The sun never sets

Because of Rudolf Grazigna's breakthrough on the southern front of Ethiopia, the Italian government's tone became arrogant again. Mussolini claimed in a public speech, "........the great and invincible Romans have won a decisive victory. Here, we warn certain people and certain countries not to dream of hindering the revival of the great Rome........."

The Alliance did not respond to the Italians' international provocations, but simply accelerated the transportation of weapons and equipment to Ethiopia and agreed to Lieutenant General Sun Chuanfang's application to send volunteer troops into Africa to fight.

The Central Asian Military District has deployed an armored force in Saudi Arabia, equipped with some "Type 24 tanks". When fighting in the desert, the tanks are very useful and are used to suppress the Wahhabi Muslims, and they are simply invincible.

Although the "Type 24 Tank" is no longer the most advanced tank in the alliance, it was once the main medium tank and is much stronger than Italy's light tanks.

Over the past period of time, the Alliance has produced thousands of tanks and more variants using the same chassis. Some of these tanks were sold to MacArthur's military government, and the rest are still the main equipment of the People's Army.

The production speed of the latest tanks is not fast, and the limited production capacity is mainly allocated to the European troops to maintain the armored advantage over Germany. In the secondary direction, such as the Central Asian Military Region, the main force of the armored forces is still the "Type 24 tank".

Because Ethiopia has no oil refining industry and the road conditions are very bad, the Central Asian Military District did not transport many tanks there. It only sent 20 tanks and a large number of spare parts.

Ethiopia lacks rail transport for tanks, so drivers have to drive tanks to the battlefield, which not only consumes fuel, but also quickly consumes the life of the tank engine.

There is no plan to ship this batch of tanks back. If they have not been damaged on the battlefield after the war, they will be donated to the Ethiopian government.

Fighting a war is just burning money.

Even if they only sent about 10,000 volunteers, it would still be a huge expense. If the Ethiopians could not prove themselves on the battlefield, the Central Alliance would not agree to send volunteers.

But the Ethiopians have shown extraordinary bravery in the war against aggression, so this country is worthy of the alliance's investment.

The alliance agreed to send volunteers and gave the Ethiopian government more credit, enough to buy weapons and equipment for 20 divisions. Of course, all this came at a price.

After the League and Ethiopia sign a new treaty, Ethiopia's economy will be dependent on the towering tree of the People's Revolutionary League. It must also open a Chinese language college in the country, classify Chinese as the country's second language, and use the same technical standards as the People's Revolutionary League, etc.

Italian fascist newspapers claimed that Emperor Haile Selassie had sold out Africa's interests and sovereignty and that Ethiopia had become a vassal of the People's Revolutionary League.

In a way, the Italians are not wrong.

However, this is the era. Small countries must have the awareness of small countries. Small countries that do not have big legs must face the malice of the great powers alone. Ethiopia is not small. It can be regarded as a regional power in Africa. Its land area is not smaller than that of Italy. However, this country is still in the agricultural era, while Italy is already an industrial "power".

Sometimes, agricultural countries can defeat industrial countries, but that is rare. In most cases, agricultural countries will be beaten by industrial powers. If Ethiopians do not move closer to the alliance, they will be eaten alive by Italy sooner or later.

On November 11, the Egyptian army in Thembien used 27mm howitzers to fire shells at the Italian troops in the encirclement. The Ethiopians pushed the artillery to the top of the mountain, commanding the Italians, and opened fire in the early morning.

The Egyptian army had a small number of 105mm howitzers, and even if they were used in large numbers, their lethality to the Italian army was not great. Trenches and anti-gun holes could effectively resist bombardment by artillery with a caliber of less than 150mm.

However, the shelling was only to cover the front-line positions, and the real killer move came from the Egyptian army at the upwind position. After a field investigation, the coalition military advisory group changed the plan to use special ammunition. Instead of using artillery to fire special ammunition, they directly released poison gas at the upwind position.

Under the cover of the bombardment, soldiers wearing protective clothing and gas masks transported a large number of cylinders filled with poison gas to the front line. Those cylinders looked similar to the gas cylinders used in China, except that they were painted with skulls and crossbones, which made people know at a glance that they were dangerous items.

More than 200 tons of sarin, mustard gas and phosgene were released in the darkness of the early morning, and the thick poisonous gas gathered together to form a fog of death. Then, this fog of death was blown by the breeze and slowly drifted towards the Italian army's position.

