In early 1936, Benito Mussolini instigates a high-level strategic study for the future course of Italian involvement in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. Even as Badoglio is relieved of command in Ethiopia, and Graziani is dispatched with powerful reinforcements, the Duce warns Hitler that he intends to stay out of any general conflict due to the low readiness of the Italian armed forces--until the right moment.
However, Italian policy will be far from passive as the world will see.
In March 1936, Graziani and a new generation of officers deliver victory against Haile Selassie. The Duce decides to see if the League of Nations is really as weak as it appears...
In April 1936, the citizens of Albania wake to learn of their incorporation in the Italian Empire, local resistance having been brushed aside within 24 hours. No international sanctions occur, and now Italy has a small but crucial oil supply.
Judging that he has pushed his luck far enough for now, Mussolini supervises army reforms and bides his time. Two years pass, in which Germany absorbs Austria and the Sudetenland. Due to increasing international tension, Hitler decides to honour the Munich agreement in 1939, leaving a rump Czechoslovakia independent.
In September, Germany goes to war with the Allies, having miscalculated the strength of British and French resolve over Poland. Anxious to improve relations with Italy, he allows Italian troops access to the Reich. As the war rages in West and East, the First and Second Gruppi di Armati mass on the Czech border--and strike in October. Graziani and his protege, Prince Umberto, accept the capitulation of the Czechs in November, as the snow falls in Prague.
However, even this short campaign demonstrates serious deficiencies in the army, and the army groups are withdrawn for refit, and to cover the French border.
After a drawn out struggle, France is finally subdued in August 1940 and the threat from the West is ended. The moment has arrived for a reckoning with Yugoslavia, and in late August 60 fresh Italian divisions cross the border by land and sea. Powerless to intervene, the UK, now standing alone with the Commonwealth nations, watches from the sidelines as Messe enters Beograd in September and Yugoslav resistance collapses. Popular anger against Italy rises to fever pitch in Britain. Still technically neutral, Italy is plainly assisting the Axis powers.
After a brief period for reorganisation, the Duce decides to pick off Greece and in November, invades. Greece promptly joins the Allies, and the 8th Army crosses into Libya. By December, Greece has fallen and the Regia Marina under the brilliant Campioni wrests control of the central Mediterranean from the Royal Navy. Italian forces begin to arrive by sea in strength at Tobruk and Benghazi. Impressed by the progress of Germany, Japan joins the Axis in December and Britain now faces war on three fronts.
On New Years Eve 1941, the Italian 5th Corps under Prince Umberto storms ashore at Port Said, totally disrupting British command and supply lines in North Africa. The 8th Army retreats in confusion, and Alexandria and Suez fall in rapid succession. Dividing his forces, Graziani sends 20 divisions east into Palestine and another 25 south to retake East Africa. By March, Lebanon and Ethiopia have been reached--by April, Iraq is conquered and Kuwait occupied. Switching his forces again, Graziani moves further into Ethiopia and by late July is menacing the Belgian Congo.
Meanwhile, in April, the Axis declares war on the Soviet Union. Sceptical of their success, the Duce (again) declines to take part in this adventure.
By September 1940, Messe has entered the Congo and sent the remnants of the Belgian army fleeing, backed by the powerful air units of Marshal Accorsi. Battling the terrain more than the enemy, Graziani presides as the Belgians lay down their arms in November after an unequal struggle.
The Duce's attention now turns to South Africa, where the hard-riding cavalrymen of General Moiso have established themselves in Salisbury. By December, Johannesburg has fallen, against slight resistance due to the South Africans' heavy losses in France earlier that year.
Three armies work their way down the coast, and in March 1941--after a march of some 3000 miles--Graziani presents a grateful Duce with an Empire running from Cape to Cairo and beyond. Amid scenes of hysterical celebration, he is welcomed back to Rome in April as a new Scipio Africanus.
Some months pass while the army is redeployed for its next task--the removal of Turkey from the map. In August, Ciano presents the declaration of war to Ankara...the Italian forces are on the move again. Attaining new heights of efficiency, the army disposes of Turkish resistance in a little over a month.
Mussolini has now decided on the greatest task ever to face the armed forces--no less than the invasion of the British Islands. After a lengthy redeployment, no less than 70 Italian divisions and a fleet of 1500 ships arrive on the Channel coast in January 1943. By end of February, Belfast is taken, concluding another lightning campaign.
In a momentous decision, the Duce joins the Axis on January 26th. Technical assistance and materiel now begin to arrive in Rome for a further refit of the army. Under the Duce's stewardship, Italy has by its own efforts doubled its population and tripled its industrial base, and is now a first rank Power.
In June 1943, and contrary to the Duce's pessimism, Hitler accepts the surrender of the Soviet Union and Axis forces begin to withdraw to the Urals. The Duce declares war on the recalcitrant Spanish, who so far have refused to join the Axis. In July, Germany, Vichy and Italy partition the country between them, and the Regia Marina now has a base on the Atlantic.
In September, and after assisting the stalled Japanese campaign in India, Mussolini accepts the capitulation of the British Government in Exile at Bombay.
The Indian expeditionary force then turns on Saudi Arabia, another holdout from the Axis, and beginning to lean towards the United States. It is rapidly overrun and added to the Neo-Italian Empire.
In November 1943, the US declares war on the Axis but the scene of conflict has now moved to the Western Hemisphere. Apart from maintaining order in Africa against occasional US landings, the Duce is content to stand on the defensive as the prospect of nuclear war looms between Germany and the US in 1945. Finally, in 1947, the few remaining battered and war weary nations gather in Geneva--the last neutral capital left in Europe--to sign a definitive peace. Italy is recognised in its massive conquests, and Benito Mussolini is written into history as the second Caesar...
