The clarion call for war sounded again, and the dignity of Germany could not be provoked. The Führer's intransigence was echoed by the majority of Germans, who were indignant at the atrocities committed to the German legation and determined to teach the Apennine idiot a lesson that he would never forget.

The Germans had no worries about the outcome of the war, and victory would surely belong to the great Führer and the German people. The Germans were accustomed to such days, the people were confident in the outcome of the war, the market in Berlin was as calm as ever, the citizens went about their work and rest as usual, but in the parks and beer halls, there were many enthusiastic people who talked about the war, and of course there were some Gestapo plainclothes with cold eyes.

On the night of the 20th, the lights remained all night in the Bendler building, where the Imperial High Headquarters was located, the roar of engines echoed all night on the parking apron in front of the building, the vehicles carrying orders and submitting reports were like carp crossing the river, and the reckless army drivers even caused a traffic accident on the nearby Tilbitz Road, causing traffic jams for a time, and finally a whole company of gendarmerie was dispatched to finally clear the traffic order.

From planning to implementation, it took only one month before and after the plan was planned, and Germany's developed military mobilization and logistics support system played a key role at this time. Compared to the Italian Army, which had been preparing for two months to invade Greece, it was still as if it had not prepared anything when it finally launched the attack. During this time, however, Germany had completed the reorganization and mobilization of an army group and ensured that these units could immediately engage in a large-scale military operation. This is the gap between the power of the nation, which cannot be bridged by a few clever things.

The movement of the army units depended entirely on the well-established rail and road transportation network in Germany, and Hitler spent six years on road infrastructure in a major way, and at this point it was fully evident. Entire regiments and battalions of troops traveled by passenger or freight train through most of Germany to Austria, and then entered the pre-arranged barracks for rest and preparation. All of these units had participated in Polish and French campaigns and had a wealth of combat experience, and at this time they only needed some adaptation training for mountain warfare and were immediately ready for operation.

The Austrian Rapid Reaction Group was reorganized as part of the original Army Group C, retaining the original First Army of Witzleben and joining Heppner's 4th Panzer Group, as well as the 44th Mountain Army and two new motorized brigades. At the final stage of the preparation for the campaign, Keitel took over the supreme command from Field Marshal Loeb in the name of the High Command.

Keitel was accompanied by the Führer's "Cyprus" legion, at which time the corps commander Müller had entered the Berlin Military Academy for further studies, and Manstein, who was preparing for the formation of a new Panzer Corps, had not yet been relieved of his post as chief of staff of the corps, so he temporarily became the supreme commander of this powerful corps. Don't look at Manstein's unhappy appearance on the surface, in fact, the newly released acting army commander doesn't know how happy he is in his heart.

Germany's military plans were not kept strictly secret, and it was easy to find some superficial information, and the Germans' [Aldrich] plan seemed to be ready to target a certain Balkan country. So during that time, the Balkan miscellaneous people lived a very trembling life, and secretly guessed which place the German uncle had taken a fancy to.

The Balkan miscellaneous, of course, could not have been unaware of the fact that the Italians who started with intelligence could not have known about it, but the Italians were also misled by the name of this plan, thinking that the Germans were preparing to invade a certain region of the Balkans, and the generals of the Roman command guessed that the Germans' target should be Yugoslavia, and after a few words of envious curses, this information was thrown into the pile of papers, and the Italians were busy preparing to invade Greece at this time, and they were not interested in paying attention to the Germans.

When the news of Germany's declaration of war reached Rome via radio waves, the Italians at first thought it was a bad joke, everyone knew that Italy and Germany were hardcore allies, just like the leader said that the two peoples were like a family, how could Germany attack its own brothers. But for the next half day, the Italians were in a chaotic nightmare, and all kinds of news came in, all confirming that the joke was not a lie, and that Germany was indeed preparing to declare war on Italy.

Eventually, when the news was announced in the news from the French and British radio stations, the Italians finally believed that what they would never have dreamed of was really happening right in front of their eyes.

The whole of Italy was suddenly plunged into an apocalyptic panic, the Italians had no intention of working, countless people were running in the streets and alleys to tell each other, taverns and pizzerias were crowded with people shouting, arguing and asking for news, there were long queues in front of food stores and grocery stores, and citizens were looking for ways to leave the city with their families and go to the countryside for a while.

