My Italy - Chapter 695 Battle of Egypt (4)

Teleesa is a village west of Alamein, seven kilometers away from Alamein.

This is also a key point in front of Alamein’s first line of defense. Two divisions of the British and Indian troops are stationed here to defend. Although these two divisions belong to the British-Indian army, their soldiers are all elite Sikhs, so their combat effectiveness is very good.

Of course, in addition to the good soldiers, the equipment of these two divisions is also considered top-notch in the British and Indian Army. Both divisions have an artillery regiment with 36 artillery pieces. Coupled with other weapons and equipment and hard training and other factors, the combat effectiveness of these two divisions is not inferior to that of the South African troops.

And these two divisions did not live up to expectations. They built a large number of civil fortifications in Teleesa. They firmly controlled the village of Teleesa like a large network combined with the previous permanent fortifications built with cement and steel bars. in hand.

For the Italian army, capturing Teleesa became their first goal.

“Target bearing 17, angle 39, fire!”

“Boom!”

A 150mm cannon shell flew into the barrel of the gun. The propellant provided enough thrust to allow it to climb rapidly. As the thrust was gradually consumed, gravity gradually took over. The shell began to fall towards the ground, and finally landed on an English gun. Next to the army’s 18-pounder artillery.

The huge explosion directly vaporized the soldiers next to the artillery, and the explosion caused the shells piled aside to explode. Although these shells were not equipped with fuses, this shell was so powerful that it directly detonated the explosive in the shell. Then a series of explosions sounded at this artillery position.

Three of the four artillery pieces were lost in this explosion, and only the 18-pounder gun in the lower right corner was lucky enough not to be hit.

And this is just a corner of the battlefield. With the advantages of quantity, power and range, the artillery units of the Fourth Army firmly control the battlefield.

Of course, in the artillery battle, in addition to the powerful and elite own artillery, there is also a lot of help from the sky. Airships and hot-air balloons in the sky provided artillery with enemy positions, and fighter jets and bombers attacked the enemy from the air.

bomber?

That’s right, it’s a bomber. As a ground attack bomber, how could someone forget that as early as the second year of fighter research, a secret project to study bombers also started.

Over the course of ten years, Italian aircraft designers contributed to the development of the bomber. After four consecutive bombers were not approved by the military, finally in 1912, the Z-7 prototype developed finally satisfied the military. The reason why I am satisfied with it is because of its performance.

The aircraft is 11.9 meters long, has a wingspan of 23.9 meters, a height of 4.3 meters and a wing area of ​​89.9 square meters. Equipped with two 260-horsepower radial engines, the maximum flight speed is 135 kilometers, the maximum combat distance is 600 kilometers, and the ceiling is 6,000 meters. It can carry one 500kg aerial bomb, or two 250kg bombs, and can be replaced with five 100kg bombs. The self-defense weapons are three Maxim aviation machine guns (two in the front and one in the back).

In the end, the Italian military named the aircraft the AC10 bomber and asked the Siegel Aircraft Factory to produce 80 aircraft of this type in half a year. After the aircraft was delivered to the troops for use, it received praise from the army, navy and air force. Its long range and high enough payload allow the aircraft to have many uses.

In addition, at the beginning of the war, the demand for bombers ranked last among all types of aircraft. Because the bomb load is not as good as that of an airship, and the time in the air cannot be measured, the airship does not need a site, just a large enough flat land. The AC10 bomber was once forced to perform reconnaissance missions, forcing an excellent bomber into a reconnaissance aircraft. One can imagine how great the advantage of the airship is in the absence of anti-aircraft firepower.

However, with the emergence of Allied anti-aircraft weapons, the chance of airships performing combat missions has rapidly decreased. The originally powerful and huge body has become the favorite target of anti-aircraft weapons.

As a result, the ac10 bomber has been valued again. Its small size and low cost are its advantages (compared to airships that cost as much as a destroyer).

After this bomber carried out several bombing missions with very low losses, the military picked up this bomber again and required the aircraft manufacturer to deliver 300 aircraft within half a year and 800 aircraft within a year, so the aircraft was again Attention was paid.

In order to ensure the success of the Egyptian campaign, a total of 112 bomber groups from two bomber groups were sent to Prince Filiberto.

At this time, under the joint ground and air attack, the artillery of the Teleesa defenders was lost quickly. After two hours, there were only 27 artillery pieces left. The artillery battle could no longer continue, and then only the sound of Italian artillery fire could be heard on the battlefield.

