At 9:00 a.m. on November 14, the 72-hour war preparation time between the two countries ended.
The Portuguese army crossed the river border and launched an attack into Spain from the three areas of Portalegri, Castel Branco, and Faro.
On the Tejo River front, the Portuguese 17th Division, as the main force, launched a fierce attack from Peres in Castel Blanco to Cedillo across the river with the help of the Portuguese core fleet and artillery.
Most of the borders between Portugal and Spain are bounded by rivers and mountains. The junctions are deserted, remote and sparsely populated.
Spain and Portugal have a history of love and hate, and they know each other quite well. They both understand the importance of the Tejo River, because Lisbon and Madrid are on this river.
The junction of the Tejo River between Spain and Portugal is joined by two tributaries, the north and the south. This is also the border between the two countries.
At the junction of the Tejo River between the two countries are Portalegri and Castel Branco in Portugal, and Cáceres and Badajoz in Spain.
The two regions of Spain, Terena, have a great connection with Portugal in history. During the Roman period, they belonged to Portugal's Lusitalia.
The two provinces of Cáceres and Badajoz in the Spanish direction, later the Autonomous Region of Extremadura, had a population of only 1.05 million in 2000, and the population was even smaller at this time.
In the interior of Spain, the natural environment of the Castile region is not very endowed, that is, the Old Castile Basin of the Douro River and the New Castile Basin of the Douro River are barely qualified places.
Cáceres and Badajoz are located in the western part of the New Castilla Basin. The population here is not as good as that in the eastern part of the Madrid capital area, and the traffic roads are naturally not as good. Now that they have been destroyed, the road traffic is even worse. .
Therefore, Portugal's attack on Spain must be along the Tejo River. If it goes straight inland, the personnel and logistics will be very passive in the poor traffic environment. Portugal can easily fall into the quagmire and be defeated by the Spaniards who are familiar with the environment.
AM, 9:15.
"Boom! Boom! Boom..."
The 75mm, 105mm, 150mm, and 155mm cannons of the Portuguese Artillery Regiment of the 17th Division fired powerful artillery shells at the Spanish garrison position in Cedillo.
On the Tejo River, an inland convoy consisting of two 3,000-ton destroyers and 10 1,000-ton, 800-ton, 500-ton, and 250-ton frigates were also shelling the Spanish garrison positions.
Under the cover of the escort fleet, twenty-four 75-ton river gunboats led 24 squads and more than one company of Portuguese soldiers to land on the beach.
The Spanish army stationed at the Zedillo position totaled about 25,000 people. The force was composed of a regular division and two militia regiments.
The regular division here is the Spanish 3rd Division, with about 16,000 troops. It is also considered an elite force in the Spanish army.
However, as the elite Spanish Third Division, although it is well trained, its equipment is much worse than that of the Portuguese army, especially the gap in machine guns and cannons.
In terms of machine gun equipment, in the Portuguese army, the Lewis machine gun is currently equipped at the platoon level. Although it is far inferior to one machine gun per squad in later generations, it is indeed very powerful in today's era.
In terms of machine gun equipment level, for Spain, it is good to have one machine gun in a company.
In terms of guns, the gap between the two countries is even greater. Portugal's artillery unit of the Shelf Division has two 105mm guns.
In Spanish division-level artillery units, 75mm guns are usually the main ones. There are not many 105mm guns. They are usually only equipped for elites like the Third Division. As for the 150mm guns, there are even fewer. They are only equipped for the most important ones like the Capital Division. Heavy troops.
"Boom! Boom!..."
At this moment, the Spaniards were hiding in the trenches to avoid artillery shells, and the artillery units did not dare to fight back.
The Spanish artillery is like this, of course, thanks to the Portuguese intelligence department.
With the help of intelligence from the Portuguese Golden Gun Bureau, the location of the Spanish artillery units was named as early as the first round of artillery battle in Portugal.
The Spanish artillery suffered considerable losses in the first round of artillery attacks. They hurriedly changed positions and were careful not to be exposed.
"Charge, charge, rush ashore and dig trenches!"
Wiggins, the 17th Division's first company commander of the first regiment, shouted at the top of his lungs.
The Spaniards were not blind. They had already discovered the signs of the Portuguese's landing, but they were unable to do any harm because of the distance.
The Spanish front was also very close to the river bank, about 700 meters, which was within the shooting range of rifles.
The Spaniards used modified versions of Mauser rifles, which had a very good character and the well-trained infantry of the Third Division used them with ease.
The third division, which had been waiting for a long time, saw the Portuguese coming ashore and quickly got up to aim and shoot.
"Pa!", "Pa!"...
"Oh, God, I'm hit."
"It hurts so much, I was hit."
"Damn it, Donnie, he's been shot through the throat, he can't breathe!"
Facing the first round of Spanish shooting, the Portuguese landing troops suffered a lot of damage.
Wiggins, who was leading the charge, was hit in the left shoulder. He was lying on the ground, gritting his teeth and enduring the pain as he commanded.
"Damn it, machine gunners, grenade launchers, let me fight back. Others, let me crawl on the ground and dig holes, waiting for the next group of people to come."
Finding that there were so many people in Spain's first line of defense, Wiggins made a wise decision.
This time is not the time to dig trenches and charge. The most important thing now is of course to accumulate strength and wait for the next group of people to arrive. Only when there are enough people can we do things.
Under the command of Wiggins, each platoon leader and squad leader followed the orders.
Squad leader Haider put his marching bag in front of him and quickly dug a hole by the river with an engineer shovel.
After digging the hole, Haider found his subordinate Lance lying on the ground stupidly, shivering, and quickly reminded him.
"Hey, Lance, what the hell are you doing lying down? Is it okay to dig a hole on your hands and knees?"
"Lance, now is not the time to be afraid, dig a hole quickly."
"grass!"
Lance, probably after hearing the squad leader's reminder, quickly dug a hole as he was told.
However, the way he dug the hole made Heidel very angry, because Lance actually dug the hole while standing.
Lance, this was clearly an act of suicide, and soon the Spaniards were shooting at him.
"Pop!" "Pap!"...
The Spaniard did not hit Lance initially, but just hit him not far away.
Lance, who was frightened by the gunshot, quickly fell to the ground again, shivering motionless.
"卄, will you dig a hole?"
Haider was extremely anxious when he saw Lance acting like he was trying to die. As a responsible squad leader, he took the risk and quickly crawled to him with his bag on his shoulders.
When he climbed to the edge of Lance, Haider's legs crawling left and right were hit by the Spaniard.
"Ah, my left leg!" Haider cried in pain.
"Squad leader, why are you here?"
Lance heard Heder's screams from close range, and finally came to his senses and discovered the squad leader approaching him.
"You brat, don't move."
Seeing Lance trying to crawl over, Heder yelled angrily. "Don't move around, don't put your head in the military bag."
"Now, immediately, immediately, dig a hole for me."
"Oh, okay monitor." After the monitor's reprimand, Lance finally remembered and understood what he was going to do now.
