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Post by lukedalton on Feb 3, 2020 18:28:54 GMT
Italy and the great wars
(part 1)
The Giolitti Goverment [1]
At the time of the July Crisis Italy was governed by Giovanni Giolitt, by many considered the ‘Great Old Man’ of the italian politics and in the role of Presidente del Consiglio for the fourth time. He was currently supported by a shacky alliance of Socialist and Liberals (Giolitti own party), the general weakness of this goverment, even if was capable of achivieving great results like institution of universal suffrage (limited to the males of at least 21 years) and the first step for the creation of a pension system for the retired workers. The reason for this weakness were multiple, from internal division in the socialist party, between moderate and revolutionaries to the economic and social consequence of the war against the Ottoman Empire to conquer Lybia, passing trough the increasing desire of the catholics to return openly to the political life of Italy.
Initially the communication that the heir of the Austro-Hungarian throne was dead, killed by a serbian nationalist was considered good, after all he had been a notorious anti-italian and there were a great faith that, after so many recent warscare, diplomacy resolved the situation as done before. Unfortunely such belief quickly reveled themself as incorrect as the entire world quickly become engulfed by the fire of war.
The July Crisis
The suprise of the italian goverment for the peremptory ultimatum given to Serbia by Austria-Hungary was total, everybody in Rome and the rest of Europe understood that Belgrade had no choice to refuse and accept war unless they opted to become an Hapsburg satellite without even firing a shoot.
Russia, the long time austral-hungarian rival for the dominion of the Balkans, still fuming for the humiliation of the Bosnian crisis annexation and the failed attempts to capitalize the Ottoman defeats in the recent wars, pledged to help their Serbian Slavic brothers and from there the domino of the linked alliance started, starting one of the most destructive war in the history of man.
The Italian position was complicated, from one side it was in an alliance with A-H (plus Germany and the USA) but not only Italy had a long history of conflicts with her (and still claim part of her territory) she considered an Austrian dominance of the Balkans as contrary to her interest and while she was ready to accept a change of the status quo in the region in favor of Wien this was needed to be compensated per art. 7 of the Quadruple Alliance Treaty and she pointed to the Italian speaking region of the Empire for that, especially if direct military support was demanded.
On the other side, the Austro-Hungary leadership was categorically against give up any part of her territory for whatever reason and while under German pressure accepted the validity of the art.7, but stated that was valid only in case of Italian participation in the war and in any case never involved any austro-hungarian cession of territory to their supposed ally.
For this reason the Italian government and military higher up were excluded from any talk regarding the crisis and the imminent military conflict for the explicit desire of Wien, a move that was a clear breach of the Alliance treaty and will have give to the Italians a reason and a justification for remain neutral and so to not being forced to give up any part of her territory.
At the same time any hope that the war was just a limited affair quickly evaporated with the Russian and French mobilization, not even considering the quick deterioration of the situation in North America with news of numerous border clash between the USA and the CSA.
With that development and the sober report by the Chief of Staff General Cadorna that the army was still not ready for a major conflict due to still not had replenished the equipment loss from the war in Libya and even postponed critical modernization program due to financial matter, neutrality was the only politics possible for Giolitti, at least for the moment
Italy strategic option
1 – Enter the war on the side of the Quadruple Alliance as per treaty, but from the start was clear that in this scenario no adequate compensation will be received by Italy and as the foreign minister Sidney Sonnino simply put: at beast Italy will just be the first vassal of the German Empire and not even that if A-H had something to say about it. Giolitti and the King quickly understood that even if the alliance was victorious, the motivation to give to the italian sufficient compensation simply not existed and this lack of trust in their allies was important in the decision as due to the huge import of raw material necessary for keep the Italy going on they will absolutely need the support of Germany and Austria-Hungary.
2 – Mantain neutrality, but there were the risk that a victorious A-H will have blocked any political and economic access of Italy in the balkan region and stopped any aspiration to finally obtain the irredente lands and in the worst case there were the fear of a possible vengeance from A-H to eliminate an historical adversary.
3 – Negotiate neutrality with the rest of the Quadruple, while the risk and consequence of this option don’t really differ from the above scenario, at least it was thought that obtaining Trentino was a possibility and maybe something more
4 – Join the war at the side of the Entente, but this option had the pre-requisite that the negotiation with Wien failed and no agreement for the italian compensation it’s reached
A country divided...but not too much
The Great war caused untold and unthinkable changes in the world and Italy even if not directly afftected by her was also engulfed by the consequences of this event. The decision if remain neutral or partecipate divided the nation in two camps and even the various political parties were not immune by this division.
The socialist party while officialy supported neutrality but many of his most prominent members like Benito Mussolini agitated for war, expecially with the american and german own socialist parties supporting the effort. The Catholic were also divided, the great majority was for staying out of the conflict but many supported helping A-H, a catholic nation, against the slavic orthodox.
The most vocal faction was the Associazione Nazionalista Italiana that wanted Italy in the war without even considering on which alliance, their general objective was to finally fullfill the objective of Risorgimento and liberate the irredente (Italy had claim against both France and Austria-Hungary) but it was also a very eterogenous group, with member like the poet Gabriele D’Annunzio, recently returned from Paris where he took refuge to escape from the creditor (the British and the French were extremely generous with their financial aid to anyone they though capable of sway the italian pubblic opinion) and the founder of futurism Filippo Tommaso Marinetti see in the war l’unica igiene del mondo – the only hygiene of the world, necessary to keep the fire of civilization so to forge the population and eliminate the weak.
The period between the start of the war and, in the words of D’Annunzio, the ‘black days of March’ was characterizated by an intense work of propaganda by the interventionist but also by numerous act of political violence, at one point even the personal home of Giolitti was ransaked by a mob; so while the interventionist faction was smaller than the neutralist it seemed much more stronger and intense in the support of her objectives.
Nevertheless the real popular support for them was always scarce, the bulk of the people don’t have any desire to go in a war that will have see her bear the bulk of the sacrifices
Negotiation with both sides
Almost immediately Sonnino, explained the Italian position to his nominal allies, making clear the importance of the art.7 of the Quadruple Alliance treaty. The Austrian initial answer was a declaration of intent regarding her unwillingness of occupy permanently Serbia or part of it but also stated that there will be not talking about eventual compensation without a DoW by the Kingdom of Italy towards the Entente. This position it’s a clear demonstration on how optimistic was the general mood in Wien as the war was expected to be a short one, this belief was only strengthened by the German victories on Belgium, North France and with the Russian defeat at Tannemberg.
On the other side, it was the Russian foreign minister, in early September, to made the first contact with the Italian government, offering Trentino, Trieste and Vlore but Sonnino and Giolitti considered such offer insufficient as their objective was the control of the Adriatic and that clearly clashed with the interest of Serbia, at the time a Russian client; so thing remained unchanged.
The failed first invasion of Serbia, the Russian capture of Lemberg and the possible menace at Wien itself and the failed capture of Paris instead made clear that the conflict will have been a long one.
Italy answer to such development was to increase the preparation for war, regardless against whom and to continue his diplomatic offensive with both side.
The russian success against A-H brought a new round of negatiation between Rome and Wien, even thanks to the increased pressure from Berlin towards the Hapsburg leadership and the arrive in February at Rome of Count Von Bulow, a German diplomat with the mission to reach an agreement with Italy regarding her situation.
This sudden moves caused an irate reaction from Austria-Hungary that put a stop to the talking and sent a formal protest to the German Kaiser itself.
At the same time, the discussion with the representative of the Entente were going extremely well as they were ready to give to Italy basically everything she demanded in exchange to her DoW against the Quadruple; this change of policy started at January with the realization that without help Serbia will have fallen and that A-H was the weak link of the Alliance.
Unfortunately Giolitti was a staunch neutralist, seeing the level of destruction just some months of war caused and painfully aware of how much was unprepared the Italian army and how contrary of the war was the majority of the population. Naturally as an old schemer, he used this contact with the Entente as a motivation for both Berlin and Wien to come to an agreement and let news of them come to the ear of the Alliance members intelligence services.
As consequences, the 17 March the Hapsburg foreign minister Count Bertchold, send an official dispatch to Sonnino, saying that he was ready to talk about the Italian compensation and two week after a formal Austrian proposal regarding the cession of Trentino, control of Albania and some other minor border adjustment as compensation and to maintain a benevolent (see favorable) neutrality towards the rest of the Quadruple alliance arrived to the desk of Giolitti.
By the end of the month after one of most heated debate ever happened in the Italian deputy chambers and the consternation of the entente governments, the agreement was approved and signed, Italy will have remained neutral.
Many in the interwar period had ridiculed Giolitti and the King for the trust given to the Austrian, for being such naive in believing that they had respected such treaty or that Germany, even with the personal guarantee of the Kaiser regarding the upholding of the treaty, will have supported us. But has been painfully clear that not for a moment the Italian officials had believed the word of the Austrian government was worth the ink used for the treaty and communication between officials of the Hapsburg foreign minister to their German counterpart that openly proclaimed how there were not intention of keep the word given, were intercepted almost immediately. The reason why Giolitti chose to accept this agreement even when the Entente was ready to give him all Italy demanded, was the preparation of the army and the country for such war and the understanding that even if victorious, the cost will have been too high for nation, putting her very survival at risk, plus the staunch belief that in the end some other type of compensation will have been granted to Italy by the victorious Quadruple, maybe Tunisia, maybe Nice and Savoy.
It’s worth to note that to finance the modernization program of the armed forces and in general obtain more fund for the government program, it was for the first time used in Italy the issue of bond linked to the public debt and so guaranteed by the state and more importantly anyone had the right to bought them, even the women and without the permission of the husband. A major rise of the tax was also proposed but immediately refused, this created some problem in the government because the minister at the finance of the time was ready to gave his resignation over such politics, Giolitti with his usual capacity of compromise put a stop at the crisis by allowing a slight rise of the tax for a limited time.
[1] in OTL Giolitti was forced to a temporary retirement due to the socialist ceasing their support, ITTL the socialist are a more ‘respectable’ political force and are government material for a longer time, meaning that internal (see revolutionary) reason to stop being part of the government are not here and Salandra (Giolitti protege and uberinterventionistt don’t take his place).
