"Sempre Avanti Italia!" An Italian Semi-Historical AAR

[DragonScales]

"Sempre Avanti Italia!"
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When we had signed the Treaty of London in 1915 with the Triple Entente, our nation for all meanings of the word 'alliance' joined in the conflict known as the Great War, for our contribution we were promised land, glory, and prestige. However, when the war had ended and victory had been assured for our alleged allies, we were robbed. At the Paris Peace Conference in 1919, instead of collecting the dues we were owed, we returned home bereft of our victory prize. Four years we fought alongside France, the United Kingdom and their allies, for four years we lost our husbands, brothers, sons, and cousins. Whilst in victory we should have known the taste of glory and riches, the Treaty of Versailles left us knowing only the bitter taste of loss.

Our economy shattered from our effort in the Great War, we bore witness to the rise of Communists that threatened to tear us apart. The internal stability our nation once enjoyed would become so rocked, the very foundation our fathers and grandfathers had built when they unified our nation in the 19th Century looked to be on the brink of fracturing apart once more. Our one saving grace came in the form of a single man and those who shared in his ideology. Benito Mussolini and his Partito Nazionale Fascista (National Fascist Party).

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Mussolini knew the bitter taste of our defeat better than perhaps any Italian, having served on the front lines in the Great War, he returned home with more than the injury he sustained during the conflict, he returned with the wounded pride of an entire nation. Using the power of his words he built a following through his work as an editor on the newspaper Il Popolo d'Italia (The People of Italy). From the ink of paper he amassed a group of likeminded individuals who would fight for our nations return to prominence, their struggle while bloody and ruthless would not go without reward. In October 1922, when Mussolini and his 'Blackshirts' stormed through Rome like a tidal wave of change, they swept the weak and ineffective Liberal Government of Prime Minister Luigi Facta from power.

When King Victor Emmanuel III appointed Mussolini as Prime Minister, he ushered in a new era for Italy. Within years of his appointment, Mussolini would sweep away the liberal and communist decay Italy had been plagued by, and as each year passed, as he collectively improved our peoples standard of living and consolidated his hold on power, Mussolini's ambitions knew no borders. Our colonial holdings grew and flourished under the man we would come to call 'Il Duce', from Libya in Northern Africa to our scatter of lands in the east of the continent, however, even with these additions under our sphere of influence, the bitter taste of the Great War had not subsided. Now, in January 1936 as we sit poised for further glory, Il Duce has set our focus upon the East African nation of Ethiopia. "Sempre Avanti Italia!" (Always Forward Italy!")

Spoiler: Author's Note

Well here I go, I had long debated doing an Axis AAR just on the fact that writing from a Fascist perspective is... Well, quite awkward I suppose? However, having read "Rise of the German Reich by Theodorian" I was inspired to give it a shot. I am neither an expert or specialist of Italian History in WW2, but will do my best to portray them accurately, though division formations and strategy will be obviously altered, hence the Semi-Historical part of this AAR. Also, I just purchased 'Man the Guns' and I am quite unfamiliar with the new naval setup, any advice and feedback would be appreciated. Thank you for reading and here we go.
Game Setup
DIFFICULTY: Veteran
DLC: All DLC enabled
MODS: Several Cosmetic DLCS by the talented McNaughton, Italici Imperatores by Gemini (More Generals and Admirals), and a few Equipment enhance mods by McNaughton and 电灯弗里曼

Chapter Index
An Introduction: "Sempre Avanti Italia!"
Chapter One: A Nation set to Expand
Chapter Two: Progress through Industry
Chapter Three: A Treaty or Destiny
Chapter Four: Colonial Addition
Chapter Five: A Crisis Unfolding​

 

[DragonScales]

Chapter One: A Nation set to Expand​

With Il Duce having set his sights on Ethiopia, the undisputed leader of the Italian people convened a meeting behind closed doors in Rome with his closest advisors, and the top brass of the three branches of the Italian Military. The ground force capability, the Regio Esercito Italiano (Royal Italian Army), the air force capability, Regio Aeronautica Italiana (Royal Italian Air Force), and the naval capability, the Regia Marina Italiana (Royal Italian Navy).

While the discussion initially revolved around their strategy of attack, this discussion quickly devolved into a revelation of Italy's military deficiencies. The largest deficiency to name came in a lack of petrol to fuel the Italian War machine, thus it was agreed by all present that the offensive against Ethiopia need be won swiftly, if the Great War had proven anything to Mussolini, the longer a war was drawn out, the harder the economy would be hit. As such, it was made an imperative national focus that the proper infrastructure be established to ensure logistical supplies reached the front line troops efficiently and on time, to this Mussolini and his advisors established a seventy-day plan to build the required infrastructure in Italy's East African colonial assets of Eritrea and Somaliland.

