The Rise of Australia - Chapter 980

c961 Italian surrender

For the Italian people, Italy at this time has already become unfamiliar to them.

The Mussolini government has fallen into the final frenzy. They suppressed various people who marched, arrested various opposition parties, and launched a military curfew in Rome at all costs.

From May 22 to May 25, at least 2,000 people died in the armed suppression in Italy, and hundreds of Mussolini’s opposition party members were arrested and imprisoned, and tortured.

Mussolini’s cruel behavior caused an uproar in Italy and led to waves of demonstrations in Rome.

But it didn’t matter to Mussolini at this time. If the British, French and Australian coalition forces could not repel the attack on Rome, the next one to be hung on the street lamp would be Mussolini himself.

On May 15, May 22, May 25 and May 27, Britain, France and Australia organized a large number of aircraft to bomb Rome and destroyed a large number of buildings and facilities in Rome.

Although it is not clear how many casualties the Italians suffered in Rome, the effect of bombing such a densely populated city is naturally self-evident.

In order to eliminate Italy earlier, the joint forces of Britain, France and Australia will not waste all their troops in Rome, but will send several small-scale troops to continue attacking other parts of Italy.

France mainly attacked Sardinia, the British mainly attacked Sicily, and Australia went from Ancona in the north of Rome to cities such as Foggia and Naples in southern Italy, attacking the entire southern Italy.

For such an offensive, the Italian government can be said to have no way to deal with it.

The disadvantage of the army destined Italy to find it difficult to resist the attack of the British, French and Australian troops. In addition, the Italian navy did not dare to go to sea to fight at all, so it could only allow the British, French and Australian troops to attack Italy.

This is also the sadness of Italy as a Mediterranean country, because it can’t resist the powerful Royal Fleet at all.

If the Italian Navy had some effect, at least Sardinia and Sicily could be saved.

Although Italy has another ally in the Mediterranean, Spain, Spain at this time can also be regarded as difficult to protect itself.

Spain must be a non-power country, and there is a big gap between the population and the army and the powers.

After Britain, France and Australia launched a counterattack, Spain was suddenly dumbfounded. The Spanish government was shocked to find that there was still a certain distance between their army and the British, French and Australian armies, and the size of the army was far less than that of the British, French and Australian joint army.

What’s more terrible is that Spain tried its best to break through Gibraltar in a short time, but let the British support arrive in time and repel the Spanish attack.

Although the Pyrenees Mountains in the north can prevent most of the French troops from entering Spain, the Spanish navy is no longer able to stop the enemy’s navy from galloping.

If the focus of the British, French and Australian offensives had not been on Italy, Spain would probably have been the first Allied country to surrender.

Of course, the current situation in Spain is not much better.

It has only been a few years since Franco established the new Spanish regime through the civil war, and his rule over Spain is not so stable.

At this time, in addition to dealing with the attacks of the British, French and Australian troops, the Spanish government also needs to pay extra attention to the traces of domestic opposition forces.

Otherwise, Madrid, the capital of Spain, may have been broken by internal enemies before the external enemies broke through.

However, for Italy and Spain, their ending is better than that of Germany.

Because the strength of these two countries themselves is not strong, in the minds of Britain, France and Australia, Italy and Spain are not too threatening.

Precisely because there is no great danger, Italy and Spain can still maintain most of their current land, and will not face the risk of being divided into several countries or even being fully occupied.

But Germany is different. The threat currently exposed by Germany has even exceeded that of Russia, and it is also the culprit of the two world wars.

For Britain, France and Australia, the treatment of Germany needs to be cautious and even a little arbitrary.

After discussions among the three countries, it was finally decided to occupy Germany completely, completely remove the German Prime Minister and his ideas from Germany, and ensure that Germany is unlikely to start the next world war in the future, so as to ensure that world peace will be maintained for a longer period of time.

As time entered June 1938, the last thing Italy wanted to see happened.

The French army attacked Sardinia with all its strength, and finally took almost half a month to successively break through Sassari, a major town in the north of Sardinia, and Cagliari, a city in the south.

