April 15th - July 15th
In Mussolini's personal study a fire is burning down in the large fireplace. It is late and he is at a desk in a comfortable chair with a glass of wine. Stacks of reports lie off to the side of the table and a few large maps have been rolled up and left on the floor.
My personal journal, finally time to make an entry. It has been so long since I have had the time to do so. The war and the industry to support have demanded so much of my time to over see. Having made trade deals with America and Germany for coal and steel we have been doing well stockpiling our resources. This has allowed me to focus more of my attention on the fighting and how to support our braves forces so far away in the mountains. The fighting has been intense which I had expected as much. Although backward and poorly equipped these Ethiopians still fight for their homes. Although their lives will be better under Italian rule they do not realize this yet.
To the south our local forces still slog it out In Dolo. Although outnumbered they are making some headway. However their goal is just to keep the Ethiopians from retreating. My strategy to "box" in the Ethiopians and push as many units out of the way and to the sides to be cut off and surrounded is so far going well. However it had been taking far to long for units to move forward after victory. Something will have to be done and soon to remedy this. Soon we will not be fighting untrained Savages but other European style armies and we must be able to outpace them if we are to succeed.
Production had been coming along with our small industrial capacity but we will make strides where we can. Our Battleships are still in Drydock under construction, they would take years regardless of our new knowledge of ship building. With the first unit of light tanks assigned i had Fiat begin production of the next brigade but they tell me without being geared and having new factories built they can only build a brigade at a time. They need more Factories producing tanks instead of cars but to take the risk would mean knowing we would be at more for far longer. I can not tell them we will be so we must wait as they are manufactured.
Our next 3 mountain divisions will be finished training soon. These will be needed to guard the French and Yugoslavian borders. We still need dozens of more divisions but since we lack the factory space to produce more guns and artillery pieces for the same reasons as our tanks we will just manage with what we can produce for now. We still have many units to upgrade but the program is going well. We can not do all our divisions at once as I would wish but we are doing a good percent and in time we will have them all equipped with modern weaponry.
Still it will be challenging to bring the Army to the size it will need to be to reclaim our Empire. We need enough divisions to fight in many places as well as guard our current borders against those who do not yet recognize our greatness or who wish to keep us down. If the fighting is as intense as in Ethiopian we will have a very hard time keeping our manpower reserves up. Our tanks had moved up and joined the battle of Goba by April 19th. It is still hard going but if they can punch through we will cut off the divisions to the south on the border.
In the north I had been told by our Air Marshal that our bombers had been redirected to the fighting in Debra Tabor. Again our forces were struggling trying to dislodge these Tribesman from the mountains. Any help they received from the air should shorten the fighting.
To the south of there in Dibre our units were winning pushing the demorilized Ethiopians off the mountain strongholds they were in. If they could move fast enough they would cut off the units in the north.
By the 24th of April the the last remaining defenders in Debra Tobor were defeated and fleeing in disarray. However they could move to Dibre and reinforce those units trying to hold north of the capital, or they could demoralize them and force then to flee as well. Now the goal was to defeat the units in Dibre and move in before the units retreating could slow down the advancing troops.
To the west our Mountain units had already advanced in open territory to the river facing Nejo and Nakamti. Unfortunately with a river to cross that unit alone could no longer advance and units following were slow and far behind. This would trap those units facing them being unable to move to help at the front.
A few days later on 27th of April the battle of Dibre was won as well. This time loses were much less. Now if only more units could be upgraded losses would continue to fall.
Unfortunately 3 days later on 30 April a unit of "militia" was able to move into Dibre and halt the advancing troops. Hopefully this slow down would be only temporary but time would tell. It would be key to defeat them as quickly as possible. The more units we can trap and force to surrender the quicker this would go.
On 2nd May international news was made with the announcement of the popular front decision by France. How this could effect us in any way I do not see. Besides France is currently so disorganized that I can't see them truly unifying behind any political party.
Unfortunately on 6th of may the remaining Ethiopian units from Debra Tobor moved into Dibre and although not much help given how demoralized and disorganized they were they were still in the way of our advance. However a break through had been achieved and reports were the fighting would not last long. It would take time but our units would win in the end.
2 days later in the south the battle of Goba was won. Once again with armored units our losses were greatly reduced. Now we just needed to push through and cut off the units to the south in Dolo.
On the 14th of May our CCN division had finally moved up in the south to assist the fighting in Dolo. Although they were still moving to the front they would be able to help with the fighting soon. However it seems with the increase of troops and the units behind them moving into Goba the battle was won in Dolo with the Ethiopians falling back to Mega. This battle had been far more costly with 1028 of our local loyalist units falling in battle to only 442 of their enemies. However given their poor weapons and being outnumbered 3 to 1 it they acquitted themselves very well. We will need to make better use of these men in the future.
The next day forward units moving up in Goba engaged the defenders in Mega hoping to force them out before the survivors of the Dolo battle could escape the noose. The likely hood is that they would not be able to win in time but they would continue to wear them down.
In only a few days units had moved forward and engaged Mega from Dolo and Dibre from Debra Terbor. With attacks from both sides the Ethiopian units would not be able to hold for long. The concern among the general staff was that more units would then flood back into the capital and hold out there instead of being pushed away into the mountains. I agreed with this concern but there was little we could do, we just did not have the units forward yet, they were still advancing.
However good news came a few days later. With the fighting to the north and south units had been pulled back Nejo by the Ethiopians. The 5a Divisione Alpini "Pusteria" that had been facing them promptly crossed the river and advanced. Although the province behind them was empty it would not be for long. Loyalist units were moving up from the mountains behind and would occupy it in short order. A number of units were already in Jimma and if we could push units forward fast enough and win our current battles we could cut them off.
