ATL - Free Italy - Italy sides with Wallies in WW2

[Piave92]

--- VIDEO SUMMARY ---

After the declaration of “non-belligerence” in September 1939, Italy is facing more and more pressure to join the Germans in War. Wehrmacht successes are pushing more and more the fascist establishment in the arms of Hitler, with Mussolini meeting Hitler at Brenner Pass on March 18th, 1940, agreeing with Hitler that “Italy will join at the opportune moment”.

Italian military was deeply unready to participate in a modern war: the previous conflicts with Ethiopia and the involvement in Spanish Civil War bled Italian strategic reserves dry. The Army was experiencing the reorganization to the binary system (Pariani reform), in which a Division was now composed just by two regiments, creating a paper-tiger 75-division strong army. Majority of the units were not properly equipped and trained, the armored and artillery complement to the Army were insufficient; CV-35 tankettes were already obsolete while the artillery, was really in bad shape both at divisional and battalion level. Moreover, Italian division firepower was just a fraction of both the Wehrmacht and of the Allied divisions.

The Royal Navy was a modern force to be reckoned in the Mediterranean, countered by logistical difficulties (e.g. lack of fuel to operate its own battleships), missed chances (radar technology appliance) and organizational errors (e.g. lack of carriers and coordination with Royal Air Force).

Royal Air Force, which was deemed as the most fascist armed force, suffered heavy losses in trained personnel and materials during the Spanish Civil War and reinforced the idea of superiority of C.R.32 ed S.M.79 which indeed were already obsolete. Despite the Programma R (renewal program), the efforts were badly allocated in too many different designs, with excessive specialization and the evident disproportion between fighters and bombers. The doctrine was also in bad shape, with no indications for air-to-sea attacks, and the bad compromise between Douhetist and Mecozzian approach to Air Power.

King Victor Emmanuel III was aware, thanks to his correspondence with Marshal Badoglio, of the Italian armed force unpreparedness. Moreover, VE III deeply loathed Hitler, hating the idea of having signed the Racial Laws in 1938 and its relationship with Mussolini was more and more strained. The Minister of Royal House Acquarone, under VE III’s order, begin to contact more moderate and germanophobic gerarchi like Count Ciano (Mussolini’s son in law and Foreign Minister), Marshal Balbo (Lybia Viceroy) and Grandi (President of Camera dei Fasci e delle Corporazioni) to soften up the more war-like mind of Mussolini. Ciano began to talk with Viscount Halifax, which expressed the will of British Empire to have Italy on its side against the Germans. British were also willing to cede some colonial holding and push the French to accept some metropolitan territory losses to Italy (e.g. Corsica) or colonial ones (e.g. Tunisia). Balbo already expressed in 1939 its disapproval of Mussolini’s subservience to Hitler (“You will all wind up shining the shoes of the Germans!”) met with Hitler’s advice to the Duce of removing him (“no Gauleiter would speak up to me in this way”).

The swift German invasion of France, and its following fall, emboldened the interventionist factions in the Fascist establishment, led by the Duce himself. This escalated quickly when in the Spring of 1940 the Duce was more and more prone to Hitler’s request to join in. “I only need a few thousand dead, to be able to sit down as an ex-belligerent at the negotiating table”, this were the Duce’s words. A secret memo from Mussolini was also sent to all the Chief of Staffs, to the King, to the Italian Africa Minister and to the PNF Secretary on March 31st about the will to join Germany in War.

This moves promptly alarmed the Royalist faction and the neutralist faction in the Fascist Party. Acquarone and VE III plot began to proceed. Moreover, Pope Pius XII, sent a message praying Mussolini to stay out of the war, enlarging the neutralist front. Both Roosevelt and Churchill expressed via several messages in April-May their stance, asking Italy to remain neutral. OVRA’s Head, Mr. Guido Leto, reported to Mussolini that the sentiment about war was of concern of missed advantages in case of a full German victory without Italian intervention. The report also contained the increasing, despite “minoritarian”, neutralist sentiment in the public.

On May 28th, Mussolini called a meeting of the Chief of Staff of Royal Army, Royal Navy and Royal Air Force (Badoglio, Cavagnari and Pricolo) communicating that Italy will have to join the Germans on Wednesday 5th June and the Army will have to mount an offensive against France. Mussolini asked General Ubaldo Soddu to talk with the King for the formalities and the required transfer/joining of Mussolini as Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces. Soddu, himself a part of Acquarone – VE III plot, called in Count Ciano and Balbo, who had still some strength in the PNF.

Immediately, the Carabinieri commands received the orders to neutralize hardcore fascists. Marshal Badoglio himself begin to contact the military leadership, deeply Royalist, to get rid of hostile MVSN and CC.NN. complements in the Army. Mussolini, deceived by Soddu, asking him to go to Villa Savoia to meet the King to discuss about War Plans and to receive from the King the complete command of the Armed Forces.

Mussolini rushed to Villa Savoia to just find the King in his gardens, softly telling him that he was sacked, and that “the small folk call me the Soldier King, because of Piave victories, because of Vittorio Veneto... You promised me the Vittorio Veneto’s Italy in 1922, what you didn’t tell is that you were for real in this, with the country shattered by war, with families missing their fathers, mothers weeping on their children’ coffins. I cannot allow this, Duce.”

Mussolini was shocked and arrested by Carabinieri, while the King immediately called Marshal Badoglio, asking him to take charge of the Government. Balbo, according to the plot, have just landed at Urbe Airport from Lybia to be the “fascist clean face” to keep calm the Blackshirts.

The very same day, on Friday 31st May, the EIAR interrupted its transmissions to communicate that:

«Sua Maestà il Re e Imperatore ha accettato le dimissioni dalla carica di capo del Governo, Primo ministro, Segretario di Stato di Sua Eccellenza il Cavaliere Benito Mussolini, e ha nominato capo del Governo, Primo ministro, Segretario di Stato il Cavaliere, Maresciallo d’Italia, Pietro Badoglio». Ringrazio il Duce per l'incommensurabile impegno profuso nei confronti della Nazione e gli auguro un pronto recupero dalle sue precarie condizioni di salute per riaverlo con Noi, alla guida della Nazione, il prima possibile" - queste le parole del Re ed Imperatore Vittorio Emanuele III.

"His Majesty the King and Emperor has accepted the resignment from the offices of Head of Government, First Minister and State Secretary of His Eccellency the Knight Benito Mussolini, and has appointed, Head of Government, First Minister and State Secretary the Knight, Marshal of Italy, Pietro Badoglio". I am grateful to the Duce for the immeasurable commitment towards the Nation and I wish him a quick recovery from his own precarious health conditions to have him again with Us, at the helm of the Nation, as soon as possible" - these were the words of the King and Emperor

This is the first part of a ATL in which the Italian entry in WW2 at the side of Germany is stopped by a stiffer VE III. The idea is to explore a semifascist, militaristic regime on the side of the Western Allies and its long term implication on Italian, European and African politics. Please, feel free to reply and correct some of my blunders as I'm just an amateur and not an academic.

I apologize in advance for grammar mistakes, English isn't my native tongue.
Piave92

 

[Piave92]

--- VIDEO SUMMARY ---

Conspirators in Charge and King’s Government

Balbo, landed at Urbe Airport, hurriedly moved to Quirinale, for a high-level meeting with VE III, Marshal Badoglio, Count Ciano and Grandi. The conspirators begin their discussion with the report from Marshal Badoglio on the epuration of hardliners from Armed Forces: in a matter of hours, loyal Carabinieri forces, joined by Royal Army troops led by Royalist officers, managed to disarm CC.NN. legions in the Army. Royal Navy, still at anchor in major naval bases like Taranto, renewed its allegiance to the King without any issue. Royal Air Force, was indeed rowdier and more upset about Mussolini’s demise. Balbo declared that “it won’t be an issue once I’ve the power to take action officially”.

Count Ciano reported on the international situation: through the German Embassy in Rome, Von Ribbentrop was continuously calling the Italians for a clarifying meeting about Mussolini’s destitution and about the previously communicated date for entry in the War at their side. The British ambassador in Rome, Sir Loraine, relayed a message from Churchill that both expressed his own grief about Mussolini’s condition (Mussolini’s destitution was masked as derived from serious illnesses) and his own will to keep Italy out of war with vague promises of territorial rewards (e.g. British Somaliland, discussion on French colonial holdings…).

Grandi instead spoke about the feeling in the Party: National Secretary Ettore Muti, a rising star in Fascism, was neutralized, being a “man of action” and not an efficient bureaucrat. Both Starace (Mussolini’s sycophant despite the Duce himself despised him) and Farinacci were strictly surveilled. Orders of destitution hit several local ras and federali through the office of Muti. Grandi, when asked by Ciano how he managed to convince Muti to not release the Blackshirts in the usual bloodshed in the countryside literally answered: “Muti is a soldier, a daring and brave individual, I’ve offered him the role of Air Marshal”. Balbo, immediately enraged, as he was the only Air Marshal, was quickly stopped by VE III before he could finally lose its temper.

“Gentlemen, now it’s the moment to throw away our own grudges among ourselves, Myself, the King, I’m the symbol of Nation, and, as a symbol of Nation, I won’t allow any bloodshed and infighting among Italians. Therefore, I ask you, Marshal Badoglio, to quickly instate a government of reliable and loyal persons in order to immediately stabilize the public opinion.

