La grande retata della prigione - Disaster at Caporetto

Chapter 8

University of Colorado 400 level History Class November 2017, Professor Dennis Showalter

DS: Alright class lets now look at the cascade of events following Mussolini's seizure of the command structure of the Italian Royal Army in November 1917, if you have any questions please save them for the end of the class we have a lot to get to

Mussolini with his diverse set of perspectives and knowledge took two days to inspect the troops of the 1st and 4th army and even the French and British divisions forming a new defensive line on the formidable Po river. What he saw wasn't good, whilst a good working number of the rank and file were willing to follow him, communist and other subversion was persistent through the ranks. The entire heavy weaponry of the army had been abandoned in the alps to the enemy and even with generous French and British support and provision of replacements, it would be many months before they were ready to fight again from an equipment perspective.

The conversations with the troops and those officers that remained were even more sobering; class please forgive the irony of using that word in this context. The troops were patriotically willing to defend the Po, but their mood was more than clear, no more offensives, and end the war. This was compounded further be a series of wild cat strikes demanding an end to the war. Morale among the French and British troops was not noticeably better in Mussolini's observation either.

Compounding all of this was a crises in Rome as the Commando Supremo and by extension the government had lost control of the army. Units stationed around Rome and points south had been ordered to the front to try to stem the disaster tide from Caporetto, and refused to leave their barracks; politicians and elites throughout Rome broke camp for the countryside, lest they be arrested like Nicholas the Czar of Russia or something worse

Vittorio Orlando desperately tried to maintain order, saying that Caporetto had been a temporary reverse, the fault of Cadorna, and that Italy would recover and win the war with entente aid. His words did little to calm the ever expanding sense of anxiety particularly once Mussolini had captured the army HQ radio command post and usurped control of the Royal Army. Defeatism ran through the streets of Rome harder than it did on the Po. Crowds of angry wives, mothers and fathers swarmed government offices demanding to know if their loved ones were captured by the Central powers, wounded or killed; due to the drunken confusion surrounding Italian field level high command answers could not come quickly enough, which triggered the retaliatory strikes I mentioned earlier

Austrian and German agents in Rome picked up the sour mood of the nation with much greater perception than the situation France had gotten itself into a few months before. General Ludendorff and Von Below correctly perceived the army had outrun it's supply capacity to the most extreme level possible, even with seaborne support, and the now widened and opened front required more divisions than either Germany or Austria could or wanted to spare on the Italian front. Intelligence reports did stream back of the heavily weakened condition of Italy's home front, these were interpreted along with the drunken, then Mussolini army broadcasts to see that there was an opportunity to remove Italy from the war permanently. Kaiser Karl was enthusiastic about any opportunity to end the war on his southern front and endorsed Ludendorff's recommendations

In near direct response to the fomenting unrest in Rome, the central powers began a two pronged peace offering, broadcasts were made across the front in the clear stating that the Central Powers held the Italian Army in the highest regard and honor, and that the time for an honorable peace had come. No annexations and no reparations with all POWs returned home in 90 days in return for Central Powers prisoners and the evacuation of entente forces from Italy; Austria would pull back to the old border and return Venice to her Italian people in 90 days. Direct paper offers to the same were made from the central powers diplomats in Spain to the Italian counterparts

Orlando balked, Italy had fought and bled, and sent 100's of thousands of her sons to the grave or as permanent invalids for the gains promised in the treaty of London. The entente representatives were fevereishly nervous that the same war weariness which had removed Russia from the field was now infecting Italy even as offers of more French and British troops were made.

Concurrent to this Mussolini marched the 8th Berseglierri, augmented by an exotic collection of stragglers, 1500 strong toward Rome disarming every loyal police force in his path. He reached Rome on November 19th to a throng of cheering crowds and arrested Orlando and the remaining elements of the government who hadn't fled to the countryside or to France. An emmissary of the King quickly arrived asking Mussolini to form a new government (lest he be deposed as well). His first national address from Italy's seat of power was well received and left him with a swath of political capital to stabilize the country:

Brothers, Students, Friends, Mothers, Fathers, Children, disdained trench dwellers, and my stoic Italian people; we have fought a long and difficult war, under the harshest conditions of cold, enemy action and generals who treated us as digits on a piece of paper.

Despite these grave difficulties your army fought like lions for many months and earned the respect of our allies and our enemies alike. Like us the Austrians and Germans have suffered in their trenches and bitter cold. They have offered a just peace, restoring our former borders, returning the captured and betrayed sons of our army quickly and putting an end to the suffering of Southern Europe.

Italy, I have heard you, in the trenches, in the countryside and in the streets of Rome, a just peace is what you want and you will have it. At this time I will instruct our ambassador in Spain to open a peace conference with the Austrians and Germans on the basis of their peace proposal and bring about the end of our war permanently. In the meantime, this speech will be broadcast all along the line of our armies at the Po river ordering a ceasefire on current lines pending the peace conference whereupon Austria will remove itself from Venice and all of North East Italy.

It is my intention to form a new government for Italy's people. One of justice for the soldiers and the homes they will be returning to. One of far more fairness and humanity, a government whose ambitions are driven to serve the public, not bent conquest at all costs.

I realize our people longed to be united with our Italian speaking brothers and sisters trapped by accident of national borders within Austria. At the peace conference soon to occur, I will offer those people and the Kingdom of Austria Hungry full payment by Italy to repatriate our brothers back to Italy proper, and offer the same opportunity to German speakers within Italy should they wish to be returned to Austria or Germany.

My first and foremost duty to to bring our boys home, and this ceasefire and peace conference will do that; I am prepared to do what must be done to get your sons, husbands and fathers home as soon as possible.

Viva Italia


Lets take a 10 minute break then we can discuss the Madrid peace conference and the conclusion of the Great War
 
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