Chapter 227: The Balkans

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Anxious! Of course, he was anxious! So, as the “Duce” of Italy, Mussolini still made the call to the direct line of the German Führer’s office. He had scheduled this time in advance, because it seemed that the victorious Germany still had many things to attend to, so Führer Akado’s time was also very precious.

“Respected German Führer, I am very happy that you could take the time out of your busy schedule to take my call,” Mussolini said. As he was the one asking for a favor, his words were naturally extremely polite.

“Good afternoon, Mr. Mussolini, the great leader of Italy,” Akado said, picking up the phone and hearing Mussolini’s greeting, replying with a smile.

“Although our diplomats have already submitted a telegram congratulating Germany on saving western Poland, I must still, in my personal capacity, congratulate you, as the Führer of Germany, on the great success achieved in Poland,” Mussolini said from the other end of the line.

“I also congratulate you, Il Duce, on the brilliant victory you have achieved in Africa. The phrase you said when you announced the victory in 1936, ‘Abyssinia will forever be a part of the Kingdom of Italy,’ was truly inspiring,” Akado also complimented. He could roughly guess what Mussolini was calling about this time, so if Mussolini was not in a hurry, he was in even less of a hurry to bring up the topic.

Italy was now desperately hoping that Germany would clarify its attitude toward the Balkan Peninsula, but Akado was more willing to bargain with Italy over the Balkan issue. After all, being able to reap more benefits was the proper diplomatic attitude for a mature country. Moreover, German diplomats were currently planning to pull Turkey into the Steel Axis treaty, and the price they were offering was a piece of the pie in the Balkan issue.

Mussolini was clearly not yet aware of these matters, but he had already vaguely sensed Germany’s intention to bypass Italy and distribute the benefits of the Balkan Peninsula on its own. So this time, he had to remind this ally, Germany, not to challenge Italy’s bottom line.

“To be honest, Mr. Führer Akado, our military operations in the Abyssinian region have not been as successful as we imagined. It has tied up too much of Italy’s energy and military strength. Therefore, the time for us to enter the Balkan Peninsula may be correspondingly postponed,” Mussolini said, finally choosing to take the initiative after carefully choosing his words.

Akado, however, seemed not to have heard Italy’s problem and instead asked about other matters. “Mr. Duce Mussolini, in view of the current situation where the whole world is hostile to Germany, Germany has decided to launch a comprehensive counter-attack to defend its own living space and fundamental interests. Judging by your country’s current situation, does your country now have the ability to execute the mutual assistance clause of the Steel Pact and go to war with Germany’s enemies?”

“Mr. Führer, in fact, Italy is more willing to carry out mutual assistance and cooperation with Germany on the Balkan issue—but as an ally, we in Italy are really unable to provide more help to Germany in a war between Germany and Britain and France. On this point, I ask for your understanding, Führer,” Mussolini, of course, did not think that Germany could defeat the Anglo-French alliance. He was more willing to lead Italy to make a move in the Balkan Peninsula while taking advantage of the chaos.

In fact, Italy’s calculation was very shrewd: I’ll take North Africa and the Balkan Peninsula while taking advantage of the chaos. After Britain defeats Germany, I’ll expand northward a bit, and by helping countries like Austria to be restored, I’ll reap even more benefits.

Unfortunately, it was clear that Akado was not willing to let Mussolini get his way so easily. “Mr. Duce, since Italy is abandoning its loyal ally, then I will complete the sacred mission of defending our national interests alone… But the previous German promises regarding Italy’s interests in the Balkan Peninsula will also become null and void. After all, we will need the help of other countries, such as Turkey.”

Now, before the Italian leader Mussolini, was a difficult choice: on the one hand, to bite the bullet and fulfill the alliance, and go to war with the powerful Britain and France; on the other, to shamelessly not fulfill the alliance, but to risk losing the interests of the Balkan Peninsula. For Italy, neither of these two options was very satisfactory, but a choice had to be made between them.

He was silent for a long time, so long that Akado even thought Mussolini had hung up the phone. He even had a mischievous thought, wondering if the Italian leader had gone to the restroom. But the faint sound of breathing in the phone still proved that Mussolini was by the receiver. At this moment, Mussolini was not speaking; he was repeatedly weighing and thinking.

“My Führer, Italy will continue to carry out extensive cooperation with Germany and also supports the efforts Germany has made to strive for its national interests… But Italy is truly powerless to help with the actions Germany is about to undertake,” Mussolini finally spoke again after about ten minutes. “Since Italy cannot fulfill the previous treaty, then we have no face to ask for Germany’s support on the Balkan Peninsula issue. Therefore, Italy will handle the Balkan issue on its own in the future.”