Though as logistics seemed solved in the moment, it opened the doorway to further hindrances that would impede the assault, this being most evident in the decrepit state of the three Italian military branches -the most modern and efficient being the Regia Marina Italiana was still a stretch from being even remotely near comparable to its British equivalent-. As such, with the Regio Esercito Italiano acting as the leading assault force in Ethiopia, it was by Mussolini's decree that they receive priority focus in the field of research advancement. Allocating the necessary funds, Il Duce approved a contract to the Italian weapons manufacturer, Breda to begin research and development for a new Light Machine Gun (Breda M30), furthermore, it was arranged for Breda to provide weapon schematics to Italian weapons factories in order for them to begin manufacturing of the British originated, Great War era, Stokes Mortar in which to equip the Regio Esercito with.

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Though the meeting provided a lengthy list of requests by Italy's three military branches, Il Duce was adamant that the War in Ethiopia be conducted with the current equipment available while vowing later research and developments for the branches to be acquired at a later date. To Mussolini, the rest of the meeting was to centre around the strategy they hoped to employ in Ethiopia, his purposeful and direct demeanour at the time was said to be linked to the First Italo-Ethiopian War in the late 1880's that saw Ethiopia prevail, this war was as much a stain on the honour of Italy as the Great War had been, and to Il Duce, every moment the Ethiopian state stood independent, the darker the stain would grow.

Despite Italy having showcased to the world at large that the occupation of their African holdings had long since lead to a subdued populace, in most instances, this was not to have been the case. Wayward bands of rogue insurgents had continued to threaten Italian governance and as such several battalions and divisions had been deployed to quell these groups of insurrection. At the structural level of army organization in the African Theater, there stood two Army Groups that acted as high command over three army corps. The first Group, Army Group East Africa was overseen by Field Marshal Rodolfo Graziani. A stern, unforgiving man, Rodolfo Graziani had chosen to pursue a career in the Regio Esercito Italiano at an early age. Eager to prove himself, Graziani quickly climbed the ranks during the Great War to become the youngest Colonnello (Colonel) in the Esercito's history. Going on to serve with distinction during the Italo-Turkish War that garnered Italy the colonial holding of Libya, it was an easy decision when in the 1930's, with his reputation now preceding him, the Fascist Government of Benito Mussolini promoted Graziani to the rank of Field Marshal and given command of the Italian forces in Libya.

In his ensuing time there, Graziani orchestrated a savage crackdown on disobedient Libyans, so brutal was his command during this time it was almost too fitting that he earn the infamous nickname of "The Butcher of Fezzan" from local Arabs. For this efficiency -and having squashed a formidable rebellion during his stationing in Libya-, the Comando Supremo (Supreme Command) transferred Graziani in early 1935 to the prestigious command of Army Group East Africa (The largest Army Group of the Royal Esercito). With two field armies under his command, the Italian Fourth Army which lay under the guidance of General Pietro Gazzera, and the Italian Fifth Army under General Italo Gariboldi, it was determined that Field Marshal Graziani and his Army Group's twenty divisions would lead the looming attack against Ethiopia.

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By Field Marshal Graziani's submission to the Comando Supremo, a strategy called Operazione Aquila (Operation Eagle) was put forward that would see his two armies act in sync to swiftly crush the Ethiopians. Dubbing the Italian Fourth Army his talons, and the Italian Fifth his wings, Operazione Aquila would see the larger fourteen division strong Fourth Army cross into Ethiopia from the Italian-Eritrean border, meanwhile, the Italian Fifth would pull back from the Italian-Somaliland border and draw the Ethiopians forces after them. With the Ethiopian forces lured further east and their lines subsequently stretched thin, it was by Graziani's calculation that the road for the Fourth Army to the Ethiopian capital of Addis Abada would then be a path of least resistance. With a fallen capital it was suggested by many that the Ethiopians -whom Mussolini and his followers saw as a cowardly and dishonourable people- would capitulate, but on the off chance they were to not, Graziani vowed to cut off the Ethiopian supply lines from behind, and crush them between the might of his two armies.

