1936 – Strategic Meeting (Part 2)
17:30 01 January 1936
The Royal Palace is built on top of the Aventine, giving its residents and guests a magnificent view over the surrounding boroughs and the Tiber. There on the balcony stood a man alone, pondering over the fate of another man. His mind is troubled as he cannot think of a way to clean up the mess his Foreign Minister has caused without one or more consequences. The presented explanation is plausible, supported by strong evidence, but that made matters even worse. The situation demanded a reaction, or even some measure of punishment, but the plausible explanation limited the options available to him to deal with it.
The most logical course of action in this kind of situation would be to remove the person in question from office and replace him with a more competent person. This would require a proper public excuse, since the appointment of a new Foreign Minister, without a reasonable explanation, would look suspicious to both the Italian people and the international community. He could not tell them the actual reason as it would damage him and his administration too much. But there is still the risk of discovery, giving the opposition and the international community much needed ammunition to question the government and its policy.
On the other hand, to do nothing is not an option either. He must set an example. He presented his government as the only logical for the Italian people if they want to get the chance to prosper once more. With him as the strong leader to guide the nation back to its former glory. It would reflect poorly on him if this incident ever becomes public knowledge, especially if they make an effort to cover it up. So what to do?
“Murder, or rather, assassination is always an option, but only as a last resort. Ciano served me and the Kingdom of Italy faithfully, he is a capable man placed on the right spot. After all, I was the one who appointed him. But if he served his purpose, and there is no other way, this is definitely an option to consider. Get rid of all the evidence. Make it look like some radical Socialist killed him, so the populace thinks it is a politically motivated murder. Frame the civil servant Ciano mentioned as the murderer and have him executed. Not a bad idea! Also sends a message to the other members of my administration, there is and will be no margin for error!”, mused Benito. Extreme times require extreme measures, and perhaps he had it coming.
“Il Duce, shall we continue the meeting?”, asked a voice coming from inside the conference room. Benito turned around, noticed that the sun was already setting and moved back indoors. He took his seat at the table, glanced at his Foreign Minister and saw drops of sweat dangling from his eyebrows. “He knows his life is hanging in the balance.”, he thought.
“Well, I see everyone is present so let’s continue. Before we decide the course of action we will take, I would like to give each and everyone the opportunity to express their opinion about what has to be done to resolve the situation. We will take it from there.”, said Benito while observing facial expressions of the men present. They nodded, but looked a bit scared about the prospect that they have to speak their mind about the whole subject. They knew Il Duce had to do something about the whole situation, otherwise it could compromise his credibility and position as leader of the nation. “Well, since no one objected, I would like to give the floor to our beloved King first.”
Vittorio Emanuele III: “
Gentlemen, we are Italians. We are a proud people, with a noble history. We once ruled a major part of the world, and may do so again in the future. We stand united against anything and anyone who threatens our soil, our people, our culture, our friends and our interests. So in that spirit I cannot see anything else than a devoted employee, a devoted Italian, taking pride in his work and eager to start a long overdue conflict over our rightful claim. Why would we want to punish such a man, such an example of Italian nationalism? Why would we want to squander our resources on upholding a façade? We cannot count on anyone else than ourselves. We should not regard this whole incident as a mistake we have to correct, but rather as an example of our determination to take matters in our hands from now on. That is all I have to say, as there are more important matters we have to discuss than this irrelevant hiccup. ”
Benito Mussolini: “
Gentlemen, a victory is in the details. The details can make the difference between victor and loser, between life and death, between prosperity and poverty and so on. A carefully planned invasion depends on the details, because they make the difference between having the element of surprise to our advantage or not. Therefore I find it unacceptable that we had to deviate from our plans due to an error concerning the details of the same plans. Although the consequences seem to be limited, I do not want to have to deal with this kind of situations in the future, where the stakes may be much higher than they are now. Gentlemen, the Italian people are counting on us, do not under any circumstance let them down for they will strike back with terrible vengeance! ”
Gian Galeazzo Ciano: “
Well, I have only one option. Please accept my resignation. I will take full responsibility for the mistake one of my employees has made, even in a public statement if you deem that necessary. ”
Guido Jung: “
I find it hard to accept that we have to fire someone so capable from office, for such a triviality. I would rather question the flexibility of our armed forces if they are not capable to adapt to the fluidity of the battlefield, even against such an inferior adversary as the Ethiopian people. Besides, steps were taken to ensure that this kind of accidents do not happen again. I am confident that Mr. Ciano will continue to serve our great nation with great dedication. ”
