Chapter 321: Austrian Ghosts

Within the valleys beneath the Italian Alps, the Italian Army had begun to resort to unconventional tactics. The Italian commanders had come to recognize that there was no conceivable way to win a field battle with the Royal Austrian Army.

As such, they had begun resorting to guerilla warfare, utilizing skirmishers dressed as peasants, villagers, refugees, and merchants to attack the Royal Austrian Army via ambushes. As a result, Berengar had slowed his march to Milan and instead sent out his Jaegers to hunt down and destroy the Italian guerillas. 

These Jaegers were an elite unit of marksmen and skirmishers armed with the 1419 Jaeger Rifle, which was based upon the Whitworth rifle from Bernegar's previous life. These weapons were capable of engaging targets out to 1000 yards and, thus far in Berengar's service, acted as snipers hidden behind enemy lines.

However, they were more than simple marksmen, seeing as most of these men came from a hunting background, they were skilled trackers, scouts, and light infantry. The Jaegers were also fully capable of sustaining themselves in the field. As such the Jaeger Corps were among Berengar's most elite units, and thus he equipped them in such a manner.

While initially dressed in green and black Landschnekt style clothing, this fashion proved to be widely ineffective in the field. As such, Berengar had recently begun experimenting with rudimentary camouflage patterns.

Unlike his primary units, which were designed to attack in formations, this specialized unit of skirmishers was intended to blend in with their environments and take out high-profile targets from long range. 

As such, Berengar had opted for a far more modern approach to their uniforms. Rather than the flashy Landsknecht pattern attire of Austria's regulars, the Jaeger units fielded uniforms that were a mix of WWI and WW2 German uniforms from Berengar's previous life. The base attire was a standard m43 pattern uniform in the color of feldgrau. These men would wear a splinter camouflage smock over their field jackets and a matching m43 field cap.

They were also equipped with a more modern style helmet based upon the m38 stahlhelm used by German paratroopers in WWII. This stahlhelm was painted like the breastplate and had a wire net around wit which contained various forms of fabric to act as faux foliage. 

These Jaegers wore hardened and quenched high carbon steel breastplates based upon WWI German trench armor designs. However, they had been modified to make it easier to shoulder a rifle and were lighter weight with improved mobility. These breastplates were hand-painted in earthly colors by the soldiers who wielded them, in a pattern similar to that seen on old German M38 Fallschirmjäger Stahlhelms from WWII in Berengar's previous life. 

Over these breastplates was a brown leather webbing in the form used by Imperial German Soldiers during the Great War within Berengar's past life. The primary difference was that this web gear was made out of dark brown leather, and was designed to carry their quick loading tubes as well as other tools like bayonets, canteens, and spades. Their boots were also made of the same dark brown leather. 

When compared to the renaissance style uniforms fielded by Berengar's regular troops, these Jaeger's were far more modern in appearance and were very hard to spot when adequately concealed. As such, they were the perfect unit to hunt down and destroy the Italian Skirmishers. 

At the moment, a Captain of a Jaeger Company was crouched within a tree line, observing a group of potentially hostile targets in the distance.  This officer was named Andreas Jaeger; Like so many of the men in this elite unit, he was a hunter before being drafted into the Austrian Army during Berengar's previous campaigns. For some time now, he had fought among Berengar's forces and was one of the first to be trained into the role of a Jaeger. 

With ample experience in unconventional warfare, he was the ideal candidate to lead the more veteran Jaegers in the hunt for the Italian Guerrillas. While he and his soldiers quietly marched through the Italian Alps, they spotted a trade caravan roughly 500 yards in front of them. 

Captain Andreas motioned for his troops to hold their position and conceal themselves; as they did so, he pulled out a pair of binoculars from his webbing and began to observe the Caravan's movements. What he saw confirmed his suspicions; this alleged merchant caravan was comprised entirely of relatively young men. 

These men appeared to have weapons within their wagons, such as crossbows, longbows, and rudimentary hand cannons. At the moment, they were gathered around a fire drinking wine and feasting on a fresh game that they had hunted. 

