Chapter 1029: The Unseen Smoke of Gunpowder

On a major Italian highway, at a crossroads, there was a tall, old tree that could be used for shade. And under this old tree, in the knee-high grass, an “Sd.Kfz. 222” armored reconnaissance car, belonging to the vanguard of the German Wehrmacht’s J Army Group, was parked in concealment. This vehicle’s main mission at the moment was not to reconnoiter the movements of the Italian garrison, but to direct the congested traffic for the main force that was passing through.

“Those few carts on the left! You’re carrying too much, you’re too slow! Get the infantry off the road! Let the tanks and armored cars pass first!” a vehicle commander, holding a traffic control sign and standing at the crossroads, shouted. He had thrown his steel helmet onto the reconnaissance car, his head bare in the sweltering heat.

Column after column of German infantry, carrying their own equipment and baggage, were on the march. They grumbled loudly as they jumped off the road onto the embankment. The road became a little less congested, and a German Panther tank roared past two horse-drawn carts that were parked on the side, moving slowly because they were piled too high with baggage.

The German active-duty army was simply too massive, so massive that to completely mechanize this force was simply impossible. So, after having been equipped with tens of thousands of tanks and tens of thousands of vehicles, the German army still used a large number of horses. These mules and horses, in the second-line units, played a very important labor role.

J Army Group was clearly not the most elite of the German army’s main forces. Although its long-standing operations against partisans had given this unit a great deal of combat experience, this still did not change the fact that it was severely under-equipped. Apart from the elite 8th Panzer Corps and the 10th SS Panzer Division in this army group, most of the infantry still relied on horses as their means of transport.

“There’s a fight up ahead in the town of Roni. I hear it’s an Italian main force, an armored unit, that ran into the vanguard of the 8th Panzer Corps, in the defensive area of two armored battalions,” an infantry commander, who was riding past on a tall horse, said to his adjutant, who was also on horseback, relaying the news he had just heard. “The fighting is very fierce. This time, the Italians have finally put up a real fight.”

Italy, as recorded in history, was indeed not very good at fighting. At least, when it had not completed its war preparations, it had always been a drag on the Germans. The Balkans and North Africa were both typical examples of Italy being defeated and then dragging Germany into the water, so it was true that the combat effectiveness of the Italian army was not strong.

But no matter how weak a force is, it will still have some hard-fighting units. Weren’t the troops of the Southern Song Dynasty a pushover? But they had still held off the all-conquering Mongols at Diaoyu Fortress for thirty years. And for Italy, at a time like this, for a few units to emerge that dared to fight was actually nothing to be surprised about.

In the town of Roni, up ahead, an Italian armored brigade had frantically attacked the German forces. After losing more than 20 tanks, this unit had given up the attack and had been forced to retreat. But their efforts had not been in vain. At the very least, they had killed the first German soldier since the German army had crossed the Italian border.

The Battle of Roni was actually not a large-scale battle. After losing only one truck, the 8 German tanks had launched a counter-attack and had repulsed the Italians. As time went on, four hours later, the Italian army group deployed in this direction had announced that it was laying down its arms and would maintain a cooperative relationship with the four divisions of the German J Army Group.

“I say, at this rate of advance, it won’t be an easy matter to get to Rome. The Führer certainly wouldn’t have just mobilized our unit. Where are the other units? Or rather, where are our reinforcements?” In the swaying armored command vehicle, General Hoth’s adjutant asked his superior. “Now that the operation has begun, it’s not a secret anymore, is it?”

“Yes, it’s no longer a secret…” General Hoth replied to his subordinate’s question with a smile. “In fact, we were never the main force for taking over Italy. Our true identity is actually the reinforcements.”

After speaking, General Hoth pointed above his head and said to his adjutant with a triumphant air, “The vanguard for entering Italy this time is not our J Army Group, but them… those soldiers who are advancing even faster than our armored units!”

In the swaying, dim cabin of an aircraft, German soldiers, their faces painted with camouflage, sat in two rows, one next to the other. They were holding their MP-44 assault rifles and G43 semi-automatic rifles. Perhaps because they had not been in action for a long time, they were a little afraid that the world had forgotten them. So this time, they had set off in full gear, preparing to use a new victory to remind their opponents that some things should never be forgotten.