Count Ciano, unfortunately, you will have to work on thin ice, I confirm you as mine Foreign Affairs minister. You will have to progressively distance us from that Austrian fool. Have you ever heard of the artichoke politics? My ancestor Charles Emmanuel III told this centuries ago when my House was still straddling on medieval fiefs across the Alps, and now House Savoy rules an Empire, you will have to work step by step.

Marshal Balbo, you will be mine Minister of Interior and you will be also War Minister. You will have to oversee the transformation of fascist political organizations, to clean up the Party and the repressing machine will have to be put under your control. I want you to bring the Country stability.

Grandi, you will be substituted by Count Acquarone as President of Camera dei Fasci e Corporazioni, and you will be the new Secretary of the National Fascist Party. I want you to repeal immediately the Racial laws as Minister of Grace and Justice.” VE III stopped talking.

Marshal Badoglio took the floor saying: “Your Majesty, what are we going to do with the Germans? They may be very angry towards us; they could try to reach to your person to… remove you… I suggest that Your Majesty and all the Royal Family transfer to a secure location…”.

“I will not abandon our People in the hour of need! I will stay in Rome, while my heir, Umberto, will tour the Empire to restore calm and remind that in this Empire, it’s House Savoy that is in charge, not any Party or person”.

The odd quadrumvirate left Quirinale palace, while the King prepared himself to a difficult radio speech on the very same day – June 2nd 1940:

“Italiani ed Italiane! Cittadini e cittadine del Regno d’Albania, delle Colonie, dell’Impero! Vengo, in quest’ora buia e difficoltosa, per mezzo della mia voce, nelle vostre case. Le precarie condizioni di salute del Primo Maresciallo dell’Impero, Benito Mussolini, non mi hanno lasciato altra scelta che accettare le sue dimissioni da Capo del Governo e Primo Ministro. Ringraziamo il Cavaliere Benito Mussolini per il suo grande contributo nel sollevare la nostra Italia dalle ceneri, della radiosa vittoria della Grande Guerra, donando nuovamente a Roma il suo Impero. Tuttavia, mi sento in dovere di chiedere alla Nazione di supportarmi in questo difficile momento, orfani del Duce, nel guidare l’Impero e di sostenere, il mio governo, guidato da sua Eccellenza, il Maresciallo Pietro Badoglio. Io stesso, per grazia di Dio e volontà della Nazione, Re d’Italia ed Albania, Imperatore d’Etiopia, mi prendo la responsabilità, in quest’ora incerta, senza la guida del Primo Maresciallo dell’Impero, di dichiarare il perdurarsi dello stato di non belligeranza…”

--- TRANSLATION ---

"Italians! Citizens of the Kingdom of Albania, the Colonies, the Empire! I come, in this dark and difficult hour, through my voice, to your homes. The precarious health conditions of the First Marshal of the Empire, Benito Mussolini, have left me no choice but to accept his resignation as Head of Government and Prime Minister. We thank Knight Benito Mussolini for his great contribution in lifting our Italy from the ashes of the glowing Great War victory and restoring Rome its Empire. However, I feel obliged to ask the Nation to support me in this difficult moment, orphaned by the Duce, in leading the Empire and to support my government, led by His Excellency, Marshal Pietro Badoglio. Myself, by the grace of God and the will of the Nation, King of Italy and Albania, Emperor of Ethiopia, I take the responsibility, in this uncertain hour without the guidance of the First Marshal of the Empire, to declare the continuation of the state of non-belligerence...".​

Mussolini indeed, perfectly in shape, was detained in Lampedusa, strictly controlled by a company of Carabinieri. The change in regime was quite swift and average Giuseppe on the streets neither noticed real changes outside the repeal of Racial Laws and the softening of the fascist’s obligations (such as the mandatory membership to the Party to be a public servant or the nonsense Saturday rallies). Hardliner fascists were strictly overlooked by the repurposed OVRA, now in charge to monitor every possible menace to the new course of government, from either the antifascists and the hardcore blackshirts. New Badoglio government was still composed by a majority of Fascists ministers, joined by military and technicians, pursuing, under the astonishing diplomatic skills of Count Ciano to walk on a tightrope, without compromising with the Allies and without enraging the Germans, progressively distancing from the Steel Pact. Balbo, as new War Minister, was overloaded with tons of paperwork on the Italian military unpreparedness. After a few months of study, he removed Cavallero (Badoglio’s substitute as Chief of Staff) due to its ambiguous relationship with Ansaldo, substituting him with Soddu. Armed Force, were to be used only as a deterring force on the Alps and Vallo Littorio was immediately prioritized with the building of new fortifications in South Tyrol and Carnia. Grandi, managed to instate loyal federali in the majority of the PNF local organizations. In November 1940, the transition was almost completed.

--- VIDEO SUMMARY ---

Reactions in Berlin & international implications

The news of the removal of its mentor Mussolini from the role of Head of Government and First Marshal of Italy astonished Hitler. Despite diplomacy, led by Ribbentrop, was aligned on the status of the Italian turmoil in Spring and maybe also aware of the Royalist coup planning, Germany was caught a little bit out of guard.

In a high-level meeting the day after VE III’s radio speech Hitler lost his temper, calling for an invasion of Italy to reinstate his friend Benito as leader of Italy and literally “smash the head of that dwarf, friend of Jews, treacherous Savoy and eradicate its name from history”. Von Brauchitsch, Head of Oberkommando des Heeres, immediately replied that the Wehrmacht, despite the almost reached victory on France, was overstretched. Losses, although not heavy, were significant, Britain was not knocked off, Churchill now in charge and not willing to either negotiate or give up with the war. On Von Brauchitsch’s perspective, Germany would have to focus on bringing Britain on its knees and the preparations of Unternehmen Seelowe also showed that, even if all the available resources were thrown to its execution could be an unsuccess. Moreover, an invasion of Italy would distract precious resources for the planned invasion of USSR in 1941-1942.

At the moment, Hitler decides wisely to not bother with Italy, while ordering Abwehr to immediately contact germanophile fascists and to identify Mussolini’s whereabouts. The armistice with France delivered a strong propaganda boost, with the signing of it in the same train wagon of the surrender in 1918. Hitler was ecstatic. Marshal Petain will lead a rump French State from Vichy, while the Germans occupied the entire country with strong garrisons. French reaction to the occupation was harsh, collaboration was still not so common and Petain was trying to rebuild France from the foundation.

The British attack at Mers-el-Kebir, who almost annihilated the French fleet at anchor, enraged the French who actively bombed Gibraltar in retaliation and broke off diplomatic relationship with the British Empire. Churchill, still not trusting the new Italian regime to stay out of war due to Ciano’s double-speak and fearing that a Franco-Italian navy may allow the Germans to mount an assault on Britain, gave the order. This was a serious mistake, as the continuous British tentative to boost the small Comité français de la Libération nationale, led by General De Gaulle, in the French colonial holdings, resulted in direct confrontations with Vichy France troops.

After the amphibious attack on Dakar in October, repelled by Vichy French troops, French public opinion began to view the British as enemies and menacing the Empire and France itself. This feeling was strongly reinforced by the daring British night raid on Toulon, on November 11th (ATL equivalent of Taranto raid), that managed to destroy the majority of the Marine Nationale.

In a diplomatic masterpiece, Von Ribbentrop and Laval met in Paris: the Germans will take over the control of the remaining French Fleet and naval bases in both the Mediterranean (Toulon, Aleria…) and Atlantic while they retreat from Southern France and allow Vichy to re-establish full administrative control on France. Von Ribbentrop remarks that if the French will continue to fight the British in the colonial holdings, further concessions would be made. A few months later, the Battle of Gabon sees the Vichy French garrisons defeating the Free French troops, with the capture of De Gaulle and his hanging as a traitor: France is on the path on becoming full Axis member when accepts the compromise with Japan about Indochina on December 1940 and officially declares war to the British Empire, met with the retirement of German garrisons (except for Channel, Atlantic and Mediterranean coasts) and a divided public opinion.

Yugoslavian Prince Regent Paul, started to rely more and more on German assistance to keep himself on the lead of his nation, shattered by confessional and inter-ethnic hatred. Irredentism on Italian Istria and Karst and the unsatisfying solution achieved for Fiume in 1924 with the Treaty of Rome fueled nationalism. Wisely directed by Prince Paul and supported by expert Germans propagandists, the Italophobia reached new peaks with the killing of several ethnic Italians still living in Split and Sibenik. In the Winter of 1940, secret encounters between German, French and Yugoslavian diplomats, begin to plot to seize parts of Italy in case of war against the new regime:

• Germany would annex South Tyrol, Trentino and Friuli between the Tagliamento and Piave, including Trieste
• France would annex Val d’Aosta and occupy Sardinia and Sicily
• Yugoslavia would annex the entire Italian Istria, Fiume, Isonzo Valley and occupy Albania.

Churchill cabinet was still under strong pressure: the blunder against the French made a friend an enemy, dangerous one also. As the situation in the Battle of Britain was becoming less hard, a wave of optimism begins to diffuse. Churchill orders his new Foreign Minister, Anthony Eden, to offer to the Italians whatever they want to bring them on the British side of the War.

Again, feel free to correct me on both historical and grammar mistakes. What do you think ? I tried to put some pepper in with the British-French grudge going too far...

