Chapter 254: Approaching Verona, Cutting Off the Italian Army's Throat |
"Extra! Extra! On May 22nd, the Demanian Army launched the Verona campaign, initiating a full-scale offensive against the Italian army from the Austrian-controlled Tyrol region! On the very first day, they captured the border town of Pomarolo and the Italian stronghold, Ceriati Fortress!"
"As of press time, the Demanian Army is continuing its assault on Monteverde Fortress and the town of Avio. Once Avio is breached, the Alpine Line, which the Italian army has spent thirty years building, will completely collapse. The Demanian Army will enter the Po Valley and lay siege to Verona!"
On May 23rd, this explosive news was published in major newspapers across all neutral countries in Europe, causing an uproar in the international community.
Were the Demanians actually, finally, going to directly intervene in the Italy-Austria war?
As for the belligerent nations, fearing that news of the defeat would impact morale, they temporarily implemented extremely strict censorship. The newspapers in Britannia and Francia made absolutely no mention of the Italian army's disastrous defeat. However, the high-level officials in these countries who were in the know found out what had happened immediately and were deeply uneasy.
Amid the fierce Verdun-Metz campaign, Francia's minister of general affairs, Briand, took time out of his busy schedule to call Italy's minister of general affairs, Antonio Salandra, to ask about the situation in detail.
Perhaps some readers might be curious: wasn't the Frankish minister of general affairs named Vivian when he first appeared? How did it become Briand?
That was correct, of course. Burdened with the unmatched debuff of a chaotic government, Francia would frantically change its minister of general affairs even during wartime.
As mentioned before, they had gone through eight ministers of general affairs in the five years leading up to the war between 1910 and 1914. Things didn't settle down after the war started, either. They replaced their minister every time they lost a battle. In the Earth timeline, Francia went through five ministers of general affairs throughout the entire war, maintaining a frequency of one replacement per year (with the final minister, Clemenceau, skewing the average).
At this moment, Briand anxiously pressed, "What's the situation over there? How could you lose a border fortress on the very first day of the Demanian offensive? Can you still hold out?"
"We are currently holding on and fighting to the death," Salandra said. "But we need more weapons and ammunition as reinforcements, and we need you to pin down as many Demanians as possible!"
"We have already stepped up our offensive here at Verdun," Briand replied. "Direct aid is impossible. All we can do right now is help you pin down a few more of their armies! Exactly how many armies have the Demanians concentrated against you? We've already pinned down five on the Demania-Francia border!"
"Well..." Salandra hesitated. "According to reports from the frontline generals, we are facing at least three armies over here!"
"Nonsense!" Briand snapped. "Could that Alpine ravine from Innsbruck to Verona even fit three armies? Did the Demanians pull all the troops facing Lusha in Belarus just to attack you? If so, why haven't the Lushans counterattacked?"
The phone call ended without achieving any results, only bringing further humiliation upon Italy.
The other nations felt that Italy was completely unreliable, incapable of speaking a single word of truth, which negatively impacted their allies' decisions regarding aid.
Only after verifying through other channels did they learn that the Demanians had dispatched at most one army to deal with Italy. Furthermore, that single army couldn't even deploy its full forces yet; only one vanguard corps was actually engaged in the assault.
The Franks and the Britannians temporarily underestimated the severity of Italy's situation, believing the Italians to be entirely untrustworthy.
Francia had been holding off five Demanian armies for two whole years. Italy had faced a single army for one day and was already complaining? Were they trying to use this opportunity to extort them again?
Initially, to drag Italy into the war, the Brit Nation had promised them a massive long-term, interest-free loan of 200 million Brit pounds, though it could only be used to purchase Brit military supplies and weaponry. Francia had also promised them a loan of 1.5 billion francs.
Despite spending such an enormous sum, which supposedly expanded their army by hundreds of thousands of soldiers, there was no sign that the Italians had become any better at fighting. They were simply a bottomless pit devouring resources.
