ah...the monarchy...
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The Random, Meaningless Political post thread
- Thread starter Estro Felino
- Start date
ah...the monarchy...
How the king Victor got rid of Mussolini in 1943.
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Interesting. I remember this part from War and Remembrance where Hitler is upset that Mussolini was arrested at all, that he had no guards to protect him from that possibility.
Edda Ciano, Mussolini's daughter basically said something shocking in an interview: that the King and Mussolini had a kind of secret agreement, actually. They wanted to get out of the war, smoothly, because the people were sick and tired with fighting a war that was lost.
The King "arrested" Mussolini. Actually he hid him on the top of the mountain, in Abbruzzo, hoping the Nazis would never find him. He was staying in a hotel in a ski resort, go figure.
I suppose if Mussolini had gone the way of Franco - and kept within his own borders and didn't invade other countries or align himself with the Axis, he might have remained in power. Might have kept the Balkans out of the war.
I've seen pictures of Mussolini just after he's rescued by the Germans, and he appears to be smiling.
For Mussolini at least, it seemed a temporary reprieve, since he probably would have been handed over to the Allies who were already in Italy and talking with the Badoglio government. Hitler was definitely not happy with that development.
I'm not sure what would have happened to him if he was in the hands of the Allies, although it probably would have been a better fate than what would ultimately befall him.
I think it was pretty clear at that point, especially after Axis defeats in Stalingrad and North Africa, then Sicily, that there was no chance they were going to win the war in Europe. The Japanese were also facing setbacks. The Soviet victory at Kursk was a further blow which put the Germans on a defensive, fighting withdrawal lasting until the fall of Berlin.
That's what makes it all the more bizarre. Mussolini had to have known he was on the losing side at that point, and it was a smart move for the rest of the Italian government to oppose him and demand his resignation and arrest. Even though it led to the Germans moving in and occupying the rest of the country and turning it into a battleground, the new pro-Allied Italian government seemed to have popular support among the people. Mussolini was stuck between a rock and a hard place, since he couldn't capitulate to the Allies - and he was stuck with a madman who was willing to fight to the very end and take as many people with him into death as he could.
If the Germans had gotten rid of Hitler and surrendered at the same time Italy did, they probably would have fared much better in the post-war years than what eventually happened to them because they followed Hitler to the very end.
Have you ever found a logic or something sensible in what the Axis did?
I haven't.
The Russians and the Germans were allied at first, with the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact...then the Axis wants to invade Russia and to take Moscow.
Honestly I understood what happened behind the scenes thanks to a Polish professor (honorary member of the Nuremberg trial) who now lives in Italy. The Nazis needed the oilfields in Baku, and conquering all of Caucasus was absolutely necessary. Hence the breaking of the Pact.
As for Italy, Nazis perfectly knew Italy was not prepared for war, also because all the public money was being spent on infrastructures, highways, etc... There had never been a military expenditure suitable for a world war, during Italian fascism.
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It wasn't logical or sensible at all, but malignant nationalists seem to operate within a different system of "logic." Strictly speaking, the Nazis weren't really all that prepared either. Oil was a big factor, as it was for Japan, since they had to depend on outside sources for oil and other vital resources. The Nazis did have access to the oil supply in Romania, the Ploiesti Oil Fields.
Too bad for Mussolini that oil wasn't discovered in Libya until 1959. If the Italians had discovered it while they still controlled it, that would have been a key strategic resource in WW2. The U.S. was the big oil tycoon of the world at that point. U.S. oil production was at its peak, while the Persian Gulf was still being developed. Dutch-controlled Indonesia had a good supply, which is why the Japanese targeted it.
From that standpoint, the U.S. didn't need to fight a war for oil, but we knew the only way to contain Axis aggression was to cut off their oil supply. Oil is the lifeblood of industry, and without it, you can't win wars.
Determined to Flee China, Thousands Take a Long, Dangerous Route to the Southern U.S. Border
In search of economic opportunity or political freedom, Chinese contend with smugglers, bandits and the treacherous jungle of the Darién Gap on the trek through Latin America.
www.wsj.com