 

[Piave92]

Disclaimer: Major edits in red in the text below due to revised TL accordingly to more realistic historical reconstruction

Etat Français strengthens despite Central Africa loss

De Gaulle’s execution as a traitor to the Etat Français following the Battle of Gabon almost shattered the Comité français de la Libération nationale, which was still trying to reorganize itself under British assistance in Central Africa. Indochina and almost all the colonies pledged their allegiance to the new Laval government, excluding the North American holdings of Saint Pierre et Miquelon, promptly occupied by the Canadians. From these small islands, General Philippe Leclerc, who escaped metropolitan France wanting to carry on the war on the British side and that was promoted by De Gaulle during Gabon campaign, declared the constitution of a new France Libre movement. The movement, still small in numbers, began to recruit among French troops who managed to retire from Dunkirk meeting little success as the Petainist propaganda had good success in positioning again the British as “genetic enemy of France”. Vichy’s propaganda Minister Henriot developed an unceasing campaign against the British, highlighting both historical figures like Joan d’Arc and the recent attacks on the very own French sovereignty (Mers el Kebir, Toulon, the assault on Gabon…) as proof of the treacherous Albion enmity.

Marshal Petain, in his reactionary and ultraconservative new cabinet, did not allow a full fascistization of society, anchoring his government to the Deep France, deeply catholic and traditionalist, for the reinstatement of traditional values, that were identified as the concrete keeping together the nation. The new government, thanks to the diplomatic effort and as a recognition of the formal joining in war against the British Empire, was allowed by the Germans to return to Paris. Moreover, the sovereignty on metropolitan France was reinstated with the remarkable exclusions of the departments of Bas-Rhin, Haut-Rhin, and Moselle (Alsace-Lorraine), which were under formal French authority but de facto annexed to the Third Reich.

The French State (Etat Français) was, in Spring 1941, already solid and in charge, the Revolution nationale erasing the historical French radicalism was met among general Frenchmen with skepticism, even if the Travail, Patrie, Famille motto became more and more appreciated after the second Laval – Ribbentrop understanding in the first months of 1941, with the liberation of over 1 million French POWs from Germany in exchange for the participation in the next attack to Soviet Union. Petain, in a radio speech, announced the reconstruction of the Armée de Terre, with around 30 divisions and a half a million-strong manpower. This move also allowed the Germans to pull out of France hundreds of thousand men to prepare for Unternehmen Barbarossa and, potentially to counter Italian backstabbing and prop up Yugoslavians, Hungarians, Bulgarians, and Romanians, already in German geopolitical and economic sphere. Unfortunately for the French, a large part of their previous stockpiles and equipment is now in the hands of Germans, who are hoarding the required resources for the next stages of Hitler's plans. Nevertheless, the French manage to recover the largest part of their former armor from the German, starting to change their own mobile warfare doctrine towards a more German-minded approach.

Despite Leclerc and British efforts, the French were more and more tight to the Germans. The invasion of the Central African holdings, this time carried out by strong South African and British colonial forces was a success. In a matter of weeks, the British swept with overwhelming forces the undermanned and unsupplied French garrisons who still gallantly resisted to the invasion. The short, four weeks campaign between January and February 1941 delivered to the control of the France Libre the whole colonies of French Equatorial Africa. Australian troops then proceeded in occupying French pacific outposts but were met by the resistance of pockets of French garrisons (secretly propped up by Japanese supplies) in New Caledonia.

Minor clashes occurred in Gambia, where the Tirailleur Senegalais captured the British colony, and with the encroachment of British Gold Coast by Vichy loyalist forces.

In the meanwhile, Royal Navy proactively shelled Marseille in February and launched a large-scale bombing activity on Northern France and French North Africa, resulting in a growing hatred that the Germans looked upon amused.

German preparations: Balkans strategy and Barbarossa preparations

In March 1941 also Bulgaria joined the pact between Germany and Japan, already extended in some forms to Yugoslavia and Hungary (and informally, to France). Germans technocrats and military planners knew that securing the Balkans was very crucial to defend their right flank in the planned invasion of Soviet Union.

A series of minor border adjustments were carried out in favour of Hungary (towards Slovakia and Romania) while territorial claims of Yugoslavia towards Istria, Karst and Albania, Bulgarian ones in Thrace and Romanian ones on recovering the lost territories of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina were recognized. The Germans acted brilliantly in a divide et impera approach on the Balkan polities, changing their support accordingly to the needs of the moment. The only country still not on the German side of the chessboard was Greece: the government led by Metaxas was close to the new Italian establishment and sensibly open to British economic penetration. The Germans, fearing of a possible British intervention to open a land front in Europe and the capability to bomb the vital oilfields of Ploiesti, immediately addressed the matter through a general neutralization plan of Greece.

Unternehmen Marita, propped up by 8 German divisions (XVIII Mountain Corps and XL Panzer Corps), was launched in April, from the staging bases in Southern Yugoslavia and Bulgaria, supported by 5 Bulgarian infantry divisions and the Third Yugoslavian Army (4 infantry divisions and a cavalry brigade). The swift advance promoted by diversionary attacks on Thrace from the Bulgarians, allowed the Germans, led by General Wilhelm List, to push through, overwhelming the Metaxas Line. British immediately rushed to the Hellenic Peninsula, with around 60k strong troops from Commonwealth (mainly Australians and New Zealanders). In the following battles, the Germans mauled both Greeks and Commonwealth forces thanks to heavy aerial support through dive bombing on fortifications, while the Yugoslavians defeated the Greek Epirus Army who surrendered. In this occasion, several minor skirmishes happened on the border of the Italian protectorate of Albania, resulting in formal Italian protests to both Belgrade and Berlin.

Within the last days of April, the Greek and the Commonwealth resistance was crashed, with the Germans and their allies dividing Greece in three occupation zones: the Thrace, with Thessalonica went to the Bulgarians, the Yugoslavians garrisoned Epirus and Thessaly, while the Germans occupied the remaining part of Greece. At the moment, Italian Dodecanese and Crete are still out of Hitler’s grasp, still in range to hit Ploiesti Oilfields…

The resulting intervention in the Balkans delayed the preparation of Barbarossa, as in OTL, with the shift from May to June that occurs also in this timeline. The Germans amassed over 153 divisions for the invasion, supported by ~7k armoured vehicles and ~4k aircrafts. From their allies, the Finnish prepared 14 divisions (to be committed only after Soviet attack to Finland as agreed with the Germans), the Romanians provided additional 13 divisions, Hungarians sent the entire Second Army (10 Divisions), Slovaks provided additional 2 Divisions while the French, under the command of General Weygand, provided additional 12 fully equipped Divisions organized in the AFR - Armée française en Russie. Barbarossa start date was scheduled for June 22nd, 1941. Germans diplomacy, partially deceived by Ciano’s ploys, still asked an Italian contribution for the campaign, leveraging on the visceral anticommunism entrenched in the Italian regime, receiving just vague promises of volunteers.

World War: Middle East and Asia theatres

The pro-axis coup in Iraq led by Rashid Ali is quickly dismissed by the British intervention in May with the flee of the leading personalities to neutral Turkey and from there to Germany. In the Middle East, the attempts of the France Libre to overthrow the Vichy officials in Damascus went bad: the British, under the command of General Wavell invaded Syria and Lebanon from Palestine and Iraq in June, immediately confronted by stiff resistance from General Henri Dentz. Germans immediately provided aerial assistance, while the French begin to transfer troops via land to Greece and then through expensive airlifts and naval convoys a couple of new divisions being heavily plagued during the transfer by both RAF Fighter Command in Alexandria and by the Mediterranean Fleet

The Germans recognized the thorn on their side caused by Crete during the planning of Marita, planning an invasion of the Mediterranean island with the assistance of Yugoslavian and Bulgarian + some French heavy cruisers and transports to be leveraged upon being already based in Athens for the Syrian campaign. The daring paratrooper’s operation (Unternehmen Merkur), was followed by amphibious assaults in the middle of June. Commonwealth and Greek troops were defeated but succeeding in retreating leaving only a small number of POWs and materials thanks to the missing Axis naval barrage. German Fallschirmjaeger made themselves a name in Crete for exceptional skills and combativeness suffering heavy losses but finally acquiring Crete to the Axis. Nevertheless, the Commonwealth forces manage to retire in tight order, saving useful manpower in the Eastern Mediterranean theatre.

With their back now guarded after the take of Crete and Turkish neutrality, the Germans thought that reinforcing the French effort in Syria could lead to a breakthrough towards Suez and Iraq therefore cutting off British supplies from India. Unfortunately, the difficult chance of properly supplying the front as shown by the sinking of more than half of the French convoys towards Beirut and Latakia convinced the OKH to just help the French with limited aerial assets from Greek bases (effectively countered by RAF based on Cyprus and Alexandria). Additional plans aimed to choke the British economy and control over the Mediterranean were developed to take Gibraltar from French Morocco and with the collaboration of Spain. Despite diplomatic efforts in this direction, Franco refused the Germans to stage their operations on Spanish soil in Morocco or Southern Spain either.

A German token force of military advisers reach anyway French North Africa to prepare and plan potential actions against Italian Lybia and to evaluate bold actions on Gibraltar from Algerian and Moroccan bases.

In Asia, the Japanese, now allied to the French, land in July in Indochina, occupying it and establishing naval and airbases with the permit Admiral Jean Decoux, local French commander, while administration remains under the French authority.

 

[Piave92]

DISCLAIMER: edits in red to ensure more realistic historical facts. Thanks to all who suggested some variations !