On 25th May most of the defenders in Dibre had been defeated. The few remaining units were being slowly but surely ground down.
on 2nd of June early in the morning I had a meeting with leading industrialist in the country. They were concerned with our dependence on foreign resources, especially steel. Although it would be expensive they advised opening a synthetic industry to help end our reliance on questionable supply lines and costly imports. Although I Was reluctant to spend the sums involved in a time of war I could not argue with that reasoning.
That same day we won the battle of Dibre. By 1400 hours the Ethiopians were pulling back to Nakamti to the south. Even with the fighting being in the mountains we had only lost 359 men to 3074 Ethiopians. Once all our units had been upgraded to new weapons we would have no trouble crushing these savage tribesman. The next day as our units moved into the province a spoiling attack was launched by the Ethiopians but was quickly stopped after an hour of fighting and a few dead left on the field by the attackers.
At this point into the war many of the generals participating had been fighting for months and had learned a great deal about mountain fighting. General Bitossi was a great example of the knowledge gained from the fighting.
Even though his troops were exhausted from fighting and marching for months he insisted they could continue forward. I allowed this and they pushed forward into Nakamti. Thankfully half the defending troops were "headquarters" units. They were not fighting alone for lone as within a few days 2 more divisions moved in and joined in the fighting. However now there was a chance of the Ethiopians trying to rotate in fresh divisions from Jimma so the orders went out for the 2 divisions that had moved up to engage them. Although out numbered their orders were to merely harass and delay instead of pushing the Ethiopians out.
On 9th of June our new mountain divisions were trained and equipped and ready for deployment. The first two were assigned to the XI corps of the 2a army on the Yugoslavian border. With all the disparate Corps being consolidated down along with the armies it is more apparent how low on troops that border is if we intend to invade and expand the empire.
The last division was deployed to I corp of 1a army on the French border. As most of those divisions are mountaineers that border should hold with few reinforcements no matter what the French send.
I ordered another 3 infantry divisions to be raised which would eventually reinforce the Yugoslavian border as well.
Fighting continued with not major changes for a number of days. With the fighting being in the mountains not much could be done to influence events besides trying to move more units up. On the 11th of June our first major technological advance was made. I had ordered key researchers and industrial engineers to look at our production and manufacture of military supplies and they had returned indicating that with specific changes in supply of materials and logistics we could increase production by 5%. It does not sound like much but with hundreds of tons being produced every day every little increase in output helps.
I asked our research teams currently underway how close they thought they were to completion of their current projects. It seems most believe they should have completed designs within 1-2 months. I don't expect we can keep up in all projects with other powers but we must concentrate our limited resources where it will do the most good.
Nothing much of note occurred for the next few weeks. Reports came in on fighting in Ethiopia while our braves men fought up the mountains to dislodge the Ethiopians. A few trade deals were canceled and recreated at better rates but otherwise meetings and party rallies trying to improve the parties standing after the recent leak from our diplomatic core ending up causing our popularity among the people to lower. However on the 21st of June our top medical researchers returned indicating advances discovered that would help reduce losses and get more men back into the field after being wounded. Given our limited overall manpower I asked them to continue their research for any more improvements they could find.
Then on 25th of June the fighting in Mega ended with 111 brave Italians left on the field for the cost of 991 Ethiopians who tried to stop them. These units then retreated to Jimma which is right where I want them to go. This means the advancing units from the south can also arrive and attack Nakamti. If we can keep the units in Jimma occupied we might be able to cut off and destroy the bulk of the Ethiopian army. Our bombers had just enough range to hit Addis Ababa from the coast. To keep those units occupied I ordered bombing of the capital to start. We must weaken these units recovering from the fighting in the north before they try and attack our holding units to the East and North.
By 6th of July no other major advances on the ground had been achieved but we were still fighting and winning. Losses were mounting in Jimma though and commanders on the ground were unsure if they could keep occupying the enemy. Ammunition \was starting to run low especially for the artillery. With the supplies coming from the coast over the mountains and no roads to move them by resupply was very slow. I asked them to keep the men going for as long as they thought they could. If we could just keep these Tribesman from moving to Nakamti we could finish the fighting there and move in and cut them off the capital.
However also on the 6th all our units to the south were able to move into Mega and begin attacking Nakamti. With the additional units attacking from the rear it would not take long for this battle to end. The only question was how Italian lives would be lost in the end. By the 14th only a "Headquarters" division was left with the guards desperate to stop our advance.
A few hours later it was over. 876 Italian dead for 2714 Ethiopians. No matter the conditions we were winning and we were taking fewer losses each time. The next day units were being moved into Nakamti as quickly as possible to cut off the forces in Jimma. The same day war broke out in Spain. It seems after recent elections neither side is happy with the outcome but now things have escalated into full out war. In addition another unhelpful find was made by our security teams. An illegal printing press was discovered operating in the capital. Given the cost of shutting it down and possible additional anger by the people at a time when our parties popularity was low. Given the sudden out break of war in Spain and our continued fighting in Ethiopia I decided to let it be for now and directed our security services to keep a close eye on it's activities now that it was known to operate.
Mussolini closes his journal and gets up from the room. It is very late and events are moving faster then he can easily chronicle for his memoirs. However as with every great leader he feels compelled to list his actions. It will be very interesting times ahead and when history is winning it must be by the victors with the right information, propaganda can be such a useful tool.