The Rise of Australia - Chapter 979

c960 Attack on Rome

Time quickly came to March 1938.

The war on the European continent became more intense, and countries continued to expand their mobilization scale, even betting all their national destiny on this war.

The most vivid example is Germany. After Germany changed its mobilization law, it expanded its army from less than 6 million to more than 12 million in just a few months. The total size of the army was second only to Russia, and it was one of the largest armies in Europe.

Italy, which was attacked, was not to be outdone. At the suggestion of Mussolini, the Italian government announced a national general mobilization, recruiting male citizens under 55 and over 16 to join the army, and female citizens also entered various military-related facilities to produce enough weapons and other supplies for the front-line troops.

But Italy’s resistance seemed to the British, French and Australian joint forces like a desperate struggle after the prey was hit by a gun. Although it looked mighty, it actually posed no threat.

It was the Italian Air Force that played a role. Apart from the air force, the performance of the Italian army was a mess, and it was completely incomparable to the status of the great powers.

With the Italian army’s consistent stable performance, the Australasian Armored Army easily tore through the defense line of Genoa, crossed Genoa, La Spezia and Lucca, and finally arrived at the rear of Florence, one of the most important cities in the central and northern regions of Italy.

Although there were also a large number of Italian troops in Rome to the south, the Italian army was no longer important to the Australasian Armored Army at this time.

While the main force of northern Italy was attracted by the frontal army of Britain and France, 350,000 Australasian troops attacked Genoa and La Spezia from the gap torn by the armored forces.

The speed of the Italian army’s defeat shocked everyone.

In less than three days, the Italian army retreated from Genoa and headed for La Spezia further south.

But it didn’t matter where they retreated to at this time, because the armored forces had successfully bypassed Florence. If the Italian army could not evacuate to Rome before the encirclement was formed, they would be eaten away step by step in the encirclement and eventually wiped out.

However, the Italian army did not have no better way to deal with it.

Just when Australasia thought that Italy would break through, the defenders left in the Genoa area surrendered one after another, and the speed was so fast that it was astonishing.

Even Britain and France did not expect that the British and French coalition forces with a larger number of people had not yet made progress in the attack in the north of Italy, and the south had already captured Genoa and marched towards Florence.

Regarding the contribution to the entire battlefield and the future distribution of post-war interests, Britain and France still attach great importance to it.

On March 19, 1938, Britain and France also mobilized a large number of armored clusters to attack Milan.

In Eastern Europe, Germany and Russia were also fighting fiercely. After the Battle of Moscow, the Russians had some experience in resisting Germany.

And using such experience in the defense of Sudalingrad can at least play a certain role.

Under the heroic resistance of hundreds of thousands or even millions of Russian troops, the German army’s offensive became extremely difficult, even difficult to move forward.

But the German government at this time could not care so much. After a cabinet meeting, the German Prime Minister personally sent a telegram to the French front, asking the commander of the French front to hold the position at all costs, at least to hold the Paris defense line.

As for the troops in Sudalingrad in the east, the German Prime Minister also asked the German army to attack at all costs, to take Sudalingrad before Britain and France recaptured Paris, and to march into the Caucasus to destroy Germany’s industry in the Caucasus.

As for Italy, which was being attacked by the British, French and Australian coalition forces, the German Prime Minister said that he could not care so much.

More importantly, it was because of the poor performance of the Italian army in North Africa that the German army faced such a severe situation in Western Europe.

For Germany, the importance of Italy as an ally is no longer so high. At present, Italy’s biggest role is to hold back the British, French and Australian troops for Germany, so that Germany can defeat Russia as soon as possible and return to help before the British, French and Australian troops enter the mainland.

There is no eternal interest between countries. It is obvious that the German government has planned to sacrifice Italy to save itself.

On the Italian side, after many unsuccessful requests for help from Germany, Mussolini also understood that Italy was abandoned at this time.

The rapid change of the situation made him unprepared, and the fall of cities in northern Italy made him feel uneasy.

Arthur will not let Mussolini go easily, and even Italy will not let him go easily.

First of all, Mussolini’s attitude of trying to challenge the royal power is something Arthur is unwilling to accept. After all, such an action will not only threaten the royal power of Italy, but also threaten all monarchies in the world.

On March 27, 1938, Arthur issued a public statement to the public, saying that the Italian government Mussolini’s frame-up of the Italian royal family was unwarranted, shameful, and even illegal.

Arthur also said that Mussolini was one of the culprits who started the Second World War. He, like the German Prime Minister, was the culprit of the war and the culprit who caused tens of millions of casualties.

Arthur’s attitude was very clear, that is, he was unwilling to let Italy go easily.

With Arthur’s attitude, the Australasian government naturally knew what they should do.

At a regular meeting on the Allied side, Australasia once again reiterated the United Nations Declaration it had signed and stated that no country had the right to sign a separate armistice agreement with Italy.

The meaning is very clear, we must fight to the death with Italy.

This does not conflict with the interests of Britain and France. After all, they can both get many benefits from defeated Italy.

Perhaps knowing that he had no retreat, Mussolini began to frantically arm more troops, trying to resist desperately with the British, French and Australian forces.

But the outcome has proven that such desperate resistance is futile.

On March 28, 1938, hundreds of thousands of British and French troops entered Milan and took over one of the largest cities in northern Italy.

In the following weeks, the northern Italian cities of Brescia, Verona, Trento, Padua and Venizia were successively captured by the British and French forces, and the war gradually spread to Parma and Ferrara further south. and other areas.