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lordroel
Administrator
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Post by lordroel on Feb 3, 2020 19:54:01 GMT
Italy and the great wars
(part 1) The Giolitti Goverment [1] At the time of the July Crisis Italy was governed by Giovanni Giolitt, by many considered the ‘Great Old Man’ of the italian politics and in the role of Presidente del Consiglio for the fourth time. He was currently supported by a shacky alliance of Socialist and Liberals (Giolitti own party), the general weakness of this goverment, even if was capable of achivieving great results like institution of universal suffrage (limited to the males of at least 21 years) and the first step for the creation of a pension system for the retired workers. The reason for this weakness were multiple, from internal division in the socialist party, between moderate and revolutionaries to the economic and social consequence of the war against the Ottoman Empire to conquer Lybia, passing trough the increasing desire of the catholics to return openly to the political life of Italy. Initially the communication that the heir of the Austro-Hungarian throne was dead, killed by a serbian nationalist was considered good, after all he had been a notorious anti-italian and there were a great faith that, after so many recent warscare, diplomacy resolved the situation as done before. Unfortunely such belief quickly reveled themself as incorrect as the entire world quickly become engulfed by the fire of war.
The July Crisis
The suprise of the italian goverment for the peremptory ultimatum given to Serbia by Austria-Hungary was total, everybody in Rome and the rest of Europe understood that Belgrade had no choice to refuse and accept war unless they opted to become an Hapsburg satellite without even firing a shoot. Russia, the long time austral-hungarian rival for the dominion of the Balkans, still fuming for the humiliation of the Bosnian crisis annexation and the failed attempts to capitalize the Ottoman defeats in the recent wars, pledged to help their Serbian Slavic brothers and from there the domino of the linked alliance started, starting one of the most destructive war in the history of man. The Italian position was complicated, from one side it was in an alliance with A-H (plus Germany and the USA) but not only Italy had a long history of conflicts with her (and still claim part of her territory) she considered an Austrian dominance of the Balkans as contrary to her interest and while she was ready to accept a change of the status quo in the region in favor of Wien this was needed to be compensated per art. 7 of the Quadruple Alliance Treaty and she pointed to the Italian speaking region of the Empire for that, especially if direct military support was demanded. On the other side, the Austro-Hungary leadership was categorically against give up any part of her territory for whatever reason and while under German pressure accepted the validity of the art.7, but stated that was valid only in case of Italian participation in the war and in any case never involved any austro-hungarian cession of territory to their supposed ally. For this reason the Italian government and military higher up were excluded from any talk regarding the crisis and the imminent military conflict for the explicit desire of Wien, a move that was a clear breach of the Alliance treaty and will have give to the Italians a reason and a justification for remain neutral and so to not being forced to give up any part of her territory. At the same time any hope that the war was just a limited affair quickly evaporated with the Russian and French mobilization, not even considering the quick deterioration of the situation in North America with news of numerous border clash between the USA and the CSA. With that development and the sober report by the Chief of Staff General Cadorna that the army was still not ready for a major conflict due to still not had replenished the equipment loss from the war in Libya and even postponed critical modernization program due to financial matter, neutrality was the only politics possible for Giolitti, at least for the moment Italy strategic option
1 – Enter the war on the side of the Quadruple Alliance as per treaty, but from the start was clear that in this scenario no adequate compensation will be received by Italy and as the foreign minister Sidney Sonnino simply put: at beast Italy will just be the first vassal of the German Empire and not even that if A-H had something to say about it. Giolitti and the King quickly understood that even if the alliance was victorious, the motivation to give to the italian sufficient compensation simply not existed and this lack of trust in their allies was important in the decision as due to the huge import of raw material necessary for keep the Italy going on they will absolutely need the support of Germany and Austria-Hungary. 2 – Mantain neutrality, but there were the risk that a victorious A-H will have blocked any political and economic access of Italy in the balkan region and stopped any aspiration to finally obtain the irredente lands and in the worst case there were the fear of a possible vengeance from A-H to eliminate an historical adversary. 3 – Negotiate neutrality with the rest of the Quadruple, while the risk and consequence of this option don’t really differ from the above scenario, at least it was thought that obtaining Trentino was a possibility and maybe something more 4 – Join the war at the side of the Entente, but this option had the pre-requisite that the negotiation with Wien failed and no agreement for the italian compensation it’s reached A country divided...but not too much
The Great war caused untold and unthinkable changes in the world and Italy even if not directly afftected by her was also engulfed by the consequences of this event. The decision if remain neutral or partecipate divided the nation in two camps and even the various political parties were not immune by this division. The socialist party while officialy supported neutrality but many of his most prominent members like Benito Mussolini agitated for war, expecially with the american and german own socialist parties supporting the effort. The Catholic were also divided, the great majority was for staying out of the conflict but many supported helping A-H, a catholic nation, against the slavic orthodox. The most vocal faction was the Associazione Nazionalista Italiana that wanted Italy in the war without even considering on which alliance, their general objective was to finally fullfill the objective of Risorgimento and liberate the irredente (Italy had claim against both France and Austria-Hungary) but it was also a very eterogenous group, with member like the poet Gabriele D’Annunzio, recently returned from Paris where he took refuge to escape from the creditor (the British and the French were extremely generous with their financial aid to anyone they though capable of sway the italian pubblic opinion) and the founder of futurism Filippo Tommaso Marinetti see in the war l’unica igiene del mondo – the only hygiene of the world, necessary to keep the fire of civilization so to forge the population and eliminate the weak. The period between the start of the war and, in the words of D’Annunzio, the ‘black days of March’ was characterizated by an intense work of propaganda by the interventionist but also by numerous act of political violence, at one point even the personal home of Giolitti was ransaked by a mob; so while the interventionist faction was smaller than the neutralist it seemed much more stronger and intense in the support of her objectives. Nevertheless the real popular support for them was always scarce, the bulk of the people don’t have any desire to go in a war that will have see her bear the bulk of the sacrifices Negotiation with both sides
Almost immediately Sonnino, explained the Italian position to his nominal allies, making clear the importance of the art.7 of the Quadruple Alliance treaty. The Austrian initial answer was a declaration of intent regarding her unwillingness of occupy permanently Serbia or part of it but also stated that there will be not talking about eventual compensation without a DoW by the Kingdom of Italy towards the Entente. This position it’s a clear demonstration on how optimistic was the general mood in Wien as the war was expected to be a short one, this belief was only strengthened by the German victories on Belgium, North France and with the Russian defeat at Tannemberg. On the other side, it was the Russian foreign minister, in early September, to made the first contact with the Italian government, offering Trentino, Trieste and Vlore but Sonnino and Giolitti considered such offer insufficient as their objective was the control of the Adriatic and that clearly clashed with the interest of Serbia, at the time a Russian client; so thing remained unchanged. The failed first invasion of Serbia, the Russian capture of Lemberg and the possible menace at Wien itself and the failed capture of Paris instead made clear that the conflict will have been a long one. Italy answer to such development was to increase the preparation for war, regardless against whom and to continue his diplomatic offensive with both side. The russian success against A-H brought a new round of negatiation between Rome and Wien, even thanks to the increased pressure from Berlin towards the Hapsburg leadership and the arrive in February at Rome of Count Von Bulow, a German diplomat with the mission to reach an agreement with Italy regarding her situation. This sudden moves caused an irate reaction from Austria-Hungary that put a stop to the talking and sent a formal protest to the German Kaiser itself. At the same time, the discussion with the representative of the Entente were going extremely well as they were ready to give to Italy basically everything she demanded in exchange to her DoW against the Quadruple; this change of policy started at January with the realization that without help Serbia will have fallen and that A-H was the weak link of the Alliance. Unfortunately Giolitti was a staunch neutralist, seeing the level of destruction just some months of war caused and painfully aware of how much was unprepared the Italian army and how contrary of the war was the majority of the population. Naturally as an old schemer, he used this contact with the Entente as a motivation for both Berlin and Wien to come to an agreement and let news of them come to the ear of the Alliance members intelligence services. As consequences, the 17 March the Hapsburg foreign minister Count Bertchold, send an official dispatch to Sonnino, saying that he was ready to talk about the Italian compensation and two week after a formal Austrian proposal regarding the cession of Trentino, control of Albania and some other minor border adjustment as compensation and to maintain a benevolent (see favorable) neutrality towards the rest of the Quadruple alliance arrived to the desk of Giolitti. By the end of the month after one of most heated debate ever happened in the Italian deputy chambers and the consternation of the entente governments, the agreement was approved and signed, Italy will have remained neutral. Many in the interwar period had ridiculed Giolitti and the King for the trust given to the Austrian, for being such naive in believing that they had respected such treaty or that Germany, even with the personal guarantee of the Kaiser regarding the upholding of the treaty, will have supported us. But has been painfully clear that not for a moment the Italian officials had believed the word of the Austrian government was worth the ink used for the treaty and communication between officials of the Hapsburg foreign minister to their German counterpart that openly proclaimed how there were not intention of keep the word given, were intercepted almost immediately. The reason why Giolitti chose to accept this agreement even when the Entente was ready to give him all Italy demanded, was the preparation of the army and the country for such war and the understanding that even if victorious, the cost will have been too high for nation, putting her very survival at risk, plus the staunch belief that in the end some other type of compensation will have been granted to Italy by the victorious Quadruple, maybe Tunisia, maybe Nice and Savoy. It’s worth to note that to finance the modernization program of the armed forces and in general obtain more fund for the government program, it was for the first time used in Italy the issue of bond linked to the public debt and so guaranteed by the state and more importantly anyone had the right to bought them, even the women and without the permission of the husband. A major rise of the tax was also proposed but immediately refused, this created some problem in the government because the minister at the finance of the time was ready to gave his resignation over such politics, Giolitti with his usual capacity of compromise put a stop at the crisis by allowing a slight rise of the tax for a limited time. [1] in OTL Giolitti was forced to a temporary retirement due to the socialist ceasing their support, ITTL the socialist are a more ‘respectable’ political force and are government material for a longer time, meaning that internal (see revolutionary) reason to stop being part of the government are not here and Salandra (Giolitti protege and uberinterventionistt don’t take his place). This is going to be interesting to see. |
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Post by lukedalton on Feb 7, 2020 20:36:22 GMT
Italy and the Great Wars
(part 2)
Life during wartime
The war had severe consequences on the international trade, much more difficult for Italy to export merchandise and import raw material necessary for the industry and the food for the population, for this reason almost immediately Giolitti not only created a government of national unity formed by socialist (the moderate socialist led by Turati, people like Gramsci and Mussolini were on the verge of leaving the group to create their own party), liberals and moderate Catholics but started program of rationing and for increase the internal production of food and material.