Italian military preparations

Prime Minister Badoglio, backed by the King, opened to the new reform of the Camera dei Fasci e delle Corporazioni, with the reinstatement of the Camera dei Deputati to be held on June 1942. This measure opened again to the organization of several small bourgeois parties like the former Liberals circles and the Catholic Popular Party. New elections would be held the next year, despite some resistance from Balbo. He's instead then very relieved when the King himself tells him that the move is just a façade for the moderate antifascists and that the Blackshirts can still (and have to) crash the heads of the left-wingers.

Italy was slowy de-fascistizing itself, growing more and more moderate and conservative leaning, with strong influence from the Catholic establishment. The worrying siding of both France and Yugoslavia with Germany created an almost full encirclement of Italian metropolitan borders (Switzerland excluded). During the preparation for the boost of the fortifications on the Vallo Alpino, an assassination attempt was executed in Franzensfeste/Fortezza when Minister of War Balbo was visiting an Alpini barracks, leaving Balbo lightly injured (an Alpini conscript put himself between the bullets and the Minister). The attack was claimed by the Befreiungsausschuss Südtirol, a terrorist organization aiming to detach South Tyrol from Italy and willing to join the Third Reich.

The repressive machine led by Balbo as Minister of Interior rushed to South Tyrol: in a couple of weeks over 10.000 persons were arrested and deported to Italian Lybia, all the former Optanten were strictly guarded and several were stripped of Italian citizenship and deported to the Third Reich. Additional “Operazioni di Polizia” were carried out in Italian Karst, Istria, and Fiume, where thousands of Slovenes and Croatians were rounded up and deported to Italian Somaliland.

Escalation was behind the corner, when the TIGR (the Slovene resistance organization) managed to derail a train in San Pietro del Carso/Pivka, effectively disrupting the rail communication between Trieste and Fiume. Formal protests for the treatment of both the South Tyrolean and the Slavic minorities arrived from the German and the Yugoslavian embassies in Rome. Balbo scoffed the letters.

Ciano, instead, was more and more worried about the diplomatic encirclement: he could not commit to the British because the King and Emperor asked to stay out of the War, and the prospected advantages were indeed scarce (promises on Tunisia and Djibouti were not appealing). Moreover, the German preparations for Barbarossa involved Italians as contributing with at least a motorized Army Corps. Ciano, after meeting Ribbentrop, clearly stated that Italy would have not been ready until late 1942 for War, and in that time frame will definitely throw its weight against the Soviets at the side of the Reich.

The reality was indeed a mixed bag: the Regio Esercito slightly recovered its resources stockpile and finished its reorganization; the strategic focus was finally defined:

Alpes were to be the main defensive line, manned by

• Gruppo d’Armate Ovest holding French Border
  • 3 Alpini divisions, 6 Mountain infantry divisions and 4 Infantry divisions
  • Around 200k manpower strong
  • Commanded by HRH Umberto II (sided by General Guzzoni) – HQ in Bra
• Gruppo d’Armate Centro holding Swiss and Tyrolean border
  • 2 Alpini divisions, 3 Mountain infantry divisions and 4 Infantry divisions
  • Around 150k manpower strong
  • Commanded by General Ambrosio – HQ in Trento
• Gruppo d’Armate Est holding Eastern border
  • 1 Alpini division, 2 Mountain infantry divisions 3 Infantry divisions + 1 Bersaglieri division
  • Around 120k manpower strong
  • Commanded by General Grossi – HQ in Cervignano

These troops would have to balance the possible tide of German invasion through Tyrol passes and Carnia passes, hold the Isonzo valley to avoid penetration on Po Valley. Fall back lines in case of invasion from the East were recognized to be on Tagliamento, Livenza, Piave and finally on Adige. In case of invasion from the South Tyrol, the fortifications of Franzensfeste, Bozen and Salorno would have to slow the advance, with the retreat line on Adige and the holding of all the major passes towards Lombardy (Stelvio, Tonale, the access to Brescia from Giudicarie and Vallagarina to Verona from Rovereto).

Strategic mobile reserves were then deployed in Piedmont and Veneto to counter any possible German breakthrough. Additional troop garrisoned Sicily and Sardinia and a understrength Army, the 3rd, with HQ in Rome acted as additional strategic infantry reserve.

• In Albania, preparations were made for the Comando Albania (around 80k strong) to defend the access to the ports of Vlore and Shkoder and to repel any attack from Kosovo or Montenegro. The troops under the command of General Visconti Prasca (HQ in Tirana) were to stay on absolute defensive stance.
• Comando Nord Africa (under the orders of General Gariboldi from Tripoli HQ), was split between the 5th Army (in Tripolitania, around 70k strong) to counter any French ambition and 11th Army (in Cyrenaica, around 40k strong) to guard the Egyptian border. The grand strategy would have been to try to seize Tunisia in case of French invasion of Italy with the fast moving of troops from the 11th Army. No actions or plans were studied for British intervention.
• Comando Africa Orientale, led by Duke of Aosta Amedeo, was 260k strong, primarily composed by local colonial troops (190k) and for the remaining part by metropolitan troops (70k). The strategic goal was to seize Djibouti in case of French declaration of war and then to link with the Italian troops in Lybia.

In terms of equipment, the focus on mountain war stopped the motorization of the troops with the remarkable exception of P.40 Medium tank starting to be mass produced by Ansaldo and Fiat substituting the lightly armed M13/40. Focus was put more and more on divisional and regimental artillery and in reinforcing natural barrages with casemate and antitank guns.

Royal Navy, in case of entry in war against Germany, France and Yugoslavia would have to deal with the interruption of supply flow to French North Africa and to keep open the communication in the Adriatic. The sheer superiority in terms of tonnage and ships after the semi-destruction of Marine Nationale, and assuming not to have to fight against Mediterranean Fleet. New Chief of Staff Inigo Campioni pushed strongly in the direction of collaboration with Regia Aeronautica due to the lack of Italian carriers more than in OTL, being slightly more effective than in OTL.

Regia Aeronautica was in the worst shape: the program of renewal was deeply undergoing, and the strategic focus was to defend the industrial capabilities of Po Valley and keep air superiority overall Eastern Mediterranean and Africa.

Suddenly, it’s war !

Barbarossa start on 22nd June was disrupted by the no notice aggression of Italian forces at the Lybian-Tunisian frontier. On June 29th, French Troops, with 15 divisions from Algeria and Tunisia, mainly composed of colonial troops and a few èlite units (e.g. Légion Etrangère), launched themselves against the forces of Italian 5th Army.

The French, still thinking how to bring the war on British soil, thought that the Italians would have been a piece of cake in Northern Africa to bring the war towards Egypt and Suez. Germans military advisors strongly disagreed but even so OKH planned to detach a couple of Panzergrenadier divisions in North Africa under the command of General Rommel. The overwhelming numerical superiority of the French allowed to overcome the lightly fortified border in Brega and to overtake Gadames fort on July 6th.

The French vanguard was stopped close to Zuara (50 km into Lybia), where a major pitched battle saw the Italians suffering heavy casualties but stopping the French advance.

Despite the several reports from italian intelligence about the French buildup in airbases scattered from Corsica to Rhone-Alpes and an alert dispatched by the British directly to Minister Balbo, the Italian readiness is not as effective at expected, allowing the air bombings from France and Corsica to deliver a strong blow at soil to the Regia Aeronautica in northern Italy, infamously caught completely off guard by the sneak attack despite the early warnings from the intelligence. Responsibilities on the disaster are still to be understood, but the Air Marshal Ettore Muti seems to be unreachable in the past few hours after the bombings and then disappears. French troops begin a slow push around the Western Alps in the first weeks of July, being blocked by heavy artillery fire and the stiff resistance of the Alpini on Moncenisio and Monginevro pass.

Reports of Yugoslavian commandos infiltrating in Isonzo Valley were dispatched to the command of Gruppo d’Armate Est on July 2nd, unfortunately, being quickly dismissed. Also in this case, the Italian military seems to underestimate the threat, thinking that the infiltration is more like an operation to supply the TIGR partisans and aimed to disrupt italian communications. General Grossi dismisses the issue, calling just for some retribution on local ethnic Slovenian population. A few days after, on July 7th, Yugoslavian 4th and 7th armies attacked on all the front line, supported by TIGR partisans, obtaining tactical successes like the seizure of Postumia/Postojna and the surrendering of Zara after a street by street gunfighting.

The Germans still thought that the French were fool in involving the Italians, despite Laval’s assurance on the war remaining a Franco-Italian affair and that the Italians will just wave up white flag after few casualties in Africa, the situation wasn’t so good:

• the French did not manage to rout the Italians from Tripoli within the first two weeks and not even to gain any meter of Italian metropolitan soil,
• the greedy Yugoslavians joined in invading Italian Istria and Karst without German permission,
• Italians were fighting back heavily; they have a strong navy to be used upon to transform Mediterranean in an actual Mare Nostrum. Moreover, not being anymore a Neutral state, Italy would not act as a proxy for German supplies purchasing.

In a matter of fact, the French opened a new front directly bordering Germany in the South. OKH and Hitler obviously shit their pants when King VE III removed Badoglio appointing Balbo as Prime Minister of the new Governo di Unità Nazionale on July 14th that also included Liberals, Populars and Radicals. The new government is still a fascist-military thing, with some token ministers from the other parties, including the rising star of the Popular Party, Alcide De Gasperi at the helm of the MinCulPop - Ministero della Cultura Popolare. First official act of Balbo’s government was to sever diplomatic relationship with Germany, considered as an allied country to Italian invaders. The Germans already got wise: they knew that the British and the Italians were already discussing about the deployment of a British Army Corps in Italy to both repel the French and the Yugoslavians, and possibly, to try to invade Tyrol and Carinthia.

