Chapter 1580 Three Major Battles
In 1934, the main purpose of the development of Italy's military industry was to localize as much as possible. If Benito wanted to realize Italy's rise and become a great power in Europe and even the world, he had to establish an independent military industry.
This is a very difficult challenge for Italy. Italy's current research and development in the field of military technology is not bad, but its resource shortcomings are too prominent.
It is not an exaggeration to describe Italy's sources of industrial raw materials as "a collection of materials from all over the world."
Strategic resources including coal, oil, iron ore, copper, rubber, cotton, etc. are heavily dependent on imports, and even the most basic food production faces problems.
Take energy as an example. Italy's domestic coal production is extremely small and of poor quality. In 1934, Italy mainly maintained the operation of its domestic industry by importing coal from Germany, East Africa, the Soviet Union, and the United Kingdom.
Germany is not short of coal resources and is relatively close to Italy, so German coal is Italy's main and most important import target.
Then there is East Africa. When it comes to exporting coal to Italy, East Africa mainly acts as a middleman, that is, East Africa transports coal from South Asia and Australia to Italy for sale.
Trade between East Africa and Italy has always been good. After all, East Africa has been trading grain with Italy since the last century.
Relying on the grain trade, the scale of trade between East Africa and Italy continued to expand, and the types of trade also continued to increase, covering a wide range of agricultural products and minerals, such as rubber, coffee, tea, cotton, coal, iron ore...
Then there is the Soviet Union. The development of trade between the Soviet Union and Italy was not interfered with by the ideologies of the two countries. After all, for Italy, the Soviet Union was separated from Italy by countries such as Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and actually did not pose much of a threat to Italy.
In the past, Italy was not very interested in the sanctions against Russia within the Western bloc, and during the Cold War, it even flirted directly with the Soviet Union.
Finally, there is the United Kingdom. It is not surprising that the United Kingdom and Italy have trade relations. After all, the United Kingdom is the overlord of the Mediterranean and it controls the necessary routes for Italy's imports and exports.
In terms of oil resources, Italy is in a relatively good situation. Italian Libya is an important oil distribution area in the world, but distant water cannot quench immediate thirst. Currently, Italy's local resource exploration progress is relatively slow, and it will take time to fully realize oil field exploitation.
Currently, Italy is accelerating the construction of the Libyan railway, hoping to use the power of East Africa to help it realize the extraction and refining of Libyan oil.
After talking about energy, let’s talk about metal minerals. After all, without metals, it would be impossible for Italy to produce warships and artillery, and Italy happens to be poorly endowed with metal minerals.
Take iron ore as an example. Italy purchases iron ore from a variety of sources. In addition to the previously mentioned Germany, East Africa, the Soviet Union, and the United Kingdom, Italy also imports from many countries including Sweden, France, etc.
At the same time, due to the scarcity of iron ore, Italy's scrap steel recycling industry is also relatively prosperous.
Italy, which lacked energy and iron ore, naturally found it extremely difficult to develop its industry. However, in 1933, Italy's steel production increased to over two million tons.
This was a remarkable achievement for Italy. Among the world's great powers, Spain's steel production was less than one million tons, while Italy's was more than twice that of Spain.
Therefore, Italy actually has the strength of a great power. As far as the steel industry is concerned, there are only nine countries that are better than Italy.
There are only twelve countries in the world whose steel production exceeds one million tons.
The twelve countries are: East Africa, the United States, Germany, the Soviet Union, Britain, France, Austria-Hungary, Japan, Belgium, Italy, Canada, and Luxembourg.
Belgium and Luxembourg have too small a land area, while Canada is more focused on its colonial attributes, so they are not worthy of the status of a great power.
Therefore, it is completely feasible for Italy to compete for the position of the world's top ten powers.
However, Italy, one of the world's top ten superpowers, cannot even achieve complete self-sufficiency in military industrial production capacity.
Italy's military industry can only support it in fighting small-scale wars. When encountering large-scale wars, there will inevitably be supply shortages.
Even part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire's southwestern theater of operations would be difficult for Italy to deal with, which can be seen as a reflection of the disparity in strength among the great powers.
Therefore, Benito had to swallow his pride and import weapons and ammunition from abroad to meet the current needs of the Italian army.