The food situation was also problematic due to the mobilization of the army to defend the nation from a possible attack from one of the neighboring nations, that because the soldiers recalled were almost exclusively young farmer from the south; sure many rules were employed to lessen the burden from the poor families, the mobilization was partial plus there were a rotation of the personnel involved, at least in theory and there were many days of leave granted so to allow the soldiers to go back to their farm for the harvest, nevertheless it put a heavy burden to the most poor group of Italians.
On the other hand industries like Fiat and Ansaldo seen a great expansion due to the commission from both side (as example it’s thought that at least a quarter of the steel helmet of both France and A-H were built in Italy under license), there were factories were the average worker week was of 70/75 hours making employer and employee rich (but also starting an inflationary cycle that eroded part of this new richness).
While from the other hand a rationing system was created to limit public consumption of meat, dairy product and other valuable product; other government measure brought the 'pane comune' on the table of the Italians, basically by order of the ministry there various bakery were ordered to produce only 1 type of bread instead of the numerous regional variant and done with flour of inferior quality (later this become a staple of the Italian diet but produced with higher quality materials). Not only that but is also is limited the selling of food in restaurant and bakery or butcher’s shop, this to safe precious food but also to have material to sell at greatly increased price to Austrian buyer, journals now had only 4 pages and books were in smaller size than before and even electricity was rationed and a series of controlled blackout created to save resources.
This naturally created a lot of social tension, people had the money but lacked the goods to buy, at least in the quantity and quality desired and in this scenario ta very active and prosperous black market rise to at least alleviate the situation, while part of the new money available was used to buy the national bonds issued by the government to finance both a program to rearm the army and the navy in case Italy was involved directly in the war but also various program of public utility like the draining of swamp or the building of new infrastructure.
As said above, this was a period of social tension and the numbers of protest, riots and fight for the scarcity of food and coal were too numerous to list and in one occasion (Turin July 1917) when a women protest for the lowering of the food ration was repressed with the force with at least a dozen women dead, this started a city wide battle against the authorities, things gone so badly that many thought were the prelude for a revolution.
Luckily for the nation, cooler head prevailed and in an extremely uncharacteristic manner, the government officially admitted to have mismanaged the situation and offer amnesty and reparation for everyone involved and the discharge of the local prefect and the general in command of the city garrison; that development seemed to be the result of intense and at times angry negotiation between the King, TTurati Giolitti and Don Luigi Sturzo (as an unofficial representative of the catholic) to resolve the situation without spreading the revolt or cause further bloodshed.
Not so safe neutrality
Even if neutral doesn’t mean that Italy don’t suffered attack during the war, both the border with France and A-H seen various incident during the years of war, usually limited to patrols trespassing and being forced to return home but in various occasion not before some fire exchange; numerous were also the overflight by foreign aircraft, many time due to navigational error but other time very intentionally as both Paris and Wien want to be sure that Italy was not planning a sneak attack against them, by the end of the war at least 1000 of such incident happened.
By any standard the two most serious event involved ships; the first was the so called ‘Seydlitz affair’, called in such manner as it refer to the pursuit of the German battle cruiser Seydlitz and the light cruiser Weser, together forming the German mediterrean division, in September 1915.
The German ships primary mission was to intercept French transport from North Africa and directed in the mainland, but the first sortie was a partial failure as the squadron, after departing Pola the 4 September and having eluded the entente squad at Corfù and successfully shelled objectives in Algeria, while was going back at her base was intercepted near Malta by the British cruiser Erin and Agincourt and after a brief but intense fight they were forced to retreat after having suffered minor damage.
Their return route in the Adriatic was cut by MN and RN ships, so the division commander Konteradmiral Behncke fearing to be intercepted by another and larger force and low on supply (especially coal) decided to enter Italian waters and seek temporary asylum under neutrality law.
So, the German ships arrived in Messina the night of the 14 September, while the British squadron assembled stayed out of the Italian waters as they were ordered to respect that nation neutrality.
While the Italian authorities not refused at Behncke asylum, were also strict on the rule, no more than 24 hours and with just enough coal to return home (even if the presence of German merchants blocked in the port permitted the acquisition to more coal), at the same time a sizable British force was forming just out the Sicilian port waiting for the two enemy ships to come out to play.
The German commander, with the two only option for a safe base being Pola, with the risk of being bottled for the remaining of the war and Constantinople with his dangerous route decided for the second and at midnight of the 16 he departed from Messina with the cover of the night unfortunately the British light cruiser HMS Weymounth intercepted them by chance less than an hour after they left the Italian waters and engage the division, giving time to the rest of the squadron to reach them and paying this act of bravery with his destruction.
In the following battle, both Seydlitz and Weser were sunked with only a handful of their personnel successfully recovered, while except for the previously mentioned light cruiser, the much more numerous British force suffered only lightly damage; the fires of the battle were clearly visible from Messina and many fishermen ships were caught between the warring vessel, with a couple of them almost being hit by straying shell, that Sicilian sailors while inadvertently in dangerous waters were also instrumental in rescue what few German sailors survived the destruction of their ships, as the dark of the night and the scarcity of moonlight made the rescue operation very difficult.
The other incident happened in October 1916 as a consequence of the Battle of the Otranto Straits, when the A-H navy attempted one of her few sortie of the war, with the objective to engage the Entente fleet in Vlore, beat her and finally open the straits permitting to the Kriegsmarine to leave the Adriatic and enter the meditterean.
The night between the 16 and 17 October a fleet comprising the bulk of the austro-hungarian naval forces under the command of admiral Horthy (1), from the start of the war the entire Hapsburg navy had been imprisoned in her own bases and all the previous attempt to break the blockade ended in failure, with only a handful of ships being successful in leaving the Adriatic sea to engage Anglo-french objective in the wider mediterrean theater; this time it was decided that for the honor of the navy, the entente forces need to be defeated; as secondary objective the ships had order to bombard enemy position in Albania and Corfù.
The original plan was to use one of the old per-dreadnought battleships with a screen of destroyers to bombard target in Albania, so to make the enemy ships get out from the fortified port to engage them and once that happen spring the trap, all while a couple of destroyers masked as British ships had launched an attack to the fishing ships used to keep the anti-submarine net in position.
Unfortunately the battleships Budapest was hit just before reaching his target by a torpedo launched by a french submarine (that escaped successfully) and with that happening a general alert was sent, making the austro-hungarian lose the element of surprise, to make thing worse, the main fleet position was spotted by entente planes at the first light of the day.
Admiral Horthy decided to abort the operation and return to the Pola as the strategic situation was drastically changed, but the Budapest due to the hit by the torpedo was much more slower than his escort and was soon in range of the enemy artillery, as a group of destroyers had reach them; the first battle was inconsequential as even with at least a hundred shell used no single hit was achieved for both side.
After laying smoke and being left behind from his escort due to the reduced speed, the Budapest changed route and tried to reach Italian waters due to report of ships from Durazzo leaving the port to cut her escape route.
Leaving aside the game of cat and mouse between the Budapest and the Entente ships, the event relevant to the violation of the Italian neutrality was the battle between the old austro-hungarian battleships and the British cruiser Dartmouth, Bristol and Chester as it happened inside the Italian territorial waters.
Probably due more to human error than a desire to ignore international law, nevertheless the following battle ended with the destruction of the Budapest started a series of heated diplomatic exchange between Rome and London with the addition of numerous menace from both side and dangerous movement of ships and men, till more prudent and cool head prevailed and decided to DE-escalate the crisis before was too late.