This hesitation caused the Franks and the Britannians to delay their support for Italy by several crucial days.
They didn't expect that waiting just a few short days would make the situation they'd face in the future even harder to manage.
Salandra failed to secure international aid immediately while his country was being ravaged, and the battles on the Alpine Line continued to collapse one after another.
On May 23rd, the second day of the offensive, the Demanian vanguard forces launched a night infiltration attack on the town of Avio. Looking at a map, Avio was actually further south than Monteverde Fortress. The town sat in a valley, while the fortress was perched on an adjacent peak.
Since they hadn't yet captured Monteverde Fortress on the high ground next to the town, a daytime assault on Avio could easily be pinned down by artillery fire from the mountain.
However, Demanian morale was incredibly high. The 18th Alpine Mountain Division, led by Model, decisively chose to launch a night attack on the valley town relying solely on Grenade Launchers and mortars, despite lacking heavy artillery support.
Visibility was poor at night, so the artillery regiment in the mountaintop fortress couldn't fire on the town for fear of hitting their own men.
The defenders in the town hadn't anticipated that the enemy would dare bypass the mountaintop fortress to attack them directly. In such critical times, they were still caught off guard. After a night of fierce fighting, the town fell to Model, who had ignored conventional tactics.
After taking the town, the Demanian Army had essentially surrounded Monteverde Fortress from three sides. The defenders in the mountaintop fortress were trapped, much like Ma Su.
However, it was difficult for the Demanian Army to continue their advance because the artillery batteries on the summit could cover the valley and threaten their logistical routes. This thorn still had to be removed.
Therefore, on May 24th, the Demanian Army finally focused entirely on storming Monteverde Fortress.
Monteverde Fortress was positioned beyond the range of the Demanian Army's long-range barrel artillery. They couldn't find suitable positions to redeploy their heavy artillery batteries in a short time, nor did they have the time to do so.
Thus, the supporting firepower for the assault on Monteverde Fortress had to rely entirely on the walking Stukas.
Because the walking Stuka's range was too short, they couldn't engage in counter-battery fire with the enemy artillery. In actual combat, mountain warfare commanders like Model and Dieter quickly developed a new tactic:
Observe during the day, attack at night, and fight in close quarters.
A full day of probing attacks on May 24th allowed Model to roughly map out the coordinates of the enemy fortress's fixed firing positions, at the cost of a few casualties.
Since the fortress's artillery batteries were difficult to move, their positions were fixed once discovered. During the day, the artillery units calculated the parameters and marked exactly where they should fire from and with what settings. Once night fell, they drove the walking Stukas up and opened fire.
On the night of May 24th, Colonel Wilhelm Leeb led the 1st Self-Propelled Rocket Artillery Regiment, driving dozens of their walking Stukas to the front lines.
Wilhelm Leeb and Model were old acquaintances; both had come out of Lelouch's Storm Battalion system and had cooperated during the Dunkirk campaign. Keitel and Leeb were both from the artillery corps, each leading an artillery battalion to provide precise fire support for the Storm Battalion at the time.
Now Model had been promoted to colonel, and Leeb was also a colonel. The forty-year-old colonel was inevitably a bit anxious. Fortunately, Commander Lelouch had formed a new type of artillery regiment and, remembering his old subordinate, gave him the opportunity. Besides, no one had ever led this new weapon into actual combat, so anyone could take the job.
"Over here! The preset firing position is this area. Bearing 190, distance is roughly two kilometers."
One of Model's artillery spotters, wearing a netting suit woven with branches and leaves—a makeshift ghillie suit—waved a white cloth in the darkness, signaling their self-propelled rocket artillery group to enter the position. This area had just been captured during the daytime ground assault.
Wilhelm Leeb immediately commanded his self-propelled rocket artillery group into position. Hundreds of fiery exhaust trails then soared into the sky, accompanied by a piercing shriek.
