Hi, guys. This is the penultimate chapter of my contribution. The last chapter will be about the future of my characters.
THE ITALIAN SIDE OF THE WAR
PART THREE: 1957
Fast as the wind, the invasion has begun
Shaking the ground with the force of thousand guns
First into line of fire, first into hostile land
Tanks leading the way, leading the way
-Sabaton, Ghost Division
***
Bulgarian-controlled Serbia
Somewhere in the countryside
Carlo swore as he swatted a bug on his shoulder. Since he and his unit had entered the woods, they had been tormented by bugs of various types. It almost looked like a jungle! He was hungry, tired and angry at everybody he could think of: the Bulgarians, the Americans, Colonel D'Annunzio. He was really beginning to hate the War: it had even ruined the joy for the letter arrived from Naples the previous week!
He took a look at Aldo, who was in no better mood than him.
"You know Carlo, I have a strange feeling".
"What do you mean?".
"I don't know, it's...it's like when you know that something bad is going to happen, but you don't know what it is".
"Please Aldo, don't be a iettatore (1). I don't know if you have noticed, but we are already low on morale!".
"Hey you two, stop talking, or you'll alert the enemy about our positions!" said a sergeant.
Carlo and Aldo shut their mouths. Some minutes later, they arrived at the end of the woods. Then, Colonel D'Annunzio started to talk:
"All right soldiers, we're arrived. According to what General Broz's resistance movement has told us, the outpost we're going to attack is the seat of this part of Serbia's Bulgarian occupation force. The plan is simple: we jump on them and we kick their asses until they beg us to stop. And remember our unit's motto "Only death will stop us"!.
The soldiers were surprised: they were used to the Colonel's long speeches, and didn't expect him to use less than 100 words. However, they didn't waste their time, and soon readied their rifles, while the Colonel ordered the attack.
"FOR THE EMPEROR!".
They went out of the woods running like demons. The Bulgarians were so caught by surprise that they barely had time to fire back. In less than half an hour, they were overrun, and the commander of the outpost was personally killed by D'Annunzio.
The Colonel stood smiling proudly.
"Good, men. We've done our job. Now, we just have to wait for Broz to arrive and...". The Colonel wasn't able to finish his speech as he was silenced forever by a bullet to the throat. Soon, other shots came from who knows where.
"SNIPERS! TAKE COVER, FOR FUCK'S SAKE!" barked a sergeant.
The soldiers ducked for cover. Some of them weren't lucky, as they were hit by the hidden snipers. One of these poor souls was Carlo. He was hit to the back of his head, and fell to the ground as Aldo tried to help him.
"Shit, Carlo, don't do this. Don't die here, man. Please don't die..."
***
An old Italian motto says "If Rome cries, Carthage doesn't laugh either".
The first months of 1957 could be considered an embodiment of these words: Bulgaria was losing battle after battle in Serbia against the Italians, and the arrival of von Branau's Bastards worsened things.
Italy, on the other hand, wasn't doing much better in Sicily: the loyalist forces led by General Ciano had barely been able to eliminate the pro-Bourbon groups in most of the island, leaving only the provinces of Palermo, Trapani and Catania in the hands of Don Vito Corleone. Meanwhile, the mercenaries of the Leonidas Brigade were doing their best to leave a mark in the history of bloodbaths. Pershaps, their most infamous action was the "Rape of Bagheria", where they butchered the whole town when it dared to rebel against them. It was something so terrific that it would have made even the Americans envious, with men and childred impaled and women raped in front of them. However, they had some troubles of their own: ever since the end of 1956, Don Vito and the Brigade had had to face a mysterious band of partisans simply known as "Legio Mortis" (2). Similarly to the American Bad Luck Brigade, this band left on its victims a card with a black skull on a white field, and played an important role in terrorizing the Mafia. However, this didn't stop the fightings, and as April ended and Bulgaria exited the War, it looked as if Italy would have to leave the Balkans to concentrate on Sicily.
Then, on May 1st, a miracle happened. A force of 50,000 men landed in Palermo. It was an Egyptian voluntary force, the Anubis Legion, led by Captain Isma'il Ar-Rahman.
The arrival of the Legion proved to be decisive: on May 18th, after days of bloody fightings, Don Vito and his men were killed. The same happened to the Leonidas Brigade. Leopold of Bourbon was nowhere to be found: somehow, he had managed to flee to Sardinia, and from there to Russia, where he died childless in 1998.
With this done, Italy was finally able to help von Branau to defend his holdings from the Prussians, and to wipe out the last Greek nuisances in June.
Then, on September 19th, another miracle happened. In Naples, the blood of Saint Gennaro, after having stayed solid since 1955, finally melted (3). Many people took this as an omen. Indeed, in a strange way, it was: after the miracle, the Scottish Influenza started to spread everywhere. To secure their survival, at the end of the year the European members of the Grand Alliance declared a cease-fire with the League of Nations, and soon sent ambassadors to neutral Sardinia to negotiate peace. Meanwhile, in Italy, people started to celebrate the cease-fire. Sure, the War was still going on America, and the Scottish Influenza wasn't a joke, as it killed people every day. The Italians on the mainland couldn't care less. Their side of the War was over.
NOTES:
(1): According to another popular superstition, the iettatore is a person who attracts bad luck, willingly or not. You Anglo-Saxons would say "Evil-eyed man" or "Bird of ill omen".
(2): Death Legion.
(3): Saint Gennaro is the patron saint of Naples. His blood, kept in a church, is usually solid, but it melts once every year, on September 19th.