With ground preparations planned, the last arrangement of the war to come was left in the hands of the Regio Aeronautica who pledged to unleash a relentless bombing campaign to weaken enemy defensive lines for the army forces. With Ethiopian air capabilities rumoured to be null, much of the Italian Air Force's focus was set on the use of Bombers, and Close-Air Support, to this they attributed a variety of air wings, the sum of which totalled some 200 warplanes. Based out of the rough airfield in Italian-Eritrea, new laneways which had already been expanded in advance by army engineers now stood ready to host the assigned armada of Italian planes eager to launch sorties on their designated enemy.

On the 15th of January, 1936 Il Duce met with King Emmanuel III to ascertain the monarchs approval to conduct the offensive against Ethiopia, while this was done more out of ceremonial purposes than a formal one given Il Duce's absolute hold on power in Italy, the King's mere consent largely justified the war to the Italian people who took to the streets in support for the annexation of Ethiopia. On the 18th of January, the 12º Stormo comprised of 32 Caproni Ca.101 Tactical Bombers ascended the skies to drop the first bomb of the war on an Ethiopian weapons factory, soon to follow came the thrust of the Italian Fourth Army. The Second Italo-Ethiopian War had begun.

Spoiler: Author's Note

Im a bit perturbed by the flow of this one, but heck, we'll see how she goes. I guess that's why they put in an edit button so you can go back and change things if you like. That said, while the Second italo-Ethiopian war did start in October of 1935, with the borders having remained prewar at the start of this 1936 campaign, I decided to forego history and start War as if it began in 1936. Also, Operation Eagle is just what I chose to name my plan of attack.

 

[DragonScales]

Chapter Two: Progress through Industry​

With the initial attack on Ethiopian lines seeing successful results, the focus of the Italian Government turned home. Though there was hardly any in the world who could doubt the strives they had made abroad in collecting the swath of land they now claimed as Italian territory, Benito Mussolini was quite aware of his nations lacking industrial output. With Italy having largely been based on an agricultural economy, the nations growing expansion of territory called for further troops and equipment to supplement the ensuing occupations of these new lands, while a surplus population in Italy easily solved the issue of troop numbers, the equipment was a dire problem not likely to be solved anytime soon.

While saying one is going to solve an economic dilemma is easy, actually doing such thing can be a troubling premise, for Mussolini, he instructed his Ministers and advisors that a balance needed to be struck. From investment in civilian factories to the investment in military-grade production factories, with Italy currently at war, there must always be a constant output of equipment and supplies, and at the same time, the number of civilian factories needed to be adequate enough to bring in and process raw resources if imports of goods were required. As it stood in February 1936, Italy was already under a constraint of limited resources in which to draw upon in order to meet set production quotas.

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Although some advisors were hasty in their suggestion to import the necessary resources to ensure production levels were maintained at their highest efficiency, their opponents were quick to shoot down such suggestion. With only twenty civilian factories at their disposal -eleven of these factories being already tasked with providing materials for construction- to take any more from that purpose would see the building of more factories bogged down in a slew of time delays. So it was decided that a two-point plan be formed.

The first point was the construction of Fuel Silos in Libya to ensure petrol continued to reach the troops in East Africa. Despite there having yet to be any great discovery of oil reserves found in the colonial land, there were many -both scientists and politicians- who believed Libya to be the beholder of a potential oil reservoir beneath its desolate sands and should investment be placed there, given time it was widely thought it could potentially solve any fuel crisis for Italy in the future. The second point of the plan was to strengthen and embolden the industrial output of the Italian mainland, this was to be achieved in the construction of four new civilian factories, one in the province of Latium, two in Abruzzo, and one in Tuscany.

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As February 1936 counted down the last of its days, the month of March would prove to be a time of considerable showing of world events. On the tenth of March, Mussolini's national focus for ensuring the proper infrastructure in East Africa was in place for the war against Ethiopia was completed on time and without any additional cost, to this accomplishment, Il Duce hailed as a showing of Fascism's superiority over other political ideology he deemed to be nothing more than fallacies. With one successful focus finished, a jubilant Mussolini took to a balcony to deliver his next focus, one he needed to rally the support of the people too.

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Proclaiming it to be the 'Industrial Effort' of all Italians, Mussolini called on his countrymen to give back to the state that had been so giving to them, in an unprecedented move by even his standards, he called for four more civilian factories to be built in record time. While funded by the state, the long hours and cheap wages the builders of these factories would be subjected too was seen as a discount to Mussolini, whom, should he be able to drum up enough furor and support to the effort, the Italian people who would often come in congregations of thousands just to hear him speak would gladly put aside their self interests and let their growing nationalist sentiment do the rest to see the focus come to fruition. As Mussolini once said, "The state reserves the right to be the sole interpreter of the needs of society".

