Within an hour from 12 a.m. on the 20th to 1 a.m. on the 21st, the Wehrmacht launched a full-scale offensive along the Austrian-Italian border. The Austrian-Italian border region has a dense road network, the result of centuries of construction, connecting isolated towns in the Alps.

German mechanized infantry, riding in trucks and armored personnel carriers, easily broke through the Italian border defenses and broke into Italian territory along the mountain road. The aim of these troops was to quickly occupy the mountainous region of the southern Alps, to consolidate the two flanks of the main attacking force, and to ensure the smooth flow of the two important mountain railway supply lines to the east and west.

In a large-scale battle like this, the most important thing is to maintain the smooth and safe supply lines. An ordinary infantry division will basically consume hundreds of tons of materials and supplies every day during combat, of which the food needed by officers and men for three meals alone accounts for a small half of them, and ammunition, oil, and various war consumables are the bulk of the consumption, and these figures will double day by day when the war is fierce. In this military operation, Germany still organized various division-level units into mixed armies, and a large part of this reason was for the convenience of logistics management.

Germany is accelerating the development of mechanization in the army, and with a stable source of fuel, the German Wehrmacht has finally removed the shackles around its neck and accelerated the pace of reform to replace military horses with fuel vehicles. Germany still had a large number of mules and horses in various infantry units to transport the baggage and towing artillery of the company-level troops, not because the army could not afford to equip cars, but mainly because it was to reduce the pressure on fuel, because compared with expensive fossil fuels, Germany was easier to get the forage used by mules, horses and livestock.

Now that the fuel problem has been resolved, the Wehrmacht has finally been able to free its hands and begin the process of full-scale mechanization of the army. At present, the German troops on the Austrian front line have reached more than 40 percent of the overall degree of mechanization, most of the pure infantry units have been provided with their own baggage trucks, and the number of trucks of logistics units has also reached the level set by the high command. Some assault infantry regiments could almost be classified into quasi-motorized units, and the army group command equipped them with a large number of trucks to increase the mobility of these units.

At present, only a part of the mountain chasseurs and artillery, as well as the reconnaissance cavalry units of the infantry divisions, still retain the horses they use.

It's just that while increasing the mobility of the troops, a large number of vehicles has also added some new pressure to the logistics system, and the demand for motor vehicle parts and various fuels is rising rapidly. However, the corresponding logistics units have also been greatly increased due to the large-scale popularization of mechanization.

Now the logistics officers of the German Wehrmacht are trying to figure out how to maintain the normal operation of this system, and it is foreseeable that Germany's logistics supply system will usher in a qualitative leap.

The German offensive plan was still an old-fashioned pincer offensive, and this tactic was chosen not because it was ancient, but because it was effective. The main attack to the west was the F assault group from Innsbruck, which was to maneuver along the railway line and try to break through the Alps as quickly as possible into the fertile Po River plain.

Brennello was the first and most important Italian border town to be conquered, and as Colonel Filiberto had foreseen, the Germans had to get their hands on this railway junction, which was well equipped for repair and dispatch, as well as a large number of specialized materials and equipment needed for the maintenance of the Italian railways, which could play an important auxiliary role in the subsequent actions of the German army along the railway.

Because the Führer willfully advanced the time of declaring war by half a day, the Germans lost the conditions for surprise, but for the Germans, it didn't really matter much, anyway, they had already figured out the details of the group of Italian comrades opposite.

In the border town of Gries, on the Austrian side of the Brenner Pass, two German assault infantry regiments have been waiting here for a long time, and in order to avoid exposing their targets, these soldiers are strictly restricted in their range of activities, and can only live in two troop transport trains parked in the shunting yard.

Ordinary soldiers had no idea that the target of the attack was Italy, and many speculated that they would eventually be moved to the more easterly fronts, such as the mountainous states of Yugoslavia and Romania.

As a result, after the battle order was issued, some intelligent people immediately thought of the targeted training they had received before, obviously to cope with the current kind of operation, and it seemed that the superiors had already made comprehensive arrangements for the invasion. The war was clearly premeditated, not an act of revenge as ordinary people thought, but since these were smart people, they certainly wouldn't be foolish enough to share this somewhat dangerous discovery with anyone else.

And for ordinary soldiers who were frustrated by their failure to fight in the war in Europe, this was a second chance given by God to make up for all their previous regrets on the heads of the Italians.

On the evening of the 20th, two battalions of soldiers quietly entered the pre-set departure position, which obviously confirmed the speculation of some clever people, but by this time the arrows were already hanging on the strings, and there was no time to think about it again.

