Chapter 465: North Africa at a glance

"Remember, do not act alone at any time, and do not easily leave a place 300 meters away from the stronghold. Maybe behind a dune, behind a dilapidated house, behind a forest, there is a Turkish gunman, of course there are also It may be German gunmen. They will use a rifle with a telescope to kill anyone who is alone.” When Tony came to Sirte for the first time, a fellow veteran introduced his combat experience to him.

Although the successful breakthrough of the armored cruiser Prince Albert caused heavy losses to the Italian Navy both in terms of face and lining, the Italians still relied on powerful naval forces to complete the blockade of the western side of the Dardanelles! The entire 6 battleships constituted a fleet to ensure that Scheer could not have the idea of ​​a breakthrough. Under the cover of the main fleet, the Italian mines began to carry out offensive minelaying, and several thick minefields filled the western entrance of the Dardanelles. Completely blocked! In a short period of time, it might take a lot of work for the Prince Albert to come out.

Not long after the Italian Navy launched its operations, the Italian Army also began to attempt to dispatch from several isolated landing points to extend its control area to the entire coastal area. But no matter how small Libya is, it has a coastline of thousands of kilometers. This is a lot of pressure on the first wave of more than 30,000 Italian army personnel. However, what is unexpected is that, in the eyes of all countries, what should be an "armed march" has turned into an out-and-out disaster in the hands of the Italians.

The first disaster occurred in August 1901. The Italian army that occupied Sirte decided to send two battalions with about 1,200 troops to the southern area of ​​Mir. This is an important outpost to enter the Jufra Oasis. With the support of about 2 cavalry companies, a total of 1,500 Italian officers and soldiers Carrying 4 artillery heads towards here.

According to their intelligence, there are only a few hundred Arab tribal cavalry here, half of whom do not even have guns, only scimitars and spears. However, this careless Italian cavalry ran into a unit that had never appeared in history-the carriage unit!

"We set off. Everything went according to the pre-made plan. In addition to various supplies such as our weapons and tents, we also brought three times the daily consumption of fresh water. Cavalry opened the way in front, two The infantry of the battalion marched on both sides of the road, with artillery and supply teams in the middle."

"However, we still underestimated the difficulty of operating in the rocky desert area. The hot climate made our actions very slow. The short distance of more than ten kilometers made us exhausted. However, this is only a comparison with the situation we encountered later. Small problem. After we left the city of Sirte for 30 kilometers, the local cavalry began to appear in our business. They rode horses or camels on the edge of our vision. Our cavalry rushed to try to solve them, but they all Was easily avoided by the opponent."

"As time went by, our hearts became more and more disturbed. More and more cavalry appeared beside us. They even approached a place only more than 400 meters away from us. We tried to shoot with a rifle, and naturally we couldn't hit it. When we were about to use artillery and machine guns, they ran away again."

"These annoying guys wandered around us like wild wolves that smelled a fishy smell, and even used a small curved-fire weapon to launch an attack like us. Of course, at a distance of more than 400 meters, this weapon has almost no accuracy at all. But it troubled us. Our cavalry successfully caught a wave, but a rifle equipped by the opponent that could fire in a row easily wiped out all of our cavalry. It was only at this time that we found that something went wrong. Unexpectedly!"

"Soon, a large number of cavalry appeared on our two wings, and their movement speed was relatively slow compared to ordinary cavalry, so that we could deploy defenses calmly. We started to unfold, and two sparsely separated lines were formed. All infantry companies use machine guns as the core to form a circular fortification. We have previously considered the possibility of facing the opponent's cavalry and formulated a plan. However, we soon discovered that our plan did not face the opponent's attack. effect!"

"A lot of horse-drawn carriages! I have never seen so many four-wheeled carriages, and they still appear on the battlefield! If this kind of scene appears in other places, I definitely think this is a joke, but when the other party shows hideousness After the fangs, we ushered in a disaster!"

"At least more than 40 four-wheeled carriages appeared in our field of vision, and several of them were parked at a distance of 2 kilometers away. They should be equipped with some kind of curved artillery. They deployed these artillery only. It took a short time, and then we heard bursts of rapid shelling from a distance! A shell can even be caught with the eyes, and they fell through the air in a deadly arc! Before the first shell hits the ground, their artillery has fired several times!"

"A intensive rain of bullets fell on our position. That was at least the projection of more than 4 artillery companies! We were caught in flames. Then, the remaining four-wheeled carriages arrived less than 800 meters from our front. In the place, through the smoke, we suddenly found that the rear carriages of the carriages were carrying a lot of machine guns. At least 30 machine guns were shooting at us at a distance of 800 meters! God~www.wuxiaspot. com~ Our two battalions only have 12 machine guns!"

"Our artillery was suppressed or destroyed in the first time. Two of the four 75mm guns were destroyed, and the other two were suppressed. The vitality of the machine guns of the Turks or the Germans quickly beat our defense line. Fragmented, but even so, we still tried our best to resist the opponent's attack and killed at least 2,000 people. In the end, our troops could not stop the Turks’ cavalry charge. I was lucky and ran out by luck. And sent this vital piece of information!” An Italian cavalry officer who escaped after the war wrote in the report.

Generally speaking, the officer’s narrative is generally in line with the basic facts, but he described in more detail the German-Turkish fighting method in this battle, the continuous suppression and investigation of the scout cavalry, and then he was carried in a carriage. Mortars and machine guns were used to suppress both near and far fires. Finally, a large number of cavalry armed with sabers and pistols launched a charge to end the battle.

However, the so-called resistance of the Italians is not true. The entire battle lasted 15 minutes from the start to the end... Then the Italian troops of the two battalions paid the price of 300 casualties, and the remaining 1,000 people surrendered! Only a few cavalry were gone.

"Italy sent 30,000 people, but in North Africa there was not even a splash of water!" The British newspaper described the Italians' actions like this!

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