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Shortly after ground broke on these series of construction efforts across Italy and Italian-Libya, word north of Italy reached the front pages of Italian newspapers and newspapers around the world for that matter, the German Reich under Adolph Hitler had remilitarized the Rhineland along the French border. Despite this being a clear violation of the Treaty of Versailles, the Germans like the Italians appeared to have felt the Treaty of the Great War to have been unduly unfair to them, it was this bold act of disregard to the authority of France and the U.K that lead many within Mussolini's inner circle to believe there could be a kinship established between the two disgruntled nations given the trajectory of their shared ideology. But, at the moment, the mere suggestion of a German-Italian friendship to Mussolini would have earned his wrath given the turbulent relationship the two nations had held over the last several years, the only softening to this sore point had only come recently when the Germans openly supported the Italian conquest of Ethiopia when the rest of the League of Nations so fondly frowned down on them.

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However, with the Rhineland and Germany separated from Italy by Switzerland and Austria, the news could have come from across the Atlantic as far as Mussolini was concerned. His focus, as it had been since his launching of the Second Italo-Ethiopian War was still set at home and the dream of modernizing the Italian industry. To help further this dream into becoming a reality, Mussolini ordered several forms of research be conducted into revolutionizing the efficiency of construction and material output. In response to his order, three programs were enacted, the first was to be research into 'Electronic Mechanical Engineering' that would create new forms of technology that could be used in both military and civilian settings, with the world continuing to churn out technological advancements day by day, the leadership of Italy was given a simple choice, they could either keep up with the world or let their nation fall behind as it always had.

The next commissioned research was dedicated to the creation of 'Basic Machine Tools' that would greatly assist in the increase of output efficiency on the production floors of factories. Lastly, it was determined that indepth research be conducted on the construction industry, this research, however, was to be but the first of a numerical series of research programs to be commissioned, and as such, the program was astutely titled 'Construction I'.​

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As the effort of the mainland revolved around bolstering its industry, across the Mediterranean in East Africa, the Italian troops of the Fourth Army were on the march. General Pietro Gazzera, a man who had served in both the Great War and the Italo-Turkish War as his superior, Field Marshal Graziani had done, was unyielding in his initial assault upon Ethiopian lines. The first to see combat was the 27a Divisione de Fanteria (27th Infantry Division).

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Supported by a further six Divisions, the 27a made the first gains in the War when they pushed the ill-equipped Ethiopian defenders from their trenches and dugouts into a mass retreat. Though, like all wars, initial success is often met with initial setbacks and the determined Ethiopians held their ground two provinces North of the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa. In the tit-for-tat battles that would be waged, the air superiority of the Regio Aeronautica was invaluable as they hammered enemy positions relentlessly. Over just two months the death count mounted upon a scale that weighed heavily on Ethiopian casualties, so one-sided was the conflict beginning to appear that it was often commented within the upper echelons of the Comando Supremo that for every Italian soldier killed, nine Ethiopians would perish.

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Despite high morale and success seemingly going hand in hand, the early days of the conflict brought up several insights into the old fashioned division formations, and tactics employed by the Regio Esercito Italiano. With a majority of senior officers having served in the Great War, it was no wonder why the Regio Esercito continued to maintain strategies and division structures that were textbook warfare during the Great War in which human waves would charge into enemy lines in hopes of capturing them. However, with new weapons and machines of war having emerged in the past decade, it was abundantly clear to the Army Staff that a new form of tactics needed to be created, and along with them, from the platoon level up to whole divisions needed to be reorganized and formatted in order to be a formidable fighting force in the modern-day wars Italy was continuing to see itself involved in.

Spoiler: Author's Note

Being that I have started to go off on a tangent of roleplay rather than historical it seems, I am wondering if I should just drop the Semi-Historical from the title of this AAR. While I do hope to maintian the historical course Italy had followed in World War Two it is going to be set to diverge eventually as all Paradox games do. What to do, what to do?

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[DragonScales]

Chapter Three: A Treaty or Destiny
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As the Second Italo-Ethiopian War continued to rage on, international pressure on Italy for its continued aggression on the African nation began to mount when the League of Nations -to which Italy itself was a member of- began imposing economic sanctions against them. Enraged by what Mussolini perceived as France and the United Kingdom attempting to limit his nation's prosperity through colonial expansion when they themselves had gathered a vast colonial holding across the globe, Il Duce was determined to break Italy free from what could only be the blatant meddling by foreign nations audaciously trying to dictate not only Italian governance, but its future as well.