Benito said, "I will order all the heavy weapons in the country to be gathered at the front line to solve our army's firepower dilemma. If you can't fight well again, you will be court-martialed!"
Since the Prime Minister had said so, the Italian commanders on the front line naturally had no excuse to shirk their responsibilities and they all assured Benito that they would advance their troops to Venice within a month.
…
For a time, Italy accelerated its offensive against the Brenta River defense line. Benito personally supervised the battle and concentrated national resources to support the front line. The Brenta River defense line finally began to waver, which quickly attracted the attention of Germany.
In Berlin, Adolf decided to further increase the number of troops on the Austro-Hungarian battlefield.
"Now, our troops in the Austro-Hungarian Empire have exceeded 200,000, and there are 150,000 Austro-Hungarian vassal troops, but this is far from enough."
"Learning from the southwest, Italy should accelerate its offensive against the Venetian region. We must quickly put an end to the rebellion in the Austro-Hungarian Empire and completely conquer it before the end of the year."
"Therefore, I have decided to send another 200,000 imperial troops into the Austro-Hungarian Empire to completely annihilate the Austrian coalition government within two months. By the end of the year, the war in the Austro-Hungarian Empire must be completely quelled."
"We must stabilize the rest of the Austro-Hungarian Empire before the Italians take Venice, and then negotiate with Italy about the division of interests."
Adolf's order was quickly implemented. This time, the war against the Austro-Hungarian Empire was also an opportunity for Adolf to further consolidate military power.
After all, militarism was prevalent in Germany, and the army even played a dominant role in state affairs. Therefore, only by completely taking down the army could Adolf's rule be truly consolidated.
With the reinforcements from Germany, the situation faced by the already disadvantaged Greater Austrian coalition government forces, that is, the Labor Party armed forces, became even worse.
In late October 1934, the German army in East Prussia moved south along the railway, detoured from the northeast of Bohemia, and attacked the Bohemian Labor Party's sphere of influence from both sides together with the main force of the German army.
At the same time, the German army began to allocate part of its forces to launch attacks in the directions of Slovakia and Galicia. With little resistance, it occupied most of Slovakia.
These two regions were mainly controlled by the local government of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and there were also a small number of local ethnic armed activities. However, compared with the well-organized armed forces of the Labor Party, these local ethnic armed forces were basically a mob, and as the German army moved south, they basically surrendered.
The Austro-Hungarian government in Budapest merely issued some condemnations of Germany's attack on the Austro-Hungarian-controlled areas.
Now, Budapest is in a difficult situation, unable to protect itself. On the northern and western fronts, the United Nations government forces, which were beaten back by the German army, have gained a huge advantage in the southeast.
In mid-October, the coalition government forces were less than 70 kilometers away from Budapest. At the same time, the Hungarian local Labor Party finally took action. Through cooperation with the anti-Habsburg forces in Croatia, they finally reorganized their armed forces.
Frequent attacks on the Hungarian government in the south, where Hungary's control was weak, greatly disrupted the local social order. This caused turmoil in the Hungarian rear, affected the recruitment of troops and the collection of food, and further aggravated the crisis in Budapest.
At the same time, the Croats and Serbs in Croatia, Slovenia and Bosnia also officially raised their flags and publicly announced that they would form the Yugoslavia with Serbia and break away from the rule of the Habsburg, Hungarian and Austro-Hungarian Empires.
This also marked the official collapse of the Habsburgs' rule over the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which had previously at least nominally controlled most of the empire.
Now, the only areas that still obey the Austro-Hungarian central government, that is, the Budapest government, are parts of Hungary, Dalmatia, and eastern Venice.
The problem is that these three places are not connected and are already in a state of independence. The Venetian region is also stabbed in the back by Slovenia and Vienna. The former joined Yugoslavia, and the latter's Labor Party and the remnants of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in Venice have a clear hostile relationship.
Now, even the Austro-Hungarian Navy was affected, having completely lost contact with Budapest and was threatened by Yugoslavia.
This forced the Austrian commander of the Austro-Hungarian Navy to temporarily transfer some of its forces to the Dalmatia region, which remained loyal to the Austro-Hungarian central government in Budapest.
In order to prevent the so-called Yugoslav armed forces from posing a threat to Trieste and Fiume, also known as Rijeka, the port of Zadar in Dalmatia became the new command center of the navy.