These two cities are the two largest cities in Sardinia, and are also the locations of Sardinia’s ports and airports.

After these two cities were broken, other small cities and towns in Sardinia could not escape the attack of the French army at all.

In other words, after France announced the occupation of Sassari and Cagliari, Italy’s rule over Sardinia was already in name only.

But this is not the only bad news.

Don’t underestimate the British at this time. Although the British army’s combat effectiveness is not good, the combat effectiveness of the British Royal Fleet is definitely among the best in the world.

Under the bombing of a large number of warships of the Royal Fleet, the British Army took less than a week to capture Messina, which is across the sea from Sicily and the Italian mainland, and took the opportunity to move south to successively occupy Catania and Syracuse.

In this way, only the capital Palermo in Sicily was not captured, and this was only a matter of time.

If there is a map, it can be seen that nearly half of Italy’s territory has been occupied at this time, and the remaining land is precisely the least important southern region of Italy.

The southern region does have a large agricultural scale, but under the continuous bombing and inspection of the British, French and Australian air forces, how can Italy carry out agricultural production?

Under the successive attacks, Rome’s defense also seemed shaky.

On June 17, 1938, after nearly a month of siege, the Italian capital Rome was declared broken, and Italian Prime Minister Mussolini fled south to Naples.

Mussolini, who had successfully escaped from Rome, was relieved, but when he saw the Australasian flag flying over the city of Naples, he finally bowed his head in despair.

On June 18, 1938, the King of Italy announced Italy’s unconditional surrender through radio in Rome, and said that Prime Minister Mussolini was a warmongerer and a sinner of all Italy and all mankind.

On June 19, Mussolini was arrested in Naples and immediately detained in Naples prison as a war criminal.

From June 18, Britain, France and Australia took over Italy’s defense and took over Italy’s navy, which had hardly been deployed since the beginning of the war.

Italy’s surrender was a shock to the whole world, and Germany was naturally more shocked.

Germany and Spain are not adjacent, and they rely entirely on Italy as an intermediary to connect the two countries.

After Italy’s unconditional surrender, there was an additional barrier between Germany and Spain, which made Germany’s chance of obtaining supplies from Spain very small.

As for Spain, which is now fighting alone, how long can they hold out?

On June 24, 1938, the French army marched into Barcelona and announced the liberation of the entire Barcelona area.

Almost at the same time, Britain and Australasia also continued to pour out of Gibraltar and headed towards Seville, a military stronghold in southern Spain.

Ceuta, Tetuan and Melilla in Africa were also attacked by the British, French and Australian troops, and because it was almost difficult to obtain supplies from Spain, they were quickly broken.

On June 27, 1938, the planes that had previously bombed Rome moved to Spain and began to bomb Madrid, the capital of Spain.

When the Spanish government was at the end of its rope, far away in London, England, representatives of the British royal family, representatives of the Australasia royal family and the Spanish royal family were holding a meeting.

The main content of the meeting was naturally about the restoration of the Spanish royal family after the war. The restoration of the Spanish royal family is good news for both Britain and Australasia. After all, monarchies naturally stand together, and the relationship between monarchs will be closer and more united.

Only when there are more and more monarchies can the status of monarchs like Arthur and George VI become more and more stable.

However, the British still put forward some additional conditions for the restoration of the Spanish royal family.

First of all, it is about Gibraltar. As a defeated country, it is impossible for Spain to regain Gibraltar.

This is also the first condition that the Spanish royal family must agree to before the restoration, that is, to promise never to take back Gibraltar.

But think about it carefully, Spain at this time has long lost the strength to regain Gibraltar. Even the Spain of later generations is still a country with a weak presence in Europe, and it is not even a strong country in Europe.

This is a shocking fact. Obviously, Spain’s land area ranks among the top in Europe, but it will never become a powerful country in Europe.

Since the decline of the Spanish colonial empire, Spain’s hope of rising has been extinguished.