(1) 3 dreadnoughts, 7 per-dreadnoughts, 3 light cruiser, 10 destroyers and 3 submarine
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Post by lukedalton on Mar 8, 2020 0:44:04 GMT
ITALY AND THE GREAT WARS Humiliation at Bonn8 October 1917 saw the British government, the last member of the Entente, finally asking term to the Quadruple alliance, after being left alone and on the verge of starvation...the great war was finally over. Both the victors, at least the one that fought in the European theater and the losers participated at the peace conference of Bonn where the latter imposed their terms to the firsts; this raised the first concern in the Italian government as they were not invited, even as observer, to the conference but limited themselves to some unofficial and informal protest as they rationalized that they had not participated to the fight and so don't have any 'official' reason to be there. Quickly Presidente del Consiglio Salandra (Giolitti, stepped down in April 1916 due to age related fatigue and give the role to his own protege and with the unspoken agreement that he will get back the job after a while) understood that was all wishful thinking, after many request towards the Hapsburg government to implement their treaty were answered with increasingly thin excuse. The Austria-Hungarian foreign minister Ottokar Czernin, tried to quiet the Italian protest, giving the reason for this delay first the peace conference and later administrative reason but by February 1918 things were already at the breaking point between the two nation, especially after Albania and Montenegro were assigned at the A-H sphere of influence by the final peace treaty, a development that not only was clearly against what written in the agreement between Italy and the Hapsburg empire but clearly a 'red line' of the Italian foreign politics at least from the beginning of the century. While at the moment the fights was limited to the use of words, things between the two 'theoretically' allies were quickly worsening and in this moment Berlin attempted to cool things; but quickly discovered how herculean was his task. On one side Austria-Hungary was adamant in not upheld the treaty, officially because Italy had not kept a 'benevolent neutrality' towards them and by not participating in the conflict art.7 was not valid, at least this was the opinion of the Hapsburg government but everyone quickly understood that Wien never had the intention of follow it from the beginning. On the other side there was Italy, while not really surprised by Wien attitude and behavior it was ready to accept other compensation, but Salandra quickly realized that none were forthcoming as Germany was not ready to force A-H to give up anything or to pressure France to cede even Tunisia. One must understand that while the French army had her share of mutiny due to the lack of hope they were quickly resolved and a new line of defense created, only that once the gun stopped it was almost impossible for the government in Paris (and London naturally) to restart it...unless German request were too onerous and Berlin perfectly understood that, for this reason it limit all to annex the part of Lorraine that he already occupied, a demilitarization of the border and some (somewhat) affordable reparation. Even the German population was tired of the war and there was no will to continue the slaughters, unless someone desired plunge the country in revolution, so there was little that Italy can obtain; Germany tried to appease Rome with some grandiose but vague promise of colonial compensation in the near future but once pressured for something of concrete and immediate it was clear that were just empty words. Salandra request to at least make France giving up Tunisia in Italy favor was answered that at the moment was not possible and unofficially Germans officials bluntly stated that if Rome wanted the place, it needed to actually conquer it, the same goes for Malta or some other British colonial possession in Africa. At most Von Bulow, the German chancellor, was ready to concede some debt forgiveness from France and Great Britain (just something little more than symbolic as Germany needed herself the money from France and surely can't damage too much their economy) and some further protection for the rights of the Italian minority in Tunisia and Austria-Hungary (Salandra remember ironically, how enthusiastic and proudly the chancellor announced that Wien allowed the creation of an Italian university in Triest...and was really surprised by the apathetic reaction of the Italians). Albania was resolved with a 'gentlemen agreement' that forbid A-H to put a permanent military forces there...even if nobody missed the fact that K.u.K. ships were always present in Vlore and Dures doing training and diplomatic mission and the same was valid for the ground forces that were positioned in Vlore. Italy during the crisis had started a partial mobilization and amassed troops in Veneto and Apulia, where also the bulk of Regia Marina was not positioned and numerous border incident happened between Italian Alpini and Austrian soldiers, but in the end the Italians realized that Germany will have supported A-H and with Russia embroiled in a civil war and the rest of the entente defeated, she was alone against the new masters of the continent, so at the end of March 1918 accepted the meager concession and declared the crisis over. Von Bulow tried to spin things in a manner that salvaged the alliance but everyone understood that Italy was a wild card now and almost certain hostile player in the game of the great powers for the years to come. There were severe political consequences in Italy for such development, for the Liberal party that historically dominated the Italian political life from the first day of the declaration of the Kingdom, this was the final nail for the coffin. It was already a decade that they were in great need of support by the socialists and the severe prestige hit given by the treatment received eroded a lot of support at national level that they enjoyed, especially after the franchise was enlarged by socialist (and catholic) supported new electoral laws, and the next general election seen the Liberals gaining only the 15% of the votes, from the 48% of the last. Also another event must be taken in consideration to understand the fall of the Liberals, the so called 'black week', were Tuscany and Emilia-Romagna erupted in a nationalist led revolt against the government in charge; such revolt started in the bersaglieri barracks of Ancona the day after the signing of the treaty between Italy and the rest of the Quadruple alliance. Quickly the riots expanded in the neighboring regions and the government effort to quell it were made more difficult by the general strike launched by unions supporting the nationalist. While burning quickly and bright, the fire of the revolt ended also very quickly, a spontaneous event without any real leaderships, except the one (very ineffective) of the self-proclaimed Vate Gabriele D'Annunzio; once the Royals Guards were capable of reach the zone affected by the revolt by commandeering the railways personnel, the would-be revolutionary were speedily dispersed and captured. In the end, the sentence of the tribunals, both civilian and military, were generally lenient...except for the ringleader as Giolitti, now back on the seat, were keen to not cause more resentment towards the state. So by history great irony, Giovanni Giolitti is considered the man that saved Italy from the devastation of war and at the same time condemned his own party to a political death. |
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Post by lukedalton on Mar 18, 2020 1:30:41 GMT
italy and the great wars
Some round of waltzer (part 1) The immediate period after the war was troublesome for Italy, internal strife and economic downturn due to the loss of many commission related to the war and the need to retool the industry for civilian purpose were not a great mix. Adding the event in Bonn and the following revolts of nationalist in many places, was just put gasoline on the fire; so when in June 1919 when the next general election was called, the Italian Liberal Party, the cornerstone of the political system of the nation for the last 60 years, barely become a shadow of itself, losing more than 30 point from the last round of election and starting a long period of weak government and a divided parliament as both the Catholics and the Socialist not only hated each others but were divided among themselves and so a clear and strong majority was not possible to form. The only politics that all side have in common was the 'dislike' for their supposed allies and for this reason when the treaty of alliance with Germany and Austria-Hungary was supposed to be renewed in 1924, in a very rare show of national unit, the entire parliament voted for not do it and leave the pact; not that this was was a surprise for everyone, even if the German government made a half halfhearted attempt to avoid this but was too little and too late, the Hapsburg reaction was more expected as just a day after the vote, they started the greatest military exercise of the decade right in front of the Italian border, with the inclusion of the bulk of their fleet...just to send a very clear message. The other great member of the Alliance, the USA, simply wish the Italian good luck and quickly returned to mind his business. During the first half of the 20's Italy was pretty much isolated in Europe and so concentrated all her effort in his colonial empire. The pacification of Libya was the principal mission of the army during the Great War and the 20's, mission that had different degree of success. While the coast of Cirenaica and in general the Tripolitania by 1920 were clearly under Italian control, due to a mix of greater firepower, a division of the local Arab leaders and the use of innovative anti-insurgency tactics, the Senussi territory was total another matter. The Senussi not only excelled in hit and run tactic and guerrilla warfare but had a strong unified leaderships and they controlled a territory that was divided between Italian Libya and British Egypt and so they greatly used this to move their bases between this territory, making then untouchable by one side or the other as both Rome and London wanted to avoid unnecessary incidents while collaboration between the two nations were minimal for the obvious reason. It was only after a certain stability returned in the Italian political life, with the victory of Sturzo popular party in the general election of 24 and they forming a government with the support of the moderate nationalist of Ciano, that something can be done about the situation. It was the then youngest Italian presidente del consiglio (41a) with the prodding of Dino Grandi (foreign minister and former Italian ambassador in Great Britain) that a rapprochement between Rome and London was attempted, initially with just the intention of coordinate the effort to suppress the Senussi revolt in Libya and Dervish insurgents in Somalia but this initial effort brought Italy very soon on the Entente side, at least unofficially; after all in case of a new war the United Kingdom and France needed all the help possible and at the moment all the help to quell the local uprising was greatly needed as resources and will to fight were not abundant. The Senussi resistance officially ended 9 November 1927 with the signing of the treaty of Tripoli by the Italian colonial commissar and the Senussi Emir, Italy in exchange of the cessation of the hostility and a recognizing of the Italian authority give to the Senussi a certain amount of internal autonomy; the Dervish instead decided to end everything in a blaze of glory and so a joint British-Italian expedition eliminated the sect the same year. The other great success of the Italian colonial politics and as the same time another step on the increasing of the collaboration between her and the United Kingdom was the treaty of friendships and non aggression between Italy and the Abyssinian Empire signed in 1926*, with that agreement finally the question of the Abyssinian-Somalian border was resolved and the Italians had the permission and government collaboration for building a railway that linked Eritrea and Somalia and a road between Adis Abeba and Massaua; for their support the British obtained the Italian collaboration for the water work in south Sudan. In general Italy during the late 20's and early 30's was considered an unofficial but important member of the Entente, especially after the Tripartite Agreement of 1931 that saw France and the United Kingdom transfers piece of their colonial empire to Italy plus other concession, in exchange of a closer collaboration in term of diplomacy, economy and in secret clause military matters.** *Basically OTL treaty signed by Mussolini but with the addition of the railway and more trust between the signatories. ** Basically what the French and British give to Italy in colonial matter after 1919 plus the Italo-French agreement of 1934 and with the addition of cultural rights in Malta and favor rate for Suez. Not much but any Italian government can openly say that's much more that as been obtained by being a member of the Quadruple...and yes they loudly proclaim it to anyone that can hear it. In general Italy took the role of OTL URSS regarding German weapon and tactic development, even because the Austro-Hungarian spy network in Italy was eliminated during the Great War and never rebuild it (not that Wien had not tried) |
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Post by lukedalton on Mar 3, 2021 10:21:46 GMT
ITALY AND THE GREAT WARS
Some round of waltzer (part 2)
The internal political scene of Italy in the 20's and early 30's was dominated by the Democristian- Nationalist-Liberal alliance, a moderate right and conservatice coalition (at least in theory, as many of the Liberal remnant and a lot of nationalist were very favorable to a much less democratic form of goverment, for both ideological motive and for fear of the growing socialist party) that for some destiny irony governed Italy during this time of social change and economic grown and transformation.
A natural conservative nation Italy also avoided the massive loss of blood and tresure caused by the Great War and so many in the upper echelon of the society believed that all the troublesome change happening in the rest of the continent will never occured in the Belpaese...they were badly mistaken as the massive industrialization due to the necessity to supply both side of material and the nationalist fever unleashed by the mistreatment at Berlin drastically changed the italian political and social landscape.
Gone were the Liberal from their dominant position and now a pale shadow of their former self, they were forced in a coalition with the democratic christian (the relative majority party) and the PNI (Partito Nazionalista Italiano) and with this alliance the first big price to pay was quickly demanded as in 1926, the Kingdom of Italy and the Holy See finally signed an agreement to resolve, after more than 50 years, the Roman Question, the so called Concordance of Villa Madama. (1).
Even with all the previous opening to the catholic, it was an enourmous departure from their previous stance regarding the Church, especially because for many such treaty was too generous towards the Pope but it was not the only 'price'...as more and more the state was involved in both the economy and the normal life of the citizens, a clear contrast with the traditional lasseiz-faire attitude of the Liberal Party but by now they were in clear minority and both their allies were enthusiastic supporter of a greater role of the goverment in the economic life of the nation, especially after the start of the Great Depression.
On the other hand, the ongoing finance and logistical support to any rebel group present and operating in the Hapsburg Empire was a move that found support on all the political spectrum except for some groups among the democratic cristian that found the idea to support enemies of a fellow christian nation disgusting but they were the minority in the party; and in general the relations between the two former allies were many times just a hair distant from litteraly exploding
During this period in all the nation of the Entente, extremist and revanchist party took power, with the normal democratic freedom quietly or much less quietly becoming a thing of the past as many of the new ruler believed that was such weakness that had make their nation lose the Great War. Around the same time in Italy, Benito Mussolini recently become the secretary of the PNI and the rising star of the italian politics, a great admirer of Jake Featherson, Mosley and Charles XI he attempted to replicate the same tattic and method, unfortunely for him not only he previously alienated with this abrasive and bombastic personality his allies but quickly discovered that trying the same method against much more stable institution was much more difficult
The final nail on Mussolini anspiration come with the result of the 1935 legislative election, when his party and the rest of the long standing coalition was defeated by the PSI lead alliance of leftist parties and with this long overdue change of goverment a radical shift on foreign policy happened.