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The first step in breaking these shackles came in mid-March when the signatories of the First London Naval Treaty of 1930 were set to meet again and ratify a new agreement in which to further regulate and limit the ship sizes and fleets of the worlds most powerful naval forces. Though Italy had signed onto the original Treaty alongside France, the United States, Japan, and the United Kingdom in 1930, when the Italian delegation arrived once again in London to be apart of the finalizing negotiations leading up to the signing of the Second Treaty set for the 25th of that month (as the negotiations had already been ongoing since December of last year) there was an entirely different demeanour to them.

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Just as Japan had reneged on the Treaty in early January of 1936 when they withdrew from the conference, Italy was deadset to follow in the Asian nation's footsteps and do the same. While citing economic sanctions and unjust treatment by its fellow signatories as cause to withdraw, Italy formally withdrew its participation in the Second London Naval Treaty on March, 12th 1936. When the news of the country's withdrawal from a global agreement made it to the Italian press, Il Duce was sure to play it up to the public as the first step of many to Italy's continued goal to rise as a world power independent from the restraints placed on it by lesser nations.

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As Europe absorbed the March revelations of Italy's disregard of the London Naval Treaty and Germanys remilitarization of the Rhineland, the Italian Fifth Army under the command of, General Italo Gariboldi having followed the strategy laid out in Operazione Aquila ordered his six divisions to pull back from the Ethiopian border to make a stronghold in the south of Italian-Somaliland, where a key port and developed road system made it the ideal location to form a defensive line. As expected, the Ethiopians having been misled into believing the Italian's had lost the courage to fight and ordered a retreat were fast to pursue them.

Swelling across the arid plains of East Africa, the Ethiopian forces swallowed up much of the provinces that lay within the northern reaches of Italian-Somaliland. Having surely been caught up in what they thought to have been a victory push, the commander of all Ethiopian forces, General Seyoum Mengesha, called for an assault on the capital of Italian-Somaliland, the very capital that acted as the main port of entry for logistical supplies to the Italian Fifth that General Gariboldi needed to hold, the port at none other than Mogadishu.

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Defended by the 25a Divisione di Fanteria, the initial attack on Mogadishu was an almost disastrous affair for the Italians. Storming the city in great numbers that nearly overwhelmed the troops of the 25th who took to positions behind sandbags and the cover of building windowsills, the determined Italians held strong against the onslaught and returned as much heated fire as they were given. Yet, as the days went by, the nagging worry the soldiers of the 25th felt in whether reinforcements would arrive soon to relieve them or not surely would have been agonizing. Luckily for the defenders of Mogadishu, as fate would have it, General Gariboldi having had the foresight to act quick enough to ensure the key strategic area wouldn't be lost, ordered the 29a Divisione di Fanteria to make haste from its current position in the far south-west of Italian-Somaliland to break the Ethiopian attack. Although the 29th marched with the vigour and enthusiasm of fresh troops untested in battle, it would still be some weeks before they would reach Mogadishu.

As the Fifth Army held the south and acted as a diversion, the Italian Fourth chalked up some more noteworthy victories when they captured the Ethiopian city of Gondar and subsequently trapped three enemy divisions in a pocket not far off from Gondar's southwest. Encircling these divisions and cutting off their supply lines, it was said the Ethiopians continued to fight long after they ran out of modern ammunition and had resorted to fighting the Italians using rather unorthodox methods, in the end though, despite all their effort and gallantry, the lack of rations and water wore on their morale and by the end of March the Italian Fifth reported they had taken in over two thousand prisoners of war.

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Having now dealt a devastating blow to the Ethiopian army, Field Marshal Graziani having become fixated on seizing the capital of Addis Ababa and ending the conflict as swiftly as Mussolini desired, he uttered perhaps his most infamous of words when he said: "The Duce will have Ethiopia, with or without the Ethiopians". With that, Field Marshal Rodolfo Graziani commanded General Gazzera and the Italian Fifth to make a direct attack on the Ethiopian capital to which failure wasn't to be an option.

Spoiler: Author's Note

Was originally intending to make this a post regarding changes to divisions, but alas, the London Navy Treaty had to be addressed and 1936 is a very busy year for world events, especially with the Spanish civil war just around the corner. Also, thank you, everyone, for the suggestions regarding the semi-historical title, it shall live on at least for now I feel.