Less than half a minute later, violent explosions erupted across Monteverde Fortress, destroying several heavy artillery emplacements.
Colonel Wilhelm Leeb didn't dare relax in the slightest. Just after firing, before they even had time to confirm the results, he ordered the soldiers to drop the simple spades supporting the Half-track Vehicle chassis and immediately commanded them to relocate.
"Drive as soon as we're done firing!" Leeb shouted. "One of our night volleys couldn't possibly wipe out the enemy artillery batteries in this direction. Their counter-battery fire will be here any second! Get in the vehicles, quick!"
Following Leeb's orders, the artillery spotters who had stayed behind to mark targets and the mountain troops providing security all scrambled onto the empty, lightened half-tracks. They immediately drove away with caution.
Every driver in this artillery regiment was the elite of the elite. Their daily rations guaranteed smoked liver sausage and deep-sea fish oil capsules as supplements, all so they could see the road clearly while driving at night without needing headlights.
It was a waning crescent moon that night. The moonlight wasn't bright, but they could barely make things out—they just had to drive slowly. Moreover, the convoy was driving through a river valley, which was already the lowest elevation point in the area. There were no cliffs to fall off; driving off the road would, at worst, result in hitting a mountain and denting the hood.
Sure enough, just a few minutes later, the Italian counter-battery fire rained down.
With the relocation speed of traditional artillery in this era, there was absolutely no time for hit-and-run tactics. But thankfully, Lelouch had prepared self-propelled rocket artillery for Leeb.
Rocket artillery had low chamber pressure and recoil. They didn't even need sturdy spades to secure the vehicles; they could basically fire and run.
By the time the enemy observation posts saw the muzzle flashes, relayed the coordinates, and manually calculated the firing data, their counter-attack shells landed far too late.
"Thank goodness Commander Lelouch designed this new artillery to relocate so quickly. I never imagined artillery could execute hit-and-run tactics like this," Colonel Leeb remarked, feeling a bit of lingering fear at the sight. Yet, what he felt more was excitement and a thirst to establish his merits.
His artillery regiment moved to a new location, reloaded, and ventured out again around midnight. They stealthily circled to the other side of the mountain and unleashed another volley—whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—dumping over two hundred heavy bombs roughly onto the mountaintop fortress before running away again.
They made another run in the latter half of the night from a third direction, essentially bombarding the north, south, and west sides of the fortress.
With the time taken to relocate, resupply ammunition, and reload, one entire night was only enough for three or four runs, but it was already sufficient.
After being bombarded by a cumulative total of over seven hundred rocket bombs, each packed with 80 kilograms of TNT, the soldiers of Model's mountain division observed the fortress again at dawn the next day. They saw that the mountaintop artillery emplacements were largely destroyed, and many of the fortifications had been blasted to ruins.
Model then ordered a probing attack. However, the enemy's defensive firepower was still fierce, making it seem like their troop casualties weren't that significant.
"Damn it! Did they learn a lesson from the destruction of Ceriati Fortress?" Model cursed at the sight. "How did the high-angle plunging fire on the reverse slope fail to kill many of them? There are still so many left!"
He could clearly feel the contrast. When the walking Stukas first appeared a few days ago, the bombardment effect on the mountaintop fortress was outstanding. Since it was their debut, the enemy was unprepared. Throngs of enemy infantry had hidden in their reverse slope positions before the shelling, only to be entirely wiped out by the plunging fire.
Last night's bombardment didn't have the same result. On one hand, the enemy had probably learned their lesson and no longer felt the reverse slope was safe. Most of the soldiers had likely stayed holed up in the tunnels the entire time, not even coming out for fresh air.
On the other hand, there hadn't been massive numbers of 210mm barrel artillery continuously bombarding the front last night to leave the enemy with nowhere to run. Since the enemy still had room to maneuver, they were less likely to bunch up. Plus, night shelling couldn't aim precisely; it could only bomb the general area.