In the afternoon of the same day, they were unexpectedly sent a support army, two artillery battalions with thirty-six cannons, to the town by train. These artillery pieces are equipped with French Schneider 1917C 155mm howitzers, with a range of 11,000 meters.

The Germans captured about 200 heavy guns of this type in the European theater, and in addition to returning some of them to the French Army, they also absorbed some of them as a supplement to their own firepower, because the heavy artillery attached to the German infantry units has always been a weakness of the army.

These three-ton guns are more suitable for maneuvering with the railway, and under the current combat intensity, there is no opponent who can restrain it for the time being. Army intelligence had long since obtained accurate Italian military maps, showing the locations of all the important sectors and the coordinates of the various semi-permanent positions. The German artillery could have fired at the elements according to the map of the land, using accurate artillery fire to cut through the enemy's defensive line for the assault troops.

But the command seems to feel that these preparations are not enough, and they want to take the town completely, so they decide to use paratroopers here.

In fact, the use of airborne troops in the war against Italy was determined at the beginning of the plan, and the biggest advocate was Keitel, the German army tasted the sweetness of airborne behind enemy lines in the British operation, and the performance of the airborne troops in the campaign left a deep impression on the chief of staff.

Speaking of which, in the early days of the development of the German Airborne Forces, the Italian side gave great technical support, and the RZ series parachute that the German paratroopers used before was developed on the basis of the Italian "Salvador" parachute. But now the German paratroopers have changed to new parachutes and no longer have to be airborne with just one pistol.

Landing at night was no longer a problem for German paratroopers, and the greatest difficulty at the moment came from the difficult terrain of the area. The village is located in the middle of a valley flanked by steep and towering Alpine hills, and the town's old-fashioned spire buildings and obstacles such as street lamps and telephone poles pose a serious threat to paratroopers.

At present, the only airdrop area that can be selected is the central station and the shunting yard, a narrow flat land no more than 700 meters long and 400 meters wide, and the ground is also densely covered with railway tracks and various metal components.

Although the paratroopers had the courage to face these difficulties, their superiors did not want to suffer unnecessary losses here, and if they were not sure, they were willing to abandon this plan and use infantry to complete the operation through conventional tactics.

In the end, after the paratroopers' strong request, the command finally agreed to act according to the original plan, but the paratroopers participating in the airdrop were no longer the first paratrooper battalion that had been originally scheduled, but the paratrooper training battalion with relatively superior airborne technology, which was a seed unit used to train paratroopers' grassroots officers, which was tantamount to announcing to their superiors that they were going to fight against the water.

Facts have proved that the seed unit is indeed worthy of its name, and of course, it is even more necessary to thank the group of transport pilots who are willing to accompany the paratroopers to play with their lives, relying only on the dim moonlight to guide them, risking the threat of crashing into the mountain cliff, forcing a low altitude into the valley, and throwing the paratroopers of that battalion into the airdrop area accurately.

In order to reduce the time that the paratroopers stayed in the air, the Junkers used all their might, and finally the plane was only more than 300 meters above the ground when it was dropped, and the height of the fuselage was lower than the ridges on both sides.

The elite German paratroopers had only been in the air for less than twenty seconds, and their heavy paratrooper boots had already stepped on the gravel ground of the shunting yard, giving the Italians no time to launch a counterattack. The paratroopers who landed immediately used the various weapons they carried with them to launch a fierce attack on all non-self targets within visual range, covering their comrades who were still in the air, and clearing a safe landing area.

The German paratroopers, armed with ferocious automatic firepower, were simply no match for the Italian infantry with single-shot rifles, and the paratroopers quickly took up a solid position, and the lead troops spread out their lights on the ground to guide the next wave of comrades.

The battle went even more smoothly than the command expected, and the appearance of paratroopers completely disrupted the deployment of the Italians and seriously damaged the morale of the Italians, especially the sudden destruction of the Italian command organs, which led to the entire combat system falling into hopeless chaos.

The German assault infantry battalion, which was immediately signaled to move, began to launch a general assault on the Italian line along the road opened by the artillery fire. But when the soldiers roared and rushed to the Italian positions, they found collapsed trenches and shattered corpses, as well as a large group of Italian officers and soldiers huddled in the bomb shelters and shivering.

These poor fellows had been overwhelmed by the terrible heavy artillery, and their superiors had repeatedly denied their requests to retreat, which was tantamount to cutting off the soldiers' hope of surviving from the battlefield. So when these men saw the German infantry rushing into the position with rifles in hand, it was almost as if they had seen a savior, and they quickly threw down their weapons and raised their hands in the air, and demanded surrender to the German Army in stammering German.

PS: Thank you for your tips and monthly passes, I will continue to work hard.

Thank you. (To be continued.) )