The conditions for using poison gas were very harsh, and the Egyptian army waited for more than a week before they had a good chance to use special ammunition. Before that, the most they did was digging trenches and getting as close to the Italian positions as possible through earthwork.

During this period, many small-scale battles broke out, and the Italian army also organized a breakout, but it was unsuccessful. The Egyptian army was not good at offensive operations, but they were good at digging trenches, laying mines, and fighting blocking battles. I can't say that they fought very well, but at least they were decent.

The Italian army broke through several times, lost a lot of troops and consumed a large amount of ammunition. They had no choice but to dig circular fortifications, hoping to rely on their firepower advantage to hold on and wait for reinforcements.

There were more than 20 Italian troops on the northern front, and only more than 30,000 people in the encirclement. They believed that friendly forces would soon come to rescue them.

However, the friendly forces did not arrive, but the poison gas arrived first.

Chapter 884: Destruction

In order to transport thousands of "gas tanks" to the front line, the Egyptian army put a lot of thought and paid a lot of price. They finally found the "gas tanks" in the most suitable place, and then they played a very good role.

The Italians did not expect that they would be attacked by poison gas bombs. They had always used poison gas bombs to attack the Ethiopians. Why was it the other way around this time?

The slowly flowing poisonous gas cloud was like the claws of the devil, covering the Italian army's position. At first, no one realized that something was wrong, but they just felt that the air had become spicy. Some people coughed, some kept crying and running noses, and some staggered, staggered and rushed around, screaming heartbreakingly.

Then, finally, someone understood.

"Poison gas bomb!"

"The enemy used poison gas bombs!"

The morale of the surrounded Italian troops was lowered, and the discipline was maintained only by the officers' suppression. When they heard that their side had been attacked by poison gas bombs, the officers stopped suppressing the troops and set an example by running away, and the soldiers followed them and ran around.

Enshrouded in the poisonous gas cloud, the Italian soldiers could not tell east from west, south from north, and could not care less. They just covered their heads and ran away. Many of them collapsed to the ground after running a few steps. More and more Italian soldiers fell to the ground, and a few of them found the right direction and escaped from the range of the poisonous gas.

But this may not be a good thing for them. The poison gas has entered their lungs through the respiratory tract and penetrated into their bodies through the skin. Death is inevitable, and escaping will only make the painful process before death longer.

Only those who were at the edge of the gas coverage and had time to plug their mouths and noses with urine or other liquids and escape in time could survive.

The power of the poison gas bombs was beyond expectations, killing more than 6 Italian soldiers and poisoning more than others. The ring fortifications built by the Italians increased the density of troops and firepower, and the defense was enhanced. When attacked by poison gas, the casualties also increased a lot.

When daybreak came, the northern Italian position was dead silent, with no living creatures to be seen, only a gloomy mist.

Hundreds of Egyptian soldiers, wearing full sets of protective clothing and carrying rifles with bayonets, carefully entered the Italian positions. The Italian soldiers' hideous and miserable corpses were scattered all over the ground, which made people shudder.

However, the Ethiopians were not horrified by the thousands of dead bodies, but cheered for the thousands of dead Italians. After the Egyptian army occupied the northern Italian positions without bloodshed, they continued to attack, killing and wounding many Italians, but because the Italian army's firepower was too fierce, the Egyptian army temporarily withdrew to the occupied positions.

Afterwards, the Egyptian army dragged in artillery and fired poison gas bombs at the huddled Italian troops. This attack seemed to be the last straw, completely crushing the Italians' psychological defenses.

Some Italian troops broke away from their positions and broke through to the north under heavy gunfire, while the rest of the Italian army gave up resistance and raised the white flag.

The battle of Thembione came to an end, but the fighting was not over. The Italian army that broke out to the north had more than 10,000 soldiers and still had a lot of fighting power. However, the Italian army that broke out lacked ammunition and food. If nothing unexpected happened, it would not be able to run far.

Mussolini is the founder of fascism. Fascism has a certain bonus to the army's combat effectiveness, but Italy's business is too developed and it has no tradition of militarism. Except for a small number of black shirts, most of the Italian army will not fight to the last moment.

In the face of unfavorable circumstances, there is a high probability that the Italian army will surrender.

Three days later, the Italian troops in the north, running out of ammunition and food, finally gave up their struggle. After contacting the rear by radio, they broke out to the north and defeated several interceptions by the Egyptian army. However, three days later, they were still hundreds of miles away from the reunion point.

