hostility towards us.
We walked through the beautiful capital of Budapest, situated on a river, in Hungary—a country that was once a great power in Eastern Europe but lost vast territory due to the Treaty of Trianon—with only a few aides.
Then we went to the hotel they told us about and entered the room they had reserved for us.
Upon entering, I saw a middle-aged man sitting in a chair, dressed in a splendid naval uniform covered with dals, and a young man standing as if to assist him.
The middle-aged man rose from his seat and opened his mouth.
“Welco. You are punctual.”
To be honest, I didn't expect him to be waiting in person.
I was surprised, but thanks to having grown accustod to these things, I was able to speak without too much of a delay.
“It is an honor to et you. I am Dietrich Schacht, Vice Minister of the Chancellery.”
“I am Erich Kordt, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs.”
The middle-aged man looked at
for a mont with a solemn expression, then smiled faintly.
“I, too, am pleased to et the high-ranking officials of the Fourth Empire. I am the Knight of Nagybánya, Miklós Horthy.
Well, I am also the Navy Vice Admiral of a Landlocked Country and the Regent of a Kingdom Without a King.”
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