Leonard Cappe rarely appeared in public during this period. He undertook a secret mission and was responsible for getting in touch with the powerful figures in the Kingdom of Italy.
The Kingdom of Italy is not monolithic. As the Prime Minister of Italy, the fat bald man has many opponents in Italy. The real leader of the Kingdom of Italy is King Victor Emmanuel III. From a legal perspective, the King still has the power to remove him from the post of Prime Minister, and even
The power to dissolve the cabinet.
Here you can see how many thieves there are in European countries.
You said that the French were hedging their bets, and the Italians were even more extreme. They were speculators from top to bottom. When the Axis powers were sweeping across Europe, Italy, as a member of the Axis powers, could participate in the feast of carving up Europe.
Once the situation is unfavorable, the king can correct the situation and lead Italy to join the Allies and return to the right path. In any case, he will be a winner.
Compared with the king, the fat bald man is like a naive child in politics, and does not understand the dangers of politics at all.
The person who made secret contact with Leonard Capet was the Duke of Aquilona, the personal advisor of Victor Emmanuel III and chamberlain. The secret meeting place between the two parties was St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.
Although St. Peter's Basilica is in Rome, it is not part of the Kingdom of Italy, but belongs to the Vatican City State.
The Vatican City State is the smallest and least populous country in the world, with a land area of only 0.44 square kilometers. It is Italy's "state within a state".
Despite its small size, the Vatican City State still has a high status in the eyes of Christians around the world. Southern Africa, the United Kingdom, the United States, and France all have embassies and consulates in the Vatican. France has two of them, Free France and Victoria.
Greece and France are both there, and the Vatican is right next to the nostrils. It’s amazing that the staff of these two embassies and consulates can live in peace without looking up from each other.
The relationship between Leonard Capet and the Duke of Aquilona had twists and turns, and the Italian's husky attributes were most vividly reflected in this process.
After the Greek campaign, Leonard Capet began to try to make contact with the Italians.
At this time the situation was not clear enough and the Italians were not enthusiastic.
After the North African campaign, the enthusiasm of the Italians suddenly increased, but the conditions proposed were too harsh and simply unacceptable.
During the North African Campaign, Italy lost all its colonies in North Africa.
The personal representative of the Duke of Aquilona made a request to Frank Tilly, the Free French Minister in the Vatican, hoping that after Italy withdraws from the war, the Allies could return Italian colonies in North Africa to the Kingdom of Italy.
Not to mention Roque, even Leonard Capet could not accept this result. In order to occupy Tripoli and Cyrenaica, the Allied forces suffered hundreds of thousands of casualties and spent tens of billions of money. Now the Kingdom of Italy wants to go back with just one sentence.
Beautiful thought.
Italians don't think it's too much.
After all, Italy did not ask for the Abyssinian Empire, which was already a great honor.
After the US-British coalition military operations in Sicily began, the attitude of the Kingdom of Italy changed rapidly.
This time the Kingdom of Italy finally did not ask for the North African colonies, but the Kingdom of Italy hoped to join the Allies and obtain protection from the Allies to avoid German invasion.
This request is normal. When the French navy in Toulon scuttled, the German army did not hesitate to advance southward, and Vichy France was actually destroyed.
The same goes for Italy. If Italy joins the Allies, then Mustache will definitely send German troops to occupy Italy to prevent Italy from joining the Allies and attacking Germany from the flank.
Frank Tilly originally wanted to have a good chat with the Italians.
However, the poor performance of the British and American forces in Sicily gave the Italians another opportunity to bargain.
If we only look at the battle of Sicily, Patton and Montgomery are not famous generals at all, they are a pair of idiots.
Patton and Montgomery were both Army generals and had never commanded paratroopers before the "Husky" program was implemented.
Just before the launch of the Sicily landing campaign, the American staff submitted another version of the combat plan, upgrading the "Avalanche" plan to "Husky", which can also be translated as "Husky".
In the "Husky" plan, both Patton and Montgomery made mistakes in the use of paratroopers.
It's not scary to make mistakes. What's scary is not learning from them and continuing to make mistakes.