Despite Barbarossa was going very well at the moment and the Soviets were suffering what were thought to be unbearable losses, the Germans diverted part of their reserves to amass manpower in Austria.

Mass scale revolts surged in Italian-held Southern Tyrol in the end of July, effectively draining Italian garrison troops towards the repression of the rebellion. On 29th July, carpet bombing of Milan, Turin, Genoa and Trieste was carried out, while surgical dive bombings disrupted Italian railways network between Firenze and Bologna, north of Verona and in Alessandria by the Luftwaffe. Some counter actions by the Regia Aeronautica went through bombing Innsbruck and Salzburg as a retaliation. German troops flooded through Brennerpass and Reschenpass, that after a couple of days of resistance were overcome by overwhelming artillery fire. Tarvisio border crossing was stormed from three different directions (Coccau by the Germans, Fusine by joint German-Yugoslavian forces and Predil by the Yugoslavian). German pushed also through the Isonzo Valley taking quickly Plezzo/Bovec on the first day and reaching Tolmino/Tolmin on the third day, forcing the Italian retreat from Idria/Idrija.

Balbo, officially relayed through Ciano the declaration of War to Germany, France and Yugoslavia and on August 1st, the Kingdom of Italy formally joined United Kingdom in an alliance.

 

[Piave92]

Northeastern Italy theatre
The German attack from Carnia and Tyrol, although widely anticipated by the Italian General Staff and carefully studied in a series of simulations, did not include French and Yugoslavian participation in the same. The impossibility to send troops to the second defensive lines of the Tagliamento river because of the pressure exerted on the Western Alps delivered, practically by the first week of August, the entire Italian provinces of Pola and Fiume, to the Yugoslav troops, in overwhelming numerical superiority.

A pocket of Italian resistance was created between Trieste and Gorizia, after the German Gebirgsjaeger forces, supported by dive-bombers and Yugoslav infantry, managed to break into the Natisone valley on August 6th after having overcome the Italian resistance entrenched on the Matajur hills, proceeding towards the flatlands, this time with a small armored complement of 1 Panzer Division and 1 Panzergrenadier Division to Cividale del Friuli. Regia Marina attempts to provide some relief with some convoys to the pocket but its efforts are partially thwarted by local German aerial superiority, not effectively countered by the shattered Regia Aeronautica.

In Cividale del Friuli, there was the first armored (and pitched) clash of the Italian Campaign: the 132nd Division "Ariete" and the 133rd Division "Lupa". (renamed in this sense from the previous name "Littorio"), quickly rushed from the strategic reserve allocated between Vicenza and Cremona, faced the German-Yugoslavian forces, being defeated and disorganized after the massive use of Stukas and anti-tank weapons. Such defeat, allowed the German forces to reach the Adriatic Sea already on August 10 in Monfalcone, closing in a pocket the almost totality of about six Italian divisions, concentrated in the Karst.

The advance from the north, along the Canale Valley, was temporarily arrested by some units of the "Julia" Alpine Division in the surroundings of Moggio Udinese, while reinforcements flowed to the strongholds of Tolmezzo and Gemona, in order to deny the access to the Friuli flatlands. A daring operation conducted by the German Gebirgsjaeger, however, made it possible to reach Tarcento, through the Tanamea Pass from the Resia Valley, overcoming a weak counterattack conducted by the 13th Infantry Division "Re" near Lusevera. With this difficult operation, the Germans had in fact opened a gap behind the bulk of the Italian forces in Carnia, directly threatening Udine.

Italian Chief of Staff immediately understood the looming disaster that was developing in Friuli, ordering the general retreat on the Tagliamento. The only problem is that the order was issued too late, only on August 13th, when the German vanguards were entering Tavagnacco, at the gates of Udine. In the north, the Italian forces, still consistent and almost in numerical parity in Carnia, found themselves cut off. The retreat chaotically conducted and continuously harassed by dive-bombings, determined a great strategic Italian defeat, with over 150,000 losses (of which two-thirds were prisoners of war). In spite of the destruction of the bridges on the Tagliamento of Cornino, Pinzano, Spilmbergo, Casarsa della Delizia and Latisana, the German avant-garde managed to cross the river at Madrisio on August 17, transforming the retreat into an endless rout up to the Livenza, reached on August 20th by some advanced German patrols at Portogruaro.

In South Tyrol, the situation was slightly less compromised: despite the support of the Fifth Column formed by the South Tyrolean separatists, the Italian defensive device was still effective in the barrages of Fortezza/Franzensfeste, desperately held after the rapid destruction of the barrages in Val Pusteria/Pustertal and of Merano/Meran, in Upper Isarco valley/Eisacktal, threatened by Val Passiria/Passeiertal, and of Malles Venosta/Mals, to protect communications with Valtellina via the Stelvio Pass. The campaign quickly turned into a complicated battle for every meter of territory, soaked in German and Italian blood. Already after only two weeks the Germans complained more than double the losses compared to the well-entrenched Italians, forcing the OKH to foresee further reinforcements, coming from Greece. Moreover, the Italians proceeded in "cleaning up" their rear by deporting all the ethnic Germans, Optanten and Dableiber from all the South Tyrol. Rumours tell that they had been shipped again to Italian Somaliland but the accounts are more grim than the rumours.

Northwestern Italy theatre
In the west, the Italians obtained an unexpected success with a rapid counter-offensive from the Colle di Tenda they managed to occupy first Saorge/Saorgio on July 30th and Sospel/Sospello on August 1, directly threatening Menton/Mentone. On the rest of the Alpine front, a further French offensive was launched on August 3rd, from the Colle della Scala towards Bardonecchia, to relieve the pressure on the Maritime Alps sector, obtaining minimal successes, overcoming the watershed in some points but then being destroyed by the accurate Italian artillery fire from the positions of the Western Alpine Wall.

Regia Marina/Regia Aeronautica operations in Mediterranean
The Regia Marina immediately crossed the routes between Marseille and Toulon towards North Africa, obtaining an important success against a large French convoy bound for Annaba off Menorca. The Italian heavy cruisers Zara, Pola, and Gorizia, supported by the escort of several destroyers and submarines, collided on August 5th with the French convoy, led by the heavy cruiser Foch and some destroyers, obtaining a great victory, thanks also to the intervention of flocks of English torpedo bombers coming from the aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious. Offensive actions of the Regia Marina included the repeated bombardment of Cannes, Bastia, and Marseille, supported by British air raids and the Regia Aeronautica itself.

Regia Aeronautica, which had a big change in command & control structure with the diseappearance of Muti, launches massive bombings on the Yugoslavian major cities, Belgrade, Zagreb, Podgorica, Kotor, Split and Sibenik suffer heavily. The last three cities are also proactively shelled by the Regia Marina from the sea.

Invasion of Corsica
The first real offensive action, excluded the assault from Tenda, towards France, was the Invasion of Corsica: parachutists of the Folgore and Nembo regiments launched themselves on the island the week of August 11th, supported by the fire of the Regia Marina and the air cover given by the British aircraft carriers of the Mediterranean Fleet. The non-sense attack, with the Italians having few resources to spare, was strongly pushed by Balbo, who aimed to achieve three different objectives:

- Grab an easy victory, since the isolation of Corsica and the few French forces stationed here
- Remove an enemy base directly in front of Tuscany and Liguria, disrupting Regia Marina's operations and harassing Italian skies with aerial sorties
- Achieve the conquest of territory with, in a fascist and irredentist perspective, a full Italian population

The paratroopers managed to obtain some successes, obtaining the control of aerial bases in Bastia and Solenzara. There, the Italians, supported by the British naval and aerial cover, landed reinforces via airlifts. The French pressure on the two small Italian pockets was continuously disrupted by RAF and Regia Aeronautica, in control of the Tyrrenhiian sea, providing air-strikes on the battle's most heated areas. Only in the week of August 18th, the Italians managed to land reinforces in Bastia (the 20th Friuli Infantry Division) and between Bonifacio and Figari, in Corse-du-Sud (the 44th Cremona Infantry Division). The overwhelming Italian superiority began to emerge in the few days following the landings, with the continuous expansion of the bridgeheads. Italian troops advancing south from Solenzara met with their fellow countrymen in the outskirts of Porto Vecchio. In the north, the French offered serious resistance, being disorganized only after the battle of Ponte Leccia, on 25th August. A few days after, the major Corsican towns are occupied: Corte and Sartene on the 26th, Ile Rousse on the 27th, and Ajaccio on the 28th. Only Calvi, supported by some French reinforces flown from Toulon, manages to resist until September 1st. Corsica is fully in Italian hands.

Assessment of the situation
Despite the Corsican success and the stalemate on the Alpine front, the situation remained very complicated: in the East, Venezia Giulia, Istria, and a large part of Friuli had been lost. The barrage in South Tyrol began to show signs of yielding due to the difficult influx of reinforcements due to the bombardments of the Brenner railway and the continuous sabotage carried out by the South Tyrolean Fifth Column, now brutally suppressed. This criticality also afflicted the Friuli front, the reserves were adequately armed and trained, but could not effectively reach the front because of the railway interruptions and the low degree of motorization, forcing very long marches.

At a strategic level, moreover, the Livenza was not an effective barrage, so much so that German troops were able to pass it in several points already around the 20th of August and then withdraw. In a difficult meeting with VE III, Balbo, Ciano, and Badoglio agreed to prepare a further retreat on the Piave line and to maintain the line as much as possible, even at the cost of remove forces from the French front, where the conformations of the territory allowed to concentrate the defense with fewer troops.

