The occupation of Bolzano did not take much time to the German army. The one responsible for the suppression was the 106th Infantry Regiment of the 15th Infantry Division of the 7th Army of the German Army. This was a standard infantry regiment of the third battalion. The commander was the newly appointed Lieutenant Colonel Hacklandauer. He was only thirty-two years old at this time, but he was already the recipient of the Oak Leaf Knight Cross.

Before his promotion, he commanded an infantry battalion in the 236th Infantry Regiment of the 69th Infantry Division, participated in the offensive and defensive operations on the West Front of London, and showed excellent command ability in the battle. After the war, he was highly praised by General Guderian.

The head of state likes to promote officers as young as him, which has become a known secret within the National Defense Forces. Lower-level officers have room for promotion, which is also a great incentive for the morale of grassroots troops.

The older generation of officers were not worried about this. The army was always a place where qualifications were paid, and their authority would not be shaken. On the contrary, in the eyes of these old Junkers, this was obviously a good thing. The increase in the number of senior commanders means that the strength of the National Defense Forces is also increasing accordingly.

According to the situation reported by the front-line scouts, Haklandor judged that the Italians had no idea that the border had been lost and no signs of Italian military activity were found outside Bolzano. At this moment, the city was completely open to the German army.

The infantry regiment commander made a bold decision. He did not deploy the troops outside the city according to the original plan, but instead took the army directly to occupy the suburbs of the city station, and then used the station as a base to assault along the city streets from east to west, striving to quickly occupy the entire city before the Italians reacted.

Hacklandoer's adventure was a huge success. When the city changed hands, most of the local residents were still intoxicated in their sleep. Only when they occupied the police station, a few minutes of fire broke out, killing several brave Italian police officers and capturing the remaining duty officers. In the following time, the Germans were only busy sealing government agencies and material reserves, and driving some Italians who ran to the street to watch the fun back to their homes.

Bolzano's mayor and police chief were dragged out of the warm bed by German soldiers and stuffed into military vehicles to the German headquarters. On the way, they tried their best to figure out where the German soldiers in front of them came from and why they had not received any news before.

At this moment, a series of army full of German soldiers and equipment pulled a loud whistle through Bolzano Station and whistled towards the next Italian city. In the next twenty-four hours, a large number of freight trains will arrive at the city. In the plan of the commander-in-chief, a huge logistics center will be established in Bolzano, responsible for providing supplies to all German occupation forces in the Alps.

Bolzano also has something that the German Command attaches importance to, that is, it has a fully equipped airport and also has an Italian fighter squadron.

Italy is considered a major aviation power in Europe. In the early days of the development of aviation technology, Italian aircraft designers have always been at the forefront of the world. Aircraft designed and manufactured by Italy were once famous for its fashionable style and excellent flight quality.

Flying in Italy was an aristocratic sport. Those nobles who pursued fashion and chivalrous spirit were not hesitant to spend a lot of money in the aircraft manufacturing industry, in order to create the fastest, highest, farthest and most beautiful aircraft that could allow them to show their profound background in front of those vulgar European relatives.

At that time, the biggest opponents of the Italians were Britain and France, but Italians were often able to rely on their superb mechanical processing skills and genius imagination to gain the upper hand in aviation competitions.

Unfortunately, all of this ended with the arrival of the global economic crisis. The Italian aristocrats suffered heavy losses in the crisis and could no longer afford such a luxurious activity that was expensive but had to be named. The development of Italian aviation technology stagnated, and then the fascist party came to power. A large number of genius designers who were unhappy with Mussolini's dictatorship chose to go far away from foreign lands. Since then, people in Italy's aircraft design have no longer found the spirituality of the past.

The topic is a bit far away, so let's turn back to Bolzano's Italian airport. The 362nd Flight Squadron is stationed here, which belongs to the 52nd Flight Wing in Italy. This unit, known as the squadron, is actually very short of units. At this time, there are only five aircraft parked in the hangar, and they are all old models like Fiat.

This biplane fighter, which was finalized in 1933, was equipped with a 789-horsepower Fiat S-type 12-cylinder water-cooled engine, with a maximum speed of 360 kilometers per hour, and was equipped with two 12.7 mm caliber machine guns. Whether it was firepower or maneuverability, it was a very excellent advanced model at that time.

However, seven years later, the performance of this type of aircraft is not even considered a third-rate, but the Italian Air Force is still equipped with about 300 such fighters, accounting for one-quarter of the total number of Italian fighters at that time.

The 362nd Flight Squadron participated in the previous battle against France, but fortunately, he did not suffer any losses, and of course he did not get any results at the same time. After the war entered a stalemate, in order to save valuable fuel and parts, the squadron, which was useless to combat, was withdrawn from the front line. Rome threw them at Bolzano, a city surrounded by mountains, and maintained its existence as a symbolic armed force.

When the German infantry entered the airport, all five planes were parked in the hangar. The guards in charge of the airport were an air-resistant machine gun platoon equipped with six large-caliber anti-aircraft machine guns. However, because the incident was too sudden, there were only three sleepy sentries on duty in the battle position. The German infantry disarmed the men without any effort and then blocked the remaining soldiers in their barracks.

The pilots of the 362nd Squadron showed extraordinary courage. They were awakened by the noise in the barracks in their sleep. When they realized what had happened, the pilots had no time to change their uniforms and launched a counterattack on the attacking Germans in their pajamas. Although they had to surrender to the Germans because the bullets in their pistols were exhausted, they did show the backbone of the Italian officer in front of the Germans and maintained the honor of the 362nd Flight Squadron.

It should be noted that in this battle at the airport, no one on both sides died, only one Italian lieutenant's foot was cut by the broken window glass.

The importance of Bolzano Airport was not gradually revealed until the late war. The Italian Air Force set up a navigation station and a radio communication station in this airport. A row of steel antennas that were thirty meters high were erected in a corner of the airport. Italy does not currently have a radar system to use. Air navigation basically relies on its own compass and large radio navigation stations. Here, the German army not only seized a batch of extremely important navigation materials, but also obtained the passwords and keys currently being used by the Italian Air Force and the Army.

At six o'clock in the morning on the 21st, the German occupation of Bolzano was finally completed, half an hour before sunrise. At this time, the 222nd Infantry Regiment under the 75th Infantry Division had completely captured the next city of Trento.

The army immediately behind the 222nd Regiment was loaded with the Ninth Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, which belonged to the Ninth Armored Division. The division commander Lieutenant General Feng Hubiki and his division command, affiliated with motorcycle platoons and map drawing teams.

In this battle, the Ninth Armored Division served as the main force of the first German assault. According to the plan, it will launch an assault formation in Trento, and then rushed south along the Adige River out of the Alps and headed straight toward the ancient Italian city of Verona.

On the German Command's plan, this goal must be achieved within 36 hours. For the 9th Armored Division with rich combat experience, this will be a test of the officers and soldiers' driving skills and combat capabilities.

The 1st Battalion of the 33rd Armored Regiment, which arrived later, would take an hour to complete the unloading. Before that, the heavy armored reconnaissance company of the 9th Reconnaissance Battalion had been fully equipped and dispatched. They took a signal team and launched a reconnaissance operation southward one step ahead of time.

After a busy day and night, the German soldiers were still energetic and morale. They looked forward to encountering the enemy and were eager to build their own merits in the battle.

A trace of whiteness has been revealed in the sky in the east. The dawn of October 21 is approaching, and the Apennine Peninsula has ushered in a new day. At the same time, Italy's history has also opened a new page.

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Chapter completed!