Not only was the army short of food and artillery shells, but even rifle bullets were running low. If the battle continued, they would have to fight the enemy with bayonets, which was something the Italian army would not do.

Mussolini once boasted that he had "eight million bayonets", but battles cannot be won with bayonets alone.

The 30,000 surrounded Italian troops were completely wiped out. The Egyptian army took advantage of the situation and moved northward, pushing the battle line back to the Aksum line.

While the battle was fierce on the northern front, the Italian army on the southern front also launched a fierce attack, trying to relieve some of the pressure on the besieged friendly forces by using the method of besieging Wei to save Zhao. The Italian army on the southern front carefully organized the attack on Silay. While the Italian army was attacking head-on, it also separated a part of its troops to cross the mountainous area and cut off the Egyptian army's supply line to Silay.

Fierce fighting broke out in the city and the mountains. In the early stage, the Italian army made good progress and defeated many Ethiopian legions. However, when Emperor Haile Selassie's flag was raised in the city, the morale of the Ethiopian army was high, and the Italians suffered heavy casualties every time they advanced.

Rifle soldiers only need one month of training before they can be deployed to the battlefield, but technical soldiers need to undergo longer training. Whether it is a machine gun or a mortar, you need to have a sufficient understanding of the equipment to exert its killing effect.

However, due to the urgent situation, Sun Chuanfang could only agree to send all the technical arms that had not yet completed all the training to the southern front. Many machine gun groups and mortar groups died under the guns and artillery of the Italian army, but they also dealt a heavy blow to the Italians.

Rudolf Lagazzinia soon discovered that the troops he had were being depleted too quickly. The native troops recruited from Africa had little combat effectiveness, and the only troops he could rely on were those transferred from Italy.

The southern line was not the main offensive direction. He only had 11 local troops, and after this period of fighting, the number of troops had dropped to less than 10. Because of Ethiopia's poor terrain and transportation conditions, after advancing hundreds of miles, the logistical supply of the Italian army had reached a very dangerous point.

If it weren't for the capture of an Egyptian supply center, Ragzinia's troops would have starved.

If Silay could be taken in one fell swoop, the war could continue. But now Emperor Haile Selassie appeared in the city, the morale of the defenders was high, and it was impossible to capture Silay in a short time.

In this way, the Italian army on the southern front fell into the same situation as before on the northern front. If the Ethiopians had any reserves, they could have surrounded the main force of Rudolf Lagzinia.

Chapter 885: Abnormal Position

When the volunteers sent by the alliance arrived at the Silay front, the fierce firepower and superb technical and tactical level quickly dealt a heavy blow to the Italian army. The same weapons can exert different power in the hands of the People's Army and the Ethiopian Army, not to mention that the equipment of the People's Army is much more luxurious than that of the Ethiopian Army.

The 19th Division was a meritorious unit of the Union. It had existed for thirty years and participated in many famous battles.

After Saudi Arabia, they have been conducting desert warfare training in preparation for the possible liberation of Egypt and drinking from the Mediterranean in the future.

However, they had not forgotten their skills in fighting in the mountains and plains. Adhering to the principle of concentrating forces to fight a decisive battle, the 19th Division surrounded two Italian mountain infantry regiments in the mountains, but failed to achieve the goal. Thousands of Italian mountain infantry abandoned their heavy weapons and equipment and fled across the mountains.

Many of those mountain infantrymen are mountain people living near the Alps. They can climb mountains and cross ridges with ease. There are very few people in the world who can surpass them in climbing mountains.

Grazinha was shocked at first when an entire mountain infantry regiment was wiped out, but then he realized the danger. Italy had spies in Ethiopia and knew that the Alliance was about to send volunteers into East Africa.

Rudolf Grazinha knew about this, but he did not expect the People's Army to act so quickly. At this time, he received news from home that the Egyptian army used poison gas bombs on the northern front, and the surrounded friendly forces suffered heavy casualties and showed signs of collapse.

At this point, Grazigna did not plan to continue to attack Silay, but planned to withdraw the army for a distance and rely on the terrain of the mountains for defense. Retreating can also shorten the supply distance of the Italian army, which is a win-win situation. It will not be too late to attack after the ammunition and manpower are replenished.

However, Mussolini was determined not to allow the troops on the southern front to retreat. The fascist leader severely criticized Rodolfo Graziania's retreat plan in a telegram, believing that the retreat would damage Italy's international reputation and lose the hard-won victory.

