Before the North African campaign began, someone asked Mussolini a question: If the casualties in the North African campaign were too heavy, how would Italy bear it?
As a result, Mussolini smiled and said to the man: "This is just right. My Roman Empire will use this opportunity to eliminate all the cowards and weaklings, leaving only the most brave and capable people. In this way, the Roman Empire will
The human bloodline has evolved."
Now, that man was unfortunately right.
Not only did Italy suffer heavy losses in North Africa, but it also almost lost all its territory. It also lost everything in East Africa. The few remaining soldiers fled to the French territory and hid.
But Mussolini felt that since Garibaldi told him that there were more than 100,000 Italian remnants in Africa when he reported, it meant that the Italian army still had strength in Africa.
If you have the strength, you have to do something. You can join forces with the French to counterattack the British army!
After confirming his alliance with Pétain and sensing a crisis, Mussolini delivered a famous speech to the Italian soldiers in Africa that was considered the best speech of his life:
“Italian warriors fighting in Libya, in Algeria.
The British invading army is rushing towards Valdera and towards Guerdaye, trying to occupy the land of great Italy and its ally France at all costs!
The British colonists have made no secret of their attempts to seize the oil and mineral resources there.
Now, we have lost our geographical advantage and our material reserve advantage.
Continuing to retreat does not mean suicide, it means surrender!
And the great Italian people never know how to surrender!
The Roman Empire had no need for cowards!
As we retreat again and again, what exactly do we lack?
What we lack is to establish iron order and discipline among all troops!
This is our current fatal weakness. If we want to save the situation and defend justice in North Africa, we must establish strict order and iron discipline in the military!
At this critical moment, I, Benito Mussolini, the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Italy, have decided to issue the highest order of the Kingdom!
Anyone who panics and is timid and afraid of death will be shot on the spot!
From now on, every officer, soldier, and post personnel must abide by this iron discipline: no step back without the order of the Italian supreme commander in North Africa!"
In fact, after hearing Mussolini's speech, the first person to applaud him was Reinhardt in Berlin.
It was rare to see Mussolini speak so eloquently. Reinhard couldn't help but feel that his "friend" had made progress and applauded him heartily.
As for the Italian officers and soldiers in Africa who thought they could hide behind the French army and enjoy peace, they felt even more miserable after listening to the leader's speech.
Wouldn't it be better to just stand behind the French and enjoy the gains? They are going to drive us to fight again.
If you are too timid and afraid of death, you have to be shot on the spot...that's too cruel!
The most important thing is that the Italian officers and soldiers in Africa soon discovered that the person Mussolini had found for them to execute the execution order was the French War Supervisor.
Now that you have done this, you will kill people without mercy.
How does that sentence come to be, the picked up child is used as a ball to play.
If the French army came to supervise the battle, wouldn't it mean that they could use the Italian army as a ball?
And Berante followed the instructions sent by his old superior Pétain, and indeed sent more than a dozen war supervisors to each Italian battalion to use his reputation to help the Italians fight.
Of course, Pétain's order was also based on Mussolini's request.
As for why Mussolini asked the French to take action, it was because he decided that he would not feel guilty.
Moreover, Mussolini, who was accustomed to issuing similar orders, did not decide that there was nothing wrong with such an order.
In his eyes, he just wanted to teach the Italian cowards on the front line a lesson, but he didn't expect that his order was a mistake, but he was quite wise in issuing it.
In fact, just by comparing them, you will find that leaders from all over the world have different command styles.
Stalin in the Soviet Union liked to issue deadly orders such as "Don't take a step back." Not to mention, this kind of order often sounded quite morale-boosting.
However, Berante of Algeria would not have been able to issue such an order. Of course, Pétain was not good at issuing such orders either.
As for Mussolini, he liked to issue another order: "Victory or death?"
It's a pity that Mussolini's Italian officers have been unable to implement it properly.
After all, they can't really die.
To make an interesting analogy, it is similar to Italy going to play a football match with the Chinese national football team. Mussolini clearly demanded that the Italian team must win the championship: "This is a multiple-choice question, either win the championship or die."
As a result, his general will tell him: "If the Chinese national football team is really better than us on the field, then we should be content with being the runner-up."
It's ironic, but this is the reality Mussolini faced.
In contrast, Pétain, whom Mussolini teamed up with, was very good at issuing some clear orders, of course, none of them intended to threaten the soldiers.
But Mussolini was different. He liked to give orders that made him feel proud, so he could come up with any weird orders.
Under normal circumstances, the Italian army never buys Mussolini's nonsense orders. Their attitude is often that if they can't be implemented, they won't be implemented. If you insist on us implementing it, that's fine. If you lose, you can't rely on me, right?
But this time, Mussolini hired Berante's people to help him supervise execution, which should have improved the Italian army's execution ability a lot.
In fact, when I just heard that Mussolini was looking for an executive inspection team, Reinhard wanted to send Rommel's people to be the inspection team.
It would be great to stand behind and supervise the battle, and also ensure the safety of these troops.
Unfortunately, Rommel couldn't accept it. He felt that this kind of behavior was detrimental to the honor of the military. The officers of the German Afrika Korps generally felt the same way. Reinhardt gave up this time.
In fact, even if the supervising team that Berante found for Mussolini was mostly composed of a white soldier and a dozen black soldiers recruited from Algeria, he would not say that he would take his elite troops.
Used for supervising battles.
After giving up the idea of supervising the war, Reinhard changed the matter he was originally planning to discuss with Mussolini and asked him to use the Italian fleet to escort Rommel's troops to Africa and be responsible for the logistics of the German Afrika Korps.
Supplies were used to help the German army support these people.
Of course, they were not raised for free. They were sent by Germany to help Italy fight the war. Mussolini was not stupid and of course he said he won.
Anyway, the Germans' conditions were not excessive. Reinhardt personally agreed that he only needed to take some of the land in Libya that the Germans had regained for Italy.