Chapter Thirty-Eight: Rehearsal in the Saar District

"Well-deserved. His performance against the German Afrika Korps in North Africa was outstanding." Koman could only answer this way; what else could he say? He was merely a second lieutenant, and a newly promoted one at that. "Actually, paying attention to the movements of the Italian Communist Party might provide us with some assistance."

Although Koman had just taken a heavy-handed approach with the French Communist Party in Marseille, one had to analyze specific situations accordingly. Ultimately, the Italian Communist Party was an Italian affair and posed no threat to France.

There was no need to wait for General Dragon to respond. Koman had his own way of interacting, and he was certain his father, Dragon, had taken the suggestion to heart.

Leclerc was a celebrated figure in France during the Second World War. He had held his own against the German army on the North African front and completed a meteoric rise from captain to major general, likely making him the most accomplished general in the French military.

However, Koman remembered that Leclerc had terrible luck and would eventually die young in a plane crash. At this moment, serving as the commander of the 22nd Armored Division, Leclerc was still a major general.

Being appointed by the provisional government as the commander of the newly formed Fifth Army and tasked with the operation against Italy showed how highly he was regarded.

"Since you are mentally prepared, go back and get some rest early," General Dragon said without hesitation. "I need to have a word with Major General Raphael."

Holding the receiver, Koman looked at Major General Raphael, who was standing nearby and took the handset directly. "Battalion commander, what is it?"

There was no echo on the line, but Major General Raphael knew there was no malfunction. He suddenly turned his head and said, "Koman, I will arrange for a vehicle to take you back to the camp. There won't be any easy times like this in the future, so get some rest."

After Koman left the office, Major General Raphael said helplessly, "Battalion commander, Koman has left. As for having me look after him, you can rest assured."

"I am a major general now; don't use the old title." General Dragon seemed to recall the days spent serving in Syria, but he stopped the reminiscence as quickly as it began. "My eldest son hasn't grown up yet, but Koman makes me very proud. The Youth Division is essentially a gendarmerie-style unit; just arrange things according to standard procedure."

General Dragon knew it was unrealistic to keep the Youth Division completely isolated from the battlefield, but by placing them in the second wave of the offensive, no one could criticize the decision.

"No problem," Major General Raphael replied concisely. "The Youth Division lacks combat experience and only has two battalions; it wouldn't have been appropriate to put them in the first wave anyway."

Leclerc arrived in Marseille a day later. Wearing his signature French black kepi, he immediately drafted an operational plan. The invading force was divided into two prongs: the northern route would see the French 5th Mountain Division seize the Little St Bernard Pass to establish a forward base, capture the Aosta Valley, and control the Italian side of the entrance.

The southern route, led by the 22nd Armored Division that he had commanded for years, would push along the Fréjus Pass, occupy Bardonecchia, and strike toward Turin.

This was the operational plan for the Franco-Italian border. On a grander scale, there was also the American landing at Ventimiglia and the million-strong Allied forces in Italy pushing northward.

Within the Aosta Valley alone, there were three peaks exceeding 4,000 meters. While not particularly high on a global scale, they stood out prominently in Europe, which necessitated the assistance of a mountain division.

Over the next few days, countless supplies and ammunition were transported to Marseille by rail. For this operation, the Paris provisional government had exhausted every effort to ensure the invading forces were well-supplied.

The battle began on October 25, following the conclusion of the British delegation's visit to Paris. In the early hours of that day, Anglo-American bombers took off from the Mediterranean, the Italian Peninsula, and airfields in southern France to carry out carpet bombing against military targets held by the German-Italian coalition in northern Italy. The kind of treatment usually reserved for the thousand-plane formations flying over Germany was now seen in Italy for the first time.

Along the hundreds of kilometers of the front line covering the Franco-Italian border and the Gothic Line, tens of thousands of artillery pieces of various types roared, turning the positions of the German-Italian coalition into a sea of fire. Under the cover of air and artillery support, Sherman and Cromwell tanks launched a full-scale offensive.

