klisemfg Chapter 300 The War Begins Again
Chapter 300 The War Begins Again
The joy among the brothers was always short-lived. Everyone knew that the real test had arrived. As the sky gradually brightened, the brothers had to say goodbye and return to their respective posts to complete their mission.
In August 1945, Yang Hong and his team arrived in Tunisia. After a month of training, over 8 troops had gradually become familiar with the new weapons and tactics. During this period, Yang Hong, along with the main generals, battalion commanders, and military commanders, visited Gabes to pay their respects to the expeditionary soldiers buried there.
The Fifth Army Group is composed of the 3rd Marine Corps, the 13th Army, the 18th Army, and the 77th Army, directly under the 112th Army. This totals four army groups and 4 corps. In terms of troop strength, each corps is not as large as the armies of the other three army groups. Each of the other three army groups also has three divisions, but each division has a strength of around 12 men, resulting in an army strength of 1.5-5 men. The Fifth Army, with the exception of the three Marine Corps, each has only two divisions, each with 6-2.2 men. The remaining armies each have three divisions, each with only 2.5 men, resulting in an army strength of less than 1 men.
While the Fifth Army Group's armies may appear to have reduced strength, their configurations have been optimized and more flexible. For example, separate tank and infantry divisions were no longer established, with each unit now being organized as either mechanized or motorized. A mechanized division consisted of two armored regiments and one mechanized infantry regiment. The armored regiment consisted of three tank battalions, one fire support battalion, one mechanized infantry battalion, and specialized companies for logistics, transportation, and maintenance. Each battalion returned to its standard structure: a tank battalion of approximately 3 men, a fire support battalion of approximately 1, an infantry battalion of approximately 1, and specialized companies of approximately 300-450 men, for a total of 600 men. The mechanized infantry regiment consisted of one tank battalion, two mechanized infantry battalions, and specialized companies, also totaling approximately 120 men. The motorized divisions were organized largely similarly, except that they had fewer tanks and instead employed wheeled anti-tank guns and wheeled armored vehicles for enhanced mobility. Each division's subordinate units were battalions, including artillery, air defense, and communications support battalions.
The organization of the Fifth Army is a new attempt made by China on the battlefield. Those who are familiar with the future military organization know that this will become a standard configuration for China to deal with modern warfare in the future. When it needs to be strengthened, a professional regiment will be added to each division, such as: tank regiment, artillery regiment, air defense regiment, etc., which will enable China to stand on its own and become a powerful assault and defense division.
Yang Hong was well aware that their mission was to open a second front and conduct a seaborne landing operation. Given the current situation, the first target would inevitably be Sicily, Italy. The closest distance between Tunisia and Sicily was approximately 140 kilometers, separated by the Strait of Tunisia. The Allies wouldn't even need to deploy large landing ships; weather permitting, they could simply use landing craft to quickly reach and land on the beaches. The reason the three Marine Corps were incorporated into the Fifth Army was clearly to prepare for landing operations.
On September 9, after a series of preparations, the Allies, supported by thousands of aircraft, launched the Battle of Sicily. The attacking forces were the US 11st Army, the British 1th Army, and the Italian 16rd Army. Of course, anti-fascist free forces such as the Free French and Italian forces also participated in the operation.
The US military landing point was in the direction of Palermo, and a regiment of the Free French was incorporated. The British military landing point was in the direction of Marsala, and free forces from some small European countries were incorporated. The Florist landing point was near Cape San Marco. The Italian Free Corps was unwilling to cooperate with the US and Britain in the battle, so it had to be incorporated into the Florist landing direction.
The terrain around Cape San Marco was flat, offering the best conditions for landing troops. Unlike the British, who had to first seize nearby Favignana Island to land at Marsala, the Americans had to circle around Sicily. However, the German and Italian defenders were undoubtedly heavily deployed on this side. Air force reconnaissance revealed that the Germans and Italians had established numerous fortifications along this front, with one German and one Italian division responsible for the defense.
Before landing, Yang Hong had already dispatched several small teams to swim across the water and conduct close-in reconnaissance. The intelligence sent back by each team made Yang Hong and his companions frown unconsciously. From his understanding of the Second World War in the alternate universe, Yang Hong knew that the Allied landings had been delayed by two years, and that the German army was far more powerful than it had been at the time. They would face difficulties no less severe than those encountered by the Allied forces in the alternate universe during the Normandy landings. The tragic American beach landings, and the images from those movies, now surfaced in his mind.
Just as Yang Hong was racking his brains, thinking about how to avoid a large-scale landing with casualties, General Peddes of the Italian Free Corps came in with a piece of intelligence. He said to Yang Hong very happily, "General, please take a look at this first."
General Peddes handed Yang Hong a report on the 251st Division of the Italian garrison at Cape San Marco. It turned out that its commander, Ronald Arthur Peddes, was also a war-weary person. After several years of war, war-weariness was running high within the Italian army and the country. In a different time and space, the Italian fascist leader was overthrown by domestic anti-war forces and defected to the Allied forces. In this time and space, due to the overwhelming strength of the German army, Italy was completely crushed. Anyone who showed signs of war-weariness or resistance was ruthlessly suppressed. However, within the hearts of the Italian soldiers and people, the flames of resistance grew stronger and stronger.
Now, another small unit, a Free Corps unit, was accidentally discovered by Arthur Pace's confidants. Arthur Pace had been keeping an eye on the situation across the Channel. He knew that a forced landing was inevitable. Even if he fought to the death for the Germans, the most he could do was inflict casualties on the Allies, but it would not change the outcome. One of his conspirators, hidden among the high command of the German-Italian coalition, knew that they had actually formulated a landing counterattack plan. The plan was to lure the Allies into landing in Sicily, then suddenly use the superior air force to cut off the Allied reinforcements and defend and annihilate the main Allied force in Sicily.
After reading the intelligence, Yang Hong asked in a deep voice, "General Pedes, is the information reliable?"
General Pedes nodded decisively to Yang Hong and replied firmly, "General, this is absolutely reliable. Ronald Arthur Pace was once my good friend, and I know his personality and work style very well. In fact, Arthur Pace's troops are simply unable to stop our attack. For him, this is undoubtedly a dead end for the Germans. If he wants to survive, he has no choice but to surrender to us!"