To be fair, Rudolf Graziania could be called a famous general. His use of armored forces was at the forefront of the world, but he was not decisive enough and worried more about politics than military affairs, so he suffered a disastrous defeat in the end.

Because Mussolini did not allow any retreat, Graziania did not dare to implement the retreat plan immediately. Instead, he communicated with Rome again and again, trying to persuade the leader to allow the troops on the southern front to temporarily withdraw.

It was just a temporary retreat, not a direct retreat to the border, so what was wrong with that? But Mussolini would not allow it. The founder of fascism had already lost and could not bear any more defeats.

Time passed quietly in the debate between Grazigna and Rome. Two days later, the League Volunteer Army completed its preparations for the attack and launched a massive attack on the Italian army under the city of Sile.

The Volunteer Army, led by 17 "Type 24 tanks" and with the support of hundreds of fighter planes and dive bombers, launched a "blitzkrieg" that caught the Italian army off guard.

The Italians, who had become accustomed to the Egyptian army's fighting rhythm, had not yet reacted when the right wing of the battle line was torn open. The volunteers advanced day and night. The armored units and motorized infantry as the vanguard rushed towards the border, as if they wanted to surround all the 100,000 Italian troops.

After learning the news, Rudolf Grazian sent out tank troops to intercept. Subsequently, a tank battle broke out in the hilly area between more than a dozen tanks of the Alliance and the Italian dwarf tanks.

Many of the light tanks equipped by the Italians do not even have artillery, only a heavy machine gun. Such weapons and equipment are suitable for bullying agricultural countries like Ethiopia, but they are not enough to confront a land power like the Alliance.

In the tank battle that broke out near Dolo, Italy's thin-skinned tanks were unable to penetrate the armor of the "Type 24 Tank". After being hit by a shot, they either turned into torches or shattered into parts.

Whether it was the 24mm short-barreled guns on the Type 75 tanks or the anti-tank guns in the hands of the infantry, the Italian light tanks could not withstand them. On the other hand, the Italian army had almost no decent anti-tank weapons. The anti-tank guns and 37mm anti-tank guns were not powerful enough to deal with the tanks of the Allies.

After being defeated in the tank battle, the Italian army could only rely on infantry to stop the tanks of the Allied Volunteers. Some Blackshirts launched a desperate counterattack, trying to blow off the tracks of the Volunteer tanks with cluster grenades.

Most of the fascist bandits were killed on the way to the counterattack, and only a few succeeded. After the tank's tracks were blown up, the commander climbed out of the cabin with the crew and gave the weapons, ammunition and fuel in the tank to other tank crews.

It's not that Ethiopia doesn't have railways, but the mileage is very short, and most of the time transportation still relies on mules and horses, which is the most effective way of supply after leaving rivers and railways. This has been the case from the Han Dynasty more than 90 years ago to the s.

Therefore, the Volunteer Army's sustained combat capability was also very weak, and the war with Italy was more like a fight between weaklings. The so-called "blitzkrieg" was actually carried out by relying on the infantry's running.

The Volunteer Army tanks suffered some losses, but the remaining tanks were still unstoppable by the Italian army, and the Allied Volunteer Army could call for air support. The communication equipment that was popularized to the infantry companies played an important role in the battle. When encountering a heavy Italian army group, they called dive bombers to drop a round of bombs, and the rest would be easy.

After hearing that his own tank unit had been destroyed, Graziano no longer bothered to ask Mussolini for an order to retreat. He quickly ordered the rear team to become the front team, and the entire army marched in the direction they came from.

hurry

The order to withdraw caused panic among the Italian troops on the southern front. Many people already knew the result of the tank battle. Rumors spread in the army that their retreat had been cut off and they were about to suffer the same fate as the friendly forces surrounded on the northern front.

The hasty retreat of the Italian army caused a disaster. Emperor Haile Selassie seized the opportunity of the Italian army's chaos and launched a counterattack on the front line. Although he failed to destroy many enemies in the pursuit, he successfully separated the Italian mountain infantry from the main force of the Italian army.

The Italian mountain infantry who fought bravely in the mountains did not have time to withdraw and were divided and surrounded. Even though they were elite mountain infantry, they could not defeat an enemy force three times their size and rush through hundreds of miles of mountains without supplies.

The mountain infantry forgotten in the rear could only hold on and wait for reinforcements. When they found that there were no reinforcements and their food was exhausted, they had no choice but to surrender.