Under the command of Balbo, as Ministry of War, flanked by Badoglio and Soddu, a new reserve army began to reconstitute in late August with HQ in Verona, starting from the skeleton of the asphyxiated 3rd Army. The evolution of the war on national soil, with continuous German bombardments, only partially stopped by the Regia Aeronautica, supported by RAF, had already unsettled the delicate logistic balance reached in the first months of 1941. The Regio Esercito had already lost about 200k men, beyond those imprisoned in the pocket of Trieste, in a phase of continuous narrowing and supported by the Regia Marina, and those captured in the precipitous retreat beyond the Tagliamento, including the flower of its own motorized and mechanized forces, just now that the war was moving towards modes similar to that of movement.

African Front (August 1941)
The defensive victory in the battle of Zuara and the official declaration of the alliance with the British allowed the 11th Army to move along the Via Balbia to Tripolitania and to double the available forces under the command of General Gariboldi, promptly replaced by Graziani. The latter, strong of the numbers under his command, relaunched an offensive operation that will penetrate up to the Mareth line, beyond the Tunisian border, being stopped only on August 27th, when a short French counter-offensive disrupted the advancing front of the Bologna Division, who suffered tremendous losses. On this front, reinforcements of the Commonwealth from Egypt, commanded by General Wavell, soon began to flow in from Egypt, who soon joined the Italians in putting even more pressure on the French forces.

In the meantime, the forces of Ascari were quickly right of the French garrison of Djibouti in the first days of August, allowing the forces of the Duke of Aosta to flow partly to French Central Africa (controlled by Free France) and partly to Egypt.

I'm back as promised, what do you think ?

 

[Piave92]

Evolutions on Eastern Front (Q3 1941)
The German thrust proceeds in steamrolling the Soviet troops, in Smolensk over 300k Red Army personnel is encircled and captured on August 5th. The advance towards the Baltic manages to separate the Red Army lines in two when the Germans stop their tank tracks on the shores of the Gulf of Finland.
In a matter of weeks, the Germans and their Finnish allies push on Leningrad, effectively starting the siege on September 1st. Less than a week after, Kyiv is also surrounded and finally occupied on the 19th with massive Soviet casualties.

Also, Army Group Centre begins Operation Typhoon aiming directly at Moscow, throughout October, the Germans manage to encircle additional 670k Soviet troops east of Smolensk. Germans try to move on quickly towards Moscow, before the mud and the heavy snowing stop them from reaching the outskirts of the Soviet “brain”. Germans are stopped by the resolute, last stand of the newly rushed fresh troops, the few motorized divisions sent to punish Italy would have made a difference, as General Von Bock noted in his diaries from that days.

The German advance into the Soviet Union scared deeply the Western Allies, with the hard decision taken by Roosevelt to extend the Lend-Lease agreements to the Soviet Union.

Aerial Campaign (Q3 1941)
Retaliatory bombing from the Regia Aeronautica continues on the major cities of Yugoslavia. Belgrade, Zagreb, Ljubljana, and Novi Sad. The large Italian bomber fleet executes the bombing targeting the main clusters of the population with incendiary devices aiming to both scare and inflict massive payback on the Yugoslav population.
Air Marshal Muti is still missing after the French aerial blitz of July 8th, but Prime Minister Balbo immediately asks General Pricolo (Chief of Staff of Regia Aeronautica) to push hard on more daring actions. The Yugoslavs suffered around 20k civilian losses and heavy damages to their infrastructure. The RAF already tried to hit Germany from the north with significant losses. The Italians decide to take a stride in the show, planning a massive terror bombing on Munich with S.M. 79 departing from airbases in Lombardy and Emilia. The bombing has minimal effects, but the effect on Italian morale is quite good.

Fall of Trieste pocket (September 1941)
The pressure on Trieste pocket becomes unbearable despite the efforts made by Regia Marina to properly supply the 150k + troops encircled in the Julian city. Yugoslavs are already encroaching on the Italians, taking Muggia and Sesana on September 22nd while the Germans entered Aurisina with motorized troops and are supported by dive bombers and divisional artillery placed into the interior (Comeno/Komen, Dutovlje/Duttoglie).

General Grossi, in charge of the Trieste stronghold, is forced to surrender when the Germans issued an ultimatum reporting that in case of continued resistance, the city would have been razed to the ground. To avoid hundreds of thousands of civilian casualties and massive destructions, Grossi surrenders to the Germans on September 24th while his troops try to keep the Yugoslavs outside from the city. The Germans seize the city with the Swastika being raised on Piazza Unità d’Italia. Tensions immediately start to arise between the Germans and the Yugoslavs, who were eager to occupy the city.

The Trieste pocket is eliminated, with over 100k prisoners and 50k + casualties for the Italians vs around 40k casualties for the Yugoslavs and 5k casualties for the Germans in a two-month-long battle.

Probing of Yugoslav force in Montenegro and Kosovo (September 1941)
At the command of General Visconti Prasca, the Italian forces in Albania try to divert part of the Yugoslav effort towards Trieste with some probing attacks towards Ulcinj and Podgorica. 19th Mountain Infantry Division Venezia passes the border on the shores of Shkoder/Scutari Lake, taking Drume on September 12th and reaching unopposed Rogame on the 14th (just 5 km to Podgorica).

Albanian insurgents revolt in the Kosovo region, supported by Italian weaponry and the token support of some elements from 53rd Infantry Division Arezzo. The insurgency has some success, with the capture of Prizren on September 21st. Despite the attempts of Visconti Prasca, Trieste has already fallen and the Yugoslavs can bring back their troops south.

Italian forces from East Africa join the Mediterranean Theatre (October 1941)
At the command of Duke Amedeo of Aosta, the Italian and Indigenous troops from Italian East Africa reach Egypt. Instead of being committed on the Tunisian frontier, they are assigned to the Syrian Front against the starkly resisting French troops. The rivalry and hatred between General Graziani and Duke Amedeo stopped the chance for the Italians to attain the numerical superiority required to outmaneuver the French on the Mareth Line.

Collapse of the Sudtirol line (October 1941)
Signs of the difficulties, the Italians entrenched into Franzensfeste/Fortezza, start to go out of ammunitions and provisions, being under German artillery attack for months and with the heavy disruptions on their supply lines committed by the pro-Nazi, ethnic German sympathizers in months before. Moreover, some local South Tyrolean managed to hide from the "mop up of the rear" and act as franc-tireurs on Italian officers endemically. The Germans attempt a different strategy to strike using the difficult route of the Val Badia/Gadertal. The force buildup in Toblach/Dobbiaco throughout late September was noticed by the Italians, who thought of the obvious German attempt to pass into Cadore from Val d’Ansiei and Cortina d’Ampezzo to take the rear of the Italian assets, still on the Livenza.

Instead, the German deceived the Italians, and taking advantage before of the start of the proper Winter season, they pushed with highly trained and specialized Gebirgsjaeger troops through Val Badia, occupying San Martino in Val Badia on October 3rd and rushing into the Würzjoch/Passo Erbe the day after, paving the road to Chiusa/Klausen, reached on October 5th.

The Italian resistance in Franzensfeste/Fortezza lost any momentum since now is also surrounded on its rear by the Gebirgsjaegers. An Italian counterattack from Bolzano/Bozen, headed by 5th Alpine Division Pusteria battalions Trento and Bolzano supported by the 49th Mountain Infantry Parma were repulsed by the Germans in the battle of Kastelruth/Castelrotto on October 9th. The other attempt to disrupt the German actions in Val Badia was the attack on Campolongo Pass, led by the gallant 7th Alpine Regiment who managed to reach Badia on the 11th and being close to cut off the way of the Val Badia/Gadertal towards Val Isarco/Eisacktal. Unfortunately, the Alpine troops find themselves isolated from the straggling regular infantry and the Germans managed to overrun them on the 13th.
Franzensfeste/Fortezza garrison attempts a desperate sortie on the 15th, aiming to reach Bolzano/Bozen and reinforce the resistance there. Their heroic assaults manage to break the encirclement, but the retreat transforms itself into a complete rout when the local populace starts to shoot as franc-tireurs and the Germans use aerial support, deeply contested by the Regia Aeronautica.

The stronghold of Meran is abandoned on the 19th and the Italian morale on the front seems to be crumbling when also the Malles Venosta/Mals barrage is neutralized by the Germans on the 22nd, with the Italians retreating deep into Val Trafoi/Trafoital to guard the access towards Bormio.
Panic erupts when the overstretched Alpine troops cannot manage to block the German infiltration behind the Passo Gardena/Grodner Pass on the 25th and in the following day with the breach into the already snowed Passo Sella and Passo Pordoi, penetrating deeply into the Italian defense until Predazzo (in Fiemme Valley) on the 28th and Alleghe on the 29th.

The route towards the Veneto plains is open on the East, starting from Alleghe following the Cordevole river and then the Piave, while both Bozen and Trento are menaced (Bozen directly by the advancing forces coming from Meran and Brixen, Trento from the Val di Fiemme and then through the Val Cembra). The army is on full retreat except for the Bozen stronghold, leaving the German advance quite unopposed. The hateful knowledge of the impending doom on the Livenza (with its rear now deeply menaced) urged War Minister Balbo to deploy his strategic defenses in the Val Belluna, in Valsugana, Primiero, and around Valdobbiadene and Conegliano to cover the main front left flank.