This was the largest battle to have broken out on the Italian front to date, involving over a million troops from various nations, including the French forces on the border.

In the Eastern Front's Soviet-German war, deploying a million troops was nothing unusual, but on other fronts, it was extremely rare for a single battle to involve over a million soldiers. The entirety of northern Italy seemed to tremble under the intensity of the assault.

The German-Italian positions along the Franco-Italian border received special attention. Throughout the day, American, British, and French aircraft never ceased their sorties, continuously dropping bombs on suspected targets.

The 22nd Armored Division pushed along the Fréjus Pass. This armored division was equipped with British Churchill tanks, a model most famous for its almost non-existent suspension system. However, in mountain warfare, this flaw was mitigated by the geographical environment of the border region.

Faced with the full-scale Allied offensive, Heinrich von Vietinghoff, commander of the German forces in Italy, immediately formulated a counterattack plan. However, the German forces in Italy were the weakest of the three fronts, suffering from severe personnel shortages and facing a massive disadvantage in artillery, tanks, and aircraft. From the start of the battle, Vietinghoff had been receiving a constant stream of urgent SOS reports.

This was also the first time German forces on fronts other than the East had faced such overwhelming firepower. The introduction of airborne and amphibious operations further roiled the battlefield.

A cold wind cut like a knife across the ridges of the Aosta Valley. By the end of October, snow had already appeared in the Alps, emitting an ominous crunching sound under the boots of the marching troops. Each soldier carried over thirty kilograms of gear—rifles, ammunition, grenades, and ice axes, which Trotsky would have found very familiar.

It was only after receiving the order to attack that the soldiers of the 5th Mountain Division realized the Golan Heights were not even in the same league as the Alps.

In the distance, along the dark, brooding ridgeline, lay the Italian defensive fortifications. Intelligence indicated that this high ground was guarded by the Italian 5th "Corsica" Infantry Battalion, numbering about 300 men, equipped with four Breda machine guns and two mountain cannons.

The reason the Italians set up this outpost here was that if the French wanted to attack from this direction, they would be impossible to miss.

If the outpost reported being under attack, it would mean the offensive had begun, giving them enough warning to prepare for combat.

There was no other choice; the Axis air force was exhausted, and they had not received any aerial reconnaissance reports for a long time.

The sister units on their left and right flanks were positioned near towering cliffs, sprawling wetlands, and rolling hills.

The reason the Italian outpost was placed in such a location was fundamentally because the German-Italian coalition now relied entirely on the Germans, meaning the Italian troops had to make sacrifices and act as bait.

Faced with an arrangement that clearly meant sacrificing themselves to protect the Germans, the Italians, besides praying that no fighting would break out on the border, were also ready at any moment to demonstrate their flexible Italian stance.

"Charge! For France!" The mountain unit's commander, Bertrand, had wanted to approach the outpost undetected, but upon being discovered, he had no choice but to draw his revolver and lead the charge.

Eighty French mountain soldiers followed him toward the Italian lines. Charging through the snow was incredibly difficult; every step felt like wading through molten lead. When Bertrand heard the first roar of a machine gun, a soldier three meters to his left suddenly flew through the air like a rag doll, his blood splashing a striking red flower across the snow.

The fighting on this ridge was merely a microcosm of the entire Italian campaign. As if to save face for Operation Market Garden, and bolstered by absolute superiority in both manpower and firepower, the Allies' offensive intensity this time was unprecedented, especially in the areas controlled by the Apennine Peninsula, which were rapidly breached.

All of northern Italy was engulfed in smoke. After several days of fighting, the most difficult border defenses in the Aosta Valley had been breached by the French. At this point, Koman also received his orders: the two battalions belonging to the Youth Division would be incorporated into the 8th Infantry Division to launch the second wave of the offensive.

"This battle that wasn't supposed to exist has begun after all." Upon receiving the order, Koman immediately rushed to the 8th Infantry Division to report for duty and enter Italian territory with the troops. This would be a rehearsal for the future in the Saar region.