Rise of Australia

Chapter 961 Italy Surrenders

For the Italian people, Italy at this time has already become unfamiliar to them.

Mussolini's government had fallen into its final madness. They suppressed various marches, arrested various opposition parties, and launched a military curfew in Rome at all costs.

从5月22日到5月25日这4天的时间里，至少有2000名民众死在意大利的武装镇压当中，还有上百名墨索里尼的反对党成员被抓捕入狱，并且受尽了折磨。

Mussolini's brutal actions caused an uproar in Italy and led to waves of demonstrations in Rome.

But it didn't matter to Mussolini at this time. If he couldn't repel the British, French and Australian coalition forces' attack on Rome, the next person to be hung on the street lamp would be Mussolini himself.

在5月15日、5月22日、5月25日和5月27日这四天时间里，英法澳组织了大量的飞机轰炸罗马，并且摧毁了罗马城内大量的建筑和设施。

Although the casualties among Italians in Rome are unclear, the effect of a massive bombing in such a densely populated city is self-evident.

In order to destroy Italy earlier, the joint forces of Britain, France and Australia would not waste all their troops in Rome, but sent several small-scale armies to continue attacking other parts of Italy.

The French mainly attacked Sardinia, the British mainly attacked Sicily, and Australasia attacked the entire southern Italy from Ancona north of Rome to cities such as Foggia and Naples in southern Italy.

The Italian government can hardly do anything about this offensive.

The disadvantage in the army meant that Italy would find it difficult to withstand the attack from the British, French and Australian troops. In addition, the Italian navy did not dare to go out to sea to fight, so it could only allow the British, French and Australian troops to attack Italian territory.

This is also the tragedy of Italy as a Mediterranean country, because it is simply unable to resist the powerful Royal Fleet.

If the Italian Navy had been of some use, at least Sardinia and Sicily could have been saved.

Although Italy still had another ally in the Mediterranean, Spain, Spain was also in a difficult situation at this time.

Spain must be a non-great power country, with a large gap between its population and military and those of the great powers.

After Britain, France and Australia launched the counterattack, Spain was suddenly dumbfounded. The Spanish government was shocked to find that their army was still far behind the British, French and Australian army in terms of combat effectiveness, and the size of their army was far less than that of the combined British, French and Australian army.

What’s even worse is that Spain tried its best to capture Gibraltar but failed in a short period of time. Instead, the British support arrived in time and repelled the Spanish attack.

Although the Pyrenees Mountains to the north could prevent most French troops from entering Spain, the Spanish navy was no longer able to stop the enemy's navy from running wild.

If Britain, France and Australia had not focused their attack on Italy, Spain would probably have been the first Allied country to surrender.

Of course, the situation in Spain is not much better now.

It had only been a few years since Franco established the new Spanish regime through the civil war, and his rule over Spain was not that stable.

At this time, in addition to dealing with the attacks from the British, French and Australian troops, the Spanish government also needed to pay extra attention to the domestic opposition forces.

Otherwise, Madrid, the capital of Spain, might have been conquered by internal enemies before external enemies could conquer it.

However, for Italy and Spain, their outcomes are better than Germany's.

Because the strength of these two countries themselves is not strong, in the minds of Britain, France and Australia, Italy and Spain do not pose much of a threat.

Precisely because there is not much danger, Italy and Spain can still maintain most of their current land and do not face the risk of being divided into several countries or even being completely occupied.

But Germany is different. The threat it poses now even exceeds that of Russia, and it is the main culprit in both world wars.

For the United Kingdom, France and Australia, their handling of Germany requires extreme caution, and even a certain degree of arbitrariness.

After discussions among the three countries, it was finally decided to fully occupy Germany, completely eliminate the German Chancellor and his ideas from Germany, ensure that Germany is unlikely to start another world war in the future, and ensure that world peace is maintained for a longer period of time.

As time entered June 1938, the thing Italy least wanted to see happened.

The French army launched an all-out attack on Sardinia, and it took almost half a month to capture Sassari, an important town in the north of Sardinia, and Cagliari in the south.