 

[DragonScales]

Chapter Four: Colonial Addition​

With an aerial attack beginning at midnight, the night sky over Addis Ababa lit up like a thunderstorm rapid-firing bolts of lightning, finally, when after what felt like an eternity, the thunder of exploding bombs finally ceased, and a bugle cut through the deadly silence of darkness signalling the ground attack. Commencing in the waking hours of April, 7th 1936, the Battle for Addis Ababa was initiated. While early reports signalled favourable results with the 18a Divisione di Fanteria reporting they had secured the northern portion of the Ethiopian capital by 07:00 hours, the other assaulting divisions of the Italian Fourth saw themselves locked in close-quarter combat in other parts of the city.

What was hoped to have been a quick siege and capture quickly became a stalled offensive with Italian troops resorted to clearing the city, street by street, and house by house lest they be shot in the back for advancing to fast. Lasting nine days, the Italian Fourth having painstakingly cleared the city of enemy soldiers took to raiding the Menelik Palace (also commonly known as the Imperial Palace, this was the official residence of the Emperor of Ethiopia), although the Emperor of Ethiopia was seemingly amiss from the palace, the most likely being that he fled upon the news of the incoming Italian Fourth, General Pietro Gazzera ordered the Ethiopian flag flying over the palace be taken down at once and replaced with the national flag of Italy.

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On the 17th of April, Field Marshal Graziani -in boast of his Army Group's accomplishment- moved his headquarters from the port city of Alamara in Italian-Eritrea to Addis Ababa so he could more closely monitor the war. However, despite the capture of the capital, the wildly believed thought that the Ethiopians would capitulate soon thereafter its fall never came, instead, their defiance to an Italian victory was said to have grown tenfold, albeit less organized. While Emperor Selassie was said to have slipped into British territory to evade apprehension, he continued to order his countrymen to remain firm and continue the fight in his absence, it was almost a fruitless venture, however, given most of the Ethiopian commanders had fled as well with little regard for relaying orders to their subordinates, in the chaos caused by taking the capital, the Italian Fourth Army pressed the advantage and successfully cut off and cornered several Ethiopian divisions in the nearby provinces that surrounded Addis Ababa.

In the weeks to follow the fall of Addis Ababa, Field Marshal Graziani made it an imperative focus for General Gazzera to capture the scant amount of Ethiopian military-grade production factories that sat unprotected throughout the central lands of the now wartorn country, with these factories under Italian control it was considered the Ethiopian holdouts would then be placed on borrowed time before their logistical supplies ran dry and were forced to admit defeat. Though these successes in early April greatly assisted in the domino effect that would eventually lead to the Ethiopians surrender, we are not to get ahead of history, and shall turn instead to Mogadishu where the 27th continued to defend against the besiegement of Ethiopian forces. On April 20th, almost four weeks from when the attack had started, the 29a Divisione di Fanteria had at long last arrived in support of the 27th and immediately set forth in repulsing the attack on Mogadishu.

Considerably fresh even after miles of straight marching, the 29a put the Ethiopian's to rout when they flanked them from the side, so effective were they in dislodging the Ethiopians from their positions, the commanding officer of the 29th requested General Gariboldi's approval to pursue them when they retreated from Mogadishu's city limits. Gariboldi in turn who was caught up in a state of angst after having been resorted to watching his corps sit idly by in defence since the start of the war, and bear constant witness to the glory claimed by the Italian Fourth appealed to Field Marshal Graziani to permit him to mount an all-out attack. In response, Graziani didn't hesitate in granting the approval, after all, it wasn't foolish to think a pincer strategy could be the death blow needed to squeeze the last of the Ethiopian forces into surrender, as such, the Field Marshal for Army Group East-Africa approved Gariboldi's request and on April 24th, 1936 the final push of the Second Italo-Ethiopian war was set to take place with the Italian Fifth launching a counter-attack while the Fourth Army continued to press their unhindered advance from the northwest.

As the conflict in East-Africa looked to be entering into its final phase, back in Italy, results in the country's research endeavours began to show. Starting with 'Electronic Mechanical Engineering' and closely followed by 'Basic Machine Tools', these two research projects greatly helped in increasing the productivity within Italy's factories, within a matter of days, foremen operating in the province of Abruzzo began disclosing end day numbers had almost doubled for several produced materials, the most significant increase of these produced goods could be seen in the production of the Carano rifle.