The new coalition, at least in the beginning, slowly and quietly start to increase the distance between Italy and the rest of the Entente, especially after the increasing authoritarians measure took by their goverment, not considering the growing tension between them and the Alliance but the event that greatly increase the speed of such process was the Spanish Civil War.
Spain while neutral during the war like Italy was much much less succesfull in resolve succesfully and peacefully the rising social, political and economic problem, the latter exacerbated by the effect of the Great Depression and by the increasily authoritarian rule of the King backed by a strange allaince of socialist, monarchist and conservative. In February 1936 an attempt to arrest the leadership of the Nationalist Party leaderships before their attemp at the so called 'March on Madrid' backfire beyond any anticipation as not only the bulk of them escpaped but it was also the signal for the nationalist armed squad to rise up and so, the Spanish Civil War started as a failed attempt to stop such event. While Germany support for the monarchist was lucklustre and many time just a second thought, the Anglo-French give to Sanjuro's force everything they needed and even more, even sending 'volunteers' force (in reality entire military unit on loan) to help directely, gaining essential experience in modern warfare.
Italy and Spain had grow diplomatically close during the neutrality in the Great War and there were still numerous link between the two monarchies, so it was decided early to send some army surplus and some aircraft to the forces of the recognized goverment, this move caused a series of protest and not so veiled menace from London and Paris, while such menace never amounted more than hot air, it was enough for poisoning the diplomatic well, especially after an italian merchant ship that transported material in Spain was sunk by a 'pirate submarine' that was never identified. For all the duration and as consequence of the civil war (1936-39) a string of diplomatic and military incidents between the supporter of both side happend, not numerous or big enough to cause a war or even a breack of relations but still enough to sour any previous patnerships.
On the other hand, the Kindom of Italy was far from ready to resume even an informal alliance with his former patner as the humiliation in Berlin was still burning and in the past 20 years between Rome and Wien the situation hardly improved. So at the eve of the next great world conflict, the italian nation again had become the wild card
1 - Basically OTL Lateran Treaty
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Post by lukedalton on Jun 23, 2021 10:11:35 GMT
Italy and the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939)
Italy partecipation at the spanish civil war was extremely complicated; not only there were no full agreement in the government on who materially support but there were a lot of political repercussion in any possible move and the numbers of interested players grew in number every day.
To better understand the Italian situation, it's better make a little recap of the situation in Spain; in 1936 after years of growing unpopularity of King Alfonso, who whose supported by an unstable coalition of moderate conservative and moderate socialist, due to the mismanagement of the economy and the costly war in the Rif.
After years of strike, protests and rising political violence, in August 1936 a cabal of army officers inspired by the new ideology born in France and Uk and lead first by Emilio Mola and after his death by Francisco Franco launched a coup d'etat against the King to install a new government; this attempted failed due to poor planning and quickly become a civil war as many groups armed themselfs for the fight.
The conflict in Spain become a multisided war between different faction, on one side the Nationalist, that originated by the group attempting the coup and were succesfull in swaying for their cause the great part of the spanish military; on the other side there were the monarchist and the socialist, nominally allied to mantain the (somewhat) democratic government but not at the best term with each other and many time more busy figthing each others than battle the nationalist, especially during the first years, finally there were the Carlist, supporter of the Carlist claymant to the throne of Spain and catholic extremist and till the last year of the war usually fight every other faction.
Quickly side were take in the international stage even with different fervor and intensity, while the French and the British were lavish in their support of the nationalist, even sending military units behind the guise of 'civilian volunteers', Germany and their allies were more restrained in their help, giving to the monarchist/socialist tentative alliance a trickle of supply and old equipment and even limiting the flood of volunteers departing for Spain to fight against the nationalist, this due to a mix of political apathy regarding the external world and a troubled internal political scene, economic situation and the desire to not engage directly the Entente...at least for now.
For the italian government the situation was even more complicated as there were support for all the faction, officially the government and the King pledge to give aid to the recognized official goverment of the Kingdom of Spain, a nation that the common neutrality during the war had made a much closer partner than before and even if limited due to the general economical and geopolitical situation, a stable quantity of old equipment (weapons, uniform, aircraft, artillery and even some tanks) were sent to them; also important was the sheer number of men (and women) that departed Italy to join one of the group that was figthing in Spain as quickly Italian start to battle and kill Italian in a foreign land in the name of religion and ideology.
The main reasoning behind allowing such increasing human flood to reach Spain, was that was better they were far from the nation and busy fighting and dieing than remaing in Italy creating troubles as the heated words in the journals and in the political gathering quickly were substituted by fight between supporter of different faction and so the politicians see sending them away to blow out a 'little of steam' and with the advantage to cut their numbers a little and identify all the potential troublemakers when and if they will return home.
Another problem was the ultrahortodox Carlist faction, hardliner catholics that in the first years of the war fight alone against all the other faction and with the final objective to put the Carlist claymant on the throne of Spain, they were also the group with less international support...except some extremist group in Italy, Poland and a sizeble numbers of Vatican officials that see them as the last true defender of the faith, so it was thanks to them that whatever equipment and diplomatic recognition arrived even if it was too little to make them nothing more than a wild card (not considering the many embarassement given to the Vatican as the carlist atrocities were well pubblicizated during the time of war), at least till February 1938 when finallly the work of the Vatican secretary of State Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli give his fruits and the Carlist joined the front against the nationalist, in exchange of a postwar marriage between the heir of the spanish throne and the daughter of the Carlist claymant.
Naturally the help given to the monarchist/socialist faction created some tension between Italy and the Entente, especially with France, that was usually kept on the realm of the diplomatic words even if some measure that can only described as 'retaliation' were taken regarding the cultural italian rights in the British and French Empire but every now and then some serious incident happened that put at risk the entire war in Spain to become the lit for a much greateer conflict like when in January 1938 a 'unidentified pirate submarine' attacked and sunk the italian merchant ship Tirreno directed to the monarchist help port of Barcelona and that was transporting supply and war material; the ship was lost with all the crew and immediately unit of Regia Marina were sent in the zone to investigate and to make the route safe. To this both Paris and London asnwered by sending their naval unit, officially to help in keep the zone safe but in reality to counter any support to the monarchist given by the newcomers, soon even some Germans units joined the party and for a couple of days the situation was extremely tense with accusation and counteraccusation between all the side, at least till to resolve diplomatically the affair and preserve the peace all side decided to blame an unknow submarine involved in piracy, a decision that was not taken well in Italy even if the joy for the avoided conflict silenced any serious protest...at least in the beginning. The only real outcome of this crisis was a pledge of non intervention in the war by all the powers involved, even launching a series of patrol to intercept the cargoes full of equipment destinated to the various faction; naturally the Entente had no intention to honoring the agreement and Berlin and Washington fully understood that, still they see that as a success as it give them a certain diplomatic cover in the eyes of their public opinion...in the end the only result of such pledge was to make much more difficult for the monarchist and socialist get new supply and so begun their slow defeat.
The other big diplomatic clash that involved Italy was the so called 'Rome Gold Affair', with this name is called the transfer of the almost 700 tons of gold of the reserve of the Banco de Espana (and many tons of silver donated by the population to finance the war) from Madrid to Rome as a safety measure to protect from the nationalist (or other faction), a decision that even at the time was considerated controversial and borderline illegal but due to the situation in the nation and the pressure of the government and many international patners, still happened with the full authorization of the Finance Minister Julio Negrin.
Departing from Cartaghena in early November 1936, using the italian cargo ship Cortellazzo as transport and with the escort of Battleship Francesco Morosini and the destroyers Boreo, Euro and Nembo and 3 days later they arrived in Rome where the gold was quickly transported in the vault of the Banca d'Italia in the name of the recognized Spanish government for safekeeping and for use it for financing the war against the nationalist (naturally paying a reasonable price to the italian authorities for that). During the coming years, other cargoes with precious metals and other object of value reached Italy from Spain for security and a lot of money was transferred from Spanish asset to Italian banks, all this probably originated by the seizure of private assets and the liquidation of pubblic funds and not considering the money brought by the more than 60.000 refugee that found a new home in Italy after the war.
While seriously diminished due to the war expense and the management cost, the leftover money was the main mean to finance the Spanish government in exile so immediately after the end of the conflict, the new government (with a somewhat lucklustre support from his entente allies) demanded the restitution of all the transferred treasure, in all his form; a request that Italy plainly refuse as it considered the nationalist government illegal and for the next 15 years this argument dominated the relations between Rome and Madrid with neither side willing to cede even a diplomatic inch .
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Post by lukedalton on Jun 23, 2021 10:13:49 GMT
REGIA MARINA OOB AT THE EVE OF THE SECOND GREAT WAR
aircraft carrier: 1 (A)
A - OTL Project by Admiral Bonfiglietti in OTL 1929, 15.000ton, max speed 28/29 as air complement had a naval version of the Fiat G.50, unlike the other ships that have as on board plane the Reggiane Re.2000 catapultabile
Progetto Bonfiglietti 3-kQ7C--680x150@LaStampa.it.jpg
Battleships: 8 **
Montecuccoli Class : 4 (modernized on the same manner of the Count of Cavour and Caio Dulio)
Count of Cavour Class: 2 (Modernized as OTL)
Caio Dulio Class. 2 (modernized as OTL)
Heavy Crusier: 7
Venezia Class: 3 (roughly equivalent to the Trento)
Genoa Class: 4 (roughly equivalent to the Zara)
Light Crusier: 12
Alberto da Giussano Class 10
Colleoni Class:2 (B)
B - originally part of the same class and batch of the Alberto da Giussano, they were transformed in specialized Anti Aircraft Cruisier in the late 30's
Destroyers: 50/60 of various class
Torpedo Boat: 60/70 of various class
Submarines : 110 of various class
*Even OTL the brass know that the plane was outdated but between Fiat political clout and the fact that the other were much slower to produce, the Biplane won a big contract, so the CR.32 battles in spain are seen as the swan's song of the biplane ITTL as here the plane is the last of the series
** later during the second period of neutrality (as is called in Italy the period between 1941-44)all the battleship (and the aircraft carrier) were upgraded with the installation of EC3/ter Gufo radar
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Post by lukedalton on Sept 10, 2021 18:43:04 GMT
THE INCOMING STORM (1939-41)
The conclusion of the civil war in Spain was not the end of the tension in the continent but merely a glimpse of things to come; once the violence ended the Entente immediately start to analyze all the lesson learned during the conflict while at the same time using the spanish mineral wealth to feed their rearmament program (this last move, seen by the local as extremely exploative due to the imposed economic term, created a certain amount of tension between Spain and the Anglo-French). Later the last original member of the Entente, the Confederate States of America, under the control of Jake Featherson and his party, decided to renew her ties with her former allies adding the growing tension in North America to the already volative situation in Europe. For many that was the final sign that war was by now unavoidable.
