My Italian: Chapter 437 Hardworking Army

The National Socialist Party's vigorous struggle with the Mafia in the south is a major event worthy of attention for political parties and the government, after all, it concerns their interests.

But for Admiral Simeone, this matter is not worthy of attention, because the army's affairs can't be paid attention to, and there is no time to care about other things.

Not only did General Simeone, who had just arrived at the General Staff, start a busy day of work.

"Chief of the General Staff, this is the list for the assessment of the 21st Division."

"Okay, I see, let's put it on the table."

Simeone, who was buried in his work, continued to work without raising his head.

"Chief of the General Staff, this is the plan for the division-level confrontation exercise between the Fifth Division and the Thirteenth Division formulated by the War Training Department."

"Okay, put it there and I'll look at it later."

"Chief of the General Staff, you need to meet with Marshal Cadorna in the afternoon to discuss the adjustment of the army's battalion and company size."

"Okay, I know."

After the adjutant went out, only Simeone was left working hard in the room. Simeone's office is quite simple, except for his own office chair, a sofa, a clothes rack, and a file cabinet on one side, there is nothing else, and there is a map of Italy on the wall.

Half an hour later, Simeone, who was finally busy with the work at hand, picked up the assessment book for the 21st Division.

If you want to say what scares the Italian Army officers and soldiers the most, it is the assessment.

In recent years, what Simeone has promoted the most during his tenure is the strict implementation of the assessment system. Before he took office, the Army also had an assessment system, but this system was more like a formality, not enough authority.

After he took office, he deeply felt the low combat effectiveness of the Italian Army, so he reported the attitude of reorganizing the combat effectiveness of the Italian Army and strictly suppressed the assessment system. Every officer needs to be assessed, and it is not enough to be assessed once. Every two years, an assessment will be conducted, and the difficulty of each assessment is also increasing year by year. If you fail the assessment twice in a row, I'm sorry, but you may not be suitable to stay in the army, so apply for retirement. No one is an exception, even if you are from a family of military officers, the children of nobles must pass the examination.

For this reason, many officers called Simeone the most severe chief of staff in the history of the Army.

Of course, this alone is not enough, and it is also necessary to have rewards, and the reward given by Simeone is promotion, and officers who excel in each assessment have an advantage in promotion and promotion. For example, for the vacant officer positions, these officers with excellent assessments will be given priority, and the same is true for promotion.

In recent years, Simeone has promoted the strict implementation of the assessment system, and the combat effectiveness of the Italian Army has also continued to improve. In the German-Italian military exercise held last year, the 9th Division defeated the 14th Division of the German Army in a division-level exercise. This is the first time that the Italian Army has defeated Germany in a division-level confrontation with non-guard troops (equal numbers and equipment). This made the German counterparts look at it with admiration, and also affirmed the results of Admiral Simeone's re-assessment.

Of course, these years of assessment have also brought about an effect, that is, Italian officers are more reasonable, and a large number of incompetent officers have retired, making the Italian Army more effective.

A statistic can be mentioned here. Before Simeone took office, the Italian Army had more than 500 active general-level senior officers. It is not a good thing for the Italian army to have so many generals when the size of the Italian army is only 200,000. And having so many generals is not a good thing for the Army. After all, a division-level force generally has three chief officers who are generals (chief and deputy division commander + chief of staff). With so many generals in the army, many positions are highly assigned, which is not conducive to the construction of the army.

After Simeone's rectification over the years, there are now only more than two hundred active generals in Italy.

As for the school-level officers, there are also a large number of retired because of this. As for lieutenant officers, fewer of them failed the assessment. Perhaps it was because the vast majority of lieutenant officers graduated from military academies, so as long as they were not lazy, they could pass the examination with hard work.

After Simeone's rectification, although the Italian army dare not say that it can compete with the German army with the same number of people and equipment, at least it will not be too far behind. Its quality ranks in the middle of the ranks of the armies of the great powers.

Of course, Simeone is also worthy of this honor. If you compare the photos of Simeone before he became chief of staff, you will find that his black hair has turned white, and he looks like a man in his fifties. Over sixty.

Simeone picked up the assessment report on the 21st Division and read it carefully.

Admiral Simeone attaches great importance to the assessment report, and will check the content of each report with the most serious attitude.

"Very good. The assessment results of the 21st Division are very good. Compared with the last time, they have improved a lot. The infantry and artillery coordination is particularly good. It seems that Master Mesut has also worked hard."

Judging from Simeone's attitude, he was very impressed with the 21st Division.

Of course, this also has a lot to do with the small number of divisions currently owned by the Italian Army. At present, the Italian Army has a total of 17 divisions. After deducting five independent artillery regiments and three cavalry brigades, each division has less than 10,000 people, which is really miserable. The reason why the army saves so many people is also caused by the army's insufficient funds.

At present, the Italian Army has an annual budget of 203 million lire, although this funding is not too much, it is not too small. But unfortunately, this amount of funds is not enough for the army to use. You must know that the emergence of various new technologies at present has made the replacement of Army equipment very fast. For example, the 1897 75mm field gun, which was only equipped in Italy not long ago, faced a backward situation in less than two years. Will the 128 guns purchased by the Italian Army be distributed to the troops?

The replacement of new weapons and equipment is so fast that the Army must invest more funds in the pace of catching up. Therefore, in order to save money, the total strength of the Italian Army was cut again and again. Originally guaranteed 3 fully equipped and fully trained division-level troops, now all of them have been changed to one of the shelf regiments. As for other troops, they were cut down as well. The most exaggerated 7th Division has two infantry regiments, two understaffed infantry regiments, plus artillery regiments and other subsidiary troops. A division has only about 6,000 people.

Of course, it is not bad to cut down the troops and keep the establishment~www.mtlnovel.com~ Even the abolition of the army establishment is really miserable.

And such a reduction of its own troops is not all about saving money. For the upgrading of weapons and equipment, it is inevitable for the army to cut down on food and clothing.

Of course, this state of the Army also has a lot to do with the current Italian strategy. At present, only the relationship with France is not good, the Italian Army currently only needs to consider the land defense of France.

And the pressure on the army is less, and the funds will naturally be less.

Look at the thriving navy next door. In terms of the proportion of military expenditure in recent years, it has almost caught up with the army. However, this is also the result of the navy's efforts. The interests that Italy has captured over the years have basically relied on the navy. Under such circumstances, how can it be possible for the government not to favor the navy with its military expenditure.

Therefore, in order to improve the army, in addition to the relief of Italy's finances, only Italy is facing land pressure. Of course, the Army does not want to see this problem. After all, when the war comes, no one will have a good time, and none of the two neighboring powers is easy to deal with.

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