Encouraged by the payoffs of the recent research efforts, Mussolini gathered his Ministers to discuss future projects, among the leading nominations in which to invest research into, the proposal for concentrating a select industry into district areas seemed to be the most popular. While factories producing military-grade goods were located all throughout the Italian mainland in no set location, the idea of concentrating factories that produced the same goods into select industrial districts gained the support of many of Mussolini's advisors and Ministers on the belief this could potentially have beneficial impacts on expanding the effectiveness of factory output. With resources delivered to one area rather than split resources and ship all across the mainland, it was considered this could greatly reduce the price of shipping materials. Having piqued the Duce's interest with the positives associated with such research, the supreme leader of the Italian state approved research into 'Concentrated Industry I'.

With enough available resources and funds to conduct one other research project, it was by the advocation of the Regio Esercito Italiano who nominated research begin at once into providing the Army with more accurate, modern artillery pieces, or at the very least, modifications to the current artillery that would serve as an interwar patch job until a formal artillery piece could be obtained. Attributing the dire need of acquiring better artillery as apart of the abundance of revelations uncovered through the Second Italo-Ethiopian War so far, these revealing limitations regarded only certain branches of the Italian military (precisely the Esercito and Aeronautica who up until this point played the most relevant roles in the East-African centred war). Considered to be low cost as far as a military procurement was concerned given that the intended research was to develop modifications that could be added to preexisting artillery pieces, the Comando Supremo approved research into 'Interwar Artillery' which was slated to begin as early as May 2nd, 1936.

With April coming to a close with further advancements made into the field of research, Italians and citizens of the world alike turned their attention to Ethiopia where on the 6th of May, Field Marshal Graziani declared the war had concluded with the last of Ethiopia's willing defenders laying down their arms in surrender to the men of the Italian Fifth Army. In the ensuing days to follow, a peace conference was held in Addis Ababa at the Imperial Palace between Field Marshal Rodolfo Graziani and a group of individuals from the former Ethiopian Government as Emperor Haile Selassie had gone into self-imposed exile and refused to participate in negotiations. As for Haile Selassie himself, the once Emperor of Ethiopia turned runaway statesmen having accepted an offer of sanctuary from the United Kingdom was smuggled through the lands of British-Somaliland to a waiting Royal Navy ship destined for Jerusalem, from there he was scheduled to address the League of Nations in Geneva, Switzerland before taking up protected residence in the U.K.

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As previously remarked, with Selassie's absence from the official proceedings of the Addis Ababa peace conference, Field Marshal Graziani had little option other than to prop up several low-level deputies of Selassie's former Government as the new representative head-of-states for Ethiopia. Meak men with little heart for further confrontation with those they viewed as the Italian oppressor, it took little more than a day for Field Marshal Graziani to garner a signature formally providing the unconditional surrender of Ethiopia. On May 11th 1936, the Treaty of Addis Ababa was signed and the Second Italo-Ethiopian War officially over.

Spoiler: Author's Note

Well, that ends the war in Ethiopia. There is a lot of work to do still to bring Italy up to being formidable, and having seen the dev diary for the next DLC regarding Spain... Well, I'm kinda glad I will be knocking the Spanish war off before that gets released any time soon. Thanks for checking this out!

 

[DragonScales]

Chapter Five: A Crisis Unfolding​

With the war in Ethiopia having come to a close and the Italian people celebrated the savoury taste of victory yet again, the reprieve from conflict was short-lived. Just a mere five days after the Treaty of Addis Ababa was signed, a new conflict emerged on the global stage, this time, however, it wasn't nearly as far from home as East Africa was, instead, just a short dash from where Corsica and Sardinia sat within the Mediterranean there lay the Iberian Peninsula to which the troubled nation of Spain found itself once again as it had several times before, torn in two by civil war.

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While many Italians would figure the Spanish conflict would not have warranted their involvement, they couldn't have been more wrong from the reality that was to come. On May 19th 1936, a diplomatic delegation representing Nationalist Spain arrived in Rome to treat with the Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs, in the subsequent talks that took place, a deal was struck granting the Nationalists docking rights for their ships at Italian ports in which they could resupply as well as conduct maintenance and repairs should the need to do so arise. Although some advisors who held Mussolini's ear were steadfast to warn the Duce of forming bonds with a rebellious faction and not the legitimate government of the nation in which diplomatic relations were extended, Mussolini paid them no mind, with the Second Italo-Ethiopian War having made Italy more disgruntled foes than friends in the international community, the Duce was inclined to support the rise of another fascist nation in Europe.