The Australasian side also successfully broke through La Spezia in a short period of time and formed a huge encirclement in Florence.

There are at least 300,000 Italian troops in the encirclement at this time. The life and death of this Italian army is also related to the safety of the Italian army further north.

Once Florence falls completely, the army in northern Italy will have no way to retreat, and the entire Italy will be divided into two parts from Florence, and the Italian government will completely lose control of northern Italy.

This was fatal to Italy and unacceptable to Mussolini.

But the cruel reality is that Italy alone is unable to resist the three countries of Britain, France and Australia.

Not to mention resisting, it is so difficult to delay for a while.

In May 1938, Australasia successfully attacked Florence, and the army also successfully blocked the connection between Rome and Northern Italy.

With the complete establishment of a defense line across the Adriatic Sea and the Mediterranean Sea, Italy’s outcome has been doomed, that is, the only way is defeat.

On May 15, 1938, more than 3,000 aircraft bombed Rome, and finally a surrender letter was dropped.

The surrender letter warned the Italian government that if it did not stop resisting unconditional surrender within a month, the Australasian government’s new weapons would be considered for release in Rome.

Such a warning is fatal to Italy, because the Italian government does not dare to bet whether such a warning is true.

There is no doubt about the power of Australasia’s powerful weapons.

Such exaggerated power, let alone being deployed in Rome, even if it was deployed in any small city in Italy, it would still be a loss that Italy could not accept at all.

Of course, Australasia also bears a lot of pressure by issuing such a warning.

Because there is also a very special area in Rome, which is the Vatican, the center of world Catholicism.

If Australasia used that kind of weapon in Rome, wouldn’t it mean that the Vatican, the Holy Land of Catholicism, would also be bombed?

Such warnings have caused dissatisfaction among some Catholics, but fortunately Australasia is a Protestant country, and the impact on Australasia is not that great.

Naturally, this part of the pressure came to the Italian government and Mussolini very smoothly.

There is no way, who made the Italian government one of the criminals who started this war?

Italy itself is unreasonable and must bear all the pressure. In addition, Mussolini’s crazy military expansion caused dissatisfaction among many Italian civilians, and protests against the government became increasingly fierce.

Since Australasia issued the warning, a large number of civilians in Rome took to the streets and began to march to protest the government’s actions in this unjust war, and demanded that the government lift the state of war as soon as possible and return a peaceful country to all Italian civilians and environment.

Although this did not anger the Italian government, it did anger Mussolini.

After all, the attitude of Britain, France and Australia is already clear. Italy may exist after the defeat, but Mussolini will definitely not exist.

When these civilians asked the Italian government to surrender, weren’t they asking for Mussolini’s death?

For the dictator who has ruled this country for many years, this is absolutely unacceptable to Mussolini, and it is also something Mussolini will definitely use to kill chickens and respect monkeys.

On May 18, 1938, a scene that shocked Italy happened.

Mussolini mobilized a large number of troops to surround several streets where the parade was taking place, and launched a bloody massacre against the people marching in the streets.

These marches included, but were not limited to, a large number of military factory workers, families of soldiers, students from various universities in Rome, some capitalists and farmers, and even members of Mussolini’s opposition party.

The massacre did make Rome and Italy quiet down a bit, and the Italian people were not as annoying as they seemed.

But the turmoil behind the scenes became more intense. The Italian people no longer opposed Mussolini, but had fierce hatred and hostility.

The anti-war attitude of the Italian army has also become more obvious. They were originally unwilling to participate in such a war, and now they have better reasons for their anti-war actions.

On May 19, the day after Mussolini carried out the massacre, the Italian army in Bologna announced its surrender, abandoned all its positions in Bologna, and walked out of the city with white flags.

Perhaps some of the families of the soldiers slaughtered by Mussolini were the families of these surrendered troops, perhaps Mussolini’s attitude of slaughter chilled these soldiers, or perhaps these Italian soldiers were already tired of the cruel war.

In short, no matter what the reason, these Italian troops did surrender, and surrendered so simply.

Thanks to the surrender of the Italian army, the British, French and Australian troops were finally able to gather in Florence and launch an attack on Rome south of Florence.

Trieste in northeastern Italy was left to the Balkan countries to deal with. Anti-Justice Italy was already in chaos, and the Italian army in Trieste could no longer stir up any waves.

On May 22, 1938, the British, French and Australian troops arrived in Rome and launched a full-scale attack on the most famous city on the Mediterranean coast.

Almost at the same time, some French troops also began to land on Sardinia on transport ships.

According to the distribution of Italian land by Britain, France and Australia, France can take Sardinia and make it its own local administrative region.

Of course, there is a price to pay for what you get. France needs to agree to Britain’s full occupation of the western outlet of the Mediterranean Sea and transfer several islands in the Caribbean to Australasia.

However, these are nothing compared to the complete Sardinia. Sardinia is located in the Mediterranean Sea, across the sea from Corsica, France. The Mediterranean Sea, dozens of kilometers away to the south, is the Tunisia region, which is also very close to France’s North African colonies.

As long as France can control Sardinia, it can connect France and North African colonies through the connection from mainland France to Corsica to Sardinia and then to Tunisia, and strengthen its control over African colonies, so as to improve France’s overall strength and potential.

Although the improvement is not as great as imagined, under the premise that European countries are greatly consumed, France can still sit firmly on the throne of the top five in the world through the continuous transfusion of colonies.

Although it is not easy to revive France, if France can maintain its position in the top five in the world with such a foundation, it will be enough for France at this moment.