However, there were also some very powerful troops who crossed mountains and rivers, took the lesser-traveled paths, and successfully broke out of the encirclement.

The number of the Union Volunteer Army was only over 10,000, and together with the guards and other troops originally sent to Ethiopia, the total force was less than 20,000. Emperor Haile Selassie had a lot of troops, but most of them were not very strong, so the southern line was not able to achieve a large encirclement, but only cut the Italian army in half, and more than 50,000 Italian troops escaped.

Subsequently, the Egyptian army and the Volunteer Army attacked southwards together and successfully pushed the front line back to the border. The Italian army on the southern front suffered heavy losses, with more than 40,000 casualties, prisoners and missing, and lost a large amount of weapons, equipment, baggage and ammunition, and no longer had the ability to attack.

As for the troops recruited locally in Africa, Italy did not care about their casualties, and the Egyptian army did not regard them as combat-capable troops. When both sides counted the results of the battle, half of them were not included in the calculation.

Rodolfo Graziani adjusted his troops to a defensive formation, strengthening the defenses at various locations while asking for reinforcements from Rome. Now the offensive and defensive situation had changed, and it was the turn of the Italian army to defend.

Chapter 886 Weakness

In 1936, Italy suffered heavy defeats on both the northern and southern fronts in Ethiopia, with total casualties approaching . In a world war, people were nothing. At that time, in every major battle, even the victorious side would suffer more than casualties.

However, the war in East Africa was not a world war, but a war between the great powers and an indigenous African country. The result was such a result, which caused the international reputation of the Italians to decline.

The Italian media said that it was because the Ethiopians used poison gas bombs and the allied troops directly participated in the war that Italy suffered some setbacks.

Yes, the Italians used the adjective "frustration" to describe their disastrous defeat in Africa. They did not admit that they had lost nearly 90 people, but cut the number off by 11%, saying that there were only more than casualties. They also claimed that they had dealt a heavy blow to the Ethiopians, destroying as many as Egyptian troops.

Although the Italians did not admit that they had suffered a tragic defeat, the Ethiopian side produced a large amount of evidence, including mountains of Carcaro M1891 rifles, long lines of Italian prisoners of war that stretched as far as the eye could see, destroyed Italian tanks and planes, and so on.

In the face of the ironclad facts, no matter how the Italians defended themselves, it was useless. Having lost 100,000 troops, Italy had lost the courage and strength to continue the offensive. They were now busy replenishing weapons, ammunition and troops to avoid being killed by the Ethiopians.

The Ethiopian army suffered more casualties than the Italians. They suffered heavy losses in the early stage of the Italian army's poison gas bomb offensive, and the southern line was broken by Graziani's "blitzkrieg", and they also lost a considerable number of manpower. In fact, the Ethiopian army now has no offensive power.

Italy suffered a crushing defeat, but it still had more than 300,000 regular troops, plus a large number of African native troops, and could not be completely defeated by the Ethiopian army.

However, the Ethiopians are training their army intensively. The Union has also given the Ethiopian government a loan to purchase various Union goods and services.

The Military Commission of the People's Revolutionary League sent more officers to help the Ethiopians with their new coalition forces. The Mosin-Nagant rifles and some other light weapons in stock were shipped to Africa. In addition to those outdated weapons, the League also gave Ethiopia a lot of artillery, tanks and aircraft. Although they were not the most advanced weapons, they were enough to fight against the Italian army.

In just half a year, the Ethiopians will have an army of up to 400,000 people, with equipment levels close to or even exceeding those of the Italian Army.

If nothing else, the Alliance's Type 24 tank would be enough to crush all Italian armored forces.

Mussolini was very worried about this. He privately sought help from the German Empire, but the answer he got was that the North American war was at a critical moment and the Italians could only find a solution on their own for the time being.

The American Civil War had indeed entered a critical moment. MacArthur's military government could no longer hold on, and there were signs of collapse on several fronts. The fascist American forces in the South and the syndicalist American forces in the North were gearing up to attack Washington first.

Washington was once the United States

As the capital of the country, whoever can take Washington will have greater political appeal.

After the East African War began, the Italian volunteers withdrew from America, but they were still very clear about what was happening in North America. The military government was about to collapse, and Germany was indeed unable to spare a hand, but Mussolini still felt angry and cursed William III for being stupid and the German Junkers for being unwise in the villa.