On the other side, Germany start to fully realize her military lack of preparation due to the economic depression and the general lack of desire by the population for military adventures or show of force and greatly invested in her own program to modernize her armed forces; same was doing her most powerfull ally the Austro-Hungarian Empire even if obstacolated by the internal political situation.
Italy, being caught between this two alliance, also partecipated at this race so to quickly improve her armed forces for fear to be involved in the fight when (and not if) will happen and be found unpreparated; so increasingly the national budget was used to obtain new weapons and equipment, to modernize the forts at the French and Austrian border and to create national reserve of strategic materials in case world trade become heavily hampered like in the last war. The socialist-led coalition that during the period governed Italy was elected on a program of keeping the peace and increase the quality of life of the mass, but more and more event in the rest of the world, forced the goverment led by Giacomo Matteotti to invest in the sword instead that in the plow, this brought a strange situation where sector of the great industry supported the socialist why group of the left accused them of betrayal.
All that while the usually conservative italian society experienced a period of ‘debauchery and libertine sin’ as many conservative catholic described that period, expatriate artist from France and England like director Alfred Hitchcock and singer/actor Maurice Chevalier among many others brought many new and modern idea and attitude with them, greatly influencing the arts and the way of thinking of the population. On the dark side, all this partying at his core was a coping mechanism for many, due to the widespread belief that soon a new great war will start engulfing everyone on his bloody embrace.
Diplomatically speacking, while the old continent worried about the continued and progressively more aggressive french demand towards Alsace-Loraine or the British conscription law, in Rome deja-vu was the codeword of the day as like 25 years before, both alliance were trying to bring Italy in the war on their side or at least keep her in a favorable state of neutrality. The British Foreign Secretary Lord Halifax and the French foreign minister Paul Baudouin offered to the italians the full extension of their claim towards Austria-Hungary and added the promise of colonial gain and zone of influence in Turkey if in the case of a new war between the Central Power and the Entente she join the latter launching an attack towards A-H and helping the Royal Navy and Marine Nationale in the Mediterranean . The fact that two authoritarian reactionary regime attempted seriusly an alliance with a socialist goverment, not only point at the seriousness of the future intention of such regime but also their need to quickly fill the military gap in term of resources between them and German alliance and the general strategic importance of Italy. While the italian goverment not fully refused the proposal, it was clear that was also not really interested in a war of aggression, at least for now and the two dignitary returned home with a polite but firm refusal but also an assurance that Italy will remain neutral if not attacked. The talking between the Entente delegation and the italian goverment, while formal and surely not warm, were still far from hostile, the same thing cannot be said of the negotiation with the italian former allies.
The German and Hapsburg ambassador contacted Galeazzo Ciano (1)the italian foreign minister, proposing an official return of Italy in the alliance and in case of war a total support of the italian claim towards France and naturally a share of the Anglo-French colonial empire, plus some economic incentive.
While the envoys received the same answer of the previous delegation, the tone was totally different with the discussion turning quickly towards the agreement reached more than 20 years ago and how was betrayed even with all the assurances given at the highest level of both Empires. If the tone and words of the italian minister was not among the best to use in any official negotiations between Great powers neither was the one used by the Austrian ambassador (a prominent member of the anti-italian faction of the Hapsburg) shouting that if there was a betrayal it has been done by the italians due to their greed and that a geographical expression needed a lot of caution in dealing in the affair of giants. Apparently the German ambassador cut the talking, excusing himself and forcefully bring with him his Austrian counterpart before more damage was done and in the following days Wien recalled his ambassador due to health reason leaving any further negotiation to the sole german diplomat until a new ambassador was designed but even if the overall tone of the discussion were now more civil, the answer was the same, at the eve of the new Great War, Italy again will stay out of the fight...at least for now
(1) yeah, his father was a very influential member of the nationalist and a supporter of D’Annuzio and Mussolini in OTL as a true believer; the son is much more opportunistic and usually particularly good in catching where the wind is blowing and kissing butt.
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lordroel
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Post by lordroel on Sept 10, 2021 19:11:30 GMT
Thanks for updating the TL, lukedalton always like to read TL-191 stuff on AH.com, so nice to see it also here, also you are now the newest holder of the Grand Order of the Master Writer. |
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Post by lukedalton on Nov 7, 2021 21:10:14 GMT
Once more unto the breach ( 1941-43 part 1)
For the entire duration of 1940 in all the developed nations of the world, preparation for a new general conflict abounded while at the same time feebler and feebleer attempt to diplomatically keep the peace continued.
Frantic attempt to quickly upgrade the military equipment and enlarge the armed forces, together with massive civil defense exercises and the build up of warstock material were the norm of the day. In this race, the apparent ruler of Europe, the German Empire seemed a distant second as due to their unwillingness to fully burn their economy in such effort they started their rearming attempt later than the Entente and with less drive. The Germans main allies were not in a much better position, as Austria-Hungary united the lack of desire for such expediture (a tradition for the extremely spending avoiding Hapsburg burocracy) with internal instability, as the increasily authoritatian rule of Wien and the Magyarization effort of Budapest caused many minorities to protest even violenty against the government. The Ottoman Empire and the Tsardom of Bulgaria instead weren’t interested in any conflict as their interest were not menaced (or at least not enough to justify a very costly war) and the leaderships of this nations honestly thought that remaining neutral was an option if the Entente doesn’t attack them directly.
By the middle of 1941, even with the continous declarations of peacefull intention by everyon, only a king of the fools believed that war was not imminent.
The straw that broke the camel’s back was the internal political confusion in Germany due to the death of Emperor Wilhelm II and the ascension to the throne of his son; both Paris and London looked at the situation as the perfect occasion to give to Berlin an ultimatum, so the 2 June 1941 the French ambassador in Berlin gave to the German Prime Minister Kurt Von Schleicher a message from King Charles XI, this stated that unless the territory of Alsace-Lorraine were not given back to his rightfull owner, the French nation will have no other choice that declare war to take back what was hers, this declaration was also supported by the Russian and British ambassadors. As expected, the next day, in an unanimous vote the Reichstag refused such request and so the plague of war again was free to roam the european continent and even beyond.
The 4th of June, President of the council of ministers Giacomo Matteotti in the name of the italian government and people declared his ‘non belligerance’ in the current conflict and that the sacred inviolability of the national border will have been defended with all the necessary mean.
Like in the first Great War, neutrality don’t shielded the italian population by the consequences of the war as the trade become difficult not only for the direct peril of the fight between the two side but also due to a combination of hoarding of resources by both alliance soto increase their reserve and deny them to the enemy but also a slowing of the transports thanks to the belligerant taking the right to inspect and control even the neutral ships in case they transport material deemed to be destinated to their enemy. This last fact brought the italian government to send many protest and complains to all capitals...but if someone want to be fair, it was more a Quadruplice Alliance policy to be very strict with italian ships than an Entente one, as the latter enjoied much better relations with Rome and still hoped to bring her on her side (and in any case she was a great sources of workers and supply).
To contrastate this, the just formed government of national unity, decided to start immediately a politic of rationing many goods (food and coal in particular), giving to any italian the dreaded ‘carta annonaria’ a document that authorize the buying of food and other product in specific quantities so to better control the situation, such piece of paper will become the symbol of the period for many italians.
The great conundrum of Italy was again that they needed raw material to feed the industry for export (on both sides) but also support and feed his population; so while the best material was given to the factories that supplies the belligerant there were the necessity to support the rest of the nation. Luckyly one of the biggest export of Italy during this period was his own population, as both France and Germany requested a lot of guest workers to man their factories and farms while their own men were occupied in the fight. This at least relieved a lot of pressure from Italy (lot less mounth to feed and the money sent back home was very important) but hardly ended his problems and sufference.
To resolve or at least make the situation more bearable for the population a lot of initiative were started, like the creation of the ‘orti di guerra’ (basically the use of every piece of land available to grow food, from the land of the pubblic park to the terrance of private house to even bathtub) that were cultivated by private citizen or pubblic association, the treshing were done in the square of the cities in very patriottic manifestation and usually with the blessing of the harvest by the local priest or bishop. But the measure that together with the ‘carta annonaria’ really is intrinsecally associated to the period is the so-called Autarchy as all the combined effort of the government in coordination with the private sector to make Italy as independent as possible by imported material that was difficult to obtain in this trying times. That was attempted by both trying to increase the national production and support the use of alternative like rice, fish and rabbit even where it was not common but also to replace many goods with the so-called ‘surrogati’ like using barley or cicory to create a beverage to use instead of coffe, karkadè instead of tea and the use of synthetic replacement for cotton and gasoline. In general the biggest advantage that the autarchic measure created was a great expansion of the chemical sector, a general modernization of many industries and infrastructure (especially transport), but the fruit of all this were enjoyed by the italian population principally in the postwar period.
What greatly helped in the immediate was the closer link between Italy and the other neutral nation of Europe (Switzerland, Sweden, Greece and ironically Spain) by coordinating their effort in transporting goods in collective convoy and unified acquisition and increasing the trade between each other. This links become very important after the end of the war, when Italy found itself, almost by chance, at the center of a little block of neutral nations that were not very keen at enter or return in the German sphere of interest.
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lordroel
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Post by lordroel on Nov 8, 2021 5:09:59 GMT
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Post by lukedalton on Jan 31, 2023 0:50:04 GMT
WINTER FOR CHURCHILL AND GREAT BRITAIN (AND FRANCE TOO) - (1941-43 Part II)
The Second Great War saw the force of the Entente being very successful in the initial stage, liberating Belgium, conquering the Netherland and invading Germany itself while in the East, the Russian army retook almost all Ukraine and made a lot of inroads in the so-called Kingdom of Poland (even if at very great cost) all while the Hapsburg Empire was fighting desperately to stop the russian horde to invade the country.