These two cities are the two largest cities in Sardinia and are also the locations of Sardinia's ports and airports.

After these two cities were captured, it was impossible for other small cities and towns in Sardinia to escape the attack of the French army.

In other words, after France announced the occupation of Sassari and Cagliari, Italy's rule over Sardinia was in name only.

But that's not the only bad news.

Don't underestimate the British at this time. Although the British army's combat effectiveness is not good, the combat effectiveness of the British Royal Fleet is definitely the best in the world.

Under the bombardment of a large number of warships of the Royal Fleet, the British Army captured Messina, which is across the sea from Sicily and the Italian mainland, in less than a week, and took the opportunity to move south and successively occupied Catania and Syracuse.

As a result, only the capital of Sicily, Palermo, was left unconquered, and this was only a matter of time.

If you look at a map, you can see that at this time, nearly half of Italy's territory had been occupied, and the remaining land was precisely Italy's least important southern region.

The southern region does have a large agricultural scale, but how can Italy carry out agricultural production under the continuous bombing and inspections by the British, French and Australian air forces?
Under successive attacks, Rome's defense seemed shaky.

On June 1938, 6, after nearly a month of siege, the Italian capital of Rome was declared captured and Italian Prime Minister Mussolini fled south to Naples.

Mussolini, who successfully escaped from Rome, was relieved at first, but after seeing the Australasian flag flying over the city of Naples, he finally lowered his head in despair.

On June 1938, 6, the King of Italy announced Italy's unconditional surrender through a radio broadcast in Rome, and stated that Prime Minister Mussolini was a warmongerer and a sinner of all Italy and all mankind.

On June 6, Mussolini was arrested in Naples and immediately detained in a Naples prison as a war criminal.

From June 6, Britain, France and Australia took full control of Italy's defense and took over the Italian navy, which had hardly been deployed since the beginning of the war.

Italy's surrender was a shock to the whole world, and Germany was naturally the most shocked. Germany and Spain were not neighbors, and Italy was the only intermediary that connected the two countries.

After Italy's unconditional surrender, there was an additional barrier between Germany and Spain, making Germany's chance of obtaining supplies from Spain extremely slim.

And for Spain, which is now fighting alone, how long can they hold out?

On June 1938, 6, the French army marched into the city of Barcelona and announced the liberation of the entire Barcelona area.

Almost at the same time, troops from Britain and Australasia also poured out of Gibraltar and headed towards Seville, a major military town in southern Spain.

Ceuta, Tetouan and Melilla in Africa were also attacked by the British, French and Australian troops, and were quickly captured because it was almost impossible to obtain supplies from mainland Spain.

On June 1938, 6, the planes that had previously bombed Rome moved to Spain and began to bomb the Spanish capital, Madrid, in large numbers.

When the Spanish government was at its end, far away in London, England, representatives of the British royal family, the Australasia royal family and the Spanish royal family were holding a meeting.

The main content of the meeting was naturally about the restoration of the Spanish royal family after the war. The restoration of the Spanish royal family was good news for both Britain and Australasia. After all, monarchies naturally stand together, and the relationship between monarchs of various countries will be closer and more united.

Only when there are more and more monarchies will the status of monarchs like Arthur and George VI become more and more stable.

However, the British still put forward some additional conditions for the restoration of the Spanish royal family.

First of all, regarding Gibraltar, it is impossible for Spain, as a defeated country, to regain Gibraltar.

This was also the first condition that the Spanish royal family had to agree to with the United Kingdom before the restoration, that is, to promise never to take back Gibraltar.

But if you think about it carefully, Spain at that time no longer had the strength to retake Gibraltar. Even the Spain of later generations was still a country with a weak presence in Europe, and was not even considered a strong country within Europe.

This is a shocking fact. Spain has one of the largest land areas in Europe, but it will never become a powerful country in Europe.

Since the decline of the Spanish colonial empire, Spain's hopes of rising have been extinguished.

The second condition was that Spain must cede all of its colonies and give up the Balearic Islands.

