Chapter 200
21st December 1941
Rome. The eternal city.
Normally Christmas was a joyous occasion for the city, but right now it was hiding, trying to come to grips with the reality it had woken up that morning. The Romans lined the streets and waited for the inevitable, for what the Radio had instructed them to wait for, relenting, unresisting and in mass numbers. It had started snowing again, but the snow falling down from the sky was light even by local standards and and did not impede them much. The snow was falling on a mostly silent crowd and snow from the day before yesterday that had melted and then frozen again last night. Then a low word ran through the crowd.
“They are coming.”
Most people couldn't hear or see anything, even those in the windows that were putting out white flags out of the many windows of the flat buildings this part of Rome consisted of. For all of them it was a wholly novel experience. Of course they had seen their fair share of parades and in all sorts of weather, but never like this. For them defeat was a completely new experience and in spite of the Government's orders they did not know what to expect. Propaganda hadn't demonized the Allied Forces as much as the Japanese did, not that they knew that, but there was still a cloud of fear hanging over them, adding to the already charged atmosphere.
The child who had spoken was sitting on top of his father's shoulders who in turn was standing on top of a building. At this, he put his son down and together they walked down. When they stepped onto the street, careful not to slip on the cobblestone they watched and looked down the street. The first thing they noticed of the approaching Allied troops were not marching troops, roaring planes or armoured vehicles but rather their own peculiar sort of music, which the father as bagpipes. The music, if one could call it such, was preceding the advancing troops as it was usual not only with the British Army. Soon everyone around them began to strain their necks in order to get a good look at their new masters and after roughly two to five minutes the first came around the corner. Up front marched a band of men playing the pipes and drums, wearing kilts instead of standard BD trousers, braving the cold and playing 'Scotland the brave' on their instruments with concentration. The whole column, a whole Regiment of troops, was marching with a precision that would have put the most elite formations of the Axis armies to shame. These soldiers were dressed in the normal British-pattern BDs and had the winter Equipment strapped to their backs and hips, their Rifles over the left shoulder and looking straight ahead, not once acknowledging the presence of the Italian civilians. Upon closer inspection however one could see that they were not only wearing a shoulder patch with an eagle and a silver 48 on it, but also had a read Maple Leaf stitched onto their uniforms, marking them not as British but rather Canadian troops, or rather the 48th Highlanders of Canada that marched into Rome to martial music and without a shot being fired. Right behind them came what turned out to be the Commander of I Canadian Corps, known as the Canadian Expeditionary Force, Lt. General Harry Crerar in the sort of Land Rover with a convertible roof, standing up and looking not like the military mind that had crushed opposition that outnumbered his troops by a fair margin. Behind him came another Infantry Regiment, this one too Canadian, but they were driving on the small tracked light Armoured Vehicles that the Allies called Universal Carrier officially and Bren Carrier in fact, and it took them a longer time to pass the spot where the father and his son were standing.
Then came what impressed the Italians the most. At first they heard the clattering of chains on the cobblestone and the roar of dozens of Diesel engines and those that had served knew that his meant tanks. It stopped snowing, but no one cared as tank after tank came around the corner. The Cromwells were painted in a colour that fitted well into the winter landscape of southern and central Italy, and good god they were larger than most tanks the Italian Army had, with the exception of the same Maple Leaf on the side and sometimes their flag from wireless antennas. They were giving off the impression of an experienced and battle-hardened force, evident not only from the hard stares of the crews as they were standing in their hatches with their black berets in regulation position but also from the field modifications and evident repairs on their vehicles, most of all though from the frighteningly large number of kill rings many of them had painted onto the barrels of their long main guns.[1] The Music began to fade into the distance, but the army marching through didn't. Row after row of soldiers marched past, and soon it were not only Canadians, but also British, Polish, Belgian and Dutch troops, each equipped and trained after the British pattern but marching under their own flags, ramming home the message that the Allies firmly intended nothing but the full and total defeat of the Axis powers.