"There's no other choice; schedule a daytime assault up the mountain. Fortunately, their heavy artillery is mostly taken out, so small arms fire isn't much to fear. Cover the Flamethrower Vehicles as they advance up the mountain!"
With Model's command, two mountain regiments stealthily advanced from the north and south sides of Monteverde Fortress, respectively.
More than a dozen Flamethrower Vehicles, recently converted from SDK-1 Half-track Vehicles, were also mixed into the formation, though they maintained a distance of several dozen meters from the surrounding infantry.
(Note: During World War II, the Sd.Kfz. 251 half-track was also modified into a flamethrower variant.)
Model's tactics were sound. The hit-and-run harassment from last night worked for night combat, but storming a mountaintop fortress had to be done during the day because he knew the enemy had a tunnel network.
If they sneaked up during a night attack, they could shorten the engagement distance, allowing their submachine guns to unleash more power. However, it would also make the enemy tunnel entrances more concealed. If the enemy stayed incredibly patient in the tunnels, piling branches and grass at the entrances for camouflage, they could pop out and backstab the attackers once they passed, causing massive losses.
So, he'd rather choose a daytime assault. Even though the attackers would suffer more casualties, not a single tunnel entrance would escape the eyes of the advancing soldiers.
As Model's forces assaulted the mountain, the Italian troops on the summit fired desperately downward, attempting to stop the Demanian mountain troops.
Many soldiers were suppressed and unable to raise their heads. They had to find cover on the spot, setting up temporary firing positions to shoot back at the mountaintop and cover their comrades.
Meanwhile, the dozen Flamethrower Vehicles advanced steadily. Soon, they were only a thousand meters, then eight hundred meters away from the enemy's summit positions. A heavy machine gun mounted on the front of each vehicle fired continuously, trying to help suppress the enemy.
Many attacking mountain infantrymen tried to hide behind the armored vehicles to dodge the bullets from the summit.
This form of engagement brought a slight sigh of relief from the Italian troops.
"So they're using half-track personnel carriers as armored vehicles? They're just relying on front-mounted heavy machine guns to exchange fire with us and provide cover for their climbing infantry?"
That was exactly what the defending Italian general at Monteverde Fortress thought. He assumed the heavy machine gun on the front was the vehicles' only firepower.
"General! Our heavy machine guns can't pierce the enemy's tracked armored vehicles!" an officer in charge of anti-tank operations shouted frantically to the fortress's highest commander, having tried and failed several times. "The depression angle of our small anti-tank guns isn't large enough. The enemy is much lower than us. We need a small gun with a 20 to 30-degree depression angle to aim directly at those vehicles!"
The defender of the fortress was also a major general division commander. After hearing his subordinate's complaints, he was out of options too.
He couldn't exactly have the soldiers hoist the anti-tank gun carriages on their shoulders to point the barrels downwards, could he?
The major general division commander could only soothe their nerves. "Don't worry for now! Have all heavy machine gun positions focus on striking the enemy's trailing infantry! Let those tracked armored vehicles advance a little closer! Once they charge within fifty meters and enter the attack range of technical grenades and explosive packs, we'll blast them to pieces!"
"Yes, sir!" The officers at all levels immediately executed the order.
The half-track Flamethrower Vehicles continued their uphill climb amidst a hail of machine-gun fire. Several minutes passed, and just as they were about to enter the range of thrown anti-tank weapons, the vehicles gradually came to a halt.
"What's going on? Come a little closer if you have the guts! Just a little closer and we'll let you taste the power of a bundle grenade!" Many Italian braves at the tunnel entrances, ready to execute anti-tank operations, felt a surge of anxious anticipation.
These men could be considered the rarest of braves in the Italian army. The Italian army only had a few relatively stubborn mountain divisions; the rest of the troops were pure garbage.
However, they ultimately never saw the Demanian tracked armored vehicles advance again. Instead, they were greeted by a sudden blast of ignited fuel.
