The Third Reich in Desperation

Then, a blue and black sleeve instantly blocked Sir Forbes' sight.

what happened?

Surprised, Forbes took two steps back, allowing his eyes to move away from the sleeve that was blocking the way and widen.

Then, a captain officer wearing a blue and black navy coat, white cap, and saber appeared in front of Forbes.

Behind the captain, there were the same four soldiers in different uniforms from the Italians that Forbes and the others had seen along the way.

"Sir, what are you planning to do?" the captain asked in German with a smile.

"Germans?" A staff officer behind Forbes obviously understood German.

Hearing that the staff behind him named the opponent as a German soldier, Forbes didn't want to be troublesome. He quickly said to the staff: "Tell this German officer that we are going to pass here, and ask him to get out of the way."

"Yes." After receiving the order, the staff immediately translated Forbes' words to the German captain.

Unexpectedly, after listening to the German captain, instead of giving in, he sneered, and just dropped a sentence coldly at the British staff officer.

"What did he say?" Forbes asked feeling bad.

"Commander..." the staff officer felt profusely sweating, his facial muscles twitched and translated for Forbes: "He said that this way is not going to work."

Text Chapter 459 Superficial Brothers

Mussolini, who had finished negotiating with Reinhardt, finally returned home happily.

In fact, the relationship between Reinhardt and Mussolini, between Germany and Italy, has never been as happy as it seems.

From the perspective of the outside world, as early as 1938, just half a year after Mussolini visited Berlin, Reinhardt led a large delegation of 500 people to visit Rome.

In order to show respect for Mussolini's "leader", Reinhardt also specially wore the armband of "Honorary Captain of the Italian Militia" awarded to him by Mussolini.

Reinhardt, Ribbentrop and his party traveled to Italy in three special trains.

Many of the leaders of the National Socialist Party participated in the "Friendship March to Italy".

When Reinhardt arrived in Italy, Mussolini's reception was also grand and warm.

In the camera records of journalists from various countries, the Italian king, leader Mussolini, and other senior officials of the class almost all went to the station to meet Reinhardt.

At that time, there were colorful flags and lanterns on the streets of Rome, and the shouts were deafening.

But what the public didn't know was that Mussolini suddenly disappeared from the welcome line after departing from the station.

It turned out that Reinhardt was visiting as the head of state, and nominally speaking, there was a king above Italian Prime Minister Mussolini.

According to etiquette specifications, it should be the king who accompanied the German "Führer" to the residence where he stayed, and there was nothing wrong with Mussolini.

At that time, although Mussolini was displeased by his subservience to the king, he restrained his feelings and did not do anything out of the ordinary.

On the contrary, Mussolini, the leader of Italy, also had a full schedule, which made Reinhardt's eyes and mouth full.

However, behind this bustling scene, Mussolini was somewhat melancholy.

Although no one showed it, Reinhard at that time understood that Mussolini's heart disease was an Austrian problem.

In order to make this ally not have any lingering fears about the merger of Germany and Austria, Reinhardt also specially said when toasting at the time: "The Alps that stand on the edge of danger are caused by nature and history. The Alps will be Germany and Italy. The borders of the country shall never be violated."

The meaning behind this statement is that South Tyrol, a Germanic settlement in Italy, is still the leader of Italy, and Germany will not annex it under the pretext of ethnic issues like it did with the Sudetenland.

After a little hint from Reinhardt, although Mussolini was still unhappy with the German-Austrian merger, he was also showing signs of attack.

However, few people know that since then, Mussolini has lost the look of "ass shaking" when talking to Reinhardt in the past.

As Reinhardt and Germany grew stronger, Mussolini could only poke fun at the Führer behind his back in some quarters.

He said to his son-in-law Ciano: "Reinhardt is just a nouveau riche, an ordinary person who got to a high position by luck. People like this can only stay at home and eat and die." .

The King of Italy simply said that his German guest was "some kind of degenerate psychologically".

After all, Reinhardt's reputation at that time was not very good, and he had to violate the interests of Italy, so he was not too pleasing in Italy.

Ribbentrop once wanted to dissuade Mussolini, asking him to tell the Italian king not to be too arrogant towards the German "Führer".

But at that time Mussolini replied coldly: "Tell you the Führer, he is the one who should be more patient."

During the entire visit, Reinhardt and Ribbentrop have been looking for opportunities to have a serious political dialogue with Mussolini and Ciano.

But in fact, the Germans still wanted to talk to the Italians, but Mussolini lacked enthusiasm.

Mussolini and Reinhardt were not congenial from the very beginning because of their similar ideologies.

On the contrary, Mussolini, who regarded himself as a master of corporatism and authoritarianism, always regarded himself very highly, and initially did not take Reinhard into his eyes at all.

In the deep-level area where most people are stuck, the relationship between Germany and Italy can be said to have gone through a process from confrontation to cooperation, and then from cooperation to alliance.

This once again proves that international politics is just a stage for national interests.

Today's German-Italian alliance is completely a Machiavelli-style political combination.

It's simpler than a lot of people think, and it's more complicated than a lot of people think.

In general, German-Italian relations have probably gone through the following time nodes:

Germany and Italy had conflicts over Austria.

Italy's joining the Stresa Front led to an escalation of the confrontation between the two countries.

The Ethiopian War and the March on the Rhine improved relations between the two countries.

BERLIN - The Roman Confederation is formed.

The joint intervention of Germany and Italy in the Spanish Civil War further warmed the relationship between the two countries.

The signing of the "Anti-Soviet International Agreement" made Italy make concessions to Germany on the Austrian issue, and turned to the Soviet Union together. (Interestingly, Reinhardt and the Soviet Union were working closely together in private.)

The Treaty of Iron formalizes the alliance between the two countries.

In fact, Italy defected from the Allied Powers led by Germany to the Allied Powers as early as World War I, in order to seize Trantino, South Tyrol, Dalmatia, and Trieste, which belonged to the former Austro-Hungarian Empire. Also the port of Fiume and the German colonies in Africa.

But the Treaty of Versailles did not meet all of Italy's needs, this time causing Italy to consider changing its face again and joining forces with Germany.

Italy has a large population, poor resources, and a small area. It urgently needs colonies for development, but because of its late development, it has no opportunity. Therefore, it also has a strong motivation to wage war against Europe to fight for its own development space.

This forced Italy to be separated from the two camps in Europe at this time, that is, the party headed by Germany at the time who demanded to change the Versailles system, and the party headed by France at that time, including the small countries in Eastern Europe, who demanded to maintain the Versailles system. .

While Reinhardt continued to annex countries, Mussolini also deeply felt that he was irretrievably tied to the German "Führer".