My Italian Chapter 503

The government's additional funding has finally made the struggling army more comfortable.

Of course, the army who got the money, of course, needs to use the money well. For the current first person in the army, General Simeone, how to spend this money more valuable is what he cares most about.

That's right, Admiral Simeone is currently the first person in the Army, because the Minister of the Army, Marshal Cadorna, has been recovering from illness in recent years, and has not been involved in military affairs much.

And with the increase in funding, Simeone is indeed worrying about how to spend the money. Speaking of which, as soon as the money was received, the General Staff gave two plans for additional funding.

The first plan is very simple, that is, to expand the troops and expand the establishment of the divisions that are currently seriously dissatisfied with their personnel. According to the plan of the General Staff, the additional 60 million lire will allow the Army to expand its strength by at least 200,000 to 40,000.

Of course, it is impossible to spend this amount of money like this. It would be good to use half of it to expand the troops. The rest of the cost can also be used to purchase some new weapons and refit the troops. After all, new and old weapons coexist in the Italian army, and it is necessary to update the equipment of the troops.

Compared with the prudent first plan, the second plan is a bit radical. In this plan, the divisions that are currently seriously lacking are not intended to be supplemented, but the new funds will be used for two aspects: on the one hand, the replacement of weapons, and on the other hand, the use of the funds to continue to expand the division level prepared by.

That's right, the addition of infantry divisions that are currently seriously under-staffed in Italy.

However, although it seems that such an Italian division has a small number of troops, only eight or nine thousand people, but the equipment is not much different from that of a full-scale division. Taking the sixth division of the Army as an example, it is equipped with 18 105mm howitzers, 54 76mm mountain and field guns, more than 100 light and heavy machine guns, as well as various guns, vehicles, radio stations, field telephone lines and other materials. The total purchase cost of its equipment Up to more than 16 million lire.

In addition to the cost of purchasing equipment, it also needs to be compiled and trained, and daily training costs are also a lot. With the 60 million lire in Simeone's hands, he can only form three such missing editors every year.

So in his office, Simeone looked at these two plans and fell into contemplation. When I had no money, I wanted to spend more on the military, but when the military spending increased, how to choose was also a difficult problem.

But just as he was thinking, he heard the secretary's voice coming from outside the door. "Admiral, Director of Education Dalkion is coming."

"Invite Admiral Dalkion to come in."

"Haha, Dal Kion is so free to come to me today?"

For Simone, the first person in the army, to make such a warm gesture, on the one hand, the relationship between the two is good, and on the other hand, he is also considered a high-ranking authority.

Since Prussia defeated France, its advanced military system has been imitated by all countries. The Italian Army, too, did a whole lot of copying from the Germans. What kind of mobilization system, general warfare, etc., Italy has copied it pretty much. As the three giants of the German army (the Minister of the Army, the Chief of the General Staff, and the Director of Education), Italy has the same. And functionally similar to Germany. Therefore, Admiral Dalkion, who is in charge of the training and education of the Italian Army, can't be considered a high-level authority.

And the education director of the Italian Army opened the door to Simeone with a smile as soon as he entered the door. "Simeone, I heard you're struggling with how to spend that money?"

Although Simeone wanted to ask how do you know, but he held back, because he knew that this visit was definitely not easy, so he said frankly. "Yes, I do have a headache about spending the money."

Facing Simone's frank statement, Dalkion said with a smile. "Actually, I don't think those two plans are the best choices. Remember the compilation issue we talked about before?"

Dalkion's words made Simone immediately come back to his senses. Of course he knew what he was talking about with Dalkion. At that time, the two of them were talking about the increasing number of new equipment and the increasing number of division-level personnel. Both of them felt that something was not right, so they talked about their views.

"You mean, want to make changes to the troop formation?"

Simone asked uncertainly.

Facing Simone's question, Dalkion nodded and answered. "Yes, I came to you for this."

"Remember the exercise you did before?"

"I remember…"

Simeone certainly remembered that the increasingly large division-level troops in the exercise at that time also had many problems during the exercise. Of course, in addition to military exercises, the Russo-Japanese War in the Far East also gave Italy a sufficient reference value.

For this war, the Italian Army conducted in-depth research. The results of the study show that the more bloated the size of the force, the less conducive it is to its mobilization. At present, although the actual number of a division in Italy is relatively small, the establishment is very large.

According to the latest standards of the Italian Ministry of War, a full army division should have two brigades and four regiments of 12 battalions of infantry (one battalion consists of four companies of 254 men, plus one 6 Maxim and 12 Levy machine guns) The machine gun company), coupled with artillery, engineer battalion, cavalry battalion, baggage regiment and other troops, a full division of more than 19,000 people.

Such a huge troop force makes the army executives feel very bloated, which is not conducive to wartime command.

Some people may ask, other European countries are also the same, why do you feel that the army is bloated in Italy?

Good question, because countries have different national conditions, so their national defense requirements are also different. Compared with its great powers, the places where Italy needs to defend are mainly mountainous, and the mountainous terrain determines the small-scale and capable troops, which is more suitable for this terrain. Therefore, compared with other countries, Italy can feel that the large-scale division-level troops are not suitable for their needs, which is reasonable.

"But how to change it now is a difficult problem. It is hard to judge whether to change it from the top or from the bottom. After all, changing the system is not a trivial matter, and it is common sense to be more cautious." Dalkion looked at Simone and said. .

However, in the face of Dalkion's words, Simeone did not believe it. "Don't look at me like this, I know you must have an idea, take it out for reference."

"I really don't have any idea, just a little idea."

"It doesn't matter, any idea is fine. It's always right to refer to it."

Faced with Simeone's questioning, Dalkion really had no choice but to say. "Then I'll tell you a little bit of my opinion. First of all, the problem of the huge size of the army is actually very simple to lose weight, but it is a bit difficult to ensure the combat effectiveness as much as possible."

Dalkion said, of course Simeone knew that, or he would not be embarrassed about it.

"However, I think that if we want to slim down the army, we should start from the top, and I think the brigade and regiment levels can be changed first. Also, is there too many companies at the battalion level, and is it appropriate to cancel an infantry company? UU reading www.uukanshu.com and then the current 44 formation of the squad platoon, whether to make some changes? And if the number of infantry is greatly reduced, then the firepower supported by a large number should also be slimmed down to a certain extent ?, and in view of the large-scale downsizing of the division level in our country, and considering the possibility of war in the future, does the army level also need to make certain supplements, such as letting the army have three divisions under its jurisdiction, or adding technical arms such as military artillery? "

Dalkion said his thoughts in one go, and Simone was a little stunned.

"It seems that you have a good idea, so let's sit down and talk slowly."

Simeone then talked to Dalkion late into the night and continued the next day. After a total of three days of conversation, and after synthesizing the views of the two sides, the two decided on the establishment of the new Italian infantry division. For the sake of conservativeness, the two decided not to change the establishment below the company level.

According to the ideas of the two men, a new Italian infantry division had three infantry regiments and one artillery regiment. The units directly under the division will not be changed, and the brigade level of the infantry division will be cancelled directly. In addition to the big changes at the brigade level, the battalion level has also changed a lot. First, the four infantry companies were directly cut into three, and then the machine gun companies under the battalion were planned to be assigned to the first company level to form a machine gun platoon to increase the firepower of the company level.

After such changes, the total strength of the new infantry division will be reduced to more than 14,000. It is much smaller than before. As for the discussion at the army level, we still need to wait and see the effect of the changes at the division level before deciding whether to make changes.

Of course, the plan is still in the first draft, and it still needs to be carefully demonstrated.

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Chapter end