Subsequently, Teleesa’s position was subjected to more violent shelling, and the continuous intensive attacks caused the defenders’ position to suffer a lot of losses. After the bombardment ended, a large number of fortifications were destroyed.

At this time, the British and Indian soldiers who were avoiding the artillery fire poured out of the artillery holes under the orders of their officers to prepare for the enemy’s attack.

Suddenly the roar of machines sounded, and dozens of planes appeared in the sky.

“Be careful of air strikes and be prepared for anti-aircraft fire.”

Amid the shouts of the officers, the machine guns and anti-aircraft guns on the position were aimed at the sky, waiting for the enemy planes to attack. They have encountered several air attacks and have figured out how to deal with aircraft. Although it is not very good, it is better than being unprepared.

However, this time the plane did not lower its altitude to attack, but kept circling in the sky, which annoyed the British and Indian officers and soldiers with the roar.

“No, why is the plane so loud?”

At this time, a British officer felt something was wrong. He was familiar with the noise of the aircraft, but it had never been so loud.

“what is that?”

At this time, a sharp-eyed soldier looked at the big black shadow on the ground in the distance and shouted loudly.

“What is this.”

An officer looked at a huge machine through binoculars and was puzzled. It’s actually a tractor, but it doesn’t look like it at all. Let’s say it’s an armored vehicle, but it’s also different, because the difference is a bit big and it still uses crawler tracks to move forward.

“Open fire, machine gun fire.”

At this time, an officer commanded a machine gun to attack it. Although he didn’t know what it was, judging from its appearance, it must be a weapon of the enemy.

“Da da da~”

The bullets fired by the machine gun seemed to have no effect on them, because the opponent did not stop at all and kept moving towards them.

“Why so many?”

As this strange machine gradually approached, it was only then that the officers and soldiers on the position saw that there were many of them, probably hundreds of them. And there are huge bundles of wood placed behind these strange machines, which is so weird.

“There are people behind this machine, Italians behind it,”

At this time, someone saw an enemy behind this strange machine and quickly warned loudly.

“Fire, all fire, fire on the enemy.”

The officer’s order was carried out, and the machine guns and rifles on the position continued to fire at the enemy.

However, most of the bullets hit these strange machines, and only a few lucky ones hit the Italian soldiers who did not hide.

Although the defenders continued to fire, their morale was gradually decreasing in the face of the enemy’s strange machines that could not be moved. Even though these Sikhs are brave and good at fighting, when facing the unknown, their fear is greater than that of the officers.

These strange machines kept approaching them. Obstacles such as mud pits, wooden piles, barbed wire, and earth slopes had no impact on them at all. There was no obstruction at all.

Then these strange machines kept getting closer, and when they got close to about 100 meters away from the position, they stopped. Then it opened fire, and the roar of machine guns and artillery at an extremely close range of 100 meters caused chaos among the British and Indian officers and soldiers on the position.

The distance was too close, and the enemy’s strange machine was constantly spraying firepower that directly beat them to the point where they couldn’t even lift their heads. Especially the machine guns, one shot at a time, there is no room for survival.

At this time, a large number of Italian troops jumped out from the starting position and attacked the suppressed garrison position.

Being constantly suppressed by this strange machine made the guards and soldiers on the position feel more and more panicked and frightened. Some soldiers had already sneaked away from the traffic ditch while the officers were not paying attention.

It’s not that no one wants it, but the explosive pack can take down this strange machine, but the soldiers who have been following the tank won’t let it happen. The dense ammunition of the submachine gun can solve any position that the tank does not pay attention to.

After the Italian reinforcements arrived, under the cover of tanks, the soldiers directly drove the enemy out of the position.

The tank’s first appearance was much more than that, and then the tank continued to attack, and in one day, it directly captured Teleesa, a forward point.

The tank achieved perfect results on its first appearance, which made the battle commander Prince Filiberto very happy. Although during this day, half of the tanks malfunctioned during the battle and could not be used, this still could not stop their sharp breakthrough attributes, which was too important for him now.

As for the British army, the news that the enemy had a mechanical monster that could not be penetrated by bullets was quickly penetrated by the defeated troops. As the supreme commander of the battle, General Murray knew earlier than others. To this end, he also summoned several defeated officers and soldiers overnight, and learned from them the combat situation of this monster machine.

At this time, he immediately reported the situation to London, and at the same time, he was still thinking about how to use what he had at hand to restrain this kind of fighting machine that could roam the battlefield.