A general retreat order is issued on the 4th November, the day of Vittorio Veneto's 23rd anniversary: the Italians retire on the Piave line and abandon Bolzano, entrenching themselves into the makeshift barrage of Auer/Ora and the Trento stronghold.

 

[Piave92]

British commitment in Italy and Levant Campaign (Q4 1941)
Considering that the Mediterranean is de facto an Italo-British lake, the next obvious move for the Empire is to provide substantial manpower to support their Italian ally, which is struggling madly to keep the front stable in Northeastern Italy.

An Army Corps at the command of General Harold Alexander embarks in Alexandria, chiefly composed by ANZAC troops in the very last days of October, landing in Naples on November 6th. The British Army Corps is a token manpower symbol for the Italians, who are indeed now also supplied by the Americans through the extension of the Lend-Lease agreement on November 24th.

The battle in Syria is chiefly led by General Montgomery, now sided by Duke Amedeo and his own metropolitan and colonial troops. The overwhelming superiority in terms of manpower and materials convinces Montgomery to finally attack en masse. Starting from the positions in Galilee and from the stage points of Haifa and Safed, Montgomery and the Duke of Aosta envision a two prongs approach: British and Commonwealth troops will storm the coast of Lebanon, with the strategic objective of Beirut, while the Italians would have to march through the Golan Heights and breakthrough on Damascus.

The clashes started with the Commonwealth forces marching on Tyre on November 15th, being opposed immediately by the French troops and their Arab auxiliaries at Mansouri. Montgomery rallies and marshals his troops after that the preliminary armored spikes were repulsed with makeshift anti-tank bombs by the brave French troopers. After new preparatory artillery strikes, the new attack managed to rout the French, who had to abandon Tyre on November 17th and are pursued until the very gates of Sidon on the 20th, where another clash finally dissolves the Franco-Arab resistance on the Coast.

Duke of Aosta, supported by aerial assets from RAF and Regia Aeronautica commences his move towards the Golan Heights, where the French, directly led by General Dentz, had created a significant defensive line, equipped with several barbed wire and trench lines reinforced by minefields and booby traps. The loyal Ascari battalions encounter in their first furious assault a stiff resistance on November 18th and manage only to capture few French advanced positions. Two days after, following strong air and artillery strikes, the Duke commits his élite infantry units of Bersaglieri and Uork Amba Alpine Battalion on Al-Qunaitra, the central French stronghold in the area. In the creepy battle that ensues, fought often with bayonets charge, the Italians manage to take the town with several losses. In the meanwhile, the few motorized troops penetrated in deep behind the French lines capturing many prisoners. The advance is stopped only at Artoz on November 25th by the sacrifice of the 7th African Chasseurs Regiment, at only 20 km from Damascus.

Furtherly reinforced by the inflow of Indian regiments landing in Alexandria and a new logistical train, Montgomery feels safe to relaunch the action to not spoil the initiative on December 2nd, attacking Sidon with massive artillery and aerial bombing. As a token force, the Free French Light Regiment, commanded by General Leclerc, enters the city on December 4th. Moreover, surgical but effective airstrikes are executed on Beirut, Latakia, and Tartus to cripple the French stockpiles. Montgomery marches unopposed on Beirut, abandoned by the remaining French troops in Lebanon on December 12th, and pushes deep, with the logistics taking care of repairing the docks to feed the oil and ammunition required to keep the pace of the advance.

Duke of Aosta, after having rotated his troops and allowed time to rest and re-equip them, begins the encirclement of Damascus on December 10th. General Dentz is fully aware of the small chances to survive the assault and liberates the troops from the oath of allegiance. Many colonial troops defect, especially the Senegalese Tirailleurs, while the metropolitan troops stay all in their place. On December 13th, the Italians have completed their encirclement, with the Bersaglieri taking the Qaboun neighborhood on eastern Damascus. On the 14th, with the Italians supported by continuous air raids from the Cyprus and Egypt airbases, General Henri Dentz orders his troops to try a sortie: his 10,000 men try to breach the Italian strongholds of Jobar and Qaboun, with bayonet charges. Last time General Dentz was seen, he was charging at the command of his loyal troops screaming: “pour l’honneur de la France! Allez mon soldats !”. The Battle for Damascus is closed on December 16th.

In a matter of weeks, the motorized British columns overtake Tartus and Latakia, moving then towards the inland. The less motorized Italians are partially substituted by more mobile Commonwealth units, but the incredible adventures of Colonel Amedeo Guillet and his own Bande Amhara Ethiopic light cavalry, managed to capture the loyalty of local Arabs in crushing the last French pockets in the Syrian desert.

 

[Piave92]

MAJOR EDITS BELOW IN RED

The Desert Fox and the Tragedy of Ben Gardane (Q4 1941)
The Italo-British force facing the Mareth Line was still preparing for offensive operations, but the disagreements between the two leading generals, Graziani and Auchinleck (who substituted Wavell, now in charge of India Command), created some confusion in terms of troops positioning war plans and resources allocation. The >200k strong Italo-British army was losing a lot of time in September and October, that the French and the DAK, at the unified command of General Erwin Rommel took to their advantage.

November 22nd, Rommel launches, together with the French, a sneak attack on the Italians at Beni Kheddache, leveraging on all the armor he could rally. The surprise effect is crucial and the DAK manages to break through deep behind the Italian lines, busy in preparing the placement of artillery and reserves and in a pure offensive posture. One by one the Italian strongholds are picked out and the DAK, followed by units of the Légion Etrangére create a sickle behind the front lines. General Auchinleck leads the Commonwealth armor against the advancing Germans to relieve the dangerous pocket that is being created and engages in a tank battle with the DAK on November 24th.

The clash results in a stalemate, but Auchinleck is forced to retire when some advanced patrols from the French have already occupied Tataouine, cutting some of the paths of retreat. Commonwealth forces pack up and begin their retreat, covered by aerial assets from Malta, Lybia, and Sicily. The Italians, partially freed by the danger of the pocket in Medinine, begin their retreat, mainly by foot. Plenty of them is encircled by the German motorized troops and many high officers surrender in these occurrences.

Unfortunately for the Italians, Prince Umberto, acting Viceroy of Lybia and having finally obtained a military command (against the wishes of his father, King and Emperor, who recommended him to stay in Tripoli to bash out some common sense in the Italian and British generals) is at the head of the 101st Motorized Division Trieste and is captured in action at Ben Gardane, on November 29th, while commanding the 8th Armored Bersaglieri Regiment, in charge of covering the retreat of the main bulk of the infantry and to delay the Franco-German advance. Prince Umberto is beaten and humiliated by the French troops and only the direct intervention of Rommel saves him from a certain death. Nevertheless, Umberto is flown immediately to Germany where an enthusiasthic Goebbels takes advantage to develop a propaganda masterpiece. The blow of the Prince’s capture strongly hits the King and Emperor Victor Emmanuel III, and consequently the Italian public opinion morale.

In two weeks, the Franco-Germans are back at the Lybian frontier, having suffered around 15k casualties vs the 30k casualties (of whom 20k pow) of the Anglo-Italians. Rommel and DAK enter Zuara on December 2nd, being stopped just by the lack of oil: the Desert Fox myth is born.

Soviets resist and fight back (Q4 1941)
The German attempt to take Moscow is thwarted on December 2nd in Khimki. At that moment, the Germans were trying a desperate pincer movement from both the north and south outskirts of the city, being suddenly crushed by an unexpected frontal assault of Soviet fresh troops in their center at Naro-Fominsk, with the first Soviet successful counterattack from the start of Barbarossa operation.

The Battle for Moscow is lost, and the Germans begin to struggle to delay the tide of the emboldened Red Army, with several costly clashes to disengage from the City. Town by the town, the Soviets of the Kalinin, Western and Southwestern front, invested the German troops taking advantage of the movement of massive forces from Siberia under Stalin’s orders in the previous weeks. In Klin, the Kalinin Front commander, General Konev, almost closed the Germans in a dangerous pocket on December 7th. Zhukov, commanding the Western Front, immediately realizes the chance of a massive encirclement and directs there some reinforcements from the 1st Shock Army (General Kuznetsov). The pocket is closed on December 9th, trapping the entire 3rd Panzer Army at the command of Generaloberst Reinhardt. A similar attempt was made more north, in the Rzhev area, but General Model attained to stall the Soviets for enough time to orchestrate a proper retreat.

Hitler is incensed because his generals had started their retreat before the actual permission was given. Moreover, Moscow is not fallen, and the Soviets have both gained the initiative and almost knocked out an entire Panzer Army in Klin. Leningrad siege seems far to meet its expected end in a Finno-German victory and the Army Group South is still struggling around Kharkiv. The most important thing is that indeed, the Italian campaign, is draining more manpower and resources than expected, and the required effort on Barbarossa was partially undermined by the engagement against Italy.

Hitler urges Petain for a meeting in Strassburg/Strasbourg before Christmas 1941, asking him to mobilize more troops against Italy, but more importantly, to provide an entire Army's worth of forces to serve against the Soviet Union. Petain tries to reason with Hitler, but the Fuhrer becomes menacing about removing some of the privileges given to the French, and Petain is obliged to comply. The Armeé Française en Russie reaches its peak of force starting from February 1942, with more than 15 divisions at the command of Weygand, being committed on the Southern theatre, freeing German forces that are meant to push back the advancing Soviets in the Central theatre.

