The Rise Of Australasia-Chapter 1320 - 959 Attack on Rome_2

Chapter 1320: Chapter 959: Attack on Rome_2

Chapter 1320 -959: Attack on Rome_2

Arthur’s attitude had already made it clear; he was not willing to let Italy off easily.

With Arthur’s stance, the Australasian government naturally understood what they needed to do.

In the routine meeting among the Allied Nations, Australasia once again reiterated the United Nations Declaration they had signed and stated that no country had the right to sign a cease-fire agreement with Italy alone.

The implication was already clear, they must fight to the death with Italy.

This did not conflict with the interests of Britain and France, after all, they could gain many benefits from a defeated Italy.

Perhaps realizing he had no way out, Mussolini began frantically arming more military forces, trying to resist the British-French-Australian forces to the death.

But the outcome had already proved that such desperate resistance was futile.

On March 28, 1938, hundreds of thousands of British and French forces grandly entered Milan, taking over one of the largest cities in Northern Italy.

In the following weeks, Northern Italian cities like Brescia, Verona, Trento, Padua, and Venetia were successively breached by the British and French forces, and the fires of war gradually spread to the Southern region including Parma and Ferrara.

On the other hand, Australasia swiftly breached La Spezia in a short time and formed a massive encirclement in Florence.

Within this encirclement were at least 300,000 Italian Soldiers, whose life and death also concerned the safety of the Italian forces in the north.

Once Florence fell completely, the Italian forces in the north would have no way out, and Italy would be divided in two from Florence, with the Italian government completely losing control over Northern Italy.

This was fatal for Italy and unacceptable for Mussolini.

But the harsh reality was that Italy alone was powerless to resist the three countries of Britain, France, and Australasia.

Even to speak of resistance, merely delaying it for a while was so difficult.

By May of 1938, Australasia had successfully breached Florence, and their forces had successfully severed the connection between Rome and Northern Italy.

With a defense line now firmly established across the Adriatic and Mediterranean Seas, Italy’s fate had already been sealed, which was nothing but defeat.

On May 15, 1938, over 3,000 Airplanes grandly bombed Rome, and finally dropped an ultimatum.

The ultimatum warned the Italian government that if they did not cease resistance and surrender unconditionally within a month, the Australasian government would consider deploying a new weapon in Rome.

Such a warning was fatal for Italy because the Italian government did not dare to gamble on whether the warning was real.

The potency of Australasia’s powerful weapons was beyond doubt. Though so much time had passed, the Island Nation’s former capital, Tokyo, had still not been rebuilt, and the bombed areas remained a death zone where no life could survive.

Such exaggerated potency, even if deployed in any Small Town in Italy, was still an unacceptable loss for Italy.

Of course, issuing such a warning also put a great deal of pressure on Australasia.

Because Rome housed a very special area, the center of World Catholicism, Vatican City.

If Australasia were to use that kind of weapon in Rome, wouldn’t that mean that the holy land of Catholicism, Vatican City, would also be bombed?

Such a warning caused dissatisfaction among some Catholics, but fortunately, Australasia was a Protestant country, so the impact was not so significant on them.

Naturally, this pressure smoothly arrived at the Italian Government and Mussolini’s side.

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There was no other way, as the Italian Government was one of the culprits behind this war.

Italy itself was unjust; thus, bearing all the pressure was inevitable. Moreover, Mussolini’s insane military expansion had caused much dissatisfaction among the Italian common people, making their protests against the government increasingly intense.

From the moment the warning was issued from Australasia, a significant number of civilians in Rome took to the streets to protest against the government’s actions in this unjust war and demanded that the government quickly withdraw from the war, restoring a peaceful state and environment for all Italian civilians.

This did not infuriate the Italian Government, but it indeed enraged Mussolini.

After all, the stance of Britain, France, and Australia was quite clear: a defeated Italy might exist, but Mussolini definitely would not.

The civilians demanding the Italian Government to surrender were essentially asking Mussolini to die.

For a dictator who had ruled the country for many years, this was something Mussolini absolutely could not accept and something he definitely needed to set as an example through a harsh response.

On May 18th, 1938, a shocking event occurred in Italy.

Mussolini deployed a large number of troops to surround several streets where protests were ongoing and carried out a bloody massacre on the protesting crowds within those streets.

Those protesting included, but were not limited to, a large number of military factory workers, soldiers’ families, students from various universities in Rome, some capitalists and farm owners, and even members of Mussolini’s opposition party.

The massacre did somewhat quiet Rome and Italy for a time; the Italian people did not seem as troublesome anymore.

But beneath the surface, the tumult was even more intense; Italian civilians shifted from opposition to fierce hatred and hostility against Mussolini.

The anti-war stance of the Italian Army became even more apparent. They had never wanted to participate in such a war, and now they had even better reasons to refuse.

On May 19th, the second day after Mussolini’s massacre, the Italian Army in Bologna announced their surrender and abandoned all positions in Bologna, emerging from the city waving white flags.

Perhaps some of the soldiers’ family members who were killed by Mussolini were related to these surrendering troops; perhaps it was Mussolini’s murderous stance that disheartened these soldiers; perhaps these Italian soldiers were already weary of the cruel war.

In any case, whatever the reason, these Italian troops indeed surrendered, and their surrender was unequivocal.

Thanks to the surrender of the Italian Army, the British-French-Australian Forces could finally gather in Florence and launch an attack toward Rome in the southern region of Florence.

The handling of Trieste in northeastern Italy was left to the Balkan States. With Italy already in significant turmoil, Trieste’s Italian forces could no longer stir any trouble.

On May 22nd, 1938, the British-French-Australian forces stood before Rome and launched a full-scale attack on the most famous city along the Mediterranean coast.

Almost simultaneously, a part of the French Army started to land on the island of Sardinia aboard transport ships.

According to the distribution agreement over Italian land by the Britain-France-Australia Three Nations, France could take Sardinia and integrate it as its own administrative region.

Of course, with gains come sacrifices. France had to agree to Britain’s complete occupation of the Mediterranean western exits and to transfer several islands in the Caribbean Sea to Australasia.

However, these were minor compared to the complete control of Sardinia. Sardinia, located in the Mediterranean, faces France’s Corsica across the sea. Just a few dozen kilometers to the south across the Mediterranean is the region of Tunisia, very close to France’s North African Colony.

As long as France could control Sardinia, it could connect France, Corsica, Sardinia, and Tunisia, linking France with its North African colonies directly, strengthening its control over its African colonies to enhance France’s overall strength and potential.

Although the enhancement was not as substantial as imagined, given the significant exhaustion of European nations, France could still maintain its position among the world’s top five powers through continuous support from its colonies.