When using paratroopers, Patton and Montgomery each made two mistakes. What was outrageous was that they made the mistakes in exactly the same way, resulting in heavy losses for the British and American paratroopers.
In addition, the ground troops were also unable to move due to the stubborn resistance of the Italian army and German armored forces.
This gave the Italians an illusion that they could still save something.
"Lord Gironi, I have to remind you that the Southern African Army did not participate in the landing in Sicily. If the Southern African Army also joined in, what chance would you have?" Frank faced the capriciousness of the Italians,
No matter how good your temper is, it has its limits.
"The problem is that the Southern African troops haven't joined yet. We shouldn't discuss things that haven't happened yet." Baron Gironi, the aide to the Duke of Aquilona, looked confident. Judging from the performance of the frontline troops,
Gained a lot of confidence.
Before the Sicilian landing battle was launched, Marshal Kesselring, the commander-in-chief of the German Southern Front, realized that Sicily was in danger of being attacked and transferred the Green Armored Division and the 15th Armored Infantry Division to Sicily in advance.
After the battle broke out, Kesselring sent the 29th Armored Division and the 11th Airborne Division stationed in France to Sicily. This increased the defense strength of Sicily to four German divisions and nine Italian divisions, totaling
There were more than 300,000 troops, and the commander was the Italian general Guzzoni.
There were a total of 150,000 troops participating in the battle on the Allied side. They were already at a disadvantage in terms of strength. Patton and Montgomery's stupid operation caused heavy losses to the paratroopers. Now the battle in Sicily is in a stalemate. Eisenhower
And Alexander is considering asking for Southern Africa's intervention.
If the southern African army joins the war, the victory of the British and American troops will be much inferior.
But if the battle ends in failure, the negative impact will be even greater.
"It will be soon. All I can say is that there is not much time left for you." Frank's eyes were full of mockery and pity.
Winston's evaluation of the Italians was not sufficient. Not only did Italy have a good appetite and a mouth full of rotten teeth, but it also did not know how to advance or retreat, and was blindly arrogant.
"What do you know?" Gironi had a premonition that something was wrong.
Frank smiled and said nothing.
On the same day, bombers from southern Africa bombed the Rome train station. About 60 locomotives and hundreds of carriages were burned, as well as a large amount of supplies stored in the train station.
This can kill Italians.
Italy also sheds tears without seeing the coffin.
As the capital of Italy, Rome had never been bombed by the Allies before.
Before the Battle of Sicily broke out, the Allied forces organized a three-week strategic bombing of Sicily, which did not affect Rome, so the members of Congress in Rome and the princes and nobles of the kingdom were safe.
Now that the false security was broken, the Southern African Air Force could bomb a train station today and the palace or the parliament building tomorrow. When the threat became imminent, Victor Emmanuel III finally made the right decision.
In the confessional of St. Peter's Basilica, Frank and Gironi met secretly again.
The choice of this location is very meaningful. If you want to surrender, you must first repent, otherwise you will not be sincere enough.
"There is only one way for the Kingdom of Italy to withdraw from the war, and that is to accept the decision of the Casablanca Conference and surrender unconditionally." Frank's demands have become increasingly tough, and the Kingdom of Italy has missed its best opportunity.
"No, no, no, the Kingdom of Italy does not want to withdraw from the war. We hope to join the Allies and fight for justice!" Gironi looked serious, like a judge in a court.
"Tsk--" Frank laughed dumbly. Who was this for? Is it for God?
"His Majesty the King has decided to take back the power of the Prime Minister. Considering that Mr. Prime Minister has a large number of supporters in the country, Mr. Prime Minister will not be tried for the time being. After the war is over, we will hold Mr. Prime Minister accountable according to law." Giloni still shot.
The person responsible for the ambush in Italy was not just the fat bald man.
Gironi made it very clear that the power of the fat bald man was granted by the King of Italy, so the king could take back the power of the fat bald man at any time.
Then it was the fat bald man who made Italy's decision to join the Axis Powers. I'm afraid the king also had a big responsibility in this process. Not only did he add fuel to the flames, but at the very least he just helped.