Guido Buffarini-Guidi: “
I concur with my colleague, and would like to add that we cannot use the incident as an excuse to fire Mr. Ciano. It would only complicate things further, and creating a web of lies has not served us well in the past. There simply is no straightforward way to deal with this situation. ”
Cesare Amé: “
I have mixed feelings about the whole situation, I do not think that firing Mr. Ciano is the answer to this particular problem. We have other tools at our disposal, such as framing the mentioned civil servant as an Ethiopian spy. We convict him as a traitor and execute him. I publicly announce the shameful act of our fellow countryman and his motivation to warn the Ethiopian savages of an imminent mission to bring civilization to that piece of forgotten sand. This thing will blow over in a matter of weeks. ”
Francesco Grazioli: “
I have to agree with our King, for too long we have tried to appease the French and British hoping that they would throw us a bone. It all began in the aftermath of the Great War. We were promised significant gains for our sacrifices, but they broke all of their promises and left us behind with scraps. Literally scraps! I say no further, it has to end now. We make a stand against the bullies of the world. We claim what is rightfully ours. We decorate the civil servant in question, publicly announce the eagerness of one little cog in the great machine called Italy to start the conflict over our claims and dare the League of Nations to put their money where their mouth is. Talk is cheap, blood is thick, Forza Italia! ”
Alberto Pariani: “
The story is still in our own hands. I think it is best to thicken it a bit, make it a bit more nationalistic, but essentially tell the general public what has happened instead of trying to cover it up or finding an excuse to appoint a new Foreign Minister. It is time to take our distance from the League of Nations and carve our own way into the future, for cooperation has brought us nothing but misery. ”
Domenico Cavagnari: “
Yes, let’s tell our own story about what has happened. Who cares what the League of Nations thinks about us, they bark but do not dare to bite. And the world is ruled by money, so they may condemn our actions but still take our money while conducting business. ”
Giuseppe Valle: “
My dear colleagues, my heart is lifted by the amount of love you show for our great nation. It gives me great pleasure to be in your company at this moment, for these kind of moments decide the course of our nation and therefore the history. I concur with Mr. Pariani on this subject, let’s take matters in our own hands and tell the populace a heroic story about a simple civil servant filled with love for his country. ”
There was a long period of silence after the Chief of the Air Force finished speaking his mind. The King obviously surprised everyone in the room with his speech. The King always feared the might of the French Army and the British Fleet, and supported them in more than one occasion in the hope that they would return the favor. They never did. So it looks like the men in the room realized the futility of the appeasement policy in foreign affairs, for it brought them nothing but frustration and anger.
“My King, I would like to thank you for your enlightening speech. I call for a vote. ‘Aye’ if you agree with the King and want to present the heroic tale of a simple civil servant. ‘Nay’ if you do not agree with the King and want to suggest an alternative.”, said Benito. What just happened? He was genuinely surprised. “Let’s see how this plays out.”, he thought, “I can always force my way later on if this turns out to be a grave mistake on how to handle things. The King motivated them with a flaming speech about Italian nationalism, I must do the same to keep them united against our common enemies and it will be much easier to do things if they believe in it.”
Vittorio Emanuele III: “
Aye! ”
Benito Mussolini: “
Aye! ”
Gian Galeazzo Ciano: “
Nay! ”
Guido Jung: “
Aye! ”
Guido Buffarini-Guidi: “
Nay! ”
Cesare Amé: “
Nay! ”
Francesco Grazioli: “
Aye! ”
Alberto Pariani: “
Aye! ”
Domenico Cavagnari: “
Aye! ”
Giuseppe Valle: “
Aye! ”
“It is decided, we will hand this over to the department of propaganda to construct a heroic tale over a simple civil servant deciding to take matters into his own hands. The summary of Mr. Ciano reassured me that such an act will not happen anymore, at least not with our consent. So are there any other questions about the summary Mr. Ciano presented?”, asked Benito. “No one has a question about the summary so far? I am quite satisfied with the summary to be honest, it is rather self-explanatory and of high quality.”
Benito reached under the table, found his briefcase containing the report he needed and placed it on top of the table. “Let’s continue gentlemen. I would like move on to the next report, the one of the Ministry of Industry and Resources, and therefore would like to give the floor to the Armaments Minister, Mr. Jung.” He opened his briefcase, found his copy, closed the briefcase and placed the briefcase back on the floor under the table. “I see everyone has found his copy, so let’s get started by reading the summary first. I am happy to answer any question you might have about the content afterwards”, said Guido.
Ministry of Industry and Resources
Armament Minister: Guido Jung
My fellow Italians, I am proud to present to you my summary on the condition of our industry, our expertise to design various types of military materiel and our experience in producing them. I will start as always with a graphical overview, followed by a brief analysis per category:
Overview of the level of expertise designing, and producing, different types of military materiel.