The second condition is that Spain must cede all its colonies and give up the Balearic Islands.

The Balearic Islands have another name, which is the Mallorca Islands, which was famous in the Middle Ages.

Although the geographical location of the Mallorca Islands is also very important to Spain, the colonies in Africa are also a strong supplement to Spain’s national strength.

But as a defeated country in World War II, it is already very good for Spain to keep its Iberian homeland, and naturally it is impossible to negotiate with countries such as Britain, France and Australia.

After these two conditions are agreed, the restoration of the Spanish royal family becomes a matter of course.

Britain and Australasia will not refuse, and the French will not jump out to cause trouble for Britain and Australia.

Now we only need to wait for the Spanish government to surrender and then Britain and Australasia will propose and agree to the restoration of the Spanish royal family at the meeting on handling Spain.

There is no need for Britain and Australasia to make such a proposal. Naturally, there will be loyal brothers who will propose suggestions to Britain and Australasia, and Britain and Australasia will make the final decision.

The surrender of Italy was a heavy blow to Germany, and it also made the already crazy German Prime Minister even crazier.

For Germany, shrinking the front line at this time might be able to delay the battle for a longer time.

But the German Chancellor obviously did not accept this. At a new meeting of the German Supreme Command, the German Chancellor repeatedly emphasized the importance of the Eastern Front offensive and said that Sudalingrad must be conquered at all costs.

You know, the number of soldiers stockpiled by Germany and Russia in Sudalingrad has exceeded 6 million, of which the German army is close to 2.3 million and the Russian army is more than 3.7 million.

Sudalingrad, which the German Chancellor blindly opened, has become the largest battle since the opening of the Eastern European battlefield, and the tragic degree of casualties is far greater than the Battle of Moscow.

Such a scene did not appear at all in the early stage of World War II. It is hard to imagine that the Germans would start such a large-scale battle in Sudalingrad.

However, for the German Chancellor and the German government, who have fallen into madness at this time, it is not surprising that they make any decision.

Moreover, the name Sudalingrad originally has a certain meaning to Russia. Even if it is just a small city, it is worth the German army to occupy it at all costs just because it is called this name.

After all, who made the name of the supreme ruler of Russia at that time Sudalin? The strategic position of a city named like this is very important. In addition to the value brought by the name itself, this is also one of the reasons why the German Prime Minister was so angry.

There is good news for Germany, that is, the training of new recruits across Germany has come to an end, and a large number of new recruits complete their training and rush to the battlefield every day.

Although the number of German troops on the French battlefield is currently at a disadvantage, more than one million reserve troops have been mobilized to the French battlefield, which can basically maintain the balance of the French battlefield.

As for the remaining millions or even millions of German troops, in addition to retaining a reserve army group with a sufficient number of people to be prepared for any eventuality, the German Prime Minister intends to invest the remaining troops in the Battle of Sudalinrad, striving to completely defeat the Russians at one time.

At this time, we have to admire the German Prime Minister’s amazing persuasiveness and speech talent. Only a few speeches in Berlin can incite a large number of Germans to rush to join the army.

You know, there are only about 80 million real core Germans, but as of now, the cumulative number of troops mobilized by Germany has reached nearly 10 million.

This is a rather exaggerated and terrifying number. It not only means that one in eight Germans participated in the war, but also means that almost one in every two German families went to the battlefield.

If we count the workers in military factories and other enterprises serving the war, it can be said that every family in Germany is serving the war, and every family has people who go to the battlefield or enter military factories.

It can inspire people to this extent. No matter how famous the German Chancellor is in the outside world, at least in Germany now, in the hearts of the Germans now, the German Chancellor is still the savior of Germany and the guide who leads Germany to the dawn.

Whether it is Germany in history or Germany in this world, the actions of the Germans represent a fact, that is, the outbreak of World War II is not just Germany’s fault.

The Germans were wrong to start the war, but the factors behind it that forced Germany to start the war were also one of the culprits that caused the outbreak of World War II.