In Africa, entente colonial troops, like in the previous war slowly conquered the German colonies, hindered more by the logistic than an effective resistance by the local forces...but everyone involed know that this battle were not important as the real outcome of the war will be decided in Europe like 25 years before.
Many Italian politicians and nationalist, seeing the Entente victories, begun to press for the Kingdom to join them and finally fullfill the Risorgimento by taking all the rightful Italian land and obliterate the main enemy of the nation; nevertheless, both Matteotti and the King were adamant in maintaining neutrality, at least till the right moment. Decision that likes in the previous Great War, the majority of the population greatly approved and unlike that time, now there were a lot less protest by nationalist eager to enter the conflict, as the price of the previous one payed by all the participants was a too great warning to ignore.
This doesn't mean that the Italian armed forces were not active during this period, a costly but necessary mobilization was done during the first months of the war just in case one side (or even both) decided to invade and use Italian soil to fight their own wars, just like centuries ago and with tension running all over the border, incidents were bound to happen; especially after the French invasion of Switzerland.
Operation 'Douce nuit' was the creation of General Alphonse Juin, a veteran of the Great War and many colonial conflicts, his plan was to launch an invasion of South Germany through Switzerland in a manner similar to the German plan during the previous war; so in August 1941 Entente troops violated Swiss neutrality after having sent a message to the government in Berna, to let the troops pass and no harm will be done to the civilian population and infrastructure, in the same moment the first anglo-french soldiers entered Switzerland, the German army launched her Counter invasion, deciding that was better fighting the enemy in foreign soil than in their own territory.
The Swiss government with heavy heart and much debate decided that fighting two invasions at the same time was undoable so choose to retreat the army and much of the population in the National Redoubt and let the invaders fight each other's while hope for the best.
This situation brought further problems to Italy, from refugee running away from the fight to another front to control and from where trouble can and will come.
There were at least 500 violations of the Italian air space done by both Entente and Central Powers aircraft just in the first year of the war, Regia Aeronautica routinely intercepted them making air battle a frequent event in the Italian sky, by the end of the conflict more than 200 hostile aircraft were forced to land while 60 were downed by the Italian air force and AA batteries.
This interception causes great tension between Italy, French and Germany, tension exacerbated by a series of bombardment done by both side on the cities of Piedmont and Liguria due to navigational errors; the German also attempt to destroy the AA guns near Aosta using a group of saboteurs as retaliation for the downing of many aircraft but they were intercepted by an Italian patrol and forced to retreat.
As the capital of a neutral power with the capacity to enforce his status, Rome become the hotbed of 'behind the scene and easy to negate' diplomatic contact between the two side, especially regarding the exchange of prisoners and their general wellbeing but also of a lot of intelligence gathering effort and attempt of swaying the Italian public opinion; creating a lot of migraine to the italian authority. This cloak and dagger activities also see the 'Servizio I' (the national foreign intelligence gathering service) as an active participant, as one of the supporters of all separatist and autonomist group in Austria-Hungary even if during the war such help was much much more discrete due to diplomatic reason, still a series of unresolved murder and kidnapping happened in this period targeting slavic political activist resident in Italy and Hapsburg citizens.
While many suspected foul plays it was generally agreed to not pursue the matter for not causing a diplomatic incident so big to be considered a casus belli.
The fortune of war of the Entente by the end of 1943 were ancient history as the Germans armies reconquered Belgium and Netherland, while smashing the Tsarist forces in the east and strange and ominous menace were made by the Kaiser against the Entente powers; menace that become very concrete in the spring of 1944 with the destruction of Petrograd with first use of an atomic bomb; the following nuclear exchange changed the world and ended the war causing the collapsing the Entente government and starting a new era but in this initial period of chaos, the Italian government decided that this was her moment and so the 10 June 1940 the Kingdom of Italy declared war to the Entente (but not in any way joining the Central Powers) and launched an invasion of France.
The brief two weeks war between Italy and the Anglo-French alliance is considered by many historians, politicians and common people a blatant attempt to easy conquest and killing a dead man and very few in Italy contest this description, nevertheless this decision taken by Matteotti (with the full support of the King) has always be considered a good one both by his contemporary and the current generation as the nation already feel robbed during the previous Great War and nobody was willing to repeat the experience.
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Post by lukedalton on Jul 31, 2024 23:19:19 GMT
MARAMALDO YOU KILL A DEAD MAN
Italy actions in June 1944 were not considered by anyone, italians included, the highest and most honorable military moments in the history of the nation; the order to attack the Entente and try to grab as much as possibile before the end of the hostilities was done on the spur surprising the entire military command that had till that moment positioned the armed forces in a defensive stance against both side, so they were totally unpreparated to launch an offensive with such short notice; nevertheless the political necessity were more important of the reality on the terrain and the military situation and Matteotti decision had the full support of the King, so ready or not Italy in a move that shocked everyone, declared war to the Entente the 10 June 1944.
Battle of the Western Alps
Even with a cordial relationship and an unofficial alliance with France (and the Entente), Italy in 1931 decided to build a series of fortification in the valleys of the western border to increase the italian defense capacity this logistical and economic herculean effort was completed just before the declaration of hostilities with the Entente and only thanks to a series of downsizing of the original project (1), so an enemy sudden attack or counterattack was not expected. Still the war effort immediately created difficulties for the locals as entire villages were forcibly evacuated a move that was followed by the same action in France and that broken many economic, social and familiar ties in a zone that for centuries has been united, not considering the numerous italian community in France due to the economic migration and many thought of this action as 'an attack to a friendly nation and a blow to a dead man'
The Italian intelligence service correctly estimated the numbers and position of the French units in the sector but their understanding of the French morale that many thought at very low level but the italian move greatly outraged the French pubblic (as the rest of the world) and galvanized the troops at every level, while on the italian side the entusiasm for the war was very low. So in this climate, strange at it seemed at many at the time, it was the French that attacked first, launching limited incursion attempt and with the help of British reinforcement attempted to bombard italian cities in the north west even reaching Milan the 11 June but all the bombardment mission achieved were very limited damage for some severe loss (2).
As immediate consequence the italian air force launched a series of attack all over South east France, hitting expecially the naval base of Toulon but the overall damage was neglicible
The 15 June the bigger naval action of the war happened with the infamous attack at the Genoa Port by a French naval task force (4 heavy cruiser and 11 destroyers) that undetected till the last moment shelled Genoa and Vado Ligure causing very minor damage on both location but a great stain on the honor of the italian military as the coastal battery and the naval unit on the zone were unsuccesfull to sunk a single French ship, even after the intervention of Regia Aeronautica planes that strafed and bombed the French naval formation, in the end 3 destroyes and 1 Cruiser sustained some damage but all units returned at home. (3)
This action and the news that the Germans were ready to give their condition for an armistice prompted the government to order the launch of an invasion of France as soon as possible so the 17 of June the italian army invaded France.
The invasion started under the worst auspices as a the weather suddenly took a turn to the worse thus complicating an already difficult logistic situation; the narrow road, full of obstacles (natural and not) created a series of traffic jams that basically halted the italian advance, causing many motorizated units to retreat even before encountering the enemy due to the loss of vehicles for incidents and while the italian command was very aware of where the fortification were positionated they were totally ignorant of the presence of numerous little bunker that permitted to the french infrantry to engage the invaders and stop them. In general, despite the enormous deployment of resources, the italian command was unable to do anything except mass troops on the principal pass and so encountering the same problems all over the front: enormous traffic jams, difficulty in bringing in position artillery and vehicles (expecially in higher altitude), mountain gear not fully distributed, troops slowed by the bad weather and all that give the enemy the possibility to concentrate their effort and resources in more narrow position increasing the damage that they can made. From this situation is clear that the result obtained in the end were minimal with penetration of just few kilometers and the conquest of only a relevant objective Menton (captured by the division 'Modena' the last day of war) and with the French main defensive line basically untouched (except few outpost) by the end of the hostilities.
detqyyc-5138e6fd-12b5-476e-aa78-15a652be1ab5.png
The italian conquest and basically new border
War in the air
For the entire duration of the brief war, the air forces fo the entente and Italy were engaged in a series of small scale attack (relative to what seen in the conflict against the CP) against each others, with Italy bombarding Tunisi, Biserte and Malta plus a series of raid against objective all around south France, the most know is the attack at Marseilles of the 18 June that caused almost 200 deaths, on the other side Cagliari (22 June) and Trapani (23 June) were attacked from base in North Africa. Over all both air force gave a minimal contribute to the war, limiting their attack in both size and numbers as apparently neither side wanted to go full in for different reason (general war fatigue for the Entente and need to be ready for the Cp for Italy).
Conquest of Malta
The major and only real important conquest of the brief war was the island of Malta; the italian plan for this was called 'Operation C3' a plan born in the 20s and kept always up to date with the last innovation and developement due to the importance both strategic and cultural that the island possesed.
The Plan that envisaged the use of more than 60.000 men was divided in two part:
1- A massive series of air attack to weaken the island defense expecially in the southern part so that two airborne division could arrive in relative safety.
2- The troops will have supported the landing of 7000 italian soldiers in two point of the island and secured the beachead so that reinforcements can arrive, at the same time a series of commando operations would have attacked key objective in Malta.
For this operation almost 300 landing craft were necessary so many civilian ships were commandeered due to necessity; luckyly for everyone involved in the operation and for the Maltese population in the end, it was not necessary as between an initial show of force with sporadic attack and the local command knowing that they don't have any mean to mount a real defense of the island (at the time almost all equipment had been already sent in Egypt), the isolation of their position with no possibility of reinforcements and in the end the italians were preferable to the Germans or the Austrian, so Admiral Cunningham with the approval of London surrendered to the Italians the 22 June with the conditions to be permitted to evacuate soldiers and material without being harrassed, proposal that Rome happily accepted. In reality the greatest obstacle and cause of possible outbreack of hostilities was the reaction of the CP as Malta due to her position was a coveted prize, expecially by A-H; for this purpose once the deal between the Italian and the British was know the entire Austrian navy with the support of the German Mediterrean squadron sortie in direction of Malta only to face the Italian navy near Otranto ready to engage them and as troops prepared for combat at the italian austrian border, tense negotiation started in Rome and Berlin coming quickly to an understanding that Italy will keep the gain from that little war and that the CP will honor the provision of such treaty but it will end the conflict immediately not searching further territorial gain (4)
Colonial warfare
The military sitaution in all the italian colonial empire was the same, while ready to defend against an attack from one of the side of the current war and resist...at least for a while, there were no preparation for any offensive action and to tell the truth the colonial forces had been on the pretty low in the rearmament priority and so they lacked a lot of equipment and what they had were very old.