Andreas placed his binoculars within his webbing before unslinging his rifle. After doing so, he cocked the flintlock action on his weapon, where he began to adjust his iron sights so that they were set to the appropriate distance.

While he was doing this, his soldiers took note of his actions and prepared to take their shots. After Andreas lined up his sights upon his target, he gave the order to his nearby troops in a hushed tone.

"Fire at will!"

With this said, Andreas squeezed the trigger on his rifle, where the flint struck the pan and ignited the gunpowder contained within, sending the hexagonal projectile down range and into the torso of a man who was barking commands at the rest of the Italian Skirmishers. 

The 1419 Jaeger Rifle had a muzzle velocity of roughly 1200 feet per second, thus breaking the sound barrier. As such, the hexagonal-shaped bullet struck the target before he could even hear the sound of gunfire go off. 

Shortly after the echo of gunfire was heard in the distance, the Italian soldiers began to panic; this was because the man's torso was blasted apart by the .451 projectile before they could even hear the crack of gunfire. 

Before long, more thunderous echoes could be heard in the distance, which followed the deaths of their comrades. With this in mind, the Italians broke free from their shock and began to take cover behind their wagons. 

When Andreas saw this, he motioned for his troops to flank the enemy position. Two smaller groups of Jaegers immediately broke off from the main force and approached both sides of the enemy encampment. 

One Italian soldier reached into the wagon where he grabbed ahold of a longbow contained within and a quiver of arrows. However, before he could get back behind cover, he was shot through the gut by Andreas who was hidden in the distance. 

The man instantly fell to the ground while grasping ahold of his punctured gut. He struggled to hand off the weapon and its ammunition to a nearby soldier as the life faded from his eyes. The Italians were shocked by the recent development; aside from the muzzle flash, and the following smoke plume; they could not make out the slightest semblance of the enemy's figure.

At a distance of 500 plus yards, the camouflage pattern uniforms considerably broke up the silhouette of the Austrian Jaegers who continued to maneuver and fire upon the Italian Skirmishers from the treeline on the hills above. 

Eventually, one of the Italian soldiers managed to get ahold of a bow and randomly fired into the distance near where one of the muzzle flashes went off; however, the Jaeger was far out of range of the primitive weapon and remained utterly unscathed. 

Instead, such actions brought the fury of the soldier who was targetted, and his next shot penetrated right through the forehead of the Italian soldier who had dared to fire upon his location. Before long, the Austrian Jaegers had flanked the Italian Skirmishers on all sides and set up a crossfire where the remaining Italian soldiers were gunned down, like the dregs they were. 

After it was confirmed that all of the Italian skirmishers dressed as traders were killed in battle, the Jaeger's approached the encampment to search for anything of value, whether that was intelligence or simply supplies. 

A few Jaegers were put on guard while the remainder ransacked the camp until finally, an exciting find was made by one of the Austrian soldiers. The man who found the piece of parchment quickly brought it over to Andreas, where he laid it out on the ground.

This large piece of parchment contained the deployment of all Italian scouts and skirmishers within the region. It was a valuable piece of intelligence; when Andreas saw this, he grabbed ahold of the man's shoulder and grinned emphatically.

"Private Mueller, you have done well! With this, we know the general locations of our enemies and can quickly ambush them. I want you and your squad to copy down this information and relay it back to the main force!"

The young soldier quickly saluted Captain Andreas before following his orders. With this piece of information, the Austrian Army would have an easy time cleaning up the Italian Soldiers who sought to hamper their advance through unconventional warfare. 

While this company of Jaegers had engaged in an ambush on the enemy skirmishers, others like them were fighting throughout the Northern Italian Front, advancing upon the Italians while hiding within the terrain like a unite of specters, reaping lives while moving unseen. As soon as the information of the enemy's whereabouts was spread to the other units, a slaughter the likes the Italians had not expected would occur.

The invention of camouflage would play an important role in Austria's future success with the many conflicts they would engage in. The Italians would come to refer to the Jaegers by the nickname "Fantasmi Austriaci," in other words, "Austrian Ghosts."

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