Chapter 739： Hot Spring Pass (Part 1)

The road from Thessaly area to Athens has always been through the coastal avenue. Because of the mountainous terrain, its inland is not suitable for large-scale troops to march through. Therefore, since ancient times, Greece has fought with other forces, basically naval battles or conducted in coastal areas, and few people have tried to cross the mountains.

Although with the development of the times, the role of checkpoints has been greatly reduced, but the coastal roads that can be used for the passage of the army are still. And today on the coastal road, an imposing army is rushing all the way.

That's right, this army is the armored army of Commander Hoffman. They have passed through the Thessaly Basin and are heading towards the target area of ​​Athens.

For the battle of Thessaly that just ended, this was a good talk for them. They drove chariots, chased the defeated Greek army, surrounded them, and forced them to surrender.

At first they were extremely happy about it, but there were too many retired Greek soldiers. These retired soldiers were surrounded and divided by them. Later, they were almost numb.

After encircling and surrendering these defeated soldiers, they only left a small number of soldiers to guard these surrendered Greek soldiers. Other troops continued to move inland.

After 　　 took the lead in attacking Larissa (the capital of Thessaly region), they captured Volos non-stop, and then ran all the way towards Athens under the command of Hoffman.

No one was an opponent of the Greek army along the way. It was either annihilated or defeated.

And now their commander-in-chief, Lieutenant General Hoffman, is in the command car and is constantly watching the latest intelligence on the entire battle.

"Unexpectedly, the navy fought so badly on Chios Island."

What Hoffman read was the navy’s battle report. In this battle report, the admiral’s battle on Chios was listed in detail, including the luck of the fairy gun.

This battle caused more than 1,000 casualties of the First Marine Division, of which more than 800 people were killed. This made the First Marine Division a lot of loss. And their opponents, the Greek army, were also uncomfortable. The casualties of more than 3,000 people also disrupted their spine.

Hoffman studied this battle report carefully. Although the landing battle has little to do with him, who can tell, maybe he might use it for anything. And this battle report is also helpful to him, whether it is the formation of troops, and the command and response can give him a lot of ideas for reference.

From a tactical point of view, he believed that this was not worth the gain for the battle on Chios. Because of the strong attack on the enemy's position, the casualties were too great, and some of the gains outweighed the losses.

But from a strategic point of view, he thought the battle was right, because it showed to the Greeks that their resistance was useless. Even with decisive conviction and excellent terrain, they were still not an opponent of the Romanian army.

And while he was studying the report carefully, a communications staff came over. He took out a telegram from his file package and handed it to Hoffman's desk.

"Report to your Excellency General, this is a telegram from the Italian side from the collection."

"Okay, I know."

Hoffman gave up the idea of ​​continuing to study the report of the battle on Chios Island, put it on the table, and picked up the newly arrived Italian telegram. Because he was curious why Admiral Mandiv sent the Italian telegram to him.

"What, the Italian army asks for help!"

Don’t blame Hoffman for being so gaffe, but when the new style of the Greek campaign was very good, Italy’s offensive against Albania was unfavorable and actually sent the request for help to Romania.

The format of the telegram is a telegram sent by Italian army commander Lieutenant General Pesca in Albania to General Mandiv.

In this telegram, Lieutenant General Pesca first congratulated the Admiral and congratulated him on encircling and destroying the main force of the Greek army. Then he began to talk about his own difficulties, lack of ammunition, unfavorable terrain, and the enemy's stubborn resistance. Finally, I hope that Admiral Mandiv can send a force to attack the Greek defenders from behind and relieve the pressure on the Italian army.

And Hoffman saw this telegram, so he didn't know what to say. It's just that the general didn't say his decision, so he is not good at guessing. However, according to his prediction, the general should send a troop to help the Italian army. Because Italy is an ally, it is not justified not to help.

Hoffman’s speculation is actually a bit optimistic. The real situation is that the Italian army failed to attack and retreated, and was unable to fight again.

Yes, this is the case.

There are two reasons for the poor performance of the Italian army; one is the lack of ammunition preparation. That's right, the ammunition is insufficient. Italy's chaotic logistics has never been able to replenish enough ammunition for the Italian army. After Mussolini was ready to go to war, these talents discovered that the Algerian-Italian troops had not been replenished enough.

So he immediately took out a lot of ammunition and urgently replenished it to the Italian army in Albania, but the port capacity of Albania was insufficient, and a large number of ships were piled up here. The Italian army has launched an offensive, and a lot of ammunition is still unloaded in the port.

As early as May, Edel and Mussolini had negotiated a plan to divide Greece. By November, there was still a shortage of ammunition. It can be seen the level of chaos in the Italian army's logistics . On the other hand, It is that the recruited Albanian troops are unreliable. Even shortly after the attack was launched, the Albanian troops enlisted by the Italian army scattered and fled, and many even fled back to resist Italian rule.

In the face of the Italian army's attack, the Greek defenders rely on the terrain to resist the attack. However, the Italian army had been fighting for several waves, which caused its morale to be low. At this time, it happened to be counterattacked by the defenders, and they were all driven back, so embarrassed.

Facing the Romanian army, which had a big victory over Greece, it was obvious that the Italian army was going to ask for help.

It’s just that now this situation makes Hoffman a little bit dumbfounded. No one would have thought that the Italian army had fought so badly. Before the Spanish Civil War and the Ethiopian War, it seemed that the Italian army was doing well, but it turned out to be like this when it was the turn of the fight against Greece. This all made Hoffman think that Italy was planning to do nothing.

Putting down the telegram in his hand, Hoffman couldn't help but worry about Italy. Of course he is not sympathetic to the Italians, because Libya in the hands of Italy is too important for the three countries.

I hope this battle is an individual manifestation of the Italian army. If the Italian army behaves in this way, then this will hinder Romania's own strategy in the eyes.

With a skeptical attitude towards the combat effectiveness of the Italian army, Hoffman couldn't help thinking more. Now that Hoffman got hints from Admiral Mandiv, he is more and more looking at the problem from the overall perspective, and his vision is naturally much broader.

And at this moment, a staff officer came to report. "Report to Your Excellency, the First Armored Division of Vanguard found the Greek defenders at Hot Spring Pass."