Explorations in Strategy - Italy at War

The Year of Aggression
Part 3: War over Danzig, May 1 – June 9, 1939

Before turning our focus back to Italy’s own acts during this year of aggression, it may behoove us to look in closer detail at some of the war-making already occurring in Europe. The first of these campaigns was the German invasion of Poland over the question of Danzig. It was this city, and its future, which plunged Europe into carnage and began its reshaping.

The war began on the 1st of May, though Mussolini never received a formal notice. Its beginning passed him by until he happened to notice news of the war in Italian newspapers, in a strange reversal of roles. This discovery was on the 5th, by which point the Germans had already begun overrunning the southwest corner of Poland, which apparently lay completely undefended. Elsewhere along the frontier, German and Polish troops were locked in combat: half of the border between East Prussia and Poland was ablaze, as was most of the Silesian-Polish border. Mussolini immediately dispatched a handful of general staff officers to observe the campaign, mostly to gauge how competent the Wehrmacht was against a second-rate foe such as Poland. He himself began periodically requesting compilation reports of the fighting. Already on the 5th he could see what the Germans were going to do: a wide envelopment of all of western Poland from the southwest.


The German invasion of Poland had begun!

Within five days, Mussolini could be sure of his judgment. Krakow had fallen and, while the Germans made some progress in the west and north, the Polish line was only just barely beginning to form in the southwest as the Poles threw units into that area to desperately try to halt the German advance. While Warsaw was already being threatened from the north, it seemed most likely that it would fall by the push from the southwest: a full German armored corps was racing northward. Nevertheless, in the west and north the Polish frontline was being hammered hard, though it was not broken. The Poles were proving themselves to be doughty fighters and did not like to give up the ground of their homeland if they could possibly avoid it.


The invasion of Poland progressing, with great signs of collapse already evident in the southwest.

By the 19th, barely any progress had been made in the north. In the west, the Germans had pushed forward though still had not actually penetrated the Polish line. In the southwest, however, the German advance was an unstoppable tide. German units were racing into the undefended tracts of eastern Poland, and German armor was pushing ever closer to Warsaw despite stiffening Polish resistance. Western Poland was becoming a bag, in which numerous Polish units were soon to be trapped: the lock was Warsaw, and it would soon be in danger.


The Germans pushing their advance hard everywhere except the north.

Three days after this report, another came that promised a quick end to the conflict. The bag of western Poland had shrunk, but many units were unlikely to escape it as the German spearheads proved faster than the routed Polish. Warsaw found itself besieged from north and from south as the Germans began a minor breakout from East Prussia. Eastern Poland lay invitingly open, though the Germans were focused enough not to dedicate more than a minor selection of units to its conquest. All that territory was to go to the Soviet Union any way, Germany had no real incentive to push much farther eastward than it already had, which in itself was already verging on too far. The Polish Army was in a state too far gone to do more than desperately stand in place and fight to the last bullet. By this sad point there was no way that it could possibly hope to survive, even if the Allies did forcefully intervene, which they were not by any stretch of the imagination.


The Poles were, by this point, most very definitely losing.

Nevertheless, that capability that the Polish Army did have it utilized to the very utmost. It resisted stoutly for over two more weeks, pushing Germany’s victory to the second week of June. Germany, stymied at Warsaw, pushed ever eastward, occupied Lvov and nearly reached the old Polish-Soviet border. The Poles thrive on desperate situations. The entire course of their sad history comprised of a succession of forlorn, glorious last stands against invaders or occupiers, including many notable rebellions against Russian occupation in the 17th and 18th centuries. Though Mussolini had been taken aback by the tenacity and length of the Polish resistance, if he had been even cursorily acquainted with Polish history he would not have been overly surprised. Polish romanticism thrives on the tragedy of the impossible conflict, and this war was merely one episode in a long series. The Poles did not give up; hundreds of thousands fled abroad, to France or to Britain, to recover and dream of their resurgence.


Poland, consumed by Germany and the Soviet Union.

After the conclusion of this war, Mussolini did not pull his observers back yet but instead ordered them westward. Germany, concurrently with the latter weeks of the invasion of Poland, had begun a limited foray against the Maginot Line and had managed to breach it. Additionally, there were rumors afloat that an invasion of the Low Countries was in the works. There was yet more to observe. Additionally, Mussolini was not yet satisfied that the Allies were fully engaged with Germany to move yet himself. He would wait, and watch, for a little while longer.

Baltasar: Perhaps...

Pier: I've got two armies (about 15 divisions together IIRC) next to France. Nothing next to Gibraltar at the moment, as the port isn't developed enough to support operations.

Stuyvesant: Yeah, Germany seems to be doing a swell job of distracting people from the true threat in Europe--me!

Kman211: It was a deliberately broad sweep of Polish history I chose, though yeah you're probably right that nothing really happened until the latter 1700s. As for the fall of France, we'll see how that goes.

Beakmiester: And twiddling with his fake mustache too!

BlitzMartinDK: Fantastic, welcome aboard!

Maj. von Mauser: Perhaps. I don't really know how well the AI usually does as this is the first time I've got to WW2 (I don't actually play much, especially now, master's course is pretty intense already). But the AI seemed fairly decent on both sides.