“It is gratifying that you can understand the situation Germany is currently facing,” Akado said with a smile, as if he had long guessed Mussolini’s choice. “But when we achieve victory, I also ask that the Kingdom of Italy continue to maintain its good-neighborly and friendly relations with our Germany.”

In fact, it was not just Italy’s Mussolini who was not optimistic about a war between Germany and Britain and France. Romania’s Antonescu had also very subtly advised the German Führer to give up a direct conflict with Britain and France. Of course, by comparison, he would have preferred Germany to go to war with the Soviet Union, so that he could lead the Romanian troops to recover the territories that had been plundered by the Soviet Union.

But at this very moment, Akado was more confident than ever before. His army was much larger and more elite than Hitler’s had been in the Battle of France in 1940. And his opponents, such as France, were weaker than in the other timeline. He considered that he already had victory in his grasp.

The powerful German Reich had always been troubled by a two-front war. As early as 1914, Moltke’s successor, Schlieffen, had seen in the railway tracks the hope of ending the dilemma of a two-front war. He had formulated the Schlieffen Plan, which in general was to use railway mobility to quickly defeat France, and then to use railway mobility to transfer the troops to the Eastern Front to defeat Russia.

In fact, at that time, Germany’s war machine had also begun large-scale construction and exercises according to this opportunity. By 1914, thirteen double-track railways ran east to west. There were also four north-south double-track railways on the western border, and two double-track and one single-track railway on the eastern front. In addition, there were four independent double-track railways specifically for connecting the eastern and western fronts. And the single-track branch lines were as dense as a spider’s web. If you could see the railway network map that Germany had built in 1914, you would probably get dizzy.

At the same time, the Germans had made a strict transport plan for every single unit. For example, to transport one army corps required 170 officer carriages, 965 soldier carriages, 2,960 cavalry carriages, and 1,915 artillery carriages. With each locomotive pulling 42 carriages, about 140 trains were needed. At a rate of 20 trains per day for one army corps, the mobilization of one corps could be completed within a week. At the same time, the military supplies for one corps required about 6,000 carriages, and the number of trains needed could also be calculated. Similarly, it could be calculated that one reserve corps required 85 trains, and one independent cavalry division required 31 trains… and so on.

On August 1, 1914, Germany declared war on Russia and issued a general mobilization order. On the 3rd, it declared war on France, and the Great War broke out. From the 1st, the German railways began to operate at full speed for the war, reaching a climax on the 4th-6th. By the 12th, 1.5 million troops had been sent to the front in the Netherlands. When the mobilization was completed on the 20th, the German railways had transported a total of 3 million troops, 860,000 warhorses, and a large amount of ammunition and military rations. Every day, a large number of military trains crossed the Rhine. The busiest, the Hohenzollern Bridge, saw a total of 2,150 military trains pass through in the two weeks before the 12th, about one every ten minutes. The most crucial point is that a total of 11,000 trains participated in the transport mission, yet not a single one was delayed.

I say all this as a prelude to make it clear that the meticulousness and rigorous style of the Germanic nation is very frightening. These achievements were not someone’s boast, not some unrealized fantasy of a war weapon, but a real, accomplished miracle.

Now for the main topic. Akado had officially come to power around 1930 and had expelled the Allied Military Control Commission in 1933. At that time, Germany had begun to rearm and prepare for war, and naturally, it had paid even more attention to the construction of its railways. He had unified the scattered railway companies and established the German Railway Company. In ’36, it was renamed the Deutsche Reichsbahn. This state-owned railway company would be responsible for all of Germany’s railway transport matters in the future. The Director-General of the German Railways was Dorpmüller. After he had personally sworn an oath of allegiance to Akado, he became the Reich Minister of Transport. The entire railway system, from that time on, had been formulating an even more precise wartime transport plan.

In the 1937 blitzkrieg of Poland, this railway system had helped Germany to quickly transport more than 30 divisions of troops. Before the French and British could react, they had concentrated their superior forces and had finished off Poland in one go. Now, at least 50 divisions of troops were on this railway transport system, heading for Germany’s western border regions with inconceivable efficiency and speed.

France had not yet realized that a crisis was at hand. German 1st, 2nd, 5th, 6th, and 7th Panzer Corps, a total of five, with over 2,000 tanks, had already begun to assemble on the Western Front. And to cover these tanks, the air force had also gathered over 2,000 fighters and bombers. In addition, Germany had deployed over 1.1 million Wehrmacht infantry on the Western Front, as well as over 9,100 cannons of various types as support.

And at this very moment, Britain and France were still clinging to their beautiful dream of a German push to the east. Although there was intelligence showing that Germany was increasing the number of its troops on the western border, the British army confidently felt that this was still a reasonable action for Germany to guard against another French attack.