The Blinding Light
The sun had finally risen over the Italian nation. Mussolini was proud, being called Il Duce was not enough anymore, he was now Emperor.
Congratulations from Germany arrive, along with more great news:
Leningrad, the previous capitol of Russia had been cut off.
We push deeper into Arabia and annex Iraq.
Some hardcore british loyalists resist, but are subsequently destroyed.
And we enter Eritrea, which the british imperial scum have handed over to the vile ethiopians. "What next?" asks the Italian press, "Somalia? Sudan? Malta?"
Our siamese friends can return with even better news than which with they arrived. To save the japanese of the trouble of deciphering, Mussolini tears a British flag apart and tells them to give it to Hirohito. "Hirohito" was the only word the siamese sailors understood.
But just as life is becoming good, Mussolinis lunch is disrupted by horrible news:
Army Group Center is in chaos!
The finns are pushed back!
Estonia being cut off!
And the crimean force reconnecting..
All the while
The americans are making their presence felt by constant air raids.
Our allies need those 16 divisions still vacationing! Mussolini orders Sicily be taken right now, but Graziani demands more time.
Seeing as Malta is lightly defended it will make do as a prologue.
Its garrison is easily crushed.
Some liberians swim to the island and cause trouble, but they are no match for the alpini.
At the same time..
Our army in Ethiopia is having trouble.
yet we keep our calm.
We begin taking Addis Abada a second time.
But this is not the same Ethiopian army we defeated 6 years ago.. Trained and led by french officers, specially for mountain warfare.. it will not be as easy as we hoped.
Our excursion in Persia melts down
as soviets make it clear, that they do not like us messing at their bordres.
And the germans tell us
Estonia is lost! At least they werent surrounded, but this puts Finland in a very dangerous position.
Mussolini can wait no longer. Grazianis protests are heard no more. He will begin the operation or we will find someone else.
And so Grazianis starts. His troops are not fully ready, he lacks staff for a properly organized asssault.
Alpini storm the beaches without air support, as our pilots bomb the wrong beach.
Graziani suffers tremendous casualties.
And to make matters even worse the US airforce shows us what it can do.
Our invasion was a total failure. Mussolini would have Graziani court marshalled, had he not signed all the orderes as "Emperor Mussolini"
exhausted soldiers,
exhausted pilots.
Alipini bravely continue their landing
with support from surviving bombers.
But as we expected, they bring reinforcements and it is hopeless.
Persia is annexed
Yet it does not seem worth it. The Middle-East offers some oil, which we have stockpiles of. Holding it is a strain on our army and supply lines. Should the soviets take land previously owned by the allies.. this might cause friction between them.
Things do not look good.
