Glorious Mission 1937

Mussolini was a madman, and in that he was no different from Hitler.Mussolini was born in a family of blacksmiths in the province of Forli, Italy. He was deeply inherited from his father. In terms of work at home, on the contrary, he used this natural advantage to fight and provoke troubles.

Like every natural bully, Mussolini was good at bullying the weak, and he would never show mercy to anyone who dared to offend him.Compared with listening to boring lectures in the classroom every day, it is obviously more in line with Mussolini's personality to dominate the campus.At the last moment when he walked out of the campus, he uttered a bold statement: "I want to make the world tremble!"

There are many similarities between Mussolini and Hitler. For example, they are not very secure in their ordinary positions. They are both young literary and artistic youths who love art. Location.After the end of World War I, the pattern of the world became more impetuous and chaotic.Although the end of the war seems to have brought superficial peace to all countries, at this time is the peak of the conflict between various ideas and the old and new systems.

No one knows which road their country should continue to walk on, which road leads to a bright future, which road is a dead end, and there is no pioneer at that time. All this is a mystery. People can only use their own enthusiasm and ideals Come and pave the way for your own country.

Hitler and Mussolini were such idealists. It is hard to say that they established a fascist dictatorship only for self-interest.On the contrary, the original intentions of these two people seem to be good, and both are fighting for the interests of their own nation, but the results are just the opposite.

This is like today's terrorists. When they use bombs or other means to take countless lives, they often show a kind of joy in their hearts, because they sincerely feel that their actions are correct and they are While fulfilling their own justice, they do not know that this idealized justice is actually just a beautiful cloak and excuse for violence.

With such a beautiful excuse, Hitler and Mussolini, two fanatical idealists, respectively established fascist dictatorships in their own countries.

These two buddies are very similar in many ways.They both seem to love art.Both seemed mediocre at first, both didn't finish their studies, both rose to prominence in political parties, both fought and lost in World War I.They've all had coups.They were all arrested and squatted in prison.After coming out, they all became prime ministers.

But even so, the relationship between Hitler and Mussolini was not as good as outsiders imagined, especially when Hitler first came to power.The relationship between the two is far from harmonious.After Hitler came to power, he planned to annex Austria, but Austrian President Dolphus had a good personal relationship with Mussolini, so Austrian President Dolphin asked Mussolini to mediate, so Mussolini invited Hitler Meet in Rome.

The atmosphere of this meeting was not very friendly. Mussolini put pressure on Hitler and clearly warned Hitler not to touch Austria.In this regard, Hitler nodded frequently. When he boarded the plane and returned home, Hitler gave Mussolini's evaluation: "This guy is a madman."

Hitler then went on to annex Austria, assassinating Dolphus and replacing him with Schuschlig.The intention of this behavior is obvious. Hitler is achieving his own plan to annex Austria by eliminating the opposition voices in Austria, and this plan makes Mussolini very unhappy. China has always claimed to be the protector of Austria. Hitler's actions are obviously breaking ground on Tai Sui's head and plucking hair from the tiger's butt.

In order to show Hitler a little bit of color, Mussolini angrily sent his troops northward, and used 4 divisions to conduct a deterrent military deployment on the border.Out of various considerations and assumptions, Hitler was really frightened in front of these four Italian divisions. Perhaps he hadn't seen the papery nature of the Italian army at that time, or he didn't want to fight with the old man. The eldest brother turned his face, and in the end Hitler put aside the matter of swallowing Austria.

That is to say, the relationship between the two careerists eased as the exchanges between each other increased, and finally they shook hands and formed an alliance, especially after the two jointly supported Franco, another dictator in Spain. Some people refer to them as "confidantes".

After Germany blitzed Poland, World War II broke out. As the German army won successively, the ambitions of the Italians began to be exposed.In addition to his ambitions for France, Mussolini also coveted his neighbor Greece,

In other words, Greece is not a fuel-efficient lamp. After the outbreak of World War II, Greek Prime Minister Ioannis Metaxas stated that he would remain neutral.However, Greece was under increasing pressure from the Italian side, especially when the time reached its peak on June 1940, 6, when the torpedo of the Italian submarine De Ferno hit the Greek cruiser Eli, the conflict between the two sides quickly superficial.