The Balearic Islands have another name, which is the Mallorca Islands which were famous in the Middle Ages.

Although the geographical location of the Mallorca Islands is also very important to Spain, the colonies in Africa are also a strong supplement to Spain's national strength.

But as a defeated country in World War II, it was already very good for Spain to be able to keep its Iberian homeland, and naturally it was impossible for it to negotiate terms with countries like Britain, France and Australia.

After these two conditions were agreed upon, the restoration of the Spanish royal family became a piece of cake.

Britain and Australasia will not refuse, and the French are unlikely to jump out and cause trouble for Britain and Australia.

Now all we have to do is wait for the Spanish government to surrender and then for Britain and Australasia to propose and agree to the restoration of the Spanish royal family at the meeting on dealing with Spain.

There is no need for Britain and Australasia to even make such a proposal. Naturally, loyal younger brothers will make suggestions to Britain and Australasia, and Britain and Australasia will make the final decision.

Italy's surrender was a heavy blow to Germany, and it made the already crazy German Chancellor even more crazy.

For Germany, shrinking the front line at this time might be able to delay the battle for a longer time.

But the German Chancellor obviously did not accept this. At a new meeting of the German High Command, the German Chancellor repeatedly emphasized the importance of the offensive on the Eastern Front and stated that Sudalingrad must be captured at all costs.

You should know that the number of soldiers stationed by Germany and Russia in Sudalingrad has exceeded 600 million, including nearly 230 million German troops and more than 370 million Russian troops.

The Sudalingrad War, which was blindly launched by the German Chancellor, has become the largest battle since the opening of the Eastern European battlefield, and the tragic casualties far exceeded the Battle of Moscow.

Such a scene had never appeared in the early stages of World War II, and it was hard to imagine that the Germans would launch a battle of such scale in Sudalingrad.

However, for the German Chancellor and the German government, who have already gone crazy at this time, it is not surprising what decision they make.

Moreover, the name Sudalingrad has a certain meaning to Russia. Even if it is just a small city, just based on its name, it is worth it for the German army to occupy it at all costs.

After all, the name of the supreme ruler of Russia at that time was Sudalin. The strategic position of a city with such a name itself is very important, coupled with the value brought by the name itself, this is also one of the reasons why the German Prime Minister was so furious.

There is good news for Germany. The nationwide training of new recruits has come to an end, and a large number of new recruits complete their training and go to the battlefield every day.

Although the German troops are currently at a disadvantage in terms of numbers on the French battlefield, more than one million reserve troops have been mobilized to the French battlefield, which can basically maintain the balance of the French battlefield.

As for the remaining millions or even tens of millions of German troops, in addition to retaining a reserve army group with sufficient numbers to be prepared for any eventuality, the German Chancellor planned to deploy the remaining troops into the Battle of Sudalingrad in an effort to completely defeat the Russians in one go.

At this time, one has to admire the German Chancellor's amazing persuasiveness and oratory talent. He only needed to make a few speeches in Berlin to incite a large number of Germans to rush to join the army.

You know, there are only about 8000 million core Germans, but as of now, the total number of troops mobilized in Germany has reached nearly million.

This is a rather exaggerated and terrifying number. It not only means that one in eight Germans participated in the war, but also that almost one in every two German families went to the battlefield.

If we count the workers in military factories and other enterprises serving the war effort, it can be said that every family in Germany today is serving the war effort, and every family has someone who has entered the battlefield or a military factory.

Being able to inspire people to this extent, no matter what the German Chancellor's reputation is in the outside world, at least in today's Germany, in the hearts of today's Germans, the German Chancellor is still the savior of Germany and the guide who leads Germany towards dawn.

Whether it is the Germany in history or the Germany in this world, the actions of the Germans represent a fact, that is, the outbreak of World War II was not solely Germany's fault.

It was certainly wrong for the Germans to start the war, but the factors behind it that forced Germany to start the war were also one of the main culprits that caused the outbreak of World War II.

(End of this chapter)