Whoosh! A torrent of flames shot out for a hundred meters, blasting straight into a tunnel entrance hidden by branches and leaves. Soon after, five or six Italian soldiers clutching bundle grenades and explosive packs tumbled out of the tunnel, howling in agony.
Even more thrown anti-tank munitions were directly detonated by the intense flames, causing violent explosions at the tunnel entrance. The Italian defenders hiding deep within the tunnels didn't even have a chance to make a sound before they were completely wiped out underground.
The tragic extent of it was much like those bizarre content creators on future TikTok who would melt a pot of aluminum and pour it into an anthill.
Out of fear of the walking Stukas' bombardment, the defenders of Monteverde Fortress no longer dared to stay in their surface positions. They wanted to hide in the tunnels and wait for the enemy attacking forces to draw near before fighting back.
Little did they know, this tactic of cowering in tunnels for close-quarters combat was perfectly countered by another weapon Commander Lelouch had prepared.
Every tunnel entrance was at a different elevation, and not all openings were blasted by flames simultaneously, burning everyone inside to death.
But within just a few minutes, after this scenario played out five or six times, the remaining Italian officers and soldiers surviving in the higher tunnels were completely terrified.
It was a countdown to death. The outcome was already set; no matter how bravely they fought, it would only delay the enemy slightly. They could do nothing else.
"We surrender! We all surrender!"
After the Flamethrower Vehicles cleared out seven or eight tunnels below, the soldiers in the upper tunnels all raised makeshift white flags, tossed aside their weapons, and crawled out of the tunnels to beg for surrender.
At noon on May 25th, the remaining defenders of Monteverde Fortress surrendered.
On the afternoon of May 25th, Model and Dieter led two mountain divisions forward, finally breaking out of the Alpine mountain pass and entering the Po Valley region.
Of course, they still faced a fortified zone on the plains with a depth of thirty kilometers. This thirty kilometers included the urban area of Verona, which was about a dozen kilometers wide, and a ten-kilometer thick defensive perimeter circling the city.
That evening, the subsequent forces successively arrived at the Verona frontline.
The commander of the 10th Army, old Marshal Leopold, personally inspected the battlefield situation, then decisively issued an order.
"Prepare for a siege immediately! Let the lads from the mountain divisions rest for a few days; have the troops from the other infantry divisions go first! It doesn't matter that the heavy artillery hasn't been brought up yet. First, capture the enemy's front one or two trenches, then deploy our heavy mortars in those forward trenches. We'll use Storm Battalion tactics to slowly eat away at them."
"Yes, Commander!" The staff officers of the 10th Army immediately went to refine the requirements, formulate detailed plans, and relay them to each corps and division.
On the night of May 25th, three infantry divisions of the Demanian Army launched a night siege on the city of Verona.
This non-stop pace of attack, with no intention of resting for even one night, thoroughly stunned the Italian defenders.
There were still two full corps fiercely defending within Verona, totaling over 100,000 men. But in the face of the Demanian Army's assault, they appeared incredibly fragile, retreating step by step.
While capturing the initial trenches, the Demanian soldiers utilized several rounds of heavy explosive firepower from the walking Stukas, blasting the frontline Italian troops until they couldn't hold their ground and scattered to the rear.
Once the Demanian Army secured the trenches and established a firm foothold, they no longer needed the walking Stukas to take risks. Their subsequent actions essentially involved deploying mortars from the front trench to bombard the Italian defenders in the next trench.
This tactic was actually not novel. If this were the Western Front, and they were facing the French army which had endured two years of high-intensity warfare, the defenders would definitely have been able to hold the line.
But regrettably, the defenders in Verona were not the French army, but merely the Italian army.
This was an army that demanded proper working conditions even when fighting a war, insisting on scheduled weekend breaks every week.
Facing the Demanians, who had just ferociously surged out of the Alps and launched a night siege without even sleeping, how could the Italian army withstand it?