The Italian Black Shirts should have stood up to inspire and agitate the people at this moment, but the strange thing is that for a whole day, the group of black shirts that could be seen everywhere was now only a dozen or so hardcore elements, standing in front of the sculpture of the fountain in the middle of the street, waving the fascist flag, clamoring for a bloody battle with Germany to the last man, and shouting that the great Italy would win.

When it was learned that the opponent was the powerful Germany, the Italians basically gave up hope of victory, and their army could not even contain the half-crippled French, who would dare to believe the nonsense that Italy would win, Pizza Hut was about the same, and believed that the Germans would like pizza.

German Ambassador to Rome von Von. At 5 p.m. on the 20th, Kruger officially handed over his declaration of war to Italian Prime Minister Hissolini, and only a few people witnessed this historic scene at that time.

Originally, Mussolini wanted to postpone the meeting on the low-level grounds of ill health, as if he did not take the document, and the Germans would not go to war. In the end, it was his son-in-law Ziano who persuaded Mussolini that whether he accepted this fact or not, the war between Germany and Italy was a foregone conclusion, and that it was better to go all out to meet it than to run away, and show the Germans the spirit of the Italians, even if the final defeat was inevitable, at least Italy maintained its dignity.

Eventually, Mussolini took the document from the German ambassador in his office, and according to Ziano's later recollection, the leader's eyes were filled with tears of humiliation and anger. And von. In his report to Berlin, Kruger wrote, the leader was pale, his eyes were glazed, his hands were shaking, and he had completely lost his exuberant appearance, and Mussolini seemed to be unusually old that day, and I personally thought that it was the erosive life of the previous transition that destroyed his health.

The Italian ambassador to Germany stayed outside the new Chancellery until midnight that night, when he was put on board by the Gestapo in a special car that had been prepared by the side, and then stuffed into a DC-2 passenger plane bound for Switzerland, along with all the senior diplomats of the Italian embassy.

The remaining Italian diplomats would be put on a neutral ship and returned to their homeland by sea. The Imperial Foreign Office thought that this was a bit of a superfluous move, and perhaps the war would be over before these people were still halfway through.

Germany's declaration of war was so sudden for Italy that although the Reich Führer generously gave the Italians half a day, it was not enough time for them to respond effectively with the inefficient Roman chain of command.

All afternoon, Italy's command and communication system was in a mess, and the Roman generals and marshals realized at this time that they had not formulated a defense plan for the situation in front of them before, and that the defense plan for the northern front in their hands was still drawn up at the end of the First World War, and it had been out of touch with the times for many years.

However, if someone had proposed yesterday that they were going to formulate a plan of operations to defend against the German invasion, it is estimated that the marshals of the high command would have laughed out of their lungs, and no one could predict the future, so it would be understandable that the current embarrassing situation would have occurred.

The problem now before them was that the Roman headquarters had to make some immediate moves, whatever the order, even if it was just to reassure the troops, the Roman high command had to make the troops at the front feel that everything was still under their control.

Italy did not deploy many regular troops on the border with Austria, and in order to avoid arousing the suspicion of its allies, Italy even deliberately removed most of its heavy weapons, and now it is mainly a group of police and gendarmes who maintain the security of the border between the two countries, plus some Italian blackshirts who are obviously assigned there, and their usual task is mainly to capture their own smugglers and Austrian Jews who are smuggled to Switzerland through the passage, after all, crossing the Alps is not something that ordinary people can do.

Now these hapless border police, gendarmes and blackshirts, will face an attack by the German army, armed to the teeth, and the only thing these people can do to the Germans is perhaps not to find such a large prisoner of war camp.

The Roman high command could only move a few infantry divisions that were resting in the Venice area towards the northern border, and then issued a national general ****** in the name of the prime minister.

The Roman High Command ordered all temporarily discharged soldiers to return to their units within twenty-four hours, and those who failed to do so were punished as deserters. If the distance is too far to return in time, they must also report to the nearest nearby army unit, and those who do not arrive without any reason will be arrested by the gendarmerie and court-martialed.

In particular, the High Command stated that no one should shirk his obligations to the State for any reason. Italy has reached the most critical moment, and it is necessary for every Italian to contribute his or her strength, under the leadership of the great leader, to eliminate the barbaric Germanic invaders, and the final victory will surely belong to glorious Italy, long live Italy, long live Mussolini!

PS: I see everyone's support, thank you for your encouragement, I will continue to work hard.

Continue to ask for monthly passes, recommendations, and genuine subscriptions.

Thank you. (To be continued.) )