Although Mussolini's granting of docking rights to Nationalist Spain was a token gesture at the time, this in reality was but the first exchange in Italy-Spanish relations that would build itself into a snowball effect that would see Italy's contribution to the rogue Iberian state grow and grow. Before Italy could provide any further aid, however, Mussolini chose to relish his most recent victory and declared a great national effort for the 'Triumph in Africa' to which celebrations and events of splendour were to take place across the mainland.

As the people of Italy celebrated alongside their leader. Mussolini having avenged Italy's tarnished reputation from its loss in the First italo-Ethiopian War aspired to be of greater importance to the nation than he already was. In attribute to what he saw as his military prowess and strategic genius, Mussolini created a new rank within the Royal Italian Forces, the rank of First Marshal of the Italian Empire to which only he and King Emmanuel III received, effectively placing Mussolini upon the same pedestal as the King of Italy himself.

With his ego stroked with all the pomp and fuss a man of his stature had become accustomed too, Mussolini was knocked from his high point and back into reality upon learning the two recently built refineries in Libya were far from meeting the Italian Military's need for oil and fuel. While they were still able to keep operating in limited functions, it was now apparent that the current process of refining oil was still in its infancy and failing miserably to produce enough to make a surplus reserve. By the calculations of logistics officers in the Comando Supremo, it was suggested it would take the two Libyan refineries approximately five years to stockpile a sufficient enough reserve to keep the Italian Military afloat, but even then these calculations did not include the operation of all branches but just the Esercito. Should all branches be included in the calculations, it was widely agreed a stockpiled reserve would be depleted in a matter of months should they not be able to find ulterior means of increasing production of oil-based goods.

As the ruling fascists searched to find an answer to the military's woes, a form of possible salvation came when the research project of 'Construction I' was completed. Selected to replace it was the lengthy, but hopefully rewarding research into synthetic oil, if refining the small deposits of oil found in Libya would not suffice, it was by Mussolini's declaration that it was to be solely by Italian innovation and ingenuity that a new source of oil be found, whether it be a natural resource or artificially made one mattered not, only the result mattered in the end. To bolster this, Il Duce agreed to enlist a hundred of Italy's best scientists and engineers to take part in the undertaking of research to which was to be titled 'Synthetic Oil Experiments', and expected to take upwards of nine months to complete.

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Stumped in the developing oil crisis the nation seemed to be teetering on, Mussolini busied himself with the ongoing dealing with Spain, for despite Spanish General Franco and the Duce differing on some aspects of fascism -to which Mussolini was credited with being the creating founder of- none of these differences were significant enough to cause a rift between them to end their cooperation with one another. Instead, the budding relationship formed through the permittance of Nationalist naval vessels in Italian Shipyards and ports would essentially bind the two nations continually closer until Mussolini found himself gradually increasing Italy's aid to the Franco regime. On May 22nd, after having observed almost a week of deadlock on the Spanish fronts, Italy took a step forward in lending more support to Franco's regime by accepting the man's request to assist in transporting troops from Spain's foreign lands as most of the Spanish navy had aligned themselves with the Republicans.

In seeing the Nationalist war effort having a likelier chance of victory with the addition of Franco loyalists in the Iberian Theater, Mussolini agreed to have the Regia Marina ferry Franco's men to the Spanish mainland. With this influx of fresh troops, small regions on the Spanish front finally looked to fluctuate with some small advances being made. With the deadlock on the fronts appearing to be broken at last, whatever pushes and gains that should have been made by the Nationalists with the thousands of extra manpower Italy had brought them were surprisingly halted against Spanish Republican Forces. It wasn't until Nationalist spies uncovered a lend-lease program between the Republicans and the Soviet Union for arms and munitions did the realization of how the Republicans had been able to repluse the attack come to be known.

On the 3rd of June, when further reports made it to Rome detailing the observations of Russian troops appearing on the front lines of Spain's battlefronts did Mussolini extend further aid to General Franco. For Il Duce, a man who had once fought to push the communist plague out of Italy when he returned from service in the Great War, he was hardly going to sit by and allow Spain to fall in line with the Comintern. Calling together the General Staff of the Esercito, Mussolini ordered a special Corps be formed and sent to bolster the Spanish Nationalists pending General Franco approved of the participatory force, hardly a day later Mussolini received the answer he hoped for and Italy's involvement in the Spanish Civil War was henceforth cemented.