A Fitter Italian Military

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On Berlin: One of the things about the collapse of France is it precludes any plan involving a division of its military force. This means that Berlin's stock goes down in the estimation of the Danube-Balkan states with respect to checking Soviet expansion in the area. Given also that Germany has turned a blind eye over Finland/Estonia/Latvia/Lithuania, and actively taken part in the dismemberment of Poland, Germany's ability to dictate events becomes very weak. And without being able to send in panzers, Berlin's influence is a bit of a paper tiger.

On Transylvania: it's a soft occupation option for Hungary and, as a soviet enemy trumps all other enemies, its a lesser evil for Romania. Romania has also found, it hopes, in the Zagreb Treaty a replacement for the Little Entente and further to this hopes its closer relations with Italy will help it at the negotiating table if, after a successful defence against the Red Army, Hungary decides to stay. If Hungary occupies all of northern Transylvania and ends up negotiating for half of it, that's still a better result than having to fight for all of it and upsetting Rome. And if Romania falls, then Hungary is already in place and has the benefit of the defence. So its' a good deal.

On Finland: good question. The Anglo-French don't seem to want to give up in Norway, but Sweden just let the Germans in and the Soviets just overran the Baltic States. I don't think Finland is in any state to do anything independently at this point.

On the Second Part: its going to be retitled as FIM just got tiresome. Perhaps 'Guerra Parallela' or 'Spazio Vitale'. Secondly it's going to take a while to prepare, so at least a couple of months and probably more. I'll make some other appendices too FIM on area's touched on but not developed (like the air war), but apart from that, it'll be all quiet on the croesus front.
 

Thande

Donor
On the Second Part: its going to be retitled as FIM just got tiresome. Perhaps 'Guerra Parallela' or 'Spazio Vitale'. Secondly it's going to take a while to prepare, so at least a couple of months and probably more. I'll make some other appendices too FIM on area's touched on but not developed (like the air war), but apart from that, it'll be all quiet on the croesus front.
Take your time. This TL is worthy of taking the time and putting the effort in.

I like the new titles, and it means I will no longer constantly misread the title in TLs&Scenarios as "A Flying Italian Military" :D
 
Take your time. This TL is worthy of taking the time and putting the effort in.

I like the new titles, and it means I will no longer constantly misread the title in TLs&Scenarios as "A Flying Italian Military" :D

Agreed, please take your time.
This is a very enjoyable read:)
 
I am very very much liking this. :) Reading the latest entry gave me chills towards the end there! Can't wait til the Second Part.
 
Here's a question for you Croesus. Many American companies built car/truck factories in Europe (primarily in Germany) have there been any built in Italy given the rising star of the Italian position (especially given its oil position)?
 
Here's a question for you Croesus. Many American companies built car/truck factories in Europe (primarily in Germany) have there been any built in Italy given the rising star of the Italian position (especially given its oil position)?

Coincidentally I've just come across an article that mentions increasing US investment coming into Italy from the mid -1920's. Also OTL there was a technological/skill exchange in the respective oil industries. As TTL has both a (relatively) larger economic base and (considerably) larger oil profile then definately I would say US manufacturing is occurring. There is a problem in the scale of physical plant available but, with a large semi-skilled population and the opportunity to divert natural resources from the Territori Protteti into Italy, then I'd say there would be x number of large corporations willing to make large scale investment. Finally the two recent visits by Sumner Welles would no doubt have carried with it business concerns. So the US-Italy angle that was touched on earlier in the TL looks set to develop in the second part.
 
Coincidentally I've just come across an article that mentions increasing US investment coming into Italy from the mid -1920's. Also OTL there was a technological/skill exchange in the respective oil industries. As TTL has both a (relatively) larger economic base and (considerably) larger oil profile then definately I would say US manufacturing is occurring. There is a problem in the scale of physical plant available but, with a large semi-skilled population and the opportunity to divert natural resources from the Territori Protteti into Italy, then I'd say there would be x number of large corporations willing to make large scale investment. Finally the two recent visits by Sumner Welles would no doubt have carried with it business concerns. So the US-Italy angle that was touched on earlier in the TL looks set to develop in the second part.

Well then that should help to make the Italian military a bit fitter.

Did Italian tanks adopt the Christie chasis?
 
Problem: Mussolini

It's very difficult to come up with a stronger Italy as long as Mussolini is in charge of it.

1) The man just didn't understand how military stuff worked. Invading Greece in October with 2 weeks notice to the military. Yeah, that's likely to work.
2) He was more focused on prestige than actual power. He spent an immense amount of Italian military strength and financial power in Spain and got zippo from it.
3) He also didn't understand how important it was to focus limited military power on the crucial front. That's evidenced by his sending Italian aircraft to fight in the Battle of Britain. No significant impact there, but the same aircraft in North Africa would have made a difference because while they were not up to Battle of Britain standards many of them were among the best Italy had. Then there was the summer 1940 buildup to attack Yugoslavia--more focus on that than in North Africa.

Italy was capable of fighting one war against one distracted major power or one minor power and doing pretty well. It never fought on one front only for any significant time during the war. North Africa and Battle of Britain. North Africa and Greece. North Africa and Balkan Occupation force. North Africa and Balkan Occupation force and the Soviet Union. Essentially always multiple fronts. The Italian forces in the Soviet Union were minor in terms of the front, but a major draw on Italian resources - a couple hundred thousand men. That's substantial compared to the commitment to North Africa, and while those men probably couldn't have been profitably deployed to North Africa, the resources it took to keep them in the field could have been used to make the Italian army more effective where Italy had a vital interest.

The bottom line: this is an interesting scenario, but I suspect that the nature of Mussolini meant that any addition resources or power Italy gathered would be squandered on "prestige" action without much benefit to Italian power. Given rational leadership and focus, Italy had enough military power to do substantially better in the early part of World War II, and it certainly had the option to stay out of it.
 
About this timeline

Are you still there, Croesus? This is a fascinating timeline, and it'd be a shame to leave it unfinished.
 

Deleted member 1487

Are you still there, Croesus? This is a fascinating timeline, and it'd be a shame to leave it unfinished.
He hasn't been on the site since 2008, so I don't think anything's coming of this...
 
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