But what had brought this about? How could the Allies march into Rome like this without fear of resistance from the Italian Army? The events of the last four days had seen to that, even though some Historians would later claim that the Dutch Air Force and the Italian King had merely been Deus Ex Machina for a higher power.[2]
After the Canadians had broken the Axis lines to the south-east of the city and entered the outskirts of the city they had received orders to halt. This was because Alexander and his subordinate Commanders rightly feared that the Italians would rush every armed soldier they could scrape together into Rome, and city fighting would surely grind up the CEF if it was to go in alone, so the 48th Highlanders, the leading Allied unit were ordered to halt until the rest of the Allied Forces around the southern end of Rome. When Mussolini, having managed to regain contact with the Italian Forces in the field gave a flurry of orders to his Generals. First he removed the Italian Armed Forces from the structure of the Axis Command and then demanded that the Italian Army, his Blackshirts and every able-bodied man was to hurl itself at the Allies. So while both sides paused, the political machinery in Italy kicked into gear, the initiative coming from an unexpected side: The Italian King.
Victor Emmanuel III of Italy had refused to evacuate Rome against the wishes and thinly-veiled orders of the Duce, preferring to share the fate of his subjects, his capital City and of his son who had been badly wounded when his unit had been smashed by the 3rd Gurkha Mountain Rifle Division. When the King heard what Mussolini's plans for Rome and the war were he was aghast. The Allies had roundly beaten Italy and Mussolini was trying to turn Rome into a second Warsaw in spite of Rommel declaring it an open city. What happened next is one of the few and rare points in history that could bring disaster and deliverance at the same time, depending on how the players acted. In Facist Italy the nominal authority for the workings of the state still lay with the King even though Mussolini had long since stripped the Monarchy of it's authority but even so the King still commanded considerable influence.
Radio Rome, a day earlier
“Y...Your Majesty...” The workers at the station had had their share of bigshots over the years but never the King. Never in person. Unlike the Duce he always pre-recorded his speeches and was never seen in the station, but now he had rushed to it as fast as possible.
“Is everything ready?” “Yes, your Majesty.”
The King stepped into a broadcasting booth and he knew that what he was about to do would make or break not only the Monarchy but Italy itself.
“To the Italian People, to the Italian Soldiers of all branches!
The military situation of Italy is grave. The enemy has invaded our shores and stands poised to take our Capital. Enemy bombers, fighters and Infiltrators are ranging our skies almost at will. In spite of the best efforts of our troops and our allies much of our country is now in enemy hands.
After examining this current situation and condition closely, I have decided to take extraordinary measures. I hereby order our government to inform the governments and representatives of the the British Empire and the Allied that the Italian nation offers an honourable cease-fire. Italian soldiers: There are those that want you to fight on, to fight inside Rome itself. If you receive orders to this effect: do not follow them! The legitimate Italian Government does not issue them, it and the Italian people do no longer want to fight a lost war. There are still Axis forces fighting on Italian soil, and therefore those that feel that Italy should fight on. To them I say that I will demand in the name of the Kingdom of Italy that they are to vacate all Italian possessions at once and in a peaceful manner. To the others I say that any prolongation of the fighting would only lead to Italy being shred to pieces between two powers greater than ourselves.
It is the role of the Monarchy and the Government to strive for prosperity and happiness throughout the world, and for the security and well-being of the Italian people. War was declared on the Allied powers of Britain and France to further the Italian position. The war has failed and our Armies have been defeated, so there is no point in fighting on.
This war has now lasted two years, and despite the best efforts of the military, the government and the Italian people, this war has not been successful for Italy. The enemy now possesses a foothold on Italian soil, and Allied Armies are large and plentiful with large reserves. If we continue to fight this war, this mass of men and machines will destroy the Italian Nation and bring untold destruction and death.
As a result, I have no way to save the millions of Italian citizens other than to surrender.
I express my deepest regret to our allies in Europe who have worked hard with us to achieve victory. I am pained by the thought of the officers who died in service to me, and their bereaved families. My greatest concern is for the welfare of the wounded and for those who have lost their homes and livelihoods.
The road ahead for Italy will be very difficult and I am aware that many will feel betrayed. However due to the current situation, I have resolved that there is no option but to work to achieve peace for all the generations to come. To do this we must surrender and deliver ourselves to the mercy of our enemies.
To maintain the structure of the Italian nation, I am working for you, and I am relying on the sincerity and goodwill of the Allied Nations. I ask you to remain calm and to refrain from fighting with your fellow citizens, so that we do not lose the confidence of the world.
Let us work together for the future, confident that our nation will endure, but also aware of the heavy responsibilities and the difficult road ahead. Work together to rebuild the nation for the future, so that we may keep pace with the world.”