BlitzMartinDK: Nope, no troops in production. Not yet at any rate. The navy requires a major policy for expansion whereas the army is somewhat easier to deal with. The state of my air force is the same as on the 1st of January, except a bit more technologically advanced. I've been neglecting it a bit in favor of the navy, industry and the army, in that order. My laws are the same as they were upon my initial changes. I basically maxed them all out then.

I'll try to have an update for tomorrow evening, lads!

mikerohan: Welcome, glad you're enjoying it! As for moving Giorgis, it wouldn't have done any good. That beachhead quickly ran out of supplies, I couldn't even get the other province right next to Gibraltar. I'd not have gotten to Alcala la Real from there.

Update coming up!

The Year of Aggression
Part 4: War Comes to the Low Countries, June 10 – July 23, 1939

Mussolini was not content with acting in June. Europe was on fire but not yet a true conflagration. He continued to bide his time, slowly positioning his forces for his own war of aggression, as he watched the international situation deteriorate into general war. By the last week of July, he had judged the situation bad enough that he could move with impunity.

Though Germany had some limited success breaking through the Maginot Line, the Wehrmacht seemed wary of trying to launch an entire invasion of France through such a tenuous corridor. Though it offered the most direct way to Paris, it was also the most dangerous; a single defeat at the base of the penetration and Germany’s armed forces would find themselves in a hangman’s noose. Instead, Germany decided to enact the original conception of the Schlieffen Plan. They would push through Belgium and the Netherlands. The German general staff had decided that the Belgium frontier on its own was as tenuous a link between the bases in Germany and the driving spearheads. Before the invasion of Belgium could be attempted, the Netherlands would have to fall. Mussolini again missed the date the campaign started, noticing German progress only once the entire German-Dutch frontier had been violated and German spearheads were actually approaching Amsterdam, on the 1st of July.


The invasion of the Netherlands by the German armed forces.

By the 5th, the Germans had solidified their breakthrough into the Netherlands on a very wide front. Remnants of Dutch border formations were completely cut off from their communications and still in the process of falling back to previously prepared defensive positions, not realizing that they were actually hundreds of miles behind the front. The Dutch army was actively resisting only in Amsterdam and in the very north of the country, though this latter region seemed to be on the verge of being encircled by German marines. In this respect Mussolini was somewhat jealous of the Wehrmacht, for within its formations there were at least two divisions of trained marines. This merely served to goad Mussolini on his failure to create his own marine divisions yet, though on the other hand he knew that he had no real need of them just yet. The truly expeditionary aspect of his strategy would not come for some time still. Before Italy can send out expeditions across the oceans, it must secure its own base, by taking Gibraltar and the Suez Canal, operations for which marines would have little value above that of regular infantry.


The German invasion of the Netherlands four days later.

On the 16th of July, the Germans began their invasion of Belgium, from the north. The Netherlands had fallen, the Dutch government fleeing to Britain and to their colonies in Indonesia. The Germans began with a push in the very center of their now elongated front with Belgium, at Turnhout, as well as on the far eastern flank, at Eupen. It was immediately apparent, however, that the Belgian army was of a different quality than the Dutch army. Whereas the Dutch fell in less than three weeks, the Belgians were not simply resisting but counterattacking. The Germans themselves were on the defensive around Maastricht, where the Belgians were pushing back as hard as they could. Nevertheless, the issue was not in any real doubt. The Germans would win the frontier battles, if only through sheer weight of numbers.


The Germans beginning their push into Belgium.

Turnhout and Eupen fell to the Germans, but otherwise the German war machine suddenly stalled. The Belgians seemed to have stymied the German offensive southward. After their successes in Poland and their evisceration of the Dutch army, the Wehrmacht suddenly found itself unable to break through the Belgian line. They were facing a fully mobilized army, rather than the incomplete divisions of the Polish and Dutch armies. This made the difference between lightning victory and a slower campaign. Mussolini had no doubt that the Germans would overrun the Belgians anyway—it was a case of David versus the goliath and this David was too paltry to stun goliath for long—but he viewed the western front with satisfaction. The war in the west had become a high drama and bloody clash of arms.


The German army stalling, having achieved only minor inroads into Belgium.

On the 23rd, Mussolini received word of a different drama playing itself out to the east. There, the Soviet Union had assaulted the integrity of Finland. Again, Mussolini was unsure when the campaign had actually begun, but by the time he noticed it, considerable tracts of territory had fallen to the Soviets. Unlike German operations, where Mussolini could post observers to report back, the already so-called Summer War was a complete mystery to him. He knew not troop numbers, nor dispositions, nor lines of operation, except from what little the foreign ministry could make out. Mussolini was not displeased, however. It was another revisionist fire to occupy those powers which supported the status quo.


The Summer War by July 23rd.

By the last week of July, war in Europe had erupted beyond the immediate capabilities of the Allies to stop it. Poland had fallen in early June, but the West had still stood inviolable. By the 23rd, the cordon of troops and neutrals that protected the West had been penetrated, the Netherlands had fallen and Belgium was under violent assault. The Allies were directly engaged in attempting to protect their own security. Their capability to intervene in support of their worldwide interests was diminishing at a rapid pace. Mussolini was ready.