Although Dalmatia did not seek independence due to the complete loss of power of the Habsburg royal family, it also began to make arrangements for its retreat. In early November 1934, after Yugoslavia declared independence, the Parliament of the Kingdom of Dalmatia quickly passed the bill.
It was decided to strengthen the armed forces of the Kingdom of Dalmatia and to begin deploying troops in the border areas with Yugoslavia to prevent Yugoslavia from taking the opportunity to invade the Kingdom of Dalmatia.
Influenced by this, the Kingdom of Dalmatia also strengthened its surveillance of Croatia and Serbs to prevent them from colluding with Yugoslavia.
The Croats and Serbs in Dalmatia therefore moved to Yugoslavia. Similarly, the Germans in Croatia, Slovenia and Bosnia within Yugoslavia also immigrated to the Kingdom of Dalmatia.
Dalmatia is now the only German gathering area that has not been affected by the war, so those Germans who border Dalmatia and do not want to be affected by the war or political persecution can only choose to go to Dalmatia.
The evacuation of these Germans undoubtedly further promoted the separation of Yugoslavia and Austria-Hungary.
At the same time as the establishment of Yugoslavia, Britain and France also accelerated their support for Yugoslavia.
Long before the Yugoslavia region wanted independence, they had already contacted countries such as Britain and France. Britain and France did not want Germany to take over the entire Austro-Hungarian Empire, so the two sides can be said to have hit it off.
As for Italy, it naturally expressed support for Yugoslavia's independence, which would help reduce their pressure on the front line.
Therefore, with the tacit consent of Italy, the aid from Britain and France was quickly transported to Croatia through the Adriatic Sea. The Yugoslav armed forces that received the aid grew rapidly, encroaching on the territory of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire, and formed an alliance with Serbia, becoming the fifth important force in the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
In addition to Germany, Italy, Austria-Hungary, the Coalition Government and Yugoslavia, Western Ukraine, Poland, Romania and Bulgaria also took the opportunity to erode the territory of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, but because of Germany, they could only make some small moves.
November 5th.
The Greater Austrian Coalition Government on the Eastern Front finally advanced to the outskirts of Budapest, which became the last straw that broke the camel's back.
With Budapest being besieged by the coalition forces, the Austro-Hungarian government's external contacts were completely cut off, which also meant that the Austro-Hungarian central government completely lost its ability to command other regions.
Almost at the same time, Italy broke through Padua, an important fortress on the Brenta River, and tore a hole. The Italian army poured into the rear of the Brenta River defense line like a tide. With the Brenta River defense line broken, the day of the decisive battle in Venice was about to come.
At the same time, the German army was also approaching Vienna, and the German vanguard and the Allied government forces had already exchanged fire in the suburbs of Vienna.
The three cities of Budapest, Venice and Vienna will soon become the main decisive battles in the future distribution of power among various parties on the land of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire.
If Budapest falls, the Austro-Hungarian central government, or the Habsburgs, will completely withdraw from the stage of history, and it will be basically impossible to rebuild the Habsburg dynasty in the future.
If Vienna could not withstand the German offensive, this round of the Austro-Hungarian Labor Party movement would completely reach its lowest point and would be unable to resist the German attack.
As for Venice, its importance is the least. If Italy conquers this place, it will mean that Venice will completely return to the embrace of Italy and achieve the complete unification of Italy.
Under this situation, on November 9, the Greater Austrian Coalition Government Army first launched an offensive against Budapest. However, as the seat of the Austro-Hungarian government, it was not easy for the Labor Party to conquer it, especially because Vienna was in crisis and the coalition government withdrew some troops to support Vienna.
Four days after the Battle of Budapest began, the German army officially launched a general offensive against Vienna. At the same time, in Bohemia, the sphere of influence of the coalition government forces was also being eroded by the German army.
Today, the coalition government forces only control the southeastern part of Bohemia, and only the big city of Brno remains in their hands. It is only a matter of time before Bohemia falls.
Finally, it was the battlefield of Venice. After the Brenta River defense line was breached, Italy was annexing the city of Venice, and the Battle of Venice was about to begin. At the same time, the Austro-Hungarian army in Venice was also evacuating to the east and northern mountains to delay Italy's offensive progress.
The three battles started almost simultaneously, which would determine the future fate of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
(End of this chapter)
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