The King stepped back from the microphone and took out his handkerchief. He wiped his forehead and face while stepping out of the booth into the corridor. Outside the workers of the station were looking at themselves and at the King. What hey had just heard was so different from what they had broadcast only yesterday, but if the King himself said that the war was lost...
“So what now, your Majesty?” asked his aide-de-camp.
“Now we wait Major, now we wait.”
“Do you think that the Allies will accept or even react, Sir?”
The King sighed and strolled over to a window that looked out over the roofs of Rome. “I hope so.”
The news that the Italian King had broadcast and offered what amounted to a surrender of Italy was reported to Field Marshal Alexander in an instant. He had the authority to grant local cease-fires, but nothing on this scale. This was not a Division, this was an entire country. He doubted that the Italians were completely honest. He knew as well as anybody that there were some rabid fanatics in the Italian ranks, but if even some were inclined to surrender... at the very least it would throw Rommel's lines into disarray. Such were his recommendations when he flashed the news to Algiers and London. The French were unsure, but the PM, caught in the bath and always keen to create rifts authorized Alexander to accept without bothering to consult either Gort or any other of his top commanders. Within four hours the most powerful wireless transmitters that the Allies had in Italy were broadcasting only the following on the frequency of Radio Rome: “We accept”, followed by orders to all Allied units to hold positions.
Meanwhile the Italian high command was in turmoil. While the 48th Highlanders of Canada marched into Rome Mussolini began to loudly rant about betrayal and backstabbing by a perfidious monarchy and vowed to personally hang the King once the victorious Italian Armies marched into Rome, while the Generals that were tasked to make it happen had not lost touch with reality, as a matter of fact many were agreeing with the King. Unlike the Duce they had actually read the reports and drawn more or less correct conclusions and knew that Italy had the choice between fighting on and be surely ground to pieces between the Axis and the Allies or to give up know while there was still something of Italy left to defend. The Italian Army had been slowly disintegrating since the fall of Lybia, and those that were in favour of giving up had time and again been forced to swallow their comments for fear of their own life and careers.
Those that were in favour of fighting on joined the Duce in his rants and they had sort of a point. If the Italian troops retreated north together with their Axis partners they could be re-equipped with German and Soviet Equipment and fight on. In this however they did blatantly disregard three things that were blatantly obvious to anyone else, either by choice or by ignorance. Firstly the Italian Army was soundly outmatched in most respects by the Allied troops that were all more or less equipped and trained after the British pattern, Armaments factories straining to produce the weapons needed for that. While non-British and Canadian units were somewhat light on heavy Artillery with the CEF and the British Army having priority for those guns the Allied troops still had a vast superiority in firepower. Secondly morale within the Italian Army was shattered. The proud Italian troops that had gone to war in Africa last year had been soundly thrashed by an Army that hadn't outnumbered them until recently, and being comprehensively beaten by a force smaller than your own was enough to break the morale of any unit.[3] Thirdly the Italian civilians were sick of war. While they had no particular hatred for the Fascists at this point they were sick of being shot at, of Artillery exploding, bombs falling and the constant sound of Battle and only wanted it to be over. To prevent the bloodbath everyone was sure would follow if Mussolini managed to put forces into Rome an attempt was made to arrest the Duce only to have him and his most loyal Officers slip through their fingers thanks to a car parked on the other side of the building.
So when Mussolini made a counter-broadcast from a far less powerful station near Terni the reaction was lacklustre. When acceptance from Alexander came in, most of the Italian units that had heard the broadcast or received the orders ceased fighting and waited for the Allies to arrive and disarm them. The Allied troops on the other hand moved forward slow and careful. The Italians however for the most part did not put up any more resistance even though there were isolated incidents between fanatics and those that obeyed the King more than idiotic orders from Mussolini who wasn't even their nominal Commander in Chief any more. On the whole though the Allies marched into and around Rome without incident.
The lack of a German or Soviet reaction however puzzled Alexander and his commanders. The other Axis forces were withdrawing north at speed and most did not realize that their left flank had disappeared until the next morning, by which time the Allies were close on their heels, driving right into the gap that the collapse of the Italian Army after the surrender had brought. The orderly axis retreat turned into a disorganized rout when conflicting orders came in that gave several different positions for the new main line of resistance.
