ps: Thanks to book friend "Fu Liang" for voting again, and continue to ask for recommendation votes ^_^
Since Rome, the capital of Italy, also belongs to the south, the coup went very smoothly. The distraught Mussolini was quickly arrested. After several transfers, he was taken to the top of Gran Sasso, the highest peak in the Apennine Mountains, and put under house arrest. After learning this
Afterwards, Mustache was horrified. On the one hand, he ordered the German special forces who had not yet had a chance to participate in actual combat to rescue Mussolini. On the other hand, he urgently mobilized troops into Italy.
In order to take a preemptive strike, due to the rush of time, the first batch of German troops entering Italy to fight only had three light infantry divisions. However, even Mustache, who had been extremely disappointed with the combat effectiveness of the Italian Army, did not expect that the German troops of these three divisions would actually
Invincible along the way, they defeated more than 20 Italian divisions in just one month and basically controlled the industrial areas in northern Italy...
However, Mustache quickly understood that the Italian Army's combat effectiveness was inherently poor. Even five divisions might not be able to defeat one German division. In addition, the coup had just occurred and the status of the opposition had not yet been fully recognized by the Italian army. As for the
It would be too early to fully integrate the national armed forces, because
Now the Italian army is even more fragmented. Although the total strength is much greater than that of the German army, it is easily defeated by them individually. The German army's attack comes very quickly. Italy had no ability to do so because it was an Axis power.
By fortifying the northern border, this weakness becomes even more apparent...
In addition, the German special forces lived up to Mustache's expectations and successfully rescued Mussolini without losing a single person. This fully demonstrated the results of their study and special training in China. Since Mussolini was in the industrial area of northern Italy
The support rate was high. When he announced the establishment of the "Italian Social Republic" on the radio with the support of Mustache, some northern Italians
The garrison chose to surrender. Although the proportion in the army was not very high, it was enough to make the hastily established defense line of the Italian army more porous. As a result, it was defeated by the German army, which was far smaller in number than itself. The German army only paid
At the cost of less than 8,000 casualties, nearly 150,000 Italian troops were killed and captured, of which more than 100,000 were captured...
With the German army's successive victories, more and more Italian troops turned to Mussolini. This further accelerated the defeat of opposition supporters. If the British army had not landed in southern Italy in time to support the opposition government, "Italy would have
It is even possible that the "Social Republic of Italy" will unify the country in just 2 months. And even if the "Italian Social Republic" is still only
It controls half of Italy, but the Italian Navy and Air Force are more supportive of Mussolini (the technical arms are naturally close to the Industrial Party), and most of the officers and soldiers chose to go north to defect. Although they were attacked by the opposition army
The sneak attack caused a lot of damage to warships and aircraft. But more than 70% of the personnel came to surrender, which was enough to make Mussolini extremely happy.
As for the loss of aircraft, with the help of Germany. In addition, the northern industrial area has been completely recovered, and it will not take long to completely make up for it. Only the navy, because the large shipbuilding bases are in the south, and the construction and repair of large surface ships takes a long time,
There is no doubt that the vitality has been severely damaged, but fortunately, the main force of the small and medium-sized ships in the Italian Navy with higher personnel quality is still there, and ship construction is relatively easy, so at least from the perspective of Germany, the actual losses are not as big as they seem.
big.
What's more important is that after Germany sent troops to help Mussolini regain power, the relationship between Germany and Mussolini's northern Italian government is no longer the alliance it once was, but closer to that of a suzerain and a slave state.
, especially in terms of the army, Germany has completely taken command of the Italian Northern Army. But this has made the Italian Northern Army successful.
It effectively got rid of the various institutional shortcomings of the original Italian Army, and also limited the negative impact of Mussolini's chaotic command. Therefore, its combat effectiveness has been greatly improved. Although it is still far from being comparable to the German army, it can at least reach Vichy.
The level of the French Army was high, and it would be even easier to defeat the Army of the Southern Italian Government, although their strength would be smaller at the beginning.
The rise of the Italian Northern Army greatly reduced the burden on the German army. Only the three German divisions entered Italy to fight (but some troops were added in the meantime), and the myth that the "German Army was invincible" became more and more important.
Spread among the Allies...
On the contrary, the British army that urgently assisted the southern Italian government was trapped by the Italian southern army that often collapsed on the battlefield. In history, the German army was always trapped to death by the "pig teammate" Noodles, but in this time and space, it was the British army that was defeated.
It was a bad luck. Under the drag of these "pig teammates", they even couldn't even reach Italy.
The Northern Army of Liberia struggled to cope. Not only did it fail to prevent the northern Italian government from unifying the country, it also sacrificed more than 200,000 people on the Italian battlefield, including no less than 120,000 local British troops from the British Isles. You must know that the entire World War II in history
During this period, less than 400,000 British troops died in battle...
In the end, due to this premature coup, although Italy's national and military power was greatly depleted, it actually received greater help for Germany, and their number one enemy at this time, the British, paid a huge additional price.
, the balance of strength between the two camps was further reversed.
Moreover, due to the influence of this coup, the issue of the Arab League occupying Libya was easily solved. The northern Italian government recognized Libya as the territory of the Arab League, and Krim unconditionally released no less than 200,000 Italian prisoners of war. This was also the case not long after Italy
One of the important reasons why the northern government was able to quickly defeat the Southern Allies, including a large number of British troops, to complete the counterattack without the German army increasing its troops.
Originally, because the British Mediterranean Fleet controlled the sea power in the Mediterranean, even if Krim released the prisoners of war, the Italians would not be able to return to their homeland to participate in the civil war. However, the strength of the British Mediterranean Fleet at that time was far less than before, and it was difficult to protect itself.
Difficulties, let alone blockade of the Mediterranean...
First, before the Italian coup, two battleships of the Mediterranean Fleet were sunk by Italian Navy frogmen in Alexandria; then, they suffered greater losses in the Battle of Toulon Bay, sinking 3 aircraft carriers and 3 battleships at once.
Even the British Royal Navy, known as the number one in the world, could not help but suffer. Then, because the German Navy expanded the scale of submarine warfare, the German Air Force also began to use British ships at sea as its main targets for attacks.
The unprepared United Kingdom not only suffered a large number of merchant ships sunk, but also suffered considerable losses in warships. Among them, the battleship "Barham" was sunk by a submarine torpedo, and the "Warspite", which was sent to Egypt to join the formation of the Mediterranean Fleet, was also used to support the Arab League army.
The heavy aerial bomb dropped by the German bombers attacking Egypt seriously injured the ship. In order to avoid being captured by Krim's army that entered Egypt, the British officers and soldiers on the ship scuttled the ship in Alexandria... (To be continued.