"No, you must hand over Prime Minister Benito and accept the trial of the Allied Court. At the very least, the Allies must be responsible for the custody." Frank insisted on handing over the fat bald man. The trial is a trivial matter, but the key is the interrogation.
The fat bald man is still of great value. He will definitely be interrogated, and maybe he can pull out a lot.
"No, no, no, even if Mr. Prime Minister's power is taken back, he was once the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Italy and was part of the Kingdom of Italy." Gironi also insisted that the fat bald man represented the dignity of the Kingdom of Italy in a sense.
"Then we have nothing to say. The Southern African military is formulating a battle plan to attack the Italian mainland. The Southern African military will join the war no later than July." Frank presses step by step. It doesn't matter if the British and American troops pull their hips.
, anyway, the French have never had high expectations for the British and Americans. Southern Africa is the real powerhouse.
After the commander-in-chief of the Free French Army, Giraud, was dismissed from his post, de Gaulle used the excuse that the Free French Army participating in the Sicilian landing operation suffered heavy casualties and had withdrawn the frontline troops to North Africa for rest and recuperation.
Patton and Montgomery therefore had to commit ground troops to participate in the battle in advance. Currently, the U.S. Seventh Army commanded by Patton has landed in southwestern Sicily, and the British Eighth Army commanded by Montgomery has landed in southeastern Sicily.
It is said that Patton and Montgomery made a bet to see who could capture Messina, the largest city in Sicily by the Axis forces first.
In this case, Patton and Montgomery will go all out, and the British and American troops will start a race——
Uh, no, it's not that easy. Italian Lieutenant General Guzzoni will not give up easily. German armored soldiers are tough and not that easy to chew.
"Then we will set the time for (Italy) to withdraw from the war at the moment when the Southern African troops land. As long as the Southern African troops land, the Kingdom of Italy will withdraw from the war." Gironi is very cunning. If the Southern African troops do not land, Italy will
It would be too shameful to just surrender.
"Does this make sense?" Frank was speechless. The Italian definitely did it on purpose.
France also surrendered just before Paris was captured.
Now that the Italians are doing this, they are obviously dragging France into trouble. Whatever the status of Free France is among the allies, Italy must also be the same.
Italy must also have the benefits of free France.
"Yes!" Gironi said seriously.
While Frank and Gironi were in secret contact, Fat Bald took a plane to Germany to meet with Mustache and discuss the next stage of the battle plan with Mustache face to face.
"Some people in the Kingdom of Italy are in secret contact with our enemies. Do you know about this?" Mustache asked face to face. He was very worried about Fat Bald Man's control over Italy.
Mustache has always been worried about Italy and was deeply impressed by Italy's rebellion in the last world war.
At every critical moment, the Italians are always unexpected. The mustache knows Italy as well as the fat bald man.
"It's just some marginalized guys who are not willing to lose their power and are messing around. There is no need to worry at all." The fat bald man was very confident and did not have the slightest sense of crisis.
The mustache frowned, this guy is not normal.
The political talent of a mustache is much better than that of a fat bald man.
Fat Bald joined the Italian Socialist Party in his early years, but was later expelled from the Socialist Party, and then organized the National Party. Now the National Party has become Mustache's tool to control Italy.
Let’s look at the process of Mustache’s success. When he joined the Workers’ Party, the Workers’ Party only had 96 members. Mustache was neither the founder nor the core.
Just six months later, Mustache became the leader of the German Workers' Party.
Compared with a fat bald man with a mustache, he is obviously a scumbag.
"Don't despise anyone, otherwise you will regret it -" Mustache is also helpless towards this ally. Even if he knows that the fat bald man is a waste, Mustache cannot give up easily: "-Do you need me to send troops to help you?
You should turn Italy into a purer country."
"Of course, the Kingdom of Italy is being invaded by the enemy, and we need the help of the German army to defeat our enemies." The fat bald man's understanding of "help" is completely different from that of the mustache.
"No, no, no, you don't understand. Your biggest enemy in Italy is not abroad, but at home -" Mustache suddenly became irritable and out of control, as if he was ill.
His condition has become more and more serious in the past year.