Why this was so wasn't fully explained until several weeks later. Rommel had been driving northwards in his mobile command post when he himself had heard the Italian King's broadcast. He remarked then that there was nothing to be done and ordered the Axis forces to retreat to the line where eventually the Allies would run into them again, while at the same time Rommel's second in Command, Lieutenant-General Hans-Jürgen von Arnim sent out orders to hold on another line that ran south of what Rommel orders. The fact that von Arnim had flown ahead three days earlier in anticipation of a situation like this one. He had lost contact with Rommel and was executing standing orders as he had them. Rommel tried to reverse the Chaos that resulted but his command car was strafed by a Dutch Spitfire seriously wounding and knocking out the German Commander for two crucial weeks, allowing the Allies to roll up much of central Italy without much organized resistance while in the south Alexander and representatives from all the Allied powers fleshed out the real armistice with the Italians and rear area forces disarmed the Italian troops.
Eventually the document was signed:
Armistice Document
On the initiative of the Kingdom of Italy to the hands of the representatives of the Allied powers of the British Empire, the Dominion of Canada, the Dominion of Australia, the Dominion of New Zealand, the Union of South Africa, the Republic of Poland, the Republic of France, the Kingdom of Belgium and the Kingdom of the Netherlands the signatory powers agree to enter an armistice by noon on the 30th of December 1941. This Armistice extends to all Italian and Allied Forces by Land, Sea and Air.
Conditions of the Armistice are as follows:
- The Italian Army, Air Force and Navy are immediately ceasing all forms of support of the Axis powers.
- Italian units engaged with Allied Forces anywhere in the world will immediately cease active resistance against Allied Forces.
- The Italian Army and Air Force will be demobilized immediately.
- The Italian Navy will return to Taranto and/or Allied held ports immediately and the ships be interned for the remainder of the war.
- The Allied powers will release all future prisoners of war within the next two months.
- Italian Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen who agree to return home Without further acts of resistance against the Allied Powers are free to do so without hindrance by the Allied authorities.
- Italy north of Rome is to remain under Allied administration until all Axis forces are expelled from Italian territory.
- Italy south of Rome and Rome itself are returned to Italian Authorities after Democratic and free elections can be organized.
- The Kingdom of Italy will not be forced to declare war against the Axis powers but will renounce membership in said Alliance.
- Further stipulations will be negotiated for the final Peace treaty.
Signing for:
The Kingdom of Italy:
His Majesty, King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy
The British Empire:
Field Marshal Alexander, GOC Allied Forces in Europe
Dominion of Canada:
Lt. General Crear, Commander in Chief, Canadian Expeditionary Force
Dominion of Australia:
General Morshead, Commander in Chief, Australian Imperial Force
Dominion of New Zealand:
General Freyberg, New Zealand Expeditionary Corps
Union of South Africa:
General Smuts, Commander in Chief, South African Expeditionary Forces
Republic of Poland:
General Sikorsky, GOC Polish Combined Forces in Exile, GOC Polish Army
Republic of France:
Monsieur Blum, President of the Republic
General Jean Joseph Marie Gabriel de Lattre de Tassigny, French Expeditionary Army
Kingdom of Belgium:
General Jean-Baptiste Piron, CinC Belgian Expeditionary Group, Commander 1st Belgian Infantry Division.
Kingdom of the Netherlands:
Admiral Karel Doorman, CinC Royal Netherlands Navy, Royal Netherlands Expeditionary Forces in Europe.
The forward Allied units, mostly the British and Polish Armoured Divisions, raced after the retreating German and Soviet forces, smashing the feeble resistance the Germans and Soviet rear-guards were putting up before running head-on into the line that would dominate the war in Italy for a long time: The Gustav-line. Built by the Organisation Todt this line consisted of gun pits, concrete bunkers, turreted machine-gun emplacements, barbed-wire and minefields, built in a line stretching from between Genoa and La Spezia in the west through Modena in the centre of Italy to the coast in the east. The Germans and Soviets had been building the line since shortly after the Allied landings, overruling the Italian General Staff who saw this as defeatist, and now von Arnim hoped that it would hold the Allies until overwhelming numbers could be brought to bear on them. Both sides knew that the fight for the line would be a long and bitter one.
[Notes: There you go. And since AoD is delayed until Q1 2010, I even get more time to write stuff during the holidays, even though I bought Killing Floor instead. Please, please save/memorize that map. You'll need it.]
[1] Of course taking some liberties due to rule of cool.
[2]
[3] OTL Singapore comes to mind.