- Industrial Capacity:
It is paramount that we start to expand our industrial base. Our current industrial base can be enlarged by upgrading most of our factories, but that would probably lead to a marginal increase of capacity. Our existing industrial conglomerates simply need more factories, even more than improved machines and tooling. Therefore I would like to accelerate the Po Valley – Heavy Industry Plan. This plan is about the realization of new factory sites along the northern bank of the Po. This area is in close proximity to several major industrial centers such as Venezia, Milano, Bologna and Torino. The infrastructure in this region is excellent and the pool of skilled laborers is big enough to support the opening of these new sites.
- Infantry:
The majority of our troops are not equipped with the latest weapons designed by our armaments industry. The majority of our troops are equipped with weapons designed during the Great War instead. These are hopelessly outdated and need to be replaced. However, I ordered a complete stop on the acquirement of new weapons for our troops. I am convinced that the weapons available can be improved even further, and want to let the manufacturers have more time to come up with better weapon designs. I think a window of about two years should suffice for them to catch up with the modern standards.
- Artillery:
The majority of our support brigades are not equipped with the latest weapons, which is similar in nature with the equipment status of our troops. These are outdated as well and need to be replaced if we want to keep up with the nations around us. I think it is appropriate to give the manufacturers the same window to come up with better designs as the one I want to give them to improve the weaponry our troops use.
- Armored:
Our automotive industry is relatively small compared to other major nations, which severely limits our ability to design and produce armored vehicles. The latest truck engine was already surpassed by its foreign competitors at the moment of presentation while the prototype of our most modern armored car shared the same fate. On the bright side, the latest light tank and infantry support tank are among the most modern ones in the world. The lead engineer at Fiat-Ansaldo handed in a recommendation to finish work on the latest design of their light tank and continue with the exploration of the possibility to design and produce a heavier armored version of it. This heavier armored counterpart has been classified as a medium tank, and with it we should be able to counter the threat the French and British tanks pose at the moment. I think this is a proposal we should take under serious consideration despite the fact that the amount of vehicles we theoretically can field will be limited.
- Naval:
I recommend that the Littorio-class Battleship Design Plan is started as soon as possible. The construction of these new ships will consume an enormous amount of time and resources, and needs to commence at the moment the design is approved. I would like to prioritize the design of both heavy and light cruisers after that, to conclude with the design of new destroyers and submarines. I have urged the scientists and shipyards involved to consider the fuel consumption of these vessels since we lack crude oil as a natural resource in our country. This could have a more severe effect on the design process than the capability of the shipyards to produce these ships. I am confident that they find a suitable balance between all requirements and limitations.
- Aeronautical:
The Regia Aeronautica has modern planes at their disposal, thanks to the satisfactory conclusion of the modernization project we started a year ago. The lead engineer recommended that this project is repeated once every two years, due to the fact that there is little room for improvement after each completion. I agree, and started to look for other projects they can work on in the mean time.
- Mechanical:
Although we have competent engineers, we are starting to fall behind in the process of improving our industrial productivity and efficiency. I want to pursue every possibility to improve our industrial capacity because we need every bit we can get our hands on. That is why I want to prioritize this area of research together with the previously mentioned naval plans. This, combined with the proposed expansion of heavy industry in the Po area, should result in a significant increase of industrial capacity. Another point of interest is the improvement of both the available farming equipment and the way supplies are produced, the former resulting in more men fit for duty while the latter frees the sorely needed industrial capacity to produce something else than supplies.
- Electronical:
A new type of combat radio, a radio used by our armed forces to communicate, has been developed not long ago. It will take some time before our scientists have found ways to improve the range of these radios, and there are at the moment not many other viable projects available in this particular field of research.
- Chemical:
There are two important projects we need to start as soon as possible. The first one is to modernize our existing oil refining facilities, resulting in a higher yield of precious fuel per barrel of crude oil. This is crucial for both our economy and military since we do not possess this natural resource ourselves but have to buy each and every barrel. It would be a waste of valuable crude oil if this improvement is neglected. The second project is to modernize our rare material mines, resulting in a higher yield of rare materials per mine. We have a relative abundance of rare materials in our soil, which we can use to raise the money needed to import the necessary crude oil. I recommend we start the oil refining project first.
- Nuclear:
Although our researchers have made significant gains in the field of nuclear physics, I recommend that we abandon this project for now. The head of the research team told me that the funds required to build a lab specially designed and equipped to keep their research going would be astronomical. I am not convinced that this research will lead to something useful in the near future, let alone that we are not able to build such a lab without committing almost all of our resources. I admire the devotion of these scientists, but if all of you agree to this, I am going to stop funding and allocate them to more important research projects.