Japanese sneak attacks in the Pacific (Q4 1941)

After having rebuffed American attempts to compromise to keep the peace, the Japanese attack the entire American Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor on December 7th after having already deployed their forces to strike quickly the lightly manned American and British holdouts. The attack is shocking and devastating, de facto eliminating any American chance to counter the following operations.

In a matter of days, the Japanese invade British Malaya and Thailand, while strong aerial assaults invest the Philippines, Guam, Hong Kong, and Wake Island. The United States, Commonwealth, and the Netherlands declared war on the Empire of Japan on December 8th. The Battle for the Pacific has begun.

In the following weeks, the Japanese launches offensive deep into British Malaya, make landfalls on the southern Philippines, and storm Hong Kong. The British have several valuable assets in the area, especially in terms of Royal Navy presence and trained troops and offer serious resistance without yielding too much territory to the Japanese.

The Americans instead, suffer heavy losses and quickly lose the Gilbert Islands and are mauled by the Japanese in the Philippines, who land also in the northern islands. Despite a stark resistance, Hong Kong falls to the Japanese on Christmas 1941.

By the Pact that Germany signed with Japan, the Third Reich declares war on the United States, followed by all his puppets, included France, between the 11th and the 13th of December. The War has become a World War.

 

[Piave92]

Balkans, Eastern Front, and Final solution
The Bulgarian King, Boris III, relays through his ambassadors to France and Germany a grieving letter of complaint towards the treatment of his brother-in-law, Umberto. The Germans blatantly tell through Minister Von Ribbentrop the Bulgarians to stop their pleas and to be ready to face consequences in the case of the lack of military commitment.

In Yugoslavia, Peter II is having major issues to calm down the puzzling fabric of the nation: the Serbs are more and more greedy and wanting to seize Albania, the Croats are angry about the fact that the Germans have occupied Istria and they have not still given the province to them and the Slovenians are incensed about Trieste. Moreover, some Chetnik and Ustaše are throwing fuel on the fire by clashing among themselves. The provinces of Zara and Fiume are annexed directly to the Croatia Banovina and the local Italians immediately face tremendous harassment.

The Yugoslav Military is deeply worn out, it suffered around 30-35% of casualties in the push towards Istria and Trieste, and the Germans are looking at them just to keep the Italians at bay in Albania, not thinking that the Yugoslavs may attain any offensive success against Visconti Prasca’s army. Thus, at the end of January, the bulk of the remaining cream of the Yugoslav Royal Army is rallied for the invasion of Albania and to quell the scattered insurgency in Kosovo by the local Albanians (stirred up by Italian agents).

The Soviets continue to push the Germans away from Moscow, retrieving the initiative and capturing back Kirov on January 13th putting large pressure on the Army Group Center. In the meanwhile, the Nazis continue to wipe out Jews, Gypsies, and communists in their rear and at the infamous Wannsee Conference of January 20th, the Final Solution is exposed and validated.

Battle for the Pacific and Southeast Asia & political evolutions
On January 1st, twenty-six Allied countries signed the Declaration by United Nations during the Arcadia Conference, now the Allies are officially born. In the meanwhile, the Japanese keep on marching through the Pacific Islands, landing larger and larger forces in the Philippines, with the start of the Bataan Peninsula siege on January 7th.

Additional landings are performed in Borneo, while the Commonwealth troops face the Japanese in heavy fighting around Kuala Lumpur starting from January 8th. The battle for Rabaul is still deeply contested and the Japanese suffer strong casualties before winning the resistance of the Australian troops at the end of the month.

Competent leadership (Lord Gort) in the Malaya campaign and the interdiction of the sea lanes by Royal Navy’s assets allow the Commonwealth to survive the Japanese tide and fight with them for every inch of the territory, draining Japanese resources while suffering a quite high death toll on their side. On January 25th Thailand declares war on the Commonwealth and the United States, opening another front.

In the following weeks, Lord Gort’s forces are obliged to retreat and abandon Kuala Lumpur, falling back towards Singapore. Despite the resolute will to resist, the Commonwealth’s troops are progressively encroached around the city by the aggressive Japanese tactics and fully sieged on February 15th.

In the meanwhile, the Japanese launch continuous bombing on Java and New Guinea, including a daring raid on Darwin, in Australia. A major naval confrontation between the Dutch and the Japanese occurs in front of the shores of Java at the end of February, with the Japanese victory. The causes of the defeat are quickly identified in the poor leadership of the Allied Fleet, who did not manage to wait for the arrival of more modern Royal Navy assets to sustain them during the battle.

The Japanese have now a virtual naval and air superiority in the area, allowing them to land at will on the various Indonesian islands until the first squads of the Mediterranean Fleet start to reach the Indian Ocean.

Italy’s status
Italy has suffered already some tremendous losses and has its own face full of bruises: the hardly gained Northeastern provinces have fallen to the Germans and Yugoslavs, the French are pressing both on the Alpine arch and in Lybia, Prince Umberto is a prisoner of the Nazis and the French-bashing took its toll on his own physical and mental shape. The King and Emperor Vittorio Emanuele is frailer and frailer, and the blow of his heir’s capture has shaken the Soldier-King in deep.

Prime Minister and Chief of Government Balbo has been progressively extending his grasps on the political and military establishment, ousting the old bigwigs like Badoglio outside the key levers of power. Count Ciano has been talking with his British homologue, Anthony Eden, who replaced Viscount Halifax, about additional reinforcements to turn the tide on the Piave, being rebuffed. The British want to keep their Empire united, and the Japanese offensive has promoted the surge of Indian nationalism, obliging the Commonwealth to address the topic urgently.

After all, the Germans are bleeding themselves in Italy and Russia, the French are already under check in Africa, Britain can just await and sit out for a while. The Americans, now on the same boat and outraged by the Japanese attack, are still shocked, but President Roosevelt has the iron will to crash the Japanese until Tokyo is shattered in ruins. In any case, the Americans immediately start to bankroll the Commonwealth, the Free French, and Italy with resources, money, and more and more equipment, despite their strategy has been defined as “Japan First”.

The Balbo’s cabinet begins to enlist in its cadres the full support of the Church and the most reactionary and conservative Popular Party currents gladly rally the Catholic organizations' support, now again legal. The left-wingers are more and more split among themselves: several Socialists, Republicans, and Liberal-Socialists see the war as the continuation of 1915, with the same motivations of the interventionism, plus the fact that Italy has been attacked. Some relevant exiled politicians like Pacciardi (who distinctively fought in the Spanish Civil War against the Italian troops sent by Mussolini) return to Italy with the consent of Grandi (literally sending Balbo ballistic) and together with Saragat from the Socialist party, he is allowed to begin to organize a wider national resistance front.

The occupied Corsica is officially annexed to the Kingdom of Italy with the creation of the provinces of Ajaccio and Bastia. Local administration shifts from the military one to a civilian one, with Pietro Giovacchini (Corsican-Italian irredentist leader), promoted to Bastia Prefect and Marco Angeli (another Corsican-Italian irredentist) as Ajaccio Prefect. The French language is banned, and Italian is immediately stated as the unique official language. The Italians try to win the hearts and minds of the Corsicans by pouring millions into the infrastructure of the dirt-poor island, treated as a colony for 150 years by the French: during these years the remote villages begin to finally have medical assistance, running water and sewers. Few maquisards appear in the countryside attacking Corsican collaborationists and Italian troops, but overall, the newly redenta province does not contribute too much in terms of turmoil.

The military situation on the Northeastern front seems to be tenable on the Piave line, with the ANZAC reinforces that already poured any hole in the bruised Italian troops. The context in Trentino is now grimmer: Auer/Ora barrage seems to be doomed, since there are chances of another flanking movement from East by the Germans, and plans are drafted to transform Trento into a stronghold. Other arrangements are made to avoid any German attempt from Cadore and Cordevole valleys toward Veneto plains at the rear of the main line of Piave. The winter, snowier than usual and quite cold limited the actions of the two armies, with reduced german probings of Italian defences at Zenson del Piave and Crocetta del Montello on January 7th and 8th.

The capture of Umberto was instead more a blow in morale than a major military setback: the Italo-British forces are now reinforcing themselves between Zuara and Tripoli, receiving tons of equipment and Commonwealth colonial reinforcements. The command of Auchinleck is confirmed, even if the new energic commander of the Italian XX Motorized-Armored Corps, Lieutenant General Giovanni Messe, continuously pushes for more decisive actions being always dismissed by Marshal Graziani.

Some gliders landed on Lampedusa airfield on January 15th, loaded with élite Folgore paratroopers at the command of the Air Marshal Muti: the local Carabinieri garrison commander immediately senses the threat and orders the Carabinieri to stop the Air Marshal: it is useless, the paratroopers have the upper hand and manage to reach the house in which Mussolini is held. Muti crashes with his shoulders the wooden door screaming: “DUCE!”, finding Mussolini wearing civilian clothes and writing something on a notebook.

 

[Piave92]

Hello !

I used the past few days to catch up with the TL and to review some passages. Since it would be painstaking to edit all the previous chapters, I made a PDF document (in attach)

I hope to have the time to re-do the previous parts with threadmarks and so on and so forth, but given the will to continue in updating the TL I prioritized writing new stuff than fixing the old one.

Which would be your preferred next chapter ? I give you a couple of options below:

- Benny meets Adolf
- Wet and bloody Pacific
- The Fox Hunt
- Oh no, I did it again ! and other Balkan amenities

Yours,
Piave92