During the early months of 1944 some attempt to correct this situation was done but this last minute endevour hardly resolved the situation, nevertheless the various commander tried their best hoping that the war will end quickly enough to not be the subject of an entente counterattack.
In the horn of Africa, the initiative was taken by the British that immediately launched a series of air raid against the italian colonies (Asmara, Gura and Agordat were hit but with minor damage) and also some land incursion by mobile groups, the italian retaliation was immediate but also negligeble in term of damage. The two week conflict see a series of hit and run battle between italian and British forces with the Italians taking some strategic position in Kenya (Moyale and mandera) and Sudan (Kassala)
Armistice of Berna
The final armistice was signed in the italian embassy in Berna the 24 June 1940 by the ambassadors of Italy, France and the United Kingdom with the ambassador of Germany as observer.
The final agreement give to the Kingdom of Italy possession of the island of Malta, the terrain currently under their control in metropolitan France, Kenya and Sudan, the return of the border between Libya and Tunisia to the demarcation line of 1881 and the creation of a 50km deep DMZ on the France part of the Franco-Italian border and new Tunisian-Libyan border.
Carte_Tunisie_1843.jpg
The new/old border between Tunisia and Libya
1 - OTL in 1942 the preparation with the same level of downsizing was ready at 50%, here has been completed due to the better economic management by the democratic governmetn and less waste of money in idiotic military endevour mean that the project is ended just in time.
2 - OTL while the damage was still minimum the italian reaction was abysmal, the alarm were activated late, no night blackout, aircraft not launched if not long after the attack an no AA answer...here while not great, the italian are more prepared and between blackout and the alarm that was activated in time the RAF lost some plane expecially due to the fact that there was an AA response and the night fighter were launched more quickly
3- And this is a greatly enhanced performance for the italians, OTL was even more humiliating.
4 - Agreement of Rome of 24 June 1944
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lordroel
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Post by lordroel on Aug 1, 2024 14:21:57 GMT
MARAMALDO YOU KILL A DEAD MANItaly actions in June 1944 were not considered by anyone, italians included, the highest and most honorable military moments in the history of the nation; the order to attack the Entente and try to grab as much as possibile before the end of the hostilities was done on the spur surprising the entire military command that had till that moment positioned the armed forces in a defensive stance against both side, so they were totally unpreparated to launch an offensive with such short notice; nevertheless the political necessity were more important of the reality on the terrain and the military situation and Matteotti decision had the full support of the King, so ready or not Italy in a move that shocked everyone, declared war to the Entente the 10 June 1944. Battle of the Western Alps Even with a cordial relationship and an unofficial alliance with France (and the Entente), Italy in 1931 decided to build a series of fortification in the valleys of the western border to increase the italian defense capacity this logistical and economic herculean effort was completed just before the declaration of hostilities with the Entente and only thanks to a series of downsizing of the original project (1), so an enemy sudden attack or counterattack was not expected. Still the war effort immediately created difficulties for the locals as entire villages were forcibly evacuated a move that was followed by the same action in France and that broken many economic, social and familiar ties in a zone that for centuries has been united, not considering the numerous italian community in France due to the economic migration and many thought of this action as 'an attack to a friendly nation and a blow to a dead man' The Italian intelligence service correctly estimated the numbers and position of the French units in the sector but their understanding of the French morale that many thought at very low level but the italian move greatly outraged the French pubblic (as the rest of the world) and galvanized the troops at every level, while on the italian side the entusiasm for the war was very low. So in this climate, strange at it seemed at many at the time, it was the French that attacked first, launching limited incursion attempt and with the help of British reinforcement attempted to bombard italian cities in the north west even reaching Milan the 11 June but all the bombardment mission achieved were very limited damage for some severe loss (2). As immediate consequence the italian air force launched a series of attack all over South east France, hitting expecially the naval base of Toulon but the overall damage was neglicible The 15 June the bigger naval action of the war happened with the infamous attack at the Genoa Port by a French naval task force (4 heavy cruiser and 11 destroyers) that undetected till the last moment shelled Genoa and Vado Ligure causing very minor damage on both location but a great stain on the honor of the italian military as the coastal battery and the naval unit on the zone were unsuccesfull to sunk a single French ship, even after the intervention of Regia Aeronautica planes that strafed and bombed the French naval formation, in the end 3 destroyes and 1 Cruiser sustained some damage but all units returned at home. (3) This action and the news that the Germans were ready to give their condition for an armistice prompted the government to order the launch of an invasion of France as soon as possible so the 17 of June the italian army invaded France. The invasion started under the worst auspices as a the weather suddenly took a turn to the worse thus complicating an already difficult logistic situation; the narrow road, full of obstacles (natural and not) created a series of traffic jams that basically halted the italian advance, causing many motorizated units to retreat even before encountering the enemy due to the loss of vehicles for incidents and while the italian command was very aware of where the fortification were positionated they were totally ignorant of the presence of numerous little bunker that permitted to the french infrantry to engage the invaders and stop them. In general, despite the enormous deployment of resources, the italian command was unable to do anything except mass troops on the principal pass and so encountering the same problems all over the front: enormous traffic jams, difficulty in bringing in position artillery and vehicles (expecially in higher altitude), mountain gear not fully distributed, troops slowed by the bad weather and all that give the enemy the possibility to concentrate their effort and resources in more narrow position increasing the damage that they can made. From this situation is clear that the result obtained in the end were minimal with penetration of just few kilometers and the conquest of only a relevant objective Menton (captured by the division 'Modena' the last day of war) and with the French main defensive line basically untouched (except few outpost) by the end of the hostilities. detqyyc-5138e6fd-12b5-476e-aa78-15a652be1ab5.png The italian conquest and basically new border War in the air For the entire duration of the brief war, the air forces fo the entente and Italy were engaged in a series of small scale attack (relative to what seen in the conflict against the CP) against each others, with Italy bombarding Tunisi, Biserte and Malta plus a series of raid against objective all around south France, the most know is the attack at Marseilles of the 18 June that caused almost 200 deaths, on the other side Cagliari (22 June) and Trapani (23 June) were attacked from base in North Africa. Over all both air force gave a minimal contribute to the war, limiting their attack in both size and numbers as apparently neither side wanted to go full in for different reason (general war fatigue for the Entente and need to be ready for the Cp for Italy). Conquest of Malta The major and only real important conquest of the brief war was the island of Malta; the italian plan for this was called 'Operation C3' a plan born in the 20s and kept always up to date with the last innovation and developement due to the importance both strategic and cultural that the island possesed. The Plan that envisaged the use of more than 60.000 men was divided in two part: 1- A massive series of air attack to weaken the island defense expecially in the southern part so that two airborne division could arrive in relative safety. 2- The troops will have supported the landing of 7000 italian soldiers in two point of the island and secured the beachead so that reinforcements can arrive, at the same time a series of commando operations would have attacked key objective in Malta. For this operation almost 300 landing craft were necessary so many civilian ships were commandeered due to necessity; luckyly for everyone involved in the operation and for the Maltese population in the end, it was not necessary as between an initial show of force with sporadic attack and the local command knowing that they don't have any mean to mount a real defense of the island (at the time almost all equipment had been already sent in Egypt), the isolation of their position with no possibility of reinforcements and in the end the italians were preferable to the Germans or the Austrian, so Admiral Cunningham with the approval of London surrendered to the Italians the 22 June with the conditions to be permitted to evacuate soldiers and material without being harrassed, proposal that Rome happily accepted. In reality the greatest obstacle and cause of possible outbreack of hostilities was the reaction of the CP as Malta due to her position was a coveted prize, expecially by A-H; for this purpose once the deal between the Italian and the British was know the entire Austrian navy with the support of the German Mediterrean squadron sortie in direction of Malta only to face the Italian navy near Otranto ready to engage them and as troops prepared for combat at the italian austrian border, tense negotiation started in Rome and Berlin coming quickly to an understanding that Italy will keep the gain from that little war and that the CP will honor the provision of such treaty but it will end the conflict immediately not searching further territorial gain (4) Colonial warfare The military sitaution in all the italian colonial empire was the same, while ready to defend against an attack from one of the side of the current war and resist...at least for a while, there were no preparation for any offensive action and to tell the truth the colonial forces had been on the pretty low in the rearmament priority and so they lacked a lot of equipment and what they had were very old. During the early months of 1944 some attempt to correct this situation was done but this last minute endevour hardly resolved the situation, nevertheless the various commander tried their best hoping that the war will end quickly enough to not be the subject of an entente counterattack. In the horn of Africa, the initiative was taken by the British that immediately launched a series of air raid against the italian colonies (Asmara, Gura and Agordat were hit but with minor damage) and also some land incursion by mobile groups, the italian retaliation was immediate but also negligeble in term of damage. The two week conflict see a series of hit and run battle between italian and British forces with the Italians taking some strategic position in Kenya (Moyale and mandera) and Sudan (Kassala) Armistice of Berna The final armistice was signed in the italian embassy in Berna the 24 June 1940 by the ambassadors of Italy, France and the United Kingdom with the ambassador of Germany as observer. The final agreement give to the Kingdom of Italy possession of the island of Malta, the terrain currently under their control in metropolitan France, Kenya and Sudan, the return of the border between Libya and Tunisia to the demarcation line of 1881 and the creation of a 50km deep DMZ on the France part of the Franco-Italian border and new Tunisian-Libyan border. Carte_Tunisie_1843.jpg The new/old border between Tunisia and Libya 1 - OTL in 1942 the preparation with the same level of downsizing was ready at 50%, here has been completed due to the better economic management by the democratic governmetn and less waste of money in idiotic military endevour mean that the project is ended just in time. 2 - OTL while the damage was still minimum the italian reaction was abysmal, the alarm were activated late, no night blackout, aircraft not launched if not long after the attack an no AA answer...here while not great, the italian are more prepared and between blackout and the alarm that was activated in time the RAF lost some plane expecially due to the fact that there was an AA response and the night fighter were launched more quickly 3- And this is a greatly enhanced performance for the italians, OTL was even more humiliating. 4 - Agreement of Rome of 24 June 1944 Nice to see a update. |
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