In fact, the reason why Mussolini wanted to wrestle with Greece in a hurry, in addition to having long had extravagant territorial expectations for Greece, was because Mussolini was very angry!Why is he angry?That's because Mussolini was ignored by Hitler, who was annoyed that Hitler didn't ask about his war policy when he started the war against Poland and especially France.

For this reason, Mussolini needed one thing or a war to refresh his sense of existence, to show his strength to the Germans, and hope to establish their independence, so he chose Greece, because in Mussolini It seems that Greece is an easy country to beat.

As Mussolini said to Rudolf Hess: "Hitler always made me accept the established facts. This time I will pay him back. He will read the news of my capture of Greece in the newspapers."

He wants to match Germany's military success with the victory of the war against Greece, because the elimination of Greece, the traditional ally of Greece-style Britain, is also a big blow to the British.Under the domination of this idea, on August 1940, 8, Mussolini and his advisers decided to invade Greece.

On the morning of August 1940, 8, the Italian ambassador, Gassas Erunumar, submitted an ultimatum to Metaxas for only 28 hours, requesting that the Italian army be allowed to enter the Greek territory to occupy some strategically important places. Metaxas Texas refused to accept the ultimatum, but before he refused, the Italian army had already invaded Greece through the border with Albania. Steele River.

But Greece is not fighting alone, because it is an ally of the United Kingdom, and the United Kingdom has very important interests in the Balkans, so the United Kingdom did not intend to stay out of it from the beginning.Britain announced aid to Greece as early as 1939, and it expressed its determination to maintain the independence of Greece or Romania: "We will use all our strength to protect the government of Greece or Romania."

The first reinforcements were squadrons of the RAF, which arrived in Greece in October 1940.With the permission of the Greek government, the British Army landed on Crete on October 10 to guard Souda Bay, allowing the Greek government to transfer the 10th Cretan Division to the mainland.

General Alexander Papagos, the commander-in-chief of the Greek Army, even asked Britain to provide Greece with nine well-equipped divisions and sufficient air support. However, due to the fierce fighting in northern Africa, it can only provide less than one division immediately. , this proposal was rejected by the Greeks, who felt that it would prompt a German attack without sufficient aid, and demanded immediate assistance from Britain if the German army crossed the Danube from Romania into Bulgaria.Even so, the Greek army quickly defeated the Italian invading army and drove them back to Albania. The Greek army even counterattacked to the Italian mainland.

Within 3 weeks, the invaders in Greece were eliminated, and the Greek army took advantage of the victory to pursue it. Although the Italian army changed commanders and made large-scale reinforcements, the mountains in southern Albania still fell into the hands of the Greek army.

After several weeks of severe winter, the Italian army launched a large-scale counter-offensive across the front on January 1941, 1.Although the Italian army has an advantage in numbers and equipment, due to insufficient military resources allocated by Mussolini and the military generals in combat, misjudgment of the autumn weather, lack of surprise in the attack, and lack of support from the Bulgarians, even the basic equipment There were also problems such as the lack of distribution of winter military uniforms, and Mussolini’s refusal to accept the opinions of military industrial consultants, so the counterattack was not effective. After a week of fighting and paying the price of 4 casualties, it still failed to achieve the planned Strategic objectives.

In desperation, Mussolini had no choice but to decide to stop the offensive and prepare to withdraw troops from Albania. At the same time, he asked his old friend Hitler for help, hoping that Germany could send troops to the Balkans to help Italy eliminate the Greek and British coalition forces.

In fact, Hitler did not want Italy to provoke Greece so early. As early as August 1940, Germany was studying how to deal with the Soviet Union. Hitler meant to launch an attack on the Soviet Union before October.But Mussolini's private actions completely destroyed Hitler's plan. What made Hitler feel most depressed was that Italy had not yet won the war, forcing Germany to join the war.He is really not afraid of enemies as ruthless as wolves, but teammates as stupid as pigs! (To be continued..)