The Rise Of Australasia-Chapter 1313 - 956 Killing by Borrowing a Knife
Chapter 1313: Chapter 956: Killing by Borrowing a Knife
Chapter 1313 -956: Killing by Borrowing a Knife
The surrender of the Italian forces at this small position was like setting off dominoes, and over the next few days, wherever the British-French-Australian forces went, they immediately saw Italian troops surrendering, waving white flags.
More bewildered than the British-French-Australian forces were the German troops still holding out in Bizerte and Tunisia at the time.
According to the plan of the German Army, the Italian forces in the south were supposed to hold out for at least two weeks. During this time, the German Army could fully rely on the terrain of Bizerte and Tunisia to construct a solid coastal defense line.
However, the disastrous fact was that the Italian Army did not even last two days, let alone two weeks.
More importantly, with the largest contingent of Italian forces in the Tunisian region surrendering, it completely announced that the armies of Britain, France, and Australia had surrounded the entire Bizerte and Tunisian area from the land.
On January 5, 1938, the Italian Government received a questioning telegram from the German government, asking why the Italian forces had surrendered to the British-French-Australian forces without any prior notice.
At this moment, Mussolini was utterly dumbfounded, and he even doubted the German government’s questioning.
After all, the reports from the North African Army a few days earlier had clearly indicated their firm resistance against the British-French-Australian forces’ attacks.
If the German Ambassador to Italy had not also shown up, Mussolini might have really thought it was the enemy countries trying to stir up trouble between Germany and Italy.
But now, Mussolini was even more perplexed. The front line was reported to be resolutely resisting, so how could the Germans claim that the Italian forces at the front had already surrendered?
What’s more, the offensive by the British-French-Australian forces had only been launched a few days earlier. Mussolini absolutely could not believe that the powerful Italian Army would surrender in such a short time, especially in the manner described by the Germans, without any resistance.
But after investigations and inquiries, Mussolini was completely silenced.
Reality gave him a slap in the face, making him realize that the “powerful” Italian Army was just an illusion. It was the weapons equipped by the Italian Army that were powerful, not the Italian soldiers using these weapons.
Even more ironically, the Italian soldiers Mussolini trusted not only surrendered to the British-French-Australian forces—they did it very decisively, indeed, without a hint of resistance.
It was bad enough to surrender, but the flags used by the Italian soldiers for surrendering were actually cut from the Italian National Flag. This act of turning the national flag into a white flag was an insult to Italy, and to Mussolini, it was a resounding slap in the face.
The bad news was not limited to this for Italy. Because it wasn’t only the German forces in Tunisia that were surrounded, but also the Italian reinforcements that landed in the region of Tunisia.
At this time, heading to Tunisia was undoubtedly like lambs to the slaughter, akin to offering up heads on a platter.
Realizing something was amiss, Mussolini immediately signaled the Italian General Staff to halt the landing operations in Tunisia, but by then, the landing was already well underway.
The 300,000 Italian troops sent to assist had already successfully landed more than 200,000 in Tunisia, while the remaining soldiers were still in Sicily, not yet deployed.
Hearing such news, Mussolini’s face turned completely dark.
Currently, there were more than 400,000 Italian troops in the Tunisian region. Given the situation of Tunisia being surrounded, these 400,000 Italian troops essentially only had two fates: being annihilated or surrendering.
Considering the performance of the Italian forces in the North African battlefields, it was believed that the vast majority of Italian soldiers would choose the latter.
This also implied that Italy might become the country with the highest number of surrendered soldiers in the history of World War II.
This was, after all, a full 400,000 troops! For Italy, which had almost lost all its colonies at the time, these 400,000 troops were all composed of Italians.
If all 400,000 were captured, it would certainly be a severe blow to the civilian support for the war in Italy.
After all, 400,000 people represented 400,000 families, and 400,000 families represented at least millions of Italian people.
And the British-French-Australian forces holding these 400,000 Italian soldiers as prisoners was essentially holding the lifeline of 400,000 Italian families.
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If this matter were not handled well, it might even stir up a high anti-war sentiment in Italy. After all, Italy had been an ally of Britain and France in World War I, and being historically allied with them was precisely what had betrayed the Germans.
Mussolini was not the only one worried about this, the German government, well aware of the Italian temperament, was also concerned.
If Italy were to repeat its history and betray Germany to join the British and French camp in the midst of the war, that would indeed be a great spectacle.
Although the current situation suggested this was unlikely to happen, as long as there was a chance of it occurring, Germany had to solve and avoid it from the root.
How to prevent Italy from defecting to the enemy?
First, it was necessary to understand why Italy chose to side with Germany.
At the root of it, the main reason Italy became an ally of Germany was the actual ruler of Italy at the time, Mussolini.
It was precisely the identical governing ideologies of Mussolini and the German Chancellor that led to the rapid approach and alliance between the two countries.
This also meant that to ensure the Italians did not switch sides at the last moment, it was crucial to ensure that Mussolini’s rule in Italy was deeply entrenched.
