My Italy

Ligari walked carefully through the rubble, his eyes vigilantly observing the movements around him, ready to use his rifle to counterattack any enemies that might emerge from the surroundings.

Ligari came from Florence. As the second son of his family, Ligari accepted the call of the country without hesitation and became an honorable soldier. After a short period of recruit training, he was assigned to the 31st Division's 2nd Brigade, 1st Regiment, 3rd Battalion and 4th Company to become the company's messenger. He is now carrying out the instructions given to him by the company commander, Captain Bobby, and conveying orders to the second platoon.

Ligari carefully walked through a half-collapsed building. After realizing that nothing was going on, he immediately rushed across the empty street with a quick stride, and then hid in a corner to calm down a little.

The reason for him to do this is simple. The open space is too dangerous. This is a warning from veterans and a lesson learned through blood, and such a living example has appeared before his eyes. Wolf, who had been with him for more than three months and was also a messenger, was shot in an open place. Fortunately, he survived and was sent back to Durrës in the rear.

Ligari certainly didn't want to have such an encounter, so he had to be careful. Although this cannot be called the Laotan Tiger's Den, he must treat it as the Longtan Tiger's Den. This is the way to survive that the veteran taught him.

After taking a short rest, Ligari continued walking forward. He passed through an alley and then turned into a diagonal alley. When he came out of here, he breathed a sigh of relief because he had reached his destination.

"Ligari, here to deliver the order again."

On a building, someone called him. Ligari knew him. He was Pok from the second platoon and the third class. Like him, he was from Florence.

"Pork, where is Lieutenant Forley?"

Facing the fellow villagers, Ligari immediately asked about the position of the second platoon leader. After all, the mission was important.

"The ensign is resting. Come in."

After knowing the position of the second platoon leader, Ligari immediately rushed over. After he entered through the door, Lieutenant Forley, who still looked sleepy, appeared in front of him.

"Ligari, why did the company commander send you here this time?"

After seeing Ligari, Forley, who had a shaggy beard and a mess of hair, did not forget to yawn widely while saying hello.

"Captain Papel orders you to allocate half of your troops to cooperate with the third platoon to capture Telda Square."

"What? We're going to hit Telda Square!"

After hearing what Ligari said, Forley almost jumped up as if his butt was pricked by a needle. Because the location of the square is very important, it is at the connection between the west and south of the city. In order to prevent the 14th Division and the 8th Division from connecting together, the Ottoman army placed a battalion here and equipped it with 4 small artillery. Previously, their battalion fired Tried twice and failed both times. So after hearing Ligari's words, it's no wonder Forley jumped.

"Second Lieutenant Forley, this is the company commander's order, and I won't let you die." As a messenger, Ligari has the company headquarters at his back, so he is naturally more informed than Forley, the platoon leader.

"An hour ago, a unit of the Eighth Division had already reached Salco Street. Now they plan to attack Telda Square and need our assistance. And this time, not only our fourth company, but other companies will also mobilize troops. .”

After Ligari's explanation, Forley's expression became much better now, but he still couldn't help but complain. "Damn it, I was planning to clean up the rats with round hats in the area in the next two days, but now it seems I can't do that."

"Don't worry, if you have time, you will have time when Telda Square is taken down."

Ligari didn't know that the defenders of Telda Square they were discussing had smelled danger. The Ottoman commander guarding here had asked his superiors for help, and now he was anxiously waiting for the messenger to bring back the news.

Not long after, he saw the messenger he sent rushing back panting. "Battal Commander, the regimental commander told you to retreat. There is no need to defend here."

Upon hearing the news brought back by the messenger, the commander breathed a sigh of relief as if a heavy burden had been lifted, and he immediately called another messenger. "Immediately send me an order for everyone to retreat in order according to the number of each company. Move quickly."

Situations like this for the garrison occurred frequently in the battles over the past few days. The Ottoman troops guarding Tirana would seek to retreat once they sensed that the situation was dire.

Although this allowed them to lose nearly half of the city in three days, their casualty rate was well controlled.

As the commanders of the city's garrison, the two major generals Hashem and Halder were still satisfied. At least their strength was well preserved.

At present, the command system of the Ottoman garrison has been moved to the new headquarters located in the northeast corner of the city.

The headquarters was just moved here today. The old headquarters in the center of the city could no longer be used because the Italian army was approaching, so we had to give up. Of course, the old headquarters converted from the city hall will not give the Italians free money. A battalion of defenders has already been stationed in it. They will rely on the strong buildings of the city hall to deal a heavy blow to the enemy.

As for the new headquarters, the two major generals were discussing the war situation.

"We can't give up on the Lyman Street side yet. Let them hold on for one more day, and then retreat to the defense area of ​​your 31st Division's Third Regiment."

"That's no problem. I'll send a message to the Third Regiment and ask them to take care of it."

The two then continued to discuss which positions needed to be held today and which positions needed to be abandoned. Basically, those with large casualties and unimportant locations will be considered first, while those locations with important locations and strong troops will be slowly abandoned. Anyway, the overall approach is to exchange space for time. Of course, this needs to be filled with the lives of officers and soldiers of both armies.

Simeone, as the commander of the attacking side, was also very clear about the actions of the Ottoman army. Although he was very dissatisfied with this, considering the strength, equipment, morale and other factors of the two armies, he could only choose to acquiesce. After all, the manpower consumption in siege warfare cannot be small, unless the defenders collapse without a fight.

But it is obvious that the Ottoman army will not be able to defeat without a fight, and there will be no gains to be made.

So what can be done?

We can only fight a war of attrition with the defenders.

Of course, there are differences in a war of attrition. As an excellent commander, Simeone has his own understanding even when fighting a war of attrition.

What advantages does your side have? Of course, in addition to morale, you can also take advantage of equipment advantages. In view of the previous role of small and medium-caliber artillery in urban warfare, this time he distributed both small and medium-caliber artillery to all units. Even company-level troops can have direct support from small-caliber artillery such as 37 and 57 mm, which can be said to maximize the firepower of front-line troops.

And this approach seems to be very good. Many Italian officers and soldiers who attacked used the advantage of artillery to open gaps, and then expanded the results and shook the confidence of the defenders.

But even so, the Italian army still fought very hard. Although it was not a battle for control with the Ottoman defenders house by house, it could at least be regarded as a battle for the entire streets and alleys.

However, this kind of competition consumes a lot of ammunition, morale and other aspects, so basically the two armies grit their teeth and hold on.

Of course, this situation is difficult for the Italian army, and even more difficult for the Ottoman army. After all, they do not have an advantage, whether in firepower, equipment, or numbers.

After seven days of fighting, the Ottoman army finally withdrew from Tirana and retreated to Elbasan.

The Battle of Tirana lasted for a week. The two armies invested a total of nearly 100,000 people (including local recruits recruited by the Ottomans), and the Italian side eventually won.

However, the price of this victory was not small at all. There were 7,478 injured, 2,835 killed, 312 missing, and over 10,000 casualties.

Of course, Italian casualties were not small, and the Ottomans, as the defeated party, were not easy either. It suffered 8,421 wounded, 5,179 killed, 3,891 captured and missing, and more than 17,000 casualties were captured and missing, which was also a huge blow to this unit.

But in any case, this battle not only allowed the world to see the combat effectiveness of the Italian army (somewhat exaggerated), but also allowed the world to see the capabilities of the Ottoman army.

Of course, the end of the Battle of Tirana does not mean anything. This is just the first large-scale and decent battle between the two armies. The road ahead is still long and there will be too much fighting time.

Although other European countries may not care much, there is an extraordinary response within the Balkans.