However, Italian policy will be far from passive as the world will see.
In March 1936, Graziani and a new generation of officers deliver victory against Haile Selassie. The Duce decides to see if the League of Nations is really as weak as it appears...
In April 1936, the citizens of Albania wake to learn of their incorporation in the Italian Empire, local resistance having been brushed aside within 24 hours. No international sanctions occur, and now Italy has a small but crucial oil supply.
Judging that he has pushed his luck far enough for now, Mussolini supervises army reforms and bides his time. Two years pass, in which Germany absorbs Austria and the Sudetenland. Due to increasing international tension, Hitler decides to honour the Munich agreement in 1939, leaving a rump Czechoslovakia independent.
In September, Germany goes to war with the Allies, having miscalculated the strength of British and French resolve over Poland. Anxious to improve relations with Italy, he allows Italian troops access to the Reich. As the war rages in West and East, the First and Second Gruppi di Armati mass on the Czech border--and strike in October. Graziani and his protege, Prince Umberto, accept the capitulation of the Czechs in November, as the snow falls in Prague.
However, even this short campaign demonstrates serious deficiencies in the army, and the army groups are withdrawn for refit, and to cover the French border.
After a drawn out struggle, France is finally subdued in August 1940 and the threat from the West is ended. The moment has arrived for a reckoning with Yugoslavia, and in late August 60 fresh Italian divisions cross the border by land and sea. Powerless to intervene, the UK, now standing alone with the Commonwealth nations, watches from the sidelines as Messe enters Beograd in September and Yugoslav resistance collapses. Popular anger against Italy rises to fever pitch in Britain. Still technically neutral, Italy is plainly assisting the Axis powers.
After a brief period for reorganisation, the Duce decides to pick off Greece and in November, invades. Greece promptly joins the Allies, and the 8th Army crosses into Libya. By December, Greece has fallen and the Regia Marina under the brilliant Campioni wrests control of the central Mediterranean from the Royal Navy. Italian forces begin to arrive by sea in strength at Tobruk and Benghazi. Impressed by the progress of Germany, Japan joins the Axis in December and Britain now faces war on three fronts.
On New Years Eve 1941, the Italian 5th Corps under Prince Umberto storms ashore at Port Said, totally disrupting British command and supply lines in North Africa. The 8th Army retreats in confusion, and Alexandria and Suez fall in rapid succession. Dividing his forces, Graziani sends 20 divisions east into Palestine and another 25 south to retake East Africa. By March, Lebanon and Ethiopia have been reached--by April, Iraq is conquered and Kuwait occupied. Switching his forces again, Graziani moves further into Ethiopia and by late July is menacing the Belgian Congo.
Meanwhile, in April, the Axis declares war on the Soviet Union. Sceptical of their success, the Duce (again) declines to take part in this adventure.
By September 1940, Messe has entered the Congo and sent the remnants of the Belgian army fleeing, backed by the powerful air units of Marshal Accorsi. Battling the terrain more than the enemy, Graziani presides as the Belgians lay down their arms in November after an unequal struggle.
The Duce's attention now turns to South Africa, where the hard-riding cavalrymen of General Moiso have established themselves in Salisbury. By December, Johannesburg has fallen, against slight resistance due to the South Africans' heavy losses in France earlier that year.
Three armies work their way down the coast, and in March 1941--after a march of some 3000 miles--Graziani presents a grateful Duce with an Empire running from Cape to Cairo and beyond. Amid scenes of hysterical celebration, he is welcomed back to Rome in April as a new Scipio Africanus.
Some months pass while the army is redeployed for its next task--the removal of Turkey from the map. In August, Ciano presents the declaration of war to Ankara...the Italian forces are on the move again. Attaining new heights of efficiency, the army disposes of Turkish resistance in a little over a month.
Mussolini has now decided on the greatest task ever to face the armed forces--no less than the invasion of the British Islands. After a lengthy redeployment, no less than 70 Italian divisions and a fleet of 1500 ships arrive on the Channel coast in January 1943. By end of February, Belfast is taken, concluding another lightning campaign.
In a momentous decision, the Duce joins the Axis on January 26th. Technical assistance and materiel now begin to arrive in Rome for a further refit of the army. Under the Duce's stewardship, Italy has by its own efforts doubled its population and tripled its industrial base, and is now a first rank Power.
In June 1943, and contrary to the Duce's pessimism, Hitler accepts the surrender of the Soviet Union and Axis forces begin to withdraw to the Urals. The Duce declares war on the recalcitrant Spanish, who so far have refused to join the Axis. In July, Germany, Vichy and Italy partition the country between them, and the Regia Marina now has a base on the Atlantic.
In September, and after assisting the stalled Japanese campaign in India, Mussolini accepts the capitulation of the British Government in Exile at Bombay.
The Indian expeditionary force then turns on Saudi Arabia, another holdout from the Axis, and beginning to lean towards the United States. It is rapidly overrun and added to the Neo-Italian Empire.
In November 1943, the US declares war on the Axis but the scene of conflict has now moved to the Western Hemisphere. Apart from maintaining order in Africa against occasional US landings, the Duce is content to stand on the defensive as the prospect of nuclear war looms between Germany and the US in 1945. Finally, in 1947, the few remaining battered and war weary nations gather in Geneva--the last neutral capital left in Europe--to sign a definitive peace. Italy is recognised in its massive conquests, and Benito Mussolini is written into history as the second Caesar...
