Battle of the Third Reich Chapter 424: Challenge

The horn of the declaration of war sounded again, and the dignity of Germany cannot be challenged. The hard-line attitude of the head of state was approved by most Germans. They were filled with outrage at the atrocities suffered by the German military missions and determined to teach the Apennine idiot an unforgettable lesson.

The Germans are not worried about the outcome of this war. Victory will definitely belong to the great head of state and the German people. The Germans have become accustomed to this kind of day. The people are full of confidence in the outcome of the war. The market in Berlin is as stable as before. The citizens work and rest as usual, but in the parks and beer halls, a lot of people gathered for the war. The hot-blooded people talking, of course, there are some Gestapo plainclothes with cold eyes on this occasion.

On the night of the 20th, the lights in the Bendler Building where the Imperial Command was located remained unresolved all night, and the roar of engines echoed all night on the parking lot in front of the building, and vehicles passing orders and submitting reports were like crossing the river. For the crucian carp, the reckless army driver even caused a traffic accident on the nearby Tirbez Road, causing traffic congestion for a time, and finally dispatched an entire military police company to finally clear the traffic order.

[Theodoric] plan took only one month from planning to implementation. Germany's advanced military mobilization and logistics support system played a key role at this time. Compared with the Italian Army, it had been preparing for the invasion of Greece for two months, but it still seemed as if it hadn't prepared anything when it finally launched its attack. However, Germany has already completed the reorganization and mobilization of a group army during this period of time, and has ensured that these troops can immediately be put into a large-scale military operation. This is the gap between national power, which can be overcome without relying on some cleverness.

The mobilization of the army completely relies on the sound railway and road transportation network in Germany. Hitler spent six years on road infrastructure construction, and at this moment it has fully demonstrated its results. The entire regiment and the entire camp took passenger or freight trains across most of Germany to Austria, and then entered the pre-set military camp for rest and preparation. These troops have all participated in the battles of Poland and France and have rich combat experience. At this time, they only need to carry out some adaptability training for mountain warfare, and they can immediately be put into combat.

The Austrian Rapid Response Group was reorganized from a part of the original C Army Group, retaining the original Witzleben’s First Army Organization, joined Hepner’s Fourth Armored Group, and was also incorporated into The 44th Mountain Army and two new motorized brigades were established. In the final stage of preparation for the battle, Keitel took over the supreme command from Marshal Loeb in the name of the command.

Along with Keitel was the "Cyprus" Corps directly under the head of state. At this time, the commander of the regiment Mueller had entered the Berlin Military Academy for further studies, and Manstein, who was preparing for the formation of a new armored army. He has not yet removed the position of Chief of Staff of the Legion, so he temporarily became the supreme commander of this powerful Legion. Regardless of Manstein's unhappy appearance on the surface, in fact, the newly released generation army commander didn't know how happy he was.

The German military plan is not strictly confidential to the outside world. It is easy to detect some superficial intelligence. The German [Aldrich] plan seems to be aimed at a certain Balkan country. So during that period of time, the Balkan miscellaneous people lived very tremblingly, secretly guessing which site the German uncle was interested in.

The Balkan miscellaneous people can inquire about the news. Of course, the Italian who started the intelligence can not be ignorant, but the Italian side was also misled by the name of this plan, thinking that the Germans were preparing to invade a certain area in the Balkans. The generals of the Roman High Command guessed that the Germans should be targeting Yugoslavia. After a few words with envy, the information was thrown into the archives. The Italians were busy preparing to invade Greece at this time. Interested to care about the Germans.

When the news of the German declaration of war reached Rome via radio waves, the Italians thought it was a bad joke at first. Everyone knew that Italy and Germany were hard-core allies, just like the leader said that the two peoples are as close as one family. , How could Germany shoot to his brother. But for the next half day, the Italians felt like they had a chaotic nightmare. All kinds of news came all at once, all of which confirmed that the joke was not a lie. Germany was indeed preparing to declare war with Italy.

Finally, when the news was announced in the French and British radio news, the Italians finally believed that things that they would never dream of, really happened before their eyes.

The whole of Italy was suddenly plunged into a panic like apocalypse. Italians had no intention of working at this time. Countless people were running around in the streets and alleys to tell. The pubs and pizzerias were crowded with civilians screaming, arguing, and inquiring about news. There are already long queues in front of shops and daily necessities stores to grab purchases. The citizens are looking for ways to each other, wanting to take their families to leave the city and go to the countryside for a while.