“We are about to reach the designated drop zone, gentlemen! Check your parachutes and weapons. I need everyone to be on high alert. Watch your feet and your surroundings! Shoot to kill any target that looks threatening!” Borol stood up from the side of the last row of soldiers and walked past his men, one by one. This time, he was still leading the soldiers of this battalion, to jump from a high altitude into the wilderness, to capture an airfield, and to control all the surrounding Italian military facilities.

In the dim cabin, the red warning light finally went out, and the green light, signaling that it was time to jump, lit up in time. The weather was very good, so visibility was also very good. The pilot quickly found the terrain marker they needed to find, and so he immediately lit the green jump indicator light.

“Alright, gentlemen! Jump! Jump! Jump! Let’s go down and show the Italians that they’ve made a complete miscalculation this time!” Borol pushed open the plane’s door and then shouted to his men, “Begin the jump! One after another! Spread your bodies! Quick! Quick! Quick!”

In the slightly trembling plane, the German paratroopers, one after another, jumped out. The static lines, which were hooked to the inside of the plane, pulled open their parachutes. In the sky, one after another of white flowers immediately blossomed. These small flowers soon merged into a patch, like dandelions, drifting with the wind.

Watching as all his men had jumped out of the plane, Borol finally, also, leaped from his own plane. The familiar wind rushed past his cheeks, making him once again feel that long-lost sense of belonging.

“Damanhur!” he shouted loudly in the sky, a word that had inspired tens of thousands of German paratroopers. This was the pride of the German paratroopers, and also the proof of their invincibility. Every time he jumped from a plane, he would think of that smoke-filled place, that place on the North African front that had become world-famous because of them.

“My God! Germans! German paratroopers!” an Italian soldier on duty in a watchtower shouted in terror, watching the German paratroopers who were flying all over the sky. “What’s going on? Sir! Sir… Germans! The Germans are here!”

He quickly jumped down from his post and ran towards the officer’s office in the barracks. A group of Italian soldiers, who had just gotten up, were at the washbasins, shaving their beards and washing up. Watching the sentry run past in a panic, they also noticed the German paratroopers who were descending in swarms in the distant sky.

An Italian soldier was so scared he swallowed the toothpaste in his mouth. They had just received an order this morning to strengthen their vigilance, to guard against a possible German invasion. But everyone had dismissed this order as a joke. After all, the alliance with Germany and their lax state of readiness had left these Italian guards with no intention of preparing for battle.

Unfortunately, the scene that was now appearing before them had turned their last fantasies into a fantasy. The Germans were really attacking, and as soon as they had appeared, it was with this shocking scene of descending from the sky.

“The anti-aircraft gun positions? Why aren’t they firing?” In the office, the duty officer, having received the news, was on the phone, furiously questioning the permanent anti-aircraft gun fortifications by the side of the airfield. There were 20 high-angle guns there, but not a single one was firing at the Germans in the sky.

“What do you mean, you haven’t received an order to fire? The Germans are invading! Are you blind? Return fire!” the Italian officer, holding the phone, heard the prevarication from the other end and immediately roared in anger.

Unfortunately, his roaring had no effect at all, because the person on the other end of the line had clearly been replaced. A calm voice sounded, but it was speaking in German. “I’m sorry, this position has been taken over by us. If you can understand what I’m saying, please give up any unnecessary resistance.”

Then the phone on the other end was hung up, and the mind of the Italian officer on this end was left with nothing but a blank.

Borol was not idle. He had hung up the phone and was now leading his men to attack in the direction of the airfield. The battle lasted for just a few short minutes. After a few of the Italian guards had been hit by bullets and had died, screaming, the commander of the Italian garrison at the airfield had wisely announced his decision to give up resistance.

The German paratroopers, who were all over the sky, were like a steel knife plunged into the heart of the Italian defenders. In this chaotic situation, they had had an unparalleled effect. Soon, all the important towns in northern Italy had, in an instant, fallen to the German occupied territory. Turin, Milan, Brescia, Bolzano, Venice, one after another, the cities had changed their flags and had become cities under German control.

That pitiful border defense line, which was said to be able to stop the Germans for three to seven days, had already been left far, far behind by the German paratroopers, a rather ironic fact. And this war between Germany and Italy, compared to the brutal Eastern Front, was like a military exercise, with not a single wisp of gunpowder smoke to be seen.

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