The Italian black shirts should have stood up at this moment to inspire and agitate the people. What is strange is that for the whole day, the group of black shirts that could be seen everywhere, at this time, there are only more than a dozen **** members standing in the street fountain. In front of the sculpture, waving the flag of the Fascist party, clamoring for a **** battle with Germany to the last person, screaming that the great Italy will win.

When they learned that their opponent was a powerful Germany, the Italians basically gave up their hope of victory. Their army could not even deal with the half-crippled French. Now who would dare to believe that Italy will win? This kind of nonsense, Pizza Hut is almost the same, I believe Germans should like pizza.

The German ambassador to Rome, von Kruger, formally delivered a declaration of war to Italian Prime Minister Mussulini at 5 pm on the 20th. At that time, only a few people witnessed this historic scene.

Originally, Mussolini wanted to use the low-level reason of being unwell to dismiss this meeting, as if he didn't pick up this document and the Germans would not go to war. In the end, it was his son-in-law, Ziano, who persuaded Mussolini that whether he accepts this fact or not, the war between Germany and Italy has become a foregone conclusion. Rather than escape, it is better to go all out to fight and show the Germans the Italians. With the spirit, even if the final defeat is unavoidable, at least Italy has maintained its dignity.

Finally, Mussolini received the documents from the German ambassador in his office. According to Ziano's future memories, at that moment, the leader was filled with tears because of his incomparable humiliation and anger. Von Kruger wrote in his report to Berlin. The leader was pale, his eyes were dull, and his hands trembled. He completely lost the spirited spirit of the past. Mussolini looked abnormal that day. Old, personally think it should be the corrupt life of the previous transition that destroyed his health.

The Italian ambassador to Germany stayed at the gate of the new Chancellery until midnight that night, and then he was put on the special car that had been on the side of the Gestapo shelf, and then he was stuffed into a DC-2 airliner to Switzerland. Also on the same plane were all senior diplomats in the Italian Embassy.

The remaining Italian diplomats will be sent to a neutral ship to return to their home country by sea. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Empire thinks this is unnecessary. Maybe these people are still on the way, and the war is over.

The declaration of war in Germany was so sudden for Italy. Although the head of the Empire generously gave the Italians half a day, with the inefficient command system of Rome, this time was not enough for them to respond effectively. .

The entire afternoon, Italy’s command and communication system became a mess, and the generals and marshals of Rome realized at this time that they had never formulated a defensive plan for this situation before. They had a northern defense. The plan was made right after the First World War, and it has been out of touch with the times for many years.

But if someone proposed yesterday that they are preparing to formulate a combat plan to defend against German invasion, it is estimated that the marshals of the command will laugh out the lungs. No one can predict the future, so this embarrassing situation will happen~ IndoMTL.com~ can be considered excusable.

The problem before them is that the Rome headquarters must immediately take some actions, no matter what the order is, even if it is just to stabilize the military, the Roman command must make the front-line troops feel that everything is still under their control. in.

Italy has not deployed many regular troops on the border with Austria. In order to avoid arousing suspicion from its allies, Italy even deliberately removed most of its heavy weapons. The main thing to maintain the security of the border between the two countries is A group of policemen and gendarmes, with some Italian black-shirts who were obviously sent there. Their usual tasks are mainly to catch smugglers from their country and Austrian Jews who smuggled to Switzerland by way. After all, crossing the Alps is no ordinary person. Things that can be done.

Now these hapless border police gendarmes and black shirts will face the attack of the German army armed to the teeth. The only trouble these people can cause to the Germans may be that they can’t find such a large prisoner of war camp. Right.

The Roman High Command could only first mobilize several infantry divisions that were rehabilitating around Venice toward the northern border, and then issued a national command in the name of the prime minister.

The Roman High Command ordered all temporarily retired soldiers to return to the army within 24 hours, and those who did not arrive within the time limit would be punished as deserters. If they are too far away to return to the team in time, they must also report to the nearby army unit. Those who fail to arrive without any reason will be arrested by the military police and sent to a military court.

The High Command specifically pointed out that no one can evade obligations to the country for any reason. Italy has reached the most critical moment. Every Italian needs to contribute his own strength. Under the leadership of the great leader, to eliminate the barbaric German invaders. The final victory will belong to the glorious Italy. Long live Italy, Mussolini. Long live!